A/N: Sorry this so late! Had a string of really late finishes at the hospital. Hopefully I can finish the next update tomorrow, otherwise a remi will fall out of Endurance. And since it's got action and one of my favourite characters, I stand a reasonable chance, I think. Wish me luck. XD

Play of Spirits
Chapter 12 - Affinity of Spirits

If the reason he was stuck as a water nymph for longer than he needed to be was so he could cure the kid his little brother's age of his burns, then Takuya thought he could very well deal with that. So long as nobody burst out laughing.

They didn't. They seemed more relieved than anything. The type of kids who didn't find it amusing to see someone constantly wincing in pain.

He added two ticks each for his little mental checklist. One could tell a lot about a person in circumstances like this.

And then he toppled over because his head was spinning and how hadn't he noticed that was going on before? He was shaking too. Didn't realise that until he tried to get up again. Or when the tallest of the bunch offered him a hand and he tried to grab it –

But hey. His hand looked normal. Back to the good old gloves he'd dug out of his drawer.

That was, of course, well after "Angler the Trailmon Express" had dumped three passengers at his feet.

.

Their first meeting was both more and less awkward than it could have been. Izumi, the only girl amongst the five of them, found it amusing that a "big strong boy" had to be carried back, but Takuya thought he'd put in a good day's work and wouldn't let that shake her.

Which apparently earned him some ticks in her book too, even if it did seem like they'd clash a bit every now and then. Oh well, though. What were new friendships without a little spice?

And then there was Bokomon and Neemon – and at least Angler had been about as informative as Dark, so they were all on the same page in that regards. And then finally Kouichi – who probably raised the most surprise, considering how they'd filled Takuya's goggles with leaves to keep the light out, and how his exposed skin glowed with scarlet burns.

Takuya wondered if he could have done something about that in the form of that water nymph, but they looked different, somehow. Light versus flames, perhaps. Different things and he'd never heard of water being good for light burns.

He couldn't remember ever having come across light burns either, so maybe that was beside the point.

But now the seven of them were there, cramped into Bokomon and Neemon's home and more knowledgeable than when they'd stepped onto the Trailmon but still rather confused about things.

And there was a book between them, that only Bokomon could read, that had the answers.

Or some of them, at least.

.

'The ten legendary warrior spirits,' Bokomon began, in the same manner one would begin a bedtime story in. 'Legend tells they are the very foundations of this world. Light and darkness. Earth and air. Fire and water. Wood and metal. Thunder and ice. Ten elements that are send to govern life and death, creation and destruction. But after they created the world, they slumbered… And they entrusted the world to those they'd created to live upon it.'

'So the ten legendary warriors were gods?' Takuya wondered aloud. 'There's a god on earth like that, I think. Or several. The different interpretations make things confusing.'

The others shrugged. 'I guess none of us are very religious,' Tomoki said sheepishly. 'But they do sound like gods, as opposed to warriors. They didn't fight anything.'

Bokomon tsked at them. 'Creation is a battle in itself,' he schooled. 'To make sure there are no holes, no cracks. And to create something self-sustaining is even more so… And yet…'

'What?' Takuya knew it was rude, but he wasn't the most patient person in the world.

'Well.' Bokomon shrugged. 'The world is in a strife, I suppose.'

'You suppose?' the children echoed.

'Well.' He shrugged again, a little helplessly. 'It's another legend, see. The warriors were themselves created by the thoughts of humans. Human children, to be exact. The simplistic views of the world they cast aside as they grew up. The dreams that slipped away, unfulfilled.'

'That sounds really depressing.'

'Takuya!'

'Okay, okay. I won't interrupt anymore.'

Bokomon gave him a severe look, looking rather like a teacher in that moment. 'See that you don't, young man.'

'I'm a kid.' Takuya grumbled.

Izumi and Junpei glared as well.

'Okay, okay.' He was tempted to say more, but he refrained. It really did sound depressing to him, though.

'As I was saying,' Bokomon cleared his throat. 'The legendary warriors were created from the thoughts of children – the thoughts that were lost as they grew into adulthood. So our origins, in turn, are from the human world. But none of us are as close to the human world, the human children, as the legendary warriors. And since they've slumbered since creating the world, legend says the day human children arrive here is when they'll wake up once more.'

'Legendary warriors waking up to greet a bunch of kids,' Junpei snorted. 'That'll be the day.' And then something clicked and he leaned forward, eyes wide. 'You mean.'

'You're a clever one,' Bokomon said approvingly. 'Yes, the spirits you all carry with you are the legendary warrior spirits. Or five of the ten, in any case.'

'I'm carrying the spirit of a warrior?' Tomoki sounded perkier than he should have, Takuya thought, considering his spirit had burnt him… But he could allow the kid that excitement. He was pretty buffed, himself. Even if the gods had a weird sense of humour in giving him a water nymph.

Kouichi's mind was on more practical matters… Or maybe he was disgruntled about his spirit burning him as well. 'How did the sprits choose who got which one?' he asked.

'And for that matter,' Junpei added after a slightly too long pause as the rest of them realigned their toughts, 'how did it pick the five of us out of all the children who got on the trains?'

'No point asking me,' Bokomon shrugged. 'I'm a book keeper. I know history, but this sort of thing has never happened before.'

'Guess we're stuck with these a little longer then,' Izumi said thoughtfully. 'I, for one, am glad mine showed up before we got eaten.'

'I'm happy mine showed up before I got fried,' Takuya agreed.

'And before we drowned,' Junpei added.

'Mine's nowhere near as glamorous,' Tomoki pouted. 'In fact, it made me get lost.'

Kouichi was silent until Izumi prodded him. 'Kouichi?'

'…we were looking for shade, somewhat ironically.' After a pause, he added. 'I wonder if that's why my photosensitivity is so much worse, here.'

'Light spirits, right?' Takuya said sympathetically. 'Between those and the light burns, it's gotta be.'

Bokomon shrugged again. 'While the legendary warrior spirits have never risen since the world's creation, there have been a number of different types of digivolution through the ages.' At their blank looks, he added: 'Digivolution is the process of evolving into a stronger form. Sometimes it's permanent. Other times it's temporary for a purpose like battle, and we revert back to our prior forms once it's over. But all digivolutions have requirements and there are digimon in the same species that digivolve differently because they meet different requirements. And then there are some who evolve in special ways – combining together in something we call Jogress, or using Digimentals – or even some who are freely able to switch between two forms and we call that Slide Evolution.'

Junpei drew a schematic on the ground as Bokmon talked. It was easier to follow that way. 'So the normal digivolution process is kind of like growing older and stronger?' he asked. 'I guess that's how kids in the same class can wind up in different professions, or something.'

'Or something,' Tomoki echoed, staring at Junpei's diagram. 'Really, we're pretty different now.'

'But we're all students at the moment. So my example still works.' And Junpei sounded pretty proud of that fact as well.

'But why did we suddenly switch to digivolution?' Takuya asked. 'Weren't we talking about how we were chosen for spirits that've been hurting some of us?'

'And not giving us the option to switch back,' Junpei added. 'I was stuck as a walking gnome for ages.'

'As I was saying,' Bokomon replied, as though the transition was smooth… And maybe it was, to him, who could see where the train of thought would wind up. 'Some of those special sorts of digivolutions aren't as… smooth, as the natural ones. As though they're forced. Or there's an incompatibility. Naturally, if two digimon simply aren't able to Jogress, they won't, but sometimes there's an in between state where it eats up their bodies.'

'That doesn't sound pleasant,' said Neemon mildly.

Which was the understatement of the new world, Takuya thought. Being eaten alive because the spirits had messed up their choices didn't sound like anything he'd want to put on his bucket list.

Not that he wanted a bucket list in the first place, but that was beside the point.

'Can we swap?' Junpei thought aloud. 'I mean, if our spirits aren't compatible with us, maybe they're better with one of you guys.'

'But how would we work that out?' Izumi wondered aloud. 'Trial and error?'

'Fire for Takuya,' Kouichi spoke up. 'That's how I first met him,' he elaborated. 'He was like this torchlight in the darkness.'

'Didn't help me see in there,' Takuya snorted, and the others assumed the pair had travelled together for a bit as well. 'But it's as good a start as any. Tomoki?'

The two boys bent over their cell phones turned weird devices and mumbled. Izumi and Junpei watched them curiously and they assumed Kouichi was watching too… as well as he could, because they weren't sure if he could see at all with his eyes covered, but it was infinitely better than having them burn in a light he couldn't tolerate.

'Aha,' Tomoki said suddenly, and the two devices glowed simultaneously.

And then they sparked and fell to the floor with identical clutters, and the boys hurriedly checked them over to make sure they weren't damaged.

They weren't. But that was evidentially not the right button.

Or it was. Their screens glowed with new messages.

Not yet.

'Well,' Junpei sighed, after they'd read that again. 'I guess Kouichi was at least right about the spirits of fire being more compatible with Takuya.'

