Heart of Akasha
A/N: Thank you for your review, merendinoemiliano.
Chapter 10: Night on Bald Mountain
"Ah, I can see it!" Shouted Tentomon as he looked over the sea.
So they were finally reaching it. Though, to be honest, that had actually been faster than he expected. Maybe it was because of the many Heartless they had to fight on the way to the edge of the island. Which, by the way, did run away from the light of the Digivice. Unfortunately, that was all that the light did. Which meant that soon after stopping with the light, the Heartless came back. Sometimes with the next group. So it was better to deal with the Heartless as they came. But thanks to their many combat-capable party members, this wasn't that difficult anymore. They didn't even need to evolve the Digimon so far, even when a Bug Bite showed up.
Nevertheless, now the piece of land finally joined together with the others, downright fusing so that no trace of the separation remained. That meant that they could finally go and look for the others.
"Wait", exclaimed Naofumi suddenly and even though he hadn't shouted, it still claimed everyone's attention.
"What it is?" Ji-Han was the first to ask what they all thought.
"We only managed to restore the islands by hitting the black gears with the Keyblade", he explained. "But I doubt we are lucky enough that there exists only one gear for all parts of the island. So, if the other brats are on any of those parts, we won't be able to reach them from here without swimming or flying."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Asked Mimi. "Kabuterimon cannot carry all of us."
"Are we going to split up, after all?" Palmon added, to which Naofumi shook his head.
"That would make this whole trying to keep you save pointless", he refuted. "No, we'll have to use the teleporters. And hope that there is no malevolent entity on his world that can detect our scans."
"Teleporters?" Repeated Mimi, before her eyes were suddenly filled with gleeful anticipation. "Does that mean we get to see the spaceship?!"
"We can?" Interjected Koushirou just as eagerly. Together they closed in on the shield hero as if he had just promised them new toys, stars in their eyes.
"Cut it out", Naofumi admonished them. "We aren't going to the spaceship for fun. We are using the teleporters to get to your friends who might die if we take too long. Got it?!"
"…yes", the two carved in under his stern gaze and he turned to face Ji-Han, stretching out his hand.
"Okay, everybody", he spoke as he took the hand and gave Shua the other. "Make sure to keep physical contact. You don't want to be left behind on your own! Speaking off… we don't happen to have a team member good at stealth?"
"No", responded Mimi curious. "Why do you ask?"
Ji-Han made to answer but couldn't. Instead Shua made suddenly a distressed noise. When he looked towards the Pokémon, he noticed how it was tapping his hand rapidly.
"Oh, sorry", apologized Ji-Han as he loosened the grip he had unconsciously tightened.
"To answer your question", Naofumi told Mimi in Ji-Han's stead. "Our last party member was so good at stealth that we forgot to take her with us. Short: She's now dead."
Koushirou gasped and Mimi just stared at the shield hero, not being able to decide whether he joked or not.
"L-let's just go", Ji-Han declared, cursing himself internally for the cracking in his voice. Now really wasn't the time for a mental breakdown. But it was so hard. Thinking about her made him sad, yet trying to push the memories of her away made him feel even worse. That was how she died, after all.
"Oi, we're ready", Naofumi pulled him out of the depressing thoughts. Which he was thankful for. He still felt guilty, but he really had to focus on the now, focusing on saving the other kids.
"[Beam me up!]"
"This is spooky", was Mimi's first comment as she looked around the teleportation chamber, to which Naofumi only responded with:
"It was like this when we got it. Now stop getting distracted, we've got work to do!"
Unfortunately, since they were kids, this reminder only really worked until they got to the bridge. There Mimi and Koushirou's eyes went wide and they instantly hurried down the small flight of stairs to look at the windows and the computer consoles, respectively.
"Wow, so this is space", mused Mimi as she looked at the planet surrounded by the empty void of space with the occasional stars in sight.
"Don't touch that!" Naofumi meanwhile reprimanded Koushirou, who had wanted to tip on one of the keyboards. Actually…
"…I'll need that", Ji-Han told the boy and sat down. Some keystrokes later and the world was scanned and the teleportation destination highlighted. Though he still had to rotate the picture and zoom in before he could get to File Island and the {Auto-Safe #1} and {Auto-Safe #2}.
"Ohhhhhhh", voiced Mimi at the display, but she was ignored. There were quite a lot of separated parts of File Island that Ji-Han had to look through to get a picture of whether or not there was anyone there. And it certainly didn't help that the parts didn't even had the decency to stay put.
"Oh, that's the lake where we fought Seadramon", noted Tentomon and Naofumi told Ji-Han to set up a teleportation point {Lake} so they could go there later to refill the water. But while they found quite a lot of Digimon and even a trolley car, there were no sign of any humans. The same with a telephone poles filled desert region with a so-called Pyocomon Village next to a lake with a boat. Where apparently the kids had fought Meramon. In fact, they found quite a lot of locations that the kids had visited previously. And in nearly all of them they had ended up fighting against other Digimon, sometimes with Black Gears, sometimes without. It seemed as if they had hardly managed to go anywhere without a fight breaking out.
"Excuse me", Koushirou suddenly interrupted his musings. "But I think that island is now closer to the center than it was before…"
What?!
Ji-Han moved the screen to take a look at that particular place and soon it became clear that the boy was right: The piece of the island was not moving away from the center, but towards it.
"Somebody else managed to reverse the course of that part?" Mused Naofumi. "Was it one of the brats?"
"I thought one would need a Keyblade for that?" Mimi pointed out but the Hero of the Shield shook his head.
"Devimon was able to split the islands and I don't think he has a Keyblade", reasoned Naofumi. "It's possible that others managed to find the original way to affect the island parts, too. Ji-Han, can you check if there is anyone on that island?"
Ji-Han did, but the only thing of interest was an abandoned church on top of a small hill with a fault in the earth, showing a row of black gears, but no sign of any human or Digimon.
"Maybe they already went to another island?" Suggested Mimi, followed by Naofumi's:
"Then let us look at the center."
Ji-Han followed the directions and halfway between the two landmasses…
"Hey, that's Birdramon and Sora", Mimi exclaimed excited.
"And below that are Joe-han and Ikkakumon", added Tentomon pleased.
[Chosen of Love
Lv2 Takenouchi, Sora]
[Partner of Love
Lv43 Birdramon]
[Chosen of Reliability
Lv3 Kido, Joe]
[Partner of Reliability
Lv42 Ikkakumon]
Huh, so he could see people's names even while looking at them through cameras.
Sora was a young girl whose most striking feature was a blue round helmet with two strands hanging on its sides, inside of being used to fester the helmet to the head. On its backside and the center of the front peaked orange strands of hair out from under it. Ji-Han couldn't see her face from this angle so he could only observe her yellow sleeveless shirt, blue jeans and red gloves. Her Digimon was pretty much what it sounded like, a giant bird of prey with orange feathers in the image of flames, its tail and two long backwards head-feathers literally being made out of fire. Though instead of a sharp beak like an eagle or so like one would expect from a dangerous bird, its beak was more round like a duck. However, it did have some teeth on the outside of its beak, which were so few and irregular that it gave Birdramon a wild and dangerous look, more like a flying dinosaur than a domestic animal.
Joe and Ikkakumon were pretty unassuming compared to them. The boy had short blue hair and a yellow shirt with short bluish-gray sleeves and brownish-gray shorts, carrying a first aid bag while Ikkakumon was literally an oversized walrus with a horn and fluffy white fur.
"Try to find out, where they will most likely be making landfall", Naofumi interrupted Ji-Han's observations. "We won't be able to reach them while they are still at sea."
"We can't?" Wondered Mimi and Ji-Han shook his head.
"Even assuming I can set teleport points over water", he responded. "None of us is aquatic. Maybe if I can put the teleport point in the air we could send in Tentomon, but we still need me to teleport into the ship, no matter what."
