Chapter 22:
Recollections and Idiotic Antics
“Bye! See you tomorrow!”
The voices of departing students echoed through the corridor as Seita hurried up a long series of steps, a soccer ball tucked under his arm. By the time the staircase ended and he reached a door, loud chimes filled the air. As he opened the door, the bright afternoon sunlight caught his eyes and a refreshingly cool wind ruffled his hair. For the middle of July, the weather was unseasonably cool.
The entire school rooftop was empty. He scanned the area once, and smiled when he saw the person he was looking for.
Akira was there, standing with her back toward him. She was looking out at the scenery, with one hand clutching at the fence. The wind blew again, rustling the skirt of her uniform .
Seita approached her slowly, letting the soccer ball drop to the ground.
“What do you want?” Akira asked warily, still staring out at the sky. When she didn’t get an answer, she turned around to face him. “You asked me to come up here after school. Why?”
Seita stood behind her, one foot on the soccer ball. He stared at her silently for a moment, then spoke up.
“There’s something we need to discuss,” he said neutrally, rolling the ball with his foot.
“What is there to discuss?” Akira asked blankly, “It isn’t something I did, is it?”
No answer.
She looked at him suspiciously. “Is this about that letter a few days ago?”
“Maybe.”
Akira frowned at him. “I’m not telling you anything.”
“I want to know what your problem is.”
“I don’t have one.”
“Liar.” He continued to stare at her objectively. “You do. The way you’ve been acting for the past few weeks tells me that much.”
“Why would you care?”
“Everyone’s concerned. I’m probably just the only one stupid enough to confront you about it.”
Akira turned away. “I’m going,” she said listlessly, “This is just a waste of time.” She took a few steps toward the stairs, but stopped as the soccer ball slammed into the fence, directly in front of her, and rolled back.
She whipped around to face Seita. “What are you-”
She was interrupted as Seita kicked the ball at her again.
“What are you doing?” Akira asked shakily. Her blank expression became slightly annoyed.
Seita didn’t answer. He continued to stare at her and move the ball lightly with his foot.
“Why won’t you say anything?” Akira demanded, her tone becoming more irritated.
Kick.
“Seita!”
Seita stared back at her, a smile playing on his lips, and he kicked the ball back again.
At that, Akira glared. She locked on to the incoming ball, and in a blur, she rushed up to it and stopped it with her foot without even flinching. She turned her death-glare on Seita.
“Damn it!” she shouted angrily, her eyes flashing, “What is your problem?!” She kicked the ball at him as hard as she could.
The ball hit him on the side of his face, knocking him down.
For a moment, Akira just stared at him, speechless. Then, she hurried over to him.
“Seita…” she said shakily as she helped him up, “I’m sorry… I-I didn’t mean to hit you like that-” Her face was red with embarrassment.
“No problem,” Seita answered, rubbing the side of his face, “I like it when you all of a sudden hit me for no reason at all…” he added sarcastically, glancing back at her in mock-annoyance.
Looking at his face, Akira blinked, and a faint smile crept onto her face. She then started laughing, hard…
“Hey… Seita?”
Seita jerked suddenly, the voice bringing him back to reality. He turned in that direction, and stared directly into Akira’s eyes.
“What?” he replied, quickly looking away.
“Haven’t we seen this spot before?” Akira glanced at their dark, cavernous surroundings, suspicion growing on her face, “A couple of turns back?”
Seita looked around, thinking. “Uh… I’m not sure. Everything looks the same to me.”
A few steps in front of them, Kodamon let out a light huff. Her eyes were shut, and her arms were folded across her chest.
“No, really-” Akira replied, “We passed through a tunnel filled with a lot of small, white stones, and then we turned left and passed by a couple of markings on the walls-”
“Which none of us understood,” Seita interrupted.
Akira glanced at him sharply. “Then,” she continued, “we turned right and the tunnel’s ceiling suddenly got lower-” She raised an arm and her fingers touched the roof of the tunnel, “Which is where we are now. Again. At least twice.”
Seita shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
Kodamon remained silent, and a slightly annoyed expression crept onto her face.
“And then,” Akira continued, as they walked a little further, “we made another right turn, and then ended up at a spot where the tunnel forked…” She looked up, then paled. “…into three different pathways…”
They were standing in front of three different pathways.
