When Naki awoke the next morning, she felt like leaping out her window and flying through the clouds. She had never had this much energy! Usually she was a calm, relaxed child who preferred to keep her nose in the books rather than play sports of any kind. Today, however, she felt like she could take on the world!
She looked at the clock beside her bed. "Six o'clock?! Wow, I never thought I'd feel this energetic at six in the morning," she said in amazement. She wondered if perhaps her clock was wrong, but looking outside dispelled that theory. The sun was nowhere to be seen, and only a few cars were on the street.
"Well I won't be falling asleep, I know that." Naki noticed that Agumon was also nowhere to be seen. He must have woken up early too, she thought. The girl jumped out of bed, put on some comfortable clothes and her glasses, and headed into the kitchen to make some early breakfast. She halted halfway out the door.
"Almost forgot something," she said. Naki went over to her dresser and opened her sock drawer. In the back of it, beneath her carefully organized and bundled up socks, she found her digivice and crest. Her digivice. Not anyone else's, but hers! Smiling, she put the crest around her neck and put the digivice in her pocket. "There." Now that she was ready, she left her bedroom and closed the door gingerly behind her so as not to wake anyone else up.
Naki entered the kitchen area, and as she passed she saw Agumon in the living room. He had the television on the CNN international channel. At that moment the newscasters were talking about the recent debates concerning digimon replacing humans in the military. They were replaying an important discussion from earlier this morning between two powerful figures- American general Jay Haus and the Digiworld ambassador, Tai Kamiya. Naki remembered meeting him last night, and only now did she realize just how important that man was politically.
"I didn't know he was the ambassador..." the bewildered Naki said as she joined Agumon on the couch.
"I take it you don't watch the news often."
She shook her head. "I prefer books to television. Not the online books, but the old paper and hardbound types."
"I can understand that."
Naki looked at him curiously. "Really? Most people think it's weird."
"Well, I'm a little strange myself," he said seriously. "There's nothing about you that I consider 'weird'."
She reached over and hugged Agumon lovingly. "Thanks. You're so nice." He trembled when she called him 'nice'. He managed to get out of her grip as he hopped off the couch.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing," Agumon replied. "I just feel anxious to get started."
"Get started? With what?"
He looked at her solemnly. "Your training. If you're to become a real Digidestined, you have to know what you're capable of. I can't fight at my true potential until you achieve your full potential."
Naki looked sad. "But...I don't want to fight."
"You're going to have to," Agumon insisted. "The world is just about ready to pop, and that'll be when you and I will strike."
"Ready to pop?" Agumon turned up the volume of the debate slightly to make it plenty clear to Naki. On screen, General Haus was speaking forcefully about an important subject.
(Haus): "You know as well as I do that the threat of attack from a Mega is imminent. There is a strong chance that the middle eastern terrorist groups have access to a powerful digimon that no human technology can match! If we were to send squadrons of human soldiers against it, they wouldn't have a chance!"
(Kamiya): "So instead you want to send an army of Digimon against it? Even if those rumors were true, they wouldn't have a better chance than us against a Mega-level digimon!"
(Haus): "The digimon are immortal! There would be no loss of life if they were to face it!"
(Kamiya): "'No loss of life'?! Are you nuts?!"
The argument continued on like this, until Agumon eventually shut off the screen. Naki was speechless.
"You see what I mean? That monster is real. I can feel it deep inside, and so can you if you listen. As a digidestined, it is your responsibility to handle this situation...whatever the cost."
Naki slowly pulled out her digivice, and stared at it wordlessly. It almost seemed to sparkle in her hand, like it had a mind of its own. A part of her was dying to see what she could do, but her feelings were still strong. She hated fighting, especially between digimon. There was no point to it...usually. She knew that protecting people you care about was important. If she had to fight to protect those she loved, whether they are human or digimon, she knew she would.
"Okay," she whispered finally. "What do you want me to do?"
Agumon smirked, and lead Naki to the computer desk in her father's study. Naki stood in the center of the room uncertainly, while the digimon looked at her expectantly.
"You know what to do, right?" he asked, nodding towards the computer terminal.
Naki smiled. "You bet." She reached over, touched a button to make the holographic computer monitor appear, and held her digivice towards the screen.
"Digi-port, open!" she said forcefully. And, for the first time in her entire life, the program obeyed her command. A bright light surrounded the two, and they sped through the portal into the Digital World. Unbeknownst to them, someone else up early (for a bathroom break) witnessed this. Although he was still drowsy, he realized that this was the perfect opportunity.
Now's my chance...
****
Tai entered his hotel room, slamming the door on the way in. Part of it was because he was dead tired, and partly from the earlier debate. Man, he hated that General! He didn't even think digimon were sentient creatures! How could he not think that if they walked, talked, did math, and danced? Well, some of them danced...
