Takeru reached for his bag where it sat on the sand below before he slung it over his shoulder, slipping his arm through the other strap before making sure that it was sitting evenly on his back. "Alright. Are we ready to go?" he asked of Iori and Armadimon. Patamon came to fly on his head, settling down perfectly on the top of Takeru's hat.
Iori got his own bag ready before rising to his feet. He and Takeru had taken a brief break to gather their bearings once again, but they were off to meet with the rest of the group once again. They were getting closer to their destination, but there was still quite a way for them to go before everyone would be back together once again.
"I think so," Iori responded. He glanced down to Armadimon and got a nod in response from his partner. With that said, the four started to move in the direction of the rest of the team.
Iori did his best to keep his eyes locked on the path ahead. He didn't want to look like he was staring at Takeru regardless of how much he wanted to deep down. He still had quite a few questions about what was going on in the blonde's head, if he was being perfectly honest. Takeru hadn't really done all that much to yield even the slightest thing in terms of clues as to what he was thinking, not that Iori was particularly surprised by this. It seemed that when everything fell apart, Takeru's instinct was to buckle down on hiding everything that he could.
Takeru had been like this for as long as Iori could remember. There were two different ways in which a person could know Takeru, and it took a long time to reach the more intimate and complete understanding of the blonde. Iori had managed to break through the outer shell of Takeru's emotional guard a long time, but it had taken quite some time for him to understand just what Takeru thought about on a regular basis.
And just as soon as that understanding had come, it abandoned him when Takeru went back to his old habits, back to the ways of hiding his emotions that he had used back when the team first got together to fight against the Digimon Kaiser three years prior. Iori hated that Takeru was doing so much to restrict himself on a personal level, and he wished that there was more that he could do to help this situation.
But that was the hard part. When Takeru wanted to hide something, he would make sure that nobody found out about it. Takeru was a professional when it came to keeping his secrets buried, and Iori had ultimately been forced to take rather roundabout pathways in order to find out what kept Takeru up at night. Iori hated that there was a wall between them all over again, forcing him to start over from an earlier checkpoint in a game without a save point or safe spot.
Iori found himself speaking before he could stop his lips from moving. He already knew what response he was going to get, but that didn't stop him when push came to shove. "Are you alright?" Iori asked of Takeru. He was confident that Takeru was going to respond in the affirmative before deflecting everything that Iori could have wanted to ask him about.
Takeru nodded. "Of course," he assured Iori, and Iori did his best to pretend that he didn't taste the sensation of a lie on the back of his tongue with those words. Iori valued honesty and integrity above all else, doing what he could to remain true to his ideals no matter what. It was the reason that he had been sent into such a state of struggle after Daisuke was hurt, and it was upsetting him as he tried to figure out what was happening with Takeru at present.
"Stop it," Iori suddenly said softly, his voice lacking in intensity to soften the blow and lessen the risk of sending everything shattering to pieces with those two words. "You don't have to pretend that you're alright when we both know that isn't the case. You can talk to the rest of us. You can talk to me."
"I could say the same thing to you," Takeru countered, deflecting all attention from his own woes the same way that Iori knew that he would. "You don't have to be the rock of the team, Iori. It's okay if you show some weakness every once in a while. It's not a necessity for you to pretend that you're alright to keep the rest of us from worrying. After all, concern is just part of the package when it comes to the rest of us."
Iori frowned tensely at those words, not entirely sure of how he was meant to respond to Takeru's sentences. He knew that this was in part a way for Takeru to keep him from figuring out just what was on his mind, but at the same time, Iori wasn't sure about what was supposed to happen next. He did his best to try and come up with at least a few words that would keep the conversation going, maybe even tilting the advantage to his side of the discussion, but his mind went blank.
In a way, Iori knew that Takeru had offered him just the words that he needed to be hearing. Iori had been doing what he could to buckle down on himself and push the rest of the group away, at least to some degree. How hypocritical, he thought bitterly. Iori was trying to get Takeru to open up to him, but at the same time, Iori was trying to shove the others on the team out of his issues because he didn't want them to get involved.
Iori was afraid, if he was being honest with himself. How could he not be? He didn't think that any of them were ever going to be the same after what they had witnessed with Daisuke during Daemon's initial attack on Earth, and Iori certainly wouldn't be able to change his course of thought so easily. He had to be strong for the sake of the rest of the group and himself. If he let his stubborn firmness slip, then he didn't know what he was going to find, but he was confident that it wouldn't be good. He had already been given a taste of something brutal in the form of a question of his Crest's foundation, and the last thing that he needed was another blow to send his existential crisis exploding in his face once again.
"Takeru! Iori!"
The sound of a voice from behind him pulled Iori away from his thoughts, and he pivoted alongside Armadimon to see who it was that was coming closer. Iori recognized the voice, but he still wanted visual proof of what he was seeing, evidence that this was actually real. As such, he set his eyes to the horizon, begging some higher power to offer him with proof as to what he had just heard.
The sight of Meiko most certainly fell into that category. Meicoomon was dashing beside her as the dark-haired girl ran along the sandy shoreline towards the pair of humans and Digimon. Her hand was waving frantically above her head in a desperate attempt to catch the attention of Iori and Takeru as she grew nearer. Meicoomon seemed happier than usual as well, her green eyes shining slightly as she moved to the rest of the Chosen Children and Digimon in the area.
