Hana and Aoi felt a Little bad, since they couldn't find their lost data and made their digimon partner ultra-evolve. If they don't find it, they couldn't go where Nidramon is.
They weren't the only ones feeling depressed, Hiroki also felt that way. Agumon already told him to not worry about it and be positive that they sure will found it and they'll fight together. Yes, Hiroki admits he felt impatient, but in his opinion, there was no time to waste. They were so close to defeat Nidramon and save the digital world.
.
.
Soon, they found a place to camp, near a big waterfall.
"The digital world had this beautiful waterfall? I can't believe I don't remember" Hana tought looking over the view.
"Hana, look, this waterfall wasn't here before!" tentomon called her attention right away.
"What?"
"This waterfall wasn't here, this must be because the digiworld is damaged. This supposed to be a big green meadow"
Hana's eyes grew big. A meadow?. Wow, Nidramon sure changed the digital world as he pleased, besides killing most of the digimon and leaving village of beginnings like a disaster. Thank goodness that when they get to defeat that digimon everyone will reborn again.
"So, this was… a work of that digimon, right?" the red head girl's voice said in a sad tone. Tentomon nodded at her question.
Hana sat and clenched her fists around her legs. "We will found the lost data and you'll ultra-evolve, tentomon"
The bug digimon was surprised by Hana's words. He wanted to, but lost data could be anywhere. He agreed with her anyways, if she had that hope, they'll sure found it.
.
.
"It's getting dark, you don't want to sleep some?" Aoi looked at palmon by his side, she was starting to yawn.
"What about you Aoi? You don't want to sleep?"
"I-I… don't worry about me, palmon" he said smiling uneasily.
The flower digimon shook her head. "You should rest, I'll protect you" she smiled.
Aoi hugged his partner with a weird giggle. "You're so selfless, thank you" he said, releasing her. "But you have to save energy if you wanna ultra-evolve, right?" he smiled at her sweetly.
Palmon almost blushed at how Aoi was smiling at her, he looked like some prince. She nodded at him and fell asleep with her head in his lap while the blonde boy stared at the waterfall near there.
The rest was sleeping, except Hana and Hiroki that were in the same situation as him and palmon. Their digimon were asleep, but they were chatting, sitting in front of him. Aoi could watch their backs, and how close they were. It didn't bother him, he knew Hiroki was a very good boy, much better than him, he thought.
How did he felt about Hana? It was a question that he made himself lately. Because, if she is by his side it was okay and he could protect her. But if she is by Hiroki's side, he could only feel that he is taking her away from him, like he can't protect her anymore. This isn't love, or at least not romantic love. She felt like… someone really close. He knew her very well, her likes, her dislikes, fears, what makes her happy, what makes her sad, hopes… A sister, that's it. That's how he felt about her.
How he couldn't realize before? Of course he felt jealous, but not because he liked her like that, but because Aoi couldn't stand that one guy came and took her away from him and not be able to protect her and take care of her like he could.
"If you can make her laugh like that every day I'll allow you to" he smiled, lifting a brow at the backs of his friends.
Suddenly, Hiroki and Hana got up.
"It's glowing!" said the red head.
"It's true. It's coming from inside the waterfall" Hiroki added.
"It could be lost data, don't you think?" Hana said excitedly looking at him, making his heart skipped a beat. Her curious expression made her eyes shine and that was priceless.
"Do you want to go and check?"
"How could we do that? It's inside the waterfall" Hana frowned.
"You have a flying digimon, Hana" Aoi jumped in the conversation.
The girl looked at tentomon sleeping soundly and sighed.
"I don't want to wake him up… I told him to save energy"
"Then you don't have a choice to found out what that glow is Hana" the blonde said putting his hands in his pockets.
The dark eyed girl thought about it for a minute. He was right, it was the only way. Besides, what if that was their lost data and could ultra-evolve?
She decided to wake tentomon up, and kabuterimon took them Hana, Hiroki, agumon, palmon and Aoi to the waterfall to check what was it. A cave was inside the waterfall, and that shining was coming from it. They went throught it.
"It was this… cave? That glow?" Hana looked around and it didn't look like a cave at all. It looked like some other place to where she was, there was a big staircase up a hill, and it seemed like a house or maybe a temple on top. The surroundings were like space and there was nothing but the stairs and that house at the top. Tentomon was beside her, but Hiroki and Aoi didn't.
"Should I climb up? What there will be up there?"
Without thinking too much, she started to climb up the stairs, and as soon as she put a foot on the first step, she couldn't step off because a big mirror was blocking the way out behind her. It seemed like a mirror, but it didn't look like it was gonna break that easily.
Hana sighed, looked up the hill, and started climbing with her mind set in the top and what here will be there. She almost forgot about her friends that weren't with her.
When Aoi crossed that cave and the glow disappeared, he discovered his eyes and sopped narrowing. All he could see was his house.
"Huh? My… house?" he started sweating. Was this really his house? What was happening?
Aoi ran inside the big house, it all seemed so real…
"Palmon, this is my house" he said in a low voice. He still couldn't believe it.
It was his house but his mother wasn't in there. He couldn't find her anywhere. The blonde smiled in relief and started to do whatever he wanted to inside the house.
