tobiisagoodboy94 here and I bring you a new chapter *yay*.
I hope I can keep up an decent uploading and writing speed, but university starts in october, so its gonna be a little to write at least during the beginning.
But now lets start with Chapter 5, much fun.
Chapter 5
What we do for money
The weeks following the little mission they did for John seemed to simply fly by, every day seemed to end faster, the more routine Haruka and Arashi got, the faster the days passed by.
One week they worked again at Digitamamons place, another they helped a small super-market and in between they even did another delivery job for John and sometimes they sparred a little, only after Arashi had instructed his partner to not knock out Coronamon for several days during each fight and the monkey even did as he'd been told, most of the time.
"Seems like your doing quite well, maybe you should try a mission outside of Cloud-City," The foursome had met Matt again, who was currently escorting Tatsuo, the boy Arashi had seen in front of Johns house.
The boy had set fire to a large chunk of fire wood, right in the middle of the town, turning the central plaza into an fiery inferno, until C-Sec had brought a Shellmon which quickly turned of the fire.
"It looked cool, why am I getting arrested for this?" Tatsuo protested, but everybody ignored him and Haruka asked Matt.
"Missions outside of Cloud-City ? Shouldn't our partners be able to digivolve for us to be safe?" The young man answered this question while also taking a hidden lighter away from Tatsuo.
"Convoys always look for people to escort them, no matter how strong you are. Aggressive digimon don't attack masses of humans and digimon. Your only job is to be there." Arashi wasn't satisfied, just like his partner who directly argued.
"But what if some crazy digimon attacks and all I can do is hope that my stupid human gets nearly killed?" Arashi punched Koemon on the head a little, like he always did if Koemon called him stupid, but Matt only laughed about it a little.
"Don't worry, the Convoys always make sure that there are at least one or two decently strong teams in their escort. All you gotta do is sit on a carriage and wait until you reach your destination, then wait until the Convoy gets ready for the return to Cloud-City and again sit on a carriage until you're back in Cloud-City."
They had to admit, it sounded very easy how Matt described it and why not, a change of scenery was never bad and those escort missions were for sure better paid than their normal jobs.
"Hmm, this one sounds nice. Convoy towards the Smeared Meadow, gather some medical herbs and than come back. It's supposed to be a one week trip." Haruka had found a nice mission, this time not on the hotels but one of the public blackboards, which were always a hotspot to meet other teams.
"Sounds good." Arashi added and read out loud the rest, "Departure tomorrow at 8 am, payment depends of digivolving ability, rookies are welcome. Alright let's do this." They all agreed on this mission, well Koemons usual protests were simply ignored and they went back to the hotel, to prepare for the trip.
The morning the next day was cool, it was already early November and winter was approaching with large steps, but it didn't matter, they had a job to do.
Their client was a Wizardmon, whose convoy was made of two carriages, each one pulled by an Monochromon and half a dozen other humans and their partner digimon had already gathered.
"Alright. I think that we got enough people, let's go." An older boy, with black hair and small, green eyes, who sat on the back of an Garurumon had taken over the command and everybody followed the order.
A girl, who was riding an Grizzlymon, protected their left side, while the Garurumon guy took the right side, Wizardmon rode the Monochromon in front and those who sat on the second carriage were responsible for protecting the back of the small convoy.
Arashi, Haruka, there partners and a slightly younger girl with her Gabumon sat on the front carriage, since they were the ones whose partner couldn't digivolve on command, so they were just there to raise the numbers.
The carriages were mostly empty, just a small chest with Wizardmons money in it and a few empty bags were on Arashi and Harukas, and a lot of straw, so they could make themselves comfortable and the road was flat enough to make the travel pleasant.
"What do you think, Arashi? How long will it take until we can go back home again?" The first day was over, nothing had happened the whole day and their were now camping on the side of the road.
"I got no idea, but I really hope that it won't take to long." Arashi now laying down on the carriage, covering himself with the blanket the Babamon from Sakura Valley had once made for them.
"I hope so, too. Good night." Haruka also laid down, right next to Arashi and it only took a few minutes until she had fallen asleep, together with Coronamon.
