"Beware
the Eastern Sun"
Chapter 7
"Once the activation energy of an exothermic
reaction is reached, energy is released, fueling
the reaction perpetually onward."
-General Principles of Chemistry
"When I woke up, Mimi was already
awake," Sora continued. "We found ourselves nearly a mile and a half
away from where we fought. Mimi was looking for Kari, but she couldn't find
her, so we both searched the surrounding area. We looked from morning until late
afternoon, but she was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that we found was her
whistle, lying there on the scorched grass." She paused for a moment to
swallow.
"We never talked about it. Each
of us just figured that the other knew, and that it was probably best left
alone. But we kept our hope. We thought that maybe we would just stumble upon
her, or something. Our digimon weren't in much better shape than we were; they
were completely exhausted and seriously wounded. Since we were just as hurt and
tired as they were, we decided to set up camp there for a while. While Matt's
army kept marching east, we stayed put. We were there for about two weeks.
"By that time, the memories were
too much to handle, so we got up and left. We decided to start looking for you
guys and Kari too. At first, it was just like wandering around. But after
seeing the same places for a while, we began to make our search more organized.
I'd say we'd seen at least two-thirds of the digital world, and are probably
familiar with at least half of that. Well, after we'd been searching a few
years, Mimi got worn, so we looked for a place to stay and," She spread
her arms around her. "Here we are."
The three boys sat in solemn silence.
Tai was utterly crushed. Inside, he could feel his life falling apart. He was
supposed to take care of his sister and now he had let her down, as well as the
rest of his family. There was a deep void inside his heart where Kari had once
been, yet he did not cry or break down. The shock had gone too deep. He was
completely stunned and just stared at his feet with his mouth half-open. Sora
put his arm around him and squeezed him.
Joe and Izzy silently mourned too, but
they could not have felt what Tai was feeling. They looked at each other and
occasionally glanced at Tai, but said nothing. For a full five minutes the
group sat in reflective silence. Then Sora spoke, "So what happened in the
real world?"
Tai snapped back to reality.
"Huh? Oh. You tell them Joe."
Joe looked surprised, but took a deep
breath and started, "Well, I guess it all started when we left, of course.
When we got to the real world, there were some evil digimon wreaking havoc all
over the world. We knew we couldn't handle them all, so we set up that digital
barrier. It took a little work to hide it on the net, but we put it at a few
key servers, and soon computers all over the world had a copy of it and didn't
even know it. Of course that didn't cover everywhere, but we were able to
narrow our focus to only a few areas. We spent most of our time fighting in
less developed countries. I couldn't stand it one bit (it was a good thing that
Mimi didn't agree to come).
"So we went from area to area,
defeating the 'head' digimon. It was usually one or a few powerful digimon
controlling some henchmen. After the leader was gone the others usually just
fell apart, but they were a lot tougher than most of the digimon that we've
fought before. What made it even more complicated was that we had to try to
protect as many civilians as possible.
"Well, the battles went on for
weeks, and I'm sure you don't want all the nitty-gritty details. To put a long
story short, we fought for about six or seven weeks, and then finally defeated
the last group. Then, using a program in Gennai's last e-mail, we were able to
come back here. Oh yeah. During our time in the real world, we found out that
the gateway between the real world and the digital world had been somehow
sealed, so we couldn't talk to Gennai or any of you guys. It's still
sealed-Gennai's program works only once (it was a hack). So if we ever want to
get home, we're going to have to open the gateway."
He sighed, letting his head droop to
rest on his chest. He laid back on the soft, moist grass, resting his head in
his hands, and looked at the passing clouds. "I don't know what we're
going to do," he said resignedly.
"Cheer up Joe. There's always
hope," Gomamon said.
Joe did not reply.
They sat there for another moment,
soaking up nature before Sora rose and said, "C'mon. I'll bet you guys are
hungry. Let's have some lunch."
Reluctantly, the other four rose and,
with their digimon trailing behind, they made their way up the hill to the
huts.
Tai and Sora strolled leisurely by the
lakeside. The air was crisp and the smell of wet grass and mist permeated the
air. A light breeze made the lake a patchwork of lines, like some checkerboard
with infinitesimally small squares. Ducks and other waterfowl rode the slight
current, turning occasionally to scold the interlopers. Birds flitted around
them, talking of the renewal and rebirth of spring. Tai and Sora were silent.
She reached a hand up for his, but
hesitated and withdrew it. Instead, she offered, "We will find her, you
know."
Tai did not respond; he remained
staring at the ground in front of him. A few seconds later, his head rose.
"Huh?"
She repeated herself, "I said
we'll find Kari."
"Oh," he replied, distant.
"Yeah, of course." His head dropped again to stare at the ground.
They walked on in silence for a
moment.
Sora stopped suddenly. "If it's
too much for you, you know you can tell me."
He stopped, but did not turn around
immediately. When he did, his look was calm, but tense. "You can't begin
to understand how I feel."
"Tai," she said, gently.
"I'm not pretending to understand your feelings. I'm just saying that I'm
here for you if you need me."
Tai sighed. "I'm sorry
Sora," he apologized, mollified.
"It's OK." She stepped
closer, taking his hand in hers, as they continued their walk.
They were silent as they made their
way along the foot-worn path by the lakeside.
"It's been a long time,"
Sora finally said, wistfully.
"Seven weeks for me, but that's
long enough."
They stopped and looked into each
other's eyes. "Will things ever be the same?" Sora asked. Suddenly,
she seemed small and timid like a child. There was fear and hope in her eyes as
she looked up at him with big eyes. Stripped of all protection, physical and
mental, there it was: the innermost essence of her soul, revealed and presented
before the world. Defenseless.
He drew her in close and hugged her.
"Don't worry, Sora," he said, stroking her hair. "We'll find a
way. We'll find a way." He rocked her back and forth, soothingly.
* * *
Kari looked at her pack with
satisfaction. She had an extra change of clothes, food for four days, a compass
and map, a sweater, a fishing rod, and a knapsack. The plan was pretty simple:
she'd follow the river, which would eventually lead to the castle. In her
hands, she held the crumpled note she had received the night before. Smoothing
it out, she read it again.
"Dear Kari,
Everything's fine now, and
we're all back together. I know you might be
a little
suspicious, but I ask you to trust me as a friend. We smoothed things out
after a long talk,
and we've made amends. We're going to start looking for Joe,
Izzy, and your
brother again, and were hoping you'd come along. It's been hard
trying to find you,
but now that we have, we should all get together again, right?
We're waiting at
the castle. Just follow the river. I'll meet you half-way there.
See you soon!
-Matt"
A few doubts lingered, but she pushed
them aside. By now, things had to be better. But it all seemed so sudden. To
her, it felt just like yesterday that Matt had fought them in the forest...
"Kari?"
She turned to see Gatomon at her door.
Her digimon entered, jumped up on the bed, and sat, looking up at her
expectantly. Kari smiled. "Are you ready Gatomon?"
"I'm still not sure about
this," Gatomon replied worriedly.
"Well, we've got to try,"
Kari said, hopeful and determined. "Sure, we're safe here, but we've been
here too long doing nothing. I'm not usually the first one to act, but we've
got to do something. You understand me, don't you Gatomon?"
Gatomon nodded, hopping to her feet.
"Do you intend on telling Gennai?"
Kari bit her lip. She'd thought about
that before, but could never really decide what to do. If she told him, he
might not let her go. But if she didn't tell him, he would go through all sorts
of mental anguish worrying about her. She sighed. "I guess I'm going to
have to. I wouldn't want him to kill himself looking for me."
She put on her backpack and headed out
the door, Gatomon trailing close behind.