I do not own InuYasha or Digimon Adventure in any way!
Speech Key:
"The" – Oral/Normal Speech
'The' – Thoughts
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE BEGINNING!
AN: All right, this is where things should be changing, I believe, if my mental timeline is correct. Now, there may be a few spelling mistakes here and there along with a grammar error, and as picky I can be about things like that, I'm only human. So if there is any sort of spelling error or error in word usage, just ignore it.
Oh, and before I forget, there is one other thing I wanted to mention. Or actually, maybe there were a few things… Anyway, I remember how it was told that Tai and his friends weren't the first DigiDestined. Rather, there were people/children before them, though those names nor descriptions were never revealed in the anime, or the manga, actually I think. In my story, I'm going to have Tai and his friends be the very first DigiDestined. Apocalymon I think was originally sealed by the first DigiDestined, however, here I'm going to have the Digimon Sovereigns be the ones to seal him away with help from the crests they're connected to.
Ah, and before I forget to mention, I'm going to be posting some drawings/sketches of some things for this story sometime in the future as I'm a little busy and art and writing aren't my top priorities at the moment. Whatever artwork I post will always be on my DeviantArt page, whose link is on my profile.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
Review, but if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all!
-The Ninth Child-
xX-Developments-Xx
-Kamiya Residence-
"Kudamon?" Kagome asked, looking up from her book. She watched the fox-like Digimon turn his head in a random direction from where he'd curled up in her lap. "What's wrong?"
(AN: I know that I described him as having similarities to a ferret, but I went back to check up on a few things about him and found out that his character design and name are actually derived off of a mythical Japanese creatures that is said to resemble a fox.)
It had been three days since Tai had left for the Digital World and Kudamon had entered Kagome's life. Though something strange had happened; while she and Kari remembered everything that had happened when Tai and Koromon came home, no one who'd seen the Digimon previously remembered a single thing, as though the Digimon were never there.
"Someone's here," Kudamon replied with narrowed eyes.
"What do you mean?" Kagome asked, not understanding what her Digimon was trying to say. "Who's here? You know that Kari, Mama, you and I are the only ones home right now."
Kudamon shook his head and began to explain. "Something from the Digital World has entered this one. I don't know how or what it is, though."
(AN: Now before anyone says anything about spelling or word usage error, I actually meant 'how' and not 'who'.)
"Who would want to—" Kagome cut herself off before her eyes widened. "Do you think it could be Tai and his friends?"
"Again, I don't know," Kudamon shook his head again. "But we should keep our guards up; you never know when something could happen."
Kagome looked at her Digimon for a moment before nodding. The fox-like Digimon lay back down in the raven-haired girl's lap, giving a small purr as she stroked his head gently.
-Elsewhere in Odaiba-
"Lord Myostimon!" Gatomon and DemiDevimon said worriedly as they watched their leader and lord slump against a wall, practically trying to cloak himself in its shadow.
The vampire-like Digimon grunted in frustration and pain. "Although we've made it to the Human World, I can do nothing until nightfall." He reached into his cloak and took out nine silver tags, each with a blank black crest inside, and tossed them to the two small Digimon. "Here, take these."
"What are they, Lord Myotismon?" Gatomon asked. She looked at the blank crests curiously, as did DemiDevimon.
"These are special crests," Myotismon explained. "Each belongs to a specific child; find them and make sure to give them the crest that reacts to them. When you are near a child meant for one of these crests, one will react, and that is the one that must go to that child." He threw his underlings a glare that promised death should they fail. "Do not forget that or lose them. One crest will only react for that one child."
"But what about the Eighth Child?" DemiDevimon asked. "Shouldn't we be out looking for him?"
"The Digimon Gatomon persuaded to our cause will search for the Eighth Child," Myotismon told them. He showed them a pink crest within a gold tag. "Each have a crest of their own to search with; it will only react to the digivice of the Eighth Child. Your priority is to search for the nine children to whom these crests belong, while the rest will search for the Eighth Child."
"Yes, Milord!" both Digimon chorused before going off to do their master's bidding, Gatomon taking five of the crests and DemiDevimon taking the last four.
-Kamiya Residence; A Few Hours Later-
"Kagome!" Kari called urgently. "Kagome you have to see this!"
