An interesting little thing – in Adventure's sub, the mountain on File Island the black gears come from is Mugen Mountain.
Machinedramon's name in the Japanese ? Mugendramon. That can certainly be read as suggesting a link between him and the black gears lying in wait all around Primary Village, digging under and reshaping the land, the way Machinedramon was involved in turning the entire digital world into a single mountain.
Interesting that he went from 'infinite' to 'a thousand,' and then in the fourth game there's a rather important Digimon whose name contains a word meaning 'one.'
Game dialogue paraphrased a lot (because using direct quotes in fic is a grey area) from syldra dot net slash yesterday's wonderful translations. Go there, read, thank them very much? Once again, this is a slight AU, not a game-accurate novelization, because I'm trying to make the game experience feel a little more integrated into the anime experience.
"You shouldn't be wasting your time on this," Mojyamon told him, standing in the doorway after letting Agumon go past. He'd be very glad whenever he got back to Piximon again, but at least his thick-furred Champion form made for an excellent doorstopper, and soundproofing. "We need the Sovereign." Nobody else might have the power to avenge those kids.
"Mojyamon, without the Child of Knowledge's help and the other Digidestined's wills guiding their power, it will take me months to figure out how to unseal the Sovereign, especially with Millenniummon's disruption of the digital world making it harder to access where they're sealed away. The Children may not have that much time."
"You know how Machinedramon operated!" He'd killed, or worse, enough of the Resistance! This was why Piximon hadn't hesitated to face down four megas to get them to safety, because he knew well what would happen if he didn't. He didn't like it either, when he'd seen so many innocent students that it was easy to see what kind of people the children were, humans or no humans. What kind of heroes they once were. "Face it, Gennai, the Children are already dead!"
Gennai shook his head, shoulders bowed under the weight of age, responsibility and thoughts of failure. "When the Child of Courage dies, Agumon will know. Until then we can't give up hope, Mojyamon."
"If there was any chance I'd be out there already looking for them, but with Machinedramon involved, Gennai, the only thing anyone can hope for is a quick, merciful death." Mojyamon shook his head. "We've already lost hope, literally. And you've lost your mind. You may feel guilty about dragging the… the human version of in-trainings into our world when they had no idea we existed, but how is bringing in another human going to help them? Tai may have managed to spot the warp and give Agumon his digivice, but how is a human with a borrowed digivice, no partner prepared and no Crest going to help anything?" He'd just get captured by Millenniummon too. Gennai would just end up feeling even guiltier, and for what? For being as powerless as he was created to be?
"Mojyamon, you know the prophecies we've managed to dig up just as well as I do," Gennai told him. "I thought that the Power of Miracles referred to the blessings of the Children of Light and Hope, the way it did in the last prophecy about the Digidestined, but one of the lost crests is the Crest of Miracles."
"It would take a Mir-"
Gennai interrupted Mojyamon by tapping him with his cane. "Exactly. To find the Child of Miracles among the Eight Billion Gods, in less than a minute as their world counts time? It is impossible. But Courage finds a way, Mojyamon, and with the power of Miracles, all things can be made possible."
"How do you still have faith?" Mojyamon asked for the hundredth time, remembering the first time in that desert, when he realized that the wanderer that had legged it with him away from a Scorpiomon without contributing a single attack didn't have any attacks to contribute. One of the most defenseless creatures in the Digital World, a race that was supposedly extinct because no one had managed to claim the bounty in decades, and what in the Digital World was he doing out here alone?
After trying to shake some sense into him… There wasn't anyone left that Gennai could trust, not with a search for the digi-egg of the blessed of the Child of Light. A goddess who would be the bane of the dark Digimon threatening their world, if only a priest survived to summon her.
"How do you still have faith?" was one question. "How have you survived this long?" was another.
Piximon hadn't quite liked how Gennai grinned and said the second question was the answer to the first.
He expected to see that same smile, even if now it would be surrounded by wrinkles. Instead Gennai sighed, and gripped his cane tightly enough Mojyamon could see the whites of his knuckles. "Truthfully, Mojyamon?" he asked.
