A/N: I am sorry this is a little later than planned. Hope you enjoy.

Digimon Frontier: The Return

Chapter Five: Parted Choices

Zoe re-read the note she had written, making sure it did not sound too strange. After all, she would be returning to the Digital World and even though the concept of time was different, there was no telling how long she would be gone. It could be twenty minutes or even hours.

Tyler,

Something important came up and I needed to sort it out. Will be home as soon as I can, and please do not worry if you cannot reach me.

Zoe.

Simple. To the point. No emotional value whatsoever. Zoe nodded slightly. It would do. It was not like Tyler would care anyway, and besides, the note was more for her conscience than for her stepbrother's peace of mind.

Hating to linger any longer than necessary, Zoe left the house and locked the door. She was meeting the boys at Shibuya station and they would be mad if she was late.

Koji let out an exasperated sigh as he buried his hands deeper in to the pockets of his dark, navy blue jacket, that was left unbuttoned to reveal a white T-shirt and whose long sleeves were casually rolled up to his elbows. A black and grey bandanna hung loosely around his neck.

Next to him, Takuya was shifting continuously from side to side in frustration and cursing under his breath, making it appear as though he desperately needed to find a bathroom...Or hit someone.

"Would you cut that out?" The dark-haired teen suddenly hissed, his patience with the brunet finally reaching its limit.

"No!" Takuya hissed back, though in a somewhat louder fashion, causing a few people to stare at him with raised eyebrows while he ranted. "This line is moving way too slow for my liking and I'm going crazy just standing here, so why don't you leave me to my fidgeting thank you very much."

Koji rolled his eyes and sighed quietly.

Seriously. This is insane.

Takuya had been calm and mellow when they had first received Bokomon's S.O.S, but once they had contacted Zoe, his demeanour had changed faster than the weather, and he had quickly gone from levelheaded to wild and erratic. Now, they were currently standing in a line to buy tickets so they could get to Shibuya station, with the brunet steadily growing more agitated by the minute.

Koji sighed once again as the teen next to him let out another soft curse. It was times like these that made the raven wonder, why and how exactly Takuya became their team's leader. He had patience the size of a matchstick.

"This is taking forever!" The brunet whined, while Koji did his best to ignore his irate friend's tirade.

"I mean really, this queue is moving slower than a pensioner taking their Sunday stroll."

An older woman standing in front, glared over her shoulder with narrowed eyes, probably having heard Takuya's comment and taking offence. Takuya, rather than feel guilty and humbly apologize for his rudeness, simply huffed and returned the glare.

"What lady? You know it's true." He snapped.

Koji shook his head slightly and pinched the bridge of his nose, mentally counting to ten.

"Look Takuya." He eventually said, fixing his friend with level glare of his own. "Either shut up and behave, or you can go stand with the others while I buy the tickets. Besides, it is not like last time when we had a time limit. So do me a favour, stop acting like a child and pull yourself together."

Not even bothering to wait for a reply or worried that his speech had been too harsh, Koji turned away and went back to staring at the people in front of him while he watched the other boy from the corner of his eye. Takuya spent several minutes glaring heatedly at the floor as if it had done him some personal wrong, and then he sighed heavily crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sorry man. I guess my concern is getting the best of me."

Koji just nodded. A sign that he accepted the brunet's apology.

"I just feel like we shouldn't be wasting time if the Digital World needs our help."

"I know what you mean Takuya, but it cannot be helped. It's not like we can run all the way to Shibuya station and even if we could, we would still have to wait once we got there because we're meeting up with Zoe."

Takuya nodded slowly, while saying. "I suppose the best thing to do, is try getting there as fast as we possibly can."

The next few minutes passed by in silence and Koji reflected that even though his friend could be total idiot when duty called, there were still definite reasons why he was the one in charge. Takuya possessed the qualities of a great leader; courage, loyalty, determination and passion...He just wouldn't be Takuya if he was not painfully oblivious most of the time or hyperactive active to a serious fault...Koji guessed that every one came with their good qualities...Along with their flaws.

