Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Commozione! It’s today!”

Izumi almost tripped on the tangled bed sheets as she hurried off her bed to go look at the calendar to make sure it really was the day, as if she hadn’t checked it between every step of her bed time routine last night.

But there it was: April 4, 2004.

Well, it wasn’t exactly the day she had been waiting for—the official date was the 7th, but because it was difficult to meet during school days, they had decided to get together the first Sunday of April.

The walk to Kouji’s house was a short one, and she had learned it easily—not surprising, considering she had visited him more than once after she moved. Even with everything she had learned and experienced in the Digital World, she had been scared when her parents told her they’d have to move again; then they explained they’d just move to Yokohama, and then she found out she’d be living close to Kouji and they would even attend the same middle school, and everything was fine again.

It took only a few seconds after she rang the bell for someone to open the door.

“Good morning, Minamoto-san! Is Kouji ready?”

“Good morning, Izumi-chan. He’ll be here in a minute, do you want to—”

“I’m ready!”

Izumi looked at him for a moment; she had suggested a few days ago that maybe he should try changing his hair a little, maybe even part his hair like Kouichi’s, to have a new style since they would become middle schoolers; Izumi herself had started wearing her hair in a half-ponytail. Kouji had complained at first, saying there was no need for him and Kouichi to look alike more than they already did, but at the end he had loosened his ponytail a little, and his hair was parted. Despite it not being such a big change, she was still not used to it.

Kouji glared at her, blushing under her gaze.

“If it’s so weird, I’ll comb it back.”

“No, no! It’s fine! I’m sure Kouichi will be happy.”

Kouji turned away from her in an attempt to hide his flushed cheeks, and waved good-bye to his mother before walking to the station with Izumi.

He was walking a step in front of her—still hiding his embarrassment for sure—, so she took the chance to really look at him. Back when they first met, she was pretty sure she was about the same height, or maybe even slightly taller than Kouji, but now his eyes were a bit too high and she had to tilt her head back.

He turned around.

“Is something wrong?”

It was her turn to blush, but laughed to keep the attention off it.

“No, nothing! It’s just… It’s been two years already, huh?”

“That’s right. We were there for close to a year, right? And it turned out that it was barely a few minutes in this world.”

“I wonder if it was time travel, or if time is just that different between the two worlds. There’s also the time Takuya came back...”

Izumi fixed her grip on her backpack straps, and Kouji looked at it.

“By the way… What do you even have in there?”

Izumi glanced away. She knew he knew what kind of stuff was in there, because he probably was carrying the same kind of things in the messenger bag hanging from his shoulder, and she felt like there was no need to mention it, just like there had been no need to say it last year, when all of them had shown up with bags and backpacks filled to the brim.

“You know… stuff .”

“We know there’s no guarantee—”

“I know that.”

They stayed in silence for a moment, both keeping their eyes away from each other.

“Sorry. I know we’re all aware, but...”

“No, you’re right.” Izumi shook her head. “I know there’s no guarantee that we’ll ever go back, but for some reason, carrying things that would be useful there makes me feel more at ease. Everywhere I go, I carry a mini first aid kit, or a flashlight, or even a compass. I don’t even know if a compass would work there, but…”

Kouji nodded and hesitated only for a second before speaking again.

“If it makes you feel better, I… I do have a first aid kit and some rope in my bag.”  

Izumi giggled and took a deep breath. Maybe she should try to talk about other things; there would be plenty of time to talk about their adventure once they met with the others.

“Oh, that’s right! Takuya just moved too, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. I’m glad, actually. Sometimes I feel like he’s not telling the truth when he says everything’s fine, so I’ll be more at ease now that Takuya is close to him.”

“Your brother is not helpless, you know.”

“I know, but—”

“If you worry that much about him, then you should tell him.” 

Kouichi struggled to regain his breath as Takuya observed him with concern.

“I think you should work on getting up earlier. I don’t like the idea of you running around the station.”

Kouichi glared at him, still out of breath.

“Shut up… you were also… running around the station that day.”

“Ahaha yeah, I guess…”

It still took him a couple of minutes to fully recover, and they finally went on to buy their tickets. The train car was almost empty except for the guy with an obvious hangover that was sleeping in a corner, allowing them to sit comfortably along with their luggage. Kouichi took a deep breath, and then looked at Takuya—or rather, his backpack. 

“So you brought stuff this time as well?”

“Yeah, but so did you, right?”

Kouichi shrugged, but didn’t fight the smile that appeared on his face.

“Just a few things. Last time I was even less prepared than all of you, and I don’t want to be caught by surprise again.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel. I was talking with Tomoki yesterday, and he mentioned it too.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, will you be okay? Since you had to move and leave all of your soccer teammates behind.”

Takuya shrugged.

“I’ll be fine. Of course, I miss them, but now I have an advantage over them if our schools play against each other.” He leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head, ignoring the fact that the advantage would work both ways. “By the way, are any of your friends going to the same school? Are they in the soccer club?”

“Yeah, my friend is attending too. He’s not really a sports person, though.”

“Your friend, huh? What’s his name?”

“Minami Chikara. We’ve known each other since third grade; he looks like he’s really quiet, but he’s actually such a hot-headed guy—”

“Oh, like you, then?”

Kouichi gave Takuya an incredulous look, while the boy in question had turned his body towards him, with a smug grin plastered on his face. Kouichi frowned and glanced away, feigning ignorance.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Is that so? Then, who was the one who wanted to take on the real Cherubimon on his own? And who was the one who tried to attack him in his light dungeon? Who was the one who got between us and Lucemon’s attack and almost died ?”

“Fine, I got it, I got it!”

By now Takuya’s grin had disappeared, but he was still facing Kouichi. For his part, Kouichi had turned his face away from Takuya..

Takuya sighed.

“Sorry. It’s not that I’m not grateful you saved us, but—”

“—But you were scared that I wasn’t going to wake up.”  

Both of them stayed in silence for a couple of minutes, and eventually Kouichi relaxed and he sighed, turning around so his body was facing Takuya, although his eyes were directed downwards.

“Kouji said that every time we talked. At first I thought I understood; I had seen him and all of you unconscious when we landed on the moon, but I quickly found out you were fine… I didn’t truly understand until he collapsed when we were at the park that May.”

“I remember when you called that night; you sounded really scared.”

“I was terrified.”

Takuya huffed.

“That Kouji, scaring us like that, and never saying anything… But, when I think about it, we should have realized that something was wrong way before that.”

Kouichi raised his head to meet Takuya’s eyes.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Hm? Oh, right. By the time you joined, the battles got more intense and it was only natural we were pretty beaten up, right? But, from the very beginning, Kouji was always in a bad shape after devolving, even with rather easy battles.”

“How come I never heard about that?”

Takuya shrugged.

“Well… We didn’t realize how bad the situation was until you told us what happened, and we rarely had the chance to meet up during the first year, right? As time went by, it didn’t feel right to bring it up. Kouji would have gotten mad.”

Kouichi let out a weak chuckle.

“You’re right, he would have. But he wasn’t really aware of the situation until that day either, so it’s not like he was hiding it on purpose.”

“Even if he had known, he wouldn’t have told us.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They were in silence again; it would still take a few more minutes to reach Shibuya Station. It didn’t take Takuya long to decide on a topic that would likely not end up in another argument.

“By the way, it’s really nice that we’ll be going to the same school, just like Izumi and Kouji. It’s too bad that Tomoki and Junpei are too far away in age to do the same despite living so close.”

“Yeah. I’m really happy about it. Kouji is…”

“Hm? Is something wrong with Kouji?”

“Not wrong exactly, but when we call each other, he says he’s fine, and yet… I still feel like something’s bothering him and won’t tell me what it is.”

“Then just ask him again today. I think he won’t be able to lie if you ask him face to face.”

“Man, they’re taking so long!”

“I’m sure they’ll be here soon, Junpei-san.”

Tomoki and Junpei were waiting in front of Hachiko’s statue; it was early enough that the place wasn’t crowded, but it surely wouldn’t take long to be since it was the last weekend of spring break. As the only two who actually lived in Shibuya, they had arrived before the rest. 

“I know, but I haven’t seen Izumi-chan in such a long time!”

“But we saw her before she moved two weeks ago…”

“Exactly!”

Tomoki sighed and shook his head; it looked like he was never going to change. After noticing the silence went on for too long, Junpei looked at Tomoki, who was directing his eyes toward the station again. 

“Hey… did you bring those this year, too?”

Tomoki gripped the strap of his backpack a bit tighter, and just nodded in response.

“Did you bring those , as well?”

Junpei was less sheepish about the issue, and proudly patted the duffel bag hanging from his shoulder, which made the chip bags and snack wrappers crunch loudly.

“Hey, I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t, would I?”

Both of them laughed for a moment, but Tomoki turned serious again in an instant.

“Junpei-san… do you think there’s a chance we might be able to go back?”

Junpei sighed after thinking for a few seconds.

“Of course, there’s no way to tell. Just because we gather here every year doesn’t mean that we’ll be able to go back today . For all we know, we could go back tomorrow, or during summer, or in ten years—”

“Or never.”

“...Or never.” 

“Tomoki! Junpei! We’re here!”

Izumi waved as she and Kouji walked towards them. As usual, Junpei immediately went to greet her first, while Kouji and Tomoki looked on halfway between amused and annoyed. Tomoki then realized something.

“Shouldn’t Takuya-nii and Kouichi-san be here already? They live closer than you do.”

“Apparently Kouichi slept in and was late to the station, or so Takuya’s text said. They shouldn’t take long.”

Indeed, only a couple of minutes later, Takuya and Kouichi arrived; upon seeing everyone else already there, Kouichi attempted to run the rest of the way. Kouji barely managed to react when Takuya grabbed his arm.

“What did I say earlier?”

Kouichi sighed and rolled his eyes.

“...No running near the station.”

Kouichi yanked his arm away, and Izumi, Junpei, and Tomoki couldn’t help laughing a little. On the other hand, Kouji just sighed, oddly relieved that Takuya was looking after his brother.

“So, are we all ready?”

After everyone’s affirmative, the group started walking towards the east. Just five minutes away from Shibuya Station stood Konno Hachimangu Shrine.

Tomoki had found the Konno Hachimangu shrine the day they went to the Digital World.

Kouichi was alive, they had all cried, and after making sure they wouldn’t lose contact with each other, Tomoki had realized that it was late and his mother would be worried about him. But between the sun going down and stopping to cry a bit more when his brain randomly decided to remind him of some moment or another, Tomoki took a wrong turn and ended up lost. After finding the gate to the shrine and deciding to ask for directions there, he met Hinata-san.

Hinata-san was a miko who worked in the Konno Hachimangu shrine, and while accompanying Tomoki to make sure he got home safe, she asked him how he had gotten lost in the first place. When he told her about how his friend had fallen downstairs at Shibuya Station, was rushed to the hospital, and almost died, Hinata-san realized that the ambulance that had passed by the shrine earlier was likely the one taking Kouichi to the hospital.

“You know? If your friend fought so hard to stay alive, maybe he was blessed by Hachiman. After all, he’s the guardian of warriors.”

That’s what Hinata-san said before Tomoki’s mother spotted them and thanked her for looking after Tomoki. Takuya had asked him to text when he got home once it was decided that he would be the one staying behind until Kouichi’s mother arrived, so Tomoki also told him what Hinata-san had said.

And then, about a month later, he got the news of Kouji’s visit to the hospital.

Kouichi had arranged for Kouji to meet his birth mother on Mother’s Day at Kamezuka Park, when he suddenly collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. But he would be fine, and when he later visited Konno Hachimangu shrine on his own and told Hinata-san about it, she informed him that there was a Hachiman shrine next to Kamezuka Park as well.

That couldn’t be a coincidence, right?

“Tomoki, are we really going to do this every year?”

He was the one leading the way, so he looked over his shoulder to look directly at Junpei.

“Of course! We have to thank Hachiman for looking after us.”

Tomoki looked slightly offended that someone was questioning the tradition he had suggested, and Junpei sighed.

“I get he’s supposed to be the guardian of warriors and all, but…”

“Come on, Junpei!” Izumi lightly elbowed him on the arm. “We haven’t been able to visit a shrine together for New Year so far, so let’s at least do this.”

“And you can’t deny that it’s weird that every time one of us narrowly avoids death there’s a Hachiman shrine nearby.”

“Calm down Takuya, it has only happened twice. And there are thousands of Hachiman shrines.”

“But it’s still weird that it happened two times!”

“To me it looks like it’s Kouichi and Kouji’s luck. Whether it’s good or bad luck it’s a different story though.”