"And I need Koushirou-han to evolve", mused Tentomon.
In light of all this, Ji-Han zoomed out, before zooming in on the coast of the center island.
"I think the ice island also got closer to the center", mentioned Koushirou and so Ji-Han investigated that one, after setting the teleportation point.
"There are the black gears", Mimi pointed towards a snowy cliff.
"Since there are no people there, that means they moved towards the center already", reasoned Naofumi and Ji-Han quickly moved the screen to find them. But there were none. At sea at last.
"Did they already made it to the center?" Wondered Ji-Han as he tipped on the keyboard to skim the landscape.
Ah, there they were, in some kind of oversized playground. And how many people and Digimon there were.
[Chosen of Courage
Lv3 Yagami, Taichi]
[Partner of Courage
Lv43 Greymon]
[Chosen of Friendship
Lv3 Ishida, Yamato]
[Partner of Friendship
Lv43 Garurumon]
[Chosen of Hope
Lv1 Takaishi, Takeru]
[Partner of Hope
Lv12 Patamon]
Taichi had spiky brown hair and wore a distinctive pair of flight goggles on his forehead. He wore a blue t-shirt with orange stars on the sleeves, brown shorts, as well as white gloves and sneakers. His partner, Greymon, was a large orange dinosaur of the bipedal carnivorous kind with blue stripes on some parts of its body and a brown plate on top of its head adding three horns, one at the front of its jaw and two going to the side and up located behind his red eyes.
Next up was Yamato who also had spiky hair like Taichi, just in blond. He wore a green sleeveless shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes and gloves. His partner, Garurumon, was a white and blue wolf with a long curling tail, a mane of feathers and triplets of feathers on top of the top of each leg.
Then there was Takeru, the youngest of the humans, a small kid wearing a green hat with a blue gem at the center of the front, a green sweater with a pocket for the arms at the front, brown shorts and white and green shoes. His partner was the only one who hadn't evolved, a small Guinea pig with a white lower half and an orange upper one which included to bat-like wings on the back of its head.
With Joe and Sora at sea and Mimi and Koushirou on board, that made all seven Chosen Ones. Unfortunately the three kids and their partners were not the only things in the playground. Ji-Han didn't even took more than a glance at the green hunchback-ogre with a bone club called [Ogremon] standing opposed to Greymon, as he was too occupied by the fact that there was freaking Leomon in front of Garurumon down there.
PING!
{A quest has been created.}
{Quest Alert
The Origin of Life: Primary Town under Siege
To get to the DigiDestined, Devimon's forces attack Primary Town, the place where Digimon are reborn as eggs.
Protect Primary Town, its inhabitants and all DigiDestined from Ogremon and the manipulated Leomon.
Bonus Objective:
1: Do not kill Leomon.
2: Do not kill Ogremon.
3: Free Leomon from Devimon's influence.
Completion Award: +2 000 EXP.
Increased reputation with all Digi-Destined and their allies.
Decreased reputation with Devimon.
Bonus Award:
1: +500 EXP to you and every party member.
2: +500 EXP to you and every party member.
3: +2 000 EXP to you and every party member.
Decreased reputation with Devimon.
Completion Failure: +500 EXP to you and every party member.
Decreased reputation with all Digi-Destined and their allies.}
Oh, shit!
"Everybody to the teleporters!" Ji-Han called out as he accepted the quest and set the teleportation point. "Two in one!"
The kids were painfully slow at getting up the little flight of stairs. Ji-Han activated [High Jump], but the boost it gave was not big enough to allow him to just jump up, even with the level up that he had gotten from fighting all the Red Nocturnes. So he had to wait before he could get to his captain seat to activate the teleporters, chose the {Temp Save} and activate it. And even then, he first got a warning message asking him if he was sure because the point had people near it. As fast as he could he pressed {YES} and shouted:
"Good to go!"
"[Beam me down]!" Naofumi and Shua were the first to go down, unsurprisingly considering only they knew how to do it. Luckily the kids were observant enough to copy Naofumi, making them teleport out of the ship even before Ji-Han had reached the free teleporter.
"[Beam me down]!" And then it was his turn. The sudden appearance of new people confused both allies and enemies.
"[Shield Prison]!" A confusion that Naofumi was quick to capitalize on, as he encased the surprised Ogremon in a sphere of steel while Shua attacked Leomon, who was for some reason darker and bigger than he remembered, with a ball of… Fire? Did he copy it from a Red Nocturne? When was that?!
Yet, regardless of when the Smeargle had managed to get that attack, Leomon didn't even react towards it, showing off his Lv so high Ji-Han couldn't even see it.
"[Fist of the Beast King]!" And that was Leomon countering with his own attack, some sort of spectralized lion head.
"Watch out!" Shouted Ji-Han but it wasn't the Pokémon that was targeted. No, the attack hit Garurumon and instantly threw him backwards into a cliff hard enough to make rocks fall on top of him from above.
Fear captured Ji-Han's heart. If that attack was enough to one-shot the level 43 Garurumon, what would that mean for the level 7 Shua?!
"Get out of there!" He urged his party member as he ran towards the darkened Digimon as fast as he could.
"[Fist of the Beast King]!"
Ji-Han was still too far away to do anything but luckily Leomon disregarded Shua as a threat and attacked Greymon instead. What was not so fortunate was that now Naofumi had to deal with Ogremon on his own. And he was powerful enough to shatter the shield prison with one [Tyrant Fist] of his.
"Taichi-saaan", Koushirou called out to the other kid. Right, the kids.
"Everybody, use your Digivices on Leomon", Ji-Han called out. I'll keep him busy until you are ready!"
"[Fist of the Beast King]!"
"[Guard]!"
The fact that the Digimons needed to shout their attacks just like him, was the only reason that Ji-Han managed to bring up his Keyblade in time to survive the attack as the spectral projectile itself was too fast to anticipate without the verbal warning. But with it, Ji-Han could calculate the arrival time and block the attack in time.
"[Fist of the Beast King]!"
"[Guard]!"
And the second one was not only blocked, but actually flung back, flinging its owner backwards.
"Alright!" Cheered Ji-Han but opposite to the friendly Digimon, that guy stood up again right away. But he did not attack again. Instead he just stood there for a moment as if he waiting for something. Then he opened his mouth and said:
"I am your humble servant and will obey you."
Ji-Han was confused. He… wasn't talking to him, right? Ji-Han somehow doubted that the lion man would switch his alliances so easily. So, what? He gotten some new order telepathically? Probably not a good thing then.
Ji-Han was proving right when the Digimon did not throw another Fist of the Beast King and instead walked in a steady pace towards the Gamer, drawing his sword. Ji-Han didn't like that at all. Fist of the Beast King was a rather large direct attack coming always from the same direction. So he could anticipate and block it. But if the Digimon decided to go melee, he could attack from any angle without any warning. And considering how Leomon was strong enough that he couldn't see its level, he really didn't like his chances.
"Naofumi, switch!" He called out to his partner as he beat a hasty retreat. Even though Ogremon had a level of 48, at last he could see the level. With Leomon, only Naofumi had the VIT to survive a hit.
"Don't worry", Taichi suddenly declared as he and his friends ran past him. "We got this!"
Ji-Han exhaled in relief. While they were just as strong as normal human kids, they were the Chosen Ones of this world. And their Digivices had already shown to work against the controlled Leomon before. Hopefully it would stop him again.
To his surprise, it did more than that. The combined light of the five Digivices not only inflicted enough pain that Leomon ran away, it also shrunk, decolored him and reduced his level slowly until it was at 54. Then a number of black gears ejected out of its back, which soon dispersed into black particles. And seeing as now Leomon wasn't controlled anymore, Ogremon, decided to get out of here.
