Chapter Sixty Five: Situations [Pt. 3]
[Takuya's P.O.V]
As we made our way through the town my mind swam with too many different things. Wizardmon was leading the way but the more we walked the farther I was disturbed. Even knowing this was a trap and that something was bound to happen I was disturbed by how silent the streets were. How long had we been in the Dark Area? How long had we been in that place that Kari called the Dark Ocean? It was impossible to tell time in the Dark Area and time always seemed to flow differently in the Dark Area. The flow of time in the Dark Area changed every time you went there as well so there was no getting used to the different time flow. Not to mention you never know it's time flow until you go back to the Human World.
"Where's your partner Takuya?" I looked to Davis before grinning, I forgot to correct him.
"I don't have a partner." He faltered for a second.
"How are you going to fight then?!" He had to catch up to us.
"Don't worry about that Davis, Takuya might be the strongest out of the four of us well unless Kari does whatever freaky thing she acquired while 'abroad'." I tilted my head hearing Tai say the last bit.
"Abroad?" Tai laughed slightly and shook his head, how he could seem so relaxed was beyond me.
"As far as everyone knows, outside of our group at least, Kari went to study abroad. We couldn't exactly tell everyone who asked about her the truth." I felt slightly stupid after Davis's explanation.
"Oh." I should've known the answer to my own question.
"You ok Takuya?" I gave Kari the best smile I could manage at the moment.
"Yelp, just a bit surprised at yesterday's uh meltdown I guess." Kari frowned.
It didn't feel good lying to Kari. Yet I didn't want to tell her what swam in my head at the moment. I didn't want to know if what I had mentioned earlier to Chrono was correct or not. Chrono didn't seem too happy at the thought either. If my thought was correct then things might be very awkward and hard to explain. Chrono had asked that I kept my thought just between us and I wouldn't argue with her on that. It was something that the others didn't exactly need to know.
"How is Rin?" Davis shrugged at Tai's question but he did look noticeably less happy.
"Rin is, how to say how Rin is. I think it would be easiest to say that Rin is lost." After what had been laid bare yesterday I wasn't surprised.
I was still trying to figure that one out as well. I couldn't wrap my head around it. Why had Rin's mother pretty much sacrificed her? Rin's mother was part of the former group and seemed to know about what was bound to happen yet did nothing. Just learning that someone knew and could've stopped some of the stuff that happened was annoying and hard to accept. Maybe nothing all that bad happened to me but for Storm and Evan if something could've been changed for them it would've been nice. Yet for Rin she has to deal with knowing that not only did someone know about the fact that she was abused, before she was even abused at that but she had been left to suffer through that. Adding on top of those facts that the person who knew was her own mother was more than I could imagine having to deal with.
"You know, I haven't seen Cutemon yet." I stopped when that dawned on me.
Cutemon had seemed overly harsh the other day. The fact that Cutemon seemed to having been trying to either provoke Rin or break her suddenly didn't sit well. The fact that now she was missing was making me realize something else. Cutemon had fought alongside the last group that fought the Demon Lords and she had healed us during the Belphemon fight the best she could. Belphemon never once attacked her even though he could've.
"Takuya?" Rin was the weakest link.
"The Demon Lords are trying to kill Rin." That stopped them all.
I don't think the Demon Lords were aiming for Tai, Kari, and me. They know that taking their mother and my father would make the three of go us together. They wouldn't fight Kari and me together after the Belphemon fight since they'll hesitate to fight any of the eight 'chosen' people in any combination probably unless they know for certain that they'll win. Kari's powers were unknown and was probably still expanding so the Demon Lords wouldn't risk that.
"How do you know that?" If I had realized that then I know that at least Daisuke should've realized that fact since he worked with them.
"Who's the weakest link at the moment?" Rin was off on her own away from the group and even with Beelzemon as her partner he could be overpowered if Daemon attacked him plus the fact of them teaming up together or using a flood of their supporters wasn't out of the question and against Rin it would probably work.
"Rin is." Kari was starting to see it too.
"The Demon Lords would be underhanded as to do that. How would they know though?" The thought was disturbing, the thought that perhaps Rin had been totally betrayed by her mother.
"Cutemon is working with the Demon Lords." If Cutemon was working with them then so would her mother but why would her mother work with the Demon Lords if she wanted the Demon Lords dead badly enough that she would let Rin suffer so badly?
"Not possible." Tai said it too quickly.
