Sora and Mimi had been sitting in their small space of the Dark Ocean for quite a few minutes. They woke up lucky enough to be next to one another, and they ultimately decided that they wanted to stay where they were for at least a short while longer. They needed to try and decompress and restore their energy after the attack that Dagomon had led. Sora personally wanted the chance to allow her muscles to recover. She was glad that she had landed on the sand to prevent the damage from being any worse than it could have been otherwise, but there was still a general creakiness to her body that she wished would go away as soon as possible.
Sora unzipped her bag and pulled out a small handful of snacks to distribute around the other members of the group. She was glad that all of them had decided to bring their own snacks for the sake of looking after themselves. If only one member of the group had been in charge of food, then they would have been in trouble. She knew that the Digimon needed food before they were going to be able to evolve and fight back again. Beyond that though, she and the other humans were going to need to eat as well.
Sora didn't realize just how hungry she was until the food had been taken out of the bag to be passed around the group. Her stomach seemed to ache with its desire for something fulfilling. She hadn't eaten anything since before the group came to the Dark Ocean, as a matter of fact. She had forgotten about that much due to being distracted by the constant onslaught of danger, but it was true. The group had been focusing on helping the Digimon replenish their energy rather than looking after themselves. Sora hadn't even been all that hungry up to that point; she was too nervous and concentrated on defeating Daemon to even think of picking up food.
Of course, that had all changed, and she was more than happy to peel a banana and take a bite from it. Mimi opted for sharing a small pack of gummy snacks with Tanemon while Pycomon indulged in a bag of chips. They were all quiet as could be, almost afraid of what could happen if they were too loud in the foreign world. Sora wanted to say something to speak up, but she wasn't sure where she was even supposed to start.
Sora forced herself to speak when she was halfway finished with her banana, and she looked up at Mimi with a nervous and muted smile. "How are you doing?" she asked carefully. She would have been a fool to not see the way that Mimi had changed over the past few weeks. Everything about her previous emerald vibrance had fallen away, replaced by something shadowed that didn't fit Mimi's regular personality in the slightest. Sora wasn't going to sit back and let all of this happen, and she was desperate to see Mimi smile once again.
Mimi glanced up at Sora with hesitation written all over her face before she sighed. Mimi seemed to realize that she wasn't going to be able to hide her true thoughts or feelings no matter how hard she tried, so she didn't bother attempting to mask the truth. Instead, she passed Tanemon another small snack as she spoke again. "Does it ever bother you?" Mimi questioned softly. "When you take a step back, it... It really does show how apathetic we are to our own suffering. It's like we don't even notice what's happening to us isn't normal."
Sora's eyes went wide with surprise before she replied. "We're fighting for the sake of the worlds. It's not what most others do at this age," she said halfheartedly even though she knew that this was far from being what Mimi was talking about.
"It's not that," Mimi told her with a shake of her head. "I have to ask... Do you ever think about how much this has impacted us? We've been hurt by the Digital World in the same ways that it's helped us. Think about it. Do you still have nightmares about what happened when we first came here to the Digital World?"
Sora's mouth opened before she pressed her lips together again a beat later. Pyocomon refused to look up to meet Mimi's eyes, instead moving a bit closer to her partner's arm. Sora knew that it was because Mimi was right; she did have the occasional unfortunate dream about what had happened when the Digital World first entered their lives. Countless Digimon had laid down their lives in the original war against the Dark Masters. Sora would be lying if she said that she didn't still think about Whamon disappearing into dust on the wind or Wizarmon taking a hit aimed at Hikari and Tailmon. Sora had never understood true grief until those moments, and they still seemed to be written in her heart years later.
"I do," Sora admitted quietly. She didn't know what else to say beyond that, so she allowed herself to fall silent.
"Meiko has helped me to realize something, you know," Mimi went on. "Meiko is seeing all of this from the outside, and... She doesn't know how we do it. She made me notice that we've all been hurt by the past, but we barely even seem to notice it. Beyond that, we act like it doesn't bother us. We've been hurt by the Digital World, but we know that well enough to bother mention bringing it up to the rest of the group. Doesn't that bother you?"
"It... It isn't the best thing for us to do," Sora confessed with a shake of her head. "I didn't realize that it was truly something that we were doing, but... I suppose that it's hard for the guilty to see the wrongs and sins they have committed at times."
"Meiko was the first person to really wake me up to all of this," Mimi said. "I didn't even really recognize what was happening until she started talking to me about all of this, and now... I just can't unsee it. This isn't something that we can just gloss over and ignore as we have been doing these past few years. We're struggling, and we have to be honest about it."
"You're right," Sora nodded. "If we try to hide the truth about our feelings all the time, then we aren't going to be able to fix this before it spirals out of control. Arguably, it's already gotten out of our grasp in terms of problematic implications..."
"You agree that we should be truthful about what we're going through, but I know that you aren't wanting to do that personally," Mimi frowned. When Sora appeared taken aback, Mimi continued, not noticing the shocked expressions on Pyocomon and Tanemon's faces. "Sora, don't act like this isn't a problem. You're struggling because of everything that's going on. You always put others before yourself, but it isn't selfish of you to want to be helped by the people around you. You're not exempt from talking about your feelings, Sora. You have to let us help you. This isn't a one-way street here."
