"The town is so beautiful!" Kokoroe exclaimed to Wizardmon. They had been walking down a battered stretch of the street where young digimon played a game with three metal rings. "Despite the damage and worn look, its beauty is simply screaming!"
- - - - - -
"It was good to see your brotherly intentions returning," Kanki said to Anchuu. He and Kudamon were walking just a bit in front of Kanki and Renamon. "I've been worried ever since Shinai and I started dating. You seemed to have lost some of your brotherly ways toward her. I was glad to se some of them tonight."
"Shut up, you idiot," Anchuu said. Kanki stopped walking in surprise. "You are so oblivious and idiotic. Quit your blabbering already. You shouldn't talk about things you know nothing about." Kanki, at a loss for words, watched as Anchuu and a surprised Kudamon disappeared around a corner.
- - - - - -
"Tanemon!" Tanshin shouted, running after the surprisingly-fast digimon. "Slow down!"
"Come on!" Tanemon replied playfully. "I thought you were fast!"
"I am!" Tanshin said. "I'm not used to running fast in sandals!" He shouted in surprise as one of his sandals flew away and made him lose his footing. Tanshin hit the ground hard, skidding a small distance. Tanemon ran to his side in a hurry.
"Tanshin, are you okay?" Tanemon asked. Tanshin didn't reply as the little digimon poked him. Suddenly, Tanshin's arms came up and grabbed the digimon tightly.
"Ha! I've got you now!" Tanshin shouted in victory. Tanemon squirmed, but couldn't get free. "You're not getting out. I'm used to having to hold a soccer ball tightly so the opposing team can't get it. You're not getting out of this death lock!"
- - - - - -
Tanomoshii chased after FanBeemon, who had taken his sport bag hostage. Tanomoshii, while an avid runner in track and soccer, was no match for FanBeemon's strong wings. "Come on already!" Tanomoshii shouted to his partner. He was so focused on FanBeemon that Tanomoshii didn't see someone come around the corner.
Tanomoshii fell backward as the person he had run into fell to their side. Tanomoshii sat up in a hurry, rubbing his head as he looked at the person in front of him. He gasped and grew very pale as Shinzen got to her feet. She looked down at Tanomoshii with a laugh. "Having some trouble with your partner?" she asked. Tanomoshii didn't respond. He couldn't believe he had run into, of all people, Shinzen. She whistled and waved her hand in front of Tanomoshii's face. "Hey there, you okay?"
"Oh, yes!" Tanomoshii said, nodding hurriedly.
"Good," Shinzen said. "If you're okay, do you think you could hand me my hat?" Tanomoshii looked in horror at his foot, which was firmly planted on Shinzen's fuzzy blue hat.
He lifted his foot in a hurry and picked up the hat, dusting it furiously. "I'm sorry, sorry, sorry!" he said. Shinzen snatched it from him and placed it on her head.
"Gee, calm down," she said. "You get too worked up."
"Sorry," Tanomoshii said meekly as he stared to the ground. Shinzen looked over at FanBeemon and Elecmon, then turned back to Tanomoshii.
She cocked an eyebrow at him and said, "So, are you planning on sitting down there forever?" Tanomoshii shook his head and jumped to his feet. He reached over and grabbed his bag from FanBeemon, who spun a bit in the air from it. Shinzen looked back down at Elecmon and smiled. "Say, you two want to tag along?" Tanomoshii grew red in the face.
"Tag along?" Tanomoshii thought. "With Shinzen? Shinzen just asked me to tag along?" He felt like he was going to burst. "Sounds fun!" he finally said.
- - - - - -
Seimei and Lopmon stayed close to the building that was their home for the night. They walked in silent circles around the building, not acknowledging those who passed. Soon, her circles changed and, for no particular reason, she strayed away from the building. Lopmon didn't notice at first, but he soon fell in step behind her. The further they walked from the building, the more uneasy Lopmon became. He didn't understand Seimei's impulse to separate from the building, but the more they walked in silence, the more he worried for her. Eventually, he hurried to walk alongside her. He took her hand and was surprised to find that she didn't react. "Seimei, are you okay?" he asked.
