17.
Hikari exhales again, this one heavier than the last. She stands at the edge of the water, staring out at the horizon. Tailmon loops about her legs, twining with them as if to trip her. She isn't though; Hikari knows this is just her way of trying to be reassuring.
She's not sure it's helping.
She looks at her Digivice. The D-3 looks harmless. She knows better than to think that. She straightens to her full height and shuts her eyes. The sea sways before her as Tailmon watches. The salty smell begins to rot.
She doesn't want to do this. She doesn't want to go. She didn't want to go. For Takeru, though, for her friends, she would.
She tries to recall it, the grayness of the water, the chill of the air and the fear, thick and cold. She thinks until it seems painful. She smiles at nothing and shivers to herself. Reflexively, Hikari rubs at her arms. When she opened her eyes, the sand beneath her shoes was grey.
The air slurps around her, and Hikari moves closer to the water. "Excuse me," she called. "Could you help me?" She doesn't know what to call him, the god of the monsters here, but it seems irrelevant, since no one answers. She calls again, and the water bubbles. What good would it do to bring him here, anyway? She isn't sure. However, it is something like a last resort. So she will use what she has, no matter how much she shakes.
"Please!" She still isn't sure how she arrived here, but she had believed that she could and for the worlds that may have been enough. "Please help me."
The voice answers, a steady thrum of gurgles that form words, with a single word. "Why?"
Hikari inhales. She doesn't look down at Tailmon as she exhales. Summoning all of her big brother's courage, she tells him why.
A/N: And this is were I say, everyone, we're in the home stretch! I have almost written the ending for this one and I hope it's worth the wait! Well, please leave Ba review!