Sora could do nothing but stare at Mimi for a long time, all of the air in her body caught in her chest and refusing to be pulled free of her lungs. She would have been lying if she tried to deny that Mimi had a point. Mimi was right; Sora had been putting everyone else in front of her for ages. It had been a habit ever since she was young. She had to look after the rest of the group. It was an obligation that she had felt ever since she met them. They needed someone to defend them, and Sora was going to step up to the plate if she had to.
"Mimi..." Tanemon whispered under her breath, so quietly that the word would have been pulled away by the wind if it was any louder in the area. Mimi still didn't take back the words that she had spoken, staring at Sora with emerald fire in her eyes, muted as it was compared to her regular passion and determination.
Mimi reached her hands out to place them over Sora's fingers. "I'm not trying to put you on the spot, Sora. I want to help you. I don't think that you should treat yourself like you have to do this all by yourself. Let yourself count on the rest of us. You do more than enough for us, so let us help you," Mimi said, her voice edging on pleading. "You don't have to put on a front like everything is fine. We're here for you, and we always have been."
"I..." was all Sora could manage to choke out from her tense lips. She didn't know how she was meant to respond to that. She knew that Mimi was right, but at the same time, it felt like there was something deep down, almost instinctual or primal, that was preventing her from accepting the truth. Mimi was right; Sora did put the needs of others before her own. She had done it for much of her life, but she didn't know how she was meant to stop. She hadn't ever learned how to stop herself from something that had been spurring her onward for so many years.
"You don't have to hide everything," Mimi told her. "I think that the best solution to our problems as a group are to accept that the others are there for us. You're there for everyone else, and you have to let us be there for you too so that we can help you out of this dark patch. We're all struggling, but we don't have to do it by ourselves."
"I... I don't know what to do," Sora forced herself to say. The words tasted like betrayal and poison on the back of her tongue. She knew that she wasn't overstepping her boundaries by doing something that Mimi had asked her to do, but at the same time, it didn't seem right of her to do such a thing. She was making a mistake, and she couldn't keep pushing it. But was it really a mistake when Mimi was asking her to talk about the truth of her emotions?
"It's okay," Mimi assured her with a gentle smile that felt so wrong on her that it was almost dizzying. "I'm here for you, and I'm going to make sure that the rest of the group is here for you too. It's not easy, but we're going to be there to look after one another. I promise you. It... It's not easy to have to do all of this. We're still young even as we're getting older, and this isn't something that's easy to grapple with."
"Everyone else is going to need us," Sora said, her words hollow and distant. The true translation was that everyone else needed her, a subtle way of her trying to change the conversation. She doubted that it was going to work on Mimi, but everything about this discussion made Sora feel like she was going to be sick. She couldn't do this anymore. She was doing too much, taking up too much space. Everyone else was struggling. What gave her the right to ask them for the world when there were others who were falling apart with more speed and force than she was? Sora had to be the glue. They were counting on her, and in a way, she was counting on herself to be able to live up to that ideal too. What could she do if she wasn't able to fulfill the hole that she had set out for herself? It would be treachery of the highest order: a stab of betrayal against the Crest of Love itself. That was how she saw it, at the very least.
"Sora," Mimi whispered, her voice so overwhelmed with emotion that it almost felt like a punch to the stomach. She gripped at the bag in her hand with even more force than she ever had before, like the item was her last lifeline to the world of the light. Her eyes were overwhelmed with something that Sora couldn't describe in words, but it made the back of Sora's tongue spark to fire once again with betrayal and hatred.
Sora got to her feet, pulling Pyocomon up into her grasp. She chose to focus on finishing her banana, and once it was done, she placed the abandoned peel in a small plastic bag that she had brought along to be used for trash. Afterward, she reached for her hip to pull her Digivice free, hating how tight her chest was. She had discussed the forbidden in the first place. She didn't want to talk about herself. It was so much easier to focus on those around her and try to help them out of their own struggles. They were all hurting, and she had to do what she could to help them.
Mimi didn't say anything after that, instead just picking up Tanemon and focusing on the ground below. Her light brown hair fell like a curtain around her face, hiding her greatest weaknesses from much of the world while still leaving the most vulnerable edges in the perfect view of Sora. Neither one of the girls wanted to look one another in the eyes, leaving their partners to stare at the other Digimon in surprise as they silently pleading the other for an answer to the way that the conversation that had just ended.
Sora pulled up the radar on the screen of her Digivice, and she focused on taking a step forward in the direction of the nearest set of signals. The other Chosen Children were still in the Dark Ocean, and Sora was going to do what she could to make sure that they were alright. She had to, if not for their sakes, then for her own. She didn't know she was going to keep herself tied together if she didn't have something else to count on. The others needed her, and above that, Sora needed herself to stay composed. If she let her focus slip, if she gave herself the chance to think about her own problems, she was only going to fall apart. Yamato and Mimi had both tried to get too close to the crux of the issue, forbidden betrayal at the back of Sora's mind, but she didn't want to probe the problem.
Everybody else was counting on them. They were relying on her, and Sora couldn't allow the mask to slip when everything was falling apart. They had to get back to Earth, and Sora was desperate to help them return home. She was going to do everything in her power to fix this because there were some things that she knew were out of her reach to be resolved. She couldn't fix everything, so she had to try and fix this much at least.
Iori couldn't bring himself to stand up from his place on the edge where grass met sand near the shoreline. Every part of his body seemed to creak in protest at the very implication that he might stand up and try to face the world at large anytime soon. Pain medication was one thing that the group hadn't been able to bring along on their adventure into the Dark Ocean, and Iori was starting to wish that such a restriction hadn't been put in place. The group hadn't been expecting to be attacked by a giant Digimon that scattered them, and the impacts of such a thing were already showing themselves to be notably negative.
