Play of Spirits
Chapter 25 - Beast Spirits

Togemon had brought them that round candy again for morning tea by the time they'd caught each other up on their latest adventures. The DarkTrailmon had left before the others had even aught up with Kouichi, and the ToyAgumon left not soon after. Togemon, too, had gone back to the school and her students, leaving the five humans and two digimon to enjoy breakfast and conversation in her hut.

The first thing was trading stories. Kouichi's was the quickest, but it was Takuya's who was the most pressing, with Ranamon now on the loose as well. They still didn't understand why their spirits were suddenly boycotting. The advantage was that they now had more intuitive spirits, and hopefully that meant they'd be able to utilise them to their full potential and with more ease than the originals – but it wasn't a conscious choice they'd made. That was no reason for their old spirits to take on physical form and attack them and their friends.

And who knew whether Grumblemon and Ranamon would wind up teaming up or not. Which could work for or against them, really, even if they did seem like total opposites at first glance.

And they still didn't know what Grumblemon had managed to turn into.

'I just don't understand it.' Bokomon flipped through the pages of his book again. 'There's nothing writing in here at all.'

'Surely that book doesn't cover every tiny thing,' Takuya grumbled. The sound of rustling pages was starting to get annoying. 'There's only so much space in it.'

'It's not a tiny matter at all!' Bokomon exclaimed. 'Gigasmon had more raw power than the rest of you combined – though that's really an approximation, because the five of you haven't tried attacking him as one –'

'You don't think it'll work though,' Junpei frowned. 'Fair enough, I suppose. All the spirits, sans that Gigasmon, are pretty lithe.'

'Built for manoeuvrability,' Kouichi mused. 'I wonder if that means Gigasmon is less mobile since he's big and packing raw power.' He blushed a moment later. 'Uh, not that I mean all f– never mind.'

'We get you,' Izumi laughed. 'And good to know you stick your foot in your mouth as much as the rest of us.'

Takuya stared between them. 'What'd he say?' he asked.

Junpei shook his head, though he was laughing too. Kouichi hadn't meant that as an insult at all, but he'd been conscientious enough to pick up the possibility of someone else interpreting it as such. But the way he'd stumbled over that was funny. The way he gave up on fixing it quickly enough, assuming his company knew what he meant and knew he didn't mean anything else by it – or maybe he was just hoping.

Junpei snuck a glance. So did Takuya, curious about the blush that disappeared as quickly as it came. 'Built for manoeuvrability?' Takuya prompted. 'So we've got the speedy multi-hit guys versus the power houses that can get a one hit KO but need to build up lots of exp and stuff to pull it off?'

'Exp?' Kouichi repeated, sounding confused.

'Experience,' Takuya explained. 'Like, you know, in video games and stuff?' At the blank look he received. 'You don't play video games?'

Kouichi shook his head.

'Man, you're missing out.'

Tomoki was equally horrified, and they spent the next little while off the beaten path as they explained the wonders of gaming to Kouichi… and an equally clueless Bokomon and Neemon too.

.

'So… Gigasmon,' Izumi said, when the boys finally quieted down. 'How come the rest of us can't magically turn into a powerhouse version of ourselves?'

That was the other question.

'I mean,' she continued, 'I don't know how practical it would be to be stuck with just a powerhouse, but between the five of us, it would be handy if at least one of us could deal with power

'Grumblemon had been our best bet before.'

'Funny how the problem had been control, then,' Junpei mumbled.

'Yeah…' Tomoki agreed. 'Takuya, did you have any trouble with the flames?'

'No,' Takuya answered, surprised. 'Not at all. It just felt… natural. Nothing like trying to control all that water.'

'So maybe we were right,' Kouichi mused, 'in that those spirits we got initially were our weaknesses, and the ones you and Junpei have now are your strengths. You two must have overcome or understood something, to call them to you.'

'Like unlocking a new level,' Takuya agreed. 'Yeah, probably, though I don't think I had any major clicking moments, you know.'

'I might have,' Junpei said, after a moment's pause. 'I was thinking about how hard it was to carry around that hammer, and how I was pretty much smashing anything at first… though I guess it didn't matter initially, what with needing to smash a whole body of water and all. But then I broke the locks on those cages and that didn't take just power. That took precision. And, on top of that, Tomoki and I were probably the only ones who could have done anything with those locks, and Tomoki would've had to meld them through and that would've taken longer.'

'So you felt like you finally had your spirit under control,' Izumi concluded. 'I get you. It still feels like walked on skittles to me. Kouichi?'

'Still too bright,' he agreed.

'But what about Tomoki then?' Junpei asked. 'Unless the spirit can be transferred between Takuya and Tomoki, he's lost his chance.'

Tomoki's expression dropped.

'I doubt it's like that,' Takuya comforted. 'Otherwise, there would've been only five of us in total. There's still Kouji, so at least one of us had to have a spirit that belonged to someone else. Besides, it was a mental thing, right? Maybe you don't actually physically need the spirit to do that. It had the effect of whacking us over the head instead.'

