"Sora!" Taichi called her. He was coming from the other end of the soccer field, grinning and pulling a smaller boy by the arm. "You have to know this guy! He just entered the soccer club!"
Taichi is always enthusiastic about new people coming to the club. Sora thought, giving him a slight smile. The younger boy seemed to be very anxious.
"This is Takenouchi Sora, one of our best players." Taichi introduced the girl to him. "You must be thinking 'why is there a girl in a boys' soccer club?' Well, it's thanks to me. I invited her to join our club so many times that one day she inevitably said 'yes.'"
Sora thought the proud look on Taichi's face was a bit entertaining. That was the version of the facts he believed and she would not object to it.
"Sora, this is Koushiro, he's one grade below us. Come on, Koushiro, tell her why you joined the soccer club." Taichi seemed to be very excited. The smaller boy blushed and stuttered as he properly introduced himself:
"I-I'm Izumi Koushiro, n-nice to meet you. I had to choose a sport for PE and thought that, since soccer requires group work and is not too depended on individual ability, it would be a logical choice-"
"Did you hear how intelligent he sounds? I already love this guy." Taichi interrupted, laughing. Sora thought that her friend had been rude. However, seeing how Koushiro's eyes shone above his red cheeks, she believed the younger boy had taken the compliment to heart. Koushiro seemed to be very shy and Sora wanted to make him feel more at ease.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Koushiro-kun. I hope we get along." She said, with a large smile.
Chapter 7: Broken mirror
My leg hurts. Sora thought as the pain thwarted her attempt to stand.Is it broken? And it's the same leg from back then!
The memory of a soccer match during her second grade came to her mind. A girl from the opposing team had kicked her leg so hard that the bone had almost broken. Sora's mother had taken her to a doctor, talking all the time about how brutal that sport was and how she disapproved of the girl playing it. The doctor told Sora that she would be able to play again in a couple of weeks but should not force her leg yet.
However, there was a decisive game the next day and she was the best player in the team.
"Sora, are you alright?" Piyomon asked, approaching the girl.
The fifth grader had fallen on the snow and her left leg had hit a tree during the landing. She had now forced herself to sit and reached for a thick and long branch she could use to support herself. Piyomon had fallen close to her; luckily she did not seem to be hurt by the fall, although the previous injuries were still present.
"I'm alright, don't worry." Sora lied. "I probably just sprained my ankle."
It was dark and the snow fell heavily. The cold wind hurt Sora's arms. Infinity Mountain was ten meters in front of her. The girl saw an avalanche coming down from the plateau where she had been; at the moment, black gears were erupting from the place. Focusing her sight, the fifth grader saw two small figures falling along the snow and hitting the ground.
"Someone fell!" Sora had desperation in her voice. It had to be one of the other kids. The girl stood up with the help of the branch and started walking in the direction of the mountain. The pain in her leg intensified but she was determined to ignore it.
They need my help! I can't walk away! I can't let them down!
"Sora, your leg is bleeding!" Piyomon cried. "Stop walking, you're hurt!"
"They need me…" Sora murmured, insisting on going forward. "They need my help…"
Piyomon did not feel she was strong enough to stop Sora, so the bird digimon followed the human closely, until they got to the base of the mountain. There, they found Tentomon digging in a pile of snow. His breaking voice was calling "K-Koushiro-han! Koushiro-han!"
"Koushiro-kun is under the snow?!" Sora asked as she kneeled and started digging too. The weight on her injured leg made her want to scream but she refused to concern Piyomon, who had begun digging too. It did not take long for Sora to find snow tainted red. The girl pulled the snow more frenetically and uncovered the face of the fourth grader boy. It was when she held the back of his head that she noted that Koushiro was bleeding profusely.
The terror paralyzed Sora.
He hit his head! Was it while he was falling? He hit his head on the wall of the mountain? This is bad! This is terrible! What am I going to do? He needs to go to a hospital but I don't even know if there are hospitals in this place! What am I going to do? How can I help him? If I don't do anything, Koushiro-kun… is Koushiro-kun going to die? Is he going to die? Can't I do anything for him?
"Sora-han!" Tentomon called the girl back to reality. The fifth grader noticed that both the digimon had uncovered the rest of the boy's body. Koushiro was deadly pale. "Please, Sora-han, help us take Koushiro-han out of the snow."
Sora could not say anything. She felt her heart beat more rapidly and it was becoming hard for her to breathe. The girl diverted her eyes from the unconscious boy and looked at Tentomon. Although it was not possible to see facial expressions on the face of the insect digimon, the way he moved his arms showed how nervous and concerned he was. Sora then looked at Piyomon, whose big blue eyes were filled with worry and were fixed on the girl. She felt herself being enveloped by fear and wanted more than anything in the world to cry for help but she could not. Sora looked up and found a horrific vision.
The refrigerator that had been found on the plateau was barely balancing on a rock on the wall of the mountain, fifteen meters above. The strong wind made it shake. It was obvious that the heavy object was about to fall, probably on Koushiro.
It was like Sora had been hit by lightning and the energy made her move without thinking. When she realized it, she had already grabbed Koushiro by the shoulders and was pulling him out of the pile of snow with the help of the two digimon. Her mind had become strangely clear. Her body was moved by the power of her determination to help Koushiro.
As soon as they managed to move him, the refrigerator fell in the hole they had dug and the most unbelievable thing happened. The ground beneath the snow broke with a loud crack sound and they were swallowed by darkness.
All Sora could understand was that she was falling in an open and vast space. There was something emanating light from below them and the girl noticed its reflex on a wavy surface.
"WATER!" The fifth grader managed to shout before arranging her arms in a way that they would hit the surface before her head. She sank in what felt like warm liquid and, to her surprise, Sora was able to easily swim back to the surface. Her leg did not hurt anymore.
After putting her head out and grasping for air, Sora found Piyomon hovering above her head, offering to get the girl out of the water. The fifth grader turned around and only saw Tentomon flying over the mass of liquid, looking for his partner. A huge golden tree could be seen in the middle of the lake, emanating light that reached its borders.
"Koushiro-kun is still in the water!" Sora's voice was urgent. She held her breath and submerged herself in the lake, trying to locate him. The liquid was dark and the only visible things were the golden roots and trunk of the giant tree. Did Koushiro-kun drown? The girl's panic was rising.
"Sora-san!" She heard Koushiro's voice and turned around, in confusion. The fourth grader was swimming in her direction and kept talking. "Sora-san, what is this liquid? How can we breathe here?"
"AH!" The girl exclaimed, covering her mouth reflexively. But no water had entered her mouth. She risked taking a breath and was shocked to realize that it felt like she was taking in air. But I'm swimming in this! It feels like water!
"I wonder how large this place is, I can't see anything if I swim away from the roots." Koushiro seemed to be thinking aloud.
"Koushiro-kun, we have to go up! I need to take a look at the back of your head!" Sora told him.
"Why?" Koushiro looked confused.
"You had hurt it pretty bad and passed out. I thought you were going to…" Sora did not finish the sentence. The thought of what had almost happened to her kouhai made her feel like her insides were freezing. "Let's go up, already. Can you swim?"
"Y-yes." Koushiro nodded. They both emerged almost at the same time. Tentomon flew to his partner immediately, pulling him out.
"Koushiro-han, you're awake! I was so worried about you!" The digimon was nearly crying.
"I woke up at the bottom of this lake…" Koushiro seemed to be lost in thought. "Where are we?"
"Underground." Sora replied, swimming to the border of the lake. Piyomon offered to pull the girl out like Tentomon had done to Koushiro, but Sora refused, muttering that Piyomon was too hurt to do that. It was when Sora reached the border and got out that the realization hit her.
"How are you two flying?" She asked, astonished. "Weren't you too hurt to do that?"
"I think the water of the lake healed us." Piyomon explained in a cheerful voice. "I feel full of energy."
"I believe I can even use electricity now." Tentomon said after putting Koushiro on the ground. Sora went to where the boy was and asked to take a look at the back of his head. The light coming from the tree was weak but the girl could tell that there was no sign of injury on the fourth grader.
"Thank goodness!" She exclaimed, relieved. "It seems that you're going to be fine now, Koushiro-kun."
"Sorry for worrying you." Koushiro muttered, sounding ashamed.
"What are you apologizing for? It wasn't your fault that you fell from the mountain." Sora giggled. But she suddenly froze, remembering what had happened on the plateau. "Takeru-kun!"
