The Dark Bandit
Part Ten
After walking for about fifteen minutes more, Mimi and the
newly-evolved Togemon reached the strange little cabin that they had spotted
before. As her digimon had stated previously, the girl noted a tall, strange
looking creature positioned in front of the house.
"Is he a wild digimon?" Mimi wondered. She'd never seen such a
creature before. He almost appeared to be a stuffed teddy bear, but he was
taller than the house, as tall as Togemon, and he looked very angry.
Togemon shrugged. "Certainly appears to be without a partner," she
replied. "What should we do?"
"Somehow, I don't think he's here to welcome us," the girl
reasoned. "Maybe I should try to talk to him."
"He doesn't look like he wants to talk," her partner commented,
noting the annoyed expression on the digimon's face.
"Maybe he guards whoever is in the house. If we explain that we're
just passing through and we're not criminals or anything, maybe he'll let us
visit," Mimi suggested optimistically. "I'm going to try to talk to him. You
stay here. If there's any trouble, you can jump in and help out." The large
plant nodded.
"Right," she agreed.
Mimi stepped into the clearing surrounding the house. "Hello!" she
waved cheerfully. The digimon guarding the house peered down at her with an
inhospitable expression. "I was just passing through the area and I got a
little lost. I was wondering if you could tell me the way to the palace?"
The tall bear-like digimon merely growled in response. "Lovely
Attack," he shouted. Mimi stared in shock as large translucent blue hearts came
in her direction.
For some reason, she got the impression that she should avoid
these hearts. Quickly, she turned in the opposite direction, back towards
Togemon, but discovered that the hearts were surrounding her.
"Prickly Bang Bang!" a deep voice shouted from behind her.
Suddenly, sharp, thin objects were flying through the air, and the hearts were
popped as though they were simply soap bubbles. Togemon stepped from behind the
trees, as the strange sharp objects had come from her.
"Togemon, take care of this rude digimon!" Mimi declared, being
quite a bit annoyed at the bear-like creature's unprovoked attack. In her hand,
the small box she was still holding began to emit high pitched noises once
more.
Togemon jumped headlong into the battle, fists flying. A few
moments later the giant plant and the giant bear were involved in a boxing
match. Mimi would have been quite amused by the scene if she wasn't aware of
the seriousness at the same time.
The battle continued for a few minutes before Togemon was able to
shove her opponent backwards. The bear digimon fell down and landed hard on the
ground. "Prickly Bang Bang," the plant shouted, shooting out the needles once
more.
"Ahhh!" the bear shouted. It scrambled to its feet and disappeared
into the forest.
"Wait!" Mimi called. The digimon paid no attention to her,
however, continuing its mad dash through the woods. She sighed. "I was hoping
to figure out what it was doing here," she confided to her digimon.
A white light surrounded the tall plant, and it shrank back down
into Palmon. Mimi stared in surprise. "You de-evolved?" she asked.
Her partner nodded with a shrug. "I didn't have enough energy to
stay as Togemon."
"Hmm…" she replied, intrigued.
"Didn't we want to see what was in that house?" Palmon reminded
her partner.
Before Mimi could reply, the door to the small cabin opened and a
short little old man stepped out. "Greetings," he commented. "So glad you could
make it. My security team was getting a bit out of hand."
***
Daisuke heard a noise in the hall late that night. He was so
exhausted, at first he wasn't going to even bother to see what it was, but then
he heard yelling. Several different voices were shouting in protest. Probably
to being taken to the dungeon.
Intrigued enough by the fact that a few of the voices were female,
he stood up and made his way to the door. He had just reached it and was about
to peer through the small window when the door opened and the guards tossed one
of those figures at him. With a grunt, Daisuke and his new cellmate fell
backwards in a heap.
The door closed a moment later before Daisuke could even react. He
groaned in pain, wincing slightly when his sore, bruised back hit the stone
floor.
"Daisuke!" the voice of whoever was with him shouted, and he
recognized the voice.
"Hikari!" he realized then, scrambling to his feet at the same
time she did. "What are you doing here?"
The Princess avoided his eyes sheepishly for a moment before she
replied. "I'm not sure," she answered. "The guards burst into the room in the
middle of the night. I think everyone else was taken, too. I heard them
shouting. I couldn't see much in the dark, though."
