Play of Spirits
Chapter 18 - Gourmet Factory

They found a factory, eventually. The first building bigger than a hut they'd seen since entering the forest. The Forest Kingdom had begun somewhere within the forest but none of them really cared which. They were heading through the forest after all. Not too it. It simply painted the shortest path for them. Through green trees until the trees turned dark… Or so they assumed. Truthfully, not even their digital world guides knew anything about the Dark Continent.

It sounded ominous, that name. And the fact that the child chosen to take that spirit up was the only one who hadn't yet passed was ominous as well. Though they tried not to worry too much. After all, Kouichi had taken a while with his as well and his spirit was the exact opposite. Maybe it was just the nature of those less tangible elements. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.

Or maybe it had something to do with them. Some of them were the type to rush into things head on but Kouichi was more cautious (except for when he'd wandered off at Flame Terminal). Maybe Kouji was like that too.

Or maybe it was because Kouji was on his own. Junpei had had Tomoki and Izumi. Kouichi had had Takuya. But if there were only the six of them, then there was no-one with Kouji. And there were four spirits who'd wind up without a human attached, in the end. 'Why are there only six of us?' Junpei wondered aloud?

'Seven of us, you mean,' Takuya corrected, though he was staring at the three Minomon lowering themselves from the gate. 'Out of curiosity, who did you forget?'

'That's not what I – ' Junpei began, but the Minomon interrupted.

'Seven guests, seven guests.'

Tomoki smiled up at them. 'Would you happen to have anything to eat?' he asked. 'We're getting a little tired of meat apples.'

'And a place to wash up?' Izumi added.

'Of course,' the Minomon sung. 'Anything for our guests.'

'What sort of factory this is?' Junpei gave up his earlier train of thought. A factory was interesting, after all. 'You make anything cool here?'

'Want a tour too?' Izumi teased.

'Tour too,' the Minomon chorused. 'Tour and wash and food.'

'How did food wind up at the end of the list?' Takuya groaned.

'It's not like we have a shortage of meat apples,' Kouichi shrugged, not seeming concerned at all.

And with that, their plans for the day were decided.

.

The factory turned out to be a disappointment at first glance. They made power packs that looked like something fresh out of the dark ages (and Junpei was sure he could put something better together just using odds and ends in his bedroom), and the food were batteries. It might work fine for the Kokuwamon who seemed built to run on electricity, but certainly not humans. Even Bokomon and Neemon looked put out and shoved their plates away… and presumably the Minomon couldn't eat them either. They certainly didn't try.

The bathroom turned out to be the highlight of their trip… And that was all Junpei's fault.

He'd seen flashing lights. And for a moment he'd backed away thinking it was thunder but then his senses kicked in. There were no windows in the hallway. They needed lights to illuminate it. And he certainly couldn't hear thunder half a second after. He could hear… whimpers, instead.

Which made sense if someone else had mistaken that flashing light for thunder. Was probably a light bulb about to go, Junpei supposed.

And then there was a sharp crack that wasn't thunder or someone whimpering. In fact, he couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation at all.

So he crept over. And saw the Snimon with the whip, and the scared Kokuwamon.

And then he did bolt because those Snimon blades looked nasty and even if they didn't, the whole lot of them were locked behind bars. No way he was going to get through that to stop the Snimon without hurting the Kokuwamon in the process.

.

'A Snimon is holding the Kokuwamon hostage in the factory?' Tomoki exclaimed. He at least looked suitably shocked. So did Takuya for that matter. But both Izumi and Kouichi were looking a little sceptical.

'It can't be that hard to prove,' Kouichi pointed out. At least he hadn't written the idea off entirely. Neither had Izumi – out loud, anyway. Which meant they were making progress. 'There were a lot of Kokuwamon. They must have quarters or something. Or we can just ask one of them.'

'They could lie,' Tomoki said, voice wavering slightly. 'If they're being threatened…'

'They'd have to be pretty good liars to manage that one convincingly,' Izumi shrugged. 'In any case, if those Minomon were supposed to be guarding the place, they did a terrible job.'

