Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, nor do I own Kibomon, Aiwemon, Velinemon, or Gessmon, who were created by RoyalKnightX, Shire Folk, Silver Kitsune Lunara, and Miss Anonymous hp respectively.
A/N: The next chapter will basically set the stage for the rest of the story. There will also be a time gap after the next chapter, and the search for the remaining Spirit Chips will continue. Once again thank you to RoyalKnightX for his contribution of an OC digimon, which gave us Kibomon. His help with both Kibomon and his help with the creation of the ultimate names for Angelicmon and Gabrielmon were the inspiration behind the birth of this chapter and the Burning One himself. Thanks to his help I was able to create what you are about to read!
Following the Footsteps of Destiny
Chapter 255: The Burning One
Ryoko Ishida
Hikarigaoka, Japan, Earth
The silence that had fallen in the courtyard at Tal's words was thick with sorrow, and though Ryoko had suspected all along that the darkness might have played a role in Kenji's experience as a Digidestined, it still saddened him to find out that his suspicions were correct. Then again, the Kenji seated before him now was living proof that even those who had suffered far beyond anything he could ever imagine could still find their way back to the light, and recognizing that he found himself smiling instead of allowing himself to be overcome with despair.
Kenji's a lot like my father, and in the end they both found the strength within to overcome themselves.
"What happened?" Dai asked calmly, his dark gaze switching back and forth between Tal and Kenji.
It was Tal who answered, and with a faint smile, he said, "It's not really my story to tell. I think it's best if Kenji takes over from here."
Kenji was silent for a long moment, and he looked as if he was trying to gather his thoughts. Mai was still sitting at his feet, and reaching up she took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. His four children gathered closer around him to offer their support, and Ryoko could tell by the looks on their faces that they had heard the story before.
And they still love him despite his past.
Which was a lesson a certain Sam Ichijouji had finally learned for himself.
"My father died when I was very young," Kenji finally said, holding tightly to Mai's hand. "My son Nobu here is named after him. He lost his life in a tragic automobile accident when I was only seven years old, and I took it very hard. In fact, six years later when I found myself in the Digital World, I still hadn't gotten over his death."
"You must have been very close to him," Mickey said sadly, huddling in the comfort of his own father's shadow, which was stretching out across the grass in the light of the setting sun.
"I was," Kenji confirmed, his dark green eyes burning with emotion. "My father was a kind man, and he loved to tell me stories. He used to tuck me in every night, and he never wasted an opportunity to spend time with me when he had the chance. He was full of laughter, and he was always smiling. I don't remember a time when I ever saw him truly angry. When he died, I felt like the world had dropped out from under me. I was completely lost, and the pain I felt inside was so terrible that looking back now I often find myself wondering how I made it through the next six years without him."
"I know the feeling," Ken said softly, gazing sympathetically at Kenji. "I felt the same way when my brother Sam died."
Kenji nodded silently, the two of them sharing a mutual moment of understanding, and speaking in a low tone, he said, "Instead of seeking comfort in others, I began to close myself off from them. My mother was always an optimist, and she was a very cheerful person by nature. And although my father's death hit her hard, she was able to bounce back from it in a way that seemed impossible for me to do. After she met my stepfather, Eiji Kanemitsu, she found she was able to love again, something she thought she'd never be able to do. Eiji lost his wife to an illness when my stepbrother Kensuke was young, and after meeting my mother it changed his whole world around and allowed him to move on from the pain of the past."
"That's a wonderful thing," Takara said happily, beaming at Kenji.
"It is," Kenji agreed, his green eyes suddenly growing dark. "But unfortunately at the time I wasn't able to see it that way. In my thirteen year old mind I'd felt as if my mother had betrayed me. She had gone ahead and married Eiji despite my protests, and she hadn't even asked me how I felt about the arrangement. After they were married, I often felt as if my mother cared more about Eiji and Kensuke than she did about me, and in my mind it was as if I'd been all but forgotten."
"That must have been really hard," Matt said quietly, his bright blue eyes full of understanding. "Although I'd had family problems myself, at least my parents were both still living. I can't imagine how you must have felt."
"It was very difficult," Kenji said slowly, shaking his head at the memory. "I had started to believe that my mother didn't love me anymore, and I questioned how much she had loved my father, since she was able to cast his memory aside so easily. I grew very bitter, and I began to take my anger out on Eiji, Kensuke, and the whole world around me."