PING!
{You have completed the quest
[The Origin of Life: Primary Town under Siege].
Completion Award: +2 000 EXP.
Increased reputation with all Digi-Destined and their allies.
Decreased reputation with Devimon.
Bonus Award for
[Do not kill Leomon.]:
+500 EXP to you and every party member.
Bonus Award for
[Do not kill Ogremon.]:
+500 EXP to you and every party member.
Bonus Award for
[Free Leomon from Devimon's influence.]:
+2 000 EXP to you and every party member.
Decreased reputation with Devimon.}
PING!
{Your level went up by 1.}
{Name: Han, Ji-Han
Class: The Gamer
Title: none
Level: Lv11
Status: Unaffected
HP: 213/840
MP: 370/395
STR: 44 (39+3+2) ← (+0) →
VIT: 24 (22+2) ← (+0) →
DEX: 18 (16+2) ← (+0) →
INT: 19 (19-2+2) ← (+0) →
WIS: 27 (25+2) ← (+0) →
LUK: 15 (13+2) ← (+0) →
Points: 5
Munny: 390 517}
Alright, a level up! He really needed all the help he could get against the likes of Leomon and Ogremon… but man, was his HP always this low at a quarter? Forget Leomon, at this point Kabuterimon or Togemon might take him out with one hit. What about Shua?
"[Observe]!"
{Name: Shua
Class: none
Title: none
Level: Lv7 (46.96%)
Gender: male
Age: 2
Status: Unaffected
HP: 660/800
MP: 197/200
STR: 20 VIT: 15 (+30) DEX: 21
INT: 10 WIS: 10 LUK: 9}
He seemed to be alright for now. But Ji-Han himself really needed a pick-me-up.
"Thanks for the help", Yamato addressed him, "but who are you guys?" Next to the boy was his partner in his preevolved form Gabumon, a yellow bipedal lizard with a spiral horn wearing something that looked like the pelt of his evolved form.
"Ah, right", responded Ji-Han to the question, closing the panels. "I am Han Ji-Han, this is Shua and that guy over there is Iwatani Naofumi. We are kinda like aliens who intercepted a call for help from this world to save it from the Heartless."
"Heartless?"
"Cartoonish-looking creatures that turn people into other Heartless by stealing their hearts. Since this Keyblade is the only thing that can defeat them permanently, I've decided to travel from world to world and do so."
"Hey, Matt", Taichi called out to Yamato, "come over, Leomon wants to tell us something!"
Curious Ji-Han followed the Chosen One to the other and got to see Taichi's partner in his preevolved form. Like Greymon the Agumon was a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur, just of yellow color. Which captured his interest because out of all the Digimon Ji-Han had seen so far, it was the one most resembling a real-life animal. Like a baby T-Rex with a shorter tail and bigger head and arms.
"So what do you want to talk about?" Naofumi inquired when they were all together. "If it's about them being Chosen Ones, we figured that out already."
"We are Chosen Ones?" Repeated Taichi surprised and Naofumi rolled his eyes.
"Okay, so not all know about it. Then I suggest we get to the Vimana and grab the other brats so that we don't have to explain it all over and over again."
"Vimana?" Wondered Koushirou. "Your spaceship is named after the flying palaces of Hindu religion? How can that be? Aren't you from a different world? Why do you have the same mythology?! Eeep!"
The "Eeep" came when Naofumi transformed his shield into the cannon version, signaling Koushirou, he should stop talking.
"We weren't the ones who named it and for your current situation it doesn't matter at all", the Hero of the Shield cut him off. "Now gather around so we don't waste any more time."
"A spaceship?" Taichi asked Koushirou and Mimi responded excitedly in the affirmative:
"Sure is! A real spaceship! We got to see it and it was awesome!"
"I want to see it, too", exclaimed the little Takeru, to which Ji-Han responded with:
"Then make sure you don't let go. I take everyone who is connected to me with me when I beam up."
"I'll stay here with the Baby-Digimon", said… Elecmon? Ji-Han hadn't even noticed the red hare with blue markings and a fan of feathers as tail. Takeru actually left their circle to say goodbye to the Digimon.
[-Primary Village Caretaker-
Lv23 Elecmon]
Ji-Han was a bit skeptical as to how a Digimon at such a level would be able to hold itself against the likes of Ogremon, but maybe there wasn't any need. Since this was the place where Digimon were reborn, maybe even the evil Digimons decided to leave it alone since it was also the place for their rebirth.
Takeru had finally said his goodbye to Elecmon and they teleported all into the spaceship. With the five kids, their partners and Leomon Ji-Han became more and more glad that the FO Vimana had such a large teleportation room.
"Aright, Shua", Ji-Han told his comrade. "Why don't you get them settled in the canteen while Naofumi and I get the other kids? If any of them can cook, they can, just make sure that we have enough to eat for our way back."
"I think they shouldn't cook", disagreed Naofumi. "I don't want to come back and find our kitchen destroyed because they didn't know how to use the gadgets without breaking them!"
"Oh, right", agreed the Gamer. "But if any of you like raw meat, you can get some out of the fridge."
"You want us to eat raw meat?!" Exclaimed Taichi in disgust to which Naofumi just responded with:
"You don't have to eat anything."
To diffuse the situation Ji-Han then quickly added, that this was only until they got Joe and the others and he would be able to cook. And that the offer for raw meat was just for those who could eat it without problem.
"Okay", declared Ji-Han as he brought File Island onto the screen. Now where were the kids? Still at sea? Looks like they were. And their course was still the same.
So they teleported down and then settled for waiting. Well, Ji-Han had noticed that his MP had gotten back to full and so he used a couple of [Power Strike] to not let his regeneration go to waste. Afterwards he settled for grinding [High Jump], earning him the fourth level in the skill. Until they finally saw the orange bird coming towards them.
"There are other humans here?" Exclaimed Sora in surprise while Joe seemed to be relieved. As they disembarked from their Digimon, the monsters in question returned to their previous evolutions.
[Partner of Love
Lv13 Biyomon]
[Partner of Reliability
Lv8 Gomamon]
Biyomon was a pink bird with a red beak and wings that looked more like arms with claws. The feathers on the hair looked more like hair styled backwards and a blue striped cowlick in between two hair spikes that had blue peaks just like the four large tail feathers. Gomamon was a white sea lion-like creature with purple markings. On its round head it had a short orange mane reminiscent of Mohawk-style hair.
"We aren't actually native either", responded Ji-Han to Sora's question. "I am Han Ji-Han and this is Iwatani Naofumi. We are travelers from another world."
"We are Takenouchi Sora and Kido Joe", the girl introduced them. "And these are Biyomon and Gomamon. When you say a different world, you don't mean this one, right? Does that mean you can take us back home?!"
"Sorry", apologized Ji-Han, "but for that I'd have to know where your home is. For now, you'd better just come with us to Koushirou-Gun and the others. Leomon wants to tell us, for what reason you are here in the first place. We are literally just waiting for you."
"Leomon?" Inquired Joe. "Wasn't he working for Devimon?"
"He was, but we took care of the black gears."
"And why should we believe you?" Joe continued suspicious. "How do we know you aren't trying to eat us?!"
"Ah, don't be such a scaredy-cat, Joe", his partner teased him. "I am pretty sure we would realize if they were other Bakemon."
"No, he is right", contradicted Naofumi, "you don't know anything about us, so not trusting us is just common sense." Then he sighed. "Of course now we'll have to waste time to get some of the other brats before we can actually get to business."
"Can you stay here to keep an eye on them?" Asked Ji-Han. "I'll try to hurry."
