Chapter Five
Fly Away
"Hey, little girl." Yomoki joked. Yuuta smiled up at him.
"Why are you here? I thought you had soccer or tennis all year round?" Yuuta asked, happily.
"I just had to see you, that's all." Yomoki grinned. Yuuta just looked at him, still blushing. "Okay, okay, you caught me. My coach got the mono."
"Oh my. You might have it. I better get away from you." Yuuta teased, running out of his arm's reach. Pauftymon laughed in her arms.
"You little brat! Come on, Gazimon, let's get the girls."
"Right on!"
Yuuta danced just outside their reach, giggling as the boys fell or tripped.
"Look at her. She's been getting brighter and brighter every birthday. By the next Festival she'll be a star." Chidori pushed her glasses up her nose.
"Yeah..."
Chidori spun around, startled, thinking herself alone. Eri stood behind her.
"Ever since we let her run away, we've fallen apart. We barely know each other. A whole summer of not speaking..." Eri sadly watched as Yuuta disappeared around the stone wall.
"Hi, guys." Tsumi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Hi, Tsumi." Chidori murmured.
"Let's...let's try again...please. I hate being apart." Tsumi suddenly burst out.
All three hugged, crying. Sniffling, they drew apart and walked towards the exit.
"But...look what happened. We had a week without Yuuta and we had already started to crumble. Even at her birthday, we were strained and tense, our glue being stretched. We need her." Eri pointed out.
"Yeah. We're not all together until we're all together. Plus, she has such a perfect thin figure. Who can I use to be my Life-size Barbie?" Tsumi pouted.
"You haven't changed at all!" Eri crowed. Chidori laughed beside her.
Yuuta opened the door to see three serious faces looking back at hers.
"Ko-Konnichi wa..." she trailed off. Pauftymon wedged through the door and launched at Gotsumon.
"Paufty!"
"It looks like she missed you, Gotsumon." Yuuta smiled.
"I missed you, too, Pauftymon. And you, Yuuta. I missed you a lot, too."
"Thanks, Gotsumon."
"We all missed you! That's why we're here. You're our glue. No matter how smart Chidori is, or how energetic I am, or how...babe-gonnabe Tsumi is, you're our leader. We need you." Eri blurted.
"And we want you back. You're more than just our leader and glue, you're our friend." Chidori intercepted.
" And you make such a fabulous Barbie!" Tsumi added.
"You could have stopped with Eri-chan. I missed you guys so much!" Yuuta launched herself at Eri, and once again the ten year-olds began to cry. "I am so sorry."
"I'm having my b-day party soon, August 30th. You're invited, like always." Eri sniffed.
"And you skipped mine, so you owe me a present." Tsumi reminded her.
"It is in my room." Yuuta wiped her eyes.
"What do you think you're doing, Yuuta? Close that door and make your friends leave." snapped Suki.
"Chotto matte, Okaasan, onegai! I will be right back with your present, okay, Tsumi-chan?" Yuuta disappeared and reappeared in flash, flushing.
"Just as pretty as always." Tsumi smiled caressing the bright paper neatly folded.
Three years later
"Wow...seventh grade..." Yuuta whispered. Hair fell in front of her eyes with a silky swish.
"I'll be thirteen in only a couple weeks." Eri added.
"I am thirteen." Chidori said unimpressed. Eri scowled, her fist threateningly under Chidori's nose.
"I'll finally be able to get a boyfriend." Tsumi sighed dreamily, blushing.
"Shinichiro has been waiting forever." Eri laughed.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Yuuta raised her head defiantly, brown eyes glowing. She smiled. The four girls walked through the gates in step, their Digimon beside them.
"Hey, little girl." Yuuta blinked as an arm wound itself around her neck. She turned and smiled up at the impossibly tall Yomoki.
"I will be thirteen in December. I am not so little." Her eyes suddenly dimmed, her thoughts going inward.
When will you call me? My love...call me soon...need me, onegai. Her hands clenched into fists.
Her friends watched, confused, but used to her sudden mood swings. She squeaked as Yomoki tugged on her hair.
"Time for class soon. First day of middle school, you know. You have to change classes, not your teachers." Yomoki laughed and ran off.
