25) Last Day on Earth
"Koichi, you scared hell out of us", Takato reprimanded, "I thought I was gonna lose Megalogrowlmon".
"That wasn't possible. Think about it: what if Yamaki had used Shaggai on just Vikaralamon? He would have made our job a helluvalot easier, and he'd be the hero of the day.
On the other hand, if he attacks our digimon, and I disrupt Shaggai at that moment, he's gonna figure it out. This way, it looks to him like Shaggai was doing exactly what he'd programmed it to do, but there was some sort of glitch, bug, or maybe he decides it's another countermeasure. All he has left is a big mystery that's gonna keep him busy for a good long while... Since this is the second time he screwed up, maybe they'll kick him to the curb, and our problems with him will be over. Although I do confess I wasn't expecting to take out the rest of Hypnos with it".
"I wasn't expecting that either", Jen agreed.
"Moumentai!"
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
"Come in", Janyu invited to the knock on the door.
"You wanted to see me?", Jen asked, as his father was working on something.
"Can I see your Ark?"
"Ark?", Jen asked, "you mean the digivice?", as he pulled it from his pocket and handed it over. Janyu turned it on, the holographic display popped up, seeming to hover over the digivice, showing a drop-down menu.
"It was our dream", Janyu explained, "that kids in the future would use these Arks to communicate with their favorite digital monster characters, or download any information they wanted from any database on the 'Net. What you have here exceeds our original expectations...", he seemed momentarily lost in thought.
"Terriermon?", he asked. "Seeing something you dreamed of coming true, it's a pleasant surprise. I wonder if you can understand..."
"You mean something like dreaming of seeing a whole new world with your own eyes? I wouldn't know..."
"Terriermon!"
"Moumentai!"
"Someone, somehow, accelerated the evolution of digimon, and made my Ark a reality. I'm working with friends and colleagues from all over the world so children won't have to fight anymore".
"Too little and too late: we know all about what you've been working on", he kept that thought to himself. Fortunately, Shuichon interrupted just then, and her appearance couldn't have been more fortuitous.
"Hey, mom is cutting some watermelon. Have some?", she announced.
"Terriermon, you too... want some watermelon?"
"Let's try that watermelon", Janyu announced.
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
"Hey, Juri, how's it goin'? Studying?", the customer at the bar called out.
"Juri! How many times have I told you not to come down here during business hours?!", her father asked with an angry edge to his voice.
"I just came down for some OJ", she explained, as she took the biggest glass from behind the bar, and poured it full from the carton she took out of the 'fridge. Be done in a sec".
He followed after her: "You be sure to wash that glass!", he called after her, as she went up to the living quarters. "And don't come down here again before closing time!"
"What an asshole", his customer thought to himself.
"Woof! Woof!", a hand puppet called out the window to the leonid digimon perched on the ledge just outside the window.
"Leomon-sama, I brought you some juice", Juri said as she laid the glass on the ledge.
"Drop the 'sama', just plain Leomon is sufficient", he said. That was still an irritating habit. Leomon took it, sniffed, and tried a sip. He had never tasted orange juice before.
"What's it like?", Juri asked as she joined him on the roof. "The Digital World?"
"What can I say?", Leomon replied.
"It's completely different, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's true, but there are some things that are similar", he explained.
"We're going there... it must be amazing. I think it's great, going to a new world, because no one's ever been there before..."
"I hate to burst your bubble", he said, "but you won't be the first. Although you'll be the first Outworlders in a very long time to set foot in the Digital World".
He laid a massive paw on her knee: "I'm your partner now", he began. His paw, the rough pads on her knee gave her shivers between her legs.
"And I'm your Tamer", she completed the thought. "So I'd like to ask a small favor..."
"Yes?", he prompted.
"Would you slide that paw a little higher?", as she spread her legs while pulling up the hem of her dress.
He pulled it away as if he'd touched a red hot stove.
"Sorry Leomon", she said, as she recalled what Koichi told her about newly materialized digimon and their unfamiliarity with feelings of physical beings.
Leomon thought to himself if he would ever understand Outworlders and their ways. He needed to say something:
"Juri, it isn't that I don't like you, but I'm so big and you're so small, I don't want to hurt you".
"I know you would never do that".
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Koichi wished Renamon were here to help out, but she and Guilmon were busy, trying to find a suitable gateway into the Digital World.
"Koichi, no!", his father was complaining. "You're supposed to start the first term in a week. What's this business of delaying for a year?"
