AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Hi everyone! No, your calendar isn't broken. There is a high chance that, at some point soon, I might not be able to post as regularly as I like to, and my schedule might go a little bit wibbly-wobbly for a while. So, to try and counteract it before it happens, I wanted to post this early just in case.
(And, hey, if nothing comes of it – you just get a cheeky bonus chapter!)
Thank you all for the love and support you are showing this story, it really means the world to me. I hope you enjoy today's update, and I hope to see you again on Friday for another one.
TAILMON'S MAGIC TEA
Jou had a thousand curses on his lips when he saw the dots appear on the screen of his digivice; all three of them. He swallowed thickly. Some trick of the Kaiser's, perhaps? It was later than usual for him to be lurking about the Digital World, but it was far too late and far too soon for the others to be visiting again. It was past midnight, but it would still be hours until dawn. Jou had no chance of seeing what was coming in the pitch black, and so he sent Tentomon out to try and scout from the skies.
Sometime after Tentomon left, Gabumon stirred. He sat up, lifting a paw to his chest as his bleary eyes looked around, and then without a word he rose to his feet and began to stumble out of camp. Jou bit back a curse and followed, stopping long enough to light a torch from the fire and make sure Gomamon was beside him as they dove deeper in to the woods.
They arrived at a small clearing just as Pegasmon and Nefertimon landed with Tentomon hovering beside them. Jou let out a sigh of relief as Gabumon trotted forwards.
"Yamato!" he cheered. Takeru lifted a finger to his lips with a smile.
"He's asleep," he said softly. Pegasmon shifted and Jou caught sight of the elder blond sagged against Takeru's back.
"You rescued him?!" Jou gaped. "By yourselves?!" Hikari slid from her partner's back and unhooked her bow from the saddle.
"We didn't mean to," she said softly. "Tailmon and I only wanted to see if we could find anything that could be useful, and then… everything kind of happened at once. We're sorry if we worried you." She clasped her hands together and ducked in to a small apologetic bow. Jou wanted to be angry, but now that they were back and safe, he found that the adrenaline that had been keeping him awake was wearing off and he was beginning to feel exhausted. He rubbed at his temples and offered a tired smile.
"At least you're back safely."
Pegasmon carefully picked his way back to the big hut with Takeru and Yamato on his back, and once they were beside the campfire it took Jou, Takeru and Hikari to carefully slide Yamato to the ground without waking him. Together they lowered him in to Takeru's bed, and as Gabumon settled in near Yamato's head Jou quickly scanned him for injuries. A tender spot on the back of Yamato's head made the blond grimace in his sleep, but aside from that Jou found no obvious signs of injury.
Takeru, on the other hand, was developing a pair of colourful bruises across the knuckles of both fists, while Hikari had added a small cut and a blossoming welt on her cheek to her collection of injuries. Aside from that they were unharmed, and Jou breathed a sigh of relief before sending them both to bed. It was more a force of habit than anything else – they certainly didn't need anyone to give them a bedtime anymore – but they both complied without complaint. Takeru found a few stray blankets and settled in beside his brother with Gabumon and Patamon between them while Hikari and Tailmon bid everyone a quiet goodnight before heading back to their hut.
(Jou was tempted to follow them, just to make sure that they didn't disappear again, but he opted instead to settle down for the night – or what was left of it – keeping one eye on his digivice, watching Hikari's dot as it came to rest on the outskirts of camp.)
"I don't remember Hikari being this impulsive," Gomamon murmured as he curled up against Jou's chest. Jou pulled the blanket over them and tucked his digivice under his pillow.
"I don't think Taichi allowed her to be."
Jou managed a few restless hours of sleep before dawn arrived and the camp began to stir. For a while Jou lay awake with Gomamon snoozing in his arms, wondering if he might try and sleep past sunrise for once, but then Floramon was hovering over him and asking for his help with a Gotsumon who had arrived with a fractured finger.