“Hm, maybe. Hey, Kouji, Kouichi, what do you two think?”

“Fate.”

“Coincidence.”

The twins looked at each other for a moment after their coordinated but opposite answers. They quickly looked away from each other; Kouji shoved his hands into his pockets and Kouichi rubbed the back of his head. The six of them stopped at the bottom of the stairs that would take them to the shrine.

“Woah, there’s kind of a gap there.”

After a moment of hesitation, Kouji walked past his friends and started climbing the stairs.

“Does it matter, Takuya? Let’s just go to the shrine.”

After giving thanks for being able to meet once again and praying for the meetings to come, they went to see Hinata-san, who was tending to the sale of fortunes and charms, as usual.

“Himi-kun, you’ve gotten taller again, haven’t you?”

“Just a little.”

‘Just a little’ was an understatement; Tomoki was just one or two centimeters shorter than Takuya, who had grown quite a bit himself in the last year.

“Are you going to draw fortunes or buy charms?”

“Fortunes, please.”

After drawing their numbers and receiving their fortunes, the six of them stood in a circle.

“I wonder if we’ll all get the same fortune again?”

“Last year we all got future blessing, right?”

“Yeah. Everything else was different, though.”

“Alright, let’s open it at the same time. One, two—”

Everyone unfolded their papers, and “half blessing” could be read on all of them. Izumi decided to read the rest of the fortune aloud.

“What you’re wishing for will come true. People you didn’t know you were waiting for will arrive. You will go back to the place you wish to see. A new—” 

The children felt a cold weight, one they hadn’t felt in quite some time, take over their hearts, and it reflected on the atmosphere surrounding them in such a way that Hinata-san noticed.

“Is everything alright? What did you get?”

Tomoki turned around and laughed, trying to appear as unconcerned as possible.

“Nothing, we all got half blessings, that’s all!”

Behind him, his friends were still staring at the last line written on their fortune.

A new enemy will appear.

They stayed at the park near the shrine for their picnic; after laying down several picnic blankets, they brought boxes of food and bottles of tea out of their backpacks and bags, which still looked half full. As they sat down and Junpei gave everyone a plate, Takuya turned towards Tomoki.

“Tomoki, are you still friends with Katsuharu and Teppei?”

“Yes! The last time I saw them they said Teruo-san and Chiaki-san were doing well. Apparently they’re also meeting today.”

Izumi sneaked some vegetables onto Takuya’s meat lover’s plate, ignoring him when he protested.

“Ah, that’s good to hear! By the way, Takuya… Your hair got longer, didn’t it? What are you gonna do about it?”

“Eh, I think I’m gonna keep it like this. I’ll just tie it back for school.”

Kouichi looked at Takuya, who was in front of him, and then at Izumi and Kouji, who were sitting to his left.

“If Izumi starts keeping it in a ponytail, you two and Kouji could start a club.”

“True! Then, Kouichi, let your hair grow and join us too!”

“I don’t know, hair that long seems troublesome. But…” He looked at his brother again, and smiled a little. “If it made you happy, then I’d consider it.”

Kouji blushed and could hear Izumi giggling beside him. 

“That’s it, I’m combing it back.”

“No, Kouji, wait! I think it suits you! That’s why I suggested it in the first place!”

Izumi’s pleas went unheard and Kouji let his hair down, used his hand to comb it back, and tied it again, although it ended up being higher than usual. Izumi sighed, but then brought a hand to her chin, thinking.

“Speaking of clubs… Junpei, which club did you end up choosing last year?”

“The drama club! I wish there had been a magic club or something like that, but I like working on the lights and backgrounds, and being on stage is fun too!”

Tomoki started going through his backpack as he remembered something.

“You couldn’t go last year, but… ah! Here it is!” Tomoki brought a tiny photo album out of his backpack. “I went to the festival at Junpei-san’s school. Look!”

There were several pictures of Junpei, playing the part of the Mad Hatter.

“Heh, being on stage really suits you.”

“Thanks, Takuya! This year we’re gonna have a musical! By the way, have you guys thought about which club you’d like to join?”

Takuya immediately raised his hand.

“The soccer club!”

Junpei rolled his eyes.

“Well, that was obvious. What about you, Kouichi?”

“Go home club.”

“Oh, I see… Then, what about you, Izumi-chan?”

“I wonder… There’s a cooking club, but I’m also interested in the English club… What about you, Kouji?”

“The English club, probably…”

Silence permeated the group and it became awkward before anyone could decide on another topic to talk about. The weight of the words printed on the fortunes was suffocating, but the tension among them was too. 

Junpei was the first to break.

“Come on… I know we all want to go back, but are we really going to believe what the fortunes said?”

Takuya crossed his arms and sighed.

“Well, it’s kinda hard to ignore that the six of us got the exact same one…”

“Last time Ophanimon gave us directions through our phones.” Kouji took his out of his bag to make a point. “It makes more sense for the Digimon to interfere with our phones than with printed fortunes.”

“See? Kouji gets it!”

And then, a familiar symbol flashed on the screen for a second.

“Ophanimon?!”

After everyone blurted out the name at once, Takuya, Izumi, Tomoki, and Junpei hurried to take their own cell phones out of their pockets. As Kouji looked at his phone, hoping to see the symbol again, he could feel a sudden, dull pain deep in his chest. It only took him a split second to confirm it was, luckily, not physical. Instead, it was the feeling that there was something inherently different about him that set him apart from others; that no matter how close they could become, there was still a gap somewhere between them.

He was no stranger to that feeling, but it wasn’t him. He looked to his right where his brother seemed lost in thought, staring at the ground, and his hand hovering over his forehead, where Ophanimon’s symbol had been reflected when Velgrmon was about to attack Kouji.

Kouji’s eyes widened slightly at his realization. At first he thought it might be about the phone; his brother was still the only one without his own cell phone, but when Kouji had clumsily brought up the delicate issue once over the past year, Kouichi had made it clear that he was fine, and didn’t want or expect that kind of gift from his brother, and declared that it was the first thing he would buy when he started a part time job in high school.

No, it wasn’t about the phone— 

The vibration from his phone and the surprised gasps from his friends distracted Kouji, and Ophanimon’s symbol appeared again on the screen, although it looked glitchy. A static-ridden voice then gave them instructions.

“E-ryo-e… Go… Shi-ya… Sta-n…”

The message was repeated three more times, with the static affecting different parts each time. But the instructions were clear: Ophanimon wanted them to go to Shibuya Station again.

There was no hesitation; they had been hoping this would happen for the last two years. Everything was quickly gathered and put back inside bags and backpacks or disposed of, and they tried to keep their excitement under control by making their way to the station as orderly as possible.

Of course, this also helped them avoid a repeat of certain incidents at the station, but to Kouichi’s relief, no one mentioned the issue this time.

Even with Ophanimon’s message echoing in their minds, the children couldn’t deny the apprehension in their hearts as the cramped elevator went down. The previous year they had tried to reach the underground Trailmon station and failed miserably—and Tomoki might or might not have tried more than once on his own—so they all visibly relaxed when the lights indicating the station’s levels went past the designated markers and the elevator sped up ever so slightly.

With a thud, the elevator reached the final level, and they were welcomed by the sight of a deserted platform and a single Trailmon waiting for them.

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

Takuya’s words prompted his friends to sprint toward the Trailmon, but Kouichi caught Kouji’s arm before he took more than one step.

“Kouichi?”

He hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Are you sure?”

Kouji relaxed his shoulders when he heard the doubt in his brother’s voice. Though he was speaking quietly, the rest of the group stopped when they noticed what was happening.

“You know what the doctor said. I don’t want the same thing happening again.”

Kouichi let go of his brother’s arm, but held his gaze. Instead, Kouji held Kouichi’s shoulders.

“The damage was repaired, so I will be fine. It’s been two years. Also, Ophanimon wouldn’t have called us if it wasn’t important.”

That alone seemed to ease Kouichi’s worries at least a little, and Kouji gave him a small smile.

“And I will have you looking after me too, niisan.”

As Worm increased the speed, Takuya found himself holding onto the edge of the seat, waiting for the turbulence they had experienced the first time right before their cell phones turned into digivices, but it never came. By the time he realized it, they were already on the other side of whatever portal they had crossed and Flame Terminal was visible in the horizon.

His phone was still a phone, too.

The issue was forgotten when Worm started slowing down, and they could see not only Bokomon and Neemon waiting for them on the platform, but also a group of familiar faces. They would be lying if they said they didn’t start tearing up upon seeing their old friends welcoming them back into their beloved second home.

Worm finally stopped, and the children rushed to exit the car.

“Bokomon! Neemon!”

As much as they tried to hide it, Bokomon started crying as the children formed a circle to hug their Digimon friends. Among the group were a Floramon from Soft Breeze Village, Kouji’s friend Gotsumon, the tiny Kokuwamon Junpei met at the Wind Factory, and a Bearmon that they hadn’t seen before, but that Tomoki was sure he knew from somewhere .

“Ahhh! It’s really you! When the Three Angels told us we could see you again, I couldn’t believe it!”

Bokomon’s sobbing continued for a little bit, but soon enough the sobs turned into sniffles, even as Bokomon clung to Kouichi’s leg, exclaiming how Löwemon had told them he was alive, but that they were so glad they could actually see him again. Kouichi, although happy that Bokomon had been so concerned about him, couldn’t do much to calm them down any sooner.

What finally did it was Neemon talking.

“Are you finished?”

Bokomon immediately dried their tears and pulled hard from Neemon’s waistband.

“Shut up, Bakamon! There are important matters at hand!”

“—Neemon.”

Bokomon cleared their throat, and looked seriously at the six children.

“Listen! In the last few days, large groups of Evilmon have appeared in several zones of the Digital World.” Those zones seemed to include the homes of the rest of their Digimon friends. “They have not made any moves yet, and an Evilmon by itself is not very powerful, but there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of them. It looks like they are awaiting orders from someone, but we do not know yet who that is.”

Bokomon took out the book and held it so the six children could see the page showing Evilmon. It did look too weak to be a serious threat, but they knew better than to underestimate a possible enemy, especially considering their numbers and the fact that they didn’t know who was their leader.

“The numbers have increased, but I wonder if this will be as hard as fighting against Lucemon.”

Bokomon closed the book and placed it back inside their haramaki, then crossed their arms.

“Without knowing the identity of the leader, it is hard to tell, Junpei-han. However, we were told by the Great Angels that they think the enemy came from a place that is not the Digital World, or the Human World.”

“Neither of those? Then from where else…”

Kouichi left his question incomplete, his voice trailing off into silence as he brought a hand to his chin and closed his eyes. Everyone watched him curiously until he sighed and dropped his hands in resignation.

“I once heard Cherubimon talk to himself about something that might be related, but I can’t be sure until I ask him… If he even remembers.”

“Well, in any case, we should go talk to them, right? So, everyone, let’s go see Ophanimon, Seraphimon, and Cherubimon.”

The children nodded in agreement with Takuya, but then Neemon decided to talk again.

“There’s no Ophanimon, Seraphimon, or Cherubimon though.”

Chapter Text

“There’s no Ophanimon, Seraphimon, or Cherubimon though.”

Neemon’s words left the six children dumbfounded for a moment, until Takuya managed to stammer out some words.

“What— What do you mean? They had already been reborn when we left, so how—”

“Don’t listen to this Bakamon!” Bokomon said while snapping Neemon’s waistband once again. “What he means is that the Three Great Angels have not reached that stage of evolution yet.”

Sighing that was half out of relief and half out of resignation at Neemon’s usual airheadedness could be heard from the group of children. Bokomon clapped twice to get their attention back.

“Anyway, there is no time to lose! Let’s go see them at once!”

Everyone sat inside the Trailmon, who announced their direct trip to the Forest Terminal and pulled away from the station at maximum speed, causing the children and Digimon to fall on top of each other.

“Hey, Bokomon…” Junpei said once he was upright on his seat again. “Even if we go directly to the Forest Terminal, and we don’t have to search for our Spirits, deal with moody Trailmon, and avoid being attacked by these armies of Evilmon you mentioned… Won’t it still take a long time to arrive?”

“Right… It did take us more than a month to get there.” Takuya said with a sigh.

“Like Junpei-han said,” Bokomon started after clearing their throat, “that was because of the detours that took us to your Spirits, the Trailmon that would refuse to take us the whole way, and the Digimon that would attack. And also, because you didn’t know the way to the Forest Terminal.”

“We didn’t know the way either.”

“Silence!”

As the sound of an elastic band hitting its target’s waist echoed through the car, Kokuwamon tried to get Junpei’s attention by pulling on his sleeve.