"I can't be in two places at once, and it's essential that we go to the Digital World".
"I didn't object to having Renamon live here. I didn't even object to the borderline bestiality..."
"Father! That's no way to talk..."
"It's your future we're discussing here! You can't throw that away to go on playing with kids half your age..."
"In the first place, we're not 'playing games' (finger quotes). Where have you been? Haven't you been paying attention?! You saw what happened up north? That crater in the middle of Meiji Ave? You heard the threat issued by that digimon God - it was all over the news..."
"Leave it to the proper authorities!"
"Dad, when it comes to this, we are the proper authorities, and that's the straight up truth and we both know it. Lots of kids take a year off after high school, and for reasons a good deal more frivolous. That whacked-out digimon God has the power of Evolution now. If we don't get it back, and soon, there may not even be a future for me, or anyone else, to worry about. We are going, and that's final. Throw me out of the house, disown me, do your worst... because nothing you threaten me with can compare to the threat that's coming, and that very few are even aware of".
The next morning, Renamon returned.
"Find anything?", Koichi asked.
"Nothing", she apologized, "if we don't find it soon, it will be too late. Vikaralamon's influence is fading fast".
"Maybe Guilmon'll come up with something?"
"So far, I've heard nothing. For our sakes, I hope so".
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Takato decided to take the "scenic route" to school, dropping by Guilmon's shed. Summer break had ended, and now the inconvenience of attending school weighted even more heavily. His mother's constant insistence that he do both his chores and homework before going out to "play" especially vexing.
"Takato!", he called out. It sounded like he was far away... He went to investigate.
"Guilmon?"
"Come see what I found", it sounded like he was deep underground. Indeed he was. At the back of his excavation, made originally to increase the size of the living space, he found a deep pit.
"Why did you dig so deep?", he asked.
"You'll see".
At the bottom, a slanting shaft through which Guilmon led the way. There, at the end, was the unmistakable scintillation of a digital portal.
"It was here all the time, Guilmon explained, right under where I live", he pointed towards it, and his paw began to phase out.
Takato pulled it back: "Careful Guilmon!", he reprimanded, "I don't want you pulled in prematurely!"
He watched the scintillation: "It really is a surprise", he said. "I never expected we'd find it here... like that's too convenient?"
Homeroom: Class 5-B
(When planning paragraph breaks, be sure that you plan them so they don't change the meaning of your writing...)
"Calumon", Takato whispered to himself. His notebook was filled, not with class notes, but doodles of Guilmon, Calumon, and Impmon. He didn't notice Ms. Asagi walking past.
"Is my lesson that boring, Takato?", she asked.
He stood like a shot: "No, Ma'am".
"Takato, I get paid the same whether you learn or not. I already learned this, and it's not my future at stake here... it's yours. You're in the fifth grade now, soon to be off to Middle School. I would think you'd show a little more diligence... You will stay after class to write a letter of apology".
"Yes Ma'am", he said sheepishly.
"Ma'am?", a hand went up. "I wasn't paying attention either"
"Juri?"
"I was day dreaming!", Kazu said, as he motioned to Kenta.
"I was taking a nap!", Kenta "confessed".
"Ohhhhh! All of you! Go stand in the hall!", Ms. Asagi ordered them. "You will stay after class to write letters of apology! Juri: I'm surprised at you, of all people... Get out!"
"Busted again", Kazu said as they stood outside the door.
"Another detention", Kenta agreed. "This your first, Juri?"
"All because Takato got caught drawing in class again", Kazu said.
"This may be our last class", Juri pointed out.
The end of the day found them staying behind, writing their letters of apology. They turned in their workbooks and left. Jenyra was waiting for them.
Ms. Asagi was grading tests, got bored, and picked up Takato's workbook to see what he'd written.
Dear Ms. Asagi:
I don't find your lessons the least bit boring...
She smiled to herself at reading that.
...it's just that, today, you caught me during a moment of preoccupation. I'm sorry, but this letter of apology is really a letter of notification: we won't be coming back to class tomorrow, and I really don't know when...
"What?!", she said to herself.
Sorry if the class average drops without me...: Juri.
...going to the Digital World...: Kazu.
...going to a world no one has been to before...: Kenta.
As the four detainees were joining up with Jen and Terriermon: "Wait! Stop!" it was Ms. Asagi. "What is the meaning of this?!", as she waved their workbooks at them.
"We explained everything there", Takato said, pointing at the workbooks.
"That's not good enough! Explain it to me... The children who were with the digimon?", she finally recalled the scenes from the news casts, even though there were no interviews, or close-up's.
"That's us", Terriermon told her.
"We're sorry if it seems selfish", Juri explained, "but it wouldn't seem right to just leave without saying anything".
"If it were still summer vacation, it wouldn't be a problem", Kazu said.
"Enough!", she ordered. "Going on a journey all by yourselves! You're just... children! You can't do that!"
"It's not like there won't be adult supervision", Takato said.
"Why are you telling me this! I don't want to know about it! Didn't it occur to any of you that I might be held responsible?!"
"We're really sorry about that", Takato said since it hadn't occurred to him at all. "We will tell our parents... Could you do one favor? Could you not tell anyone for 24 hours?"
"We're really sorry for that", Juri apologized.
"We are determined to go", Kazu told her.
"Moumentai!", Terriermon called out.
"Moumentai: no problem", Jen explained.
"I... What am I going to do?", Ms. Asagi said to herself as she watched her students walking off. Tell their parents... what exactly? Tell the authorities? Either way, she'd seem totally nuts. There was another answer: that evening, she burned the workbooks in the fireplace. Never tell anyone, plead ignorance if questioned. Problem solved.
"Not one of your brighter ideas, Takato", Jen reprimanded after they'd left the school grounds.
"I didn't think she'd read the damn things right off", Takato explained. "I didn't think she'd read them until tomorrow, or later tonight. I wasn't sure she read them at all. I've written enough of them, and she never commented before".
Chou Park
"So the portal was here all along?", Koichi asked.
"I don't know", Takato said, "but that's when Guilmon found it: last night".
"Guilmon", Jen advised, "I think it would be a good idea if you stayed away until we're ready to go".
"I know".
"What to tell my parents?", Kazu asked.
"I have no idea", Kenta replied.
"We need to tell them something", Juri pointed out. "We have to..."
"Kenta, Kazu?", Koichi asked, "you aren't planning on coming too? You don't have partners".
"If the mountain won't come to Mohammad, then Mohammad must go to the mountain", Kazu said.
"What better place to find partners?", Kenta said, "the Digital World is full of digimon, and I just need one".
"Meet here at 6:00AM?", Takato asked, "anyone got a problem with that?"
"Kinda early for me", Koichi complained, "but we'll be here".
"C'mon Guilmon".
"Huh?"
"High time you met the 'rents".
As Guilmon and Takato were arriving, the departing customer thought to herself: "The bakery has a new mascot? How odd, a dinosaur".
Yoshi didn't take it nearly so well.
"He's the digimon I designed", Takato explained, after his mother had returned to a semblance of calm. "I was lucky that he materialized, and now he's my best friend. I have other friends with digimon partners: Jen, Juri - you met her, she comes here all the time - and Koichi Lonnegan".
He decided it was best not to mention Ruki, the missing girl whose name and pictures were all over the news, as that wouldn't be very reassuring.
"Then isn't he just like that monster that appeared the other day?", Yoshi complained, still not very calm.
"Monster?", Guilmon asked.
"Let's hear him out", his father advised.
"There's also this cute digimon named Calumon. He's small, but has a great power. It's because of that, that he's been taken against his will by this evil digimon to the world where digimon live: the Digital World. Calumon's power has fallen into the wrong hands, and if this evil digimon figures out how to use his power, the results could be catastrophic, and not just for the Digital World. He's already made threats against the Material World, and you both saw how he carried them out: that 'monster' (finger quotes) from the other day. If he had even more power, I don't want to think of the consequences of that.
"That's why we have to go: to prevent this power from being abused. Besides, Calumon is our friend and he needs us..."
"I don't want to hear any more!", Yoshi was in tears again. "Why should you have to go? Isn't there anyone else?"
"Actually", Takato said, "I want to go! I want to see the Digital World! I'd like to leave early tomorrow, and I'll be needing lots of bread for Guilmon..."
"It's insane!", Yoshi complained. "Are you listening to what you're saying?!"
"Please, I need to do this".
"A bunch of children can't go without an adult!"
"Actually, we will be going with an adult: Koichi is 18..."
Takehero got up and began mixing flour in a large bowl.
"What are you doing?", she asked.
"Baking extra bread for Guilmon and Takato", he explained.
"Surely... you're not..."
"I've never seen Takato this serious about anything..."
"But he's just ten years old!"
"Plenty old enough to go on a trip by himself".
As he was still mixing, Guilmon came into the kitchen area.