"Everyone?" he repeated, shocked. "But – why?"
"Koushiro thinks that Father wants to use our digimon to
evolve his digimon to a higher state. And that he'll need us at a
weakened state to do that," she explained. Quickly, she went over what the
young wizard had said before.
"I won't let him hurt V-mon," Daisuke declared. Then his face
fell. "I don't think I'll be able to stop him, though," he realized.
Hikari sighed. "There's got to be something we can do," she told
him with some optimism.
***
The two brothers found themselves tossed in a heap on a dusty
floor. Yamato found that his fall was cushioned by his brother, but Takeru was
not so lucky. Before either could recover, the door slammed shut once more.
Immediately, the elder boy jumped to his feet and ran towards the entryway, but
it had already been locked before he had even gotten up.
Takeru watched with a slight rolling of his eyes as his brother
proceeded to yell a string of profanities in the direction of the guards. When
that elicited no response from them, Yamato resorted to kicking the door in
frustration. Then he sat down beside his brother, carefully staying off his
foot.
"You done?" the younger brother questioned.
Yamato glared at his brother and examined his barefoot toe for
serious injuries. "I knew this was coming," he admitted after a moment. "But
that doesn't mean I'm not mad about it."
Takeru was eerily calm. "So I saw."
"This isn't right," he grumbled. "Not right at all. We need to be
together."
"What do you mean?"
"Our best chance of defeating the King – or whatever controls him
– and saving our digimon is to combine our forces. We can't do that if
we've been split up."
"Well, that would explain why he separated us."
Yamato looked up from his uninjured foot. "I don't like it," he
stated. "What if the King decides to regress our digimon back to their baby
forms? What if they can't evolve back? What if their lack of energy
makes us weak?"
Takeru shrugged.
"How can you be so calm?!"
The younger brother shrugged once more. "I don't know. I guess I
just know everything will turn out all right."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't, really," Takeru admitted. "I just know that if I think
positive, positive things might happen."
Yamato sighed and laid down on the hard floor. "I have a feeling
we'll need a lot more than positive thinking to get us out of this situation."
***
Mimi sipped her tea from the old man's tea cup and smiled
courteously. The situation was strange, the reason for their meeting was
strange, and yet they were sitting there drinking tea as though everything was
just fine.
"Do you need more sugar? Or cream?" the old man asked. Mimi
politely shook her head.
"No, thank you, this is fine."
The old man nodded. "I suppose I should get down to business
then," he decided. "I am Gennai. I suppose you could say that I am a bit of a
mystic."
"Why did you have that strange digimon guarding your house?"
Palmon interrupted before Mimi could ask just what he meant by that statement.
"Oh, Monzaemon?" Gennai questioned. "He was placed there by the
King of this land about twenty years ago, I think. He was nice at one point,
but he really had developed a bit of a temper over the years. Maybe not enough
sleep or something." The old man shrugged slightly as he sat down at the table.
"He was supposed to guard your house?" Mimi asked.
"Yes, basically. The King wanted to make sure that no one came to
see me and I saw no one. He really should have picked someone a bit friendlier.
It gets boring being alone in the forest for twenty years and having no one to
speak to."
"Don't you have a digimon partner?" Palmon wondered. The old man
shook his head.
"I'm afraid I never found the right one for me," he replied, not
really answering the question. "But we're not here to talk about me. We're here
to talk about digimon and their evolutions."
"That's right, we are," Mimi agreed. "Why was Palmon able to
evolve again? I thought only the King's digimon could evolve higher than this
stage. And why didn't she stay as Togemon?"
"Palmon was able to evolve because of that little device in your
hand," Gennai answered as he sipped his tea. "It's an ancient item known as a
Digivice. It helps to increase the bond between digimon and partner, and it
gives the digimon greater strength."
"How does it do that?"
"I'm not entirely sure," the old man replied. "I think that the
digimon uses some of its partner's energy. But I could be wrong. Digivices
haven't been seen in a very long time."
"What happened to the other digivices?" Mimi wondered.
"Other digivices?" Mimi quickly explained about the box they had
found and how the digivices had floated off after Palmon had evolved. "Ah,
yes," he recalled. "The other digivices went to their true owners."