"As I had done with my parents and all those I came in contact with," Ken murmured.
"Eiji was always kind to me, but I refused to accept him as a father figure," Kenji continued. "Even when I would lash out at him, he never took offence and he never got angry. He was much like my father in that regard. He was a very patient man, and I admire him for it, but it wasn't till later that I realized how much he loved me. It was the same with Kensuke. I refused to accept him as a brother, but despite my hatred towards him he never gave up on me."
"Kensuke sounds like a really awesome person," Taysuke said happily, smiling at the raven-haired Digidestined.
"He is," Kenji replied with a smile of his own. "Kensuke had always wanted a brother, and when our destinies intertwined he ended up with me. He should have been disappointed, but instead he did everything he could to be the best brother he could be. At the time, I was unable to see that Kensuke had been suffering just as much as I was. We had both lost a parent, and instead of taking comfort in one another, I was selfish and did everything I could to push him away from me. I often accused him of caring only about himself, but in reality I was actually describing myself more than I was describing him. I was the one who cared only about my own pain, and thriving in my own misery I was unable to see that Kensuke and I were the same. There was so much we could have done to help each other, but in my ignorance I was unable to accept Kensuke's desire to help me."
"But that changed, right?" Matty insisted.
"Yes, thanks to Tal and the others. After my experiences in the Digital World I finally realized that I had loved Eiji and Kensuke all along, but at the time I refused to accept the truth because it would have felt as if I had betrayed my father's memory, which was the same thing I had accused my mother of doing," Kenji finished.
"And GranDracmon used the anger you felt towards your family against you," Taniko concluded, giving the raven-haired Digidestined a sympathetic look.
"That was only part of it," Kenji replied, making room on the bench for Riya to snuggle against his side. "Even as a young child, I was very quiet and painfully shy. Because I had trouble reaching out to others I didn't have any close friends. The problem only got worse when I moved to Tal's school after my father's death. Not only was I quiet and shy, I had now become bitter towards other humans, and I had also grown distrustful of them. Because of my misery and my reluctance to reach out to others, I did not make any new friends at my new school. But that wasn't the worst of it."
"What do you mean?" Taka asked, looking as if he didn't really want to know the answer.
Kenji sighed, and running a hand through his dark hair, he said, "Although I wasn't able to make any friends, I did manage to make some enemies. It wasn't because I had done anything to them, in that I was innocent, it was because they saw me as an easy target. Alone and friendless it was simple enough for them to pick on me, and wrapped in the cloak of despair I'd placed around myself for protection against others, I was unable to defend myself. All I wanted was to be left alone, so instead of fighting back I would run and hide from them. It was no way to live, but I didn't know what else to do."
Although it had all happened many years ago, Ryoko could still feel a giant ball of anger twisting inside his chest. The fact that anybody could be so cruel sickened him, and if those bullies had been standing in front of him now, he would have given them a trashing they deserved. If there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was a bully who took advantage of those they believed to be weak, and he was so upset he found himself speaking angrily without thinking. "Who were they? Who would they do such a terrible thing?"
Kenji looked at him for a moment, and then bowing his head, the raven-haired Digidestined said quietly, "I was bullied for six years at the school, and the culprits were a group of guys who belonged to the school soccer team. Their ringleader was a boy named Yosuke Hamasaki. He was the co-captain of the boys' soccer team, and his best friend was the famous Takahiro Kuroki, captain of the school soccer team and the most popular boy in the eighth grade."
"No," Mickey whispered, covering hs face with both hands. "Oh no."
Ryoko shared his cousin's sentiment, and closing his eyes against the pain in his heart, he let out a deep sigh. It was like the final pieces of the puzzle had been put into place, and all of a sudden Kenji's hatred towards Tal made perfect sense.
How could Kenji possibly trust someone when that guy's friends only wanted to cause him pain?
"Why?" Sam asked softly, his sapphire gaze coming to rest on Tal.
Tal's silver eyes were full of sadness, and the pain in his gaze made Ryoko wince in sympathy. Before the golden-haired Digidestined could defend himself, though, Kenji came to his best friend's defense. "He never knew. Tal disapproved of bullying, and everybody in the eighth grade knew it. Yosuke and the others did it in secret. They only harassed me when Tal wasn't around. When he was with them, they avoided me completely. Tal had no clue they even knew who I was. From his perspective it would have looked as if everything was just fine."
