Breaking the silence a voice called out to them "You can come out of hiding he's gone" said a voice that startled them, neither of them knew this voice, Huang looked away from Juniko to see who was talking, and all that was there was the unknown person that had been with Brother Roland, now she sounded completely different, and younger than she sounded before, she still had her back to them. So they couldn't see her face.
Huang and Junko stepped their hiding place, something made them feel like they could trust her, if she wanted them captured, she could have done it quite easily without drawing attention to herself like she just did.
"You shouldn't be here, this place is dangerous, and the fate of the world depends on you" she said still not turning around to look at them.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Huang in a demanding tone, as he glowered at the back of the stranger that was talking to them.
"You are not ready to know me yet" she said with sympathy in her tone "Now get your friends, and get out of here before it's too late, these people aren't what they appear to be" a ball of light appeared out of the robes, and flew up into the ceiling, and the robes fell empty to the floor.
Juniko walked over to the robes, and started poking it with her foot, there was nothing there anymore. This was very bizarre since there had been someone there moments ago. "What the hell was that" she said out loud to herself, and then turned to face Huang, who was just as confused as she was. "I Think we should get out of here as soon as possible like she warned us to do" she turned to get ready to leave, Huang suddenly pulled her back into cover just in time as a bunch of priests came around the corner.
Digimon Sync episode 15 "No Need For Digimon?"
In the morning, everyone was happy to see there digimon partner, Hikaru hugged Moonmon tightly. Even Takajin was happy to see Sunmon, and wasn't as irritated as usual, when he lit something on fire, namely a nearby chair, this time it was a sign of excitement to see his human partner. Despite their situation things were looking a lot better after the reunion, even when they weren't separated for that long, it was like they could almost forget the ordeals that have had dealt with since leaving Digitopia. It was hard to do that surrounded by all the decay caused by this so-called virus that the people of Tabula Rosa were afraid of returning because of digimon, and they were told this by Brother Roland.
The sun finally made its way into the sky its glowing radiance bringing the ruins out of the shadows, which made it way more disturbing to look at for Vasantmon, he found himself looking away out of pure Anger, The sight and the smell made him furious. "What do we do now your Highness" he said turning to look at Mikuni.
"We look for records of the outbreak and when they started" said Mikuni pointing at the city hall across from the temple, she jumped up from the chair she had been sitting on, and headed toward the door.
Now outside Mikuni and Vasantmon made their way across the street. They tried to avoid stepping on corpses as they did so; no matter how they felt about the dead stepping on them was disrespectful even to them. After they finally progressed to the City Hall, Mikuni opened the front door. A skull rolled out to greet her; she stepped over it making sure not to make contact with it. It was musty inside of the city hall far worse than the temple, something about that made her feel uneasy, she couldn't figure out why. Moments later she found all the records about the Logene virus, and left to head back to the temple to read them leaving Vasantmon to continue his search in case he found more.
On her way back, Mikuni noticed something in the distance, it was a massive plume of smoke, which seemed to be getting closer to them, like something was paving a swath of destruction in their direction, and judging by how fast it was moving it would be here in a matter of an hour, She called for Vasantmon, he appeared at her side.
"What is it your highness" Vasantmon said giving Mikuni a deep bow, and he too caught sight of the spreading smoke plume. "Something appears to be destroying building in these ruins, it's coming from the direction of the barrier. I am guessing we are going to head it off before it gets here" he knew his human partner well enough that would be her first course of action in this situation.
"Yes because that is the course of a champion" said Mikuni as she was picked up Vasantmon, and they vanished as she finished her sentence.
-Ruins Temple-
Hikaru looked around, and suddenly noticed that Mikuni was gone "wasn't she supposed to be watch, there was a couple more hours before she was going to be relieved" she sighed, hoping that it wasn't serious that drew her attention to it. She determined that she would take her look out shift now, She wished Mikuni would have let them know she was taking off before doing so.
"The very existence of you digidestined puts every one of us in danger" said Brother Roland walking into the room out of nowhere "Please tell me are your digimon more important than the lives of thousands of Tabula Rosa Citizen's, look at all of this caused by digimon"
Takajin stepped in between Hikaru and Brother Roland "Do you think we buy that garbage, Digimon have served my family well for generation as trust companions, how can you come up with such a stupid conclusion as digimon causing a virus that wiped out all these lives"
"And you are a scientist, and know what caused all of this?" said Brother Roland looking somewhat impressed, but in a mocking way. "I cured these people by taking away their digimon, if digimon aren't the carriers then why did that work?" he raised his left hand to emphasize his point of view. "Now I need to kill digimon without the human partner dying"
"That is sick" Takajin shouted, he now glared at Roland, like he could make him explode by doing so. "has that been what you have been doing to these people" he brought attention to the old man and woman in the room, still sleeping on the floor.