Some complications later and Ji-Han was back with Taichi and Agumon. And while he managed to convince Joe, suddenly a bunch of Heartless had appeared, delaying the departure even further. Not to mention that there was a new type of Heartless, the {Shaky Applause}, which looked like a white seal with long arms ending in silver cymbals. They attacked by hitting things with their cymbals or banging them together to create shockwaves. Furthermore, they were the first Heartless to use a buffing attack on an ally, increasing their STR by 5% with the status effect [Cheered Up STR 5]. Luckily they seemed to be weak to the Fire Element, as Agumon's [Baby Flame] was quickly able to make short work out of them. And the luck continued when Ji-Han managed to get one Data Fragment of each size out of the two Awake Instinct that accompanied the Shaky Applause.
Not so lucky was that Ji-Han had yet to add Agumon, Biyomon and Gomamon to the party, so there was no chance to get any drops from the Shaky Applauses they defeated. To be fair, Gomamon didn't exactly fight at all but that was beside the point. And since he could fight as Ikkakumon, Ji-Han still invited all three to the party and, once they beamed up, did the same to Gabumon, Patamon and Leomon.
"Alright", declared Ji-Han. "Now you guys deal with all the Chosen One business, while I'll go prepare some food." For like 20 people… hopefully he got lucky enough to get at last half of the dishes correctly…
"I've got 6 toasts with cooked meat and 9 with fried one", Ji-Han told the children. "Who wants what?"
"I want the fried one", Agumon proclaimed loudly, earning him a disapproving gaze from Naofumi and a sigh from Ji-Han.
"We did tell you that the cooked and fried stuff is for the humans first, right?" Ji-Han reminded him. Agumon had the decency to look sheepish.
"Ah, sorry, I forgot", he apologized.
Ji-Han just shook his head as he distributed the toast.
"Isn't that burned?" Wondered Joe as he took a critical look at his [Half-Burned Salted and Fried Oumukade Toast].
"It is", admitted Ji-Han. "My cooking success rate is currently at 60% for every dish with normal difficulty. But since we can't really throw away food, I've combined the success with the failure to dull down the taste." And both chopping up the cooked and fried meat as well as putting it on a Buttered Toast were mechanical tasks, so their rank was [Inferior]. Which meant that they had no failure rate and were thus the best way to grind his Food Preparation.
"Can at last Takeru get some that aren't half-done?" Asked Yamato. "He is a growing boy, he needs all the nutrients he can get."
"I'll be fine", responded Takeru defiant. "I am big enough!"
"It should be alright", Ji-Han reassured the older boy. "It doesn't seem to inflict any status effects and instead even heals 3 HP."
"You have the most crazy ability I've ever seen", declared the Chosen of Friendship. "And I am including the Digimon."
"He is an alien, after all", noted Mimi to which Ji-Han chuckled.
"Actually, my ability isn't that common where I am from either", he pointed out. "And before I got it, I didn't even know special abilities were a thing. And I am still weaker than any of the Champion-level Digimons. Speaking of, what are your plans now?"
While he had been cooking, the quest [Chosen in Distress: Destined of the Digiworld] had been completed, signaling that now all seven kids knew why they had been summoned.
"We need to defeat Devimon to return to our world", Taichi explained. "So we are going to fight him right after we've finished eating!"
"Would it be bad if you waited for a day?" Ji-Han inquired, surprising the others.
"Waiting?" Wondered Koushirou. "Why?"
"I restore my HP through sleep", he explained. "If we wait, I won't need to use one of my rare potions to do so."
"That would not be a good idea", interjected Leomon. "Devimon plans to invade the Server Continent. If we wait for too long, we won't be able to stop him."
Ji-Han cursed, earning him words of disapproval from Yamato, but he ignored them.
PING!
{A quest has been created.}
{Quest Alert
The Devil: Showdown on Top of Infinity Mountain
To get back home, the DigiDestined have no choice but to defeat Devimon.
Help the DigiDestined defeat Devimon without sacrificing any DigiDestined.
Bonus Objective:
1: Make sure Leomon survives.
2: ?
Completion Award: +5 000 EXP to you and every party member not from the world.
Increased reputation with all Digi-Destined and their allies.
Decreased reputation with Devimon.
Bonus Award:
1: +2 000 EXP to you and every party member.
2: ?
Completion Failure: +1 000 EXP to you and every party member not from the world.
Decreased reputation with all Digi-Destined and their allies.}
"Then I guess we won't be able to take our time to prepare, huh?"
He accepted the quest, opened his inventory and took out a Recovery Potion, drinking the whole thing at once {+500}.
"[Status Window]!"
{Name: Han, Ji-Han
Class: The Gamer
Title: none
Level: Lv11
Status: Unaffected
HP: 713/840
MP: 395/395
STR: 44 (39+3+2) ← (+0) →
VIT: 24 (22+2) ← (+0) →
DEX: 18 (16+2) ← (+0) →
INT: 19 (19-2+2) ← (+0) →
WIS: 27 (25+2) ← (+0) →
LUK: 15 (13+2) ← (+0) →
Points: 5
Munny: 390 517}
He still needed more than 100 HP to be at full. And then there were still points to spend. Since his base STR was 39, he would get two STR with one point thanks to [Muscle-Headed Keyblade Fighter], so he should probably do that. But what about the rest? He still didn't know how to increase his DEX without stat points and he had the skill Guard to stop attacks. Which would work better, the faster he could bring up his Keyblade, so DEX it was.
Back to HP, he now decided to use up all the Slug Mucus. It wouldn't really heal a lot, maybe 15 HP total… actually, maybe he shouldn't use them after all. The description said that it could be used in medicine, so maybe he could get a better effect if he used it as an ingredient for something. Not food, obviously, since the description did say to apply it on skin, but maybe some healthy cosmetics. He still had to find something to restore his HP he wouldn't be able to get enough food in time. But that was why he had decided on an experiment:
He took out a full Recovery Potion and an empty bottle, opened the former and carefully poured a bit of the liquid into the second. Then he used [Observe] on both.
{[Recovery Potion]
A health-recovery potion that instantly heals 22 HP.
Tastes like strawberry.}
{[Recovery Potion]
A health-recovery potion that instantly heals 478 HP.
Tastes like strawberry.}
It worked! Instead of using up a full potion to heal 100 HP, he could split up a potion and only use as much as he needed! And then top it off with some food.
Some careful pouring and a drink later and Ji-Han's HP was at 817. Good, but now that he thought about it, wasn't Shua also not at full HP? A quick [Observe] told him that yes, the Pokémon needed 140 HP. He managed to pour enough into the bottle to give him 136. Which he deemed enough for now considering how it would take to long to get all the Digimons to exactly full HP. The kids were already getting restless.
"Okay, we can go now", he told them. "I suggest to go to the big teleporter room so that we can all be teleported together. Also, be ready for anything, since I am going to se the point right onto the top of the mountain, got it?"
"Good."
Ji-Han went to the bridge, did his thing and then went through the whole spaceship to the other end, already seeing the group assembled.
"Any last comments?" He asked. That was when Taichi turned around to face his friends.
"Alright, everybody, this is it!" He told them. "This is the final battle! We are going to defeat Devimon and finally return home! Are you ready?!"
"YES!"
"Then let's say it together: one, two, three, [Beam me down]!"
'Not bad for a motivational speech', thought Ji-Han amused as the light of teleportation took them.
They teleported in front of a temple on top of the mountain and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The sky was bright, the far-off ocean glistening in the sun and the mountain was quiet, like no one was there.
"Hey, where's Devimon?" wondered Taichi, before he decided to just shout a challenge:
"Come out, Devimon, wherever you are!"
"No need to shout."