"Help me..." The two of them stopped in surprised. They looked for the origin of the voice, and were surprised at what they found crouched at the corner of a building.
- - - - - -
Shoki found Tokomon on a balcony rather high up on the building. She quickly forgot her worries of losing him when she saw the view. "It's beautiful," she said with a soft breath. She gripped the railing tightly as she scanned the twinkling lights below and around them. Tokomon looked up at her excitedly.
"It sure is beautiful," he said. He leaned back through the openings in the railing and gazed around.
"Hope..." Tokomon looked up. Shoki's happy expression had been replaced with an expression of somber remembrance. "Lights burn brightest in the eve of darkness, and from that darkness grows the hope of tomorrow's sun."
"Who said that?" Tokomon asked, assuming she was quoting someone.
She frowned and looked squarely at the railing. "My mother said that," she replied. "She said that the night before she left, when she tucked me in for the last time."
"Good words," Tokomon said. "It's quite true, you know. I've been witness to that many times before."
"I've never believed it," Shoki said. Her eyes grew dark as she straightened up. "After she left, I was never able to believe anything she ever said."
"But, believe that you must," said a firm and heavy voice. Shoki turned in surprise to see Saggitarimon standing just behind them. How he had come up behind them without them hearing the hooves, Tokomon couldn't figure out. "Your mother's words are true. Hope does, indeed, grow from darkness. You should not let negative emotions and feelings of hate impede upon such true words." The centaur digimon came closer, causing Shoki to try and back away. She was, however, stopped by the railing. Saggitarimon stopped. "You needn't fear me, little one."
"Sorry," Shoki said. She stared at the ground in front of her. "It's hard to not hate my mother for everything she did and didn't do. Likewise, it's hard to believe anything she said or did. After all, if someone can just... LEAVE like that, with no warning and no consideration for those they will hurt, how can you honestly believe them?"
"It is understandable, child," Saggitarimon said. "A wounded heart never truly heals, and an open wound can take ages to close. That is the way of things, unfortunately, no matter the world you live in."
"But it doesn't mean you should accept it," Tokomon said. Shoki bent down and picked him up. "After all," he continued, "An accepted wound will be a wound forever. If it is not accepted, something will be done against it and it will spur something else to try and heal it." With Tokomon in one arm and a hand on the railing, Shoki leaned back with a smile.
"My, you're very specific, aren't you?" she said in amusement. Suddenly, she felt her heart stop.
- - - - - -
For a good part of their walk, Tomo and Gatomon walked contently side-by-side, talking like age-old friends. As they walked back, Tomo insisted that Gatomon ride on his shoulders. They spent the return walk in silence, until Gatomon's ears perked and the hairs on her back stood straight up. Tomo hadn't noticed the change and was quite unprepared when he saw a very black version of her. This cat was purple and black and stared at them with menacing yellow-gold eyes.
"Hello," the cat said with a sickeningly sweet voice. "Humans are becoming a common occurrence here. How lovely. Tell me human, is you little kitty partner trained well?" Tomo heard Gatomon begin to growl dangerously. "Please, do tell. Does she flip on command? Oh, another question: Which crest do you have?" Gatomon suddenly leapt from Tomo's shoulder and landed in front of him.
"Nice kitty," said a voice. From seemingly out of nowhere stepped a beautiful teenage girl with shoulder-length green hair that flowed mainly to her right shoulder. There was a large spot of blue on her hair, but what caught Tomo's attention the most was the girl's large amethyst eyes. "You must be Tomo, the descendent of Kari Kamiya, the eighth digidestined and the digidestined of light."
"Uh, I am," Tomo said. He was surprised, to say the least.
The girl smiled. "I am Sen, and this is BlackGatomon. We'll be taking your crest now."
- - - - - -
"Seimei, I don't like this," Lopmon said. It was the seventh time he had said so, and Seimei had stopped responding after the third time. The one who had asked for help was a human teenage boy with scruffy hair and a red hat. His right arm was badly scratched and Seimei was wrapping the worst of the scratches in her handkerchief.