Upamon was sitting against Iori's side, eyes only barely managing to stay open. Iori reached over and gentle rubbed his finger across Upamon's cheek. He wished that he knew where anyone was, but he hadn't seen any other members of the group since waking up a few minutes ago. Iori hadn't gone away to search for anyone since regaining consciousness. He needed the chance to rest after being thrown so far from the original battlefield, and walking right away was only going to make him feel worse than he already did. He was glad that he had landed on sand rather than grass or rock. That would have made for a much worse landing, and he was willing to take it as a blessing for the time being.
"I'm glad to see you're awake."
The voice of Takeru appeared above Iori, and he glanced up to see his blonde companion standing nearby with his trademark smile spread across his lips. Tokomon was grabbing onto Takeru's shoulder to keep himself balanced, and the boy's hat sat lopsided atop his head. Iori looked at him in surprise as Takeru reached a hand down to help him rise to his feet. "Where did you come from?" Iori questioned. He immediately chastised himself for not checking the radar on his Digivice to see if anyone was nearby before settling down for the time being.
"I woke up around here. Tokomon and I did a brief sweep of the area to see if there was anything of note in the area. The good news is that it seems like we're alone for the time being. The bad news is that it seems like we're alone for the time being," Takeru told him with a smile that was clearly trying to come off as light-hearted, but it ultimately fell short because of how agitated Iori was. He felt like he was riding the edge of a knife for better or worse.
"Can we get some food now, Takeru?" Tokomon asked of his partner. When Takeru nodded, the blonde settled down on the ground in front of Iori. He opened his bag and began to rustle through it to find a few snacks. He handed a bag to Iori, and Upamon immediately perked up.
"Thank you," Iori murmured under his breath. Takeru nodded in return, and the two were consumed by silence once again as they concentrated on eating. Iori was glad that there were no Digimon or Deep Ones in the immediate area to cause problems for them, but he wished that the other Chosen Children were closer. He was glad to not be alone, but he yearned to see the other members of the team more than anything else in that moment.
The four ate in silence for a long time, Upamon counting on Iori to feed him snacks given his lack of limbs. After Tokomon ate his food, he began to glow, and when the light faded away, Patamon was left in the place of the smaller white Digimon. Patamon flapped his wings to stay in place for a moment, a grand smile across his face before he settled down on Takeru's lap. The blonde boy reached down and ran one hand across Patamon's head gently. Patamon nuzzled against the contact, unable to pull his grin from his expression.
"How are you doing, Iori?" Takeru asked when he glanced up to Iori next. "I know that all of this is... Well, times haven't been easy for us as of late. I just want to make sure that you're still feeling alright."
Iori was taken aback by the question at first, and he stared up at Takeru for a long time before he looked down at the ground. If he was being honest, he wasn't doing well at all, but he didn't want to say that out loud. The rest of the group was struggling, and Iori wanted to support them. How was he supposed to be there for his friends when it felt like he was being torn apart from the inside out? He didn't want them to know about that part if it could be avoided. Iori hated the idea of lying to them, but he didn't want to do all of this to stress them out either. It felt beyond unnecessary even as his chest burned.
"You don't have to be everyone's rock, you know," Takeru suddenly said before Iori had the chance to respond. His voice was soft and tender, the personification of kindness that Iori had originally seen in Takeru when they first met three years prior. "It's alright to struggle a bit, Iori. You don't have to hide what you think is weakness all the time. We're here for you, and we'll continue to be here for you no matter what happens."
Iori stared up at Takeru for a long time, unsure as to how he was meant to respond to that. He was only pulled out of his daze when he felt Upamon nudge at him gently. Iori was brought back to reality with that simple motion, and he started before he got a grasp on what was happening around him. "I..." Iori said carefully. He wanted to choose his words as cautiously as possible, but he didn't know what that was even going to entail, if he was being entirely honest.
Iori was halfway tempted to tell Takeru all about it. He wanted to say that he still felt guilty for the way that he had been pushed over the edge so easily in the name of his defense of Daisuke. He wanted to say that he wished that there was another solution for all of this than putting themselves in danger that could cause severe harm. He wanted to say that he couldn't seem to stop thinking about all that had happened over the past few months and how often everyone was in danger.
"Iori..." Upamon began, and his wide, bright eyes were a sign that he was trying to nudge Iori to start talking as well. Upamon and Iori had gone through these matters of discussion countless times in the past, and Upamon had quietly implied that Iori should talk about it when he got the chance each time.
"I've got a lot on my mind right now," Iori confessed carefully. "All that's happened with Daemon and Daisuke... It seems like I can't stop thinking about it." He reached for his food and concentrated on taking a bite to fill the silence.
"I get it," Takeru muttered, those sapphire eyes of his suddenly shaded and tempestuous with something that Iori had learned was dark and tragic years prior. "But you don't have to act like everything is fine just because you're worried about the rest of us. We're here to support one another, and that includes you. Even if you don't want to talk about it, that's alright. We'll still be here for you. That's what we do around here."