"That's still no excuse," Tal murmured, unable to look at Kenji. "I still should have known something wasn't right. I should have done something."
"Don't be an idiot," Kenji said bluntly, reaching out to put his arm around Tal's shoulders. "We've been over this many times before. None of that was your fault."
"But that wasn't how you felt at the time," Tal countered, finally meeting his friend's eyes.
"No, it wasn't," Kenji agreed, smiling slightly.
"You blamed Tal for what was happening?" Noah guessed, shaking his head.
"Yes, I did," Kenji admitted, looking lost in thought. "Tal hadn't really known who I was, not because he didn't want to get to know me, it was because I never gave him the opportunity to approach me. We weren't in the same class for all six of those years, and when we did have class together we always sat on opposite sides of the room. Naturally he would have had no particular reason to notice me. When we weren't in class together I avoided him and his friends completely. It was only just before our trip to the Digital World where Tal and I finally came face to face in class for the first time. He accidentally ran into me when I was getting up from my seat, and he ended up knocking my books off my desk. I got angry at him for it, so angry in fact that my reaction was more intense than the situation would have normally called for, and my behaviour shocked him so much that he decided to make inquiries about who I was and what my name was. Before that incident, thanks to my tendency to avoid him, he'd had no clue who I was or even what my name was."
"But after your outburst in class you caught his interest," Makku laughed, winking at the raven-haired Digidestined.
"I don't know why I chose that moment to give him a reason to notice me, but it was almost like I knew the whole thing with the Digital World was going to happen before it did," Kenji said quietly, once again looking lost in thought. "I'd always felt a deep connection to Tal since the very first day I saw him six years before, but on that particular day the feeling was stronger than ever. And it was that connection I had with him that made me hate him so much."
"What?" Matty gasped, startled by the intensity of Kenji's feelings towards Tal.
"It's true," Kenji replied, sounding ashamed of his own words. "I hated Tal. I hated him for failing to protect me from his friends, I hated him for being so nice to everyone else while I was left out in the cold, I hated him for the connection we shared that he didn't seem to feel at all, but most of all I hated him for being best friends with Yosuke. It wasn't because deep in my heart I had wanted to be Tal's best friend from the very beginning, though that was certainly true even if I didn't want to admit it to myself, it was because Tal was so naïve that he was allowing someone like Yosuke to keep hurting him. Despite my hatred, I knew even then that Tal was an amazing person, and he deserved better. Yosuke and the others were deceiving him every day with their behaviour, and there was nothing I could do about it. They were hurting him, somebody I unknowingly cared about at the time, and all I could do was watch it happen in silence."
"So in the end you cared more about Tal than you did yourself," Mickey said, smiling softly. "Despite your situation, you were more concerned about them hurting Tal than you were about them hurting you. And you thought you were selfish."
"In some ways I was, and in other ways maybe less than I thought," Kenji replied. "I also didn't trust Tal. How could I be sure that he wouldn't end up treating me the same way that Yosuke and the others did? Because of what was going on in school, when I got to the Digital World I was unable to trust Inca, Mai, and Seta as well. I was afraid they would end up treating me the same way the kids in school treated me. When I wasn't being bullied by Yosuke and his goons I would either be ignored or the other kids would verbally make fun of me. I had no one, not even my family, and thus I believed the only way to protect myself was to trust nobody."
"That's sad," Rina whimpered, hugging her mother's legs.
Kenji gave the young girl a sympathetic smile, and nodding, he said, "You're right, Rina. It was sad, and unfortunately GranDracmon made it even worse. Along with my family, he used my feelings towards Tal and the others against me, and my heart was unable to fight against the darkness anymore. Two worlds were on the brink of destruction, and I didn't even know who I could trust. It was only too easy for GranDracmon to use my own feelings against me."
"It was during our battle with ShadowGabrielmon that the truth finally came out," Mai spoke up. "That was when we finally heard about Kenji's family, and it was then when we finally learned the truth about Yosuke. Kenji told us everything about his history that day, and we finally understood why he couldn't fully trust us and why he was in so much pain."