"Meiko!" Takeru cried out, his eyes wide as could be. He didn't move in her direction, undoubtedly trying his best to keep from yielding any of the ground that he and Iori had already made in the direction of their teammates. Patamon waved brightly in Meiko and Meicoomon's direction, and Iori couldn't help but think that Takeru had lucked out of having the difficult conversation that Iori had started. It was a stroke of chance, but that didn't mean that Takeru wasn't going to take advantage of it. Iori knew the opposite was true.
Meiko drew closer to the group in the moments that followed, her expression filled with such overwhelming relief that it seemed as if she was going to collapse of pure joy if she wasn't careful. Meiko didn't even seem to realize what she was doing at first, but soon afterwards, her arms were being thrown around Iori and Takeru's shoulders, pulling both of the boys in close. Iori was hesitant before he returned the embrace. He hadn't ever been particularly close with Meiko, and yet, he was glad to see a sign that she was still alive.
For a long time, the group of six simply stood there together, enjoying the fact that they were in the same area again at long last. It hadn't been longer than half a day since they last saw one another (even if time was difficult to gauge in the Dark Ocean), but it somehow felt like an eternity at the same time. Iori found the warmth of Meiko's body to be oddly soothing, a sign that the missing Chosen Child was still alright despite the fact that she had seemingly disappeared from the map for a short period of time.
Takeru was the first to pull away from Meiko and Iori, and he looked at the girl from head to toe carefully. "How are you doing?" he questioned of her, his voice so genuine that it was overwhelming in all of the ways that it clashed from his previous attempts at deflection during his conversation with Iori.
Meiko opened her mouth, trying to figure out a way to phrase a response. In other words, it wasn't quite as simple as the one-word answers that Iori would expect to hear from Takeru in response to that question. At the very least, Iori was glad that Meiko was choosing to be honest. After all, she was a much less seamless liar than Takeru, and the truth was going to come out one way or another as long as she was involved with a situation.
"Talk to them," Meicoomon told Meiko, her voice urging and almost pleading in a strange way. Her green eyes were looking at Meiko with an unexpected intensity. Meicoomon waited for Meiko to return the eye contact a moment later, and the two continued to stare at each other for a long moment, seemingly saying all that words would not be able to in the span of the silence.
Meiko nodded as she looked away from Meicoomon, letting out a sigh along the way. "I... I have to admit that I don't know how you all do it," Meiko said softly. "I don't know how you can stay strong in the face of all this. I feel like my life is never going to be the same again, like... I don't know. I've been rattled to the core without an easy way of going back to the way that I was."
"What Meiko means to say is that she's been traumatized by all that has happened and doesn't understand how all of you are able to remain composed in the face of all of this," Meicoomon explained, her words much more blunt but still just as mature as Meiko's had been.
Meiko parted her lips to retort, but the intense stare that she received from her partner told her that was hardly a wise choice. Instead, she simply let out a sigh and nodded. "It... It's been hard," she confessed. "While I was alone with Meicoomon, I decided that I wasn't going to be hiding everything from you guys anymore. I've been doing a lot in terms of masking my emotions over the past few months, but... I don't want to do that. I don't deserve it, and nobody else does either."
Iori finally took the chance to process the words that Meiko had shared when she was finished speaking, and he recognized that there was a lot more going on than Meiko saw at a first glance. It wasn't entirely as easy to comprehend as the mere idea that the group was alright at handling their trauma; Iori knew better than to make that assumption.
Takeru was the best example that Iori could come up with to the contrary. It was impossible for someone to say that Takeru wasn't traumatized in the slightest. In fact, it was his struggle that had cut him away from the rest of the group when his demons grew to be too much for him. He would throw up a defensive wall because of the ways that his trauma would influence him, and Iori didn't think that anybody would ever be able to protest a fact of that nature.
Then again, all of them fell into the category of traumatized to their own degrees, didn't they? Was trauma the word to define the way that Iori had felt shattered after he had given SlashAngemon the silent order to kill so many of the Deep Ones during Daemon's initial attack of Earth? Even after Iori recognized that Armadimon was right-that he would make that choice again and again if he was pushed to that position again in the future-he still wasn't able to get it out of his head. He still dreamed about what he did, and while the nightmares would usually fade soon after they took place, he was still able to remember well enough what they were about in a general sense.
Takeru smiled gently in Meiko's direction, and Iori found himself recognizing the cracks at the edge of Takeru's mask that nobody else would have been able to find or recognize unless they actively knew what they were searching for, and Iori most certainly did. "You don't have to confront this alone," Takeru assured Meiko, the same words that Iori knew somebody needed to deflect back in Takeru's direction as soon as possible.
"The rest of us are all here for you. All you have to do is reach out to us and give us the chance to help you. It isn't easy to handle anything this big on your own, but luckily, you don't have to. Reaching out to others isn't easy, but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth it," Takeru continued. "When we find the rest of the group, I'm confident that they'll say all of that and more. They agree with me completely. I'm sure of it."
Once again, Iori couldn't help but wonder if it would be too much to ask for Takeru to take his own advice for once. It wasn't so easy to get Takeru to listen to his own words, but Iori yearned for it regardless. Takeru needed this advice just as much as Meiko did, if not more so, and Iori was tired of him acting otherwise. Hadn't they already gone through this song and dance once before?