Iori nodded his understanding as he turned his attention down to the sand below. He stared at the grains, almost as if he expected some splendid truth to reveal itself in the silence and the sand, before he reached for his Digivice. He pulled up the radar and winced when he saw that there wasn't anyone in the immediate area just as Takeru had said. Iori glanced up at the shoreline, trying his best to not think about the way that the Deep Ones had burst free of the water alongside Daemon the day that the first invasion on Earth took place. Iori also attempted to push away the remembered sensations of grief, rage, and defensiveness that came with him fighting alongside SlashAngemon that day, the final push against the Deep Ones and Daemon out of anger that Daisuke had been hurt. He felt a shiver sprint up and down his spine, and he looked away from the ocean a moment later with a heavy sigh on the tip of his tongue.
"Everyone's pretty far away, huh?" Patamon asked. He was looking at Takeru's Digivice after having been handed the small device by his human partner. "We're going to have to do a lot of walking if we want to meet up with them and get back home."
"I'm going to send a quick message on my D-Terminal to make sure that everyone's alright," Takeru declared, reaching for the device that rested in his backpack. "The Digimon are going to have to conserve their strength. We're at a disadvantage being here in the first place, and if we wind up being attacked, then we're going to want to be ready to push back. The Digimon will have to stay in their current forms to make sure that they don't push themselves over the edge."
"It'll make it a slower process to meet up with the rest of the group, but it'll be worth it for us all to stay safe," Patamon agreed. He pushed his head over Takeru's wrist to see the message that Takeru was typing out for the rest of the group. The gentle sound of the buttons being pushed reached Iori's ears, a welcome distraction above the clap of the waves against the shore nearby. Iori forced himself to glare daggers into the bag of food in his hands so that he wasn't concentrating on the bitterness of his memories.
Iori looked over in Takeru's direction next, a frown still spread across his features. He knew better than to fall for Takeru's traps for a second time, and he knew that there was more going on behind those bright eyes and bold smile than met the eyes. Learning more about Takeru had been a lengthy and difficult process the first time, and it still felt like there were a few things that they didn't understand about each other all these years later.
Takeru was an enigma in some ways. He was kind, but he could also be spiteful. Iori had moved past these simple concepts of duality a long time ago, finding the spectrum of gray that rested between white and black strictly because of the boy who glowed gold. Still, that didn't meant hat he understood everything that was going on at any given moment. In fact, he knew that there was something else passing through Takeru's mind whether the other boy wanted to admit it or not. There just had to be other things going on in the silence that Iori wasn't seeing yet.
Iori didn't even know how to handle this matter, and that was perhaps the most frustrating part of this whole situation. He had no idea how to reach out to Takeru and find a way to bridge the gap. It seemed as if everyone had been complicated in some way or another as of late, and Takeru was hardly an exception. Iori was far from being the best at comprehending the emotions of others, finding them to be mysteries that he could only barely grasp as mist in the dawning light.
But that didn't mean that he was completely naive and unseeing to the plight that had spread throughout all of their minds and hearts ever since Daisuke got hurt. Perhaps it reached back even farther than that and none one of them had been able to wrestle up the courage to express it. Each of them was hurting in some way or another, evident through darkened eyes, hollow skin, and changed posture, but they were pretending that this was not the case for the sake of others around him. Iori wasn't even completely innocent on this front; he was another symptom of the problem, but he still didn't know how to fix it.
Takeru shut the D-Terminal and slid it back into his pocket. "It's pretty late at night back on Earth, but I don't think that we should stay here for the night. We're too exposed," he told Iori, pulling the younger boy out of his thoughts. "I haven't gotten any responses from the other members of the group, but I bet that they'll reply as soon as they get the chance to do so."
Iori nodded his understanding. He opened his mouth to say something, though he wasn't even entirely sure what he was going to try and tell Takeru, when light reached his vision. He glanced down to where Upamon was resting beside him and saw his partner changing shape. A moment later, Armadimon sat in the very spot where Upamon had been a few moments prior, a bright smile across his face and a gleam in his green eyes. Iori reached over with a tender smile and placed one hand on top of his partner's head. The contact was surprisingly soothing, and it helped to ease his racing thoughts much faster than he ever could have anticipated.
Takeru began to crumple up the trash that he and Patamon had left behind from their food before tucking it into a sidebar pocket of his backpack. "Are you two ready to go?" Takeru asked as he rose to his feet. Patamon found a home sitting on top of Takeru's head, his natural perch for the circumstances.
Iori nodded even though he was silently wishing that he could stay for a while longer and try to get all of this weight out of his burning chest. He had to concentrate on getting back to the rest of the group so that they could leave the Dark Ocean behind. They hadn't even been there for a full day, but Iori was already starting to feel the pull of the Dark Ocean, a consistent sensation of negativity that seemed to be trying to drag him down. Maybe that was why he was having such a dreadful time in the first place.
Iori shoved all such thoughts out of his mind as he started to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. The rest of the group was waiting, and who was Iori to leave them alone any longer than he had to? They still had much left to do, and they couldn't abandon their mission just yet.
When Koushiro first came to, the primary thing that crossed his mind was a question inquiring as to why he was so tired. As soon as he checked the time that was displayed on his Digivice, he recognized exactly why that was; it was getting close to two-fifteen in the morning back in Odaiba. In other words, the group had been constantly running around for more than half a day after their arrival, and the only thing that had been able to stop them was Dagomon's sudden attack. No wonder he was so exhausted.
Some time had passed since Koushiro first woke up though, and both Motimon and Pukamon were indulging in some of the food that Jou had passed around the group. Koushiro's stomach was still doing flips from the attack that Dagomon had unleashed, and he didn't think that he would be able to eat anything in good conscience for a short while. He needed more time to try and decompress before he would feel safe eating something for them to get back on the road with.