He made his usual rounds, letting habit and muscle memory drag him from patient to patient. Two Burgamon who had arrived together were finally well enough to leave, though they offered to stay another day and help with lunch before heading back in search of their village ("Or what's left of it," one of them murmured sombrely). At mid-morning Jou stopped by the main fire and helped himself to a couple of large oat biscuits and a cup of warm berry tea, but he had barely touched the seat when Patamon arrived to tell him that Yamato was awake.
"How are you feeling?" Jou asked as he stepped out of the sun. Yamato was sitting up, leaning against the wall of the hut with Gabumon on one side and Takeru on the other. He smiled a little as Jou knelt beside him.
"Straight to business," he said, an eyebrow arching in amusement. Jou smiled.
"It's good to see you, Yamato." Yamato smiled and he pushed himself up a little higher. The action made him grimace and Takeru rose a little with a concerned frown, but Yamato batted him away.
"I'm just a little sore," he said. "The Kaiser didn't exactly offer me a luxury suite." Takeru settled again, reassured, but Jou didn't miss how Yamato rolled his right shoulder as soon as Takeru wasn't looking. Jou made a mental note to ask him about it later; he doubted Yamato would mention it with Takeru in earshot, and Jou didn't have it in him to try and split them apart any time soon for the sake of something so small.
Patamon returned a moment later with Tailmon, who greeted Yamato with a smile and a steaming mug of tea.
"Heard you were awake," she said. She settled in beside him and handed him the tea. "Thought you might want this." Yamato accepted it with a grateful smile before taking a deep sip and relaxing with a heavy sigh.
"What is it?" Takeru asked, peering in to the mug over his brother's shoulder.
"Catnip," Tailmon answered. Jou frowned and opened his mouth, but he wasn't sure which question he wanted to ask first. Tailmon shrugged. "I thought I was the only one affected by it, but then Hikari got in to the 'nip once when she was ill and it fixed her right up."
"Takes the edge off most aches and pains," Yamato added before taking another sip. "Speaking of Hikari, where is she?" Tailmon's ears twitched and she studied her gloves.
"Sleeping." Yamato arched an eyebrow.
"You're mad at her," he observed. Tailmon bristled a little and Yamato chuckled in to his tea. "You didn't want her to come for me."
"I wanted her to be careful," was the curt response. Yamato laughed again, though it quickly turned in to a wheeze. He took another sip of tea.
"She's her brother's sister," he said, as if that explained everything. Tailmon fixed him with a piercing gaze.
"Yeah, someone's gotta talk to her about that," she muttered dryly.
When Yamato's grumbling stomach sent Takeru and Patamon out in search of food, Jou took another look over Yamato. His shoulder was sore – a parting shot from the Kaiser – and he had a lingering headache, but otherwise promised Jou that he was fine. Takeru had returned then and Jou had remained silent; he knew head injuries could be dangerous, and bumps to the head could lead to concussion or compression, but he couldn't quite remember what he was supposed to do about either of them.
(Perhaps it was time they returned home. Injured digimon were one thing – it was often a matter of just making them comfortable until their data had repaired itself – but injured humans were a different matter entirely, and Jou wasn't sure how much further his junior first aid training could take him.)
After making sure Yamato was comfortable and fed, Jou left him under Takeru's supervision and went about his usual daily tasks. He found Gomamon sitting beside the fire with Tailmon who was steeping a large kettle of tea, and when Gomamon spied Jou he waved him over.
"You gotta try some of this!" he said with a goofy grin. "It's magic tea. I feel like I'm floating on a cloud." Tailmon pursed her lips and added more water to the kettle.
"Maybe it's a little strong," she muttered. She glanced up to Jou. "You can get used to it after a while. I thought it might help some of your patients, if they want some." Jou smiled and thanked her with a grateful nod. He and Gomamon had seen wild catnip growing in all sorts of places, but Jou had brushed it off as another quirk of the Digital World (Gomamon had known enough to identify the herb, but hadn't thought much of it besides the fact that it smelt bitter and made food taste worse).