"It is, Takuya's already seen someone he thought he could trust turn out to be the enemy playing the good guy." I bit my lip remembering Ophanimon.
Ophanimon had used us. She had us fight Lucemon and made us think that it was just because he was destroying the Digital World. That might not have been the complete truth though. By defeating Lucemon we freed the little bit of his data that had been held captive. Lucemon was now back at full power. The fact that she just turned out to be working with them and the 'coincidence' that killing him meant freeing him from some kind of seal was too coincidental to explain away.
"The Digital Ruler of my world turned out to be working with the Demon Lords, she used us to return Lucemon to full power as well." Should we go and rescue my father and aunt or should we go to where Rin was to try and stop the plan that they're probably planning to use?
"They're making your group fall apart as well." I looked at Davis, he had crossed his arms and glared at the ground.
"Huh?" Did he notice something that I hadn't?
"That's true. Daisuke is barely trusted while now that Evan voiced siding with Daisuke they'll distance from him as well. Chrono and Storm will probably try to stay neutral, no matter what Storm may think. Koichi and Koji are unknown." My eyes widened and their plan was really starting to make sense, they were toying with us.
"Koji sides with us while Koichi stands in the middle, he sees Daisuke's point but our point as well." They looked at me but I could see the cracks of this team starting to appear.
"How do you know that Koji sides with us?" The fact that this group had so many different issues with different sides was starting to tear us apart and once a team falls apart then the enemy might as well have won.
"He's trying his best to covertly follow us Kari." I heard Koji grumble but he appeared from wherever he had been hiding.
"Koichi's with them and with our D Tectors we could tell them what's going on. They could go to Rin and we could rescue your father and Kari's mother. Split the focus and force the Demon Lords to choose their favored spot." The problem with that was that they'd strike us then since the numbers of 'chosen' people would be less here at three than with the group with Rin since including Rin there would be five.
"We would be the target then Koji." Tai and Davis were starting to see the problem here.
"That's true but would you rather be attacked or know that we might rescue your mother by using Rin as a sacrificial lamb Tai?" Koji's biting remark left Tai looking away.
"Rin's been used as a sacrifice enough." I pulled out my D Tector, even knowing what would happen I wasn't about to let that rest on my conscious.
"That's not going to work." I jumped and spun on my feet.
I was surprised to see Nori standing there. She looked tired but there was a certain spark in her eyes. I also felt a rather familiar presence to her now that we weren't in the middle of the battle it was clear. She wore the clothes that Kari's mother had given to her last night; she wore a dark grey t-shirt and black pants.
"How do you know that?" She smiled slightly.
"Koichi tried to get you guys after you left, he wanted to tell you guys that the guy from the Dark Ocean was Skylar." That means we might have to fight those shadows again and deal with whatever he had done that hadn't allowed Kari's Digivice to work.
"How'd you get selected to come tell us?" She looked to the ground.
"I want to help rescue them so I volunteered to come. I of course didn't tell Dai that because he'd be angry since he wouldn't want me to walk knowingly into a Demon Lord trap. I told Dai that it would be easy for me to catch up to you guys because I can sense Takuya's Flame Spirit since the shards in my back has a connection to the Flame Spirit." She looked up and smiled while now that she said that about the shards and Flame Spirit it made sense as to why I sensed something familiar about her.
"I'm going to leave questions till later, we need to hurry up before something happens." Koji putting off questions meant he deemed this as serious.
"What about Rin though?" We couldn't just leave her unaware of what was coming could we?
"Rin isn't exactly some helpless person Takuya, Rin's the DigiDestined of Temperance so she isn't that weak. Plus she isn't completely alone is she?" I glanced at Davis when he laughed slightly.
"Nope, Rin's with Matt. Ken and Izzy are bound to be there too. Well there are two different Izzys but still, they're both there." Nori stopped hearing the part about Izzy.
"How are there two Izzys?" Tai and Kari asking the question at the same time revealed that it obviously wasn't normal which then kinda meant that one of the two were probably a Runner and one was the Izzy that Kari and Tai knew.
"From what I understand our Izzy got trapped in the Digital World until just recently but when he got trapped the other Izzy slipped in and pretended to be the Izzy we all knew. He got close because he wanted to know what was going on in the battle and help out the best he could, plus he was looking for his sis. Hey!" Davis turned to Nori and pointed at her.
"The other Izzy said he was looking for his sister named Nori!" I looked at Nori now, everyone was and she just looked stunned.