"What's the matter?" Kagome walked into the living room with Kudamon following behind unseen by the younger girl.
"Look!" Kari pointed to the television screen with wide eyes.
"What is it?" Kagome looked over, only to stop dead in her tracks. Her eyes trailed over the images of the near-demolished area around Highton View Terrace. "What the heck happened over there? It looks like someone…bombed…the place…" Her voice trailed off as the last few words she uttered caused Kagome to experience a feeling of déjà vu. 'Where have I heard that?'
(AN: Did I spell the name of their home right? I looked it up in several places and it was always spelled as I did it above, though I'm still not sure…)
"Keep watching," Kari told her sister, dragging her to sit on the couch.
'Something's wrong,' Kagome and Kudamon thought in unison.
(AN: At this point, I'm going to have the events on television done in italics, so don't be too surprised. It's more for my keeping things organized, so I hope it doesn't make reading this too difficult.)
It wasn't until a few moments later that the camera shifted to show what looked like a large ginger-hued furry elephant with a silver mask with gold accents covering its face and trunk, a pair of flared, almost spiky ears, and not quite ivory tusks with metal stitched into them.
The creature that was clearly at least ten times the size of a normal elephant went around on a rampage, destroying everything and anything it could.
Kagome looked down at Kudamon, who remained hidden from Kari's sight and nodded her head slightly to the footage. "Is that what I think it is?" her gaze seemed to ask.
Kudamon had luckily understood Kagome's silent inquiry and nodded his head gravely. It was indeed a Digimon that they were looking at.
A Digimon in the human realm in corporeal form, unlike the near-transparent and coloured versions last seen.
It wasn't long before another Digimon appeared in the screen, this one looking like a giant orange bird.
The giant bird tackled the elephant Digimon, only to get knocked away by a pair of tusks that were launched at it by the elephant Digimon, launching it a few metres, possibly miles, away.
"No!" Kari cried out with worry.
Kagome didn't know why, but she knew that the bird Digimon could be trusted and that there was another force at work if multiple Digimon were starting to appear in the human world.
The firebird now released two large balls of fire from its wings, though it did nothing to hinder the elephant Digimon. Rather, it only bounced off of it and hit their surroundings.
Suddenly, Kagome sat up straight, her eyes widening with a sort of glassy look to them.
'Two large monsters fighting…one few and the other breathed fire…'
Suddenly, a magenta glow enveloped the orange firebird, the Digimon slowly changing shape to something much large and a slight bit human in physique. When the glow died down there stood a large crimson Digimon that looked more like a cross between a human and bird.
The~Ninth~Child
It had long blonde hair knotted loosely towards the end with two locks tied off with crimson ties on either side of its head, a pair of large gold and crimson wings, an a crimson mask over it head. Over its arms, thighs and mask were what looked like tribal etching, most done in white, though some were done in blue as well.
The~Ninth~Child
The new Digimon launched itself to the ground just as the elephant Digimon released another pair of glowing tusk points at it, as though the bird-like Digimon was…protecting something.
Once the cloud of smoke had passed, the bird-like Digimon launched itself at the elephant Digimon, landing on its back and holding onto its ears, riding it like it was no problem.
Kari giggled at the sight, finding it funny, but never noticed that her sister didn't laugh along like she normally would when they found something amusing.
'The monsters!' Kagome realized. 'Koromon was one of them, only he must have evolved to a higher level back then! And the other was some giant parrot thing! They were fighting in that exact spot! Could this be why Tai and his friends have Digimon partners? Is this why I have one, too?'
They watched as the bird-like Digimon flew into air, hauling the elephant Digimon up with its trunk before releasing it, letting it fall to the ground with a loud 'crash', creating a crater in its wake. The bird-like Digimon released a blaze of fire that soon formed into a firebird before striking the elephant Digimon, making it shatter into millions of tiny particles that disappeared soon enough.
As soon as the elephant Digimon disappeared, the large bird-like Digimon suddenly glowed a bright gold that shrunk until there was nothing there.
"Kagome?" Kari asked quietly when she changed the channel to a favorite cartoon of hers.
"Hm?" Kagome hummed, thinking about the fight they'd just seen. 'If Digimon are suddenly appearing in the human world, the something must have happened in the Digital World to cause this… Actually, now that I think about it, how did Kudamon come to this world, anyway?'