"That must have been a shock to you," Sora said to Tal, giving the golden-haired Digidestined a sympathetic look.
"It was," Tal agreed, his voice growing very quiet. "Naturally I blamed myself, and I didn't know what to do. For the first time in my entire life I felt totally lost, even more so than when our Data Cores were stolen. I could feel Kenji's pain so acutely that it was a wonder I wasn't sucked into the darkness myself. And though Kenji hated me, despite his own pain he spent six years of his life wanting to protect me from those who were deceiving me. For the first time in my life I finally understood the true meaning of friendship, and it was Kenji who showed me the light."
"We all did our best to convince Kenji that there was a different way and that we didn't have to fight, but he wouldn't listen to us," Inca continued. "Instead of helping, our words only seemed to hurt him even more. ShadowGabrielmon digivolved into DarkMetatramon, and all of a sudden we were in even bigger trouble than we were before."
"I was questioning everything I ever knew, and I was unable to believe in anything anymore," Kenji said quietly. "My family, Tal, and even Mai's love for me. I felt like they were all deceiving me, and the pain became too much for me to handle. But despite how much I now distrusted them, I didn't trust myself most of all. They were forcing me to question everything I ever believed in, and I didn't want to face reality. All I wanted was for them to disappear, so I could be alone and find comfort in the darkness surrounding me."
"How?" Matty gasped, his amber eyes reflecting the pain of Kenji's ordeal. "How were you able to overcome all that darkness in your heart?"
"It was thanks to Tal," Kenji replied, turning to gaze at his best friend. "He was the one who made me realize that I wasn't alone anymore."
"Do you guys remember that vision I'd seen in Seermon's crystal ball?" Tal asked, smiling at Kenji in return. "I saw Gatomon in my vision, the harmonica that belonged to Matt, a pair of glasses that I can now tell were Yolei's, the laptop Izzy used back then in the Digital World, and most importantly I also saw myself and Kenji. We were standing in the grass and Kenji was smiling and laughing at the same time. He placed something in my hand, and then there was a bright flash of light."
"What did the vision mean?" Mimi wondered, speaking almost to herself.
"I was about to find out," Tal replied, his gaze once again turning to Kenji. "I hadn't realized it when I first saw the vision, but there had been something off about the grass. It wasn't until I was fighting against Kenji that I realized what I'd been unable to see before. The grass in my vision had been dark. It didn't look like normal grass, and while standing there battling Kenji I realized the grass under my feet was the same colour as the grass in my vision."
"So that vision of the future you saw took place in the World of Darkness," Izzy concluded.
"That's right," Tal said softly. "When I realized that I knew I had to act. This was the only chance I had to make the vision a reality. I did everything I could to convince Kenji of how much we cared about him, and I promised Kenji I would never betray him and that I would never stop being his friend."
"I remember that moment well," Kenji murmured, his dark green gaze burning with emotion.
"My words seemed to be getting through to him, and he started to falter, but that only made GranDracmon angry," Tal warned. "I reminded Kenji of Kensuke and the Highton View Terrace incident, and of his love for Mai. I reminded him of all the good things in his life, and I assured him that it would only get better. I forced him to view both us and his family in a new light, and I promised him that things would change when we got back to school."
"It was then when I finally allowed myself to do something I had never done before," Kenji said slowly, glancing away from Tal. "I started to believe in myself and in others, and for the first time in my life since my father died I allowed myself to trust somebody. I let myself trust Tal, and letting go of the pain in my heart I put my fate in the hands of my friends, the Digidestined. My heart broke free from the darkness surrounding me and Metatramon turned back to normal."
"GranDracmon was furious, and he tried to kill Kenji, but Tal saved him," Seta spoke up, wanting to be included in the telling of Kenji's story.
"After you saved me, I still remember what you said," Kenji said softly, looking right into Tal's silver eyes.
"You're my best friend, and you always will be," Tal replied, repeating the words he had used thirty-three years ago. "And that was when my vision came true."
"The one from the crystal ball," Takara gasped, leaning forward on the grass so as not to miss hearing anything.
"Kenji had been crying after his ordeal, but my promise of friendship made him so happy that he started to laugh," Tal explained. "As he was laughing and crying at the same time, I asked him if he could bring himself to trust me now, and-"
"-I told him I trusted him with my life," Kenji finished, smiling at his best friend. "To prove my words I gave Tal my Data Core, which was the object we now knew Tal had seen me holding in his vision. Tal held out his own Data Core then, and the two of them began to react towards one another. The power of our Data Cores merged together, and with our mutual trust and understanding we were able to reach a new level of power."