"That's your chance Arashi." Koemon whispered towards Arashi, who at first didn't understand what the monkey meant, but his partner simply pointed towards Haruka, who now turned towards the partner and cuddled herself against him in her sleep.
Arashis face turned into a giant tomato and his partner only smirked devilish.
"Good night Arashi and nice dreams." The green furred monkey smirked before also going to sleep, leaving Arashi alone, who couldn't think of sleeping right now.
It took at least an hour before his face had returned to normal and another one until he finally also fell asleep, the fact that Coronamon was pinched between them at least made it warm and comfortable for him.
Haruka was woken up the shaking of carriage, they had started the travel without waking her up and she nearly got an heart attack once she opened her eyes.
She was looking directly into Arashis face, she had cuddled into him to be precise and now her face was hardly an inch away from his.
Her face had turned red and was probably on fire, did she really got so close to Arashi while sleeping, it was like she had taken advantage of him while sleeping and she immediately felt bad for it.
She tried to slide away from him, without waking the boy up, but once she had the feeling that she had made it, something or somebody to be more precise interrupted her.
"Morning did you and your boyfriend sleep well last night? Nobody wanted to wake you up because you two were so cute, so we continued the journey while you two lovebirds were still asleep." Haruka was sure that her hair had just caught fire, it must have since her face was so freaking hot and red, everybody had seen this, it was so embarrasing.
"He, he-e-e-ee is not my boyfriend. We're just friends and this was an accident." she justified herself and the girl, her name was Tsubaki, wanted to reply something, but Coronamon interrupted them.
"Wake up you ass, how could you take advantage of .. Ahhhhh !" Coronamon had jumped up and down on the still sleeping Arashi and had earned himself a free flight with this, since the boy threw him of the carriage the moment he woke up.
"I'm so sorry Arashi, please forgive me , it wasn't on purpose and I'm terribly sorry." Haruka couldn't stop apologizing, after they had stopped to pick up Coronamon, but Arashi only scratched his head ashamend and replied.
"No it's my fold, you were probably freezing and looking for something to warm you, I should have waked you up, so it was my fault." The boy said, Koemons face turned into one large smirk, while he stood behind Haruka, listening to them.
The rest of the day turned out to be just like the last day, Arashi and Haruka simply sat on the carriage and small-talked, sometimes even with Tsubaki, who always did at least one comment on their close sleeping, which always caused them to blush strongly.
Koemon didn't join the chat, he had one of his serious moments, or a serious day to be precise, he was observing the hills and fields around them, noticing things the others on carriage didn't see.
Digimon, which observed them, hiding behind hill tops, camouflaged in high grass or simply standing behind a distant tree, things you could only spot if you focused on them.
'They are watching us. They are either too weak to attack us or they planning something larger.' Those paranoid thoughts went through the monkey's head.
His eyes met those of the boy riding the Garurumon and he only nodded towards Koemon, they also knew about the unwelcome followers.
But for the moment nothing happened, so Koemon decided that it was the best course of action to not tell anybody on carriage about this, they would only panic and alert those digimon.
Neither Arashi, nor Haruka noticed this, they were too busy chatting, so the day passed by for them just as quickly as the last one and soon they again sat around a small fire, eating something, while everything around them was dark.
Today Arashi and the boy with the Garurumon had to security duty this night , so they stayed around the fire, while everybody else was already sleeping.
"We are being watched", After about half an hour of silence, the young man told Arashi, who was a little freaked out.
But before he could scream or ask any question, the black-haired young man continued, whispering sharply:
"Don't make a scene or they'll know that we noticed them, act natural. There are two of them, rookie digimon, probably only scouts of an stronger and larger group. Your digimon can't digivolve, right?"
Arashi only nooded while Koemon listend into the silence surrounding them, the only thing audible was Coronamons snoring.
"Alright, then I'll have to stay awake the whole night." The young man's mood had darkend a little and his Gabumon seemed to be sad about this.
"You can sleep a little, I'll wake you up once the sun rises, two hours of sleep are enough for us, right Gabu?" The little digimon only replied with an weak and fake 'yeah', they had already done that last night and the little digimon seemed to be very tired and sleepy.
Arashi didn't question this idea, afterall it meant that he could sleep a few hours, so why not?