He first saw Hikari somewhere after midday, walking through camp with two large buckets of water. After lunch she collected the dirty plates and mugs and took them down to the river to wash them before following Tailmon around to offer refills of catnip tea to anyone who wanted another cup. Jou tried a little bit then; it was tepid and bitter, and it left a strange taste on his tongue, but it did help relieve the persistent ache between his shoulders for a little while.
It was late afternoon when Relemon came bounding through the camp towards him. The baby digimon was a head of golden fur, with a sleek tail tipped with cream fur. Usually her tail was sleek and shiny, and Jou knew she took great pride in it, so it was alarming to see it puffed up like a feather duster.
"Jou-mon! Jou-mon!" she panted, her honey eyes wide and watering. Jou knelt down to meet her and she leapt in to his arms, shivering against his chest as she buried her face in his tunic. "Sleeping – on the path – woke up – they're coming – humans!" Jou felt his heart leap to his throat before his brain caught up with what she had said. Humans. Plural. Not the Kaiser then, but far more likely to be-
"Anybody home?" Taichi's voice was bright and clear and Relemon squealed nervously. Jou ran his fingers through her fur and smoothed her frazzled tail.
"It's all right," Gomamon said brightly from his place at Jou's hip. "These guys are our friends! They're not gonna hurt you!" Relemon lifted her head to look at Jou who smiled.
"They're safe, I promise," he said. When Relemon still looked uncertain he slowly placed her on the ground. "Why don't you go find somewhere comfortable to rest until they're gone?"
"Great idea, Jou!" Gomamon cheered. "C'mon, Relemon, let's go find somewhere!" Relemon blinked her large eyes at Jou before allowing Gomamon to lead her away. Jou stood and dusted off his knees, straightening his jacket and smoothing his hair as Taichi and the others appeared from behind a large hut. Taichi grinned and waved as he made a beeline for Jou (who grimaced as he watched several smaller digimon frantically scurry out of the way to hide in the shadows). As they drew closer, Jou noticed that they were carrying several large bags between them, and a nervous laughter bubbled in to his throat.
"You guys going camping?" he asked. He wasn't sure just how many more humans his little camp could handle.
"We thought we'd bring you some supplies," Taichi said with a grin as he adjusted the bag on his shoulder.
"We know you guys don't want to come home without Yamato," Sora added, "but when you're ready we thought you might like some clothes. You know, from home." Miyako nodded eagerly and dropped two heavy bags down beside Sora.
"Plus we figured you'd be pretty tired of fish and berries by now, so I grabbed some bits from my family's convenience store," she added. She pulled the zipper open to reveal an assortment of crinkling packages and colourful cans and cartons.
"Did you bring human food?" Patamon cried as he swooped towards them. He landed by Miyako, blinking his large eyes up at her, and Miyako unwrapped a candy bar for him. He sat back and sucked on the bar with a delightful hum. "It's even better than I remember. Guys, c'mon, this stuff looks great!"
Gabumon emerged first, wringing his paws together and glancing over his shoulder, and Jou didn't miss the small murmur of surprise that rippled through the group when Yamato stepped out of the shadow of the hut with Takeru hovering nervously behind him. Judging by the trembling of his shoulders, Jou knew he was probably standing taller than he ought to given his fatigue, and he didn't need Yamato's gaze to lock with Taichi's to understand why. For a moment they stared each other down, taking in every detail, and then they moved together – Yamato shuffling and Taichi running to close the gap.
"I don't know whether to hug you or hit you," Taichi exclaimed. Yamato smiled.
"I'm sure I've done something to deserve both," he answered. Taichi grabbed his arm and pulled him in to a rough hug, and Jou didn't miss how Yamato grimaced as Taichi jostled his shoulder.
"Give him some air, Taichi," Sora scolded as she and Koushiro came up behind him. Taichi let him go and Yamato hid his grimace behind a half-smile as Sora pulled him in to a much gentler hug. "We missed you."
