Ding.
Yamato had been on the verge of falling asleep when he heard his phone emit a shrill beep. He reached his hand out, flopping without sight since he refused to open his eyes. After a few moments of mindless flailing, his fingers managed to curl around the sides of the phone. He forced his eyes open, immediately hissing at the sight of the bright light that met his eyes. He sat up slowly, careful to not disturb Gabumon.
A few days had passed since the Digimon returned to Earth, but everything was still tense. Nobody was willing to be apart from their partners for long, and as far as Yamato could tell it would be a while before anyone felt truly safe without their Digimon close by. Going to school was a mess of paranoia and panic that Yamato never seemed to be able to escape. He detested it with every fiber of his being, but that didn't stop him from going through it anyways. He had too much to do to allow himself to get distracted even if he wanted nothing more than to wait until this whole situation had blown over and then some.
Yamato stared at the screen until after his eyes adjusted to the newfound light. He was met with the sight of a text message log after he managed to press his way into the device. The Chosen Children were all in a shared chat for messages, and Yamato could see that the one who had sent the recent message was none other than Koushiro.
'I've made plans for us to speak with the Harmonious Ones as soon as the chance arrives. We should be able to go in a few days when none of us have school.'
Yamato nodded to himself. Golden Week was coming soon, and it had arrived faster than any of them could have anticipated. The Digimon attacks had been distorting all of their perceptions of time. Still, having plans on when they were going to the Digital World was better than nothing, and Yamato was more than willing to mark it down as a plan of his.
Yamato looked over to Gabumon once again, happy to see that his partner was still snoring away soundly. He turned off his phone after he had read over the message once more and internalized its words. With a light slapping sound, Yamato set the phone down against his desk, allowing his eyes to slip shut.
He hoped that sleep came easily to him. Yamato hated the idea of having to wait bitterly through too much of his own imagination to find slumber. It seemed as if he couldn't get away from his own mind no matter how hard he tried. The fact of the matter, that Digimon attacks had continued, found him regardless of how fast he attempted to run. It was beyond frustrating, but there was little he could do about it. That wouldn't stop him from being upset about it, of course, but it was annoying regardless.
Luckily for Yamato, he was granted with slumber rather swiftly. The gift came much sooner than he would have anticipated, not that he was complaining. His snores filled the room carefully, and Gabumon's steady breathing joined with his to create a gentle chorus. Neither one of them had any idea what they were in for, but for just a few fleeting moments, all that mattered was the fact that they were still alive and safe. There was no guarantee that would last forever, but at least they had it for a little while. That had to count for something in the grand scheme of the mess that had quickly become their lives, right?
Closing hours had come and gone a few days later when Hiraku heard a knock on his office door. "Come in," he announced drowsily, struggling to keep his eyes open. He had woken up earlier than he should have to get down to work, and he was starting to feel the punishment from such. He shouldn't have come into work so soon. There was paperwork for him to work on, yes, but he wasn't going to be of use to anyone, much less himself, if he was so close to falling asleep all the time.
When the door opened, three people entered the room. Hiraku peered around his monitor to see Daigo and Maki standing together alongside someone much shorter than them both. Hiraku's eyes went wide with shock, and he got to his feet quickly. "No way...!" he whispered, suddenly wide awake. All thoughts of sleeping at his desk were quickly tossed to the wayside, and he darted towards the three new arrivals.
"It's been a while, Hiraku," came the voice of Atsuo, a bright grin on his face. He reached out and took Hiraku's hand in a firm handshake. Hiraku was stunned silent, unable to force himself to speak, but Atsuo laughed it off. "It's good to see that you're doing just as well as ever. It's been a while since we last saw each other, huh? Who would have thought that we'd stumble across one another at a time like this?"
"What are you doing here?" Hiraku questioned in surprise, his eyes wide. "I thought that you wouldn't be back here for ages yet... I mean, you've been on tour with your band for so long, and I wasn't sure that you would be returning to Odaiba for a while."
"Our most recent tour just ended," Atsuo shrugged. "I heard about the Digimon attacks and decided to stop by here and see my favorite experts on the matter. I had a sneaking suspicion that you would still be up to your old tricks, and as I can see, I was right."
"Look at us, back together again," Daigo commented under his breath with a satisfied smile and a matching shake of his head. "I know that I didn't see this coming... It's been too long since we've been able to come together this way. The last time that we did was years ago..."
"We're almost together, you mean," Maki pointed out. "We're still missing two members of our little band, and I don't think it would be good for us to forget about them. I know that Kaya would throw a fit if she heard that we excluded her from our conversations. Chisane would be nicer about it, but then she'd give us those big puppy eyes of hers, and... Let's just say that I don't want to imagine what would happen from there."
Atsuo let out a laugh, but his chuckles very quickly died out. "So much time has passed since we were last together... I don't even remember the last time we were here as a group. I mean, it's not like we're together for good reasons, but... You know what I'm talking about here, right?" he questioned.
"Yes, we get it," Hiraku assured him. "I wish that there was more we could tell you about all that's been going on, but... I'm afraid that we're kind of unsure about everything ourselves. There isn't much that can be said that you don't already know about, I'm afraid."
"Digimon attacks have become pretty common, right?" Atsuo questioned, and he was met with a trio of firm nods. "I didn't think that we would ever see the day... To be more accurate, I was hoping that we wouldn't ever see this day, but I guess that it just refused to be prevented. Sometimes, life is kind of like that, and there isn't much we can do about it."
