Disclaimer: I don't own digimon.
Chapter 5: New Allies
As the five open their eyes, they saw familiar territory. The four-coloured skies and tiles proved it all. This is no ordinary place. This is one where the four Holy Beasts resides.
"Is everyone fine?" asked their leader, Takato, after the shock has settled in.
"Yes…" the rest replied.
"So, what now?"
"…"
"We should find Zhuqiaomon."
"What?" Ruki raised a protest. "Zhuqiaomon was all out to kill us the last time…"
"What do you suggest then?" asked Jianliang, who seemingly agreed to Takato's idea.
"Hmpf…" she crossed her arms. "Fine then…"
The five of them started towards the South Gate.
"Tamers!" a loud voice boomed as they looked into the sky. The sky was covered by a huge Chinese dragon. Its body is light blue and covered with silver chains. Its head is characterised by its long beard and horn. Surrounding each of its four tiny legs are three blue orbs.
"Qinglongmon!"
"Takato!"
"Ruki!"
"Jian!"
"Shaochung!"
The four turned to find their partners heading for them with Guilmon carrying the two bunny digimon on his head and the duo waving with their huge ears.
"Guilmon!"
"Terriermon!"
"Lopmon!"
The three embraced their partners as two years of separation was hard for them to bear.
"Renamon!" Ruki rushed forward. She was opening her hands up but hesitated. It wasn't her personality to give Renamon a hug. Unexpectedly, Renamon stepped forward and embraced Ruki. "Renamon…" "Ruki…"
The foursome spent a little time in bonding with their digimon again like they were long-lost siblings.
Qinglongmon turned to the tamers, Juri in particular, and spoke. "Tamers, time has come for another clash of powers. Juri, don't worry, you'll get your wish soon enough…"
Her mouth dropped. Leomon… He will come back to me? But he was… she stopped pondering and continued listening to Qinglongmon.
"Darkness and evil will rise again… You need to get prepared. First, you must meet them."
"Hey!" a shout came from afar.
The five tamers looked afar and saw another group of people with digimon.
"Chosen Children, meet the Tamers."
"Tamers?"
"Chosen Children?"
The group of Chosen Children continued forward until they reached the tamers. Taichi moved forward a step. "Taichi, Yagami Taichi." he said as he moved his hands forward.
Takato followed suit. "Takato, Matsuda Takato."
The two boys shook hands.
Ruki crossed her arms.
"Who needs them anyway?" she scoffed.
"What did you say?" came a voice from within the Chosen Children group. Daisuke stepped forward.
"We don't need you!" She continued her verbal assault, "Your digimon look weak."
"Why you!" Daisuke clenched his hands.
She chuckled. She played well with Daisuke's mind and got what she wanted.
"I challenge you to a battle. What do you say?"
"You're on."
"Ruki…"
"Daisuke…"
The cries of their friends are too futile to stop the two proud teenagers.
"Renamon."
"V-mon."
The two digimon stood in front of their partner. The rest have already cleared away, since they had little chance in stopping the challenge and most of them wanted to see the power of the other team.
Ruki pulled out her D-arc. "V-mon. Child Level. His special attack is V-mon Head."
"Go, Renamon."
"Daisuke!" He nodded.
"Digimental up!"
"V-mon… armour evolve! The Fire of Courage, Fladramon."
Ruki stood, wide-mouthed, but gained her composure as she eyed at her D-arc again. "Fladramon. Armour level. His special attack is Fire Rocket, in which he rams into his enemy with his flames."
"Armour level. Pathetic."
"What?"
"Renamon!"
Renamon charged at Fladramon as he crossed his arms, waiting for the impact, but she took off into the air just before hitting Fladramon. "Koyosetsu!"
A barrage of small crystal-like daggers shot towards Fladramon but he managed to react in time to withstand the attack with his hands defensively in front of himself. He removed his hands when the barrage stopped and saw Renamon landing gracefully onto the ground.
Fladramon burst into flames as he darted towards Renamon to catch her off guard. "Fire Rocket!"
Ruki was quick to see this.
"Card Slash! High Speed plug-in B!"
Renamon evaded Fladramon easily as another card was slashed.
"Card Slash! YukiAgumon's Frozen Wind!"
Renamon cupped her hands together as she launched an ice beam straight at Fladramon.
"Using the attack… of another digimon?" Taichi voiced out the shock that rushed into every member of the Chosen Children.
Fladramon powered up the fire around him to try to withhold the ice attack.
"You can do it, Fladramon!" cheered Daisuke from the sidelines.