"Did you get a weird feeling while watching that?" the younger girl asked hesitantly.
Kagome looked at Kari with a strange glint in her eyes. "If I said yes, what would your answer be?"
"I just remembered that fight between Koromon and that other monster four years ago when we lived in our old apartment," Kari explained.
"Then you aren't the only one," Kagome told her. "I just remembered seeing that same fight, too."
"Does it mean anything, though?" Kari asked. "That fight we saw, is there a reason why we're the only ones that remember it?"
"You're definitely smarter than you look, Kari," Kagome chuckled. "Anyway, I really don't know the answer to that. There's probably a reason why we remember while no one else does, but I wouldn't know it. Maybe we were the only ones to actually see it; remember when they called the incident a terrorist bombing? That was probably to cover the incident since no one actually saw anything or knew what happened."
"Do you think there's anyone else that remembers?" Kari asked.
"There could be," Kagome said, "but I wouldn't bet too much on that. There just may be only a handful of people who can even recall what happened back then. I mean even I didn't remember until seeing that." The raven-haired girl gestured to the television.
She stood up from the couch and stretched a bit before turning back to her little sister. "Don't worry about it, okay?" Kagome ruffled the younger girl's hair. "We'll get our answers when it's time."
"'Kay," Kari giggled, settling down to watch the cartoon she'd scrolled to.
Kagome smiled softly at her younger sister before heading back to their room, Kudamon following at her heels.
The~Ninth~Child
"Kudamon?" Kagome said once they entered the room, closing the door behind them. "How did those two Digimon come into our world? And why?"
Kudamon shook his head as he lay upon the soft star-printed covers of Kagome's bed. "I wouldn't know. I didn't think there was any way to pass from the Digital World into this one. As for why, I wouldn't be able to tell you that either."
"Then how did you come here?" Kagome asked.
"A dimensional rift; just as your brother did," Kudamon reminded her. "When I was born, I grew up alongside the other eight Digimon belonging to your brother and his friends. But when they arrived and you didn't, I left to find some way to find you. Eventually, I ended up following your brother until he and MetalGreymon were dragged into the dimensional rift. Before it closed, I leapt in behind them, hoping that this would be what would take me to you."
"'Hoping'?" Kagome repeated. "Wait, do you mean that you just jumped into some portal not knowing where you'd end up?"
Kudamon nodded. "However, when I arrived, I realized that I didn't know where I would be able to find you. At the time, I didn't know that Tai was your brother or I would have followed him to you, so I went on searching through crowds, trying to find you. It wasn't until the time when your brother, Agumon, and Ogremon were being drawn into another dimensional rift, that I found you. And of course, we know what happens after that."
Kagome stared at her Digimon for a moment and blinked.
And blinked again.
And again.
"Are you crazy?!" Kagome all but shouted so Kari wouldn't hear. "What on earth would posses you to do something so reckless?"
"Kagome—" Kudamon tried placating the girl, but there was no stopping her.
"You jumped through a portal, not knowing where you'd end up," Kagome ranted, "heck, you wouldn't even know if there was a chance that you would make it out of there alive!"
"Kagome," Kudamon tried again, but to no avail.
"I know you were looking for me, but did it ever occur to think before you act?"
"Kagome!" Kudamon said loud enough to stop the girl from speaking, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear.
The Digimon sighed. "I know, what I did was dangerous, but you need to understand, sometimes there are risks worth taking, and living life without taking a few risks really isn't living at all. I don't regret jumping into the rift since it was because of it that I finally met you." He looked up at his partner. "Do you understand? I don't regret anything I've done thus far; sure I have gotten into a little trouble now and then, but that's life."
Kagome eventually nodded with a sigh of frustration. "I know, you're right; but that doesn't mean that I have to like that you just rushed in like that." Her gaze softened. "Though I can't say that I'm too mad at you for it; like you said, if you hadn't done what you did, we wouldn't be together now. But can you promise me something?"
Kudamon nodded. "Anything."
"Don't do anything like that while you're here, okay?" Kagome asked. "You don't know too much about the human world despite having been here for three days and I don't want to risk you getting hurt. SO whatever happens whatever we do, we'll do together, okay?"
