Chapter 41:
Solo Mission
“Rion, I’m hungry.”
“Hmm.”
“Rion, I want pandesal!”
Rion looked over at Guilmon. “You ate all the pandesal yesterday!”
“I’m hungry too,” Kei spoke up, “But I don’t think we have enough food in the fridge to feed all of us!” She looked at the five adults sitting at the kitchen table, computer equipment spilling over the edges. Then she switched her gaze to the massive group of kids and Digimon sitting on the sofa, in the chairs, on the floor...
Ryou suddenly got up. “All right,” he said, “Going for a food run. Who wants Filipino food?”
Hands shot up, and nearly everyone started talking at once.
Ryou nodded. “Okay. Who wants to help bring it back?”
“We’re coming,” Rion said, getting up.
Guilmon hopped up excitedly. “Yay!”
“We’re going too!” Kei piped up.
“No, you’re not,” Kyoko said immediately. “It’s too dangerous!”
“Aww, Mom…”
Ryou looked around again. “Akira?”
“Mmm,” she murmured, sketching out equations on a piece of paper.
“Okay, guess that’s a ‘no’.” His gaze moved to Tian. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and Ryou could feel himself blush. He tore his gaze away. “Uh...”
“We’ll come.”
Ryou looked over at Seita, who stood up with Gazimon and who was staring at him with an intense expression.
Ryou was utterly baffled by this, but he nodded. “All right.” He turned toward everyone else. “We’ll be back soon. Don’t kill each other while we’re gone!”
“Don’t worry, young man,” Nami said seriously, “We’ll be just fine.”
Before they left the house, Seita saw Ryou reach into a duffel bag and pull out a long, wooden stick with carvings all over it.
“What’s that?” Seita asked, pointing to the stick.
“It’s an Arnis stick,” Ryou answered, swinging it in the air. “Used in Filipino martial arts.”
“Kuya brings it with him in case someone attacks us!” Rion added, grinning.
“It’s really mostly for intimidation,” Ryou said, “Since we’re going to a bad part of town.”
“But you know how to use it?” Seita asked him.
“Sure.”
They set off walking down the street, surrounded by wisps of fog.
“So where are we going?” Seita asked.
“The Manila Mart!” Rion said cheerfully, “It’s the go-to food place here when a disaster happens, because no matter how crazy the world gets, they’re always open!”
“Yeah,” Ryou said, “I worry about the Ocampos sometimes – they’re the old couple who run the store – they don’t evacuate when they should. But their place will be open while the city’s locked down like this, so at least we can get food!”
They lapsed into silence as they walked through the fog. It was eerily quiet, with no one else on the street but them.
“So,” Seita said, “You and Akira…”
“We were classmates, during the year she stayed here,” Ryou replied. “I helped her with English, she helped me with computers.”
“I see.”
“And we were pretty close friends since the day we met.”
Seita’s eyes widened a bit. “That all?”
Ryou looked over at the intense scowl Seita threw at him, a bit taken aback. “Uh… what?”
“Is that all there is between you two?” Seita demanded.
Ryou stared at him, confused, until the pieces fell into place. Oh. He laughed hastily. “I… don’t think you need to worry about that, dude. We’re just friends.”
“Humph.”
“You don’t need to worry,” Rion added, bounding into the conversation. “Kuya doesn’t like Akira like that. Actually, he’s more interested in-”
Ryou quickly covered Rion’s mouth. “Yeah, let’s not get into that,” he said. He looked ahead. “The next corner’s coming up soon. We need to get ready.” He walked on ahead, gripping his Arnis stick.
Rion looked up at Seita and grinned. Seita sighed, feeling a little bit better.
When they turned the corner before the last stretch of road to the Manila Mart, the fog remained thick and stagnant. No one appeared on the street.
“That’s weird,” Ryou said, “Usually the gang members and the drug dealers are out here by this time.”
Seita stared at him with an ‘are you serious?’ kind of look.
“Hey, I told you this was a bad part of town for a reason,” Ryou answered.
“Right now, I’d be more concerned about Digimon attacking, with this fog,” Rion said.
There were sudden footsteps through the shadows, followed by a growl.
Rion sighed. “I hate it when I’m right.”
A wild smile appeared on Gazimon’s face. “Ready, Seita?”
“Ready!” Seita said, pulling out his D-Coder.
Ryou whipped his Arnis stick in front of him. “You know any moves?”
“Uh… sure.” Seita answered shakily. He didn’t want to think of all the Karate moves that just left his head like a brainfart.
Suddenly, a Digimon leapt from the shadows, and Gazimon leapt up to meet it.
“Gazimon, warp evolve to… BanchoLeomon!”
BanchoLeomon whipped out his sword, which clashed with the blade of a Kyukimon. Several more Kyukimon leapt from the shadows.
One Kyukimon heaved one of its blades toward Ryou, which he blocked with his stick. He struggled under the weight of it, then slid away, causing the blade to hit the ground. He dodged another blade and parried a third with his stick.
Seita did nothing but gawk at Ryou, not quite believing he was watching someone who dared to fight a Digimon with his own hands. He saw movement from the corner of his eye and ducked, barely missing a blade meant for his head. Then, he lunged forward and hit the Kyukimon with a punch and a kick, the moves coming back to mind in the heat of the moment. He wasn’t about to be outdone.
“Aaah!” Guilmon dodged several blades that came his way. “Rion!” he shouted, “Need to evolve!”
“But…” Rion hesitated. “What if you end up as Megidramon again?”
“We choose a different path!” Guilmon replied, dodging more blades. “Won’t happen again!”
Rion then remembered what Naoko told him. You have choices. You can fall to the darkness, or embrace the light.
Rion swallowed, then pulled out his D-Coder and the Crests. “Go, Guilmon!”
Guilmon glowed, and began to rapidly evolve.
“Guilmon, warp evolve to… Dukemon!”
An armored, red and white knight Digimon emerged, with a long, flowing red cape, a lance and a golden and silver shield.
BanchoLeomon glanced over at Dukemon, and gave him a thumbs-up. “Now that’s more like it!” he said.
Dukemon turned to face the Kyukimon, who decided to abandon their other targets and rush toward him, and ran forward, slashing with his lance.
“Royal Slash!”
Some of the Kyukimon fell away and were deleted, but the rest stood their ground.
Dukemon stopped, then heaved his shield in front of him. The shield began to shine as power collected in its center.
“Final Elysion!”
A beam of pure light blasted from Dukemon’s shield, engulfing the remaining Kyukimon and causing them to shatter and delete.
Dukemon and BanchoLeomon glowed, then reverted to Guilmon and Gazimon.
“You were amazing, Guilmon!” Rion said, hugging Guilmon tight. “I’m glad we chose the right path!”
“Yeah, thanks for evolving into something better,” Seita said, “Megidramon would have been a pain...”
He then looked over to Ryou. “You’ve got guts,” he said, “taking on a bunch of Digimon on your own!”
“Hey, you’re not too bad yourself,” Ryou replied, “And BanchoLeomon was pretty cool.” He looked at Gazimon with newfound respect. “I’d like to learn a few things from you sometime!”
“No problem!” Gazimon said, grinning.
Ryou looked around. “The fog is lifting,” he said. “We should get going before someone else shows up!”
The others nodded, and they walked the last stretch of road down to the Manila Mart.
“Hello?” Ryou called out as they entered the Manila Mart. “Lola? Lolo?”
A gray-haired woman stuck her head out from behind the register. “Ay! Ryou! And Rion! It’s nice to see you again! Especially you, Rion. The last time I saw you, you were this tall!” She held out her hand, indicating a short height.
“Hello, Lola,” Ryou said, expertly switching to Tagalog as he made his order.
The elderly woman listened and prepared food in containers. “You’re ordering a lot, anak. It can’t be just for you three?” She stared at the three boys, then eyed the Digimon curiously.
“I’m ordering for a whole army, almost,” Ryou replied. “We have a get-together at our house and we forgot to get food for everyone!”
The woman laughed. “Who has a get-together at a time like this? Oh, well. You came to the right place!”
An elderly man emerged from the back room. “Dear? Have the monsters gone yet?” he asked.
“Yes, they have,” his wife answered, “Though a couple of friendlies are here to get food for a party!” She looked back at Guilmon and Gazimon. “Are you aswang?”
“Uh…” Seita answered, “They’re Digimon.” He looked from Ryou to Rion, then back to the elderly couple, amazed that they were talking about monsters with a straight face.
“You’re a new face,” the old man addressed Seita. “Friend of the family?”
“Uh, yeah… Kinda.”
“You have a girlfriend yet?”
Seita stared back at him, completely taken aback. “Um… yes? Kinda?”
The man laughed, thumping him on the shoulder. “Good for you! Ryou doesn’t have one yet, though I keep getting on him about it!”
“Ahem.” Ryou cleared his throat. “All right, you guys, I’ll need help with all of these.” He indicated the large group of white plastic bags filled with takeout. Everyone took a few bags and they made their way out of the shop.
“Enjoy!” the elderly woman called after them. “Have a good time!”
“Those two,” Seita said as they walked back to the house, “Are they okay?” He motioned to his head.
“Sure,” Ryou answered, “They’ve just seen a lot of stuff in their lives, I think. Once you’ve seen everything there is to see, nothing fazes you anymore!”
“Food’s ready!”
The atmosphere of the house turned from boredom to excitement as the people and Digimon inside got up and served themselves from the food laid out in the kitchen.
Seita handed a plate of lumpia over to Akira. “Here you go!”
Akira smiled. “Thanks.”
Seita smirked. “Just keep in mind I had to fight for these.”
Akira was about to bite into a roll of lumpia when she stopped. “What?”
“You should have seen it!” Rion said, popping into the conversation. “Kuya and Seita went to town on a bunch of Digimon on the way to get these! It was like a martial arts movie! Not to mention, Guilmon warp evolved to this amazing Digimon and finished them off!”
“And I missed all this?” Akira asked, slightly upset.
Seita motioned to the plate of lumpia. “Go on, eat. Or else our battle would have been in vain!”
Akira made a face at him, then started munching. She smiled.
“Good?” Seita asked.
“Good.”
Ryou made a plate of rice and adobo and handed it over to Tian. She took it and stared at him with a thoughtful expression.
“Did I hear that you fought a gang of Digimon to get these?” she asked. “That takes courage… and a little stupidity.”
Ryou blushed. “Yeah, well…”
“I wish I could have seen it,” Tian said wistfully.
“Well, if the lockdown keeps on like this,” Rion chimed in, “we’ll have to do more food runs, and maybe you’ll get a chance if you come along!”
Ryou glanced at his brother, embarrassed. “Rion…”
Rion just grinned.
The house fell into a companionable silence with everyone eating, until Nami’s outburst broke the silence.
“Aha!”
Akira glanced over at Nami. “Grandma?”
“I finally got a signal through!” Nami exclaimed, “This fog coming and going has done a number on the Internet connection here, but I finally got it!”
“To do what?” Akira asked.
The screen of Nami’s ancient laptop flickered several times, then resolved itself into an image of a young girl with long black hair and violet eyes, wearing clear-lensed yellow goggles. She stared at Nami blankly for a moment, then narrowed her eyes.
“You!” she said, exasperated.
“Yes,” Nami answered calmly.
“Took you long enough to reconnect!” Naoko snapped, “It only took… oh, 50 years?”
Nami scowled. “Whippersnapper!”
“Old hag!” Naoko shot back.
“Humph!” Nami folded her arms and sighed. “This is a bit unreal.”
“Talking to yourself?” Akira asked.
“Not just that,” Nami said, “I’m talking to the past I left behind.”
“I guess it caught up with you, then,” Akira said softly. To Naoko, she said, in a louder voice, “Nice to see you again.”
Naoko nodded. “I see you’ve been busy. It must not have been easy, getting back together and tracking down my other self. Thank you for that, by the way.”
“But we still have problems,” Akira said, “The Midnight Army Digimon come and go at random, every time heavy fog shows up. And getting into ITI to investigate is going to be harder than we thought. The guards, the cameras…”
“I see. Well, fortunately, there are ways around that. I’ll just need some help from my other self and her little crew.”
Taira, Souichi and Takashi looked at each other. “You mean us?” Taira asked.
Naoko nodded. “I just did a quick scan of your online activities for the past couple of months. You all have been very busy. And I think you’re just the people to help us out.”
A slightly hysterical laugh came from Taira’s mouth. “Big brother strikes,” Souichi muttered.
“Will you help us?” Akira asked, looking intensely at her father.
“Of course,” Takashi said immediately. “It’s what we came here for.”
“All right,” Naoko said, “Here’s what we’ll do...”
Everyone huddled around Nami’s laptop to listen as Naoko outlined her plan.