The spring sun sat high in the sky, watching down on the citizens of Odaiba with a fond smile in preparation of the day to come. Fresh yet delicate breezes blew in between large metallic buildings, and people buzzed about on the streets as they went about their daily routines. The air held a sense of freedom that everyone seemed to understand but nobody spoke of. It was a whisper in every sense of the word, bringing cheerful grins to the faces of those with the skills to understood it.
For Taichi Yagami, it meant the final day of spring break before the new term began at his school. He stood out on the balcony of his apartment, his brown hair an unbrushed mess atop his head. Taichi took in a slow breath, embracing the last traces of winter chill before they were swallowed away by the soft breeze around him. He opened his eyes a moment later, still leaning against the railing of the balcony as he looked down on the city below.
Spring had come and gone in the blink of an eye as far as Taichi was concerned. One day, he had been enjoying the start of his freedom from the pressures of an academic routine, and the next, it felt like everything had slipped away through his fingers like the finest grains of sand to ever grace the surface of the earth. Days spent at soccer practice had bled away before he knew it, and he would be back to the regular grind again before he knew it. He yearned to embrace the final day of his freedom from schedules and pressure, but he knew that he couldn't simply stand around and enjoy his time on the balcony for the whole day.
The balcony door slid open, and Taichi turned at the sound to see his sister joining him outside of the Yagami family's apartment. Hikari's hair was neatly combed as usual, pinned away from her face by a pair of pink barrettes that made her brownish red eyes seem to glow in the sun's radiance. As usual, she was far more put together than Taichi could ever hope to be, and anyone would have been able to see the difference between the two siblings at simply a first glance.
"You should get going if you don't want to be late for your last soccer practice of the break," Hikari told him as she flashed a smile in her brother's direction. The wind began to play with her short chestnut hair, and Hikari let out a small sigh to herself. "At least the weather is nice."
Taichi pulled himself to his full height before he stretched his arms above his head and releasing a heavy breath of his own. "You can say that again," he told her with a snort. A few days prior, the sky hadn't offered quite as many spring blessings, and the day had been filled with dreary rain. Taichi had complained about the mud of the soccer field as soon as he got home, and Hikari, being his sister, simply had to tease him about it. Taichi and Hikari's dynamic simply came with the territory, and Taichi wouldn't have had it any other way.
He made his way towards the balcony door, and he slid it open before stepping into the house. Taichi shot a quick glance in the direction of the clock mounted against the wall, and he winced when he realized how much he had allowed the time to get away from him. Normally, he was on top of things like this, but it appeared that the last valuable pieces of spring had stolen his attention before he realized what was happening.
"See you later!" Hikari called as Taichi dashed towards the door and slipped into his shoes. Taichi threw out a hand to seize the straps on his soccer bag before he slung it over his shoulders, and the contents of the bag began to jostle with the swift motion. Hikari let out a laugh when Taichi gave her a brief wave before running out of their apartment, always one to recognize her brother's charms. He was most certainly having an off day, and she could tell.
Taichi's dash towards the stairwell included scanning a hand haphazardly through his hair to try and find order among the chaos of tangles. He cringed when he caught on a particularly nasty knot, cursing the fact that the elevator had been out for the past two days due to maintenance. It certainly would have given him a chance to work out his hair without needing to multitask as he dashed in the direction of his school. Taichi was inwardly thankful for the fact that he had remembered to eat breakfast before he was caught up in melancholy reminiscence and the reminder of responsibility that lingered over his shoulders at all times.
The mad dash down the stairs accomplished one thing for all of the irritations that it caused him. At the very least, it helped Taichi to warm up in advance before he could get anywhere near the soccer field. That had to count for something despite how frustrating it was to put up with as he combed through his hair. He finally came to a halt on the ground level of the building, and he was almost positive that the contents of his bag would be an absolute mess by the time that he investigated them again.
Taichi found himself breaking free of his apartment building's confines soon afterwards, and he was interrupted by the sudden looming figure of a nearby shadow that was far taller than any car had a right to be. Taichi slid to a stop before he could hit anything unexpectedly, his lungs taking this as a chance to absorb as much oxygen as possible. Taichi's gaze frantically passed over the nearby area to try and find a source for the sudden change of atmosphere.
Taichi's eyes finally fell on a large truck that was parked near the building's entrance, and he saw that there was a woman with dark hair reaching the bottom of her shoulder blades carrying a box away from the back of the vehicle. There was a bright and personable smile on her face, and she locked gazes with Taichi for a long moment before moving towards the building. Taichi somehow guessed that she would have waved if her hands hadn't already been occupied by other matters.
Taichi stepped away from the door to make room for the woman, and curiosity began to manifest in the back of his mind. He recognized belatedly that the truck in question was meant to help people who were relocating homes, and Taichi winced at the realization that he hadn't come to such a blatant conclusion sooner. He tried to divert his attention back to the matter at hand, knowing that he had to get to the soccer field as soon as possible. He couldn't get distracted when there were people counting on him to arrive on time.
A figure suddenly left the apartment building as well, and they almost collided with Taichi thanks to sheer bad luck. A gasp left their lips, and Taichi turned to see the culprit behind the sound. The back of his mind nagged at him once again to start moving so that he wasn't late for practice, but his curiosity ultimately got the better of him before he could listen to the instructions brought on by logic.
It was a girl about his age with dark hair. Her black tresses fell over her shoulders straight as could be, and her bangs hung low enough that they threatened to swallow the top edge of her gleaming dark eyes. She wore large glasses that almost seemed to be used as a shield to block out the rest of the world.