"Do you think you have to lie to me? I'm not a rookie that needs their spirits kept up."
"At first…" Gennai said, staring into the distance, looking even older even if his eyes were still sharper than they were before the Digidestined arrived. "At first because I couldn't let it all be for nothing. Not that slaughter. Our deaths, our lives, the only reason we were ever brought into existence: the prophecies and our beliefs had to be true, or else everyone… Or else it was all meaningless. I was created as a Temple Guard, and keeping the faith was the only thing I could still do to protect their memories. Even if I kept proving my faith by risking my life, and then the last trace of my brothers really would have been lost… Then, you forcibly joined me, and I got over myself a little," Gennai said, trying to smile. "And I saw what it meant that there were no more temples, no more priests. That as Digimon were slaughtered and reborn, most of them forgot that there even was another world out there, and the spirits of its inhabitants were tied to the spirits of Digimon. It wasn't just the ones who turned their backs on the gods or cursed their fate as the darkness spread, but Digimon who would hatch and die without ever remembering that there was someone out there who would love them."
"But they don't love us," Mojyamon told him. "They don't even know we exist."
"We were sealed away from them, Mojyamon," Gennai said gently. "They couldn't reach us any more than we could reach them. I'm sure some of those who were friends to Digimon in ancient times are still trying to reach us, but it took us thousands of years to discover ways around the seal, and they haven't even had eleven. We can't blame most humans for never finding out about our existence when most Digimon forgot about them, and we have the entire world around us, born from their creation, as proof of their existence."
Mojyamon frowned, and had to admit that was true. Gennai was the one who believed that kind of thing, not him. It was childish to hold stories Digimon made up to comfort themselves in the dark centuries against the real people, as though it was their fault they were mortal any more than it was Gennai's fault that last of his legendary kind or not, he wasn't a mega and couldn't save anyone.
"The Dark Masters didn't exterminate the Artificial Humans just to keep us from summoning the Digidestined, Mojyamon. They exterminated us so that Digimon would fall into despair and give more power to Apocalymon. I didn't know about Apocalymon back then, but I saw the despair. Young Digimon beaten by their masters, thinking that there was nothing they could do, they would never be able to digivolve. Azulongmon and the other Sovereign didn't just create us because Digimon who study technology commit blasphemy, but as living reminders of the other world. I had to keep the faith because I had to believe that those Digimon had hope. That the Digidestined would come, and those Digimon would see the truth of the other world."
Gennai sighed. "Then."
"Then?"
"Time dragged on and on, and it became hard to believe in a world where every Digimon was loved, safe, had a chance to be happy… that this could ever possibly exist. I did lose my faith, Mojyamon. I spent a very long time without it, but if I showed anyone my doubts? I was the last of my kind. If even I didn't believe in the Digidestined, in the Order of Azulongmon's tenets, then why would anyone else? I kept acting as though I believed, I kept working to summon the gods because, because I had to. There was no one else. There was no other hope. Even if, sometimes… I thought that once I did the ritual, and the children failed or refused to come, all our hopes would be crushed by the Dark Masters. Sometimes, I gave into despair enough to think that the chance of saving our world wasn't worth the certainty of defeat, that everyone would lose their last hope. That I should pretend to keep failing to summon the Digidestined so everyone else could keep hoping."
"Why… why will you never tell me these things?" He'd withdrawn, began to act more and more senile, like his memory was going, and Mojyamon had to wonder how much of it was malfunction, accumulated damage from finding himself in more fights than artificial humans were designed to handle when they couldn't die to repair their data, and how much of it was that he couldn't bear to remember.
"I'm the one who's supposed to be comforting you, Mojyamon. I can't fight, I can't digivolve anyone: besides working on the barriers and doing what I can to preserve and spread knowledge, keeping the faith is all I can do. Even when the children did come, I didn't really believe in them anymore. Now I'm embarrassed to remember how disrespectful I was, but it was almost better that way, I think. They weren't faced with impossible expectations."
