26
Sunset
"'I look at that deep glow on the panes, and the house lies all enchanted; that very room, I tell you, is within all blood and fire.'" – Arthur Machen, The Three Imposters
The Chosen Children had returned to the human world just before the sun began to set, the three groups emerging from Izumi Koshiro's computer after destroying their last Dark Tower for the day. Each was eager to share its experiences with the other two. Daisuke and Ken's group was first to arrive, and Koshiro was able to use the Digimon Analyzer on his computer, in conjunction with Daisuke's D-3, to identify Imperialdramon's opponents as Sangloupmon, Adult-level Digimon.
"You're kidding!" Daisuke exclaimed. "They almost beat Paildramon!"
"There's something odd about this Digimon's data," Koshiro said. "X-Antibody… I don't know what it means, but it may be the reason for their unusual power levels."
"Things are only getting harder," Ken observed darkly, then sank back into quiet thought.
The X-Antibody was only the first of the evening's surprises. When the girls' group returned, everyone gathered was astonished to hear of the use to which the enemy had put the powers of the Digimentals. Miyako pointed out that there was some comfort in the fact that Coatlmon and Setmon had become overwhelmed unusually quickly. Without the complications of Coatlmon's Fossil Wave the battle may have been no challenge at all.
This did little to improve Ken's mood, however. The Chosen Children's enemies were in command of forces no previous foe had wielded. They were apparently able not only to move between the human and digital worlds, but had full access to the Dark World as well. They could utilize the children's Digimentals without actually possessing the artifacts. They even seemed capable of controlling dreams. Ken knew that the Chosen would have to find some way to turn the tide of battle, and soon, before the constant attacks, both physical and mental, wore them down and crushed them all.
As on the previous day, Takeru and Iori were the last of the children to return. They had left Orcamon and his companions at Poseidonis, though the Digimon told them that they would be migrating to another of the underwater settlements. They would not be able to defend Poseidonis against another attack, and, conversely, the inhabitants of the other town would be glad for the influx of new potential defenders.
After everyone was familiar with the events of the day, they prepared to go their separate ways. The day was not quite over yet, and many of them were in need of some quiet time in familiar surroundings before the night's onslaught of dream terrors commenced. Miyako waited while Takeru and Iori had a brief talk with Koshiro, asking him to see if Gennai knew anything about a Digimon called Neptunemon, then the three walked together back to their apartment building.
Jun was home when Daisuke got back to the Motomiya family's apartment, sitting with Caprimon, watching television while her partner enjoyed a slice of watermelon. Daisuke wasn't in a talkative mood, and his sister was the last person he wanted to talk to, so he ignored them both and carried Chicomon directly into his bedroom.
Once inside, Daisuke lay down on the bed, his partner sitting on his stomach. He put his hands behind his head and thought over the events of the day, that damn wolf, and what the others had learned in their fights. By nature, Daisuke was an optimist. He never lost hope, and almost never faltered in the face of a challenge. Everyone else seemed so tired and worried. Those nightmares were getting to them. Daisuke hadn't slept well the night before, but still hadn't dreamed.
"Chicomon?"
"Mm?"
"Have you had any dreams lately?"
Chicomon thought for a while.
"I don't remember any."
Come to think of it, Daisuke had not only been free of nightmares the past few nights, but really hadn't dreamed at all that he could remember. There were feelings of unease in the night, and he woke up less refreshed than usual, but no dreams at all. Now Chicomon said he didn't remember any either. Did it mean something? Ken or Koshiro might be able to see that it did, but Daisuke couldn't.
"I feel…" he began, but then trailed off. Chicomon hopped down to the bed's surface and bounced up to Daisuke's head.
"What do you feel like?"
"I don't know… Guilty, I guess? No… I mean, everyone's having nightmares but me. I wish I could have some of them for them. You know what I mean?"
Chicomon's expression grew slightly more serious, and he performed what might be considered a nod.
"Yeah, I think so," he said.
After taking his leave of Iori and Miyako, Takeru opened the door to his apartment and stepped into silence. It was not fully dark yet. He removed his shoes, trying to keep his head as still as possible for Patamon's benefit as the Digimon balanced atop his hat. There was no sign of Natsuko. Takeru found her when he glanced in the open door to the computer room. Apparently she had fallen asleep at the computer; her head lay cradled in her arms on the desk.