For a moment, their eyes met, and the girl watched him in solemn curiosity. They stared at one another for a long moment before Taichi realized that he was already falling behind schedule. He made a mental note to ask about who the girl was at a later point before backing away and dashing in the direction of the bike parking space for the apartment, his bag rustling with each motion.
As Taichi settled down to get on his bike, he strapped his bag into the basket attached to the front of the bicycle. He did a silent check for everything that he could have needed, and his fingers fumbled restlessly around the outside edge of his bag to make sure that he could feel his cleats and spare soccer ball inside. His water bottle was within the fabric as well, and while Taichi was sure that it had only been half filled after the previous day's practice, he figured that would be a problem for him to deal with after he arrived at the school. For the time being, he had to get going.
The last thing that Taichi felt for as he pulled his helmet free of the spot where it was strapped around the bicycle's metallic frame was a small device at his hip. His fingers closed around his pale turquoise Digivice, and Taichi let out a sigh of relief that he had remembered to grab it before his session of wonder on his apartment's balcony. It had become habit for him to bring it with him, a small and simple way for him to feel connected to the Digital World that he always took the chance to embrace.
Taichi began his trip to the soccer field, passing through the familiar route without any issues. His thoughts, still wandering from his moment of curiosity earlier in the morning, drifted to the Digimon after the contact with his Digivice. He hadn't seen them in a few weeks, though Taichi was positive that they would reunite soon enough. They always did.
Following the fall of BelialVamdemon, the gate to the Digital World had closed temporarily to help the to realms recover from the severe damage that had been done to the barrier. After it opened once again, the Digimon were given the chance to return to Earth whenever they so chose. It wasn't uncommon for the Digimon partners of the twelve Chosen Children of Odaiba to move back and forth as they pleased, and it seemed like at least one of them was always on the Earth side of the gate at any given moment. They couldn't stick around all the time to ensure that they didn't grow too exhausted, but they did come around quite a bit when they got the chance.
Agumon and Tailmon had last been in the Yagami household the week before, but Agumon had decided that he wanted to return to the Digital World to recuperate since Taichi was going to be spending far more time at soccer practice than usual in preparation for the new school year. Taichi was positive that it was only a matter of time before he and Agumon were back together as they had been before. Nothing in the world was able to keep them apart, and Taichi doubted that anything would ever be able to obscure such a fact from reality.
The wind continued to pull at the hair that hadn't been shoved inside of Taichi's helmet, and he sighed into the breeze when he realized that all of his hard work to comb through his hair was being undone. Still, he wouldn't be able to worry about it as long as he was focusing on getting to the soccer field. That was a concern for him to concentrate on after he was off his bicycle.
For the time being, Taichi simply allowed the world to streak by around him, and the peace of spring settled down over Odaiba like a perfectly fine mist. He would be returning to school the following day, but for that moment, he was free, and that was all that mattered.
Within the Digital World, the shadows of a darkened forest began to contort before releasing a figure draped in black robes. It was still nighttime in this section of the realm, and the sun had sunk over the horizon long ago. Few creatures shifted in the darkness, and that gave the figure the perfect chance to move without being undetected.
It wasn't as if they were looking for anything or anyone in particular. All that mattered was that they found something that they would be able to use. The specifics were unimportant as long as it allowed all of the pieces of their plan to fall into place. Their search was as broad as it was hushed and secretive, and they didn't mind in the slightest.
The first figure to appear within their line of vision was a large red beetle Digimon that could easily be identified as a Kuwagamon. The creature wasn't moving, silent and serene in its slumbering state. The figure allowed themselves a chance to smirk as they approached the massive creature. One hand shifted to their pocket, and they removed a small square patch from within the fabric.
All it took was a single quick motion for half of the patch to be peeled away, revealing a writhing square of dark data that didn't seem to be able to sit still no matter how hard it tried. They held up the patch towards the Kuwagamon, and the data shone with black light before streaking through the air with a shrill shriek that sounded more like a comet than a simple patch of shadow.
The Kuwagamon didn't even have the chance to stir before the patch had been connected firmly to the surface of its shell. A dark sheen passed over its surface before it rose to its feet, the dark data still flashing and flickering to show its activity. The creature's movements hardly seemed natural, and it didn't seem to have the ability to control its own actions.
The figure in black robes let out another twisted and sadistic smile before they once again dug into their pocket, producing a small palmtop computer that sat easily between their fingers. After they typed out a single command, the air around them began to distort, sucking them towards the screen of the device in their hand. The Kuwagamon answered their call and began to move closer as well.
"Come," the figure said simply, and the Kuwagamon's body began to twitch as a sign that it was listening. "We have much work to do."
Both the hooded figure and the Kuwagamon were gone in the blink of an eye. They disappeared as if they had never been there at all, and the small computer within the hand of the hooded figure vanished along with them. Once again, the forest returned to silence, and the night settled into peace without a moment of hesitation, unaware of what had just taken place or what was bound to occur within the near future.
Taichi didn't know how to describe it, but he could feel that something was wrong.
He was over halfway to the soccer fields, and the city of Odaiba continued to shift around him in an ever-changing blur of human activity. Still, there was something that felt off to him, as if a shiver was repeatedly running up his spine as the seconds crawled by. He tasted something vile on the back of his tongue, and Taichi did his best to glance around the area and find out what the cause of his anxiety could have been while still not veering off course.
