Ken: Last time, BlackWarGreymon fought off an army to protect the Destiny Stone. Arukenimon caused the last thirty Digimon in her army to combine into Vermilionmon, Meteormon, and Kimeramon! When we finally showed up, BlackWarGreymon gave me my tag, causing Stingmon to Digivolve! But BlackWarGreymon immediately vanished, only to find himself in the real world. He met Yolei in Kyoto, and she tried to send him back, but just then Zanbamon showed up and made BlackWarGreymon an offer: If he killed Yolei, a portal back to the Digiworld would open for him. BlackWarGreymon actually seems to be considering the offer…I hope nothing bad happens to Yolei!

Disclaimer: Forget chapter 1. There's only a few Digimon in this story that I own. Everything else belongs to Toei. (By the way, I know Stingmon naturally digivolves to Dinobeemon, but I don't know what he looks like, so I used something else. Hope that's not a problem!)

Yolei clutched Poromon to her chest in fear, worrying that BlackWarGreymon just might say yes to Zanbamon's offer. If he did, she knew her partner wouldn't last half a second trying to stop the Dinosaur. Pleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillme she begged mentally.

After an eternity BlackWarGreymon glared right into the Wizard's hollow eyes. "No deal."

"Great, just kill her and…wait, what was that?" asked Zanbamon, confused.

"I said 'No deal.'" BlackWarGreymon repeated.

Zanbamon gaped. "But-but-but you're BlackWarGreymon! You're famous! You've depopulated entire towns, killed hundreds mercilessly, left a swath of destruction all over our world, and you're not going to kill a stinking human?!""

"No. I'm not."

Zanbamon eyed the Dinosaur like he was crazy. "Why the hell not?!"

BlackWarGreymon glanced briefly at the surprised Yolei. "My reasons are not yours to know, Wizard."

Zanbamon looked disgruntled. "Well, that's a shame. Guess I'll have to kill you then. Cross Slash!"

The Wizard lurched forward, swinging both of his swords in an attempt to hit BlackWarGreymon. The Dinosaur immediately raised his arms, using his claw shields to block the strike. As Zanbamon pressed harder, trying to penetrate his opponent's defenses, BlackWarGreymon looked back at Yolei. "Purple-haired girl, duck!"

"Hey, I'm a hawk, not a duck!" squeaked Poromon.

"No, I think he really means duck!" Yolei screamed as BlackWarGreymon knocked away the swords by swinging his arms out, then grabbed the Wizard by the waist, spun, and hurled him through the café's plate glass window. Yolei managed to get down just in time.

"Oh. That kind of duck." Said Poromon, shaken.

BlackWarGreymon started to run towards the glass. "Wait! What are you doing?" asked Yolei.

The Dinosaur stopped. "I'm going to kill Zanbamon, what does it look like?"

The purple-haired girl stuttered. "But-but you can't do that!"

"Why?"

That sudden question startled Yolei. "Why? What do you mean why? Because he's a real Digimon, that's why! He's not a Control Spire construct, like-"

"Like me?" BlackWarGreymon sneered. Yolei said nothing. "Let me tell you something, little girl. Why do you think Zanbamon came to your world? He said it himself, he wishes to kill humans. What do you suggest we do, open a Digi-port and send him back to the Digital World?"

"…Yes…"

"And what's to stop him from coming back here again? He opened the portal once; he can easily do it again. What do you think will happen if he comes back and I'm not here to stop him? Do you really believe your little bird there can save you from Zanbamon?" Yolei had no answer. "Stay out of my way, purple-haired girl. Unless you can make up your mind on whether or not you want a bloodthirsty Wizard Digimon rampaging through your world, don't tell me how to fight an enemy." He jumped through the hole in the window.

Zanbamon groaned and staggered to his equine feet. His expression turned gleeful at the sight of all the frightened humans around him. "Aw, helpless human cattle! Just what I came here to kill!" He started charging for a mother and her two scared children…when out of nowhere, a car slammed into him, throwing him into a streetlight.

"Jim, look what you did! You could've seriously damaged that mounted policeman!" scolded the older man sitting next to the driver.

"Sorry Professor, but if you hadn't spilled your ice cream on me I wouldn't have swerved and run into him in the first place!" the younger man said angrily.

"Oh so you're blaming ME for this?"

"Yes!"

"Well then, perhaps I should just fire you and get a student assistant who can look where he's going when he's driving!"

"You wouldn't do that!"

"Wouldn't I, Jim? Wouldn't I?"

"No, you wouldn't. I'm the only student in your class who hasn't had their license revoked for drunk driving, remember?"

"…Oh, yeah…DUCK!"

"What, are you calling me a duck now?"

"No, I mean DUCK!" The elder man managed to shove his assistant down just before Zanbamon's sword slash could cut his head off. The young man's head was safe, but the roof of the car was ripped off completely.