'And we know there's someone pulling the strings and giving us the wrong ones,' Izumi added, looking thoughtfully at her own phone turned strange device. 'That voice talking about tests and things… Is this a test too? We need to prove ourselves worthy with these spirits before we get the ones more compatible to us?'

'Do we want them?' Junpei countered. 'Honestly, I'm happy finding the way back home. I've had more than enough crazy adventures.'

'I dunno,' Tomoki said thoughtfully. 'The only adventure part was fighting that tree.'

'A tree?' Takuya laughed at that; it made quite a mental image. 'The dog was way more exciting than that.'

.

She watched them. Five children together, trying to puzzle out the pieces and they were getting there.

She had to be cruel, knowing there was a spirit calling to its rightful owner there.

Not yet, she said to it softly. Not yet.

Absence would make its heart grow fonder, she was sure.

But for now, they had to grow. Those children… They had to grow far, far, more.

And she wondered if they'd realise their next step by themselves, or if she'd guide them again.

Time would tell. And they still had that.

She waited.

.

Their conversation dawdled. No new message came and they tossed around the stories they already knew and tried to puzzle it out.

'Recap,' Junpei said again. He was their designated scribe – if only because of his habit of drawing pictorials to follow along. 'I've got Grumblemon, the spirit of earth.' Bokomon at least had been able to identify the spirits by name, after consulting his book. 'Izumi has Arbormon, the spirit of wood. Tomoki has Agnimon: the spirit of fire. Takuya has Ranamon, the spirit of water, and Kouichi has Wolfmon, the spirit of light.'

They all nodded: a wave of heads bobbing up and down.

'We all know we've got a spirit we're not strictly compatible with. We also know that, of the spirits we do have, Takuya is compatible with Agnimon – or at least more compatible. And ditto for Tomoki and Ranamon. We also known that none of the rest of us are compatible with each other's spirits. Which means we must be one of the remaining spirits.'

'Those are Shutumon, the warrior of wind,' Bokomon recited, having found the page, 'Chakkmon, the spirit of ice; Blitzmon, the spirit of thunder, Mercurimon, the spirit of metal, and Lowemon, the spirit of darkness.'

'Judging from the whole night vision and photophobia,' Junpei said thoughtfully, 'I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume Kouichi's probably meant to have the spirit of darkness. And it's too bad we didn't reach the glacier after all, because that would've been a good test for one of us.'

'Maybe…' Izumi said thoughtfully.

Tomoki beat her to it. 'Izumi-san for wind,' he said triumphantly. 'You were the only one who could hear when the wind peaked and dipped.'

'I was about to say that.' She pouted, but conceded the point. It was the point that was important, after all.

'Maybe electricity for me, in that vein,' Junpei mused. 'I've always liked electronics but I had no idea I could manage to link your phones up without wires, you know.' He considered. 'Then again, I really don't like the thunder so maybe not.'

And they had no idea for Tomoki, either. And it was all conjecture anyway.

'Maybe I'm ice,' Tomoki said suddenly, staring at Junpei's diagram.

'How'd you figure?' Izumi asked curiously, 'because I don't remember seeing any hint of that. Unless we're talking about how you weren't coughing out a lung full of water, because that seems more suggestive to water to me and that "not yet" message… well, I suppose it could've been going only one way.'

'I was just thinking…' Tomoki flushed a little. 'The ones we're sure about: fire and water, and then light and darkness. They're complete opposites. But fire and ice are opposites as well. So is any combination of water and earth and wind.'

'So is wind and wood for that matter,' Izumi agreed. 'Do you think we've been given the opposite of the spirit we're compatible with?'

That made a lot of sense, looking at the ones they'd guessed for themselves.

And that also meant it was going to be pretty painful dealing with them, because no way they were going to be a perfect match for the spirit opposite to the ones that had chosen them.

.

She had to colour herself impressed. They were pretty close, in the end. One on the second try and one dismissed, but otherwise correct and it mattered and didn't matter both. Because they still had to master their weaknesses: their weaker selves. They still had to master ill-fitting spirits.

And they would master them, in time. Now that they were in the digital world, bound to spirits…

And, before that, bound to the messages she'd sent them.

Things that should be questioned would not be – or they'd proceed nonetheless. It was like a trance: something hypnotic that pulled them in. The spirits were a drug like that. Adventure was like a drug. She didn't have to worry about them leaving this world behind because they'd never do that. She knew. She'd seen. That wasn't what she was afraid of.

Humans were just so breakable.

Hopefully she could make their skin something tough so they wouldn't wind up breaking this time.