"Thank you," Meiko smiled gently in Takeru's direction. Her entire body had seemingly relaxed since the last time that Iori saw her, and it was relieving to see her less tense than she ever had been up to that point. Meiko tended to keep to herself and shut out all of her problems if she could do so, buckling down on isolating herself if anybody decided that something was wrong. Iori was glad that this habit was starting to change in a positive direction though. He knew that it was something that all of them were going to need if they were intending to make any progress up to this point.
"I hope that the locals haven't been giving you any trouble," Armadimon told Meiko with a sideways smile, undoubtedly an attempt at getting her to start relaxing in the face of her recent revelation about how just bad everything had become.
Meiko shook her head. "No... Luckily, Meicoomon and I haven't seen much in terms of trouble since we were first separated from the rest of the group. I'm glad for that too, trust me. I don't know if we would have been able to continue fighting back if we did wind up being ambushed. There are so many Deep Ones that seem to travel in a single pack these days, and I bet that we would have wound up overwhelmed," Meiko told him.
"There weren't so many of them in a single cluster before," Takeru commented, a frown appearing on his face. "Back when I was first here all that time ago, we only saw two of them together, but I guess that the situation got pretty tense with Daemon showing up and throwing a wrench into all of the plans that Dagomon might have had with the Deep Ones under his control."
"And that would explain why there are so many of them grouped together all of a sudden. Safety does come in numbers, after all," Patamon agreed with a small nod from his place on top of Takeru's head. Takeru was the tallest out of the three humans in the area as it was, having sprouted up like a weed the older that he got, and Patamon only seemed to be taller than him given how he was perched on his partner's hat. In a way, it was almost entertaining how Patamon was able to simply look down on the rest of the people around him without minding it in the slightest.
"As if we didn't need any other reasons to get out of here as soon as possible," Armadimon drawled with a dry chuckle, not at all minding the high stakes of the situation. Well, that may have been how it appeared, but Iori knew better than that. Regardless of how good Armadimon was at playing dumb, he was more than aware of how to buckle down on a situation and find his focus when push came to shove.
Iori reached into his pocket to pull out his Digivice, staring at the detection screen that was pulled up still. It hadn't gone away since the group was initially split up, almost as if the Digivice seemed to understand that this was going to be its purpose for the time being. It wasn't as if there were any other modes for it to take advantage of given the situation. The group had to get back together as soon as possible, and so, it had one duty.
The screen offered Iori a bit of information regarding where the rest of the group was, though the intel was still somewhat on the limited side. He could see that no other members of the group had managed to come together the way that he and Takeru crossed paths with Meiko, so it was still going to be a while before they were able to reunite in full. All that they could do was hope in the meantime that nothing happened to throw yet another wrench in their plans. Dagomon had already done that and then some, and it was only going to get worse if he just so happened to appear once again.
"Well, I suppose that we have our destination, so we might as well keep moving," Takeru pointed out. He turned on his heel in the direction that would take them closer to the rest of their team, a light smile on his face as he turned his head over one shoulder to ensure that the rest of the group understood what he was trying to imply. "Let's go on and get to it. The sooner that we're able to get out of here, the better off we'll all be."
Iori nodded his agreement and started to follow in Takeru's path. Meiko followed after him, but her gaze seemed to be locked solely on Iori's Digivice as they continued to move. It wasn't as if Meiko was looking at the screen, something that truly did catch Iori by surprise. She was looking exclusively at the shell of the Digivice, almost as if she was searching for something. Her frown only seemed to grow as the seconds passed and she didn't find what she was looking for, and that only left a pit of uneasiness at the bottom of Iori's stomach.
"Is there something wrong, Meiko?" Iori finally forced himself to ask when the suspense grew to be too much for him to handle. He looked over his shoulder where she was walking slightly behind him, a frown on his face. He wasn't trying to be accusatory or anything similar; he simply wanted to understand what was plaguing her to such a degree.
"Oh, um... I was just curious if your Digivice had suffered any damage from the fall," Meiko said carefully, almost as if she was scared of what would happen if she at all misspoke. She shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out her own Digivice, holding it out in Iori's direction. "After the fall, my Digivice had a small piece chipped off. I don't know where the other fragment went. I couldn't find it anywhere when I was in the area still, so... I guess that this is just going to have to be how it looks from now on."
Iori examined the Digivice in full after he put his own Digivice away in its home inside of his pocket. The chipped corner was certainly the most distinctive feature about it, and there was black where the regular cyan of the Digivice's shell should have been. The thin veins of mahogany caught his attention as well primarily because he knew that this was the color of Meiko's Crest. It made sense that this would be the color at the heart of her Digivice, but at the same time, it caught Iori somewhat by surprise. He hadn't ever seen a Digivice from the inside, and he hadn't ever considered cracking the devices open to see what was hidden beneath the outer shell. It was a strange thing to find himself looking at, but he supposed that was simply how life was sometimes.
"I don't think that I've ever seen a Digivice examined like this," Takeru remarked, glancing over from his place beside Iori. "I don't think that there's ever been a Digivice that has been damaged to give us the chance to look inside. At one point, I know that Iori was curious about getting inside to see what made the devices function the way that they do, but he ultimately gave up on that venture after a short while, and so, we decided that it was a mystery that was best left unsolved."
