Chapter 17: Sic mundus creatus est
Upon reaching the source of light he saw on the horizon, Koushiro came across a three-story wooden house. All the doors and windows were closed, but light leaked through cracks on each floor: pink on the first, blue on the second, red on the third. A man was standing on the porch of the big house. He was a black man in his fifties, with short gray hair and a beard, wearing a gray suit with a striped tie and holding in his hands a dark pink hammer almost as tall as he was.
Koushiro approached him and asked:
"Are you one of the old souls? The serpent said I should find you and help you."
"The serpent?" the man laughed. "Why do you speak of yourself in the third person, Serpent?"
"Do you know about that?" Koushiro asked, noticing only at that moment that the man's eyes were emitting a dark pink glow, almost red.
"The serpent approaches the abyss. The serpent will devour us all... I told you that when I was a child, in Ciudad de la Primavera, capital of Tierra Roja. You probably don't remember."
"You were the child I saw in the harbor before I left for Turtle Island," Koushiro recalled. The image of the strange boy staring at him in the harbor never left his memory. "Since that time, did you know what I was?"
"You're not the first world eater I've met, Serpent." the man reported.
"My name is Koushiro," the boy corrected the other. That was when he realized he still didn't know who he was talking to. "What is your name?"
"In the world you destroyed, my name was Carlos Valdez. Most people called me President, though." He replied with a smile.
"President? Are you the president of Tierra Roja?" Koushiro asked.
"I was before you destroyed my country."
Koushiro felt a lump form in his throat. He looked away from the man, trying to hold back his own tears. The scale of what he had done was still unbearable.
"I'm sorry..." Koushiro muttered, ashamed.
"Come with me," Carlos Valdez called, turning toward the door and placing a hand on the handle. "Tierra Roja was very different from the country you remember. I want you to see what you destroyed."
He opened the door and an intense pink light blinded Koushiro, who felt as if a force lifted him off the ground and pulled him. When he could see again, he was on the balcony of a mansion dating back to colonial times. Koushiro remembered it as the seat of the newly established revolutionary government of Tierra Roja.
From the balcony, Koushiro could see several streets of Ciudad de la Primavera, full of people. Some were hurrying to catch the trams, children were running so as not to be late for school, there were people carrying bags of freshly bought food and others sitting on benches in the squares. The houses were colorful and usually only one story high, medium in size and well-kept with small gardens. Further ahead, it was possible to hear a train arriving at the station.
"We built a prosperous country, despite the Empire insisting on sending soldiers to our borders," Carlos Valdez narrated. "We invested in science and developed the means to prevent the invasion of imperialists. But our technology wasn't just used for our defense. We invested in modern and efficient agriculture, industrialization, universal education and health, strong labor rights. We all worked hard to ensure that our people were emancipated. Decades of hard work and in a single instant...it all disappeared..."
The gigantic door appeared in the sky; scared screams echoed in the city. When the door opened and the black mist fell, Koushiro closed his eyes. He couldn't bear the guilt.
"My people are in you, are they not?" Carlos Valdez inquired.
"I believe so..." Koushiro replied. "The serpent told me that all the souls in the world were in a pocket universe in my subconsciousness, waiting to be reborn in another world."
"They're dreaming…" Carlos Valdez murmured. "Most may not even remember their real life. They are entertained in a false world..."
Koushiro opened his eyes. He seemed to be inside the old house, surrounded by wooden walls. Carlos Valdez was standing in front of a large door, disconnected from everything. It resembled the door Koushiro had seen when he first met Justine, but much smaller in comparison.
"I will not be able to return to the new world you will create. My people will have to go on without me. I know they can do it... the technology I introduced was the most advanced that world had ever seen, but my people might not want to limit themselves to using that technology to defend themselves..."
A strong flash forced Koushiro to close his eyes again. He only managed to reopen them after a minute or two. He was inside a bunker. A group of ten people, almost all in lab coats, were celebrating. He recognized Mr. and Mrs. Hida, Iori's parents, among those people. Unlike Mrs. Hida, who was wearing a white coat and holding a clipboard, Mr. Hida wore a dark green military uniform. Through a reinforced glass window, it was possible to see a gigantic mushroom cloud rising from the desert, miles away.