"True owners?" Palmon repeated.
Gennai stood up and walked over to his stove, where a small teapot
was still brewing. "Yes, it's a very old legend that surrounds the digivices.
Many years ago a group of young people was called to defend the world from
something. It's never clear in the legends what they fought, but through
using the digivices they were able to defeat that threat. If the digivices have
returned, then the people they have been sent to are the ones who must fight
this new threat."
"A new threat?" Mimi gasped.
The old man poured himself some more tea and then replaced the
teapot. "There is really no reason for the digivices to be available except for
the partners to help the digimon evolve to higher levels. The world has been at
peace for many years. Now if they have reappeared, it is necessary for the
digimon to evolve further."
"So we'll have to fight?" Mimi frowned.
Gennai nodded solemnly. "Indeed. You'll have to fight many
threats."
Mimi frowned even deeper. "I'm not sure I want to fight," she
admitted.
"You won't have to do it alone, Mimi," Palmon reminded her. "I'll
be by your side. And so will the others who received the digivices."
"That's right," Mimi cheered slightly. "Gennai, where have the
other digivices gone to?"
"Their rightful owners," he repeated. "I don't know who they are."
He held out his hand. "May I?"
The girl handed over the little blue box with a nod. The old man
examined it for a moment. "The other digivices have not yet been delivered to
their proper owners," he reported. "When they have been, you'll be able to
track them using this device."
"Track them how?"
***
Sora groaned as she was tossed into the dark, dusty cell. She
heard the door slam behind her, and then she heard Yamato's voice call out a
few choice words to the guards. She heard Miyako scream in protest as well.
Wisely, however, Sora remained silent. She knew that screaming her frustration
would not solve the problem. No, she decided, it was much better to sit down
and think of a solution.
"Huh?"
A voice from somewhere in the cell startled her. Someone else was
there with her. Nervously, Sora backed into the cell door, eyes scanning the
darkness in search of – something – she knew not what. "Who – Who's there?" she
managed to stammer out, trying but failing to sound brave.
In the dim light from the window in the door behind her, Sora was
able to make out a dark figure slowly taking shape. "Sora?" the voice
questioned. It was hoarse – sounding, but familiar in some way.
"How do you know my name?" she demanded, still on guard. It could
be a trick. It could be her tired mind playing tricks on her, it could be…
"Taichi!" she gasped, once the figure had come into view. "Oh my!"
Without wasting another second on words, Sora scrambled to the
injured boy. "Are you alright? What happened?" he managed to blurt out.
"Don't talk," she urged. "You're too weak." Carefully, she helped
him to lie down again. In the corner of the cell was a bucket of water that was
their only source of nourishment for the moment. Within seconds, she had
retrieved it and helped him to sip a bit of the water, the same way his sister
had done for him the day before.
"Hikari?" he questioned after he had drunk a few sips.
"She's alright, Taichi. Don't worry."
He nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "And everyone else?"
"They're all here," she reported. "We were dragged from our room
in the middle of the night. As far as I know, everyone is here – in the
dungeon."
The Prince sighed and shook his head slightly. "None of us deserve
this."
"No," Sora agreed. "We don't. But Koushiro has a theory as to – as
to your father's motivations."
"Motivations?" he repeated blankly.
"At least for separating us from our digimon," she clarified.
Quickly, she told him of the young wizard's theories for further evolutions.
Taichi sighed, but before he could comment in response, both were
aware of a strange commotion coming from the corridor. "What is that?"
"I'll look," Sora volunteered. She stood and walked to the door,
peering out the peephole. Before she could comment, two strange spheres of
light flew into the cell.
***
Koushiro squinted in the dim candlelight at the words in the large
book he was now studying. After his conversation with the others that
afternoon, the young wizard had decided to search for further legends regarding
the evolution of digimon. Perhaps, he theorized, there was some truth to them.
It was very late at night, and he really should have been
sleeping, but he was so involved in his studying that he knew he would not be
able to rest for several hours. Even now, he was running on adrenaline that was
so strong he barely noticed his tiredness.