"I think I see where this is going," Tai laughed, turning to smile at Matt.
"Yes, I think you do," Tal laughed as well, giving the two friends a meaningful look. "With our combined power KaneRyujinmon and Metatramon digivolved together to become Camaeldramon."
"Camaeldramon, the Burning One," Kenji said softly, holding his partner close. "Half angel, half dragon, he represents passion and determination, but at the same time he is also a symbol of courage and support. He holds a flaming sword, and he uses his strength to maintain order and to exact justice upon his enemies."
"He is known as the Angel of Protection, and he reflects both light and darkness," Tal said, smiling at the memory. "Camaeldramon is also known as the Angel of War, but at the same time he symbolizes balance and harmony. He represents both the Digital World and the human world in their entirety, and his presence reflects the delicate balance of both light and darkness that must be maintained in order for both worlds to live peacefully."
"He acts as a guide to show us the way, and thanks to him and Tal, the road ahead was clear for me," Kenji finished. "I had finally found a place where I belonged. The balance in my heart had been restored, and I was ready to fight not only for my family and my new-found friends, but also for every human and digimon who was counting on us to save them."
"We were so awesome!" Halomon and Kibomon said together, beaming at each other.
"I'll say!" Dai laughed, giving the two rookies a thumbs up.
"Wow, no kidding," Matty agreed, having been completely taken in by Kenji's story.
Mickey remained silent, but his amber eyes shone with happiness, and he was holding Palelymon close to his heart.
"With Camaeldramon's help we were finally able to defeat GranDracmon, but even though he lost his data was still lingering in the air," Tal said, continuing on with the story. "By this time Gennai and his counterparts had caught up to us, and braving the gate to the World of Darkness they found their way to the castle. Gennai explained to us what was going on, and it wasn't good news."
"Even though GranDracmon had been defeated there was a chance he would attempt to fulfill the prophecy again as soon as he was reconfigured," Inca explained. "He'd said as much when we defeated him, and his anger and hatred towards us was so great that his data was lingering instead of passing on to Primary Village. We knew we couldn't trust him if he managed to come back, so there was only one option left for us to take."
"Since GranDracmon had every intention of repeating his past mistakes, we had to find a way to prevent that from happening," Seta continued. "And according to Gennai there was only one way we could do that."
"By using the power of our Data Cores we could seal GranDracmon's data away, and that way he would never be able to fulfill the prophecy," Mai said slowly. "It was a difficult choice, but it was the only way to truly save the Digital World from his wrath. With Gennai's supervision we used the power of our Data Cores to seal GranDracmon's data away beneath his castle in the World of Darkness, and that is where his data and our Data Cores remain to this day."
"Unfortunately, though, our actions came at a price," Kenji informed them. "By giving up our Data Cores we lost the ability to use their powers, and as long as GranDracmon's seal remains their powers can't be used for the benefit of the Digital World."
"Which is why Gennai and the others needed to use different attributes and powers for the crests," Izzy finished.
"That's about right," Tal laughed. "Now that GranDracmon's data was sealed his power over the gate was rapidly disappearing. We needed to get out of there and fast. We made it back to the Digital World in one piece, but now we had another problem on our hands."
"The gate to the Digital World was closing?" Taniko guessed.
"You got it!" Mai agreed, laughing. "Now that the Digital World was saved there was no reason for the gate to stay open anymore. We had enough time to say goodbye to our partners and to thank Gennai and his counterparts for their help before we were sent back home to resume the lives we had left behind."
"Only this time things were different," Tal said softly. "Our experiences in the Digital World taught us many things, and thanks to our journey we were stronger and wiser than we were before."
"And as an added bonus I was no longer afraid of the dark," Seta said cheerfully, earning a few laughs from his daughters.
"When I got home, I was finally able to open up to my family," Kenji said softly. "I told them everything about how I was feeling, and it was then when I was able to see how worried about me they had been and how much they loved me. I remember my mother apologizing to me, and she told me she never stopped caring about me or my father. I knew then that my father would always have a special place in her heart, and Eiji accepted that as he too had a special place for the wife he had lost. My mother promised me that she would be a better mother, and I told her she didn't have to. She was already the best mother I could have ever asked for."