Out of the shadows of the temple, a dark figure appeared. It was humanoid but a lot taller thanks to the disproportionate long limbs it had. The legs ended in shoes that seemed to be fused with the body, two sets of two brown belts were wrapped around the shin; the right knee had a skull and the left thigh three black belts who also appeared around the torso, the upper right arm and the lower left arm. The whole lower right arm was wrapped in brown bandages, even the clawed hand except for the tip of the claws themselves, of which the middle one was red instead of the usual black. The left hand was also wrapped in bandages, but here the whole clawed fingers were left bare.
Furthermore the creature had two extra limbs on its back, long tattered bat-like wings with holes in them, a red symbol on its muscular chest that looked like someone wanted an evil Batman, two bull-like horns on the side of its head, red eyes and a white stone on its forehead. The only other white pieces where the skull on its left shoulder and the part around its vampiric mouth, which was the only thing, not covered by its black bodysuit. And above his head:
[Evil of the Mountain
Lv57 Devimon]
To add to the spookiness, Devimon wasn't even walking or flying, he was literally levitating out of the shadows, the arms crossed in front of his chest like an Egyptian pharaoh. And behind him like a good underling followed Ogremon.
"I have been waiting for you", Devimon spoke. "I have started to think you have run away."
"As if!" Responded Taichi. "We are going to defeat you!"
"You talk as if you have a chance. I am the ruler of this Island! Defy me and I will bring upon you the wrath of the universe! But before that, I have a question for the Keybearer."
Ji-Han was surprised.
"Me?"
"Indeed. The Balance Keeper has already her Chosen. So why do you stand before me, outsider?! Why do you decide to meddle in events that do not concern you?!"
"That's what I've been telling him", Naofumi quipped, earning him a gaze of disapproval from the Gamer.
"The short answer would be that I don't want people to die if I can help it", he answered. "Especially children."
"Is that so? Then I assume you have no complains if I stack the deck in my favor, too?" He raised his right hand and dark portals appeared all around them.
And with the portals came Heartless, all kinds of them. Awake Instincts, Dire and Creeper Plants, Red Nocturnes, Blue Rhapsodies, Bug Bites, Turnarounds, Houselesses and Shaky Applauses. And then more that Ji-Han didn't recognize. Giant black and white teddy bears, small black T-Rex-like heartless with red markings, white ghosts with a colorful striped cap, colorful beach balls with yellow eyes and birds with wings for ears and boxing gloves as feet.
But before Ji-Han could use Observe on them, they all transformed into black gears, which soon were flying towards Devimon and into his body.
"He's absorbing the Heartless?!" Exclaimed Naofumi in disbelief. "[Shield Prison]!"
But it was futile. While he actually managed to capture Devimon, the black gears just went through them as if they weren't there. Then the sky darkened and the prison broke apart as Devimon grew larger and larger, destroying the temple entrance while he did so just because his growing body needed the space. He didn't stop growing until he towered above them, his feet twice the size of Leomon and a level that only showed as a question mark under an [Observe].
"Ha, you kids got no chance against us now!" Proclaimed Ogremon loudly, only for Devimon to turn around and grab the Digimon. "Wait! What are you doing?! Ahhhhhhh!"
Ogremon screamed out in pain as he was enveloped by a dark aura and then, to the horror of the witnesses, turned into black gears himself.
"What are you waiting for?!" Naofumi shouted. "Evolve already!"
That brought the others out of their stupor and the Digimon began evolving. This did not escape Devimon's notice and he spun around, creating violent winds with his wings just from the motion alone. The kids and small Digimon couldn't keep their footing and were thrown backwards, off the mountain.
"Guys!" Ji-Han cried out in panic but before he could even think about checking up on them, Devimon stretched out his hands and black light shot out of them and towards him. Because of the distraction, Ji-Han couldn't react in time and the streams of darkness hit him, Shua and Leomon, pushing them backwards, just like the gust of wind had done to the others earlier.
{-16} {-16} {-16}
And inflicting damage, too!
Ji-Han brought forth his Keyblade to use [Guard] at the same time that Naofumi activated [Air Strike Shield] and together they stopped the darkness in its tracks. But even if they could block it, they couldn't attack if they only hit behind their defenses.
"[Dodge Roll]!" Ji-Han activated, forgoing his guard and went to the left in a series of [Dodge Roll]s to force the enemy to split his attention between to places.
The gambit worked as Devimon tried to hit Ji-Han and so didn't realize when Shua and Leomon ran from behind Naofumi's cover right towards Devimon's left leg.
"Surprise!" Only for Ogremon's upper body to appear out of the leg and whack with his club at the attackers, who couldn't react in time against this new development and were thrown backwards. That made Devimon notice the others and he stopped trying to hit Ji-Han and instead shot his darkness towards the enemies near his feet.
"[Thousand Feet Charge]!" Naofumi rushed towards his allies and brought his shield up above them, blocking the attack.
"You are a nuisance!" Declared Devimon and stopped firing the darkness attack. Instead he bend downwards and literally grabbed the Hero of the Shield.
"Begone!" He shouted and threw Naofumi off the mountain… or rather, he made the throwing motion. But Naofumi continued to stick to the hand, dangling from a shield looking like some form of leech biting into Devimon. The Digimon was completely dumbfounded at that development and Ji-Han used that moment to ran towards Devimon and attacked him with a series of [Power Strike]s.
"[Fist of the Beast King]!" "Smear!"
Meanwhile the other two also attacked Devimon, the Pokémon more successfully than the Digimon, mostly thanks to the fact that Ogremon focused on Leomon more. Rightfully so as Devimon didn't even seem to notice Shua's fireballs and Power Strikes.
"Get off!" Told Devimon Naofumi instead and the wave of darkness flew out of his hand – but Naofumi was still protected from it by his shield. So Devimon brought his hands together, intend on crushing the Hero of the Shield.
Naofumi let go and fell down as the hands came together above him with a thundering clap. But he didn't let that distract him and his shield transformed into a spiraling rope, which he send out towards the hands. It hooked itself onto the right one and instantly stopped his decent. Right afterwards Naofumi let go to avoid being flung away by the giant Digimon and landed safely on the ground.
"[Meteor Wing]!" "[Mega Blaster]"
Meanwhile Birdramon and Kabuterimon had brought the kids back up and started to attack Devimon, too while the rest of the Digimon except for Patamon evolved, this time without getting interrupted by Devimon.
"Curse you, Keybearer", Devimon called out as he noticed that and then took flight, his wings creating violent wings that the children only managed to withstand by clinging to their Digimon near them.
"[Mega Flame]!" "[Fox Fire]!" "[Chikuchiku Bang Bang]!" "[Harpoon Vulcan]!"
Who proceeded to shoot their attacks at Devimon. Surprisingly opposite to him all had a ranged attack, allowing them to reach airborne enemies. Not that he could tell if they had an effect or not.
"Your attacks are pitiful", Devimon shouted, claiming that they were not. "All you can do is run and cover before me!"
His hands emitted streams of darkness, shooting the flying Digimon out of the sky, before moving his hands around to get everyone on the ground. Naofumi and Ji-Han managed to guard against it and Shua and Leomon were protected by an [Air Strike Shield], but the rest got the full brunt of the attacks.
Even if Ji-Han wanted to protect the other ones, Devimon not only could move his arms faster than Ji-Han could run, but the large size of the Digimon also meant that he couldn't stand in the way of the death rays coming from above. He'd had to stand on top of one of them to protect them…
"Birdramon, Kabuterimon", he called out throw the voice chat. "Can any of you guys carry me on their head? I'll guard you while you attack!"
"Let's try it!" Agreed the lightning bug as he tried to pick himself up to meet Ji-Han halfway. But Devimon noticed his efforts and instantly focused on him again, forcing Ji-Han to run the whole way himself.
"[High Jump]! [Guard]!"
Ji-Han jumped into the way, bringing his Keyblade up to block the stream of darkness, before landing on Kabuterimon's head.
"Kabuterimon", he cried out, "can you make it?"
