Chapter Thirty: Never Easy
(Kari's P.O.V)
Silence settled over the train after Storm's words about Lucemon bearing the marks. I stared at the card and tried to figure out why these cards had the same symbol as Lucemon. They couldn't be as strong as Lucemon, that's for sure. As we sat in silence I had to wonder what we would encounter on our way to wherever Koji was planning on leading us to. He said that he saw it once and that it might have hold some information; afterwards we would try to reach the Dark Ocean.
"Where exactly are we going to?" The silence that Evan broke, thankfully, once gone seemed to lighten the atmosphere just a little.
"It's called the Tunnel of History, I'm hoping that when it got scanned the collection of past events that it had didn't get wiped out." I don't mind learning things I just hope that it'll be better than a history lesson of our world.
"Tunnel of History?" Storm and Evan looked at each other.
"Is it like the Hall of Records?" They looked at me and I sighed.
"We don't know what is Stormy." Storm looked when Koichi spoke and as she turned I swear I saw her cheeks redden slightly but she looked at the window and let out small laugh.
"It holds, I guess bunches of fractal code that holds the information of everything that has happened. I don't know if it only covers this world or all of the worlds." Koji seemed to be deep in thought after he spoke, as if just remembering something.
"Didn't Baromon say that it was the recorded history of our world?" Koichi looked at Koji but Koji sighed.
"It's a place to start and whoever knows, if you go back far enough in time you might find that worlds might have been connected once." I looked at Gatomon; her eyes seemed to have a faraway look when she spoke.
"Do you know something Gatomon?" Something seemed a bit different about her when she spoke, it seemed to catch the others attention as well.
"A fuzzy picture, a group of friends entrusting something precocious to me it's all so fuzzy." I smiled slightly.
"Maybe you're somehow getting your memories back of the time before you were my partner or some kind of incident with the Crest." I knew it was next to impossible for that to be true but then again after changing worlds it is possible for the impossible to happen because traveling worlds itself is supposed to be impossible.
"Kari's probably right, it happens to Digimon Partners when they cross worlds. I remember hearing about the crests, it was said that each Partner Digimon had been a powerful Digimon that was entrusted with the Crests before being turned back to Digi Eggs to await the arrival of their destined partners." Evan's words were low as if he was thinking about something else.
"We're here so get off." I jumped slightly when the Trailmon spoke since I didn't expect it and I realized that we had entered a station that was completely black.
"I didn't even realize that we crossed the boundary of the Digital and Human World." Koji and Evan stood up, speaking the words together before glaring at each other.
"It's because the boundaries are probably next to erased thanks to the presences of the Seven Demon Lords." Storm words seemed halfhearted as she stared at something that was on the other side of the terminal through the window.
"What do mean next to erased?" Koichi seemed alarmed by that but Storm let out a sigh.
"It happens, boundaries become blurred. The Human World encroaches into the Digital World and the Digital World encroaches into the Human World." When she said that I thought about all of the landmarks that were in my Digital World that belonged in the Human World, does that mean that they were once in my Digital World?
"Do only the Demon Lords cause that?" Evan shook his head.
"It's possible but to my knowing only they have ever caused such encroachment before." Would it be safe to assume that my world once harbored them then?
"Hey guys, why isn't the Flame Warrior working with us?" Storm looked to her and I bit my lip, was Takuya ok?
"He's being controlled currently; we were hoping to find out how to rescue him and our other friends." She gave a nervous smile.
"We might want to get off then." I was glad that I wasn't the only confused one.
"What do you mean?" She stood up and narrowed her eyes slightly before sighing.
"Flame Boy's heading this way and unless you want to fight him we should probably get a move on." My eyes went wide.
I wouldn't be able to fight Takuya. He might as well be my brother. I highly doubt that either Koji or Koichi could fight him either. We might have our inner fights at times but they were always some kind of joke in somewhere or another but never a serious fight. After a few seconds we got off and the Dark Trailmon decided to leave but we didn't have time to worry about that. Nothing can ever be easy can it?
"How far away is he Storm?" I noticed the flip in Evan's character, suddenly serious and there not even the hint of his pass nonchalant air.
"He's approaching fast so he's probably flying. He's at least an hour behind us; it's hard to tell since the air has been distorted thanks to the Demon Lords." They had a sense that Koji and Koichi didn't have, at least Storm did.
"We need to get going. I would like to avoid fighting him if we can. I highly doubt you guys can fight your friend." Evan turned and with a flicker of lightning Storm had her card.
"Evan you're leading the way again." Maybe because we might end up having to fight Takuya Koji didn't bother to complain and followed Evan and Storm once again pulled up the rear, she kept looking back though.