To pass the time, Koushiro opened his laptop. He wanted to check what he could in terms of messages, and he was faster at typing on his laptop compared to his D-Terminal. As soon as he started to type at the keyboard though, he felt a small sting in his wrist, and he hissed as he pulled his hand away from the keyboard. Something about his arm felt strange, though he didn't see any external injuries.
"Is something wrong?" Jou asked, perking up when he realized that something was amiss with Koushiro. When he noticed that Koushiro was holding his wrist, Jou moved in the direction of the redhead. He examined Koushiro's hand briefly before he began to shuffle around in his bag. "I bet that you sprained it from the fall. We're lucky that we landed on the sand instead of rock hard ground. That could have done more damage than just a simple sprain."
"We got lucky," Koushiro murmured. He didn't see anyone in the immediate area, not that he particularly expected to see the other members of the team. The last thing that he saw before he blacked out was the outline of bodies flying in different directions. He found himself desperate, more so than ever before, to find out if they were all still alive or not. Koushiro had faith that they knew how to handle themselves, but something in the back of his throat tasted like blood and fear. Only knowing that the rest of the group was alright would calm him down, and he was fully aware of that truth.
Jou pulled a bandage free of his bag, and he maneuvered Koushiro's arm so that he could wrap the fabric around the redhead's wrist. Koushiro stared at Jou with a frown, seeing the tension in the older teen's shoulders. There was a lot that Jou was thinking about, but he wasn't wording any of it because he was too focused on trying to aid Koushiro at present.
"Are you okay, Jou?" Koushiro questioned, phrasing the inquiry carefully just in case he accidentally crossed a line. He didn't want to do anything to upset Jou by accident, and this seemed to be the best way for him to avoid such a thing.
"I don't know how we found ourselves in this situation," Jou replied, his voice lacking in anything that even slightly resembled humor. "It seems like every new battle brings with it a new catastrophe, and now, we don't know where the rest of the group is." Something about Jou's actions began to grow more aggressive, a sense of upset that Koushiro hadn't ever seen in Jou before. It was unsettling, and he found himself staring in complete shock at the older boy, not at all certain as to how he was meant to respond.
"I guess so," Koushiro murmured under his breath. The past few battles had been a complete and utter disaster. The Dark Ocean was already starting to wear on everyone, and Koushiro had been able to see it. The past incidents had already set everyone up to feel less than stellar, but the Dark Ocean seemed to feed off negative energy, and they were feeling the residual impacts of such a thing as they navigated the world around them. Daemon was defeated, yes, but that didn't change the fact that the atmosphere they were currently in was far from friendly and didn't seem to want anything to do with them.
Jou sighed. He pulled his fingers away from the wrapping on Koushiro's wrist to examine his handiwork, but he got back to adjusting it again a moment later when he found that he wasn't entirely satisfied with it. "So many people are getting hurt," Jou admitted quietly. "I know that people have always gotten hurt when Digimon and fighting have been involved, but... It seems like it just keeps happening no matter what we do. I don't know if there's even an easy way for us to get away from this. It doesn't seem like it."
Koushiro opened his mouth before pressing his lips together again a moment later. Jou was most certainly right; after the initial mass invasion in Odaiba, it seemed as if there was no way to escape the chaos that the attack had left behind. In the past, the general population hadn't fully understood what was going on with the Digimon, but they seemed to have faith that there were people who did know what they were doing. It was this sense of belief that allowed the people of the city to go on about their lives.
But this last attack had been different. There were lasting damages that still had not yet been reversed. It was lucky that there hadn't been any reported deaths given the mass signs of destruction. The tastes of chaos were everywhere, and they were practically impossible to escape no matter how fast someone tried to run away from the scene of the tragedy. People were hurt, and that was even worse than the fact that the buildings had suffered immense damages. The data bureau was still on its way to returning to the way that it had been before all of this, but there were people who would never be able to forget what they had witnessed and been part of during the mass invasion of Odaiba.
Jou pulled his hands away from Koushiro once again, and the redhead examined his arms once again to make sure that he was alright. Sure enough, his arm seemed to be doing better than it had been previously, and he trusted that Jou had done what he could to make sure that everything would be fine soon enough. "Thank you, Jou," Koushiro told him, but he could still feel the twinges of bitter concern that lived beneath the surface of Jou's words. Jou had spent a lot of time in the hospital in the aftermath of the fight, and people had been discussing the attack for weeks after the initial surge of Digimon. It was a hot subject that Jou had been forced to hear about a thousand times over, and beyond that, he had to cure people's injuries when they were hurt from something that he had tried so hard to prevent.
Jou sighed and shook his head. "Daisuke was the hardest," he admitted softly, immediately earning Koushiro's attention. "I never want to have to patch people up like that, but I especially don't want to have to do it with somebody that I care about. There were so many things that could have gone wrong that day, and... We got lucky. He made a steady recovery, but we still got lucky that it went as well as it did."
Those words felt like a stab to the chest, if Koushiro was being honest. If there was one subject that Jou had avoided after Daisuke was first attacked, it was that one. Daisuke had been rushed off to see medical attention, and Jou had done what he could to aid the progress. Jou had seen much more than any of them recognized, and he had refused to discuss it when he was given the chance. Koushiro had heard that a few other members of the group-Taichi, Yamato, and Ken mostly-asked Jou about what happened during the procedure, but Jou had simply deflected, unable to touch the subject for longer than a few moments.