Fladramon managed to push through the ice beam and used his sharp claws to slice it apart and dissipate the attack.
"Is that all you got?" taunted Fladramon, showing signs of fatigue.
"…"
Renamon charged forward again but Fladramon was quick to read her move, and launched two fistful of fire straight towards her.
"Oh no…"
Ruki quickly held her D-arc high in the air as her right hand went to pick up a card from her deck which is stored in a pouch by her waist. She pulled the D-arc down as she slid the card into the card slot of the D-arc.
"Card Slash! Alias!"
The two fire shots hit the image of Renamon as Fladramon gasped. He heard a similar gasp from the Chosen Children as they watch Ruki do the card slash for the third time.
Renamon appeared behind Fladramon and got a clear shot at her target. "Koyosetsu!"
The same barrage of crystals shot from Renamon and hit their mark, embedding themselves into Fladramon. Fladramon collapsed as a bright light shone from him before he de-evolved into V-mon.
"Renamon, finish the fight."
All parties are shocked to hear her cold words. "Ruki!" the protests were coming from the tamers.
"As you wish. Koyosetsu!" Renamon said as she dutifully obeyed her partner.
"Stop!"
"V-mon!"
"Ruki!"
"Card Slash! High Speed Plug-in H! Hyper Speed!"
A whitish-green blur hit straight at Renamon as her attack flew off course, missing the helpless V-mon completely.
A growl came from Ruki as she called Renamon off. "That's enough…"
Ruki stepped forward towards Daisuke. She looked into his eyes, sensing his fear. She reached out her hand and her look softened. "Sorry… I was a bit rash there… Sorry if I scared you…"
Daisuke could feel the sincerity in her apologies and shook her hand. "Apology accepted."
The two then backed off from each other and move back into their individual teams.
"Chosen Children, Tamers. Follow me." boomed Qinglongmon as he moved towards the East, with the Chosen Children and Tamers following him. "And you'll find the answers you're seeking for…"
As the teams walked, Hikari stayed close to Taichi and kept her distance from both Daisuke and Takeru. However, she couldn't help but peep in the direction of the boys to see how they're doing. (Sigh) Relationship problems are tough…
"Hikari, are you okay?" Taichi asked, hearing her sigh.
"Yes…" she replied with a monotonous voice as thoughts flooded her mind.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes…"
The journey continued in silence, however, the thoughts that filled the minds of each of the Chosen Children and Tamers are plentiful.
Why are we called?
Hikari…
Ruki… Why did you attack V-mon? I thought after all that, you should understand…
Katou-san… Why… Why do I keep thinking about you?
Daisuke-kun… Be strong… I didn't mean to hurt you… Neither did Ruki…
Why did I call her to attack? Why? I thought I knew better not to…
What's with Ruki? She has a dark and cold heart just like I had during my Kaiser days…
That Ruki girl… Why? Why did she have to fight Daisuke? I hate fighting…
Jian-niichan…
The group halted as they reached the Eastern sector.
"Welcome…"
"…"
"Why are we here?" queried Daisuke.
"Daisuke-kun… Don't be rude…" Takeru quipped.
"It's fine… We need the powers of you, who wield the powers to quell the darkness and evil that is rising in the Digital World."
"But… there's no sign of rising darkness…" Hikari said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"The darkness will rise soon enough… The Child of Light and Hope will be their primary targets…"
"Hikari and Takeru?"
"I don't know…"
"What do you mean?"
"It's all I can tell you for now. All will be clear tomorrow. It's late now so please rest, your rooms are up ahead."
Everyone looked forward and saw a small hut-like structure ahead of them.
"It'll be a long night…"
The group proceeded towards the hut as two separate groups. Shaochung held onto Jianliang tightly as she was afraid of the others. She had come to a familiar territory but the new group have scared her.
"Shaochung…"
"Lopmon…"
The small hut-like structure was actually not as bad as the group have imagined it to be. The interior is made up of a room with a total of 17 beds. The 17 beds are lined in one straight row and now it was time to choose the sleeping arrangements for the night. There is also a dining room and a small balcony, with a hall linking all the three areas.
"Any preferences, anyone?" asked Taichi.
"Beside Ken!" a loud voice hailed as the young man's face flush red.
"Anyone else?"
"Beside H-…" Daisuke was about to speak but suddenly was deep in thought before he continued. "Forget it…"
"Daisuke?" Miyako asked, not expecting his reply to Taichi's question. He was about to say Hikari but… Why did he stop? Why?
