Play of Spirits
Chapter 15 - Crossing the Bridge (Takuya)

Okay, so it seemed rather stupid in retrospect but a few candles shouldn't have been hard for a water nymph to handle at all. Especially when his fingertips felt like they could call clouds to fill the entire ravine if he wanted to. Which wasn't a bright idea with four other humans and two non-aquatic digimon and who knew what else inside the ravine, but he could do it.

But Kouichi was right, when he stopped to think about it. The one Junpei had hammered had slipped past him and if they'd noticed that after the fact, would any of them evolved fast enough to do something about it? The reason Junpei had missed it himself was because he was already part-way through his transformation, right?

'Everyone has a blindspot,' Kouichi said quietly.

They were walking along the ravine again. The bridge above them was ready, and yet they were worried. Or just curious. Izumi and Junpei were talking about something or other – a continuation of their earlier discussion, it seemed. And Tomoki was skipping between the two pairs and catching snippets of both… Though until Kouichi spoke up, there hadn't been much of a conversation after Takuya fell silent and they'd started moving on.

'How do you mean?' Takuya asked.

'Do you want the scientific explanation or the simple one?' Kouichi asked in return, somewhat teasingly. 'Humans don't have three hundred and sixty degree vision, and we're not so quick as to be able to process everything we do see, either.'

'…I have no idea where you're going with that,' Takuya replied.

'Nowhere, really.' Kouichi shrugged. 'Just that one person can't see everything, and they don't need to when there's someone else to cover for them. But if everyone's looking at the same place, something can slip past anyway. Having different skills and covering different bases are two of the biggest advantages of being in a team and there's no reason to not use them.'

'Right.' Takuya sighed. 'That makes so much sense, you know.'

'I hope so.' Kouichi offered a small smile.

Takuya smiled back. 'This is one of those me being reckless moments, isn't it?'

'Being brave isn't a bad thing,' Tomoki piped up.

'Being reckless is sort of like crossing the line,' Kouichi explained. 'Bravery in moderation with carefulness… But even following that, we can only guess where the line is.' He shrugged again. 'Well, all of that is really easy to say, but putting it into practice…'

'Like wandering off in the middle of the night?' Takuya grinned. He was probably taking it better from Kouichi for that reason, or maybe it was because they'd spent a little more time together.

'I couldn't sleep!' Kouichi protested.

But no harm, no foul, and they could keep these lessons in mind for the next time… Hopefully.

'I kind of wish my brother explained things like that,' Tomoki spoke up, changing the topic somewhat.

Takuya rubbed the back of his head. 'I probably should, too,' he agreed. 'Being the older brother and all.'

'You mentioned him before… Shinya-kun, was it?' Tomoki asked. 'How old is he?'

'Nine, yesterday.' They day they'd arrived in this world, assuming they hadn't lost any days in the darkness or up in the air.

'About the same as me,' Tomoki said quietly. 'How about you, Kouichi? Do you have any siblings?'

Kouichi seemed to stop short at that – which made both Takuya and Tomoki stare at him because that was a perfectly harmless question, wasn't it? 'Er, well... My parents are divorced.' That last bit came out in a bit of a rush, but they all grasped it – even Izumi and Junpei who'd finished up their own conversation.

'So you have a brother, but they live separately from you?'

'I guess you could say that…' Kouichi looked up, something he'd been avoiding since they'd come into the ravine, and shielded his eyes with a hand. 'I don't remember him at all… And he probably doesn't either.'

'Remember?' Tomoki echoed. 'Like you guys don't talk to each other much, or…'

'Or you've never met each other since your parents split up however many years ago?' Izumi offered, in the silence that followed Tomoki's theory.

'Never met,' Kouichi admitted. 'Didn't even know I had a twin brother until… my grandmother passed away.'

The way he said it made it sound recent, and they all echoed an apology which Kouichi didn't really seem to notice. He was thinking about something else entirely. That brother he'd never met. 'And then all there was was a name. So I looked. And found him, and my father too and I've barely got any photos of him and 'kaa-san and 'baa-chan barely talked about him so I don't know him either, but there they were…'

'And you couldn't go up to them and break that scene, right?' Junpei asked. At the surprised look, he shrugged. 'I don't think I need to know you terribly well to figure that part out.'

