Play of Spirits
Chapter 14 - Barren Road

Kouichi didn't say anything, but it was pretty obvious from the expression on his face that this "Minamoto Kouji" meant something to him. And a part of Junpei wanted to call him out on it – but the other boy looked so uncomfortable that he took pity on him. Instead, he said: 'We should catch up with him. It must suck being all on your own – especially since the five of us are together.'

'It definitely would,' Takuya agreed. 'I mean, we were alone for a bit before we met up and it definitely sucked. I'd still be wandering around in that pitch black place if Kouichi hadn't caught me.'

'Caught you?' Tomoki asked. 'Why? Were you falling too?'

Apparently, they still needed to straighten out their stories, but they'd gotten the gist of it down pat anyway. At least he'd been with Tomoki and Izumi the entire time, even if they'd lost contact for a moment in between and, for a longer moment, could only communicate with their phones. Those two hadn't gotten on the train together. It was a miracle they'd stumbled onto each other at all by the sounds of it…

No, that wasn't true when one took into account Kouichi's amazing night vision (and terrible day vision).

'How do you even get around normally?' he asked, curiously and probably a little bluntly, in retrospect – especially if Izumi's elbow was anything to go by.

'It's not usually this bad,' Kouichi admitted, after a moment and rubbing his eyes. He lowered them almost immediately, as though remembering rubbing eyes wasn't good for them in the least. 'Sunny winter days are the worst, since it's winter. Winter days aren't supposed to be sunny.' He was pouting slightly. Junpei could only tell because he was unashamedly staring. 'But I can get by even that with squinting and a headache.'

Which was kind of what he was doing then, as they crept slowly into the forest surrounding the town. Bokomon and Neemon called it Flame Terminal. Probably after the massive heater in town.

Well, at least that meant he could sort of see with Takuya's goggles on, even if he was going to slow them down regardless. And come in handy when none of the rest of them would be able to see. That was a handy trick and maybe it was even worth the price – though Junpei was sure he'd have to pay a price like that before he could say so for himself. Still, that was something that made him stand out. Junpei had only stood out when he'd been stuck as a dwarf and now they realised they could all change – and not one of them had been stuck as long as him.

He wouldn't be saving the day again anytime soon, apparently.

Which was just fine. He wasn't the type of guy who went around saving the day anyway.

.

Then head to the Dark Continent. You will find him there.

That was what Ofanimon told them, and then there was a moment of panic from Bokomon upon hearing the name but their mysterious voice from the device didn't answer them. Or Bokomon's concerns – which turned out to be quite legitimate.

A place where no-one who went in came back out sounded like a place they should stay far away from.

On the other hand, it sounded like a place they couldn't leave a fellow human in, especially with the way Kouichi's face in particular grew paler with Bokomon's dramatics.

This time, it was Takuya who stepped up. Takuya who probably didn't even realise the expressions around him aside from Bokomon's, and that was only because Bokomon was so loud. 'We can't leave a fellow human there, right? And Bokomon, don't you think it'd be cool to be the first person to write all about this continent no-one's ever explored before?'

Which turned out to be quite the effective strategy to convince Bokomon. Curiosity was what made him follow Takuya in a place he knew danger awaited. Curiosity was what was now warming him up to the idea of going to the Dark Continent when he knew full well no-one had ever come out of it.

And that really didn't sound like the sort of place they should be going, even if Takuya was right and they couldn't, in all good conscience, leave someone there.

What a pain their conscience could be, sometimes. They could have gone home and been on their merry way back through meandering lives if it hadn't been for that. And if they actually knew the way back home.

And if they hadn't gotten that message to begin with and following along like little sheep following the shepherd who, for all they knew, could have been a nasty wolf in disguise.

Still could be, for all they know, except the mysterious voice on the phone that was no longer a phone had guided them to weapons to defend themselves: weapons – according to Bokomon and Neemon – akin to knights, or gods.

'All in favour, raise your hand!'

Junpei couldn't find himself too surprised to note his was the last hand up… Even if not by much.

'Motion carried!' Takuya threw a punch to the air in celebration. Izumi snickered. Tomoki looked excited. Kouichi's expression was harder to read now… But weren't any of them worried? Or uncomfortable with the idea of playing hero?

.

Past the Flame Terminal was a lot of barren land, and Bokomon lamented the lack of Trailmon to carry them over it. 'Really,' he complained, 'there's absolutely nothing to see here and no landmarks in the least so we have to make very sure we're going straight and stay in the same direction until we reach Forest Terminal and hope there's a Trailmon there.'