Hiraku was quiet for a long moment before he gestured for the others to sit with him on the couches in his office. They joined him not long afterwards, and Hiraku let out a small sigh. "So... What is it that you've been up to all this time? Can you talk about it at all?"
"Of course I can!" Atsuo declared. "I've been on the move with my band. We've been doing all sorts of touring lately. It's really nice to be able to get out there into the rest of the world and feel like you're making a difference. Seeing people so happy when we perform a show... There really isn't any feeling quite like it. I think that you three should all try it at some point. Who knows? Maybe my band can help you to get your start within the industry."
Hiraku's cheeks immediately flushed. "No way," he said firmly. He hated being the center of attention, and performing while everyone was staring at him was out of the question. Others would have said that this was called stage fright, but Hiraku hated having it phrased that way. It made him feel ridiculous, and while he knew that it was a somewhat petty fear after all that he had been through, nothing was able to get rid of it.
Luckily for him, both Daigo and Maki were opposed to it as well. "Absolutely not," Maki told Atsuo, her eyes narrowing into slits. Hiraku wasn't surprised in the slightest to hear Maki say this. She had a lovely singing voice, and he had always been infatuated by the melodies that she produced, but she was very protective over sharing her voice. She didn't like to think about it if she could avoid it, and Hiraku had learned this many times over their many years of friendship.
Daigo was by far the most polite of the group. "No, thank you," he said simply. His cheeks reddened at the mere concept, and he looked away from Atsuo to keep himself from growing any worse on the embarrassment front.
Atsuo seemed to finally notice Daigo's face for the first time despite having likely been brought into the agency as a whole by him. "You sure do look tired," he commented. After a few moments, his expression softened. "I think that I already know what this is about... We've all got a lot of weight on our shoulders, huh?"
Nobody was willing to offer more of a response to that because they knew how true it was. Atsuo had known exactly what he was saying, and he was more than happy to state it anyways. After all, this was the harsh reality of their situation. None of them had truly been free from the pull of the outside world since they were children, and even then, it had been debatable. After so many years, they were being pulled back together by the hands of fate, and it was certainly debatable as to if this was a good thing or not.
Daigo shook his thoughts off, and Hiraku pretended that he didn't notice how downright exhausted the man looked. "I... I want to know where you're staying, Atsuo," he said instead of dignifying the man's words with a response. A smile appeared on his face, pressed haphazardly across his face without any rhyme or reason. "Is there any particular place that you've decided to hang out until all of this blows over?"
Atsuo shrugged. "I'm going back to my home apartment. After all that's happened, I'm glad to be back here. It's where I've been staying ever since the tour ended. Me and the rest of the band have decided to take a break and rest after our tour. We've been doing a lot of stuff as of late, after all, and we don't want to be caught up in our own exhaustion because we weren't careful enough with ourselves."
"That's a smart decision," Maki agreed. "Perhaps we can all come together and have dinner soon. You know, I've been in contact with Chisane and Kaya, and if all goes well, we should be able to bring them into this as well."
Daigo shook his head with a sigh. "What Maki means to say is that both of us have called them, but we haven't been able to get any messages back. I don't know if they're ignoring us or not, but... I'm hoping that they're going to be coming out here soon so that we can have a grand reunion. It's been too long," he said.
Hiraku bit down on his lip, refusing to meet any of their gazes. He knew what it was that was keeping Chisane and Kaya from traveling enthusiastically in their direction. All of them had to be aware of it to some extent regardless of if they openly acknowledged it or not. Kaya had been hit hard by their original encounter so many years prior, and everyone had been able to sense the way that she changed over the years. Even though it was a slow evolution, anyone could see it if they stared at pictures of her long enough. There was the way she cut off most of her hair. Then, there was the way that her eyes slowly darkened as she grew hardened, the fairy dust in her blood spoiling into something rotten and poisoned. Finally, there was the truth that she had decided to run away from everything. She couldn't handle it, so she ran as far away as she could, never able to face the harshness of reality with the same gusto as the other members of their group.
Then there was Chisane. She was a beast of a different breed, a soft-spoken and delicate flower pushed too far by the matters of circumstance. She had always been sickly, and Hiraku could still remember when he first met her. The first thought that passed through his mind was fear, almost as if he was afraid that he, physically lacking as he was, would be able to knock her over if he breathed at her incorrectly. This had never actually taken place, of course, but the paranoia had been there for a long time. Even after Hiraku learned of Chisane's hidden strength, his fear remained.
Her dissipation had been just as slow as Kaya's, though it was completely different. In Chisane's case, her hair had become less of a marvel and instead more of a curtain that she used to keep the outside world as far away from her as possible. She blocked out everything that she could, and when she spent time thinking of Odaiba, her fingers curled against her scalp like she was trying to pull the thoughts free of her brain somehow. It was a slow devolution, but Hiraku wouldn't ever be able to forget what happened to either one of them.
"Do you think that they're trying to ignore it?" Atsuo eventually ventured, the words carefully constructed. He didn't want to say that the other two were trying to block them out, but at the same time, that was what he feared most. "I know how hard all of this must be on them... I mean, we saw what happened when we were children, and everything must have gotten worse with time. It... It isn't easy to move on from something that can change your life so completely, especially not when it's something so dark and terrifying for somebody so young..."
"It wouldn't surprise me," Maki snorted, not missing a beat to offer her input. "It completely changed all of us, and they... They took it the hardest. Kaya's got a temper now that she certainly didn't have when we first met one another. Chisane... She's different now too. Of course they're trying to block this out. After all... Out of sight, out of mind." She shook her head as one hand slipped around her forehead, almost as if she thought that she could pull this thought into extinction if she tried hard enough. "I don't want to think about them that way, but we have to look at the evidence."
