(We find our heroes inside a house literally built on the side of a mountain, confronting a Numemon.)

Gordianus: All right, we know you have something to do with what happened to Ri2. Your buddies ratted you out, and we have the virus disk as evidence. Now are you gonna talk, or do we have to get rough? (The Numemon says nothing.) BlackWarGreymon?

BWG: (Takes out a salt shaker.)

Numemon: (Sweating.) All right, I'll talk, I'll talk!

Gordianus: Wait a minute, you can talk?

Numemon: Yeah, we Numemon prefer burping, but we can speak normally. We just don't do it often. What do you want to know?

BWG: Where is Ri2?

Numemon: I dunno.

BWG: You're lying!

Numemon: No, really, I don't know where he is! All I know is that after I got hired to be a muse, this guy and a Digimon came to me and offered me a bunch of Digi-dollars if I could help him kidnap the author.

Gordianus: When was this?

Numemon: 7:00 PM on August 30th.

BWG: What did they look like?

Numemon: The boy had brown hair and a Digivice, and the Digimon looked like his partner, some type of lizard.

Gordianus: What kind of lizard? Did the boy have goggles?

Numemon: I don't know. My eyesight's not too good, so that's really all I can tell you about them.

Gordianus: A brown-haired male with a reptilian partner. There aren't too many of those. Come BlackWarGreymon, we'd better make some inquiries. (They depart.)

The room was brightly lit by many candles, illuminating a throne, a bed, and a desk near a bookshelf. Standing by the throne, looking out a window, was a very tall figure with ten wings growing from his back, half of them angelic, half of them demonic. Hearing the door open, the figure turned around. He was wearing a white shirt and a pair of white pants with a few belts wrapped around them. His thick, sturdy boots had golden ankle bands with bird wings on the right foot and bat wings on the left. A golden sun emblem stood out on his muscular chest. A gray sweater was worn over the figure's shirt, showing off his huge shoulders and muscles. His head was somewhat small in comparison to his muscle-bound body, looking almost human with his long blond hair, deep blue eyes, and pointy ears. His teeth were sharpened, making him look somewhat vampiric with his blood-red lips. A few purple streaks ran up the left side of his face, over his eye. A pair of black wings grew from the back of his neck, one like a raven, the other like a bat. Another pair of wings grew from the top of his head, but the bird wing was white while the bat wing was naturally black. He looked surprised to see Guilmon. "I don't remember calling for anyone. What are you doing here?"

"My name is Guilmon, and I'm here to-"

Lucemon sighed. "I don't need any food, I told you all earlier tonight that I'm not hungry. But if you insist on giving me some food, at least bring up one of those wretched girls from the prison. I never got around to collecting any of them today."

Guilmon bristled. "Collecting?"

"Yes, I thought that since none of them are the particular girl that I'm looking for, I should do something with them that gives them some meaning to their worthless lives. Their pure data is like ambrosia to me, especially after I have my way with them."

"Your…way?"

Lucemon frowned. "Must I always spell everything out for you mortals? Their data is perfect for consumption after I strip them of their virginity."

Guilmon gasped. "You sick-"

Lucemon looked out the window. "Where IS that annoying Hououmon? It was disturbing my reading just a few minutes ago with its infernal racket, and now I can't see any sign of him. Did you happen to see him on your way up?"

"Yes." Growled Guilmon as he reached the Invincible.

"Ah, good. What was wrong with him?"

"I blinded and killed him, that's what."

Lucemon seemed mildly surprised. "Really? Well, I was going to do it anyway, so I suppose I should thank you for saving me the trouble. For a mortal Rookie such as you, I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to do the deed. How did you kill him?"

"With this." Guilmon pulled the Invincible from its scabbard.

Lucemon's eyes widened. "Wh-where did you get that?"

"At the bottom of the ocean. Where you escaped from." He held the sword in front of him. "Your little 'meals' would have taken away my sister's life. I'm going to make sure you never have the chance to harm her, or anyone else, ever again." Yelling, he ran towards Lucemon. The Angel was petrified in fear, recalling what the sword had done to him last time. Guilmon swung his sword at Lucemon's torso…and it bounced off.