"Give me a second." Kabuterimon pushed himself up head-first and Ji-Han clung to his horn with his left hand while blocking Devimon's attack with his right. Then the Digimon took flight and with Ji-Han's Keyblade at the front, parted the wave of darkness as they closed in on the giant Digimon. Who, seeing as that didn't stop them, discontinued the ranged attack and instead let himself fall down, realizing that just his mass alone would be enough to take them out of the sky.
"Abort, abort", cried out Ji-Han and Kabuterimon swerved to the side, avoiding the large body as it crashed into the top of the mountain, creating another shockwave and destroying what was left of the temple. But Ji-Han's attention was soon taken by the large hand that swatted him and Kabuterimon out of the air like a fly and down onto the ground. {-205}
PING!
{[Physical Endurance]'s Level has risen by 1.}
Shit, that hurt.
Ji-Han pushed himself up, only for a wave of darkness to come down on him, pushing him into the dirt again. {-16}
Damn it! {-16}
"[Air Strike Shield]!"
A transparent shield blocked the wave of darkness above him, allowing him and Kabuterimon to stand up again.
"Thanks!" Ji-Han called out to the shield hero and looked up at his enemy. Devimon had forgone the wave of darkness again and instead raised his hands high into the air. What was he-?
Then Devimon brought his hands down onto the ground next to him, not even aiming for anyone. However, the mountain had already been strained by his dive and the force of the strike made it fall apart. Cracks appeared in the ground near the edges before the cliffs themselves began sliding down, with the people on top of them.
Panicking the Digimon rushed towards their partners with Leomon going after Mimi to prevent them from falling or at last catch them before they hit the ground, the same with Naofumi for Shua. Ji-Han just used a combination of [Dodge Roll] and [High Jump] to get ahead of the falling cliff.
In the end he was the only one still on top with Devimon, practically standing before the Digimon's feet as the rest of the mountain top had fallen down. Looking down at him, the devil lifted his left foot and Ji-Han und [Guard] to stop the appendage in its tracks and knock it back, putting him off-balance. Not wanting to let that opportunity to go waste, Ji-Han used [Power Strike] on the other foot, but Devimon flapped his wings and not only recovered his balance, but also took flight and so got his foot out of Ji-Han's reach.
"Your resistance is futile!" Devimon told the Gamer. "You might be a Keybearer you do not know how to use it. In your hands, it is nothing more than a wooden stick! And to think that I was worried about you. Fall now with the rest of Infinity Mountain!"
He stretched out his hands, not towards Ji-Han, but to the mountain below, gathering darkness in them.
"Devimon!" Suddenly someone called out to him, a voice that Ji-Han had not heard before.
The voice belonged to a literal angel with six white feathery wings, a metal helmet with a cross at the front, completely covering the eyes but letting out the long orange hair at the back, a yellow shoulder guard on the left side, a single blue bandage wrapped loosely around the left arm, as well as one around the right leg, not to mention four things that looked like the heads of nails randomly placed on the chest, a blue cloth hanging from its girdle, covering only part of the front and fist cuffs on the left hand.
[Partner of Hope
Lv45 Angemon]
"Who are you?" The devil asked the angel. "Are you that pathetic little Patamon?!"
"Indeed I am, Angemon, the evolved form of Patamon", he readily explained and summoned a golden staff with black ends. "I will now erase your power of darkness!"
Suddenly seven beams of light stretched out from all around the mountain and gathered on Angemon, bathing him in a blinding light that was hard to look at.
'Just like Akari.'
Ji-Han winced at the stray thought that hit his mind, focusing on Devimon's response instead:
"Stop it!" He shouted. "If you try to gather that much energy, you will just destroy yourself!"
"I have no other choice", declared Angemon. "If it can save everyone, my fate is unimportant!"
Angemon… was sacrificing himself? He was going to die?"
'Just like Akari.'
"Wait!" Shouted Ji-Han as he ran forward. "Let me-"
"[Shield Prison]!"
Suddenly Ji-Han was stopped in his tracks by an all-too-familiar sphere of shields.
"Wha- Naofumi? Why-"
"You wanted to take his place, didn't you?" The Hero of the Shield spoke through their voice chat. "You were going to suggest for Angemon to give you the energy instead."
"Yes, I did", Ji-Han answered. "Now, let me out! Before it's too late!"
"And let you die when you can't handle it?"
"I can handle it", he denied. "I am The Gamer and a Keyblade wielder. If anyone can handle it, it is me!"
Ji-Han used his Keyblade to tap the shield prison twice and it shattered, revealing Naofumi and Shua standing right in front of him.
"That just means that if you can't handle it, no one else can", Naofumi refuted. "It does not guarantee your success. And if you die, not only will this world not be saved from the Heartless, only you can beam onto the Vimana so Shua and I would be stuck here in the digital world. Not to mention the worlds you wanted to restore. If I have to fight you to stop you from killing yourself, I will!"
Ji-Han clenched his teeth. As much as he wanted to deny it, Naofumi had a point. Neither the Gamer nor having a Keyblade made him immortal. And if he died, Shua and Naofumi didn't have any way to leave the world. But even so, that doesn't mean he had to like it.
It was just as well that the decision had been taken out of his hands as Angemon had blasted Devimon with a beam of light and now both were dispersing into many particles starting from the bottom and making it way up. Yet Devimon didn't seem to be worried. No, he decided to give some parting words instead:
"You used up all your power. That wasn't very smart, Angemon. Now you're of no use to anyone. You can't get away from the dark forces. Evil is everywhere, so don't savor your victory. There are other Digimon who are just as powerful as I am. Some are even stronger. I wonder what you'll do when you run into them. You haven't won at all! What a waste of time."
And then he was laughing, really laughing. It was just for a short moment until he completely vanished, but in that moment his schadenfreude over the children's future troubles completely overwhelmed his fear of death. With Angemon now fading? Didn't feel like a victory.
{+5833 EXP}
Still didn't feel like victory.
"T.K.", the angel meanwhile addressed his partner, also deciding to go out with a smile. "I'll come back again, if you want me to."
And that were the last words of Angemon, before he vanished and the last feathers fell to the ground.
PING!
{[Angemon] has left your party [World Salvation Party].}
God dammit! Don't sound like it's just normal business!
PING!
{You have completed the quest
[The Devil: Showdown on Top of Infinity Mountain].
Completion Award: +5 000 EXP to you and every party member not from the world.
Increased reputation with all Digi-Destined and their allies.
Decreased reputation with Devimon.
Bonus Award for
[Make sure Leomon survives.]:
+2 000 EXP to you and every party member.
Bonus Award for
[Free Ogremon from Devimon's Body.]:
+2 000 EXP to you and every party member.
"Smear, smear", Shua spoke excitedly, redirecting Ji-Han's attention towards the Pokémon.
"What is…"
[Lv8 Shua]
"…you leveled up again, didn't you?"
"Smear!"
"And now you want to know where to put the points and what attack you should copy next?"
Shua nodded, but then frowned. He began to draw something on the ground.
"Is everybody alright?" Leomon's voice suddenly resounded through their voice chat and Ji-Han remembered how everybody was scattered into different directions when they fell from the mountain.
"Naofumi, Shua and I are on top of the mountain", Ji-Han explained. "Where are you guys?"
"I leveled up, what should I do?" Huh, that was Palmon. Good for it. Naofumi went ahead and suggested putting all her points into LUK since that was something they couldn't train and they wouldn't be around forever.
"Matt wants to know where T.K. is", relayed Gabumon.
That's right, now that Angemon had left so abruptly, Takeru had no partner anymore. So he quickly invited Takeru into the party. But when he tried to do the same with the other Chosen, he got a message saying:
{Inviting [Ishida, Yamato] to the party [World Salvation Party]
is not possible as the Maximum Party Size has been reached.