"They'll answer us soon enough. I'm sure of it," Hiraku chimed in, pretending to believe the words more than he really did. He knew that Kaya and Chisane were good people, and if they absolutely had to help out with the case of the Digimon attacks, then they would. There was no way that the two of them would just ignore everything that they had been through in the past simply because the truth was inconvenient for them.
"For now, we should go on and split up for the night. I'll try to call them again, and we'll see how that unfolds. It's late right now, and I don't want to stay up too late when I can tell that a certain someone here needs sleep a lot more than he's letting on," Daigo remarked, lookin up to Hiraku with accusatory eyes. Hiraku looked away, unwilling to see the intensity of Daigo's gaze.
Maki scoffed so hard that it seemed as if she was going to fall over at first. "Ha! You're one to talk, Nishijima. Have you slept at all since we were eleven? You seriously could have fooled me," she told him. When Daigo looked back up at her with eyes full of sadness and indescribable emotions, Maki's expression softened, and she realized that perhaps she had struck too deep with her words. The fact of the matter was that she was too close to the truth, and Daigo was fully aware of it even though he knew he wanted to ignore such a fact.
"We'll talk again tomorrow," Atsuo declared, easily settling the tension that had risen between Daigo and Maki. He rose to his feet and placed his hands on his hips, a bright grin spreading across his face. "Maybe we'll be able to get a hold of Chisane and Kaya this time around. Of course, I'm not holding my breath, but... I have faith in them. If they know that we need them, then they're going to come and help us as soon as the chance arrives. I'm sure of it."
Daigo nodded to himself and pulled his phone from his pocket. He, Hiraku, and Maki all got to their feet as well before starting to leave the room. Hiraku gave a final glance at his computer before realizing that he hadn't left anything incriminating open. He could manage his files in the morning when he was less exhausted. Besides, if he started to work again, he wouldn't be able to get himself to stop, and that was sure to earn him the ire of the others in his party.
The office was left empty soon afterwards, but the words of the four adults continued to echo through the silence. Left unspoken were phrases regarding the fresh wounds that had scabbed over because there was no other option. Even more than fifteen years later, all four of them suffered, and their distant companions were in much the same category. As much as they hated to admit it, they were not the same people that they once had been. They couldn't afford to be. The world had demanded that they grow up and face the future, and so, they had.
Their worlds had been restructured to fit a natural order that they were never meant to comprehend in the first place. It was a cruel twist of fate that they found themselves fighting for such a thing once again after being away from it for so long, but none of them could stop it, so they simply allowed fate to take them into its loving and overbearing grasp. What other choices did they have? They had been bound together by destiny for a decade and a half, and nothing would be able to cut the threads of time after they had been knotted so fiercely. They were stuck together whether they liked it or not, and the world around them was going to make sure that they made the most of it.
The phone rang in the household shared by Kaya and Chisane, and the latter looked up at the device with careful eyes. After a moment of staring, she swallowed back her nerves to the best of her ability. "I bet I know who that is," Chisane murmured, closing her eyes. She was tempted to take a step away from the phone, to force herself to forget about it, but something continued to draw her towards the device.
Maybe it was guilt. That was the most plausible theory. Daigo had been trying to reach out for ages, and all Chisane and Kaya had done in response was ignore him. They didn't know how to respond. It wasn't as if they enjoyed shutting him out, but it was clear that they were hoping to stay as far away from the nearby incidents as possible. Odaiba might have been quite the distance away from Tottori, but the truth was constantly whispering in Chisane's ear.
You have to go back. It's your destiny to go back.
The idea of destiny had always been something that Chisane detested. It had pulled her into more matters than she had ever asked for, and she hadn't gotten much in return. Destiny brought her pain and agony, and tears were shed as she screamed into a void that nobody would be able to aid her through. Fate was a bitter mistress, forcing Chisane to follow its every whim.
None of them had asked for it. Why would they? All of them had been given beauty from the journey, but anguish had never been far behind. In a world where they had to fight for survival, they couldn't ever truly escape the realm around them. It was never an option in the first place. Dumb luck had found the six of them pressed together into a shared destiny, and Chisane, while in love with her friends in every way imaginable, hated the way that they had found one another.
"Of course it's him."
Chisane jumped when she heard Kaya's voice behind her. All of a sudden, the top of Chisane's mouth tasted like betrayal, and she looked down to the ground. "I bet he's thinking that we've abandoned him," she whispered. She didn't realize that her hands were shaking until after she brought them up close to her eyes. "I don't want to leave them, but..."
"Yeah," Kaya said in response. She didn't bother elaborating further, not believing that there was much of a point. Chisane already knew what she was thinking anyways. Over their many years of companionship, they had come to understand one another better than any other could ever hope to. They had other friends that were dear to their hearts, but nothing could possibly match up to what they had between themselves.
Chisane was quiet once again, forcing herself to drop her hands back down to her sides so that she didn't have to stare at them. She closed her eyes briefly, but when she did, she was met with an intense pulse of a headache that threatened to knock her to the ground. The nausea was immediate, and the world seemed to fade out of existence from around her.
After a moment, Chisane felt the grounding sensation of Kaya's arm wrapped around her midsection. Kaya's voice was distant, and Chisane tried to grasp onto it from her haze with everything that she had. It was easier said than done, but she made the attempt regardless. Her feet grew numb, and she wondered if she was even still standing upright.