"That's really great," Rumi said happily.
"Eiji told me he wasn't trying to take my father's place, but he would always love me as much as Kensuke, and I would always be a son to him," Kenji continued, smiling at the memory. "I remember I was crying, and I hugged him for the first time. From that moment on he was like a second father to me, and I know somewhere out there my birth father is proud of me because I believe this is what he would have wanted for me all along. He wouldn't have wanted me to hold onto my anger or to push away the people I love, and it is my memories of him that continue to guide me down the path I was always meant to follow."
"And that was when you made up with Kensuke?" Makku asked, smiling fondly at his own brother.
"That's right," Kenji replied. "Kensuke and I had a long talk, and that was when I finally realized we were sharing the same pain. In reality, I too had always wanted a brother, and from that moment on I vowed to be the best brother to Kensuke that I could be. He vowed the same, and in the following years we grew very close. We may not share the same blood, but he is without a doubt my brother in every sense of the word."
Ryoko glanced at his mother, and catching his eyes she smiled back at him. He knew she could tell what he was thinking, and it made him smile.
That's the kind of brother that I'm going to be. I promise you little brother or sister, I'll do my best to always be there when you need me most.
"Thanks to my experiences in the Digital World, I was finally able to see the situation from another perspective," Kenji explained. "I was able to see how much I had misunderstood my family's way of thinking, and once I was able to view things from their point of view I realized how wrong I was about them. After so much suffering we were finally able to call ourselves a family, and since then everything has been great. We still have our disagreements once in a while, as every family does, but the pain and misery are gone, which is the best feeling in the world."
Once again the courtyard grew silent, as everyone reflected upon Kenji's story, but Ryoko wasn't satisfied. There was still one thing he needed to know.
And if no one else is going to ask then I will.
Gathering his courage, Ryoko looked at Tal and said calmly, "What ever happened to Yosuke?"
Tal glanced at Kenji, and speaking quietly, the raven-haired Digidestined said, "Tal made due on his promise. The next time we were in school Tal asked the girl sitting next to me if he could change seats with her. She looked surprised, but then she seemed to understand. Instead of refusing she gave Tal a knowing look and cheerfully agreed to switch her seat. When Yosuke saw us sitting together he confronted Tal about it and wanted to know why he had changed seats."
"What happened?" Taysuke gasped.
"I basically told Yosuke that I knew what was going on and I wasn't going to let him continue bullying Kenji," Tal replied, his expression growing serous. "I made it very clear to him that Kenji was my friend, and if anyone from the soccer team wanted to bully him then they were going to have to go through me first."
"I bet Yosuke didn't like that," Dai snorted.
"No, he didn't," Tal murmured, shaking his head in regret. "We had a huge argument over it, and finally I gave Yosuke an ultimatium. Either he accepted the fact that Kenji was my friend and learned to treat him with respect or he could walk away and that would be the end of our friendship."
"And what did he do?" Jun asked, looking as if she already knew the answer.
Tal was silent for a moment, and then speaking quietly, he said, "Yosuke chose to walk away. After that things were different between us. Though the two of us were still on the same soccer team together we didn't hang out anymore outside of soccer. He pretty much only spoke to me when he had to, since he my was co-captain on the team. He never bullied Kenji again after that, and though I was always pleasant to him he pretty much wanted nothing to do with me anymore. The rest of the culprits from the soccer team also left Kenji alone, and after that they were fairly pleasant to Kenji."
"I hope his mother got him into serious trouble for that! My Dai is the exact opposite. He's always reaching out to others, and he's never tolerated any bullying at school," Noriko said proudly, beaming at her son.
Dai ducked his head in embarrassment, and Ryoko had to smile. Noriko was right. Daichi was very much like Tal in that regard.
"So Yosuke just up and stopped being your friend?" Matty asked, looking completely outraged.
"Pretty much," Tal replied, letting out a deep sigh. "Though it proved not to matter much in the end I suppose. After the eighth grade ended Yosuke's family moved away, so he ended up going to a different highschool than the one that Inca, Kenji, and I went to. I never saw him again after that."
"He certainly never bothered to keep in touch," Kenji said, shaking his head.