-Old Tabula Rosa Ruins-
The explosions got louder, as they got closer to whatever was causing the path of destruction, and then all of a sudden it stopped, it was silent, Mikuni peered around the next corner, there was nothing but piles of Rubble of buildings something had destroyed. "This is so weird, where was the thing that had been doing all of this?" she said to herself now looking back at Vasantmon, she turned around, and there it was an enormous pale digimon with red wings, it's face was covered in some high-tech mask, it was just standing there. Whatever type of digimon it was, she had never seen anything like it before.
"Destroy Digidestined" it growled before vanishing and appearing in front of the building at Mikuni was standing beside, it struck the building, before it was destroyed Vasantmon had grabbed Mikuni and got her away from it in time. When Vasantmon appeared again, it was there too standing in front of them, they managed to get away from it again, this thing was fast, and knew where they were going like it could tell the future.
"Destroy digidestined" it screamed like it was in extreme pain, there was another voice coming from the mask itself, but all it seemed to be saying was numbers.
Vasantmon looked to Mikuni, and she nodded, he then dived into the nearest building, and out the other side before it destroyed the building. They now ran into an alley across from it before the smoke cleared.
"Target Destroyed, seek more Targets" it said before continuing its path of destruction.
Mikuni peered out of the hiding spot in the alley, it was gone, it didn't feel right to retreat, but iit was more like a regrouping to figure how to take that thing done, it extremely fast, though it seem slow mentally and easily fooled having a very Single mindedness. All it wants to do is destruction of her and her fellow digidestined, if it gets to the other they would be dead since they didn't have their digivices, she had to make it back to the others under this things radar.
-New Tabula Rosa Temple-
They had to get out of there soon, before they were spotted, only problem was that without knowing the layout of the temple, they could be going anywhere since they couldn't go back down the way they came, and they had to do this while avoiding any contact with anyone, the temples passageways were maze like and coiled liked snakes. Huang and Juniko had to make their way through all of this and make their way outside without being caught.
Juniko stopped, and leaned against a wall, and it opened, and she fell in, getting up she noticed the room was filled with books, and strange-looking devices, Huang came in after to see if she was ok, but the door close as soon as he came in. The room looked really old because of the layers of dust, which reminded Huang of the mansion in the city formerly known as Crispin. He picked up a book and opened it, the book was written in some kind of strange language, and he could not read it, he put the book down and picked up another. He was suddenly flashed with bright light; Juniko had flicked on one of the strange devices. It projected an image of a man in a lab coat on the wall.
"The Epidemic is raging out of control, a hard lined faction blames digimon but I think otherwise, and I am very close to a cure" said the man in a lab coat "This is doctor Gennai ending todays update"
For a second the device played only static, and then the image of the man returned, he seemed a little more freaked this time, and aged considerably.
"The cure was a failure, it was like it was working then the virus adapted, we needed to find another cure for Logene before it is too late, I need to prove that this nonsense spread by Brother Roland is false even though his faction seem to be cured" said Doctor Gennai, before the device went to static again. When the image came back this time, the doctor was a ragged, and aged a lot, he now looked like he had problems breathing, and speaking complete sentences. "This… Might be… my final report" he said coughing with each pause and the last one containing blood "It's not a virus… It's…" the doctor collapsed before he could finish that sentence and the image never came back.
Beside the device Huang found the doctors journals, he mentioned a lot of thing he found suspect, and could never prove any of them to be the root of the logene virus, by the end of the doctor made little sense at all the virus seemed to have affected his brain, and made him write gibberish, maybe further might weed out of sense in all of it. Huang pocketed the journal, he gestured to Juniko that they had to get out of there now, they began to feel the wall till they found the trigger, and the wall opened up again.
-Old Tabula Rosa temple-
"What about them, so digidestined are using hostages now, these are proud members of the priesthood of the pure, how dare you take them from their sanctuary and expose them to your digimon" said Brother Roland through gritted teeth, as he glared at Takajin.
"Whatever you are doing to them is killing them" said Takajin glaring back in the direction of Brother Roland "don't you hear them, they are struggling to breath?"
"I am doing nothing to them, they are preparing for the digimon purge, its hard on the body to do so, I have done the same thing, you see I have no digimon partner" said Brother Roland gesturing to either side of himself. "My digimon partner was a Candlemon" he smirked.
"How the hell did you do that without dying, which is impossible" Hikaru asked, a look of horror crossing her face, as though she was looking at a monster.
"Severing the link between me and my digimon, I watched it die right in front of me, but it was the only way to be cured I don't miss that thing at all" said Brother Roland making a gesture like he was washing his hands symbolizing his digimon partner.
A woman suddenly came out of nowhere; it was Mallison from the inn, she came from the same place that Brother Roland had entered from "I am sorry I followed you…?" she said, but stopped in mid sentence catching sight of the old people on the floor. She ran to them "little Brother" she now shouted as she got to the old man, who she cradled in a panic.
"Little Brother?" said Hikaru looking rather confused at the revelation. "This is your little brother, he looks way older than you?"
"He is 25 years old" Mallison replied "I know he is my little Brother, the last time I talked to him was years ago, when he was looking for a cure for Logene" she was now glaring at digidestined.
"Look he was this way when we were in the same cell as he was" said Takajin feeling the hate that was being directed at him from Sister Mallison.
"That can't be, you said he was cured, and waiting for his digimon to be purged, like the many others who are locked in the temple?" Sister Mallison looked over to Brother Roland. confusion washing over her in waves.
"Exactly, are you going to believe these people over me, the savior of this village, I was the founder of new Tabula Rosa, while the people of old Tabula Rosa Continued to die, you people were cured because of me. A group of strangers tells you different without a scrap of proof, and you turn you back on purity?" said Brother Roland face palming in disgust.
"No that is not what I am saying, I am just asking what is going on?" said Sister Mallison casting her eyes to the ground in embarrassment, and back-tracking her conversation looking for what she had said wrong, she cowered under Roland's gaze.
Brother Roland sighed, and settled down, and his glare returned to Takajin. His patience was wearing thin; he was now talking like he was speaking to a petulant child "I don't time to deal with children, who don't know any better, don't make me have to beat some sense into you, these people need to be purged of your influence, and you need to give up your digimon now"
"No way are we going to do that, these digimon are part of our family, you never abandon Family especially when times are rough. It's like you are asking me to kill my brother" said Hikaru making a fist with her right hand. She would have punched Brother Roland, if it wasn't for her Takajin, who had gotten in her way.
"you can take your priesthood, and shove it" Takajin shouted, as he clocked Brother Roland in the face with left hook punch taking him completely off guard nearly knocking him off his feet. But Roland remained standing rubbing a bruise that was developing on the right cheek of his face.
-Old Tabula Rosa ruins-
Mikuni made it back to the temple, there was no sign of the digimon she had encountered before, had she gotten back here before it had, she looked around, the swath of destruction had not reached here yet, which confirmed that she had gotten here first. Unless it stopped destroying things since it detected more of its targets. She was halfway to the temple, when she spotted Brother Roland through the entrance. How did he know that we were here, and when did he arrive were the first question that came to mind for Mikuni.
Before she got any closer the ground exploded in front of her, and there it was, the digimon from before was right in front of her, she barely dodged its attack, lucky for her Vasantmon had pulled her to safety.
"Target reacquired, destroy digidestined" it ear piercingly screamed, it went to strike this time aiming for Vasantmon, who dodged it, this was not a good situation, they barely got away from it before. Its wings gleamed dark crimson like they had been painted with blood.
"I don't think the same trick will work on it this time, and even if it did the rest of our companions are defenseless in that temple. So it wouldn't be a good idea to do so" said Vasantmon pointing his paw at the temple.
"A champion is sworn to valor, their heart knows only virtue." Mikuni said, placing her hand over her chest, placing it directly over her heart.
"Their Strength defends the helpless, their might upholds the weak, their word speaks only truth, and their wrath undoes the wicked" said Vasantmon continuing the oath that Mikuni had started, he raised his fist into the air saluting something unseen.
"Let's take this S.O.B. down" said Mikuni, she had confidence in her voice, but the expression on her face was like someone staring into a precipice. Mikuni and Vasantmon charged toward the mystery digimon.
-To be Continued-
Will Mikuni survived the Mystery digimon, and will the secrets behind Tabula Rosa be unraveled? To answer these questions, and more, please tune into the next Digimon digital monsters!