By the time that Chisane managed to open her eyes once again, she found that she was sitting on a couch alongside Kaya. "Can you hear me?" Kaya questioned, voice edged in thinly-veiled panic. When she noticed that Chisane's eyes were opened once again, her shoulders slightly slouched with relief, but the fear in her gaze was still unmistakable.
"Y... Yeah," Chisane eventually replied. She didn't want to think about why it was that she had suddenly gotten so nauseous, but part of her already knew the answer. She couldn't ignore it no matter how hard she tried. The fact of the matter was that she found herself reliving a painful memory of the past, and she yearned to block it out.
In a way, it felt like retribution at the hands of the cruel universe around her. This was what she deserved for ignoring Daigo's pleas for so long. She should have just allowed herself to accept his words into her life, and because she had refrained from doing so, this was what she got. It was cruel and a twist that she hadn't expected nor enjoyed, but it made sense.
"Something is wrong," Kaya murmured to herself, her tone strained beyond description. "The last time that this happened, something went wrong. The same applies to every other time before that. What do you think it is?"
"Yeah," Chisane repeated. She swallowed dryly, allowing her head to slip onto Kaya's shoulder. The warmth of the woman's body offered her security against the panic rising inside, and she swallowed down the bile of her own guilt and hatred to the best of her ability. "I think that the barrier is falling apart."
"Wouldn't surprise me," Kaya scoffed, shaking her head as she pulled Chisane in a little bit closer. "Given our track record, this is just kind of how it goes. When the barrier gets weak, you always feel the consequences. Everything just keeps trying to drag us back in. There's no escape from it."
Chisane nodded slowly. She didn't know how to respond to Kaya's words, too petrified to even try. Kaya had been fiercely protective of her throughout their younger years as well, desperate to keep Chisane from seeing the cruelty of the world. Instead, the universe had shoved it back in Chisane's face tenfold, leaving her with such a weak constitution that the influence of the worlds practically caused her to crumble. She didn't want to be so easily influenced by the world around her, but she couldn't just turn something like this off. There was no way for her to avoid it, and her only choice in the past had been to confront it. After all, the problem wouldn't go away if she just ignored it. She had done enough of running in the past few years, and it hadn't solved anything.
"We have to go," Chisane told Kaya as she sat up carefully. Her eyes were desperate, a sign that she didn't want to do this but knew there was no other option. "This isn't ever going to end unless we do something to get away from it... We have to fight back. I don't want to go back, but... It has to be bad. Daigo wouldn't be trying to reach us this way if it wasn't severe."
"Chisa..." Kaya whispered like the word was her lifeline to salvation in the face of impossible adversity. "I don't want to do this. You don't want it, and neither do I. We've been fine out here for long enough, and if we go back, everything is just going to fall apart again. You know what happens when we get tied up in things like this. You get sick, and... I can't go through that again. I'm sorry. Call me selfish all you want, but I've had enough of you almost falling apart because of things out of our control. Out here... Out here, we're far away from it. At least we have proximity in our favor."
"This is the only way it'll stop permanently though. I know that you don't want to go back. Believe me when I say that I hate feeling sick too, but... I know that this is our only option if we want to be away from this forever," Chisane told Kaya. She looked up to the taller woman with tears in her eyes, and it was impossible to say if it was from the nausea or from her fear over the upcoming confrontation. Not even Chisane herself had an answer on that front, and she wasn't going to question it either.
Kaya looked at Chisane carefully, still uncertain as to if this was a good idea. She swallowed dryly before letting out a sigh. She knew that both she and Chisane were beyond stubborn, and neither one of them was going to yield on this situation. Kaya knew that Chisane was in the right as much as she hated to admit it, and she bit down on her lip anxiously. "I... Fine," she murmured.
Chisane's face shifted into a smile, though uncertainty was still clear in her gaze. Kaya met her eyes for a long moment before she continued to speak. "Let's get some rest. The sooner we can leave tomorrow morning, the better. That means that we'll be able to get all of this out of the way sooner rather than later."
Kaya and Chisane both left behind the couch, though Kaya kept her arm wrapped firmly around Chisane's waist just to make sure that she didn't accidentally slip and fall along the way. They were quiet as they made their way to their room, and neither one of them dared to break through the silence. It was simply too much for them both to ask, especially given that they were breaking through their years of silence towards their old friends the following day.
Chisane fell asleep quickly that night, but Kaya stayed awake, just to make sure that nothing happened to her companion. Kaya's teeth clamped down firmly on her lip, and she only stopped biting when she realized there was the threat of her breaking through skin. When she finally laid down to go to sleep, she couldn't get the image of Chisane's body as she nearly topped to the ground out of her mind. When she did drift into slumber, Kaya was met only with the traces of Chisane's outline spiraling towards the ground, and she couldn't help but think about how she would do anything to prevent something like that in the future. She had seen far too much in the past, and she was terrified of what the future had to offer them.
Please, heaven above, let Odaiba be less painful this time. I'm begging at this point.
On the first day of Golden Week, Meiko found herself walking through the park closest to her apartment building. Meicoomon stalked forward at her feet, and Meiko allowed herself to go on autopilot as she was lost in her thoughts. The world itself was nothing more than an afterthought compared to what was rushing through her mind.
The recent events with the Digimon attacks had left Meiko, to put it simply, beyond stressed. She didn't think that any word in existence would ever be able to describe how upset she was with recent events. There wasn't an easy way for Meiko to change them, and she was fully aware of such a fact, but she hated it regardless.