Mojyamon remembered a bunch of rookies, the humans of the prophecies but still rookies, and the 'we're sorry please don't be mad' after they got his barrier broken by doing what they were supposed to do and finding their crests. There was no 'obey us!' or 'send us home, we don't want to have do deal with things that don't concern us' but 'help how do we take better care of our partners?' The big problem he had to deal with wasn't some flaw in the Child of Courage, some inner darkness that led to his partner's dark digivolution, but that Tai's honest attempt to learn how to make Agumon stronger had hurt Tai's partner. And Tai cared, enough it might have kept him from digivolving Agumon again even when Tai was in trouble, because he didn't want to hurt his partner.
These were the children who would save the world, and honestly he had felt like they had more of a chance after realizing that they had no idea what they were doing and were figuring it out as they went along. It meant their mistakes were born of ignorance, not malice or lack of dedication, and they had pretty good instincts and were grateful for advice.
"It was the children who restored my faith. Not just in the gods, but in myself. At first, I thought that I was based on beings that were… ancient and wise and knowledgeable and able to help Digimon with ease. So my own weaknesses… had to be my own fault. But the children were… children. I was brusque with them, terribly disrespectful, because I couldn't afford to put any faith in them, not when a final disappointment might…" Might be too much to bear, when the resistance needed Gennai's knowledge and techniques.
"So I treated them like rookies, and found that they were people, not that different from Digimon or my brothers, with no more idea of what to do next than I did when I escaped from the temple. They were torn from their world, and yet they came to love their partners, they came back to save us all even after they escaped our world. The gods we believed in all those centuries were real, Mojyamon… and yet they are also people, just like Digimon, even like myself. Imperfect and ignorant and sometimes despairing, yet capable of finding a way to live on even when all seems lost. So yes, Mojyamon. I believe in the Chosen Children. I believe that the Power of Miracles can… No, that the Power of Miracles will save us. Even when the Sovereign fell, the Chosen Children came as soon as we could bring them. The two worlds may be separated in time once again, but once Millenniummon is defeated, we will finally be able to reach out to that world, begin the work of uniting Digimon with their partners. I'm sure that world has dangers of its own, and right now our world is vulnerable, only beginning to rebuild, but someday…" Gennai blinked, finally noticing that Mojyamon was glaring at him.
"I've told you I don't want a partner," he said firmly. "I have important work to do. Even when the two worlds are finally united and everyone rejoices, the world still won't be perfect and there will still be things that need doing to protect this world."
His old friend laughed at him. "And you already dropped everything to spend your life taking care of one random person."
"And I already dropped everything to spend my life supporting our world's hope and trying to make sure that when you got yourself killed, there would still be someone who could use at least a few of your techniques."
Gennai sighed. "Those techniques don't belong in the hands of Digimon. I'm sure the Abbot would say your refusal to seek the blessing of your destined human is because I taught you so much of the forbidden arts…"
"I've already died, I think that takes care of the curse." The curse that supposedly made every Digimon who learned how to program either evil or dead. "If I still remember this much of what you taught me before I died-" When skills weren't something that babies remembered outside of stories, and when Piximon died he'd expected to have to spend centuries figuring out his techniques again because there was no one of his school left to teach him?
Stories and Patamon.
"Then your partner has blessed you with the ability to carry those memories into the next life. I know, Mojyamon. Far more people are remembering more now than they did during Apocalymon's rise. It is a sign that the worlds are close again, and the bonds Apocalymon tried to sever are being healed." Gennai looked at him sadly. "Mojyamon, the fact that you were an ultimate, and stayed that way for so long despite all your battles, proves that your partner's soul was searching for yours, even unknowingly. Will you choose to turn your back on that, the way you thought they turned their backs on our world?"
The door to the cellar flew open. "I've done it!" Gennai said happily. "Yes, I think this will work! See, Mojyamon, the gods are on our side, well, except for that one. Ha, if the Abbot could see me now, saying I didn't have the least aptitude for it: I'd like to see him reinvent all of those rituals!"
"I'll be sending you into the human network," Gennai explained to him. "Since it exists in both the human and digital worlds simultaneously, it's the easiest way to create a bridge between the worlds. Now, our options are limited to the potential Digidestined who are online right now, because it would take too long for you to track someone down if they were away from their computer. None of the Chosen Children whose partners I've managed to locate are online right now. There's one Digidestined in America whose partners have been in the real world with him for years, but it seems he's still asleep."