Guilmon and Lucemon both stared at the sword in surprise. Guilmon tried stabbing and slashing the Invincible at Lucemon, but every blow bounced right off. Suddenly realizing he was in no danger, Lucemon backhanded Guilmon across the room. His smile returned. "Well, it seems as if the Invincible, the mighty weapon that is the only thing capable of defeating me, has lost its bite. Looks like I'll get to destroy it once and for all." He formed a ball of light in one hand and a ball of darkness in the other. He threw the light at Guilmon, who tried to block it with his shield. To his surprise, the ball expanded and engulfed him, paralyzing him and searing him with its intense heat. Lucemon smirked and prepared to throw the darkness. Suddenly, a yellow blur slammed into the Angel, causing the dark ball to miss its target and strike the wall, blasting a huge hole in it. "What?!"

"If you want to hurt him, you'll have to go through me." Hissed Renamon, crouching down for another attack.

"Renamon!" Guilmon yelled in surprise.

Lucemon growled and moved his hand quicker than the eye could see, grabbing Renamon by the neck. "Insolent mortal! You dare to assault me? Prepare to feel the embrace of sweet oblivion!" He was about to crush her neck when his hand started glowing. The Catalyst mark appeared on his right hand, the upper triangle highlighted. He blinked in surprise. "…Could it be? After all this time, could I have finally found another piece?" An evil grin slowly formed on his face as he slightly relaxed his grip on Renamon. "Well, isn't this your lucky day? It looks like I won't be killing you after all. Not yet, anyway. Give me the Catalyst piece!"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." She said angrily.

"Is that so? Are you so sure of that that you are willing to risk your friend's life?" He formed another ball of darkness. "Give me the piece or Guilmon dies."

"What Guilmon? There's nobody else here." Said Renamon innocently.

"What?!" Lucemon looked at where he had thrown Guilmon and saw there was nothing there. "How-" He felt a gust of wind as something shot past him. He looked in his hand and saw Renamon was gone. "Impossible!" He ran to the hole in the wall and saw a pair of bird Digimon flying away with Renamon and Guilmon. "No!" Before he could give chase, a huge dragon flew up, blocking his view. Lucemon screamed in rage as Skydramon unleashed a tremendous blast of fire, obliterating his hideout. The holy dragon grunted in pleasure and flew away.

Later, at the Tower of the Gods…

Silphymon and Owlmon (Who had been the ones to rescue our heroes) dropped Guilmon and Renamon on Grani's back. "Ah, Guilmon, Renamon, it's good to see you're safe!" said Grani, who was sitting in the water near the ring on light leading to Shinjuku.

Renamon stared. "…Is this boat talking to us?" she asked.

"Yeah, but you get used to it." Said Guilmon.

Skydramon landed on the stone ring and started speaking in ancient Japanese. Grani chuckled. "You roasted his hideout? Very good! It's too bad that he most definitely survived it, but at least it allowed you to get away with the young ones." Skydramon said something else. "Don't worry, I'll make sure she gets to a safe place. You had better head back to Dragon Roost. If Lucemon decides to retaliate, you may need to defend yourselves." Skydramon nodded and bellowed to her two companions. The three took off and flew away. Grani turned his head around to look at Renamon and Guilmon. "Greetings, Renamon. My name is Grani."

She frowned. "Wait a minute…you wouldn't happen to be able to communicate through the magic pebbles, can you?"

Grani looked surprised. "Er, yes actually, I can. How did you guess?"

"Guilmon thought I was you when I spoke to him in the bomb shop on Windfall. You wouldn't happen to have been listening to that conversation, were you?" Grani coughed and tried looking nonchalant. "I want to know just who you are and how you can communicate over an extremely private magical frequency."

Grani shook his head. "There's no time for that now. Your life is in grave danger. Lucemon will now be desperately trying to hunt you down, so we must take you to someplace where he will never look."