Iori handed Meiko's Digivice back to her, and she pocketed it a moment later. "I don't even really know how it happened... My glasses were lucky enough to survive the fall, but my Digivice must have landed awkwardly when we hit the sand," she told the two boys. "It's been like this ever since we first landed, and... I guess that I've been wondering what it is that's going on to make it look like this."
"We can give it Miyako and Koushiro when we get back to the rest of the group," Iori pointed out. "I'm sure that if we left them and Ken alone in a room for long enough, they would be able to figure out what's happening with your Digivice. Do you think that any of its functions have been impaired?"
Meiko hesitated before she shrugged. "I don't know for sure... It isn't as if I've had much of a chance to test it out to make sure that it still functions well enough... After all, Meicoomon and I have been lucky enough to not wind up on the receiving end of any attacks from Deep Ones or otherwise, so I haven't been able to see if it does work in full. I can say that the search and radar function is perfectly in order. That was how I was able to catch up with the two of you," she answered.
"Well, given that Meicoomon is back to her Adult form, we can say that it at least works well enough for regular evolution," Takeru deduced. "As for Perfect evolution... Only time is going to be able to tell if it functions well in that way, but we'll have to wait and see when the time is right. After all, it would only be a waste of our energy and time to try it out here. We should wait until we have no choice but to use the Digivice for something like that."
"When you put it like that, it makes it sound like you're sure that we're going to wind up fighting against a few Deep Ones before we reunite with the rest of the group," Armadimon told Takeru, his tone halfway joking. Deep down, Iori felt his stomach start to twist into a knot since he knew that his partner had a point, at least to some degree. Part of him wanted to believe that it was just a slip of the tongue on Takeru's part, but they all knew that they were going to wind up in combat sooner or later. That was simply how the Dark Ocean had shown itself to be up to that point.
"We're going to have to fight against Dagomon before we can get back to Earth," Takeru pointed out. "We got that message via D-Terminal a while ago to say that Dagomon is going to have to be defeated before we return home. He's going to stand too much of a threat to the Digital World and Earth if we leave him to his own devices."
Meiko gasped, one hand flying to her mouth at those words. "Our D-Terminals!" she cried out. She let out an agitated and disappointed sigh. "I can't believe that I forgot about those... I should have sent a message to let everybody know that I was alright after the fight against Dagomon..."
"It's alright. We were a bit distracted at the time, and you're with the two of them now," Meicoomon pointed out, gesturing gently to Takeru and Iori. "What's this about our mission of defeating Dagomon though? That's news to both of us as I'm sure you've noticed."
"It's something that we heard from the original Chosen Children," Patamon explained. "Apparently, Dagomon could wind up damaging the barrier and coming through to Earth the same way that Daemon did. That means that we're going to have to push him back, and in this situation, it means that we're going to have to fight against him. It's not what we were originally hoping to do, but we don't have much of a choice in the matter right now, so we might as well try it."
Meiko nodded slowly, seemingly trying her best to process this information without making it too obvious that this was what she was doing. "I see..." she murmured under her breath. She let out a sigh before she pushed her shoulders back to look at the rest of the group. "Well, I'm going to do what I can to help you out. I don't know if my Digivice is going to fully work the way that it used to quite yet, but... I'll still do what I can to make sure that we're able to defeat Dagomon and get back home. I'm looking forward to getting out of here, and I'm not going to let myself ride on everybody else's success forever. I have to do something to help us out of this situation, and this feels like the perfect time for me to start pitching in a bit more."
"I don't think that you're giving yourself enough credit," Takeru confessed to Meiko. "Even if you have been leaning on us up to this point, that's what the rest of us are for. We've always helped the newer members of our team to get used to the fights that we're participating in, and you're no different. I'm sure that you'll hit your stride soon enough, and the fact that you and Meicoomon have been able to reach the Perfect level already is a sign of success."
"Exactly," Patamon agreed with a bright grin. "It takes a while to get used to it, but it's going to be alright soon enough. Don't worry about that. I'm sure that you'll be able to help us out in this next fight. Dagomon isn't going to be going down easily, but if we all put in a bit of effort, he's bound to be defeated one way or another."
Meiko smiled in his direction, now overwhelmingly relieved and relaxed compared to how she had been a few moments prior when the group was examining her Digivice for its signs of damage. She let out a small sigh as she glanced up to focus on the path ahead once again. Meicoomon seemed to relax a bit at her side as well, glad for the fact that her partner was finally finding the ability to decompress after all that they had been through.
If Iori was being honest, it was truly incredible to see Meiko having changed to such a degree. Meiko was almost like a different person compared to how she had been just earlier in their trip to the Dark Ocean. She wasn't as detached as she once had been, and while there was still a certain hesitation to her actions when it came to reaching out to those around her for help, she was improving, and that was what mattered most. Any step in the right direction was an important one, and Meiko was on the path to success.
For a while, the group simply walked in the silence, and Iori allowed himself to relax somewhat. He truly did feel better since Meiko had joined up with them once again, and it meant that they were one step closer to meeting up with the rest of the group. In other words, they were going to be back with the full team in no time, and from there, they would defeat Dagomon and go back home. Everything seemed to be falling into place at long last.
"Does... Does it ever get easier?"