"Yeah, missed you too," Yamato murmured. Koushiro didn't offer a hug and Yamato didn't look for one, though Koushiro did dip his head.
"We're glad to see you again," he said. "We're sorry we couldn't rescue you sooner." Yamato half-shrugged with his good shoulder. Taichi folded his arms with a curious smile.
"How did you escape, anyw-"
"Hikari, what happened to your face?!"
Daisuke's cry made Taichi spin sharply on his heel. Hikari was stood behind them, and her bright smile was quickly fading. It seemed she had forgotten about the bruise on her cheek, which had blossomed in to a mottled patch of crimson and yellow, and the new scar on the other side of her face was an angry red that stood out from her usual olive complexion. Her hand flew to her cheek but it was too late; Taichi was already speeding towards her.
"What happened?" he demanded, his tone equal parts concern and fury. Hikari shrank back, ducking her head.
"I – I fell," she answered. Daisuke huffed and folded his arms.
"I don't believe you." And neither did Taichi, it seemed, judging by the way his eyes narrowed.
"Did someone attack you?" he asked. "Was it the Kaiser? Did he do this?" Hikari answered 'no' right as Tailmon answered 'yes', and Taichi's shoulders tensed. Hikari took a nervous step back.
"It's nothing-"
"Did he do that, too?" he asked, pointing towards her neck. She hadn't worn her scarf today, leaving the fading purple ring around her throat clearly visible. She quickly swept her hair over her shoulder.
"That's old – it doesn't matter-"
"Doesn't matter-?!"
"Taichi." Yamato was at his shoulder, placing a hand on his elbow and pulling him back. "Calm down." Taichi glared at Yamato from the corner of his eye.
"My sister is black and blue and you're telling me to calm down?!"
"She's not a baby anymore," Yamato retorted, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "She can take care of herself."
"Oh clearly," Taichi hissed. Hikari's eyes narrowed and she straightened.
"The Kaiser just caught us off-guard-"
"What were you even doing anywhere near him?" Taichi demanded, whirling towards her with a furious glare. This time Hikari didn't back down.
"We only went to look, but when we saw an opportunity to rescue Yamato we took it," she said, her voice strong as she lifted her chin defiantly.
"Hikari-"
"You would have done the same," she pressed. Taichi fell silent, rocking back as some of his anger melted into surprise. Hikari drew herself up to her full height (which was still a good head shorter than her brother, though in that moment she seemed somehow taller). "What does it matter? He's back and we're all safe."
"You put yourself in danger-"
"Yamato is safe now, isn't that what you wanted?" she pressed.
"I didn't want you to get hurt!"
"I can handle it-"
"Well I can't!"
It seemed the words had spilled out unintentionally, and when Taichi realised what he had said he pulled back as a thick silence settled around them. Hikari's anger melted a little and her face fell as Taichi turned away a little, but before either of them could say anything further they were interrupted by Gomamon.
"Hey guys, what's goin' on?" he asked, his voice unusually hesitant. When nobody answered he padded over to Jou who lifted him in to his arms. "Just wanted to tell you that there's a fresh batch of rock cakes by the fire if anyone's hungry."
"They sound lovely, Gomamon," Sora said with a strained smile. She turned back to Taichi, lacing her fingers with his and tugging gently on his arm. He let himself be led away, and as soon as his back was turned Hikari visibly relaxed. Yamato reached out to squeeze her shoulder before following the others to settle in around the fire. Gomamon and Patamon were passing around plates of rock cakes – small, dry buns littered with seeds and currents that made them look like chunks of gravel. A pair of Gotsumon were following them round, offering hot tea or cold water, and once everyone had been seen to they took the platter of cakes and left to make their way around the rest of the camp.
"So," Taichi began, and Jou could see the effort it was taking to keep his voice calm and level. "Where is the Kaiser's base?" He glanced across the fire to where Yamato was sat between Takeru and Jou, and Yamato shrugged.
"I was out cold, there and back," he added before turning to Takeru and Hikari.
"It was where it used to be," Takeru answered. "He had just hidden it better, but it definitely wasn't his main base."