"Where?"

"Shinjuku."

"Shinjuku?!"

"Is there an echo here? Yes, Shinjuku! Hopefully he'll never find you there."

Renamon blinked. "It's at the bottom of the ocean. How do we get there?"

"Do you see the ring of light? It leads to the bottom of the sea, where Shinjuku has been sealed within an airtight bubble of magic. We will be dropped off right in front of the Metropolitan Building, and that is where long-kept secrets will finally be revealed."

"What do you mean by that, Grani?" asked Guilmon. Grani didn't answer. He swam into the golden ring and they all started sinking into the water. Guilmon quickly looked at Renamon. "Don't hold your breath, there's air where we're going."

She raised an eyebrow. "Well of course there's air, why would there be a bridge between the surface and the bottom of the ocean that didn't have air?"

"Uh…"

"You didn't actually hold your breath on your way down the first time, did you?"

Guilmon blushed and decided not to answer that as they completely submerged and began descending into the deep.

Grani landed in the plaza. "Okay, everybody off!" he said.

Renamon jumped off the dragon's back, looking around in awe. Guilmon followed her. "Not bad, huh?"

"It's more beautiful than I imagined…never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it would look like this!"

At that moment, both of them felt vibrations in their pockets. They each pulled out their respective magic pebbles, which had started to glow. "Children of destiny, return to the resting place of the Invincible. There, all will be revealed." Said a mysterious voice.

"Wait a minute, who is this? How are you communicating through my pebble?" Renamon demanded. The stone stopped glowing. She whirled and started on Grani. "You! Did you just do that?"

"Uh, nope, not me. Must have been someone nearby. You'd better go to the place that voice was talking about, it sounded really important." Said Grani quickly, his eyes shifting back and forth.

Guilmon grabbed the pirate captain by her arm. "Come on Renamon, let's go! I know the place the voice was talking about. Come on!"

He led her into the building and summoned the strange moving room, which they rode to the top of the building. (Though not without incident, when the room began to move Renamon started pounding on the doors hard enough to make dents.) When the doors opened again, they were in the glorious room where the magical sword had been housed. The strange control panel arms Guilmon had seen before were now in motion, slowly whirling around in the air. A shadowy figure stood in the middle of the big platform. Renamon marched up the stairs and towards the figure. "All right you, I want to know who you are and how you were able to talk to us through the pebbles! Tell me now!"

"I can speak through your pebbles because I created them." said the figure.

"You did?" asked Guilmon as he caught up with Renamon.

"The pebbles are fragments of the ancient Gossip Stones of Shinjuku." Said the figure.

Guilmon was confused. "Gossip Stones? What're they?"

Renamon looked shocked. "The Gossip Stones were magical rocks that could tell time and gave out secrets if you talked to them in right way. But the Gossip Stones could only be made by the King of Shinjuku, so that must mean…"

The figure nodded and stepped forward, revealing himself to be a short blue bird with a bow tie, a golden crown, and a big flowering bush for a tail. "Correct. I am Deramon Harkinian Shinjuku, the last king of Shinjuku."

They stared at him. "You're a lot shorter than I expected." Said Renamon. Deramon facefaulted.

"Wait a minute! But if you're the king of old Shinjuku, then shouldn't you be dead? No, wait, you got caught in the time freeze like the rest of the city, right? Never mind." Said Guilmon.

"Actually, I killed myself as the flood started. I didn't want Lucemon to be the one to end my life, and since a king must go down with his country, I knew I had to be destroyed by my own hands." Said the King.

"If you're dead, then how are you talking to us?" asked Renamon.

"I'm a ghost."

"…Oh."

"Well, maybe ghost is the wrong term. What you see before you is an astral projection sent by my physical form. After I died, my data recompiled into the magical machine you know as Grani."

"You mean you're really Grani?!" shouted Guilmon.

"More like Grani's really me, but yes. I am the true spirit form of your faithful guide and companion. What do you think?"