Akira slammed a hand on her forehead. “Oh, great…”
A faint growl emerged from Kodamon, her eyes still closed, and her expression grew even more annoyed.
The four of them had been in this predicament for more than two or three hours, ever since Akira had recovered from her depression. They had decided to further explore the cave systems in order to find a way out without Rion discovering them.
Seita groaned. “Does this mean we’re lost?”
“No…” Gazimon spoke up, “Probably not. If we just use the Digivices again-”
Kodamon let out a faint, unnoticed, but irritated sigh.
“They didn’t work the last time, though,” Akira replied, “Nothing lit up, and the map didn’t show up, so we had to keep picking which way to go.”
“Wait…” Seita frowned. “The last few times we saw something like this, Gazimon was the one who picked the path to take… right?” He looked down at Gazimon questioningly.
“Uh…” Gazimon began, nervously, “I don’t know. Wasn’t it Kodamon who picked last time?”
The irritated expression on Kodamon’s face turned into a scowl.
“No…” Akira replied, “I think it was you, Gazimon.”
Gazimon crumpled a little. “Okay… so… The Digivices haven’t worked, and we’ve had to pick which pathway to go through, but…” His face screwed up from thinking. “We keep ending up in the same place, or some place that looks really similar…” His voice lowered, as he was talking more to himself, “But then if we’ve kept on picking different pathways every time, we should have-”
Kodamon growled deeply, and her eyes suddenly snapped open.
“Gazimon!” she shouted, “Are you trying to tell us that all this time we’ve been going around in circles?!”
Gazimon stared back at her faintly, and mumbled something unintelligible in reply.
“Why didn’t you just say something earlier, instead of just making excuses?!” Kodamon demanded.
“I wasn’t making excuses!” Gazimon shot back.
“Hey, hey…” Seita said faintly, trying to calm them down.
Akira sighed, and pulled out her Digivice, even though she knew it wouldn’t help. She held it out in front of her and slowly swept it past the three pathways in a wide arc. As she expected, nothing happened. Until-
There was a blast of pale-blue light as the Digivice shined.
“Huh?” Akira stared at the Digivice, then looked across to see where her arm was pointing at.
There was nothing but a solid wall.
Akira looked at the spot incredulously, slowly walking toward it, while the other three paid her no attention at all. The closer she got, the brighter the Digivice got, until she was close enough to touch the wall.
To her surprise, her hand went through.
Akira gasped, and repeatedly moved her arm in and out, her hand passing through the wall every time.
“Hey!” she called out to the others, “Look over here!”
Seita got there first, and gaped at Akira in surprise as she waved her arm in and out of the ‘wall.’
“How-?” he began.
“There’s something behind this,” Akira interrupted. She stepped through the illusion wall easily, and her eyes widened at what she saw next.
She was in a circular room, with various markings on the walls, and a giant, ice-blue stone hovering in the center. Bright, blue waves of energy erupted from the stone every now and then.
She stepped closer to the stone as the others entered.
“This is…” she began.
“A Meterostone, right?” Kodamon answered, “Like the ones in Andromon’s Pyramid and Wizardmon’s Village?”
Akira nodded.
“What’s it doing here, out in the middle of nowhere?” Seita asked. He looked around. “I don’t see anyone around – shouldn’t there be someone to guard it or something?”
“No clue.”
They spread out around the room, looking at the carved markings on the walls. Akira was especially drawn to one carving – a rough outline of a star. It was very unusual, drawn in a spiral with a single stroke, starting from the outside, moving completely around in a counterclockwise direction, and stopping in the center, leaving the right hand side unfinished.
Akira gazed at the carving, mesmerized. The longer she stared at it, the more everything else seemed to fade away. She didn’t notice it when her Digivice suddenly glowed and beeped wildly, or when a pale blue light appeared around her. A sudden warmth grew near her chest, and trancelike, she pulled her crest tags out from under her shirt. The empty tag glowed blue, and was warm in her hand. She could barely make out a faint, star-shaped image form within the tag, not unlike the one carved on the wall.
Then…
“Hey!” Kodamon yelled out suddenly from the other side of the room, “What’s this?”