The fox-like Digimon gave a soft smile. 'I can see why she was chosen to receive the Crest of Compassion…' "Deal."
But as quickly as it was there, the smile slid off of Kudamon's face as his expression turned serious. "We must keep our guards up, Kagome," he said, "Mammothmon has appeared here and did more than enough damage. Who knows what other Digimon could have come here with him? We need to stay alert and stop whatever Digimon may cause harm to this world."
"Mammothmon?" Kagome asked. "Was that the elephant-like Digimon? Then who was the other?"
"That was Garudamon, an Ultimate level Digimon," Kudamon told her. "She belongs to one of your brother's friends. The Digimon that turned into Garudamon was Birdamon, the Champion level evolved form of Biyomon. And while I don't know how they came here, I can tell you that if Birdamon is here, then that means that your brother and his friends are back as well."
"Really?" Kagome's eyes widened. "But how?"
"Again, I don't know," Kudamon shook his head. "But maybe your brother and his friends came home the same way Mammothmon arrived in this world. That's the only answer I have at the moment."
The raven-haired girl nodded before pulling her Digimon into her lap. She started stroking the fox-like Digimon, eliciting a content purr from him.
"Kagome?" Kudamon murmured.
"Hm?" Kagome hummed, continuing to stroke the Digimon.
"When your—purr—brother comes, don't—purr—let him know about me," Kudamon told her in between purrs.
Kagome stopped and looked down at her partner. "Why not? Isn't it right that he should know about you?"
Kudamon nodded. "It is, but all I know is that until the time comes, don't reveal yourself as a DigiDestined. I have a bad feeling that something will happen if you do…"
The raven-haired girl stared at her Digimon for a moment before nodding in understanding. "If that's what you believe, then I'll trust you."
-Elsewhere in Odaiba-
"You'd think that one of these would've reacted by now," Gatomon drawled to herself, looking at the five sliver tags she held.
The cat Digimon had traveled through several areas children seemed to inhabit the most, trying to fulfill the task given to her by her master, but to no avail. Not a single one of the crests had reacted to a single child as of yet.
"Well, onto the next one," Gatomon sighed, once again taking off on the streets like a normal cat.
It wasn't until she was passing by large apartment complex that two of the five crests began to glow faintly. Thought the glow wasn't very strong, Gatomon was able to see what colours they were glowing. One glowed a dark-dull-orange hue while the other shone with a deep-plum hue.
"So they're in there, are they?" Gatomon smirked. "Let's see who the lucky nominees are." And with that said, the feline Digimon began to leap up balconies, stopping at each one, watching the glow of the crests. If the glow died down, then she was farther from her target, and if she were near it the crests' dark hues would glow brighter.
It wasn't until she reached the fourth floor of the building did the plum-hued crest give any reaction. She hopped from balcony to balcony of the homes on the fourth floor, not giving up until she found who she was looking for.
The plum-hued crest glowed brightest when she reached the last balcony of the fourth floor. Quietly, with a wide smirk, the feline Digimon snuck into the house and looked around for any children, only to find the living room and kitchens perfectly empty. She heard noises coming from down the hall and made her way towards the source.
She came to a door that was left slightly ajar, allowing her look inside.
There was a boy, about ten or eleven years of age lying on his bed as he stared a picture frame he held in his hands. But what caught Gatomon's eye was the amount of sorrow the boy radiated to the point where it could be seen on his face as plain as day.
(AN: There is a very good reason why I gave no description on him right now. In fact, there won't be any descriptions of the children Gatomon and DemiDevimon will find with the exception of their ages.)
'Interesting,' Gatomon thought to herself. She looked down at the plum-hued crest and back at the boy. 'I hope I'm right about this.' And with that thought in mind, the feline Digimon cracked the door open a bit more and threw the plum-hued crest at the boy, the trinket bopping the child lightly on the side of his head before landing neatly beside his pillow.
Taking the chance to leave, Gatomon fled back through the open balcony doors in search of the child who would own the orange-glowing crest.
"What the—?" The boy shot up, rubbing his head where the crest had clocked him. He looked around to find out what had hit him when he spotted the crest beside him, glowing even brighter than ever. "What's this?" Curious, he picked up the crest.