"No... it can't be..." Koushiro muttered, horrified. "The world we were in... it was the 19th century! It's not possible that there were bombs of this kind in that world!"
"I lived in worlds where more advanced technologies existed," Carlos Valdez explained, standing next to Koushiro.
"Did you teach these people how to break atoms? Are you crazy?!" Koushiro raised his voice. "Were you trying to destroy the world?"
"You cannot use that weapon!"
A second Carlos Valdez, who was sitting in a nearby chair, spoke to the scientists. Koushiro wondered why they weren't speaking in Castilian.
"You devoured this world, all languages sound the same to you," the Carlos Valdez standing next to Koushiro explained, as if guessing what the young man was thinking.
"We already used nuclear energy as fuel, using it as a weapon was the next logical step," Mrs. Hida spoke.
"As soon as we finish our prototype long-haul planes, we can drop a bomb somewhere on the Old Continent." Mr. Hida said. "It could be a deserted place, as long as the royalists can see the smoke cloud. When the Empire sees what we are capable of, they will stop sending invading troops into Tierra Roja. We may even demand that they recognize the independence of all colonies!"
"Demand?" The other Carlos Valdez had disgust in his voice. "If we employ this technology, we will subjugate the rest of the world! Everyone will fear and hate Tierra Roja! Our country should be a symbol of liberation and dignity!"
"We will free all the people of the world with this weapon!" Mr. Hida roared. "It will be the end of colonialism and slavery! The Empire will crumble before our might!"
"And then? Would we be the next empire? The guardians of the world's freedom?" The Carlos Valdez from the past inquired. "If we take this path, we will become the next oppressors! We would be the hegemonic military power, with hundreds of bases around the world, continually inventing wars to maintain our power, decimating people in the name of 'freedom!'"
"There will be no reason for more wars once the Empire is gone!" Mr. Hida stated.
"As President, I forbid you to use this weapon!" Carlos Valdez ordered.
"In that case, we'll just have to wait for the next president," Mr. Hida stated. "Considering your age and your health, it shouldn't take long."
As suddenly as that vision had begun, it ended. Koushiro found himself back in the big house, along with Carlos Valdez.
"I can fix this..." Koushiro murmured. "In the next world, I can stop wars, violence... so no one will ever create such a weapon."
"A world without wars and violence? You really are a child!" Carlos Valdez scoffed.
"I could do that!" Koushiro adopted a defensive tone. "I can create a rule for the new world, then-"
"It is not possible to extirpate violence from human beings," Carlos Valdez asserted. "Violence is something that manifests itself in many different ways, not even a world eater could contemplate them all. Furthermore, if you tried to erase violence, how would people resist tyranny? How would they fight to free themselves? You cannot be so naive as to believe that classical violence is the only form of coercion by the oppressors. They can be much more sophisticated than that."
"If it is not possible to create a world without wars, I can create a world after all wars are over!" Koushiro retorted. "A world where everyone lives in peace and prosperity! A place where all nations cooperate!"
"You cannot control people's behavior. That is beyond your power," Carlos Valdez stated. "Even if you artificially created a peaceful world, it would only be a matter of time before it collapsed under its own inconsistencies. It wouldn't be long before some people decided they should have more than others. And soon there would be oppressors and oppressed again."
"How can you be so cynical?!" Koushiro was losing his patience. "If you don't believe in the human capacity for good, then you don't believe in the cause of the Revolution that liberated Tierra Roja!"
"Of course I believe in the cause of Revolution, child!" Carlos Valdez stated. "It is you who do not understand it! Your arrogance does not allow you to understand!"
"Arrogance?!" Koushiro was infuriated to hear that. The last person to call him arrogant had been Justine. "When was I arrogant? All I ever wanted was to help people!"
Carlos Valdez chuckled. He turned his back on the young man and placed himself in front of the large wooden door that did not connect to anything.
"In several of your former lives, you were a so-called 'chosen child,' right?" the man asked. "The chosen children saved the Digital World and the human world, they were protectors of both realities... what a horrible burden to place on the shoulders of children. And what a perverse thing it is to perpetuate the idea that any world needs specific individuals to be heroes."
"We didn't consider ourselves heroes..." Koushiro muttered. "In no world did we think we were superior to anyone else just for having Digimon partners."