The buzzing sound came next, and it echoed in Taichi's ears like the most horrible scream known to man. He winced instinctively, trying to place where he had heard the overwhelming noise before. He could feel the shadow before it came close to him, and he instinctively slammed down on the pedals of his bike in a reverse direction to keep himself from pressing onwards. He still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Taichi had freed himself from the confines of his bike when he glanced up to the sky, and a gasp forced itself free of his lips as he saw the outline of a large red bug towering overhead. His eyes went wide, and he watched as the familiar silhouette of Kuwagamon can swooping down towards the ground, maddened in its desperate search for prey. Taichi could feel the few brown hairs that were free of his helmet begin to blow rapidly under the influence of the overhead wind, and he grabbed his bike before pulling it to the nearby railing that blocked off the street from the grass nearby. Taichi's hand was inside of his bag in the blink of an eye, and he fumbled around madly for the familiar outline of his phone, thankful that he had remembered to drop it in his bag before he dashed out of his apartment so abruptly earlier that morning.
Taichi's fingers finally found what he was searching for, and he let out a sigh of relief as he flicked it open. He moved as quickly as he could manage as he typed out a message to a familiar group of people who would need to be aware of what was happening. His heart continued to pound in his chest, and he glanced up each time that he could get the chance to do so, still keeping an eye on the outline of Kuwagamon overhead.
Taichi had barely managed to push out an explanation of what had happened before Kuwagamon came sweeping down once again. It was only after Taichi's gaze locked squarely on the red bug that he realized that the monster was coming after him. His eyes went wide, and he ducked downwards with his hands pressed over his head despite the helmet hiding his hair from view. The Kuwagamon roared as it passed too close to the ground for comfort, this time nearing Taichi enough that he could have sworn that he felt some of the beast's saliva dripping down onto his arms.
The snap of metal pulled Taichi's attention away from his own fears, and he glanced over to see that a streetlamp had been knocked free from its base, left to clatter noisily against the nearby street. Taichi's ears were filled with the telltale echo of screams coming from the nearby people of Odaiba. The previous sense of peace and relaxation had been shattered in the blink of an eye, leaving behind nothing but terror in its place. Taichi winced. So much for freedom on his last day off of school.
Taichi's phone vibrated in his palm, and he glanced down with all of the feral desperation that came with mounting adrenaline. The response had come from Sora, and Taichi's chest lost half of its previous tension at the sight of her name. Even if the world turned against him, he could always count on Sora to have his back.
'Going to the Digital World now with Hikari. We'll be there as soon as we can with the Digimon.'
Taichi let out a harsh bark of a laugh before he forced himself to look away from the comfort of his phone and to the sky up above. Kuwagamon was once again rearing back for another attack, and Taichi swallowed dryly when he recognized who the target was. Kuwagamon wasn't simply rampaging mindlessly. He most certainly had an aim, and Taichi was sure that he had already figured it out.
Taichi snapped his phone shut before shoving it back into his bag, hoping to keep it safe from anything that could potentially cut off his one avenue of communication from the rest of the group. He hadn't used his D-Terminal on Earth regularly in quite some time, and he prayed that this wasn't the incident to teach him the error of his ways. His phone made it pointless to carry around the device on Earth, though the D-Terminals retained their utility in the Digital World.
In that moment though, the Digital World didn't matter as much. The point was that Kuwagamon was on Earth, and that was a much larger problem than potentially being late to soccer practice. Taichi had been bound to this sense of duty in both responsibility and determination for years, and he wasn't about to let it go when the world needed him most.
However, there wasn't all that much that he could do aside from wait until Sora and Hikari arrived with the Digimon. It made sense that Sora would go with Hikari to retrieve the Digimon in hindsight. Taichi had accidentally left one of his jackets over at her house a few days prior when the two were spending time with Yamato, but since Taichi had gotten so busy with soccer practice, he hadn't been given the time to run by and pick it up. Sora had likely decided to drop it off before school so that the responsibility was off her shoulders, and that would have put her with Hikari for the impending disaster. For the first time, Taichi thanked his own forgetfulness since it was going to be the thing to save his tail.
Taichi watched the skies once again, but it didn't take long for his gaze to settle on Kuwagamon once again. He winced at the sight of his attacker, and he wondered what in the world could have caused all of this. The barrier had been stable for the past three years. After the fall of BelialVamdemon, everything began to slide into place as if nothing so wrong had happened in the first place. This Kuwagamon targeting him didn't make any sense to him either, and Taichi shivered once again at the idea of this leading to something awful. His shudder had nothing to do with the final shadows of winter that spring zephyrs were continuing to chase away with each passing second.
Taichi's impatience only mounted in the moments that followed, and he prayed in vain for Sora and Hikari to arrive as soon as possible. If not them, then he wanted to see one of the others. Kuwagamon wasn't a difficult Digimon to fight, but if it was running loose on Odaiba, then that was most certainly a problem. Taichi bit his lip and tapped his foot as Kuwagamon came down for another attack, and each second began to stretch on to become a century.
Odaiba was different from what she was used to.
The outline of an orange cat could be seen weaving in between buildings, and her tail followed behind her without a scrap of disobedience. A wild mane of white surrounded her neck, making her look far more majestic than a common house cat could have ever hoped to be. Paws hit the ground as she darted in search of something new that could pique her interest.
The cat came to a stop in the shadow of a particularly large building and sat down with a light exhale of air. Her name was as of yet unknown to nearly everyone in Odaiba. Many would have likely suspected her to be nothing more than a trick of the sun, an illusion that few would want to believe, and that was for the best. After all, no cat looked quite like she did, and there was a reason for it.
It wasn't as if the cat had permission to roam Odaiba at her own leisure. She was used to having more than enough room to romp around and chase whatever caught her attention back where she was from, but Odaiba didn't fall into this category at all. It was far too cramped for something like that, and there were more people than she was used to. Seeing so many of them at once was overwhelming for her, and tracking all of their motions was a new challenge that she hadn't ever anticipated that she would run into.