As she eyed towards Hikari, she saw her nodding slightly at Daisuke's words. Something must've happened…
"Beside big brother." Teenage Takeru was missing his brother a lot due to the fact that they go to different schools and that they live quite a distance from each other. Takeru found it hard to find time to visit his brother and now is a perfect time to bond together.
"Anybody else?" he asked, eyeing at the Chosen Children.
All shook their heads as he spoke.
"Alright. Tamers, take the five beds to that end and we'll take the rest."
They nodded in agreement.
"Then the arrangement would be like this: Jyou, Mimi, Koushiro, me, Hikari, Takeru, Yamato, Iori, Daisuke, Ken, Miyako … Agreed?"
Nods were coming from everyone in the team.
Hikari sighed. She haven't told Taichi about the fateful events so he still thought she was still the best of friends with Takeru and… (Sigh) I'll have to live with it… At least for the night…
Meanwhile, the tamers have decided their arrangement for the night, with Takato nearest to the chosen children group, followed by Jianliang, Shaochung, Ruki and Juri.
"Gather, everyone!" came a shout from Taichi. "Since we are going to have to work together for some time, we need to get to know one another."
The group sat down in a circle. "We can start introducing ourselves and our stories." Everyone was impatient to hear the stories of the other group.
"I am Yagami Taichi, 16. I'm the leader of the Chosen Children group and possess the crest of courage in our first adventure."
"Crest?"
"Crests are physical representations of each of our best qualities and it gives us power to evolve our digimon beyond the Adult Level."
"You mean your digimon can't achieve the Perfect level without the crests?"
"Yes… During our first adventure but there were other ways we could in the second adventure."
"Second Adventure?"
"Could you hold your questions for later? We will got through the whole story."
Takato nodded as he kept quiet.
"Let's continue then. Agumon here is my partner. My encounter with digimon actually was as far back as when I was 7 when Hikari and I raised a Koromon. It was returned to the Digital World after a fight with Parrotmon where it evolved into Greymon."
"Hi, everyone!" Agumon said cheerfully.
"I'm Ishida Yamato, 16. I am the bearer of the crest of friendship. My partner here is Gabumon."
"Hi." Gabumon spoke shyly.
"We had our first real adventure in summer camp when I was 11. We received digivices and were sent to the Digital World. We met with our partners at File Island. That was the beginning of an unforgettable journey."
"Everyone, I'm Izumi Koushiro, 15. I hold the crest of knowledge and this here is my partner Tentomon."
"Hi, everyone." Tentomon said as he waved his arm around, earning a few chuckles from the tamers.
"We started at File Island and eliminated Devimon, who was using dark gears to corrupt digimon. However, it did come with a painful price…" He eyed at Takeru, not knowing whether he should continue.
Patamon flew up from atop Takeru's hat. "I sacrificed myself to protect Takeru." Patamon said solemnly as the memory was and will always be burned deep into his mind.
A rush of silence befell the group, especially Juri, who was reminded of Leomon. "Leomon…"
"Leomon did a similar thing for Katou-san and us…" Takato said, putting his hand on Juri's shoulder to calm her.
Hikari watched as Takeru nodded in silence. She was still concerned for him like she was for everyone else. It seems as though the scar on Takeru was so deep that it was impossible for him to totally suppress the painful memories.
"I'll continue. My name's Takenouchi Sora, 16, holder of the crest of love and my partner is Piyomon."
"Hi."
"After Devimon's defeat, we were called by an old man called Gennai to Sever, the main continent of the Digital World. We were able to obtain our crests and the shining of the crest of courage from Taichi evolved Greymon to MetalGreymon to defeat Etemon, who was expanding his dark network across the continent of Server. After that, Taichi got back into the Real World and our group split up as a result."
"Hi. I'm Tachikawa Mimi, 15, holder of the crest of purity. My partner here is Palmon."
"Hi."
"Taichi returned to the Digital World later and we got back together as our crests each shined once. We then met with Vamdemon who went to the real world to search for the prophesised eighth child who would cause his downfall. We followed shortly afterwards and began our search for the eighth child. This led to the infamous incident where Vamdemon engulfed Odaiba in fog."
"Hello, everyone. I'm Kido Jyou, 17, holder of the crest of sincerity and this is Gomamon, my partner."
"Hi everyone!" Gomamon cried out enthusiastically.
"Hi!" Terriermon and Guilmon waved back, resulting in sweatdrops for their respective tamers.
