Chapter Twenty Two: Disappearance

(Koichi's P.O.V)

I sat on the old desk that was shoved into the corner; I was watching them as they talked about something that they wouldn't tell me. I looked to the floor and I thought about something. They had shortly explained about Chrono to me and we began to talk about a plan but somehow I was pushed out of the group discussion. I looked to Kari and tried my best not to narrow my eyes; she fell asleep with her head on Koji's shoulder a little while ago. He warned us not to hurt her or force her to ever make a choice until she was ready. He wasn't as stupid as people thought he was, he just hid it very well.

"Koichi!" I jumped since I had managed to drift away within my thoughts.

"Huh?" Takuya waved me over and with a sigh I got up and rejoined them at the four crates that were shoved together to form a table.

We were in an abandoned warehouse that Chrono was currently 'living' in. She didn't actually exist in this world, apparently the Chrono of our world died when she was four years old. Shortly after this world's Chrono died her mother went crazy and killed herself after killing her husband.

"We decided on what we should do." I glanced to Kari when Takuya spoke.

I don't know what's wrong but I just don't feel right being here for some reason. I was used to coming up with the plans alongside Koji. It was odd to have been pushed away pretty much but I decided that it was because Chrono knew more than I did and everything I had come up with she shot down with some kind of info that we didn't have on them.

"What's the plan then?" I glanced at Koji's face when I asked, I noticed that he had managed to fall asleep sitting up.

I glanced at Chrono and I remembered what Koji had said to me out of their hearing. He didn't trust Chrono and something was off about her. Something wasn't right. I trusted her that night we went and saved Koji and Takuya from getting killed by Lilithmon and Ophanimon, we had met because she had seen Myotismon heading towards where Kari was and we ended up working together. Something about this Chrono was different from the Chrono from that night.

"Kari can't fight with her wrist like it is now so she should sit out of the battle for a while." When I looked towards Kari I noticed that Koji opened one of his eyes and looked at Chrono.

"She can fight; her wrist will be healed in a few weeks. I think that we should wait on fighting them. I don't know how but we need to become stronger." I nodded agreeing with Koji, none of us were really in any shape to fight the Demon Lords.

"If we keep waiting they'll only get stronger. The longer we wait the more chance at collecting more minions they have then. We'll have to fight their minions before we can fight them unless we sit and wait for them to attack us their selves which they won't. They'll enjoy watching us slowly go crazy from waiting." I glared at Chrono when she said that.

Something wasn't right with her. Unless she ain't telling us everything there is no reason to jump ahead of ourselves and charge head first into fighting them. The Chrono from that night, she was shy and she said that facing the Demon Lords weren't going to be easy. She said to take things one step at a time, said that we couldn't defeat them unless we all worked together. She said that there were still four actors missing from the stage, her way of saying that we didn't have all of our allies that we required yet.

"Koji can't fight with his shoulder messed up like it is either." That's when the small shred of trust she had curled up and died.

"You can't do much in a battle since you can only go as high as Beast Spirit Evolve, you would need Fusion Evolution at least which is something that you can't achieve." I won't sit here and listen to her saying this; she doesn't understand how this team works.

"Are you just going to sit there and let her say this stuff Takuya? We're a team, we fought against them five years ago without the need of Fusion Evolution, I mean yes there were times that we could've used them but we didn't need them to the point that we couldn't fight them." We've stuck together through thick and thin.

We never split up simply because something was 'impossible' for us to do. Overcoming the impossible was one of the major things that DigiDestineds do. We overcome the impossible make said impossible possible. It was something that I hadn't believed in years ago, especially the time when I had managed to get controlled by Evil Cherubimon but now with my memories I not only believe it but I know that it's true.

"You don't understand Koichi; we can't handle them this time. All seven of them are here; we could barely take on three of them working together. We do need Fusion Level this time." I was stunned to hear that coming from Takuya.

"I don't want to just assume things, assume that we can defeat them like we did then. We've already almost lost Kari once, you got your arm broken and Koji screwed up his shoulder in the last battle. We can't wait around, that I agree with. Waiting will only prolong the battle and end up with a lot of people hurt, not to mention the chance of losing someone." Takuya placed his head in his heads and sighed.

When spoke like that I understood part of what he was saying. If we didn't want anyone to get killed then we would have to fight differently this time but I don't think this different will do us any good. Zoe, J.P., and Tommy are captured so maybe that's why he wants to take the battle to them. To rescue them but something still seemed off. We both knew that Koji wasn't going to obediently sit back on the side lines until his shoulder healed and if we truly needed Fusion Level then Koji would fight until he couldn't fight anymore.