The question from Meiko broke through the quiet immediately, and Iori felt his eyes going wide. He turned to look at her over his shoulder, halfway confused at what she meant and partially understanding all too well what she was trying to get across.
"What do you mean?" Patamon asked, tilting his head to the side in a desperate need for something to solidify the truth of the answer. It was clear judging by the way that his sapphire eyes had shifted though that he already understood exactly what was on Meiko's mind in that instant.
"I don't know... All of this. I mean, I've been here for a while now, and I don't think that anything is really getting easier quite yet," Meiko replied with a loose shrug. "I was wondering... Does this ever get simpler to deal with? I know that probably isn't an easy question to answer, but..."
Takeru hesitated for a long moment before he shrugged. "I guess that it just depends on how you choose to look at it. I know that there are some parts that truly don't ever seem to get simpler, but... You get a better support system, and that makes it easier to handle everything that you've been going through," he replied. Iori could have sworn that he saw Takeru's gaze drifting over in his direction, and it filled him with something akin to silent bitterness. Takeru was clearly referring to him specifically on that subject, but it certainly didn't feel that way given how Iori still felt as if there was a barrier between them that prevented Iori from understanding Takeru fully the way that he once had been able to.
Iori found himself struggling to come up with an answer to that question, and no matter how hard he tried to force himself to speak, he simply couldn't figure out what to say. He eventually pressed his lips together, and the words came a moment later, flowing so easily for something that was so heavy. "I still think about things that happened a long time ago," he confessed. "The grief is there forever whether you want it or not, and... It's not easy to get away from it."
Meiko tilted her head slightly to the side, no doubt trying to get as many answers as possible from the vague wording. Iori looked away from her, unable to force himself to meet her gaze as he continued. "It was three years ago when... Yukio Oikawa died. He was a close friend of my father, and he wound up being driven over the edge by an evil Digimon. He was a good person at heart, but his grief was taken advantage of, and he wound up passing away before he could see the Digital World the way that he dreamed. He got one glimpse at it before..." Iori trailed off before he shook his head. "He passed away in my arms, and I remember how it felt to this day. I can't forget about something quite so easily. I don't think that anybody would be able to stop thinking about something like that no matter how much they tried."
Meiko stared at him for a long moment, eyes overcome with horror and grief even though she had never been able to meet the man who had left behind such a profound impact on Iori's heart. "I... I'm so sorry..." she murmured under her breath. She swallowed dryly before shaking her head. "I had no idea that... I don't know what to say."
Iori glanced back up at her, unable to force a smile to his face. He knew that it would have only been false anyways, so what was the point of trying to make himself lie? "It's been hard to face all this time," he confessed. "It's not as if you ever truly move on in full. It gets easier to handle with the passage of time, but there's still a piece of you that always remembers. The past is what fuels the future as we know it. We wouldn't be here now if not for everything that has happened to us up to this point. I wouldn't be the same person if I never met him. I wouldn't be the same person I am now if I wasn't around the rest of the Chosen Children. It's... It's complicated, I suppose."
Takeru nodded his agreement. "There's a part of the past that stays with us no matter how much we might want to run. You can't get away from everything that's been making you up to this point," he agreed. "We are not only our experiences, but at the same time, they do inform how we are today. We wouldn't be the same if not for everything that we've been through, and that's alright. It's not as if it ever truly stops being a concern... It gets easier, but there will always be reasons to struggle. All that matters is that you're able to find a way to press on and lean on those who you know you can count on along the way."
"Thank you," Meiko murmured softly. She was still watching Iori with concern in her eyes, unable to force herself to stop after hearing about Oikawa. She swallowed dryly before she forced herself to look straight ahead, and Iori could tell that there was still something else on her mind. He didn't want to probe the subject, but he did hope that Meiko decided to talk about it sooner or later.
Luckily for Iori, his wishes were ultimately answered by none other than Meicoomon a moment later. "You might not be able to fully forget, but that doesn't mean that you can't find a way to survive and push forward regardless," Meicoomon pointed out. "These situations are difficult to cope with, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't have any hope. Each day brings it with the promise of something new, and if we focus too much on the past, then we won't be able to find our way to the future. We need to look back on our history, but we can't live in it. Visits are alright, but anything more can push a person over the edge."
Iori nodded his agreement to Meicoomon's words. The orange cat Digimon was much wiser than one would have expected with a simple glance in her direction, not that Iori was complaining. It was nice to see, if he was being honest. He was glad that Meiko had someone so kind and honest to rely on when it came to her darkest of issues. He would have wanted to have someone like that by his side if he was facing something unfortunate and sudden the way that Meiko was.
Takeru looked down at the ground below with a light smile, clearly trying to find a way to lighten up the situation while still remaining on topic. Eventually, he glanced up in Meiko's direction once again. "For all of us, it helped most when we started to rely on one another in full," he replied. "Trying to isolate yourself won't do anything to help you. If you try to hide your feelings, then they won't be able to fully release themselves, and that will only hurt you in the long run. Let yourself count on others. We're here to help one another, after all."
Iori resisted the bitter taste on the back of his tongue that made him want to press a mirror into Takeru's hands before he offered any advice of that nature to others. After all, who else needed to hear it more than Takeru himself? Iori didn't think that he would be able to do that even if he wanted to given the circumstances, but he still found the wish boiling up from deep inside of him.
