Hey, Kayhera wrote this entire chapter by herself! Because that's the natural order of things... Leormon digivolved... Guess who's turn it is next? Anyways, I hardly gave her any help and I think she did great! I'm really proud of her. She did some really difficult things and even some things she's never done before and it turned out great. So even if you don't like it shut up and leave! I've written digimon fanfics before and i've read some. I've also watched all of Season one and season two (okay, save for one or two episodes) and she's only watched a few and has watched the second half of Fronteir. The only problem is that she's now put the bar up really high and no offense to Kayhera, this sort of writing only happens once every other month or something. Once in a blue moon do you get it more often. So don't keep your hopes up for more great chapters like this from Kayhera. And technically the Digidestined are supposed to show up next chapter but it's a pretty long chapter so you might have to wait two chapters. It's all finished, i just need to edit it and get up the energy to update. I hardly wanted to update this chapter. Anyways, hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I'm not going through this one again... Kayhera? Nope... Well, here we go: I. Don't. Own. Digimon. So good luck finding the person who does... if you do, let me know, i want to give them a piece of my mind!
Recap: Despite the fact that it was the middle of the week and I had History Homework to do, Ami decided we were going to go to the Digital World again. This time from her house, something I've never done before. She got held up picking me up (said she lost track of time but really she ran into this boy named Matt) but we finally managed to get to her house. Boy was it uncomfortable. Luckily Ami figured out how to get to the Digital World and we wandered around. Leormon "accidentally" pushed me into a river we found and just as I was pulling on dry clothes and deciding to go back home Snimon shows up. Ami yells something about not wanting to leave without everybody and Leormon digivolves into Wizardmon, destroying Snimon once and for all! Leormon may be a pain but I'm glad Wizardmon was there to save the day!
Sleeping over at Ami's house was a rather peculiar experience. For the longest time it had always been "Let's sleep over at Taru's house!" Hotaru had never even been to Ami's house before, not even for a few minutes. It was like Ami never wanted her over… but her apartment didn't seem any different than Hotaru's… so what exactly was up with that? And along with that there was the fact that Ami always called her Taru when she preferred to be called Hotaru.
The girls didn't do much out of the ordinary, though they spent half the night talking about the Digital World and Leormon's Digivolution. Well, Ami spent half the night talking… Hotaru just listened. She didn't have much to say on the subject. They knew nothing about the Digital World and nothing about how Digimon evolve, and how can you just chat away about nothing? Ami sure found a way…
Hotaru was completely exhausted when she came home from sleeping over at Ami's. Elecmon wasn't tired at all though, since he spent most of the time sleeping—when he wasn't eating, that is. Hotaru was wishing she had the same amount of energy her Digimon had…
"I'm home…" yawned Hotaru as she walked through her living room to her bedroom. Not that anyone was home to hear her, since her dad worked late on Saturday's. It was just out of habit.
"What sort of things are we going to do now?" asked Elecmon cheerfully. "Or do I have to sleep in your closet again?"
"No, you don't have to sleep in my closet again…" muttered Hotaru, setting her bag down at her bed. Though now she had to figure out where to have Elecmon sleep… She eventually decided that piling a bunch of blankets together near her bed would be good enough. That problem fixed, Hotaru changed into her pajamas and collapsed onto her bed.
"We're just gonna sleep?" asked Elecmon disappointingly.
"I'm sorry… I just really need some proper amounts of sleep or I turn into a zombie… a person my age needs about ten hours of sleep anyways…" muttered Hotaru.
Elecmon blinked a few times before saying, "Don't you usually take that cloth on top of your head off?"
"Wha?" mumbled Hotaru sleepily.
"The purple thing… Isn't it what you call a hat?"
"A hat? Where?" mumbled Hotaru, sitting up. She scratched her head in a thoughtful sort of way, and then her eyes light up. "I can't believe I forgot the bandana…" she muttered exasperatedly, pulling it off and tossing it on her nightstand. But it landed on top of a photograph sitting up on the table. With a small laugh she pulled it off the picture frame and said, "Sorry about that. 'Night, Mom!"
"Huh?" said Elecmon. "What's a 'Mom'? Or is it a person you're talking to? I don't see anyone here though…" he added, turning his head from side to side.
"Mom's not here, she's in the photograph," said Hotaru, pointing to it. "And Mom's not actually her name, it's Natsumi… Don't you have a mother?"
"Um… I don't think so…" said Elecmon bewilderedly.
"Then where do you come from?" asked Hotaru.
"Digi-Eggs!" cried Elecmon.
"Oh…"
"I didn't know you could talk to people who weren't in the room…" said Elecmon thoughtfully. "Sounds like fun!"