The redhead was so involved his studies that he did not notice the
door to his small lab open and shut behind him. Footsteps sounded softly behind
him, and he was nearly startled right out of his chair when a voice behind him
spoke.
"Don't you ever sleep, Koushiro?"
After taking a moment to calm his thudding heart, the wizard
turned to the one who had spoken. "You're not sleeping either, Jyou," he
reminded his friend.
"Only because I was attending to Lady Motomiya," he replied. "You,
on the other hand, have no reason to be awake this late."
"Of course I do," Koushiro replied somewhat shortly, turning back
to his book. "I need to find information on an old legend about evolving
digimon."
"I suppose that it's so important it can't wait until morning,
right?" the young doctor retorted.
"Actually, it can't," he answered. "It's very important that I
find this legend. People's lives could be at stake."
"Koushiro, you're being dramatic." Jyou stepped away from his
friend and glanced at a pile of books on a table nearby. Noting the title of
one of them, he lifted it and began to skim the pages.
"I'm not being dramatic," Koushiro denied. He looked up from the
book for a moment. "If I don't figure out exactly what happened when the
children in that legend were able to evolve their digimon further, the King may
be able to de-evolve the others' digimon in order to evolve his own."
Tentomon sat behind the pile of books Jyou had been observing. He
was reading a book of his own. "Don't mind him, Jyou, he tends to get wrapped
up in his work," the bug-type advised.
The dark-haired doctor shrugged. "I know," he assured the digimon.
"Unfortunately it may effect his health."
The door behind him opened once more, and a small white digimon
entered. "Oh, there you are Jyou," Gomamon greeted. "I've been looking all over
for you."
Jyou lifted his digimon from the ground so he could better hold a
conversation. "What for?"
Gomamon shrugged. "No reason. I just wanted to know where you
were. I think something important is going to happen."
Koushiro whirled around in his chair. "What do you mean by that,
Gomamon?" he demanded.
The little white digimon blinked nervously. "I don't know,"
he replied defensively. "I just feel like something's going to happen."
"I feel it too, Koushiro," Tentomon confessed. "I'm not sure what
it is, either."
Jyou was about to reply to this when suddenly, two small white
spheres floated into the room.
***
The tall, thick skinned guards that held his arms would simply not
loosen their grip, no matter how hard he struggled. He was tired, but he was
not giving in easily. His feet stumbled as he was dragged behind the others,
many of who were kicking and screaming in protest much stronger than his own.
With a grunt, Ken suddenly fell to the ground, his knees groaning
in protest as he hit the harsh stone floor of the stairs leading to the
dungeon. In the shock, both of the guards assigned to him released their hold,
leaving the dark-haired boy to tumble down the stairs and land in a bruised
heap at the bottom.
By the time he was able to recover enough to sit up, the rest of
the guards and their captives were long gone. Before Ken could make another
move, his guards had reached him, and gripped his arms tightly, pulling him
onward once more.
They finally reached the dungeon corridor to find that the others
had already been thrown into their cells. The other guards were standing
around, talking casually. When the last prisoner was hauled into the area, one
of them, obviously the leader of the guards because he was larger, pointed to a
door directly to the left. One of the other guards stepped forward with the
keys and opened the heavy metal door. They stepped aside and watched with some
amusement as Ken's two escorts tossed him unceremonially into the room.
Groaning from the harsh collision with the floor after his fall
down the stairs, the dark-haired boy simply lay still and rested for a few
moments. The door slammed loudly behind him, and he heard a gasp from inside
the room.
"Are you alright?" he heard the voice question, and through the
fog in his mind he was able to identify it as Miyako's.
He blinked his eyes a few times and managed to lift himself up off
the ground. "I think so," he mumbled softly. He examined himself as best as
possible in the dim light. His knees were sore from the fall, but the skin had
not broken. His elbows, on the other hand, were skinned, and a few drips of
blood were coming from each joint.
"What happened?" she questioned upon seeing the blood.
"Fell down the stairs," he replied casually, touching the
sensitive areas lightly.
She gasped. "Those steep stone stairs we came down on the way
here?"
He nodded, still paying attention to his bruising. "Those are the
only stairs I noticed."
"I'm surprised you're in once piece," she commented.