The corners of Takeru's mouth turned upwards briefly. His mother had been working hard recently, trying to keep up with official and unofficial inquiries into the Digimon-related incidents of the previous year. Although – his smile faded – it was odd that she would fall asleep so early. He stepped into the room, intending to wake her, but then stopped as he noticed two neat piles of paper sitting on the floor next to her chair.
What caught his attention was a single word embedded in the header of a pile's topmost paper. His mother had told him yesterday about her work on recent unusual seismic activity, and he saw that the top paper was a printed news article concerning the odd earthquakes. He squatted to examine the article more closely.
Patamon flapped off of his partner's head and descended to the floor, saying nothing.
Takeru skimmed through the rest of the article, but didn't learn much that his mother hadn't already told him over dinner the previous evening. The entirety of the pile was dedicated to news articles about the quakes, and seismological records. He glanced over at the other pile.
Now this was puzzling. At the top of this second pile was another article, but its topic had nothing to do with earthquakes. The article was brief, just a matter-of-fact report of an unusual suicide in Yokohama. A sixteen-year-old boy had awakened his parents and neighbors with a scream just before rushing out onto the apartment's balcony and throwing himself over the rail. Suicides in Japan are unfortunately nothing rare, but the senseless and sudden nature of this particular death had brought it to the media's attention.
The articles below the first were equally morbid, though he didn't do much more than skim them. There were a number of murders and kidnappings related, stretching back a few months in time. One of the articles seemed to provide a summary of the recent increases in crime. It didn't provide any explanation for the growing number of incidents, though police were cited as saying that a gang of foreigners (probably Chinese) was likely the cause.
Takeru would have read more, but Natsuko began to stir and murmur. Her son stood up and laid a hand on her back.
"Mom?"
She looked up at him, and her sleepy eyes came quickly into focus.
"Oh, Takeru. I'm sorry… I didn't notice you were home." She stood and stretched. "I don't know what's wrong with me. Just… haven't been sleeping well, and…" Her eyes fell on Patamon. "I see Patamon's back to normal."
Takeru smiled and opened his arms to his partner, who fluttered up and into them. In a few words, mother and son told each other what they were expected to about their day. Takeru was walking out of the computer room and back into the hallway ahead of his mother when she spoke up again.
"Takeru, Patamon is always with you, isn't he?"
Takeru turned around and looked at her, his expression still amiable, but his eyes searching.
"Yeah, that's right."
"It's my job to protect him," Patamon chirped.
Natsuko smiled. The thought of this little creature keeping her son safe seemed farfetched, but she knew from experience how deceiving appearances could be, especially when it came to Digimon.
"I'm thankful for it," she said.
The three of them left the room and began preparing for dinner. Takeru thought back every once in a while to what he had read, and to his mother's apparent concern. Earthquakes, kidnappings, a nocturnal suicide? The Digital World had been plagued by unusual quakes for months; now the phenomenon was beginning in the human world. He didn't know why the two piles of articles kept tugging at him so insistently, but he didn't like it.
Later that night, as he prepared for bed, he thought one more time of that boy who killed himself. Had he been sleeping? The question kept coming back to him. Had he been sleeping? Sudden and senseless. No reason that anyone knew of, just a scream in the dark and a rush into oblivion.
"The sun is down," Hiraga Ayaki said. "Sato-san asked me to send you out one at a time. He said he didn't want you traveling as a group. He wants you spread out, to cause more confusion."
"No need for one at a time," said Lilithmon. "We'll go now. Each of us will take a different direction."
Hiraga let it pass. He wasn't about to argue with these things over something so small. The six of them, some almost human but all disturbingly different, crowded into the oversized, custom-built elevator. The doors closed and they shot upwards, towards the roof, leaving BlackTailmon alone with the humans.
The feline Digimon found her hosts fascinating. Sato had made the right choice in sending her as his Trojan horse; her curiosity would ensure that the job was done enthusiastically. After meeting Hikari, and surreptitiously watching the two human girls' fight with Bastemon, she had been looking forward to observing the creatures more closely. Sato's order to accompany Lilithmon had come as a pleasant, exciting surprise.
"Did Sato-san say what he wanted me to do?" she asked Hiraga. He looked down at her quickly. Truth be told he had forgotten that she was present.
"Oh, you can go wherever, as long as you check back in after sunrise. Don't talk or stand on your back legs, don't forget how to get back here, and stay away from those eleven kids."
The instant he finished talking she took off down the hall to the elevator, ready to begin her evening.