"I'll do what I can to try and count on the rest of the group from now on," Meiko assured him. "I've been a bit worried about it up to this point, but... I guess that I didn't have much of a reason to be so afraid. I see that now. It took me a while to understand it, but... I'm glad that I'm starting to fully process it."
"Why is it that you wanted to hide so much to begin with?" Armadimon questioned of Meiko, his voice the same lazy drawl as ever despite the fact that the question was cutting to the heart of the issue without any hesitation.
Meiko was quiet for a long moment, clearly trying to figure out how to best word her response, before she let out a sigh. "Before I came to Odaiba, the only one who I could really count on was Meicoomon. I was bullied a lot in Tottori, and it was hard for me to make friends as a result. I never wanted to worry anybody, so... I just started to hide everything that bothered me when I could. Meicoomon was there for me no matter what though," she explained. "I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have Meicoomon with me. She's done so much to help me up to this point, and... It's odd to think that there are other people who I can rely on aside from her now."
"Even if you were lonely in the past, that isn't anything you need to worry yourself with anymore," Takeru pointed out. "Our group is like a family in a way. We all look after one another no matter what happens, and we don't let anything bad happen to one another. It's the least that we can do. It's part of our dynamic, and it's not as if any of us have ever abandoned each other. We look after each other because that's what we do best. You're one of us now, and that means that we aren't going to let you push us away anymore."
Iori nodded his agreement even though he didn't have much of anything to add onto that. Meiko smiled in response and bowed her head in the direction of the blonde. "Thank you so much for all of us... I don't think that I can thank all of you enough, whether it be for your kind words here today or for doing all that you can to help me through these hard times," she smiled. "I'm still new to all of this, and... I'm not handling it anywhere near as well as the rest of you."
"To be fair, when the rest of us started out, we weren't dealing with massive invasions on Earth," Takeru pointed out. "Our adventures were restricted to the Digital World for quite some time at first, and it took a while before we wound up coming back to Earth to fight off Digimon here. That meant that we didn't have to see the destruction that they were capable of at first."
"We already had some experience before all of that happened," Iori further clarified. "Even so, it's been rare to see an invasion on the scale of what the Emissaries of Chaos have been orchestrating. This is the first time that Digimon attacks have been taking place on Earth on a consistent timeline rather than only being once in a while. There was a sudden influx six years ago and then another set of attacks three years ago, but that's all there is to it. There was never anything that happened so consistently for such a long period of time."
"I see... The exception is the problem here," Meiko murmured with a light nod. "I'm glad that I'm not dealing with this alone at the very least. I know that I would have been terrified out of my mind if I was the only one able to look after Tottori. Well, I suppose that isn't true in hindsight given that Chisane and Kaya lived there... They didn't have their Digimon with them all those years, but I did know them at least vaguely. They would have been able to help handle anything that happened there better than I ever could."
Takeru nodded his agreement. "Having others to count on is important," he told her. "When the first adventure happened six years ago, my team was a group of seven, and that gave us the chance to get to know each other and count on one another. Doing it alone would have been... It wouldn't have been a good thing." He didn't elaborate anything beyond that, and his phrasing had suddenly become so inelegant that it was bothersome to Iori. It wasn't as if Iori was trying to analyze Takeru excessively in that specific moment, but he could assume rather easily that Takeru was referring to something specific from the original adventure in the Digital World.
Iori was able to somewhat figure it out after a few seconds of contemplation, and he frowned when he remembered what had happened during the first adventure when Yamato went off on his own. He eventually returned to the party and resumed their previous routine despite the shifts in his personality, but it was still something that undoubtedly bothered his younger brother. Iori couldn't exactly tell where all of this fit in with the other pieces of the peculiar puzzle that made up Takeru's mind, but he decided that he wasn't going to be thinking about it for the time being regardless. He had other things to concentrate on, such as getting back to the rest of the group.
Meicoomon's voice cut through his thoughts a moment later, and the cat Digimon let out a cough that wasn't subtle in the slightest as she nudged gently at Meiko's side. "I told you that it's alright to let the others help you out," she murmured to her partner. "You've been trying to hide everything for the past few months, but that isn't a good way to live. It's alright to let the others help you."
Meiko nodded. "I know that now. It took me a while to actually accept it, but you don't have to worry about that anymore," she assured her partner. She smiled as she looked ahead, and she seemed so much more confident than she ever had been up to that point that it was almost jarring. In a few ways, Iori had to wonder if he was even looking at the same Meiko that he had known for so long. Everything about her was so different, but that wasn't a bad thing in the slightest. If anything, it was a relief to know that she was finally starting to properly look after herself after all this time.
Still, that didn't mean that the hypocrisy of the situation was lost on Iori. In fact, he was all too aware of it; he knew that there was something wrong, and he didn't know how to handle it. He was still hiding things, and Takeru had the problem even worse than he did. In other words, the problem that they had managed to start fixing on Meiko's end was still just as dangerous and critical as ever for Iori and Takeru. Their experience with Digimon attacks could only do so much when it felt like everything was much worse than it had any right to be all of a sudden.
The trio had been walking in silence for quite some time when Takeru glanced up to the sky. The horizon didn't look any different from how it had been as of the past few hours, but Iori could still understand the sentiment that Takeru was trying to get across. "We should stop for the night soon," Takeru declared as he turned to the rest of the group. "We've been walking for a while, and I don't want us to push ourselves too hard. We haven't been attacked yet, but we still have to be ready."