The cat stretched her head upwards in the direction of the sun overhead, watching as a few clouds of puffy white began to roll through the sky with all the effort of turning the page of a book. She tilted her head to the side slightly in curiosity. Buildings marred her view of the overhead air as opposed to the trees that she was accustomed to, and she found herself yearning for the welcome sensation of home.
Still, she wasn't anticipating experiencing anything of that nature for quite some time. After all, the move to Odaiba was permanent as far as she was aware. It was work that had brought her there, or more specifically, the work of someone who she was heavily affiliated with, and she was fully aware that nobody else had any intentions of returning except for holidays to visit relatives. The cat would simply have to get used to her new surroundings no matter what it took.
The outline of something new flashed through her vision, and the cat frowned as she saw a red beetle too large to be natural streak through the air. That was far from being normal. Odaiba was strange, but she didn't think that it was monster in the sky level strange. Then again, she supposed that she didn't have much room to judge considering what she was.
The cat crept slowly out of the alleyway that she had briefly settled down in, and she saw people running in the direction opposite of the large bug. They were desperate to find a way to escape regardless of what it took, and the cat's ears almost seemed to recoil from their place atop her head at all of the overwhelming noise. Her home had never been this noisy, but she supposed that was simply another thing that she would have to adjust to.
She watched the bug once again, and she saw as the red beetle honed in on one figure in particular, a young man standing beside his bike. He crouched down against the onslaught of wind from all directions, almost falling to the ground in his moment of terror. Unlike everyone, he refused to run, and the cat found herself hissing in disproval. What was he thinking, simply standing there? He was going to get hurt, especially if the bug was truly attempting to target him.
She would simply have to make sure that nothing bad happened to him. The cat understood that she was far stronger than she appeared, and she wasn't about to allow anything to hurt those around her. This matter didn't involve her technically, but that hadn't ever stopped her from getting into scuffles with animals before. Of course, those had simply been stray raccoons that had wandered into the trash and not giant monsters, but the cat was going to do what she could to win the day regardless.
Before she knew what she was doing, the cat found herself bounding in the direction of the young man the bug was targeting. He had mounted his bike and started to move away from the buildings, likely in the direction of a place that held less people. Given how terrified everyone else around him was, the cat assumed that this was the best option. Besides, it didn't impact her in the slightest. She would be able to fight regardless of location, and she was more than fast enough to keep up with a bike.
The cat kept her eyes locked firmly on the silhouette of the young man as she wove through the fleeing figures that surrounded her on all directions. This wasn't exactly how she anticipated she would spend her first day in a new place, but the world didn't often care what she thought. She was going to find a way to win this fight, and there was nothing that anyone would be able to do to stop her after she set her mind to such a thing.
Taichi was pleased to learn that he was the only one in the area after he left his bike behind. The people who had been present during Kuwagamon's initial swipes had fled, and those limited people who were left behind during the subsequent attacks had also departed as soon as they caught sight of the large beast. Taichi kept his eyes on Kuwagamon, breathing heavily as he pulled his feet away from his bike. That had taken far more of his energy than he anticipated. Then again, pedaling for dear life was different than simply passing a ball across a soccer field, and it had been quite some time since Taichi was forced to make a mad dash for escape against an enemy.
Kuwagamon seemed to sense his moment of weakness, and Taichi had to resist the urge to swear under his breath as the red bug swept around for another attack. He didn't know how much energy this damn bug had, but Taichi was starting to get sick of it. For the fifth time in as many minutes, he wondered where Sora and Hikari were. He knew realistically that they would arrive soon enough, but that didn't help the nerve-wracking terror that came with Kuwagamon attempting to spear Taichi with its pincers.
Taichi threw up his arms and dropped to the ground when Kuwagamon got close in the next assault, but the expected blast of wind never passed over his head. Instead, the resounding smack of something strong making rough contact with Kuwagamon's hardened shell reached his ears, and he gasped as he forced himself to hone in visually on the source.
Details were scarce, but Taichi could see a flash of white and orange hair flashing through the sky like a comet. He wasn't sure of what the second creature was or what it was attempting to do, but a voice in the back of his head whispered that it was a Digimon of some kind. He hadn't ever seen one of this sort, but that didn't mean that it wasn't one of the digital monsters as a whole.
The cat landed on the ground quite a distance away, and Kuwagamon roared in pain and fury at the creature. Taichi still couldn't see much due to the space between him and his savior, but he caught a brief glance of green eyes that seemed to pierce the very soul. His eyes arrowed in response, and he watched as Kuwagamon shifted targets from Taichi to the cat.
Before the bug could get anywhere near the newcomer, a sudden whistling sound echoed through the air, and Taichi's face immediately burst into a grin. Flames burst forward, hitting Kuwagamon in the side with immense force. He turned his head skyward on instinct and saw the outline of Birdramon in all of her fiery glory cover the sun before she settled down on the ground beside him.
Sora was the first to hop free of Birdramon's body, and her face was set in a smile of pure relief. Her red hair was slightly askew as a result of the rushed ride atop her partner Digimon, but she still appeared to be mostly alright. At her side was Hikari, who looked only slightly more put together than Sora after the slight over Odaiba. Tailmon curled around Hikari's feet, and another figure ran towards Taichi as soon as he was away from Birdramon. The fire bird took to the skies a moment later, her blue eyes shining brightly.
"Taichi!" came the nostalgic cry of Agumon as he ran towards his partner at full speed. It hadn't been long since their last encounter, but that didn't stop Agumon's excitement in the slightest. He threw his arms around Taichi's body, a wide grin of his face. The darkness of the situation was easily forgotten in favor of seeing each other once again.