"Partners?" Agumon asked.
"They hatched from a single Digi-egg. I'm unsure if it's related to the power of his crest or not, but then I don't know what his crest is, either. The one I'll be sending you to is a boy named Ryo. He's not Willis, but out of the children without partners, he would have been my first choice," Gennai said. "Any Digidestined would be better than none, but Ryo has an aptitude for programming, even if he hasn't been allowed to start writing and using his own programs on his father's work computer. Any Digidestined could use Tai's Digivice to free Digimon from Millenniummon's mind control and hopefully let Mojyamon and the others get some information on his plans, but do you remember that Digital barrier I taught Izzy to set up?"
"Not really, but if Ryo can protect himself from Millenniummon's minions…" Agumon's eyes widened. "Wait, that was a Digital Barrier around Piximon's temple, and Piximon made us invisible inside that bubble when he sent us away from the Dark Masters! Do you think Ryo could make us invisible so we can sneak into Millenniummon's bases to look for Tai?"
Gennai nodded. "That's the plan. I'll need to stay here and see if any other Digidestined come online, but Mojyamon can travel with you for long enough to teach Ryo the basics."
Agumon's eyes widened. Being trained by Piximon was a real honor! Yes, that would definitely help a lot.
"Even if you won't be able to digivolve to protect him, you know your way around the Digital World, and how to keep a human safe here while you're at it. Although hopefully it won't take long for destiny to guide Ryo to his partner and his crest, and then we'll see where we are. If any of the other kids go on a computer, I can either send their partner to bring them or hatch one of the eggs I have digivices for. I hope you don't mind loaning Ryo Tai's digivice, but it's absorbed some of Tai's power."
"I just hope it helps," Agumon said. "Oh, Izzy digivolved Kabuterimon with programming that time. Did that only work because Kabuterimon was his partner?"
"I'm not sure, but let me know if he can, that would let me narrow down his crest," Gennai said. "Of course, our first priorities were the partners and the digivices. There were a lot more potential Digidestined identified than we lasted long enough to make crests for. Thank goodness that destiny was on our side, and the eight of you lined up nicely with some of the Fifteen Virtues used for the ancient digimentals. Since we're sending out one Digidestined on his own, I'm glad he's closer to Tai's age than TK's as well… Right now we need a quick learner sensible enough to not take too many risks more than we need someone powerful enough to think they might be able to handle Millenniummon on their own."
Most humans would be startled by a Digimon appearing on their computer screen and calling out to them to touch the digivice, whatever a Digivice was. It was a relief that Ryo didn't demand an explanation, even though he was very confused. As soon as he understood what Agumon wanted and that the little green device that appeared was the digivice Agumon was talking about he touched it, which was nice of him. Also a relief when every second they were here was much longer in the Digital World.
What wasn't a relief was that they arrived in the middle of a forest, not Gennai's garden. Worse, Ryo was unconscious! Agumon tried to get him to wake up quick, so they could figure out where they were and try to get somewhere safe. If not File City, at least a hiding tree so it was safe to give Ryo a longer explanation and hope that Gennai would find them before Millenniummon did.
Agumon was kind of worried about that, after how good he was at tracking them down in his area of Spiral Mountain. At least this area still had tree cover? That hadn't protected them in Puppetmon's area, though…
When Ryo finally opened his eyes – blue – and stared up into Agumon's, now he wanted to know who Agumon was. And where they were.
"I'm Agumon, you're Ryo: come on, I've been waiting for you to wake up!"
Ryo rubbed at his eyes, murmuring a couple of things, including Agumon's name, trying to figure out what was going on. "…is this a dream?"
Agumon tried to explain that it wasn't a dream, but Ryo didn't seem very awake as he blinked, looking around and trying to get his bearings. Was it late in the human world already?
"Weren't you in my computer?" Ryo remembered. "Agumon, right?"
Hmm? "Wasn't it your father's computer?"
