Play of Spirits
Chapter 7 - The Light at the End of the Tunnel

.

So they were on a train platform in the middle of nowhere and the train – talking train, at that – had just left them.

Well, at least he had some company. And he could kind of see. Which seemed to be more than his companion could. 'You're about to walk off the edge again,' he warned. It was the third time already, but he couldn't blame a guy for being disoriented. If he closed his eyes, he'd be in exactly the same state.

And then there was the whole figuratively stumbling through the last week or so thing.

'Thanks, buddy,' Takuya sighed. 'Man, this is tough. I probably shouldn't move at all but I can't stay still. Are we boxed in?'

'Yeah.' He'd already checked. 'We could jump down though.' Really, it was the only way off the platform – and not entirely safe. Jumping blind? And onto tracks where trains ran far faster than humans did. But they hadn't heard a train since the one that left them. Maybe, maybe, they'd actually be okay in jumping down.

Unless bad luck or a sentient train was waiting to run them over the moment they did jump.

'Let's go for it,' Takuya said. 'We won't get anywhere staying here if there's no train.'

Kouichi prayed for a train to show up in the next ten seconds. Nothing happen. 'Right,' he sighed, walking over to the edge. 'How are we going to do this?'

'I'll have to jump first, I guess,' said Takuya. 'You won't be able to tell me when to jump otherwise.'

'Guess so.' He was right about that, but "when" wasn't the only thing to consider. 'Have you jumped off a platform before?'

'Sure.' Takuya shrugged. 'I mean, I know we're not supposed to, but you know. Rebellious kid-type.'

Considering that simplified things, he wasn't going to complain in the least. 'Okay, walk forward. Slowly.'

Takuya was still faster than Kouichi would've liked, but at least he stopped when Kouichi said stop. 'Nice,' Takuya rolled his sneaker toes on the edge. 'I can feel the edge. And I can't hear a train. Can you see a light or anything?'

'No.' Kouichi shook his head, though now there were two reasons Takuya couldn't see him. 'But there wasn't a light on the talking train from before?'

'Seriously?' Takuya groaned. 'Weird train. At least it was noisy. Anyway, I'm jumping.'

And he did, stumbling a little and muttering a swear before standing up. 'I'm fine.'

Right, so it was going to hurt a bit. Great. But there really wasn't any other choie and the faster he jumped down too, the faster they could get off the tracks.

So Kouichi walked carefully over to the edge, counted to three, and jumped down next to Takuya and stumbled, reaching for the other's shoulder to steady himself.

'You okay?'

'Yeah, just overbalanced.' He pulled the other away from the tracks, until he could make out the tracks but wouldn't be run over by a train if one happened to come along.

'You're not one of those goody two-shoes who's never jumped train tracks before, are you?'

'I'm not a goody two-shoes.' Kouichi rolled his eyes at the other's teasing tone – or he thought it was teasing, anyway. 'I've never jumped onto train tracks before, though.'

'Really?' Now he sounded curious. Or that was scepticism disguised as curiosity. 'What sort of trouble have you gotten into, then?'

'The most common one is doing other stuff in class.' He was still holding Takuya's hand. He sort of had to, because Takuya couldn't see where he was going at all. But he could, slightly. Tracks stretching out as far as he could see and no other landmarks, but the tracks had to lead to somewhere, right? Another station, at least. And stations were usually near things…

Which begged the question as to what was near this one and where had it all gone? There weren't even boom gates to show a road crossing over them, or a station to suit up the platforms, or anything. Just two slabs of concrete and the tracks passing in between. Like someone had just put those slabs there to serve no purpose at all.

'Other stuff like what?' Takuya asked curiously. 'Playing thumb wars under the table?'

'Not thumb wars per say,' Kouichi replied. 'Reading, doing homework for other classes… we played shogi once.'

Takuya snorted at that. 'How'd you manage to sneak the entire chess board under the table and keep the pieces on?' he asked. 'Unless it was one of those little portable magnetic ones?'

'No, we drew it on a piece of paper. Also skipped the occasional class.'

'Useful stuff or boring stuff?'

'Boring stuff.'

Takuya laughed. 'Aside from the shogi game under the table thing, it sounds like you get into trouble being the good student type. Eager much?'

'I learn at my own pace.' Kouichi almost shrugged, but managed to stop himself. It was rather pointless when the only company he had couldn't see him. 'And more stuff done at school means more time at home to… do other stuff.'

'True.' Takuya hummed. 'More time to play soccer, and video games… Just can't pay attention for that long if I'm sitting down reading or listening, so it winds up taking longer. It's just not… active enough, I guess. Sports is way better. Soccer, baseball… Especially baseball with 'tou-san.'

Kouichi didn't say anything to that. He just kept walking. And so Takuya picked up the slack in conversation again. 'Do you play any sports?'

'PE,' Kouichi replied. 'And I play soccer sometimes.' At lunch only, he added silently – but he didn't want to explain why he never stayed after school if he could help it.