"How do you know?" Daisuke asked from his seat on Hikari's other side, his tone almost accusatory.
"It was too… basic," Takeru answered (and if he'd noticed the edge to Daisuke's voice, he didn't show it). "It was mostly prison cells… There didn't seem to be much room for anything else. With everything that he can do, I've always suspected he must have some kind of control centre to monitor all of his Dark Towers and the digimon under his control. I don't think he could run an empire from a base that small."
"What about the digimon?" Iori asked. "Shouldn't we try and save them?"
"There are too many," Yamato answered. "All the digimon at the base are under the Kaiser's control. If we free them, they'll only start fighting us."
"What if we knock down his Dark Tower?" Koushiro suggested. "There has to be one nearby." Tailmon shook her head.
"I didn't see one on the way there or the way back," she answered. "Besides, the Dark Towers are new. Before he was using them, the Dark Rings used to work on their own. I think the digimon in those cells are all controlled individually, not by a Dark Tower."
"But shouldn't we be trying to save them?" Iori pressed.
"We are," Sora answered with a reassuring smile, "but the best way to free them is to find and defeat the Kaiser. Those digimon are under the Kaiser's control, which means they're probably safe. He's not going to hurt his own servants, right?" It made sense, but Jou didn't miss how Takeru shifted uncomfortably. Patamon dropped from the boy's head in to his lap, and Takeru wrapped his arms tightly around his partner.
"He might," Patamon said timidly. "Takeru and I found an arena not far from the prison cells. The Kaiser makes digimon fight each other, like it's a game."
"Then we have to go get 'em!" Daisuke announced, jumping from his seat and pumping his fist in to the air with such vigour that he almost sent Veemon flying from his lap and into the fire.
"I don't like the idea of rushing in," Taichi said firmly (and he glanced to Hikari who was pointedly watching Daisuke), "but if the Kaiser is hurting them then we should try and help."
"Just hang on a nano," Koushiro interjected. "We need to find out just how bad this could get; there are too many variables for us to even try and plan some kind of rescue mission. Just how many digimon are we talking about here?"
"A lot," Takeru answered grimly. "It's hard to tell how many, because sometimes the Kaiser locks digimon up together, but I'd say… fifty? Maybe more."
"And there's no way of knowing how strong they are, now that we know the Kaiser can control perfect digimon too," Taichi muttered. Sora reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Koushiro gave a solemn nod.
"If we release them all at once while they're still under the Kaiser's control, they'll destroy us, especially as we're not at full strength," he added with a glance to Sora who nodded. With Agumon under the Kaiser's control, and with Biyomon and Palmon having gone out of reach in their search for Hikari, they were down by three of their usual fighters, and whilst they had Veemon, Hawkmon and Armadimon to help bolster their numbers the newer digimon were still weak and inexperienced. "Saving one person without a plan is dangerous enough-" The comment sparked another silent exchange between the Yagami siblings, "-but a full rescue mission without a proper plan in place is just suicide."
"So we just leave them all there for the Kaiser to torture?!" Daisuke exploded. Koushiro shook his head.
"No, that's not what I meant."
"What are you suggesting, Koushiro?" Sora asked.
"Well… I hope you don't mind me saying, but Yamato doesn't look up to travelling just yet, and I expect Jou still has a lot of loose ends he'll need to wrap up to make sure that the camp can carry on in his absence." Yamato shrugged and Jou nodded. "Plus, we haven't exactly told anyone that we've even found our way back to the Digital World, let alone found everyone. There's no immediate rush for you guys to come home, so why don't we take advantage of our situation?"
"And do what?" Taichi asked.
"Takeru and Hikari could take Pegasmon and Nefertimon back to the prison and find out what we're dealing with. This is just information gathering," he added hastily at Taichi's glare. "We're fighting the Kaiser blind. We're starting to understand some of what he can do, but we need to understand how he's doing it. It might give us a clue to defeating him." Hikari glanced to Takeru who nodded.