[Kick] a current party member?}
So he could only have… ten party members at a time? That was a problem.
"We see T.K.", Biyomon's voice cut through the voice chat and Ji-Han relaxed as the children organized meeting up with each other. Looks like they would be fine.
Meanwhile Shua had finished his drawing, showing four rectangles in a row bordering on each other and one more with space separated from them. Inside the rectangles on the left were symbols. The first had claw marks, the second a key, the third a butterfly, the fourth a flame and the fifth a paintbrush. The rectangle with the paintbrush also showed up once again to the right with arrows going to each of the left rectangles. The upper four arrows had question marks above them, while the lowest one was crossed out.
Naofumi only needed one look at the picture and instantly knew what Shua wanted to tell them:
"You can only learn four attack-type abilities and want to know which one to give up for your copying?"
"Smear!"
"Then you should throw away the scratching attacks and see if you can get the Super Shocker from Tentomon. That one doesn't cost any MP either."
It doesn't? When did Naofumi notice that?
While Ji-Han stared at his human party member, Shua followed his advice and tipped someone on his personal screen, before skitting away excitedly to – were that potions?!
Ji-Han followed the Pokémon to the pile of items, noticing a bunch of Munny, two red potions, a blue potion and a book. Ji-Han pocketed the Munny – 450 000, maybe they could now finally buy a healing spell – and used [Observe] on the rest.
{[Recovery Potion - Rank: Normal]
Base-Value: 300 000 Munny
A health-recovery potion that instantly heals 500 HP.
Tastes like strawberry.}
{[Recovery Potion - Rank: Normal]
Base-Value: 300 000 Munny
A health-recovery potion that instantly heals 500 HP.
Tastes like strawberry.}
{[Ether Potion - Rank: Normal]
Base-Value: 300 000 Munny
A mana-recovery potion that instantly heals 500 MP.
Tastes like blueberry.}
Oh, a potion that restores MP? Could be useful. He himself had Meditation but that took time and Shua had no way to recover MP otherwise. And lastly…
{[Skill book: Death Claw - Rank: Ultra]
Shrouds the user's hand in Darkness in the form of a claw
to strike at a target.
Its power increases when used in combination with
a weapon of the type [Claw] or [Gauntlet].
With training it is possible to infuse the target with Darkness.}
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!" Ji-Han shouted out loud, making Naofumi look at him as if he was stupid. So, he did:
"I've got a skill book!"
"So? Anything good?"
That brought his enthusiasm down.
"I don't know", he admitted. "But it means that I can get skill books by defeating specific enemies! And that is always a good thing!"
Ji-Han bend down and picked up the book.
{You have obtained the skill book
[Death Claw].}
{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}
"Yes." And suddenly the book dispersed into motes of light. Looks like skill books really were one-time-use only.
{You have learned the skill
[Death Claw].}
{[Death Claw (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Cost: 30 MP
Shrouds the user's hand in Darkness in the form of a claw
to strike at a target.
Its power increases when used in combination with
a weapon of the type [Claw] or [Gauntlet].
Base-Damage: 20}
Huh, looked like the skill wasn't that good, after all. It cost 30 MP and only had the same Base-Damage as his Keyblade. The only things it had going for it that it could stack with claws – which didn't matter to him as his weapon was the Keyblade – and the fact that it maybe dealt elemental damage.
"Ehm, Ji-Han-han?" Tentomon called out through their voice chat. "There's suddenly another human here… though he says he's not human. And he wants to tell us something…"
"Okay, we'll hurry there."
"What is it?" Naofumi asked the Gamer, not having received the same message that Ji-Han had. Probably because Tentomon had forgotten to include him as a recipient.
"Someone else is with the kids", he thus relayed. "Seems friendly so far, but we should still hurry up and go to them."
"Probably just whoever summoned the brats, telling them that their task is finished", guessed Naofumi. "Or that they still have things to do, if what Devimon said is correct." Nevertheless, he still went to Ji-Han so that they could beam up.
That was, when a ray of light broke through the clouds and illuminated the ground in front of Ji-Han – and just the ground in front of Ji-Han. A perfectly round circle of light. Naofumi instantly put his guard up, putting himself between Shua and the ray of light. Which was enough for Ji-Han to also summon his Keyblade and take a defensive stance.
[Can you hear me?]
Wha- a voice?!
Words reached Ji-Han, but he wouldn't say that he heard them. Instead, if was more like a meaning that he suddenly felt. Like it happened within the dream before he gained his Gamer-ability.
"Did you guys… hear that?" He asked his party members, who just stared at him in confusion.
[So you can hear me. I wasn't sure, since you are not attuned to light. It seems the Keyblade was able to bridge the gap.]
"Right", Ji-Han responded unsure. "Who are you?"
[I am the one who watches over the balance between Light and Darkness], the voice explained. [I am the one who chose the DigiDestined and the one who called out to the Keyblade.]
"Wait, you were the one who told me your ID? You actually wanted me to come?"
[Dark forces threaten the digital world. A heartless being from beyond the wall of fire has entered the world and created chaos. I have chosen the DigiDestined to restore the balance. But the chaos attracts even more beings of darkness from beyond the wall of fire. Small in size but large in numbers. They multiply unchallenged in the Dark Ocean and shy not away from any border. We need your Keyblade to seal the Keyhole so that we can combat them undistracted.]
"Sure", responded Ji-Han. "That is what I came here for." That and finding the central keyhole.
[Thank you. Lastly, please do not take the Chosen from this world again, even temporarily.]
Huh? They didn't like it when he used the spaceship for fast travel? Were they scared that the DigiDestined wouldn't return?
…That was actually not that unlikely. If you had chosen someone to be the savior of the world, you would be pretty scared if they suddenly vanished.
"Alright, I won't. But I still got a question myself: Do you know where the worlds devoured by darkness go to or if there is perhaps something like a keyhole for all the worlds?"
[I do not know. I only know of things happening in this world. But in the vast sea of data there are packages on 'axis mundi', the center of the universe. If a keyhole for all worlds exist, it would be found there.]
That made sense.
"Does it say anything on how to get there?"
[It does not.]
"That's a pity. Still, thanks for the info."
Assuming the conversation to be finished with that, the voice fell silent and instead a literal keyhole of light appeared in the ground in front of them. Simple in design, but with a glowing border and black content, just like the keyhole of his own world.
So that was the keyhole of the world? Now how did he go about closing it? Just tapping it twice like usual?
As if sensing his hesitation, the Keyblade stabbed towards the keyhole, dragging Ji-Han's arm with it but not his body. Then light gathered in an orb at the tip, before a beam of light shot towards the keyhole, filling it with light. Then Ji-Han heard something that sounded suspiciously like something being locked and the keyhole vanished. Just like the dark clouds in the sky above, letting the sun shine through again everywhere.
PING!
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
{A skill to lock things with your heart, [Heart Key: Close], has been created.}
{[Heart Key: Close (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Using a Keyblade the user is able to lock anything permanently.
The effects of [Heart Key: Close] can only be negated by [Heart Key: Open].
3% decrease of the target's resistance to being locked.}
Alright, he got the skill! Now he could lock the keyholes with just a voice command!
PING!
Huh? What now?
{You have completed the quest
[The World's Heart: 135-32-1412-qlj-hjykk].
Completion Award: +20 000 EXP to you and every party member not from that world.
The world is not devoured by darkness.
Increased reputation with all allies you meet on the world and their comrades.
Increased reputation with everyone connected to Traverse Town.}
PING!