The ambassador looked sadly at his companion that lay near motionless on the bed. He had been in a deep sleep for over a day, and he seemed to have no intention of waking up soon. His breathing was getting slower and weaker as time went on, which made Tai extremely worried. The general was correct when he said that digimon normally didn't die, but was that always the case? Tai still insisted that that girl with the strange crest was causing the weakness of the digimon. If it were true, then would the digimon come back even if their energy was sucked dry?
Tai sat next to him, and put a hand in his friend's claw. It was so cold and limp, like a corpse. If it weren't for the rhythmic rise and fall of Agumon's chest, Tai might have thought him dead. Of course, he would have been gone then...
"Agumon, if you can hear me, I want you to know that I won't give up." Tai felt tears in his eyes. Even though he was 39 years old, he still could be really emotional about certain things. Sora was one of those things; Agumon was another. "Even if I have to go against Gennai and the Digidestined, I won't give up. I don't want to lose you...because I know you would do the same for me." Tai didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he thought he felt Agumon's claw slightly close around his hand.
Tai took some time to regain his composure before he went to the vid-phone. He dialed up Izzy's home number. Thankfully the days of guessing when Izzy was online or not were gone thanks to the Multi-band connections used nowadays. Izzy answered immediately, though he seemed preoccupied with something else at the moment.
"Hey Tai, what's up?" he said as he punched away at some computer keys. No doubt the phone link was on the same screen as whatever he was working on. "I saw you on CNN this morning. For a second I thought I was watching one of those goofy talk shows."
"Ha ha ha," Tai mocked. "You're a riot Izzy. That's what I get for not dissing your documentaries on Discovery."
"I'm just glad my kids aren't ever awake that early."
"So when are we heading to the Digital World? The sooner, the better."
"I agree. I suppose we could go ourselves, but I think if we wait for the others-"
"Let's go now," interrupted Tai. "We don't need an army to find Gennai."
"But what should we tell the others?"
"I don't care! Let's just hurry up and do something!"
"Tai, calm yourself," Izzy demanded. "I know you're worried about Agumon. We're all worried about our digimon, but you can't just go running off on your own. If we're going to do this, we have to work together." Tai clenched his fists and groaned. He hated waiting, but Izzy was right.
"Fine. Let's call the others and wake 'em up!"
Izzy just sighed. Typical.
****
Black Agumon took a deep breath and stretched his neck around slightly. "Alright, let's begin."
"Agumon, are you sure we need to do this?" Naki asked. "I mean...why must we save the world by fighting? Isn't fighting wrong?"
The digimon sighed. "Naki, if you were to say that to a criminal, would they listen to you?"
"...No," she said sadly.
"Neither would an enemy. You must learn how to fight if you want to be a true Digidestined."
Naki's resolve strengthened, and she clutched her crest with renewed strength. "Alright. I'll do my best then...but I still don't like it."
"Of course you don't!" shouted a new arrival. Both Agumon and Naki looked to see Tohru waltzing up to them like he was the baddest kid in Odaiba. Betamon of course was with him, though the look on his face showed that he wasn't here for fun.
"What're you doing here?" Naki asked sourly. "Shouldn't you be asleep still?"
"What about you?!" he retorted. "Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you can leave the house whenever you want. Or do you think that Mom and Dad would be more lenient on you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Naki wasn't sure how her brother knew she had come here, but it was obvious that he wasn't in a good mood. Black Agumon seemed annoyed by his intrusion even more so than she was.
Tohru's face became filled with hate. "When something bad happens to you, Mom and Dad get all lovey-dovey about it and don't punish you at all! But when I do something, good or bad, they don't say anything! They ignore me because of you!"
"They do not!" said Naki, but Tohru wasn't finished.
"Now that you have a digimon, you'll probably take even more attention away from me. They'll probably be cheering for you now in the Battles!" Naki looked at him like he was nuts- even more so than usual. He really was angry with her; he wasn't playing around.
"Tohru, I'm not doing anything! You know I hate the Battles, so why would I join them? I don't care about that!"
Tohru grabbed his digivice. "You're lying! I know that you're jealous of me for being better than you at sports and for having more friends! You and this loser digimon are just training so that you can beat me and Betamon and get revenge!"
Now Naki was angry. "Don't call Agumon names!"
Her brother smiled wickedly. He had struck a nerve, and like any little brother he was going to use that for all it was worth. "I bet your little digimon is just as weak and slow as you are!" Naki's anger continued to rise. Unbeknownst to her, the trinket dangling from her neck was starting to glow.
"Tohru, stop it!!" she shouted.
