Hiya guys~
So yeah... Both the episode with Takuya, Koji and Tommy and the JP, Zoe episode/chapter.
I know it seems weird since they presumably take place in the same day, same time. But I was 13 or so when I started writing this. And I didn't like it when the episode number didn't match up with the chapter number when I read other fanfics myself. So I did this~
It seemed like a good idea back then -3- And I want to stick as closely to the original as I can sooooo... Hopefully I made it work? We'll know in the next chapter where it's explained :3 Hehe~
Aaaaanyway. Enjoy~!
Disclaimer: I don't own digimon in any way shape or form. If I did, that new Appli Monsters season wouldn't exist~ Seriously! Why base digimon off apps?! What's the point of that?! *erm* I do still own Sophia, Sonamon, the unknown Beast Spirit and any digimon that doesn't show in the wiki.
"So... You fell out of an airplane and fell because you couldn't control your flying?" Zoe asked, just to be sure she understood right.
Sophia nodded for the umpteenth time since she explained her situation. She kept staring at her D-Tector, which showed Sonamon's face staring back.
'Why can't I control it?' she mentally asked the face in the device. 'The others can fly perfectly... Even I could fly back at the mountain! Why not anymore?' With a sigh, she put it back into her pocket and focused on following the others. "How long will this take, Bokomon?"
As answer, Bokomon jumped up on JP's shoulders and looked around. He even pulled out his book to check...something.
"The entrance to the Forest Kingdom should come up after this field." he answered after, what can only be assumed to be, thorough investigation. Or purely guessing, you never know with the gnome-digimon.
"Field?" Zoe questioned. "This is more like a jungle!"
It was true. The flowers and plants came way above their heads and the leaves alone were up to their legs. They looked like a bunch of dwarfs in a giant's flower field.
"To succeed one must have faith, one must stay positive, one must-"
"Get off my head!" Bokomon was promptly cut off by JP. "For a little guy, you weigh a ton."
"Party pooper." Bokomon jumped from JP's shoulders to Neemon's back.
JP looked at Zoe, deciding the expression on her face seemed more upset than neutral, which it wasn't. And he decided to lighten the mood. "Don't worry Z. I'm sure we'll find a way. You wanna know why?"
Zoe sighed, rolling her eyes as she answered. "Why?"
"Cause we're fighters, that's why!" he exclaimed, striking a heroic pose. "We don't give up and we never quit!"
While that sounded promising, he wasn't too good at keeping his word. A few minutes later he was panting and groaning and complaining. "I give up. I quit."
"It's been 5 minutes..." Sophia remarked, even though she was getting tired as well.
"What happened to that fighting spirit?" Zoe mocked the plump boy.
JP moaned again. "It got hungry."
"Is everything about food with you?" Sophia asked.
Zoe gave in to JP's moans. "We'll take a break after we get out of this field, okay?" she asked.
"If I can *pant* make it *pant* that far." JP said in between pants.
Apparently the earth decided he could not. The poor guy tripped on a stone and fell face first in the dirt. Already exhausted, he just lay there panting, not even making an effort to stand up.
"Now what? We don't have time to horse around." Zoe complained, not having seen him trip. After he still didn't get up, she went closer and stuck out her hand for him. "Here."
JP looked up. Seeing the girl of his dreams sticking out her hand to help him up. But he was caught up a little too much into his fantasies. He just stared at it, drooling and blushing. By the time he reached out for her hand, something shot out from the bushes and in between them.
Startled, JP yelled out. "What in beets name is that thing?!"
The 'thing' stopped as soon as it heard JP's voice. It was an orange puffball with a huge spike on the top of his head.
Sophia recognized it immediately. "It's a Tsunomon!" she cried out in delight.
"Tsunomon! Come back at once young man!" A big, cactus-like digimon appeared from the same direction Tsunomon appeared from. "I've had enough of your shenanigans for one day."
She paused in her pursuit to stare at the kids. She was surprised of course, but also seemed oddly happy.
"Before anyone asks, that's a Togemon." Sophia pointed out.
This snapped Togemon out of her staring. "My goodness gracious! What a lovely surprise." she cried out. "You're humans."
"Human beings?" Tsunomon asked, reminding the others that he was still there.
Togemon took her chance with him being shocked, and lunged for him. Not a very friendly thing to do, but she was desperate right now. She luckily managed to grab him by the horn, to which Tsunomon complained, of course. Togemon happily invited the kids to follow her.
"I didn't know digimon had to go to school." Zoe mussed, hearing Tsunomon's complaints about school.