“But, I’m happy you took the time to visit the factory, oniichan! We were able to meet, and thanks to all of you we could go back to the forest.”

“Oh, well— I guess that’s true! I was happy to meet you too, Kokuwamon.”

It took them until the evening of the third day to reach Forest Terminal, with occasional stops to get enough food for everyone, and at night so Worm could sleep. While they arrived safe and sound to the Terminal with no setbacks to speak of, the presence of the Evilmon armies was impossible to ignore as they watched over their every move like a legion of creepy gargoyles perched over trees, rocks, and cliffs.

That’s how it had been since the invaders arrived.

After climbing the stairway to the entrance of the castle, they were received by a little blue Digimon, who bowed to them.

"It is a relief to see that you arrived safely, Warriors. I am V-mon; I am currently serving Lord Angemon."

"Wait, Angemon? Is that—?"

"That’s right, Izumi-han!” Bokomon’s eyes lit up with parental pride. “My precious child Patamon has evolved into Angemon! It’s all because of the hard work I put into raising that child!”

As they listened to Bokomon’s stories of looking over the three Angels while they were mere Child level Digimon, they followed V-mon until they reached a great room. 

"Lord Angemon, they're here."

Said Digimon looked up from the map he was focused on, along with Turuiemon and Darcmon, and the three of them smiled, despite the circumstances.

"Welcome back, Legendary Warriors. We're glad to see you again… Unfortunately, we are once again in need of your help."

They were quickly given a seat, spread out between the three angel type digimon. V-mon gave their Digimon companions seats close to them, and hurried off to attend to his duty to prepare a place for their visitors to spend the night.

The holographic map in the center of the room showed red dots in various sizes, with a great amount concentrating in the Continent of Darkness.

"I'm sorry to have sent such a vague message. As you can see… We simply do not possess the same amount of power we had two years ago. I trust that Bokomon and the rest of your friends have informed you of our current situation."

Takuya nodded.

"They did, Darcmon. We also saw the armies of Evilmon on the way here."

"They haven't done anything except stand there, right?" Tomoki looked over the map, with a hand on his chin. “And yet, they have already terrorized the local Digimon with their simple presence.”

“But someone’s clearly behind all of this. There’s no way such a big amount of Digimon don’t have someone coordinating them.”

“That’s right, Junpei.” Turuiemon waved a hand over the map, and a silhouette appeared on top of it. “We couldn’t see who was the Digimon behind the invasion, but we know whoever it was came directly from the Dark Area. My companions and I had to flee when their arrival destroyed our castle.”

“Wait, but last time only Lucemon was imprisoned there. Where did this new enemy come from?” Kouichi turned to look at Turuiemon, who nodded and silently gestured towards Darcmon.

“The Dark Area is a mysterious place, even for us. We know God created it to serve as a graveyard of deleted data… Though, you could also call it the ‘Hell’ of the Digital World.” Darcmon summoned a visual of the Digital World and the Dark Area within, replacing the silhouette of their new enemy. “However, we have discovered ancient texts in my library that describe it as some sort of liminal area that connects to worlds beyond our frontiers.”

“As an example, that is the place where I found you wandering, Kouichi.”

Kouichi felt his hands turn cold as everyone’s eyes fell upon him.

“I didn't spend much time there, but… I think calling it 'hell' is appropriate.”

“So we know the Dark Area also connects to the Human World, but if the texts describe ‘worlds’, then one of those must be where this enemy came from.”

“It is as Kouji says.”  

After Darcmon’s words, each angel summoned a certain number of digivices; three from Darcmon, two from Angemon, and one from Turuiemon.

“Since we are lacking in power, we received help from a few Digimon to re-create these,” Angemon said as they all entrusted the children with the digivices. “And unfortunately, we are also unable to give you the same amount of power you used to have.”

“Both Human and Beast Spirits are inside your Digivices, but Takuya, Kouji— we could only manage to allow you the power of Double Spirit Evolution. You can no longer use the other Spirits to evolve into KaiserGreymon and MagnaGarurumon.”

Both boys looked at their own digivice, which had their original designs. Takuya smiled.

“It’s fine, Darcmon. Honestly, taking the Spirits from everyone else didn’t feel right.”

“Takuya’s right. I just hope we’ll be able to—”

Kouji’s words were interrupted by the sounds of the castle’s crystal walls crashing and breaking. By the time a group of Evilmon arrived to the room with an unconscious V-mon as a hostage, the three Angels were ready to fight, and the six children had summoned their data rings as well.

A tall figure approached from behind the Evilmon.

“Now, now, is that any way to treat a guest?”

The figure towered over its minions, and the colorful, clown-like attire didn’t match at all with the Evilmon’s somber appearance.

Takuya was the first to react.

“Who are you?! What do you want?!”

Everyone’s fists tightened around their digivices, and some data rings changed from a single one to a cluster of them. The enemy chuckled.

“Oh, please! I’m just here to talk. I’m sure we can solve our little issue by negotiating instead of going straight to war.” 

“Hm. Says the one who invaded our world with a massive army.”

The clown ignored Junpei’s words and calmly took a few steps until he was in front of his minions, who did not ignore Junpei’s words and instead raised a claw against V-mon’s neck, daring him to interrupt their master again.

“Let me introduce myself— My name is Piemon, and I want you to surrender.”

“Do you really think we’ll surrender just because you’re asking nicely after invading the Digital World?”

“Well, why not, Warrior of Ice? This way, there is no fighting and no one dies… Well, no one would as far as I know.”

Takuya’s first instinct was to evolve right away and burn him to a crisp… but he could feel that Piemon was strong. And last time he tried to burn someone stronger than him to a crisp, Kouji had gotten hurt. 

He relaxed his arms slightly, but the data rings were still circling his hand.

“Let’s pretend that we’re actually considering it —which we’re not—; what would ‘surrender’ mean?”

Piemon chuckled once again.

“Well, let’s see… You would have to let me and my army take control of the Digital World; if no one resists, no one dies. And as a show of thanks, I will even allow the Three Angels to remain free.”

Except for Angemon, of course.

The children, Angels, and Digimon companions exchanged brief looks.

“Do you expect us to believe that’s all you want?”

“Oh, you’re right, Warrior of Wind. I did forget something… It’s not important to me, but it’s necessary for everything else to go smoothly.” The chuckle turned into laughter, and the clown pointed at someone in the back of their group.

“You’ll have to give up the Warrior of Darkness as well.”

The other five warriors and the three Angels stood in front of Kouichi, daring Piemon to go through all of them before taking him away. Kouichi himself stood defiantly, but he couldn’t deny that the seed of an idea had been planted in his mind.

“Like hell we’re giving Kouichi to you!”

Piemon continued to show his amusement; at what exactly, they couldn’t tell.

“That’s fine, Warrior of Light! See, this will be much more fun to me— Defeating Chosen Children is a favorite game of mine. It’s been a while since I got the chance to do it.”

Before the children could process his words, Piemon turned around and gestured to his underlings.

“I’ll leave for now, but next time we meet, I won’t be as considerate.”

The Evilmon holding V-mon flung the little Digimon away before running to catch up to his master, and Angemon flew to rescue his helper before he was harmed further. The force of the throw awakened him, and he looked up to the Angel.

“I’m sorry, Lord Angemon—”

“It’s fine, V-mon. You’re safe now.”

As Angemon left to tend to V-mon’s injuries, and both Darcmon and Turuiemon went on a short patrol to make sure Piemon and his followers had indeed left the castle, the children sat around the Digital World map. Frustrated, Junpei slapped his hands against it.

“Damn! I really wanted to kick his butt!”

“I know, but at least we have an idea of what he’s after.” Takuya turned to look at Kouichi. “Any idea of what he wants to do with you? Or, to you?”

“From experience, I’d say he wants to corrupt the Spirits to use them against all of you,” he commented absent-mindedly, as his gaze was focused on the Continent of Darkness, where they could see how some of the troops stationed there were starting to move out towards other areas. Beside him, Kouji crossed his arms.

“But he said he wanted you specifically, not just the Spirits of Darkness.” 

“And Piemon included you as a condition to ‘surrender’, so assuming he was telling the truth, he wouldn’t need you to fight us.”

“It’s not only that, Izumi-san.” Tomoki was once again holding a hand over his chin, and most of the present turned to look at him. “He didn’t ask for Kouichi-san until we prompted him to say more. He seems very interested in fighting us and having control over the Digital World, but he outright said having Kouichi-san wasn’t very important to him.”

Izumi hummed as she remembered what Piemon had said.

“He did say Kouichi was necessary ‘for everything else to go smoothly’... So there could be someone else that does need him with different plans to Piemon’s.”

Junpei shook his head.

“Piemon seems too interested in his goal of taking control of the Digital World though; not exactly the picture of someone big on teamwork.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s not working for someone else.”

Everyone turned to look at Kouichi, who was still examining the Continent of Darkness on the map.

“The Royal Knights were fighting for Lucemon because they were promised they would have the Human World for themselves, right? It’s possible that Piemon has a master who is allowing him to take over the Digital World for himself, on the condition that he can retrieve me.”

Everyone stayed in silence for a while, pondering over the similarities of the situation. Eventually, Kouji sighed.

“Piemon does come from another world, so ours could be inconsequential to whoever wants Kouichi.”

“Hey, Bokomon,” Takuya turned around to look at them, “don’t you have any information about Piemon in your book?”

“Hmm…” Bokomon took out the book and started going through it with the agility of someone well used to it, paused once, and then snapped it shut. “There is nothing about Piemon here, Takuya-han. But, it does say the Evilmon are not very strong individually.”

“I see. I wish he would have talked more. If he’s working for someone, it would be useful to know who that is.”

“We should continue this later, there are reinforcements coming.” Kouichi stood up and pointed at one of the groups that had left the Continent of Darkness, who replaced one of the groups in the Area of Ice, who had replaced another so the closest groups to the Forest Kingdom could get there. “The forces that are already here are moving towards the castle as well. We have to stop them.”

They stood up and were already running towards the entrance of the room when Bokomon stood up as well and chased after them, dragging Neemon by the waistband of his pants.

“Everyone, wait for us!”

Takuya turned his face around to look at them without stopping. 

“No, Bokomon, stay here! Please tell Darcmon and the others about this!”

Leaving behind a disappointed Bokomon, the six children ran through the broken crystal and out of Angemon’s castle.

“They are still far from here, how should we get there?” Junpei asked as they were going down the tree.

“We can carry Tomoki and the twins with Shutumon and Vritramon, and you can fly on your own, right?”

“I agree with Takuya’s idea.” As Izumi said it, they reached the base of the tree, and they immediately took out the digivices.

“Spirit Evolution!”

“Blitzmon!”

“Vritramon!”

“Shutumon!”

The twins each held onto one of Vritramon’s shoulders, while Tomoki rode on Shutumon’s feathery back. A buzz traveled through their bodies and settled in the pit of their stomachs as they flew over the Forest Kingdom.

They really were back. 

A memory flashed through Kouichi’s mind, shattering his momentaneous excitement, and he turned to look at Kouji. He could practically feel that same excitement running through his body, eager to get closer to the ground so he could evolve like Takuya, Izumi, and Junpei had. 

But Kouji’s heart— 

Kouji turned to look at him as well. Kouichi knew that concern was written all over his face, and Kouji frowned at him, before shaking his head.

You can’t stop me.

“Kouji—”

“I can’t stay behi—”

“ Nightmare Shock !”

Hundreds of voices called out at once, followed by an incredible amount of supersonic waves that caused the airborne warriors to fall into the sea of trees beneath them. Distracted by the joy of being in their second home, they had inadvertently gotten closer and closer to the vast army of Evilmon hiding just under the dense foliage. Faced with the imminent crash, Kouichi, Kouji, and Tomoki took out their digivices.

“Spirit Evolution!”

“Löwemon!”

“Wolfmon!”

“Blizzarmon!”

The three were able to control their landing better than Blitzmon, Shutumon, and Vritramon did, and thus started the counterattack with Ewig Schlaf , Licht Sieger , and Avalanche Throw , taking out some of the Evilmon on the front. Soon enough, Mjölnir Thunder , Wind of Pain , and Corona Blaster followed behind them, taking out even more of the Evilmon.

As Bokomon had said, the Evilmon themselves weren’t strong. Which is why they—and Piemon—relied on numbers. 

“ Dunkel Schneiden! ”

“ Licht Kugel! ”

“ Avalanche Step! ”

“ Thor’s Hammer! ”

“ Gilgamesh Slicer! ”

“ Flame Storm! ”

Even when one of their attacks took care of several Evilmon at a time, their army didn’t seem to go down in size.