"I'm allowed to use it!" the human said defensively. Oh? Agumon hadn't thought there was anything bad about humans using computers. Ryo seemed to agree with him that wasn't important, asking Agumon why he was here. "You said something about needing help?"
"It was supposed to all be over, and then there's Machinedramon and Chimeramon merging and the Digital World's time slipping around and now Devimon and Etemon are back and…!"
"Agumon!" Ryo said, interrupting him to get his attention. "Can you slow down?"
Right, he was babbling a little and Ryo wouldn't know who any of those Digimon were, Agumon thought, looking around, but there was too much to explain and they really did need to get moving. "Uh, the time in the network world slipped?" Izzy said something like that? "And something about another world? Anyway, Chimeramon and Machinedramon…"
The ground shook under their feet, and Agumon looked around frantically. He remembered the ground shaking under Machinedramon's footsteps, what if Millenniummon had found them?! It was almost a relief that the ground was only collapsing under them, but no, that wasn't very good at all.
Ryo yelped when he realized they were falling, but it sounded more like he was surprised than that he was afraid.
"Ow!" Agumon was the one to yelp when they hit the bottom. "Ryo?" he asked.
"I'm fine, but what on earth is going on…"
Ryo still didn't sound afraid, just really confused. Kind of like Izzy? Once he knew what was going on, then he'd know whether or not he was in danger and should be afraid, or if there was something he should be doing? Agumon was glad Ryo wasn't scared, or upset that he was lost, or frantic. Or really annoyed the way Mimi would be that Agumon wasn't hurrying up and explaining. He wasn't even glaring at Agumon, just looking around, touching the sides of the crack they were in to see how stable the soil was and looking up to see how hard it would be to climb out.
"This happened because the data's gotten all messed up. There have been a lot of earthquakes and floods. It's going to be awful if we can't stop it. I thought we'd stopped it for good last time, but…"
"Last time? The Odaiba Incident?" Ryo wondered aloud. "So… this is some kind of... digital dimension, and it was going haywire." That was what caused the visions in the sky, the natural disasters, the failed electronics. "You and your friends went on a quest and thought you'd put an end to it, but now the trouble's started up again?"
Agumon nodded. "That's it, you got it!"
Then Ryo tilted his head back, looking up at the sky framed by the walls of the ditch above them, and laughed. "Yeah. This is a dream. I must have fallen asleep reading the Odaiba Incident chat. Too many videoga-"
Both of them turned when they heard the soil starting to slide, but there wasn't a lot of room down here to avoid something as large as a Kuwagamon. Staring at it, Ryo didn't move fast enough to avoid being hit into a wall.
"…Ow." He said, less a cry of pain and more as though it meant something that he was in pain?
No time to figure out a strange human anymore! "Stay back: I'll protect you, Ryo!"
A Kuwagamon, just like the day Tai and the others had arrived! Agumon wasn't worried about the Betamon, but fighting a Champion when he couldn't digivolve and when he had a human to protect? At least Ryo had taken cover in the jagged earth and wasn't screaming or distracting Agumon with demands to know what was going on.
When it was over, Agumon turned around to see Ryo watching the Kuwagamon's data disperse.
"…What was that just now?" Ryo asked when he felt Agumon's gaze, still frowning at where the battle took place, trying to figure this out.
"Come on, we have to find the village! Gennai can explain everything to you there!"
The promise that there would be an explanation seemed to be enough for Ryo. His eyes darted around as he followed Agumon, examining the forest around them. Observing it? Looking for more attackers? He wasn't saying all of his observations aloud like Izzy did sometimes, which was good, they needed to not attract attention.
Agumon didn't know if Ryo still thought this was a dream, but at least he was taking the danger seriously.
It was a huge relief to get to the top of a hill and see through a clearing that the town was over that way. Otherwise, he might have had to ask Ryo to climb a tree like Tai and Sora did. Agumon could, but with his claws he'd really damage the tree and it would make more noise!
When they reached the town and Ryo saw the Digimon, he was cautious after being attacked by Digimon, but didn't hesitate to follow Agumon into town. He tensed but didn't back away, not even when a Demimeramon floated across the street towards them and called to them, waving. "You must be Ryo! We've been waiting for you. Gennai said you'd come to help us!"