Sure, eat all the food he wanted, turn on the Jacuzzi maybe, make popcorn, watch tv. Palmon was aware that it was something strange, but seeing Aoi smile like that it was something she never saw before, so she kept her thoughts to herself.
Besides, where were Hiroki and Hana, agumon and tentomon? They were just beside them a moment ago…
"Hiroki, are you alright?" agumon asked worriedly to the brown haired boy in the ground.
"Agumon… yes, I'm fine. I was just a little dazzled" he said, lifting himself up.
"Look!" Agumon pointed up where Nidramon was supposed to be.
"W-what is that?" he stepped back.
"I don't know, it looks like Nidramon's hiding place don't you think?" agumon said to him. "Hm? I think I heard something"
"What did you heard?"
"Like a girl's voice-"
"HELP…" A distant voice could be heard.
"It sounds like Hana!" Hiroki's heart now was beating faster. What in the world was Hana doing there?. He couldn't defeat that digimon by himself, he knew that, agumon didn't even ultra-evolve. But Hana was in there…
"What do I do?..." he clenched his fists beside him.
"Hiroki…" agumon said in a concerned manner. He knew Hiroki was dying to save Hana, but he also knew he alone could not defeat Nidramon. He just couldn't, they both would die.
Nidramon was in his hiding place, watching the trap that the three teens were in and grinning. This was his plan to see if he could get rid of them. He sent them in three different time planes and universes.
Hana was still climbing the stairs that seem infinite. Although she was tired and panting, the girl didn't sopped.
"Hana, we should rest…" tentomon tried to tell her.
"If you want to, you can wait here" she simply said in the most monotone voice tentomon ever heard from her.
"No! wait for me!"
Of course he wouldn't leave her; he had a bad feeling about this situation. Hana's eyes won't even look at him when she answered his questions, they looked empty with every minute that passed and only looking up at that thing on the top, ignoring more and more tentomon.
Her curiosity for knowing can compare to her father's. Definitely.
.
.
"Hana…" tentomon tried to call her attention, but there was no response.
Tentomon lost his evolution to motimon. It was even more difficult to climb those stairs this way.
"H-Hana…" no response, again. Tears were forming in the digimon eyes as he thought that at this point, Hana forgot that he was even there by her side. But motimon didn't give up, he would never leave her.
Motimon turned into pabumon in a second. How could this baby digimon climb those stairs now?.
He tripped, and the little digimon couldn't stop crying…
"Ah! There's the top!" The red haired girl said and climbed the three steps left, followed for a sad pabumon doing his best to climb.
"It was a temple after all… look, tento-" her voice trailed off when she turned around and only saw, in the ground, a little green digimon crying.
"pabu, pabu…" his voice broken in crying.
Hana's eyes still looked empty and her face expressionless. Her eyelashes blinked once in a while but with no emotion. The stairs were over and there was only a floating temple with space around and a gigantic mirror in the place where the stairs should be.
"pabu, pabu" called again her attention, and all Hana did was look at the mirror.
"That's me?" she said. She didn't recognize herself, and when she turned to her partner again, this time the tears of pabumon broke the girl's heart, so much, that when she realized, tears were falling down her cheeks.
She touched the tears with the same emotionless face.
"Tears?... why am I crying?" she sniffed without knowing the effect of pabumon sadness in front of her. Deep inside, if her digimon partner laughs, she laughs, and if he cries… same for her. She turned to the mirror again, the image of Hiroki and Aoi appeared, even though they weren't there.
"Aoi… Hiroki…"
Suddenly, the glass broke a little, waking up Hana from her trance. When she saw pabumon in the ground, she immediately grabbed him and hugged him. She couldn't stop crying though.
Pabumon evolve. Motimon.
"Don't cry, Hana"
"Motimon, I'm sorry! I don't know what I was thinking. How could I forget you and everything I been looking for?" her tears didn't stop rolling down her face in that moment, she felt like crying a lot. Hana was crying for many reasons, not just for that.
"That mirror broke because I shot them bubbles at it, you didn't notice but it doesn't matter. That in the mirror is you! And I have to protect you, that why I'm here. I love how you are Hana, please never change, you're caring, curious, smart and a very nice girl. You're a perfect version of you" Motimon smiled at her warmly.
"Motimon… thank you. You saved me so many times I'll never forget. And this… is the biggest time you saved my life. Just now, before the glass broke I saw the image of Aoi and Hiroki, how could I forget them?"
"I sense something suspicious about this place, Hana"
"Yeah, now that you say it" Hana said approaching the temple. As soon she got close, the mirror in the back started moving, removing the ground where she was standing.
Motimon evolve. Tentomon.
"Tentomon! What do we do? This mirror is moving forward more and more!"
"I'll try to break it completely!"
Tentomon evolve. Kabuterimon
Kabuterimon tried with his technique but the gigantic mirror just busted. And it kept moving forward, so much that Hana climbed up the temple.
"This has to be a joke…" she said to herself while looking in the mirror her fear expression full of desperation. As soon she realized her expression, she changed it in one second.
"Attacking with mirrors? Don't think I'm scared of myself! Kabuterimon let's go! We can do it!"
Kabuterimon evolve, Atlurkabuterimon.