“ Dunkel Messer! ”

“ Zwei Sieger! ”

“ Gletscher Torpedo! ”

“ Lightning Bomber! ”

“ Gilgamesh Upper! ”

“ Crimson Fanger! ”

It wasn’t until several hours later, when morning was approaching, that they could finally defeat the few dozen soldiers that didn’t run away once their numbers had reached below a hundred.

Just as Löwemon was approaching to hit one of the last of them with Blitzen Speer , it spoke up.

“Enjoy your victory while you can, Warrior of Darkness! Master Piemon already has—”

“ Strahl! ”

Wolfmon attacked from behind Löwemon, and they only managed to exchange a nod before everyone devolved, all of them on the brink of passing out from exhaustion when a series of short coughs and gasps for air caught their attention.

“Kouji!”

Kouichi tripped over himself to get to his brother, who was clutching his chest and resting against one of the undamaged trees in the battlefield.

“I’m— I’m fine—,” he said between coughs. “Just need to rest for a bit.”

“The doctor said—”

“I know what the doctor said.” More coughs interrupted him. “There’s no way I’ll stay back in a situation like this.” 

The sound of a Trailmon approaching woke them up; it was night time again. Tomoki managed to reach the tracks just in time to ask Angler to give them a ride back to the Forest Terminal. 

“I’m really hungry now… Good thing you brought so much food, Junpei-san.”

“Yeah. This is the fourth day we’re here, so I’m not sure how long it’ll last. Let's just enjoy the food from the human world while we can.”

Tomoki nodded, and looked down at his feet.

“I wonder... how long we’ll stay this time.”

The question echoed in all of their heads, and they stayed in silence until Takuya sighed.

“Who knows… When we went back home last time, it was almost like we had never left, so at least we don’t have to worry about being missed at home.”

Izumi sighed as well.

“I guess that’s true. I kinda want to know how that happened.”

“We’re here—! Oh no…”

The heaviness in Angler’s voice alerted the children, and as they ran out of the car, they were able to see the damage on the Station and on the staircase leading up to Seraphimon’s—to Angemon’s— castle that definitely wasn’t there when they had left a day before.

“Angler, wait for us please! We’ll come back!” Takuya yelled as they ran up the stairs, fueled only by adrenaline and worry. Once they were out of Angler’s hearing range, Izumi caught up to Takuya.

“Do you think we’ll need to escape?”   

“I don’t know, that’s why I asked Angler to stay. Even if we don’t escape, maybe the others will need to.”

“Right… I hope they’re okay.”

While they knew some damage had been done to the castle during Piemon’s visit, it certainly hadn’t been to this degree. The broken glass scattered on the floor shattered even further under their feet as they ran straight to the great hall.

There was no one except for V-mon, who had been injured even further, laying on one side of the room with a ring of Digital Code flickering on and off around him. As they approached, the ring disappeared, and the children couldn’t help but sigh in relief once V-mon finally opened his eyes.

“Warriors…”

V-mon closed his eyes again as the children moved things around to make him more comfortable, but woke up moments later to Junpei bandaging his arm. 

“Warriors… you have to hurry.”

“V-mon, what happened?”

“Almost immediately after you left… Piemon came back. The Evilmon destroyed the castle, and Piemon made Lord Angemon and the others disappear. Bokomon and your friends too… He said  to tell the Warriors that he’ll be waiting at Lucemon’s old castle or you wouldn’t see them again’...”

Tears were running down his cheeks as V-mon fell unconscious once again. 

Still sitting around V-mon, Takuya sighed.

“Do we even know where Lucemon’s old castle is?”

“I do.” Everyone looked at Kouichi. “It’s the castle ruins where Ranamon and Mercuremon held Izumi, Tomoki, and Junpei hostage, after— Well, you know.”

“You knew about that, Kouichi-san?”

“Just because I didn’t work with them all the time doesn’t mean I didn’t know what they were doing…” 

After taking whatever supplies they could find around the castle —or, what was left of it— the six children returned to the Forest Terminal with V-mon. Upon seeing their faces, Angler hesitated to talk.

“So… What’s the plan…?”

Takuya sighed. They were definitely going to meet Piemon and fight to get everyone back, but it would be dangerous to take V-mon along. 

“First, we need to find a safe place where V-mon can be taken care of, and then have to head towards the Continent of Darkness.”

A shiver ran throughout all of Angler’s body, but he did his best to hide it from the Warriors. 

“Then…If we have to go to the Continent of Darkness…We can ask the Burgermon to take care of him…”

Tomoki’s face lit up as soon as he heard Angler.

“Then, the Burgermon are safe?”

“For the most part, from what I’ve heard.”

Angler’s whistle echoed through the forest as he departed from the terminal with the six Warriors and an injured V-mon in tow. After finally having the chance to eat, they started dozing off again when their adrenaline went back to normal levels.

Seeing as they were all fast asleep, Kouichi left and sat down in the next car, burying his head in his hands. If he was going to be assaulted by memories of Duskmon, then he’d rather let it happen in private.

It was uncomfortable. Even in his daily life, he would have those memories flash across his mind, leaving a burning impression that didn’t disappear easily. It was even worse whenever he got angry.

But then a day would come when he got to see Kouji, or they would talk on the phone, and he could relax again. He had found Kouji, and Kouji had found him. But everything he did—killing Arbormon with no reason, almost killing Kouji himself, and attacking Takuya and the others—wouldn’t be erased just because neither his brother or his friends held it against him anymore.

He really still couldn’t understand why they didn’t.

“Niisan?”

“I thought you were asleep, Kouji.”

“I was, but then you left.” Kouji sat down beside Kouichi, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You’re the one who keeps saying we have no such thing as ‘twin telepathy’.”

“It wasn’t that. The door makes noise, you know?”

“Sorry for waking you up, then.”

Kouji didn’t reply immediately, and looked at his brother in silence for a moment.

“I can’t sleep when you’re suffering on your own.”

Kouichi’s smile disappeared from his face and turned away from Kouji. 

“I’m fine now, go back to sleep. You need it.”

Kouji sighed and leaned back into the seat.

“I’ll stay awake until you tell me what’s wrong. So, the sooner you tell me, the sooner I’ll go to sleep.”

Even if Kouji was trying to be stubborn, the truth was that Kouichi was right and he did need to sleep. His brother was being stubborn too; he remained in silence for so long that Kouji’s eyes started closing on their own, and he feared he might fall asleep before he talked.

“I keep remembering everything I did.” 

Kouichi spoke so suddenly that he almost jumped out of his seat.

“As Duskmon?”

“Yeah. But not just that. Mercuremon, Ranamon, Grottomon, and Arbormon, too… The things they were doing, the plans they had, when they failed, and when they won. So, after Piemon appeared, I kept thinking ‘What would they do in this situation? What would I have done in this situation?’”

“That’s why you were watching the map after Piemon left. To check the Evilmon’s movements.”

“Yes. But I only managed to fall in the trap. Piemon wanted us away from the castle so he could take everyone else as prisoner.”

“We would have eventually gone there, anyway. If we had ignored them, I’m sure they would have started attacking innocent Digimon to get our attention.”

Kouichi still didn’t look convinced.

“You were also the only one who knew those ruins used to be Lucemon’s castle.”

“I guess.”

“How did you know about what Ranamon and Mercuremon were doing there?”

Kouichi turned away from Kouji ever so slightly.

“I was actually involved with the original plan, which was for me to beat you up and take you all there. But you took that attack for Takuya, then you devolved and I saw you. I had my memories locked away at the moment, but seeing you hurt felt wrong. That’s why only Junpei, Izumi, and Tomoki ended up at the castle as hostages.”

Kouji thought for a moment, relieving those memories. Was there something he could say to make his brother feel better? Or at least, not as bad as he was feeling at the moment.

“Well… If it wasn’t for the fright you gave Takuya back then, we might not have been able to save them.”

Kouichi turned back to him.

“What do you mean?”

“Before that fight, I argued with Takuya about thinking before going into battle or he would get someone killed. As you might have figured out, he didn’t listen, which is why I ended up jumping in front of the attack. After that, he realized he needed to think things through before acting, which is the only reason we were able to win against Mercuremon and Ranamon when I was injured and the others had no access to their digivices. He came up with a plan before rushing into battle.”

Kouichi remained in silence for a while, but seeing his shoulders relax and the tension leave, Kouji finally closed his eyes. 

“...I see.” 

Kouichi turned his whole body to face his brother, who was already sleeping.

“Thanks, Kouji.”

Chapter Text

“Tomoki!”

A group of Burgermon ran out of one of the houses and gathered around the youngest Warrior, who blinked a few times before recognizing them.

“Wait, you guys are the TorikaraBallmon from back then? You’ve evolved?”

“That’s right!”

Behind them, their parents walked out as well.

“It’s very nice to see you all,” The father Burgermon said once they had reached the group. “Even though our world is in quite a pickle once again.”

“Although this time we’ve had no problems, at least so far,” The mother Burgermon said as she patted her children’s heads. “The Evilmon seems to dislike the garlic we use in our recipes, so they don’t come near us.”

“Woah, really? I didn’t think they were vampires…”

Takuya approached from behind Tomoki.

“We’re glad to see you’re safe. Actually, we kinda want to ask you guys for a favor...” 

“Whatever you need!”

“We’re on our way to the Continent of Darkness to fight with the leader of the Evilmon. He took our friends and the Three Angels hostage while we were battling his army.”

As they spoke, Junpei approached with a sleeping V-mon on his arms. “This is V-mon. He helps Angemon, but he was injured when the Evilmon stormed the castle, and we don’t want to risk him further. Angler told us this was a safe place, so we were wondering if he could stay with you guys.”

Both parents gasped at the state the little Digimon was in.

“Of course he can stay! Bring him inside, quick!”

The father led them into their house, and towards a room in the back. V-mon woke up as Junpei placed him down on a bed.

“Where... is this…?”

“You’re with our friends, the Burgermon. They’ll take care of you while we go and rescue everyone.”

V-mon’s eyes opened a bit more as he finally noticed the two figures standing behind Junpei.

“I apologize for being a burden…”

The mother approached the bed and patted V-mon’s hand softly.

“Please, don’t worry about it. We’re happy to help however we can.”

“You should continue resting now, so you can get better sooner. I’ll prepare you something to eat.” The father left for the kitchen, and the mother excused herself to bring other things for their guest.

The arrival of the Legendary Warriors to the village attracted the attention of all the Digimon living there. The population had increased due to the village’s status as a place safe from the Evilmon despite its relative proximity to their base in the Continent of Darkness and many refugees, terrorized out of their homes, had sought sanctuary there.

Those Digimon, mainly at child level, surrounded the children.

“Thank you for protecting the Digital World!”

“Thank you for fighting for us!”

“Kick some Evilmon butt!”

“Send them back home!”

Izumi was pretty much the only one properly replying to their encouragement; with Tomoki and Junpei busy inside the Burgermon family’s house, and Takuya having gone back to give Angler some food, only Izumi, Kouichi, and Kouji were left to field the enthusiastic Digimon’s support.

“Thanks, everyone! You’ll see, we’ll do everything in our power to send those guys back to where they came from!”

With a wink and a V sign, Izumi drove up the excitement of the multitude. Behind her, the twins were standing awkwardly, though at least Kouichi managed to put a nervous smile on his face. It didn’t last long, though; soon enough, Junpei and Tomoki had come back, confirming that V-mon was fine and taken care of, and Takuya announcing that Angler was ready to depart again.

As Angler left the village, the Digimon continued shouting their encouragement, and the children waved until they were out of sight. Izumi sighed and looked at the brothers.

“You two! Next time you could try to be a little more enthusiastic! We need to raise the morale of the inhabitants of the Digital World! If they don’t have hope that things will get better, they might give up!”

“You were doing just fine on your own, though.”

“We all need to do our part, Kouji! At least Kouichi managed to smile! But—!” She pointed at Kouichi, who was trying to avoid meeting her eyes. “I know you can do better than that!”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry.” He moved to turn away from his friends, but thought better of it and decided to face them instead, although with an uneasy smile. “I’ll try to do better next time. I was just kind of… overwhelmed.”

“Overwhelmed? Maybe it’s because now you have an actual body, unlike the first time you were here, Kouichi-san.”

Kouichi nodded without looking at them.

“Yes, maybe that’s why.”

“Well, we’ll arrive at Lucemon’s castle ruins in a few hours.” Takuya announced, changing the topic. “Maybe we should try to sleep before we get there. It’ll probably be a long battle.”

