Chapter Six
Faces
"It is...so empty." Yuuta whispered. Usamon jumped up and Yuuta caught her.
"All the Digimon live in the Human World now. We aren't even born in Primary Village anymore." Usamon told her.
"Honto? Why not?" Yuuta wandered forward, moving towards a mountain.
"We're made into Eggs right in your hands, aren't we?" Usamon hopped onto her head to free her hands. "After the Chosen Children were frozen, Gennai didn't want people just popping into the Digital World. Lowvell is going to be reborn, or already has been, in a new body. He might not even look the same."
"How do you know so much, Partner?"
"I'm a Digimon. All the Digimon know, which is why all the Digimon love you. They all knew your destiny. Plus, you're awesome. Where're we going?" Usamon asked, leaning over, ears falling front of Yuuta's eyes.
"We are going to that mountain in front of us." Yuuta answered, pointing.
"Doushite?" Usamon inquired looking at it.
"That is Spiral Mountain, I know it is. That is where they are. I hear them." Yuuta pressed a hand to her ear, her brown eyes closed.
"Then...let's go!"
To him. Yuuta smiled.
"Right. Izumi-sama needs his laptop." Yuuta adjusted the yellow Pineapple under her arm
& & &
"This place is so strange!" Yuuta cried out. Her voice wavered visibly on the air.
"It's called a desert, Partner." Usamon panted. Yuuta's eyebrow twitched.
"I know it is a desert, Usamon." Yuuta sighed.
"You're angry at me." Usamon's already dragging ears drooped more.
"Gomen nasai." Yuuta leaned down and patted Usamon's head. "I do not like the heat."
"It's okay. I don't like it either." Usamon smiled. Yuuta clenched her fists and dropped the bags. "No way." Usamon whined.
"Hai. These intense conditions mean intense training." Yuuta pulled her shoulder length hair into a ponytail.
"But it's hot."
"I know. We will do it together, just like always." Yuuta stretched. "Come on."
Usamon sighed and began to bounce and twist. Yuuta bit back giggles.
"We will do a sprint, first, to loosen the limbs."
"First?" Usamon gaped.
"Hai. Then we will work on some of your attacks while I practice kendo. We have been doing this since we got here, months ago." Yuuta braced her feet against the cracked ground. "If we are lucky, the desert will get sandy and we will have a different training ground."
"Ugh." Usamon groaned.
& & &
"When can we leave this desert?" Usamon asked flopping onto the ground.
"We will leave in the morning. We have been here long enough. My dreams are getting persistent. We have one year and three months before the seventy years are over. You are improving so quickly. You can actually stay on your feet on the sand." Yuuta said wistfully. She lay down next to Usamon under the gritty wind. After a while, they rose and began their traveling again.
They finally found a tiny city made of little dirt huts, obviously old and abandoned.
"What happened to the Digimon living here?"
"They found their partners." Usamon answered simply. "Let's get some water."
"The well is drying up. I will get some of the bottles I brought from home." Yuuta jogged over to a hut nearby and crawled inside.
She pushed aside some clothes searching for an emergency bottle. She finally found it on the bottom of her duffel bag and took it out. Her eyes caught sight of something and pushed aside a pair of jeans.
A present? Yuuta whispered. She set down her bottle and gently began un-wrapping the thin package. The white paper with silver snowflakes fell to the ground and her eyes watered.
"Yuuta?" Usamon called.
Yuuta swiped at her eyes with her sleeve. She wrapped the present again and put it back under her clothes. "I got the water. There is a candy bar, too."
"Yay! A candy bar and an adventure! This is awesome!"
"You have to wait until tomorrow for the adventure, but here is a Whatchamacallit. It is a good thing we kept it inside. It would have melted into a puddle by now." Yuuta tore open the candy bar and fed it to Usamon.
"Fmmks!"
"Doitashimashite. Get some rest, Usa." Yuuta poured water into a small earthen bowl and rolled out her sleeping bag. "Tomorrow we will be out of the desert be in that forest in the distance. There should be river to bathe ourselves in properly. Oyasumi." Yuuta crawled back into the hut to change, touching the gift lightly with her fingertips. She zipped the bag up and climbed into her sleeping bag, moving aside when Usamon hopped in a while later.
& & &
"Usamon! USAMON!" Yuuta screamed. "EEEEE!" Yuuta was thrown off her feet as wind flung her backwards.
After entering the forest a few days before, a storm had suddenly fallen on them. The strange thing was; the storm was only beneath the treetops. Somewhere between a frightening close lightning bolt and a strong surge of wind, she and Usamon had been separated.
