I can hardly believe that it took me so long to finally post. I kept running out of time I could've used to typing, and whenever I got around to typing, I was always stuck in this book. But, I got it done, and that's the important part. I hope to get working on the next chapter pretty soon, and if I'm lucky I'll have it out a heck of a lot sooner than this one did. I hope you readers like this one! :)


Chapter 5~

The sun rose bloody and dead, though it glowed with the life that it stole from others. The moon faded into the early morning light, its darkness leaving wounded and whimpering, the sharp cry of the Earth's birds chasing it away. Most days, this sight, especially after a night so filled with bloodshed as mine had been, this scene would make me laugh, my whole being brimming with a pride for what I'd done, but this morning…I learned that I hated it when I was correct.

Davis's blushing face was the first and last thing on my mind.

I didn't understand it. Why wouldn't this image cease its irritating mission and simply leave me alone? But…part of me didn't want to stop pondering that moment. The way he'd locked gazes with the floor when everyone had turned to stare at him struck me in a way that hardly anything else ever did, or had before. Although, nothing quite so much as when he had glanced ever so hesitantly at me when his face had been hued in such a shade.

It seemed impossible to me that any of the humans could've accepted what I was—or, at least as far as they actually knew—as quickly and easily as they had. Well, except for TK, that is. He appeared to be the only clever and cautious one out of the group. Of course, that would make earning his trust that much harder, but once I stole his, the others' would come that much easier. Besides, I already had a slight plan of how I was going to get the blonde to warm up to me a bit more.

But even the distraction of TK wasn't enough to keep Davis out of my head; no matter what I tried, nothing could hold his memory at bay. The lively darkness of his eyes haunted my mind, sending an empty feeling that was much deeper than normal into the abyss of my soul. The love for everyone and everything that was there in them was like poison to me, stinging and burning as the recollection made its way throughout my whole being, melting my very core like it was an acid. His deep brown hair looked soft even from as far away as I'd been, but I barely even knew what such a thing really was. I'd heard of it before, of course, but…I didn't really know what it meant, how it felt. Many things were like that to me.

I leapt from the tree I'd rested in after searching all night for a DigiDestined as my third victim, finally finding one just as my patience had run out. I'd simply slaughtered the pitiful human after I'd found him, feeling no compassion for any of those that had been so unlucky as to cross my path. There was no reason at all for me to feel such feeble emotions. Why should I? They were human emotions after all, and I was no human.

I gazed blankly up at metallic structures as I meandered throughout early morning Odaiba, wondering how the sky must feel to be fought against in the way that these edifices tried to. Obviously they didn't have minds, but you'd think they'd understand that there was no way that they'd be able to lay a hand on the sky. Everyone had tried at least once in their lifetime, or wanted to. None had reached quite high enough to touch it, to brush their fingertips against it and be the only one to leave a fingerprint.

Most of the time, I would be worried about being seen in such lightning, despite how dim that the sun's rays were. But it was early in the morning, practically dawn, and no human would be up at an hour such as this. However, I kept my eyes peeled for movement, just in case there was a jogger or something that wanted to get out before all kinds of traffic and others of its species roamed the streets.

One could never know what would happen in a world such as this.

Feeling a sudden pang of slight boredom—which was quite common when there was no humans around for me to observe and stalk—I did what I normally did whenever I had spare time and nothing was around: Peer into some of the humans' homes, see exactly how some of them lived and in what conditions they lived in. Once, someone had noticed me there in the window and had tried to shoot me with a humanoid gun, and although it would've done nothing to me—like a bee's sting to a human—I ran quickly away from the place, seeming to disappear in the human's mind.

But there wasn't much of a chance of that happening, especially this early, when children weren't even on their way to school yet, or even preparing for it. Some may be awake and moving about, but they wouldn't be awake enough to think of me as anything more than a figment of their imagination that was still lingering in their life from their dreams, their nightmares.

I came up to a house with faded green paneling running across the sides, the smell of old but strong wood wafting from the structure. All of the windows were shaded, covered by curtains that hid the inside. But one had a small crevice between the two pieces of silky fabric, the hue of it a light bluish green, much more energetic than that of the house itself. I could smell the soapy detergent through the glass as I approached the small building; the fabric had been washed recently.

As I looked through the small crack that allowed the sun's faint light to enter the room, I saw the silver stand of a picture frame shining brilliantly, the sun making it seem angelic, holy. My grand eyesight allowed me to see exactly who the people were in the picture, and they stuck a cord within me that I didn't quite understand, despite how hard it hit me. There was a woman, her hair long, halfway down her back and a dark brown like a forest at night. Her eyes were sparkling with cheerfulness, their bright bluish shade piercing in a way, although they were gentle and without a care in the world.

A man stood next to her, his eyes of the same blue, but much darker, deeper, full of all kinds of emotions and showing none of them at the same time. His black hair was shaggy but well-kept, giving the impression that he'd gotten his hair cut because of the picture. He had a bit of a beard coming in, but it was clear that he'd cleaned it up a bit—probably because of the woman's prodding, but who was to say for sure? His shoulders were broad, strong and without a fear, and his hand was resting tenderly on a girl's shoulder.