Just like the previous night, Kouichi couldn’t fall asleep as soon as his friends. But this time, neither did Kouji, who pulled him into the next car once everyone was soundly asleep.

“Are you still thinking about the same thing?”

“Not really. Well— Yeah, a bit. It’s not like I want to think about it; it just comes to my mind randomly. I’m trying not to focus on it, though.”

“Then, what is it?”

“It’s nothing, I promise. Why don’t you go to sleep? I’m already worried about you as it is, you need to rest if you’re going to fight.”

Kouji just raised an eyebrow.

“You do know you’re a terrible liar, don’t you? Changing the topic won’t distract me from the fact that you’ve got something on your mind.”

Kouichi looked appalled at the suggestion that he didn’t know how to lie—after all, he had lied to his mother several times and she had apparently not noticed—, but after a moment he sighed in resignation, looking away from his brother. Then Kouji realized something.

“Wait, don’t tell me you’re actually considering surrendering to Piemon.”

“What?” Kouichi couldn’t help laughing. “Of course not! What gave you that idea?”

“Like I just said, you’re a horrible liar.”

Kouichi dropped his shoulders and grew serious..

“Well, I admit the idea did cross my mind, but now—”

Through the window behind Kouichi, Kouji saw how they passed through a certain gate.

“ —we’re in the Continent of Darkness.” 

Kouji couldn’t ignore the chill that ran down his spine when he saw his brother’s smile.

“So don’t worry, I’ll do my best.”

They were woken up by Angler’s whistle; he stopped near the edge of the forest where they had first met Duskmon, as they had requested. The crater he had left after fighting with them was still recognizable, even after two years.

“We’re here, Warriors.”

“Thank you, Angler,” Takuya said once they had gotten off. “It’s probably safer for you if you return to the Burgermon village.”

Angler hesitated.

“Are you sure? What if you need to escape? There are a lot of Evilmon there...”

“Thanks for the consideration, but we have no plans to escape. Plus, we’d be more at ease knowing that you’re safe.”

“Really?”

“Really. Thank you for everything until now, Angler. We’ll see you after this is over.”

They waited until they couldn’t see Angler anymore.

“Then, let’s go.”

Hiding behind the rocks and trees bordering the castle’s grounds, they took a peek at the Evilmon stationed there at rest, awaiting orders from their general, who was calmly sitting in front of the principal entrance…

...and Bokomon, Neemon, and the rest of their Digimon friends inside a cage by his side.

“Angemon and the others aren’t there… What should we do?”

Tomoki turned towards his friends; Junpei was attempting to draw a map of the castle, based on what they could see and what Takuya and Kouji were able to remember from the time they fought against Mercuremon and Ranamon.

“The castle has an underground cistern; Ranamon ended up flooding it while I was fighting them.” 

“That would be a good place to hide the Three Angels, wouldn’t it?” Takuya leaned against the rock behind him, crossing his arms. “Bokomon and the others are out there as bait, since I can guess Piemon doesn’t see them as a threat, but the Angels must be further inside the castle for better protection.”

“Whether they are in the cistern or not, we still need to fight our way through the Evilmon to get to Bokomon and the others. They have the whole castle surrounded, so we can’t even sneak in to catch them by surprise.” 

“Junpei is right,” Izumi said, looking towards the castle. “But we still need some sort of plan before we barge in there. Piemon is strong, and there are too many Evilmon, so by the time we get through the whole army, we’ll be too tired to take on him.”

“Then, what about this?” Kouichi grabbed the stick Junpei had used to draw the map on the ground, and marked Piemon’s position with an X, and the cage holding their friends with a triangle. “I’ll take the front of the castle; Blizzarmon and Bolgmon will take the flanks, and Agnimon, Fairymon, and Wolfmon will take the back.” 

He had drawn arrows around the diagram, with their own elemental symbols marking their positions.

“We know Piemon wants me, so he’ll probably direct most of the forces against me in an attempt to capture me without giving up his hostages. Blizzarmon and Bolgmon are more visible, and also big enough to defeat large amounts of Evilmon at the same time.”

“So, Junpei-san and I will be like tanks?”

“Yes, exactly. That also means that the back might end up with a lower number of Evilmon, especially since Agnimon, Fairymon, and Wolfmon are smaller, even though they’re faster. With fewer enemies to defeat, and without drawing attention to themselves, it’ll be easier for them to enter the castle undetected by Piemon and see whether the Angels are there or not. If they’re here, then they’ll bring the Angels out of the castle and keep them safe. If they’re not, they can attack Piemon from behind, catching him by surprise.”

Kouichi had extended Takuya, Izumi, and Kouji’s arrows to go through the castle and reach Piemon’s X.

“Well, after that, we'll just be doing our best, I guess…”

There was silence before Kouji spoke up.

“Are you really offering yourself as bait?”

“Do you have a better plan? If I’m not front and center, Piemon will look for me. Since he wants the Digital World, he will fight us anyway; but I’m his condition for keeping it, so there’s no point in killing me, if that’s what worries you. We might as well use this to our advantage!”

“We’re not even sure if that’s the case! We were just speculating back then; we have no reason to believe anything he said. He might have killed the Angels already for all we know! Why base our plan on information that might be false?”

“Because it’s the only information we have! What else can we do?”

Kouji hesitated before replying; he really didn’t know. He knew he was being stubborn, and yet—

“But—!”

“Kouji.”

The firm tone in his brother’s voice trapped the words before he could let them out. Kouichi crossed his arms.

“Where are we?”

 He now had a feeling of where this was going.

“The Continent of Darkness.”

“Please remind me what happened when I fought all of you.”

“...You beat us.”

“I did. And the Spirits of Darkness are stronger purified than corrupted.”

Of course; none of them could forget how he defeated Cherubimon’s copy on his own when the five of them couldn’t do it together. Kouji sighed; his brother was as stubborn as ever.

“Also, just because I’m the bait doesn’t mean I’ll let myself be caught. If anything, I have to fight harder to keep Piemon’s attention on me.”

Kouji looked at him. Kouichi was giving him the same look he had when he asked him to promise to visit his mother when he went back to the human world, so he knew he was serious. 

But it also brought him horrible memories.

“May I remind you that the last time you did something like this—putting yourself between Lucemon’s attack and us in order to stop it—, you ended up dead? Now you want to put yourself in front of Piemon, knowing he wants you for who knows what, and you want me to agree?”  

“Kouji, I was already dead.”

“That doesn’t make it better!”

Kouichi’s expression softened. Kouji wasn’t even looking at him anymore, he was just glaring at the ground, and he could see his eyes starting to well up with tears.

“I told you earlier, didn’t I? I’m going to do my best.”

He moved to sit by Kouji’s side, and hugged his brother.

“I have no intention of giving myself up to him, I promise. I’m only suggesting this because I think it could work.”

After a moment, Kouji sighed. He didn’t have a better plan to suggest, and he had no other option but to trust that his brother wouldn’t let himself be captured. He hoped he wouldn’t, even if the plan failed.

“Alright.”

Kouichi smiled at him, then turned to look at their friends.

“What about you guys? Do you agree with the plan?”

They looked at each other and nodded, although their faces didn’t show the conviction Kouichi was hoping for.

“We don’t really have a better plan either.” Takuya gave him an apologetic smile. “If you’re sure this is going to work, then we’ll do it. Like Izumi said, it’s not like we can just barge in there with no plan at all.”

“Yeah, at least this way we all have our own roles so we’ll know what to do.” Junpei gave Kouichi a thumbs up. “So, count on us to help you get their attention!”

Tomoki nodded, and gave him a thumbs up of his own.

“Thanks, guys. Let’s go.”

“No luck yet?”

Bearmon shook his head to answer Neemon’s question.

“No… No matter how much I try, I can’t evolve to Monzaemon.” He sighed and sat down. “Even though it took me a long time to evolve again after being reborn…”

“It’s not your fault, Bearmon. It’s this stupid cage!” Gotsumon kicked one of the cage’s bars, generating sparks and letting them see the force field that surrounded it. “I’ve been trying to, but I can’t evolve either.”

“I feel so useless… I don’t want to have to wait until oniichan and the other Warriors come and save us!”

“We can’t give up!” Bokomon raised a fist. “They will have their hands full fighting the Evilmon and rescuing the Three Angels! We can’t add to their burden—”

The speech was interrupted by an Evilmon using Nightmare Shock against the cage, shaking it violently and throwing all the Digimon around.

“Quiet down, little nuisances.”

Piemon’s voice sent chills running down their bodies.

“You know, maybe I should just use a little Clown Trick to keep you compliant?”

The clown wasn’t even looking at them; his attention was on the forest surrounding the castle, obviously awaiting the arrival of the children. Because of that, he soon forgot about his hostages, who were nonetheless frightened. Piemon had already shown them what Clown Trick was able to do by turning one of his own minions into a doll—and he almost did the same to Neemon the first time he was bothered by them the day before.

The Digimon huddled together at the center of the cage in an attempt to talk quietly.

“I’m so confused by his behavior… He keeps threatening us but doesn’t really do anything to us. He could have just lied to Izumi and the others about us being alive.”

“Floramon is right. He hasn’t done much to the Three Angels either! I don’t understand!”

Bokomon nodded, their arms crossed, deep in thought.

“It’s just like Floramon and Bearmon say. The only reason I can come up with… Is that Piemon is, in fact, telling the truth, and he won’t harm anyone as long as we surrender control of the Digital World.”

“And Kouichi, too.”

“We know that, Bakamon!” 

After the waistband attack on Neemon, Gotsumon hummed to himself.

“You know, even though I met him, I don’t know anything about Kouji’s brother. Where did he even come from?”

“That is a long story. But basically, he came to the Digital World by accident, running after Kouji-han, and they met here.”

“I wonder what Piemon—”

“ Schwarz Donner! ”

The explosion sent many Evilmon flying, some of them having their DigiCode break down, reducing the number of soldiers.

“It’s Kaiser Leomon!”

At Bokomon’s words, the Warrior of Darkness himself appeared, jumping through the air before ending more Evilmon with Schwarz Gewehr . 

“ Ultimate Thunder! ”

More explosions to the right of the castle caught their attention.

“Ah, I guess Bolgmon is here too.”

While they couldn’t really see him, the damage caused by Field Destroyer told them that Bolgmon was doing his part in maiming the Evilmon army as well. 

“ Avalanche Throw! ”

“And Blizzarmon to the left!”

Blizzarmon’s roars could be heard through the noise of explosions and the Evilmon’s war cries, bringing hope to the group of hostage Digimon who couldn’t help but cheer for their friends.

The sounds of battle made all the way to the back of the castle, where Agnimon and the others were hiding, observing the Evilmon’s movements.

“Just like Kouichi said, a lot of them are leaving to handle the situation at the front.”

Wolfmon made a weird sound that didn’t quite sound like an agreement, and Fairymon sighed.

“ Fretta . We can’t keep everyone waiting.”

Just a few dozens of Evilmon were left at the back of the castle, compared to the thousands that were protecting the entrance. Defeating them was easy; a Burning Salamander here, a Licht Sieger there, and some Roseo Temporale was enough to do the job, and soon there was only a large wall standing in their way.

“Fairymon, your turn.”

Agnimon and Wolfmon took some steps back as Fairymon’s bow, Favonius , appeared before her.

“ Piuma Esplosiva! ”

Once inside, Fairymon and the others took a look around the castle.

“I know I said the cistern would be a good place for Piemon to hide the Angels, but this castle does have a lot of floors…”

“Then, I’ll go check the upper floors, Agnimon,” Fairymon said as she started taking off. “You and Wolfmon should go look in the cistern.”

“Alright.”

However, Wolfmon just walked past him.

“You go look in the cistern. I’ll make sure they’re not on this floor.”

“Just say you want to make sure your brother is okay,” he said, uselessly, as Wolfmon had already taken off towards the front of the castle.

Fairymon went through each floor, calling for each of the angels as she opened each of the doors she could find on her way. It wasn’t until she reached the top of the tallest tower that she heard a muffled response to her calls. 

Kicking down the door, she found Angemon, injured and tied into a standing position by heavy black chains.

“Angemon! Where are Darcmon and Andiramon?”

“I don’t know. It seems like Piemon has different plans for me, so he kept me separate from them.”

Fairymon flicked her fingers to use Viento Tagliente and cut the chains that trapped the angel, catching him when his injuries caused him to stumble.

“Agnimon and Wolfmon are looking in the cistern. The others are fighting against the Evilmon that are surrounding the castle so we can rescue Bokomon and the others.”