"If you look at it that way then you two must agree. It's best that you two sit it out for now, Koji can join once his shoulder is healed whereas Koichi can just protect Kari, should we fail for some reason." I curled my hands into fists; I'm not that weak am I?

"No." I looked to Koji and I noticed he was glaring at Chrono, he already didn't trust her so I bet he wouldn't listen to her for any reason.

"Maybe you got Takuya to believe your lies but I ain't going to sit out. If you don't want to fight with us then we'll just fight them on our own and I have a feeling Kari would side with us too." I don't even know where the words came from but I didn't care, I wasn't going to sit back.

"What makes you so sure about that?" Takuya doesn't understand her that well I guess.

"Chrono ain't the same as that night; she ain't the same Chrono that I know. The Chrono I know would never try to divide us and make anyone feel useless. Something changed in you too Takuya." We all looked to Kari, besides Koji who just smiled slightly.

She's a good actress. She can fool many people when she tries. Her brown eyes that had always carried a hint of red seemed more red than brown once again. It was the same as that night when Takuya and Koji tried to fight Lilithmon, when Takuya probably would've died had it not been for whatever that Kari had done to heal him. She sat up so she wasn't leaning on Koji and a part of me wondered if she had been awake the whole time.

"You don't understand why I, hate those demons. You don't understand how far I would go to make sure that they die this time." Kari shook her head.

"Maybe I don't but just like Koichi remembers I remember Chrono said that we were strong enough. She said that if we gathered tonight at the old park we could use the power that is a part of the crest that I have and that would be able to seal the Demon Lords again, for millions of years." I looked at her and I watched as she pulled out a pink crest, it had the same marking as the crests that she had given to Koji and me.

Chrono never said anything like that. Chrono didn't even know about the pink crest, neither had I known about that crest in truth. From the confused look in Koji's eyes I could tell that he didn't know either. She did know of the white and black crests, she said if we used them then we could probably have enough power to fight the Demon Lords but she said not to act until the other four 'actors' joined us.

"I am Chrono so stop talking like I'm not Chrono. That was before this latest development, before I learned that your friends were being controlled or the fact that now Takuya is pretty much the only able DigiDestined that can fight without being a hindrance." It was at her words that I figured out what Kari had done, she had proven something without flat-out saying it.

"I'm going home; I'm hungry and sick of listening to you." Koji stood up.

"You want to come Kari, Koichi?" Kari looked at Takuya, who was surprised that she was really choosing not to side with him but she stood up and nodded.

"Yeah I guess so." I stood up and I just followed them, I glanced back once to Takuya.

He sat there stunned that we had divided. He should've known that we wouldn't be a part of that plan. We walked in silence away from the building. What bugged me was that I had no memory of Chrono bringing up the pink crest, in truth I didn't know what the pink crest was. A part of me wanted to think that Kari had bluffed to see if Chrono truly was the Chrono we knew or if it was a pretend.

"What's the pink crest?" She sighed at Koji's question.

"The actual Crest of Light, to my knowing at least. It was the crest that I was given in my world to represent me as the DigiDestined of Light. The crests that I gave to you two I'm pretty sure is what was meant to be the Crest of Harmony. I didn't want to carry three crests because the Crest of Light is already something that almost all enemies want to get their hands on." If Koji truly didn't know of it then there was no way that Chrono knew of it, she told Koji everything.

"So she knew about this but I didn't? So where you two really gonna go out tonight and try that?" I looked at Kari and I saw her stumble slightly.

"No one knew about the Crest of Light until today, I wanted to see if I was right. That Chrono isn't the same Chrono so the next question is who is she and where is Chrono?" I thought so.

"So wait, we just left Takuya with someone who could be the enemy!" Koji was alarmed by that.

Even if they fight and don't seem to get along that much they did worry about each other. They were still friends. They did care about each other to some extent. They might not like each other at times but that's to be expected since their personalities clash so much. In truth if it wasn't for the Digital World I don't think they would have ever become friends.

"Takuya will be fine." I narrowed my eyes slightly; it wasn't like Kari to turn her back on anyone especially if it was Takuya who she thought to be her brother.

"How can you say that?" She looked at me, her eyes were still red.

"Takuya's temporarily under the enemy's control. He'll come back to us soon though; Takuya isn't the type to be controlled for long. He'll realize it and come back to us. I believe in him." It caught even Koji by surprise.