There was hidden power and determination in the way she stood, in the way her face curved and was framed by her black hair, the strands a little messed up, but obviously they'd been fought into the place that they were in right then. Bright, pale blue made her irises stick out even more than her mother's—I was assuming that they were related in such a way, the man being her father as well—but they held the emotions of her father, feeling everything and showing nothing. She was holding an infant her arms, and just by the way that their faces were so similar, I had to figure that they were sisters, judging by that and the way that the woman's body was.

I felt a sudden wave of nostalgia, as if I'd seen this picture once before, but I knew that I hadn't. I hadn't been in Odaiba before, only in the cities around it, for Master had never really given me permission to enter this city until a few nights ago. I'd been roaming America for a few years now, never once setting foot on this country until Lord Devimon's command.

My attention was drawn swiftly from the picture when a little girl, probably the infant in the picture, except she was at least four, maybe five, came slowly down the steps, rubbing the tire from her eyes. Her eyes were dark, the black of her pupils fading in with the abyss of blue, and brown hair so dark it was practically black fell from her head in tangles from rolling around in her sleep. I knew that I had to get away from the window before she saw me, but I couldn't move, couldn't look away. I could only stare at the girl and feel as if I should know who she was.

I knew my first instinct had been correct in wishing to leave when the girl suddenly glanced my way, seeing me almost instantly. My whole body flinched, yearning to get out of here as fast as my feet could carry me, but something urged me to stay, and I couldn't make myself budge. It was as if there was something within the Earth that held me fast, something that restrained me from even looking away.

No fear crossed her expression, at least not right away. Her eyes were filled with a strange hope and fascination as she stared back at me, the dark shade suddenly brightening as a smile lit up her face like a beacon. She shouted something, not really at me or anyone else, just a single word that I couldn't hear through the glass enough to be able to tell what it was. Repeating the word over and over again, she ran up to the window and pressed her hands and face against the glass, as if she were wishing that it wasn't there at all.

I backed off immediately, my head pounding with anxiety and confusion. What was this girl's issue? Dis she not see my horrific appearance, with my jagged teeth and razor sharp claws, eyes that were like death and ears that were like a mutt's? I flashed my teeth at the child in a deadly snarl, hoping to intimidate her and get her to back away from me. I was glad that there was a wall that separated the two of us.

But she didn't budge. The little girl continued to smile at me as if I were her very best friend in the whole world. My snarl began to fade away into a bewildered stare, stunned that it had done nothing to even make her flinch. All the other little humans ran in fear of me to their parents, who never believed them when they said they saw a monster, but why wasn't this one running, and what had she said before running up to the window?

Her face took a less astounded expression, another that was much kinder like you would give to a friend crossed her features. She backed away from the window a bit, only to put a single hand up on the glass, almost as if she wanted me to do the same. I merely stared at her, wondering what was wrong with this girl to be so unafraid of me. There weren't very many children that had stood up to me like this, even though there was nothing threatening about the way they did so.

Not being able to bring myself to return her gesture—Master would've beaten me for communicating with a human like that when he hadn't given any order to do so—I raised a hand and slowly twiddled my fingers at her, though the perplexed look on my face never left nor faded in any way. Master may even be slightly angered by my doing this, no matter how little it appeared to be. This was me telling the human that I meant no harm.

A few seconds after I lowered my hand again, I shot away from the house as if I were a bullet or torpedo, escaping the little girl's gaze so rapidly that to her it was as if I'd disappeared entirely. She would be much more confused than I had been at the time, but that was of no matter to me. Why should I care if the girl hurt? I should be glad that I was the one to have caused pain in her soul. And I knew that deep inside, I was.

I couldn't shake from my mind the thought that that little girl had been quite like the boy in America that had seen me hiding in a tree as I stalked him and had come up to sit up in the branches with me and talk. Of course, he had had two little Digimon with him, but he'd paid no mind to the way that they'd seemed so anxious about my being there. He hadn't appeared to be afraid in the least bit, to be honest he'd been thrilled to see another being.


Leaves crackled and branches swatted at me as I repositioned my place in the tree, trying to keep as far away from the little human child without falling out. I didn't understand; why had he climbed up into the tree knowing I was here? If I was his friend, I wouldn't have been watching him silently from above, waiting for the time that his Digimon weren't paying as close attention as they should've been. Even though they were just little things, at the In-Training level, it still paid off to be cautious.

The young boy had blonde hair and bright blue eyes like the summer sky, and a smile that lit up the darkness the shadows of the leaves cascaded around us. His two Digimon, Gummymon and Kokomon, sat on either side of his, their eyes never leaving me, weary of my presence and watching for any move that I might make. I knew there was nothing standing between me and the human's data, and yet I couldn't make a move against him. There was no fight left in me to take him out.

I tried to calm myself as he began to speak, nothing but cheeriness and joy in his voice, not a care in the world, "Hi. You're a Digimon, aren't you? I haven't seen many Digimon, especially not many like you," He reached out towards me, and I skittered back immediately, rising to my feet as the other two Digimon made a move to stop him, one of them saying something to him, but I didn't catch it. I was too busy trying to stop the alarms going off in my mind.