Bokomon of course took his chance to jump in. "That's where they learn the skills they need as full grown digimon."
"Thank you, teacher Bokomon." Sophia said sarcastically. "Care to tell us what you learned there?"
Bokomon gritted his teeth, trying to remain polite in front of Togemon and Tsunomon, but with this girl it was getting near impossible! So he was a Rookie with little to no attacks, who cares? He didn't!
"How exciting! I've never seen real life humans before." Togemon spoke up. "I know! Why don't you come to the school with us? I'm sure the children would love to meet you."
"We'd love to see the school." Zoe said through Tsunomon's complaints. "But I'm afraid we don't have time to stop and check. You see, we're headed for the Forest Kingdom."
"This is an important mission. One that cannot be delayed." Bokomon said, making it sound more important then it actually was.
"You know, things to do, people to see. You'll understand." JP chimed in casually.
"Oh! I was hoping you'd join us for afternoon snack time." Togemon was trying really hard to get the kids to join her.
As soon as 'snack time' was uttered from her mouth, Zoe and Sophia stared at JP, knowing what was coming. They were silently chanting 'Don't. Don't. Don't.', but it didn't work.
"Afternoon snack time?!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you say so? We are there, lady!"
"JP, could you not think with your stomach for once?" Zoe asked him, annoyed by the delay they were obviously gonna have now.
Sophia sighed. "Have you met him? Of course he can't."
Zoe's head fell as she groaned loudly. "Of all the people I could be stuck with, why'd it have to be you?"
"Because it was written in the stars?" JP stated dreamily.
Zoe, non caring, hit him on the chest. "Save it!"
Sophia gave them a blank stare. 'Are Bokomon, Neemon and I even here?'
They kept following Togemon for a while longer until the end of the field. Finally no more flowers twice the size of you! Togemon pushed some of the plants to the side, revealing a cliff and a huge, plain field just below.
"That's the digimon school, over there." Togemon pointed out to a small house in the clearing.
The others took a moment to stare. It was unbelievably small. Even from the distance they stood they could see it was too small to be considered a school. JP decided to voice these thoughts, with Zoe shushing him quickly. Togemon took them down a safe path on the cliff and to the school.
Immediately the kids rushed out the school to greet their teacher. The little heads jumped all around her happily. Once one of them, Jyarimon, noticed the humans just behind her, he froze. Same happened when the others noticed Jyarimon's strange behavior and finally noticed the humans as well.
"Oh, children. Don't be like that." Togemon told her students. "These humans are our guests, so let's greet them as such."
Togemon went inside, leaving the baby and in-training digimon with the humans. Wondering what Togemon meant, the kids stared at the school awkwardly for her return. When she did, she had an old looking record player. The little digimon saw what their teacher had and immediately jumped into place, surrounding the human kids. Togemon took this as her cue to start playing.
"Welcome humans, to our school.~
Where we learn and play all day.~
We think our teacher's really cool.~
So we hope you'll want to stay.~
Welcome humans, to our school.~
Where we learn the digi-rule.~
Play and play, that would be cool.~"
The little digimon sang, what can only be assumed, an improvised song to greet the human warriors. Well, all except Tsunomon. Not that anyone noticed. Togemon stopped spinning the record player as soon as the singing stopped.
Zoe loved it. All these small digimon were just too cute! She knelt down in front of the small white one, YukimiBotamon. "You are so cute." she told the small creature.
Unfortunately this startled her. Even with Zoe kneeling down, she was so big and intimidating to such a small digimon. She accidentally used diamond dust on Zoe, freeing half of her body. Togemon apologized profusely for it.
Zoe just brushed it off with an 'It's okay'. She turned back to the white digimon. "Poor thing. Did I frighten you?"
She nodded shyly. "Y-yeah, just a little bit." It was a bit rushed because of how frightened she was.
"Ha!" Tsunomon laughed. "I was all by myself when I ran into the humans and I wasn't scared. Not even a little!"
His bragging was ignored, only earning him several 'whatever' from the other kids. This was much to Tsunomon's surprise. The digimon kids went inside for their first period. Togemon also motioned for the humans to get inside, but surprisingly it was Bokomon who went inside first. With a small chuckle, the rest followed him.
"Story time~!" Togemon went to the front of the class, in front of the blackboard. "Class, we're in for a real treat today." she told the class. "Instead of a regular old story, our human guests will tell us all about the wonders of the human world. Would you like that?"
The digimon jumped up excited, all shouting 'yes please!'. So that was unanimous.
"Well, perhaps the big blue human would like to go first." Togemon held out her gloved hand to JP.