Tailmon cleared her throat as she approached the two, and Agumon pulled away from Taichi at the sound. "We have work to do," she reminded Agumon. When he met her gaze, Tailmon turned her attention back to the fight at hand, and she launched herself into the air to deliver a powerful punch to Kuwagamon's head, leaving the large bug to roar in pain.
Taichi reached for his Digivice as he removed his bike helmet and set it down on the seat of the bicycle. He was about to activate the evolution Agumon needed to reach the form of Greymon, but he frowned as something caught his eye. There was a small flash of darkness across the back of the Kuwagamon's shell, barely visible and peering out only when the bug moved the right way. Was he imagining that?
"Did you see that?" Taichi questioned, turning his attention to Sora and Hikari. "The black patch on the back of Kuwagamon's shell, I mean. You saw that too, didn't you?" He watched as their concerned expressions shifted in his direction, and Kuwagamon roared overhead. Agumon tilted his head to the side gently.
Sora watched Kuwagamon for a moment before nodding. "Hey... You're right. His entire color scheme is a bit darker too," she murmured. She turned her head over her shoulder, almost as if she had seen something out of the corner of her gaze. She stared for a long moment before she seemed to convince herself that nothing was wrong. Her attention moved back to the battle at hand a moment later.
"Tailmon!" Hikari cried out, cupping her hands around her mouth to call in the direction of her Digimon partner. "Try to attack the patch of darkness on Kuwagamon's back! That might be able to help us end this fight sooner!"
Tailmon nodded in Hikari's region before she jumped in the direction of Kuwagamon once again. She moved around behind Kuwagamon, and Birdramon took this as a cue to distract Kuwagamon so that Tailmon would be able to take advantage of the weakness in the bug's defenses. Agumon took a few steps towards the fight, and he glanced to Taichi, a silent instruction of what he wanted to happen next.
Taichi nodded his understanding and pulled his Digivice free of his belt. Light began to shine from the surface of the device a moment later, and a bar pattern passed over the pixelated screen. Taichi stared into the inferno as Agumon's shape began to change, and he was replaced by Greymon a moment later. Taichi began to beam with pride, and he nodded in his partner's direction once the transformation was complete. Greymon did the same in return, his brown eyes gleaming with mischief, before he marched in the direction of the battle.
Kuwagamon, who had managed to escape Birdramon's fierce grasp, swept down in the direction of Greymon. The dinosaur Digimon sucked in air before a blast of flame burst forth. "Mega Flame!" Greymon cried out as the fire began to spiral through the sky in Kuwagamon's direction. The bug was hit hard in the chest, and its flight patterns were disturbed immediately, threatening to send Kuwagamon careening back down to earth. Kuwagamon only barely managed to correct himself before he hit the ground, and Taichi could almost sense the frustration of the large beetle from his place a short distance away.
Taichi saw something move out of the corner of his eye, and he glanced in the direction of the sudden rustling. He could see the silhouette of a person shifting among the large buildings, and a lengthy trail of black hair streamed behind them. Taichi frowned to himself, and he watched as the shadow disappeared in between the buildings. He found himself remembering the orange cat from before, and part of him wondered if perhaps the two could have been related. He still didn't know who that strange Digimon was, and he wasn't sure of why the cat was there in the first place. What if the cat Digimon was a partner of a nearby Chosen Child? The person with black hair could have been their partner.
It wasn't as if Chosen Children were as rare as they once had been. Their numbers were only growing larger with each passing year, and it seemed like either Koushiro or Takeru was updating Taichi at least once a week with news of a new Chosen Child appearing in a country around the world. It wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility to say that the new arrival was the partner of a Digimon. That would say why the Digimon was on Earth in the first place as well. Even if he didn't have any evidence, it was most certainly something for him to bring up with the other members of his team after the fight was over.
Taichi's attention returned to the fight when he heard Tailmon let out a battle cry. "Neko Punch!" Tailmon exclaimed as she hurled herself downwards with her fist outstretched in the direction of the Kuwagamon. The black patch was within her grasp, and she was on the verge of making contact with it.
Unfortunately, the Kuwagamon heard her coming, and it whirled around just in time for its pincers to slam into Tailmon's side. Taichi winced as Tailmon was sent sprawling backwards into a nearby building, the breath leaving her lungs along the way. She fell limply to the ground a moment later, but she raised one hand to indicate to the others that she was alright. Taichi frowned at the realization that Kuwagamon was far faster than it had any right to be. Its instincts were sharper as well, and it didn't seem natural in the slightest. Sora was right about its color scheme being slightly darker as well, and all of these facts added up to make Taichi feel oddly unsettled despite the fact that this battle should have been effortless with three, perhaps four, against one.
"Tailmon!" Hikari shouted, her hands clapping over her mouth in ghastly shock. Her eyes were pleading for Tailmon to get up once again, and luckily for her, Tailmon understood without needing to hear any instructions. The cat Digimon had already taken off towards the battle once again a moment later, and Hikari released a sigh of relief at the sight of her partner's swift recover.
"It's not acting like it should," Sora suddenly commented. She was holding tightly to her Digivice as a way of getting out the lingering traces of her adrenaline. "The colors are darker, and it seems so strangely aggressive... Digimon don't just wander through the barrier to come over here and start rampaging. We have Digimon of our own. We would be able to reason with most Digimon that happened to stray through."
"But it shouldn't be possible for anyone to wind up on this side of the barrier without our Digivices in the first place," Taichi finished for her, and Sora nodded her confirmation. He glanced up to the Kuwagamon and tried to put the pieces together as to how this was possible. No matter how much he tried to rationalize it, Taichi simply couldn't figure out how it all came together, and he found himself following in Sora's lead when it came to tightly grasping at Digivices.