"Huh?"
"Didn't you just talk to the 'Mom' in the photo thing?"
"Oh…" said Hotaru, looking downwards and blinking a few times. "You can't actually talk to people in a photograph… It just makes me feel better, I suppose… Like she's really there with me, right now, whenever I need her…"
"Couldn't you just wait until she came back?" said Elecmon, sounding confused by the whole situation.
"No…" said Hotaru slowly. "Sh—she's not coming back…"
"Really?" Now Elecmon sounded surprised. "Why not?"
"Can't Digimon die?" asked Hotaru quietly, turning her head to face Elecmon.
"Um… They just get their data refreshed and they come back as a digi-egg… If I'm remembering right. Though sometimes they're a little different… That happens when your data is restarted!"
"Oh…"
"Hey!" said Elecmon. "When I'm upset I just find a way to distract myself, like seeing how fast I can run or how long I can hold my breath underwater. It sure keeps me preoccupied!"
"Really?" said Hotaru, smiling slightly.
He nodded his head. "What do you do when you're upset?"
"Hmm… Usually I do my math homework. Or English… Or I go over to Ichigo's and play with her cats…"
"Okay…Then let's go do that right now!" said Elecmon, jumping to his feet.
"We can't…" said Hotaru, smiling kindly. "It's too late at night. And I'm too tired to be able to do math homework, plus I'm pretty sure I have none. Thanks anyways…"
"Then we can just do it tomorrow morning," yawned Elecmon, "because now I'm starting to get sleepily…"
"All right then," said Hotaru, lying back down in her bed. "'Night."
"Good night, Taru!"
It felt like right when she rested her head on the pillow she fell asleep. Then Hotaru found herself in a room and felt wide awake—so awake, in fact, that it felt like she had never fallen asleep. She had never had this much energy. And yet…
"What are you doing in here, honey?"
A skinny woman with long black hair was lying in a bed. She was looking up from the magazine she had been reading with warm, cheery brown eyes. A look of surprise was on her face, but she still looked happy none-of-the-less.
"Oh… Dad said you weren't feeling very well and I wanted to check on you…" mumbled Hotaru, walking away from the doorway and closing the door, then putting her hands behind her back shyly. Her hair was left plain and slightly wavy, and she was wearing a black skirt and a green turtleneck.
The woman in bed laughed and set the magazine down in her lap. "It's just a cold! Don't worry about me. You know me, always catching every single cold and flu going around…"
"I was just checking, Mom…" said Hotaru, walking over to the bed. "You sure you're okay, though?" she added, putting a hand on the woman's forehead.
"Don't you have better things to do besides play doctor?" asked Hotaru's Mom, sounding a little amused.
"I was just wondering…" muttered Hotaru, taking the hand away.
"What?"
"You're always getting sick…" said Hotaru quietly.
"So? It's nothing serious, trust me!" said her mom with a smile. "I think I can tell the difference between a cold and pneumonia. Besides," she added, putting a hand on top of Hotaru's head and rubbing her hair a little bit, "You worry too much. Stop worrying about me and worry about your math homework."
Hotaru laughed. "Okay." But then she stopped giggling when she saw her mother suddenly vanish. All that was left was an empty bed with sheets so white and clean it hurt your eyes to look at them. In fact, everything around her was so clean looking… Where was she? The only place she could think of that was so clean was a hospital, but she was just at her house a moment ago…
Then Hotaru started hearing voices. They were too mumbly and quiet to understand what they were saying. When she tried to understand what they were saying a few of them stuck out.
"You still haven't figured out what's wrong, Doctor?"
"I've never seen anything like it… It seems so ordinary, and yet she can't seem to fight it…"
Too many voices… too much overlap… What was going on?
"Do you think she's going to make it?"
They continued to overlap and mutter, and now they were starting to echo. And Hotaru was starting to get a headache.
"Leaving behind a husband and a daughter… so tragic…"
What's going on! Hotaru thought, clenching her head. They kept getting louder and louder… She kept seeing flashes of things she didn't wish to see… Mother lying pale in a bed… No one in the bed… A doctor with a kind face but cold words… A hole in the ground…
"NO!" cried Hotaru, falling to her knees. She shut her eyes but the vision wouldn't go away. "What's going on? I don't want to deal with this right now!"
Hotaru felt a nudge at her stomach area but didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until the feeling would not stop that she looked down at what was there. But then when she looked down she was back in her room, in her own bed, two years older.
"Huh?" Sitting up, she noticed her Digimon trying to bury himself in her blankets. Hearing the sound of Hotaru's cry, Elecmon poked his head out from the blankets and grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry… I didn't mean to wake you!"