Betamon was also worried. He was Tohru's partner, but Naki was a good friend (more like family). He didn't want to hurt her like this. He hopped close to Tohru and whispered meekly. "Tohru, please stop."
"Why?! It's her fault! She started it!" he insisted. "She's trying to make Mom and Dad love her more!"
"Tohru!" she cried.
"She's trying to forget that she's a freak!!"
Finally, it was just too much. Naki's eyes burst into tears, and she wailed loudly. Her crest erupted with light as power shot through it, which jumped to and enveloped Black Agumon.
Agumon, digivolve to...Greymon!
Tohru's instincts as a Digimon Battler kicked in. "Betamon, let's go!" he ordered, holding out his digivice. Betamon, although reluctant, let his much meaner, digivolved form come.
Betamon, digivolve to...Seadramon!
"Come on!" Seadramon shouted in open challenge. "I'll show you why Tohru and I are the champions of the arena!" Greymon didn't say anything, he just charged forward and wrestled with the serpentine digimon.
"Hah! I told you!" Tohru shouted at his sister, who was still crying despite the anger enveloping her body. "You've been waiting for a fight, haven't you?!"
"Shut up!!" she yelled. "I hate you!!"
"Well, I hate you even more!!" he shouted back. Seadramon slammed the side of Greymon with a powerful whip of his tail. The black-skinned Greymon fell over with a grunt of pain. Before he could recover, Seadramon unleashed a powerful attack on the helpless digimon.
"ICE BLAST!" he shouted. Seadramon's attack hit its mark easily, heavily damaging the digimon. Although Greymon was stronger physically, Seadramon had been fighting for a long time and knew the best places to hit an enemy. It was one of the things that brought him and Tohru to the top of their class.
"Greymon!" Naki shouted in anguish. Every hit on him felt like a hit on her. Normally it would be painful to watch such a fight for a girl normally as pacifistic as her. She couldn't explain it, but instead of feeling horrified by it...she was enjoying it.
"Get up!" she ordered. "Get up and fight, Greymon!"
The dark digimon managed to get to his feet, but he was still wobbly. Although he looked like he could collapse again at any moment, Greymon was ready to continue the fight. Tohru scoffed his opponent.
"Hah! What'd I tell you?! He can't even take a hit! He fights like a girl!" he taunted, going for a classic insult that rarely worked anymore. For Naki, it worked better than he expected.
"Stop it!!" she shouted again. She was boiling over with anger, and her face reflected this. Her normally calm features were replaced by a scowl of hate that could make a grown man halt in his tracks. Tohru laughed, totally enjoying this fight like any other. Now his parents would know that he was the best child!
Seadramon overtook Greymon again, proving his fine combination of strength and speed. The serpent encircled the digimon's throat and squeezed as hard as he could. Even against a creature as big and strong as a Greymon, a chokehold was potentially lethal and difficult to break from.
"Give up sis'!" Tohru ordered. "I'll tell him to stop if you admit that I'm better than you!" Even in her froth, Naki could see the pain Greymon was in. Using all of the will she had, she managed to calm herself to the point where she could speak intelligently. The glow of her crest faded to nil, but again she didn't care enough to notice.
"...Fine, you little brat," she said. Naki took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "You're better."
Tohru teasingly put a hand to his ear. "Huh? I couldn't hear you."
Naki clenched her fists, but simply repeated her last statement, this time louder. "You're better!"
"Than who?" he asked with a smile. Greymon didn't have much time left, as was apparent by the steady fall of his arms to the ground.
"You're better than me!" Naki shouted. "You're better than me!"
Tohru smiled. "Now say you're a freak! A freak with a weak digimon!"
"But you said-"
"I didn't say anything!" he lied blatantly. "You should know that a Battler doesn't keep their promises to those who aren't worthy!" By now he was just being melodramatic- probably picking out lines from animes he liked. Naki didn't care if he was playing around or not. She was done letting him have his way.
"Let him go, or I'm going to kick your ASS myself!" she yelled. Her crest glowed brightly again, but still didn't quite make it over the imaginary line.
Tohru had never heard his sister cuss before. He felt proud of himself for pushing her so far. Like any foolish child, he was ready to test just how far he could push her. "Seadramon, finish Greymon off!"
Naki...help me!
You and I aren't like everybody else...
"Right!" The creature released the barely conscious Greymon and reared its head back for a massive Ice Blast. "ICE..."
I can't fight at my true potential until you achieve your full potential...
You must learn how to fight!!
Naki shut her eyes and let her feelings of anger and hate fly to the surface, unbridled. "GREYMON, DESTROY HIM!!" The crest around her neck exploded with power, and her digivice whistled to life as the next stage of digivolution commenced.
Seadramon gasped in horror when he saw the face of pure evil staring at him with a sadistic smile.