Koemon had already fallen assleep the moment the boy had mentioned sleeping.
The next day was sunny and warm for this season, the Arashi could hardly remember if the young man had even woken him for guard duty, but everything was fine.
"Arashi." Haruka started and grabbed his hand," there's something I gotta tell you." what was going on?
His heart raced like crazy and Haruka looked at him like she had never done before, was she going crazy?
"What I want to tell you is that I really, really like..." her face was now only a inch from his away, he was nearly having an heart attack and something was happening in his trousers, something he couldn't really understand.
"Arashi!" Something, some sort of invisible force hit his lower body part, like a bullet and he could only gasp for air while everything around him turned into a blur.
"Ahh!" Arashi screamed as his opened his eyes, directly looking into Koemons smirking face. It had all been a dream.
"Morning stupid human, its our turn for duty and you wouldn't wake up and mumbled Haruka's name, so I jumped on the bump in your pocket and then you woke up." the monkey was not lying, but Arashi had not listened to him, the pain was too overwhelming, all he could was moaning while still lying on the ground, he had never felt any pain like this before, he couldn't describe it, all he could think about was when this terrible pain would end.
"I'll sell your fur on the black market if you ever do something like that to me " The young man mumbled towards Gabumon, who only looked at him, his face full of shock.
It took nearly half an hour until the pain had at least faded away a little, but it still hurt like crazy.
The other guard and his partner had now fallen asleep and Arashi and Koemon where now the only ones awake.
"Did I really mumble Haruka's name while sleeping?" Arashi needed to know, his head was going crazy with this, with her to be honest, she was already in his dreams, what would come next?
Would he start seeing her everywhere next, or even start drooling while his head starts to imagine things about her?
"You just mumbled it and I don't think that this guy and his Gabumon heard you, they were occupied with staying on guard. So, what were you dreaming, something not meant for your age?" Koemon was laughing and only stopped when Arashi only punched him into the face, before replying.
"No, and I won't tell you what I dreamed." Arashi stood up now, inspecting everything around him.
The fire had nearly died, only a little left under a lot of ashes, it was cold but the sun was already slowly rising, a small red band on the horizon.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Arashi's eyes were wide open in shock, did Koemon really say something like that or was he still dreaming?
"Are you sick or why are you saying something like that?" It was simply not like Koemon to say such things, especially after making asking annoying questions just a minute ago.
"No," Koemon was angry now, he hated it when people saw him as nothing more than an stupid morron, because he wasn't.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to anger you, it was just..." Arashi had noticed that he had hurt his partner and tried to apologise, but Koemon interrupted him and said sharply.
"Just watch the area and make sure nobody attacks us and uses your lady friend as an toothpick." Arashi had never seen his partner like this, but the monkey now simply ignored him while watching the sunrise and Arashi decided to stay quiet.
It took two hours until the others started to wake up, just like the other guard had predicted, and after a short breakfast they departed again, since they destination was already near.
They could see the Smeared Meadows' trees in the distant, since there was no fog today and the air was clear and fresh.
Koemon didn't speak a word to anybody while they traveled the short distance that remained, he even ignored every attempt by Arashi to speak or chat with him.
It only took them an hour until they finally entered the meadows, a forest on both side of an small stream.
Many digimon populated this place, they lived in small huts, some wooden houses and some even in hollow tree stumps, it looked like a paradise.
The streams of crystal blue water flowed peacefully through the forests, the trees leaves were already getting read and brown, but most were still on the trees.
"Alright, it'll take me around two days to gather the herbs I need, you can relax during this time but please keep an eyes on the carriage." Wizardmon explained to them once they had stopped at something that seemed to be a village, before he took a lrage back and marched into the forest, leaving the others with the Monochromon and the carriages.
"So is there anything we can do here to pass the time?" Arashi asked, but his 'guard duty partner' only shrugged his shoulders and said, "Don't know, I would say swimming if it wasn't already autumn, but this place is not a real hot spot."
Perfect, two days with nothing to do and nothing to pass the time and with an partner who didn't want to talk to him anymore, how could this get any better?
"What do you think Arashi, we could wander around a little, this place seems nice, maybe we can find some place to rest and eat something," Haruka smiled widely while talking to him and her smile made him forget his negative thoughts for the moment, it somehow made him happy to see her like this.