Meiko's primary thought was on how Meicoomon had yet to evolve. She had heard from Mimi once that the Digimon evolved because they had to protect their partners from danger, and yet, it seemed as if Meicoomon was simply unable to do so. She should have figured it out by that point, right? That was what Meiko thought anyways. Sure, the others had been doing this for years, but it was strange given that Meiko had been in the line of fire as well but still never managed to help Meicoomon to trigger her evolution. It was odd, and Meiko found herself strangely desperate for an explanation. She didn't care what she had to hear in order to make herself feel better; she just wanted this awful sensation to go away.
Meiko didn't stop her aimless wandering until after she and Meicoomon had managed to find a small play structure for young children. There weren't many people there despite it being Golden Week, and Meiko eventually settled down on the seat of one of the swings in the area. She waited until Meicoomon had found a home at her feet before she sighed, unsure of what she wanted to say but knowing that she had to pierce the silence sooner or later.
"You're worried."
The sound of Meicoomon's voice was so sudden that it made Meiko nearly jump out of her skin. Her eyes went wide, and she scanned the area for a sign of the noise before her gaze fell down to where Meicoomon was watching her with patient green eyes. "I guess so," Meiko finally said, knowing fully well that there was no point to hiding the truth from her partner. Meicoomon simply knew her too well; no matter how desperate she was to keep her honest thoughts secret, Meicoomon would find a way to uncover the truth. If it was through examination of Meiko's actions, it would only take a few minutes. For a brief second, Meiko cursed how well her partner knew her.
"Let's talk about it then," Meicoomon told her, eyes narrowing to show that she meant business. "Talk to me, Meiko. I can't do anything to help until you tell me what's on your mind."
Meiko hesitated before nodding. "Okay," she murmured. "If I'm being honest... I'm worried that you haven't been able to evolve yet. Everyone else has made it to the Perfect level. Even if they have more experience, I... I don't know. I guess that I would have expected it to happen sooner or later when we were needed for something like this. There are attacks taking place all the time, but we haven't been able to do as much to help out the rest of the group. How can we pitch in when we're constantly at a disadvantage? I don't get it."
Meicoomon was quiet until after Meiko had finished speaking, and when she saw that the lull in conversation was her chance to chime in, she did so. "They've had years to get ready for this. They know what they're doing. You were brought into this recently, and you didn't know that there were even others out there who were like you until just a few weeks ago. You had no way of knowing that this was going to happen, and that isn't your fault. You're trying your best, Meiko," Meicoomon reminded her.
"I hope that you're right," Meiko murmured. "I just want to be helpful. They're doing so much to take me under their wings, and I feel like I'm disappointing them by not being able to pitch in more than I already have. I want to do more. Iori's partner reached the Perfect level not long ago, so that means that we're the only ones who are still stuck at the Adult level... I don't know what to do about it. Is there anything that can make this better?"
"You can't blame yourself for it," Meicoomon began simply. "There's your first step. Quit finding fault in something that you didn't have a way of understanding until recently. You need to take your time in uncovering the truth. Everybody else was able to be patient until the truth came out, and the same applies to you. Do you understand me?"
Meiko nodded slowly as Meicoomon continued to speak. "I'm glad that you get it. I want you to keep thinking about that in the future. You are worth just as much as the rest of the group, and I don't want you to be feeling anything aside from that no matter what happens. They're doing this because they want to, Meiko. This isn't because they want to get anything out of it, so you don't need to feel bad about letting them down over something that they aren't expecting from you in the first place."
Meiko would have been lying if she said that Meicoomon's words didn't hit her like a punch to the stomach. She hadn't expected her partner to be so brutally honest even though she knew that Meicoomon was right. Meiko had struggled with matters of self-image for as long as she could remember. She had been a lonely child because of her inherent shyness, and she had practically burst into tears when she met Meicoomon for the first time because she was so happy to finally have somebody who cared about her as a friend.
Coming to Odaiba had been her chance for a fresh start. She didn't know anybody at first, and that meant that she would be able to make friends and make a new path for herself. It was easier said than done given that her shyness still hadn't gone away, but Meiko wanted to try. Mimi had been all too happy to help her get settled in, and Meiko had embraced that with everything she had, beyond relieved to no longer be alone.
Still, that didn't completely erase the issues that she had struggled with in the past. Meiko didn't know if it would be possible at all for her to move past her previous issues with hating herself. She wanted to get better, yes, but how could she do it? She didn't want to bother her friends, and even if Meicoomon told her that she wasn't pestering them since they had offered to get close with her, the guilt remained thick and heavy in Meiko's chest. She didn't know how to escape it no matter how fast she ran, and in a way, that was almost worse than the thoughts of helplessness that came with not being able to help Meicoomon to reach the Perfect level.
"Everything is going to be okay," Meicoomon assured her as she looked up at her partner with a bright, confident gaze. "I'm here for you no matter what happens, and I know that the rest of your friends are here for you as well. We're going to make sure that everything ends fine. You can consider that a promise, Meiko."
The black-haired girl smiled as she reached down and pulled Meicoomon into her arms. The Digimon was welcomingly warm, and Meiko pressed Meicoomon close to her chest. "I... I'm going to try and get better," she murmured. "I really do want to get better. I don't like hating myself. I want... I want to improve. I don't know how, but I'm going to do what I can no matter what it takes."