'Soccer's fun,' Takuya agreed. 'Easier to get a team together for, too, and you just need the ball. Baseball's kind of tougher because you need the ball and the mitts and the bat and the base plates… But 'tou-san's got friends who like to play as well so it manages to come together. Or we just play catch with the ball and mitt –'

'I see a light,' Kouichi interrupted. He didn't really mean to interrupt but he saw the light right then and it just slipped out.

And Takuya didn't seem to mind. 'Great!' he said. 'Hopefully we'll be somewhere sensible this time around.'

'Sensible as in another train?' Kouichi squinted as they walked. It looked like a train to him, as odd as the one that had left them at the platform anyway. It had wheels and headlights, anyway. And it was just sitting there, by the looks of things.

'I still can't see anything,' Takuya complained. 'If you can make out an entire train, I should be able to at least see the headlights, right?'

But that didn't appear to be the case at all.

.

Cherubimon didn't know the details, but Ofanimon did. She knew what happened to those children in other times and now she could see them clearly: their faces, their clothes – their pain.

And there was absolutely no guarantee that the same wouldn't happen again, but they'd fight it. They'd fight it every way they could, every way they knew how.

It was easy to see just by looking at the pair of them, walking through the dark. One of them was at home in it, with a little warm flame wrapping him. The other was angsty and uncomfortable but still trusting an almost-stranger to lead him safely out, to act as his eyes.

The ability of those children to trust each other when they've only just met was a constant: it was in each and every timeline. And now as well, and that was good. That means they hadn't broken it. The one thing that made it all possible, that meant they could push and push but there was this safety net to catch them if they fell. They could look like they were breaking but they'd be stuck together – and maybe that was part of the reason why the sacrifices it cost them when they succeed couldn't be worth the outcome.

And then there were the so many times they didn't succeed at all, and sometimes they couldn't even tell the difference between the two, what had changed.

But they were changing things anyway. Carefully analysing. Carefully planning. Years of work and yet there was still so much guesswork involved but they'd caught the right children in their net and now they had to manipulate those pieces on the board.

Because they needed a future that wasn't painted with blood and cursed, and they needed that future to actually exist and not just be a dream. And if they had to be the villains or the gods to accomplish it, then so be it. The children could hate them as much as they liked once the world and they were safe. It wouldn't even matter, when they were back home and living their normal lives out once again and maybe, one day, they'd realise how strong they'd gotten from the Digital World and they'd turn back and thank them, and then that little weight in their hearts would life off –

Because, by that point, it probably would be a little weight – compared to the entire world on their shoulders.

.

Kouichi could reach out and touch the train now, and Takuya still hadn't commented on its appearance. 'You can't see it?' he whispered.

'Not a bit,' Takuya grumbled – too loudly, because the two lights suddenly went to four and Kouichi stumbled back.

He'd forgotten, for a moment, that Takuya had been behind them too. They fell together, and for the first time they felt the ground: rough like dirt mixed in with fragments of stone. They dug into Kouichi's palms and he winced as he brushed them off as Takuya pushed himself up. He was wearing gloves, and that was a stroke of luck in Kouichi's opinion.

But why couldn't Takuya see the traij when they were so close? And now there were four lights to content with, the top two swaying this way and that and it was dizzying –

And causing a little throb to blossom into being in some corner of his head. Please don't become a migraine, he pleaded with it, and tried not to look at the lights. He focused on the centre of the train's… face? It's nose? They didn't really study the anatomy of talking trains, after all.

'I'm impressed,' the train rumbled, 'that a fire can burn in this place that sniffs all fires out.'

'What does that mean?' Takuya asked, sounding confused. And Kouichi couldn't blame him. Fire was probably metaphorical considering the lack of any light sources save the train's own headlights, but what it was referring to was still up in the air.

Or lack of air… 'Wandering around the darkness, without being able to see at all,' he began. 'Or in a white room. Either way, all you can see is black. Or white. A canvas for your own imagination, your own fears to just… crush you…'

'Precisely that,' the train agreed, and the boys were both silent as they processed that.

'But Kouichi could see,' Takuya pointed out. 'It's the whole reason we got here.'

'Which is worse?' returned the train. 'A black room or a white one?'

'Black,' said Takuya immediately.

'White,' said Kouichi, a little later.

'Precisely that,' said the train, and now they were both confused because their answers had been contradictory. Perhaps the train could see that though, or guessed his answer would invite that, because he continued. 'It's in the eye of the beholder. Some people fear the absolute darkness. Others fear the absolute light. It's all the same when it comes to robbing someone of all sense except their fears.'

'Was this a test?' Takuya asked. Quite suddenly, Kouichi thought. 'It would've been nice to have a bit of warning first.'

'It was the first test,' the train said. 'And you have passed.'

Takuya's cell phone lit up at the same moment, and Takuya blinked at the scene in front of him before the light faded away. A voice echoed from the phone: female, and soft but hard as well. Unwavering. Saying more or less the same as what the train had already told them. You have both passed the first test.

As though she knew Kouichi didn't have a cell phone. As though she knew they were together.

And Takuya wondered aloud at that as well. 'Why didn't you get the message too, then?'