"Nothing serious." He pulled up the leg of his pants enough so
that he could see his knees. They were injured, and it was obvious that a nasty
bruise would appear on each of them within a few hours, but they were still
usable.
Miyako frowned slightly. "I was worried," she confessed.
Ken paused momentarily in his examinations to look at her. "About
what?"
"You," she admitted. Her voice lowered to a softer level. "When we
were dragged out of the room, I didn't hear you, and I was worried you had
slipped out."
He shrugged, turning away and pretending to study his hands. "I
figured screaming wouldn't really do much good," he replied.
Miyako was about to agree when two bright spheres floated through
the barred window on the door. "What?" she questioned blankly instead. One of
the bright spheres floated in front of her, and, cautiously she reached out and
grabbed it.
"Wait," Ken spoke up, but she had already taken it. "We don't know
what they are," he reminded her belatedly.
Miyako peered at the strange object in her hand. "They're
important," she replied. "And this one's mine." Cautiously, the boy looked at
the sphere in front of him. "That one's yours."
"Mine?" he repeated. "How can you be sure?"
"It must be," she reasoned. "It's floating right in front of you."
With ever present caution, he gripped the device in his hand.
***
Mimi finished sipping her drink. Gennai was about to offer her
some more tea, when suddenly the strange device sitting next to her began to
make a few noises. Alerted, the young girl lifted the small blue box and stared
at it. In the center, she could see eleven blinking dots all clustered at the
top.
"What on earth?" she gasped.
Gennai peered over her shoulder at the digivice. "Ah, yes," he
noted with smile and a nod. "The others have received their digivices as well."
"How do you know that?" Palmon wondered, also peering at the
device.
The old man pointed to the dots on the screen. "Each of those dots
represents a digivice. Have you ever seen a compass?"
"Those funny looking things sailors use so they don't get lost?"
Mimi wondered.
"That's it," he nodded. "Those little dots represent the other
digivices. You can use yours to track them. The top of the digivice is straight
ahead. When you get closer to the others, the dots will move down closer the
center."
"Like a compass always points to the north," Mimi nodded in
understanding.
"Exactly."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's find them, Palmon!"
***
Hikari stared at the funny looking device in her hand. She wasn't
sure what it was, but she suspected it was very important. As she turned it
over and examined it, the Princess got the feeling that this little blue box
would help to save her kingdom and perhaps her life.
Daisuke reacted to his with different feelings. Where as the
Princess felt it would change everything for the better, he got a strange sense
of doom from the little box. Not that it was evil, but that something bad would
occur as a result of it.
Both of them agreed on one thing, though, and that was that the
devices would change everything, and that they were destined to receive them.
***
Iori awoke in the middle of the night to find his digimon awake
and sitting on his bed. "Armadimon?" he questioned, blinking his eyes.
"I don't know what it is, Iori, but that thing is weird."
He sat up in bed and immediately saw what Armadimon was worrying
about. A strange little white glowing sphere was hovering right above his head.
"What is that?"
"I don't know," Armadimon repeated.
"Do you think I should – take it?"
"It's probably not floating in front of you if it belongs
to someone else," the golden-colored digimon replied sensibly.
Cautiously, the boy headed his digimon's advice, reaching out his
right hand and grasping the glowing sphere. The glow around it died, and he was
able to see that it was actually a strange little pale blue box. There were
darker sections on it, and there were also some strange blinking dots in the
middle. Ten of the dots were clustered around the center of the box, but one
dot was near the bottom.
"What do you think it is?" Armadimon wondered.
Iori could only stare. "I have no idea," he answered.
***
Jyou could only stare blankly at the strange little box in his
hand. "What – is this thing?" he wondered. Normally, the cautious physician would
have avoided a floating, glowing sphere, but something inside him had prompted
him to grasp the strange object in his hand, and it had immediately stopped
glowing. Now, it was a strange little blue box.
"It's a digivice!" Koushiro shouted. The young wizard was nearly
beside himself as he began flipping through the pages of the book still sitting
in front of him.
"A what?" Tentomon asked, buzzing over to peer over his partner's
shoulder at the book.
"A digivice," he repeated. A few moments later, Koushiro arrived
at a page. There, a strange looking blue box precisely like the one he held in
his hand was drawn rather crudely on the page.