"So, I heard Zoe likes your hair."

Koji blinked and turned to stare at the brunet.

"Huh?" Was his intelligent reply.

A devious grin formed on Takuya's face.

"Koichi was telling us earlier, how Zoe apparently likes your hair."

"So?" Koji asked nonchalantly, not really getting where this was leading to and Takuya just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned.

"Just wondering." He began vaguely. "I mean, since Z and I never worked out, I figured that it's probably because you are more her type."

All Koji could do was stare, his mind trying to absorb what his best friend was implying.

It was no secret that Takuya and Zoe had gone on a date; she had made a promise after all. It was also no secret that they had both come to a mutual agreement to have a relationship that never went beyond friendship...They had said that whatever spark they had felt in the Digital World, had long since moved on and neither was bothered by this fact in the least.

Now Takuya was suggesting that she might actually like him, which was stupid because he (Koji Minamoto) had to be the biggest social retard around even if he did have a few friends-having a girlfriend would be like the punch line of a really good joke...And besides, Koji didn't even like Zoe in that way. Yeah she was pretty (Hell that was an understatement. Beautiful would be the correct term), intelligent and so vastly different from every other girl the raven had ever known, but he didn't really see her in a romantic light-did he? She was a good friend, and even if he did possess feelings for the golden-haired girl (keyword being 'if'), there was no way she liked him as more than a friend. Takuya was reading excessively, into what had merely been a compliment from one friend to another in order to make them feel better.

"Tch. I've always been worried about that fragile grasp you seem to have on your mind, Kanbara." Koji deadpanned, turning away. "Seems like you've finally lost it."

Takuya scowled at the raven.

"I'm perfectly sane thank you." He growled and then huffed quietly. "Besides, I really do think Z likes you."

"Yeah. Whatever."

"I'm serious." The brunet insisted. "You should see how she blushes every time you call her 'Zo', plus there's the fact that you're the only one who even calls her that."

Koji frowned slightly. Was he really the only one who called her by that? Its not as if it meant much, just an affectionate nickname for a friend...Koji mentally cringed.

Affectionate nickname? That had sounded so sappy.

"Everyone can see it. It's like the most obvious thing in the world."

"Drop it Takuya."

"Why?" The brunet questioned in a teasing manner. "Is it because you like Zoe."

Koji felt himself turning pink, but he avoided his friends gaze.

"No." He replied shortly. "Just drop it. I don't think Zoe would appreciate us talking about whatever feelings she may or may not have."

Takuya frowned and eyed his friend curiously, but let the topic slide for now and turned to face the front of the line.

"I really do wish we could make this line speed up."

Koji sighed and rolled his eyes.

Half an hour later, the group was hurrying towards the familiar elevator that would take them down towards the unknown levels of the train station, where a Trailmon would surely be waiting for them to arrive.

"I'm glad that I get to go to the Digital World in a normal way this time." Koichi commented idly as they stepped inside the small elevator, looking quite the opposite from his darkly attired brother in long cream slacks, a long-sleeved red shirt and short-sleeved black over shirt. "Much better than falling down a flight of stairs."

Koji grimaced but said nothing about his twin's coma or how they'd almost lost him four years ago. "Yeah. I'm glad too."

Koichi gave his brother a light nudge and they both shared a small smile. A simple form of communication they used to comfort one another without the use of words. Takuya yawned loudly and placed his arms behind his head, much to J.P's irritation as the brunets elbow jabbed his right eye.

"Last time I travelled down this, I had to put up with an anti-social moron." He said with a large grin in Koji's direction.

"Yeah, well I had to put up with a clumsy idiot." The raven replied.

Koichi, J.P and Tommy sighed, shaking their heads as an argument evolved-quite a common recurrence when it came to these two.

"That's rich coming from the guy who tripped while walking up the stairs. What, are the school's steps too challenging for you?"

"Oh, go take a long walk off a short bridge, Kanbara. At least I'm not the idiot that ran into a glass door."

"Is it my fault my Mother never put the stickers up and happens to be a serial cleaner."