Akira blinked. Her Digivice stopped reacting, and the blue light surrounding her immediately vanished. She looked down at the crest tag she was holding. It was empty.
She looked at the tag blankly, then looked at the wall, trying in vain to remember what had just happened. Kodamon’s outburst had knocked it out of her head. She shook her head, and jogged over to see what Kodamon had found.
Seita and Gazimon were already there. “What took you?” Seita asked.
Akira shook her head again. “Nothing. What did you find?”
Kodamon pointed to another opening, right in front of them. A long, curtain-like ribbon of energy covered the opening, shimmering blue.
“A door?” Akira asked.
“That doesn’t look like any door I’ve ever seen before,” Seita remarked.
Kodamon stared at it and around it thoughtfully, without saying a word.
“Hmm…” Gazimon murmured, stepping closer to the curtain. “I wonder what would happen if…” He lifted a foot and leaned closer.
“Wait a minute!” Kodamon said suddenly, as she saw Gazimon about to step through the curtain, “Gazimon, stop!!”
“W-what?! What is it?!” Gazimon stammered. His foot was still in the air, and he was wobbling madly, trying to keep his balance.
“DON’T STEP THERE!!” Kodamon bellowed.
“Huh? Why?”
“You idiot, look what it says!” she shouted back, pointing at a series of Digicodes etched into the floor.
Seita peered at them, confused. “What does it say?”
Kodamon sighed. “‘For emergencies only. Do not pass!’”
Immediately as she said it, Gazimon lost his balance and his foot crashed through the energy curtain.
At that, an enormous bluish sphere appeared, shimmering and glowing, completely enveloping the four of them. With them still inside, it reconfigured itself into a large beam, then abruptly shot itself out of the cavern and outside, traveling at a very high speed. Various objects zoomed past in a blur. Then, there was an unexpected lurch, and the beam stopped and disappeared, its occupants tumbling to the ground in a heap.
Akira got up slowly, noticing something white, cold, and wet under her hands and knees.
“Snow…?” She stood up and looked around, shivering. The others followed suit.
They were in the middle of a snow-covered forest. It was evening, and snow was lightly falling around them.
Kodamon looked around her for a moment, puzzled. When she saw Gazimon, though, her temper flared up.
“What did you do that for?!” she shouted, “I told you not to step through that!”
Gazimon glared at her with narrowed eyes. “Well, sorry! I had to stop myself from falling somehow!”
Kodamon growled. “If only you hadn’t-”
“Why are you so ticked off?” Gazimon demanded, his voice running over hers, “It was just an accident!”
“You-you-” She was about to say more when a strange drowsiness came over her. She wobbled, and her head began to spin.
“Kodamon…” Gazimon said cautiously, noticing her behavior.
“What?” Kodamon yelped, “What is it?” The drowsiness faded away, giving way to extreme irritableness.
“Can’t you just calm down and relax?” Gazimon asked edgily, “Just for a minute?”
“Relax? I’d relax if only you’d shut up and let me think!!”
“Hey!!” Seita yelled, getting in between them and pushing them away from each other. “What’s gotten into you two?!” he yelled again, “You’re getting just as bad as me and Akira, and we’ve already stopped!”
Kodamon glared. “He started it!”
Gazimon glared back. “Why can’t you just lighten up?”
Kodamon growled and clenched a fist. “Lighten up? Sure, I’ll lighten up!” Sparks shot from her fist.
“Bear… Fist-”
Akira’s eyes widened. “Kodamon, what the-stop!” She rushed in and yanked Kodamon aside. The energy punch launched off at an angle, slamming into a nearby tree. Clumps of snow tumbled down.
“What the hell were you thinking?!” Akira yelled, shaking Kodamon by the shoulders.
“He was being annoying!” Kodamon shot back, “He wouldn’t shut up!”
“But that doesn’t mean you have to blast him to smithereens!” Akira screeched, “You could have hurt Seita too!”
“I wouldn’t have hit him! I was only aiming for Gazimon!”
During all of this, Seita and Gazimon did nothing but stare at them with wide eyes. An incredulous smile soon appeared on Seita’s face, and he started laughing. Moments later, Gazimon joined in.
“WHAT’S SO FUNNY?!” Akira and Kodamon both screamed.
That just made them laugh harder.
Kodamon glared at them both, but her anger had fizzled out.
