I don't own digimon.

Session 102

The Mahora Paradox

Back from his walk, the author resumed his observation duties.

"Oh. You're back." Olrumon remarked as his eyes opened up. "I kinda thought you left us and were never coming back."

Currently, he found himself in what appeared to be a small bedroom with stained oak walls and a light blue carpet for a floor. A pair of beds sat up against the back wall, just barely big to hold the rabbit idol, let alone his companion for this particular area, Fatemon.

"Ugh…" the harem mage remarked and took a deep breath. "I'm guessing you just got here too?"

Olrumon gave a nod.

"Figures." Fatemon whispered as he pulled himself up. "I guess we're partners for now."

With that, he motioned for Olrumon to follow him. The rabbit idol complied, the duo heading through the now apparent door and finding themselves in a hallway. The design scheme from the previous room continued onwards, with the only difference being the lighter stain on the walls.

"So, any plans for once this is all over?"

"Not really." Olrumon whispered as they made their way towards the next intersection. "I'll probably stick with Aaron. How about you?"

"Teaching." Fatemon answered and let out a chuckle. "A former friend of mine was one and I took over his post."

"What happened to him?"

Fatemon sighed and his gaze fell to the floor.

"He died some time ago." he whispered, focusing back on Olrumon. "Gave up his soul for the greater good, supposedly. Personally, I suspected the Gostelow's had a hand in that sort of thing. He was a far better man to me and his students."

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" the rabbit idol inquired and watched Fatemon shake his head.

"No, but I appreciate your willingness to help." Fatemon whispered as they made a right, finding themselves in a much larger room. The paneling had returned to the much darker colors, with a gray tile floor to act as contrast. A robot bear of sorts was waddling around, mumbling something about missing some people.

"Oh, hi there." the bear announced and made his way over. "Welcome to Chef Mono's. Is there anything I can get you?"

Both digimon shook their heads and made their way to the entrance, only to be stopped by the robot bear.

"No, you must stay!" the bear demanded and began slamming his foot against the floor.
"Why?" Fatemon remarked as Olrumon began to hum. "I doubt we could eat anything that you could serve."

Steam shot out of the robot's ears as it began to shake on of it claws. Thinly veiled mumbles dropped out of its mouth, growing in intensity with each word.

Yet, the duo still made their exit. Outside, the sun beat down on what appeared to be a jungle oasis of sorts. Cobblestone paths led all about and seemed to stretch on for quite a while. In the distance, time had been taken to build out sixteen cabins. A shame that the previous occupants had little use for them in their time staying there.

"Care to elaborate?" Fatemon remarked and waited for a response. When he got none, he chose to pick Olrumon up and put the rabbit idol on his back. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all." Olrumon answered as they headed off in the direction. "Though, can I ask you something?"

Fatemon carefully shook his head, which his passenger took as a 'no'.

"What did you see in that 'place'?"

Silence fell over the duo as the harem mage pondered how to answer. On one hand, Olrumon was not really in his circle of friends in this regards. But, he had just went through the mess that was nearly getting sentenced to a court case.

"I was sentenced for the mess that I allowed to happen." Fatemon remarked as the cabins came into view.

"What was the verdict?"

"That's the thing. Midway through it, everything went all weird and I was allowed to go."

"I'm fairly certain that's not how court cases are supposed to work." Olrumon added. "But you'll have to ask Aaron to make sure."

Fatemon gave a nod and set the rabbit idol down, mostly so he could 'carefully' open the door.

Inside, this particular cabin had been suited for a writer. Notebooks had been piled up, with a laptop in the back right corner. A dusy bed sat up against the back wall, awaiting use. Sitting on it, was an open notebook.

Dear Diary,

Today's the day.

Supposedly, that jester is going to provide us a way to travel back into the past. There, we are to meet up with a friend of hers and learn more about our mission. Hopefully, this will work.

Fatemon shook his head and slammed his fist against the bed, letting out a couple of curses.

"This is bad, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Fatemon remarked and carefully ripped the page out. "It means that the future is even more out of whack."

Olrumon gave his friend a confused glance.

"A long time ago, a friend of mine had a student from the future." Fatemon continued and let out a sigh. "Well, she claimed to be at least. And then that whole mess at Mahora happened."

Olrumon gave a nod and watched Fatemon take a seat.

"Among my duties in my time with the order, I was act as the guy who investigated anything magical-based. Which, included time travel to some extent. Even if that sort of shit was supposed to be technically handled by Davis and his friends."

"Davis?" Olrumon whispered, getting shot a confused glance from the harem mage. "As in Davis Motomiya?"

The rabbit idol wasn't entirely certain where he got that name from, possibly that weird cartoon that he and Aaron watched one time.

"Yeah. Not sure what the heck that 'bimbo' did to make him join us, but she did." Fatemon whispered and let out a deep breath. "Though, supposedly he somehow survived a quite fatal attack delivered by his own partner. But that's just rumor."

"Oh." Olrumon responded and let out a sigh. "Are you certain there's nothing I can do for you at the moment?"
Fatemon let out a chuckle.

"You're listening. That's good enough for me." Fatemon remarked and got up from the bed. "As I was saying before I got off on that tangent, Chacha and I had to deal with our fair share of 'time travel' incidents. As a result, we had to make sure the loops closed."

"Oh."

"Yeah. It was one of the big reasons why I quit. Even I have standards to some extent."

They exited the first cabin and briskly searched through the next fourteen, coming up empty. It was on the fifteenth that anything of value was discovered. The room in question looked to have been owned by collector of sorts, having been decorated with a variety of unique objects. Among the junk and trinkets, was an aquamarine ring.

"Perfect." Fatemon whispered and slipped the piece of jewelry into his cloak. "That'll work."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Nope." Fatemon remarked as he followed that up with a deep breath, letting his gaze fall to the floor. "I'm just afraid that when this is all said and done, we're going to lose people."

"What do you mean?"

"Suppose a time traveller travelled from present day to a point in time to kill Hitler before the whole Nazi thing happened. Would the original version of that world still exist?"

Silence fell over both them as they stepped towards the sixteenth cabin. An uncomfortable knot seemed ready to form within their stomachs as Fatemon casually opened the door and pushed it open.

Inside, there was nothing there. Just an endless void for no particular reason.

"This is some joke… right?" the harem mage shouted and took a deep breath. "It's as if that jester is mocking us."

He took a deep breath and cautiously stepped forward, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, Olrumon joined Fatemon.

"Any ideas?" Olrumon inquired

"I was think about shouting random phrases until something worked." Fatemon answered.

"Sounds good."

With that, the duo cleared their throats and took a deep breath.

"Open sesame!"

"Open!"

"Appear Door!"

"Pink Snugglebunnies!"

For some reason, that was the magic words to make a door open.

"Okay…" both digimon remarked and made their way over and headed through, finding themselves in the enclosure with the rest of Delta.

"There you are!" Polly screamed and ran over. "How are you?"

"Wonderful, honey." Fatemon whispered and took a deep breath. "Just got something on my mind."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not at the moment."

Polly let out a sigh, only to go for a mean right hook. Fatemon took it, watching the monk magi's face light up with a mix of emotions. From happiness to fear, to anger, to regret. He saw it all as his hood finally fell off, revealing the face of a gnarled and beaten man.

"It'll be alright." he whispered, wishing for the words to be fully true. Yet for the moment, he- No, they would have to take this one step at a time.

Notes:

And so we take one step closer to the end, unsure of what awaits.

.

Next time: Sock puppets and lap monsters anyone?