Iori nodded his agreement. He knew that they were probably going to be at an inherent disadvantage compared to the other groups of Chosen Children spread throughout the Dark Ocean. Armadimon was the only Digimon among the group who was capable of reaching the Ultimate level, and even if HolyAngemon was the strongest Perfect Digimon that the group had at their disposal, it was still an extra risk that Iori didn't feel comfortable taking. It would be for the best if they got as much rest as possible so that they were at least somewhat prepared when it came to fending off the Deep Ones that were bound to find them at some point.
Iori glanced down to his Digivice as Takeru surveyed the area for a place that was somewhat out of the reach of the immediate shoreline. He could see that the members of the group were starting to get closer together, but there was still quite the sizable distance between a few of the clusters. It was going to be a while before the group was back together, so it wasn't going to be a good idea for them to count on being able to meet up with the others before they were attacked by the Deep Ones.
"There we go," Takeru declared, piercing through Iori's thoughts effortlessly. The blonde was pointing in the direction of the cliffside where there was an indent in the rock that hid a small cave from the majority of the ocean. It wasn't as large as Iori would have liked, especially given that there were six of them as opposed to the other groups only having four living entities within them. Still, he knew that this wasn't the time to be picky when they were already in enough danger as it was. It would be best for them to get out of the line of fire any way that they could as soon as possible.
As such, Iori didn't object as Takeru led the group into the cave. It was much larger on the inside than Iori had expected given the appearance of the entrance. The sliver in the side of the cliff made it seem as if the inside of the cave was bound to be small, and yet, it was only the entrance that seemed to be struggling in terms of size. Iori allowed himself to exhale with relief as he sat down on the ground. Even if he had taken a rest recently alongside Takeru, neither one of them had slept while they were waiting to feel better, both of them too on edge to bother with it.
Once he was sitting down though, Iori realized that he wasn't going to be able to outrun his exhaustion for much longer. He was going to fall asleep one way or another whether he wanted to or not, and it would be for the best if he simply didn't fight it. And yet, he still found himself glancing up to Takeru with a light frown on his face. "Which one of us should take watch to make sure we aren't attacked?" Iori questioned.
"I'll do it," Takeru assured him with a light smile. "We can trade off after an hour or two each. We can get a little bit of rest so that we're ready to keep going without any worries. For now, you can all crash for a short while. How does that sound?"
Meiko was all too happy to thank Takeru for the offer as she laid down on the cave floor, seemingly too exhausted to protest his kindness. She was already starting to put her reliance on others into motion, allowing her eyes to slip shut. She was asleep less than two minutes later with Meicoomon watching her drift off before she curled up against the side of her partner, off to slumber before anyone could fully process it.
Takeru gave Iori a small nod of comfort so that his companion would know that it was alright to go to sleep. "Thank you," Iori murmured even though he still wasn't entirely sure as to if this was a good idea or not. He didn't like the idea of Takeru being alone with his thoughts. He knew that Takeru would be more than able to handle himself, but he was still somewhat worried when it came to the emotional struggle that Takeru was holding back.
Still, if that was an issue, Takeru didn't allow himself to show it openly as he smiled in the direction of his Jogress partner. "You're welcome," he said kindly. Iori allowed himself to close his eyes a moment later, already hearing the snores of Armadimon after his partner drifted off immediately after hitting the cave floor.
Even after he closed his eyes though, Iori wasn't able to put himself to sleep immediately. He found himself thinking about Takeru even after he attempted to start drifting off. Was it just him, or had Takeru looked exhausted when they met eyes? Iori didn't think that Takeru was likely to ever admit such a thing, but he made a mental note of it regardless. He was worried, but he didn't think that he was going to be able to get through to Takeru unless he was able to confront the blonde upfront in a situation that he wouldn't be able to escape. Takeru was an expert when it came to deflection, doing anything and everything to make sure that he didn't have to talk about his emotions. Iori had known this fact for ages, and yet, he had been hoping to never have to face it head on once again.
If there was one thing that Iori was sure of, then it was most certainly the fact that he and Takeru weren't going to be able to spur on a Jogress evolution as things currently stood. Iori was glad that this didn't seem to be as much of a concern given the fact that the idea of Jogress wasn't as necessary anymore since Iori had a Crest that allowed Shakkoumon to appear even without Jogress. Even so, the emotional blockade was bothersome, and Iori was suddenly all too aware of the fact that he couldn't feel Takeru's pulse alongside his own.
When Iori finally fell asleep, there was a chill that seeped all the way down to his core, and it had nothing to do with the shadowy presence of the Dark Ocean.
Mimi didn't think that she had felt this on top of the world in a long time.
In a way, it was funny. Mimi and Sora didn't even have answers regarding everything that was continuing to plague them, but they had figured out enough, and that was all that seemed to matter to them. They were going to find an answer one way or another, and nothing was going to get in their way regardless of how uncertain they once had been. They hadn't said all that much about their Jogress since they had started moving once again, but as far as Mimi was concerned, they didn't expressly have to discuss it either. They were able to fully understand one another without needing to speak. Such was the beauty of Jogress, it seemed, and Mimi was glad that she had finally been given the chance to experience something so perfect. She understood what all of the hype was about as soon as she was given the opportunity to embrace it for herself, and she didn't think that she was ever going to be able to backtrack on it no matter how hard she may try in the future.