However, the moment his fingertips closed around the glowing object, the plum glow receded as the crest began to crackle with plum-hued electricity. Frantic, the boy tried to release the crest, but to no avail; he just couldn't let go, it was as though something were binding him to it. The boy cried out in pain as the electricity quickly ran down his fingertips over his body, enveloping his body in a multitude of plum-hued bolts of electricity.
The scream lasted for about a minute, maybe two before the child fell onto the ground, unconscious with a dark aura flaring around his body for a moment before receding into his body. However, had he been awake, he'd have noticed the small black device that now lay beside his head, how the once black crest was blank no longer, and the pair of eyes staring at his still form from underneath his bed.
The~Ninth~Child
Once leaving the previous boy's room, Gatomon had continued up the building, watching the last dimly glowing crest for any reactions. It wasn't until she reached the eleventh floor did the dim-glowing crest glowed a brighter dark-orange. Seeing the reaction, Gatomon was ready to leap from balcony to balcony as she'd done before. But it seemed that it wasn't needed since the glowing intensified when she reached the second balcony.
Just as she did before, Gatomon was ready to go inside quietly to find the child, but her plans were ruined when she noticed two boys and a girl in the living room with their mother in the kitchen. One boy looked around fifteen or so while the other seemed to be at least a few years younger, maybe eleven, but the girl was the youngest looking at least six or seven.
'Great,' Gatomon narrowed her eyes. 'Just how am I supposed to figure out which kid this belongs to? And even if I did know who it was, how can I get this to him without giving myself away?'
The feline Digimon looked around for another way in, but found nothing of the sort. At least nothing that would let in anything larger than a fly.
She growled lowly in frustration. 'I'll have to wait until tonight, then.' And with that thought, the Digimon settled herself in the darker corner of the balcony and began to doze off, keeping an ear out for any activity.
-Kamiya Residence; That Evening-
"Tai?" Airi Kamiya asked as she watched her son take off his shoes. "What are you doing home from camp? Don't tell me you snuck off!"
"Oh come on, Mom," Tai sweat-dropped. "Who do you think I am? Anyway, camp got cancelled because of some freak snowstorm that hit."
"Snow?" Airi raised an eyebrow. "At this time of year? And what's that you're holding?"
"T-This?" Tai looked down at Koromon. "Uh, he's just something I picked up for Kari!"
'Nice save, smart one,' Kagome thought with amusement as she brought a couple bowls out from the cupboard, figuring that her brother and Koromon would definitely be hungry by now.
"Good," their mother nodded. "Now go on and get changed, but don't forget to give me your dirty clothes so I can get the washing done."
Filling one bowl up with some rice, shrimp, and some vegetables their mother had made, Kagome quickly left to place it in her room listening as her brother tackled their mother in a tight hug with a cry of "Mom!".
The~Ninth~Child
"Kudamon?" Kagome whispered. "Kudamon where are you?"
"Down here," the Digimon answered, popping his head out from underneath her bed.
"Why—?" Kagome shook her head. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that—"
"Your brother and Koromon are home," Kudamon finished. "You wanted to remind me to keep myself hidden, just as we said we would."
Kagome nodded with a sigh. "I still don't like not telling them and I hope what we're doing is right, but if you think that's the right thing to do, then like I said, I'll trust you."
The~Ninth~Child
Kagome walked out of the room, to find her brother shoveling down a bowl of food their mother had offered him, with Koromon sitting on his lap.
The raven-haired girl shook her head. 'What is he going to do? Sneak Koromon his bowl when Mama isn't looking? Actually, now that I think about it, he would do something like that…'
"Here let me take that," Kagome told her brother, picking Koromon up.
"But—" Tai tried, but was cut off by his sister.
"Don't 'but' me," Kagome said mock sternly. "You just eat your food and I'll make sure this little guy's taken care of." She threw a wink over her shoulder as she retreated back into their room.
(AN: I don't know if I'd mentioned this before, but the siblings all share a room. Kagome and Kari get the bunk beds with Kagome on the bottom and Kari on the top, while Tai gets a single bed placed by Kagome's bunk, parallel to the foot of her bunk.)
The~Ninth~Child
"Here you go," Kagome told Koromon, sitting the pink Digimon on the desk in front of the bowl of food she'd prepared. "Eat up; I know you must have been hungry, judging from the way Tai was shoveling down his food."
