WoS Ch2 - Enter: Kouji

The story so far: With little to no preparation, Zoe and a handful of people she doesn’t know are now stranded in the Digital World. Their only information so far is to use their new “D-Tectors” to collect the Spirits of the Ancient Warriors. Apparently, these Spirits have the power to grant wishes. Yet, when Kei finds the Spirit of Fire, right here in Flame Terminal, it “only” gives her the ability to transform into Anumon, the Legendary Warrior of Fire! Now it's time to look at someone who arrived in the Digital World all by himself!

◀ Chapter 1 Part 1

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Chapter 2 - Enter: Kouji

- Kouji-

The turbulent ride into the Digital World did little to distract Kouji. His thoughts lingered on the upcoming… event. At least he was alone on the train. He had enough on his plate without a bunch of disorganized, curious kids clamouring for his attention.

Kouji frowned at the metal scenery whizzing by. He knew exactly why he’d boarded the train and it had him seething in silence. He was procrastinating.

It was their anniversary today. Their third anniversary. He’d had such a noble plan. He gritted his teeth, reaching up to open the window. A little air couldn’t hurt.

Of course, his plan had already failed at step one. Why wouldn’t it? He couldn’t make anything else work for him, so why would buying flowers be any different. Through the window, a strangely calm aroma of spice and smoke drifted in and he sighed. It wasn’t like his heart had really been in it. Even after three years.

He leaned against the cool glass of the window, the bandanna cushioning his head. Thinking back to his lessons, he had once again refused to face his difficulties and accept responsibility. All it took was one mysterious message on his phone, promising to show him his destiny. So now he was here, in a foreign world with talking trains and strange monsters, having successfully convinced himself that his stepmother could wait another year. Again.

The Trailmon dropping him off in a forest in the middle of nowhere didn’t impress him much. Neither did its jumbled explanation about digimon and fulfilled deals. Kouji waved it off, instead drawing his D-Tector. The blue and white device took its sweet time giving him new directions.

“Commence your search for the Spirit,” said his guide.

His frown deepened. He’d thought now that he made it into the Digital World, she would cease her cryptic messages and guessing games. “What Spirit?” he demanded.

The circle on his display flickered. “Kouji Minamoto. Soon you will find answers to the questions your heart asks.”

So much for cryptic messages. “That’s not good enough! How do you know my name? And who are you? Why did you call me into this world?” His rapid questions met with the dulling of the display. “Come on! What do you want from me?!”

He clenched his fist, ready to stalk back the way the train had come. A green and black search grid appeared as a hologram above the D-Tector’s screen. It didn’t improve his mood, but it at least gave him a direction to go.

He left the train tracks and headed into the woods surrounding the trails. The Digital World seemed much like the human world—discounting the physics-defying railway system and gigantic black holes in the countryside.

The forest had something everlasting; warm sunlight filtered through the thick canopy above him. Kouji followed the lure of the red arrow on his search grid and spotted quite a few stone statues depicting some sort of ancient monsters. It all came to its logical conclusion when he reached the entrance to an ancient temple. Overgrown steps led into a comely darkness.

The arrow pointed straight down, and Kouji had a moment to appreciate this twist of fate before the entire search grid vanished.

Lovely.

-Zoe-

Kei was doing much better when we finally left the metal cavern behind.

“So, you really don’t remember anything?” I asked again, my voice echoing in the empty hallways.

She rubbed the back of her head in a nervous gesture. “Sorry. But what I do know is that it felt awesome! I had all this power, and I was so calm, like nothing could faze me,” she trailed off, blushing. “Actually, it felt a bit like I could suddenly understand the whole universe...”

JP snorted. “Yeah right.”

She spun around—and wobbled on her feet. I cringed in sympathy.

Screwing up her face with defiant determination, Kei recovered from her stumble and shoved her D-Tector into JP’s face. “Here, I want to see you try facing that monster by yourself!”

He brushed the offending device out of his sight with a huff. “About that. I’ve been thinking. It’s really sad and stuff what’s happened to this world, but this isn’t really my cup of tea. I want to get out. You too, right, Tommy?”

The little guy had been trailing behind. When I turned around, I noticed that he held his D-Tector in both hands and his eyes were shining. Wow, that didn’t bode well.

He looked up, still mesmerized by whatever fantasy he was cooking up. “I don’t know. What Keisaki did was so cool! Maybe I can get a Spirit too?”

JP was about to say something when Kei pounced. “Absolutely not!” she said fiercely. “You didn’t even want to be here in the first place!”

The strong reaction took Tommy aback. Again, I was seeing a side of Keisaki that I wasn’t sure I could get along with. The response seemed too aggressive, especially given how young Tommy looked.

“But...” He lowered his head until I couldn’t see his eyes anymore.

I raised a hand to my forehead, expecting another crying fit.

“No buts,” Keisaki said with an air of finality. “We’re getting you home.”

“Could you try not being a bully for one second?” I snapped, coming to Tomoki’s defence once again. I stopped at the base of the stairs leading back to the city.