"You look tired, Agumon," said a ToyAgumon. Agumon was glad he hadn't digivolved into that form: they were really fragile and it would be harder to protect Tai. "You should get some rest. Now there's another Digidestined here, I'm sure everything will be okay!"
Agumon nodded. "Thank you!" The other Digimon knew he was worried about Tai: it was nice of them to reassure him.
"Is it true he doesn't have a Protector?" asked another Digimon. Hopefully? Why would they want Ryo to not have… Oh, they were hoping Ryo was their human.
"We have to get to Gennai's!" Agumon called out, so everyone would hear and get them room. "Talk to Mojyamon!"
A number of them turned away, heading towards the fields where the militia was training, or towards other places in town to spread the news.
Gennai was already waiting outside his house when they got there. "Thank you for coming, Chosen Child," he said, bowing over his cane.
"You're human? Did you get called to this world too?"
"Oh, no, I'm neither human nor inhuman." Gennai smiled. "I'm Super Gramps!"
Ryo stared at him for a moment before giving up and letting out a laugh that sounded almost doubtful, because that was absurd but… was it really okay to be laughing, or making jokes?
"I'm sure you want a better explanation than what Agumon gave you," Gennai said, a little more seriously. "Come inside," he waved Ryo forward.
Ryo seemed a little less on-edge once they were away from the crowd of possibly-hostile Digimon.
Once they'd sat down Gennai explained, with Agumon chiming in. It really wasn't fair that they had to fight all those Digimon all over again! Myotismon died in the real world, too, so he shouldn't ever have been able to get to the Digital World to come back to life if it weren't for Millenniummon! It really wasn't fair that he had come back to life and Wizardmon hadn't.
Ryo listened to their explanation without asking questions, just watching them. Finally, Agumon asked Ryo what he was going to do.
"So: I'm a substitute hero, that's why they said 'another' Digidestined," Ryo summed up instead of answering Agumon's question. "A Digimon from the future and a dangerous enemy called Machinedramon fused into Millenniummon, and while most of the Digimon who showed up now you've beaten before, no one's beaten Millenniummon, and you don't have much clue how to fight him. He's got Tai and the others, and Agumon wanted my help to save them."
Ryo looked doubtful: did he still think this was a dream?
"Ryo, please help us!" Agumon begged.
"But how am I going to defeat someone who managed to take down the people who stopped the Odaiba Incident?" Ryo asked them.
Not 'I can't do this' or 'I want to go home' or 'I didn't ask to get dragged into this' or 'there's no way' but 'I certainly hope you guys have thought this through.' The question as Ryo saw it wasn't whether or not he was going to try to help Agumon, but how?
Agumon had an idea. "We can gather more Digimon to help!" If they had more Digimon with more abilities he knew there would be something that would help, and that way they might even find Ryo's partner!
"Millenniummon is gathering together brainwashed Digimon into armies," Gennai told him. "If you can go to those bases and use the power of the digivice to free those forces, that would weaken him as it strengthens our defenses."
Ryo nodded, clearly thinking that sounded like a plan.
"If we fight him alone, Ryo, we won't stand a chance," Agumon said, remembering what Gennai said, about how Ryo would need to be cautious. "But if we get other Digimon to help, there's a lot more chance we can win, and once we free the others then they can help too!"
"Mojyamon has set up a cave near the village as a training ground for Shurimon and the other Digimon who have volunteered to sneak into one of Millenniummon's bases to gather intelligence and search for the Digidestined," Gennai told him. "I believe it's getting late in Japan, so you might want to rest for a bit first, but when you wake up that might be a good place to start."
Agumon tensed. "It's not like the cave where he sent me and Tai to train, right?"