The elevator continued it's rapid descent and soon came to a jarring halt. J.P, having grown tired of the endless bickering, turned to shut them up as the doors slid open.

"Enough." The older boy declared sternly."Koji's not anti-social, he's just socially inept." Takuya was smiling widely while Koji stuffed his hands in his pockets moodily. "And Takuya's not clumsy-"

"Damn right!" The brunet exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air.

"-He's vertically challenged." J.P finished.

"Hey! That's just another way of calling me short."

"Well Takuya." Tommy began reasonably as they filed out of the cramped lift. "Technically you are the shortest and even I'm beginning to catch up to you."

Takuya grumbled some unintelligible reply. So he was slightly shorter than the others were, he still was not what people would consider short when it came to the majority of the male species. Sighing heavily, he looked up to find not one, but two Trailmon's present. The closest was big, bulky and a burnt-red sort of colour, and Takuya knew it was called Worm. The one further from the elevator, was a lot sleeker and bright blue, with a funny sort of antenna in the front. Takuya knew that one's name was Angler.

"So, now we know this isn't some kind of strange dream." J.P announced cheerfully. "We are actually going back to the Digi-World."

"Yeah." Koichi agreed, very new to this whole Trailmon experience, or at least when it came to entering the parallel world. "But which one do we get on?"

Tommy stepped forward and frowned thoughtfully.

"I don't think it really matters which one we pick. They both ultimately go to the same place."

"That's not entirely true." Koji murmured. "Last time, I was on a separate train from you guys and even though we went to the same place, I ended up in a totally different part."

"He's right." Takuya said. "Well if we have to make a decision, then I vote for Worm."

"Worm it is." J.P said. "And he's the closest one."

They all agreed and went to stand by the large red train.

"Wonder when Z will get here?" Koichi asked and glanced at his wristwatch.

"Well, she should be here soon." Takuya answered. "Let's get onboard while we wait for her."

If they had known what would happen next, neither of the boys would have gone along with the suggestion. As soon as the last person (which was Koichi), had stepped over the threshold, the door snapped shut and they all felt the train begin to move forward.

"What the hell is going on?" Takuya yelled, grabbing hold of the door's handle to stop himself from falling over. "Hey! You stupid hunk of junk. Stop!"

Instead of being angry for being insulted, they all heard the worm-type Trailmon calmly reply.

"Everyone who needs to be onboard is accounted for."

There was a moment of silence while the boys digested this piece of information.

"I guess Zoe is already here." Koji finally said. "She must have arrived before us and had the same idea to wait on the train."

"Let's go find her then." Tommy exclaimed and entered the train's compartment. The boys all came to a standstill. There were two girls seated there, but neither of them were Zoe.

Zoe leaned against the inside of the elevator, breathing heavily. She had run all the way from the bus stop, seeing as she had missed the train to Shibuya and would have had to catch the next one, twenty minutes later. That had been unacceptable and she decided to make alternate plans. Thus making it the reason why she was currently out of breath and felt as if her lungs were on fire.

The blond fervently hoped the boys had had better luck than she did.

The lift finally came to a stop and the double-doors chimed open. Zoe stepped in to the circular room, half hoping to see the boys all standing there, but the room was empty save for one lone train.

"Maybe I got here before them. Or maybe they're already on the train." Zoe questioned aloud, carefully approaching the large blue machine that she knew to be an actual digimon. She glanced back at the elevator before pulling open the train's door and taking a small hesitant step inside.

Suddenly the door snapped shut behind her and the train lurched, causing her to fall forward into a rather unflattering position.

Zoe groaned and climbed to her feet.

"At least I'm not wearing a skirt this time." She mumbled, thankful that she had chosen to wear a sensible pair of indigo-coloured cargo pants this morning and not the tiny black mini-skirt, as she had originally wanted.

Giving herself one last glance to make sure the fall had not caused any damage, Zoe then went and opened the door that led into one of the many compartments.

"I really hope the guys are on this train."

A/N: Last chapter in the human world (for now). Please review.