Enter The Light:
Part Twenty Five: Miyako's Encounter
Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon is not mine, which includes all characters, merchandise, etc, blah blah blah. Plot is mine, especially this section, which is entirely of my own creation. Please don't sue or steal yadda yadda yadda. Thanks and have a nice day.
Miyako had been in a hurry to return to the palace so that she might see her sister again, and so had left Hikari and Daisuke at the dock near the Rusty Plate Inn and begun heading in a different direction all together. Despite her desire for speed, however, she decided to rent a carriage rather than fly, for it had been a long journey across the sea and she and Hawkmon were already tired. The thought of resting leisurely on the comfortable cushions of a carriage while a Monochromon strained with the weight of pulling it was appealing to her.
"It's almost hard to believe that we spent three weeks on that island," Miyako commented. She sighed, stretching out on the comfortable seat, content to watch the grass and sky go past. "Everything's so much more green and colorful than it was when we left, and yet…."
Hawkmon, settling down on the opposite seat himself, agreed. "The time seemed to go quickly," he said. "I expect it was because of how much you were working and studying, though, and I expect that much has happened on the mainland in the three weeks we were away."
Miyako sighed again. "I don't doubt it. Hikari said that they would probably need me soon, and I daresay she's often right about these sorts of things. "
For a long while there was silence. Hawkmon drifted off to sleep and Miyako lazily watched the scenery outside her window as the carriage rolled onward through plains of endless grass along dusty dirt roads. The grass was green and high, and fields filled with the beginnings of a healthy crop could be seen in the distance out each side of the carriage. The occasional trees were heavy with blossoms changing into the dark green lush of summer foliage, and here and there a few wild digimon could be spotted enjoying the day and the warm weather.
There was no sound but the gentle whispering of the wind through the grasses and the quiet squeak of the metal wheels beneath as they rotated over the ground. Miyako felt herself drifting to sleep, her eyes growing heavy. She did not sleep long, however, before a loud explosion destroyed the silence and caused the carriage to come to an abrupt halt.
"Wha-?" Hawkmon mumbled sleepily, having been thrown from his nap on to the floor of the carriage. Miyako, too, was catapulted forward when the carriage stopped, but she recovered quickly, picking herself up from the floor and flinging open the carriage door. Another explosion sounded, this time sounding a bit closer than the first one, but she saw nothing of what might have caused it.
A shadow passed overhead, and Miyako glanced upward. A giant green bug digimon with massive wings flew by at top speed, so quickly she could barely make it out.
"What is that?" Hawkmon wanted to know, having sleepily roused himself from the carriage floor, appearing behind his partner with a confused expression.
"I don't know," Miyako began to answer, and then her magical senses became aware of something strange, and another explosion sounded from somewhere nearby. A massive fireball appeared in the grass, blazing to life and dying again in a split second, and then an long serpentine digimon flew overhead in pursuit of the bug. The Airdramon was ridden by a single human figure, a mage by the looks of him.
"Airdramon tamers?" Hawkmon said in disbelief. "What - ?"
"I don't understand it either," his partner told him. "But I think we ought to follow them both."
He nodded in agreement. "It's one way to get to the bottom of things. Let's go, then."
"Digimental up!" Miyako called, and a moment later another flyer had taken to the air, oblivious to the driver's calls behind them.
It had been some time since Miyako had flown, and the warm breeze rushing through her hair and the ground racing below her reminded her again why she adored being above the earth. For a moment, she reveled in the speed and the freedom of it, and then she focused her mind and got down to business.
The bug digimon, what ever it was, was speeding through the air as only a bug could, but the Airdramon, also a sleek flier, was gaining on him, close to overtaking its adversary. Knowing nothing of either digimon, Miyako was uncertain of who she ought to side with, and so she and Holsmon merely followed and watched the chase.
And then there was a strange sensation that was tugging at the back of her mind that didn't yet want to be dealt with, that she couldn't quite understand.
The Airdramon's tamer was most certainly a mage, for Miyako could feel his magic and sense it even without the use of her sight, which showed a glowing dark aura around him that greatly intensified each time he cast a fireball of a spell, a formidable attack Miyako was quite certain she did not want to feel the brunt of.
The mage himself was skilled, but his magic seemed to be weak, at least by the standards Miyako was comparing it to (which were, admittedly, a bit unfair as she had spent the last three weeks in the company of very powerful mages on an island devoted to the study of magic).