The look on the boy's face changed a little bit, turning a little bit less overjoyed at my reaction. He pulled his hand back, the blinding shine in his eyes turning to a much gentler glow, like a lava lamp. "Did I scare you?" I let out a sound of slight irritation and insult as his question, letting a small snarl show through as I turned my head away from him. I felt not fear for a puny human boy such as this; I felt nothing but loathing for the human race. But…if that was true…

Then why couldn't I get up the nerve to destroy this little DigiDestined?

"Is it because we're strangers to each other? My mom always does say that I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," The happy little beam reappeared on his face and he leaned towards me a little bit. For a moment, I thought he was going to fall, and part of me had the urge to jump forward and catch him just to be on the safe side, but that was an idiotic thought, a feeling brought on by prolonged exposure to the humanoids. I wasn't allowed to touch a human unless it was to harm them in some way, and I didn't mind that command. Why would I want to be that close to a living, breathing human? "My name's Willis, and this is Kokomon and Gummymon. Now, we aren't strangers anymore, so it's okay if we talk now, right?"

I don't know what to do. Should I say something? Should I leave? I wanted to ask Master what I should do, but I couldn't appear weak in front of him. Lord Devimon would beat any kind of weakness out of me in a millisecond. Would he think me pathetic if I answered the DigiDestined? I snarled at my own internal thoughts, seeing how much of a trained dog Master had made me. Of course, I followed Master's commands, did his will, but I would not be his little lap dog. I would rather burn eternally.

"…I…I am Moroamon…" My voice wasn't as strong as my physical form, but it didn't waver. Though, I'd never really spoken to a human in this casual kind of way before, I wasn't quite sure what to say. What are you supposed to say to a being that you were created to murder without a care in your soul? "I don't know if we should be speaking, but I suppose…it never hurts to try new things…" I'd heard humans say such things before, but I was curious to see what would happen if my Master learned that I was on such casual terms with a human child.

Willis giggled, seeming quite pleased with himself that he'd gotten a couple of words out of me. It was hard to believe that about twenty or so words could make a little kid so happy, but I guess that's just how humans behave. "It's nice to meet you, Moroamon!" He held out a hand to me, and didn't recoil when Gummymon tried to get him to undo his movement. I'd seen humans exchanged this kind of gesture, but never had I actually done anything close to it. Unless breaking someone's wrist was under that category.

I stared at his outstretched hand, knowing that I could easily grab him right now and steal his presence away from the two In-Training Digimon. Or I could just attack him now; at this close of a distance, I would be sure to destroy him. There was no doubt that I was strong enough, even if I was at the Rookie stage. Master had crafted my data to be able to absorb strength from anything and everything that I touched, never losing the power that I'd gained. Master had no fear of how strong I could become, for he never saw in me a threat. I was his warrior, his soldier. Nothing could change my soul. But if that was so, why wasn't I following his command of destroying all DigiDestined children by taking Willis's data?

"What's wrong? Don't you want to be friends?" Willis's eyes had misted over with a slight sadness at the thought. It wasn't like he was going to cry, but it was like this was a reoccurring thing. Judging by the fact that he was all by himself out here other than his Digimon and by his reaction, Willis didn't have all that many friends. I didn't know why, but I felt a kind of emotion for him, though I wasn't sure what it was. It hurt me on the inside, burning and smoldering in my perplexed soul. I think it was called sympathy.

Hesitantly, I reached out and took Willis's hand, his face lighting up like a florescent light bulb as I returned the human gesture of shaking someone's hand. His Digimon weren't as thrilled about it though, and watched me with hard gazes that threatened pain if I hurt Willis. Even though that was what I'd come here to do, and that it was what I wanted to do, I couldn't. I just plain couldn't. "Nothing's wrong, Willis. It's nice to know you." I tried a smile, but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped for and I let my face return to the blank expression it had owned previously.

Willis smiled sweetly up at me, but then he quickly let go of my hand and climbed down from the branch he was on and back to the Earth below. After he was safe on the dirt again, he looked back up and waved. "I have to go back in—my mom doesn't want me staying out after dark and it's getting darker out. Will I see you again tomorrow?"

I hadn't thought about that. Would Master want me to keep coming back to this same house until I finally got up the courage to kill little Willis? I didn't know if I could really do that or not. The way his eyes sparkled when he smiled, it was familiar in a way, and I couldn't take his breath away when it seemed as if I knew him. Knowing Lord Devimon, he wouldn't be pleased at all that I let this DigiDestined live, but he wouldn't send me back to a failure site. He wouldn't risk another busted mission.

"I don't know, little Willis. Most likely, not; I doubt that you'll ever see me again. But you don't realize right now how good that really is for your well-being, and your family's," Willis gave me a look that told me he hadn't gotten a word that had come out of my mouth other than his name and the word 'little'. I shook my head, trying a second time to answer his question, this time without words. I'd heard that those could confuse many humans. Including this one.

His sadness returned at the negative answer, and he glanced down at his shoes for a second. Then the small blonde DigiDestined looked back up at me with a small smile in his eyes and on his lips. "Even if I don't see you for a while, I'll still be happy just knowing that you're my friend, Moroamon. And friends are forever—"


Suddenly my mind stopped processing the memory, and I realized why after a second or two: Master didn't want me thinking about Willis. Maybe he thought the emotions that had stopped me then would reignite, or he didn't want me to be focused on internal things and end up being seen by someone wandering the streets of Odaiba, after all, it was getting lighter out and it was about the time that some people would be getting up to get ready for their day-jobs or school.

I didn't really like it when Lord Devimon invaded my thoughts in this way, watching and guarding my mind as if he were putting up child locks. It was like he didn't trust me enough to let me think on my own, ponder and wonder about the things that I wanted to. What part of me did Master find so hard to trust with such a concept? Was I asking too much to have a thought or two to myself that he didn't know about?

When Master created me, he'd made sure to have the will to obey him and fulfill his commands sewed into my DNA. He'd blended black into my fake heart, and poured darkness into my mind. The lust for human blood and data had been injected by him straight into my veins, where it continually circulated within me. I didn't know whether I should hate him for turning me into this thing or not. I mean, I wasn't even sure what had really gone on at all. I could be accusing Master of absolutely nothing; I might be confusing the dark and the light again, right and wrong, good and evil.

I let out a loud sigh, my own confusion becoming an annoyance. Raising my hands to my temples, I tried to rub the stress from my mind with my fingers, but it didn't work all that well and I stopped, dropping my hands back down to my sides. If there was something I could do to get my mind off of all of this the headache would go away, but really, what was there for me to occupy myself with? All that there really was around this area was the two apartments that I'd raided last night, and that wasn't going to do me any good.

As I turned down another street, I saw an oddly familiar building; it took me a minute or two to recall that it was the school building that the DigiDestined group attended. There didn't appear to be anyone inside it right at the moment, so I decided that an easy way to keep myself occupied was to have all kinds of humans that I could stalk using the air ducts. Maybe I'd get lucky and one of the DigiDestined would actually be there today.

The door was surprisingly unlocked, considering the fact that the school wasn't open yet, and I came right in without much hesitation. I glanced around the hallways, hearing little scuffling sounds from the other sides of the building, but the section I was in appeared to be fairly empty. Even so, I was quick to find a way into the air ducts, despite them having been resealed due to my last visitation. The coat that I'd left was also gone, but that wasn't as much of a shocker.

It was quiet and cool in the vents, enough so that I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea for me to be moving around so much with so few other things to drone out the slight noise that I made. I moved away from my point of entrance just to be on the safe side, and stopped at the corner of one of the intersections in the duct. Leaning up against one of the walls, I tilted my head back, my eyes closed as I breathed in the scent of so many humans, a good handful of them DigiDestined.

So many aromas in such a comfortably cool place put my mind in a small trance, something like sleep, but it didn't erase fatigue. It was like was humans called 'zoning out' in a way, though I was still fully aware of everything that was going on. For now, my mind was wrapped around the smile that that little girl had given me.


The shrill reverberation of a loud bell shocked me out of my little trance-like 'sleep', and I had to restrain myself from letting off an attack inside the confined space. It took me a moment or two to recall where I was, and to figure out that I'd just heard the bell that sounded whenever it was time for the humans to go on to another room, or at least that was what they were trained to do whenever it sounded.

I crept as quietly as possible over to the nearest vent, and staring down the grates, I felt a sinking sense gazing right back at me. The school was filled with humans, adults and teenagers alike, and that meant that there was no way that I was getting out of this place without being seen by someone. It was almost hard for me to believe that I'd really 'zoned out' for so long, since I really hadn't been thinking about anything. Aside from everything that was always on my mind, of course.

Knowing that I would have to wait until the edifice became dark and without life for me to be able to escape its clutches, I chose one of the humans out of the class that was below me, and decided to occupy myself by stalking said being. His smell was that of a Digimon, one of the essences of Light, from what I could tell, but that was unimportant since that creature would hide from sight as I did. I knew he was of the group I'd met with the previous night, but I couldn't recall his name, the sound of it escaping my tongue with haste.

He was one of the two with blonde hair, but I knew that he wasn't Matt, for he didn't have the same air as the blue-eyed being. The bouquet that their DNA gave off was quite similar, but there was a certain twinge in it that made both of them distinct. The younger of the two—TK, that was his name—was much more of the sun, of light, and the like. You didn't have to know him at all to know that his heart was like that of the Royal Knights, being always filled with a want for justice and peace, for a love that would change the world.

But the other, while he was still on the same side as his brother, seemed to have more of a knowledge of good and evil, like with the fruit in the Garden of Eden. TK was still innocent in his ways, though it was clear he'd fought much evil in his days as a DigiDestined. Darkness had inhabited Matt's heart at one or more points in his life, it was easy to see because of the way their eyes shined, the way the sheen in them was so different. TK's was always bright, like nothing could make him downcast though inside he felt a strange fear for the darkness that no one else could ever match. Matt's, on the other hand, feared the evil but knew that it was part of the world that would never fade away no matter how many enemies that he and his friends fought against, no matter how much evil that they vanquished.

In a way, it was sad. But why should I care? Why should I already know so much about them after having really 'met' them the day before? It had to be another one of the applications that Master equipped me with, a sense that could pick my foes apart cell by cell until there was nothing left behind for their deepest fears and anxieties to hide behind, nothing for them to evade my on-coming advance with. Master Devimon enjoyed creating abilities as such, for it made him feel like a god, forming beings that were invincible and feared by all.

My attention was drawn back to the classroom when TK got up from his seat, and proceeded towards the door. He opened it, the handle twisting with a small whine and a click as it allowed him to pass through into the hallway. Even though there was something in my mind telling me not to, I raised myself to a position in which I could move throughout the vents, and tracked TK's scent until I reached another grated opening in the metal. There were a few water fountains a few feet beneath the gate, high enough that TK wouldn't see me if I didn't move, and low enough that if I really wanted to, I could reach right down and grab him.

Even though my body begged me to snatch him and drag him into the darkness of the air ducts, I knew that it wasn't a very good idea, especially if any of the Digimon heard the commotion and found me. I'd have a hell of a time keeping the creature's mouth shut. So, knowing that it would take more work to get his trust of me, I reached my fingers through the small opening and clicked them against the shiny metal to get his attention. "Hello, TK."

Apparently I startled him because as soon as he heard me speak he jumped, his nose ramming down into the surface of the fountain with a bit of a clung-ing sound. He seemed a bit confused to have something in the ventilation unit greeting him, but when he looked up and saw my clawed hand handing through it, his confusion left. "What are you doing here?" The blonde DigiDestined seemed less than thrilled to see me there, and it was pretty evident by the coldness in his eyes and bland tone of his voice.

"No reason in particular, actually," I replied in as friendly of a tone as I could muster, acting as if this were a normal thing, TK and I having a conversation via air duct. In a way it sounded a little sinister, but after you talk one way for a long time it just tends to rub off into everything that you say no matter what you do. Hopefully TK either understood that or didn't really care about the tone of my voice as long as there was something in between us when I was talking. In this case, the thin metallic shield that the ventilation units made.

TK's expression didn't change, and I wasn't surprised in the least. He knew I was here for something, every creature that ever talked to you was only there because they wanted something from you, but he just wasn't quite sure what it was I could get from him or his friends. At least, not yet anyways. "Okay, whatever. Just make sure nobody sees you. It was hard enough finding a way to explain what 'really happened' the last time you showed up in our school." Without another word, TK turned and headed back to his class, his body a bit less relaxed than it had been before he'd known I was close by.

The gesture of slight fear made me grin.

His reaction to my presence was too good to resist following him back to his classroom. I tried to keep my movement quiet despite my hurried pace, wanting to get back to the room's grate so I could see the look on TK's face when he returned. Glee surged through my veins when I realized that I had gotten there just in time to see the blue-eyed boy open the door and come back into the room. He looked as if he'd seen a ghost, his skin pale, making his eyes seem that much brighter and bluer. He didn't look deathly afraid, but he was much more alert now than he once had been.

Sitting in his desk, his back was straighter, but his shoulders were hunched in a way that showed he was ready to pounce up and attack something at any time. To try and keep his mind off of me and what I might be doing when he couldn't see me, TK picked up his pencil and started to twirl it in his fingers, furrowing his eyebrows in in concentration. But after a little while he put it back down, his idea of stress-relief not going over very well.

Every now and then I'd see him half-glance back towards the grate, as if to see if I was visible in the darkness of the vent. A few times I was tempted to move forward just enough that he could see the glimmer of my eyes reflecting the light, but I held myself back, thinking over and over that that would send a threatening impression. If he sensed any kind of a threat, it would poison the trust I'd already built up with the other DigiDestined. Invisibility was best, for now.

"TK, class is this way," The blonde spun around from facing me to the front of the classroom at the sound of the teacher's slightly humorous scolding. A few of the other students snickered at TK's misfortune, but he completely ignored them and the actual class. Even though he couldn't look back without the teacher noticing, he knew I was there. I could feel it in the thickness of the air. He could feel my presence like I could feel his. I wonder if the other DigiDestined have the same sense as this one does—

My thoughts were interrupted again by the aggravating ringing of the school's bell, signaling for the students to move on to their next class. The reverberations resounded all the more in the confined space I was in, and the sharp notes screeched in my ears to the point of agony. Clamping my eyes shut because of the inner pain, I pressed my hands over my pointed, doggish-ears, trying to shut out the horrid sound as best I could. But over the course of my defense, I forgot to keep track of TK, and he escaped the room without me catching any idea of which direction he went. Ah, I'll find one of the others. Maybe I could find that Davis-human…

Just as I was about to begin my search of the premises again, a high-pitched little voice shot into the air from a few yards behind me. "Hey! Who are you?" Turning my head ever so slightly, I saw two Digimon coming around the corner into the same alley as I. One was a Patamon, and a pretty round one, at that. The other, much to my irritation, was a Gatomon. By the tension change in the atmosphere, I could tell that this was the Digimon that the Lady had commanded me to destroy. But she was obviously a Digimon belonging to one of the group, and that made a shield for her to hide behind. Anger burned violently within me for such a barrier, but I didn't allow it to become visible on my face in any way.

"That's the Digi-Hybrid that Kari told me about last night," The Gatomon's voice answered the little orange bat's question for me, which I didn't exactly mind. "She's Moroamon, the one that went after Davis and Ken." A touch of hatred crossed both of their eyes, making them clouded and hazy like tinted glass. I could see that those looks were supposed to send me on a guilt trip, but I had no guilt to stumble over. Shrugging off her condemning accusation, I turned away from them and continued down the hallway that the vents made. But that didn't stop them from pursuing me.

"Hey!" Patamon shouted after me, apparently forgetting that we were in a school's ventilation system and it was incredibly easy to hear anything that went on up here. As it seemed, neither of those two seemed to care in the least little bit. "Where do you think you're going?" With a strange-sounding growl and a scowl, the orange creature came at me like a demon of the night, its battle cry similar to that of a human child wailing during a tantrum.

My nerves now vexed by their irritating presence, I swatted the other Digimon away from me with my tail, knocking him against the side of the vent. "I'll go where I want to, and you'll keep your distance if you know what's good for you." I started to move forwards again, thinking to myself that those two wouldn't follow me if their lives depended on it. But I was wrong, and it was one of the most irritating things that I'd ever been incorrect about.

Everything few second or so, Gatomon would slash at me with her sharp claws. It wouldn't hurt as much as she'd probably hoped that it would, but it was more annoying than DemiDevimon and the most immature being in the whole universe. Sure, they were pretty much the same thing, but there had to be someone that was just like DemiDevimon. Every species needs a partner, right? But I don't. Master said that I was one of a kind, that I wouldn't have a match because I was special. Too special for someone to spend my life in happiness with.

I was too lost in my own thoughts for a moment to realize that the two aggravating, human-loving (different from my kind of human-loving, obviously) Digimon were talking to me. When I actually noticed this, the Patamon had been demanding that I tell them who I worked for, or something about 'fessing up to who'd hired me to hurt Ken and/or Davis. Finding no real need to answer, I remained silent and kept moving, seeing a light from ahead and scenting many different humans' smells. Including that of a few familiar DigiDestined.

I pushed through the exit and onto the banisters of a room that was much bigger and much more open than all the other classrooms, this one with a wood floor with all kinds of colored lines drawn over it. Humanoid sport equipment was all over the room, either hanging from the ceiling or in containers all around the room. A large group of students had just piled into the room, and they were breaking into a few groups, one of them containing two DigiDestined: Davis and TK. The other, which was filled mainly with females, included another: Kari, Tai's sibling.

Now that I had room to stand, I pulled myself up to my full height, and turned back to face the two Digital nuisances with a look of disdain and obvious detestation. I wanted desperately to throw them from such an altitude, but also knew that if I did so, I would both give myself away and wreck the plan to gain the trust of the DigiDestined. I needed the Digimon to think that I meant no harm, as well as the humans that their friendship was entrusted to. It would be more strife to go through, but it would make a difference in the end.

My mouth opened, ready to repeat the apology that I'd rehearsed in my mind for only a few minutes, maybe even seconds now. The two Digimon sat patiently near the vent's entrance, watching me to see what I would say, their eyes searching me for any sign that I meant harm to them in the nearing future. They were more than ready to spring to safety if I lunged at them, but that didn't matter. If I'd wanted them dead, there would be nothing that they could do to stop me. I outmatched both of them in both speed and strength. They were lucky that total annihilation wasn't the plan, though it probably would've made a decent one.

Just before I was about to speak, the small blue Digimon—I wasn't sure, but I thought that his name was DemiVeemon—interrupted me by hugging one of my feet, probably as some kind of recognition. Probably. I wasn't sure, and to be honest, the little guy was kind of freaking me out by how close he was to me. And how unafraid he currently was of me. It was a huge change from the previous night. Does he even remember anything that I tried to do? Or anything that I said?

"I know you! Davis says that you're a Dakota Hyphen! I've never met one of them before!" I wasn't sure what to do: Drop-kick him, or throw him off of my foot and onto the ground below. Both would draw too much attention and would send off the wrong signal. Usually, causing bodily harm to something did those kinds of things, namely when other people were around to act as witnesses.

So, I settled for correcting him as best I thought possible. "…I think…you mean 'Digital Hybrid'. Not 'Dakota Hyphen'," I wasn't even sure if I was correcting him right; how was I supposed to know what the human Davis had really told his partner Digimon? Had he actually called me that, or had the little blue thing completely misheard? My head was starting to throb with confusion. Why do these humans and their Digimon have to be so puzzling and idiotically complex so often? It makes it difficult to tell whether I'm doing the right thing around them or not.

The tiny thing shrugged with a slight uncaring air to his movements. His humungous eyes showed that he felt some kind of emotion for all things, however, even if he didn't even realize that he did. "Meh, they're pretty much the same thing in my book," Suddenly his eyes lit up, and his white-hued mouth curved up into a smile as large as his eyeballs. "Did you know I'm publishing it? I called it, 'Demi-V in Da House'! Don't you love it?"

I did my best to make some kind of a smile-like-mouth-expression form on my face, which is much harder than humans make it look all the time. I'd have to practice so that my lack of expertise wasn't so evident. Such a thing would surely give my position under Master Devimon away, and that would ruin everything, absolutely everything. Master would never forgive me for such a folly, and there would be nothing in the world that I could do to win back his favor, no matter how many being I slayed, DigiDestined or non.

Tugging with a fair amount of effort, DemiVeemon struggled to get me to follow him over to another section of the banisters, an area that was much closer to where all the humans were playing a game with an orange-hued ball with a couple of black stripes tracing the length of it in curved patterns. "C'mon! We can watch Davis and TK play basketball over here! Do you get the point of it? 'Cause the only thing I've noticed is that everyone likes to hit everyone else in the face with the ball, and you get personal points for it," I had no idea what the tiny Digital being was going on about, but it seemed to be pretty important to his little mind, so I tried to act like I understood his dilemma.

Gatomon and Patamon mumbled something angrily to one another while staring after the two of us, but did nothing to get DemiVeemon away from me. Perhaps they were watching me, waiting to witness my reaction to the slightly aggravating topics that the cerulean Digimon brought up. Maybe they were waiting to see if I would attack him or not. The thought actually made me feel a bit back for the guy; two beings that he trusted were using him as a kind of bait. If he listens to me a while down the road, maybe I can convince him to follow Master's footsteps as I do. Under Lord Devimon's wings, such a wrong will never again be done to him.

The little blue human-following Digimon practically dragged me by my shin over to where he'd said we should watch the…basketball game being played below. As soon as he released his grip on me, I crouched again, hoping that no one would look up and notice four creatures hanging around on the banisters of the gymnasium ceiling. It would be awful for my mission if I was noticed here a second time.

"You know which one's which, right?" DemiVeemon questioned suddenly simultaneously pointing down to the court where both teams were beginning their game. The cerulean Digital Monster stared at me, waiting ever so patiently for my answer. Or he didn't know if I'd heard him and was looking for any kind of sign that told him that he had to repeat his question. One of those two. There were always two options when it came to what humans and their Digimon were thinking.

I cast him a slight nod, but refused to take my eyes off of the humans, searching each of them for the partner of DemiVeemon. It wasn't that hard to find him, having had his face burned into my mind, as if my very psyche had been branded like the humans did their cattle. Of course, the reason for the 'branding' was different. Humans marked their animals to state that they owned them; no human owned me, nor did any control me. None ever had, and I intended that it would remain that way.

However, that didn't mean that this bright-eyed human couldn't find a strange way to intrigue me. There was a pulsing in the way that his slender form moved back and forth on the court, something about him causing a loud, drumming sound to pound in my ears. "Are your eyes actually stuck, or did someone glue them like that?" I was a tiny bit startled when DemiVeemon's voice sounded all of a sudden. Having not anticipated that he would speak, I hadn't really been listening to him, and hadn't even heard what he'd said.

He took my silence as a sign that I hadn't understood what he'd asked. "Why don't your eyeballs ever leave Davis? I notice things like that," Little and blue though he was, it was surprising just how much of his body could be used as storage for pride that he had in all his minute abilities. But it was a good question, one that I wasn't entirely sure that I could answer.

There was no real reason that I knew of for my sudden trance-like state, the status that was continually appearing in my psyche, pulling me away from my alertness and understanding of all things occurring at the moment. The only kind of answer that came to my head was part of a poem that I recalled from some time ago, and knowing nothing else to tell him, I quoted it thusly, "'I had this thought a while ago, 'My darling does not understand what I have done, or what would do in this blind, bitter land'. And my thoughts grew weary in the sun'…" After that part, I wasn't entirely sure what was written.

DemiVeemon was silent for a minute or two, then looked at me with his wide, crimson eyes, a big smile spread upon his face yet again. "I didn't understand a word of that. Do you know any Dr. Seuss?" I blinked at him a few times, having no idea who this 'Doctor of Seuss' was. Taking my response as a 'no', he recited a quote from him. "He's the guy who said, 'I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!'"

He gave a little laugh at the saying, obviously seeing the humor in it. This Dr. Seuss did make a fair amount of sense, since it was quite effective to beat off all of your problems with an oversized weapon. Maybe, as a more evolved Digimon, that was the motto of this minute being. For all that I knew, he may not be this innocent when fully grown. It was an interesting thought to chew on.


Being perched high up in a tree gave me a good view of the school and each of the students' positions. The great bell had already run again, this time seeming to signal that the current day was over and done with. I watched carefully as each of the young humans walked out of the building and continued on their way back to their homes. Most didn't have the smell of a DigiDestined's blood, but those that did were only those that I already knew of.

I noticed Kari and TK walk out together, both of their backpacks seeming much fuller than they had before leaving. Assuming that Gatomon and Patamon would not leave them, I figured that they were located within the bags. The knowledge gave my mind a bit of peace; those two aggravating Digimon could see right through my façade, and if I wasn't careful around them, they might ruin the whole plan. They could easily poison the minds of the humans and turn them against me.

I wasn't entirely sure where the older DigiDestined were, but that didn't plague my mind for very long. As two more students made their way out of the building, I could sense the bouquet of DigiDestined flesh, though I did not recognize either of them. They could quite possibly be the two that Davis had mentioned the other night when he refused to make a decision about me. I'll have to make my presence known to them soon.

Finally, the last DigiDestined exited the building, the partner of DemiVeemon. He was walking alone, but I knew that he only appeared that way. His Digital Monster was incredibly close, assuming that he was also riding in Davis's school bag like what seemed to be custom. But that little thing didn't bother me; in fact, he seemed to trust me for whatever reason. Perhaps it was just his naïve nature, or his seemingly innocent soul. I wasn't sure, but I appreciated that there was at least one in their group that I didn't have to work with.