He slowly pointed to himself. "Do you mean me?" he asked. "The name's JP."
"Very well, professor JP. The class is yours." Togemon stepped away from her tree trunk desk to make room for the 'big blue boy'.
JP was shocked at what he heard. "Professor?! I'm no professor. I'm only in the seventh grade."
Noticing his sudden case of shyness, Zoe decided to tease the poor boy. "Oh don't be so modest. Your class awaits, professor."
The others chimed in at the professor comment, stating it as fact to the young digimon. Finally he went behind the desk, stiff as a robot. His sudden shyness returned when he saw the excited and awe awaiting eyes of the young kids. Even telling himself it would be alright wasn't helping, as he slowly turned blue in the face- wait huh?
"So a...the human...world has a lot of cool things like- eehmm..." He made a bunch of tied up handkerchiefs appear with his magic. "Hankies to wipe your nose with- if you had noses."
Nobody could believe what he said. Did he not know they had handkerchiefs in the digital worl- Oh wait, of course not. Even Togemon looked horrified at what she'd done, letting him speak up front.
Luckily Bokomon saved him more embarrassment by jumping in as soon as he tried talking about toothpaste. He talked about responsibilities, evolving into strong digimon 'like himself', to which Sophia snorted out loud, and the Legendary Warriors. But all of this was boring compared to JP's magic tricks, so halfway through Bokomon's speech they left their seats to go to the humans.
Not long after, it was recess. The young digimon dragged the humans outside to play with them. Zoe took Cocomon, Zerimon and YukimiBotamon, who wasn't afraid anymore, to the slide, going down a couple of times. JP, meanwhile, was playing with digi-wrestling with Jyarimon, Yaamon, Kapurimon and Nyaromon. As it looked right now, the digimon were winning. No one was playing with Sophia, however. No surprise. She hadn't really done anything interesting or been particularly social with the young digimon. She saw Tsunomon jumping around on a rock and sighed.
"Well, got nothing to lose."
She went towards the rock, just as the other young digimon left. Tsunomon went behind the rock, jumping out of sight.
"I just don't get it..." JP muttered.
"How would you feel?" Sophia asked JP, startling him. He hadn't heard the girl coming. "He just got his hopes up to play with the other kids, but got shot down immediately."
She didn't wait for a reply. She just ran up to the rock and jumped on it. It was oddly fun, trying to keep your balance on it. Now she understood why Tsunomon seemed to like it. Speaking of...
Sophia looked over the side. He was still there. "Tsunomon?" The small digimon looked up, not expecting anyone to talk to him. "Are you alright?"
He just looked away. "I'm fine. Why do you care anyways?"
The girl gave a sympathetic smile. "You're not the only outcast, you know." she said, before realizing her words. "I-I don't mean outcast- I mean kind of, but not a bad way. I just mean- er- just... you know..." she cut herself off what she caught Tsunomon's confused eyes. "Sorry."
"I have no idea what you just said." he said blankly.
"Me either." Sophia laughed. "But, really. Are you okay?"
Tsunomon looked down. "I just don't get why they're so mean to me." he muttered. "Just because I can-" he cut himself off.
Sophia didn't pry, knowing what he meant. "Just because you're a little different?" she supplied him with a different answer. He nodded. "I know. People can be real meanies when they find out you're different."
"You mean, you too?" The in-training asked.
Sophia nodded. "I tend to act more childish then most my age, then switch to more adult seconds later. I don't understand social cues and accidentally do very stupid things." she explained. "That sort of things attracts bullies."
Tsunomon nodded. "Yeah... Being different is stupid."
"No, it isn't." Sophia disagreed. "Being different is alright. I mean, it would be boring if everyone was the same. The only stupid thing is people who don't understand it." she gave Tsunomon a slight pat on the back. "It's okay, really."
They didn't have much more time to talk. Before they knew it, Togemon called that recess was over. It was time for P.E.* Togemon had pulled out a little hat and whistle, as well as a grass woven ball for the children.
"Time for P.E." she called. "Today we'll play soccer."
Nyaromon went over to the rock, that was assigned as goal. Yaamon did the same for the other rock. The teams were Kapurimon, Tsunomon, Yaamon and Zerimon versus Cocomon, Jyarimon, YukimiBotamon and Nyaromon. Right now Kapurimon had the ball and was headed straight for Nyaromon's goal. Tsunomon was right next to him, asking for the ball. Kapurimon straight up ignored it, however, and shot the ball towards the goal.
