56
Assaults
"'My God!' he had exclaimed, 'think, think what you are saying. It is too incredible, too monstrous; such things can never be in this quiet world, where men and women live and die, and struggle, and conquer, or maybe fail, and fall down under sorrow, and grieve and suffer strange fortunes for many a year; but not this, Phillips, not such things as this. There must be some explanation, some way out of the terror. Why, man, if such a case were possible, our earth would be a nightmare.'" – Arthur Machen, "The Great God Pan"
Mr. and Mrs. Ugaki had the most horrific awakening of their lives in the last hour of the night before dawn. There was screaming, bundled up in their minds that first moment with uneasy dreams and the terrible disturbance at the Searea apartments earlier. Chiho was not the type of girl to scream at anything, but they could recognize the cries as hers. Their daughter's voice grew louder, loud enough to wake the neighbors. It sounded as though she were being murdered.
In no time they were both out of bed and at her door. Her father turned the doorknob and tried to enter, but the door remained immobile. Even pushing with all his strength he couldn't budge it, while all the while Chiho's voice carried on within, degenerating from screams to sobs of pain or horror. Mrs. Ugaki joined her husband in trying to open the door, and it suddenly gave way, leaving the frantic parents falling into the room.
There was a simultaneous sound of breaking glass and rent building material as the room's window and a large chunk of the wall was blown outward. Neither parent was in much of a position to see anything, though they sensed a something hurtling through the broken wall, featureless in the dark. Scrambling to regain their balance, the Ugakis took in the sight of the room. The covers had been torn off Chiho's bed along the wall, and she was still lying there, half undressed, crying and shuddering convulsively.
Mrs. Ugaki rushed to her daughter, though the girl didn't seem to hear her hysterical questions. Mr. Ugaki turned his eyes in horror from the bed to the ruined wall, and screamed himself when he saw the bright eyes of the gargoyle figure peering over the balcony railing at him. The monster dropped out of sight immediately – Mr. Ugaki would not be sure later if in the terror of the moment he had really seen it, or heard the nauseating chuckle it left in its wake.
There was only one man who happened to be looking at the Odaiba Mansion from the street at that moment. In fact, he was watching it intently. There was no doubt in his mind that something was making its way swiftly down from Ugaki Chiho's balcony, clutching the side of the apartment building and dropping from floor to floor, like a bat the size of a nightmare. Reaching the ground, the thing bounded over a low brick wall and headed towards him, growing larger in his vision faster than its speed could account for. Soon it was standing over him, its wings so small as to be invisible from the front, but the rest of its misshapen body half again as tall as he was.
"Thank you very much, great god, in fulfilling the request of mortals," said the man, bowing much lower than a standard Japanese bow. He was a member of the group to which Sato belonged, a devoted disciple of Darkness.
"Thanks are greatly needed, human," Panimon said. "Dagomon's mouthpiece should have included any requests in the bargain we made."
"My apologies. We—"
"Shut up," the Digimon said, smacking the man with the back of one hand. It was a light blow for Panimon, but the man staggered under the force of it. Panimon chuckled. "How fortunate for you all that I've found so much to entertain me here."
The man said nothing, only bowed again, with an involuntary shudder.
"Now…" Panimon continued, resting a huge hairy hand atop the human's head. "That's all, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is," the man whispered. He could feel the thing's furless fingers tickling the back of his neck – ribbed, like monstrous worms.
"Good!" Panimon said, shoving the human away from him. By the time the man regained his balance and looked up again the goat-headed creature was soaring off into the darkness of the waning night, a dwarfish satyr on vast black wings.
The day dawned with the citizens of Tokyo still worried, still in fear, but not in the panic of the previous morning. Besides the incident at the Searea apartments, there hadn't been any large-scale displays of violence. Attacks like those of the previous night had been much sparser. To a certain extent, the Chosen Children shared in the general public's cautious optimism. Koshiro, up before any of the others, had let his friends know that Gennai had had some success in narrowing down the location of the enemy base from anywhere in the Digital World to a specific region, and though the older Chosen would be remaining in the human world, all of them, without Ken, made their way to Odaiba Mansion. All were hoping against hope that the nightmare would be ended today.
But Koshiro's and Jou's spirits had already been somewhat dampened. In his message to the other D-Terminals, Koshiro had neglected to mention what had happened in his own apartment building the previous night. He didn't know how he would have said it via mail, though he knew an explanation would be just as painful – more – in person.