"How did you know that Takuya was heading out way?" She looked at Koichi, it seems like we're doing a lot of running away.
"A sixth sense that I have, Evan has the sixth sense that you guys have while I'm able to sense incoming enemies. A reason why it's hard to catch us off guard and how I knew where your brother and Kari was, I had sense GranDracmon and in truth if you hadn't been with us we would've gone to help fight him off." When we ran through one of the gates I nearly fell, even Evan and Koji stumbled.
When we went through the gate we didn't continue down a hallway but we were suddenly in the forest. Why is there a portal there!? Not to mention just where is that terminal really located, were all of the entrances just randomly placed portals or is there only one portal? Storm who had actually fallen seemed tense when I looked back at her. Koichi pulled her up but she was quick to turn around and look behind us.
"Storm, I don't like how you're acting." Evan seemed tense and a bit nervous.
"I really hate it that I have the impending doom feeling too." Hearing that I gulped because just as he said that I got a similar feeling, my senses also seemed to fix themselves since the portal had thrown everything off a bit.
"He's probably only a matter of minutes behind us, that portal teleported us closer to him." Her words were accompanied by a tree falling in the distances.
"We might have to stand and fight Takuya." I didn't like the thought.
"We won't if we can out run him!" I yelped as I yanked forward; Koichi had grabbed Storm's arm and made her move while with just a look I was stunned to see Evan once again while Koji shot a glare at him.
"There is no way we're going out run him Evan!" He was running faster than I could keep up with and with all of the roots I kept tripping and stumbling.
Evan stopped when we came to a three foot drop. He let go of my arm and I wanted to just sink to my knees but I knew better than to since we might have to fight at a moment's notice. I could hear Takuya getting closer now. I looked at Koji and Koichi, they both glared at the place that Takuya would more than likely appear from.
"We'll just have to stand and fight then." Storm flinched at the words.
"Fighting your friends, it's a pain that you don't ever want to live through. I'll." She cut off when Evan made a sound between a laugh and a straggled cry, I didn't know what to describe it as.
"We can't fight Storm and you know that. You're not healed so that would stress you too much and I already used to much power sealing the devices as we ran." I pulled out my Digivice and looked at Gatomon; she stood closer to Koji and Koichi than to me as if she was ready to fight as well.
"We always fight anyways, it might be different but we can manage it. After all we fought before as enemies right Koji?" Koji seemed to repress it and hid it well but he seemed to flinch at Koichi's words.
"I'm not letting you two fight him by yourselves." I stepped towards them but they looked at me over their shoulders, both smiling ever so slightly.
"We know how Takuya fights and you'll be the target since you can't actually fight Kari." I'm being protected again then.
"You two think you could take Kari? We'll hold Takuya off and hopefully beat him which will hopefully return him to normal." Koichi looked back as Takuya drew even closer and for the first time in a long time I saw him transform.
"Why can't I help fight, I'm tired of always being the weakest!" Koichi emerged as JagerLoweemon and he barely hesitated as went to meet Takuya but Koji who had been about to transform stopped and looked at me.
"You're not weak Kari, Takuya wouldn't forgive himself if he hurt you not to mention I hate the thought that I could fail to protect you again." I was stunned by his words by I didn't get to speak before both of my arms were grabbed.
As they pulled he was surrounded by fractal code and even my Digivice that I had clenched in my hand let off a glow and Gatomon began to glow too. I closed my eyes when I felt myself go over the edge but I landed and when I opened my eyes I found Storm the source of this, her lightning had somehow sparked onto me without hurting me and managed to make us land properly.
"Come on, we need to go." I let them lead the way and I followed after them.
I couldn't help but to worry about them. They were my childhood friends and the first people I loved besides my parents. As I ran I remembered something from the past, it was the incident that Koji had spoken of. When he failed to protect me last, it was a day that I would always remember. I knew he was probably still beating himself up from the earlier attack that I suffered and he failed then.
"Sometimes running away takes the greatest courage and while it seems like the worst to do it might be the best thing to do." Storm's words made something click.
She's faced that situation before. She had to choose between running away and fighting one of her friends. It also made me think about what they had said getting off of the elevator. They lived through something really dark, something that probably scars them to this day, Storm at least. Also the fact that they come and go between worlds as they please means, either that there is no one in their world who cares for them or perhaps, they don't have an actual home.
"At times it's the only thing that you can do." Running away, what are they running from?
It's a bit shorter than the others but I think it ended well. So was I mean for leaving the battle between Takuya, Koji, and Koichi just kind of hanging? So I have to wonder, what do you guys think they might be running from? So until next week.