"Takeru-kun and Patamon were taken away by that monster to a place called Village of the Beginnings." Koushiro had an apologetic tone of voice. "We were not able to stop him."
"Devimon said he would be waiting for us. I bet that he won't do any harm to Takeru-han before we get there." Tentomon tried to comfort the children.
"The Village is at the other side of the mountain." Piyomon exposed. "We can get there quickly if we fly but we need to wait until the storm ends. For what we were told, it always ends by the morning."
"Isn't there another way?" Sora asked, anxiously. "I can't just stay here doing nothing while Takeru-kun is at that creature's mercy! And there's Jyou-sempai and Mimi-chan too! I doubt they had the same luck as us! They could be severely hurt or worse!"
"I don't think there's anything we can do for them now." Koushiro said, upset.
Sora braced herself, wishing that her arms would stop shaking. She looked at the ground, not wanting to let the others see small tears forming in her eyes. She could not stop imagining how many horrible things could have happened to Takeru-kun, Jyou-sempai and Mimi-chan. She had not been able to stop any of that. However, the girl could not allow herself to appear weak. Sora had to be strong for everybody's sake. She should not worry them nor put them in danger. The fifth grader thought about what Koushiro had been through because she had left him alone with Tentomon. And now the boy had just recovered from another near death experience in the same day. Even if he did not seem too shaken, Sora knew that he had to be. She also knew her kouhai enough to realize that he was not the type to oppose others, even if he pretty much only interacted with Taichi. If I insist on going now after Takeru-kun and the others, Koushiro-kun would probably come along. Our digimon could get hurt trying to fly in this storm and we could freeze to death. And I would be responsible for all of it.
"Let's wait here until the storm ends." Sora had a defeated tone. She sat on the floor of polished rock, next to the border of the lake, and pressed her knees against her body.
"Sora, how is your leg?" Piyomon asked, getting closer to her. "The blood from your pant leg is gone."
"It seems that it was healed too." The girl replied, lifting the hem of her pants and not finding any injury.
"Sorry for not being able to carry you back then." Piyomon apologized. "Because of my injuries, you forced yourself to walk that distance in order to get to Koushiro. It must have hurt a lot."
"You did that for me?" Koushiro's voice was devoid of happiness. Sora guessed that he was feeling guilty about the situation and would not allow that.
"I had just sprained my ankle and now it's healed. There's no reason for any of you to feel down." The girl said, forcing a smile.
Koushiro looked at her without saying anything. Then, he called Tentomon and asked him to use one of his attacks to let them see their surroundings better.
Tentomon shot lightning up and illuminated the place for a few seconds. The space was roughly circular, and there was a large something silhouetted to their left.
"A giant woman!" Piyomon shouted, pointing to where the silhouette was.
"I think it was just a statue." Koushiro pointed out. He picked his laptop from his backpack and turned it on, using the light from the screen to illuminate the surroundings. The boy walked forward, followed by the others, and reached a wall with hieroglyphs written on it. Just like that battery, Koushiro thought, a cold feeling ran through his body and the boy forced himself not to think about what had happened that day. There was no time to dwell on those events; he had to do something useful, something that would help the others. He noticed that one of the hieroglyphs was partially erased, so the fourth grader put the laptop down and picked a pen from his backpack to fix it. After he did that, the lights were turned on.
The children and their digimon were inside a dome of at least 20 meters of diameter. The top of the curved roof seemed to be made of glass. Sora noticed that it was now completely sealed, even though they had broken through the top to get in. Above the hieroglyphs there was a map of an island with a huge mountain in its middle.
"The Village of the Beginnings!" Koushiro exclaimed, pointing to a name written next to the image of the mountain.
"It's at the other side of the mountain, like I said." Piyomon told them.
"It's said that the base of Infinity Mountain is cursed and, because of that, every night there's a snowstorm here. No digimon who has tried to fight the storm has survived." Tentomon told them. "That's why we have to wait here until it stops."
"I don't think we need to wait that long." Koushiro said, pointing to the left. There was a five meters tall statue of a woman in armor holding a spear, with a helmet that covered her eyes and wings at her back in that direction. However, Koushiro was indicating five square holes on the wall that seemed to lead to tunnels. "I believe one of those might take us to the Village of the Beginnings through a passage under the mountain. If I break the code on the wall, I could tell you for sure which path we should take."