“Moron…” Akira yanked out her Digivice and punched a couple of buttons. She stared at the small screen for a moment, then her expression grew more annoyed.
“What?” Seita asked.
“I have no idea where we are.”
“Huh?” Seita blurted out.
“Whatever that thing was we got trapped in, it sent us somewhere else,” Akira remarked with a frown, “The map’s working now, but it’s not showing anything familiar for miles!”
“A teleportation device?” Kodamon asked, “Maybe that would explain why it said ‘for emergencies only’.”
Akira shrugged. Then, she looked at the Digivice screen again. “Wait a minute…” Her eyes narrowed. “I think I see something!”
Seita pulled out his Digivice as well, and all four of them gathered around to see.
“There’s a couple of dots,” Akira added, “On the far side. They’re very faint.”
Seita looked closely at the dots. “Green…” he said, squinting at the screen, “… and pink.”
Both he and Akira looked up at each other and smiled.
“Kei!”
“Yuka!”
“How far away?” Kodamon asked, agitated.
“Not sure,” Akira answered. She pointed her Digivice around, and it lit up in a direction straight ahead.
“This way!” Akira confirmed. They all started jogging in that direction.
“Finally, we’re doing something!” Kodamon exclaimed gleefully. She rushed ahead of the others. Suddenly, her vision blurred, and she slowed down.
“Kodamon?” Akira asked, “Something wrong?”
“I-” Kodamon swayed a little, and put a paw over her forehead. The drowsiness from before had returned, stronger this time. She started to topple over.
“Kodamon!” Gazimon rushed forward to catch her. “Are you sick?”
“No…” Kodamon said faintly, “I-” She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and concentrated. When she opened them again, the drowsiness went away as abruptly as it came. “I’m fine,” she said finally, getting up.
“You sure?” Gazimon asked.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she said firmly, shooting a glare at him.
“Hey…” Gazimon retorted, “I was just worried, that’s all.”
“You don’t have to.” She took a few steps, then Akira stopped her.
“Maybe we should slow down a little,” Akira said, concerned. “Just in case.”
“But-”
“No buts!” Gazimon interrupted, “What if something happens to you again and you collapse? We won’t be able to go any further, and we can’t just leave you behind!”
“And besides,” Seita added, holding out his Digivice, “We’ll still be able to find Yuka and Kei, even if we just walk. They’re still on the map.”
Kodamon looked at all of them dejectedly, clearly outnumbered. “Oh… all right. We can walk.”
Snow continued to fall as they walked on and the night grew darker. The light from the Digivices was enough for them to see.
Akira shivered as she brushed snowflakes off of her Digivice’s screen. The two dots on the map shined brightly in a corner, and the distance in between had shortened.
She looked up at the cloudy sky, bright in spots from the partially hidden moon, and at the falling snowflakes. She caught a couple of flakes with her hand, and looked around at the whiteness of the ground and the trees surrounding everything. “I hope Kei is all right,” she murmured, “My mom told me once that Kei hates it when it’s wintertime and there’s a lot of snow. She said it brought back scary memories.”
Seita looked at her questioningly. “Of what?”
Akira shook her head. “I don’t know. Mom never really told me much about it – just that it was something that happened when Kei was three.”
Everyone was silent for a couple of moments. Then, Seita softly laughed.
Akira glared a little. “What’s so funny?” she asked sharply.
“Nothing,” Seita replied quickly. He looked ahead of him, focusing on the falling, white snowflakes. “Yuka loves it when it’s wintertime. If it snowed, she would stay outside for hours, no matter how cold it got, just to watch the snowflakes.”
Akira smiled. “Ah. Completely the opposite, then, huh?”
Seita nodded. “It’s summertime that she hates the most, even though she’s never said it outright.” His expression was troubled. “I guess it’s because she’s aware of so many things.”
“Like what?” Akira asked, “Ghosts? Evil spirits?” Her tone grew slightly skeptical before she caught herself. She then remembered a few of Yuka’s fearful remarks since they had arrived in the Digital World, and how Yuka could sense things like Digimon attacks just before they’d happened. “Or… Digimon?”
Seita shrugged. “Whatever they were, they would always be something that upset her.”
Akira only looked at him with concern.
“Yuka’s always had strange feelings like that, ever since she was little,” Seita explained, “When she was three, they would come to her when we’d least expect it, anytime we were around certain places. But in the summer, they would affect her the most.” He paused, trying to remember. “Sometimes we would pass by, say, Rainbow Bridge, or the old TV station with the circular dome, and then Yuka would all of a sudden start crying for no reason. We could never figure out why. But the worst time was when we were in Hikarigaoka.”
Akira looked toward him, recognizing the name. “You used to live there, right? Before you went to elementary school and moved to Odaiba.”
“Yeah,” Seita replied. “Well, one time, we went over there to visit friends, but right when we arrived, we had to leave, because Yuka just couldn’t stop screaming. She kept saying she could see monsters fighting each other, and buildings blowing up left and right, even though there was nothing around. I don’t think we ever brought her back there after that.” Seita was silent for a while, looking down, seemingly lost in his thoughts.
“And then, there were other incidents, not long after that,” he continued again. “Stuff would just happen to Yuka, whenever none of us were around. And she would only tell me about them, if she ever told anyone at all.” He closed his eyes. “She would run to me crying, and every time she would describe something so outrageous. I didn’t believe a lot of it, and whatever I did believe got me wondering why she was still in one piece after they all happened. I used to ask myself, ‘where was I when all of this happened?’”
At that, a memory came to him. He was suddenly eleven years old again, walking with a three-year-old Yuka in the park.
“You didn’t have to come, you know,” Seita said, “I’m going to be at Karate for a while, so you’re going to be bored.”
“It’s okay,” Yuka replied, “I didn’t want to be alone today.” She looked down, and her eyes narrowed a bit. “I had a dream last night.”
“Oh.” Seita kept on walking. Then, he thought about what she had just said and stopped, looking down at her with a surprised expression. “Wait… was it one of those dreams?”
Yuka didn’t answer for a moment. Then, she slowly nodded. “Yeah…”
As they passed the soccer field, a familiar voice called out to them. Seita looked over, and to his dismay, he saw Akira rushing toward them, with Tian following behind.
“Akira! Tian!” Yuka exclaimed happily.
Seita looked at them dully. “Yo.”
“What’s up?” Akira asked, after taking a couple of breaths.
“Nothing,” Seita replied boredly, “Just going to Karate class, and Yuka wanted to come too.”
Akira raised an eyebrow. “You’re still taking Karate with that mean old sensei?” she asked, laughing a little.
“Hey…” Seita’s expression immediately went from bored to ticked off. “Just because you picked a fight with him and got kicked out in your first week doesn’t mean he’s bad!”
“He is too,” Akira shot back, “Tian was in the same class, and she only lasted a month! Right, Tian?” She turned toward her. Tian just rolled her eyes and nodded dispassionately.
As Seita let out another retort, he was only somewhat aware that Yuka was slowly moving away from him. It wasn’t until Akira and Tian had left that he looked around and saw Yuka sitting on a bench. A group of strange-looking men with black suits and sunglasses surrounded her.
Startled and angry, Seita shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Get away from my sister!”
As the men turned around to face him, he was suddenly scared, but he swallowed his fear and rushed out at them. In a blur, he saw one of the men pull out a gun. The back of his head exploded with pain as the handle crashed down.
He collapsed, and he could hear Yuka screaming for him.
“Nii-chan!”
As his vision blurred and he began losing consciousness, Seita saw Yuka scream again, and… a strange, pink light blasted out from all directions, making many of the men stagger back…
A disembodied part of him wondered if he was dreaming or going nuts, and then, all was silent…
Seita sighed as the memory faded. That was an incident neither he nor Yuka could explain. When he had finally come to, the strange men had disappeared, and Yuka was still there, without a scratch.
“How long was this going on?” Akira asked softly, startling him. “Those weird feelings, I mean.”
“N-not very long,” Seita answered hastily, “When Yuka started school, those feelings went away, and nothing bothered her anymore…” His expression grew more pained, and he stopped walking. “At least until we all got here, to the Digital World.” He grimaced a little, then continued. “Now, so many things are happening to us, and to her, and I haven’t been able to watch over her or help her like I should, and she still ends up all right!” He looked up at Akira. “Sometimes I wonder if she ever really needs me.”
Akira stared back at him, taken entirely aback. “Seita…”
No one said anything for a moment. Seita was staring down at the snow on the ground, still thinking about Yuka and wondering if she was okay. All he could hear was the sound of the cold wind rustling through the trees, and the sound of his own breathing.
“Nii-chan!”
Seita looked up suddenly.
“What?” Akira asked sharply.
“I thought I heard Yuka just now…” he murmured, wildly looking around him. He was silent again as he listened for the cry to be repeated, but heard nothing else.
“Maybe it was just your imagination,” Akira told him gently.
“I don’t know-”
Seita was interrupted by a very loud yawn. They both turned around to see Kodamon walking slowly with her eyes half closed, and bumping right into Gazimon.
They both let out a shout, and Kodamon tumbled to the ground.
“Why can’t you watch where you’re going?” Kodamon said irritably, picking herself up.
“Me?” Gazimon replied testily, “What about you? You were the one walking around with your eyes closed!”
“Ah… not again…” Seita moaned, “You two-”
He was interrupted by something hard hitting him on the head and bouncing off.
“Ow…” He looked down to see what had hit him, but he was distracted by another object hitting him. “Ow! What the-”
They all looked up. In the pre-dawn light, several large round objects fell from the sky, just like snow. They were white, with black patches.
“Soccer balls?!” Seita exclaimed incredulously.
“Impossible…” Akira murmured. She picked one up, bobbed it with her head, and caught it again. It felt real enough.
She glanced at Kodamon and Gazimon standing nearby, silent and glaring, then glanced at the ball in her hands. She smiled, and let the ball drop to the ground.
“Kodamon…” she said with a twinge of excitement.
“What?”
“Heads up!” Akira gave the ball a swift kick, and it sailed through the air, landing near Kodamon’s feet.
“Akira, what-” Kodamon stammered.
“Kick it back!” Akira answered, smiling brightly.
Kodamon did so, looking terribly confused.
Akira caught the ball with her foot, then kicked it again. “Gazimon, here!”
Gazimon jumped up and bobbed it with his head.
Seita looked at Akira strangely, wondering what she was getting at. She answered him only with a wink.
He smirked, finally catching on. He walked over to another fallen soccer ball, and kicked it over.
They spent a few minutes kicking soccer balls back and forth, and in no time, both Kodamon and Gazimon were smiling.
“Isn’t it fun?” Akira asked brightly, taking deep breaths. She spied another ball sitting in the snow, and she kicked it over to Kodamon. “Incoming!”
Kodamon ran toward it, but she tripped and fell face-first into the snow. The ball landed on her head.
“Ow…” she murmured, getting up to her feet.
Akira took one look at her and started giggling. Gazimon joined in, and soon enough, all three of them were laughing.
Seeing this, Seita remembered that day on the school rooftop, and remembered the faint twinkle in Akira’s eyes when she laughed at him.
In the weeks following that incident, Akira had never really spoken to him again. He did notice Akira and Tian starting to hang out with each other again, just like they used to. Akira even started smiling and socializing more often, though most of the time she still remained cold and aloof.
But now, as he watched her laughing along with Kodamon and Gazimon, he knew. The fire in her eyes was there once again. She was back.
He walked over to Akira slowly, and put a hand on her shoulder.
Akira immediately stopped laughing. “What?” she asked nervously.
“Welcome back,” he said softly, beaming.
Akira stared back at him, blushing, then she suddenly gripped the ball she was holding and knocked him on the head.
“OW!” he shouted, rubbing his head, “Akira, why do you always hit me? In school, it’s with pencils or erasers, and everywhere else it’s with soccer balls!”
Akira laughed. “Because it’s funny!”
Seita glared at her a moment, then laughed. “I remember a soccer ball hit me on my way to the Digital World,” he said lightly, looking back at Akira with a smile. “If I didn't know you were already overseas, I'd think it was you who hit me!"
Akira looked back at him with an evil smile. “Oh really?” She rolled over a nearby ball and kicked it at him.
“Ack!” Seita scrambled away, narrowly missing it. “Stop it!” he shouted desperately.
“Oh, sorry,” Akira said dismissively, “I forgot you’re terrible at soccer.”
“Not terrible,” Seita defended, “Just not as good as you.”
Akira shot him a lopsided smile. “Is that a compliment?”
“Maybe,” he replied, smiling. “But there is one thing I’m better at than you.”
“And that would be what?” Akira asked, when he suddenly grabbed her wrist. “Hey-!”
In a few swift moves, Akira ended up kneeling on the ground with one arm pinned behind her back, and Seita stood over her, smirking.
“Karate,” he said proudly.
“Very funny,” Akira shot back in annoyance, yanking her arm back and getting up.
She was interrupted by a series of low growls.
“What was that?” Akira whispered.
Seita shook his head. “I don’t know…”
“Where did Kodamon and Gazimon go?” Akira asked nervously, “They were just here a moment ago…”
“I guess they’re still playing around.”
Akira looked around her, taking a couple of steps. Suddenly, she saw something from the corner of her eye, moving too fast for her to react. Before she knew it, a shaggy, clawed hand grasped her arm. She turned around in surprise, seeing only a pair of bright red eyes. Then, there was a weird red glow, and an excruciating pain ripped through her body. She screamed.
Seita whipped toward her. “Akira!” He sprinted toward her, seeing a tall, werewolf Digimon clutching at her arm. He stumbled and fell, and a hand gripped his arm, pulling him up. He looked up to see another wolf, with green eyes.
Through the agonizing pain that followed, Seita could hear both Akira and himself screaming, as well as the Digimon’s cackles of glee. The last thing he saw before passing out was the green-eyed Digimon’s evil smile and the glint of a silicon chip in the sunlight…
Some distance away, Kodamon and Gazimon were still amusing themselves with the soccer balls.
Kodamon looked up suddenly, dropping the ball she was holding. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Gazimon asked.
“A growl,” she said softly, “from somewhere in the trees.”
“I don’t know-”
He was interrupted by a louder growl, and a blast of green and red energy zipped past him, landing into the snow. He looked into the trees, and saw two wolf-like Digimon emerge.
His eyes widened. “Fenrimon and Lupimon!”
“You know them?” Kodamon asked incredulously.
“I know of them,” he replied fearfully, “They’re mercenaries. Them and their entire pack. They’re very evil, and very strong. Run into them and you’d be lucky to make it out alive!”
He was interrupted by two loud, painful screams in the distance.
“Akira! Seita!” Kodamon looked around her wildly. “Where are they?”
An energy blade slammed into a nearby tree, and Kodamon and Gazimon saw another wolf emerge.
“Bear Fist!”
“Electric Stun Blast!”
The two attacks hit the wolf Digimon directly, but nothing happened.
“They’re not working!” Kodamon shouted.
Gazimon looked behind them, and saw more of the wolf Digimon emerge. “Run!”
“But what about Akira and Seita?”
“Don’t worry about that right now!” Gazimon yelled, “Focus on getting out of this first! We’re no good to them if we’re deleted!”
They ran, dodging attacks, and occasionally throwing out electric blasts and energy punches. Kodamon stumbled, the drowsiness returning once again. Gazimon glanced at her in alarm, pulled her up, and continued running.
Kodamon growled in frustration, and shut her eyes, trying to concentrate. She felt the coldness of the snow underneath her feet. Then, a full, crystal-clear thought manifested itself.
“No…” Her eyes widened. “No, no, NO! Not now!”
“What is it?!” Gazimon demanded, dodging red and green blades.
“The snow…” Kodamon said faintly, “It’s wintertime here in this part of the Digital World. It’s been snowing like crazy the entire time we’ve been here!”
“So?!” Gazimon yelled, shooting off electric blasts, “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Don’t you understand?” Kodamon yelled back, “It’s wintertime! My… my hibernation instinct is kicking in!” Tears sprang from her eyes, and she roughly brushed them away. “No wonder I’ve been falling asleep!”
She opened her eyes again, long enough for her to notice a green energy blade hurtling toward Gazimon.
“Watch out!” But she was too late. The blade hit him, and he slammed into the snow, unconscious.
She turned around, and the light of a bright red blade was the last thing she saw…
Some time later, Akira woke up, disoriented and hurting all over. She sat up, and gasped as everything around her swayed. She looked around, and as her vision cleared, she got a better look at her surroundings.
She was in trapped in a net, up in a tree, more than thirty feet off the ground.
She let out a slight scream, and a hand clamped over her mouth, effectively shutting her up.
“Shh!!”
Akira looked toward the voice in panic. Seita was in the net with her. He removed his hand from her mouth and tilted his head down below, and Akira saw that they were surrounded by a large pack of wolf Digimon, similar to the ones that had ambushed them earlier.
“About time you woke up,” Seita whispered.
“What happened?” Akira asked. Seita didn’t answer.
“Where are Kodamon and Gazimon?” she asked again.
Seita shrugged. “I saw two of those Digimon carry them off, earlier. They were knocked out. I don’t know where they took them, though.”
“What do those Digimon down there want with us?” Akira whispered angrily, “Sneaking up on us like that…”
“Maybe Rion sent them,” Seita said darkly, “He probably knew we were looking for Yuka and Kei, and… we were sidetracked long enough for him to find us!”
Akira said nothing for a moment. She turned away, pulling at the net a little with her hands.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Seita muttered.
Akira ignored him and continued to pull, until a sudden electrical pulse went through her fingers and she winced.
“I told you,” Seita said, looking away from her.
“What’ll we do now?” Akira asked faintly.
“Just sit back and hope someone comes by to save us,” Seita replied.
Akira glared at him. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Akira sighed and leaned back, bumping Seita lightly. Then, as if something had switched on in her head, she realized just how close they were to each other, and she blushed madly.
“Seita…” she whispered nervously, “Could you, uh… move over? Just a little bit?”
“What?” Seita asked suspiciously, “How could I? There’s not enough room in this stupid net for even one of us!”
“But-”
“And besides,” he added with a crooked smile, “I’m fine enough, just like this!”
Akira scowled back at him. “All right, whatever!” She shifted uncomfortably, and wondered how long it would be before anyone would come and get them down.
Rion was still standing in the electronic room of the old castle when he heard several light footsteps. He turned around, and was shocked by what he saw.
“You!” he exclaimed, taking a few steps back. “How did you-”
He was facing Akira and Seita. Or, at least, he thought he was.
‘Akira’ laughed. “You moron. Can’t you tell it’s us?” She concentrated a little, and her human guise flickered, revealing a shaggy, red-eyed wolf, standing erect. Then the disguise reasserted itself.
Rion gulped. “Lupimon?” He turned to ‘Seita’. “Fenrimon…”
“Of course!”
“It-it actually worked!” Rion stammered.
“Of course it did,” Lupimon replied, flashing her newly-acquired violet eyes. “All we did was distract them long enough for us to give them a full identity scan…”
“And then we extracted some code. It was easy,” Fenrimon added, smiling as he remembered the painful looks on Akira and Seita’s faces.
“Those chips you gave us,” Lupimon stated, “they handled those kids’ identity codes perfectly. Where’d you get them?”
Somehow, it unnerved Rion greatly, hearing her talk in Akira’s voice. “N-none of your business!” he said sharply. He walked over to the silver pistols and the wooden box and slammed a palm on the table. “Get over here and load these up, and get out!” He turned away as they approached.
Fenrimon picked up a pistol, then opened the box a crack. He laughed. “Dark Seeds and seed guns,” he murmured, amused.
“It’s been a long time since any of us have ever used these!” Lupimon added, “Mataymon must be getting desperate!”
Rion glared at them. “Just shut up and do your job, then get out of my sight!” he said lividly.
“Oh… angry, are we?” Fenrimon took a few steps toward Rion. He waved the seed gun nonchalantly.
Rion didn’t move.
“He told you to leave!” a sharp, frightened voice erupted from the other side of the room. Fenrimon looked, and saw Guilmon advancing toward him slowly, his eyes shining gold.
“Guilmon…” Rion shook his head warningly.
Fenrimon nodded, getting the point. “All right, we’re going.”
Rion glared at them. ‘Don’t screw up.”
“Whatever,” Lupimon shot an annoyed glance at him that, just for a moment, looked so familiar. Then, they both disappeared through the door.
Guilmon stepped closer to Rion. “Rion…”
“I don’t trust them,” Rion murmured anxiously, “Their methods are awful.” He looked over to the screens again, glancing at the ones showing Kei and Terriermon, and Yuka and Lopmon, and he sighed.