"You thought it was your responsibility to protect both worlds," Carlos Valdez pointed out. "And that belief persisted in you even before you began to remember your other lives. You challenged Justine and took it upon yourself to prove her wrong about humanity. Boy, you put yourself through unimaginable continual suffering because you didn't want to accept that she could be right, you conspired with Hikari Yagami on a naive plan to defeat Justine, you tried to make Sora Takenouchi believe that she would be the savior of the world, you allowed your beloved Taichi Yagami to kill you countless times when you could just give up and spare you all this pointless suffering. Why? Just to prove you were right?"
"It-It wasn't because of that!" Koushiro stuttered. Carlos Valdez turned to him again. The dark pink gleam in his eyes was frightening. "I wanted to save Taichi and Hikari... I couldn't trust Justine to keep her word!" The young man added.
"Stop lying to yourself, boy!"
"I'm not lying! Everything I did was to help others! Ever since I started having visions, I've put all my energy into trying to save people!" Koushiro shouted. He felt a tightness in his heart.
"Since you started having visions?" Carlos Valdez inquired. "Before that, didn't you try to save people?"
"I... I was just a child..." Koushiro muttered. "I didn't think about these things back then, when I still had my parents..."
"So your obsession with saving everyone started when you lost your parents?" Carlos Valdez asked.
Koushiro felt as if his heart had sunk into his chest. That interrogation was making him very uncomfortable. However, he didn't want to run away from the answers.
"My parents were killed by Justine's soldiers," the young man said. "She could have avoided that if she wanted to. She had a moral duty to have prevented it, but she did nothing!"
"Why did she have such duty?"
"Because she is a goddess! She had the power to prevent that! Justine had the power to stop all the suffering in the world and she did nothing! If she wanted to, she could have saved my parents, she could have saved all the suffering people in the world! But she was selfish!"
"And now that you have the power, do you have a moral duty to save all people in the world and keep them from suffering?"
"Yes!" Koushiro stated, satisfied that the other was finally understanding.
Carlos Valdez took three steps towards the boy. He rested his hammer on the ground, holding it with both hands, and looked at Koushiro. His eyes still glistened, but there was no longer any disapproval in them. There was only pity in that look.
"Do you have so little respect for human beings that you believe they need to be tutored by a supernatural entity?" the man asked.
Koushiro didn't know how to respond. How could it be disrespectful to want to help people?
"You accused me of being cynical, of not believing in the human capacity for good, of not believing in the values of the Revolution," Carlos Valdez recalled. "The Revolution was based on the idea that people should fight for their freedom, for their dignity, fight against oppressors and take back what had been stolen from them by tyrants. Freedom is not a gift given by superior beings, it is a right conquered by the people."
"What is that supposed to mean? Are you saying my parents didn't fight hard enough and that's why they were killed?" Koushiro asked, raising his voice.
"Your parents risked their lives to bring education to people. They fought nobly and died with dignity," Carlos Valdez said. "Like all those who fought and died for the independence of Tierra Roja. Their sacrifice is remembered and gives meaning to our achievements. Trying to erase all that, trying to erase the struggle and history of people to create artificial happiness is extremely disrespectful, in my opinion."
Koushiro thought of his parents, teaching children even though they knew what would happen if they were discovered. He thought of the people he had met during the Revolution, of how many he had seen die, but also of the happiness that filled the people when they achieved victory. He had thought of the common people he had met throughout his life and how they fought in their own way, even if they weren't going to be remembered by history. Koushiro, then, thought of Sora and the other revolutionaries of Turtle Island, he thought of Osamu and Ken and how much they all suffered, fought and resisted. There was no way not to compare them to the friends he had known in the other worlds, whose memories returned little by little. They always seemed destined to fight and suffer, but they didn't give up. All of them were the result of their experiences and their actions. Trying to erase their suffering would be like erasing part of who they were.
"Are you saying that the right thing to do would be to recreate the world I destroyed, without altering anyone's past...?" the boy questioned, feeling defeated.
"There are other ways you can help people that don't involve trying to take control of their lives," Carlos Valdez told him.
"Am I supposed to just let the Empire keep on killing people? Let Tierra Roja develop nuclear weapons? None of this is right!" Koushiro protested.