"I'm proud of you for saying that," Meicoomon told her, looking up once again. "It's been so long since I saw you say something positive about yourself... Years, I would say. It'll be great to see you back at your best again after all this time."
Meiko's eyes slipped shut, and she simply relished in the moment for as long as she could. Spring winds rustled her hair, and she allowed herself to rock back and forth on the swing gently. The motions were so subtle that they were practically unnoticeable unless someone was searching for them deliberately, but Meiko allowed the gentle squeaking of the swing combined with the gentle sway to rock her into a sense of security that she had been searching for desperately for ages but never quite managed to find.
"We're going to be heading to the Digital World soon to keep looking for clues," Meicoomon remarked. "We have to make sure that our enemies aren't hiding somewhere in the other world. It seems obvious to me that they're over there, but we have to find out where they are specifically as soon as possible."
Meiko nodded. "You're right," she said. She didn't say it openly, knowing that Meicoomon had picked up on it already. Hope rose in her chest, and Meiko found herself praying that she and Meicoomon were finally able to achieve what she had been striving for. Maybe going to the Digital World again would be their chance to reach out towards the Perfect level and finally take it in their grasp. There were no promises, of course, but Meiko wanted to stay optimistic. It was the only thing keeping her from practically losing her mind and the last of her confidence under the debilitating weight of her own anxiety.
"I don't want to be the weakest link," Meiko found herself saying before she had a chance to stop herself. As soon as the words tumbled from her lips, her eyes went wide, and she wished that she hadn't said anything in the first place. Her gaze fell on the ground once again, and she felt her throat threatening to constrict on her to the point of preventing future speech. "I know that they don't think of me that way, but... I really don't want to accidentally slip into that trap."
"You aren't the weakest link. None of you are weak, and I don't want you to refer to yourself as such ever again," Meicoomon told her partner firmly. "I said that I wanted you to get more confident, and I mean it. I'll be here for you no matter what comes next. I know that you've been alone aside from me for a long time, but all of that is different now. All you have to do is let them into your life. I'm here for you too, and even if you're afraid of reaching out, you'll always have at least someone on your side... Me."
Meiko bit down on her lip, desperate to keep tears from welling over in her eyes. "I... Thank you," she whispered, unsure of what else could even be said. Meicoomon had always been her greatest cheerleader and closest friend, but that didn't lessen the impact of Meicoomon's words in the slightest. Her partner was the one that Meiko valued above all else, and she was beyond overjoyed that she was worthy of Meicoomon's praise.
"I'm just telling you the truth," Meicoomon assured her nonchalantly. She closed her eyes as she curled up against Meiko's chest, her head pressed over the spot where her partner's heart was. "Everything is going to be fine. Perfect level or not, we're here, and that's what matters most. We'll fight for what we care for, and everything will be okay because of that."
"You're right," Meiko whispered. After a few moments of silence, she spoke up louder. "You're right. We're going to be okay no matter what happens next. Thank you for everything, Meicoomon." Her partner simply purred in response, but that didn't change the warm sensation that was quickly making its way to every corner of Meiko's body. She hadn't realized that she needed cheering up until the cycle had already started, but she certainly wasn't complaining. If anything, it just made Meiko feel happier than she expected. She smiled to herself, beyond glad that she had Meicoomon in her life. Meicoomon always knew exactly what do do, and Meiko didn't think that she would be anywhere near as happy as she was if not for the help of her partner.
"What do you say that we go to get some ice cream? I know that always cheers you up," Meicoomon suggested. "I'd like to come along this time though. I know that you went with Mimi before she knew the truth about who you were, but I'm not going to be stopped this time. Dress me up in a silly coat all you want; I don't care."
Meiko snickered at Meicoomon's words. Her partner had not stopped mentioning strange outfits ever since she first saw Agumon in his disguise against the outside world when the attack on the middle school took place. Meicoomon's disgust had been spoken of in private, and Meiko had been unable to stop laughing when her partner, a cat, suddenly seemed to have the fashion sense of a professional designer. Perhaps that was another reason why Meicoomon had brought it up; she knew that it would bring a smile to Meiko's face even when she was in the worst of moods because of her low self-esteem.
"Alright," Meiko agreed. She rose to her feet, holding Meicoomon to her chest as if the cat was a plush toy. Meicoomon was nowhere near being the lightest out of the partner Digimon, but Meiko had gotten used to carrying her partner's weight over the years, so it wasn't all that hard for her to steady Meicoomon between her arms and torso as she started in the direction of the ice cream shop nearest to their current location. "Just don't ask for any mouse ice cream. I don't think that I can take getting any weird looks today."
Meicoomon gasped in mock offense, prompting Meiko to burst into noisy laughter that she was unable to stifle. Meicoomon was unable to keep up the act for long, and she started giggling as well after a few seconds had passed. After their laughter had died down, both Meiko and Meicoomon fell silent, but they didn't mind the quiet at all. It spoke volumes that they felt safe enough around each other to simply be quiet near one another. That was all that they cared about. They were together, and as long as they stood side by side, they could face anything. The world wouldn't know what hit it if they continued to work together.
Taichi, Yamato, and Sora slid into seats on one side of the rectangular table that they had come to share with their partners. The spring air was warm and lovely around them, and Sora let out a light sigh to herself. Golden Week was already off to a resounding start, and taking a break with Yamato and Taichi was a lovely way to kick everything off.