"What are you doing?" asked Hotaru, scratching her head sleepily.
"Well… You looked like you were having a bad dream," said Elecmon quietly, "so I was going to sit by you and comfort you! Except then you woke up…"
"Oh…" said Hotaru, blinking a few times.
Now she just felt weird, like she wanted to cry but she wasn't really sad. She didn't know what to think of it. When Elecmon looked up at her with his eyes wide with worriment and fear or looking like he thought he might have done something wrong the feeling Hotaru had just became stronger, and she got the sudden urge to…
"Thanks!" she cried, picking up Elecmon and hugging him.
"Need…air…But you're w-welcome?"
"Where are we going?" whined Elecmon for the—well, Hotaru had lost count after fifteen.
"I told you, it's a surprise!" teased Hotaru, poking his nose playfully.
"Hey, that tickled…"
The two were walking near the town park. Elecmon was in Hotaru's school bag and Hotaru was wearing a purple sweater to keep out the cold and her purple bandana to go with. Hotaru really wanted to take Elecmon to this certain place she always went to but never told anyone about. Not even Ami… not even Ichigo. She wasn't even totally sure why she wanted to bring Elecmon… But it felt like the right thing to do. And the easiest way to help get done what Hotaru wanted done. But Elecmon was obviously the curious type and was driving her insane with his constant questions, like…
"How long is it going to take to get there, at least?" cried Elecmon desperately.
"Talking to a 'stuffed animal' in my bag must look very strange…" muttered Hotaru. To Elecmon she said, "Will you shut up? We're almost there!"
"According to you…" muttered Elecmon.
"Hey, whatta ya know? We're here!" cried Hotaru, clapping her hands together.
"Where are we?" asked Elecmon. It was a strange field with perfectly smooth rocks lined together in nice, straight rows. Some of these strange boulders had stuff piled next to them like flowers, but most were left rather plain. They even had funny carvings on them as well.
"It's rather empty today…" muttered Hotaru. "Wait, what am I saying, of course it's always empty! But sometimes there's at least one family somewhere…"
"You have yet to answer my question…" said Elecmon.
"And I have yet to feel like telling you," said Hotaru teasingly. "Okay, I always get lost… It's by this large cherry blossom tree… Oh, there we go!"
So then Hotaru rushed over to one of the very peculiar boulders and sat down in front of it, setting down her bag so Elecmon could get out if he wished. He did, but he still didn't get what was going on.
"So… Here's my mom!" said Hotaru cheerfully, clapping her hands together.
"Your mom's a rock?" blinked Elecmon.
"No!" cried Hotaru, trying hard not to laugh. "This is a grave marker."
"So your mom's a grave marker?"
"No…" muttered Hotaru, starting to lose her patience. "Look, here we bury the dead and put these stone things near their burial site so we know where they are!"
"Oooh…" said Elecmon. "So people don't turn back to Digi-eggs when they die?"
"No," said Hotaru, thankful they were getting somewhere.
"Hi, Hotaru's mom!" called Elecmon to the grave marker. He waited for a response but none seem to come. "No one's saying anything!"
"Because grave markers don't talk!" said Taru.
"Then why are we here?" asked Elecmon, obviously not getting it.
"Well…" Hotaru hesitated. "It's kind of like with the photograph… It's a way I can talk to my mom so it doesn't feel so weird. And hopefully she can hear me from here, even if she can't respond."
"I thought you said she was gone," said Elecmon.
"Well, some people say that there's a place called Heaven… It's up in the sky. That's where all the dead people go. I don'' really believe in that sorta thing but… It's nice to pretend."
"Well, I think there is a special place they go to, and I think you're mom can hear you!" said Elecmon fervently.
"Thanks…" said Hotaru, a little taken aback by the energy in her Digimon but otherwise grateful. "Anyways… Hi mom! Hope the afterlife isn't being too dull for you… Oh yeah…" Picking up Elecmon, she said, "I got a Digimon! That should interest you. You were always reading those fantasy books all the time. You're probably jealous because I get to go to this amazing new world and you don't… Yeah, Digimon get their own little world called the Digital World! You get to it with a computer… Just like some Sci Fi thing on TV, huh? You always liked those…"
"You know…" said Elecmon, still being held up by Hotaru. "…I'm kinda hungry again…"
"You and food…" muttered Taru, turning Elecmon around to glare at him playfully. Then to her mom she cried, "Elecmon's worse than Dad!"
"Does Hotaru's dad like to eat too?" asked Elecmon.