"I'm glad that he's still alright, but I wish that nothing like that happened in the first place," Jou continued to tell Koushiro. "Nothing has ever been that hard, and I don't know if anything will ever be that difficult again. I'm glad that I was able to get over my fear of blood years ago, because..." He trailed off at that, refusing to finish no matter how long Koushiro stared at him. Koushiro didn't need him to finish the sentence anyways; Koushiro had seen Daisuke dazed and on the verge of unconsciousness between Daigo and Maki's grasps that day. He had seen the way that Ken stared down at the ground numbly, unable to tear himself back to reality after witnessing something that no person should have ever had to see.
Jou shook his head and glanced back to Pukamon where the small gray Digimon was sitting with Motimon not far away. "But we're still here, and that's what we should really be focusing on, right? We have to get back to the rest of the group so that we can get back home to Earth," he pointed out.
Koushiro nodded numbly. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to all of that, so he shifted his attention back to his laptop. He started typing as fast as he could around the bandage wrapped around his arm, and he eventually looked up at Jou with careful eyes, navigating every word as carefully as possible to make sure that he didn't say the wrong thing by mistake. "Jou... If you ever need something, you can come to me," Koushiro said, praying that this was the right thing to say. He was tired of seeing the rest of the group fall apart when he didn't know what to do. It felt like the glue at the heart of the team's dynamic was on the verge of rotting and falling away, and he wanted to do what he could to fix that. Jou seemed like a nice place to start even though Koushiro had no ideas as to how he was meant to help Jou cure his guilt and overwhelming memories regarding the damage of the first battle against Daemon.
"Thank you," Jou said after a long silence. He pulled his glasses off his face and began to rub the lenses off on his shirt. He was lucky that the glass hadn't been damaged by the fall, Koushiro had to say. They certainly seemed to be fragile enough that they had the chance to splinter under the weight of the fall, but Koushiro certainly wasn't complaining that they had remained intact.
"Even if you just need to talk, I'll listen," Koushiro smiled. He looked over to Jou and earned himself a small smile and nod in response, but neither one of those actions could do anything to tear apart the exhaustion that was tearing at the skin below Jou's eyes. It seemed as if he was losing something that had once glowed beneath the surface, and Koushiro felt his stomach knotting itself over.
He did his best to distract himself before he could get caught up in that though, so he looked back to the screen of the laptop. He opened the message log and saw that he had five new messages. The first was from Hiraku speaking with him specifically, and he decided to address it first. As soon as he opened the chat, Koushiro winced at the realization that he had never been able to tell Maki that they were under attack by Dagomon. He made a mental note to respond to her as soon as he was given the chance, but for the time being, he read over Hiraku's message:
I hope that you're all still okay. We don't know what happened when you tried to get back to us, but there was a disturbance in the process of setting up the portal. We aren't sure why that happened or what could have been responsible, but something went wrong. We're going to have to wait for all of you to get back together so that we don't accidentally do unnecessary damage to the portal by coming through ourselves. Making the gate to the Dark Ocean operational was difficult, and if we use it too much, it could have consequences since it's not an official gateway. Tell us when you're alright. We're all worried and wishing you the best.
Koushiro's eyes went wide at the words about the portal suffering interference at the time of the gate opening. That certainly made sense when he looked back on it. He would have thought that the gate shouldn't have taken that long to open, and yet, it seemed as if the gate refused to be pushed into an open position. He couldn't help but wonder what it was that had caused such a technical difficult to take place. He certainly had no ideas.
Koushiro didn't respond to Hiraku for the time being, instead navigating his way over to the other chat in question. This time, it had all of the other Chosen Children, and a majority of the messages came from there. The first message was from Takeru asking if everyone was alright. The second message came from Yamato saying that he was with Taichi, and the third was the same but applied to Mimi and Sora respectively. The final message in the log was from Ken, who was with Daisuke at present. Koushiro let out a heavy sigh of relief; it seemed as if most of the members of the group were still alright, and he was willing to consider that a victory and then some for the time being, especially given the power of the attack that Dagomon had used to separate them to begin with.
"Everyone except for Meiko, Miyako, and Hikari is accounted for," Koushiro announced as he looked up in the direction of Jou, Pukamon, and Motimon, relief flooding his body at the same time. "I suspect that their partners are with them since none of them have mentioned not having their partners nearby. Hiraku says that there was a disturbance in the portal that kept it from opening when they tried to pull us back to Earth after Dagomon showed up, but he still doesn't know what happened or why there was an interference in the first place."
"A disturbance?" Jou echoed, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "But what could have caused something like that in the first place? We haven't ever had any technical difficulties with opening the gate, and I don't know why it would suddenly start happening now of all times."
"The gate to the Dark Ocean functions at least a bit differently from the portal that leads to the Digital World. Perhaps it was that little difference that caused a problem that ultimately led to the gate not being able to open properly," Koushiro offered. He typed out a response message to the rest of the group saying that he and Jou were alright and with their partners, figuring that it would be best for the team to know that they were okay sooner rather than later. If he had been left waiting, he would have been stressed, and he didn't want to put anyone else in that position.
"But the gate worked fine back when we were using it on Earth," Pukamon pointed out. "We didn't even have the added advantage of all the extra tech that the past Chosen Children have. We just used your computer, and that was all that it took for us to get here. Why would there suddenly be a technical problem when everything was fine before."