“What?!” Keisaki let out an indignant shriek, now looking at me with new eyes. “I’m not bullying him! I’m looking out for him! He’s young and tiny! He shouldn’t be here!”

She had a point, but she didn’t have to be such a jerk about it. “I know that!” I replied, not willing to be out-outraged. “But you can’t talk to him like that!”

“Girls...” Junpei began, and Keisaki and I both turned to him with burning eyes. He faltered under our glares but puffed out his chest a moment later. “Let’s be reasonable and figure out a way home first. You know, to see if that’s even possible?”

Well, he certainly managed to calm us down.

At some point during our argument Tommy must have made another bid for freedom. JP had grabbed him before he could squirrel away and held him close. That was thoughtful of him; it wouldn’t do to lose the little guy in this maze of a city. I had to stop expecting the worst from JP.

“Fine!” Keisaki said and crossed her arms, mimicking my position. With visible effort, she straightened her features, took a calming breath, and turned to Tommy half-hidden behind JP. “I’m sorry for... uh shouting at you.” She didn’t meet my gaze when she asked, “I’m open to suggestions. Anyone have any ideas how we could get back home?”

JP looked like he didn’t fully trust the peace and offered, “I wanted to check the train station. We came here by train, so we should be able to get back that way.”

My focus was on Tommy though. He’d been so desperate to get home earlier that it was hard to believe he had second thoughts now. Then again, I couldn’t blame him for finding the idea of becoming all-powerful intriguing. I was also excited at the thought! Keisaki had used her D-Tector to become a digimon, and I fingered mine in my pocket. That had to mean she wouldn’t be the only one! The rest of us were also meant to become digimon in this crazy adventure. In fact, Keisaki didn’t have the right to decide what Tommy should do. The little guy had lost his earlier enthusiasm, but his hands were balled up and defiance glimmered in his blue-grey eyes.

He didn’t say anything when Keisaki and JP set our course towards the platform, but I didn’t expect him to remain quiet when push came to shove.

- Kouji-

A maze of sprawling hallways dominated the temple. On their walls were intricate reliefs depicting some sort of ongoing battle. Kouji paid only cursory attention as more often than not, plant roots and time had damaged the pictures beyond repair.

The search grid hadn’t reappeared, which Kouji took as a sign that only an idiot could miss the Spirit after reaching the temple. The only logical thing to do was to continue following the main hallway and to ignore the smaller side tunnels leading away from it. Those were empty, save for the occasional window showing the black void outside. His own strategy came into question when what he thought to be the main hallway started to narrow until it ended abruptly in front of a metal grate.

Not wanting to admit defeat yet, Kouji approached the iron bars. A truly enormous bowl-shaped cavern waited on the other side. The grate was one of many that randomly riddled the concave walls, probably exits for the other tunnels. He’d reached the most important part of the temple. In the middle of the cavern was a hole that led even further down.

The second he laid eyes on the pitfall, something drew Kouji towards it. He kicked out the grate’s rusted base and used one of the iron pipes hanging from the ceiling to slide down to ground level.

His steps echoed through the empty space as he approached the hole. It was at least five meters in diameter and perfectly round, as if someone had used a giant drill to create it. When Kouji knelt at its edge and peered into the darkness below, he couldn’t see a bottom. There was no obvious way down and he leaned back, wondering about the feeling that brought him here. Was that... the Spirit?

His D-Tector emitted a high-pitched beep. Kouji drew it from his pocket, half-expecting the woman’s circular symbol. Instead, light erupted from the device and shot into the darkness down the hole.

A strange calm washed over him, and he wasn’t surprised when the hole returned the light in much brighter intensity. It was like a sun had appeared at the bottom of the hole, illuminating the entire cavern and the branching tunnels with brilliant white light. Kouji couldn’t look away.

A figurine appeared further down the chute. He strained against the light. The figurine, the Spirit, sat on a small platform, displaying the armour of a warrior with a wolf mask. The mask’s empty, black eyes had Kouji spellbound. He knew what he was supposed to do.

He pointed the D-Tector down the hole. “Come to me, Spirit!”

The Spirit answered the call. It floated closer until it was absorbed into the D-Tector.

Kouji blinked and the spell was broken. He shook his head to clear it of the lingering, possessive feeling. What just happened? He looked at the D-Tector, the kanji for ‘Light’ glowing on its display. It faded into a picture of the figurine from seconds earlier. This was the Spirit! He’d found it. That had been surprisingly easy.

“I’ve had enough!” a harsh voice sounded. Something heavy landed with a resonating thud on the floor, too close for comfort. Kouji sprang to his feet and came face to face with the fanged snout of a giant wolf. Hateful eyes glowered at him from behind batwing-shaped, violet extensions that spanned its entire face. Kouji didn’t need to lower his gaze to notice the gigantic blades that protruded from its legs.

He fought the urge to freeze up, his heartbeat loud in his ears. He inched backward, carefully avoiding the hole that still had a distinct white glow, only to have a second set of legs land heavily behind him. He turned his head, and a black hound growled at him. It was almost as tall as the wolf.