Nyaromon was quick to defend the goal with her atomic bomber tail and smacked the ball away from the rock. It stopped not far from Tsunomon. The horned digimon took his chance and hopped for it. Nobody would expect this goal! But before he got even close, Kapurimon headbutted him hard, sending him flying and sliding over the grass painfully.
He glared at the helmet wearing digimon. "What'd you do that for?!"
Kapurimon just gave him a blank stare before bursting out in tears. He was pretending that he got hit! The teacher and some classmates went to his side, asking if he was alright. Togemon, the one who was watching them play the entire time didn't see it was Kapurimon who hit Tsunomon. It made Sophia's blood boil.
"Poor Tsunomon." JP commented. "I don't get why the other kids won't play with him."
"They all probably think he doesn't fit in with them." Zoe said. "I know just how he feels."
Zoe explained to them how she didn't fit in at school. How, when the others asked her something, expected something from her, she'd brush them off. She wanted to be herself and not be tied to some expectation the others had.
"No offense Zoe, but I don't think you know how Tsunomon feels." Sophia said, not taking her eyes off the poor digimon. "It sounds like you choose not to fit in with the others, Tsunomon does want to fit in. He told me himself." she explained, looking at them for the first time since the game's begin. "Tsunomon has something that makes him different, and the others cast him out because of it. If anyone knows how that feels, it's me."
~Flashback~
Sophia was on the playground of school, watching her classmates play with the newest hype-ball. A glitter ball as big as your hand that bounced amazingly.
"Hey, can I play too?"
The other kids just took one look at her. "Ew! No way!"
Sophia looked confused. "Why not?"
"You're weird! You pushed Thomas yesterday. For no reason."
'But... You did too...'
"Go away, Peea."
She sat the remainder of recess on a wooden bench, just watching the kids having fun. 'Am I doing something wrong?'
A few days later there were group assignments for the last-years camping trip. Sophia was placed in a group with 2 boys who were luckily friendly to her, but also 2 girls who didn't like her.
"Do we have to be in a group with Peea?" Denise asked. "Can't she go alone?"
The teacher brushed the nickname off as playful. "No. You're supposed to be in teams and yours was the only one with 4 members."
"But she's so weird!"
"I-I'm not weird..." Sophia muttered, unfortunately it was heard.
Denise and Angelique turned around. "Yes you are!" Angelique exclaimed.
"You act like such a little kid! You're 12! Act like it!" Denise said. "I mean, you watch a show for toddlers! You pushed Thomas for no reason!"
"Yeah! Do us a favor and go be alone like a loser-loner."
"B-but..." the girls had already left to join the assigned group. The teacher hadn't noticed anything of course. They only did it when he stepped out of class. "I... I don't know how to act different..."
~End flashback~
"They wanted to change me... And you know, for a while, they did. But all it did was make me miserable." Sophia finished her own story.
Zoe spoke up again. "I guess we have something in common. You, me and Tsunomon." this caught Sophia's attention. "Our classmates all want us to act like them."
"Well, then act like them." JP butted in. "It can't hurt if it helps you make friends, right?"
The two girls looked up at the plump boy. "JP, I won't pretend to be someone I'm not, just to be popular." Zoe told him.
"Besides, even if we did, if the others find out its an act or you do something that's not like them, they lash out twice as hard as before." Sophia added. "Believe me, I tried."
JP took a moment to reflect on those comments. "Yeah, I guess that would hurt." He said. It actually sounded like he understood their viewpoint.
"Still... No one likes to feel lonely."
Sophia shook her head. "No... And no one deserves to be."
Since the class had a small break to tend to Kapurimon there was no harm in going on field. The brunette approached Tsunomon, kneeling down next to him in the grass. He didn't seem to have noticed. He did, however, notice someone brushing the dirt and grass off his fur.
He turned to look. Of course it was the human from before, the only one who dared to be even close to him.
"That's a nasty bruise." she said, seeing the red mark on his forehead. "You okay?"
He just turned away from her hand. "I'm fine." he snapped. "It's not like it's the first time it's happened..."
Without another word, he, along with the other digimon, went back inside. P.E. was canceled for the remainder of the day. Togemon didn't say anything to Tsunomon, didn't even ask if he was okay, like she did with Kapurimon. Teacher of the year everybody... Once everyone was inside, Togemon came in with a big bowl of white...balls? According to the blackboard it's lunchtime, was this the lunch?
"Alright now, everyone." Togemon spoke up. "You know the drill. Open wide."
