Day 2 - Friends: One Year Later
Taichi felt a mix of excitement and apprehension since he first stepped his foot in the same place he came to stay for a couple of days before he got transported to the Digital World. He looked both at his right and his left and was sure the seven other children around him felt the same way as him.
"It feels so weird to come here again after a year." Sora stated as she looked around. "We are back in the exact same place we were when we were taken to the Digital World."
"Yeah." He reached down for his digivice and stared at it. Beside him, the whole group did the same. "I wonder how Agumon is doing."
"I wish we could find a way to go to the Digital World today." Koushiro looked towards the river near their cabin.
"Maybe the water will go up again. It's our first anniversary, so who knows?"
"I really wish it would snow again this year." Takeru said dreamily. "I really miss Patamon."
"I'm sure he misses you too." Yamato placed his hand on his shoulder, reassuringly.
"That could happen." Jou fixed his glasses. "For now we should go inside and decide which room each group is going to get."
"You're right. Let's go."
The cabin was quite cozy and spacious like they remembered. It had two rooms, so the girls got one and the boys took the remaining one.
"The first day is a free one, so what do you all want to do now?"
"I would like to go to the swimming pool today. Or maybe the river."
"The river is a good idea, Hikari." Sora nodded. "I'd prefer a calmer place today, so I'm going there."
"I want to go too." Takeru looked up at Yamato. "What about you, brother?"
"Sure. That sounds good to me."
"So I suppose we are going to the river then." Jou said.
"You all can go ahead and I'll meet you there in about half an hour maybe." Koushiro said. "There's something I need to do in my computer first."
"Koushiro, we didn't come here so you could use your computer." Taichi complained. "Besides, this is our anniversary. We are supposed to spend it together."
"You're right, I'm sorry. I'm just going to change into bath clothes."
"Alright, let's go."
The temperature in the end of the afternoon was much cooler and the shadowy areas had grown considerably compared to the rest of the day. Koushiro, Yamato and Jou were leaning against a tree relaxing; Takeru and Hikari were sitting on the border of the river with their feet on the water, and Mimi was doing the same a little far from them. Sora and Taichi were swimming in the river.
"Stop it, Taichi." Sora asked when he threw some water at her.
"Oh come on, this is funny. We haven't done this in a while.
"This is true." Sora bent down and grabbed some of the water on her hands, throwing it towards Mimi. "Watch out!"
The brunette girl screamed and the rest of the group started laughing. She jumped into the water and cupped some water in her hands, running after her best friend right after.
"You are so dead, Sora! Come here!"
"No way! I'm not stupid." Sora yelled while looking over her shoulder to get away from Mimi and laughing.
"Wow, I don't think I've ever eaten so much before in my life." Taichi stated with his arms behind his head while he and the rest of the group walked back to their cabin after dinner at the bonfire.
"The food was really delicious." Mimi nodded. "I ate a lot too."
"We have the rest of the night off, so what do you say we play a game?" Yamato suggested.
"What kind of game?"
"I don't know, we can borrow any of the monitor's board games to play."
"I like that idea."
"So is everyone in?" He looked around and saw everyone nodding at him. "Great! I'll go get it then and meet you all in the cabin."
"What time is it?" Jou covered a yawn with his hand.
"It's 11 p.m.." Koushiro looked on his phone.
"We've been playing for three hours straight, that's crazy."
"I say we should stop and maybe continue tomorrow." Sora suggested.
"That's a good idea."
"Have a good night, everyone." Mimi stood up, ready to jump in her bed as soon as possible. "See you all tomorrow."
"Good night, Mimi."
"Takeru, you can go too if you want. I know it's past your bed time already."
"Okay, I'm going in a few minutes."
"Alright."
Yamato sat on the porch and grabbed his harmonica. As soon as he started playing, Taichi, Sora and Koushiro walked out and joined him.
"Not sleepy enough I suppose." He said in a light tone after he pulled his harmonica away from his mouth.
"I might be going to bed soon." Sora replied as she sat on the stairs, looking at what could be seen of the river ahead.
"The game has got me hyped." Taichi confessed. "It needs to die down first."
"I can relate to that. What about you, Koushiro?"
"Oh I'm just trying to see if internet works here, so I can research some stuff."
"Did you guys hear that?" Sora suddenly asked and walked backwards towards the front door.
"Heard what?" Taichi asked confused and a little frightened.
The three boys quickly stood up the moment they felt the ground shaking under their feet and gathered around Sora. They turned the flashlight on and illuminated around the area to look for anything strange. Then they noticed the water seemed a little agitated for that time. Taichi reached for his digivice and saw its screen was glowing in green light. A smile appeared on his lips as he looked at his three best friends and watched them grab their own digivices as well.
"What's going on?" Jou asked terrified when he, Mimi, Takeru and Hikari walked outside and joined the other half of the group. "The ground started shaking out of the nowhere.
"The portal for the Digital World is opening again!"
"What are you saying?!" Mimi asked shocked and surprised. "Right now?"
"Yes, look!" He showed them his digivice.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go there again!"
"Takeru, wait up!" Yamato screamed when he noticed his brother was running towards the river and ran after him. "It can be dangerous."
"I trust the Digital World." He replied over his shoulder. "Nothing is going to happen. Besides, if it does, we're gonna be together, right?"
"Right." Yamato smiled and closed his eyes for a brief moment. "Let's go."
"Wait for me." Taichi started running and grabbed Hikari's hand along the way.
"Don't leave me behind!" Sora was quick to follow them, with Mimi right behind her.
"I'm going to see Palmon again!"
"Well, in that case." Koushiro shoved his laptop in his bag and ran towards the water. "Here I go."
"Oh well." Jou fixed his glasses and let out a happy smile. "If the Digital World is calling, I won't turn away from it."
.
"Taichi! Taichi!" Agumon shook his partner and the boy slowly opened his eyes. "Oh thank God you're awake."
"Agumon?" Taichi sat down, blinking and looking around. "So we really came to the Digital World. I missed you, buddy!"
"I missed you too." The Digimon hugged his partner. "You grew up since last year."
"I guess so. Where are the others? Did you see them?"
"Taichi!" Koushiro walked out from inside some bushes and joined the duo with Tentomon. "Gennai wants to talk to us."
"Gennai?"
"Apparently there has been a new rupture in the Digital World and they need our help once again."
"Will we have to fight new enemies again?"
"I don't know. I think it will be much easier than this. We were just waiting for you, so he can explain it better."
"Okay, so let's go."
It didn't take long for the two boys and their Digimon partners to arrive at where the rest of the group was.
"Finally, all of you are gathered."
"What's going on with the Digital World?"
"There's been a rupture that came up recently. It's nothing serious, but we are going to need your help."
"How can we help it?"
"The power of your crests should be enough to fix it and bring the balance back into this world."
"The power of our crests?"
"However, there is some bad news about this."
"I knew it was good to be true." Jou said.
"What kind of bad news?"
"By using the power of your crests to reestablish the balance from the Digital World, your partners will lose the ability to evolve to the Perfect Level."
"What?" The group exchanged shocked looks with those near them and then returned their attention back to Gennai.
"Isn't there a way to get around this?"
"I'm afraid not. You'll need to give up on the power of your crests."
"No!" Mimi exclaimed. "There has to be another way."
"There isn't. I'm sorry to inform this."
"Well, then we might just go for it."
One by one, they activated the power of their crests and quickly the balance of the Digital World was restored, starting from the flower field they were standing on.
.
"Now that our partners can't go past the Champion level, does that mean there won't be any other enemies for us to fight against, right?"
"I guess so." Taichi lied down on the grass with his hands behind his head and looked at the sky. "But it sucks we can't do that anymore."
"Well, we wouldn't be able to do it forever." Sora sighed. "But I get what you mean."
"Do you think the monitors and the other children noticed we are gone?" Jou wondered. "We've been gone for many hours now."
"That's likely." Koushiro answered. "The times in this world and our world are still the same, so we won't be able to stay here much more. It's almost sunset."
"Time went by so fast."
"Mimi." Palmon held her hands softly.
"I wish I could stay here for a few more days."
"It's possible, I think. The portal opened way too easy, so I believe it can happen again. If that's true, we can come here as much as we want."
"Really?" Takeru's face lit up in happiness. "But we would have to go the place we are camping for it, wouldn't we?"
"Maybe not. I mean, Taichi and Yamato managed to go to the Digital World through computers, even though it was a different part of it."
"Oh yes, I remember that." Taichi nodded.
"So you're basically saying if we were able to get to that strange area of the Digital World to defeat Diablomon, we might be also able to go to other areas like this one?"
"That seems like it. I just need to do some more research on it before I can say for sure."
"That's exactly it." Gennai's voice echoed around and his figure appeared seconds later. "You shall open the portal from any computer, if you have your digivice with you."
"That's so cool!" Mimi squealed happily. "Did you hear that, Palmon? We get to see each other whenever we want to."
"Guys, I hate to mention it, but we really should go back now or the monitors can call our parents to say we're missing and get them worried."
"Jou's right. Besides, we can sneak out and come here again soon."
"That's true. At least we got to spend our first anniversary here with our partners."
"How do we get back though? Last time we had the bus to take us, but there doesn't seem to be anything this time."
"You all shall go back to your world the same way you came here."
"Through the water?"
"That's right. There is a river nearby that will allow you go return to Earth."
"Alright." Taichi spoke. "We'll be going back in one hour. So let's enjoy it as much as we can with our partners. Those who want to go somewhere else, that's okay. Just make sure you'll be near the river by then."
One hour later, the whole group gathered by the river and looked down at the water.
"Anywhere in the river will work, right?"
"That's what Gennai said." Koushiro stated. "He didn't say there would be an exact point, so I'm guessing anywhere will work."
"Alright." Taichi grabbed his digivice and looked at both his right and left towards the other Chosen Children. "Are you all ready?"
"Yes!" Each one of them said as they did the same.
"Taichi?"
"Huh?" He looked over his shoulder towards Agumon and then walked to him. "I promise I'll come back soon, buddy. We all will."
"You promise?"
"Of course!" He fell on his knees and hugged his partner tight. "You won't get rid of me that easily."
"I don't want to." Agumon hugged him back. "Okay, so I'll see you soon."
"Absolutely." The boy pulled away from him and went back to his previous position in the middle of the line formed by the river. He pointed his digivice towards the river and noticed the other followed him from the corner of his eye.
Just like it happened in the camp, a large water wall was formed in front of them, swallowing them inside.
.
The faint noise echoed into Taichi's ears and he slowly opened his eyes. He noticed he was lying on the ground with both his arms fully stretched. He felt like he had been run over by a trunk at least a thousand times; everything hurt in his body. "I'm definitely not used to landing like this."
He glanced around and saw that everyone else was pretty much in the same position as him.
"Are you all alright?" Jou asked while he rubbed his forehead and stretched his arms up and his back.
"Isn't there an easier and gentler way to land from a fall?" Mimi complained as she stood up with some difficulty. "Did it really happen? We weren't dreaming, were we? We actually went to the Digital World?"
"It's true." Sora confirmed. "We've actually been there."
"Takeru, is everything okay with you?" Yamato crawled towards his brother, who had landed not far from him.
"I'm alright." The nine-year old boy answered as he slowly sat down. "But I miss Patamon already."
"You'll see him again pretty soon." The older blonde offered his hand to him and they stood up.
"Hikari?" Taichi walked to his sister and knelt down beside her. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine." She offered him her usual kind smile and took his hand, which he offered to help her stand on her feet. "I don't like falling down like this though."
"I think none of us likes it." The brunette boy looked all around and saw some students already gathering around to have dinner. "Looks like we arrived just in time to eat."
"Yay, I'm so hungry!" Mimi squealed and ran towards the small crowd.
"Some things never change." Sora stated with a smile as she watched her friend run down the stairs.
"Well, I feel hungry too. I might join her." Koushiro said when he stopped next to her.
"Me too. Shall we go now?"
"For sure. Let's go."
"Brother, we should go too."
"Of course." Taichi smiled at Hikari. He then looked towards the river near their cabin one last time. Though he knew it was true, it still felt unreal that he had been back to the Digital World with his best friends last night and today. He wasn't sure what was going to happen now that they didn't have the power of their crests anymore, but he did knew they would go through it together and everything would be alright.. He returned to his senses when he felt Hikari's fingers lacing with his and they went to the eating area of the camp.