Hey everyone! This is really the final chapter for this story. I'm running out of stories for this one, so I decided to end it. But don't worry, more new interesting Sorato stories are coming very soon! I hope you enjoy the ending of this story! Thanks for reading!

Chapter 6: Returning Home
"I said get away from her!"
"Yamato, what are you doing?" I asked him alarmed.
Suddenly the weight over me was gone. I looked around and saw Gennai knocked down beside me. I tried to stand up but my cut was hurting a lot, so I winced in pain and immediately placed my hand over it.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he knelt down near me. "Did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine." I said, though I was pretty sure my face told him otherwise. I definitely didn't want to mention the lick on my cheek, it still made me sick.
"What's that?" Yamato motioned with his head to where my hand was.
"It's nothing. I just got hurt when I fell down from the distortion."
"We should check it out." Jou knelt down beside Yamato. "Let me see."
"Jou, really, it's fine. We should be focusing on what's really important here, which is to go back home."
"This is what is important here right now." He replied firmly. "Come on, let me see."
Sighing and feeling hopeless, I lifted my white shirt as careful as I could in order not to show the outline of my breast, but enough for him to look at the cut.
"It looks ugly." Jou stated and then went through his bag. "It's a good thing I brought first-aid items this time."
I made a face when he pressed a piece of cotton with some antiseptic product sprayed on it over the cut.
"I know this may hurt, but it's necessary for it to heal properly."
"It's okay, it's a temporary pain. I've dealt with worse things. You can keep going." I looked over to the cut. It seemed much better after Jou started taking care of it.
"There you go." He said after he finished putting on some bandage over it. "This will help it heal faster."
"Thank you, Jou." I said with a smile and was really happy to see I could stand up without feeling much pain anymore.
"You're welcome."
"I'm glad you're alright and nothing serious happened to you, Sora!" Mimi said cheerfully. I could tell she wanted to hug me, but I was unsure because of the cut. Instead, she just smiled at me.
"Thanks, Mimi. Hopefully it'll heal soon enough." I smiled back at her and then turned my attention to Taichi. "We should go now."
"Yeah." He nodded in my direction and looked to the horizon. "We probably should go home now."
"Taichi." Hikari spoke. "But without finding a way to reactivate our partner's memories?"
"I really can't think of a way to do that." He turned to look at his sister, who was standing next to Koushiro. "Can you?"
"I can try to figure something out." The boy said. "I can't promise anything though."
"No one is going to hold anything against you if you can't, Koushiro." Mimi assured him and giggled when he blushed heavily. "You look cute when you're embarrassed."
"Alright, are you ready?" Taichi looked to each one of us and received seven positive nods in response. "Let's go then."
I purposely let everyone walk before me because I didn't want to stand in their way. Even if my cut wasn't on my leg or foot, I still felt a little pain while walking. I was startled to see my hand being grabbed and looked down to see Piyomon's claws intertwined between my fingers. My eyes got teary and I couldn't help but smile. Was this really happening?
"Are you okay?" She asked without looking at me.
"Now I am better than ever." I could barely contain the exciting in my voice. "I've been waiting so long for this."
"For what?"
"It doesn't matter. What matters is that you're here and worried about me."
"I don't remember you, but that doesn't mean I don't get concerned about you."
"I believe you will soon." My voice was really confident. "One step at a time."
"How are we supposed to go back anyway? And we can't return and leave Meicoomon here. Meiko is counting on us."
"We don't know where she is." Taichi stated.
"Still, we should keep looking for her." Mimi insisted. "We can't let Mei-Mei down. She's our friend."
"For now we should return to our world and come up with a plan." Koushiro said.
"You too?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest and pouted. "I refuse to go back without Meicoomon."
"Mimi." He put his hand over her shoulder. "We won't be living her behind, we will come back to rescue her soon."
"Don't touch me!" Mimi looked at him with narrowed eyes and he immediately removed his hand. "Would you be okay with it if that was Tentomon instead? I don't think so, and I doubt any of here you would. So why are we doing this to her?"
"I'm afraid Mimi has a point." Hikari's voice was somewhat sad.
"Why don't we stop for a while and rest?" I suggested after looking at everyone. "I think we're all tired and need to rest for a while."