Oh, this was just lovely. Kouji swallowed, his mouth dry. It looked like the giant animals from the pictures earlier were still very much alive, and they too could talk.

“What do you want from me?” he asked, stalling. How was he supposed to escape this situation?

The wolf had no room for reason. She raged at him, “I was willing to let your trespassing slide! But this light! For this you must pay!”

She pounced at him, bladed legs outstretched. Pure instinct overtook Kouji, and he managed to roll out of the way. A part of him wanted to ask what the hell she was talking about, but the Spirit knew better and prompted him to act.

A single ring of fractal code spun into existence around his free hand. Kouji swiped his D-Tector across, trailing a long string of bluish data. It quickly surrounded him in a slowly rotating cocoon.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to... Lobomon!

He grew taller. White armour flowed and hardened around him. He opened brown eyes behind a metal mask and saw his enemies. He didn’t wonder how he knew that these were Sangloupmon and Dobermon. He had to defeat them to restore harmony. Lobomon stepped out of his data cocoon and smirked. This might be a challenge.

The fractal code announcing a digivolution momentarily confused Sangloupmon. Perhaps, she would have hesitated, might have reconsidered fighting, but for the terrible light.

“Arrgh! No! Enough of that!” she howled.

Her companion was a step ahead of her, and a ray of energy erupted from his mouth. “ Black Beam!”

Lobomon pulled his light sword from the sheath on his back. It cut through the core-damaging attack, leaving nothing behind.

Dobermon growled. “Why, you!”

“You have good reflexes,” Sangloupmon spat. Her fur stood on end, glowing in a subdued light. “But I want to see you evade my Sticker Blades!”

Her fur turned into needles that she hurled towards him. Lobomon raised his sword but quickly abandoned the idea of slashing through the attack; the projectiles were impossible to see. He opted to jump out of the way, but there stood Dobermon, his red eyes shining with an unholy glow. The hound opened his mouth, though no black ray came out. Instead, he roared, “ Grey Noise!” The sound was unbearable, and as Lobomon raised his hands to protect his metallic ears, Sangloupmon’s Sticker Blades rained down on him. He grunted in pain, feeling the needles drilling into him where armour was lacking.

The purple wolf howled with laughter. “Not so high and mighty anymore, are you? Trust me, my brother and I will bring you to justice!”

What justice? He’d just minded his business!

Lobomon switched the hold on his light sword and used his undamaged hand to draw his second sword. He licked his lips.

Definitely a challenge.

-Zoe-

I was born to handle the local digimon.

It was the easiest thing in the world to convince another Pagumon to explain the way to the train station. I would have attributed it to some sort of womanly charm, but I knew at least one girl who completely failed in that department. Hmm! Maybe I just wasn’t a jerk.

Reaching the platform, though, didn’t help much. The Flame Terminal was an island floating a little off the continent’s coast and surrounded by the ever-present black void. For a moment I wondered why that was, but another dilemma drew my attention: the platform was devoid of Trailmon.

“Well, that was pointless,” I said disagreeably.

JP wasn’t happy. “There must be something like a departure and arrival plan. This is a train station!”

As if summoned by his words, a group of the white blobs, Poyomon, floated by. They noticed our situation, and one of them said in a squeaky voice, “We saw Trailmon Angler go to the Forest Stop at the abandoned temple.”

“Thank you!” Keisaki shouted back at them. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

They didn’t.

They also didn’t know if he was coming back at all.

Keisaki started pacing, a deep frown on her tanned face.

“Maybe we aren’t meant to go home?” Tommy offered from his position next to JP.

The older boy despaired over something that was clearly a departure and arrival board but written in completely unrecognizable squiggles. He was muttering to himself in frustration.

Keisaki just gave Tommy a quick glance without comment, for which I was thankful. If she’d decided to continue the argument, I didn’t know what I’d do.

“I’m not giving up yet,” she said in an effort to be reasonable, but instead sounded patronizing. It grinded my nerves and even Tommy crossed his arms, pouting.

At the moment, JP seemed the only one truly on board with this ‘return home’ venture. He abandoned the billboard and turned to us. “There has to be another way.”

Keisaki nodded emphatically. Her eyes lit up with an idea. She pulled out her D-Tector and held it close to her like a walkie-talkie. “Hello? Uhm, can you hear me? We would like to go back to our world now?”

We stared at her.

Nothing happened. She slowly lowered the D-Tector, her face going red.

But then, much to our collective surprise, all the D-Tectors started to beep, and I hastily grabbed mine. Our mysterious guide’s symbol glowed on the display. I couldn’t believe it, Kei’s call actually produced results!

Hah, far from it!

“DigiDestined,” the female voice sounded. “I congratulate you on earning your first Spirit. Now you must go to Forest Terminal. Your true destiny awaits you there.”

Tommy took that as incentive to say, “I don’t want to go home anymore! I want to go to the Forest Terminal and find my destiny!”

I’d never seen someone look as defeated as Keisaki in that moment as she looked at her D-Tector, betrayed.

For her comfort, Junpei voiced their displeasure, “She can’t be serious! I didn’t sign up for this!”