"Jerk. He could've showed us around." Tsumi huffed, hands on her hips.
"Let us just take his advice."
Soon, the leaves began to fall, the temperature dropping. Both Yomoki and Eri's birthdays had come and gone and the Festival was nearing. Yuuta slumped in her seat in the back. She and Chidori shared the same homeroom. Both agreed the back seats by the windows were the best and Chidori sat in front her.
Yuuta's brown eyes were dazed, her pencil spinning lazily as she stared out the window, her cheek propped on her hand. Suddenly, it was snowing, her breath coming out in puffs. In front of her, a yellow light glowed. Voices drifted over the whiteness, voices she now knew very well. She rose off the ground, dusting off the snow.
Chidori looked up from her book, thanking and cursing the free time the principal's dull announcements gave the school. Her eyes widened as Yuuta walked by, her eyes wide and unseeing. Her body seemed...transparent. Yuuta began to pick of speed, running past students, swiping her hands in front of her, as if smacking something away.
Yuuta swatted aside cumbersome evergreen branches, picking up speed as the voices became clearer. She didn't even notice Pauftymon was not at her side. A stitch formed in her side, and her shin hurt terribly from hitting something or another in her rush. She broke into a grin seeing figures, dark against the snow, just ahead. She slipped on ice and fell with a cry.
Chidori ran out of the classroom, following her friend. Her teacher tried to protest, but they were both already gone. She searched the hallway and took off after her still running friend.
"Yuuta! Yuuta!" Chidori shouted. She saw Yuuta slip and fall.
"Itai!" Yuuta cried. Her body...fuzzed out, like a bad TV connection.
"Yuuta!"
Yuuta rose and shook her head.
"I am so close... wait for me!" Yuuta cried, running full tilt, her arms in front of her.
Suddenly, the snow was gone and a ninth grader turned surprised as a seventh grader ran towards her. Yuuta collided with the ninth grader and fell, knocking her head hard on the tile.
"ITAI!" Yuuta cried, clutching her head. " Go-gomen nasai, sempai." Yuuta gritted, looking up at the girl, with tears at the corners of her eyes.
"No problem. Let's get you to the nurse's office. Ikou, musume. Daijoubu ka desu?"
"Daijoubu desu. Arigatu gozaimasu."
"Please! You banged her head against the floor, kid." the older girl dismissed the thanks.
Chidori sighed and turned back around. What was that?
"What's wrong, Yuuta? You look dead." Tsumi asked bluntly. Yuuta looked up at her with half-lidded eyes.
"I have not been sleeping well." Yuuta answered. She snuggled with her Baby Digimon when she made a small noise of concern. "Not you, too, Paufty."
"Why? Nightmares?"
"IIE!" Yuuta snapped, spinning around and pinning Yomoki with an angry glare. "Go-gomen nasai." She sighed and looked away.
"Okay, so it's not bad dreams..." Eri trailed off obviously.
"It is none of your business." Yuuta whispered. She left them stunned at the school entrance.
Her foot jiggled impatiently. The Festival and her thirteenth birthday were coming up. Maybe Gennai-sama would have some answers. She still didn't even have a Digivice and her Digimon was still a BABY! She wanted to fulfill her destiny! She wanted to be needed by her hero, more than anything.
She wanted to go to sleep, just to see their faces, their memories. That's why she was already tired. She may be sleeping, but she still wasn't getting any rest. It was like watching an action movie with your eyes closed and the picture on the inside of your eyelids. The bell rang for lunch and she grabbed the stuff she hadn't unpacked and slipped past Tsumi. About halfway to the cafeteria, it happened again.
Her body began to lose focus and her footsteps stopped. Her eyes widened and her heart contracted. There he was. His eyes were wide in shock and pain. She reached for him and he was gone just as abruptly. Instead a dark black and gray world surrounded her. She ran through it, searching for him.
"Tsumi-chan, where's Yuu-yuu?"
Tsumi wordlessly pointed.
"Oh no! Yuuta!" Chidori took off after her friend as Yuuta started up the stairs. "Come on! She'll hurt herself!" Tsumi, Yomoki, and their Digimon ran after her. Pauftymon was hopping up and down at the bottom of the stairs.