"He said that his sister was used as a pawn from the very beginning, that she had been kidnapped by the Demon Lords. If you're Noriko Izumi then you're sister!" Slowly a smile spread across her face, she looked like she could cry almost.
"My bother still comes after me? He did say as I vanished that day that he'd come one day, that he would find me." I smiled a little to, I hadn't even thought about how long she was probably missing and how her family would've felt about that.
"We really don't have to worry about Rin if my brother is there, he isn't as weak as others may think him to be." Does that mean she thinks her brother could fight a Demon Lord should they show up?
"Why do you say that?" She shook her head.
"Years ago my brother and I stumbled into the Digital World, Dai was with us at the time. The three of us was the first DigiDestineds of our world, well the newest generation. Kou rescued a certain Digimon that has since followed us and partnered with my brother." I was a bit surprised to hear the bit about Daisuke.
"How long have you even know that jerk?" Nori gave Davis a look but crossed her arms.
"We grew up together; Kou, Dai, and I all grew up in the same orphanage. Dai's protected me since I was a child, he's always been the person I could rely on. Yeah so what if we got split thanks to the Demon Lords? Dai practically took on the world then to try and get me back. He's the DigiDestined of Friendship, he turned his back on everyone else and abandoned the others pretty much to come after me. Dai's not the person that you guys have seen, I can promise you that." I wanted to believe Nori but the past was undeniable and hard to look past.
"Let's go then, we don't have all day." With that we began to follow Wizardmon once more, choosing to leave that uncomfortable conversation behind along with trusting what Nori said about Rin being safe.
I couldn't help as my mind wondered but it landed on Wizardmon and I began to think about the way Wizardmon acted yesterday and how he acted today. He seemed a bit different. I was also a bit surprised that Salamon hadn't jumped and gone to Kari by now. The part of me that was most affected whispered that he wasn't to be trusted but I knew he could be. Even if I felt like there might be a slight trick in this I knew he could be trusted for some reason.
"So Nori, can you fight?" Nori hummed at Davis's questions.
"A little, I might not be much of a fighter but I'll be able to support you five pretty well. Just trust me and leave your backs to me alright?" I wasn't sure if I should because I've learned that some people say that but can't.
"Alright, with her watching our backs it might be a bit easier in truth if we get swarmed." I looked at Tai when he brought that up.
"Why do you say that?" Koji beat me to the question.
"I can, let's just say I can use illusions. It's easier to leave it at that than try to explain it." That surprised me.
"How can you use illusions?" Davis stopped when he bumped into Kari who had been walking in front of him.
"Ask questions later, we're here." I looked to the building and I found that it seemed like one of those older looking warehouses but I also noticed that we must've walked a lot farther than I realized that we had.
"They know we're here as well." I watched unsurprised but annoyed when shadows appeared.
"What are those things?" Davis hadn't seen them before so I wasn't surprised by his reaction.
"Mock Digimon, they've never been out of the Dark Ocean before today. They might as well be actual Digimon but they can change shapes as they please." I took a step back and pulled out my D Tector.
"Why don't you two sit back for the moment and see how we work?" Kari shot the playful smile over our shoulder, turning my comment on me from a while back.
In one of the rare moments we had of peace earlier on when she first showed back up in our lives I had told her that. I knew we could handle the enemies on our own. Koromon jumped from Tai's arms, I hadn't even realized that Tai had been carrying him. Salamon left Wizardmon's arms as well.
"Koromon Warp-Digivolve to WarGreymon!" Tai's Digivice let out a bit of light yet I looked to Kari.
"Salamon Digivolve to Gatomon, Gatomon Digivolve to Angewomon!" The light that poured out of Kari's Digivice caught me off guard yet the fact that even Tai and Davis looked surprised told me that also wasn't normal.
"Heaven's Charm!" The shadows were driven backwards, two were even eradicated from that one attack.
"Rin must've upgraded my Digivice." Kari was stunned and staring at her Digivice.
"Veemon, our turn!" The blue thing that had started to follow us a while back looked excited now.
"DemiVeemon Digivolve to Veemon!" Just too Rookie?
"Digi Armor Energize!" Veemon jumped towards the fray and he glowed.
"Veemon Armor Digivolve to Raidramon!" I was kind of interested in the whole 'Armor Digivolve' because Tai had used that topic earlier to try and keep our attention off of Kari who hadn't been awake at the time.