Mimi looked down at her Digivice after having spent quite some time staring off at the ocean. She felt more safe than ever even with their partners still recovering from their recent evolution. The light of Jogress had been able to fend off the haunted aura of the Dark Ocean for a short while, and that was more than enough for Mimi for the time being. However, that didn't change the fact that she had a job to focus on, and that included looking at the radar to make sure that she was going in the right direction.
Mimi let out a gasp upon realizing that her radar had adjusted itself since the last time that she looked at it. She was getting closer to another group of the team, and that meant that it was just a matter of time before she, Sora, and their partners met up with a second pair. They were going to be able to bring the full team together soon enough, and that was so relieving that Mimi almost thought that she was going to be knocked over by the sheer force of her revelation.
Sora turned her head over her shoulder to see what was wrong with Mimi, and that was when she saw that the other girl was beaming down at her Digivice. She reached for her own Digivice with a light frown before a smile burst out on her features at the sight of the signals that were getting steadily closer to her and Mimi. "It seems like we'll be back together with Koushiro and Jou soon," she smiled.
"Exactly!" Mimi cried out, unable to stop her grin once it fully manifested on her features. "That means that there will be at least a few more of us together so that we can get closer to heading back home!"
"After we beat Dagomon, you mean," Palmon corrected her. After all, even if the group came together in full, they were going to have to defeat the one who had separated them to begin with. It wasn't until after Dagomon was taken out of the picture that they were going to be able to safely return to Earth.
Mimi knew this fact, and she nodded in Palmon's direction. Despite what one would have expected, Mimi's smile only seemed to get wider when she heard those words. "I hope that we'll be able to see Ceresmon in action again. I can't stop thinking about how incredible you two looked," she declared. It seemed like each time she closed her eyes, Mimi's mind would play back the events of the past battle to her once again. Everything had simply been so perfect between the Jogress evolution, the sensation of Sora's pulse in her ears, and the amazing way that Ceresmon showed off her skills of the first time.
"I'm sure that we'll be able to see Ceresmon again in the future," Sora smiled. She seemed to be feeling much better since the Jogress evolution as well, and the regular tension in her shoulders had started to dissipate. There was still a veil of uncertainty that seemed to hang over their heads, but it was alright. They were going to find a way to push through this somehow, and then, they were going to be alright. There wasn't a challenge that the Dark Ocean could throw at them at this point that would even be able to come close to defeating them as far as Mimi was concerned, and she fully intended to make sure that this statement remained undisputed to the bitter end.
"I hope so," Mimi said to herself as she looked down at her Digivice once again. No matter how long she stared at the radar, she didn't seem to be able to fully process the fact that she was close to being able to see Koushiro and Jou once again. It hadn't been that long in the grand scheme of things since the group was together in full, but at the same time, it felt as if it had been a decade and then some. Mimi was looking forward to being able to see that everyone was alright, and she was excited about being able to share Ceresmon's story with them as well. It was bound to be a victory for her all around.
Sora reached for her D-Terminal a moment later after she shoved her Digivice back into her pocket, and she opened the small computer before she examined the chat log. She let out a delighted gasp a moment later. "Meiko has been found!" she exclaimed. "She's with Takeru and Iori right now, so she's alright."
Somehow, that took even more weight off Mimi's chest, relieving her of a sensation that she hadn't been aware of in full until that moment. The tension had disappeared after the Jogress evolution due to Mimi being distracted by a few matters that felt more important, but this time, she knew that it was gone for good. In other words, everything was going to be fine, and this was all the evidence that she needed.
"Good," was all that Mimi could bring herself to say in response as she smiled to herself. She was thinking a thousand other things at the moment, but she didn't need to voice any of them. After all, Sora understood perfectly that they were going to be alright. Their Jogress evolution had been the sign that they needed to make sure of that much, and it was only going to be uphill from there. Everything would unfold well, and the group would be back to Odaiba in no time.
Mimi didn't like how hopeless she had been feeling as of late, but that seemed to have been forgotten since she and Sora discovered the beauty of Jogress. Nothing was going to be able to tear her down from the mountain that she had come to stand on. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, Mimi knew that they were going to be alright, and this was just the beginning.
And there's another chapter done! Hell yeah!
As you can probably tell, we're drawing closer to the end of this arc. We have four chapters left since this act ends at the conclusion of chapter fifty, and trust me when I say that it only gets more exciting from here. The second of this act has been slower in terms of pace so that the character moments can really have a chance to thrive, but the action is going to be badass from here on out, trust me.
Speaking of character development, I loved writing the scene with Meiko, Takeru, and Iori in this chapter. Meiko doesn't get much time to talk with those two in the rest of the story, and since all of them are so outwardly different, it's a nice and refreshing change of pace. Meiko's been primarily close with Mimi, Sora, and Miyako up to this point and hasn't reached out to others due to her shyness, but her circle is getting larger, and she's going to be starting to come out of her shell more from here on out. It's what she deserves.
With that said, I'll be leaving off here for the time being. When we next come together, we're going to continue with this act and get closer to the final battle that will round off this segment of the book. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital