Chapter 5

Going on a Tree Hunt

"Are we back?" Takuya asked, standing up and brushing off his shirt.

"We sure are," Kouji replied.

"This is Japan?" Kelly asked as she looked around the park.

"You didn't know?" Junpei asked.

Kelly looked at him, "No. I've never been to Japan in my whole life."

"You mean, you're from another country?" Kouichi asked.

"Yeah, Kelly and I are from America," Mindy replied.

"America?" Tomoki asked. "I always wanted to go to America."

"You mean where the streets are filled of cheese?" Junpei asked.

"No, that was just a movie that they said there were no cats, and the streets were filled with cheese," Kelly replied.

"Bummer," Takuya said.

"Shouldn't we be getting out phones so we can head back?" Izumi asked. "The fate of the Digital World is in our hands again."

"Good point," Takuya said. "How about we all go home and get our phones and then we'll meet back here in say, an hour and a half?"

They all agreed on meeting back there in an hour and a half, but Kouji, Kelly and Mindy stayed behind, because they had their D-tectors already.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Takuya snuck into his house, he saw that the car was gone, but he wanted to be sure that he wouldn't be noticed by the neighbors, or if Shinya was home, and sure enough he was.

"Takuya Kanbara, where have you been?" Shinya asked as Takuya closed the door behind him.

Takuya jumped, "Oh, you know, uh saving the world 1 person at a time, all that kind of stuff."

"Uh huh, sure, Then where have you been for the last few weeks?"

"Uh…"

"Whatever, but you're gonna be in so much trouble when Mom and Dad find out where you've been."

"Yeah, and that's why you cant tell them that I came back, cause I have to leave again for something really important, I just need my cell phone."

"What could be so important that Mom and Dad have to think you're still kidnapped?"

"You won't understand right now, but when you're older. And I have to get back and meet some other people soon."

"Fine, but just as long as you do all my chores for a month," Shinya said, knowing that his brother would agree.

"You drive a hard bargain, but I may not be back for a month, but when I get back I will."

"Then make it 2 months."

"What?" Takuya cried, not so sure being tattled on was worth it.

Shinya grinned wickedly, "Or I tell Mom and Dad that you never really were kidnapped in the first place, and you get in even more trouble."

"But than you would be lying!" Takuya exclaimed.

"Oh really, like you're not lying about "saving the world one person at a time" right?" Shinya said.

"Ugh, fine."

"Good, we'll start next Monday."

"I'm not gonna be here next Monday!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After they all got there phones they went back to the park to return to the Digital world, only to see Kouji, Kelly and Mindy chasing after a truck with a tree tied to the roof of it.

"Wait, come back!" Kelly cried. "We need that tree!"

The truck pulled over, and the driver rolled down the window just to say, "Don't worry kids, there are plenty of other trees to give you oxygen," and then drove off.

Kelly dropped onto her knees, "BUT WE NEED IT TO SAVE A WORLD!!!!!"

"What happened?" Takuya asked as the group joined the 3 Digi-destined.

"He said the tree was to flimsy and had to go," Kouji said.

"And you let him take it?"

"We chased after him; doesn't that mean anything to you?" Kelly asked.

"Well, looks like we'll just have to go get it," Junpei said.

"I got the license plate number," Mindy said holding up a piece of paper.

"Great, now all we have to do is find the license plate," Izumi said sarcastically.

"Did anyone know the name of the company that was taking the truck?" Tomoki asked.

"I think it was Wallas' Tree Company or something like that," Kelly said.

"I know where that is, its a few blocks away from my house," Kouichi said.

"Then let's go!" Takuya said.

They all headed off for Wallas' Tree Company, hoping that the tree would still be there.

The children walked in the front doors of the building and asked where the company had put the tree, only to be told that the tree was at a branch of the company.

They got directions to the branch, only to find out that they were out on a lunch break, so all they could do was wait for the workers to come back.

"Hey, what are you kids doing out here?" one of the workers asked when he got back from his break.

"We're looking for a certain tree that someone from your company took from the park today," Takuya said.

"Oh, they just shipped it off to the paper factory."

"The paper factory?" they all asked at the same time.

"Yeah, they're turning that tree right into paper."

"How do we get there?" Kouji asked.

"Take a left when you get to the city, and it'll be right there."

"Ok, thank you," they said, and ran off toward the city.

They reached the paper factory and described the tree they were looking for to the Manager.

"Oh, I know which tree you're talking about, we just got the paper out of it," he said.

"What?" Takuya cried.

"Yeah, was there something important about it?"

"There was something in the tree that we need really badly."

"Well, someone might have found it, so feel free to ask some of the employees."

"Thanks," they said, and started asking people if they saw anything bluish purplish in the tree or the paper.

"No one has seen it, it's probably gone and we'll never get back to the Digital world, and everyone there is gonna die, and it'll be all our fault!" Kelly screamed.

"Our fault?" Junpei asked. "You were the ones watching the tree!"

"What do you mean "watching the tree"?" Kouji asked. "We weren't supposed to be watching anything!"

"Guys, break it up," Izumi said, stepping between the two. "It was no ones fault, and maybe there's another portal somewhere."

"Hey, I hear you kids are looking for a certain piece of paper or object of some sort?" a Janitor asked, stepping up to the group.

"Yeah, it would be something shiny, and its kinda bluish purplish," Tomoki said. "Have you seen it?"

"I think I have. I noticed something that looked a little strange when they were loading up the paper, it looked just like how you described it, but I saw a few. Is it of some importance?"