"So you're Guilmon? Once, some friends of Takato's asked if I'd make Guilmon bread..."
"Guilmon bread?", he asked.
"I didn't know about you at the time, and didn't know what they were talking about... You see to it that you get Takato back, and I'll have make your Guilmon bread for the coming home party".
"It's a deal!", Guilmon told him.
Lee Residence
"A trip?", Shuichon asked.
"You understand that it's strictly between us. You are not to say a word to Mom or Dad, or our brothers and sister. Before we go, I'll send off an e-mail to Dad's office account. Dad'll get it when he goes to work".
"We..."
"Moumentai", Terriermon said, "it was hard, pretending to be just a doll..."
"Terriermon! I knew you were real!" She said as she gave him a big, smothering hug.
"Please, not so hard. I really liked playing with you", he lied, "even if I couldn't say anything till now".
"Promise me you'll bring me a present".
"Will do, Shuichon", Jen promised. "Keep our secret, at least until after 10:00 tomorrow morning?"
"Not a problem", she promised.
Lonnegan Residence
"So you're off tomorrow", Doyle asked.
"Zero hour: 0600", Koichi confirmed.
"I can't say I fully approve, or even understand. You know your sister's going to be disappointed? She'll miss you".
"I understand that, and I hope she will forgive me, but you know I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't important".
"We may very well be insuring that you, all of you, will stay safe", Renamon explained.
"I'm sure you do, just make sure you come back yourselves. I would still feel better if this were in the hands of professionals... Relying on kids..."
"Believe me, they understand what's at stake here", Koichi told him.
"Keep them safe, and stay in contact"
"Will do"
"Well, Renamon", Koichi said as they kissed, "I don't know if it'll still work in the Digital World..."
"I don't either", she said. "It's not like it was ever a concern before..."
"Then let's not waste our last night".
"I agree, my love", she said as she slipped off his shirt.
They slipped under the covers...
'YARF! YARF! YARF..."
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Guilmon's Shed
"Hey, Juri! Leomon!", Kazu called out. "Mornin'!"
"Good morning!", she called back.
They caught up with her: "I told my folks it's a school trip", Kazu explained.
"I left mine a note", Kenta replied. "You, Juri?"
"I... uhhhh... mmmm...", she began, "I'm going with Leomon, and..."
"Hey!", it was Jen and Terriermon at just the right time.
"Wait for us!", they went off to catch up with Jen.
"Where's Takato?", Koichi asked.
"He was here a minute ago", Guilmon pointed out.
As if on cue: "Hey, guys!", Takato called out. The reason for his absence clearly visible in his hands: another Tamers banner. This time decorated with drawings of Kenta, Kazu, Juri, Leomon, and Impmon added. This time, mounted to a more substantial post.
"A Tamers flag!", Kenta observed.
"That's supposed to be us?", Kazu asked.
"It took me half the night", Takato explained.
"You shouldn't have", Kazu said.
"Really. You shouldn't've..."
"Terriermon!"
"Moumentai!"
"Thank you for that, Takato", Juri replied.
"Ehhhhhh...", was all Takato could say.
"You're easily flattered", Kenta said. "Uhhhh... why'd he put Impmon on there?"
"Because someone has to keep you dumb asses out of trouble", Impmon said, as he was just now putting in his appearance, as he dropped from a tree.
"I didn't know you were coming...", Kazu said.
"I don't see why not. We have humans without a digimon, so why not a digimon without a human? Up until a couple of days ago, I didn't know I was coming either... Renamon, I thought about what you said".
He wasn't the only unexpected drop-in...
"You!", Koichi called out. "You sonofa..."
"I know what all of you are up to", Yamaki explained. "Jen: you should know better than to send personal e-mails to your father's office account. I'm afraid I can't let you go...", he paused for dramatic effect, "...without this". He tossed something to Koichi.
"And this would be..."
"My hand-held. Use it to keep in contact with me and I'll relay messages to your folks... You. All of you. I envy you for where you're going".
"Uhhhh...", was all Koichi could say, as this was so unexpected, "...thanks... We'll be sure to stay in touch".
Koichi stood there, looking at Yamaki's parting gift: "What the hell do you suppose that was about?"
"Perhaps Mr. Yamaki has had a change of heart", Renamon theorized.
"You think so? I wonder if he isn't trying to pull something..."
"Why not give him the benefit of the doubt? Not full trust just yet, but keep in mind the possibility".
"So what do you suppose it'll be like?", Kazu asked.
"There's one way to find out..."