A/N: Sorry for vanishing with this story (and most of my multichaps, really). A lot of things happened May/June: a few deaths in the family, and then psychiatry which isn't much on paper but a pretty heavy mental load on the students... By the time I recovered from all of that and my own health scares, I was swamped in exam prep and competitions and big bangs whose deadlines were too close for me to have time to work on any of my other multichaps. But now my finals are done and the next attachment has me on the coast (lovely scenery, but no internet lol) which should be a good time to play catch-up. I still want to finish this year, but that'll mean I have to write more than two chapters a week so we'll see how that goes. I'm also not entirely done with exams (I know, I've done finals but still more exams to go this year! :() But I'll try, because this has come so far I don't want to abandon the challenges I'm writing this for when it still has a chance, and I'd like to finish a multichap that's over 100k for once (because there's so many of those still in the works). And this wasn't the best chapter to come back on (pretty quiet, really), but it's Tomoki introspection and we don't see a lot of that so I'm going to splurge a little. Enjoy! And please keep cheering me on!

Play of Spirits
Chapter 20 - Toys for the Kids

It was a beautiful dream, but still strange.

He'd expected all the others to be sharing his dream, or else none of them. Instead, there was only Takuya. The rest was fine, though. Gorgeous balloons floating just out of reach. Toys more than he'd ever dreamed… Except he was dreaming about them now, wasn't he?

It was idyllic, but something about it unnerved him.

Still, as Takuya curled up under the tree and slept, Tomoki crept out to the toys. There was no harm in indulging a little, right?

Though his cheeks did burn a little in embarrassment when Takuya woke up and stared incredulously at him.

Luckily, Takuya was a kid at heart as well, and joined in without much fanfare. They all were, really, but some moreso than others. Tomoki couldn't imagine Izumi letting loose like this, or Kouichi. Junpei, maybe. Or maybe not.

They'd been together for how long now? They still didn't know each other particularly well. He knew Takuya and Izumi and Kouichi were all in fifth grade, and Junpei was in sixth. He knew Takuya had a younger brother in fourth grade, and Kouichi had a younger twin he knew next to nothing about. He knew Izumi was older than Takuya by three months, but not whether Kouichi was older or younger or somewhere in between.

'Do you know when Kouichi's birthday is?' Tomoki asked, the pair of them sitting on the back of a toy train and counting the helicopters that flew past. Takuya had been with Kouichi for longer, just like he'd been with Izumi and Junpei for longer.

But he still didn't know Junpei's birthday, or even how old he was. Just his year in school.

'April, I think he said,' Takuya frowned. 'He's older than both Izumi and me; that's hardly fair! He's also better at school. I'd probably go as far as to say he's bored.'

'Really?' Tomoki asked. 'How did that topic come up?'

Takuya laughed. 'Actually, I was telling him all the detentions I'd gotten, and he was telling me the stuff he did in class that he got away with.' Then he pouted again. 'Honestly, he only gets detentions for being late sometimes. Never for not paying attention in class, like doing homework for other classes or reading a library book under the table or writing or drawing something that's plainly not schoolwork… I want to go to his school.'

'Doing all that is nowhere near as disruptive as kicking a soccer ball around inside,' Tomoki pointed out. 'I doubt any school would let you get away with that – oh, the helicopter's gone.'

It was gone, but the train was still carrying them somewhere.

'Should we get off?'

'Nah.' Takuya settled back. 'We need to find the others, and the less walking to do it, the better, right?'

'True.' And Tomoki felt a stab of guilt – though he'd thought this place was a dream at first. Who could blame him. 'Any clue where we are?'

'Nope. Then again, can't say I know much of the Digital World.'

'I wish Bokomon was with us. He'd know.'

They sighed, suddenly feeling glum.

'You think they're okay?'

'Probably. We all went flying somewhere so it's just a matter of meeting up again.'

Assuming nobody was a pancake or had run into trouble… but maybe the fact that they'd woken up at full health negated the possibility of pancakes. Real world laws didn't seem to work here like they did in their world. Like the turning into digimon and gaining superpowers. Like getting tossed into the sky and landing without a single injury.