'I don't have a phone.' And maybe it was unnecessarily abrupt, but his mind was being pulled in all sorts of directions now. Test? And we've passed? When did we even start? He remembered Kouji leaving the flower bouquet half-made. Was this why? 'What sort of test?' he asked. He glanced back at Takuya when the train didn't answer. 'Takuya?' he prompted.

Takuya shrugged. 'A bunch of kids got texts on our phone, inviting us to some sort of game and we thought we'd check it out… Or I guess. Didn't actually talk to anyone. Tried but some people are just so rude, you know? Anyway, it wasn't the smartest idea because there was like no information but I was bored and wanted to get out of the house for a while and… I dunno, something inside me was just telling me to try it out. So I did. But then – ' He cut himself off as his face changed, and Kouichi tactfully turned away. Takuya seemed like the sort of person who'd put up a brave front and preferred it that way, and unless he needed to break those masks, he wouldn't. After all, he preferred his own masks intact as well.

And Kouichi understood where Takuya was going – or, at least, his own experience with the same. 'It was too cruel for a game,' he said. 'Unless this is one of those sick games where someone sits at the top and tortures the players.'

Takuya seemed to choke on something, before muttering rather quietly: 'I didn't think of that.'

'It's not,' the train assured – which, truthfully, wasn't very reassuring because they had no idea how far they could trust it. 'I will now take you through the gateway, if you will please board.'

'Gate?' Takuya asked. 'Like, to another area of the world or something?'

Kouichi just bit his lip. Their only other option was to keep on walking and who knew where that would get them. 'Where are we now?' he asked, instead.

And the train hadn't answered Takuya's question by then, either. 'We are inside the gateway,' he now said, 'or rather, the dimension we call the gateway. We Trailmon and a few of the Ultimate digimon are the only ones who can navigate it. Others will wander forever without us to guide. It is however the only way to travel between worlds without a direct portal opened up between the two places.'

'Trailmon,' Kouichi repeated. So the strange train was called a Trailmon. 'And what are digimon?' That seemed to be the most confusing part of the explanation, though it was all a little over his head.

'Digimon are the beings that inhabit the digital world,' the Trailmon explained. 'In essence, we are all that world's lifeforms. Everyone native to the digital world is a digimon. From there, we are split into three attributes: data, virus and vaccine – and several stages. The stages range from baby to Ultimate, and we advance through these stages by growing and evolving. There are also classes: machine, warrior, angel, and many others. Then we are divided into species. We Trailmon are one such species. A species is of the same attribute and stage and class, and within the species are individuals like myself.'

'That was a lot of information,' Takuya groaned. 'But you're a Trailmon, you said? That means you have a name, right?'

'I do.' The Trailmon sounded pleased. 'It's Dark.'

They stare at him for a moment, wondering why he was pointing out the obvious before realising he was telling them his name instead. Kouichi was relieved he hadn't let the question slip out. That would have been quite awkward. 'Nice to meet you,' he said instead. 'I'm Kimura Kouichi.'

'Kanbara Takuya,' Takuya introduced.

'Your human names,' said the Trailmon, 'but they can be impractical at times, just as it is impractical for you to know the name of every individual digimon you meet. Humans tend to call us by our class except for specific individuals: their partners, their friends – sometimes their enemies. But humans too can be sub-classified as well. They possess no digital attributes, but they have species. You are children. And they have different sort of attributes, and different sorts of traits as well. Some of these traits stand out like beacons. Hence why I professed my surprise to a fire surviving the darkness. But I suppose it took darkness to hold its hand to do so.'

Kouichi glanced back at Takuya again – who was looking equally lost. So they'd had a roundabout explanation that hadn't answered the original question – and may or may not have been useful in the long term.

'The rest is a discussion for another time,' said Dark, stretching out. His tires screeched on the track and the boys winced. 'Knowledge and understanding are both best dealt in moderation, but I will tell you one last thing. The ones who called you here have your best interests at heart. This I can swear on my honour as a Trailmon who delivers the sinking souls for a place where they may see a flicker of something again.'

'That sounds like the opposite of what you're doing here,' Takuya commented.

The Trailmon seemed to smile, Kouichi thought. 'Well,' he replied. 'You didn't need my help. You had each other, instead.'

.

They went with the Trailmon in the end. They had little choice in the matter because neither of them wanted to wander around lost some more (even if they were following tracks and could therefore only go in one of two directions) and the Trailmon seemed sincere.

The ride seemed long though. And stifling, like all the windows were closed and there were far more people on the carriage than just the two of them, although they weren't. It was like a hot summer day with no air circulating about, the kind where heat rolled off them in drops and they closed their eyes to it, because what else could they do? They could have continued talking but they were tired out and now that they had light and darkness in moderation again, the constant need to reaffirm their company with conversation was no longer there.

And maybe he fell asleep. Maybe they both fell asleep. He certainly did forget about that little throb until he opened his eyes to something bright, and it was accompanied by a pain in his head so far-reaching and sharp that wiped the lingering thoughts in his mind clean.