'Not necessarily,' said Junpei thoughtfully. 'They were pretty all over the place. How do we know that wasn't a ruse to buy time to cover everything up? And it was weird how they didn't have any food fit for human consumption there. After all, even Bokomon and Neemon couldn't eat batteries, so what are the chances the Minomon or that Snimon do?'

Izumi stifled a laugh. 'Now we know why you're so hung up on this,' she teased.

'No,' he replied firmly. 'I just don't think how that Snimon was treating those Kokuwamon was right.'

'If it were me,' declared Takuya, 'I would have smashed right through them.'

'Water conducts electricity,' Kouichi sighed.

The rest of them winced at the mental image that produced.

'Ah, right,' Takuya said sheepishly. 'I'm hoping my real spirit, whatever it turns out to be, has more brute force. I'm still hoping for Agnimon. Though Grumblemon has some cool moves with that hammer. And Arbormon the way it swings its limbs around –'

'Considering it's like walking on stilts,' Izumi said airily,' I doubt you'd manage so well with Arbormon. You need a certain amount of finesse.'

'I noticed you left Wolfmon off the list.' At least Kouichi sounded amused at the omission. 'The lone wolf not your type?'

'No way. I'm too much of a social butterfly.'

Junpei sighed. They'd gotten way off topic. 'I didn't try breaking the bars because chances were I would have hit the Kokuwamon as well,' he explained. 'You remember what happened last time.'

They'd almost fallen off the chasm when he'd shook the ground. They certainly did remember that. 'Well…' Kouichi said slowly. 'Assuming those bars are as solid as they look, the only options were trying to smash the lock with your hammer or burning through the bars with Agnimon's flames.'

'I would've hit the Kokuwamon as well,' Tomoki said, looking at his shoes.

'Granted,' Izumi pointed out. Well, at least they were offering ideas, even if they were sceptical. 'That was during the day. If we wait till it's night, they should be at home. Or maybe they rotate shifts or something. It might be easier to get into their compound, and then we can worry about the bars if we still need to.'

They went ahead with that plan. And it was a shame they didn't have a flying type amongst them to give them a bird's eye view, but they'd manage.

.

There was a compound. And the Kokuwamon did work in shifts. And it was terribly easy to sneak into the compound… And when they talked to the Kokuwamon inside, they learnt why.

'Hostages?' Izumi exploded. 'That's despicable.'

They all agreed with that. The question was what they were going to do about it.

They hashed out a plan together. And Junpei found himself wishing he'd never found the problem in the first place because it was dangerous, and there was really no way to make it less dangerous, too. And there were so many things that could go wrong. There could be more backup than the Kokuwamon were aware of. Snimon's agility could prove to be a problem with only Wolfmon built for speed, and the flickering lights weren't going to do Kouichi any favours.

And after all that talk about how him trying to break the Kokuwamon out with his hammer would be a bad idea, that was exactly what he'd been assigned to. And part of him wanted to just put his foot down and say he wouldn't try, but Tomoki was in an equally precarious role in removing the restrictors from the Kokuwamon and he wasn't complaining. He was a little white faced, but he wasn't complaining.

Junpei closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Both of them were going to need far more control over their spirits than they'd shown thus far. But they could do it. Hopefully.

The Kokuwamon were depending on them.

.

Junpei roughly explained the way, but Kouichi could see better with most of the factory lights off in the night shift, and so he led the way, whispering as they went. 'There are the cages.'

Junpei could see himself, once they were a little closer. The lights were still flashing. Kokuwamon charging the batteries. He couldn't see Snimon though.

'Is Snimon with them?' Junpei whispered.

'No,' Kouichi whispered back. 'Maybe he's further ahead? Or not here at all?'

'Go ahead then.' This was his role, to break the Kokuwamon out of the cage and take them back to Tomoki.

Truthfully, he thought he could have found a way to break the locks without needed their digimon forms, but Tomoki had been the one to shut them down. 'We need to control our spirits,' he reminded. 'We need to be in perfect sync with them – and if we can't do that when digimon lives depend on it, then what will it take? Human lives depending on it?'

