Reviewer responses:
Guest) Agreed on 1/2, certainly on 3, and you got me on 4.
Keeper of Worlds) So gushingly glad you enjoyed my little story.
Deadman Infinite) The... Hose? Oh, how absolutely terrifying... I believe you'll agree that turnabout is fair play? Tell you what, you bring out the hose, and I bring out my raving psychopath. Sounds like a fair trade, right?
In her and Saial's bedroom, Raya was deeply entrenched in blissful sleep, her unconscious form lying deathly still underneath the silky navy-purple sheets. A distance away, next to the door, stood a navy-haired boy in a bandana with a blue jacket, a yellow shirt and gray pants, leaned against a wall, eyes focused on the resident coma patient.
He tensed when she thought to hear a faint groan from the demoness. Slowly, she stirred, rubbing her sore eyes, blinking when she spotted the boy. "Now this is indeed surprising," She chuckled. "First the esteemed Digimon Tamers, now the Legendary Warrior of Light... To what do I owe the pleasure?" She asked, before realizing that Saial was nowhere to be found, despite Raya clearly remembering that they had shared a bed the night before.
"Coincidence, purely," The boy responded, more than a bit surprised by the demoness' cordial tone. The demoness supposed that the answer was reasonable, even if it left several other questions unanswered, such as how he was suddenly here. The boy suddenly left the bedroom, and shouted down the staircase that she had awoken, leaving her all the more confused as to what was going on.
Shortly, Saial, Takato, Terriermon and Guilmon were in the bedroom. "Well, you're finally awake," Saial noted.
"Took her long enough," Terriermon cracked, confusing the demoness as to his meaning. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind. Had she somehow been asleep for longer than she realized? It seemed impossible... After considering the situation, Raya wondered if not it was time to phase out the word 'impossible'...
"How long was I asleep?" LadyDevimon wearily asked, immediately regretting asking, as logic dictated she wouldn't much like the answer.
"About a half and a half," Terriermon bluntly answered.
"Lovely..." Raya snorted. "And when exactly did this Koji arrive?" She asked the group. Koji stared mildly intrigued at her, wondering what she was referring to by specifying, 'this Koji', since to his knowledge, there weren't any other versions of him presently in this Digital World, like he'd read about in the library below.
"Almost three days ago," Saial replied.
"So," Raya turned to the newcomer. "What's your story?"
"What?" Koji flatly asked, wondering why everyone seemed so interested in his backstory. The Angewomon and the 'Tamers', as they called themselves had asked that on the evening of his first day here. "The part you're most likely interested, the ending, is that well, after we defeated Lucemon as Susanoomon, and were sent hurtling back to the human world, the portal sealed before we could reach it. Within nothing else to do, we stayed in the Digital World, kept alive and unchanging by the Spirits themselves. After a few years, we... Had a disagreement, and I left..." Koji quietly answered, his mind drifting back to the afternoon of that day.
...
...
"Koji, please, you're being ridiculous," Zoe quietly told him, struggling to maintain her composure. She had caught him and Takuya in a fistfight, and the two were sporting bloody noses.
"I'm being ridiculous? You chose him over me, knowing full well how I felt!" Koji angrily told them. "I'm leaving!"
"Good," Takuya spat, shocking Zoe.
...
...
"I-I see..." Rika whispered, unsure how to respond to that. The very idea of separating from Renamon and the others, for more than short periods of time, had over the decades become unthinkable, reprehensible even, and he had walked away from his own group voluntarily?
Saial nodded in agreement. Working out what sort of disagreement had driven the boy to do so hadn't been difficult for the angel, and she doubted that anyone else'd had much difficulty in deducing it either.
"By the Spirits themselves?" Raya questioned. "What do you mean by that?"
Koji responded by giving her an irritated look, before surges of Fractal Code washed over him, transforming him into a bipedal wolf-like creature with lavender fur and white skin, his entire body clad in more belts than seemed practical to the angel, wearing a pair of ash-gray jeans, his large eyes flaming orange. Everyone recognized the form as Strabimon, though Takato wondered what the purpose of transforming was.
Henry wondered how he had even done it without declaring 'Spirit Evolution', or touching his D-Tector. After that, he transformed into Lobomon and Beowolfmon in rapid succession, before reverting to normal.
"The Spirits of Lights aren't just items of power anymore, they're my heart." Koji revealed. "They're bonded to us now, on the most fundamental level possible. They can still be removed for Unified Spirit Evolution, but it's become very painful, and according to Ophanimon, it shouldn't be possible to do even that in a few more years."
"Is that so?" Rika asked, disinterested, while everyone else stared, more than a bit surprised surprised to learn of this. Saial mused that it wasn't impossible what Koji claimed. Perhaps, each transformation left some kind of residual energy with Koji, and it was perhaps this that caused the 'bonding' he described...
Raya, however, was more curious why it seemed that their quiet little mansion had become a gathering point for immortals, and who else they could expect to show up... The Digidestined, perhaps? Or the DATS agents, or the Generals, or the Digimon Hunters from some divergent timeline... After further thinking, the demoness dismissed the thought, as she could think of no readily apparent way for the latter three groups to obtain the mixed blessing-and-curse that was immortality.
"I'm kinda tired, so I'm gonna go back to sleep..." Raya said to the disbelieving group.
"You've been asleep for literally almost two weeks, and you want to go back to sleep?!" Takato exclaimed.
"It's afternoon, Raya," Saial pointed out, with mixed exasperation and amusement. Honestly, had the angel been difficult to deal with as a Gatomon?
"I know. See you all next week," LadyDevimon joked, nestling back under the sheets. A minute, the only noise to be heard in the bedroom was her snoring.
"Your lover is... A rather fascinating individual," Renamon slowly told Saial.
"Freaking crazy," Terriermon shook his head. "I believe I've mentioned this."
"That she certainly is..." Saial fondly said.
You may wonder why I saw fit to have a time-skip.
The reasoning is simple; it takes three days roughly to write a chapter, one or two further for the Beta-Reader to return it back to me, and allotting two more days for side-projects, it's roughly a weekly update-schedule per 'Day'. Given this, the story would reach into 2015, and I'm rather certain that nobody wants that long a wait.
Then again, at the current rate, we'll be finished by the yuletide season... 24/12/2013...
Merry christmas, everyone.