With the knot tight, but not too much so, Seimei sat back on her heels as stared at the boy. "How did you get here?" she asked. "Are you alone?" The boy didn't respond. He seemed afraid, and almost in a daze. "Well, I'm Seimei. What's your name?" The boy finally snapped his stare to her face and was promptly lost in her eyes. Again, he didn't respond. "Lopmon, we need to get him to the others," Seimei said to the rabbit digimon next to her.
"No," Lopmon replied. "Bad idea. I don't have a good feeling about this guy."
"He's obviously lost and confused," Seimei argued. "We can't leave him, and I won't." Seimei gently took the boy's uninjured arm into hers. "Come on, I'm going to get you some help." The boy didn't respond, but stood almost autonomously. Seimei walked slowly, as to make sure the boy didn't fall. At first, his arm was limp in hers. Then, much to her surprise, the boy gripped it and held on with almost a need to feel protected or secure. Lopmon grew more nervous at this gesture, but as they came closer to the building that was their evening home, his worries seemed to lessen. If this boy was evil or a threat, he surely would have done something back in the secluded alleys.
- - - - - -
Shoki's heart stopped as, suddenly, the solidity of the railing was lost beneath her. She felt the cool night air become frighteningly cold as her body fell into the air below. The only thing that stopped her was her frozen hand on the broken railing. She glanced below her to the openness and felt her heart begin to beat furiously. She found the air in her lungs and screamed.
- - - - - -
"Despite the damage and worn look, it's beauty is simply screaming!" When Shoki's screamed penetrated the cheerful atmosphere, Wizardmon became defensive and Kokoroe worried. "I didn't mean it literally!" Wizardmon took Kokoroe's wrist and pulled her along the quickly-emptying streets.
Tanshin and Tanemon hadn't recognized Shoki's cry, but its signal of danger threw them in a fury to the streets as they ran headlong into the crowd that rushed to the scene.
Shinzen and Tanomoshii were trailing their much-faster partners as they, too, raced to the origin of the scream.
Anchuu had unexpectedly run into Shinai and Mushroomon as they ran. The group was shortly joined by Evelomon, who informed them that Roten and Diatrymon had run ahead of her a while back.
The two of them were fast, but it was Renamon and Kanki who arrived first. They arrived on the roof with a snap and watched as Shoki hung for her life far from Saggitarimon's reach. Renamon leapt down and, as she descended, wrapped her arm around the frightened girl. They landed safely on the ground beneath. There stood Seimei and Lopmon, along with a boy neither digimon nor Shoki had ever seen.
"Shoki, are you okay?" Seimei asked. Shoki wordlessly nodded. Now everyone was at the scene, save for Tomo, Denkou, their partners, and Seidaku. After everyone asked Shoki if she was all right, their attention focused on the new kid.
"So, who's this?" Kanki asked as Renamon set him down.
"I don't know," Seimei said. She found that the boy still wouldn't release her arm, and now he was holding onto it with a firm, yet gentle, grip. He seemed almost fearful of everyone, or maybe just the digimon. "Lopmon and I found him. He hasn't said anything, and seems almost in a daze. We should get him to Seid-" Everyone gasped and hit the ground when the building behind them, the building that was supposed to be their home for the night, exploded.
- - - - - -
Shoki's scream hadn't gone unheard by Tomo and Gatomon, but they had a problem of their own. The dark Gatomon look-a-like was named BlackGatomon and was attacking them ferociously. Gatomon did her best against her dark counterpart, but found herself quickly overtaken. Tomo, meanwhile, had his attention on the girl named Sen. She quickly proved to be a karate student or something as she launched leg and arm at Tomo. He used every skill he had in soccer to avoid her, but just like Gatomon he found himself to be quickly overtaken. Both of them hit the ground hard, being thrown into the wall with a tremendous force. Before Tomo realized what was happening, Sen reached out and took his bag. He watched numbly as she searched around in it for his crest. She impatiently dumped out the bag in the street, the first item to hit being the silver box that held his crest of light.
Sen brushed aside the rest of the bag's contents and grabbed the box. "How lovely," she said. Then, her smirk twisted into rage as the seam around the box disappeared.