"That was an old training ground for the ancient warriors who fought the Dark Ocean and needed to learn how to face something like its pull and overcome it under controlled circumstances," Gennai said. "Unless you miss Tai so much you go through a dark digivolution, I don't think there'll be a need for either of you to undergo that training. Millenniummon's control is control, not the Dark Ocean's corrosion. Digimon have used that cave for soul-searching and spiritual training, so the Order administrated it until our numbers grew too few and we had to retreat to the temples whose locations weren't known to pilgrims." Gennai's hand went to the necklace of dogtags around his neck. "Piximon helped me put up that barrier with the power of the crests, and I stayed there while we searched for Gatomon's egg. It was the power of the crests that gave life to the desert and grew that jungle, but the crests had to be kept outside the barrier so that whenever your partners came to the Digital World and they began to resonate with them the power surges didn't fry the barrier. I used a few more of the crests to fuel safe havens and transportation between the Oasis and File Island, since I had to go there to check on your eggs. Fortunately I was right that you would be needles in a haystack on File Island, with Elecmon and Leomon to keep an eye on you…"
Ryo suppressed a yawn.
"Oh, yes, human children need more sleep than we do, especially old men like me," Gennai remembered. "I didn't have enough bedrooms for all of the Digidestined to have their own rooms, so they and their partners have been spreading out futons in some of the rooms next to the courtyard. Since there's only one of you, would you like to be in the boys' room with Agumon, or do you want your own room so you can have a little privacy while you settle in?"
He nodded. "That would be great, thanks."
Gennai pushed himself up. "Well, let me show to your room, then."
Agumon went out into the garden. Gennai's new house wasn't underwater, but there were still fish in the little stream.
Watching them, he wondered if Gomamon was doing okay. He hoped so.
"So," Gennai said, coming out onto the patio around the courtyard once Ryo was settled. "What do you think of Ryo?"
"He's a little like Izzy, and a little like Joe, but the two of them get excited easily."
"Yes… He's a very practical boy. I pretended to be a little infirm for a moment there, and I saw him keeping an eye on me, but he didn't want to be rude enough to imply I needed help," Gennai said thoughtfully. "His crest certainly isn't Wishes, and I doubt it's Pride. Sometimes a crest can backfire on the one who holds that power, but it's not a matter of lacking faith in himself. He cares about others and wants to help them, but when we explained what Millenniummon was doing to Digimon, his focus wasn't how someone could do such horrible things and if the Digimon would be alright, but how to stop him from hurting anyone else. He doesn't lack compassion, but his crest isn't Kindness. In the Digital World, the power of programs is supposed to be reserved for the Gods and their servants, but I really have no idea what sort of behavior to expect from the Child of Miracles or Destiny. Ryo is goal-oriented, but you're certainly not going to know if someone's crest is Tenacity after only a day."
Agumon was trying and failing to keep track of the number of crests on his claws. Gennai chuckled. "The last is Darkness. It's a possibility, but like Miracles and Destiny I wouldn't know how to start figuring out what kind of character traits are associated with that virtue. Humility, perhaps? Kari and TK certainly aren't a thing like how I thought they'd be, and that's all to the good, I think."
"Darkness?" Agumon asked.
"The Digital World is ancient, and not all the threats who have attacked it are Dark Digimon," Gennai reminded him. "Virus-types can be a little greedy, and sometimes that makes them far too willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, but Vaccine-types… their flaw is that they can value life too little. Their own and sometimes those of others as well... I doubt that Angemon realized how much it would hurt the Child of Hope to watch him die. I find myself wondering if the Child of Light's poor health has some relation to her crest: her spirit may not be anchored as firmly to her body as it should be, for her sake..."
"So… what's the weakness of data types?" Agumon wondered. He was a data-type, and he didn't want some flaw he had to hurt Tai.
Gennai chuckled again. "Don't worry, Agumon: no one's going to accuse you of being overly passive, or just standing by while other Digimon get hurt because you don't care enough to get involved."
"That's a relief," Agumon said. "I won't give up: I'll do whatever it takes to save Tai!"
"That's good to hear," Gennai said. "We'll all be counting on you, Agumon. If Tai gave you his digivice, then he must have guessed that you were being rescued. I'm sure the Child of Courage won't be afraid as long as he knows you're safe and sound."
"Tai is… Tai." Agumon leaned towards him. "Gennai, I don't know if I ever thanked you. The others were talking about it, but you saved my egg from the Dark Masters. It's because of you that I got to meet Tai."