"Well, there's a world at…" Kelly started saying, but Mindy slapped her hand over her mouth.

"Uh, yeah," Kouichi said. "We have a friend who needs it, and if we don't get it to them today then they're gonna be in big trouble."

"Well, if it helps, they just sent it out to the stores, but I'm not totally sure which store they sent those exact pieces to."

"Thanks for your help," Kouji said.

"Yeah, thanks," Takuya also said, and they ran off.

"The stores are in this area, so it couldn't have gone too far," the Janitor yelled after them before going back to his work. "Ha, kids these days."

"We'll have to split up if we want to be done with this before sun down," Takuya said as they ran.

"Yeah," they all agreed, and stopped for a minute.

"Kouji, why don't you take Kelly with you? And I'll take Mindy," Takuya said.

"Ok," Kouji said, and he and Kelly went off to one of the stores.

Everyone else went in separate directions as fast as they could to the closest stores that sold paper.

"The Janitor at the paper company said that he saw a few, so we should expect to be looking for more than 1 piece of the portal," Kouji said as he and Kelly ran toward the store.

"Yeah, so does that mean we have to look through all the paper?"

"I guess it does."

Kouji pulled out his D-tector, seeing if his spirits could tell him anything, only to find his cell phone in its place.

"Is that your cell phone?" Kelly asked. "Where'd your D-tector go?"

"It must have turned back, so that means we're stuck if we have to spirit evolve.

"Hello, what about me?" Kelly said offended, but found out that her D-tector was also gone.

They reached the store within 10 minutes, and asked the manager if they could look for something in the latest paper shipment that might have ended up in it. He agreed, and let them in the back room to search through all of the paper.

After searching for about an hour, they were getting ready to give up when Kelly yelled, "I found 1!"

Kouji turned to see Kelly holding up a piece of blue and purple paper in her hand.

"Great job, I'll tell the others," Kouji said, pulling out his phone and sending them all a text telling them that they had found one of the pieces.

"We're gonna meet them at the park where the tree used to be," Kouji said after they searched through the last bit of the paper, just making sure that 2 pieces didn't end up there.

"Ok," Kelly said as she finished her last stack of paper.

They left the store after thanking the manager and headed for the park.

"How much paper is here?" Takuya asked as he searched through stacks of paper with Mindy.

"I don't know, maybe 1 million pieces, I can't tell," Mindy said exhausted.

"I was being sarcastic, but that answers good enough for me."

They kept looking until Takuya came to the last piece of paper in the room and yelled "I FOUND IT!" a little more loudly than he intended.

"Yes! That means we're done, right?"

"Yup! And just in time to, cause I just got a text from Kouji saying that they're done."

"So does that mean we have all of them?"

"I don't think so, it might, but we can't be sure."

"So where are we gonna meet up with the others?"

"I'll tell them to meet us in the park where the tree used to be," Takuya said as he started typing on his cell phone.

They left the store and started off toward the park.

"I finally found it!" Izumi said, as she found the piece of data on the paper.

She pulled out her phone to see the text from Takuya saying to meet at the park, and she walked out of the back room.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" the manager asked her as she stepped out.

"Sure did," she said. "Thanks for letting me look."

She headed off to meet the others.

"Well, time for a break," Junpei said after he finished looking through another stack of paper, and pulling out a bar of chocolate when he noticed something flash in the middle of a stack. He put his chocolate back in his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper, (knocking over the top half of the stack with it) and cried with joy at his success.

After cleaning up the paper he knocked over, he received the text from Takuya and headed out for the park.

"Almost done," Kouichi said, as he moved onto the last stack of paper. It seemed like he had been searching for hours, which he had. He finally found the piece of the portal on the very bottom of a stack. He collected the data and found the message on his cell phone, so went off to the park.

"Let go, this isn't home work!" Tomoki cried trying to pull his paper out of a dog's mouth.

He had searched for hours, and after he finally found the paper and got the text from Takuya, he headed off for the park, only to have a small dog grab the paper from his hand and start playing tug-o-war with him.

"I don't have time for this!"

"Here boy," a man called from across the street, and he whistled to the dog. The dog obeyed his master and went to him. "Sorry for the trouble, he's normally very sweet. I don't know what got into him."

"Don't worry about it," Tomoki replied, and rushed off to the park.

After everyone got there, they started connecting the pieces of data, but it was much harder than it seemed, for some pieces were all data, while some curved at the corners, and since most of it looked the same, putting it together was hard.

"Ok, so this one goes here and this one here…" Kelly said as she connected the corners together.

"What are you doing?" Kouji asked as he looked over to see Kelly sitting on her knees putting it together.

"It's like a puzzle; it's easier to figure out the middle if you put together the edges first," she said, still putting the pieces together, moving onto the middle.

"Just be careful, if you mess it up and we go in there, we could end up anywhere in the world, or in a totally different world if that," Kouji said, wondering if she could actually do it.

"…And done," she said, putting the last piece in. But they were only sure she did it right, because as soon as the last piece went in the whole thing glowed, and the pieces started gluing themselves together, and it stood up in the middle of the park.

"Did it work?" Mindy asked, looking at the portal.

"I'll check it out," Takuya said, being the leader of the group.

"Just be careful," Izumi said in a worried voice.

"I will, I will," he said, and stepped into the portal. "Digital World," and when he opened his eyes, he was back in the Digital world where the portal was. He went back to the human world to tell everyone it was stable, and they all went in, and found themselves again in the Digital World.

To be continued