But then sometimes it did. Like when they'd been thrown into the sky. Or maybe that was an impossibility in the real world too. The reason people needed parachutes if they fell out of an aeroplane. That was a little beyond him, though. That was the stuff high school students learnt about. Or junior high school students. Maybe Junpei knew a bit.

'If Kouichi was born in April, then he was pretty close to being a year ahead,' Tomoki said thoughtfully. 'It would suck to be born on April 1.'

'I dunno,' Takuya said. 'That's an extra year home from school.'

'And an extra year you have to hang around when everyone else graduates.'

'True, true.' He hummed. 'I wonder if I'll continue through to high school. I'd much rather play sports than study, but I have to make a name for myself in junior high to pull that off.'

'You've got four years to think about it,' Tomoki shrugged. 'I've got six.'

'Doesn't mean you can't dream.' Takuya stared up at the sky. 'Shinya's already decided he's going to be a forklift driver. Though a week before, it was a firefighter. There seems to be a running theme of trucks, for whatever reason. He even asked for a forklift for his birthday.'

Tomoki laughed. 'I don't think even my parents would have gone for that.' And then he realised how he'd said it. The same way Yutaka was always saying it, except his tone was more accusatory. Tomoki always put that down to jealousy, because his parents hadn't been that well off when they'd had Yutaka. They hadn't even been married. So life had been tough for a few years, and by the time they were solid Yutaka was in junior high and baby Tomoki was on the way.

But Yutaka never agreed with that. He said it wasn't jealousy, but rather Tomoki being spoilt. He said no-one would want to be friends with him and that had turned into a fulfilling prophecy. Until this world, anyway. 'Hey, Takuya,' he said. 'You're my friend, right?'

''Course,' said Takuya easily. 'We all are.'

'But we're kind of stuck together, aren't we?' Now that the thoughts were there, they were spiralling. Damn Yutaka for saying things like that. Damn him for believing it. 'I mean, you can't really leave someone or other behind –'

'Sure we can,' Takuya shrugged. 'I mean, we were all at Flame Terminal at the same time but we could have split up at any point after that. We mightn't have as much firepower as all of us together, but if two of us were so volatile we just couldn't go along, then it would be safer overall. Friends can be trusted, but you can't always trust people you don't get along with to watch your back through anything, right?'

Tomoki digested that. 'Isn't that idealistic?' he asked. 'I mean, friends aren't always trustworthy.'

'Then they weren't friends to begin with. You just realise that after the fact.'

Yeah, that made more sense. But Takuya said it so flippantly Tomoki had to wonder if he'd ever been betrayed by friends like that, or if he was simply regurgitating from fiction. Though he supposed it didn't matter. 'You'd have been pretty popular, huh.'

'Nah, not really.' Takuya stretched. 'I'm pretty bossy and loud-spoken, you know. It takes certain types of people to put up with that.'

'Huh,' said Tomoki. 'And I'm a wimpy and needy brat, but I guess there are people who can put up with that as well.'

'Sure thing.' Takuya patted him on the shoulder. 'And starting a conversation with Kouichi can be like pulling teeth, and sometimes Izumi says what's on her mind and Junpei can be too down to earth and not adventurous enough for his own good, but we've done pretty well so far.' He paused, then added: 'I wonder what sort of person Kouji will turn out to be. Kouichi only said he looked distant and unapproachable.'

'But that may just be Kouichi,' Tomoki pointed out. 'He's not the sort of person to approach people to begin with, and this one comes with extra baggage. It mightn't have mattered what sort of person Kouji was, really, with all of that between them.'

'Hmm, guess so.' Takuya hummed. 'You're a smart kid, you know. Not necessarily book smart, but people smart.'

Tomoki snorts. 'I'm not people-smart. I'm a bully magnet.'

'Show that spunk to them and I doubt you'll have problems,' Takuya replied. 'They're kids too, right? They're not much older than you.'

'Yeah…' Tomoki would have been mad earlier, because Yutaka often said the same thing and it never worked, but now… 'We've seen scarier stuff.'

'We have.'

That didn't stop either of them from screaming a few minutes later when the train rammed into a giant black teddy-bear.

.