"There's no need to thank me, Agumon. Just doing my job." Gennai still seemed pleased. "Ah yes, Mojyamon and I were just talking about something like that," he remembered. "Mojyamon seems to think that meeting his partner isn't all that appealing a prospect. What do you… Ah, I see by the way you're shaking your head that you don't agree."
"He's not perfect, but he's perfect?" That time, when Tai stuffed him trying to make him stronger and he almost hurt Tai still made him shudder. "I'm not perfect either. Like he's just right. He's perfectly Tai. He's evolved, I mean grown up. We both have, but he's still Tai, the way even when I'm not Agumon I'm still Tai's partner. I'm trying to get stronger for him, and he's becoming better for me. When I first saw him, I went, 'Yay, Tai!'" Agumon told Gennai, throwing up his hands. "Tai said that not all humans were nice just like not all Digimon were like me, that if I talked to strangers they might cut me up, but that was because they might think I was an alien like Izzy did and might attack people? Even if Piximon's partner is that kind of human, I know they won't hurt him, not on purpose. It didn't feel very good to be stuffed that full," Agumon said, putting a claw over his belly and wincing at the memory, "but Tai did it because he thought it would help me protect everyone. Tai… he's perfect for me."
"Just for me," Agumon thought, feeling warm. Destiny meant that Tai was Agumon's, and that was worth all the waiting in the world. "I know that I have to protect him to save the Digital World and it's important to everyone, but I'd protect him no matter what. He's my very own Tai."
"Out of all the Digimon in the Digital World, you are the one who is perfect for Tai." Gennai smiled, clearly touched and happy for Agumon. That was a relief: Agumon had wanted to thank Gennai, not remind him how sad it was that Gennai would never have his very own Tai. "Try not to worry too much, Agumon. Have faith that you'll be able to save him. The fact you're Tai's partner proves that you're the best Digimon for the job."
I've seen that crest translated as Crest of Desire and Crest of Passion. Since I see it as Davis' crest because of Davis' arc and his ability, given 02 I went with Crest of Wishes.
In Digimon Adventure, we're shown Joe and Mimi's crest powers breaking them out of Myotismon's spells the way Davis gets broken out of Malomyotismon's Lotus Eater spell. The physical crests only focus and store power: the power itself comes from the Digidestined, which is kind of important at the end of Adventure. Ken is also able to use his crest power while nowhere near the Crest of Kindness.
The end of 02 is far from the first time Myotismon got bitch-slapped by the fact that the Digidestined are more than just digivolution batteries. Unfortunately, 02's writers sucked at that point, so something that'd already happened half a dozen times in that continuity came across as a Deus Ex Machina.
I'm kind of liking the idea that Piximon is Sora's mom's partner, because Biyomon is the one who admires him and he's pink. Also Sora's mom is the one who disguises them as Bakemon to rescue Sora, and since a lot of Piximon's skills involve invisibility and misdirection?
Also I remember being told that there was a list of things, including tea and tea ceremonies, that were considered equivalent to martial arts, possibly in the search for mental and physical perfection in the craft? Flower arranging is the kind of traditional art involving discipline that might be practiced as one of those, and Piximon and Sora's mother are both the inheritors of ancient styles and traditions.
Which brings to mind the idea of Biyomon being the one to learn flower arranging from Sora's mom and inherit the family school.
In any case, Sora's mother is aware of Digimon, and since the Crest of Love in Adventure is specifically discussed as Parent-Child love, or storge, Sora definitely inherited her protectiveness from her mother. Having an unusually powerful partner now emotionally invested in the Digital World is how I'm justifying Piximon/Mojyamon keeping enough knowledge of his skills that replacing the rest is a matter of brushing up in Gennai's library and training, not to mention a lot of personal memories relative to Digimon during the time dilation.
Piximon was an ultimate, which are rare in the Adventure Digital World, and the games establish that there are a lot of Digimon who are never going to get to rookie, forget ultimate, which explains Apocalymon's existence and also why the Pagumon village took TK's partner being able to digivolve so personally.
I'm also fond of the idea that Wizardmon is Matt's dad's partner, since that way he can go up and visit him on lunch breaks and such.