"What is it supposed to be?" Gomamon wondered.
"It's something that the Chosen used in ancient times to help
their digimon evolve to higher stages!" the wizard replied, still so excited he
could barely keep still. "They were rumored to be only myths, but if we have
them, that proves that they're real!"
Jyou blinked. "Does that mean that we were Chosen, too?"
"Probably."
"So, Koushiro, what do these things do?" Tentomon
questioned, getting right to the point.
"Well, as far as I can tell," Koushiro began, but was interrupted
by the sound of running feet in the hall.
"Koushiro!" a voice shouted, and a few moments later a boy skidded
into the doorway. He was still dressed in a loose sleeping garment, and he
slid, barefoot, on the floor. Armadimon scrambled behind him.
"Iori, you too?" Jyou gasped, noting the strange blue box that was
in the boy's hand as well.
"You have one, too?" Iori questioned. He held out the strange blue
device. "It came to me while I was sleeping."
"They're digivices, Iori," Koushiro replied. "As far as I can tell
they're used to evolve digimon to higher levels. If you have one, that means
you've been chosen as well." The wizard appeared thoughtful for a moment.
"But Koushiro," Iori interrupted. "What about these funny dots?"
He held out his digivice. The eleven dots were still there, but now two of them
were in the direct center of the device.
"They moved!" Armadimon realized when he saw the dots. "Before,
all the dots were over there, except that one that's farther away. Now those
two are in the middle."
"They did," his partner agreed, staring at the strange dots with a
stunned expression.
"Then the digivices must also be used for tracking other
digivices," Koushiro realized. He returned to his book, flipping through the
pages once more.
"Tracking other digivices?" Jyou repeated.
"Maybe each of the dots is another digivice," Gomamon theorized
from where he was, flopped over Jyou's shoulders.
"That would explain why two of the dots got closer when we
came here," Armadimon agreed.
"What I don't get is how it works," Iori confessed.
"I don't either," Koushiro admitted. "But I suppose as long as it
does work and we know how to use it, it will have to do."
***
Sora stared at the device in her hand. "Could this be one of those
things Koushiro was talking about?" she wondered aloud.
"What do you mean?" Taichi wondered.
"Well, when Koushiro was talking about evolving digimon, he said
that a long time ago, a group of people were supposedly able to evolve their
digimon further than adult stage by using strange devices with symbols on
them."
"These have symbols on them," her friend noted.
She nodded. "Then it could be that these are them. But there's no
way to test it. We don't have our digimon."
***
Mimi's feet pounded along the ground as she ran, Palmon rushing to
keep up with her. Normally, neither of them liked to run, but she was so
excited about receiving a digivice and finding the others that possessed them
that she had begun running, and even now did not stop.
Palmon panted behind her. She carried the basket of food in her
arms, struggling not to trip and spill its contents on the ground. "Mimi!
Wait!" she panted, and finally stopped, too tired to continue any longer.
Mimi reluctantly paused and waited for her digimon. Over her
shoulder she carried the bag of clothes she'd been persuaded to take, and in
her free hand, the lantern. In the other hand was the little blue box known as
a digivice.
"Are you all right?" she questioned.
The plant digimon could only wheeze a few times in response before
collapsing on the ground. "Do – you – think – we – could – slow – down?" she
managed to ask.
"I'm sorry Palmon," Mimi apologized. "I guess we could walk
instead of run."
"Thanks," Palmon gasped.
A few moments later, after pausing to catch their breath, the two
started out at a much more subdued pace. It was still very dark out, and Mimi
was beginning to tire, but she kept going.
"Hey Palmon, you know what I've noticed?"
"What?"
"We're heading in the direction of the castle," Mimi reported. "I
wonder if that has anything to do with that weird feeling we had before."
"About something being wrong?" her partner questioned. "Maybe."
"I'll bet Princess Hikari received one of the digivices," she
theorized. "But who could have the other ten?"
"Maybe Taichi?" Palmon suggested.
"Maybe," Mimi agreed. "But that's only three. The digivice shows
that there are at least twelve of us, including me."
"Maybe the others are some of the guests Hikari's having?"