"Usamon! Usa! U-u-oh!" Yuuta fell with a thud as the wind pushed at her from the back. She spit dirt out of her mouth and struggled to rise.
A hand entered her vision. A tall figure in a dark cloak was standing above her, the thick cloth snapping in front of her nose.
"Come on." said a hoarse voice beneath the hood.
Yuuta grabbed the person's hand and was instantly pushed this way and that by winds and the stranger before her. She gasped as the figure walked right through a large silver-purple tree. Her eyes widened as she stepped through the bark. Thin lights skimmed over her as if someone had used a scanner on her whole body longitudinally.
Pale, thin hands wrapped a large robe around her and she looked up, startled, into a young man's face. White hair pulled back into a ponytail framed a delicate face. Large purple eyes met her stare for stare.
Yuuta looked away, ignoring the kindness.
'After the Chosen Children were frozen, Gennai didn't want people just popping into the Digital World.' What is this boy doing here? Is he...him
"I know what you're thinking." A slow smile spread over his pretty face.
"You do?"
"Yes. You're wondering about your Digipartner, of course." His purple eyes glittered. "My Digipartner is searching for her right now."
"Okay."
"Aren't you going to say thank you?"
"Thank you."
His mouth twisted into a hard smirk.
"What's your name?" He asked. Her brown eyes met his once more, and then looked away.
"You are being rude and nosy." Yuuta replied.
"So I am. Tell me your name, then I'll tell you mine."
"Is this a game to you?" Yuuta inquired. He merely smiled. "Kokubunji."
"What about your first name?"
"Kokubunji." Yuuta said firmly. His eyes grew steely.
"I guess I should tell you my name for now." He grinned wolfishly. "Takaki, Momiji."
What? I was so sure.
"Don't look so disappointed. Are you warmer now?"
Yuuta unwrapped the large robe her shoulders.
"Thank you for your kindness. My partner needs me." Yuuta walked out of the tree, biting her lips to keep from smiling, feeling the static running over her skin. She loved all the oddities of the DigiWorld.
The wind tore at her hair and clothes. She braced herself and then stepped into the gale.
"USA!"
Usamon tried and failed, again, to hop forward.
"Itai!" Usamon cried, hitting the tree.
"Here." A strange digimon called. Usamon looked up and her lavendar eyes widened.
"Usagi Kick!"
"Don't attack me! I'm trying to help!"
"Where's my partner?" Usamon demanded.
"With mine. Please, let me help you."
"NO! Big Ear Whip!"
"Ow!"
"USAMON! Usa, please, where are you?" Yuuta's voice screamed through the forest.
"YUUTA!" Usamon glared at the other Digimon and hopped towards Yuuta's voice.
"Usamon? Usa." Yuuta fell to her knees and caught Usamon, hugging her to her chest.
"Yuuta, I've been so worried! We've been apart for days." Usamon wailed.
"I have missed you, too." Yuuta murmured. She pressed her cheek against Usamon's soft fur and tears formed at the corners of both of their eyes.
"I have just a little ways more." Yuuta clenched her teeth and strained with all her might.
"What's taking you so long?" Usamon asked curiously looking down at her.
"I cannot hop like you!" Yuuta yelled up at her.
"Oh, hurry!" Usamon laughed.
Yuuta managed to climb over the edge and stood. She turned and looked over the large land beneath her. Down below laid File Island. Finally, she had reached the top of Spiral Mountain. A cold breeze played with her waist-length brown hair. She wiped her sweaty forehead and pushed her hair behind her ears. She wore dirty jean shorts and an almost too-short tank top. Her skin was tanned by the two years of training in the Digital World, her body already curved with the beginnings of womanhood. Her brown eyes closed, her chapped red lips smiling.
Today was her fifteenth birthday, the seventieth anniversary of the Great Battle. Today, she would finally meet them all.
"Come on!"
She just had to turn around. So, she did. In front of her was a large temple, whitewashed by the wind.
She walked towards the temple, Usamon hopping excitedly at her side. Yuuta pushed open one large door. Inside was dark and cold. Near the end twelve long columns stood though…there was something odd about them. Yuuta and the immediately serious Usamon began forward.
Both stepped on a strange groove on the stone floor. A blinding white light erupted around them.
"Wha-?" They said simultaneously exclaimed.
Yuuta looked up and a scream choked in her throat. Twelve sleeping faces were inside the glass columns.