The sun was almost setting in the horizon. All of us were spread around the place, each one wanting to have some time on their own. I was sitting by a tree, with my back leaned against it. I was observing Koushiro, sitting on my left, not being able to keep his eyes off Mimi, who was near a small river. She had her knees pressed against her chest and her arms embracing them. I could easily tell he was debating with himself whether he should go talk to her or not. Smiling, I stood up and walked towards him.
"Hey." I sat down beside him. "So first fight, huh?"
"Yeah." Koushiro nodded sadly. "And I have no idea how to deal with this situation."
"Just follow your heart. It's telling you to go talk to her, isn't it?"
"But… what if she doesn't want me to?"
I let out a smile and then turned to see Mimi. "Trust me, she wants you to. I know Mimi is overly dramatic sometimes, but I can surely tell how much she likes you. And also, she's just worried about Meiko and Meicoomon. That's just how she is. But I'm sure you know that, don't you?"
"I do." He looked at me. "Thanks, Sora, you helped me a lot. I'll go talk to her."
"Good luck."

Koushiro sat down beside Mimi and stared at the water in front of him. He opened his mouth a couple of times to speak, but wasn't sure of what to say. Instead, he was taken by surprise when he felt her hand over his.
"I'm sorry." Both of them said at the same time and stared at each other before bursting into laughter.
"I didn't mean to make you upset or anything, I hope you know that."
"I do. I'm sorry if I sounded insensitive towards you. It's just… Mei-Mei is very important to me."
"I know." Koushiro intertwined his fingers with hers and looked up at her eyes again. "I know you like her a lot."
"I do. But she's not the only one that I like."
"I'll tell you what, I'll do everything I can to bring Meicoomon back with us next time."
"Really?" Mimi's face beamed with happiness as she turned to him. "You promise?"
"I promise."
"You're so great!" She threw herself towards Koushiro, causing him to lose his balance. He fell to the ground with her above him.
"I think we've been in this position before." He joked with a warm smile.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry!" Mimi said with embarrassment. "So much for making a fool out of myself in front of the guy I love." She tried to pull away from him, but was stopped by his hand on her wrist.
"What did you say?" Koushiro asked her and then brushed a lock of her brown hair behind her ear. He noticed her eyes widened a little when she realized what she had said and also by his gesture.
"Nothing. Oh my God, I scared you, didn't I?" Mimi was getting desperate with her small slip. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…"
"It's okay." Koushiro cut her off by putting his index finger over her mouth and slid his other hand to the back of her neck. "I love you too."
Mimi pulled away from him a little and then grabbed his black tie, making him sit down again. She put her hand on his left cheek and leaned over, closing her eyes in the process. She kissed him shyly and quickly pulled away just enough space to see how he would react. She looked into his black eyes and much to her surprise – or not so much – Koushiro soon leaned towards her and captured her lips with such greed that her body tilted back for a moment.

I was watching the whole thing from afar, with a smile on my face. I couldn't help but find Koushiro and Mimi so cute and remember when I and Yamato were in that phase too. Don't get me wrong, I love the phase after that too. But the honeymoon phase was amazing. I returned to my senses when I felt my shirt being lifted.
"Piyomon?"
"I wanted to see if your cut was better."
"Oh." I let out a small smile and then lifted my shirt for her to see. "It is. It doesn't hurt anymore, which is great."
"I'm glad, I was worried about you."
"You were?" I asked her surprised.
"I was. I can't ignore people who are hurt. And you don't seem so bad anymore, so…"
Tears began to blurry my vision but I just didn't care about this. I was happy that all that I was wishing for the past few days was happening. I was finally making progress with Piyomon. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into the tightest hug I've ever given in my life. "You have no idea how much I hoped to hear this! I was afraid you would never let reach for your heart."
"Ugh, are you always this cheesy, Sora?" She complained and tried to get free from my grasp. "This is embarrassing."
"What are you talking about? You love this."
"No, I don't." Piyomon kept trying to get released and looked up over my shoulder. "Please tell her to let me go."
"Sorry, Piyomon. It's interesting to see your roles being reversed."
"Of course you'd say that, you like her."
"I don't like her."
"Huh?" I looked up at Yamato with a confused face.
"Actually, it goes beyond that." He looked down at his feet and smiled.
"You two are boring." Piyomon said and then ran to join the other Digimon.
Yamato sat down behind me and began to massage my shoulders. I instantly closed my eyes. "Are you okay?"
"I am. The cut is much better now, and it doesn't hurt anymore either."
"That's good, but…"
"What?" I leaned to my right, so I could look at him. I could tell he was struggling with something he wanted to say. "Hey, you can say it."
"He didn't hurt you, did he?"
I returned to my previous position and felt his hands sliding to my forearms. "Other than almost making it impossible for me to breathe, he didn't." I couldn't help but touch my right cheek and feel nauseous again. I don't want to remember that moment ever again.
"I realized I didn't thank you for saving me from him. He would probably have knocked me down if you didn't throw that rock towards him. Still, I think you risked yourself a lot."
"I couldn't watch him attack you and not do anything about it."
"I know. I can't say I'm surprised." I smiled and sat down straight, so I could look at him. "By the way, how did you manage to get Piyomon out of that tree?"
"It wasn't me, to be honest." Yamato looked at me. "I tried, but she wouldn't go down. Taichi bribed her saying he would give her food and she believed it. I think they forgot about it with everything that's happened today."
"Probably, yeah. I'm happy you two got to achieve what I couldn't."
"But you're making progress with her now, which is great." He stroked my cheek with the back of his fingers and hand and I stared at his baby blue eyes.
"It was about time, if you ask me."
"It's the quality of the progress that matters more."
"You're right." I moved closer to him and hugged him. "Thank you for trying to bring Piyomon back to me. And also for making me realize how strong our feelings for each other are."
"They always have been." His hand made all its way up to the back of my neck, ready to pull my head towards him.
I didn't even wait for him to pull me in his direction. I leaned over him myself and captured his lips in a shy kiss at first. I pulled away shortly after very slightly, but far enough for us to open our eyes.
"What happened to you wanting to take things slow?"
"Well, I think we can make an exception today, don't you think?" I whispered, staring at his eyes that I loved so much.
"I completely agree with you. In fact, I think we can make an exception everyday. I definitely wouldn't complain about it."
"Don't push your luck." I said playfully as I grabbed his shirt collar.
"I can't help it." He briefly pressed his lips against mine.
"I love you." I wrapped my arms around him and laid my head on his chest.
Yamato wrapped his arm around my waist and lifted my chin with his free hand, kissing me on the lips passionately. "I love you too."