"Can you really do that, Koushiro-kun?" Sora asked, excitedly. Although the boy was glad that the girl had become less upset, he got nervous over assuming that responsibility. He was pretty much guessing that the code when deciphered would show a map for the tunnels and that a path to the Village would appear. It would be irresponsible to let Sora's hopes high because of an uncertain plan like that. In spite of it, the fourth grader did not find it in him to tell Sora that it was not guaranteed that his idea would work.
"I'll do my best not to let you down." He promised, faking a smile.
"Okay." Sora seemed to be genuinely happy.
Koushiro sat on the floor and picked the laptop up, putting it on his lap. Sora sat by his side.
"It's lucky that my laptop is still working despite being submerged in water." The boy commented. "Do you think that the healing liquid works on machines as well?"
"I think it fixed the roof somehow, so I don't see why it would not work on machines." Sora gave her opinion.
"Sora-san…" Koushiro started. "I don't think I had the chance to properly thank you for everything you've done for me."
"Don't worry about that, Koushiro-kun." Sora did not sound happy. Why is he thanking me? It's not like I managed to help him in any way. I just keep on failing and letting others down.
"But you risked yourself so much, Sora-san." Koushiro insisted, looking at the girl. "If it wasn't for your effort I-"
"Koushiro-kun, stop." Sora interrupted him. She got up and turned her back to the boy. "You don't need to thank me for anything, seriously."
Did I offend her? Koushiro thought, fearful. What did I do wrong this time? Why do I have to be so incompetent at this?
Sora did not say anything else and the boy no longer insisted on the conversation. He believed that he would probably make Sora more upset if he kept talking. The best thing he could do was to focus on the problem in front of him.
Sora looked down and noticed that she was already dry. Maybe she had not been wet from the beginning. But those mysteries did not impress her; she had too many things to worry about.
"It's so sweet!" Piyomon exclaimed loudly. Sora turned to the direction of the other's voice and saw the pair of digimon eating golden apples.
"Where did you get those? Are they from the tree in the lake?" The girl inquired.
"The water healed our injuries, so I thought that if we ate the fruits we could become stronger." Tentomon explained.
"Don't eat that, you don't know what it could do to you!" Sora scolded them.
"I'm sleepy… I think I'm going to take a nap." Piyomon informed as she lay down.
"Me too…" Tentomon did the same.
"Whatever." Sora sighed. She looked around and saw no trace of the refrigerator. It's probably at the bottom of the lake. I'm not going there to look for it.
Sora approached Koushiro again and took a look at the back of his head. The lack of injury did not diminish her guilt.
"I thought you were going to die." The girl murmured. "I seriously thought you were going to die."
Koushiro did not react. Sora remembered of their time in the soccer club. The boy used to pick up his laptop in the breaks and was so focused in what he was doing that it was nearly impossible to break his concentration.
"You're not listening to me anymore, right?" Sora smirked. "It's best this way. I shouldn't let you know how afraid I was."
It felt good to talk about her feelings, especially because she was certain that nobody was actually hearing what she was saying.
"You all look up to me, without knowing the real Sora. And you're so kind that you don't criticize me for all I could not do for you. I do my best to take care of everybody but I know… Koushiro-kun, I know the day is coming when you all will inevitably see that I'm not actually strong or sweet. I know that I'm going to let you down and you'll turn your back on me. That's just how it is. I can only wish that this day doesn't come quickly… and that I can take you all home before it does…"
A memory emerged in her mind. The day she had hurt her leg, after returning home, Aki-chan from the girls' soccer team called her.
"Hello, Sora-chan. Are you alright? You haven't broken anything, right?"
"The doctor said that my leg is not broken-"
"That's great! It means that you can play tomorrow, right?"
"Uhm…" Sora had hesitated. The doctor's recommendation was for her not to force her leg for a couple of weeks.
"You're our best player, Sora-chan! And tomorrow are the semifinals. You can play, right? Please, tell me that you can play."
"Yes!" Sora tried to sound reassuring. "Of course I can play, I know how important tomorrow's game is. I'm definitely not going to let you down!"