"Possible. I could see her having at least nine guests," the girl
agreed. "After all, it is her sixteenth birthday."
***
That morning, four days after Princess Hikari's sixteenth
birthday, the sun rose over the kingdom of Yagami.
Inside the castle, Koushiro had fallen asleep over his research,
still gripping his digivice in his hand. Tentomon was curled up on a nearby
table, dozing amongst piles of books.
Jyou was safe in his bed, a light blue nightcap falling over his
face as he slept. Gomamon snored beside him, and the digivice sat on the
nightstand beside his bed, still blinking slightly.
Iori slept in the small room he considered his quarters. Armadimon
rested on the floor beside him. Concerned about loosing his newest possession,
the boy had stuffed the device under his pillow where no one would find it.
In the dungeon, the prisoners slept with less comfort. Yamato and
Takeru had managed to make themselves semi comfortable on the floor of their
cell, their digivices still grasped protectively in their hands.
Daisuke had fallen asleep with Hikari's lap as a pillow. He had
been tired, and hurt, and she had offered. He had protested, but had been persuaded.
The Princess slept sitting up, her somewhat regal gown now dusty, dirty, and
torn from the trauma of the last few days, but her spirit so far unbroken. Her
digivice lay on the ground beside her, but Daisuke clutched his protectively in
his hand.
Taichi was in a worse state than his friend. Unaccustomed to harsh
torture, and having displeased his father more than he could ever guess, the
boy tossed and turned, in some physical discomfort even as he slept. Sora had
stayed awake for a while, trying to tend to her friend, but eventually she had
passed out on the floor beside him as well. She had put her digivice in her
pockets under the folds of her skirt. The Prince had tried to hold on to his,
but had lost it in his disturbed sleep. It now lay on the ground beside him.
Miyako had struggled to get comfortable on the stone floor for a
good hour. Her cellmate, somewhat used to less than luxurious sleeping
conditions, offered generously that she use him as a pillow. So eventually,
after a lengthy debate on the subject which never really focused on the issue
at hand, he slept on his back, and she contented herself with using his stomach
as a headrest. She was pleased because she was a bit more comfortable, and he
was pleased because he no longer was kept awake by the constant tossing and
turning. Both of them had put their digivices in their pockets where they
believed they would be kept safest.
Outside, a young girl and her plant-like digimon made their way
towards the castle in the early morning hours. Though tired from the long walk,
both had been kept awake by the tea at Gennai's cottage, a few snacks along the
way, and the knowledge that neither wanted to sleep in the dark forest.
"What do we do now, Mimi?" Palmon questioned.
"We can't go through the front door," Mimi decided. The two guards
standing at the front entrance would most likely have permitted them to enter,
but Mimi was still concerned about the strange feeling she was having, and did
not wish to engage them in a conversation.
"So what do we do?"
That, in itself, had not occurred to the girl when she had decided
to walk to the castle. Security was light in the early morning simply because
getting over the walls of the palace was nearly impossible. Mimi didn't relish
the thought of climbing over the tall stone walls.
Suddenly, in
staring back and forth between the walls and her digimon's thoughtful
expression, an idea occurred to Mimi Tachikawa.
***
Three cheers for all of you who have read this
far!!! Yea!
It's almost over – probably about two or three parts
left in this, depending on how I break it up. Yes, I am fairly certain of how
it ends. No, I'm not telling you. ~_^
Well, I told you Mimi had a big part, didn't I? Yes,
and she meets the elusive Gennai. Naturally, he has to show up to explain
everything. Seriously though, did he ever serve any other purpose?
In the next part, Mimi meets up with everyone else,
we finally discover why the King wants them (in more details), and what
his plans actually are. Expect to see more angst-filled, sappy scenes ahead.
The end? Coming soon!
Thanks, everyone who has read this far! And thanks
again to all the great reviewers! Three cheers again! Yea!
If anyone wants to receive an email about when I
update this next (since Author Alert is now gone) or when I next put up a
story, just send me an email at Turquoisecow@excite.com,
and let me know. Yes, this is cheating the system, but I'm not the only one, which
tells you that the system sucks. ^_^
Oh yes, and I don't own Digimon! Never have,
never will. Sue me? All you're getting is my stuffed cow. Moo.