"Pauft! Paufty!" Pauftymon cried agitated. Yomoki grabbed her and they climbed up the stairs two at a time.
"She went on the roof!" Chidori yelled down at them.
Yuuta stopped and peered over the side. Waves crashed against the cliff side down below. The ocean was dark, and her breath came out in puffs of vapor. She crawled over a tree trunk and balanced precariously on the edge. She gripped the bark, and leaned over. Wind howled around her and she lifted her head tasting a storm on her tongue. Her fingers loosened.
"YUUTA!" The three humans and their Digimon cried.
"Call me...call me now...call me..." Yuuta chanted. She smiled.
Her fingers let go of the metal bar that she had climbed over. A fence surrounded the roof to prevent falling from it.
She felt her body fall. But it was okay. The dark ocean would catch her. Figures were running below her. They'd find her.
Her eyes snapped opened and she spun around, dark hair flying around her face. Chidori was holding her upper arm, nails digging into Yuuta's pale skin.
"What are you doing? I was fine!" Yuuta yelled.
"You were about to jump off the school!" Yomoki shouted back.
"School?" Yuuta looked down. She gasped and grabbed the fence. "That is not the ocean."
"Really?" Tsumi sneered.
"Come on, Yuuta. Climb on over. Mushroomon, some help?" Chidori asked.
"Right, sorry, Chidori." Mushroomon quickly stepped forward.
"What ocean, Yuuta?" Gazimon inquired as Yuuta straightened her skirt.
"Nothing...just an ocean..." She held out her arms for Pauftymon. "Iam sorry for worrying you again, Digipartner." Yuuta apologized.
"Paufty!" She launched herself into Yuuta's embrace.
"What about us, Yuuta?" Yomoki asked seriously. Yuuta looked down.
The bell rang and she ran past them, just barely dodging Yomoki's fingers.
Yuuta walked sedately through the Festival. Pauftymon bounced at her side, preening as new murmurs of adoration met her pointy cat ears.
"Today, partner, my destiny will find me." Yuuta tucked her hand in her long sleeves and started up the steps of the temple.
"Where are you going?" Yomoki demanded.
She turned to see all her friends, Eri, Gotsumon, Chidori, Mushroomon, Shinichiro (his Tryannomon was too big to come), Tsumi, Gizamon, and Gazimon glaring at her.
"I'm going to pay my respects." Yuuta stared hard at the ground.
"Then why are you carrying two giant duffel bags, a sleeping bag, and your backpack?" Chidori asked with a raised eyebrow. Yuuta blushed to her hairline.
"I forgot about those. Come to the sakura trees, then."
"Now that we're settled, tell." Tsumi commanded regally. Yuuta sighed. She had remained standing.
"On my eighth birthday...The Digital Deity, as you call him, came to me-"
"He comes to all of us." Eri interrupted.
"I know, but...he gave me a gift...and a Title of great responsibility. I am the Key. I am the Thirteenth Chosen Child and have to find a Crest to awaken the others." Yuuta stopped.
Eri and Tsumi blinked and burst out laughing. The others remained serious.
"This is no laughing matter." Shinichiro said quietly
"I know...b-but, really, couldn't you come up with a better story?" Tsumi giggled.
"It is not a story." Yuuta whispered. She had feared they wouldn't believe her, but she didn't really believe they wouldn't. "Why would I lie about something like this?"
"Something happened at home, didn't it? You just made this-"
"No, I did not!" Yuuta snapped before Chidori could finish. "I love the Chosen Children! I am the most devout of followers besides my blashphemy of wanting to be one. I really am one, however!"
"But that was five years ago-"
"I know! Why do you think I have all this stuff? I am going to ask Gennai-the DigiDeity- to send me to the DigiWorld tonight." Yuuta cut off Yomoki.
"Yuuta...please, don't lie like this." Chidori pleaded.
"I AM NOT LYING! YOU ARE MY FRIENDS! Why cannot you believe me? Do you not think it is weird Pauftymon's never evolved?" Her eyes widened seeing the guilty looks on the human faces.
Pauftymon growled.