"I never did find out what became of him, but wherever he is I hope he eventually learned the same lesson that Kenji taught me," Tal said softly, smiling at the raven-haired Digidestined.
"Mai also ended up going to the same highschool as Tal, Inca, and Kenji, and I followed after them once I was old enough," Seta said, smiling.
"Tal and Kenji joined the soccer team together in highschool, and eventually Tal ended up being the captain there as well, and Kenji was co-captain," Inca said. "Thanks to Tal, Kenji really opened up a lot, and he went from having no friends to having lots of them. He was well liked in highschool, and everybody knew he didn't tolerate bullying any more than Tal did. Together Tal and Kenji did a lot for the school and for the less popular kids, who were always included in their circle of friendship. Thanks to them, popularity didn't mean much in our school anymore."
"But even though I was well liked, I never forgot who my best friend was, and I never will," Kenji finished, exchanging a meaningful look with Tal.
Tal smiled in return and said, "Thanks to Yosuke and the other guys in grade school, Kenji never had the opportunity to show everybody that he was a great soccer player and loved the sport. That changed when we were in highschool, and since the highschool was a lot bigger than our grade school there were lots of new kids there. Kenji and I were the only two people from our old school who made the soccer team, and all of the new guys on the team practically idolized Kenji. They were a nicer bunch of guys than the ones on our team in grade school, and they had no interest in bullying anyone. It was a good atmosphere with the team there, and it was a lot more enjoyable than grade school was."
"They were a good group of guys, and we still keep in contact with a bunch of them," Kenji informed them.
"And by the time Mai got to highschool all the guys knew not to make a play for her, despite her pretty looks," Tal laughed, winking at Mai. "It was understood that she was already taken, as she was quick to inform everyone."
"I knew exactly what I wanted, and nobody was going to convince me otherwise," Mai huffed, giving her husband a warm smile.
"Because of Kenji's promise to you," Takara spoke up, smiling happily at the golden-haired female.
"That's right," Mai agreed, moving over to put an affectionate arm around Takara. "He promised me after we saved the Digital World, and I wasn't about to let him forget his promise!"
"And that pretty much sums up what happened with our Digidestined team," Tal finished, smiling at the group. "We saw our partners again when we helped to defeat MaloMyotismon eight years later, and since then we hadn't seen our partners until now."
"That was quite a story," Izzy said slowly, looking up from his laptop. "On the surface it might not seem like it has much to do with us, but now that we know what happened in the past, I strongly believe even more now that somehow it all ties together."
"There's definitely a connection in there somewhere," Kenji agreed. "The problem is trying to figure out what that connection is."
"We do have some clues, though," Inca pointed out. "The present day Ruler of Darkness, for one thing. His name definitely suggests a connection to GranDracmon somehow. There's also the prophecy of the Demon Lords. It was never fulfilled thirty-three years ago, but now all of a sudden it's become a key issue that's been brought up again, by DarkAngelicmon no less. There are also several digimon from the past who have played a role later on throughout the years, which would be Daemon and LadyDevimon."
"And somehow all of this must have something to do with what might have been gong on in the Digital World during the last twenty-five years. Both during the time when the gate stayed open and then also when they closed without warning fifteen years ago," Taniko added. "The past must relate to that somehow, and it must also relate to what's going on right now. The question is how does it relate, and what pieces of the puzzle are we still missing?"
"There's one other clue we haven't mentioned yet that we think all of you need to know," Kenji said slowly, glancing at Tal before continuing "We didn't tell you earlier because we didn't want to distract you during the story, but there was one other incident that took place during our time in the Digital World that we believe relates to the present day situation."
"What would that be?" Mikey asked curiously, looking confused.
Kenji was silent for a moment, and then focusing his green gaze on the Takashi twins, he said, "There was an incident that took place in the fallen city where we first met LadyDevimon. If you recall, that was where Halomon first digivolved to Gabrielmon. We had thought at first that the city was deserted, but during the fight another digimon appeared on the scene and came to our aid while we were fighting. That digimon actually saved me from LadyDevimon."
"Wow, good timing," Matty commented, exchanging a smile with his brother. "Who was that digimon?"
"The one who saved me was a celestial digimon," Kenji said quietly, his gaze remaining focused on the twins. "That digimon's name was Angelicmon."