Chapter 27: Crest of Serenity

Wargreymon, Imperialdramon, and I all rushed the last Megaswordmon at once. We attacked in a massive storm of firepower which shattered the rocks on the side of the cliff face and obliterated the last of Myotismon's fiends. Facing four mega-level digimon and only being an ultimate himself, Myotismon fled like lightning without a word. His hostage digimon wouldn't have been able to protect him from all four of us at once.

Tai bolted across the rocky terrain toward Kari, as we all did, running at top speed but without any idea what we could do. Tai made it there first and fell down next to her now unconscious form, but two strong hands grabbed him and kept him from trying to pick her up.

"Don't touch her!" the words were spoken by Shark, in English, so there was no way Tai could understand except by the fact that the boy was holding him back.

"Don't touch her," Shark repeated calmly, the meaning of the strange words translated by the act of holding Tai back and the calmness in his voice. As soon as Tai was able to collect himself, Shark let him go and looked around. Finding Ken, he said, "Use that kid's laptop, go back to the school, and call an ambulance." Shark tossed Ken a phone.

"But what if . . ." Ken started to protest, but was cut off.

"Just go!" Shark commanded firmly, but surprisingly not angrily. He signaled Will and Mimi to come over.

"I can't speak Japanese, so you have to translate. We have to do whatever possible to move that sword as little as possible. That means that we have to pick her up, keep her body level, and carry her through the port. Tell them."

Mimi quickly relayed the message to everyone. We all looked around, not sure if this was the right course of action.

"Guys, Shark says that he's dealt with injuries like this before," Will tried to explain to us. "He knows what to do. C'mon," and with that Will walked over to Kari and kneeled down next to her head. Several others of us gathered around. Ken had already gone through the portal Izzy had opened, and now he brought the laptop over to us. Several of the humans carefully slid their hands under Kari and picked her up, ignoring the blood, and slowly moved through the portal. We followed closely behind and soon found ourselves in the computer lab of the school again, unsure of what to do next.

The people who hadn't helped to carry her came through one by one, Shark first. He immediately walked over to Kari and placed his hands on either side of the sword's blade. He pressed down slightly, making a small spurt of blood come up and causing Tai to gasp. He said something to Will in English, which Will promptly translated.

"We have to put pressure on it, to reduce the bleeding," Will said.

Tai's face was ghostly white. We all were scared half to death, but I could only imagine what it must have been like for Tai. He and Kari were always so close.

The ambulance arrived almost within a minute of our return. They carefully set Kari down on the stretcher and the med people removed the sword, replacing it with a smooth wooden board, again to restrict the loss of blood, as Shark would later explain through translation.

The doctor briefly told Tai which hospital they were taking her to as she was carted quickly out of the room. Tai just nodded slowly, almost to shocked to respond.

"Will, tell the doctor that Tai's her brother," Shark said. The doctor looked up.

"Oh, not needed. I speak English a little," the doctor said in English, and he took Tai's arm and led him away toward the ambulance too.
"What now?" Matt asked. He looked around the room. Nobody seemed to want to suggest anything.

Shark got a translation of the short question from Will, and told him something else, again in English.

"Shark says we should just go to the hospital now," Will said quietly. "Also, someone needs to call Kari's parents." Nobody protested. Nobody else had any real idea of what to do next. Without a word, Joe pulled out a cell phone and walked away from the group. We all began to file out of the room. As we left, Shark picked up Gatomon, who was shaking very badly, and gently stroked her head, trying to calm her down. I have to admit, I misjudged Shark before. Despite his appearance, he was a good person.

We wandered down the street for what seemed like an eternity. The hospital wasn't far away at all, but we were still in a daze. None of our friends had ever been injured that badly. We were confronted by the thought that she might not make it, and for the first time there was nothing we could do about it.

We found Tai in the waiting room at the hospital, staring at the floor. Matt and Sora sat next to him and tried to talk to him. Tai was doing his best to stay hopeful, but nobody was sure how bad the injury actually was. There was nothing that any of us could do but wait.

Everyone seemed so afraid, more so than at any time I could remember. When Kari and Tai's parents arrived, they seemed just as distraught. All the doctors would say was that she was in the emergency room. After a few minutes, a doctor asked Tai and his parents to come back with him. I looked over at Matt, thinking that it could be something really bad.

"It's just a blood transfusion, Gabumon," Matt said. "Tai and Kari apparently have the same blood type, so they're going to borrow some of his blood to try and help her." I nodded, understanding. Tai returned a few minutes later.

Sitting there waiting to find out what would happen was the hardest thing I had ever done. It made me think back to when I had first met Kari. Myotismon had trapped our area of the city in a blanket of fog, and Matt's father had left him and me in a warehouse for safety. Tai found us there, bringing Kari with him, and told us that she was the missing digidestined child we had been looking for. She was only eight then. She and TK were the youngest members of our group. Now, of course, Cody is the youngest, but I still remember how little Kari seemed when we were fighting Myotismon before. Had we really changed so little in five years?

The clock said that two hours passed, but it seemed like so much longer. I was sitting silently next to Matt, who was still talking quietly with Tai. Every time the door had opened for the past two hours, everyone had looked up only to see a nurse passing through or some other person moving to or from a room. But this time a doctor came out and stopped just outside the door. He looked toward Kari's parents, who were standing near the door, anxiously awaiting news of their daughter. Now we all stared at the doctor, hoping against all hope that he would say exactly what he said.

"She'll be alright," he said softly. Everyone sighed happily. Gatomon looked up, wanting to know when we could see her again.

"She lost a lot of blood, and right now she needs to rest. Fortunately no vital organs were damaged. She was very lucky," the doctor summarized. "She's still sleeping, but we'll let the family go to see her." Tai got up and took Gatomon from Shark. They smiled at each other in a way that needed no translation, and Tai followed his parents through the door towards Kari's room.