“I see. Fairymon, may I ask what happened to V-mon?”

“He was injured, so we left him with a Burgermon family we know. He’s in a safe place, so you don’t have to worry about him.”

“Thank you,” he said with a smile, once again attempting to stand on his own. “I’m fine now, so I’ll help you fight.”

“You can’t fight with those injuries! Last time, even as Seraphimon—”

Her words stopped Angemon.

“I don’t know if you remember, but that time, even as Seraphimon, you were in no condition to fight! And there was nothing I could do except make sure your DigiEgg wasn’t destroyed by Mercuremon and the others. At that moment, our only hope was that DigiEgg. The DigiEgg that Bokomon took care of, and the one Sorcerymon died to protect.”

Angemon stood in silence, with only the battleground sounds keeping them grounded in the present.

“I do remember, if only vaguely.”

“Then, please, allow us to fight. We are the Legendary Warriors. This is our job. You, Darcmon, and Andiramon need to remain safe so you can guide the Digital World back to peace once we defeat Piemon.”

“Alright. I won’t fight, but I need to find Darcmon and Andiramon. I won’t leave without them.”

“I’ll escort you all the way to the cistern. Hopefully the others have found them by now.”

“Darcmon! Andiramon!”

It didn’t take long to find the big cages wrapped in big, black chains that contained both Angels, and it took even less time to defeat the few Evilmon that had remained to guard them.

“Agnimon!” Darcmon called as soon as she was out of the cage. “What is the situation outside? Have you found Angemon yet?”

“Kaiser Leomon is leading Bolgmon and Blizzarmon against the Evilmon army,” he explained while destroying Andiramon’s cage. “Fairymon and Wolfmon are looking for Angemon upstairs.”

“That is a relief. We should hurry and join Kaiser Leomon in battle.”

“Sorry, Andiramon, I can’t allow that. The plan is to get you guys out of here to keep you safe.”

“We will not allow you to fight alone. We also need to rescue Bokomon and the rest of your friends.”

“I’m sure either Kaiser Leomon or Wolfmon will be able to get to them; Piemon was keeping them right by the entrance of the castle and they’re both making their way there.”

Andiramon and Darcmon looked at each other, hesitating.

“We will not leave until we know Angemon has been found. Piemon wounded him before separating us; we need to make sure he is fine.”

Agnimon sighed. As long as he could keep them out of harm’s way…

“Alright. I’m sure Fairymon has found him already.”

They left the cistern and started making their way through the upper floors, but it wasn’t until halfway to the top that they saw two figures flying down towards them. 

“Angemon!”

He could barely fly on his own, and required Fairymon’s assistance to keep himself airborne. After she helped him land by his companions, the three hugged each other.

“Did he insist on finding them before leaving?”

“ Sì , he initially wanted to fight though.”

“Same here.”

Fairymon looked around, confused. “Wasn’t Wolfmon supposed to go with you?”

Agnimon let out a dry laugh. “Did you really think he would stick with me when his brother is out there using himself as bait for Piemon?”

Fairymon sighed and Agnimon approached the trio of Angels. 

“We need to leave now. We don’t want to risk something going wrong.”

Kaiser Leomon was tearing through the hordes of Evilmon so fast that the carnage was visible for quite some time before the bodies disappeared into bits of data. He was getting closer and closer to the main entrance of the castle, with only the soldiers coming from the back standing in his way.

The fragility of the Evilmon meant that at times he didn’t even have to use a particular attack; a simple bite or a slash was enough to take two or three of them.

Seeing the fast paced progress, Bokomon and the others continued cheering, louder and louder, until Piemon laughed. 

Being intimidated into silence once more, Piemon’s hostages watched as he snapped his fingers. The soldiers that had been guarding them then took hold of their cage and started floating some feet off the ground, shaking it up and down and right and left.

“Bokomon! Everyone!”

Their ensuing panic caught Kaiser Leomon’s attention, who disengaged from his fight against the soldiers and leaping towards them, slide evolved to Löwemon as he watched the Evilmon continue to shake the cage..

The spear was pointed at Piemon’s face as soon as he had landed.

“Let. My. Friends. Go.”

Looking right into the eyes on the other side of the weapon, Piemon smiled.

“No.”

Snapping his fingers once more, the Evilmon flew into the castle, taking the cage with them. The hostages’ yells distracted Löwemon from his enemy; it was easy to choose pursuing his friends over threatening Piemon.

But it was a bad idea.

“Löwemon! Behind you!”

“ Trump Sword! ”

Did something go wrong? I can’t see or hear Kaiser Leomon anymore… Did he make it inside? Did he reach Bearmon and the others? I hope so…

“Slide Evolution! Chakkmon!”

There were some rows of Evilmon still standing.

…I don’t have much energy left! 

Where’s Kaiser Leomon? I can’t see any more Evilmon over there, but is he fighting Piemon inside? Did he manage to get Kokuwamon and the others to safety?

“Slide Evolution! Blitzmon!”

“There’s only like one hundred more of you! I’m sure this will be enough to defeat you ugly Evilmon!”

At least I hope! I couldn’t keep that evolution anymore!

Something deep inside Wolfmon’s chest tightened just before he heard that heart wrenching scream.

“Kouichi!”

He was about to reach the castle’s front entrance; only a few more meters, a few more turns, and then he could help him— 

“Aah! Wolfmon!”

—except a pair of Evilmon came flying towards him, carrying a big cage with Gotsumon and the others inside.

“ Strahl !” 

He didn’t stop running, and managed to catch the cage that the Evilmon let fall once they were hit. With Licht Kugel , he finished both Digimon and turned his attention to his friends, opening the door and setting them free.

“Wolfmon, you must hurry!” Bokomon said as they left the cage. “Piemon attacked Kouichi and he seems to be unconscious!”

“What?!” He looked toward the direction of the entrance, but gritted his teeth. “What about you guys?”

“We’ll be fine.” Bearmon and Gotsumon evolved into Monzaemon and Insekimon respectively, and Insekimon nodded at his friend. “Go help your brother.”

“Right. Just follow the hallway and exit through the back of the castle; Fairymon and Agnimon shouldn’t be far from there.”

Kouichi groaned as he regained consciousness; if it wasn’t because of all the pain, he would have thought he had died. Again. He almost wished he was, just to get rid of it.

Is this what it was like for the others? No wonder Kouji’s heart… Kouji…?

“Kouji!”

“You finally wake up, Warrior of Darkness!”

Piemon was standing in front of him, and Kouichi’s first instinct was to put some distance between them, but found himself trapped between one of Piemon’s swords and a wall.

He had no energy left to evolve, and he didn’t know where he was, either. He sighed.

“Well, you finally got me. What do you want me for?”

“I already told you; it’s not that I want you, but if I don’t take you with me, then the plan won’t work. However… I’m willing to negotiate a deal with you.”

Kouichi smiled.

“Considering that we obliterated your Evilmon army and rescued Andiramon and the others, there’s not many options left for you.”

“If that happened, it was because I let you.”

Kouichi was about to try to stand up, but his injuries and two more swords prevented him from doing so.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, you really thought I wouldn’t see through your stupid little plan?” 

Piemon laughed. 

“You see, I simply played my cards right. By keeping your friends alive, I let you believe that you had a chance. By keeping Angemon and the other two separated, I also kept your team separated. And like a little idiot, you came straight towards me, all alone.”

Kouichi’s heart sank. It was his plan, the one he insisted they follow. It was his fault, and all because— 

“And you know what is the best part?” Piemon leaned closer to him, invading his personal space. “It was all because you’re the Warrior of Darkness.”

Piemon laughed as he pulled away.

“It’s not like I blame you though; I did get cocky once, too, you know. After all, darkness is also my element, so I understand.”

“There’s no way someone like you would—”

“So it wasn’t something like ‘Since I’m the Warrior of Darkness and we’re in the Continent of Darkness, I’m invincible’ , was it?”

Kouichi hung his head, evading Piemon’s eyes, face burning in shame. As much as he would like to deny it, the truth was that that’s exactly what it was like. Piemon just laughed again.

“I told you; I understand what happened. That’s why, instead of judging you, I have an offer.” 

Since Kouichi did not answer, he continued. 

“Despite the disastrous results of your arrogance, the reality is that you, indeed, are not like your friends. There is a bigger amount of power you could be handling, which is why my benefactor requires your assistance.”

As he talked, the three swords that had been keeping Kouichi trapped against the wall started pulling away.

“But when that little business venture is over, why don’t you come back here and govern over the Continent of Darkness yourself? Sure, I’ll be in charge of the rest of the Digital World, but here is where you’re strongest, right? Imagine how much stronger you will be once my benefactor gives you an even greater power! What do you call it? Double Spirit Evolution, was it?”

Kouichi raised his head, and Piemon sheathed his swords as a gesture of goodwill when he saw him trying to stand up.

“Indeed, I am not like my friends.”

“Glad to see you acknowledge it.”

“Right; the difference is that this is the second time I’m offered a deal with the devil."

"What?"

"Go to hell, Piemon.”

Chapter Text

“Go to hell, Piemon.”

The window on Piemon’s right shattered, and Beowulfmon jumped inside, knocking the clown against the opposite wall and destroying it.

“Kouichi! Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. We have to leave while we can.”

Carrying his brother on one of his arms, Beowulfmon jumped out of the window he had come in from, and made his way towards the back of the castle.

“Where are the others? Are they okay?”

“Junpei and Tomoki are exhausted, but everyone’s fine.”

Kouichi relaxed for just a moment, but then looked up at his brother.

“Kouji, I’m so—”

“Save it for later, we have to hurry before Piemon catches up to us.”

“...Right.”

They heard the tower they left behind explode, certainly thanks to Piemon, as they reached the forest and caught up to their friends. Shutumon was carrying both Tomoki and Junpei on her back, while Vritramon had Bokomon, Neemon, and Angemon on his and Monzaemon kept Floramon and Kokuwamon on his shoulders; Insekimon and Turuiemon managed to keep up the pace on their own.

After Beowulfmon reached Turuiemon, he heard Kouichi groan.

“Are you alright?”

“It’s nothing; I’ll evolve, so—”

“Like hell you are! Turuiemon,” he called, catching the Angel’s attention. “Please hold Kouichi for me. I’ll evolve into Garmmon, and I can carry you and Insekimon, it’ll be faster.”

Turuiemon nodded, and after he took the boy in his arms, Beowulfmon jumped high between the trees. Devolving, he managed to get a glimpse of how far Piemon had gotten before evolving into Garmmon and landing just behind Turuiemon. Once both Digimon and his brother were on his back, he rushed forward. 

“By the way,” Kouichi hung onto Turuiemon to avoid slipping away. “Where are we heading to?”

“To the Dark Terminal.”

As they put some distance between themselves and Piemon, the Angels started explaining how the Dark Terminal, and the Dark Trailmon, worked. While the station had a physical location, the Dark Trailmon itself could open portals to wherever and whenever it was needed, which was how Takuya found himself traveling to a point in time before he even received Ophanimon’s message two years before then.

“In fact, the portal Lucemon opened was the last one used by the Dark Trailmon at the time, which is why you could go back to the same day you left, even though you spent slightly over six months here… Unlike Katsuharu and the others.”

As the children processed the information Darcmon had given them, Angemon spoke up.

“Now, you’ll take the Dark Trailmon so you can escape back to your world, along with Bokomon and the others, and get another chance to fight.”

Before Kouichi could protest, they reached the terminal, and the Dark Trailmon opened the door wordlessly. Everyone devolved and started making their way inside the Trailmon, but the Angels and Kouichi stayed put, which didn’t go unnoticed by Kouji.

“Kouichi—”

“I’m not leaving! I can’t leave! Not when this is my fault!”

“Niisan…”

He knew trying to force him was pointless, but he didn’t have to anyway, because Turuiemon stepped in front of his brother.

“Kouichi, show me your digivice.”

The request confused him, but Kouichi complied. As he held it in front of Turuiemon, the digimon focused all of its energy into it, and as four devices emerged, Turuiemon devolved into Lopmon.

“I need you to go with them, because you have to look for someone to hold these Spirits.”

“Wait, Lopmon, I can’t—”

“I won’t give you another option,” Lopmon said, pushing Kouichi into the Trailmon. The door closed, and Kouichi looked through the window. Lopmon smiled.

“I know it wasn’t under ideal circumstances, but I’m glad you were the one I found.”

And with that, the Trailmon left.

Kouichi remained at the door for a while, holding five Digivices to his chest. There were no sounds other than the wheels scraping against the rail, until Kouji approached his brother and grabbed his shoulder; Kouichi started crying.