"Yup…" said Hotaru dully. "All this mentioning of food is making me hungry… I guess you'd rather have me hanging around with all my friends instead of talking to you, huh, Mom? Though why you continue to think I have tons of friends beats me…"
Suddenly Taru could hear her mother say in her head, "You seriously worry way too much, dear. Just smile and be yourself! You're this wonderful, bright girl, but you never smile. If you did it more often you'd have tons of friends!"
But it's not that easy, Mom! People at school don't find a girl who finds her studies more interesting than anything else fun to hang around! And I can't talk to anyone anyways…
A growling noise interrupted her thoughts. She looked up at Elecmon, who she was still holding up, but he just shook his head. "That was your stomach, not mine! But let's not change the subject, because I'm hungry too!"
"Bye, Mom!" cried Hotaru, standing up and picking up her bag. "I guess I have to fix Elecmon's empty stomach…"
"You're hungry too!" cried Elecmon, but Hotaru just shoved him in her bag and ignored the comment.
"Hey, are you busy?"
"Why?"
"Wanna visit the Digital World?"
"Hey, that's my line!"
Hotaru couldn't remember a time where she called Ami. It was always Ami calling her, not the other way around! But she had gotten this sudden urge to visit the Digital World, yet didn't want to go with just Elecmon… She'd like Ami to be with her as well…
"Who cares about who's line is who's?" said Hotaru hurriedly. "Can you come or not? Well, you don't have to if you don't want to…"
"Of course I do!" cried Ami on the other line. "Why would I not want to go?"
"Um…" said Hotaru, trying to think of reasons why.
"Oh, whatever…" said Ami exasperatedly. "So my house or your house?"
"Er…"
"Your house then…" said Ami with a small sigh.
"Sorry! It's just weird that now I'm going to your house… But we do know for a fact that my computer gets us to the Digital World, so it is the best conclusion…" muttered Hotaru.
"We did go to the Digital World through my computer once… Anyways, so see you in a few!" said Ami. "And don't start the laundry while you wait for me. You'll end up not finishing all of it and want to wait for it to finish instead of going to the Digital World…"
"Who said I was going to do laundry?" cried Hotaru, trying to sound innocent. Maybe instead she could do the dishes…
"Whatever. Bye!" cried Ami. Then there was a click and then a buzz as the line went dead.
"She always just hangs up with no warning…" said Hotaru thoughtfully, looking down at the headset to her phone.
"Who are we talking to now?" asked Elecmon.
"Were… and it was Ami…" muttered Hotaru, wandering over to the kitchen.
"Huh-huh-huh?" cried Elecmon, but Hotaru didn't hear him. With a yelp he cried, "Wait up!" and rushed over to the kitchen door before it closed on him.
Vast… so vast… Something was missing.
"You don't notice it?" asked Hotaru.
"What?" said Ami.
"This!" cried Hotaru, spreading her arms out at the surroundings. "There's, like, no living things! At all! Where are the organisms?"
"Um… We're completely surrounded by trees," said Ami. "And shrubbery, and grass…"
"That's nice… What about actual animals?" cried Hotaru. "I mean, there's more than just two Digimon in this whole world, right?"
"What about the one that attacked us the other day?" Ami pointed out.
"Oh, please. There should be more than that."
"Maybe they're just shy."
"Judging by our Digimon, they're perfectly fine with the presence of humans," said Hotaru stubbornly.
"Oh, just drop it already!" snapped Ami. "Who cares? They're probably on the other side of the world—or, like I said, they're afraid and hiding from us!"
"But what if something bad happened…" mumbled Hotaru. "It makes you think. I mean, is it normal for Digimon to attack us?"
"We haven't been attacked enough times to need to stress over it!" cried Ami. "Maybe the Digimon was just having a really bad day and took it out on us. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with the Digital World!"
"I don't know…Having they been doing it lately?" said Hotaru. "Hey, Elecmon, what do you think?"
"Eh?" said Elecmon.
"Well? Is there anything wrong with your planet lately?"
"Er… sure…"
"You don't know?" cried Hotaru.
"Well, I suppose…" muttered Elecmon. "I don't really pay attention to those sort of things…"
"What about you, Leormon?" asked Hotaru sweetly, kneeling down to meet Leormon's eye level. The only problem with this was that the girls had been walking, and with Hotaru kneeling by Leormon Ami had to stop in her tracks, lest she run into her friend.
"Watch where you sit!" cried Ami.
"Well?" said Hotaru eagerly.
But Leormon wasn't listening. Instead he was looking off to the distance with a serious expression on his face. Noticing this, Elecmon looked towards the same direction and tried to see what it was.