Every digimon, including Bokomon and Neemon, opened their mouth. Well... except Tsunomon, who still seemed dejected from the soccer incident earlier. JP and Zoe wondered if they had to open wide as well, not familiar with this way of serving lunch. They decided to just do so, while Sophia, being the picky eater she is, closed her jacket halfway to hopefully catch the food in there. (A.N. It's a caching trick that actually works for me! Don't judge me.)
Togemon tossed the white balls in the air. "TOGEMON JAB!" As soon as they came down, she punched them towards the children.
The digimon caught the food in their mouths, happily munching away and quickly ready for seconds. Even the five guests managed to catch a couple. It was surprisingly good, and it actually tasted like what you'd expect from such a puffy, cream-ball. Sophia caught a few in her jacket and wasted no time sitting down next to Tsunomon to share it.
Of course the small digimon was being stubborn as ever, but she patiently waited for him to eat. He eventually did eat a few bites, but that was when JP came in.
"Hey, come on. Chin up there, little guy." He...He's a head... He has no chin... Does he? "I'll bet I have just the thing to cheer you up." JP ignored the obvious pleas from Sophia to stop and turned to the class. "Everybody listen up!" As soon as he had everyone's attention, he dug into his pockets and pulled out several chocolate bars. "I have a bar of chocolate here for anyone who'll play with Tsunomon!"
"You doofus! You can't just bribe kids like that!" Zoe whisper-yelled.
JP eyed her, oblivious confusion written on his forehead. "Why not? I mean, what's the big deal?"
"Because you're asking them to play for payment! It's not real!" Sophia snapped. "They'll only pretend to like him for the chocolate! That's not right! Payment stops. Playing stops. Friendship stops! Heck, it wasn't even friendship to begin with! Idiot!"
Tsunomon had already seen the refusal in his classmates eyes. They didn't even seem to be thinking about playing with him. Not that he wanted to! But now he was an even bigger freak thanks to the blue human!
"Thanks a lot!" he voiced his thoughts sarcastically. "Now I'm the freak that those guys won't play with, even if you pay them!"
There was a moment of silence in the class-hut. Eyes were focused on Tsunomon and the three humans.
Kapurimon finally broke the silence. "We wouldn't play with Tsunomon anyways. He's not like us."
"Got that right." Nyaromon agreed, as well as everyone else.
Tsunomon could stand it anymore. So he did what he did best, run away from the school. Only this time there was no Togemon to stop him, she was still in shock of the children's words.
"Really? Really?!" Sophia snapped at the teacher. "Now you decide to notice?!" Togemon looked at the girl in surprise. "The whole day Tsunomon was getting bullied, outcast and even framed by Kapurimon for something he didn't do! You were watching the soccer game, but didn't even care to notice Kapurimon hit Tsunomon? Why are all teachers such idiots when it comes to bullying?!"**
Without another word she ran out, following Zoe. JP came following after pretty soon. He and Zoe started calling after Tsunomon, trying to get him to stop and listen or at least slow down. For nothing but a bouncing ball, he's pretty darn fast! He yelled at them to leave him alone and ran away even faster. The small group followed him until a small grove where they lost sight of him in the shrubbery. They stopped to catch their breath and hopefully catch sight of the brown furball.
Right when JP yelled at the sky that he wanted to make it up to him, they heard a startled shout and a splash of water. Zoe recognized the voice as Tsunomon's. The trio followed it to a river. There, in the middle, was Tsunomon struggling to stay above.
Zoe only took one look at the scene and made up her mind. "I'm coming!" she exclaimed.
She took a few steps back and ran for the river. When she got close enough, she jumped. There was a tree stump in the water which she aimed for, and succeeded to land on. Immediately she stuck out her arm towards Tsunomon. Tsunomon stopped struggling for a moment and held out his horn to Zoe.
"Just a little more. I've almost got you!"
She reached even further over the water, and Tsunomon got just a little bit closer. Finally Zoe managed to grab his horn. But when she tried pulling him out of the water, his wet fur proved too heavy with water, and she slipped. She and Tsunomon both went under.
"What do I do now?!" JP panicked, looking around for anything that could help in this situation.
Nothing useful was around as far as he saw. But he did see Sophia looking intensely at the water, not looking for anything that could help. Didn't she care that Zoe was in trouble?! A-and Tsunomon of course. He was about to say something, when a data stream from the water caught his eye. And he swore the girl next to him smirked when she saw it.
For a moment there was nothing special happening there. Then Zoe appeared, unconscious and being held by two large yellow and blue paws. Next, a face that obviously belonged to the arms appeared. It was kind of like a dog's face, but with a big yellow horn.