What happened after that was a little blurry, from Tomoki's point of view. He thought he heard someone crying, before his own head filled with cotton that took its sweet time emptying out. By the time it did, though, he was on the lap of something soft, with something pink in his face.

Fairy-floss. He finished half the stick before regaining enough sense to look around. And he only managed not to scream again because he still had fairy-floss in his mouth.

But the black teddy-bear had chains and claws and patches and looked very scary, in his defence.

Though when he offered another fairy-floss stick, he also looked sad.

Maybe he's just lonely, Tomoki thought. That reminded him of that kid in his class, who everybody picked on because he had a scar on his face from surgery. That wasn't his fault. He'd gotten some sort of cancer and they'd had to cut it out, and plastic surgery was expensive and imperfect and he would grow out of his new skin-patch anyway. But that didn't stop other kids from picking on him. That didn't stop the grimace whenever anyone laid eyes on that bit of his face, or the way he'd taken to always wearing a scarf so no-body would have to look at it and, at least, people who didn't know could look at him like there wasn't anything odd.

But in school, pretty much everybody knew. So in school he was picked on, and he was lonely.

Maybe this bear was the same way, looking scary but being alone and ostracised deep down.

So he offered a smile. It was small and tentative and shaky, but it was a smile.

The bear smiled back, and pushed the fairy floss into Tomoki's hands.

Maybe two fairy-flosses in a day wasn't a great idea. 'Takuya, you want some?' he offered.

Silence. Takuya wasn't there. Tomoki shot off the bench and the bear's face changed and he swung at the bench, cracking it into two. Uh-oh. 'I'm so sorry,' Tomoki said sheepishly and rather scared (and hopefully he was doing a good job at hiding that fear). 'I just lost a friend of mine.'

The bear seemed placated at that, offered a game console. He didn't seem interested in Takuya being missing.

'You… want me to play with you?' Tomoki checked.

The bear nodded.

'Well… okay, then.' He was good at games, at least. And if all the bear wanted was company…

Especially since the bear was pretty volatile, but also pretty lonely. Maybe he'll warm up to the idea of Takuya and the others later…

And hopefully Takuya was alright.

.

Takuya was alright. He'd found a bunch of ToyAgumon and stormed the tower Tomoki had found himself in, but by that point Tomoki had beaten the WaruMonzaemon in every game he owned and turned him (apparently back) into a much cuter and cuddlier yellow bear called Monzaemon.

And Monzaemon had grovelled and apologised and then played another round of games as well. And even offered to help find the others. But Takuya had shown up before they left.

Still, the help was welcome for finding the others.

The ToyAgumon, who'd become fast friends with Takuya by then, offered to help as well. And they and the toys quickly scoured the floating island (which was a shock as well: they were on a floating island?!) and found no signs of other humans… or Bokomon or Neemon or Grumblemon, for that matter.

The last was a relief. The rest… not so much.

'They'll be down in the mainland then,' said Pandamon (who was another friend Takuya had picked up along the way). 'We can fly you down, but it would help if we knew where to. Otherwise you'll be crossing the world on those skinny legs of yours.'

They spent the next little while pouring over the map and sending the helicopters and ToyAgumon out.

'We were at a factory before we got blasted,' said Tomoki thoughtfully. Unfortunately, there were a lot of factories in the Digital World. 'There were lots of Kokuwamon there, and a Snimon running the show.'

'And those weird leafy things guarding the door,' Takuya reminded. 'Minomon, I think?'

'Yeah, that sounds about right.' It was a bit of a struggle, remembering all the names of all the different digimon species they were seeing. It was like trying to memorise the names of new classmates. Some stood out. Others didn't. And then of course were new people from other classes and other grades they'd eventually meet.

'Hmm,' hummed Pandamon, who seemed to know the most about the digital world. Monzaemon was in charge of the toys, and the ToyAgumon were pros at recon. Like a little army. 'And you set out from the Flame Terminal, you say, heading in the direction of the Forest Terminal.'

It didn't take long for a ToyAgumon to return and report a destroyed factory. 'The Kokuwamon are digging in the mountain,' it reported, 'with the help of the neighbouring KaratsukiNumemon. They're making a new home there.'

'Good for them,' said Takuya. 'But a mountain's a big change from a factory, isn't it.'