"Looks like only HE can open it," BlackGatomon said. "You'll have to get him to open it first."
"It's a handy little trick that the guardians have here," Sen said. She pulled Tomo's hands out and placed the box in them. She then maneuvered them to open it as the seam reappeared. Just as she got his nails inside the seam, she felt a swift kick throw her legs out from under her. Tomo kicked her away and held onto the box for dear life as BlackGatomon leapt at him. She stumbled as Gatomon's foot connected with the black cat's face. Digimon and partner got to their feet and tried to run. They could only watch as Sen and BlackGatomon gained on them. They would have caught up, too, had a long white snake not appeared in front of them.
Sen screamed, seemingly fearful of snakes, as Quetzalmon positioned himself between the two pairs. "Tomo, Gatomon, hurry and leave," he said. They had only paused a moment when they heard Sen's scream, and were promptly back in the fastest run they could manage. They never heard or saw a thing more until they grew near to the scene of the explosion.
Saggitarimon and several other Digimon plunged into the fire in search of those who might still be inside. Orcamon and other water-friendly Digimon began to douse the flames. The digidestined also lent a hand. Diatrymon was using his powerful legs to kicks dirt onto the lower flames. Lopmon digivolved into Turuiemon and was spinning like a whirlwind very close to the flames, absorbing a lot of them and causing them to fade. Mushroomon made it a point to stay as far from the flames as possible while Wizardmon used his magic to try and weaken it.
The Digimon, however, couldn't stop the building from collapsing. The digimon inside escaped in time while those outside got away before the flames and debris engulfed them. The digidestined were fearful for Seidaku and, to a lesser extent, Kodimon. Their fears only worsened when, out of the wreckage, leapt the large purple Grizzlymon. He seemed to be focused on something other than them, however.
What he was concentrating on leapt out of the debris shortly after Grizzlymon. It was Kodimon, looking no worse for the wear. He and Grizzlymon were consumed in their hand-to-hand battle. As they fought they sent burning debris all around and into the crowds of digimon. Diatrymon and Wizardmon blew away the debris that came toward their group. As the two bears fought on, the crowd of digimon disappeared and left only the guardian digimon of the crests. Quetzalmon wasn't among them, and the reason for that came busting into the group of digidestined shortly after.
Tomo and Gatomon made a staggering entrance, bowling right into Shoki and Tanshin. They explained, each in two breaths, about the girl named Sen and the BlackGatomon. Boarmon had heard the explanation as he came over to them. "So, it's them again," Boarmon said gruffly. "We've seen them sneaking around. They work for Soritamon, along with that Grizzlymon and his partner." When his beady eyes fell on the boy that still clung to Seimei's arm, Boarmon grunted and stomped his foot. "Get away from him! He works for Soritamon, too!" Seimei couldn't believe Boarmon's words. She looked at the boy, who's dazed, blank eyes stared at the fight in the fire fearfully. "Get away from him Seimei!" Boarmon said again. "He's Grizzlymon's partner!"
"No, you must be mistaken," Seimei said. "Just look at him." Suddenly, a bright glow began to emanate from a dark red and black digivice that was attached to the boy's black pants. The light disappeared with the blank look in his eyes. With a look of sudden surprise and realization, the boy jumped up and grabbed Seimei around the neck. He held her in front of him, looking at the strange faces around him. Seimei, in her shock, stayed silent. Turuiemon flipped his gauntlets down and took an offensive stance.
"Let her go," the digimon said in a low growl. The boy didn't answer as he slowly began to back away. He looked out to the battle. Grizzlymon had gained the upper hand and was driving Kodimon into the burning rubble.
"Grizzlymon! Get over here and get me out!" the boy shouted. Grizzlymon looked at him and, in a very begrudging manner, left the fires with one great leap. He landed behind the boy, who had leaned in toward Seimei's ear. In a whisper, he said, "You showed me kindness when there was none. You took care of me. For that, I thank you." Seimei nodded shallowly. As he loosened his grip, he whispered quickly into her ear. "My name is Hikage." Then, he tore his arm from her neck. She stumbled into Turuiemon's arms while Grizzlymon wrapped one of his own around Hikage. "Let's get Sen." The two leapt into the air, but weren't in the clear.
