Author's Note: Damn, I didn't expect to get 2 chapters up in 2 days, but my writing really started flowing as I was writing this chapter. I really hope that I didn't mess up the writing itself in my haste to get it all written down, but I've tried to proof-read it twice and have corrected all the errors I have found. If anything slipped past my notice, I apologize and will correct it if someone just points it out to me.
Now, as usual there is something that have been brought to my attention by reviews that I want to address before we start the chapter, and that is Hikari's Age. A reviewer pointed out to me that canonically, Hikari was 8 years old at the time of the invasion, not 9 like I have been portraying her. And while this would be correct in the original Japanese Version, I clearly stated in the AN before the Prologue that I would be using the English Translation as the template for the character's spoken names AND their ages. If you go to the Digimon Wikia and look at the profile of "Kari Kamiya", it states that her official age in the english release of Adventure was 9.
However, as I am very considerate about my readers and their opinions, I did some research and found that the age setup from the English Version is very confusing and conflicting between a lot of the characters, and doesn't even have an official age for a few of them.
My first thought to make up for this was to only use Hikari's official age in the English Version as a template (since she is in fact the main character of this story) and build the others' ages around hers, to create the same age differences that existed in the Japanese Version. This would put Tai, Matt and Sora at age 12, as Tai and Matt are both supposed to be 3 years older than their respective younger siblings. Izzy and Mimi, who were stated to be 1 year younger than the above mentioned trio, would be set to age 11, and Joe would be put at age 13, as he is supposed to be the oldest of the group. Naturally, Davis and TK will both be the same age as Kari (9), as they are in the same grade in Adventure 02.
The second option would be for me to go back and edit my chapters so far to fit with the Japanese Ages for the characters, which would put Hikari, Davis and Tk at age 8, Tai, Matt and Sora at age 11, Izzy and Mimi at age 10 and Joe at age 12. Basically, it would involve me sitting down with a large cup of coffee and read through all the chapters and just change any mention of age for any of the characters and then re-publish them.
Personally, I have nothing against either of these options. I believe that the first one would make most sense, considering some reviewers have also pointed out that Davis and Kari have both acted a little too mature for their age at some points, but if you readers really are picky about the characters' ages being the same as in the Japanese Version, then feel free to make your opinion known! I will put up a poll in my profile where you can vote if you would rather have the characters original japanese ages or if you're fine with me creating new ones based off of Kari's english age.
Sorry, that was a really long AN and I am sure a lot of you guys are getting impatient with me for it. I won't hold you here any longer, so go enjoy the new chapter! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon in any way.
"The first step towards fixing something is to acknowledge that it needs fixing."
Chapter II: Monsters in the Real World!
Kari sighed as she felt a light afternoon breeze tickle her skin as she leaned forward against the balcony railings, staring out over the busy streets below her. She squinted her eyes to see if she could spot her brother when he came back, but she was too far away from the ground to be able to make out any characteristics for the people who walked by the building down below.
Shortly after Davis had decided that he believed that Kari may be right about the existance of Digimon, they had been interrupted by her mom calling them out for lunch. Naturally, they couldn't talk about Digimon in front of her mom, but Davis had appeared quite content not talking about the topic more than he had to. If Kari had to guess, he still felt a little uncertain about whether or not he really wanted to believe these creatures existed, but didn't want to question it in front of her. While she couldn't say that she blamed him for it, she couldn't really relate to it either, as she had been aware of Digimon's existance for as long as she could remember.
After they had finished their lunch, Davis had only stayed for another hour before saying that he wanted to go to the park and play soccer, much to Kari's disappointment. On some level, she had hoped that he would stick around for a while, at least until her brother or Miko came home. Even if they had done little more than talk since getting to know each other better, it still beat sitting around and doing nothing.
"Hey Kari! What're you doing out here?"
Hearing her brother's voice, Kari's eyes widened and she immediately spun around to find him standing in the doorway, watching her with Koromon in his arms. He looked a little roughed up, with his spiky long hair pointing in all possible and impossible directions and his clothes torn in some places. Despite this, he wore the same brotherly smile he always had on whenever he was looking at his precious little sister, and it never failed to make Kari feel a little better about herself. This time was no exception.
"Tai!" she called happily as she ran over to him and embraced him in a hug, squashing Koromon in between them. "When did you get back?"
"Just now." her brother grinned as she let go of him. "Sorry about leaving on such a short notice this morning, but I had important things to attend to."
Kari just shook her head at her big brother with a smile on her face. She wasn't angry with him, she could never be that. While she was a little miffed that he had just left her alone like that with little to no warning at all, she had gotten over it as soon as their mother had forbid her from leaving the apartment. If anything, her mom was the one she was angry at.
"Don't worry about it." she said as she took a step back and examined him again. "Tai? Did you get into a fight?"
As soon as his sister mentioned it, Taichi's expression turned serious.
"Not me as much as it was him." he said as he held up Koromon in front of him. "An evil digimon, one of Myotismon's minions, appeared downtown and attacked the Tokyo Tower. It took 3 of our Digimon to stop him from destroying everything in sight."
Seeing her brother's serious expression, Kari felt a cold sting in her chest. Taichi was usually a carefree, cheerful and happy-go-lucky individual who liked to take things easy. To see him with such a serious expression really helped Kari grasp the gravity of the situation he and his friends were in.
"This is getting out of control." Tai continued somberly. "These Digimon aren't like the ones we got used to fighting off back in the Digital World. Every single one of them so far have been Ultimate level, according to Izzy. We need to be able to go all out in order to beat them, but to go all out in the middle of our own home town..."
He left that statement hanging in the air, not wanting to scare Kari more than he already had. The girl in question however still had the aftermath of the battle between Greymon and Parrotmon fresh in her mind and had a pretty good idea of what would happen if Tai and his friends went all out against Ultimate level Digimon on a daily basis. It made a cold shudder run down Kari's spine just thinking about it. One thing was for sure; it wouldn't be pretty.
"And you still have no idea who the 8th Digidestined might be?" she asked hopefully, hoping to change the topic slightly. Her brother and his friends had been working at it the entire day. Surely they would've found something by now?
"Not at all." Tai said with a disappointed shake of his head. "We had Joe trying to call the numbers in our old phonebooks, but it's hard to find anything useful since we're not even certain what it is we're looking for. For all we know, the kid could be living in America by now."
Tai gritted his teeth in frustration. He had never been one to take adversities well, but now the entire human world was on the line! If only they had something, anything that could point them in the right direction, he would still be out there searching for the kid.
But they didn't.
As much as he hated to admit it to himself, they were fumbling in the dark. All they really knew was what Gennai had told them before they returned from the Digital World, which was basically nothing. They were going off the assumption that the 8th child, whoever he may be, had also lived at Highton View Terrace at the same time as the rest of them, but that was merely an educated guess on Izzy's part.
Koromon, who had been quiet so far to give the two siblings some space, sighed and jumped out of his partner's arms and landed beside Kari so he could better look his friend in the eyes.
"Come on Tai, cheer up! We'll find that 8th child before Myotismon does, you just need to give it time!" he said to try and cheer his friend up. "We've always found a way to overcome the odds before, so why would this be any different?"
Kari, who had been trying to come up with something to say that would put her brother at ease, was quick to agree, even though she had no idea what obstacles Tai and his friends had faced while they were still in the Digital World.
"He's right, Tai. You'll find some way to fix this, right?" she said with a determined expression on her face.
For a moment, Tai looked between his sister and his partner Digimon with a torn expression as he felt the pressure in his chest intensify. Kari trusted him. Just like all of his fellow Digidestined trusted him as their leader, his sister trusted him as her older brother to find a solution to their problem, to find the 8th child before Myotismon did and to save their world from danger. Not for the first time since returning to the Real World, Tai felt himself question whether he really had what was needed to lead their group to victory in this upcoming battle.
He wanted to believe it. He wished so badly that he had the same faith in himself as everyone around him seemed to have, and silently cursed the fact that he didn't. It wasn't like him to falter under pressure, but this was so much bigger than anything he had ever been part of before. Nothing could've prepared him, or anyone else for that matter, for the burden of having the fate of two worlds dropped on his shoulders.
"Tai? You will fix this, right? Please tell me you will."
The sound of Kari's voice brought Tai out of his thoughts, and he looked down to find his little sister's worried face staring back up at him. The determination that had been present on her face just moments ago had faltered and been replaced by a look of uncertainty. Pushing his own worries to the back of his mind, Tai did his best to put on a confident smile in an attempt to relieve Kari of her worries. He didn't want to scare her more than he already had.