"Perhaps Tierra Roja will never employ such weapons. The people will decide what to do. We can only have faith in the people. And if things don't work out, they can try again in the next worlds," the man said.
"I do not accept this!" Koushiro protested. "I am not going to simply let tragedies continue when I can do something to stop them! I can't just act like it's not my problem!"
He couldn't fight back the tears any longer. Koushiro had to create a better world somehow. If he were to leave everything the way it was, then all the suffering he and his friends had gone through would be in vain. Things had to be better! He had to do something!
"I really hope you find a solution to your dilemma," Carlos Valdez told him. "I hope you find a rule that allows you to preserve people's past and their agency, but also manages to make the world better. Think carefully about this rule, as it will define the world you'll create. Unlike other world eaters, I believe you won't choose the rule based on selfish desires."
The door opened in front of the man. On the other side, it was possible to see an immense cosmos.
"Are you leaving?" Koushiro asked, seeing the man about to enter the universe on the other side of the door.
"I still have one or two more lives to live," Carlos Valdez said. "Good luck with creating the next world, boy!"
"Please, don't go! I still don't know what to do!" Koushiro said.
"I think the next few people you meet will be more helpful for your decisions," the man said. "Be patient with them, listen carefully. And when you discover the truth, do everything you can to control your anger."
Carlos Valdez left. The door slammed shut and the entire room shook. The boy saw the ceiling breaking into several pieces and coming towards him. Instinctively, he ducked and covered his head with his arms. After a few seconds, when nothing hit him, Koushiro uncovered his head and looked around.
He was in a field of tall grass, under the warm morning sun. A few steps away, Justine de Léon, dressed in silver armor, faced him. She held a helm in one hand and the staff with the glowing blue orb in the other. Her long black hair was flowing. Her eyes had an icy blue glow.
As if possessed by an overwhelming force, Koushiro stood up and took long steps towards that woman. When he realized it, the big red scythe had materialized in his hands and he was about to attack Justine.
"What are you waiting for?" the woman asked when Koushiro didn't strike. "I did everything I could to make you hate me. It shouldn't be hard for you to want to kill me."
"It is not hard, believe me!" Koushiro said, sharply. All the horrible things that woman had done to him, Taichi and Hikari were still vivid in his memory. Not destroying Justine was taking all of his self-control.
"Then finish me off!" Justine ordered. "You made me wait for ages! Don't make me wait any longer! Release me from this deplorable existence!"
"Why should I do what you want? I won't let you manipulate me anymore!" Koushiro raised his voice.
"If you're not going to kill me, what are you going to do, then? Do you want to save me? You want me to open that door and go out into a new world for a second chance at life? I doubt you want that! None of us do!" Justine said, pointing to a door in the middle of the field, about ten meters to her right.
"I sure as hell don't want to save you!" Koushiro admitted. "But if I kill you, it will be your victory! And I don't want you to win! Not anymore!"
"So that's what this is about? Do you still want to defeat me?" Justine laughed. "You can't create your new world and give your little friends happy lives while I'm here. Preexisting ancient souls must depart to another world or be destroyed before a new world can be created. You have no other choice but to destroy me!"
"Do I have no choice?" Koushiro laughed dryly. "Of course I have a choice! I can simply choose to do nothing. We can stay here on this stupid field for the rest of eternity tormenting each other. As I understand it, my friends and everyone else in the world are in a dreamlike reality. They will be fine."
Koushiro sat on the grass, crossing his arms, which was difficult since he was still holding the scythe in one hand.
Justine looked at him blankly.
"That doesn't make sense," she muttered. "This is your moment! You can finally get revenge on me! Release all your hate and destroy me! Then create the perfect little world you've always wanted! Weren't you the one who said that someone with power had a moral duty to help everyone? You have that power now! Go play at being a benevolent god and put an end to my suffering!"
Koushiro didn't move a muscle. Justine was despairing.
"What is the problem? Do you still not hate me enough?" she asked. "All right! I'll give you more reasons to hate me! You remember that vision of Sora Takenouchi 'saving the world,' don't you? Didn't you ever think it was weird how that vision was the only good premonition you've ever had? Such a vague vision... and it felt a bit forced, didn't it? Guess what! That wasn't a real vision of the future! I was the one who created it!"
That revelation shook Koushiro.