At any rate, her attempts at objectivity and neutrality were entirely abandoned when the Airdramon and its rider noticed her and decided to attack, abandoning their pursuit of the insect digimon and veering toward her. Miyako could easily see and sense that the tamer was preparing himself for a magical attack – his aura grew stronger, she could see that he was mumbling to himself even though she could not hear the words, and she could feel the concentration of magic in the air. Having anticipated the attack, she was easily able to raise a shield before a fireball appeared in mid air, and Holsmon easily dodged the attack so that it scorched nothing, burning harmlessly on the outside of the shield and sparing her from feeling so much as a bit of warmth.
She could hear the other mage shouting his frustration, and then his Airdramon reared up and flew directly toward her at top speed. Holsmon easily flew higher, out of reach, and Miyako prepared herself to raise another shield quickly.
"Well, that answers the question of who the bad guy is," she commented, holding tightly to her partner's feathers as they quickly evaded the serpentine digimon's attacks.
"It doesn't explain much else though," Holsmon returned. "What's he attacking us for? Why was he attacking that creature in the first place?"
"And what is he?" Miyako continued. She tried to look around, to see where the bug digimon had gone to, but was immediately distracted from her search by the attacking Airdramon flying directly toward her, screeching loudly.
"Spiking Finish!" came a shout from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and then the green bug digimon was there, between Miyako and the Airdramon, attacking like a vicious green blur so quickly she could barely see him as a solid creature.
The mage tamer who had been riding atop the Airdramon screamed – perhaps in pain, perhaps in anger, perhaps in something else entirely – and dropped to the ground. Miyako could not clearly tell if he had fallen or jumped.
The Airdramon screeched in pain and flew off into the sky, becoming a dot in the distance before too long. Holsmon landed on the ground, but before Miyako could reach the fallen mage, he disappeared in a massive fireball and she was alone in the midst of the plains, tall grass around her, enemies departed.
Holsmon de-evolved and approached the spot where the mage had last stood, but there was nothing there save a few scorched grasses. Miyako could see the magic he'd left behind, but it was fading fast.
"Well," she said into the silence. The wind blew gently past.
The green bug digimon landed in the grass beside her, was surrounded by a white light, and reappeared as a familiar-looking small digimon.
For a moment, Miyako stared, and then she managed to speak: "Wormmon?"
"Hello," the small green caterpillar replied cheerfully, glancing around him in the tall grass. "Thanks for your help."
"Help?" Miyako echoed blankly, then came to her senses. "Why was that thing chasing you? Why did he start chasing me? How long have you been able to evolve…." She had so many questions she didn't even know where to begin, and so left off, giving him a chance to answer in case he did.
Wormmon blinked his large blue eyes. "Ken will be here in a moment," he said, answering the one question she had most wanted the answer to and yet had dared not ask.
He appeared as promised, on the horizon a few moments later, his head barely visible above the grass. Miyako could only watch in stunned silence as he grew closer and more in focus.
Long gone was the thick, powerful, dark aura that had surrounded him before. He was clear of magic and darkness, and yet something remained. Though she saw nothing of magic, Miyako was certain that she could still feel it. It was not the same, and yet it still was Ken.
When he had come within speaking distance, they both stood, staring at each other, searching for words perhaps. After a long moment, Ken shook his head slowly. "You shouldn't have interfered," he said.
Miyako blinked a few times and turned away from him, folding her arms. "Interfered?" she repeated, turning her head back to face him. "I – you – they interfered with my journey!"
"Oh dear," Wormmon said.
Hawkmon shook his head. "You shouldn't make her angry," he advised Ken. "She's rather dangerous when she's angry."
There was a long silence. Ken said nothing, only turned his head upward to face the sky. "So am I," he finally said.
"Ken…." Wormmon interjected slowly.
His partner shrugged lightly, as though nothing of great importance had passed. "We don't have time for this," he said instead.
The anger having faded from her expression, Miyako turned back to face him. "Who was that?" she wanted to know. "Why was he chasing you? And me?"
Ken shrugged again. "You're Chosen," he answered. "I believe that was enough for him."
"Who was he?"
"I don't know."
Miyako waited a long moment. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. There was so much more she wanted to know but wasn't quite sure how to ask. If Daisuke had been there, she thought, he would have asked anyway, even if the questions didn't get any answers, but she couldn't.