"Someone must have let it through," Hikari concluded. "But it's not as if any of us would do something like that... I don't even see any computers around here that could have been used to let someone through the barrier in the first place."
Taichi let out a gasp, and he began to scan through the nearby buildings desperately, trying to figure out if there was a laptop for them to use to send Kuwagamon back through as soon as they were given the chance. In the end, his gaze settled on the entryway of a nearby office building, and he could see a large desk through the blurred glass windows that made up the doors. Taichi gestured for the others to follow him as he darted in the direction of the building. He heard Birdramon cry out with her signature attack from nearby, and the Kuwagamon grunted from the force of the impact.
Just as Taichi had seen through the window, there was a laptop on the desk. He sighed with relief upon realizing that it was a laptop and not a full console computer as he had feared. There weren't any people in the area, and Taichi figured that it was safe to assume that the occupants of the building had all gone into hiding elsewhere due to the attack from Kuwagamon. Taichi picked up the laptop after opening it, and he held it in Sora's direction.
The redheaded girl was quick in keying out the familiar strokes that would bring up the portal to the Digital World. Her eyes flickered across the screen with a sense of speed that only adrenaline was able to provide, and Taichi saw her nod when she was finished. He glanced down to the screen to see that, just as he had suspected, the portal had been pulled up. Hikari raised her D-3 in his direction to show that she was ready to use it as soon as she was given the chance to send Kuwagamon back to the Digital World.
When the trio of Chosen Children left behind the building, Greymon had grabbed Kuwagamon by the pincers and was attempting to throw it as far away from him as possible. Tailmon was rearing up for yet another Neko Punch attack, and she launched herself off the ground with as much strength as she could muster. When the blow finally did make contact, her gloved paw had slammed straight into the dark patch on Kuwagamon's shell. Birdramon swept down and closed her claws around the pincers of the Kuwagamon to pull it away from Greymon and towards the ground.
Greymon, Birdramon, and Tailmon all issued quick retreats as soon as they saw that Kuwagamon was coming down. Striking the patch of data had caused him to go limp, and the beetle hit the concrete of the street roughly, knocking over yet another streetlight in the process. The metal was sent sideways in the opposite direction, and the clanging sound when the pole hit the ground made Taichi flinch from its sheer magnitude. He was focused once again on Kuwagamon a moment later.
The dark patch was starting to subside already, and the shaded colors of its body were vanishing as well, and light spread across its shell before moving to other regions of its physical form. Kuwagamon didn't move until after the light had completely coated it, and it slowly rose to its feet in a dizzying motion. Kuwagamon didn't seem to understand where it was, and it embodied uncertainty and a lack of stability as it found its footing once again.
"You're on, Hikari," Taichi told his sister, extending the laptop in Kuwagamon's direction as his sister reached out with her D-3. Light surrounded Kuwagamon and the screen, and the red beetle's shape began to pinch and distort before it was gone completely. Taichi shut the laptop once again, letting out a sigh as the final traces of adrenaline disappeared from his system. That certainly hadn't been anything that he expected, and he didn't think that he would fully recover from the sudden nature of such an attack until after the day had come to a close.
Greymon and Birdramon began to alter their shapes as well, though instead of traveling through the gateway, they became Agumon and Piyomon once again. The two approached the trio of humans alongside Tailmon, and the six regarded one another with a quiet sense of pride that they had completed the battle.
Taichi started walking back in the direction of the office building with the laptop still in his hands. He gave a nod of thanks in Sora's vicinity when she opened the door to the lobby for him once again, and he set down the laptop unceremoniously before leaving the building behind once again. Agumon, Piyomon, Hikari, and Tailmon waited for him outside, and Taichi let out a heavy sigh after they were back together. He already knew what the first question was bound to be.
"What happened?" Piyomon asked, tilting her head to the side gently. Sure enough, she had lived up to his expectations. He had been dreading the inquiry mostly because he wasn't sure of how to answer it himself. Everything was a mystery to him surrounding the Kuwagamon attack. Every single thing that he wondered vaguely about led to a dozen more questions that he didn't know how to answer.
For a long time, Taichi remained silent, simply mulling over Piyomon's words. He didn't know how to even begin to respond to something like that. He finally let out a sigh before shaking his head, sending his messy brown hair in all directions when he did so. "I wish I could tell you," he confessed. That felt like the understatement of the century. Taichi had too many questions to even begin to put into words, so he opted to stay quiet instead.
"I don't understand," Sora remarked next as the group began to move in the direction of Taichi's parked bike. She began to run her fingers through her short red hair as a way of calming the tangles that had formed during her impromptu ride on Birdramon's talon. "How did Kuwagamon come through the barrier in the first place? The gate has been stable for the past three years, and none of us would have wanted to let it through out of the blue like that."
"What I really want to know is who that orange cat Digimon was," Taichi remarked, pushing his hands up to cradle at the base of his neck. When Agumon looked up at him quizzically, Taichi explained. "Before you all showed up, I was fighting against Kuwagamon alone. Well, I say fighting, but it was more of running to make sure I didn't get impaled or something. This orange cat Digimon showed up seemingly out of nowhere and attacked Kuwagamon before anything bad could happen to me, but I don't know what in the world it was or where it came from."
"You saw it too?" Sora asked, and Taichi's silent suspicions regarding what had caught her attention during the fight were confirmed as he nodded. "The cat didn't seem to hate us the way that the Kuwagamon did. I think it's safe to say that the cat was on our side, but... Who was that? Why did we receive their help in the first place?"