“Rest assured.” I nearly jumped out of my skin when the voice from the D-Tector reacted to those words. “This is the fate you have chosen for yourself. You will accomplish great things.”

Now JP was staring at his D-Tector, his mouth agape—an uncomfortably fitting expression that made me giggle.

“It looks like we’re all stuck here for now!” I said merrily. The reminder that we’re here for a reason was enough to clear my bad mood.

“Okay, fine! Let’s go to the Forest Terminal.” Kei started to march towards the mainland visible in the distance.

Since she was being productive, I caught up to her and asked, “And where are you going?”

“The Forest Terminal, see?” She pointed at the forest that grew along the cliff on the other side of the chasm. “The Poyomon said Trailmon ‘Angler’ just went there. It can’t be that far.”

Something seemed wrong with her reasoning, but I couldn’t put my finger on it and let it slide.

My earlier assessment about the Flame Terminal being an island entirely disconnected from the mainland turned out to be untrue. Aside from various train tracks, a very new-looking bridge spanned over the chasm that a few digimon were using to go back and forth between the Flame Terminal and the continent.

As we made our way over, I couldn’t help but feel put out. Shouldn’t the great things we were supposed to accomplish entail more than just crossing a bridge?

- Kouji-

“ Lichtkugel!”Lobomon called out and fired a sphere of light at the ground.

He didn’t mean to hit anything in particular; Dobermon was still too far behind him to be a threat. No, the light sphere was meant to get rid of his unnaturally black shadow. A pained snarl told him that it had fulfilled its purpose. Part of his shadow broke away, and its blackness rose from the ground to reform as Sangloupmon. She hissed and sputtered, eyes mad.

As much as Lobomon wanted to use her distraction to finish her off, Dobermon’s Black Beam forced him to jump back. The hound wasn’t as fast as his sister but reliably caught up with them every time. The two were covering each other’s weak points in a way that spoke of years of collaboration. Aside from a few grazes with his sphere of light, Lobomon hadn’t managed to land a decisive hit on either of them. That Sangloupmon could also turn into a shadow was an annoying development.

Dobermon’s Grey Noise broke into the hallway, and Lobomon abandoned his position. It was incredibly difficult to fight through that howl. With the tunnel stretching in front of him empty and free of obstacles, Lobomon rather conserved his energy.

He’d wised up after being foolishly struck by the Sticker Blades, and they hadn’t managed to catch him again. Now the siblings were playing the waiting game, hoping that he would tire out before they did. But Lobomon felt strong, stronger than ever. It was obvious that the chase was affecting his enemies more than it was affecting him. They shouldn’t have challenged him in the first place.

Sangloupmon snarled in frustration and jumped forwards. The tunnel was too narrow for Dobermon to cover her, an oversight that would cost her. Lobomon turned towards her outstretched, blade-like claws and raised his light swords for a cross-slash.

“Zwei Sieger!”

With perfect precision, he used the two energy swords to push her claws out of the way and brought the damaging light towards her body, searing through her fur. She roared in pain and tried to snap at him with her truly impressive fangs, but Lobomon brought his head back and she missed him entirely. He kicked her in the stomach to get her away from him and raised his arm towards her brother behind her. “ Lichtkugel!” His ball of light met Dobermon’s Black Beam and easily went through the dark attack. Dobermon howled when the Lichtkugel collided with his head.

“ Black Mind!” Sangloupmon bellowed in fury. Lobomon wanted to jump out of the way, but the wolf had merged with his shadow again, and this time it was too late for a rescuing burst of light. Hateful eyes opened in the mass of his shadow, and a black copy of Sangloupmon slammed into Lobomon. The impact made the air rush out of his lungs and sent him careening straight into the ceiling.

Straight through the ceiling! The stone burst upon impact, and suddenly, he was outside again.

Lobomon didn’t have time to nurse his protesting midsection as Dobermon was right behind him, expertly avoiding the falling rubble to launch himself at him. He brought his swords around in the nick of time to block the bite.

Then, there was a gasp. A very human gasp. Lobomon swivelled his head to locate its source, and this gave Dobermon the long-awaited opportunity. “ Black Beam!”

Searing pain blossomed on Lobomon’s left arm when the black beam went right through it. He hissed and flinched back. To his growing horror, wisps of data formed around the entry wound. Dobermon chuckled darkly.

That was one nasty attack! Lobomon staggered on the forest ground, holding his wounded arm, and resolved not to risk another hit. For now, he seemed to recover, but what if it hadn’t been just his arm?

Lobomon had a moment to get his bearings while Sangloupmon emerged from the hole in the forest floor. He scanned his surroundings. He was next to the train tracks and not too far from where he’d gotten off the Trailmon. Just behind him stood a group of human children, the source of the gasp.

Lovely.

Not only was he still facing two enemies, now he had to keep some useless bystanders out of harm’s way too. He started to think he might have gotten more than he bargained for.

-Zoe-

According to a helpful pink bird that passed us on the bridge, we were almost at the train station in the forest. Tommy began trying to convince JP that it wasn’t an entirely awful idea to stay in the Digital World and become a hero. A way better hero than Keisaki, he’d added, a snide comment I hadn’t thought him capable of.