Zanbamon chuckled. "Well, what have we here? I didn't know humans came prepackaged!" He raised his big sword. "For hitting me, I'll make sure your blood is the first on my blade-"

"Black Tornado!" A spinning black blur slammed into Zanbamon, knocking him away from the terrified men. BlackWarGreymon came out of his spin and ran towards the fallen Wizard.

The younger man got up, shivering and pale. "…MY CAR! That freak ruined my car!"

"Look on the bright side, you've always said you wanted a convertible." The elder man jumped out of the car. "Grab the equipment, we're going after them!"

Zanbamon snarled at BlackWarGreymon. "How dare you! That human's blood was mine!"

He didn't bother responding. "Terra Destroyer!" BlackWarGreymon hurled his favorite attack at the Wizard.

Zanbamon deflected the energy ball with a sword, sending it hurtling into a nearby building, demolishing half of it. "Cross Slash!"

As before, BlackWarGreymon blocked the swords with his claw shields, then performed the same grab maneuver as he had before, hurling Zanbamon into a parked car. "Terra Destroyer!" Zanbamon recovered and galloped out of the way before he could get hit. The car was not so lucky and blew up. "Terra Destroyer!" BlackWarGreymon continued hurling energy balls, blasting huge potholes in the street.

Zanbamon kept strafing the Dinosaur, goading him into tossing more energy balls at him. When he got closer to BlackWarGreymon and another Terra Destroyer was formed, Zanbamon slashed at the ball, sending it right back at BlackWarGreymon! The energy ball exploded, stunning the Dinosaur. Zanbamon galloped over to BlackWarGreymon, raising his big sword to line up perfectly with the stunned Digimon's neck. "Beheading!"

As the huge blade swung towards BlackWarGreymon's neck, a white and green blur rammed into the Dinosaur, knocking him over and saving him from the decapitating blow. BlackWarGreymon grunted and noticed that a peculiar-looking ninja Digimon with five big shuriken was lying on him. "Get off."

The ninja complied, snorting. "Hmmph. Not a word of thanks. See if I save your life again."

"Shurimon, watch out!" Yolei yelled from nearby.

"Huh?" Shurimon ducked, barely avoiding getting his head chopped off by the angry Zanbamon. The ninja teleported behind Zanbamon (You know what I mean, that cool disappearing trick all ninjas can do?) and pointed one of his shuriken-clutching hands at the Wizard's back. "Double Star!" His green spring-like arm launched at Zanbamon, trying to smash the sharp three-pointed shuriken into his back. Zanbamon's torso swiveled on top of the horse body to face Shurimon. With a quick slash, Zanbamon severed Shurimon's hand before it could even touch him.

As the ninja howled in pain, BlackWarGreymon saw Zanbamon was open for attack. "Black Tornado!" He spun towards the Wizard, trying to drill into his back.

Zanbamon's torso swiveled back to the front and crossed his swords, blocking the spinning Dinosaur with them. "Cross Slash!" He swung his swords out, hurling BlackWarGreymon away and hitting him with a pair of energy blades. Zanbamon then started galloping towards the fallen BlackWarGreymon, trying to trample him under his hooves. The Dinosaur managed to roll away in time, then got up and hurled a Terra Destroyer at the Wizard immediately. Zanbamon didn't turn around fast enough and got hit by the energy ball, damaging him. Growling, Zanbamon started galloping towards BlackWarGreymon, holding both of his swords out horizontally and at the level of the Dinosaur's neck. BlackWarGreymon sidestepped the Wizard's charge and struck his big sword with the Dramon Killers, slicing it to pieces! Zanbamon skidded to a halt, staring at the broken stump of his Beheading sword in disbelief. BlackWarGreymon had effectively nullified both of his attacks, since you couldn't make a cross slash with a single sword! Zanbamon turned to face BlackWarGreymon. "Amazing! I heard you were strong, but I had no idea you were this strong. It's been ages since I've fought an opponent like you, you're a worthy fighter!"

"I'm flattered. I cannot say the same for you, though. Just like every other enemy I have faced, you are weak. Perhaps you should go pick on some Botamon, they should be equal in strength to you." Said BlackWarGreymon calmly.

Zanbamon gaped at his audacity. "How…how dare you…DIE!" The Wizard furiously charged at BlackWarGreymon, starting the fight anew.

Yolei ran over to Shurimon, who had seemed to get over his missing hand. "Shurimon, are you all right?"

The ninja looked at her. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'll be fine. It'll regenerate when I de-digivolve. Doesn't even hurt that much, really."

She blinked. "Oh. Well, if I had lost my hand, I'd probably be bawling in pain right now."

Shurimon smiled under his veil. "I'm a ninja. We're trained to ignore pain for the most part."

"Trained? But you weren't trained to be a ninja, you digivolved into one!"