Izumi laughed. 'Maybe. That's one way of putting it, anyway. But that means that, when Tomoki figures it out, he'll have had the toughest battle of all of us because he lost the cheat sheet.'

When, she said. Not if.

Tomoki beamed.

So did Takuya. Now, hopefully that's all actually true. 'Now, about Gigasmon… Bokomon, did you find anything yet?'

Bokomon was still pouring over his book.

'Not a thing,' he moaned. 'Why oh – Neemon, what are you doing?!'

Neemon was shaking the book as though something would fly out, much to Bokomon's horror.

To their surprise though, when Bokomon moved to snatch his precious book back, something did flutter out.

'The page was folded in,' Bokomon blinked. 'I wonder why.'

But that folded page meant there was more to the book than any of them had previously been aware of.

.

The book told of ten other spirits. Beast spirits, they were called. Focused on power, while the human spirits focused on manoeuvrability. They'd guessed the latter part, but the former meant there should be a spirit for each of them.

They hadn't caught even a whiff of those spirits before Gigasmon.

'So we've got a long way to go,' Takuya sighed. 'Whoever designed this game sure likes to force the level-grinding.'

Kouichi frowned. The others looked rather worn down, too, but they weren't explicitly frowning. It was Bokomon who spoke up, though. 'Our world is just as real as yours. And that goes for the digimon.'

'Of course.' The others stared in surprise, at how easily Takuya said that. 'Of course,' he repeated. 'I mean, you're our friends. That makes you real, right?'

'Well, we could go into the whole discussion about imaginary friends…' Junpei muttered under his breath. 'But real is relative, anyway. What matters is what we think, and what you think. If you think this is all real and, frankly, this place is too complicated to be a figment of our imaginations or probably anything our world could come up with with their technology… I mean, virtual reality's still in its infancy. No way they could pull this off, unless we want to add something like time travelling to the mix.'

'It's either that or dimension travelling,' Izumi pointed out. 'Or both.'

'That's getting complicated.' Now it was Takuya's turn to frown. 'Isn't there a simpler explanation.'

'We could try replying to the lady who sends us all those texts,' Kouichi suggested.

They did try that, after face-palming at the fact that none of them had thought to do that before.

There was no reply, though.

Which led them back to the previous issue. 'This world's real enough,' Kouichi summarised, in the end. 'That's what matters, really. We be just as careful as we would if everyone around us has only one life, because there may not be another chance.' He paused, then added. 'Which is probably just as well. Recklessness can be dangerous in a context we still don't know enough about.'

'And then there's Grumblemon and Ranamon running loose,' Izumi sighed. 'Every time we think we've gotten somewhere, we wind up with even more questions. And what's next, anyway?'

'Maybe retrace our steps?' Tomoki suggested. 'I mean, we passed the wind spirit and the ice spirit, so maybe we're at the point where we can use them after all, but we're just physically too far away.'

'But – ' Kouichi began, before cutting himself off.

'Kouji, right.' Takuya stared at Kouichi.

'But the Dark Continent is in the other direction,' Junpei pointed out. 'We'd be leaving Tomoki without a means to fight for that long. Not that going the other way will guarantee anything.'

'Why not go both ways?' Neemon asked.

'Theoretically impossible,' Bokomon snapped. 'Unless… you split up.'

The five humans exchanged glances. 'Split up,' Takuya repeated. 'Well, Tomoki and Izumi have to go towards Flame Terminal. Kouichi has to go towards Dark Continent. So how about I go with Izumi and Tomoki, just in case we can switch spirits around, and Junpei goes with Kouichi.'

'We didn't even agree to split up yet,' Izumi replied. 'Do we really need to? And is it even a good idea? If Ranamon and Grumblemon team up, and we've halved our fighting forces…'

'I don't think that's the case,' Kouichi said thoughtfully. 'That first fight with Grumblemon… I was an easy target, but he ignored me completely in favour of Junpei.'

'That's true,' Junpei said in surprise. 'And then he showed up here.'

'And Ranamon followed me,' Takuya added. 'Huh. Maybe they just follow whoever the original spirit holder was. So when they've licked their wounds, they'll – crap, they'll come right back here!'

And that would be a poor display of hospitality if they brought a battle to their doors again.

'In that case, we stand a better chance beating them if we separate them,' Takuya mused. 'I think, anyway. Bad guys working together could be problematic, and we all know we can work together. And Tomoki really does need a spirit. And someone should go get Kouji, so he's not all on his own, and it's not really fair to either of them if we delay one or the other.'

'We were on our way to the Dark Continent anyway,' Tomoki said quietly. 'May we should just…'

'No, Takuya's right,' Junpei interrupted. 'It's not fair on you if we do that. You guys know the way, so Bokomon should come with Kouichi and I. Neemon?'

'Umm…' Neemon replied, staring between them. 'I have to choose?' He mumbled to himself for a while, then decided. 'I'll go with Bokomon. Who'll look after me otherwise?'

They laughed, though it was strained with their imminent parting.

It'd be okay, though. They'd come back stronger and better equipped. Hopefully.