For her part, our self-proclaimed leader was gritting her teeth, but didn’t say anything. Why did she even care so much if Tommy was on this adventure or not? He seemed happy enough. I didn’t really know what to say to her and wasn’t really looking for a conversation, either. There was an unspoken barrier between us, and I noted, only slightly regretfully, that I wasn’t meant to make friends.

I was all the more surprised when Keisaki approached me, saying: “You know, Tommy isn’t too far off... I really did feel like some sort of superhero when I turned into a digimon.”

I raised my brows and looked at my D-Tector. “So, do you think that I could become a digimon too?”

She gave me a tentative smile, a peace offering. “Of course! But it really isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s dangerous, that’s why I want to—”

She choked on her words when the ground just ahead of us burst open. Bits of stone and rock were hurling everywhere, and I had only a moment before Keisaki tackled me out of the way.

We landed heavily on the ground, but I still had a clear view of what came out of the blast site. A humanoid figure with a long, striped scarf met a black dog above the hole and for one terrible moment I thought Cerberumon had returned. I gasped in shock. I realized my mistake when I was back on my feet and noticed the distinct lack of creepy shoulder decoration and white hair. This creature looked surprisingly like a normal dog, if adjusted for the larger size and the fact it spewed a black beam of death at its opponent. The sword fighter went down with a shout of pain.

“What’s going on?” That was from JP. He and Tommy had been behind us, outside the blast radius.

Kei and I were covered in dust but otherwise fine. She even had her D-Tector ready and was frantically pushing buttons. “I don’t know, but this looks serious!”

“What are you doing?” I asked her even while I shifted my attention to the situation up ahead.

From the bowels of the earth appeared another four-legged monstrosity. A wolf with purple fur and, frankly, logic-defying blades on its legs stepped next to the sleek black dog. They growled at the humanoid figure. The warrior pushed himself up using his two glowing rods for balance. They looked a lot like Star Wars lightsabres, just less colourful.

I was drawn to his metal half mask resembling a wolf’s head. It reminded me of the digimon Keisaki had become... Well, aside from the whole light thing he got going. Anumon seemed pretty dark by comparison.

Speaking of which, Kei growled in frustration. “What am I doing? What does it look like? I’m trying to digivolve!”

I looked back to her and frowned. “What do you mean? You don’t know how to do it?!”

“This is harder than it looks, okay?” she said indignantly. I couldn’t see why, there were only a few buttons on the D-Tectors. “Maybe... Gah!”

A very, very long stream of glittering blue erupted from her D-Tector. It surged forwards as a mass of strings, but then swerved around and floated back the way we came. I followed it with large eyes and wasn’t the only one who did so. The fight behind us stopped, the combatants too stunned to continue. The glowing blue strings settled over the abyss separating the Flame Terminal from the mainland and did something truly astonishing: They filled the gap! Wherever they touched down, they formed recognizable shapes. Trees, streets, houses! In less than a minute, an entire landscape appeared, and the abyss was no more. The land around Flame Terminal had reformed over the black nothingness! How was that possible?

The moment of awe passed quickly. The swordfighter took advantage of the distraction and jumped forwards. He brought his lightsabres around and thrust them at the dog in a cross slash. “ Zwei Sieger!”

“Dobermon!” the wolf shrieked as a ring of blue, the same as the stream we just watched, appeared around the dog’s midsection.

The light warrior stepped in front of him and... was that a D-Tector?! A D-Tector appeared in his hand. This was just like Anumon!

Or almost.

“Oh no, you don’t!” The purple wolf slammed into him, her vicious claws slashing away. “I hate you! Die!”

“Keisaki, he has a D-Tector!” I shouted, suddenly really, really afraid. He had a D-Tector and now he was mauled by that wolf, unable to escape. Was he...? For some reason, I was sure this had to be another human. “Do something!”

“I’m trying!” Keisaki sounded on the verge of a panic attack. “Come on!”

And then there was a data cocoon around her, and I quickly took a step back.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to.... Anumon!

By the time Anumon stepped out of her transformation, the circle of data around Dobermon had disappeared. He still looked worn and dazed. His ears laid back in worry when it spotted the new fighter.

Good! We had another digimon on our side and instantly, I felt more at ease. I zeroed in on Anumon’s ornate weapon and withheld giddy excitement. That was an honest-to-goodness longbow! Fitting for the digimon’s overall medieval appearance! I caught myself wondering if she’d let me use it… Later, obviously!

Anumon herself was an expert archer and put her longbow to good use. She summoned an arrow out of thin air—come to think of it, she didn’t even have a quiver—and took aim.

“Get off of him! Pyro Shot!”

The arrow caught fire and soared through the air, successfully drilling into the wolf's hide. That gave the fighter in peril the momentum to throw her off him.

Dobermon cried out, “Sangloupmon!”

Anumon had another arrow, unlit, on her bowstring, stalking towards what I thought to be another human. “Two against one just isn’t fair!”