"It is rather odd..." Koushiro agreed with a light nod. He didn't know where to start in terms of figuring out what the problem could have been though. He would have had to investigate the source of the problem when given the chance, but it wasn't as if he could easily do that given the circumstances. There was a lot going on to keep him from being able to travel to Hiraku's office to see what had happened. He hoped that Hiraku was working on what he could to find the truth though; the sooner that they got answers, the better.
"What if there was something that caused interference?" Motimon suggested. "I know that we don't have any solid evidence for it, but it would make sense if everything stopped working because an outside force caused everything to fall apart."
Koushiro stared down at the ground, stopping in his typing temporarily to consider the idea. He would have been lying if he said that it was completely out of the picture. The gate should have been functional even if it was somewhat different from the rest of the portals that he was used to. It had worked just fine on something that was much less technologically advanced than Hiraku's computer system, and the pieces would definitely come together to make a clear picture if there was something that caused the portal to suddenly snap.
"I guess that it could be possible..." Koushiro murmured under his breath. "But if there really was an interference to cause all of this, then you have to wonder... Just what was it that caused the disturbance in the first place? It must have been an outside force, so who or what would have been able to find that kind of power to cause problems for the gate? Koushiro didn't know of anything or anyone that could have done such a thing, and he didn't even know where to start in terms of looking for all of this either.
The first priority for all of them had to be getting out of the Dark Ocean. It would be impossible for them to do much of anything in terms of research or investigation as long as they were stuck separated in an unfamiliar world. The group was going to have to find a way to reunite so that they could travel through the gate in Koushiro's laptop to go back home. That was much easier said than done, but Koushiro wasn't going to give up quite so quickly. He was going to make sure that the group found a way to accomplish their goals one way or another.
For the time being, Koushiro concentrated on typing out a response message to the rest of the Chosen Children with his laptop. It didn't take long for him to round everything off to say that his group was alright, and he hit the send button soon afterward. Once that was done, Koushiro navigated his way back to the screen that listed the chat logs out in full, and he selected the conversation that he shared with Hiraku. It didn't take long for him to type out an explanation that the group was separated, and, for the most part, had informed the other members of the team that they were alright. He promised to offer updates when he learned about what had happened with Hikari, Miyako, and Meiko, though he wasn't sure of when he was going to get the responses that he was searching for. All he could do for the time being was be patient and hope that everything was alright.
Koushiro had just sent out his message to Hiraku when he glanced up after seeing traces of light from the direction of the Digimon. Motimon and Pukamon had been replaced by Tentomon and Gomamon respectively after having eaten more than enough to sustain their regular forms. Even if there was no direct danger for them to lash out at, the world itself was more than enough in terms of risk to merit the Digimon evolving where they could. They wanted to be as ready as possible for the upcoming battles, after all. There wouldn't be a moment to waste if everything truly did start to fall apart.
"We should be ready to go whenever you are," Jou smiled, though it was clear as could be that everything about him was strained and uptight. Koushiro didn't miss the way that Jou's eyes kept on straying down to where his wrist was wrapped after being injured from the fall earlier. Jou couldn't seem to get the matter off his mind no matter how hard he tried, and Koushiro could see it in the way that the older teen carried himself. Gomamon and Tentomon also seemed to have caught on and were glancing back and forth between the mark of Koushiro's injury and Jou's cautious yet nervous gaze. It was the primary note of activity in the area, something that couldn't be ignored given the circumstances.
Koushiro nodded his understanding as he selected the conversation that he shared with Maki. He didn't know when to expect a response from her, but he still typed out a quick explanation of all that had happened. He could practically feel the desperation seeping through every message that she sent in her panicked spam at the height of Daemon's attack, and the last thing that he wanted to do was leave her to suffer with that any longer than he had to. In the end, his response to Maki was similar to what he had typed out for Hiraku, though he was a bit more concise on the details since Maki was hardly the type to mind the little things when it came to matters of peak danger like this. Once he was done, Koushiro hit the send button and allowed himself to shut his laptop. Nobody had responded to his earlier messages, so he felt comfortable leaving everything there for the time being.
Koushiro slid his bag into his backpack and gathered the trash from the group's brief stop for food. He still felt awful at the idea of eating anything, but he knew that he was going to have to eat something sooner or later. He would get to that when his hunger got the better of him. For the time being though, he rose to his feet and let out a small sigh. It was time to go and find the rest of the group, though he knew that such a thing was much easier said than done. Still, there wasn't a moment to lose. Earth was waiting for them, and the Chosen Children had to find one another as soon as possible if they wanted to return home. It was their only option in a world that seemed to want nothing more than to get rid of them one way or another.
Ken and Daisuke had been lucky to find a cave while they were walking, and Ken had been quick to suggest that they duck inside as soon as possible. Ken's eyes were starting to droop, and he knew that they were going to need a break to rest as soon as possible. Daisuke was doing what he could to hide it, but it was clear as could be that his injury was starting to get the best of him. Dagomon's attack had thrown a wrench in his recovery, and Ken was putting his foot down to make sure that Daisuke got as much rest as possible.