{Your level went up by 1.}
{Name: Han, Ji-Han
Class: The Gamer
Title: none
Level: Lv12
Status: Unaffected
HP: 532/890
MP: 395/420
STR: 46 (40+4+2) ← (+0) →
VIT: 24 (22+2) ← (+0) →
DEX: 22 (20+2) ← (+0) →
INT: 19 (19-2+2) ← (+0) →
WIS: 27 (25+2) ← (+0) →
LUK: 15 (13+2) ← (+0) →
Points: 5
Munny: 840 517}
Alright! That's another level-up for him!
PING!
{Gratitude from a world has created the keychain [Binary Spirit].}
{[Binary Spirit]
Element: Data
Damage: +8
Range: Middle
No ability.}
Keychain? What the heck was that supposed to mean?!
Ji-Han opened his inventory but couldn't find anything called "keychain" in it. What was it?!
"Smear!" Shua brought him out of his musings.
"Yeah, what is…?"
[Lv9 Shua]
"You've leveled up again?!" Damn, world saving gave a lot of EXP. "You want to know what else to forget?"
"Gle." Shua shook his head. He went to the picture on the ground, crossed out the rectangle with the brush on the right and underlined the same one on the left twice.
"I assume he can only learn the same ability once", Naofumi told Ji-Han and the Gamer nodded. Made sense. He also never learned any ability a second time. Shua was just special in that he forgot his signature skill and thus could, or rather had to relearn it later. But it did show them that they should copy attacks as fast as possible so that they didn't miss out on one when Shua leveled up too fast.
"Ehm, Ji-Han-han, where are you?" Tentomon asked through the voice chat, reminding them that they had wanted to meet up again.
"Right, we're coming!"
Two teleports later and they rejoined with the DigiDestined.
"So", asked Ji-Han. "What did we miss?"
"We met this guy called Gennai who told us that Devimon wasn't our last enemy, that there are more, stronger Digimon on the continent", explained Taichi. "To defeat them, we are going to have to evolve our Digimon even further."
"And to do that, we will have to find the Crests and Tags that Devimon hid", added Koushirou.
"So we still can't get home", whined Mimi.
"Sorry, but I still don't know where you live", Ji-Han apologized. "And even if I knew, I've been told not to pick you up with my spaceship anymore." The kids stared at him in surprise.
"What?! Why?!" The Chosen of Sincerity asked.
"Because they don't like it when they don't know where their Chosen Ones are?"
"You actually met the one who summoned us?" Asked Joe in surprise. "Can we meet them?!"
"Sorry, but they only came to show me the keyhole and tell me to keep you out of my spaceship."
"Does that mean, you won't let us use your spaceship to get to the continent?" Inquired Koushirou. "We have to cross the whole ocean?"
Ji-Han apologized again, while Yamato angrily demanded that they should ignore that warning.
"We have never asked to be send to File Island, so why should we listen to them at all?" He reasoned.
"Because the whole world might get destroyed if you don't?" Suggested Naofumi, making Yamato turn quiet. "It sucks to be a Chosen One, but someone has to do it. At last you aren't summoned by someone who would rather want you dead."
"That happens?" Asked Joe frightened and the Disillusioned Hero answered in the affirmative:
"More often than you would think."
He then turned to Ji-Han.
"With that said, I suggest we go and copy Tentomon's Super Shocker, so that we can be on our way."
"Huh, you aren't coming with us?" Taichi asked Ji-Han but Naofumi answered in his stead:
"We already closed the keyhole, so unless any of you know something about a keyhole for all worlds, our business here is finished. We still have other worlds to save."
"But what was that with Tentomon?" Wondered Koushirou and Ji-Han quickly explained how Shua's attack worked.
"So, if you don't mind, we'd like Tentomon to show off his Super Shocker."
"Tentomon?" Koushirou turned to his partner who had no problem with it.
"[Super Shocker]!" And there went parts of a tree.
"Thank you", Ji-Han told the Digimon while Shua copied the attack.
"So this is it", mused Mimi. "You are really going?"
"Yeah, I've got my own stuff to do", he confirmed. "And since it's in other worlds, we probably won't see each other again."
"That's such a pity", noted the Chosen of Sincerity. "That means from now on we'll have to get our own food."
Ji-Han laughed at that.
"At last you won't have to eat half-burned or overcooked meat", he reminded her.
"Oh, that's right."
"Though I am going to miss having proper seasonings", admitted Taichi. "Remember the time we ate eggs?"
"Yes, we've been talking all about what else we'd like to put on our eggs!" Takeru explained excitedly, cradling the orange and white-striped egg in his lap.
"Ah, no, that's Angemon", explained Koushirou, having noticed Ji-Han's gaze. "He was reborn as a Digiegg."
Angemon wasn't dead?! That was great! The heroic sacrifice hadn't been permanent! Now Ji-Han was glad he hadn't been the one to try and use the light instead.
But back to the matter at hand, while Ji-Han wouldn't be cooking for them anymore, he could at last give them something to make their food better.
"You can have this", he spoke and gave them one unopened container of Traverse Town Salt from his inventory. "Paprika and Curry Power is too expensive to give it away like that, but salt comes cheap in Traverse Town, so I won't mind given this to you."
The cheers of the kids warmed his heart and even Naofumi rolling his eyes couldn't damper it. He would have given them more, but he was sure the Hero of the Shield would have objected. But since it didn't cost them even 1000 Munny and he knew how valuable salt in these kind of settings was, he didn't say anything.
And with that ended their time together. They all said their goodbyes and then Ji-Han, Naofumi and Shua teleported back onto the FO Vimana. But as they walked towards the bridge, the Hero of the Shield revealed, that he had planned to stay on this world a bit longer. He wanted to fish at the lake Mimi and Koushirou had pointed out to get some more food in case he "felt like feeding an orphanage in the next world they visited". Additionally they had not yet seen all items the Heartless in this world dropped and wanted to not miss out on the new shields, something that Ji-Han agreed with. It was also a good idea to train and grind against the enemies here, in case the next world had even stronger enemies.
But all the talks about what to do where cut short when they reached the bridge and Ji-Han went to the console. Instantly his Keyblade appeared on its own.
"Is that-"
Before Ji-Han could say anything else, the Keyblade pulled his arm towards the screen. Lines of digital symbols circled around his Keyblade and once again moved towards the head until they sank into the computer.
{A NEW DESTINATION HAS BEEN ADDED}, appeared on the screen and the Keyblade vanished.
PING!
{A quest has been created.}
{Quest Alert
The World's Heart: 114-11-8315-yvy-epxpz
Heartless are using the keyhole to the heart of the world to travel into the heart of the world in an attempt to devour it.
Close the keyhole to the heart of the world to prevent it from being devoured by darkness.
Completion Award: +25 000 EXP to you and every party member not from that world.
The world is not devoured by darkness.
Increased reputation with all allies you meet on the world and their comrades.
Increased reputation with everyone connected to Traverse Town.
Completion Failure:
Decreased reputation with everyone you meet on the world and everyone they know.
Decreased reputation with everyone connected to Traverse Town.}
"A new destination and quest!" Exclaimed Ji-Han. "Looks like the next world has been decided."
"But we won't go there until we finished with this one and prepared in Traverse Town", declared Naofumi. "Fortunately, we have all the time in the world for it."
A/N:
Hi, guys and gals.
And that's everything I've got for now. And while I want to continue, it will take a lot of time. Not just the writing, but all the research, too. As I've said when I first published this story, I don't think this will go anywhere, unless I've get some help. Even something simple like describing a characters appearance in words that I can copy-paste, is one thing I have to do less. And if just enough people help with even the small stuff, my real-life obligations will not result in this story staying incomplete. For that I've created the forum [Heart of Akasha Diskussions], where I put in multiple threads for the many things others can help with.
And that's literally all I can do to make sure this story stays alive. I, as one person, am just not enough for this story. So if you like this story enough that you would like to see it continued, don't hesitate to help in any way you can think of.
Gashadokuro Amanojaku
