Takajin slowly opened the mansion door, only to be barged passed by Mikuni nearly knocking him over, he regained his balance and followed, everything was covered in dust, and cob webs, he was about to sneeze when Mikuni covered his mouth.
"Are you that stupid, what if it hears you, we lose the element of surprise, and what would be the point of coming here, to hand this monster it's justice?" Said Mikuni pulling her hand away, she turned to continue farther into the house.
"It's going to take forever to search this place, we should split up to cover more ground" said Takajin looking from side to side as they entered the main foyer of the mansion, for once Sunmon looked terrified as they passed through. Before he could through with that idea, Mikuni grabbed, and shook her head no, and gave him a stern look, so he decided to continue to just follow instead, they finally reached the first room, which was probably the servant's quarters, Mikuni opened the door, and entered slowly.
"This is where the servants sleep, I been here with my mother once or twice, these are so not perfect, I wish I never seen these places, it shows how unjust being lower class is, and how I never want to be that way" said Mikuni in a disgusted whisper, after searching this Servants quarters for another few minutes, they left.
Hey went from room to room. Through the kitchen and the dining room, thoroughly checking each room in turn, till they reached the master suite, the bed was still beautiful even covered layers of dust, and cob webs, its silk sheets still untarnished by ware, it pearl frames still sparkled in the moonlight, which through the open window out to the balcony, above the bed hung a huge portrait Yamazaki family, what stuck out was the daughter, both her parents had black hair, while she had platinum Silver, and her parents had digimon, and she didn't.
"She is a cursed one, a person with no digimon, how can anything like that be possible, it makes me feel sick looking at her, and I feel sorry for her being half a person and all" said Takajin staring at the daughter, he walked over to the balcony and looked out, into the barren land stretching for miles all blackened like a severe fire had happened.
Digimon Sync episode 9 "Castle on the Hill"
Hikaru waited for any sign of Huang, she let out a yawn, someone came up from behind and draped a blanket on her, Yorda sat beside, she handed her a hot cup of Coco "thanks" said Hikaru taking the cup and sipping from it.
"I hope your friends are ok, that mansion is dangerous, I wish I didn't mention it" said Yorda looking down.
"Tell more about this house" asked Hikaru turning to look at Yorda, curious to hear more about it.
"That mansion was once beautiful, like something out of a fairy-tale, looking at the orchard during the fall when the cherry blossoms falling were the breathtaking thing to ever behold. The Governess would sit balcony, she looked like a Angewomon as you watched her from the garden" said Yorda beginning to tear up, "I miss the good old days before the birth of that child, that poor cursed one"
"Cursed one, their child was born without a digimon partner?" asked Hikaru looking shocked at the revelation, she though those were only in myth.
"Yes Aru was a cursed one; she was born without a digimon, which made people anxious after that revelation came about, causing all sorts of problems for that family, even lynch mobs would go up there and burn their orchards" said Yorda trying not to grind her teeth with anger "The governess burned in one of those lynching, even though she had servants, she still tended her rose garden… They were the monsters back then" when she spoke this there was another tremor shaking the house, it only last a few second unlike the first time. After it was it was over Yorda continued her story "The master of the house months after came down with an illness, and died leaving poor Aru alone, as all the servants including myself left after he died"
"What about the Daughter, what happened to her, she had to have died for that mansion to be abandoned, that poor child put out of her misery, I can't imagine going without a digimon partner, I wouldn't want to live with Moonmon, she is everything to me, like a little sister" said Hikaru with a tear streaming down her right cheek. "But I would try to be this girl's friend it's not her fault she was like that, that fate choose her not to have a digimon"
There was a long silence, where neither of them spoke, until Yorda broke it "That's sweet to say now, Aru would have liked to have heard that, she never had any friends" she said getting up "since no one would go near her other than her parents"
-The mansion-
After hours of searching, they reached Aru's room, as they entered the first thing they noticed was bed was covered in Stuff toys of various types of digimon, the room was the least covered in dust, but was still very dusty.
Takajin walked over to the bed, and picked up one of the stuff toys, he blew off the dust "It's a Koromon, these Evolve into Agumon, I heard they are easy to train, and the payoff is a dramon destroyer" he said admiring the stuff toy.
"We are not here to play with toys, we are searching for our idiot friend, and a monster to kill to save him "said Mikuni grabbing the Koromon toy from Takajin, and throwing it against a wall.
"I thought as a Princess, you would play with these types of things too" asked Takajin pointing at the bed, just wondering about that.
"I have never played with such childish things" said Mikuni, her face lightly reddened in embarrassment "now let's find and take care of this thing" she turned and left the room.
After several hours of searching, and both of them, was beginning to feel hungry, and after cleaning the dining room. They started eating their dinner that they had brought. Mikuni sat at the far end of the gold-plated table, and Takajin sat in the middle of it.
Takajin was beginning to lose hope in recovering Huang, they have searched most of this mansion, and sign of them at all, no Wilhelm or Huang, this place was truly empty of life other than themselves.
There were loud foot prints all of a sudden, they came from all around them , it was echoing from the hallway they had just came from, Takajin was the first to get up, and run toward the noise, followed by Mikuni "Slow down you moron, she shouted after him.
Noise went outside into the backyard, which was a giant hedge maze, Takajin ran in before Mikuni could catch up with him, she ran into the maze as well, but there was no sign of him now "Some heroes we are?" She didn't chance going any farther, she was doing the logical thing, and looking for a map to this maze, she found one a few minutes later in the house blueprints, she began her search of the maze "what a stupid little boy now I have to look for him instead, as a champion of justice I can't leave anyone behind, even the chronically stupid"
. -Yorda's house-
Hikaru waited on the front porch for companions and her brother to return, it had been only a few hours since Takajin had left with Mikuni, and she still didn't trust Mikuni, which put her on edge about her brother being alone with, and having a monster out there scared her beyond anything they had encountered so far, even if she hadn't seen it yet. It brought back bad memories of her childhood; she had ended up outside the digitopia barrier, and was attacked by wild digimon, being away from digitopia made her feel exposed to all her worst fears "I want to go home" she muttered to herself.
Yorda walked out the front door of her house, and handed Hikaru some hot tea, and biscuit, "I know you wish to help, and have this villages good intentions in mind, you are still children, I can't help but I fear that you are in danger here, even if you are Digidestined" she said playing with her hair once again, it was a habit of hers whenever she was thinking.
"We can't leave without Huang, it wouldn't be right" said Hikaru accepting the tea and biscuit.
"I wasn't suggesting that I saying you should have left instead of saying here in the first place, it's not your problem, it's this village that has to deal with this monster, not strangers from a far off land claiming to be heroes, most of you look very pampered, and have no clue what you are getting yourselves into" Yorda trying not to sound insulting.
"I don't feel like a hero, every time things hit the fan, I panic I am not used to this, I just want to go home, and pretend I am not this Digidestined I am supposed to be, leave the saving the world for someone else, I can go back to being a princess, being with my mom and dad like I am not this important to the world" said Hikaru looking down at the ground, feeling like she is being crushed by the world.
"Sorry to chime in on your conversation, but I couldn't help but hearing you saying I, like you are the only one suffering, did you ever ask Huang, Mikuni, or your own brother, how being a Digidestined feels like, Huang lost his entire family, who were killed by the people who were searching for the very digi chip that he is using now. How do you think that makes him feel like" said Halli interrupting the conversation, she had been camping on the outskirts, as she never liked being around too many people.
"They seem to be handling it better than I am, I freeze up, while they charge into battle, I fall into my fears, they attack them head on, I cannot be like them, I am too scared to be like them, I fear everything they fear nothing" said Hikaru nearly shouting now, and shaking like a leaf.
Everyone fears something, even I fear being completely alone, but I have to deal with it every day, but I might in a village but there are many types of alone, things haven't been right since the life was taken out that mansion," said Yorda looking up on the mansion on the hill, "It's just like I never left" she look around for a second, and then headed back into her house.
-Location unknown?-
Huang opened his eyes, everything around him seemed, he couldn't move. The whole place smelled of moss, and of BO of people who haven't bathed in weeks, the room felt like it was moving even though it wasn't, he was caught in sticky string net, with more of them surrounding, he shook his head to wake himself up, from the sound of the snoring Babydmon was right beside him, once his vision clears, he saw that he wasn't the only one there, the other nets had people in them, and their digimon companions, but the one directly across from him that got his attention it was Yorda, and she looked like she had been there for a while from her appearance, it sank in that if she is here than who was in that house with his companions.
The cavern shook violently, with little rocks falling from its ceiling, none of them bigger than a pebble, some of them falling into the nets, Huang the biggest one, and tried to cut one of the nets strings with it, which is going to take forever to do with how small the pebble was, he wished her digimon partner would just wake up, he would be able to bite his way free, and do the same for him.
He felt the rock was doing more damage to his hand then the string he was trying to string, he was trying to slice with it to get his hand free, he stopped, when it really started to hurt. He felt that his left hand was now bruised, but nothing that wouldn't hurt for long, after what seemed like hours passed by, he finally got his hand free, he looked at it, and touched the bruise, he winced in pain, he had no time to let it stop hurting, feeling the urgency of escaping to warn his companions, after quite the struggle he pulled himself free.
The cave was dark, except had a weird glow to it, which made rather eerie, good thing about it was that it wasn't pitch black because of that, but the cave seemed to branch out in several directions, which was a problem, Huang pulled Babydmon free, and tried to figure out what he would do next and which way he would go. He suddenly heard music from one of the paths, and decided to head down that one. As Huang got closer to the singing, he could make out the lyrics, it was a girl, she seemed very sad in her song.
The first thing, he saw coming out of the Cavern, was two graves, one had a proper stone tombstone, the other was just a sign with a name on it, and then he spotted Yorda, but the voice didn't sound like her voice as she sang
"Promise that we we'll stay for the sunset, and when the moon shines through the darkness. " Sang the thing that had taken the appearance of Yorda, "We can find a path that leads us home, and on the way you'll… maybe… Sing me a song" she continued to sing, and ignored the approach of Huang "promise you will always be there, hold my hand if ever I'm real scared." She now was hugging the tombstone, her appearance warping, and becoming, except her hair was still white as snow "Help me stand up tall if I fall down, make me laugh away my bluest day." She was now crying "How could you promise you always would be there why'd you have to go away somewhere." She now looked up at the sky, wiping away the tears "Every morning into night Do you watch over me like the sun in the sky, Am I all alone standing in your light I wish that I could… maybe… sing you a song… tonight… You promised me we'd stay for the sunset…" she now stopped singing, and turned her back to Huang.
Huang recognized the girl, she was the one from the painting, but she hasn't seemed to have aged much "Aru?" he called out to the girl.
"Don't call me that" the girl hissed, her appearance morphing again, taking on the characteristics of a spider "I was once Arukeni Yamazaki, but now you can Call me Arukenimon, and you are a Digidestined, and I am a monster, I gave you ample warning to leave Crispin Village"
-Village mountain pathway-
A girl sat on the ground, she dressed in the same manner as the villagers, she drew shapes in the ground that looked spider webs, from the look of her she was in her mid-teens, her long hair was tied up in a pony-tail, the setting sun made her shadow long, it was like it was slowly snaking its way into the village "Sin are unforgivable, their judgement is coming" she said looking down upon the village.
-To be Continued-
Yorda was the monster in disguise? And now who is this mystery girl, what does she have planned, is it the monster she wants vengeance on? to answer these questions, and more, please tune into the next Digimon digital monsters!