"Of course I will! I won't ever let anything happen to you Kari, or to this world. One way or another, I'll find that 8th child and then we'll kick Myotismon's digital butt all the way back to the ruins of his castle back in Digiworld!"
He had overplayed it. It was easy to tell by Kari's expression that she didn't quite believe him. Her light brown eyes, that was usually filled with admiration and playfulness when looking at her brother, had grown worried and lost some of their usual luster. However, she didn't say anything and instead turned away. For a moment, neither of the two siblings said a word, until the sound of the doorbell ringing caught their attention. Eager to get away from the gloomy atmosphere that her brother had brought with him, Kari jumped at the opportunity that was presented.
"I'll get it!" she called into the house, excusing herself before rushing past Tai back into the house, leaving him and Koromon alone on the balcony.
For a few seconds, Tai didn't move. He had really screwed that one up. When he had gotten home, his mom had told him that Kari had been feeling lonely while she was home all alone and had kept to herself out at the balcony after her friend Davis, who had dropped by over lunch, had left. He had hoped that he could cheer her up by talking to her and instead he had made her worry about things that she shouldn't even have to think about.
"Dammit!" he cursed loudly as he punched the concrete wall to his right in frustration. What was wrong with him? He used to be so sure of himself all the time, yet now that it really mattered he had began to doubt his own ability to succeed. Had the Digital World really changed him that much? And what was even worse, now Kari of all people had become aware of his insecurities. The one person who had always looked to him for support whenever she needed it... how could she expext him to support her if she believed that he was losing faith in himself?
"I think you scared her, Tai." Koromon said, trying to break the silence.
"Oh, really? What gave it away?!" Tai snarled at his partner, but immediately regretted it when he noticed Koromon flinch at the tone he was using. Taking a deep breat to try and calm himself, he reached down and picked Koromon up before he began to make his way towards his room. "I'm sorry, Koromon. It's just, this whole situation frustrates me!"
Koromon looked like he wanted to say something, but wisely kept his mouth shut. By now, he had known Tai long enough to know that it wouldn't help to talk to him while he was worked up. He had seen Matt attempt it a few times at the beginning of their journey and it had always escalated into a big argument between the two. It was better to let Tai cool off before trying to cheer him up.
-:-:-:-
"Come on, pass the ball here!"
Davis panted heavily as he saw the ball being sent flying towards him and dashed off in the direction where he believed the ball was going to land. However, barely had he taken more than a few steps before someone from the opposing team stepped in his path and intercepted the ball. Making a swift turn, Davis set off after the player who had taken the ball in an attempt to get it back but he was aready too late.
As his opponent passed the ball to a player who had moved into position in front of the goal, Davis' team got to pay dearly for his laps in focus as the opposing striker got a perfect hit on the ball, which sailed past their goalkeeper and straight into the net. Falling to his knees in exhaustion, Davis cursed loudly at his own mistake. This wasn't the first time this afternoon that one of his mistakes had led to the opposing team scoring a goal, and it was starting to get on him nerves.
"Davis!"
Looking up, Davis found one of his classmates, Muiri, standing over him with his hands on his hips. They had been best friends since kindergarden and had been playing on the same soccer team for 4 years now.
"What's wrong with you today, bro? That's like the 50th time you've lost the ball for us! It's not like you!"
As he said it, he offered a hand to his friend on the ground, which Davis accepted and allowed Muiri to pull him to his feet again.
"Sorry man, I've been... distracted lately." Davis scratched the back of his head in embarassment.
It wasn't a complete lie. Ever since he had left the Kamiya Residence earlier that afternoon, he had been feeling guilty about something. The look on Kari's face when he had told her that he was going down to the park to play soccer was glued to the forefront of his mind. She'd practically looked like he had slapped her in the face.
"Really?" Muiri said with a laugh. "That's weird. It's usually the other way around, with thoughts of soccer distracting you from everything else."
Davis let out an awkward laugh, purposely not looking his friend in the eyes. If Muiri found out that he had been distracted because he was thinking about a girl of all things, the teasing would never stop, not to mention that he would probably spread it through the entire school. Then neither Davis nor Kari would be able to show their face in front of their friends ever again.
"Hey Davis!" another voice called from across the field, this one a girl's voice.