'Or maybe we know each other better in about a day than we do the classmates we've spent years with, simply because of circumstances,' Izumi countered. 'As it is, I can't imagine my family being like that. Even if my parents split up, I don't think either would be happy with never seeing me again. And it's not a requirement of the Japanese courts, is it?'

'It depends,' Kouichi said, probably the only one amongst them who had some insight into that. 'Joint custody isn't legally recognised but that doesn't stop the parents from working something out amongst themselves. But even then it would be a really fragile agreement. One word from the parent who has custody and the other would be legally barred from their child –'

'That's terrible.' Izumi grimaced. 'So if a child wants to go visit their other parent, the parent who has custody on them can get the other parent in a lot of trouble, even if it's not even their fault. And despite that, forcing parents to stay apart –'

'And when you throw multiple children into the equation, it's even more complicated, right?' Junpei asked. 'Like… Does one parent get all the kids, or are they split up, and what's the legalities around allowing them to meet?'

Kouichi shrugged. 'In our case, it was one parent takes one child and that's the end of the story. And we were young enough that we – or I anyway – eventually forgot about having a brother entirely. And I wasn't really interested in seeking my father out… until… well…'

'I must confess myself utterly confused,' Bokomon admitted. 'We are all single parents here, in the digital world. Whyever is a second one even necessary?'

'That doesn't leave much room for romance,' Izumi frowned. 'That's a bit of a shame, isn't it?'

They shrugged, and settled into silence again.

'I'm sorry I asked,' Tomoki piped up, after a moment. 'I didn't mean to dig up anything –'

'I should have mentioned it earlier,' Kouichi acquiesced. 'I just –'

'Minamoto Kouji, right?'

This time, Kouichi stopped walking entirely. They all stared at Junpei. 'What? It's not that big of a stretch.'

'How'd you figure?' Takuya wandered. He didn't see it at all. Kouichi saying he should have mentioned it earlier. What relevance did that have with – oh.

The only reason it would be relevant was if said brother was here, or someone they knew. And they hadn't really been tossing names about, except Shinya's and Tomoki's older brother, so it probably wasn't that.

He turned back to Kouichi. 'That's an odd coincidence.'

'I wonder if it really is,' Bokomon said, and they all looked down at him. 'Well, digimon siblings are very different from human siblings, but human siblings share the same code, right?'

'If by code you mean DNA,' Junpei said thoughtfully, 'then the amount two siblings share could really be anywhere between zero and a hundred percent. Both siblings get half their DNA from their mother and half from their father, so if their halves are completely independent, you get zero. If they're exactly the same, you get a hundred. If they're identical twins, you get a hundred – oh. Are you fraternal or identical twins?'

'…no idea,' said Kouichi, who the question had been aimed at.

'So improved chances for being at the hundred percent end of the spectrum, but no guarantee,' Junpei surmised.

'…humans are terribly complicated,' Bokomon decided.

'What were you going to say?' Tomoki asked curiously. 'About siblings being alike?'

'Ah.' Bokomon shook his head. 'I explained the relationship between the spirits, right? How water puts out fire, and fire melts ice, for example.'

'And we filled in the gaps ourselves,' Junpei agreed, 'though I suppose you could say you explained it.'

'Well, light and darkness are special,' Bokomon pressed on. 'While you can say fire creates light, or woods stifle it thereby creating darkness, or metal reflects light and water reflects darkness… You can say all those things, but when it comes to the foundations of the world, light and darkness stand separate to the other eight elements.'

'Meaning?' they asked, confused.

'Meaning,' Bokomon puffed out his chest, as though about to impart some great piece of wisdom. 'Light and darkness came first and created the empty world, and then the other eight elements populated it… Or so the legend goes.'

'Light and darkness?' Kouichi repeated. 'That sounds a little like the big bang. All matter can be traced back to a singularity within the vast expanse of nothing – that is, darkness. Then that singularity expanded and created the world.'

'It was something like that?' Takuya wondered aloud. 'Amazing.' He could barely visualise it: how a small dot of light in the darkness could create an entire universe. 'But what does that have to do with the warriors?'

'They're a representation of the world's balance,' Bokomon said, in the air of someone repeating himself. 'In other words, light and darkness are the key to the world. So maybe the holders of them being siblings – twins, you said – isn't a coincidence.'