“I don’t need your help!” the other fighter said in annoyance, ignoring the strain in his voice with dignity, even as he struggled to get up. He looked terrible, his armour all scratched up, even broken in places. “Go protect your friends instead!” he added, reigniting one of his lightsabres.

“Excuse me?” Anumon said, Keisaki’s temper flaring. “I suppose next time I should let you get eaten by a wolf!”

“I was doing fine before you showed up!”

Arrgh! Did they have to do this now?! I almost pulled my hair in frustration, but suddenly felt JP’s eyes on me. …I wasn’t one to judge.

Dobermon and Sangloupmon regrouped, the dog desperately trying to reason with his companion. “Sister, reconsider! These are two Spirit Warriors! Think of the consequences!”

Some sort of shadowy aura was surrounding Sangloupmon, dark red eyes flashing somewhere above her body. It looked quite ominous. Her voice was deep and raw, “Legendary Warriors! It’s their fault the war started anew! They must perish!”

Dobermon didn’t seem on board with her train of thought at all, but loyally stood beside her.

“ Sticker Blade!”

“ Black Beam!”

“Watch out!” I couldn’t help but shout, even though Anumon and her unwilling ally were perfectly capable of hearing the loud attack names. I just felt so helpless... I wanted to do something!

- Kouji-

This was even more annoying than he expected.

One of the humans also had the ability to digivolve, but Lobomon didn’t feel any relief over it. It would’ve been slightly better if Sangloupmon’s vicious attack hadn’t left him so damaged that he could barely muster the energy to appear casual. He could manage this on his own, he was sure. But Anumon was here now, so he would adjust his strategy.

Sangloupmon and Dobermon (who, he noted with no small degree of irritation, had turned back to normal) finished their sibling spat and stood united once again. Something was different about the wolf, though, something he couldn’t quite figure out. For now, he had his Lichtsieger blade ready to slash through the black beam rushing at him. He refused to be hit by that attack ever again.

Anumon jumped into the air, her wings spreading to support her flight, and avoided the needle rain of the Sticker Blades. She let her arrow fly, but the shot went wide when both enemies lunged forward.

Sangloupmon’s form began to blur, and then she was gone. She’d become a shadow again. That left Dobermon as the only target, and Lobomon raised his arm cannon at him. “ Lichtkugel!”He was also hoping that the light would disrupt the incoming shadow attack.

Dobermon had learned though, and simply jumped out of the way, the dreadful howl building in his throat again. “ Grey Noise! ”

Not again. Lobomon brought his swords together and closed the distance between them, not caring about the oppressing sound that tore at his being. His blades lit up, radiating danger. “ Zwei Sieger! ”

This time he dealt a truly devastating blow, and Dobermon’s form inside the data circle grew into a black silhouette.

He tried to take a step forward to finally cleanse his data but found he couldn’t move. Sangloupmon! She’d merged with his shadow. The red eyes of her Black Mind had already opened. Damn.

“ Critical Shot!” Anumon’s voice came from above. A piercing arrow tore straight to the blackened shadow on the ground, and Sangloupmon emerged with the arrow struck between her eyes and howling in pain.

“You’re welco-” The flyer’s smug words cut short as a data cocoon surrounded her. It swiftly dispersed, revealing the human girl from earlier. “What...?!” With a graceless shout, she dropped the three meters down to the ground.

While this was noteworthy, Lobomon had been distracted often enough. He focused on their remaining enemy and sent his strongest attack toward the still dazed Sangloupmon. “ Lichtkugel!”

“Legendary Warriors!” Sangloupmon snarled. The menace was falling from her as quickly as her form was darkening. “You think you’re so righteous!” She breathed as the circle of data appeared around her. “You know nothing of the true history!”

That sounded cryptic, but Lobomon had had about enough of these two. His D-Tector materialized once again, and he wasted no more time. “Whatever, pick your fights more wisely in the next life. Scan.”

Sangloupmon’s body disintegrated as he absorbed her corrupted data. A small DigiEgg remained that was slowly ascending into the sky.

“Sister!” A squeaky voice shouted. Dobermon?

No.

A tiny creature that looked like an attempt at a children’s puppet gone wrong jumped forwards and caught the egg in mid-flight.

“Careful! Dobermon went all fuzzy and then turned into this thing!” the girl on the ground shouted out in warning.

She hadn’t needed to. As he said, he could handle himself. Lobomon pointed his gun at the little creature, but it held up a hand, and the other clutched the egg against his trembling form. “No, stop! I learned my lesson! Let me go and I promise, we won’t trifle with the Legendary Warriors again!”

“Why did you attack me in the first place?!” he demanded, not ready to let Dobermon’s weaker form Dracumon get away that easily.

Dracumon looked at the egg in his hands. “Sister has been very irritable lately. I don’t know what’s been happening with her.” He shifted his weight and looked up at Lobomon uncertainly. “Maybe this has been for the best... Please, I won’t hold this against you. Just let me go!”

There was something in the dead eyes of this creature that Lobomon didn’t quite understand. But the words were sincere. He let out a deep breath and stepped back. “Fine. Get lost.”