"How do know that?" Kari opened her hand and I saw something that confused me.

It was a red crest but carved on the crest was the symbol of flame. Why is there a crest with Takuya's symbol on it? There was no DigiDestined of Flame in her world so there is no reason for a Flame Crest to be in existence unless. Unless she acquired that after Takuya began to get controlled! But how would a crest be made for Flame?

"Where did you get that?" Kari shrugged.

"It appeared in my hand after Takuya tried to hit me. I can hear Agunimon just like I could hear that spirit from the Digital World that day. I remember something that I had found out shortly before I left my world, Izzy who I believe I told you two about before." I thought before nodding, the computer geek.

"Gennai sent him some ancient text that he decoded. Within that text it said that the DigiDestined of Harmony is known as the keeper, I think I got this because of the fact that my actual title is the DigiDestined of Harmony." Harmony isn't just created between Light and Darkness but other elements and their opposites as well, it would make since that Harmony would be the Keeper if you think about it that way.

"So you now don't only have access to light and darkness but probably fire as well." Kari got a thoughtful look when Koji said that and I had to wonder if she could use the other elements that gets the crests of.

"Perhaps, I think I want to look into the crests more but that would mean either I need to get into contact with Izzy or find something I can use here but there is no guarantee that this world will have information on the Crests." What should we do?

"We don't even know what to do against the Demon Lords at this point. With Takuya out for a while and the chance of him being an enemy too isn't something I look forward to. Even if we fight at times I don't want to actually fight him like that." It seems like person by person this team is becoming smaller and less sure of what we can do.

'There are still others who have yet to show themselves.' It was when I remembered Chrono's words that the possible information that those four might bring with them that made me wonder what would take to bring those four out to help.

"We'll have to wait and see, we can always try to sneak into the Digital World and look through Ophanimon's books since that's where all the knowledge is for our Digital World." She shook her head.

"The darkness always has the best source of information, there the darkness records everything uninfluenced by anything so it records even the darkest of events." When she said that I looked to Koji, we both knew a place that was the darkest of our world.

"The Continent of Darkness, it might be dangerous but I think we could handle it this time." I remembered what occurred there and I shivered slightly from the memories.

"How do you know that the darkness has the best info?" She stared at the ground as if debating if she would tell us or not.

"At first I was thinking about the Dark Ocean, it was where Daemon was sealed away. I don't know why but they know something that they didn't last time, I think there is something there in the Dark Ocean." She crossed her arms and I thought about it, she never really told us about what the Dark Ocean was but she mentioned it once or twice before.

We all jumped when my phone went off. I pulled out my phone and when I saw the number I gulped. I felt a bit of worry, Evan was calling. It wasn't like him to call out of the blue, especially when he's supposed to be class. I answered the phone after glancing at them, they were waiting for something.

Koichi: "Hey what's up Evan?"

Evan: "Something's wrong, I need your help."

When he said that I felt something tighten inside, Evan hated asking for help. If he asked for help he asked Storm or had Storm ask me. Storm hated asking for help but that's mostly because most people judge her and are just looking for more ways to mess with her. From what I know she only asks for help from me and Evan.

Koichi: "What's wrong?"

Evan: "Storm's gone missing."

My eyes went wide and I remembered back to when she helped me get away from school.

~Flashback~

I looked back at the school, I was seriously surprised that we managed to get out without getting caught. Storm didn't skip so I had to wonder about the fact of how she knew that there was a hallway with no camera and an exit that isn't watched. She managed to get us out without even having a close call. I looked back to her and I saw that she had just looked from her watch to me.

"Hey can I know what you are going to do now?" She shot me a glare and I flinched, she been in a bad mood since lunch.

"It's none of your business Koichi. So don't worry about it." She turned around and began to walk away.

"Storm!" She stopped and she looked at me, her brownish red eyes were narrowed slightly.

"Don't worry about me Koichi. Hurry up and go meet your friends. They're important to you so hurry up, don't want them to wait on you." She turned and before I could say anything she took off running.

"Did I do something?" I was confused why she had been so cold to me, even being angry she hadn't been that cold to me before.

~End Flashback~

Evan: "Koichi?"

I ran my figures through my hair. She probably went home right? No she wouldn't ditch Evan when she promised to return in the last class. I tried to think of what could've happen and when something come to my mind I paled. No, no, no don't let that have happened!

Koichi: "She was really mad the last time I saw her, she might just be cooling off somewhere."