Taichi shrugged as his arms flopped down to his sides once again. "I wish I could tell you," he told her. What had started as a relatively calm day had spiraled out of control faster than he had anticipated, and he wasn't fond of it in the slightest. He shook his head and began to adjust the items found in his bike's basket. He certainly wasn't going to be making it to soccer practice at this rate. He was late as could be, and it was only a matter of time before everyone found out about the giant monster attack that caused such a diversion. Taichi could send a text to the other members of his team to make sure that he wasn't watched with disproval when they next met due to his absence. Still, the issue of being late for soccer practice didn't seem to matter anywhere near as much as Kuwagamon's sudden assault, and Taichi could barely bring himself to care.
"We're going to find a way to figure this out," Tailmon declared, just as mature and commanding as she always had been. Hikari nodded her agreement as she leaned down and scooped the cat into her arms. She began to stroke at her partner a moment later, and Tailmon nuzzled up against her grasp.
"There has to be a reason for all of this," Taichi said conclusively. He was going to have to bring it up with the other members of the team as soon as he got the chance. Takeru and Koushiro, the experts when it came to communicating with the international teams of Chosen Children, would be able to offer updates regarding if this was happening elsewhere or only in Odaiba.
Regardless of the outcome of the situation, Taichi had a nagging bad feeling about it all. He wasn't sure of how to describe it, but something about the circumstances of Kuwagamon's attack bothered him in a deep way that made his stomach churn with something sickening. This was far from being natural, and Taichi was fully aware of such a fact. There were too many facts that contributed to this truth for him to dismiss.
"You know, a Kuwagamon wouldn't have been able to cross the barrier without someone opening a gate to the Digital World," Agumon suddenly chimed in, breaking through the temporary silence with his effortless sense of charm. "I wonder who would have wanted to do that... The gate hasn't gotten so weak for a Kuwagamon to just break through on its own as far as I can tell, so what could be happening?"
Taichi sighed, wishing that he had an easy way to answer Agumon's questions. Unfortunately, he couldn't find an answer no matter how much he sifted through his mind, and he detested the fact that he couldn't figure it out. In fact, it was bound to be a while before he discovered the truth behind what was taking place. They were going to need to do quite a bit of research before the matter could be safely settled.
In all honesty, they had gotten lucky, and this wasn't something that Taichi was about to deny. Being attacked by a Kuwagamon was far from being ideal, but they were lucky that it hadn't been a stronger Digimon. Taichi wasn't sure about if anyone else from the team had responded to his urgent message about an attack taking place, but he was relieved beyond imagination that they had taken care of Kuwagamon before it could cause any further damage.
Taichi glanced out over the nearby area and winced upon seeing a notable dent in the ground where Kuwagamon had landed after the black patch was removed from the back of its shell. There were two sideways streetlights as well, and they were bent well beyond repair. The glass surrounding the lightbulbs at the top had shattered completely as well, and Taichi was glad that there weren't any people without shoes in the area. That would have been an added complication that he simply wasn't in the mood to deal with on top of everything else that had taken place.
Hikari had pulled out her phone while Taichi was distracted, and she played absentmindedly with the edge of her light brown hair as she read through the messages on the screen. "It looks like Yamato, Koushiro, and Ken all answered our message, but I told them that we took care of it," she declared. "They're all worried about what happened, and I can't exactly blame them. Today didn't exactly end in a way that we could get behind."
Taichi couldn't help but feel as if that was an understatement. The past three years had gone by in a peaceful haze, and he wouldn't have had it any other way. The Digital World was at peace with Earth, and he was able to see Agumon whenever he pleased. That was how he liked it, and Taichi was more than happy with such an outcome unfolding around him. The stability suddenly being shattered by the appearance of Kuwagamon didn't sit well with him in the slightest, and Taichi found his stomach starting to churn.
It would have been easy to dismiss what had taken place as a one-off incident that would never take place again. There would be more than enough time for them to figure out what was happening to ensure that this situation didn't repeat itself. Still, Taichi couldn't help but feel that perhaps it wasn't as simple as he was making it out to be. There had to be a greater picture behind this puzzle, and he had an awful feeling that he was going to see it in all of its twisted glory soon enough.
Still, there wasn't exactly much that he could do about it right then. Taichi let out a sigh and reached for his bike helmet, securing it around the wiring of the bicycle's frame. "Let's go home," he remarked simply. He wasn't going to be riding back to his apartment due to his wish to not abandon Sora, Hikari, or their Digimon, so this was the first step of beginning the excruciating task of walking it back there. All of his desperate pedaling for dear life was starting to have its consequences, and his lower legs throbbed from exertion. Taichi was a fit person naturally due to all of the time that he spent on the soccer team, but that didn't change the fact that his spree of running away from a red beetle out for blood had still come out nowhere. With the adrenaline gone from his system, there was nothing to keep him standing aside from sheer confusion and force of will.
Taichi gave the area one final scan as he started to move back to his apartment building. He couldn't see any signs of the strange cat, the person with long black hair, or anyone who could have summoned the Kuwagamon. He was going to have to suggest the theory about the person with black hair being the cat's partner when he saw the group in full. This sudden occurrence was bound to merit a team meeting. Koushiro would call for it so that he could learn as much as possible, and Taichi was positive of that much. They would have more than enough time to theorize when the time came for them to discuss everything that had happened.
For the time being though, Taichi turned his face to the sky and watched as a white puffy cloud obscured the springtime sun. He had an awful feeling about what was to come. There was something going on behind the scenes that he wasn't aware of, and something deep down told him that this wasn't the last time that this situation would play out. He didn't want to believe his instincts, but in his years of fighting and learning how to survive in two worlds, Taichi had learned to trust his gut when something went wrong. Sometimes, it felt like that was all he had.