“Niisan…”

“It’s my fault!” He said, falling to his knees, and Kouji followed. “If I hadn’t suggested that stupid plan…”

“If you hadn’t, we would still be sitting around in the forest wondering what to do!” Takuya stood up from his seat. “None of us had a plan!”

“Takuya is right! And it’s not like we didn’t accomplish anything,” Izumi said, and gestured towards the Digimon. “We rescued Bokomon and the others! And we did rescue the Angels!”

“Because Piemon let us! He saw through everything! He saw through me … Even though that’s what I tried to do to him.”

“And that’s a good thing!” Junpei stood up as well, walking closer to the others. “Piemon is a villain, and you’re not, of course you’re not going to be able to understand his actions!”

“But I should! After all that time, after everything I did, what good is it if I can’t make use of it? What good am I if I can’t at least use that to our advantage?”

“It’s not your obligation to do that, Kouichi-san,” Tomoki joined his friends. “It’s not like we want you here for any information you could have on how the enemy behaves. You’re our friend, and that’s all there is to it.”

Kouichi bit his lower lip and looked down, still unconvinced. Kouji knelt in front of him and grabbed his shoulders.

“Kouichi… Niisan,” he corrected when his brother didn’t look at him. “I didn’t save you from the corrupted Spirits so I could use you against our enemies. I saved you because you are my brother. Even back then, I cared enough about you to not want to fight you; Takuya had to yell at me so I could do it.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Shut up.”

The exchange managed to get a little smile from Kouichi.

“What I want to say is that it’s fine, even if the plan failed, as long as we learn from it. We have another chance.”

Kouichi sighed and looked down at the digivices.

“I guess all I can do now is find people to hold these.”

“We’ll help you.”

“Thanks, I’m really going to need your help, since I’m guessing Katsuharu and the others…”

Everyone turned to look at Tomoki, but he shook his head.

“Even if now we know why they only arrived home six months later than us, I don’t think they’d want to risk it again. The whole investigation was really hard on them.”

“I can’t even imagine. It was difficult enough to explain how Kouji and I met.”

They arrived at the underground station, and the Dark Trailmon opened the doors.

“I’ll remain here until your return,” he said, once the children and Digimon had gotten off. “It does not matter if it takes you days, weeks, months, or even years; I will return you to the time and place we departed from.”

“Thanks, you’re a big help,” Takuya said before turning around to face the group. “I guess we should all return home, but… How will we hide the Digimon?”

“Hey, Bokomon, I thought you said Digimon were forbidden from coming to the Human World?”

“Junpei is right, didn’t your book say something about chaos and destruction?”

Bokomon smiled, cleared their throat, and took out the book.

“That, Izumi-han, is true, but hear this!” They opened the book. “After the restoration of the Digital World, I talked to Baronmon, and he said that warning was only meant to instill fear in any curious Digimon that tried to take a Trailmon to the Human World!”

Neemon grabbed Bokomon’s shoulder.

“Which means it worked, because you never— OW!”

“Which means our world won’t be destroyed, but we still need to hide you,” Tomoki said while looking at Monzaemon. “Just because you guys won’t create chaos doesn’t mean the humans won’t create it themselves when they see you.”

“I think that’s exactly what the warning was about…” 

“What are you mumbling about, oniichan?”

“Ah, nothing, it’s nothing, Kokuwamon!”

“I guess I won’t attract as much attention as Bearmon, right?” Monzaemon said before devolving. 

“This way you only look like a big teddy bear!” Tomoki hugged him. “I could tell my parents I won you at the arcade.”

“Oh, good idea, Tomoki!” Izumi picked up Floramon. “I can tell my parents you’re a doll!”

“Well then, it’s decided!” Takuya said as they all stood in a circle. “Bearmon goes with Tomoki, Floramon with Izumi, Kokuwamon with Junpei, Gotsumon with Kouji, Bokomon with Kouichi, and Neemon with me!”

“And we should all look for a possible candidate to wield a Spirit at school or from our friends. Izumi and I go to the same school, as do Takuya and Kouichi, so it’ll be four in total.”

After agreeing to meet at the Konno Hachimangu Shrine again the following weekend, everyone went back home.

"Ta-da! This is my house!"

Izumi and Floramon arrived at a quiet neighborhood away from the busy Yokohama center. It was small and squeezed in between two other houses, but lots of plants and flowers hanging from the balcony and decorating the front door made it stand out from the others.

"It's so pretty, Izumi!"

"I know, right?"

Izumi opened the door quietly, and after confirming that her mother seemed to be in the kitchen, she signaled to Floramon to be still and announced herself.

"Mom! I'm home!"

"Welcome home, Izumi! I thought— Oh, what's that?"

"Oh, this is Floramon! You see, while I was out with the boys, I met Yacchan and she asked me if I could hold onto this doll for her, because it's a surprise for her younger sister! It's a custom made doll, so it's a unique design."

"Ah, I see! Well, do you and Floramon-chan want something to eat?”

"Sure!"

Izumi hurried up the stairs toward her room while her mother returned to the kitchen.

The walls were white, but decorated with flowers—both real and fake—, butterflies, and fairies. Hanging from her window were a couple of wind chimes. Floramon jumped out of Izumi's arms and looked around.

"Izumi! Your room is so pretty!"

"Well, I have to admit that it's partly because I missed the Digital World so much... Evolving into Fairymon and feeling the wind in my wings..." She turned her back to Floramon and approached a poster of a fairy, which didn't look much different than Fairymon herself. "I'm happy we were able to go back, but…”

“...Right.”

“Should I just have tried skydiving instead?”

Just as Floramon was about to ask what skydiving was, there was a knock on the door.

"Izumi, your food is ready!"

The door opened, and Floramon dropped to the floor, pretending to be propped against the bed.

"Thank you, Mom!"

"Izumi, if that doll is as expensive as it looks, you shouldn't keep it on the floor."

"Oh, I know, I'm just making some space in my closet to keep it in."

"Well, I'll leave you to that. But don't forget to prepare for your first day of school."

"I know!"

Izumi waited until her mother left her room, and sighed. Then, she gave Floramon the plate of food.

"Here you go; you must be hungry! I doubt Piemon fed you..."

"Thank you, Izumi!" She said, devouring the food. "It's delicious! What is this called?"

"Oh, it's pasta! My mom won't be home tomorrow because she'll go to work, so I could show you how we make it when I come back from school. After all, you showed me how to make pear soup... Even though it's not possible for me to make it."

"I'd love to, Izumi!"

Junpei pushed the door to his home wide open.

"Welcome to my house, Kokuwamon!"

The little digimon looked around in awe, even though the house was just normal. Junpei made his way to the kitchen, to the pantry, to the snack box, and pulled several different packages of food out of it.

"By the way, oniichan, where is your family? I heard you talking to Tomoki about them while we were on the train."

"They're working. Dad is an engineer, and my mom is an architect, so they have an agency together to build houses and buildings."

"Oooh! Did they build this building too?"

"No, they didn't," Junpei laughed. "Anyway, let's go to my room! That's where the fun is."

Junpei's room was full of things. 

There were two desks; one with a computer, and one with several books and half-done props he was making for the theater club. 

On a corner, there was a completed model of a tow crane.

On a bedside table, a magician's hat with a few handkerchiefs hanging out of it, and a basket with a dozen or so uneven paper cranes.

Peeking out of the closet's half closed door, there were a couple of costumes he had worn for the theater club's plays.

Kokuwamon was inspecting an old toy chest while Junpei brought out a box from under his bed.

"Kokuwamon, this is my snack box. I'll keep it full so you don't have to go out and risk being seen by my parents. Sometimes they come home randomly in the middle of the day, so it's better if you stay here."

"Won't I be able to go to school with you, oniichan?"

"I'm sorry buddy, but you can't. If there was some way I could keep you hidden, then maybe—Wait! Crap, I can't believe I forgot! Can you actually eat this food?"

"I can! Don't worry!" Kokuwamon said as he opened a bar of chocolate. "It just doesn't give me as much power as eating electricity does, so that's all we were fed at the factory."

"Oh, I see... Well, I'm glad you guys can eat whatever you want now! But I've been wondering, I know the Evilmon didn't do much until we got there, but were you affected in any way? I mean, apart from the intimidation."

"Not really, at least not us. It was just... What did the Elder say? 'The constant feeling of being watched'."

"I see... I hope we can find other people to join us. It's going to be really difficult to explain; none of us have told our families what happened because they wouldn't believe us."

"...Maybe if I come along—"

"—I'd have a reason to bring up the topic of the Digital World?"

"Yes!"

Junpei laughed.

"That might be a good idea. I would still need to find someone first."

“Mom, I’m home.”

“Welcome home, Kouji! Isn’t it a bit early? I thought you would stay out longer today, since you’re meeting with Kouichi-kun and all…”

“Uh, yeah, but everyone suddenly had stuff come up, so…”

“Oh, I see. Well, I hope you can meet with Kouichi-kun again soon.”

“Me too… Anyway, I’ll be in my room, I’ll come down for dinner.”

“Don’t you want to eat something now? It’s still a long time before dinner.”

“Oh, sure… Uhm, is it fine if I eat in my room? I promise not to make a mess; I just need to prepare some more things for school.”

“Well, alright. But don’t forget to clean up afterwards, alright?”

“I promise.”

He quickly grabbed something from the kitchen and hurried off before his mother saw how much stuff he took, climbing the stairs two steps at a time, until he got to his room; Gottsumon was already there.

“Did you have any trouble climbing all the way here?”

“Not at all! I’ve climbed higher walls in the Digital World!”

Kouji smiled.

“I bet you have.”

“Say, Kouji,” Gottsumon said as Kouji brought out a futon for him to sleep on. “How come you and your brother don’t live together? I didn’t get to say anything back then because of everything that was going on, but I was surprised to find out that you had a brother.”

“Believe me, I was surprised too.”

“Wait, you were?!”

“Yeah,” Kouji sighed. “Digimon are born from eggs, and form families by choice, don’t you?”

“That’s right.”

“Humans are born into a family, because two people love each other, but that doesn’t always work out. My father and Kouichi’s mom were married long ago, but when we were babies, they got divorced. My father kept me, and Kouichi went with his mom, and we had no idea the other existed until Kouichi found me in the Digital World.”

“That sounds complicated.”

“It is. I was told my mother had died, but Kouichi knew our parents were divorced, that’s why he was able to find me.”

“And you also have a new mom, right? Does your brother have a new dad too?”

Kouji smiled.

“My mom is very nice and kind, although she worries a lot, which is why I don’t want her to find out about what’s going on in the Digital World… but Kouichi doesn’t have— I mean, his mom hasn’t remarried.” 

“Oh, I see… I think. I’m not sure if I understand completely.”

“That’s fine, there’ll be time to explain better later,” Kouji grabbed the food he had taken from the kitchen and laid it all out on his desk. “I got this for you. I’ll bring more tomorrow after I come back from school.” 

Gottsumon noticed Kouji’s voice and shoulders getting tense.

“Don’t you want to go?”

“Well… It’s not that I hate it, and this year Izumi will even go to the same school, but I just feel awkward.”

“That doesn’t seem to be your style.”

“You’d be surprised,” Kouji said, sitting on his desk chair. “Dad and I used to move around every few months when I was younger, so I didn’t have the chance to make many friends until he got a promotion and we settled here. By then I was already used to being alone, and then Dad married Mom while I still believed my birth mother was dead. It was a very difficult time for me, so I didn’t even try to make friends. Even after we came back from the Digital World, it was hard to approach everyone after I spent so much time trying to stay away from them.”

“I can understand that!”

“You can?”

Gottsumon scratched his head.

“Well, when we first met, I wasn’t on very good terms with the other Gottsumon living in the prairie. Everyone else was trying their best to live their lives with Cherubimon’s minions mining data left and right, but I was trying to prove that I could be strong enough to take on them. I’m not sure why; it’s not like the others hated me or looked down on me. I was the one who kept myself apart from them, when they were just worried about me possibly getting hurt.”

“Do you get along with them now?”

“I do!” Gottsumon stood up straight, with his hands on his hips. “After the restauration of the Digital World, I managed to find them and apologized for how I behaved. They actually understood what I was trying to do, so we made up,” He dropped his hands and crossed them instead. “So, maybe… If you approach your classmates, maybe they’ll understand what you were going through…”

Kouji smiled.

“I might try. Thanks, Gottsumon.”

Tiptoeing into his house, Tomoki looked around to make sure the coast was clear before telling Bearmon to enter. He looked like a giant teddy bear, but he weighed like a real bear, so carrying him around was out of the question.