“Thank you, Warrior of Light, thank you!” Dracumon said emphatically, then turned and ran back to the Terminal of Flames as quickly as the weight in his hands allowed. He didn’t so much as look at the humans who had gathered around the fallen girl.

Suddenly, exhaustion caught up with Lobomon. He knew he’d pushed his limit to make sure the threat was gone. His time was up. With a flurry of blue fractal code, he was human again.

Kouji collapsed on the ground. He felt so tired, like all his energy had been zapped. It took way too much effort just to roll on his back. He stared at the peaceful, blue sky, breathing heavily, and tried to process what exactly he’d done. Wow. What an experience! For the first time, it had felt like he could really do something!

His moment of self-reflection didn’t last. Footsteps were on the approach, but he couldn’t muster the energy to turn his head to look at who was coming. The intruder walked into his field of view anyway, a sturdy boy with spiky brown hair in a blue jumpsuit.

“So, Zoe was right, you really are another kid, just like us.”

It annoyed Kouji that he felt too weak to even manage a scoff. He highly doubted these kids were anything like him. He hoped his withering glare was enough to convince the other boy to leave him alone. No such luck. Of course.

“Are you alright?” the other boy asked.

In response, Kouji mustered a disbelieving, “are you kidding?” stare, that finally did its purpose.

The other boy winced. “Yeah, sorry, need some help?”

“No,” Kouji managed and was pleased to sound like himself again. His arms still felt like jelly, but he pushed himself into a sitting position all the same.

“Fine, geez.” The boy, who must have been at least a year older than him, crossed his arms against the back of his head and wandered back to his friends.

Good, because just after he turned, a violent tremble shook Kouji, and he fought down a wave of nausea. What…? He shouldn’t have stayed a digimon for such a long time! He pulled the sleeve of his dark blue jacket back and stared at his arm, where Dobermon had hit him with the Black Beam. All that was left of the wound was a dark spot. Dull pain ached through his body, but for all the damage he took as Lobomon, some of it appearing life-threatening, he was surprisingly fine. While he was looking at it, the spot decreased in size. Do I have accelerated healing now?

Alright. Time to deal with the other kids. He rose to his feet, making sure he didn’t lose his balance, and turned towards the group.

They were still gathered around the girl who could digivolve, and who was brandishing her D-Tector now, explaining something. At least the fall hadn’t hurt her. It seemed like the quicker healing was a general trait of owning a Spirit. She noticed his stare and looked back at him. Motioning at her friends, the group started to head in his direction, so Kouji stayed put.

With some disdain, he noticed that they had a little kid in their entourage. While he didn’t have anything against children (as long as they existed somewhere far away from him), he strongly suspected this wasn’t the place for one. It would only make their life difficult in the days to come.

“Hi, feeling better I see,” the girl said after she stopped a respectful distance away from him. She must have been warned by the tall boy on her left. Or maybe she was still annoyed at him. It didn’t matter.

Kouji wasn’t sure he’d been in complete control of Lobomon’s actions—a thing he had to keep in mind when he transformed on future occasions. So he shrugged and said, “Thank you for your help.”

That took her by surprise. Her eyebrows rose impossibly high.

“Uhm it was nothing...” she began uncertainly, trading a look with the blonde on her other side.

“Nonetheless,” Kouji pressed on. He couldn’t bear the thought of owing her. They would run into each other again, he was sure. “I will make it up to you.”

Now the girl was frowning. “Okay?”

“My name is Kouji Minamoto. What’s yours?”

“I’m Kei. I mean, Keisaki Kanbara,” she said. She introduced her companions, but Kouji wasn’t that interested in them.

“Alright, Keisaki. And friends.” He felt recovered enough to be on his way now. “See you later.”

He turned around, intent on heading to a quiet place to think. 

-Zoe-

The second Kouji turned around, I knew Keisaki wouldn’t leave it at that. Her face was working, and she ground her teeth. His attitude had clearly thrown her for a second, so it took a moment before she shouted, “Where are you going? Hey, wait!”

With her moving after him, I felt obligated to do the same.

Tommy’s eyes sparkled again, and he ran after us with his D-Tector held tight. Only Junpei took his sweet time getting into gear. Probably because Kouji had been a jerk to him. I was holding off on forming an opinion but even I had to admit that the blue-haired boy left a lot to be desired.

“What do you want?” Kouji stopped, but he was clearly unimpressed. His whole stance spoke of someone who didn’t work well with others. He was only a few centimeters shorter than Keisaki and had long hair for a boy. He held it back in a low ponytail below a blue bandanna.

“What are you doing?” she shot back. “Why are you leaving?”

The subtleties of a loner personality were lost on her. Should I let her in on those secrets? I wanted to see her make her point first.

“Look, I don’t know what made me look like the social type,” Kouji started, and I had to think of Lobomon’s reaction to Anumon, “but I work better alone.”

“Are you serious?” Keisaki blinked in disbelief.

I tilted my head, not sure what got her so riled up.

She did me the favour and explained herself. “We’re in a different world where things are randomly trying to kill us, and you want to go out alone?”