'Mountains are good for attracting electricity,' said Pandamon. 'Or anything tall or high up, really. This floating island of ours is no different, but the static it collects is enough to power us for the most part. Still, we dock on top of mountains occasionally.'

'I think Junpei would have a blast hearing about this,' Tomoki thought aloud… which turned out to be a mistake because Pandamon descended into a spiel that went over both their heads, apparently with the intention of them passing along the tale.

They probably wouldn't remember it long enough to pass it on, all things considered. Tomoki was sure that, if he was in class and the teacher called him out, he'd embarrass himself. And Takuya would probably laugh it off with some joke and then wind up in detention.

Meanwhile, the ToyAgumon traced their route and their old journey, and then fanned out, searching for the others. Eventually, after they'd breaked for dinner (consisting of sweet pastries and cake, with syrup on ice-cream for dessert), one of the ToyAgumon came in, shouting excitedly. 'I found two humans,' it shrieked. 'They're at Togemon's school! With a Bokomon and Neemon too.'

But that left one human though, and if Bokomon and Neemon were with the other two, then that meant that one of the three humans was all alone.

'We'll keep looking,' Pandamon promised. 'This ToyAgumon will stay after dropping you off –'

They're interrupted, by the arrival of another ToyAgumon. 'I found two humans –'

'Yes, we already know,' Pandamon sighed.

Apparently, their territories overlapped.

Except the ToyAgumon was waving its hands. 'No, there's that weird creepy digimon closing in on them!'

By weird creepy digimon, they meant Gigasmon, presumably. Takuya and Tomoki looked at each other. 'Figures he wouldn't just come after me. Scared of water, huh.'

Which made sense, really, since water probably stood the best chance. Or ice, which they couldn't use. But wood and electricity? They'd already seen how well that had matched up, and it hadn't, really. They'd be stuck depending on brute force and it was the earth spirit that was built for close combat moreso than the rest of them.

As for Wolfmon… swords against brute strength didn't sound all that great either, though both Kouichi and Junpei could probably outrun him if need be.

But they were near a school, whichever or both of them it was.

'We're going,' said Takuya.

Rushing headlong into trouble… He could stay and look for whoever was missing. They might be in trouble too. Worse trouble. But Gigasmon (or maybe he'd turned back into Grumblemon) was the worst of it at the moment, right? And Agunimon was better at close combat fighting than anyone else on their team. That wasn't necessarily his strength, but it was what he could offer for the time being.

And Takuya had said "we" without a second thought.

'Yeah, we're going.'

'We'll continue looking for your friend,' Pandamon repeated. 'We'll send a ToyAgumon if we hear anything. And if you guys find him first, send this one back.'

And then they were shaking hands (and receiving hugs from Monzaemon that warm them up inside) and snuggling into a large model aeroplane that was still too cramped for Takuya. But he grit his teeth, curled up tightly, and bore it. And Tomoki found himself picking up that conversation from earlier, telling about how his classmates had tried to get him into trouble one time by hiding his things, but had been caught-red handed and given a week of detentions in the process. He left out the part where he'd lost a few things anyway, but his parents had replaced them. Because there was only so many places to hide things in an elementary school. He could have tried harder. He could have fought for them, and it didn't have to be with fists.

But things were different, now. Maybe he could fight now. He had a friend beside him, one who promised he was there out of more than just obligation and he'd brought up a good argument as well. And there were two more friends that needed help (or would, soon, probably) and another they still had to find. Maybe he could stay behind, but it was the ToyAgumon and Pandamon really doing the searching. He'd just sit there and eat sweets. At least this way he'd do something useful. Maybe not like Ranamon against the warrior of earth, especially with lightning thrown into the mix. But he could still fight. There were weaknesses. The metal hammer. The eyes that were more fragile than the rest of him. And the foliage, if there was any. Or maybe that'd be all damp from the rain clouds Takuya could summon up on command. They'd see, when they got there.

After all, it might be possible that Gigasmon would pass the other two completely, or be beaten before they got there.

And, hopefully, whoever was on their own was fine as well, and had found someone or something to lead him or her back to the others.

It was too bad only the Venus Rose could be seen from the sky any time of day. He wondered why that was.