Though one could argue human lives depended on almost all their evolutions. No-one had told them yet what happened if they died. Only if digimon died and they'd just be reborn, good as new. Or better than new, even, if something nasty had gotten into their programmes. But humans didn't work like that. Not in the human world anyway. Who knew what set of rules applied to humans in the Digital World.

And yet here they were, jumping into a battle that had nothing to do with their lives until they poked their noses into it.

Really, if they'd been in the human world, he'd never have just jumped into a quarrel… would he?

No, that was a lie, wasn't it? Tomoki might be right when he said this was their chance to overcome those limitations. If they didn't push themselves, if they didn't take risks, they might never get there. Or they'd take too long. And did they really have the luxury of time? They still didn't know what sort of enemy they'd been called to face but there was something there. Enough so that their mysterious informant stayed quiet and lead them along like beads on a string, even though she was one of the guardian angels of this world.

Powerful guardian angels that needed a bunch of kids with problems of their own to fight their battles for them. Which didn't sound all that great on paper, did it?

In any case, Kouichi had vanished down the corridor and hadn't returned, which meant he'd either gotten lost or run into Snimon. Which meant it was all the more important for Junpei to free the Kokuwamon, because those flashing lights they generated would be a distraction or worse for Wolfmon.

But still… Such a tiny lock and he was so clumsy with his hammer. And the Kokuwamon were looking at him with hopeful eyes. Depending on him.

He wasn't a dependable person. That was the whole problem. No-one really bothered depending on him. He wasn't too sure why because he didn't remember doing anything that should damage somebody else's trust in him. But still, that deeper connection just wasn't there. He'd bring his umbrella every day and his classmates would sometimes forget theirs on a day that rained, but they'd never ask to share his; they'd pair up with each other instead. And when he gave them chocolate, they'd thank him and then wander off like that was a brief moment of kindness to fly off in the breeze. And they'd laugh at his magic tricks but never ask him to liven up their class café in the school festival, or try fixing the radio because he liked tinkering around with things. They just threw it out instead and would it have even hurt to let him try?

But he never really volunteered either, did he? Not until it was too late. When the radio was already in the rubbish bin, or his classmates had already walked out into the rain under umbrellas. Maybe that was the problem, and not that he wasn't dependable after all. He didn't volunteer and nobody asked. But in a world where there was only six – or five at the moment – of them – there really wasn't a choice.

He took a deep breath and scanned his code, feeling the hammer take form in his arms. 'Stand back.' His voice came out low and gravelly – but firm. Confident. He wondered how long before he lost that?

In which case, he better hurry up. He eyed the lock, judging the distance and the angle and the force he'd need to smash it open and thanking his father for being a physics expert and teaching him all that before the school got around to it.

He swung the hammer and grit his teeth at the ringing sound of metal against metal.

Then the lock split and clattered to the floor, and the Kokuwamon cheered.

And the flashing lights continued. Right, phase two. 'This way.' He stayed evolved, just in case, as he led them down the hall, back the way they'd come.

Hopefully Kouichi would have the advantage now, if he was dealing with Snimon.

Hopefully green mantises couldn't see in the dark.

Except when he turned back, it wasn't dark. Something was glowing there.

And one of the Kokuwamon was tugging his leg. 'What's that?' they quaked. 'More of our friends?'

Was more likely Kouichi and Snimon, but it could have been. And that caused a panic. Some of them surged forward and Junpei hurriedly threw his arm out to stop them. And he didn't smash a wall. He had a better sense of balance, now, it seemed. Even unconsciously. And his body was volunteering before his mind even caught up. 'I'll check it out. You guys go back to the compound. My friend's getting the collars off.'

They protested, but they were all weak and dizzy and went without too much trouble. But they all gave him their thanks and best wishes when they did, and Junpei struggled under the perpetual weight of all of that.

Just for a moment. It felt like a rather warm security blanket, after that.

He smiled and set off towards the glow. Whether it was more Kokuwamon, or Kouichi and Snimon, Shibayama Junpei was on his way to help.