"Okay… I'll continue… We found out the eighth child is Hikari-chan, Taichi's sister and that Tailmon, who worked for Vamdemon is her partner digimon. Vamdemon found that out too and tried to kill Hikari before… Wizarmon sacrificed himself… that's when the crest of light shined and Angewomon rose to defeat Vamdemon. Vamdemon was later revived to VenomVamdemon but the arrows of hope and light gave the power for Agumon and Gabumon to evolve to Ultimate level and defeat VenomVamdemon with the help of the digivice."
"Hi. My name's Yagami Hikari, 13, and I hold the crest of light and this is my partner, Tailmon."
"Hi." she greeted.
"After that, we went back to the Digital World to defeat the four dark masters, Pinochimon, MetalSeadramon, Mugendramon and Piemon. It was then when we lost a lot of our friends in the battle… Chuumon… Piccolomon… Whamon… Leomon…"
It seemed that the word Leomon shook Juri suddenly as she knocked into Takato beside her. Both blushed slightly from that. "Sorry."
"We almost lost our lives at the battle with Piemon… But Takeru-kun's crest shone and HolyAngemon saved us." she said, pausing slightly at her own mention of Takeru's name.
"My name's Takaishi Takeru, 13, holder of the crest of hope. This is my partner, Patamon."
"Hi." he spoke as enthusiastically as he could.
"After the final battle with Piemon, we finally met our true enemy, Apocalymon. Apocalymon destroyed our crest and us along with it. Somehow, we managed to bring ourselves back and with the power of the crests within us, defeat Apocalymon. We then left the Digital World in a hurry. We then went our separate ways… Until three years later when I moved to Odaiba. We did cross paths again once when Diablomon attacked the net…"
"Hi, I'm Motomiya Daisuke, 13. My partner here is V-mon."
"Hello!"
"It was then when the new Chosen Children, Miyako, Iori and I received D-3s and Digimental. Takeru-kun and Hikari-chan from the older Chosen group also received them and we fought against the… Digimon Kaiser… Ken… We beat him and Chimairamon with the help of the Digimental of Miracles." he said as he looked at Ken, who had his head down.
"Hi, I'm Inoue Miyako, 14. My partner here is Hawkmon."
"Nice to meet you."
"After that, we faced against Mummymon and Archnemon… and BlackWarGreymon. He tried to destroy the Holy Stones and at the last Holy Stone, we met with Qinglongmon. After that, the battle ensued into the real world…"
"I'm Hida Iori, 11. My partner here is Armadimon."
"Hi!"
"In the real world, we were faced with Oikawa, who implanted copies of Dark Seed into young children. Demon himself tried to get hold of the Dark Seeds to but we sent him into the Dark Ocean. Later, BlackWarGreymon sacrificed himself to seal up the Digital Gate at Hikarigaoka. Oikawa decided to transport the children to the Digital World from there and then we went to another dimension because the Gate to Digital World is sealed."
"Hello, I'm Ichijouji Ken, 13. I was the holder of the crest of kindness and Wormmon here is my partner."
"Hello."
"We found out that Oikawa actually held the spirit of Vamdemon, who came back as BelialVamdemon once he took the Dark Seeds from the children. We later defeated him and peace was restored with the help of all the Chosen Children across the world. That fateful day..."
"That's the end of our story." Taichi concluded simply.
"Well it's our turn now. I'm Matsuda Takato, 13, and my partner here which I created is Guilmon." Takato spoke, his voice with a slight tremble.
"Hi." Guilmon childishly waved his hands at the rest of the group.
"Our story begins with Digimon realising in Shinjuku. We were there to defeat them to prevent them from causing chaos. It was then when the Devas appeared. They took a form similar to the twelve animals in the zodiac. A few of the twelve Devas entered the Real World and the battle had begun."
"Hi I'm Lee Jianliang, 13, and this is my sister, Lee Shaochung. My partner is Terriermon."
Shaochung waved shyly to the others as she held onto Jianliang. "Hi. I'm nine…"
Lopmon and Terriermon jumped from their respective partner's shoulders and introduced themselves.
"Hi everyone."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lopmon and my partner is Shaochung. I was one of the twelve Devas until Shaochung here found me." She said solemnly.
"Moumantai. It's not your fault that you're one of them."
Lopmon lifted her head up as Terriermon continued. "We were battling the Deva when Hypnos, a government organisation opened a huge hole in the sky to delete us. They failed both times though. It was then when Jian and the others decided to go to the Digital World because our friend, Culumon was kidnapped by a Deva."
