WoS Interlude I

The story so far: Five children are stranded in the Digital World on a technicality. Their quest? Apparently, reaching the Forest Terminal. They have help in the form of the Spirits of the Ancient Warriors, objects of great power that allow them to transform into elemental digimon! Only one of them has not yet found his Spirit and the group is just about to reunite after unwittingly being split up... Well. At least, that's the plan.

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-Zoe-

I didn’t know how to feel about this. “You lost Kouji?”

“Well, when I turned back, he wasn’t there anymore!”

“You lost Kouji on a straight walk from one end of a clearing to the other?”

“In my defence, it was a big clearing!”

I couldn’t believe this!

Actually, no. I could totally believe it. It wasn’t like Kouji had concealed the dislike for us. Just this morning I’d been surprised he’d lasted this long! Keisaki nervously peered into the surrounding forest. She’d offered to look for him, and we’d walked a few paces towards the tree line, my head still a bit clouded from the rush of the transformation. But now I reconsidered and stopped. “So that’s that.”

Keisaki nearly stumbled as she turned to face me. “You can’t be serious!”

“You can’t force him to stick around and be a decent person,” I countered.

Tommy looked crestfallen. Of course he would be hit the hardest. I always had a bad feeling about him idolizing Kouji too much. People like Kouji couldn’t be trusted in social situations, but it was still sad to see Tommy learn that lesson now.

Then again, I had no control over what Tommy was or was not to learn. Moments ago, he’d been beat up by a tree and I wouldn’t wish that on him, either.

We walked back to the giant tree in the middle of the clearing.

This place was called Breezy Village and like JP told us, it used to be a tourist attraction. Their customers had started to avoid the resort once the Mushroomon turned inexplicably evil. With the trio gone, the resident Floramon hoped to restore the place to its former glory. The first step was to convince us of their hospitality.

“Would you, perhaps, like some delicious soup?” asked one of the countless tulip digimon who owned the hotel and restaurant. What is it with the Digital World and soup? I thought to myself.

The plant digimon had ushered us into the dining room built directly into the clearing’s giant tree which, like the rest of the village, had suffered in the wake of the Mushroomon attacks. The Floramon seemed excited to serve tourists again, and we were more than happy to accept their generosity—even if it meant soup for the third time.

Still, despite the surprisingly delicious meal and the fact that I had a really awesome Spirit and would never ever be useless again, I couldn’t help but feel down. Looking at the rest of the group, I wasn’t alone. Even JP showed dismay at Kouji’s absence. Although Kouji had been distant and aloof from the beginning, he’d already become part of the group.

“Hey, uh...” Keisaki flagged down one of the Floramon bustling about and tried to match their joy at being rid of their nightmare. Still her question came out a little listlessly, “Do you know if there’s a Trailmon going to the Forest Terminal?”

Floramon looked depressed for a moment, but then her expression cleared. “Trailmon pass by here every day, but they don’t bring any travellers. I can look at the train schedule, maybe you can ask one to take you?”

“That would... that would be nice?” Keisaki said, and if her voice faltered a bit, everyone pretended not to notice. Floramon scurried off to do her the favour.

I pushed my empty soup plate away and decided to be productive. “Can I have the book?”

“The book?” Keisaki asked, confused.

“The reason why your backpack is so heavy,” I elaborated.

“Oh, that book!” She relinquished our most valuable possession.

Let’s see. This was a book about the Digital World. As horrible as yesterday’s reading had been, I had learnt about the Village of New Beginnings. Maybe I could find some information about other famous places?

I searched through the index at the back of the book but didn’t see anything that translated to Forest Terminal. What else could I...? Oh. I looked up. I didn’t have to do this alone. “Hey, does anyone have a particular subject I should be reading about?”

“Well, what’s in the book?” Keisaki asked. She’d been carrying this thing without even knowing if it was useful!

“Mostly general stuff. Society, history, a list of digimon that exist...” I answered. At least, there was an alphabetical list of digimon at the end. I even found the Floramon and the Mushroomon in the book, complete with crude drawings of what they looked like.

Kei rested her head on her hand and asked, “So kinda like...what types of digimon there are?”

I mentally went over the text I already slogged through. “Hmm... Yeah. There’s these two big types of digimon. The humanoid digimon and the beast-like digimon. Oh and they hate each other.”

“That’s the guys that are fighting over on the Metal Continent, right?” JP said.

“Uh.” I grimaced. I had no idea what he was talking about but bravely pushed on. “Not only? I think all digimon are either ‘Humanoids’ or ‘Beasts’. The Floramon are Human digimon, and uh, all these dogs from yesterday are Beast digimon...”

The book was clear on the fact that Beast digimon were unreasonable and dangerous. So far, I was inclined to agree since Cerberumon, Sangloupmon and Dobermon had attacked us without provocation. They were just bend on destruction. Even that one digimon, that was creating the holes in the landscape was a Beast digimon. Cherubimon, the Beast leader of the Digital World!