They didn't have all the details, but they had gathered enough. Ugaki Chiho's parents had been taken in for questioning by the police, while Chiho herself was in the hospital. Information was slow to get out to the other inhabitants of the building, at least to the children, but obviously something terrible had happened, and Koshiro was tuned in to police communications. There were a number of reasons for his interest. Violent crime was rare in this part of the city, for one thing – there was every possibility of the enemy being behind this latest outrage. But there was also the fact that Koshiro and Jou knew Chiho as Iori's girlfriend.
They waited for the others to arrive, Jou sitting silently on the bed with Gomamon while Koshiro sat at the computer, listening to police radio through headphones, trying to find out what had happened. For the most part Jou looked down at his feet, or at Gomamon whenever the little Digimon broke the silence. For a while Jou watched Koshiro's face as the younger boy listened in. Koshiro's expression was focused, and changed little, so soon Jou was back to staring at socks. The sound wasn't up loud enough for him to hear anything; they hadn't wanted Koshiro's parents to know what they were concerned with.
Jou looked up again when he heard a sort of subdued gasp, a sound he knew to mean that Koshiro had come across new and upsetting information. Koshiro turned toward him, and Jou could see that his friend had gone pale.
"There were other girls last night," Koshiro said.
"Other girls—" He stopped short. Other girls? Only girls? "…They were attacked?"
"They – they were…"
Before Koshiro finished the sentence his door opened. Iori stood there, Takeru and Miyako behind him, each holding his or her own Digimon. It was plain from their expressions that they knew there was bad news to hear – they must have seen the police tape. Though neither Koshiro nor Jou could detect it from where they sat, Iori was trembling. He had recognized the apartment.
"Iori-kun…"
"What happened?" Iori asked, his agitation cutting through the usual softness of his voice. "Chiho-chan—?"
"She… she's alright, Iori-kun," Jou said.
"She's alive," said Koshiro, almost at the same time. Only he noticed the distinction.
"She came to my apartment yesterday," Iori said. His eyes were on the floor. "I wasn't there. I didn't know…"
"Don't blame yourself, Iori-kun," said Takeru. "We'll find the one whose fault it is." Iori was too preoccupied at the moment to notice Takeru's own hard expression, his anger at injustice tempered by genuine pity, and the shadow of an equally genuine fear.
"Do we know it was the enemy who did it?" Miyako asked.
"We don't," said Koshiro, "But it seems to be a likely hypothesis. Either Lilithmon lied to us, or there's something here that she doesn't have any control over."
"She probably just wanted us to let our guard down," said Miyako angrily.
"Or another Digimon?" Takeru wondered.
"Whoever is behind the attacks," Koshiro answered, "It's probably a Digimon. The circumstances seem to point to something non-human."
Before long the rest of the group was gathered, with the exception of Ken. Koshiro had sent him the coordinates for where to enter the Digital World, so that he could meet the others there without having to make the trip to Odaiba.
"So you do know where the enemy base is?" Daisuke asked, eager to get started.
"More Dark Towers have been appearing," Koshiro said. "That's not good, but at least it has helped Gennai and me to narrow down the area you have to search in."
"I shouldn't be going," Iori whispered. "I should be here, looking for the person who hurt Chiho-chan."
"No," Takeru said, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "We'll need you."
"This'll probably be even tougher than the fights we've been having," said Miyako, looking pensive, another pair of downcast eyes.
"Well we've gotta do it," said Daisuke. "It's the only way to put a stop to everything." Chibimon nodded emphatically.
"I wish I was going with you," Taichi said. "But we'll need to keep watch on this world while you're gone. They're still here."
They needed no reminding. Iori's fists were clenched so tight that they were beginning to ache, but he said nothing. Koshiro broke the silence that followed.
"Are you ready?"
Daisuke and the rest nodded.
"Be careful, Takeru," Yamato said.
"We'll come back," Takeru said. "When this is over." Please still be here, he thought.
Taichi looked down into his sister's eyes. He wouldn't be able to follow her this time – now, when she may be about to plunge head-first into the darkness that had so often hounded her. He laid his hand on her shoulder, but didn't say anything. His gaze was enough.
The five turned to face the Digital Gate, and held up their Digivices.
"The usual cheer, Miyako?" asked Daisuke.
She didn't exactly cheer. It didn't seem like it would suit the occasion. She pronounced the words carefully, without raising her voice.
"Digital Gate, open. Chosen Children…let's go."
Blue light washed over the room, and when it had faded the younger Chosen and their partners were gone.