59

The Door to Winter

"O, but dolorous, dolorous, are all the ways of man, few and fierce are his days, and the end trouble, and vain, vain his endeavor: and woman – who shall tell of it? – her doom is written with man's by listless, careless gods with their faces to other spheres. Somewhat thus he began, and then inspiration seized him, and all the trouble in the beauty of his song may not be set down by me: there was much of gladness in it, and all mingled with grief: it was like the way of man: it was like our destiny." – Lord Dunsany, "The Quest of the Queen's Tears"

Unsurprisingly, it was Daisuke who took the lead as they descended into the unknown. Having shoved the basin entirely off the circular entrance he found a ladder, and climbed down it as his friends reminded him to be careful. The ladder was not a long one, and about ten feet down his feet found solid stone. The light filtering in from above showed him that the ladder was practically up against a wall, though the room or hall stretched away from it in the other direction, into blackness.

"It's okay!" he called up to V-mon, whose head was hanging over the hole. "Come on down, guys."

The Digimon hopped down and the humans made their way more slowly, until all twelve of the group were standing clustered about the foot of the ladder. Reluctantly they turned to face the tunnel ahead.

"Stay close," Takeru said.

They slowly began walking, leaving behind the ladder and the bright world it led to. Miyako was thinking about how horrible it would be for the stone basin to grind slowly back into place, and just as Ken was passing out of the light from above she took his hand suddenly, without thinking. Even through her glove she could feel how cold it was. Ken hesitated an instant before continuing on, but he did not pull away.

The tunnel seemed to run on forever, the floor sloping shallowly downward, until the Chosen had lost all conception of depth and distance. There was no light, and no sounds to be heard other than their footfalls. Maybe they had come to the wrong place. Surely nothing could be living in a hole like this, at least nothing human. But there was no other explanation for its existence, so they kept on, unspeaking, thinking of what might be in front of them, and what was behind them.

Finally there was a change. They realized that they could see again, faintly. The end of the tunnel came into sight, an arched doorway leading into a wider room. Entering it they found a large rectangular chamber of bluish stone, with a number of arches and doorways branching off along the walls.

"Which way do we go, Daisuke?" V-mon asked. The group stood at the center of the room, evaluating their options.

"Let's—" Daisuke began, but before he could finish his thought the room was flooded from every direction with silent yellow-furred forms. There was no warning, preamble, or semblance of a strategic attack. The Hanumon simply rushed forward, some raising their rods of bone or clawed hands while others came on all fours, hopping and scurrying.

In the ensuing chaos there was no time for reflection or even for evolution. Takeru and Hikari instinctively jumped out of the way as a Hanumon's club smashed into the floor between them. A simian fist crashed into Armadimon's face as he leapt to his hind legs with a vague idea of defending Iori. V-mon launched himself head-first into a furry stomach as Daisuke ducked out of the way of clutching hands.

"Air Shot!"

"Neko Punch!"

"Sticky Net!"

To tell the truth, the unexpected assault had spooked them all. There was no way they were going to survive against so many Adult Digimon, and instinctively the Chosen Children made for the passages coming off the room as their partners covered them. But the Chosen Digimon couldn't hold out for long, and were soon forced to retreat, following their partners down whichever tunnel they had wound up in as the Hanumon gave chase without a sound.

It had happened a few weeks earlier. Daisuke was over at Taichi's apartment, the first time he saw his senior after the loss of the district tournament. He'd already spent a couple days in his own apartment, in a funk, playing video games because he wasn't quite ready to face his mentor, or anyone else, for that matter, after such an embarrassing defeat. Being around his family, whose opinions he didn't much respect, was bad enough. His parents hardly made any reference to it, but they didn't offer any condolences when they did. Jun nagged at him for being lazy and not getting out of the apartment. And he had come to hate more than dislike Caprimon, whose metal cones hummed extra loudly whenever she had a sudden craving for snacks. He could have sworn she did it on purpose just to annoy him.

In fact, it was probably Caprimon that eventually drove him out of the apartment, or at least in combination with his own tendency to remain active. Taichi was the first person he visited, out of a vague sense of obligation. He didn't expect sympathy, and he got very little.

"I heard about the competition," Taichi said, sprawled out on the sofa. "I don't know if you weren't taking it seriously, or what."

"Come on, Taichi-san! Of course I was serious."