JP started to nod along, but Kei piped up.

“Wait a second. The Floramon are human?!” she said, sitting up straight.

“Human digimon. It’s just how they are called,” I corrected. “The Mushroomon are Human digimon too.” I added helpfully. Then I paused. I thought it was Beasts and Humans that hated each other? Was there some internal strife between digimon of the same group? Maybe digimon didn’t like each other in general.

“Is there anything else in the book?” JP asked hopefully.

I stared at him in confusion.

“Maybe anything about the Ten Legendary Warriors?”

My eyes narrowed in suspicion at his tone. Why was he so interested in that? “Don’t we already know enough about them?” Everywhere we went, digimon tried to talk about the warriors!

JP defended himself. “Well, but what do the others look like? What are their abilities? Will I also become one?”

I found it a bit patronizing that he still thought he wouldn’t get a Spirit. Obviously, it was just a matter of time.

I didn’t feel like explaining, but Kei thought otherwise. While she engaged in reassuring him, I flipped through the pages. His idea wasn’t half-bad.

A little while later I was still sitting at the table, but the plates and spoons had vanished. One of the Floramon placed a glass of fresh water next to me and I sipped from it occasionally. To my dismay, the book continued to show itself in the most difficult and obstinate Italian that I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. At least the history of the Legendary Warriors, from what I could glean, was fascinating. They had the power of the ten elements! Well, I was reasonably sure there were only ten elements. Sometimes other names showed up that I couldn’t match to any of the Warriors. Either because the book had multiple authors, or I was mistranslating something.

Despite their obvious power, the Ten (or More) Legendary Warriors nearly lost against Lucemon. That was a character I really didn’t want to meet. Not even Cherubimon’s current bid for power, which made entire areas vanish into thin air, was any comparison to Lucemon’s reign of terror.

Hm, there were also descriptions of the Spirits that the Legendary Warriors left behind. They only contained a fraction of their power... I could find Kazemon in the book and smiled. So, that’s what I looked like. So sexy and beautiful, I noted with satisfaction. I also found the other three Spirits we had already encountered, but Lobomon made my mood dip back into wistful neutrality. I got up from the table to look for JP. Now that I found the correct page, maybe he wanted to see his Spirit options?

The others were outside, surrounded by a crowd of on-looking Floramon. What was that all about?

On the clearing, Anumon and Kumamon were shooting at crude, hastily-placed targets. JP watched them with concentrated determination, Kei’s stopwatch in hand.

I marked my page with a finger and shut the book, then turned to him. “What’s going on?”

“We found a train that comes close to the Forest Terminal. It leaves tomorrow,” he said distractedly. I blinked. JP ignoring me? That was new.

“I mean why did they transform?” I asked.

“Because that means we have some time for tests...” he trailed off as he finally looked up and realized who he’d been talking to. “Oh! Zoe! Can you digivolve, too?”

That didn’t make any sense. “Why?”

“Well... I’ll explain after you do, okay?” he said, pulling out his little notebook.

I frowned but put the book on a bench to draw my D-Tector. It felt a bit strange to call upon my Spirit when I wasn’t in any danger. Maybe that was why Kei hadn’t thought about flying us over the missing bridge.

Power surged through me, and We were one once more.

“What am I supposed to do?” We asked with the soft echo of the wind.

Anumon landed next to Us. She wasn’t afraid of the air, unlike when she was in human form. “Target practice, mostly. Do you have some long-range stuff?”

We decided to ignore the insult. We were wind! Anumon was simply ignorant.

We spied the pathetic targets placed on the clearing. They had crude numbers edged inside, and We brought forth an unstoppable, rose-coloured storm from Our wind gloves to decimate the target labelled with the number three. Target number five, a few spaces off, burst into splintered wood. Our attack was powerful! We ignored the still intact target number three.

“Wow!” Anumon said, suitably impressed. We smiled benevolently.

For about three minutes, We indulged in the simple pleasure of testing Our might in a contest of strength. Anumon hit all her targets, but her arrows did little more. We destroyed all of Ours (that We managed to hit) to the pleasing applause of the little Floramon watching. Kumamon was just generally happy to be here.

“Uhm, Kazemon...” Junpei said carefully, and We were pleased to hear him address Us correctly this time. “Maybe you should try not to uh... put so much strength into your attacks? So we can reuse the targets and stuff.”

A look of dismay crossed Our face. He simply didn’t understand. But We would heed his request for he had helped Us earl-

A feeling of disorientation.

I blinked.

I was myself again.

JP appeared next to me. “Did you transform back on purpose?”

More blinking. I looked at my D-Tector. What had happened? “Uh,” I said intelligently. I suddenly felt a bit faint and grabbed his arm for support.

“Zoe?” Kumamon walked towards me, concern written on his bear face. Huh, I never really noticed that he didn’t have any human features whatsoever, just white fur covering him everywhere.

“I’m fine...” I managed to say. “I don’t know what happened.”

“I knew it!” It annoyed me that Junpei sounded so happy and excited. He looked at the remaining Warriors. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Sure?” Anumon said. Hm, at least I wasn’t the only one confused.

“Okay, then you can all transform back now!”

“Aww,” Kumamon said. He’d had a lot of fun shooting at harmless things.

The familiar data cocoons encased the two Legendary Warriors, and soon I was facing Kei and Tommy again.

“Will you tell us now, what this was all about?” I demanded.

Usually, JP would be a bit nervous about speaking out when all of us were listening. This time he was staring at his notebook and barely noticed us. Whatever Kei had said to him while I was reading the book had greatly motivated him.

“You see, I noticed a pattern.” He pointed at Kei. “It started out when you randomly transformed back yesterday when we met... Kouji.” He quickly continued before anyone could feel down, “But the next time, against the Candlemon, you had no trouble at all, but Kouji suddenly lost control.” He was walking up and down in front of us now, clapping the notebook against the wrist of his free hand. “Even when the same thing happened to Tommy earlier, I didn’t really make the connection. But you all just explained everything!” He looked at us expectantly as if he’d already provided us with the answer.

What?

“Whenever a new Spirit arrives, the others lose control?” Keisaki offered, still confused.

“How did you— How did you even get to that?” JP shook his head in disbelief. “You were the one who had no trouble staying transformed against the Candlemon!”

She crossed her arms in indignation, not appreciating her intelligence challenged.

“Maybe I should try it differently. We’re in the Digital World,” JP began again, this time sounding like he was trying hard to be patient. He ignored something that sounded suspiciously like “no shit” and continued, “But we’re from a completely different world that isn’t based on data. Yet you can transform into digimon with no problem. How’s that possible?”

“Because we got the Spirits,” Tommy said, eager to please.

“Yes!” JP said and patted him on the oversized hat.

I rolled my eyes. That was the big revelation?

“But what happens when you get the Spirit? You get this fuzzy feeling and become monsters?” JP asked a rhetorical question. To me it felt more like the Spirit and I merged into a being that was neither me nor the will of the Spirit, but some sort of hybrid. I didn’t say that though since he was still talking. “So I believe that getting a Spirit turns us into data, too!”

That got a reaction, and I suddenly shuddered. I’ve become data?! I didn’t know anything about computers, and I had been effectively pushing the thought on what exactly ‘Digital World’ meant far away from my mind. Now JP was telling me that I had become some alien construct...? Could I ever go back to normal?

“Calm down!” He noticed that it wasn’t just me panicking. Kei looked alarmed too. “I mean, I don’t think that’s bad... Giving back the Spirit probably reverses the process...” JP scratched his head as if he hadn’t considered that in his excitement. “I mean, it’s still just a hypothesis! What I really meant to say is... that I think the second time you ­digivolve your newly created data body fully merges with the Spirit, and that causes a short circuit, and you turn back accidentally. That also explains why everything’s fine afterwards!”

I frowned. Something about that didn’t ring true.

“I even tested my hypothesis! Kei and Tommy, you have digivolved more than two times now, and you could keep the transformation going for as long as you want. But Zoe, this was your second time, and you lost control without knowing why!” He sounded oddly pleased with himself. He really did like figuring this out, didn’t he?

“Alright, I can see where you’re going...” Kei allowed. She was also frowning and traded a look with me. I shrugged and she said, “You could be right.”

“You’ll be convinced when I get my Spirit and things will happen the exact way I said!” JP said with a superior smirk, holding up his D-Tector. Ohhhh! So that’s what changed! He was motivated because he no longer thought he would be left out of the fun! Somehow Kei had convinced him to be patient about getting his Spirit.

I smiled, reminded of the reason I came outside in the first place. I picked up the book and noticed with dismay that I’d lost the page I wanted to show him. I took a minute to find it again.

A distant rumbling started to come towards us. Just as I spied the beautiful picture of Kazemon on the pages, a red-coloured Trailmon with a metal underbite rolled into Breezy Village’s train station. A swarm of Floramon appeared to greet it and I almost thought they expected guests. Instead, they engaged the Trailmon itself in conversation. Pearly laughter drifted over from their end. If the Trailmon came here often, it made sense that they were friends.

Since I hadn’t checked the schedule, I trusted the others that this wasn’t a train we were supposed to take. I was about to hand JP the book when something shocked me into dropping it unceremoniously to the floor.

“Kouji...” Kei said, eyes wide as saucer plates.

Leaning extraordinarily casually against the opened train doors was the missing party member.

“I thought we lost you!” Kei shouted, pointing an accusing finger at him. I knew she was trying to combat her shock with audacity, but I still facepalmed when she said, “Zoe accused me of losing you!”

“Kouji!” Tommy talked over her, sounding happier than ever. “You came back!”

“Yeah, why?” Junpei said, and I suddenly felt like hitting him.

Kouji rolled his eyes. “I found us a train.”

“Really? This one doesn’t even go to the Forest Terminal,” JP said, still sceptical.

“Exactly!” I said automatically, even if I didn’t know the schedule. That was my way at getting over the shock. Somewhere at my feet the heavy book lay forgotten. I’d been so certain we’d seen the last of Kouji... I really needed to stop expecting anything from people.

“No train goes to the Forest Terminal,” he corrected, unperturbed.

“So what’s so special about this one?” Kei had recovered and was open to suggestions now.

Kouji opened his mouth, but the Trailmon spoke first. “My name is Trailmon Franken! May I see the saviours of Breezy Village?” Trailmon was slowly driving backwards, and Kouji had to jump out of the door to stay level with us.

The swarm of Floramon had accompanied their friend until they reached us and now a dozen tulip hands pushed me forwards. I was blushing profoundly when the huge eyes of the sentient train fell on me. “What a fierce fighter!”

I started to smile genuinely. Usually, it took a display of my temper to have people call me fierce. I was happy he acknowledged that without me having to say a word! “The Floramon were in trouble. It’s the least I could do!”

The flower digimon pushed JP and Tommy forward and Trailmon Franken gave them his deepest scrutiny too. JP looked mightily surprised that the honours included him too. “I- I’m glad they’re free of the Mushroomon now!” he stammered.

“It’s too bad about the Mushroomon... I loved their goulash,” Trailmon Franken said wistfully and the Floramon clung to each other in sorrow.

What? Why was that?

With a sting, I remembered that the Floramon used to be friends with these dangerous criminals. Before they became inexplicably evil, they’d worked in harmony, here at Breezy Village! I bit my lower lip and felt Kazemon’s support. Because of the book I knew, I knew that the brothers would be reborn at some place called Village of New Beginnings. And they would be free of any dark thoughts and able to start their life anew. Yet I started to wonder if I could’ve done something different...

“Don’t feel bad!” a tiny Floramon said and hugged me around my legs. “We’re sure that the Mushroomon will be much happier now. So we thank you for freeing them from the bad influence!”

These words left an impression on Kouji as well. His frown made me think, and I realized that this wasn’t the first time that we heard about a digimon suddenly becoming angry for no reason. What was going on?

“Your friend told me you want to reach Forest Terminal?” Franken asked in the ensuing silence, putting us all back on track. As far as I understood, he’d been delivering guests to Breezy Village ever since the inn had been established. Of course he would be grateful and would take the saviours of Breezy Village wherever they wanted to go.

I started to see what was so special about this Trailmon.

“I’m sorry that I cannot take you all the way to Forest Terminal,” Franken said, and he sounded like he truly meant it. “I recently converted to ‘cargo only’ and you wouldn’t believe the tight schedule! But I can drop you off at a place where my good friend Buffalo can pick you up. I’ll radio ahead and tell her if you would like me to. Her route can take you directly into the Land of Forests.”

That was perfect!

It wasn’t like we had a lot of things to pack and were ready to leave in less than two minutes. The Floramon handed us a dozen carefully prepared bento boxes for the journey. In turn, we promised that we would spread the word that Breezy Village was safe for customers once more. Franken promised them to look for a few trustworthy new employees to take over the work of the Mushroomon.

We slowly boarded the train. There were no seats in the compartment, but Franken had laid out a few cushions for us, so we didn’t have to sit on the floor. The huge windows on either side were the only remnant of his former status of a passenger train.

The Floramon gathered at the platform, still talking excitedly. They were already planning their future workload.

“You know, we could always leave JP here,” Keisaki said good-naturedly. Everyone’s mood had risen considerably since Kouji had returned. “He’s strong and capable!”

I still felt guilty for not handling the Mushroomon situation better ( They attacked Tommy! a part of me screamed indignantly), but that didn’t stop me from chuckling at JP’s outraged squawk. The Floramon, unable to detect sarcasm, looked like they wanted to rush him, even if he was already through the train doors. Their appreciating “You’re right! He does look extraordinarily strong!” seemed to pacify him and he struck a pose at the window. The Floramon waved at us happily as Trailmon slowly left Breezy Village.

I stared on ahead. What would happen to us next? Why were digimon becoming angry and corrupt? Could I do something about that without sending them to the Village of New Beginnings? I leaned my head on my arms as the scenery whizzed by.

Just what was waiting at the Forest Terminal? Why had we really been brought into this world? 

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