"…Huh, good point. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yolei winced. "Okay, okay, forget I said anything!"

Shurimon immediately stopped. "As you command. Hey, who're those guys over there?"

"Huh?" Yolei looked around and noticed a young and older man with a bag of indiscernible stuff, a laptop, and a video camera. They were currently filming the fight between BlackWarGreymon and Zanbamon. "Hey, who are you guys?"

The elder man saw Yolei and Shurimon. "Jim, look, it's another one! Quick, get it on tape!"

"Yes sir!" The young man swiveled his camera to focus on the injured ninja. His view was suddenly blocked when Yolei stepped in front of the camera.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

The elder man smiled. "I am Professor Haruhiko Takenouchi. This is my student and assistant Jim Kido. We're came to Kyoto to study mythology and saw those two spirits fighting. We thought it would be a good idea to get them on film, so we can later use it as evidence to prove to the scientific community that my theories on this city's connection to the other realms were correct."

Yolei blinked. "Wait…Takenouchi? Kido? You wouldn't happen to be related to Sora Takenouchi and Joe Kido, would you?"

"Sora's my daughter." Said the surprised professor.

"And Joe's my neurotic little brother." Said Jim.

"Wow! I'm Yolei Inoue, and I'm a friend of your family members. I'm a Digidestined, like they are!"

"Digidestined? Then…those are Digimon, not spirits?" asked the disappointed Professor.

"Yeah."

The elder man's face lit up. "Even better! This could still prove my thesis on the connection between Kyoto and other worlds! If these monsters from a digital dimension got here, that means this city could be one of those weak spots in the fabric of worlds that I've been looking for after all!"

Yolei sweatdropped. "Um, Professor, that's all fine and dandy, but shouldn't we focus on doing something about the fight first?"

"Such as?" asked Jim, looking away from the camera.

"Well, BlackWarGreymon is trying to stop Zanbamon from killing innocent people. My Digimon Shurimon is injured, and I don't know if he can help out. I was originally hoping we could just send him back to the Digital World, but he might be able to come back. I was thinking-"

The professor raised a hand. "Hold that thought! I think I have something here that could send that monster back to the Digital World, and keep him from coming back!"

"Really?" asked Yolei, hoping they wouldn't have to kill the evil Wizard after all. (*Snort*)

"Yes!" the professor started rummaging through his bag, pulling out…a pufferfish? "Ah yes, this should do the trick!" He ran towards the fight, waving the pufferfish.

"What does he think he's doing?!" Yolei screamed.

"Oh, the professor's going to try and put a banishing spell on…Zanbamon, was it? He's used it before to exorcise ghosts from some haunted shrines we've visited, I don't see why it shouldn't work on Zanbamon." Said Jim, unconcerned.

"But Zanbamon's not a ghost, he's a Digimon! They're two different things!" protested Yolei.

"Don't worry, it will work." Said Jim confidently. He had no idea how wrong he was.

Zanbamon panted. The long fight was taking its toll. Without his left-hand sword, he could perform no attacks, and was at a serious disadvantage to the Dinosaur. He could only take so much more damage before he would be unable to fight back. He groaned and prepared to defend himself as BlackWarGreymon charged up another Terra Destroyer. Before the Mega Digimon could throw it, a man waving a pufferfish danced between the combatants, chanting some incomprehensible gibberish. Both fighters stared at the elder man. Zanbamon gave his enemy an Is this guy for real? Look and grabbed the old man with his free hand, causing him to drop the pufferfish. The Wizard held his remaining sword to the frightened human's neck. "What do you think you are doing?" asked BlackWarGreymon.

Zanbamon smirked. "Taking a hostage, what does it look like? Try to attack me, and the man dies."

The Dinosaur looked over Zanbamon's shoulder, his eyes locking with Shurimon's. After a moment, the ninja's eyes widened slightly and he gave a very brief nod of understanding. BlackWarGreymon took a step forward. "Why should I care about the life of an insignificant human?"

Zanbamon blinked. "But…you saved those people before. You refused to kill them. Why the change of heart?" asked the Wizard, getting slightly nervous that his hostage would be of no use.

BlackWarGreymon took another step. "What does it matter to you? You came here to kill humans, right? You're holding one right now. Go ahead and kill it, it'll just make me easier to finish you off."

Zanbamon gulped and slowly started trotting backwards. "I-I'm serious, one more step, and the man dies!"

"Fine." He stepped forward again.

"I mean it!"

"I know." Another step.

"Damn it, I'm going to kill this man right here if you come any closer!" yelled Zanbamon, starting to get scared.

"Go ahead." Another step.

"Th-this is your last warning!"

"And this is me disregarding it." Another step.