It had been Sora's idea in the first place for them to all meet up. She decided that she was tired of seeing Yamato tense constantly, and when she noticed that Taichi was suffering form something similar, she reached out and declared that she wanted to go out to lunch with them when the chance come up. Sora had decided to keep it quiet because she didn't want to overwhelm either of the boys that she was with, knowing that they would likely feel better about the situation if they were in a smaller group. Sora was more tahn happy to cater to their needs as a close friend of both of them, and she didn't mind it in the slightest that it was just the three of them and their partners.
"This is going to be nice," Piyomon declared as she found a place across from Sora between Agumon and Gabumon. She and the other Digimon were dressed up in their infamous disguises, but Piyomon's large pink beak still stuck out from the front of her face as she looked at the other occupants of the table. "I'm looking forward to being able to get out of the house. It feels like we've been stuck inside constantly lately!"
"Me too," Gabumon agreed. He shot a brief glance over to Yamato, who was sitting across the table from him. "We're going to the Digital World tomorrow too, and that should make it easier for us to look around and find the truth behind everything that's been happening."
"I hope that we can finally figure something out," Taichi commented under his breath. He let out a heavy sigh, and the dejected sheen to his eyes was overwhelmingly awful for Sora to witness. She knew without a shadow of a doubt what Taichi was grappling with, but that didn't exactly make it easier for her to deal with. This had been a rough situation for all of them from the very beginning, and she didn't know if anything would be able to make the ache go away that came with the stinging slap of betrayal.
That wasn't going to stop her from at least putting in the effort to try and help him though. Sora's expression softened as she looked in his direction. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. She was already certain that the answer would be in the negative, but she still tried her best to reach out. After all, nobody was going to be able to make Taichi open up quite like his oldest and closest friends.
For a long moment, Taichi was hesitant, unsure of how he was meant to respond to that. He eventually let out a sigh and nodded. "I guess," he muttered. "You know, I can't stop thinking about the weird device I saw in Mr. Nishijima's things. I wonder if it was what Ken saw with Hiraku that one time. It wouldn't surprise me given the situation, but... What is it that could possibly connect the two of them? It looked a lot like a Digivice just like Ken said.
"If it was a Digivice of some kind, then... That doesn't make any sense," Yamato remarked. "It just couldn't have been. We only know of two models for the Digivice. There's the original, and then there's the D-3 that the younger generation has. I don't think that there's anything else out there. Besides, you would expect them to pitch in and help us out if that was the case. Where are their partners? Plus, I heard that only children have the potential to be Chosen Children in the first place."
"It's weird," Taichi whispered, though that did nothing to change the confusion running through him. He knew that he was just trying to avoid the Gennai issue by talking about this, and he wouldn't be able to outrun it forever. He could try all he wanted to, but that wouldn't change the truth.
"What are we supposed to do about Gennai?" Agumon questioned, not buying into Taichi's attempts to cover up his true fears. "I don't think that he could possibly want to turn against us... Right? He's done so much for us over the years. Why would he suddenly betray us after all the time that we've spent working together? It doesn't make any sense."
"It doesn't make sense, and yet, here we are, forced to deal with it whether we like to or not," Yamato muttered under his breath. He shook his head, almost as if he was trying to force the thought from his brain. "There has to be an explanation for this... But it has to be Gennai, doesn't it? We would have heard from Qinglongmon if any of the other Agents of Order were acting strangely, and Gennai has been deliberately avoiding us for ages. It's unheard of for him to just shut out Koushiro given how much they've done for one another over the years, but here we are regardless."
"There has to be a way to explain this. When we go to the Digital World, we have to try and learn more about it. This is our only lead anyways, so we might as well carry it out until we can't find anything else," Taichi pointed out. "I bet that Koushiro is going to want the truth about it to be revealed as soon as possible. He... He's really been taking this hard. I can just tell. He looked up to Gennai, and the idea that somebody he cared about so much could betray him like that... It's not good for him. I mean, it's awful for all of us, but Koushiro had more faith in him than anybody else in our group."
"This is something that we have to work out as soon as possible," Yamato agreed. "As soon as we get the chance to find out more, we should look into it... There has to be a clue somewhere in the Digital World. This operation can't be so underground that there isn't any evidence left behind. There's nothing that can be completely erased. There's got to be something out there for us to find, and all we have to do is uncover it and show the world what it is."
"I'm glad that we have a plan of action now at the very least," Sora told the two boys with a light smile. She was glad that this topic, while unfortunate for all of them to talk about, was at least bringing some comfort to them. There was a strategy outlined already, and it felt like that was already a huge weight off all of their shoulders. Sora was more than willing to take it after witnessing all the negative energy that emanated off her friends because of what had happened in the past.
"Why don't we focus on eating for now? Let's take a break," Gabumon suggested. "We're not in the Digital World right now, and thinking about what's going on over there is only going to stress us out more. We're going to be okay, so let's think about relaxing for at least a little while. How does that sound?"
"As a matter of fact, it sounds lovely," Sora told him with a smile. She looked to the boys, and she was relieved to see that their shoulders slowly lost their tension in favor of newfound relaxation. Taking them out of their own heads really had helped them out a lot, and she hoped that the rest of the day only helped to continue this streak.
From there, ordering was simple. Sora noticed that the aura of the area only grew lighter as the minutes passed by, yet another sign that this had been a lovely idea on her part. She only hoped that this would keep up throughout the day. It was easy for any of them to slip back into their negative thoughts given the circumstances, but Sora was going to try and prevent that to the best of her ability. They deserved a break every once in a while, and Sora was going to take that opportunity in her hands without a beat of hesitation.