The girl went to take a closer look at the statue. The giant woman looked beautiful and strong. I wonder if that is the Goddess Andromon was talking about.
She noticed a helmet parted in two pieces at the feet of the statue. It seemed to cover the eyes of its user but it did not resemble the one the statue woman was wearing. Close to it, there was a white hand mirror with a pearl at its top. There was only a small piece of glass that remained in the object. When Sora touched the broken mirror, it was as if she had become someone else.
She was kneeling in front of the statue, her body felt larger and heavier. She had taken off the helmet that blinded her and threw it at the ground with all of her strength. She looked up at the statue, trembling in anger and sorrow.
"WHAT EXCUSES DO YOU HAVE NOW?!" Sora yelled, but her voice was masculine and deep. "WHAT WAS THAT TALK ABOUT MERCY AND KINDNESS? ABOUT TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE ENEMY?!"
Hot tears came down from her eyes in a flow. It felt like the first time in a long period that she had been able to cry. The agony devoured her soul as she kept screaming.
"What did you say when you banished me after I killed one of our enemies?! You said that I was wrong! That I was evil for taking a child's life! Just like I had been evil for sending Adromon after those traitors! BUT LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED! LOOK AT WHAT YOUR FOOLISHNESS DID TO YOU!"
She held her head with both hands and pulled her long and blond hair.
"I was right… look at what the children you felt sorry for did to you! I don't know if I'll ever see your face again. I don't know if I'll ever listen to your voice again… I should've killed them all when I had the chance! But what is the point now? I don't know if you can still watch over me... I'm alone, Mother, just like before you found me. And this is worse than death."
The girl stood up and glanced at her hands. Her fingers became longer and started to resemble claws and jet-black cloth was starting to cover her body.
"I wonder if you accepted the Truth in the end, Mother." Her voice became even deeper and colder. "Compassion is wrong!"
Sora gasped as she fell on her back. The girl let go of the mirror and looked at her hands. These are my hands! I'm back to my body! She sat up and touched her face and her hair. She was herself again.
What was that? It was like I was inside someone else's mind. Could it be…? Was that Devimon? Did I just see how he became what he is now? The broken mirror somehow stored his memory?
"Koushiro-kun!" Sora called the boy, who continued to type.
Sora picked the mirror up again but nothing happened. After that, she ran to where Koushiro was, sat by his side and tapped his shoulder a bit harshly. When he faced her, she tried to explain what she had experienced.
"Devimon… in the mirror! I mean… I saw his memory!"
"What?" Koushiro seemed to be puzzled. "Could I take a look at the mirror?"
Without thinking, Sora handed the object to the boy, who was paralyzed the second he touched the mirror. His eyes had turned wide and blank; the girl wondered if he was seeing the same things she had seen. After a couple of minutes, Koushiro lowered his hand and put the mirror on the floor. He looked down and had what Sora assumed to be a mortified expression. The fourth grader was deadly pale.
"Did you see it?" Sora asked, anxiously. "Devimon was talking about killing a child! And it seems that he lost his mother and was grieving. What do you think?"
Koushiro contracted his eyebrows and trembled.
"I'm sorry." He murmured, still facing the floor.
"What are you apologizing for?" The girl inquired, not understanding the boy's behavior.
"I…" Koushiro seemed to hesitate. "I did not see Devimon's memory."
Sora found that statement suspicious.
"If that's true, what are you so disturbed about?"
"I-I'm not disturbed." Koushiro tried to sound calm but his voice cracked. He looked at the laptop's screen and indicated that he wanted to continue his work. "I'm almost finished… soon I'll know which path leads to the Village of the Beginnings."
"What did you see when you held the mirror?" Sora asked in a serious voice.
"Please, Sora-san…" Koushiro begged.
"What are you hiding from me? I have the right not to be lied to!" Sora was getting upset. Why was Koushiro doing that? Did he not trust her? They had known each other for years and she was his sempai, and in spite of that he still couldn't trust her?
"It's possible…" Koushiro started talking in a lower voice. "I think that… when someone holds the mirror… the mirror shows a memory of whoever held it previously… an intense and hurtful memory…"
"Then Devimon held the mirror previously and that's why I saw his memory."