Koromon thanked Kagome and dove into the bowl with gusto, exclaiming in between swallows that the food was delicious. Luckily, Kagome's father and Kari had the television volume up so loud enough that no one was able to hear the little Digimon.
-Elsewhere in Odaiba-
'Finally,' Gatomon thought as she watched the children split off as their mother went down the hall to just before the front door to answer a phone call.
The eldest boy had gone to his room, while the second ran for the bathroom after having on too many juice boxes, leaving the youngest child sitting on the couch watching some cartoon. The feline Digimon had already checked on both of the boys during the day and found that the crest didn't react to them at all, leading her to come to the conclusion that the dark-orange crest would belong to the girl.
Gatomon casually walked up to the balcony doors as an ordinary cat would and began to paw at it gently enough to not cause any damage, but hard enough to make a loud enough noise to get the little girl's attention.
As predicted, the young child noticed the cat and as many children her age do, she went over to open the balcony door to help the 'poor kitty'.
When the girl opened the door, Gatomon seized the chance and slipped the tag over the girl's head around her neck, where it began to glow almost blindingly before leaping off the balcony with all the grace of the feline she was.
Like before, this crest too started to crackle with electricity, though this time it was a dark-orange current that shocked the child's body, the child shouting in pain as the current streaking in and out of his body.
The child's family came rushing the moment they'd heard the noise, only to find the youngest of the family lying unconscious in front of an open balcony door. The eldest boy quickly picked the young girl up and took her into her room, where the child could rest.
But had anyone noticed, they'd have seen the etching on the once blank crest around her neck and the pair of eyes watching the family from the young girl's closet.
-Elsewhere in Odaiba; That Night-
This late at night, the streets of Odaiba were empty and slowly the street lights were turning on one by one.
A Victorian-looking carriage rolled down the dimly lit street, the darkness only making it look all the more intimidating and mysterious to the human eye.
Myotismon sat within the carriage watching the fight between Raremon and Kabuterimon take place through a small viewing portal and gritted his teeth.
"Is there no one that can defeat these children?" He growled. "Hmph, amateurs, the lot of them. And there's been no sign of the Eighth Child, either! If this continued then I—"
The feeling of two jolts ran through him as he felt some of his essence taken from within his soul.
The undead Digimon smirked. "Well, well, it looks like where some things go wrong, others will go just as planned."
He laughed maniacally as his carriage rolled on through the shadows.
-Kamiya Residence; Siblings' Room-
"Man I'm bushed," Tai sighed as he plopped down on his bed.
"Is something wrong, Tai?" Koromon asked from Kagome's lap. "You don't look too good."
"I don't know," Tai shook his head.
"I'm glad you're back," Kari said, coming into the room and capturing her brother in a tight embrace. "I missed you while you were gone."
"We both did," Kagome said, amused at Tai's befuddled expression.
"Well, I missed you, too," the brown-haired teen said as he looked at his sisters. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Wait, do you guys remember something that happened at Highton View Terrace four years ago?"
"I remember that Koromon got really big and fought this huge bird monster," Kari replied.
"What about you?" Tai asked Kagome.
"The same thing," Kagome answered. "That's something I don't think either of us will ever forget."
"Hmm…" Tai looked back and forth between his sisters for a few moments. "Do either of you have something called a 'digivice'?"
"I don't think so," Kari tipped her head to the side in curiosity. "What's that?"
Tai took out the little white and blue accented device to show his siblings. "Something like this?"
"Uh-uh," Kari shook her head.
Tai looked at his other sister.
Kagome kept a straight face as she shrugged. "Who knows?" Only Koromon had caught the strange wording she used and looked at her curiously. 'Is she hiding something?'
"Oh well," Tai sighed, stretching, "Looks like it's back to the drawing board." And with that, he fell face-first into his pillow.
Koromon yawned at the same time, prompting Kagome to place him beside Tai's pillow and pulling a small covering over the little Digimon.
"You're party poopers," Kari said amusedly.
"Hush now," Kagome giggled as her brother gave a particularly loud snore. "Let's leave them to rest."
Kari walked out of the room and Kagome was about to do the same when she spotted Kudamon coming out from underneath her bed.
"Is something wrong?" Kagome asked, picking her Digimon up and tucking him into her bunk beside her pillow in the shadows where he couldn't be seen.