Jianliang added on to Terriermon's speech. "Culumon is a digimon that has something to do with evolution."
"Huh?" The Odaiba Chosen Children group called out in unison, with Koushiro's voice being the loudest.
"Is something wrong?" Jianliang asked the group.
"Nothing. Please continue." Taichi said, silencing Koushiro and the rest of the group.
"Hi. I'm Katou Juri, 13, and during that time, we had a problem with Beelzebumon but he was eventually beaten by Dukemon. We then went to face Zhuqiaomon and after Qinglongmon stopped the fight, we found out we had to battle the true enemy: D-Reaper…" she paused slightly. "D-Reaper is a computer programme and it captured me in its core."
"Ruki?" she asked as she looked to her left.
She sat up and began the speech. "I'm Makino Ruki, 13, and Renamon is my partner."
"Hi." Renamon said in a cold voice.
"D-Reaper eventually entered the Real World and we defeated it. End of story." she said briefly.
There was a moment of silence before Taichi spoke up again. "Well, now that we know each other, why don't we play some games to past our time?"
"Not interested." Ruki said as she sighed.
"Truth or dare, anyone?" Mimi asked.
Silence filled the air as no one dared to reply. For the Odaiba Chosen, it would mean that they might probably have to divulge deep secrets but it would not be easy to walk away from the game, especially with Mimi around. For the Tamers, it would not be polite to say no so they just sat quietly.
Ruki stood up and left the room to a balcony.
"Ruki!" Jianliang called out as he sighed. She hasn't changed much, has she…
"Okay so let's start."
"Takato-kun. Truth or Dare?"
"Erm… Truth?"
"Alright. Tell us what do you think of Juri-chan."
"I…" he sweated. Why do they always ask tough questions? "I… I don't know… but I take her as a good friend at least and that I…" his sweat began to fall at an alarming rate as Juri was staring at him all the while. "I… I don't know…" he said with uncertainty.
"Okay." Mimi said to relief the boy of his tension. "Your turn."
Phew… Now what are their names? Oh… Got one. "Taichi-san. Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
"Well could you try balancing yourself on your hands?"
"What?"
He grumbled as he stood up and went slightly away from the circle. His first attempt failed drastically as he used excess force that caused him to tumble over onto the ground. "Ouch…"
A mix of laughter came from the group.
His second attempt was better as he managed to hold the position slightly before he lost his balance and fell again. "Ouch…" he winced.
Hikari laughed a little but worry soon overwhelm her. "Onii-chan…"
He ignored Hikari's call and tried a third time and held it there for a few seconds, receiving applauses from the group. However, he soon was overcome by his weight as his arms failed him, causing him to fall for a third time.
From his collapsed position he called out. "Hikari, truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"How's it going between you and Takeru?"
The question caused a noticeable flinch from three individuals: Hikari, Takeru and Daisuke.
"It's fine." she said.
Not convinced, Taichi began to push her. "Can't you say it with a bit more details, like what you two were doing in the Digital World before we ended up here?"
"I… I…" Tears threatened to fall. "I…"
"Taichi-san…" Takeru called out. "Don't force her."
"What do you mean by-"
Tears flow from Hikari's eyes as she left the group with Tailmon. Taichi was left with mouth agape. He composed himself before rushing up to Takeru. "What did you do to her?"
"I can't say."
"You…" he growled but Yamato was there to stop him from hurting Takeru.
"Everyone, I think it's enough for the day and we should get to bed." Mimi announced as everyone complied.
The rest went to bed as Taichi pulled Takeru along with him as he marched towards the door to find Hikari, with Yamato and Patamon following along. "Taichi!"
"Taichi-san!" Takeru called out when they were outside the room. Taichi stopped and listened to him.
"I… I think I should go talk to her alone…"
"No." the reply was firm. "Not unless you tell me what happened."
"It's a relationship problem, Taichi-san."
"What the-"
"It's not what you are thinking but it's more about the feelings we have… I don't know whether we're friends now."
Taichi nodded. It seemed that he understood and was turning back towards the room.
Before he left though, he spoke. "I can't help you with relationships so good luck. But never hurt my sister, you got it?"
Takeru nodded his head violently.
"Good luck." Yamato said as he left too.
Well… have to find Hikari…
A/N: So that's all for now. The chapter may seem a bit factucal/draggy, but they must meet and introduce themselves somehow right? I think I'll come back mid-Nov to post a new chapter once ALL exams are finished. Then updates be slightly faster from there, I hope.
So preview:
A long talk with the Chosen & Tamers about what they're there for...