"I did not see Devimon's memory." Koushiro did not want to openly acknowledge what had happened but, at the same time, he did not want to lie to the girl. His conflicted feelings led him to pray for Sora to guess the meaning behind his words and not ask anything further. "I'm so sorry, Sora-san."
When Sora understood what Koushiro was trying to tell her, she felt like her heart had fallen to her stomach.
"You can't mean…" The girl wanted to hold on the hope that she had misunderstood it. "You saw a memory of mine?"
Koushiro nodded, ashamed. Sora turned around and looked at the opposite direction of him.
"Which memory did you see?" She questioned, trying to hide her panic.
"We don't need to discuss this."
"Which memory, Koushiro-kun?"
"Can't we pretend it didn't happen?"
"No! Which memory did you see?"
"I'm sorry, Sora-san."
"I DON'T WANT YOUR APOLOGIES!" Sora yelled, punching the floor. She could feel her spirit breaking apart and was sure that she would not be able to keep her cool. Koushiro had looked inside her mind. He had felt whatever she had felt during the events of the memory. The girl would not be able to pretend that nothing had happened. She would not have peace if Koushiro did not tell her what he had seen. "I need to know. Please, Koushiro-kun… I need to know."
Koushiro felt that he could start crying at any moment. He understood how horrible it was to have someone else invading your most secret thoughts against your will. He could not forgive himself for doing the same to Sora, even if unwillingly. It was something he could not undo and he was sure that if he talked about it Sora would only feel worse. But the girl was confronting him; she demanded to know the truth and Koushiro was not entitled to oppose her wish. With his heart breaking, he told her the truth.
"Your leg was hurt." Koushiro muttered. "You wanted to go to a soccer game but your mother had turned your alarm off and you would not make it in time… you had a discussion with her and ran from your home… your leg was hurting so much but you didn't care because you wanted to assist your teammates. You found the other girls coming back from the game but they did not talk to you… and that hurt more than any physical injury."
Sora held her legs against her body and hid her face behind them. She remembered that day all too well.
"How could you do that? How could you turn my alarm off, now I'll never make it to the game!"
"Don't yell, Sora. You're disturbing the flowers."
"You heard me talking to Aki-chan yesterday, didn't you?"
"Yes. How could you make such an irresponsible promise?"
"I know what I'm doing!"
"Sit down, Sora."
She had sat behind her mother, who was working on a flower arrangement.
"Ugh." Sora let the interjection of pain escape her lips.
"You can barely sit. It hurts when you walk. And you want to go to that game?"
"It's an important game! My friends need me!"
"It's not important! And if those girls don't care about you playing injured then I doubt that 'friends' is a good word to call them."
The girl had stood up. She felt like crying but would not do that with her mother around.
"You just want me to be kicked out from the team." Sora accused. "You hate that I'm doing something that I like and that I have friends who appreciate me for being good at it!"
"Stop acting immature, Sora. I'm just thinking about what's best for you!"
"You don't care about me! You only care about the heiress of your stupid Ikebana tradition!"
"Sora!"
"Why don't you understand?"
Sora had never told anyone about that. She had wished nobody would ever find it out. And now Koushiro knew. The shy kouhai of her soccer club with whom she rarely interacted without Taichi's mediation knew her most private secret. She could no longer fool him into thinking she was strong or dependable. Not only did Koushiro see her darkness, he felt it. All her anger, sadness and guilt...he had directly experienced it.
"Thank you for telling me." Sora stood up, without turning around. "Sorry for yelling at you… and for everything else."
Koushiro saw her walking away, everything in her voice and her body language shouted that she was depressed. But he believed that there was nothing he could do about it. Koushiro had discovered everything by accident and he had already told her how sorry he was. He was not close enough to Sora to dare to give her advice. Not to mention that he had terrible people skills and would probably make everything worse if he tried to comfort Sora. He decided to focus his entire attention on figuring out which corridor led to the Village of the Beginnings. Maybe that would make the girl feel better.
"I got it!" Koushiro exclaimed enthusiastically after approximately half an hour. He looked for Sora and found her sitting next to the lake. The fourth grader ran to where she was and shared his discovery.
"The tunnel at the extreme left is the one that we have to take to go to the Village. It's mostly straight so we shouldn't take too long to get there."