When the rest of the body appeared, and JP saw how big the digimon was, he screamed in panic at it. Why was it holding Zoe? Where did it come from? The digimon came closer, handing Zoe to the screaming boy.
Sophia placed a hand on his head. "Thank you for saving her, Tsunomon- I mean, Gabumon."
That silenced the chocolate lover. This was Tsunomon?! How did she even know? What happened to him? Wait... The data. That's what happened to the others when they Spirit Evolved before. Does that mean... Tsunomon can digivolve?
Zoe came to pretty quickly and insisted on drying her clothes before going back. It took a while, so to pass time JP decided to talk to Tsunomon and apologize for his stupid way of making 'friends'.
"I didn't know you could digivolve." he eventually settled on saying.
"I sure wish I couldn't." the now de-digivolved Tsunomon said, looking down. "It's been nothing but a royal pain in the neck."
JP didn't see the problem in digivolving. "Aw, come on. You don't really mean that."
Tsunomon still looked to the ground, seeming even more down than anytime they saw him before. "Yes, I do."
He told them about the first time he digivolved. It was to get the ball out of the tree for everyone. Only...they didn't know he could digivolve, and he didn't really explain what he was going to do either, before he did it. So they got scared of him. Suddenly a big, kind of intimidating digimon stood where their friend was. Even when they understood what happened, they still shut him out.
"So I digivolved to help them get their ball back, but all they saw was a big, freaky monster." he finished explaining. "Now they won't even play with me, cause they're afraid."
"I wasn't afraid." Zoe called from behind the rock.
"Yeah, me neither." Sophia assured.
It shocked Tsunomon to hear that. He was so sure the three of them would turn to hating him, just like his classmates.
Zoe stepped out from behind the rock. She needed to look Tsunomon in the eye for this. "I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't digivolved and pulled me out of the water." she said with much gratitude.
"And I don't even wanna think about it." Sophia muttered.
But Zoe ignored it. "You saved my life... Thanks Tsunomon."
He couldn't believe it. Not only did they not hate him, but Zoe even thanked him. And the other girl pet his head earlier, now that he thought about it. They were not afraid... They didn't hate him. They...They actually like him!
"Now, what do you say we get back to the others?" Zoe asked him.
JP couldn't contain his excitement at the thought of more snacks. All of a sudden, a rumbling came from somewhere. The sky darkened quickly as drops of rain fell. A storm. One that arrived very quickly...
"Oh perfect. And I just got my clothes all dry." Zoe complained.
"Priorities, Zoe." Sophia mumbled.
Lightning struck somewhere way behind and thunder rumbled again. JP cowered in fear as soon as he heard it, with his hands covering his ears. A small cry alerted Zoe, Sophia and Tsunomon to their scared ally.
"Are you kidding?" Zoe asked, seeing him being afraid of lighting. "You use electric attacks all the time. You can't be afraid of lightning."
"I'm different when I'm a digimon." was JP's reasoning. "Haven't you figured that out yet?" Lightning struck again, sending him crouching even lower.
"Really JP. Just when I thought you couldn't get any more quirky." Zoe continued.
Sophia put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "It is true." she said. "I'm different when I'm a digimon too. I think everyone is."
Zoe nodded. "Yeah...maybe."
"This isn't good." Tsunomon said, catching everyone's attention back. "I gotta get back to school." He sprinted off in a hurry.
The others followed him until he stopped to look at a river just by the giant flowers. The water was up high, almost overflowing already.
"Miss Togemon said, when it rained this hard before, the water overflowed and flooded the school. If it keeps up they'll all be washed away."
Zoe looked down at Tsunomon, shocked by the words she heard. "Washed away?!" Then she turned to her two friends. "JP, Sophia, we've got to do something!"
"We have to Spirit Evolve." Was JP's idea. "We'll get to them faster if we fly. Then we can use our combined strength to try to save the school from the flood waters."
"Good thinking, JP." Zoe said, sounding kind of surprised.
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…BEETLEMON!"
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…KAZEMON!"
"EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!…SONAMON!"
Tsunomon's reaction was worth the digivolution. He was so in awe. Beetlemon picked up the small digimon and rose up, Kazemon soon following. Sonamon did too, but once again she flew wobbly. One strong gust of wind send her bumping into Kazemon, who she quickly grabbed onto.
"Wow, you really do fly awful." Kazemon commented.
Sonamon grumbled. "Thanks for noticing." She looked at the other two, noticing how little trouble they had. "How do you guys do it? It's like you've flown your whole life."
Beetlemon and Kazemon looked at each other in thought. How did they do it?