Taichi sighed and forced himself to continue putting one foot in front of the other. Regardless of if he was right or not, they were going to find a way to figure this out. That much he was sure of. No matter how long it took, they were going to find answers. They simply had to.
It wasn't until after the group of three people and Digimon had left the area that the cat found it safe to slink away from her place in the shadows. She remained alert though, watching out for any other signs of trouble. The human at her side, a slender girl with obsidian hair reaching the middle of her back, sighed with relief upon realizing that they were alone. She was far paler than usual, and the cat could sense how nervous she was even with the battle over and done with.
"Maybe we aren't as alone as we thought," the cat commented as she glanced up to the girl. She sat down on her back legs briefly, waiting for her companion to find the strength to push forward. The cat was nothing if not patient, and she knew better than to push the boundaries of the one that she cared for so dearly.
"I guess not," the girl murmured in response. She didn't say anything beyond that, but as far as the cat was concerned, she didn't need to. They understood each other perfectly, and the cat could tell that her partner was paranoid, afraid of reaching out to others with the same power that she possessed. She was scared of opening herself up so soon, but at the same time, she was terrified that she had missed out on her only chance to get to know those who were like her.
"No matter what you choose to do, I'll stay by your side, okay?" the cat said, her gaze softening. She knew how her partner worked, and simply having the option to do something counted for quite a bit in her relationship. The cat was the bolder of the two, but she still understood sensitivity. She had to.
The girl nodded her reply. "Thank you," she whispered. Once she was sure that the coast was clear, she took a step into the light. "Come on. Let's go home. I'm sure that everyone is going to wonder what happened to us."
The cat hummed lightly. She had left their new home behind out of curiosity, but her partner had likely left because she wanted to search for the cat. She was positive that people were starting to worry about them and where they had gone, so all they could do was return before anyone's concerns got out of hand.
They began the journey back home soon afterwards, and silence fell between them. The street around them was ruined, but it seemed secondary to the pounding of the girl's heart and the unspoken anxiety that thrived in the air around her.
The girl and cat were far from being the only ones in the area though. The figure in black robes let out a scoffing sound once they were sure they were alone, and their voice echoed low in the air around them. Kuwagamon had been a failure, but they wouldn't be disappointed again. There would be other chances for attacks to end in success and triumph. They were bound to find a strategy sooner or later, and they couldn't wait to see what it brought them.
They opened the palmtop computer once again, their frown still hanging heavily on their face. Even though there would be other chances, they were still frustrated with their failures. It should have been a simple yet effective operation, but instead, their plans for the day were in tatters, and everyone would be far more defensive from that point forward to ensure this situation didn't repeat itself. That changed things, but only slightly. They were going to ensure that the outcome of the final battle was favorable, and wasn't that the most important part of this whole scheme?
Still, for the time being, all they could do was retreat. Another plan would be crafted once again when the time was right, and then the hooded figure would be able to execute the next scheme at the perfect moment. The Digital World was waiting for them, and more importantly, their commander was counting on them to arrive with results. Their leader wouldn't be happy to hear that the Kuwagamon attack had failed, but it would ultimately be inconsequential. One day, they would be able to succeed, after all.
Their palmtop computer began to glow as light surrounded the screen. The hooded figure could feel themselves beginning to change shape to accommodate for their evolution of surroundings. The Digital World would be upon them sooner or later, and none would be at all the wiser of what they had done. The Chosen Children were unsure of what had taken place, and even if they had failed, they had at least managed to plant the seeds of doubt and uncertainty in their enemy's minds.
The world shifted around them as Earth was left as little more than a distant memory. They would return soon enough, and if it wasn't them, it would be one of their brothers. That was how the operation was set to work, and it was only a matter of time before one of them saw triumph.
And so the Tri rewrite begins!
This chapter is primarily a rather simple one. It serves the purpose of reintroducing us to the cast of Adventure, starting off with Taichi. I know that not everybody has made an appearance yet, but they'll be here soon enough, I promise.
Speaking of the cast, you might notice that I mentioned Ken. Surprise! That's one of the fancy little facts about this rewrite. I'm including the Zero Two quartet as part of the main cast instead of excluding them! We only saw Hikari in this chapter, but all of the other Chosen Children from Zero Two will be making an appearance throughout the course of this story and playing a significant role to boot.
For the most part, I like to think that this chapter sort of speaks for itself. There aren't all that many little hidden tidbits to keep watch for. The group just gets involved with a giant monster fight, so that's about all there is to say about that. Woohoo for monster fights!
There are a few things I want to clarify before we move on with this story though. First off, this is not like my Digimon Frontier rewrite in the slightest when it comes to plot beats. Frontiers Unexplored generally followed the same plot beats as the canon of Frontier (Spirits, Seraphimon, Beast Spirits, Evil Legendary Warriors, Cherubimon, Royal Knights, Lucemon), but that does not apply here at all. There are some characters that carry over from canon, but that's all there is to find from canon Tri here. Aside from that, it's completely original content for eighty chapters. Yep. We're in this for the long haul.
I also want to say that I do not hate Digimon Tri. I don't hate Frontier, and I don't hate Tri. I'm rewriting them because I have different ideas about how I would have written them. I wouldn't be doing all of this for both Frontier and Tri if I didn't love them as much as I do. This is my take on the story, and I'm not going to try and force everyone to like my version better. I simply want to get this across before anyone accuses me of bullying Tri for no reason.
With all of that said, I believe that's all there is for me to tell you in this chapter. I'll be updating this story weekly on Fridays until it concludes, so you can expect the next chapter a week from today next Friday. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is always appreciated, and I hope you're all having a nice day!
-Digital