During my moment of distraction, I must not have been as hidden by the bright green leaves as I thought I was. Davis glanced up from the sidewalk, happening to look straight up into the very tree that I was stalking him from. Before I had a chance to flatten myself against the trunk of the tree in an attempt to hide, my presence had already been registered by his brain. His bright brown eyes lit up in a fluorescent manner, a smile suddenly illuminating his features.

My first reaction was to flee, but I knew that it was too late for such a thing. If I did that now, it would cause many suspicions to arise within their little group. So, not knowing what else to do, I waited motionlessly as Davis ran over to the base of the tree, smiling at me the whole way for a reason I wasn't sure of.

Even though I knew I had nothing to fear when it came to this human, I couldn't stop myself from shuddering inside. It was a kind of anxiety that I wasn't entirely familiar with, and it put me on edge that much more. It felt as if there were all kinds of Earthly critters crawling around all over my insides, like maggots inched around their carcass as they pulled the dead flesh from drying bone.

As Davis came to a halt beneath the tree, I allowed myself to slip down a few of the branches to get a little bit closer to him. When I was as low as I could go without being spotted by any other humans, I wrapped the backs of my legs around one of the branches and fell back into an upside-down angle. I wasn't quite face to face with him, but it was close enough that my anxiety began to overreact again.

"Hey, Moroamon. I'm kinda surprised to see you. What are you doing here at this kind of a time? I thought you went back to your home in the Digital World." Apparently, Davis wasn't all that fazed by our closeness, he barely even seemed to notice it. He seemed genuinely interested in my whereabouts, which confused me beyond all reasonable thought.

My mind was still clear enough to realize that he had the ability to ask a couple of pretty difficult questions. For a moment I wasn't sure how to answer, just in case I were to give something away that I should've have. Finally, I replied in a monotone voice, "I have no home here or in the Digital World." It was only a half-lie, however. I had no home here in the human world, of course, but in the Digital World, I had a…kind of home. Devimon's headquarters were where I resided at some points. But I couldn't exactly call that a home.

A slightly surprised look crossed Davis's face, as if he hadn't been expecting such a straight-forward answer. "No home?" His voice seemed just as stunned as his facial expression; however, that look changed to one that showed an idea that had just popped into his head. He didn't share it right away, though. Instead, he ran a different suggestion by me. "Hey, if you aren't doing anything, why don't you walk with me? You don't have to worry about being seen, I've got an alibi for you if anyone asks. We can just say that you're supposed to be entertaining a birthday party or something. C'mon," He reached up to me, and before I could move away, he grasped my forearm and gave me a gentle pull.

The human had barely even pulled me, but his warm, tender touch nearly sent me into something similar to a coma. My whole body went limp, each of my muscles seeming to just disappear, while I felt something throbbing inside my chest. It felt like a bomb was ticking within me, waiting for the right moment to explode and rip me apart. I couldn't remember ever feeling like this before. It almost frightened me to feel in this way.

I was able to force enough willpower into my bones to make me flip over and land on my feet before I fell on the ground. Now that I was on the ground, only a few inches away from him due to my fail of a dismount, I could feel my face heating up with embarrassment. It didn't help that he was still smiling at me in that way, it made it seem as if there was something about one of us that only he realized. It made me wonder what he could possibly be thinking, making me wish that I had the ability to be able to read his thoughts like subtitles.

I finally got enough control over myself to take a couple of steps away from the heat-radiating human, and we continued on in the direction that I recalled his home being in. He walked close to me, close enough that I thought for a moment that he'd completely forgotten what I'd done to him and Ken. What I'd almost done. He didn't appear to care about what had gone on anymore. Maybe he's forgiven me for it, or truly believes with all his heart that I was overcome by evil at that point.

It seemed to be the only plausible idea. But then again, he was currently the only DigiDestined child that appeared to really believe every word that I'd said. How could such a thing be? Why was he so different? The thought plagued me like the Bubonic plague, festering within me like an infected sore. My head throbbed with all the reasons, but none of them seemed right to me. What if—

"You okay, Moroamon?"

Zoning back into the human world, I snapped my head back around to stare at Davis, not having realized that he'd said anything. Seeing that I was paying attention again, Davis repeated what he'd previously spoken, "Why are you in the human world anyways, Moroamon?" Such a question caught me off-guard, like he had the past few times that we'd met.

I wasn't sure how to answer this question, either. I couldn't give him a good answer without it being too close to what was really going on, and there was no way that he could learn my true intentions. If I were to tell him such a thing, then we would have to be in a place where I would have the upper hand, like an alley or secluded place of some kind. But here, this early yet in the daylight sun, Davis had all the power over me. This time, he was the predator, and I the prey.

Though, I had to tell him something, and there was a strange urge within my being to tell him something that was at least somewhat close to the truth. I had never felt such a feeling involving a human boy before. I usually didn't care who I lied to, or what it was about. But this bright-eyed creature…there was something about him that brought out a goodness in me that could not be if I was going to complete this mission successfully.

But still…I did have to reply. With a quiet voice, I muttered the only thing that I could think of, and it was true, "I'm here to find my purpose."