"I'm not sure." Beetlemon said.
"Yeah, it just came natural to us." Kazemon replied. "Okay, first of all, no flapping." she instructed, seeing Sonamon desperately flap her wings. "Digimon wings don't seem to work like that. You just have to feel the wind under your wings and glide on it."
"Easy for you to say! Wind is your element!" Sonamon snapped, but she tried anyways. She stilled her wings, trying to 'feel the wind'.
"That's it! Focus on flying, and flying only." Kazemon encouraged, slowly releasing Sonamon's grip on her.
Sonamon did just that, and slowly but surely it felt easier. Her wings didn't feel quite as heavy as before and wind bothered her less. She didn't even notice she was flying all on her own until Kazemon cleared her throat and showed her.
She smiled. "Thanks Z."
The warrior of wind smiled back. "No problem. Still, how come you have trouble now? You flew perfectly back at the mountain."
Sonamon shrugged. "Maybe my Spirit was helping me? I really don't know, Zo."
Deciding to drop it for now, Kazemon looked straight ahead again and pointed. "Look, I think I see the others over there!"
The other warriors looked as well. There, on the roof of the school were the digimon. Togemon was helping Neemon up, but as soon as Bokomon pointed at them, she dropped helping him to look. It was pretty amusing to see him flailing there.
When they arrived at the building, Beetlemon placed Tsunomon with the other kids. He didn't even complain about being back there. The small digimon even thanked him.
"We have to divert the water with something big." Beetlemon said, coming up with a plan on the spot. "Like one of those rocks!" He pointed at the rocks that Tsunomon played on earlier that day. "If we work together, we should be able to save the school."
Kazemon smiled at him. "Why, JP. You're pretty brave when you wanna be." she teased.
So they got to work. Beetlemon used his thunder fist to break the ground around one of the rocks, so it would be easier to pick up. Kazemon pointed out where to put it, while Sonamon marked it and led Beetlemon there. The water hit almost as soon as the boulder was in place. Kazemon had to use hurricane wave to divert the water even more, but it worked. The flood just barely grazed the building and left the field completely undamaged.
Sonamon looked between Kazemon and Beetlemon, wondering what she should do. 'It's up to Tsunomon to save Kapurimon. W-What should I do?'
"Sophia." Beetlemon called out. "If you're not too busy, can you help keep this rock in place?"
"Uh, sure!" She flew over and helped holding the boulder, planting her heels in the ground.
It seems to be a success. The school was going to be safe! The children couldn't contain their excitement anymore. They jumped up and down on the roof, cheering on the Legendary Warriors. Unfortunately they didn't realize how slippery the roof could be. Kapurimon jumped to a slippery part of the roof and slipped off, into the flood waters.
"Kapurimon, no!" Togemon called out in a panic.
Kapurimon was being thrown back and forth in the current, but managed to hold onto a bunch of branches that were sticking out of the water. Togemon wanted to go and get him, but Bokomon held her back. The current is too strong and if such a big and heavy digimon fell and would be swept away it would be harder to save them.
"Tsunomon!" Beetlemon yelled over the loud wind. "Go get him!" Tsunomon turned around to face him, doubt on his face. "You're the only one who can do it!"
"I can't..." Tsunomon told them with a shaky voice.
Kazemon pitched in as well. "You saved me, you can do the same for Kapurimon!"
Tsunomon looked back at his classmates. They were staring at him with slight fear and confusion in their eyes. It made Tsunomon doubt himself even more. What if they cast him out even more after this? What if the bullying gets worse? What if-
"Don't let what they think bother you!" Sonamon snapped him out of it. "Everyone digivolves at some point! If they can't handle it, too bad! But don't let it stop you from doing the right thing!"
A big log appeared in the waters, coming at top speed towards the school. All the kids gasped when they saw it. If that thing hit the school-! Kapurimon's cries grew louder and more desperate. He probably couldn't hold out much longer.
"Tsunomon!" Beetlemon shouted.
"Don't be afraid, Tsunomon!" Sonamon called.
"You can do it!" Kazemon encouraged.
The log hit the rock, spinning to the left, towards Kapurimon! The warriors cried out his name one more time, more desperately. That, combined with Kapurimon's cries finally gave Tsunomon enough courage to digivolve in front of his class again. As Gabumon he ran towards the warriors, past Kazemon and onto the rock.
"Time for blue blaster!" He blasted blue flames from his mouth, which launched him in the direction of Kapurimon.