"It would be nice to try and stop him hurting anymore digimon," Takeru said. Hikari nodded too, and Daisuke sat up rigid.
"I'll go too!" he exclaimed. Koushiro shook his head at the suggestion.
"Your family will be waiting for you to come home," he said. "Detention's a good cover for coming home late, but it won't get you through the night. It's not worth making a cover story for this one time, especially for something as simple as information gathering. Best save that for an occasion where we have no choice." Daisuke pouted and his shoulder sagged.
"Then we'll come back tomorrow," Miyako said brightly. Jou was surprised when Taichi grimaced and shook his head.
"Daisuke and I can't make it tomorrow," he said in a low voice. "We have that soccer game against Tamachi after school." Daisuke blinked and then groaned in disappointment.
"Right…"
"And that's more important than this?!" Miyako exclaimed. Sora placed a gentle hand on Miyako's arm.
"We have to carry on like everything's normal," she said. "Before all of this, Taichi and Daisuke would never have missed a soccer match, especially not one this important. We have to avoid suspicion so we can keep the Digital World a secret." Miyako frowned and pouted but didn't push the matter any further.
As the sun's light shifted towards the golden rays of early evening, Koushiro gave Daisuke co-ordinates to a nearby Dark Tower. Not only were they taking advantage of the fact that they were already in the Digital World, but he'd also come to the conclusion that the tower was affecting the digimon in Jou's camp which – whilst demoralising in and of itself – might have been slowing down the time it took for his patients to heal. Daisuke extended an eager invitation to Hikari ("Now that you have a Digimental too, you and Tailmon should join us!"), though his good mood quickly soured when Hikari suggested that Takeru and Patamon should come along too.
The others remained behind with Jou. Sora helped Jou clear away the mugs and plates and discarded rock cakes (it seemed eating the hard treats hadn't been to everyone's tastes) while Koushiro withdrew his laptop. Yamato asked Taichi about the new Chosen and Taichi gave him a quick rundown – with more than one interjection from Sora, especially when it came to describing Miyako.
"And they've inherited your crests?" Yamato asked as Jou and Sora settled back beside the fire. Taichi nodded.
"Daisuke has Courage, Miyako has Love, and Iori has knowledge." Yamato pressed his lips together, staring through the fire.
"So there could be more new Chosen out there," he murmured.
"It seems that way," Sora nodded, "although Takeru and Hikari have digimentals for their crests, so I don't think it's quite as clear-cut as we first thought."
"I've been trying to figure it out," Koushiro murmured, glancing up from his laptop. "At first I wondered if maybe these Digimentals were created because of us."
"Us?" Jou asked. Koushiro shook his head.
"Taichi, Sora, Mimi and myself," he answered. "Up until yesterday, only our crests had been found – with the exception of Mimi's, of course. I was thinking that perhaps when the gate shut after Apokarimon, maybe the Digital World lost contact with us and it needed to create some new way of manifesting the powers of our crests. Now that we've seen Takeru and Hikari with their digimentals, I'm not entirely discounting that theory, but I don't think I'm quite on the right track."
"Do you think there are more digimentals out there somewhere?" Sora asked. Koushiro nodded.
"I've been wondering if maybe we were supposed to stay in the Digital World after all," he said. "What if we were always supposed to inherit the digimentals, but by leaving the Digital World we lost our ability to connect with them, and the connection was passed on to the new Chosen?"
"So Takeru and Hikari could still use the digimentals because they got left behind?" Sora asked. Koushiro nodded but Yamato shook his head.
"I think I found the Digimental of Friendship," he said. "There's a mountain a few days north of Santa Geria. The Crest of Friendship is carved in to the stone, and at the foot of the mountain there was this weird… thing. I don't really know how to describe it, but it had the Crest of Friendship on it. Whenever I touched it, it hurt my hands."
"Like an electric shock?" Sora asked. Yamato nodded.