"Thunder of the Kings!" A great lightning bolt came from a dark figure just beyond the ruined building. It struck Grizzlymon's side, opposite the one Hikage was on. Into the light leapt a great, wild-looking lion. On its back was Denkou, who had a firm grip on something. Grizzlymon disappeared over the buildings, regardless of the attack. The lion digimon came to a halt in front of the others. It bent down so that Denkou could get off, carrying Seidaku wrapped in Kodimon's cape. They were further surprised to see a very battered Quetzalmon slink from the lion's back to the ground. The lion devolved into Leormon, who instantly joined Evelomon at Denkou's side.
Seidaku was unconscious, but otherwise seemed fine. "I think she hit her head when the explosion went off," Leormon said. "I know I hit mine."
"Were you in there when it exploded?" Roten asked as the guardian digimon helped Kodimon out of the wreckage. "What happened to you guys?"
- - - - - -
Earlier that evening, Kodimon had fallen asleep while Seidaku occupied herself by trying to braid her hair. After several unsuccessful attempts, she threw her hair over her shoulder and went out to one of the lower balconies. From there she watched Seimei's many circles around the building before the girl disappeared into the streets. It took Seidaku a while to realize she wasn't alone.
She jumped when Denkou stepped beside her. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"Oh, you just surprised me," Seidaku said. "I didn't think anyone would come back so quickly." Denkou leaned on the railing and looked out to the streets. Seidaku looked for Leormon and barely caught a glimpse of his tail as he went inside. "I'll guess that Leormon's tired," she said as she leaned on the railing. While Denkou was leaning forward on the railing, Seidaku leaned with her back to it.
With a soft blush that when unnoticed by either of them, Denkou looked up at Seidaku and asked, "How long, exactly, have you been in the digital world?"
Seidaku didn't dare to look at him. Instead, she stared into the darkened sky. "There's no way of knowing. I lost track ever so many years ago, and the conversion of time between the real world and the digital world has been changed so many times that it's impossible to tell that way. So, there's really no telling."
"There's no telling how old you are?" Seidaku nodded at Denkou's question.
"Let's just say I'm at least a hundred Earth years old," she said. "That could probably translate into over 5,000 years here in the digital world, all things considered."
Denkou whistled. "Wow, that's something," he said. "'All things considered?' What's that mean?"
"Well, during the first generation's time, the digital world moved much faster than the real world. Time was synchronized at the end of that generation and through all of the second generation's time. Then, something happened and a second digital world was created. The first digital world was sucked into the new one and we who survived had to adjust. Time desynchronized at that time, and every two digital days was one Earth day. That was how it was during the time of the third generation, but they only spent a couple Earth days in the digital world. Then, during the time of the fourth generation time increased exponentially. I think it might have been Ophanimon's doing, so that the digidestined wouldn't be missed in the real world."
Denkou nodded in shallow understanding. Seidaku pushed herself from the railing and said, "I'm going in for the night." Denkou followed, but no sooner had they gotten in had Kodimon grabbed them and jumped out of the building with flames at his heels.
- - - - - -
Denkou looked up at Roten, and then to everyone else. "Leormon and I had gone back," he explained. "Seidaku and I talked for a bit, and then went in. Kodimon grabbed us and got us out just as it was exploding. Grizzlymon had put a bomb in while Kodimon was sleeping. Leormon had found it. After that, Kodimon gave me his cape for Seidaku and went to fight Grizzlymon. Leormon digivolved into Raiamon and I wrapped up Seidaku. Then we went in search of all of you. We found Quetzalmon in pretty rough shape, so we brought him back with us."
"Sounds to me like Kodimon is a hero," Elecmon said. "Good work pal!" Kodimon nodded as he sat near the group.
"Some of us are trying to sleep," Seidaku said in a groggy voice. She cracked open her eyes and saw everyone staring at her. "What's everyone looking at?" She tilted her head back and saw the ruined building. She groaned and said, "I'm going back to sleep." The others just chuckled at their valiant leader.