'Can't we just wait at the Flame Terminal for a Trailmon to come?' Junpei asked. 'If we keep on walking from station to station, there's no guarantee we're going to catch one, and trains come fairly frequently. It'll be… what? Half an hour at the most?'

'Trailmons don't run according to such predictable times,' Bokomon sniffed. 'Honestly, they may never come back to Flame Terminal. What made it a Terminal in the first place was the presence of the spirits. Trailmon are a special sort. They're said to be the noble steeds of the warriors, and without them they dash between one spirit and the next. The rest of us use them for convenience but they're not there for us.'

'They're not?' Neemon blinked. 'But when they're there, we don't have to walk.'

'As I said,' Bokomon sighed, 'we can use them for our own convenience provided we're both going in the same direction at the same time. But they're not exactly obliged to carry us from one place to another.'

'And the weirdest thing,' Junpei mumbled, 'is the fact that they've got minds of their own.'

And none of the other humans could argue with that, since they all came from a world where trains were unthinking machines.

Things were certainly going to be interesting once they got back to their own world.

.

They reached the end of the road surprisingly quickly, though not in the way they'd imagined.

This end of the road translated to a missing bridge. And as none of them had wings – even if they did know how to change back and forth between their spirits and human selves – so they were stuck.

'I wonder how the Trailmon made it over the gap,' Bokomon mused, staring at how the tracks broke off, and then continued on the other side of the ravine.

They all looked down at that, as though they'd see the absurd sign of tracks going all the way down and back up again. And why not? They'd seen some unbelievable things. But there were no tracks going there. No path for them to walk either and though Takuya wanted to try climbing down, Tomoki balked at the very idea and saved the rest of them.

So they followed the edge until they found a path that looed reasonably safe, and then they descended.

Takuya marched ahead, looking a little disgruntled now and Tomoki was keeping pretty close. Hero worship at its best, Junpei thought – and maybe that was a little bitter of him, but Takuya was the one who'd wanted to try a climb it was doubtful any of them could manage. Maybe Takuya was the type who was good at sports, but that didn't say anything about the rest of them. And even if the five of them could manage it, he didn't see Neemon, with his red socks, getting a secure foothold at all.

He was being careless. And he wasn't the only one but at least Kouichi had admitted to his carelessness and… Well, he hadn't had the chance to wander off again, so Junpei couldn't really say if he would. And in any case, he could understand wanting some breathing space and he'd been the one most in danger. Carelessness that endangered oneself was pretty different to carelessness that would endanger someone else.

Or maybe he was feeling insecure with these guys.

Or with himself. Because that gigantic hammer he had earlier was going to be more of a detriment than a help in an enclosed space like the ravine. And he didn't like enclosed spaces, either. Or dark places. Or storms.

Now that he thought about it, he had quite a long list of things he didn't like.

'What are you thinking about?' Izumi asked curiously, from just behind him. 'You've got such a serious look on your face.'

'Thinking about how woefully inadequate I'm suddenly feeling, now that we're all on the same page.'

She laughed, surprisingly. He stopped and stared at her a moment before Takuya turned back and realised they weren't following and called for them to hurry up.

But still, her laughing had caught him by surprise. She didn't seem like that sort of person.

'You're giving me one of those looks.' The laughter was suddenly gone from her voice. 'I'm not laughing at you for feeling like that, you know.'

'O-oh,' he stuttered, before clearing his throat. 'It's just – well –'

'It sounded like that?' she asked, raising an eyebrow. 'Fair enough. That was poor timing on my part. I was just laughing because you had odd timing, yourself.'

'Huh?' He blinked, then stared at her some more. What was so odd about his timing?

'Well, you were the one who was stuck as a dwarf the longest,' she pointed out. 'Why now, in the middle of being yourself again?'

'It's precisely that I'm in the middle of being myself again,' he explained. 'Shibayama Junpei isn't anyone special.'

'Hmm…' She said. 'Is that so? Because you have to be something special to be here, by the sounds of anything. And how can a no-one special hack a phone with just another phone, anyway? You've tried to explain it at least twice and it still blows my mind away.'

Junpei shrugged, but something inside of him was swelling a little happily. 'I like electronics,' he said. 'Electronics and magic tricks: my two specialties.'

She laughed again. 'There you go,' she said. 'And if you asked what my specialties are, I'd say Italian and deserts and rubbing my classmates the wrong way.'

He stared at her for that, as well. 'Rubbing your classmates the wrong way?' he echoed. 'Judging from the last few minutes, it seems like a series of misunderstandings at play.'