A part of me didn't believe what I was saying but the other part really wanted to believe it. The thought that came to mind would leave my head and my imagination kept giving me images of what could've happened to her. I really didn't want to believe what could've happened.

Evan: "Oh god, do you think friends of those guys she beat up caught her?!"

I gripped my head, which would be worse the thought of her being beat up by a gang of high school students or the possibility that the Demon Lords might've tried to attack her because she's my friend? Of course it's the Demon Lord probability but which one would I rather happen? I would rather high school students get their hands on her than the Demon Lords if either had to happen, more than likely she wouldn't get killed because she could put up a good fight against a human.

Koichi: "H-hey I'll let you know if I see her or if she calls or texts me. I'm going to try and see if I can find her."

Evan: "I'll tell you if I find her or hear anything. She should be downtown, she had intended to go and get a new book that was being released."

Koichi: "Why didn't she want to admit that to anyone?"

Evan: "Hehe, well you see it's a book in a romance series and well she doesn't like people know that she likes romance stories."

I laughed slightly because I could see that but I don't know why she couldn't just say she was going to get a book. My laughter quickly died though because I thought about what could've happened again. Something wasn't right with what happened, she shouldn't have just disappeared with no trace or any kind of text to either of us.

Evan: "I'll call you later Koichi."

Koichi: "Mm, ok talk to you later Evan."

I hung up and he hung up and I looked at my phone. I couldn't believe that Storm was missing. It was one thing when she went off with her parents and brother to foreign countries but I don't think I would be able to stand it if she was gone for forever. She was the first friend that I had, she was the first person that tried to befriend me.

"What's going on?" I looked to Kari, she looked so worried while even though Koji tried to hide it he was worried too.

"One of my friends, Storm, she's missing. She skipped after lunch, helped me get out of school, before heading downtown. She told Evan, her brother and another of my friends, that she would be back at the end of the day if she didn't text him. She hasn't shown up and she hasn't texted either of us." I stared at my phone and I wished that we would hear something from her.

"I can help you look if you want?" I shook my head.

"Its fine, go and hang out with Koji I'll be fine Kari." I nearly forced the words out of my mouth.

I liked Kari and I knew that Koji liked her too. I knew that Kari liked us both to some extent, I knew one day she would choose between us. I wanted to be able to spend more time with her so maybe when she did she would choose me but I couldn't involve her in this. Her wrist's hurt and if the Demon Lords are related to this then she wouldn't be able to defend herself.

"No, I'm helping you look for her Koichi. I know what you're thinking, if she's friends with you there is a chance that the Demon Lords attacked her; if the Demon Lords attacked her then that's all the more reason not to split up." I sighed, why does she have to be so stubborn at times?

"Kari's right Koichi, we need to find her quickly especially since the Demon Lords won't have any trouble with attacking someone connected to us." I sighed but I was kind of happy that they would help me look for her.

"You don't even know what she looks like." Koji rolled his eyes while Kari laughed slightly.

"I'm sure you're friends then you have a picture of her." I sighed and some reason I almost blushed when Kari said that but I looked through the pictures on my phone and went to the picture that I actually did have of her.

"She's kinda cute." Kari's comment caught me off guard, not many people have actually remarked that she was cute.

"She's a tomboy for sure." I nodded at Koji's assumption.

"Yeah it's usually her and her brother Evan most of the time, I guess she lost her girlishness when she was younger." I put my phone away and glanced at the sky.

Please be ok Storm. Please just be somewhere reading the book or in your favorite ice-cream shop, even in the park. Please don't let anyone of use find her beaten and bloody, from any kind of fight.

"You like her don't you Koichi?" I quickly looked at Kari when she asked that but I forced a smile on my face, I really don't know why I felt like I should blush besides the fact that the girl I like thinks that I like someone else.

"She's a childhood friend, best friend actually. She was my first friend, we became friends when we were four. We're only friends." Kari smiled, nodded, and turned towards the road again.

"We should hurry up." With that we headed to town and I wondered about where we should look.

We should check the bookstore that she uses along with her favorite ice-cream shop then we can check and see if she's in her favorite spot at the park. I was really hoping for the possibility that she got lost in her new book like she can do if she really likes a book. I've known of her finishing a whole book in one day. She always loved books and I once asked her why and I remember what she said all those years ago. She loved books because she loved being able to get lost in another world.

Since I introduced some OCs I wanted to ask if it would help to give a profile on them. I was thinking about doing that but I didn't know if I should.