"That's great, Koushiro-kun." Sora replied in an unhappy tone, without looking at him. "I'll go wake Piyomon and Tentomon up."
Sora's reaction shattered Koushiro's heart. He was sure that she would feel better if he found a way to rescue Takeru-kun. But even that was not enough. Guilt took a grip of his entire being and made him shake.
"Sora-san!" Koushiro called her by impulse. When the fifth grader turned around to face him, he panicked because he had not planned anything to say. "I…"
"I'm not angry at you, Koushiro-kun. Please, don't worry about that." Sora believed that was what he was going to say.
"It doesn't matter how I feel!" Koushiro interjected. "Is there something I can do, Sora-san? Is there a way to make things better?"
"It's not something that can be repaired, Koushiro-kun. Besides, it was my own fault for giving that mirror to you, don't stress yourself over it." Sora did not want the boy to feel bad. Why was he worrying about her, anyway? Was he not disappointed at her for lying to Taichi about her reasons to enter the boys' soccer club? Was he not condemning her for not being of help to her friends when they needed her skill to win the game?
A sparkle passed through Koushiro's eyes, which made Sora think that he had an idea. The boy ran back to where he had left his laptop and picked the broken mirror from the floor. He then returned with the object and offered it to Sora.
"What are you trying to do?" Sora asked in a serious voice.
"It's going to be alright like this, isn't it?" Koushiro asked anxiously, the hand offering the mirror trembled. "I-if you see a memory of mine-"
"No!" Sora cut him off, clenching her fists.
"Please, Sora-san." Koushiro pleaded. "I don't know how else I can make it up with you."
"You don't actually want me to see one of your memories! If that were the case, you would just tell me what you want me to know!"
"This isn't about me…"
"Then what is it about, Koushiro-kun?" Sora raised her voice. "Do you think I'm petty to the point that I would feel better for making someone else go through what I'm going now?"
"I don't find you petty in the slightest, Sora-san!" Koushiro protested.
"So stop with this nonsensical behavior! I'm not going to peek into your mind!"
"W-what do I do, then?" Koushiro's voice broke and tears started brimming in his eyes. "I don't know how to fix this! I-I don't know how to make everything less bad."
"Why are you concerned about it?!" Sora inquired, trying to understand. "This wasn't your fault, besides…"
Sora looked down, shaking. She was afraid to ask that question but she had to know.
"What do you think of me now, Koushiro-kun?" She murmured, not daring to look at the boy's eyes.
Koushiro blinked, confused.
"Do you think my opinion of you changed?" He questioned in disbelief.
"Be honest, Koushiro-kun, please." Sora asked.
The boy took a deep breath before replying.
"I particularly think that you were unfair to your mother. However, I don't know enough about your situation, so I could be wrong." Koushiro answered shyly. I hope I didn't upset her more for saying this.
"You're right about not knowing enough." Sora muttered. "Honestly, I don't want to talk about her."
"What do you want to talk about?" The boy asked.
"Do you remember when we met each other and Taichi told you that he was the person who convinced me to join the boys' soccer club?"
Koushiro frowned. He thought he knew where that conversation was going.
"You didn't tell him that you were expelled from the girls' club." Koushiro theorized.
"I wasn't expelled… they didn't have to tell me anything. In fact, my friends weren't talking to me at all." Sora confessed. "Taichi always tried to convince me to join his club and one day I just said 'yes' and let him think he had credit for that decision."
"Then you didn't actively lie to Taichi-san." Koushiro murmured, sounding guilty. He let his arms fall by the sides of his body and looked away. "Unlike me."
Sora was startled to hear that.
"Are you saying that you lied to Taichi?"
"I'm not exactly an honest person." Koushiro admitted. "That story about choosing the soccer club for logical reasons was an excuse I told my parents… and then I just repeated it to everybody else."
"Why? What was the real reason for you to join the soccer club?" Sora was curious.
"My father used to tell stories about when he was in the soccer club of his school." Koushiro narrated, gloomily. "He said that he loved to play soccer more than anything in the world."
"So he wanted you to play soccer and be just like him." Sora concluded.
"My parents never tried to force me to do anything." Koushiro stated. "They are very kind and are always concerned about me."
"Oh." Sora felt ashamed for projecting her problems on the boy. At the same time, she also felt envious of what he had described. "Sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Koushiro said in a comforting tone.
"Then, Koushiro-kun, what was the reason for you to join the club?" Sora asked gently, looking at the boy. The fourth grader looked up to her eyes. He seemed more relaxed than before.
"I wanted to love soccer." He replied.
"Eh?" Sora was not sure if she had understood it.
"I thought that if I loved soccer, I would have that in common with my father." The boy explained. "I wished I could be similar to my parents in some way."
Sora was confused by that statement.
"You want to be similar to your parents?" She asked, astonished.
"Do you find that strange?"
"I'm probably not the best person to understand your feelings." Sora said in an apologetic tone. "It's almost like we're opposites… you must think very lowly of me."
Sora imagined how Koushiro should have felt when he saw the argument between her and her mother. I bet he finds me inconsiderate and ungrateful now.
"I think you are a kind person, Sora-san."
Koushiro's answer shocked the girl. Seeing how wide her eyes had become, the fourth grader thought he should elaborate his reply better:
"You go to great lengths to help people. You don't want to worry others or make them feel bad. It's not my place to say this but I think you might be too harsh with yourself… but I believe I understand that."
Sora felt her eyes getting humid and instinctively turned around. She did not understand how Koushiro could still think so highly of her and yet she could not doubt his sincerity.
"Thank you." The girl muttered. A couple of tears fell from her eyes. "Honestly, thank you."
"Thank you for everything you've done for me and everybody else, Sora-san." Koushiro said with a genuine smile. "I'm glad I have met you."
Sora and Koushiro had never been close before. However, at that moment, the distance between them seemed to have almost disappeared.
"SOORAAAAA!" Piyomon's cry caught their attention. The bird digimon flew to Sora's arms and hugged the girl tightly. "You were being swallowed by darkness! I tried to reach you but you kept me away! I couldn't save you no matter what I did!"
"What are you talking about, Piyomon?" Sora was worried. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"It didn't feel like a dream! It was so real, Sora." Piyomon cried, hugging the girl more fiercely. "I'm so scared."
"Don't be silly, Piyomon, I'm right here with you. I'm not going anywhere." Sora did her best to sound reassuring, with no effect.
It took several minutes for Sora to calm her partner down. In the meanwhile, Tentomon woke up. Koushiro went toward him but the insect digimon barely moved. The boy's partner simply stared at him in silence.
"Is there something wrong, Tentomon? Did you have a nightmare too?" The fourth grader asked in concern.
"No… it was just a stupid dream, nothing to worry about." Tentomon did not sound convincing.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really, thank you." Tentomon said. Koushiro noticed that his partner was now staring at the mirror the boy was still holding.
"This is…" The fourth grader was thinking of a way to explain what the mirror was without having to tell what had happened to Sora. "It seems that Devimon had recorded a memory in the mirror."
Tentomon stretched one of his arms and asked in an unemotional voice: "Let me take a closer look at it."
Koushiro gulped. Even if it was Tentomon, the boy did not wish to have someone else looking at a memory of his.
"It stopped working after I saw Devimon's memory." Sora came to the boy's rescue, approaching him and leaving Piyomon behind. "It's useless now. You should throw it away, Koushiro-kun."
Koushiro smiled at the girl with gratitude. He got closer to the border of the lake and threw the mirror in the liquid. The object sank and was now lost in the darkness.
"Now you don't have to worry about someone invading your thoughts." The girl whispered.
Koushiro stayed silent for a minute, before murmuring "not anymore."
Tentomon observed the children without saying anything. That mirror had been in his nightmare and he was glad to see it disappear.
"Koushiro-kun figured out which tunnel we should take to get to the Village. Let's go." Sora said in a cheerful voice. Koushiro used his laptop to illuminate the path and they all entered the corridor he had indicated.
Piyomon would not leave Sora's side. Tentomon followed Koushiro closely, not able to take his eyes off him. An unknown voice had told the insect something in his dream that scared the digimon deeply.
"The boy you fight so much to protect will bring himself his own end."
I've always felt that the original anime could have explored more of the friendship between Sora and Koushiro. I see a lot of potential in their relationship so I'll work more on it. I hope you liked this chapter.