Still, he didn't have another excuse for a 6-0 loss on the very first game. The conversation didn't go anywhere. Eventually Taichi turned on the television, and they sat in bored silence.

"Hikari-chan isn't here," Daisuke said, not really asking. She would have been polite enough to say hello if she was.

"No, she's out with Tailmon. They went bicycling."

"They've been gone a long time, haven't they?"

"I guess. Maybe they ran into someone."

Almost on cue the door opened, framing Hikari, who stepped inside and began removing her shoes as Tailmon bounded in.

"Ah! Hikari-chan!"

"Hello, Daisuke-kun," she said, looking up. Apparently she hadn't noticed him when she opened the door.

"How was it?" Taichi asked.

"It was fun."

"The weather is nice," Tailmon said.

Hikari agreed, adding, "And we met Takeru-kun playing basketball near the school."

"So that's what took so long," Taichi said.

"Did you – did you plan on meeting?" Daisuke asked.

"Huh? No, it was a coincidence," she replied. "Oh, I heard about your game, Daisuke-kun. I'm sorry you didn't win."

"…Yeah."

Taichi looked in Daisuke's direction, but said nothing. Tailmon followed Hikari into her room. Daisuke looked down at his feet, feeling suddenly restless. With the crisis in the Digital World over, his goals were fewer and farther between, and his boredom had been growing as he went back to a life without struggle. There hadn't been a real fight since March, when Armagemon showed up. Not that he wanted anything bad to happen; he just didn't like feeling so useless. The closest he came to that old feeling was playing soccer or playing his video games, like the Monster Quest RPG where he had named his party members Daisuke, Hikari, and V-mon.

Hikari-chan was part of his dissatisfaction, or rather the lack of her. She never did anything with him anymore, though in his mind it seemed like she was always hanging out with Takeru. At least this summer they hadn't taken a vacation together, like when they went to New York in 2002. Sure, Mimi had been with them, but just the two of them going to America? Without their family members or friends or anything? Who did that without it meaning something?

She was always nice to him, but he was just one friend out of many. Takeru was… well, what the hell was he?

It was when Taichi excused himself to go to the bathroom that Daisuke made his sudden decision. He got up and paused outside Hikari's door. It was standing open, but even so it didn't feel right at the moment to go on in. Had he ever even been in her room? He came over here more often than the Yagamis went to his place, but…

"Hey… Hikari-chan?"

"Yes, Daisuke-kun?" she responded, coming to the door and holding it open so she could see him.

"I was wondering, if, uh, maybe sometime, like tomorrow, if we could go to the beach or something?"

"The beach?" Her face was blank for a moment, then lit up in a smile. "Ah, who's going?"

"Well, I meant, just we would go."

"Just us? You don't think we'd get… bored?"

"No," he said, smiling. "I'm never bored when I'm with you."

He didn't know what reaction he was expecting. Maybe a smile, one of those upward turnings of the mouth that brightened the whole world, or maybe she would even say something – That's so sweet, Daisuke-kun. But she didn't. All he got was that blank expression again, the studied picture of bemusement as opposed to surprise.

It wasn't long after that he made his plans to visit New York. She wouldn't say so, but Hikari-chan didn't want to go to the beach with him. Everyone had something else to do; even Iori had a girlfriend now. So Daisuke took a vacation. Hikari and Takeru had gone to America last year, maybe to get away from him. Well, this time he would get away from them.

V-mon and Tailmon hurried towards their partners down the hallway, followed by the sounds of the Hanumon hitting themselves with their own bones under the spell of Cat's Eye.

"Where are the others?" Hikari asked.

"They must have gone a different way," Tailmon answered.

"Alright!" Daisuke said. "We'll break through the enemy and meet up with them!"

"Leave it to me, Daisuke!" V-mon said, turning around when Hikari cried out for him to wait.

"Why?" Daisuke asked.

"There's too many," Tailmon answered for her partner. "It may be quicker to find another way."

Daisuke made a frustrated sound and hesitated.

"Come on, Daisuke-kun," Hikari said. "There's no room for evolution here."

"Ahh…! – Fine, let's go. Come on, V-mon!"

The four made their way farther down the hall, turning into another hallway that seemed like it might lead back around to their friends. Here I am again, Daisuke thought, the memories of that day flashing disjointedly through his mind, Doing whatever Hikari-chan wants to do.