Both Coronamon and Koemon followed them, silently, Coronamon because he still didn't really like Arashi and his monkey and the monkey, well because he was still pissed at his stupid human.
Haruka's idea had been good, not because they found a nice place to hang out, not because they found at least two dozen nice places, small clearings or giant trees to rest underneath them.
"Is something wrong with Koemon, he's so quiet today?" Haruka asked him worried, but Arashi didn't want to tell her the truth.
"Got no idea, maybe he has one of his phases?" Koemon shoot him an angry look for this sentence, he was in a too bad mood to be used for Arashi's flirting.
"So what happend that made you so angry, Tarzan?" Coronamon had started to call Koemon this name after Haruka had told him about it and he found it very fitting.
"Arashi said something that made me angry and I'm still angry at him." Koemon said with his usual neutral look and Coronamon kept on speaking.
"Wow, didn't thought you two could be angry at each other, normally idiots always like each other aaaaaah, ouch!" Koemon had dropped an banana pell in front of Coronamon's feet while he was still talking and the little lion had directly slipped down, making his monkey companion smile a little.
"Don't freak out Coronamon, you'll just make Haruka sad again if you start fighting the idiot monkey." Koemon smirked, the fire-digimon mumbled while getting back on his feet, he really wanted to beat Koemon up for this, but like he said it would make Haruka sad and angry again and maybe it had even been a little, very little bit justified.
"This place is nice, let's stay here." they had found another nice place, a small clearing next to the river, it was bathed in sunlight and the still green grass looked like an comfy, green pillow.
They sat down on a fallen tree and simply enjoyed the scenery for some time, it was very relaxing, but Arashi's thoughts still raced around his partner, what he could do to make Koemon be less distant?
"It's so peaceful here, I can hardly believe that the Digital World is supposed to be in any danger, I mean we were attacked once but Boogeymon didn't look like some evil master of darkness." Haruka was right and Arashi replied, after regretting his attempt to lay down in the wet and cold grass.
"Yeah, Cloud-City was completely peaceful and we didn't even see any other digimon while traveling here." The boy added.
Koemon looked at his partner for a moment, obviously thinking if he should maybe tell them about what he saw during their travel, but then he decided to be still angry at him and simply turned away again.
"What did Arashi do to make you this angry?" Coronamon normally didn't care about the monkey but it was strange to see the cowardly duo like this, so he at least wanted to know why they acted like this.
"Arashi said something that made me angry." Koemon replied again, but then his neutral expression changed into a grim frown and he suddenly charged right at Haruka and Arashi, tackling his partner with so much force that he tore both him and Haruka to the ground, just a moment before a super fast blast of water raced over their heads.
The water smashed into a nearby tree, cutting it down, while Koemon was already back on his feet, aiming his slingshot at the attacker. The cut off trunk fell with a loud clank.
It was an strange, humanoid creature, it looked more like an human than a digimon to be honest, it was a blonde witch, wearing red clothes, an red head, a black cape and who had giant red claws.
It sat on a flying broom and grinned at them evily, not even caring about the little monkey aiming at her.
"It's time to show you that this place is not a paradise, my clueless, little humans." The witch snickerd while hovering up and down, around 50 feet away from them.
"That's Witchmon, she's a dangerous champion level digimon." Koemon said, while Coronamon now also took position in front of his partner, who was still busy getting up her feet.
"Oh, a little monkey coward like you knows my name, I must be more popular than I thought." the witch replied and to everybody's surprise, Koemons face showed an emotion nobody had ever seen on him, pure rage.
His eyes twitched and he started to shack heavily, while he tried to suppress his anger, before he lost control and shouted furiously:
" I. AM. NO. COWARD!"
Chapter 5
End
Authors Note:
I really liked the fleshing out of Koemons character in this chapter, he's not supposed to be a coward, he may act like one sometimes but he follows his own rules and he fights if he has to.
But until now we had 5 chapters and none of the main cast digimon digivolved, let's see if this changes soon ^^.
I think, but I'm not really sure, that this will be the last chapter purely for world building and establishing, for now.
I want to make the plot start a little and also show some stuff I planned.
Tobi out