Looking over towards the side of the field where the shout had come from, Davis found his older sister Jun waving at him. Jun was 4 years older than him, and was never late to point it out to her brother whenever they disagreed on something. Like the rest of their family, she had spiky red hair, though her's was a few shades lighter than Davis' own. Currently, she had pulled her long hair back into a ponytail so it wouldn't fall into her eyes.
"Hurry up! Mom and dad sent me to come get you! We're going into town for dinner tonight!"
Davis didn't bother to answer her and instead just looked over to the rest of his team. Muiri, who still stood closest to him, just shrugged.
"Well, guess I'll cya later, man. We'll manage without you." he said.
Sighing, Davis just nodded his head and said good bye to the rest of his friends before jogging over to where his sister was standing. The older girl was leaning against the trunk of a large tree and was tapping her foot impatiently on the ground. She didn't like being kept waiting and Davis knew it. However, her impatience had reached a whole new level once she had entered her teenage years and had begun to regard herself as "grown up".
However, knowing that she would need to put up with her annoying little brother for at least a few hours while they were downtown, she didn't want to start an argument and wisely kept her mouth shut. Therefore, silence settled over the two siblings as they began walking back towards the Motomiya Residence, where they would meet up with their parents (and in Davis case, clean himself up) before going into town.
As they walked in silence, Davis' thoughts once again drifted towards Kari. He didn't understand why he felt so guilty about leaving her. It wasn't like he hadn't done similar things with his other friends in the past. That was just how things worked in his circle of friends; they did whatever they felt like doing. So why did this bother him so much?
"Hey Jun? Can I ask you a question?" he asked as they turned around the last corner before reaching their apartment building.
Jun, who hadn't really paid any attention to her brother since picking him up at the park, looked down at him with an odd look at her face. It wasn't often that Davis wanted to talk to her about anything, unless she had done something to annoy him.
"Is it about that mars bar that disappeared from the secret hideaway in your wardrobe last week?" she asked suspiciously. "I told you, I don't know anything about it!"
"That's not it!" Davis was quick to reassure her, not wanting to get into that old argument again. "I was wondering... would you feel offended if one of your friends left you to go do something else with a few of his other friends?"
He didn't want to admit that he was worried that he might've offended a girl in front of Jun. If Muiri would tease him for being friends with Kari, then Jun would be at least 10 times worse. However, she was a girl just like Kari so perhaps she could help him understand if he had done something wrong? It had to be a girl thing, or else he wouldn't have such a hard time figuring it out.
Jun herself blinked in surprise at the question, her temper from earlier deflating in an instant. Had something happened to Davis? It wasn't like him to think about things like this. That was one of the many things that made him so annoying; that he was an insensitive little jerk who only thought of himself and always got on her nerves.
"Did you and Muiri have an argument or something?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
However, Davis was quick to shake his head at that.
"No, that's not it." he said, trying to come up with a better way of explaining himself without having to reveal that he was worried that he might have offended Kari in some way. Biting his lip, he felt his head spin as he desperately tried to find something to say, but sadly he only came up with a big blank.
As they entered the apartment building, Jun studied her brother with a frown. She had never seen him being so indecisive about what to say, he usually just let out whatever thought came to mind. Given, she hadn't spent a lot of time with him over the last year, but she liked to think that she had her baby brother pretty well figured out.
Humming quietly to herself as they began climbing the stairs towards their apartment, Jun tried to figure out what could've happened to Davis to make him consider his words so carefully. If it wasn't Muiri he had argued with, then who could it have been? Despite being friends with most boys in his class, Muiri was the only one he was close enough to that it would cause him to be worried about offending him in any way... wait, could that be it? Muiri might be the only boy that Davis was close enough to be worried about, but what if...?
"Is this about that Kamiya girl you hung out with yesterday?" she asked, watching her brother for any kind of reaction.
When Davis hadn't shown up for dinner with his family, Jun had naturally been curious why he wasn't home yet. After asking her parents about it, her mom had told her that Davis was going to eat with the Kamiyas' that evening. While Jun had never been particularly close to either of the Kamiya siblings, she knew that their parents were acquinted with each other, since her mother and Yuuko were part of the same cooking club.
Seeing her brother's shoulders stiffen at the mention of the girl, Jun mentally gave herself a pat on the back for figuring it out so easily. 'Score!' she thought with satisfaction, grinning as she watched Davis' cheeks attain just the slightest shade of pink.
"W-what makes you say that?" the boy managed to croak out, though he knew that he had been caught. He should've known better than to ask his sister for advice. Of course she would've known that he spent last afternoon at the Kamiya Residence! Their parents probably told her when he didn't make it home for dinner! Stupid, stupid STUPID him!
Jun grinned wickedly at her brother's embarrassment.
"Don't even try to hide it! You are so busted, little bro." she said with a smirk. It was obvious that she was enjoying this situation a little too much for Davis' liking. "You made friends with the Kamiya girl yesterday and you have already managed to screw something up, haven't you?"
"I have not!" Davis immediately protested, but his voice faltered as Kari's disappointed face flashed before his eyes again. "At least, I don't think I have."
He added the last part quietly, not quite sure if he even believed himself on the matter. Obviously he had done something to make Kari look at him that way, but he couldn't figure out what he had done wrong for the life of him. He hadn't treated her any different than he did any of his other friends.
As the two siblings came to a stop in front of the door that led to their apartment, Jun felt the glee at her brother's discomfort melt away as she glanced down at him. While his cheeks still hadn't quite returned to their usual tanned color, the horrified expression on his face had been replaced by a confused and almost scared look. Whatever had happened between him and the Kamiya girl, it had brought out a side in Davis that Jun couldn't remember ever seeing before. It was enough for her to at least wanna try to help him. Despite how annoying and obnoxious he usually was, he was still her little brother after all.
Sighing to herself, she put her hand on the doorknob to keep Davis from escaping into the safety of their apartment and leaned against the door. Davis, who had just reached out with his hand to open the door, frowned and looked up to find his sister looking back at him with a soft look in her eyes, the teasing and mischievous look from just a minute or so ago completely gone.
"Maybe it's best if you start at the beginning?" she asked as she let go of the doorknob and crossed her arms over her chest. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what you did to upset her."
"I didn't do anything! I'm not even sure if she's angry with me or not!" Davis protested, but soon faltered when Jun raised a sceptical eyebrow at him. Not wanting to look his sister in the eye, he looked down and suddenly found his dirty sneakers very interesting. "When I went home yesterday, Kari still wasn't feeling very well so I dropped by again today to see how she was doing. She seemed to be fine so I stuck around over lunch. However, I wanted to go to the park and play soccer with Muiri and the others, but her mom wouldn't let her come with me in case her fever acted up again..."
He trailed off, not quite sure what he was supposed to say. Truth was, he didn't know why he got the feeling that Kari was angry at him, she hadn't said anything. It had just... been something in her eyes he had seen when he left the Kamiya Residence. He couldn't really explain what it was. Thankfully, Jun appeared to have heard enough, because she sighed loudly and when Davis looked up at his sister, he found her shaking her head at him.
"So you just up and left her alone?" she asked as if it was obvious what he had done wrong. "Davis, you idiot! No wonder she's mad at you!"
Upon being called an idiot, Davis felt his face heat up again, though for a different reason than earlier.
"Who're you calling an idiot?!" he growled, angry at the insult. "What did I do?"
For a moment, Jun just looked at him as if he was the stupidest being on the planet, but eventually just sighed and shook her head again. She had to remind herself that Davis was still only a 9 year old kid, and on top of that he was a boy. It was just natural that he would be clueless when it came to matters like this.
"Try putting yourself in her situation." she tried to explain. "You've been sick for a few days, but are feeling like you have recovered again and want to go outisde and play with your friends again, but mom won't let you. Then, one of your friends is nice enough to drop by, but after a while he appears to get bored of you and tells you that he's going to the park to do something else with his other friends, leaving you behind. How would that make you feel, had the roles been reversed?"
For a brief moment, Davis frowned in confusion. He didn't know what the word "reversed" mean, but he assumed that his sister was asking how he would've felt if he had been in Kari's place. After thinking for a few seconds, he realized that he probably would have felt pretty abandoned. He had been down with the flu once or twice, and remembered that it was pretty boring being stuck at home with nothing to do. His visit had probably been the peak of Kari's day, and then he had just told her that he was going to leave her and go play soccer at the park.
"I would probably feel pretty lonely." he admitted. "But why didn't she say anything? If she had just told me that she wanted me to stay, then I would've done so!"
For the third time that afternoon, Jun shook her head at her brother's cluelessness.
"It doesn't work like that, Davis. Not everyone wear their emotions on their sleeves, like you and me. Some people don't like to talk about their feelings at all, or they just don't like to burden others with what they feel are their problems. I don't know Hikari very well, so I can't really speak for her, but it sounds like she would've preferred for you to stay a little longer at least, but didn't want you to feel like you were obligated to do so because of her."
Silence settled over the two siblings, as Davis processed what his sister had just told him. As loath as he was to admit that his sister may be right about this, it did fit what had happened today and it also fit with what little he knew about Kari as a person. Trying to imagine what it must've felt like for her when he declared that he wanted to go to the park instead of staying with her, he felt the guilt from earlier return in full force. She had probably felt like he didn't think she was fun enough to hang around or something like that. That wasn't it at all! She may have been a bit weird, but he couldn't deny that he had enjoyed her company these last two days.
"So... what should I do now?" he asked, wanting to know if there was anything he could do to make this up to his friend.
"Well," Jun said as she pushed off from the door and turned around to open it. "For now, you should get a shower so you are ready to leave as soon as dad gets home. Then tomorrow, just try to talk to Hikari again and apologize to her."
And with that, she opened the door and disappeared inside, leaving Davis to his thoughts. For a moment, Davis just stood there and stared at the half-open door while he thought about everything that Jun had just said. Clenching his fist, he quietly promised himself that he would make this up to Kari, one way or another. As weird as she was, she deserved better than for her friends to walk out on her.
-:-:-:-
Despite his best attempts to behave normally in front of his parents, Davis found himself continously distracted by thoughts of how he could apologize to Kari the following day. His parents however, either didn't notice or decided to just give him some space. He noticed that Jun was sending him glance every now and then while they were eating, but he did his best to just ignore her.
After his dad had come home from work, the Motomiyas had headed out to eat something a little nicer somewhere in the central part of Odaiba. Since Davis had decided where they would eat last time, which was about 2 weeks ago, it had been Jun's turn to pick out their restaurant this time and of course, she had to choose the most expensive one she could find. Davis didn't really mind, but if the looks their parents had shared while looking through the menues were anything to go by, they wouldn't be having another dinner like this for quite some time.
'What am I supposed to say?' he wondered for what had to be the billionth time. 'Hey Kari! Sorry that I ditched you yesterday! Probably shouldn't have done that. I hope you're not too mad at me!'
He shook his head in dismay, silently cursing his own inability to come up with something good to say. He had never needed to apologize to someone for something like this before. Whenever he and Muiri or any of his other friends argued, they usually just gave each other a punch in the shoulder the following day and said that they were even. However, something told him that punching her in the shoulder wouldn't be a very good way to patch things up with Kari.
He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice the steadily increasing sound that was coming from his pocket.
Beep. Beep.
Perhaps he could buy her some sweets to make her feel better? He didn't have a lot of money since he usually spent it all on candy bars or sodas as soon as he got it, but he should have enough to at least buy her something sweet at the local mart. Maybe that would cheer her up?
Beep! Beep!
No, that probably wasn't a good idea. He shouldn't try to buy her forgiveness. Besides, he had no idea what kind of sweets Kari even liked, so he would be taking an unnescesary risk by trying to pick something out before he talked to her. Maybe he could offer to buy her something after he had talked to her and apologized, but it would feel wrong to buy her something beforehand and then try to talk to her. She would probably feel like she had to accept his apology then and he didn't want her to feel forced.
BEEP! BEEP!
"Son, what is that strange noise coming from your pocket?" his father's voice brought him out of his thoughts.
'My pocket?' Davis thought in confusion as he finally picked up on the beeping sound. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the strange device that he had come across last night when he was walking home from the Kamiyas. In his excitement to talk to Kari and find out what had happened at Highton View Terrace 4 years ago, he had completely forgotten to ask Kari if she recognized the strange device. Currently, it was lit up with its screen flashing in white and pink light, and it was vibrating violently, as if it was about to explode.
"What the...?" Davis didn't get to finish his sentence.
CRASH!
Davis felt the floor shake as something large and heavy came flying through the wall just a few feet away from the table where he and his family was seated. The unexpected noise caused many of the restaurant's customers to let out high-pitched screams, including Davis' mom and sister. Davis himself was too stunned to even make a sound, or he would've most likely screamed as well.
On the floor a few feet away laid a strange creature that he had never seen before. It was humanoid in appearence, wearing a pair of ragged pants and what looked like two sets of belts around his left arm to keep a loose sleeve in place. But where a bare human chest should've been, ruffled blue and white fur covered its torso, all the way up to the creature's wolf-like head.
"WereGarurumon!" a boy's voice came from somewhere outside the building.
The creature let out a feral growl and pushed itself off the ground. More cries of terror echoed around them as more people took in the appearence of the creature. By this point, Davis and his family had gotten to their feet and moved away from the monster. Davis felt his entire body tremble in cold fear as the creature rose in its full height and let out a loud howl, before it bent its knees and jumped back out through the hole it had created when it had come crashing through the wall.
Even after the monster had left the building, customers stayed huddled together in every corner of the restaurant as far away from the space that had previously been occupied by the beast. However, as people slowly began to calm down enough to stand on their own two feet again and the sound level decreased a few notches, Davis was finally alerted to the sounds that his mysterious device was making.
Fumbling with it in his still shaking hands, he eventually managed to get a steady enough grip on it to see that the screen had stopped flashing and instead showed some kind of radar function, with a yellow dot in the middle of it. It also had another dot further out towards the edge of the radar screen, this one orange instead of yellow. If he had to guess, he would say that the yellow dot in the middle was where he was standing and the orange dot was... something else.
"W-w-what in the w-world was t-that, daddy?" he heard Jun cry from somewhere behind him, followed by his dad's voice as he tried to soothe his daughter.
Swallowing hard to try and ease the knot that had developed in his throat, Davis steeled his nerves and stood up, his legs surprisingly steady considering the shock he had just been in a few minutes earlier. As he made his way over towards the hole in the wall, he noticed that the orange dot was getting closer to the center of the radar, confirming his suspicion that the yellow dot in the middle was him.
"D-Davis! What're you doing?! Get back here at once!" he heard his mother call from somewhere behind him.
As he came to a stop just by the hole in the wall, he was met by a sight that would forever be imprinted in the back of his mind. The werewolf creature from earlier was standing on top of a building just opposite to where Davis himself was standing, flanked on one side by a white, muscular humanoid creature that had 3 pairs of white wings sticking out of his back, giving him a slightly angel-like appearence.
Both of the strange creatures appeared to be panting heavily, and were staring up towards the sky, where another human-like creature was floating unsupported in mid-air. The only distinct trait Davis could make out from this distance was the black cape that flowed around the mysterious being, but it was enough for Davis to get a sense of foreboding just by looking at the being.
'This must be it!' Davis realized as fear tore at his chest, trying to make him turn around and run as far away from the creatures as possible. 'These monsters, they must be the Digimon that Kari have been talking about.'
As if to confirm his suspicions, the dark being that was floating in mid-air angled himself forward and dove towards the other two monsters, the sound of thunder crackling from somewhere underneath his black cloak.
"Crimson Lightning!" a deep, cold voice called that seemed to echo from all around Davis, as if there were at least 20 Digimon calling the same words at once.
Out of nowhere, a glowing red string appeared in the being's hand that it sent flying towards the other two digimon like a whip, both of whom managed to just barely dodge it. Instead, the attack hit the building they had been standing on previously, actually slicing off a large chunk of the concrete that made up the building's walls. If there had been any doubt left in Davis' mind at this point, they were crushed on the spot, along with the car that had been parked just below where the Crimson Lightning had sliced off a chunk of the wall.
Digimon were real!
Author's Note: Phew, that was a hard chapter to write! Not because I didn't know what I wanted to write, but because I felt about as insecure about how to write it as Davis felt towards the end of the chapter. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed it enough to leave me a review! :)
Speaking of reviews, for those of you who don't check their profile regularly I always reply to each review I receive via Private Message, even if it is just to say "Thanks for reviewing the chapter". Also, if you put any question in a review I most likely answered it in a PM-reply. The only questions that I post along with a chapter in an Author's note are the ones that are brought up multiple times by different people.
Also, while we just happen to be talking about reviews, I may have set the goal too high when I said 50 reviews for next chapter. xD I got so excited at seeing 21 reviews for the first chapter that I forgot that the 2nd chapter always end up with less reviews than the first one. No worries, let's just aim to get past 50 reviews with this chapter. You can do it, guys! Tell me what you thought about the chapter, what you liked and what you felt could've been done better!