"Don't tell me…" muttered Ami, eyes wide.
A giant insectoid-like creature came flying right above them. At first it looked like it was just passing by, but then it soared a circle before coming back towards the group, crying out the attack, "Poison Powder!"
"Eeee!" cried Hotaru, covering her face.
Jumping into action, Ami pushed Hotaru and the Digimon out of the way just in time for them to dodge the attack. Hotaru sighed, not liking the fact that her clothes were now dirty from the poky bush they fell into.
"What do we do now?" cried Hotaru.
"Fight it, of course!" cried Ami.
"Maybe we should look into this a bit more until we just start attacking…" muttered Hotaru.
Ami stood up, putting her hands on her hips in annoyance. With a sigh she pulled Hotaru up and said, "We don't have time to figure things out. We just need to figure out how to get to safety."
"So you want us to just run away?" cried Hotaru.
"Oh, so now you want to fight?" said Ami.
The Digimon was already coming by them for another attack. Hotaru gasped, unsure of what to do. As if right on cue, Elecmon rushed over and cried out, "Super Thunder Attack!" and a burst of energy went to the insectoid Digimon.
"I don't think that kind of attack is good enough to defeat Flymon," said Leormon.
"Ergh!" Hotaru clenched her fists. "Maybe I should just join the Kendo club. That way I could fight the Digimon on my own with my own katana!"
"Do they even have a Kendo club at that weird school of yours?" asked Ami.
"There's got to be something we can do!" said Hotaru, looking around for something to use as a weapon. Not that there was anything besides twigs or stones around…
Flymon made a few more attacks but the group was able to jump out of the way and didn't get hit. Elecmon and Leormon's attacks just weren't cutting it, and everyone seemed to have forgotten about Wizardmon. It kept flying lower and lower in an attempt to get one of its attacks to hit the group. Then Flymon quickly stopped in mid air and hovered as it tried a different way to attack.
"Brown Stinger!"
This time its aim was good—the attack was heading right towards them! Hotaru did the first thing that popped into her head, which was to push everyone out of the way. But she forgot to get herself out of the way and didn't realize this until the attack was moments away from where she was standing. But she didn't think to get out of the way. What would have been the point? It was going way to fast for her to jump out of the way. But at least the others were okay.
Hotaru clenched her eyes shut, awaiting the worst, but then the hand that was near her Digi-vise felt hot. Opening her eyes and looking down, Hotaru noticed that it was glowing. And then suddenly this large red dinosaur was blocking the attack and crying out, "Blaze Blast!"
"What the…" muttered Hotaru, looking back towards Ami, Elecmon, and Leormon. Except Elecmon was no longer there, and Ami's eyes were wide.
"Where's Elecmon?" cried Hotaru.
"Right in front of you, dummy!" cried Ami.
"Huh?" said Hotaru, looking back to the front.
"Blaze Blast!" seemed to have done some harm to Flymon, but then he was back in the air and getting ready for another attack, but this time directed to… the red dinosaur.
"Elecmon! Is that you?" Hotaru called out.
"I'm Tyrannomon now!" exclaimed the red dinosaur cheerfully. Then he dodged a blow from Flymon and hit him back. "Scratch!"
"But… that'd have to mean…" muttered Hotaru. Then she looked back up and called, "You Digivolved, didn't you?"
"Isn't it obvious?" cried Ami. "Now get out of the way!"
"Oh… yeah!"
"Are you sure he'll be okay? I wanna help…" muttered Hotaru gloomily behind the bushes.
"I think he'll do just fine," said Ami sweetly. "Isn't that why he Digivolved?"
Sure enough, a few moments later Flymon had been destroyed.
"You were awesome!" cried Hotaru, hugging Tyrannomon awkwardly. Then there was a bright light from Tyrannomon and he de-Digivolved back to Elecmon, so she was able to hug him better. "But did you have to kill the thing?"
"Um… sorry… But Digimon don't die, remember?" said Elecmon.
"Right…" muttered Hotaru, looking upwards exasperatedly.
"Crap…" muttered Ami, glancing at her cell phone. "You should get bright ideas to go to the Digital World earlier in the day!"
"Um…" blinked Hotaru.
"It's late!" said Ami loudly, waving her cell phone. "We should leave!"
"I'm not deaf," muttered Hotaru, grabbing her bag. With a smile she pulled out an apple and gave it to Elecmon before he could whine for food.
"This could have been done a lot quicker if Leormon had Digivolved too…" muttered Ami.
"Tyrannomon not good enough for you?" said Hotaru.
"Oh, shush! Now, I think we should be going that way…"