Hm. She was adamant about sending Tommy home for his own good.

Kouji frowned. “I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, I saw that,” she snapped, causing his face to tighten. “It looks like you’re one of those legendary Spirit Warriors. I bet you got the same message that we did to come into this world! That means we have to work together, right?”

She turned to me for confirmation, but I had nothing to give her. I couldn’t see Kouji working with us just because a magic voice told him so. We already had enough discord in the group without a disagreeable loner messing us up.

Keisaki groaned in frustration when she read my opinion on my face. “Why aren’t you all more worried about this?!” She turned back to Kouji and pointed at him. “We have the same goal. Wouldn’t it make sense to stick together? At least until you get the hang of this Spirit stuff?”

I tapped my nose thoughtfully. Keisaki lost control of her transformation for an unexplained reason. It was possible that she was projecting her own fears onto Kouji, but it was still something to watch out for.

“I’m not sure we have the same goal,” Kouji said harshly.

As if just to disagree with him, his D-Tector beeped. He drew it from the pocket of his grey trousers, and when the voice spoke, his face fell. “Kouji Minamoto. Congratulations on finding your Spirit. Go to Forest Terminal where more answers are waiting for you.”

“What a coincidence.” Keisaki decided to lay it on thick. “That’s also where we were told to go.”

Kouji scowled at the disembodied voice, exasperation weighing heavily on his shoulders as he grasped for any reason to ignore her.

Haha! I knew our trip to the Forest Terminal would entail more than just crossing a bridge! Keisaki couldn’t be the only one carrying the team! As much as I could relate to Kouji’s loner persona, I was also coming around to Kei’s point. These battles looked dangerous!

“It’s completely pointless for you to wander off on your own.” With visible effort and gritted teeth, Kei added, “What if we’re the ones that need your help and you’re off who knows where?”

I hadn’t thought she would go that far. She didn’t strike me as someone who willingly admitted someone else was better than her.

Kouji’s eyes flickered from her to me and finally settled on Tommy. “Have you tried going back home if you’re so scared?”

“I’m not scared!” Tommy said indignantly in unison with Keisaki. The two looked at each other, but quickly looked away again. Kouji smirked.

Trying to reign in her temper, Kei said in frustration, “That’s totally not the point! The point is, we’re heading into the same direction so we shouldn’t even have this argument!”

That was my guess why JP was still hanging out with us. The older boy wasn’t even interested in saving this world and only the lack of options made him stick around. Heck, I couldn’t even say if I was fully on board with the ‘quest’. But the digimon here really needed help and maybe... with a Spirit... I could help them, too. I liked that idea a lot.

“We still don’t know where the Forest Terminal is,” JP said. I might not like his disinterested attitude, but he was quite capable of keeping a cool head and figuring out the real problems. “It clearly isn’t here.”

“That’s your problem then.” Kouji took that as an incentive to turn around and walk away.

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Kei grumbled but didn’t move to stop him.

This would have been the last we’d see of the jerk for quite a while if it weren’t for the fact that the railway close by started to rumble. A train was approaching; a sentient digimon train. In a split second, I saw the answer to all our problems in front of us.

Time to test if my charm worked on Trailmon as well!

I rushed to the side of the railway—in case this didn’t work I didn’t want to be mushed below the wheels. I waved at the sleek, blue train approaching from the Flame Terminal. “Heeeey! Hello!”

With some satisfaction, I noticed it slowing down. It peered at me with curiosity and said, “Hello there, little girl!”

It took a lot out of me not to react to the demeaning comment. I wasn’t little!

The others noticed what I intended to do and walked closer. Kouji still stood a little way off, an unreadable expression on his face. At least he wasn’t gone. Right. I should turn on the charm!

“Excuse me for interrupting your busy schedule!”

“It is nothing, but speed up, for I have to be on my way!” The Trailmon had a bombastic, pushy voice.

I smiled at him. “About that, would you know where we can find the Forest Terminal?”

“Hah! No Trailmon has gone to Forest Terminal in a long time!” he boomed. “Why do you ask?”

This wasn’t going how I expected it to go.

Thankfully, JP covered for me. “So you do know where it is!” He scrambled around in his pockets and produced another chocolate bar. I would ask how many he’d stored in there if they weren’t so useful. “Here, how about you take us there?”

Trailmon looked at the offering with squinted eyes. They sat right under his yellow horns. Then he opened his mouth and gulped the entire bar down in one go. “Oh my!” he shouted in delight. “Hop on then! I can’t take you all the way, but I’ll bring you as far as I can!”

It was my turn to smirk. I turned to Kouji, who had watched the proceedings warily. A look of resignation crossed his face. Even he had to realize that travelling on a train who knew the way was faster and more productive than heading out on his own.

He walked towards us and said, “Alright. But this doesn’t mean anything.”

Keisaki opened her mouth to say something that could ruin the moment, and I rammed my elbow into her side. All that came out was an unintelligible sputter and she shot me a betrayed look that I countered with a face full of serene innocence. I boarded the train after Tommy who had already rushed inside.

Things were really looking up.

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