"You have been away," Ken said then, and she opened her eyes, nodding. "There have been attacks lately upon the villages in connection with the Chosen. Tachikawa, Ishida, Takenouchi-Inoue."
This is it, Miyako thought, remembering Hikari's words. "Why?"
"I don't know," he repeated. "There's a digimon, actually two of them, who look and seem human and lead the attacks on the villages. I don't think they're working alone, though."
"Why are they attacking the villages?" Miyako wondered, her brain having cleared away from the shock of the information she'd been given, now focused on trying to obtain more. "Do they want something? Someone?"
"They want something. I don't know what."
"And that Airdramon and his tamer? They were working for the digimon who attack the villages?"
"Possibly." He sighed, turning his head and looking out across the plains, his eyes focused on everything and nothing in particular. "I doubt it though." He shrugged again. "Come on, Wormmon."
"Coming," Wormmon answered, scuttling through the tall grass.
"Wait," Miyako interrupted, but he was already walking away, already close to being swallowed in the grasses. "Who do you think they're working for? What could they want?"
"You've a better idea of that than me," he called back over his shoulder, not turning around, not halting his steps. "Stay out of danger, and out of my way."
Miyako stared blankly after him, watching him go, watching as he grew smaller and smaller and then was once again a blur on the horizon, and then gone from sight as though he had never been there.
"Attacks," Hawkmon repeated. "On villages."
"On our village," Miyako finished, finally turning away from the horizon and Ken's departing figure. "Why? There's nothing there any digimon could want – is there?"
"Aside from an inn or some food at the market, no," her partner agreed. "So why destroy it?"
"Maybe they're looking for something," Miyako suggested. "Or maybe they're just distracting us from something else." She glanced back toward where Ken had disappeared from view. "Maybe they're working for Demon."
"It seems likely," he consented. After a moment of thought, he added, "Do you suppose that's why Ken's so interested in them?"
"…For some sort of revenge? But why? He hasn't got enough power to destroy Demon, does he?"
"I don't know."
"I don't think he does," she said, but with doubt in her voice. "I don't see magic on him, and yet….I still feel it. Different, but still the same."
They began walking in silence, back in the direction of the road from whence they'd come, each lost in different thoughts. The silence had returned to the plains, and the only sound was of their crunching footsteps on the dirt and the rustle of grasses in the breeze.
It was not long before the grasses parted and the dirt road was visible, yet there was no sign of any vehicles of any sort. Miyako looked both ways up and down the long, straight corridor through the fields, and saw no sign of the carriage she and Hawkmon had left. Although she felt thankful that she had not left anything of great value in the carriage, Miyako was nonetheless annoyed that the driver had decided to leave.
"It seems we'll have to walk a bit of the way," Hawkmon noted. He took to the air for a bit, flying above the grasses, where his vision was no longer obstructed. "Thankfully, I see a village not too far away. We won't have to camp out here for the night."
"Thank goodness for that," Miyako said, sighing. "I look forward to a nice long rest."
The sun had completely set, and the night was beginning to set in. Most of the house's inhabitants had settled in for the evening, and a quiet calm had settled over the grounds. Carrying a single candle that flickered in the darkness, Jun left the house by way of the kitchen and wandered to the small garden. She was not surprised to find her brother seated in a bench, eyes on the flowers, mind elsewhere.
He didn't notice when she approached, didn't look up at the sound of her footfalls on the grass, and started when she sat beside him, getting to his feet.
"It's only me," Jun told him, though she wasn't sure what comfort that would offer him if he had no memory of her. "I'm sorry if I've disturbed you. Please, stay."
In the dim light, his expression was not easy to see, but he appeared to be a little bit nervous when he sat, and his eyes didn't move from her. After a moment, they narrowed as if in thought. "I remembered you before - ," he said, hesitantly.
"Yes, so you said," she answered, setting the candleholder safely on the bench beside her. "And you remembered our mother."
He nodded, slowly, finally moving his gaze from her face, turning to see the dim shadow of flowers beginning to bloom in the garden. "She used to like this garden, didn't she?"
"Yes," Jun said again. "She used to spend a lot of time here, tending the flowers. I think – I think it was because Father didn't want her to exhaust herself, and she didn't want to stay in bed."