Zanbamon swallowed hard. "A-all right! You've asked for it!" He started to press his sword to Professor Takenouchi's neck…

…Right until he got hit in the back by Shurimon's giant shuriken. Zanbamon screamed in pain and dropped his sword and the professor, who quickly ran to safety. While Zanbamon was reeling in agony from the giant throwing star imbedded in his back, BlackWarGreymon dashed forward and drove his Dramon Killers right into the Wizard's heart. Zanbamon's mouth opened in a silent scream of pain. And then, he was nothing but data particles blowing in the wind. "Nice work." Said BlackWarGreymon as Shurimon retrieved his shuriken.

"Yeah, though you really scared me for a moment there. I thought you really were going to attack!" Commented the ninja.

The three stunned humans came over. "You…you killed him." Said Yolei.

"Why are you surprised? I told you I was going to do it." Said BlackWarGreymon. "And I saved this entire city from being destroyed. Why mourn over the loss of one who had every intention of killing you and everybody here?"

She just looked at the ground. The professor grabbed BlackWarGreymon's hand and shook it vigorously. "Thank you! Thank you! You saved my life back there, and before at the car. I'll never forget it!"

BlackWarGreymon pulled his hand from the professor. "Are we…friends now?" he asked, recalling his moment with Agumon.

"Eh?"

"Never mind, it's not important." Said the Dinosaur.

Jim heard sirens in the distance. "I think the police are coming. We've got to get you out of here!" he said urgently.

Yolei pulled the laptop from the professor's bag and quickly called up the digi-port on it. "There's your way back to the Digiworld." She said.

The Dinosaur walked over to the computer. "I thank you, purple-haired girl."

"Yolei." She said. He looked at her quizzically. "My name is Yolei." She clarified.

He nodded. "Very well then. I thank you, Yolei." He reached for the icon on the computer screen. There was a flash, and he was gone.

Yolei sighed. "You know, at first I thought he was all bad and just a killing machine…but you know what? I'm starting to think he's not so bad."

"I can vouch for that, he did save my life." Agreed the professor.

"Hey, I'm the one who made Zanbamon drop you!" complained Shurimon.

Yolei continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "You know, I think he's kind of handsome."

Shurimon de-digivolved to Hawkmon and snorted. "Handsome? He's a seven-foot tall armored dinosaur man! There's nothing handsome about him!"

"Just like there's nothing sexy about you dancing around in a woman's thong?"

"…Touché."

"Meteor Missile!" Meteors rained down from the sky, striking the weakened Paildramon and Spidermon (Stingmon's Ultimate form) and causing them to de-digivolve to DemiVeemon and Minomon. With them out of the fight, the Digidestined were completely defenseless.

"Oh no, we're completely defenseless!" said TK. (Damn it, why do I say anything anymore?)

"Hahahahahaha! Meteormon, avenge your siblings and kill the human children!" shrieked Arukenimon.

The Rock nodded and raised his arms. "Meteor-" He exploded, courtesy of BlackWarGreymon.

"Oh dear." Said Mummymon.

The Dinosaur glared at his creators. "I'm not in the mood to kill you right now. Leave this place." Hesitantly, the evil Digimon did just that.

The other Digidestined started running over to him. He turned and started to fly away. "Hey wait, where are you going? We just wanted to thank you!" yelled Kari. BlackWarGreymon didn't respond.

"Don't worry Kari, he's probably just heading for the next Destiny Stone." Said Gatomon reassuringly.

"He could have at least let us thank him." She muttered.

"Maybe he didn't want to be thanked." Suggested Ken. "Though I do wonder where he disappeared to when Stingmon digivolved to Spidermon…"

Just then, all their D-terminals went off. They pulled them out and opened them, seeing a message from Yolei. "Dear gang, I had a great time in Kyoto. BlackWarGreymon showed up and saved me from this guy called Zanbamon! I hope he got back okay. See you all tomorrow! Love, Yolei." Cody read out loud.

"How'd he get to Kyoto?" wondered Davis.

"What I'm more concerned about is how we're going to explain to our parents why we haven't gotten home from school yet." Said TK. "Shouldn't we be heading home now? We can ask Yolei and maybe even BlackWarGreymon what happened tomorrow."

BlackWarGreymon was musing while he flew. I wonder…why did I save Yolei and those other humans from Zanbamon? The Destiny Stones are more important than anything else, why did I just not accept his offer and come back here? Then again, if Yolei died her friends would never forgive me and one of the Stones would remain inactive forever. He shook his head. And I wonder…is Mummymon right? How am I any different from the false Digimon I kill? After all, aren't I just like them? He sighed. I've really got to figure this out. I'm finding so many questions in my search for answers, I may never find out what it is that I want…

Will BlackWarGreymon make sense from his confusion? Was Mummymon's statement last chapter right? And could Yolei be developing ANOTHER crush, this time on our dark hero? Find out on the next Digimon, Digital Monsters!