"That's not… that's not true!" he said, getting to his feet. "Why would you make that up? Believing that Miss Sora would save the world gave me the strength to carry on! If you wanted me to give up and learn humility, why would you create a vision that would give me hope?"
"I needed you to have hope because it would prolong your and Taichi's suffering," Justine said, smiling. "I made up a vision of a revolutionary who would be born centuries after your curse because I knew you wouldn't surrender until you met the savior of the world, and that would ensure you let Taichi kill you countless times! It was the perfect torment for the two of you! I broke you a little each time he killed you."
"Why involve Taichi in this?" Koushiro asked, furious. "I was the one you had a problem with!"
"I never had any problems with you personally, stupid child!" Justine stated. "You were only the instrument of my revenge! Don't think too highly of yourself!"
"What do you mean... instrument of your revenge?" Koushiro wasn't understanding. "Revenge against whom?"
"Against who else? Hikari Yagami, of course!" Justine answered.
Koushiro's confusion only increased.
"This is absurd... Hikari was born after my first death, after you cursed me for the first time..."
"The Hikari you met in that world was an avatar, a kind of doll that she wished into existence." Justine explained. "It was her plan from the beginning, to have an avatar to live the life she thought she deserved. There was no other way for her to live in the world she had created."
Koushiro widened his eyes.
"Liar..." he muttered, shakily.
"Hikari was a world eater, Koushiro," Justine continued. "The world you destroyed had been created by her… that world was her. Fools called me a goddess, but the only true goddess was Hikari... a cruel goddess who ruined my life... and yours as well."
The sky was suddenly overcast with black, thundering clouds.
"What is it, Hikari?" Justine asked the heavens. "Don't you want me to tell him the truth about you? It was you who shared your power with me and forced me to become an old soul before my time! You made me believe that I was destined to save the world and when I had doubts, you forced me to continue playing the role you imposed on me! Because of you, I could never be happy! I always had to sacrifice myself for the greater good!"
Lightning began to strike the field around Justine, but she did not stop screaming to the heavens:
"I only found out what the 'greater good' was after I died! You needed to give part of your power to some idiot, otherwise you wouldn't be able to incorporate into the avatar you would create to 'live!' You used me to achieve your own happiness, and never cared about mine! And in the end, your avatar died because of a plague! Everything you did was for nothing!"
"Shut up!" Koushiro shouted. "Stop speaking such lies! Hikari would never do those things! She would never be selfish like that! She...she knew that I wanted to bring her back to life... we had a plan! We were going to defeat you and she would come back to life… and we would save Taichi… we would... and then everything would be fine…"
Koushiro didn't want to believe what Justine was saying, but he couldn't ignore certain facts. Hikari knew he was an old soul and never told him the truth. If he had known, the world would not have ended. Mimi had called Hikari selfish. Several times, Hikari acted strangely towards Koushiro, as if she felt guilty about something. And one of the other Koushiros had asked him not to get angry at Hikari when he remembered what she had done. Memories of other lives were still slowly coming to Koushiro, and most of them had to do with the Digital World. But if Hikari had done something bad, if she had destroyed an entire world...
"I tried to save someone I treasured... I tried to use just a bit of my power, just enough to help that person, but... things got out of hand... it all went horribly wrong..."
"If only you knew... if you remembered..."
"What did you do, Hikari...?" Koushiro asked, looking up. "What did you do?"
"Don't look so shaken, brat! You don't even know the worst part yet!" Justine said, looking at him with sadistic satisfaction.
Before Justine could continue, Koushiro saw a cloud that hovered above the woman turn red. In one jump, he knocked Justine to the ground and stopped, with his scythe, a red beam that was coming towards her. The field disappeared, and the world went completely dark, except for two sources of light: Koushiro's scythe and a red spear that appeared before him.
The one holding the spear was Hikari, but she didn't look like the young woman Koushiro knew. She was wearing long beige pants, high heels, a white shirt with a high collar and a pink coat; her hair was long and tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes glowed red. Small particles of light seemed to detach themselves from her body.
"Don't look at me like that, please..." Hikari asked. "Everything that happened, everything I did… it was for you."
Even fearing what she was going to say, Koushiro needed to ask:
"What did you do, Hikari?"
Tears formed in her eyes right before she replied:
"I loved you. You died. And that's how the world was created."