The sound of traffic echoed in my ears, making me confused. There wasn't any traffic in the Digital World. I slowly opened my eyes and sat down. After my view wasn't blurry anymore, I looked around and saw all of these familiar buildings and places. I was back in Odaiba. Around me, the rest of the Chosen Children were much in the same position.
"What happened?" I asked and felt a pain in my head. I instantly shut my eyes, to make it go away.
"We're back in Japan." Koushiro's voice echoed somewhere far from me. "Somehow, the gate opened and sent us back."
"But how?" Mimi asked near me.
"It was like the Digital World hated us."
"What do you mean, Hikari?" Taichi asked as he offered her a hand.
"I don't know, but I felt like it didn't want us there."
"It's possible." Koushiro stated while he turned on his laptop.
"How is that even possible? It has never happened before."
"But the Digital World is in constant evolution. A lot can change in three years."
"What about our partners?" I looked around myself, but they seemed to be nowhere near. "I don't see any of them."
This situation was like deja-vu to me. We had returned to Japan after running through the gate in Vamdemon's castle. Our partners came with us, but they went hunting for food right away, before we even start to wake up. Part of me wanted this to happen again, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"Taichi!" Agumon called his partner and we all looked towards him.
"Agumon, where were you?"
"We were all hungry, so we went to find something to eat."
"You mean, you were hungry and dragged all of them with you." Taichi teased.
Or maybe it did.
The Digimon started laughing and walked to him, and the other ones followed along.
"You shouldn't really go away like this. Someone could have found you and then we would be in trouble." Jou bent down to pick Gomamon up. "Besides, you could have got lost."
"The old Jou is back." Yamato said laughing. "It's true when they say some things don't change at all."
"I was just being cautious." Jou defended himself, but he was also smiling with the situation. "I'm the oldest after all, so I have to look after you all."
"We're not children anymore. You do realize that, right?" Mimi joined the conversation, with her hands on her hips.
"Well, I tried."
We all burst into laughter for some moments. Taichi looked up at the sky and we all followed his gesture. The sun was shining bright and the temperature was cool; the typical summer day. Judging from the position of the sun, it was around 2 and 3p.m. I knew we'd have to return to the Digital World eventually. There still were things we needed to fix there and rescue Meicoomon as well. I couldn't help but feel bad for Meiko. I couldn't even imagine how she would react when we'd tell her we left Meicoomon behind. Finding her would be much harder now, but I was confident we'd find a way. We've been through many more difficult situations and always managed to achieve our goal. I was positive this time would be no different. We all looked at each other and nodded positively before starting walking away to our houses. I wondered if many days have gone by since we left or if the time in the Digital World was different again. I quickly shook my head to get rid of this thought. It didn't really matter in the end.