"You-you think I am weak. You think I am too weak for my digimon to evolve." Yuuta realized.
"Yuuta-" Eri started.
"You…you are just like them. You never thought it was because my Digimon is the strongest Digimon ever. My Digimon will be even stronger than the Mega forms of the Chosen Children's Digimon."
"You stop right there, Yuuta!" Yomoki jumped to his feet, the others rising angrily. "That's taking this game too far. I thought you were bet-"
"Better than this? YOU ARE RIGHT! I AM! I AM BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU! SUKEBE! How dare you call me a liar and call yourselves my friends!" Tears flew from Yuuta's green eyes as she shook her head. "Why do you think all the Digimon love me? They love me more than you! Why? Doushite? Because I am a freak, ne? That is what you really think! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU ALL! YOU ARE NOT MY FREINDS! I WILL BRING THEM BACK! …and I will be a hero, just like him." She fell to her knees sobbing.
"Shh, Yuuta, we believe you." Gotsumon whispered.
"We always knew, all of us." Gazimon murmured wiping away her tears.
"Arigatu." she choked.
"Save our worlds once more...Chosen Child." Gizamon smiled, his eyes soft.
"Kick some ass!" Mushroomon cried. Yuuta laughed wetly. She rose to her feet and started to walk away.
"Yuuta, dame-" Yomoki started. She turned, the green in her eyes flashing in the sudden flare fireworks.
"Finally, I am somebody. I am not a nobody." She spat. She turned away. "I would have believed you." She ran, hitching up her silk skirt.
Pauftymon bounced beside her, all the way up the stairs. She rushed through the doors, fireworks bursting behind her. She dropped her skirt and walked forward. Her wooden shoes echoed through the stone room.
"I am ready, Gennai-sama, take me away! I hear them! I know their voices, their faces, their memories, take me to them!" Yuuta cried, tears still falling, mingling with sweat.
Her back arched as light flared from her chest. It made a weird shape before disappearing.
The other kids had followed her, and gasped seeing the light.
Lavendar fell in a streak and Yuuta held out her hand, catching the comet. A Digivice glowed in her palm. It looked like the one of originals, small and white with a tiny square screen. She pressed it to her cheek in happiness.
"Your destiny awaits. Awake the Chosen Children and save all the worlds from the reincarnated evil." Gennai told her, appearing at her side, now about her height. "My, how you've grown, Chosen Child."
"Thank you, Gennai-sama, for giving me this gift." She whispered, crying.
"Don't do that when you wake them up. Taichi hates it when girls cry, and Jyou panics easily." Gennai warned. "Take this, young warrior." He handed her a yellow Pineapple laptop.
"This series was banned sixty-eight years ago in honor of Izumi-Dei-...Izumi-sama."
"Yes, and this is his. He will like this gift. He is very fond of this little computer, as am I. Here's a hint, he likes the colored fish screensaver."
"I am ready." She adjusted her backpack. Her body began to fade as the open laptop's screen lit up.
"By the way, Kokubunji, Yuuta?"
"Hai, Gennai-sama?"
"Happy birthday."
Tears fell startled from her eyes. Her friends had forgotten to say it before because they had been 'arguing'.
"ARIGATU!" Yuuta yelled over the roaring in her ears. Then, she and Pauftymon were gone.
Yuuta opened her eyes slowly. Purple grass filled her vision.
"Hi, partner!" said a happy-go-lucky little girl's voice.
Yuuta jumped and saw a round white digimon with whiskers, ears longer than it was chubby, giant bunny feet, a bunny tail, and cat eyes with no pupils or irises, just lavendar. It had a catlike mouth and nose, but otherwise was very bunny-oriented.
"Who-who are you?"
"I'm Usamon! I'm Pauftymon's Baby II! I finally evolved and can speak! YAY!" Usamon hopped almost as high as Yuuta was tall.
"H-honto?"
"Yup!"
The bags fell with a thump and Yuuta grabbed her hopping Digimon. She spun around, giggling with her Digimon.
"YAY!" They exclaimed together.
She was finally in the Digital World with her clothes, provisions, evolved Digimon, and with a Digivice. She finally had flown away, out of her transparent cage.