"…Like Renamon said, you're a lot shorter than I expected." Deramon facefaulted again.

Renamon started getting bored. "Is there any other reason you called us down here aside from introducing yourself to us?"

"I brought you here for several reasons. I figured it was time I revealed the truth about myself, Lucemon will be looking for you so we needed a hiding place, and I also thought it was time for you to know who you really are." Said Deramon.

"…What?"

"Long ago, Lucemon cast the land in permanent strife. The gods responded to my prayers by sealing away Shinjuku and flooding the world with torrential rains. Eventually, all but a few mountaintops was submerged. The mountains became islands, where only the strongest and purest Digimon were allowed to continue on. The two of you are descended from those Digimon, as are everyone else on the surface."

"I know that already. What does that have to do with anything?" Renamon asked impatiently.

Deramon sighed. "Guilmon, if you look closely at the base of the machine where the Invincible was placed, you'll see a secret compartment. Please open it and take out what's inside."

Wondering what that had to do with Renamon, Guilmon opened the compartment. Inside was a tiny black triangle. "You mean this thing?" he asked, holding up the triangle.

Deramon nodded. "That's it. Now Renamon, please take off your necklace."

"What necklace?"

"The one you're hiding underneath the tuft of fur on your chest." Surprised, Renamon took out the necklace. It was a large black triangle hung on a string, with a small triangular gap in the bottom. "If you know as much about the ancient legends as you claim, then you know that the Catalyst of Wisdom was split into two pieces and passed down through the Royal Family to hide it from Lucemon should he ever return. On Shinjuku's last day, I hid my piece of the Catalyst here with the Invincible and sent the other piece with my daughter, the Princess, as she fled with everyone else. She made it to the tops of the mountains and survived to pass her piece of the Catalyst of Wisdom down to her descendants, where it finally ended up in your hands."

Renamon and Guilmon looked at the King in disbelief. "You mean…"

Deramon nodded. "Renamon, you are the direct descendant of Princess Kuzuhamon and last remaining member of the royal lineage of Shinjuku. In other words…" At this, the small triangle Guilmon had been holding flew out of his hands and merged with Renamon's necklace, forming a complete triangle. The triangle broke off from the string and sank into Renamon's right hand. She began glowing, and in a flash of light transformed into something new. "…You are Princess Sakuyamon."

Guilmon's jaw dropped. Renamon had Digivolved into a drop-dead gorgeous humanoid Shaman Digimon. Most of her body was clothed in a simple black jumpsuit. She wore purple boots up to her knees with golden toes and high heels. Gold bands with the Yin-Tang symbol were wrapped around her knees. She wore a belt with a golden fox-head buckle around her waist and a golden breastplate with a lower attachment bearing the Yin-Yang covered her upper chest. Her shoulders were held inside a pair of large golden spheres, each with the Yin-Yang symbol. She wore large purple gauntlets up to her shoulders, with the Yin-Yang on her left hand and the Catalyst on her right. Her head was hidden behind a yellow fox helmet with no eyeholes and covered her upper face. A long metal staff with a sharp bottom and a large ring holding several smaller rings was strapped to her back, between a pair of long gray ponytails that went down to her ankles. The newly christened Sakuyamon looked herself over in disbelief.

Deramon coughed, getting Guilmon's attention. "Guilmon, now that Renamon has realized herself as Sakuyamon, holder of the Catalyst of Wisdom, you must depart for the surface. We have two big jobs ahead of us."

Guilmon blinked, pulling himself away from Sakuyamon's body. "Two?"

"Yes. Your sword didn't work against Lucemon, right? I think I know why. The legendary Invincible was given its power by the gods, but the power was channeled to the sword by two little-known Sages who dwelled in the Earth and Wind Temples elsewhere in Shinjuku. The entrances to those temples are down here in Shinjuku, but thanks to Lucemon's force field we won't be able to get to them. Fortunately, both temples had other entrances high on the mountaintops, so we may be able to go to the islands those mountains have become and get in that way. We must go to those temples and find out what happened to the Sages so they can recharge the Invincible's power and then you can use it to slay Lucemon one and for all.