Sora was so distracted with her relaxation that she almost didn't notice when something happened in the distance. She didn't know for sure what was causing this sudden negative sensation, but a shiver ran up her spine out of nowhere. Sora looked up, and she saw that all of the Digimon were in much the same position that she was, noting something off in the distance that surely acted as a sign of something awful that had yet to happen.
"What in the...?" Taichi questioned, and Sora realized belatedly that both Taichi and Yamato had come to the same conclusion as her and the Digimon. She bit down on her lip, wishing that she could just have one day of peace.
One day. That was all I asked for. Just one little day.
Atsuo had come to the office early with Hiraku that day, and he was leaning back against the cushions of the couch. He had brought his guitar along as a way of passing the time while Hiraku was working. Hiraku, Daigo, and Maki had been able to push for Atsuo to be able to spend time in the office itself, but since they would all be busy with work during the day, that meant Atsuo had to entertain himself. Practicing his music was a great way of doing that even if his band was temporarily not meeting because of their recent tour. He needed to do something to decompress, after all, and this was the best option that he could think of.
Hiraku suddenly let out a noisy gasp, and Atsuo stopped strumming in the middle of the chord. His hand instinctively came down to clamp on the strings, halting the vibrations immediately. "What's going on?" Atsuo asked, not liking the way that Hiraku had been so quickly overcome by panic. There was no way that a noise like that could indicate something good, and Atsuo rose to his feet as soon as he had propped his guitar up against the couch. His actions were quick as he came to stand behind Hiraku. The two both looked at the computer, and Atsuo's heart skipped a beat in anxiety.
"Digimon signals!" Hiraku yelped, his face suddenly appearing as a pale, fractured segment of its full self in the reflection of the computer screen in front of him. "There are so many of them! Look!" He slid his mouse over a tab and pulled it to fully cover the screen. Atsuo realized that it was a map of Odaiba, and he let out a gasp as soon as he saw it.
Hiraku was right. In fact, 'a lot' of Digimon signals felt like an understatement with how many of them there were. Atsuo could barely bring himself to focus as he stared at the screen, trying desperately to count up the Digimon with all the energy he had. "There have to be at least two dozen of them!" Atsuo declared as he rose to his full height once again. "We have to make sure that everybody is safe! Can we issue an evacuation? There's no way that all of the Chosen Children will be able to take care of them at this rate! There are too many of them!"
Hiraku nodded. He began to type away on his keyboard, and Atsuo watched as a new tab opened. He realized that it was likely a messaging program of some kind, and Hiraku began to send out an announcement to his coworkers. Atsuo could see Daigo and Maki's names across the top of the screen as some of the recipients of the message, and somehow, that both relieved Atsuo's fears and made him feel worse. He didn't want to see his friends charge off into danger, but at the same time, he knew that if anybody would be able to handle a situation like this, it would be them.
Before Atsuo could fully pull himself back to reality, he heard Hiraku press down on the mouse with incredible authority, marking that he had sent the message. "Okay, everybody should start moving now to make sure that the city is evacuated as soon as possible," Hiraku told him. He rose to his feet as well, waiting for Atsuo to step away from the computer before he returned to his full height. "But we can't just stand around here waiting for them to fix everything! We have to get out there and do at least something that will make all of this easier!"
Hiraku started packing his things immediately, and Atsuo ran over to his guitar. He haphazardly put the instrument back in its cases before he returned to Hiraku's side. "Is there anything that you want me to get for you?" he asked. It was clear as could be that Hiraku was stressed, and the least that Atsuo could do was try to lessen the impact of anxiety that came with the revelation of so many Digimon attacking at once.
"Just... Just help me to grab my laptop and everything else that could be important," Hiraku explained, not bothering to explain what it was that could be considered vital or not. He had never done well under pressure, and Atsuo could see that much clear as day. This was one thing that had been the same ever since they were children, and Atsuo doubted that it would change anytime soon.
Atsuo shoved those thoughts out of his mind as he started packing. He could think more later on. His first priority had to be on packing for the coming journey. This wasn't going to be an easy quest to follow through with, and he had to help out in any way that he could manage. Hiraku was counting on him, and for all he knew, both Daigo and Maki were in the same category.
"Let's go," Hiraku declared once he was satisfied with the work they had done. He darted for the door, and Atsuo trailed after him. Their feet pounded against the ground as they moved through the building. Desperation ran hot and hard through Atsuo's veins, and he prayed that a solution was found as soon as possible. He hated this more than he could ever hope to describe.
Please let this be over soon... Please, just make sure that everybody is safe...
Time to start off act two with a bang!
I hope that you guys didn't get too used to the pacing of the first part, because everything is about to change for better or worse. With all of the setup out of the way, it's time for everything to kick off with a bang.
This chapter was mostly about setting up the lingering pieces of business so that we could truly get into the second act. I've given each of the acts different names, and the second act goes by the name of "War of the Worlds". Trust me when I say that you'll see just how fitting that is later on.
I love all of the little scenes in this chapter. My favorite has to be the part with Meiko and Meicoomon though. A personal gripe of mine involving the canon of Tri has to be the way that Meiko was never given the chance to grow out of her self-loathing habits, so she just kept up with it through thick and thin. I wanted to give her the chance to develop, so this scene is meant to show that this is happening. Woo!
I don't have much else to say about this chapter, so I'm going to leave it here. I'll see you next week as we get into the thick of act two and the most intense battle segment yet! Until then, I hope you enjoyed the chapter for this week. Feedback is always appreciated. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital