WoS Ch14 - The Previous Day

The story so far: Five human children have been stranded in the Digital World and tasked to reach the Forest Terminal, deep in the Land of Forests. On their way there, they each have found a Human Spirit of the Legendary Warriors, stored in their D-Tectors. These allow them to turn into Digimon. In addition to the Human Spirits, there also exist the Beast Spirits, more powerful but harder to control. The group split up so Kouji and JP could follow the Gotsumon who managed to acquire Garmmon, Kouji's Beast Spirit.

Chapter 14 - The Previous Day

-Kouji-

Garmmon was faster than him. Obviously.

The Beast Spirit not only had four legs to power it forwards, but also, for some unexplained reason, wheels on its heels that helped it over flat terrain. With every step he took, Lobomon could feel it slipping further out of his reach. Frustration seeped into his thoughts.

He’d already run low on energy after the fight against Gigasmon, and a numbing fatigue spread through his body. Nonetheless, he followed Garmmon up a hill that led away from the coastline. Above him, Beetlemon mirrored his path. The other Spirit Warrior caught up a while ago but hadn’t said anything. From his slightly irregular flight, Lobomon concluded that they were both near their limit.

Behind the hill was another one of the forests for which the Land of Forests earned its name and for the first time, things were looking up. The thick undergrowth was hindering Garmmon’s movement. Good.

Despite the trees blocking his view, Lobomon knew exactly where Garmmon was. As a much more agile and nimble Human Spirit, Lobomon began gaining on it. The treetops soon were so dense that only the buzzing sounds of wings reminded him of Beetlemon’s presence.

It happened when Lobomon was running over an arching bridge, his feet thudding over the wood planks. There was a squawk and Junpei fell out of the sky in front of him. The soft grass around the riverside cushioned his fall. For a long second, Lobomon wanted to just continue onwards, but then a feeling of responsibility kicked in and he stopped to ask what had happened.

That was a mistake.

The instant he came to a halt, his exhaustion caught up with him and he staggered on his feet. It was impossible to hold on to the transformation. Glowing fractal code surrounded him. Kouji reached for a low-hanging branch, but a mind-numbing fatigue locked his muscles and he collapsed next to the tree, unable to catch himself.

Well, now he knew what had happened to Junpei. How long had they been chasing Garmmon now?

Kouji tried to get into a more comfortable position, but waves of tremors rolled over his body and his limbs shook uncontrollably. He gave up on comfort and rested his head against the tree root. He’d been transformed for too long; they both had.

The river close by was flowing peacefully and its quiet gurgling was trying to lull him to sleep. Birds were singing and a soft breeze rustled through the trees. But Kouji had no time for sleep. As soon as he felt rested enough, he grabbed the branch and pulled himself up. He looked around and spotted Junpei by the riverbank splashing water into his face.

The older boy heard the movement and turned back to ask, “You okay?”

Kouji made a non-committal noise and trudged to the river to drink something. From the position of the sun, he figured it was a couple of hours past noon, and the empty feeling in his stomach reminded him that their food and money were back in the Gotsumon village.

“Ugh, I’m so hungry,” Junpei whined, falling flat on his back. It sounded so much like his usual complaining, no matter how valid it was now, that annoyance sprang up around Kouji like a shield.

“Then look for something to eat,” he snapped, wiping wet strands of hair out of his face.

Junpei returned in kind and sent him an annoyed look. “You were the one who ran off! We should go back to the others!”

Was he serious? He would have more luck finding something edible in the near vicinity than making it back to the village on an empty stomach. Case in point, an idle sweep of their surroundings showed at least three different bushes with bright fruits. The ones closest to them looked like cherries.

“I’m not going back now,” Kouji said and walked, still a bit wobbly, over to his findings to inspect their suitability as food.

“You always say that,” Junpei complained, tracking his movement curiously. The food gave him new energy and he soon appeared next to him. “Do you even know where you’re going?” Junpei managed to say between chomping on the sweet-tasting berries.

Kouji gritted his teeth. While Junpei continued to be as annoying as possible, the question itself was relevant. If he concentrated, he could still feel Garmmon somewhere, but without transforming into Lobomon he couldn’t say where exactly it was. He needed more time before he could digivolve again.

Even with the food, his strength wasn’t returning fast enough. He was about to answer Junpei, when Garmmon’s howl sounded in the distance.

“That’s where I’m going!” Kouji said and stood up to stare calculatingly into the direction of the sound.

He balled his hand around his D-Tector until his knuckles stood out white. He’d eaten enough, but he couldn’t transform yet. He hadn’t recovered enough energy!

An explosion chased the howl, and above the trees, smoke formed bulging clouds. This didn’t look good. He needed to know what was going on.

He followed the sounds into the trees and ignored Junpei’s shout of protest. The other boy could do whatever.

In the end, that meant following him, albeit at a considerable distance. While vaulting over a root, Kouji mused that Izumi was the first person he met that could run faster than him and Keisaki had a stamina that rivalled his own. Compared to them, Junpei really wasn’t the least bit athletic and continued to fall back.

The sounds of battle up ahead ended abruptly. From the sinking feeling in his stomach, Kouji knew this wasn’t a good sign. He hurried his steps. Reaching the last line of trees, he picked up a convenient stick lying in his path. An experimental swing proved that it had exactly the right length and balance. Huh. It wouldn’t stand against Garmmon, but it was too good to leave behind and didn’t slow him down too much.

Kouji switched his hold on the weapon and looked ahead. Through the tree trunks, he saw the outlines of a village. A part of its surrounding wall had collapsed as if something had crashed through it. Garmmon had been busy.

When Kouji reached the breach and struggled over the rubble, he could hear a distressed shout. He frowned and slid down the other side of the wall. He landed in a reasonably wide alley that clearly hadn’t been wide enough for Garmmon. The stone houses on either side were damaged and some walls had crumbled, littering the cobbled street with rock fragments. Dust lingered in the air.

Up ahead, Kouji heard the shout again, sounding a lot more frantic. “No! Leave me alone! I didn’t mean to do that!”

That sounded like the Gotsumon!

Behind him, laboured breathing announced Junpei, who’d finally reached the collapsed outer wall. Kouji had no time for him. He left the rubble behind and made straight for the main street further ahead.

Bird digimon of various shapes and colours had amassed at the mouth of the alley. Mixed in with the feathered creatures were some grey, two-legged dogs with long angled ears. They had disturbingly large black claws on their paw-like hands. None of the digimon looked remotely happy and Kouji made no effort to be polite when he pushed them aside to reach the inner edge of their circle.

There, curled up in a ball and both hands wrapped around his head, was the Gotsumon with the magnifying glass. So Kouji had heard correctly, it had been him shouting. He looked disturbingly small and weakened for someone who’d been a raging beast just moments ago.

Another second passed and Kouji realized what the sight reminded him of. Tommy, after he’d transformed back from Blizzarmon on Frozen Mountain. Without the uncontrollable crying though.

Unlike Tommy, Gotsumon wasn’t surrounded by friends. Instead, he had an angry village to which Garmmon had just laid waste. One of the grey dogs was standing above him and kicked him in his arched back, making him groan in pain.

Alright, Kouji had seen enough. He shoved a brown kiwi bird out of his way and stepped into the circle. “Stop that.”

“What do you want, human?” the dog digimon said, raising her clawed paw threateningly. “He was the one who attacked us! Look around you!”

Kouji mirrored the move by positioning his makeshift staff for a quick strike. He’d mostly trained in unarmed combat, but he knew how to handle a staff too. Here, he wouldn’t even need to digivolve.

“It’s over. He’s already down so leave him alone,” Kouji tried the reasonable approach once more even though time and time again, he’d seen that angry digimon and reasonable didn’t mix. This was no different. The rest of the assembly obviously thought it could get cute with him while he was focused on the enemy in front of him. But the claws of a second grey dog made a distinct clicking noise on the stone ground when it made to jump at him from behind. In a well-practiced move, Kouji spun around and slammed the wooden stick into its side. It howled in surprise and pain. He smirked. This was what he was good at.

“Anyone else?” he challenged, a hard tone in his voice. He was seething with anger inside. Gotsumon was clearly himself again and they still attacked him.

It took a few whacks with the staff before he could get his point across and by then, Junpei finally managed to join him in the circle. The heavy-set boy was rapidly taking in the situation, from Kouji and his staff, to the heap of dog digimon nursing various bruises to Gotsumon who was finally standing but holding an injured arm.

Junpei came to the same conclusion as Kouji, and anger washed away his growing frustration. “Hey! Get a grip! Has he actually injured anyone?” After another look at the beaten dogs, he clarified, “I mean Gotsumon.” As always, he surprised Kouji with immediately seeing the core of the problem. There was a lot of collateral damage, but despite the sea of angry faces, there weren’t any tears that suggested someone had died.

“No,” the wingless bird that Kouji had shoved out of the way spat out, gearing up for an outraged tirade, but Junpei was a step ahead of it.

“Great, then we’ll be on our way now,” he insisted. He turned back to Kouji and said urgently, “Let’s go!”

They clearly weren’t welcome in the village.

“You... You—” Gotsumon began, swaying on his feet.

“Not now, we’ll get you out of here first,” Junpei interrupted, but he looked a lot less confident than just a moment ago. He was banking on making a quick getaway before anyone could bring up who would pay for all the destruction. To his credit, that plan was working. As humans, they were both towering over the entire population and intimidated the crowd.

Still, Junpei faltered under the collective attention and Kouji wasn’t sure why. Normally he wouldn’t care, but right now it made them both seem less confident and that wouldn’t do. So it fell upon Kouji to find which side of the road led towards the village gate. He took a decisive step towards it, weapon in hand as a reminder that at least one of them knew how to fight.

For a moment, it looked like the masses weren’t ready to let them through, but something about Kouji’s stance and weapon-prowess had made them cautious. The first bird stepped out of the way. Behind them, the gate opening to the forest was visible.

Kouji waited at the edge of the circle and let Junpei pass them first. He didn’t trust the peace and wanted to stay close to potential troublemakers. He followed after a dazed-looking Gotsumon and never took his eyes off the watching citizens until they were well outside of the village. He decided to keep the stick, since it had saved him a transformation into Lobomon. It wasn’t that digivolving was taking a whole lot out of him, but he’d just been reminded that it didn’t come free either.

For about two minutes, they followed an overgrown path between the trees, looking for somewhere safe to have a little talk. Nobody was saying anything, not even Junpei. Kouji alternated between watching their surroundings and the Gotsumon who still had his Beast Spirit. The digimon fiddled awkwardly with the magnifying glass that he carried around his neck. Sometimes, he would look up as if he wanted to say something but didn’t find the words for it and quickly stared at the uneven ground again.

That awkwardness only came to an end when they stopped next to a large rock and had the digimon sit on it. By this point, Gotsumon was the only one still shaken and distraught.

“So,” Kouji began and crossed his arms, annoyed by the fidgeting. He almost expected to receive no answer at that cue. The last time he’d truly interacted with this Gotsumon, he’d stolen his mysterious jewel and that didn’t really make for the best conversation starter.

Gotsumon looked him straight in the eye and said, “Thank you for saving me back there.”

“It was nothing,” Kouji said because for him, it really had been nothing.

Still, Gotsumon wrung his hands nervously, making a grinding sound when rock scraped against rock and mumbled quietly, “I saw you. Earlier. You’re one of the Legendary Warriors and you didn’t even need to digivolve to... to help me.”

“Yeah, about that: what’s going on?” Junpei interrupted, feeling extremely left out of the loop. “And can you stop that?”

Gotsumon shot him an angry look, and a bright light flashed through his eyes. It was only there for a second, but Kouji straightened in alarm.

Before anything went down, the rock digimon checked himself and obediently dropped his hands into his lap. He coughed and said sheepishly, “I actually can’t remember much.”

Junpei didn’t care. “Well, we came all the way after you, so you kinda owe us an explanation.”

Which gave Kouji the perfect opportunity to ask: “Where did you find the Spirit?”

Last he’d heard was that the Spirit at the Gotsumon village was only a rumour.

Gotsumon visibly struggled to find an answer. He groaned and said, “It was encrypted on a cliff close to home. There’d been a temple of Light once, really old stuff from shortly after Lucemon’s fall. The inscription said to find three red stones to release the Spirit.”

“That’s why you took the jewel?” Kouji realized and had a strange feeling. Hadn’t the merchant that gave it to him said something about light as well? This had always been about his Beast Spirit! Good thing that they’d held onto it.

Gotsumon nodded. “And it worked! Once I put the stone in the correct place, the Spirit appeared! But after that? …I wanted to, uhm, take down Grumblemon...” Gotsumon trailed off, staring at his hands. “It’s all hazy. I only remember coming around in that village and I was suddenly so weak. I think that Garmmon drained all my energy...”

It was as good a cue as any. Kouji asked, “So are you ready to hand it over?”

Gotsumon’s eyes shot wide open. “What? No! What makes you think that?”

Lovely. That reaction honestly surprised Kouji, but he managed to keep his face completely impassive.

Junpei didn’t have this level of self-control and blurred out, “But that’s Kouji’s Spirit!”

“No, that’s my Spirit!” Gotsumon insisted, standing up on the rock to appear taller than them. His eyes flashed dangerously. “I’ve spent months unearthing it!”

Kouji paused. So far their Spirits had been conveniently lying around with nobody (except maybe the crazy Candlemon) claiming them for themselves. They simply hadn’t run into a situation like this. But Kouji knew Garmmon was supposed to be with him.

Not that he needed to say anything. Junpei was starting to get angry now. “Look, kid, we need it more than you! Remember how we saved you just five minutes ago? We’re going to save the entire digital world, so stop being so stubborn!”

“Hah! You think I’m a kid?” Gotsumon shot right back, unwilling to give ground. “I have my own plans for the Spirit! Deal with it! It’s me who’s going to save the world!”

“How? You can’t even handle one digivolution!” Junpei said, frustrated.

Gotsumon’s eyes flashed again.

No. They were emitting a continuous glow, and with his anger rising, the light got more and more intense.

“Obviously I just need practice! I’ll learn how to control it! You can’t—” He paused, and his eyes were liquid light. He tried once more, “You can’t— ugh...” His hands flew to his head and a groan escaped him. “What...?” He groaned again, a low sound that grew louder and louder. When he screwed his eyes shut, his entire body began emitting light.

“Hey, are you okay?” Junpei asked unhelpfully, at the same time as Kouji said, “I think you need to calm down.”

They traded an uncomfortable look. Then Gotsumon screamed and fractal code burst out of his body, surrounding him in a cocoon of irate data strings.

Gotsumon Beast Spirit Digivolve to...

(Gahhhh! It hurt, it hurt, it hurt. So much light, too much light, everywhere, invading, there was no way to... to...)

...GARMMON!

That was the end of conscious, focused Gotsumon.

Kouji and Junpei both hastily stepped back when the data cocoon broke open and Garmmon awkwardly tried to balance on the comparatively small rock on which Gotsumon had been standing. Despite the unexpected obstacle, it still found time to roar at them. Its eyes were radiating light, but they had a vacant, lifeless look that told Kouji reasoning would fall on deaf ears.

He had his D-Tector already in hand when Junpei shouted, “Kouji, don’t!” and for some insipid reason, inspired by misplaced trust, he actually hesitated.

Instead, the other boy summoned the data cocoon.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to... Beetlemon!

It was too late for Kouji to digivolve now because Garmmon pounced. He needed the time to jump out of the way and barely evaded the golden claws. Garmmon was fast! Faster than Kazemon! But when he rolled to his feet, Beetlemon grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted him up in the air.

Below them Garmmon roared again.

“What are you doing?” Kouji demanded but didn’t struggle. He really didn’t fancy dropping straight onto his Beast Spirit, which clearly wanted him dead.

“Lobomon would be too heavy!” Beetlemon shouted over the noise, rising higher and higher. “I thought it’s better not to fight him.”

On the ground below, Garmmon was running in an angry circle, staring up at them and howled impotently. It jumped upwards, half-heartedly trying to reach them, but its landing looked less than graceful. It took a while to pick itself up again. It didn’t send its laser attack at them. Possibly because of Gotsumon’s total lack of control. Honestly, this looked worse than when Tommy had transformed into Blizzarmon. There was not even a flicker of consciousness in these too bright eyes.

“So what now?” Kouji asked harshly. Why not fight Garmmon right now? Just moments ago, Junpei had argued for Gotsumon to relinquish the Spirit! This still was their best opportunity to take it from him.

“I don’t know! Why did he digivolve?” Beetlemon asked.

To Kouji, it had looked like Gotsumon’s anger had triggered the transformation. So much for learning to control the beast, he couldn’t even control when he digivolved.

“Does it really matter?” Kouji shouted back.

“It does because it could happen to you too!”

That made Kouji pause. He hadn’t thought of that. When Tommy had found his Beast Spirit, the kid must have known, deep down, that the fight against Scorpiomon was as good as over. Still he’d transformed into Blizzarmon with all the drama that had followed it. Would Garmmon take him over as quickly as Blizzarmon had taken over Tommy?

“Fine, we should wait until he runs out of energy again,” Kouji decided. At least that wouldn’t take long since Gotsumon hadn’t looked like he was fully recovered from his last transformation.

“Okay, I’m going to try and lure it away from the village,” Beetlemon said after a worried look back.

From that high up, they were able to see the village that they’d just left. The destruction was even more poignant from here. Kouji surveyed the forest and saw the glistening of the ocean at the horizon. A jagged mountain range trailed from the coast through the trees. It wasn’t quite high enough for snow tips but had a fair share of waterfalls making its way down the deep crags on its side. That was the direction Beetlemon took them. Despite its inability to reach them, Garmmon followed them hungrily, never taking its eyes off them.

“It’s really creepy,” Beetlemon said uncomfortably as they passed over a wide river.

Garmmon didn’t hesitate and single-mindedly struggled through the water.

“It’s like he’s not even there anymore,” he continued.

Like an animal. No, even an animal would’ve been more circumspect.

It was obvious that fatigue slowed the beast down and when it dragged itself out of the water, wet and miserable, a burst of fractal code restored Gotsumon to his usual form. “Ugh...”

Beetlemon dropped Kouji on a small hill a few meters away from the riverbank but didn’t transform back yet. He called out, “You okay now?”

Gotsumon took a moment to stop shaking. He looked up to them, confusion edged into his stone face. “What happened?”

“Oh that’s wonderful,” Beetlemon said, but wisely decided not to bring up the control issues again.

-JP-

JP struggled to remember when he’d ever felt this frustrated. Gotsumon clearly wasn’t able to control Garmmon. It even affected his normal self, and their resulting argument summoned the shiny eyes multiple times again. Thankfully, he’d run out of energy to power another digivolve. Despite all that, he refused to even consider getting rid of the Spirit. He also wasn’t ready to meet them halfway and come with them to Forest Terminal, no matter how sensible that sounded.

Gotsumon had this notion in his head that he could save the world. Well, all the power to him, but this Beast Spirit thing was clearly not working for him. He still hadn’t recovered from his recent stint as Garmmon and had barely managed to roll onto his back in the wet mud surrounding the river. His random bouts of pre-transformation glowing couldn’t be helping his recovery.

Even Kouji looked frustrated now—as in, more frustrated than usual—and asked the crucial question, “So how do you plan on saving the world?”

Gotsumon leaned back to shoot Kouji an upside-down look as if his next steps were obvious. “First, I’m going to kill Grumblemon.”

Kouji sat on a mouldy tree log, his arms crossed in his most unimpressed position yet. “And do you know where to find him?”

“Well, as Garmmon I tracked him to this forest so I’m sure he’s around here somewhere,” Gotsumon said, but it sounded less convincing than his rants about keeping the Spirit. Like any Gotsumon, he could see through the earth, but he’d said that it got considerably harder in unfamiliar terrain.

“Yeah right. He’s long gone now,” JP said. Not because he was terribly sure of that, for all he cared, Grumblemon could’ve had set up shop in this forest. He just thought this entire line of reasoning was stupid.

If a random guy could save the world, why did the mysterious woman even bother to call for some kids from the human world? JP might not be happy about it, but apparently, they had some big destiny to fulfill in the Digital World. At least they’d do a better job at it than this Gotsumon who couldn’t even control when to digivolve. Sure, Grumblemon was pretty bad, but how would getting rid of him save the world?

“That’s okay.” Gotsumon carefully sat up, wiping the wet mud from his body. As if he’d read his thoughts, he continued, “Grumblemon isn’t really the root of the problem anyway. I’m just going to get rid of his boss and I bet that’ll make him come running!”

“Wait, what?” JP said, standing as well as he tried to shift gears. Grumblemon’s boss... That was Cherubimon! The guy that was so powerful that he’d created all these black holes in the country. The guy who controlled most of the digimon that gobbled up fractal code everywhere and whose influence turned innocent people into savage monsters. Was he serious?

Gotsumon turned to him and in his yellow eyes was a determined look. “I’m going to the Dark Continent to fight Cherubimon!”

“On your own?” Kouji asked and Junpei knew from experience that his frown was covering his total surprise.

“I have Garmmon now,” Gotsumon countered as if that was all he needed to confront the bad guy. “You can go to Forest Terminal or whatever, but I’m not handing over my Spirit!” Finally, he could move without collapsing in exhaustion, and he used his newly regained mobility to walk up the slope, throwing them a superior look. “I’m going to do something for my world.”

This was crazy. JP fell in step with him, trying to find a way to stop him from running to his doom. In the back of his mind, he knew that if Kei were here, she would’ve agreed with Gotsumon. Since the Bakumon incident, she and Zoe were adamant about staying in the Digital World and helping it fight off Cherubimon, no matter what they’d find at the Forest Terminal. But at least, they weren’t alone!

“You can’t do that all by yourself!”

“Watch me.”

“You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“That’s what you think.”

“You’re going to hand Garmmon to Cherubimon on a silver platter!” And damn, they had come all this way because he had Kouji’s Beast Spirit. “Can’t you be reasonable for one second?”

“Listen, kid.” Gotsumon turned to him and pointed a stubby finger. “I’m trying very hard to be reasonable here! This is my life and my Spirit! I found it, I haven’t seen you trying to work for it, and I’m going to do this, so leave me alone!”

Then, he made a break for the trees, slipping in between where Junpei had trouble following him.

Kouji was a lot nimbler though. The other boy had walked a bit behind them without saying anything, but now he shouted, “Hey, wait!” and went after Gotsumon.

Great. More running through the forest, more stumbling over roots and more twigs snapping in his face. JP couldn’t imagine anything else that he’d rather do. He was starting to think this Beast Spirit was more effort than it was worth. Maybe they should just abandon the idea and get back to the others.

He even had the ideal opportunity to bring this up. When he finally caught up with Kouji (damn, that kid was fast), Gotsumon was nowhere in sight.

“Where’d he go?” JP asked, even though Kouji wouldn’t be standing on this clearing, looking around with trademark frustration if he’d had an answer to that.

“I don’t know. I think that he climbed that rock and vanished,” Kouji said grudgingly.

Oh yes, the other special ability of Gotsumon. There was a huge boulder in the centre of the clearing, but nowhere else to hide. Could Gotsumon walk around when they turned to stone? Maybe they could walk through the earth itself like Grumblemon could?

In any case, that was the final straw. “Well, that’s that then. Let’s go back,” said JP.

So far only Tommy had a Beast Spirit and aside from Kouji, no one else knew where to find theirs or if they were even necessary. They could figure out how to go about saving the world and suicidal Gotsumon after they reached their mandatory stop at the Forest Terminal. There, JP could also figure out if he really wanted to stay in this crazy world where nobody wanted to work in their own best interest.

But Kouji wasn’t just cold; he was also the perfect example of someone unable to work in a group.

Somehow the words ‘going back’, i.e., ruining their progress, and ‘the others’, i.e., a group he still wasn’t comfortable with, triggered an instinctive reaction in the other boy and Kouji’s face went blank in repressed annoyance.

Yeah, JP could see right through him, and he hated jerks like him. Why were they even forced to work together? Oh right. Because this world was crazy, and they were the only sane people left in it. Also, he’d rather not return to the others alone. What would Zoe say if he’d failed a mission as simple as preventing Kouji from doing something stupid?

JP sighed. Usually, he wasn’t all that great at compromising, but in this case the burden of being responsible fell onto him. Hell would sooner freeze over than Kouji change his attitude for the sake of the mission. What would Kei do to solve this mess? Hm...

“Or we could walk aimlessly around this forest looking for the guy.”

Kouji said nothing which probably meant agreement.

There were several things wrong with that plan that only gradually became apparent.

With their lull in fighting or excitement (unfortunate run-ins with roots and branches aside), JP found a prime opportunity to contact the girls and Tommy. They needed to know they were okay, that things would take longer than expected and that he was doing his hardest to convince Kouji to reunite afterwards. He pressed the correct button on his D-Tector and concentrated on Zoe. In the very short time it took to show any result, he wondered if Tommy was okay. But then his D-Tector displayed static, and all unrelated worries were thrown out of the window. What?

What did that mean? JP barely noticed that he was drifting off into a panic. Was Zoe okay? Was everything alright over at the Gotsumon village? Were they attacked again? He suddenly had to face the reality that Zoe and Kei had versatile, but rather weak digimon forms, and who knew what state Tommy was in? And here, he and Kouji were running around a forest hours away from them!

He tried to connect to either of the other two with the same result. Okay, okay. One more try to see if it wasn’t just his D-Tector malfunctioning for some reason.

A moment passed, then Kouji turned to him, holding up his white and blue D-Tector that displayed the thunder symbol, unveiled irritation on his face. “What do you want?”

“I can’t reach the others,” JP explained, trying very hard not to get annoyed at Kouji’s constant sour mood. Seriously, would it kill him to be a bit more agreeable?

For a moment, he almost expected Kouji to try as well, but the other boy just thought and then said, “Maybe it has a range limit.”

Oh.

JP hadn’t thought of that. Thoughts of Zoe in danger had run away with his mind and now he felt kind of embarrassed for jumping to the worst conclusion. Being out of range sounded far more probable. They’d even called it the walkie-talkie function.

This development just added to JP’s growing frustration. Now that he knew the worst-case scenario, he surprised himself by finding stumbling through the forest and being led around the nose by a ninja rock even less appealing than before. The group that they’d left behind didn’t have any strong fighters and he was starting to worry about them. Clearly they needed Beetlemon for protection. Damn, why hadn’t he let Anumon go with Lobomon? Kei wasn’t that great with Kouji (none of them were, now that he thought about it), but at least she had this mysterious ability to get him to agree to things that he usually wouldn’t.

As the minutes passed, JP couldn’t help but voice his displeasure with the entire situation. He was still hungry, exhaustion was setting in again, and it wasn’t like they were able to see the difference between a normal rock and a transformed Gotsumon. It didn’t help that Kouji refused to say anything about where they were heading or how long he planned to indulge in this pointless endeavour. It was making him feel antsy on top of being ignored.

They ran into another suspicious rock for Kouji to frown at. Nothing made it look different from any of the six boulders they’d stumbled across aside from a slight variation in its moss pattern. So JP offered, “How about we take a break?”

Kouji froze, balling his hands to fists. He half-turned to him and snapped, “How about you stop complaining for one minute?”

Okay, calm thoughts. Getting angry wouldn’t do him any good here. JP had his attention which was improvement already. “You have no idea if Gotsumon is still around so we should—”

It was a sign about how fed up Kouji was with everything that instead of letting him finish, he said with anger colouring his voice, “Why are you even here? You’re just slowing me down!”

“I’m here because—” Junpei paused to gather his thoughts so he wouldn’t shout out his frustration. “Someone thought it’d be better if you’re not out here alone!”

Well, even he recognized that that wouldn’t sound good to Kouji’s ears and true enough, the biting remark came. “I don’t need a babysitter! I would be better off without you!”

Alright, screw not getting angry, he had it coming! “You know what? Fine! Like you’re that great to be around. What made you this stuck up? I bet your mother didn’t love you enough!”

He was too angry to care that saying that was a bit hypocritical. He also didn’t care that Kouji flinched back. After taking another breath, JP continued, “I’ll go back to the others. You can do whatever you want,” channelling what Kouji had said on Frozen Mountain.

He paused, since maybe Kouji decided to be reasonable about this, but the other boy’s face was devoid of any emotion. With a chilling look in his eyes, he turned around and walked away, soon vanishing between the trees.

JP let him go. He was so done with him and had nothing more to say. He collected himself and started walking into the opposite direction.

Seriously! All this time and he was trying to accommodate this jackass (against his better judgement even!), and this was how he repaid his efforts? Screw him being a decent fighter and another human stranded in this world. Kouji would realize soon enough where that left him. Let’s see how he put up against a swarm of digimon without help.

JP would apologize to Zoe later, after he made sure that she was okay. Once he got into range again, he also needed to tell the others about Kouji running off on his own and how that was actually a good thing. After all, they’d stepped up their teamwork and he doubted that they would need Lobomon in future fights.

JP was still silently fuming through all the unfairness when he suddenly realized that this particular rock looked shockingly familiar.

He stopped and looked around. He’d been so busy stomping away from Kouji that it only now occurred to him that he had absolutely no idea where he was. He had no map and no money. And he still couldn’t reach the three humans that were worth a damn in this world...

“Gah! So hungry,” he proclaimed to the heavens and collapsed against the boulder.

What were his options? A look to the sky told him that the better part of the afternoon was already over. Could he even make it back to the Gotsumon village before nightfall?

Well, there was that village in the forest somewhere, but with the scene Kouji (gritted teeth) and that damn Gotsumon had caused, he doubted that they’d be willing to help him out. Junpei sighed miserably. Despite being hungry, he thought that he could manage another digivolution to look for a place to spend the night. This wasn’t hopeless. He distantly remembered that he’d seen a settlement close to the coast on their way here.

Then, a voice had him jump away from the boulder that he’d been so happily leaning against.

“Damn it, get off of me!”

Hah. The rocky surface shifted into a different shape. JP almost wanted to laugh out loud. The thought of Kouji stumbling through the woods with no idea what he was doing was really funny now that he was face-to-face with Gotsumon. The digimon dropped off the boulder with an air of annoyance surrounding him.

With Kouji gone, JP found that he was also a lot less irritated, and who cared if that Gotsumon had Garmmon? Who knew if Kouji would be any better at controlling it? Now JP felt petty enough to begrudge him the Beast Spirit.

With such cheerful thoughts, it was a lot easier to forgive Gotsumon and JP said lightly, “If you pretend to be a rock you don’t get to complain about being treated as one.” Then, he realized that he’d found a solution to all his problems. “Hey. I want to get back to your village. Do you know the way?”

The digimon narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “You’re not going to lecture me about my Spirit?”

“Nah it’s fine, I don’t care about that anymore,” he said as casually as he could, even though his anger at Kouji still wasn’t sated.

This new attitude didn’t really put Gotsumon at ease. “What changed your mind?”

JP really should have expected that. Oh well. “...I’d rather not talk about it,” he said evasively. Since that didn’t really sound convincing, he decided to add some encouragement, “Besides, you’re right. It’s your life and if you want to throw it away against Cherubimon, then all the power to you.”

“Uh,” Gotsumon said, letting a few moments pass while he processed that. “What did you want again?”

“Which way is your village? You know, the termite hills?” JP repeated.

When Gotsumon started to look around with confusion, JP became really nervous. If this guy didn’t remember the way either because Garmmon had messed with his head, or if he couldn’t figure out a way to make money or to make nice with one of the villages then... then JP would have to spend his night alone outside, in the cold. No, it was even worse. He not only didn’t know the way to the Gotsumon village, he also didn’t know where the Forest Terminal was! Plus, he couldn’t contact Kei and the others! The gravity of the entire situation was threatening to overwhelm him. He was lost in another world and all alone!

But thankfully (depending on your definition of what being thankful meant), two things happened to get him back on track.

Gotsumon said, “Ah, it’s that way,” pointing into a seemingly random direction.

And a heavy thud clued them in to the arrival of a new digimon. It had jumped down from a nearby tree, even if there seemed no logical explanation why it would’ve climbed it in the first place. Especially considering who it turned out to be.

At first, JP had no idea who that was. It was a humanoid digimon roughly the size of Beetlemon that reminded him a bit of a wooden action figure of something that was clearly meant to be a villain. It didn’t have a head per se, just an enormous torso. Its upper part happened to have a flat tower-like cap and in the darkness connecting it to the main torso, two yellow lights shone that represented its eyes. Below the gap was a perfectly round circle with vicious-looking teeth.

It gave them a moment to adjust to its presence and then raised a finger as if to lecture them. “Ding dong! Do not let children handle sharp objects!”

JP blinked, not sure what to do about this recent bout of absolute oddity, and the wooden robot continued, “How peculiar! A human and a Gotsumon meet in my Land of the Forests. The beginning of a beautiful friendship, certainly.”

What. The. Hell? He pinched himself into the arm to see if he’d maybe fallen asleep, but this weird-even-for-digimon-standards guy was still there.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Are you an idiot?” Gotsumon hissed. “That’s Arbormon! He’s the Warrior of Wood!”

While JP didn’t appreciate being called an idiot, he still snapped to attention. He should have instantly recognised the gear golem from the time Zoe had lent him the Italian book. Another Legendary Warrior! The question was, friend or foe? Maybe another human? In the back of his head, something that Gargoylemon from the library had said was making him very nervous, but he couldn’t really remember...

“He’s one of Cherubimon’s Spirit Warriors!” Gotsumon clarified when JP failed to be appropriately horrified.

Oh, yeah. That was it. Gargoylemon had told him that Cherubimon controlled the other five elements and that it would be only logical to meet them on the battlefield. But how did Gotsumon know that? From what JP knew of the others of his kind, they weren’t really big on travelling or informed about the world.

He shifted uncomfortably. He really didn’t want to fight again today… And the thought occurred to him that neither he nor Gotsumon looked all that suspicious. Maybe Arbormon would just leave them alone if they didn’t provoke him?

“Someone has been doing his homework,” Arbormon said good-naturedly. He rolled his shoulders, gears clicking, and continued, “You left quite the trail of destruction behind yourselves. You’re clearly unfit for the Beast of Light. The great Cherubimon will safeguard it.”

Oh great! Arbormon just had to have investigated that damn village full of birds and these grey dogs! He came here to find the one who caused all this destruction. Huh, that meant he didn’t know about Beetlemon.

Arbormon stretched out a hand. “So give me Garmmon, alright?”

Gotsumon, visibly shaken by the sudden appearance of an enemy, rallied valiantly. Nobody would threaten ‘his’ Beast Spirit. “You’re crazy if you think that’ll work!”

Already, the worrisome glow of Garmmon appeared in his yellow eyes, slowly turning them into liquid light.

“If it’s a fight you seek, I shall be happy to provide!” Arbormon said, sounding genuinely excited.

Well, even with control issues, Garmmon was a damn stronger fighter. JP was ready to let Gotsumon handle this one—

Arbormon Slide Digivolve to... Petaldramon!

JP had seen Blizzarmon. He’d seen how tall and frightening that thing had been.

It was nothing compared to the behemoth that was Petaldramon: an absolutely massive lizard-like creature that towered over them. He easily cleared the height of a single-family house while walking on four tree trunk-thick legs. Moss grew all over his body and the ends of his split tail looked like tree roots that could give a mammoth tree in the human world a run for their money.                            

Petaldramon’s face was covered in bark and a wreath of dark red leaves surrounded it like a mane. (Looks a little like chestnut. Hm, maybe oak? the studious part of JPs brain mused, before the rest of it jerked it back to the present) Their function wasn’t only decorative. They started rotating around his face and Petaldramon sent out a petal storm through his nostrils.

“Leaf Cyclone!”

JP’s distance to the massive Beast of Wood saved them. He jumped forward and pushed Gotsumon out of the way while the attack rushed past them and pulverized the boulder. JP stared at the destruction and hurried to draw his D-Tector. Next to him, light surrounded Gotsumon that turned into fractal code.

While JP summoned the data ring around his hand, he had a comforting thought: the second a threat appeared on the horizon, he could always scrape together the energy for another transformation.

That had to be the reason why Gotsumon managed to summon the data cocoon, despite his utter exhaustion. It almost looked like Garmmon took over just because it wanted to fight.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to... Beetlemon!

Gotsumon Beast Spirit Digivolve to ... (AHHH!) ... GARMMON!

And Garmmon’s first step after freeing itself from the fractal code was to fire a frickin’ laser beam at Beetlemon.

His world became light.

-Kouji-

Kouji had considered digivolving after getting rid of Junpei. But with Garmmon inactive, it was impossible to feel the faint pull of the Beast Spirit. The lull in results left him ample time to ponder if the Spirit really was worth it.

He wasn’t worried about the loss of control. Just, this whole side venture was taking up valuable time and he was still anxious about taking too long to reach the Forest Terminal. The only reason he hadn’t given up on the search yet was because the woman had told him where to find the Beast Spirit. She had also guided him to Lobomon. It seemed like whatever was at the Forest Terminal relied on him having both Spirits.

Despite these clear worries, there was somehow room in his mind to be frustrated about something else.

Kouji rammed a fist against the bark of the tree that he was just passing.

To think Junpei hadn’t even realized what he’d said. How could anyone be that ignorant? He breathed out through his nose in an effort to calm down. It didn’t matter. He could stop caring about Junpei or the others now.

Kouji came to a decision and stood up straight again. He would find another village and ask for directions to the Forest Terminal. Garmmon was still close by, that much he could feel, and he had a greater chance of finding Gotsumon in a village than in a random patch of forest.

(Kouji was too far away and his connection to Garmmon still too weak to pick up on the fight occurring elsewhere in this forest.)