"As for the second job, remember how I told you Susanoomon broke the Catalyst of Courage into eight pieces? We will need to find all eight pieces and fuse them together. Once we leave Shinjuku, we cannot return here without the Catalyst of Courage. And I believe we will need both the Catalysts of Courage and Wisdom to match against Lucemon's Catalyst of Power. I know where the pieces can be found, but I think we should wait until after we revitalize the Invincible to find the pieces of Courage. It'll be easier for us that way."

"What about me? What do I do?" asked Sakuyamon.

"You must stay down here, in this chamber. Lucemon will not be able to sense you in this sacred room, so you will be safe as long as you remain here. There's some food in the refrigerator and you can play with the machines if you get bored. I'm afraid you can't use the pebble because we'll be out of range of its magic, and Lucemon might be able to detect any transmission you make anyway." She scowled. "Guilmon, I'll see you outside. Say your good-byes quickly, time is of the essence." The royal bird faded away.

Guilmon and Sakuyamon gazed at each other, not sure what to say. Finally, Guilmon made the first move. "Um…I guess this is goodbye."

"I guess so."

There was a long pause. "You'll be okay down here, right?"

"As long as a certain Angel doesn't find me, I expect I'll be just fine." She grumbled. "I'd be much happier if I were going in your place, but this is the hand Fate has dealt me. Who am I to resist?"

Another pause. "I'll be back as quickly as possible, okay?"

"You can take your time, I'm not going anywhere."

He nodded. "Okay then. Goodbye Rena-Sakuyamon." He started to walk away.

"Wait!"

He turned around. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to say…thank you."

"For what?"

"For being my friend. You're the first friend I've ever had outside of my crew."

Guilmon blinked. "I wasn't aware we were friends."

"Well, I consider you my friend. Do you consider me yours?"

"…I guess so."

"Then we're friends. It's that simple." She hesitated, then did something that surprised the both of them. She leaned down and gave the Reptile a kiss on the cheek. "Good luck." She whispered. Blushing so hard his red skin was starting to look black, Guilmon somehow managed to stumble down the stairs, go into the moving room, and depart. Sakuyamon smiled. "See you soon…my friend."

Gordianus: Okay Mr. Kamiya, we've explained the situation to you, and we just need to ask you a question or two.

Tai: Sure, I'll tell you whatever you need to know to save this author friend of yours.

Gordianus: The kidnappers conspired together at 7:00 PM, August 30th. Where were you then?

Tai: Well, Kari was out on a date with TK and my parents were taking a trip to see my grandma. I had nothing to do, so I ordered pizza and watched some movies.

Agumon: No you didn't!

Tai: Quiet, Agumon.

Gordianus: Tai was doing something else?

Agumon: Yeah, he invited Sora and Biyomon over. They left us some movies and locked themselves in Tai's bedroom.

Tai: Agumon!

Gordianus: (Trying to keep a straight face.) What do you think they were doing in there?

Agumon: Probably the same thing Biyomon and I were doing after we were done watching (insert movie name here)!

Tai: AGUMON!

BWG: Playing video games? (Everyone stares at him.) What?

Gordianus: (Trying not to laugh.) We'll just be going then, Mr. Kamiya. I think your story-or should I say Agumon's story-checks out. I have one last question before I go. I thought Sora was going out with Matt. Just what was she *ahem* doing here?

Tai: (Nervously) Well, you know, we're just really good friends and I wanted to invite her over for a little study session and-

Agumon: Actually, Sora's secretly been cheating on Matt for over a month now, and everyone knows about it except him!

Tai: THAT DOES IT!!! (Starts chasing Agumon around.) COME BACK HERE YOU LITTLE @%$^*$#!

(Gordianus and BlackWarGreymon sweatdrop as Tai chases Agumon around the apartment.)

BWG: I suggest we leave. Now.

Gordianus: Good idea. (They exit.)