Chapter 4:
Chosen
The blackness continued for just a few moments, then brightened. Akira opened her eyes and looked around, seeing millions of colored lights swirling. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain slice through her body. She shut her eyes tightly and tried not to scream, then lost consciousness.
Some time later, Akira woke again, painless, and the lights stopped their wild kaleidoscopic dance. She felt odd, like she wasn’t really awake yet. She got up and looked around, eyes widening in disbelief.
She was standing in the colored forest again. The light breeze blew past her and lifted the leaves off the trees. She was aware of the soft, laughing voice again, and turned around, determined to find out whom it belonged to. It started getting louder…
And then Akira’s eyes opened. She blinked and looked up, right into the face of… a strange creature with cute bearlike eyes, giggling in that same, familiar voice.
Akira screamed, getting up to her feet. Her scream startled the creature, and it screamed back as well.
“Hey!” it shouted, “what was that for? I was just trying to wake you up! You didn’t look too well.”
Akira blinked, and replied, “I’m sorry, you just scared me, that’s all.” She looked at the creature again.
The funny creature was a small gray teddy bear. She had cute pink eyes, a purple cap, a dark purple shoulder band and purple knuckle straps.
Akira’s eyes widened. “Kodamon…?” she whispered in disbelief.
Kodamon smiled. “Nice to see you again.”
“You’re real…” Akira murmured in shock, “You’re actually real. I thought it was just a game…”
For just a moment, Kodamon stared back at her with a shocked, disbelieving look. Then, that look slowly changed to a bittersweet smile. She ran over to Akira and gave her a hug.
“It’s been a long time, Akira,” Kodamon murmured, “I’ve missed you.”
Akira hugged back, but gave Kodamon a puzzled look. Then she looked around, finally noticing where they were.
“Where are we?” she asked, “In the… Digital World?”
Kodamon nodded. “Yep! Your Digivice brought you here, remember?”
“My Digivice…” Akira pulled it out from her pocket. “Kei, my sister, got one too…” She gasped. “Kei! Where is she? Did she come here too?”
“Hey, hey, relax!” Kodamon said. “We’ll find her. If you’re here, then she must be, too! I’ll help you look!” She took Akira’s hand.
“Okay,” Akira replied. They walked away, hand in hand.
Meanwhile, not far from where they were, Kei was wandering around with Terriermon perched on top of her head.
“Where do you think Akira could be?” Kei asked, glancing up at Terriermon, “I hope she’s all right. She nearly got hit by a car before we came!”
“Don’t worry,” Terriermon replied with a giggle, “Her Digivice would have protected her.”
Kei smiled and felt a bit better. “Yeah!” she chirped, and looked at Terriermon again. “You know,” she said, “you look a lot cuter than in the game!”
Terriermon laughed hastily and almost fell off Kei’s head. Kei straightened him up. “Hey! Who’s that?” Terriermon pointed to a girl running toward them. She was short and seemed to be Kei’s age. A Lopmon was gliding behind her.
“Hi!” Kei said cheerfully as the girl reached her and stopped to catch her breath. “You’re Akira’s moron friend’s sister, aren’t you?”
The girl smiled. “I’m so relieved! I thought I was the only person here!” She turned and looked at Lopmon, who was flying in circles with Terriermon.
“You haven’t seen Akira around, have you? Kei asked.
“Yuka!” a sharp yell rang out through the trees. Yuka looked ahead and saw Seita running toward her with a Gazimon running close behind. The left side of Seita’s face was slightly red.
“Are you okay? Don’t scare me like that!” Seita said, exasperated.
“I’m sorry, Seita,” Yuka hung her head. “I’m all right. I had Lopmon with me, and I met Kei and Terriermon!” She looked over to them with a pleading expression.
Seita smiled at her and ran his fingers through his hair. “Don’t worry about it,” he replied. Then he glanced at Kei. “So you’re Akira’s sister.”
“Yeah,” Kei said hastily, “It's complicated.” She quickly changed the subject. “Do either of you know where Akira is?”
Seita hesitated a moment. “No... but we can help you find her, if you want. Right, Gazimon?” He looked at his partner.
“Sure!” Gazimon grinned. Yuka nodded.
Kei looked relieved. “Thanks.”
At that moment, Akira and Kodamon met up with Tian and Renamon.
“Tian! So you got here, too! At least Kei and I aren’t the only ones!” Akira ran toward them, Kodamon at her heels.
“Are you okay? How did you get here?” Tian asked, “I remember going to the grocery after breakfast, and so many things seemed to go wrong when I was on my way back…” She raised a hand to the back of her head, rubbing it absently. “And the next moment, I was here.” She still looked shocked from the trip.
“Well, I was going for a walk…” Akira said slowly, thinking. “And I saw this weird kid, and… well, it’s a long story! Maybe I’ll tell you later!” Akira grinned, then became serious again. “Have you see Kei? We lost each other when we got here.”
“Nope. We haven’t seen her,” Tian turned to Renamon, who had her eyes closed. “Renamon, what is it?”
“Shh, I’m listening. Someone else is here…” Just then, a loud crash came from a nearby tree. Jun and Mana tumbled out, with a Patamon and a Salamon following them, and landed in a clump of bushes.
“Ouch!”
“Hey! Stop it!”
“You’re sitting on my tail!”
“Get off!”
The tangled group struggled to get out as Akira and the others stared.
“Hi!” Akira greeted them cheerfully, “What were you doing in that tree?” Jun and Mana looked at each other, then looked at her with sheepish expressions.
“Um… we were… investigating! Yeah!” Jun replied hastily, “We saw you guys and a bunch of Digimon and wondered what you were up to.”
“Actually, we were hiding like scaredy cats!” Mana interrupted, as Jun shot a glare at her.
“We haven’t properly introduced ourselves,” Jun said seriously, “I’m Jun Aikawa.”
“My name’s Mana Saitou,” Mana added, “Nice to finally meet you!”
Akira smiled, then grew serious. “Have you seen anyone else since you got here? I’m looking for my sister, Kei.”
Jun shook his head. “We haven’t seen anyone else but you,” Mana said.
“Hey!” Someone shouted in the distance. “Over here!”
Akira looked ahead and saw Kei, Seita, and Yuka running toward them with their Digimon.
“We finally found you!” Kei yelled, hugging her, “Are you okay?”
Akira smiled at her. “Yes. I’m fine.” Then she looked down at Yuka. “Oh… Yuka, hi!”
Yuka smiled, then looked up at her brother.
Akira shifted her gaze to him, and her smile faded. “Hello, moron.”
Seita stared back at her, looking slightly uncomfortable. “Moron to you too…”
After a moment, Akira looked away, facing Yuka instead. “How did you guys get here?”
Yuka looked up at her brother, then looked back at Akira. “I think those weird Digivice toys did it. We were going to Seita’s soccer practice when they started beeping, and then they landed us here!” She giggled. “Seita almost got hit in the face with a soccer ball!”
Everyone laughed while Seita flushed and glared at the ground in embarrassment.
Just then, Renamon, who was sitting on the ground, jumped up, startling everyone else.
“This isn’t the time to talk!” she said, “We should get out of here! Quickly! Something’s coming!”
“What?” Tian looked around. “I don’t see anything!” Then, a strong wind ripped through the trees. Tian pulled her cap down to keep it from blowing away. “What’s that?” A thunderous roar shook the forest. Mana looked up and screamed.
A large Snimon flew out of the trees, its fangs and sickled arms flashing dangerously.
The next moment was chaos. Screaming, most of the kids scrambled over each other to get away. Mana, however, was rooted to the spot, much too scared even to move. Akira noticed that, and ran back to her.
“Mana! Come on! We’ve gotta get out of here! Go!” Mana finally moved, running faster than everyone else. Akira looked back and her eyes widened. The Snimon was getting closer! “We’re going to have to fight back sometime, guys!” she yelled out, “We can’t run forever!” A moment later, she was right.
The group came to a high cliff partly surrounded by ocean. Mana, who was at the head of the group, stopped and almost fell into it when Jun caught her. She looked down it, nauseated.
“What are we going to do now?” she whispered, “I can’t swim very well!” The Snimon slowed down in front of them and waited, sharpening its blades.
Akira walked closer to it, Kodamon at her side. “We’re just going to have to fight it!” she replied. The other kids stared.
“Are you crazy?” Tian shouted, “Fight it? The thing’s fifty times bigger than all of us!”
“Relax!” Akira said, “Remember the game? This is exactly like the battles we fought.”
“She’s right,” Jun added, “It is exactly like it, and our Digimon’s attacks will work! It’s going to be hard, though. In the game, size didn’t usually matter.” He folded his arms. Mana looked back at the Snimon and shuddered.
“If you all have any ideas, let’s hear them,” she said, “I don’t want to end up as the Digimon’s lunch!” Everyone started talking all at once, arguing over plans. They didn’t notice Akira and Kodamon disappear into the forest.
A few minutes later, they came out, but behind the Snimon. Quietly, they tiptoed over to it. Then Akira looked at Kodamon and nodded.
“Bear Fist!”
The Snimon let out a deafening roar. The other kids looked at it in bewilderment, then saw Kodamon emerge from behind it, hurling energy punches at its head. Akira followed, not far behind.
“Sorry, everyone!” she called out, “We were getting bored!” Tian and Kei started laughing, and Seita walked over to her with Gazimon.
“Come on! What are we waiting for?” he said, “Let’s get to it!”
The kids started throwing rocks and sticks at the Snimon, while their Digimon attacked. With the sticks and rocks aggravating it, the Snimon couldn’t attack properly and made it easier for the kids’ Digimon to attack. The fight lasted only a few minutes.
“Bear Fist!”
“Electric Stun Blast!”
“Fox Leaf Arrowhead!”
“Air Shot!”
“Puppy Howling!”
“Blazing Fire!”
“Blazing Ice!”
All seven attacks hit the Snimon full force, and it finally deleted. Its data particles scattered into the air for a few moments.
Akira stared at the particles and noticed something strange. There was a little star-like point of dark energy amidst the floating pile of data. She tried to get a better look at it, but it disappeared with the rest of the data.
Everyone else danced and cheered, hugging each other and hugging their Digimon. Jun walked up to Akira and Kodamon.
“Thanks for everything back there,” he said, “If it weren’t for you two, the rest of us would still be standing there arguing, and that thing would have had all of us for lunch!” He smiled.
“I think it was really brave of you two to sneak up on it and attack from behind!” Mana added, “I couldn’t have done it!”
Kodamon laughed. “It was nothing, really. We just thought of it as a game!”
“Well, what should we do now?” Kei asked, “We’re still here. Is there a way to get home, or are we stuck here?”
“If we’re stuck here, there should be a good reason why,” Jun reasoned.
“In any case,” Mana said, “We have to find a place to stay and get something to eat!” She sighed.
“Don’t worry about that,” Salamon replied, “There’s lots of good things to eat around here. You won’t starve!”
“Umm…why don’t we try going back to the place where we first came through?” Yuka said nervously, then brightened. “We can stay there for now, and we can see if there’s any way back home!”
Renamon nodded her head. “That’s the first good idea I’ve heard so far. If you came here through that place, there must be a gate there somewhere.”
“Okay!” Akira said, “Let’s go!” She walked back, and everyone else followed.
When the group returned to their landing site, Mana and Jun ran toward some bushes and came back, carrying large backpacks.
“Where did you get all that?” Kei asked curiously.
“Well, before we got here, the both of us were on our way to summer camp,” Mana replied, looking sour.
“We never actually made it there, though,” Jun added, “The bus stalled on the way, and the Digivices reacted right after that…” His voice faded a bit as he recalled everything, looking slightly disturbed. “We were still wearing our backpacks when they pulled us here.”
“Do you have any food in there?” Akira asked.
“Sure! But we’ll have to save a lot, of course,” Jun started pulling out things from his pack. “And we have lots of other useful stuff like a compass, telescope, flashlight, batteries, matches, you name it!”
Kei looked over the stuff. “This is great! Thanks to this, we won’t have much trouble!”
For most of the day, everyone stayed together and rested. Akira and Kei sat under a tree while Kodamon and Terriermon stood guard near them. Akira looked troubled, and Kei wondered why.
“Akira? What is it? Is there something wrong?”
“I was just thinking...” Akira looked up at her. “Kei, when you got here, did it hurt?”
“No, I just felt weightless, that’s all,” Kei replied. “Why? Did you get hurt? Was it because of the car?” she demanded worriedly.
“No, no, nothing happened,” Akira assured her hastily, “I was just curious!” Kei wasn’t convinced, but she didn’t continue the subject.
“I noticed something weird when we vaporized that Digimon,” Akira continued. “I saw a little black star-shaped thing it its data. It looked almost like a black gear of some sort. Did you see that?”
Kei thought a moment. “Nope, didn’t see that! You’re probably getting too worried over things.”
As the two sisters talked, Jun was sitting nearby, working on his laptop.
“Oh, here you go again, playing with your computer!” Mana sighed. “Can’t you ever leave that thing alone to save your life?”
“I’m trying to figure out why we’re here,” he replied, “I’ve tried looking for some info about it, but nothing’s getting through! Phones don’t work, Internet doesn’t work – I’m surprised this computer even works!”
Meanwhile, Seita and Yuka were walking, not far off. Yuka caught Seita staring at something, and looked for herself. She saw Akira and Kei sitting, Akira glancing down at the ground with a disturbed look on her face, and Kei staring at her, worried. Yuka looked up at Seita again, and his expression was unreadable.
“Seita,” Yuka said carefully, “is something bothering you?”
Seita blinked, as if popping out of a trance. “What?” he asked, pulling his gaze away from Akira and Kei, “No… no, nothing’s wrong.”
Yuka gave him a funny look, which then changed into a smile as they approached the others. When they looked up expectantly, Seita looked down.
“You didn’t find anything? Any way to get home?” Mana asked.
Seita shook his head.
“Well, if we’re going to be stuck here for a while, shouldn’t we have a leader?” Kei said, “We’ll need someone to keep us together if anything happens.”
“You’re right!” Terriermon told her, “We can work better like that!”
“So,” Seita said, “Who would be good for a leader?”
Everyone thought for a moment, then Mana broke the silence.
“I think Akira should be the leader.”
“What?!” Akira exclaimed, “Why me? I’m not much of a leader!”
“Oh, come on, of course you are!” Mana replied, “You helped us win that battle with Snimon, and if you weren’t there to help me get out, I wouldn’t be here!”
“But…”
“I agree!” Kei chimed in, “You saved my life before we even got here, and helped us win that game!”
Kei then looked over at Seita. “Well,” she queried, “What do you think?” Seita looked thoughtful for a few moments, then slowly nodded yes.
“Does everyone feel that way?” Akira asked faintly. Everyone nodded.
Kodamon looked at her and smiled. “Come on, you can do it! I believe in you. You’ll do fine, I promise!” She gave her a thumbs-up.
Akira was silent for a few moments. “Well… if you all really want me to…” she replied slowly, “I’m willing to try.”
Kei laughed and hugged her. “So, where do you want to go?”
Akira thought a moment. “I think…” The others moved closer, listening quietly. “I think we should explore more of this Digital World. We probably won’t get lost, because our Digimon can guide us. Maybe we can find out why we were sent here.” She smiled faintly.
Kodamon looked at everyone. “I think that’s a good idea! How about all of you?”
“Yeah!”
Akira beamed. “Okay. Let’s go!”
As the seven kids left with their Digimon, a rustling noise came from a bush behind them. A little boy with black hair and a Guilmon emerged from the leaves, watching them. Then, they hid themselves again and left, going their own, separate way.