"There is a Digimon attacking," Kudamon said as he looked off in the direction Kagome assumed the Digimon must have been in.
"Do you—?" Kagome began before the ringing of the telephone cut her off. "I'll be back in a minute."
"Kamiya Residence," Kagome answered into the receiver.
"Hello? This is Izzy Izumi," came a young boy's voice. "I apologize for the disturbance, but may I speak to Tai, please?"
"I'm sorry, but he's gone to sleep," Kagome said apologetically. "But I can wake him up if you really need him."
"No that's all right," Izzy said. "I'll just try again another time. Thank you."
"Bye," Kagome said, placing the phone back down.
"Kagome?" Airi called. "Who was it?"
"Tai's friend, Izzy," Kagome answered as she walked into the bedroom she shared with her siblings.
"I don't think we'll be needed at the moment, then, Kudamon," Kagome told her Digimon.
"Oh?" the fox-like Digimon asked. "And why would that be?"
"Izzy called," Kagome replied. "He sounded like he really needed to talk to Tai. I think it might have to do with the Digimon you sensed."
"Hmm," Kudamon laid down his head. "Well, go on and wake him up, then. I suppose we won't be needed now."
Kagome nodded and walked over to her brother, shaking him lightly, attempting to wake him, but to no avail. The raven-haired girl huffed and tried shaking the boy harder, but even that didn't wake the preteen. 'Yeesh, I forgot just how hard it was to wake him up…probably because it's usually Mama who does it…'
However, while that jostling didn't wake Tai up, Koromon did.
"Wh-What's goin' on?" Koromon slurred out sleepily.
"Can you wake Tai up?" Kagome asked. "Izzy called a few minutes ago and he sounded like he really needed to talk to Tai. I've been trying to, but I haven't been able to wake him up at all!"
At Izzy's name and the reasoning, Koromon's eyes shot open, now devoid of all sleep. "I don't know what I can do, but I'll do my best!"
And with that, Koromon began to bounce up and down on Tai's body, but provoked no reaction. After that, he tried biting his hand, but once again, to no avail. This only left one option left.
"Hey, Kagome, can you close the door?" Koromon asked. "I'm going to try something else and I don't want your family to hear."
Kagome nodded and went over to do as asked, wondering just what the little Digimon had planned.
"Bubble Blow!" Koromon shot an array of bubbles from his mouth at Tai.
The bubbles seemed to do the trick as the boy sat up in bed screaming until Kagome clapped her hand over his mouth with Koromon's ears holding her hand to his partner's face.
"Shh," they both said in unison to the preteen that had just been rudely awoken.
Tai nodded, shaking his sister's hand of his face. "What was that for?"
"Koromon and I've been trying to wake you for a while now," Kagome told him. "Izzy called a few minutes ago, he sounded like he really needed to talk to you."
"Izzy?" Tai jumped out of bed, nearly slipping on the hardwood flooring as he rushed to the phone.
The brown-haired boy dialed the familiar number of his intelligent friend and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello, Izumi residence," the kind voice of Izzy's mother answered.
"Hi, this is Tai," he said, "Izzy called a while ago, but I fell asleep. Could I talk to him?"
"Of course you can," the woman told him. "Oh and thank you for loaning Izzy that reference book, it's nice to know he has friends he can count on."
"Reference book?" Tai asked. "I didn't give him a reference book." 'I don't think I have one that's not collecting dust anyway.'
"What?" Izzy's mother asked. "But—"
"Oh well, if he's not in right now, I'll just see him tomorrow when we meet up," Tai answered. "Thank you!" He hung up. 'I know it's rude, but there's not much that can be done right now. Not if we want our parents finding out about the Digimon and how we're all involved.'
He sighed and walked out onto the balcony, Kagome following him with Koromon in her arms and Kari following with the family cat, Meeko, in hers.
"Tai?" Kari asked quietly.
"I wonder what Izzy needed to tell me," Tai wondered.
"Everything will be fine," Kagome told her brother. "I'm sure of it." She'd seen the fight between that sludge Digimon and the large insect Digimon. Tai had already told her about his friends and their Digimon, so the fact that the insect Digimon had won, made her know that everything was fine for now.
Ciao,
TsukiyoTenshi