'Fate, then?' Takuya asked, interested. That did sound like the stuff that came out of animes or those MMO games. 'Though considering the number of children that had to be filtered through the first time around…'

'Yeah, doesn't point to fate choosing us but rather us doing the best job at these… trials,' Izumi agreed.

'Well…' Takuya sighed, in the lull, 'I'm glad we haven't messed it up yet.' And it was a credit to the other five that they didn't call him out on that comment, he thought. And so he pressed on. 'By the way, Kouichi.'

'Hmm?'

'When we run into Kouji, we'll give you a nice big push of support. How about it?'

And he gave the other a friendly push to emphasise the point – but Kouichi hadn't been prepared for it and toppled into the river with a shriek.

'Takuya,' he spluttered, coming up almost immediately and grabbing the bank.

Takuya bent over, laughing. 'Sorry,' he choked. 'That was an accident. Honest.'

But the others were laughing too, even Kouichi once he was over the initial surprise. 'When you do give me a push,' he said. 'Try to make sure there's no river next time.'

'That's not up to me,' Takuya said innocently.

'Still,' Izumi scolded, 'you should be more aware of your surroundings. We'll have to reapply that burn paste now.' She paused. 'Kouichi, is something wrong?'

Kouichi wasn't pulling himself over the bank but rather looking into the water. 'There's something down there,' he said, squinting. 'Something glowing. I can't really make it out.'

Junpei grabbed Takuya by the collar as the other made to dive in. 'We've got one wet person,' he said. 'That's enough.' He paused. 'You can swim, right?'

'Sure.' And Kouichi took a deep breath and ducked under for a closer look. He popped up again after a minute or so. 'It's another spirit,' he announced. 'Looks like a white bear.'

Bokomon flicked through his book. 'Like this?' he showed a diagram, and Kouichi nodded. 'That's the spirit of ice.'

They looked at Tomoki, because he'd been the one they'd decided, but when Tomoki (after stripping down to his underwear with Izumi resolutely turning away) dove down to get it, it wouldn't budge. Nor would it budge when Takuya tried.

'I don't think there's any point in me or Izumi trying,' Junpei frowned, as Kouichi admitted he couldn't make it budge either. 'It might be the same reason Takuya and Tomoki couldn't swap their spirits.'

Which was disappointing, because they knew full well the spirits they had fit them like hand me downs and not their own size snugly worn. But that was the idea, perhaps, to learn to fight seamlessly with these uncomfortably fitting spirits, and then they'd transcend the limit of perfection with the ones that suited them more.

For Takuya, that meant fighting with more than just his fists because there was no point being able to summon clouds that could flood a ravine without using them in a way that flooded his enemies and not a ravine, right? And for Junpei, that meant fighting with a hammer that made his hands shake when he held it up. And for Kouichi and Tomoki both, to fight with a spirit that burned, and for Izumi, to fight with a spirit that made her gracelessly stumble about.

'Well, of course,' Izumi laughed, once Takuya managed to put that into words – and they were out of the ravine by that point as well. 'We tried to tell you that before.'

Well, he learnt better by example. Like the ice spirit that didn't want to come with them.

And when they met a wizard guarding the bridge, he was ready. Or readier. The Wizarmon, as identified by Bokomon, replicated itself and he had his storm cloud ready to wash them off the bridge – though he quickly stopped when he realised the others would be washed off first. There had to be another way to control the water. He was the warrior of water, wasn't he?

It turned out he had to argue with it. A lot. And beg it a little, before it rose up from the puddle he'd left it in and tripped the Wizarmon up. 'Finally,' Takuya sighed, as Junpei swung his hammer down.

The Wizarmon broke into bits of data. But so did the bridge, and Takuya wondered if anyone else wound up biting their lip with the way the ground trembled.

'Crap,' Junpei swore, changing back.

'I hear you.' Takuya plopped onto the puddle of his own making. 'Controlling these newfound powers is going to take some heavy work.'

'Well,' Bokomon offered as consolation, 'at least nobody's hurt.'

'Just bitten lips,' Izumi muttered. 'But those were honest adaptation issues. I doubt we'll do any better.'

'Please don't jinx it,' Tomoki whispered, wide-eyed. 'I can only imagine all the different ways an out of control fire spirit can go wrong.'