He flew over the water, closing in on Kapurimon and the log. At the last second, he managed to break the log with his horn, preventing it from hitting the small raccoon/fox- digimon. He took Kapurimon in his arms and waited the storm out by the branches, seeing as he couldn't go back so easily.
Luckily for both of them, the storm didn't last much longer. The warriors de-digivolved out of exhaustion. As quickly as he storm clouds came, they disappeared, guess that's weather in the digi-world. As soon as Gabumon got back to the school building with Kapurimon, the younger digimon surrounded him with questions, compliments and all that good stuff.
"No kidding? You mean I don't scare you anymore?" he asked, disbelieving.
"Not a bit!" "You were really awesome!" "We're sorry for being scared of you."
Gabumon smiled happily. He was being accepted. "Ah, shucks guys."
"Gabumon." Kapurimon called from where he stood. "Thank you for saving me." He said shyly. But that shy look was soon replaced by a more excited one. "I can't wait for the time I digivolve! Hope I'm as cool as you are!"
Zoe and JP eyed their digimon-knowledgeable friend, who just stared back. "What? He's got multiple, I don't know what he'll digivolve into."
After the scare and excitement had worn down a little, Togemon got back to business. She told the humans to wait there with the kids while she went and got something. Gabumon decided to de-digivolve, since staying Gabumon took a lot out of him. Togemon eventually returned with...a boat?
"We made this boat for you in craft class." she said. Must've been the class they missed while chasing Tsunomon. "We hope it'll help you."
"Thank you madam." Bokomon thanked on behave of all of them. "We'll get to the Forest Kingdom in no time."
"And I won't have to carry you!" Neemon cheered.
While the other stepped on board, Sophia went to Togemon really quick. "Togemon. I'm sorry about what I said about...you know... All teachers being idiots." She tugged her sleeves in nervousness. "I've just had some bad teachers myself who...never helped. I guess I took out that anger on you. I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry." Togemon said, quickly. "You were right. I should've noticed earlier that Tsunomon was getting bullied and cast out. I promise you I will try better. I don't want another fiasco like that happening again."
"Right."
"Sophia, come on!" Zoe called. "Get on board or we'll leave you behind!"
"I'm coming!" Sophia called back. She quickly jumped on board. "Geez, can't a girl apologize anymore?"
Zoe just gave a sly smile before turning to the digimon. "It was nice meeting all of you."
"Hey, Tsunomon. You're not afraid of digivolving anymore, are you buddy?" JP asked the orange puffball.
"Nope." Tsunomon answered. "I'm gonna keep on digivolving. One day I'll be as strong as the Legendary Warriors!"
Sophia gave his head one last pet. "I'm sure you will, bud."
"Actually Zoe, JP and Sophia are three of th-" Bokomon was promptly shut up by Zoe and JP before he could say more.
"Bokomon!" Zoe whisper scolded.
"Zip it would ya!" JP called him out on it as well.
"Remember what happened with the KaratsukiNumemon?!" Sophia reminded him.
Luckily for them and the awkward situation, the wind finally blew, setting the boat in motion. Zoe thanked them one last time as the group waved them goodbye. Eventually they were out of sight, so they shifted their focus of the approaching forest.
"This feels just great." Zoe said, talking about the wind flowing through her hair. Of course she'd say that...
"Yeah." JP agreed. Though he'd probably agree on her with anything. "Y'know, I'm sure glad those kids changed their minds about Tsunomon."
"You wanna know what else?" Zoe asked him.
Not expecting that reply, JP stumbled over his words a little. "Eh... Sure Zoe."
"I think I changed my mind about you a little too." she said.
"Really?"
"Just a little."
It didn't matter that it was only a little, or that he had no idea what she changed her mind about exactly. She changed her mind about him and that's all that mattered to him. He blushed and drooled at the thought of what could've changed. Did she like him now?
"Geez JP, pick up your drool. We don't need the Atlantic Ocean over here." Sophia teased, snapping him out of his lovey dovey trance.
"Oh, look!" Bokomon called, pointing up above the forest. "Our comrades have returned."
That sure got their attention. Sure enough, there they were. Takuya, Koji, Tommy and Koichi hanging by parachutes, with an airplane flying away. They seemed to have seem them as well. Hard to miss a boat, I guess. They waved at each other and shouted their 'hellos'. Finally the group would be complete again. Next stop, the forest!
*Fun fact: Back when I first wrote this I had no idea what P.E. meant. Now I know it's physical education~
**Sorry, I had to vent there. This isn't aimed at teachers in general, just the ones I had (minus 1 or 2 who actually helped me)
Thanks for reading!