"That does sound like a digimental," Koushiro said with a frown. "Although this does mean that my theory is wrong, or you would have been able to pick it up. I must be missing something… If only I had more data on the digimentals, I might be able to figure them out. You said that the one you found was north of Santa Geria?" Yamato nodded and Koushiro stared down at his screen, muttering under his breath for several long seconds before cursing. "I don't have that part of the Digital World mapped out yet. I don't know if I'm even close."
"Mapped out?" Jou asked.
"I've been working on a program to map out the Digital World, although it's still in its early stages." He turned the laptop around so they could see the screen which was filled with a grid of black and white squares. "It only really picks up Dark Towers and gate terminals so far, but once I've got the basics mapped out then I can start adding in more filters and refining the search ability. These represent Dark Towers, or areas under the influence of a Dark Tower," he said, pointing to a solid black square before moving his fingers to the white square beside it. "The white squares are outside of the towers' control."
"What's that?" Taichi asked, jabbing his finger in to the screen so hard he caused little rainbows to appear. Koushiro jerked the laptop back with a scowl and ran his thumb over the spot, inspecting it carefully before turning the laptop to face them again.
"I've been seeing patches like this popping up all over the map, but I still haven't figured out what they mean." He gestured to the spot where Taichi had pointed; the rigid lines of the grid were blurred and wavy, and the squares flickered like static on a poor TV signal. "I managed to create an algorithm to study the interference so that I could try and match it against the noise of the Digital World, and it was the weirdest thing – one minute the frequencies were almost identical, and then the next they were polar opposites."
"What could it be?" Jou asked.
"I was hoping to ask you. Have you seen anything… weird? Or, well, weirder than the usual Digital World levels of weird." Jou sat back with a frown, casting his mind back.
"Not that I can remember," he said, "but then, we've been camped out here for a while now and we haven't been moving around as much as we used to." He turned to Yamato who shook his head.
"Gabumon and I have been in the mountains for the last few years, and there wasn't really much of anything up there," he answered. "Maybe you should ask Takeru and Hikari; it sounds like they moved around more than we did." Koushiro nodded.
Jou felt a warm shiver run up his spine. He sat up taller with a frown, and judging by the confused frowns that passed through the group he hadn't been the only one to feel it. Koushiro glanced at his screen, and after a moment he smiled and nodded.
"They did it. The tower is down," he announced. Gomamon perked up and leapt from Jou's lap.
"C'mon, Jou! It's been a while!" He bounced away from the fire, disappearing inside a ball of light and reappearing as Ikkakumon. Jou felt his heart swell as he rose to his feet and threw himself in to Ikkakumon's white fur. He was right; it had been too long. Behind them, Jou heard the peals of Yamato's digivice as Gabumon also evolved, and by the time Jou pulled himself out of Ikkakumon's pelt Yamato was already settled in against Garurumon's side.
"We should probably be getting home soon," Sora murmured, glancing up from her watch. "It's getting late." Taichi sighed and nodded.
"We should probably go get the others."
"Allow me," Tentomon offered. "Koushiro, if you wouldn't mind. I'll be faster as Kabuterimon." Koushiro unclipped his digivice and gave his partner an eager nod. Tentomon flew high above the trees to evolve, and they saw a flash of Kabuterimon's gleaming armour before he took off to find the others.
Sora organised the bags while they waited. Miyako's open bag contained a variety of sweet and savoury foods, including premade sandwiches and onigiri that would last at least a few days. Her other bag was filled with a selection of clothes for Hikari. Daisuke's bag had clothes for Takeru to borrow, while Taichi's bag contained an assortment of shorts and shirts which had been picked out for Jou, but would fit Yamato just as well (if not better, given that Yamato was closer to Taichi's build while Jou was taller and lankier).
The others soon returned (led by Tentomon who had no doubt devolved in order to avoid crashing through the trees), and the air was quickly filled with the gentle murmur of goodbyes. Taichi made Hikari promise not to undertake any more rescue missions without him, and Hikari made Taichi promise to give their parents big, tight hugs from her which he swore he would with a tight smile.