Daisuke hadn't taken long to fall asleep after Ken volunteered to take the first guard shift to make sure that nothing happened while they were resting. Daisuke had pushed him on it at first, but he ultimately yielded in the face of Ken's unyielding determination. Veemon and Wormmon joined Daisuke in the land of dreams soon afterward, leaving Ken alone to stare at the cave wall in the silence. He was glad to be out of the easy access of the rest of the Dark Ocean, but he still didn't feel fully safe. The Dark Ocean itself felt wrong to him, and there was no way that he would ever be able to feel comfortable as long as he was in this twisted world.
Ken was struggling to stay awake at least to some degree. The novelty of Daemon's attack had worn off, leaving him exhausted and having to practically force himself to remain conscious. His body craved rest more than anything else, but Ken knew that Daisuke needed sleep for the time being. Ken would call upon Daisuke to take over for him in a few hours, though he knew that passing the time was going to be boring as all hell until that time arrived. It wasn't as if there was anything to do in the dark silence of the cave.
Ken ultimately reached into his pocket and pulled his D-Terminal out before flipping it open. He let out a sigh upon seeing that a few other messages had come through saying that the other members of the group were fine. There still wasn't any word from Miyako, Meiko, or Hikari though, and that sent flips rocketing through Ken's stomach. He wanted nothing more than to figure out what was going on with them, but he knew that it wasn't going to be that easy.
Ken attempted to convince himself that they were fine. Perhaps Miyako and Hikari had simply gotten too caught up in other matters, hopefully subjects of minimal risk, to think of checking their D-Terminals. Meiko was still new to the team, and if she worked herself up into a panic, it wasn't out of the question to say that she would forget to reach out to the rest of the group through her D-Terminal. Ken kept on trying to feed himself these mundane explanations, but there was a small part of him that still refused to believe what he was trying to say. There was no way to say for sure that everyone was alright, and the mere implications that something had gone wrong made him feel sick.
Ken was so caught up in these thoughts that he didn't even notice at first when Daisuke's expression grew strained. It wasn't until after a clipped groan left Daisuke's lips that Ken perked up, and he looked over at his companion with all of the concern in the world. "Daisuke?" Ken questioned carefully, hating the way that his voice echoed through the silence of the cave.
Ken carefully moved towards Daisuke when he didn't earn a response, looking carefully over his companion before he recognized that something was wrong. Everything about Daisuke seemed to be stressed and strained, and Ken reached out to gently nudge at his shoulder. "Daisuke!" Ken repeated, this time with more volume and intensity.
That was more than enough to snap Daisuke awake, and that was saying quite a bit given that he was regularly such a heavy sleeper. He stared up at Ken in surprise before he slowly forced himself into a sitting position, one hand rising to rub at his temples. "Ken... Sorry. I hope I didn't worry you or anything."
Ken shook his head. "Don't worry about that. What's going on? Are you alright? You seemed to be... Distressed," he admitted softly. He didn't know if that was the right word, but it most certainly appeared to be the word that fit best.
Daisuke was hesitant, almost on the verge of saying something that would cover up the truth, before he saw the fear in Ken's eyes. He moved so that he was leaning against the wall of the cave, his head falling back against the rock. "It was a nightmare," Daisuke confessed.
"Do... Do you want to talk about it?" Ken questioned, praying that the answer as an affirmative one. The last thing that he wanted was for Daisuke to feel as if he had to keep the truth secret, and he yearned to do what he could to ease the pain of the situation as much as possible.
Daisuke stared at Ken for a long time, trying to navigate his response, before he looked down to the ground of the cave. Wormmon and Veemon were still curled up together, and their gentle snores echoed throughout the cave in a way that seemed all too ominous in the silence. Ken stared at their partners as well, trying his best to suppress any sneaking glances that he wanted to give in Daisuke's direction.
"Yeah," Daisuke forced himself to say at long last. "I guess that I should talk about it." There was still hesitation in the way that he carried himself, and he looked over to Ken carefully before he let out a sigh, still trying to figure out if this was the best decision. The doubt in his eyes was so unlike him that it made Ken feel like the world was crashing down around him. He didn't think that he had ever understood how rocky and nonlinear the path to recovery was until he had to look at how hollow and almost fearful Daisuke looked, both traits that belonged to anybody but his Jogress partner and a subject of his admiration.
Ken's fingers moved in his direction, and a moment later, Daisuke's hand was wrapped up in Ken's gently. Daisuke looked down at the place where their fingers were interlocked, and he closed his eyes before releasing a stabilizing breath to try and find his grasp on the moment once again. "Alright," Daisuke murmured, swallowing dryly in an attempt to dispel the lingering traces of nerves. "Let's get to talking."
Oh boy! The angst presses on once again!
I love all of the little interactions in this chapter. It's the subtle things that really make all of this buildup even more enjoyable to me. The small clues that show what's going on in everyone's head are so fun to write and watch as they unfold. I know how they turn out, but it's still interesting to see them in actual prose now rather than just the notes outlines that they've been up to this point, you know?
If anyone is wondering about Miyako and Hikari, don't worry; they'll be here soon enough. This half of the arc is definitely building up to quite a few special things, and some of you may or may not already have inklings as to what that constitutes given what's going on right now. Miyako and Hikari are part of everything, and they'll be actually showing themselves soon. It's going to be tons of fun, let me tell you.
I can't think of much else that I want to say in this chapter since everything really does speak for itself, but beyond that, it focuses on illustrating a special type of picture involving character development that I don't want to expose quite yet. Next time we get together for an update though, this act is going to be pressing on with more character development from various parties. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed. Feedback is appreciated just like always. Have a nice day,e verybody!
-Digital