'Not really.' She shrugged, her long hair bouncing on her shoulders and she walked a little faster. 'They all know each other, and have expectations about how their friends should behave. I just don't fit them.'

Junpei could understand that. He couldn't seem to fit in with his classmates either. However he was acting, it wasn't quite the same for them.

But for five random kids tossed together, that was far less of a problem, wasn't it?

.

They reached the bottom of the ravine, or as far as they could go without diving into the river that flowed there. They followed that for a bit because surely there'd be a place where the river was shallow enough or there were stepping stones or something that would allow them to cross.

There was, but they were accosted by floating candles called Candlemon who wouldn't let them pass. And there were mixed reactions between the five of them and that didn't bode well at all for their success.

It also didn't help that Takuya, who'd stepped forward eagerly, was actually their best bet at taking down a bunch of fire-tossing candles. After all, he was a water nymph – even if he did look rather ridiculous transforming into one.

…well, at least they knew they could transform on command, now. Even if it didn't look like just Takuya was going to be enough. 'I can handle it,' he'd keep on tossing back, though. 'I'm fine. You guys should get going.'

'We can't,' Tomoki protested, but his own spirit was fire and useless in this battle. No sense adding more fuel to the flames, after all. Izumi was similarly stuck and frowning at the battle… Actually, she was worse off. Wood could catch fire. And maybe she was thinking about their chat earlier. Or maybe not. He didn't ask, so who knew.

Junpei thought about his own spirit. Earth couldn't catch fire that easily, even if he didn't have room to swing. What else could that dwarf do? He hadn't felt anything. Strength, and a hammer. That's all he could bring to mind. A hammer that smashed into the water and found the land…

He blinked. The hammer swung up, then back down. He did have space for that, just not to swing the hammer all around.

He took out that strange device his phone had become. And realised he wasn't the only one.

'No,' he said firmly, and Kouichi looked at him, startled. He was wearing Takuya's goggles around his neck now, since the ravine blocked out the sun. But underneath his shirt was still that burn paste Tomoki had rubbed on. 'You're still injured, remember? And I can fight too. If we're both getting our butts kicked, then that's another story because you're literally the only one who'll be left and not have a disadvantage against a bunch of fire candles, but for now…'

And he'd just volunteered to fight. What was he thinking?

But the words were out of him now, and they made all that more sense out loud.

He swallowed and transformed. He grew, and with that came the feeling of strength as well. He could do something. He wasn't powerless in this enclosed space after all. He wasn't powerless at all.

He swung the hammer. It caught the nearest Candlemon sand slammed him into the water… And tossed the water up too. And this time he got to pay more attention. The way the water split apart. The way the bridge in the distance made itself known. The way the Candlemon groaned and dissolved into data, while Takuya hit the other two. And the data floated up and Junpei felt bad, at that moment, because they'd just been defending themselves against their intrusion, right? It was a really harsh world –

But then he followed the data up and realised they were reforming the bridge, and he was just plain confused. How does that work?

Bokomon had an ever-ready explanation. 'The data of the digital world is in shambles. Once things are put right, then everything will be right again.'

So bits of data had turned from structural components of the world into digimon causing trouble, if he understood that correctly.

'That was a lot faster, this time round,' Tomoki said.

Junpei looked at himself. He was back to being a human, and so was Takuya, though he seemed to be grumbling about something.

'You clearly needed help,' he heard Izumi snap. 'And if Junpei didn't, Kouichi would've. And if my spirits wouldn't have caught fire with that bunch of candles, I would've too.'

'I wasn't outmatched,' Takuya protested. 'I could've handled them. See? I don't even have a scratch.'

'You don't,' Kouichi said quietly, cutting across Izumi's tirade – and the only reason Junpei heard his voice was because he and Tomoki had caught up to the others by that point. 'But what would we have done without evolving with the one that got past you?'

Junpei blinked. He hadn't noticed that at all… Though he wondered if Kouichi meant the one he'd knocked down. He'd just gone for the nearest, not even gauging how near it had been.

'They're just a bunch of candles.' But Takuya's protest sounded just a little weaker.

'Burns hurt,' Kouichi replied. 'Tomoki can tell you too.'

And Tomoki looked uncomfortable at being put on the spot like that, but he nodded.

And Takuya wilted. 'It's so much easier to fight just one opponent.'

'It usually is,' Junpei agreed. 'But that's why there's five of us. It's not a weakness to need your friends fighting with you.'

Takuya stared at him.

He shifted. 'We are friends, right?'

A slow grin. 'Of course we are. Right?'