There was a long silence. Distantly, the sounds of conversations between the servants drifted through the night air from the kitchen. A gentle breeze rustled the treetops and a few blossoms sprinkled to the ground, unseen in the darkness. The air was sweet with the scent of flowers and dirt.
"I've always loved the smell of spring," she commented then, inhaling deeply and breathing contentedly in the air. "It's so sweet and beautiful, full of flowers."
"You loved the grass," Daisuke said after a moment. He was staring fixedly at a tree a short distance in front of him, from which blossoms were cascading like gray blobs in the night air. The statement seemed to surprise him as much as Jun, and neither of them spoke for a few heartbeats.
"The grass?" Jun echoed.
He was quiet again, an expression of thought on his face now, a deep frown. "I remember. There was a hill – and in the summer, it was covered with soft grass and you laid down in the grass and rolled down the hill." He paused briefly, and then looked toward her with a mischievous smile. "She yelled at you for that. It was a new dress, I think. It was fun, though."
Jun stared, her mouth open wide, her eyes wide. "I – I can't believe you remembered that," she said, and then shook her head as though to clear her mind. "That was a long time ago."
"Hmm," was all he had to answer, but the grin was replaced with a quiet smile. Daisuke leaned back on the bench and looked upward at the stars blinking in the clear night and felt the gentle breeze.
In the mid-morning, Miyako returned to the palace, having spent the evening in a village inn and flown in as soon as possible. Her mind was full of questions and she hadn't slept as well as she would have liked to. She was tired, her head pounding by the time she reached her destination.
Iori was the first person she saw when she'd landed, waiting for her on the grounds. He did not seem surprised to see her, which did not particularly surprise Miyako. Having de-evolved, Hawkmon followed her.
"Returned from your trip, have you?" Iori greeted, shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't know how he does it."
"I'm not quite sure either," Miyako answered, smiling a greeting. "I guess he already knows where Hikari's gone, and that's why you haven't asked?"
"I don't know if he knows that much," he replied, shrugging lightly. Together, they began to walk towards the castle. "He only said that you'd be arriving alone. There's a lot to tell you." Pausing slightly, Iori raised one eyebrow in her direction. "Do you have a lot to tell us?"
Miyako sighed. "Not that much, I don't think," she confessed. "I don't understand much of anything yet. I need to piece things together."
"Nothing serious," Sora assured her. Tired and hungry, Miyako had chosen to eat before doing much else, and Sora had decided to join her. Thanks to Ken, she was not surprised about Sora's information that her village had been one of those attacks, yet she wanted more information. "They tore a path right through the town square, smashing homes and business, but nothing that can't be rebuilt. Your father began the rebuilding almost immediately."
Miyako nodded absently, stuffing another bite of food in her mouth. She swallowed and paused eating long enough to comment, "Thought he might. But what did they want?"
"I don't know," Sora answered. Since she was not as famished as Miyako, she was taking her time eating, and pausing to speak complete sentences between bites. "I overheard them saying something about crystals, and Koushiro says crystals are used in magic – but we can't figure out why they would need to smash villages in order to get them."
"Crystals?" Miyako repeated, having swallowed. She took another bite.
"Koushiro says they're often used in magic spells, and there's a theory that enough crystals could open a portal to another world."
Miyako swallowed too large of a mouthful and coughed a few times before she was able to say, hoarsely, "Another world?" She gulped down some water and then said, more clearly. "Like the shadow world?"
Sora nodded, having calmly taken a small bite and swallowed while Miyako had choked. "That's Koushiro's theory, too. Taichi thinks they want to bring an army here." She frowned, and took another bite.
Having taken a long swallow of water, Miyako was quiet for a few moments as she cautiously took another bite of her food and chewed a bit more slowly than before. "Maybe," she said when she'd finished. "Or maybe only one digimon."
"Only one?" Sora echoed. "Which one - ?"
So, more questions raised than answered, it seems. Daisuke's making headway with his memories, and Miyako's met up with Ken again, although it didn't seem to be a cheerful, happy sort of reunion. Ah, well.
Coming soon, expect a battle (or at least the lead-up to a battle) and, um, lots of other stuff. In the future there will be an entire chapter almost exclusively devoted to Iori, which I've never done before, so that'll be a lot of fun, and then, um…more stuff. I'm not going to give away anything else yet.
This story might just never end. I keep writing and writing and I don't feel like I'm any closer to a conclusion. Stay tuned:-)