Chapter 13:
Digital Clues
“You know, I wonder if someone or something around here is mocking us.”
Jun turned to face Mana, puzzled. “Why?”
“Because,” Mana replied. “We're stuck here, trying to follow a road that's leading to nowhere, with no end in sight!”
It was true. After the mountains ended, there was a long stretch of dusty road, framed by trees on both sides. Everyone had stopped to rest a while back, and as far as they knew, there was no end in sight. The only thing that was ahead was a dreary, gray sky.
“Well-” Jun started to say.
“And,” Mana interrupted, “Look at what else we've been through! We've walked through burning deserts, junkyards, caves, pyramids, haunted mountains, and God knows what else, and we haven't even found one reason why we're here in the first place!”
“We know that,” Seita spat, “so can you stop complaining about it?”
Mana glared. “I'm not complaining, I'm just telling it as it is!”
“Actually...”
Everyone stared at Akira, who had been leaning against a tree, absently flipping her Digivice in the air.
“Actually, we have found out a couple of things,” she said softly, “A couple of very important things.” She caught her Digivice in midair, then turned around to face them. “We know that, judging from what Black Tailmon and Devimon said, some sort of dark force is trying to take control here. And from what Wizardmon said, we're probably the only ones who can stop it.”
“Is that it?” Seita asked, “But why us?”
“Maybe it has something to do with why we got the Digivices,” Tian replied, "And these-” She held up the tag around her neck.
Akira nodded. She sighed and leaned on the tree again, lowering her head and closing her eyes.
Seita slowly walked over to her, and was about to say something when she spoke up suddenly.
“What do you want, Seita?”
Seita jumped. “How did you know it was me?” he whispered.
Akira opened an eye and smirked. “Because you're the only one I know who'd approach me that carefully,” She looked up and stared at him. “What is it?”
“I just wanted to know...” he said softly, “How much do you remember?”
Akira frowned. “About what?”
“About before,” Seita replied, “Kodamon told me about it.”
Akira was silent for a while, wondering how much to tell him, then spoke. "Not much, really. Almost nothing. Most of the time, everything's a blur.”
There was an awkward silence between them, then Seita broke it. “About what I asked everyone earlier...” He hesitated a moment, then looked into Akira's eyes. “Haven't you ever wondered, why you? I can only understand a little bit of why you're here.”
Akira looked at Seita questioningly, and swallowed. "I... I don't think I understand any more than you do.” She looked at Seita pleadingly.
Seita blinked, then after a moment's silence, nodded. "Well... if you ever remember other things, you can talk to me or Kodamon... if you want to. Whenever you're ready.” He smiled, then turned and walked away.
Akira stared at him in wonder. That was at least the second or third time he's done that in an hour, she thought, and we haven't had an argument in days. She continued watching him from a distance, and found herself smiling for no reason. I just don't understand him sometimes...
Just then, someone or something ran past her in a blur. She looked up suddenly and stood up straight. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. She looked ahead, and strangely, there was nothing there.
“Hey...” Akira said shakily, “Did you all see that?”
“See what?” Kodamon asked. Everyone else shrugged.
“I... I'm not exactly sure...” Akira stammered, “I thought I saw...” She swallowed. An icy chill went up her spine.
When that something or other ran past her, she had seen a flash of a girl's face. A girl with violet eyes, long black hair, and a familiar-looking pair of yellow goggles...
Akira shivered and shook the thought out of her mind. That's impossible. Of course I didn't see something like that. But then, what was it? She looked in the direction the person went, subconsciously holding out her Digivice. It started beeping, and the small screen showed a bright light moving away from them. Akira ran, following the light on the display.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Seita called after her.
Kodamon had been watching her the whole time and had caught on. "Never mind, just follow her!”
Akira was way ahead of them. She stared at the Digivice and saw that she was getting closer to whatever she was chasing. She looked up, and she could see the faint outline of a person in front of her. She got closer, and when she looked at the person's face again, she almost stopped breathing.
Long black hair. Violet eyes. Yellow goggles.
What the heck...?
The person looked almost exactly like her! Akira couldn't believe it. The only differences were that the mystery girl was a couple of inches shorter than her, the lenses on the goggles were clear instead of blue, and she was wearing different clothes – a cyan blue tank top and a pair of red shorts. She was also moving strangely – she seemed to run in a jerky motion, and her image was indistinct, flickering on and off, like a computer or TV screen with interference. Then, suddenly, she vanished.
Akira stopped dead, a shocked look on her face. She looked around her and saw no trace of the strange girl. Mist began to surround everything and obstruct her view. She sighed.
Mist? Not again!
She walked on, very slowly, and as the mist moved away, she came across a strange sight. The dirt road had ended at a large clearing, with the ruined remains of a small village. Every hut was damaged in some way, and the only things growing were weeds and a handful of dying trees.
Akira stared at this until everyone else had caught up with her.
“Akira!” Seita called, running up to her and breathing deeply, "What were you doing, running off just like that?”
“It took forever to catch up with you,” Tian added, catching her breath, “I forgot how fast you can run!”
“What is this place?” Mana asked, staring at all the ruin.
“I guess we'll just have to find out,” Kodamon answered, taking Akira's hand.
After an hour of exploring, they still had no answers.
“I don't get it,” Tian said, half frustrated. “What would have happened here that would make whoever lived here leave all this stuff behind?” She gestured toward the piles of computer towers and complex-looking consoles and wires inside one of the huts. There was something similar in every other one they had looked in.
“Something terrible, I think,” Renamon replied. “Everything looks like it's been through an attack of some kind.”
“Whatever it was, it must have happened a long time ago,” Jun added, examining the objects inside the hut. "Everything looks like it hasn't been used in decades. Everything-” he pointed to the pile, "-except the computer stuff. I don't understand that. Being exposed to the open air like this for a long time should have made them rust!”
Tian just shrugged, and followed Renamon somewhere else.
Jun walked over to another hut and went inside. Patamon followed, as well as Mana and Salamon. Jun turned to Mana, and Mana began to say something.
“Let me guess,” Jun said, “You found nothing but computer consoles.”
Mana's mouth snapped shut and she nodded.
“Same here.” Jun looked around and saw something flat sitting on a table. He walked closer to it and examined it. It was a laptop, a very old model by the size and thickness of it. Its cover was white and bright yellow, and had a pineapple symbol in the middle. He opened it up. “I wonder...” he murmured.
“I hope you're not thinking that still works,” Mana said skeptically.
Jun pushed the power button and the old laptop sprang to life. He laughed. “Perfect! Maybe whatever's in this laptop will give us some kind of clue!”
Mana and Salamon just looked at each other.
“Anything understandable yet?” Akira asked hopefully as Tian approached her.
“Nope.” Tian shook her head. “The only thing we agree on is that something bad happened here a long time ago. That doesn't explain all the computer equipment, though.”
“About that,” Seita put in, wrists deep into the back of a console,”I don't think any of this junk will work. All the wires in here are ripped out and frayed.”
“So get out of that before they spark and burn you alive!” Akira shouted at him, "You could have asked Jun to look at it!”
At that, a small spark spewed from a wire and gave Seita a mild shock. He yelped and jumped away from the console.
Akira rolled her eyes. “Like I said.”
“Good call! You're more observant than I ever was. If it were me, he really would have been burned alive!”
Akira froze. "Did you hear that?” Both Seita and Tian nodded faintly. Then Akira felt something touch her shoulder. She whirled around, swinging a fist in front of her, and nearly collided with...
“Whoa! Hey, hey, calm down! I'm not an enemy!” The voice came from the image of a boy with wild, spiky brown hair. He wore a pair of goggles with a blue sweatband on his head. He moved strangely, flickering like a computer screen.
“Taichi, you know better than to scare her like that!” An image of a girl appeared next, wearing a blue hat.
“She's right, you know.” Another boy appeared, with spiky blond hair and blue eyes.
“Now you see why I worry so much!” A boy wearing glasses appeared, sighing.
“W-who are you?” Akira stammered.
“I'm Taichi,” the boy with the goggles said, "That guy over there is Yamato, and the girl is Sora.” He smiled again. “Nice to meet you!”
“I'm Jyou,” the boy with the glasses added, with a resigned look on his face.
Kodamon looked at each of them closely, then blinked. “They're not real. At least, not in the sense that we're real.”
“Ghosts?” Tian asked quietly.
“No,” Renamon answered, “I don't feel anything from them.”
Seita looked at them skeptically. "Okay... so if they're not real people and they're not ghosts, what are they and why are they here talking to us?”
Yamato looked at him seriously. "Because there's something we need to explain.”
Jun was silent for a couple of minutes as he stared at the computer screen, typing in a couple of things every once in a while.
Mana looked over his shoulder, frowning. “There's nothing in there...”
“Yes, there is something here,” Jun answered, frustrated, “It's just that there's so many security blocks everywhere, and I'm looking for back doors.” He wiped his arm across his forehead. “Whatever this is, it must be important enough to have this many passwords!” He hit 'Enter' one more time, and the laptop bleeped. The password screens disappeared.
“Perfect!” Jun smiled. He typed something in, then frowned. “Now this is strange...” After a minute of silence, he spoke up again. “It's a database of some kind, and it's all written in Japanese!”
Mana snapped toward him, confused. "What?”
“Let me see...” His eyes squinted, "My written Japanese isn't that good...”
“You actually learned some of that?” Mana asked, shocked. "I just let my mom and dad translate!”
“Now you see where that got you,” Jun replied, sighing. "Never mind. I'll just let Akira look at it later.” He pulled out his own laptop and a cable from his backpack, and started to connect them to the old laptop. "Right now, though, I'm going to make sure we have this information. I don't think this old thing can take much more.” He pressed a button, and the database began to download.
“Now that's smart! I didn't think my old laptop would work for much longer either!”
Jun looked up suddenly. "Who said that?”
“Me!” A short boy with short, spiky brown hair appeared, making Mana jump.
“W-what?” Mana stammered.
“Don’t forget me!” another voice said. A girl wearing a pink hat and pink dress appeared. Mana let out a scream.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Mana half shouted.
“Not who, Mana,” Jun said, "What.” He waved his hand through the boy, and it went through him.
The boy smiled. "Caught on already? You're smarter than I thought!”
Meanwhile, Yuka and Kei were wandering around outside.
“Yuka,” Kei asked, “Do you feel anything wrong about this place?”
Yuka shook her head. “Uh-uh. For once, everything feels fine.”
Kei frowned. “If that's the case, why is everyone else worried over this?” Yuka shrugged in reply.
Just then, both of them heard giggling. They looked up to see two kids run past them and into a hut.
Yuka and Kei looked at each other. Kei looked up at Terriermon, perched on her head.
“Did you see that?”
“Yeah,” Terriermon replied, “Something funny's going on here...” Terriermon jumped up and glided over to where the two kids disappeared, and everyone else followed.
Inside, the two kids turned around and smiled at them. One was a little boy wearing a green hat, and the other was a little girl wearing a whistle around her neck.
“Hi!” The boy said cheerfully, "I'm Takeru!”
“I'm Hikari,” the girl said.
Yuka and Kei stared at them, then stared at each other.
Jun thought a moment. "You're some kind of computer programs, right? Holographic projections. That would explain all the computer equipment lying around everywhere.” He looked at the boy. "Koushirou, right?”
Koushirou nodded.
“And I'm Mimi,” the girl added.
“We're here to make sure you got that database from the laptop,” Koushirou explained, "Everything you'll need to know is in there. Mostly everything, anyway.”
“And,” Mimi added, "We have to give you these,” She and Koushirou each pulled out a tag and placed them in Jun and Mana's hands.
Jun looked at his. It was purple, and had two linked circles. “These are like the ones Akira, Seita and Tian got,” he said.
Mana's was green and had an engraving of a teardrop. “What are they?” she asked.
“They're called Crests,” Koushirou answered, “Their powers reflect the personalities of the holders.” He looked at Jun. “Your power is knowledge. No matter what happens, you always find a solution.”
“And you...” Mimi told Mana, "You never hesitate to say what's on your mind. You know when danger's staring you in the face and say so, even when the others don't realize it.”
“Powers?” Jun looked puzzled.
“Yes,” Mimi said, “They...”
“...can make your Digimon get bigger and stronger!”
Kei stared at the yellow Crest in her hand and glanced at Takeru. "Really?”
“Yeah!” he replied, smiling.
Yuka clasped her pink Crest and added, "Just like how Kodiamon, Leomon, and Kyuubimon got stronger!”
Kei brightened. "So, Terriermon, with this, you can be just like Helamon and have the power of a million suns?” she asked, very excited. Terriermon laughed.
“A Crest's powers are different for everyone,” Hikari said, "But if your feelings are strong enough, your Digimon will be too!”
“Is everyone else getting one too?” Yuka asked.
“Yes,” Hikari answered, “But you two kids are special. Sometimes, you'll have powers stronger than everyone else.” She turned to Yuka. “Darkness can never touch you.”
“And you'll never lose hope that things will turn out okay!” Takeru said to Kei.
“All those things are important for you to have, especially now,” Hikari said seriously, “You two will have to grow up faster than we ever did.”
“Let me get this straight,” Seita said in exasperation, “You're saying that every once in a while the Digital World ends up in danger, and the only way to stop it is to get a group of kids from the real world to fight back?” He was about to shake his head in disbelief.
“Don't say you don't believe that,” Akira told him, “If it wasn't true, then why else are we here?”
“So we weren't the only ones to come here,” Tian concluded.
“Right.” Taichi said, “We fought the same battle you're going through, years ago, but this time...”
“It's our turn,” Akira answered.
Sora nodded. “And it will be harder for you than it was for us. We don't know much, but whoever's behind everything this time was smarter than before. The attacks on you guys are coming faster than what happened to us. Whatever their plans are, they're speeding things up.”
“Because of that,” Jyou put in, “we've decided to speed things up too. You all have gotten your Crests way earlier that we did. And you didn't have to go running all over the Digital World looking for them.”
“We couldn't afford to waste any more time trying to get you prepared,” Yamato added, "So we had to make sure you all got what you needed.”
“How did you all know about this?” Seita asked, "If you were here years and years ago...”
Sora spoke up. “We already had an idea that something like this would happen in the future, so before we left this place for good, we left a little bit of ourselves behind in the computers, to warn the next group of kids about what was coming.”
Taichi nodded. “Whatever's coming this time around will be worse than anything we've ever seen. In both this world and ours.”
“What is it?” Akira asked.
Taichi shook his head. “We don't know. The person who told us everything didn't tell us that. She's the only one who knows everything, and to this day, we don't know exactly where she is.”
Tian raised an eyebrow. "This person is still around here?”
“Her programmed self is still here. Somewhere.”
“So, the only way for us to understand is to find her?” Seita asked.
“Yeah,” Yamato replied, "And good luck trying!” His image and the others began to flicker and crackle violently.
“What's happening?” Akira asked worriedly.
“Our power's running out,” Sora answered, her voice getting faint. “We were programmed only to tell you everything we knew and then disappear.”
“But we have one more thing to give each of you,” Jyou added, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out seven more tags and handed them over. All of them were empty.
“You'll have to go looking for these,” he continued, "But they're worth it!” He disappeared. So did Yamato and Sora.
Taichi's image flickered as he smiled one more time. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll be fine. Because this time, fate sent someone with experience!” He turned to Akira. "Not too long ago, the dark forces tried to take control, and a disaster almost happened. But you stopped it from coming!”
Akira stared at him in surprise. Her expression changed to realization, then fear.
“Remember everything you can. And good luck!” With one final wave, Taichi disappeared.
There was a deafening silence in the room. No one dared to speak or make a sound, until Mana and Jun's calls and Kei and Yuka's shouting broke the silence.
“Hey, guys!” Jun said excitedly, carrying his laptop under his arm. “You won't believe what we've found!”
“And look what we've got!” Kei practically screamed, thrusting her crest in everyone's face.
When none of them got a reaction, Mana stared at the three oldest kids with a puzzled expression. "Hey... are you all okay?”
Seita sighed. "It's a long story...”
“So that's why...” Jun said quietly, after everything had been explained.
No one said anything for a while. The only sounds were of Akira's heavy breathing and shuffling feet.
“I don't know what to do...” Her voice quivered.
“We have to get stronger,” Renamon said.
“We also have to find these other Crests that Jyou was talking about,” Tian added, fingering the empty tag in her hand.
“We need to look through all of this stuff and see what else we can learn,” Jun tapped his laptop.
“And we need to find that girl,” Seita said, "So we'll finally know why everything's this way.”
“And you have to remember,” Kodamon murmured, looking up at Akira.
“That's the thing!” Akira shouted, “Remember what?” She stared at everyone and began to pace. "I understand that Kodamon and I were here once, before any of you were, but I don't remember anything!” She shut her eyes. "I don't remember how I got here the first time, or why I was here, or whatever I did to stop a disaster from coming!”
“But I do.” Kodamon walked over to her and took her hand.
Akira opened her eyes and looked down at her, surprised.
“I remember,” Kodamon said firmly. But for just a moment, an uncertain look appeared on her face. “I'm probably just as forgetful as you are…” She smiled. “But it's a start.”
“And we'll help,” Seita assured her, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Like I said before, if you remember anything at all, you can talk to us.”
Akira stared at him for a couple of seconds, then smiled. It was one of the first real smiles that Seita had seen on her in a while.
She turned to the others. "Come on, let's go!”
Outside, the sky began to darken, and the wind began to pick up speed, blowing away dust and whistling through the cracks in the huts. The temperature had dropped a few degrees.
Akira shivered, and stopped slowly as she passed by a large shard of glass leaning against a wall. Her reflection was there, pale and fearful, but as she looked closer, she thought she could see someone else in it.
A little boy, just a few inches taller than Kei or Yuka. He had black hair and dark eyes, and was dressed in dark clothes. He looked very familiar...
Akira blinked, and the boy's image was gone. Then she heard a soft, calm, but eerily familiar voice echo through her mind.
“Don’t forget about me…”
Something clicked in Akira's mind. She gasped and turned around, looking out into the distance. Over there, the gray sky had darkened to almost black.
“Akira!”
Akira turned around to see Seita walk up to her. He looked at her strangely.
“Something wrong?”
Akira turned back and stared at the darkening sky. "I don't know...” she murmured. "Something just happened. Something bad, but I don't know what it is!”
I don't understand, she thought. Everything feels off-balance somehow. Disturbed. She swallowed.
Something has gone terribly wrong.