“My parents went to see my grandparents, and my brother said he’s staying at a friend’s apartment tonight, so we should be fine until my parents come home…”

"Tomoki, are you... here..."

Yutaka opened the door to Tomoki's room without knocking, as the house was supposed to be empty and he heard noises coming from his room, but he certainly wasn't expecting to see his brother playing videogames with a big teddy bear that jumped in surprise, knocking down a bowl of popcorn, and murmured something, which Tomoki seemed to have heard, because he jumped to his feet, covered the bear's mouth, and awkwardly smiled.

"Niichan, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to be at Kei-kun's until tomorrow? Ah, by the way, this is a very advanced toy I won at the arcade, ha ha ha..."

He should have probably been disturbed by the fact that the bear was obviously alive and sentient and could talk , but the way Tomoki failed to hide it was kind of a relief. He looked like a kid who had snuck a dog or cat into his house, so it should be fine, right?

"I forgot something in my bedroom, but anyway, what's that thing? No matter how I look at it, that's not a toy, so what are you?"

Bearmon squeaked, but when he saw Tomoki sigh and nod, he cleared his throat.

"I'm Bearmon, I'm a Digimon... and don't worry, I won't harm Tomoki! We're good friends!"

Yutaka now looked at Tomoki, who was not looking at him and was playing with his hands.

"So, uh, remember two years ago, when Hinata-san brought me home?"

How could he forget? His mother had been worried sick about him as he had disappeared for hours and wasn't answering the phone; his parents were already on their way to the police station when Yutaka had to call them to tell them that Hinata-san had brought Tomoki home. Not only that, but after that day everyone could notice a change in Tomoki, and he even claimed to have become friends with the kids who used to bully him.

"Yeah, what does that have to do with... this ?" He asked, pointing at Bearmon.

"Don't be rude, niichan!" Tomoki composed himself and asked him to sit on his bed, while Tomoki himself sat on the floor with Bearmon.

"Well, what happened that day was..."

Tomoki had the sense to omit some things, focusing mainly on his personal journey of growth and downplaying the severity of the battles they'd had. He knew that his brother would get worried, and he made sure to mention how much he had missed home and the times he met with Bearmon and with Katsuharu and Teppei.

"...And that's why I was late, I got lost, and Hinata-san had to help me get home."

Yutaka was silent for a moment, which Tomoki interpreted as his brother taking his time to process the story.

"Well, it's not like I can say I don't believe you since Bearmon is right here, but that was two years ago. What's going on today ?"

"Oh, right."

So he forgot?!

"A few days... No, today, when I was meeting with my friends, we got called again, there's a new villain we can't defeat, and now we're looking for more help. Bearmon and the others came with us since we had just rescued them; Piemon took them as hostages."

Bearmon gasped.

"Tomoki! Why doesn't your brother become a Legendary Warrior too?"

"Oh! What do you say, niichan?! You just go like this," He explained, almost shoving his hand into Yutaka's face, a glowing ring surrounding it. "Then you scan your DigiCode with the digivice," He brought out a white and green device, roughly the size of his cell phone. "And you say, 'Spirit Evolution'! And that's how you evolve!"

The DigiCode disappeared from Tomoki's hand, and both he and Bearmon looked at him expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Tomoki..."

Their faces fell.

"To be honest, I really want to say yes. But I'm an adult already, and I have enough to worry about without adding 'saving another world' on top of it. But, I promise to help you however I can, alright?"

Yutaka messed Tomoki's hair when he noticed how sad he looked. Tomoki sighed.

"Then, can you promise not to tell Mom and Dad? I don't want them to worry about me."

"I promise… but I’ll worry about you instead."

“Neemon, listen. If I remember correctly, my parents are out right now, so only my brother is home.” Neemon nodded from inside Takuya’s backpack. “I need you to always stay in my room unless you’re coming with me, and if anyone enters my room, you need to pretend to be a doll, alright?”

“Understood.”

“...Though you might be asleep if that happens anyway.”

He opened the door slowly, making sure his parents weren’t home.

“Shinya, I’m home!”

“I thought you said you would be late today!” The voice came from Shinya’s room. Takuya grumbled.

“Can’t you just say ‘welcome home’ like a normal person?!”

Shinya ignored him, so Takuya made it to his room and sat Neemon on his bed.

“Stay here, I’ll go to the store to get some food for you, alright?”

Neemon nodded, and the last thing he heard before falling asleep was Takuya telling his brother not to go into his room.

“Huh? What kind of doll is this?”

Neemon was woken up by Shinya poking his stomach and face, making him yelp several times, until he couldn’t take it anymore and hid under Takuya’s pillow.

“What the hell?!”

“Shinya, what are you doing here?! I told you not to come in!”

Takuya grabbed Shinya’s arm to drag him out, but he didn’t budge.

“Not until you tell me what that is! Or I’m telling mom and dad!”

Neemon poked his head out from behind the pillow.

“I’m not that , I’m Neemon.”

Takuya sighed and let go of Shinya’s arm.

“Fine, but promise you won’t tell anyone.”

Shinya nodded, and having calmed down, Neemon sat beside him in order to listen to the story, as if he hadn’t been present; Takuya gave him a bag of potato chips, which he started eating right away.

“Well, do you remember your birthday two years ago, when dad was coming late and I was bored so I left?”

“Yes, you came home crying two hours later.”

Takuya looked away to hide the mixed emotions he still felt about that day—plus the embarrassment from Shinya’s comment.

“Yeah, well, anyway, I’m going to tell you what actually happened then…”

After a while, Takuya managed to tell a simple version of the story, with some commentary from Neemon either helping or distracting Shinya from understanding what happened.

“...And so, that’s why I came home two hours later that day.”

“You know, if it wasn’t because Neemon is right here, and because you showed me your evolution thingie, then I wouldn’t believe you, niichan.”

“Which is why I hadn’t told you. Neemon was supposed to stay a secret until you came in here without permission.”

Shinya snickered.

“Well, why is Neemon here now? Don’t tell me you’ve been visiting the Digital World all this time?”

“No, we just returned some days ago— I mean, today. We went today. So, long story short, there’s a new villain we can’t defeat on our own, so we’re looking for more people to help. We have the other four Spirits and we need someone to—”

“I’ll do it, niichan!”

“What?”

Shinya stood up, holding his thumb to his chest.

“I’ll become a Warrior too!”

“Absolutely not!” Takuya stood up as well, staring down at his brother. “There’s no way I’m letting you do it!”

“And why not? You need help, and I want to help you!”

“Because it’s dangerous! Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? My friend died !”

“But he’s fine now, isn’t he?”

“That was a goddamn miracle ! I’m not going to put you in that kind of danger.”

“But isn’t Tomoki-kun my age? Why does he get to help you and be a Warrior?”

“It’s not the same at all!”

Takuya tried breathing deeply to calm down. 

“Shinya, look, I’m exhausted. These few hours I wasn’t home, I was in the Digital World for a few days already. We fought hard, we lost, and now I just want to rest before I have the entrance ceremony tomorrow. There will be time to explain more later.”

“Fine. But I can still play with Neemon, right?”

“As long as mom and dad don’t find out.”

Appeased for the moment, Shinya brought Neemon to his room, allowing Takuya to plop down on his bed and take a nap.

It’s not the same at all.

Was it really not the same for Shinya to become a Warrior when Tomoki was? Shinya was also ten now; hadn’t he become a Warrior at ten?

Was it because Shinya was his younger brother? Even though he also saw Tomoki as a younger brother, which is why he accepted being called ‘Takuya-oniichan’... And yet, Tomoki had already changed that to “Takuya-nii’. It wasn’t an unwelcome change; truthfully, he had been looking forward to it. Tomoki had seemed to hesitate calling his name around the time he changed it, so was it possible that they were outgrowing the little brother/older brother dynamic?

"Kouichi-han, what is that? What about that? And that?"

"Shh, Bokomon! The neighbor is going to hear you..."

Bokomon had been hanging out in Kouichi's backpack all the way from Shibuya Station to his house. They had barely been able to pretend to be a doll while they were riding the train with Takuya and Neemon, but once they had gotten off, they had been pointing at everything and asking questions about it. 

"What about that square thing? And that building?"

Kouichi would be fine answering all of them, but Bokomon was supposed to be a doll and Kouichi had to keep them hidden from his mom. How was that supposed to work if Bokomon kept asking so many questions?

"Are those kids you friends, Kouichi-han? Are those meat apple trees?"

It occurred to him to maybe pretend that Bokomon was a doll with a voice box, but the questions were all different, so maybe that wouldn't work.

"Oh, Kou-chan!"

Kouichi froze.

"Ah, Rin-san, good afternoon."

"I thought you would come home later today?"

Kouichi was praying Bokomon would stay quiet.

"That's right, but uh, some things came up, so I had to come back earlier."

He noticed that Rin-san was eyeing Bokomon while listening to him, and his heart started pounding.

"Anyway, it was nice seeing you, Rin-san, but I need to start with some chores before my mother comes home."

"Oh, right," she said, giving her attention back to Kouichi. "Didn't your mother take up later shifts?"

"Yes, since I'm starting middle school now. I'm in charge of getting everything ready for dinner, although she's still the one cooking. I'm hoping to learn to cook like her soon so she doesn't have to worry about it."

"What a good boy, Kou-chan."

She smiled, and after exchanging good-byes, Kouichi walked into his house.

"I'm back..." he whispered to himself out of habit, and let Bokomon out of his backpack after he took his shoes off.

"Your neighbor is very nice, Kouichi-han."

Kouichi put his backpack away.

"I guess so. I'm the only kid living on this floor of the building, and her youngest daughter just got married and moved away, so I guess she just misses her children."

Bokomon crossed their arms and sighed.

"I understand how that feels, after all, my own baby has grown up and went on to retake his place looking over the Digital World— uh—"

The abrupt silence flooded the small apartment and weighed over Kouichi. It was his fault.

"I'm sorry, Bokomon."

"No, wait—"

Kouichi broke down right at the entrance, trying to contain his tears but failing miserably at it.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault... Angemon and the others stayed behind because of my stupid plan to fight Piemon."

Bokomon hurried to Kouichi's side. It was just like him to pretend he was fine, but secretly agonize over it. 

"It's not your fault, Kouichi-han. It's true that I'm worried, but... Angemon knows what he's doing. It doesn't matter what the plan was or whose idea it was, he would do anything to give the Digital World a chance for survival."

Kouichi looked up, reluctantly.

"I know you would do the same, because you already have."

Kouichi looked down again, new tears streaming down his face.

"It was the least I could do, and I was dead already. I thought I might as well do something useful for the last time."

Bokomon sat down, with his back against Kouichi.

"You know, we were so worried about you after you stopped Lucemon's attack. Kouji and Takuya took it especially hard, although it allowed them to evolve into Susanoomon. And just as Lucemon was defeated and we were about to properly mourn you, Löwemon told us you were still alive."

"I wasn't."

"Huh?"

"It's true that my spirit was still somewhere around and wasn't completely gone, which is probably what Löwemon was feeling. But my body was dead. I was dead. I haven't told Kouji or the others yet, but the doctors were about to give up on resuscitating me when they arrived at the hospital. If it wasn't for that miracle, I wouldn't be here. Instead, I just got out of it with a bruise on my head and a lot of questions from my mom and the doctors."

"Oh? What kind of questions?"

"Well, the doctors were wondering how I was able to come back from the death since it had been long enough since my vitals had crashed, so they kept me a whole week at the hospital. My mom, well... she still has some questions about how I met Kouji, since some of it doesn't really make sense without mentioning what happened in the Digital World. We just told her we met earlier than we did, one time I skipped school to look for Kouji."

"You skipped school?"

Kouichi chuckled.

"I was kind of desperate at that point. I wasn't thinking clearly beyond 'meet Kouji'. I had just lost my grandma, so... I really needed a brother. And before I realized it, the feelings I had towards him got twisted into Duskmon."

The silence permeated once again, still heavy, but not quite drowning them, only broken by Kouichi's occasional sniffs.

Bokomon looked around the small apartment; everything was neat and it looked like a perfectly good place to live, but... it was dark and empty.

"Kouichi-han, when your mother is at work... are you all alone?"

Kouichi swallowed a sob.

"Yes."

Eventually, they stood up and Kouichi showed Bokomon the bathroom, the bedroom, and the balcony, before returning to the kitchen to start preparing things for dinner.

"So, Kouichi-han, what is your mother like?"

Kouichi was cutting carrots, somewhat unevenly, while Bokomon stood on a stool watching him.

"Well, she's hardworking, kind, and cheerful. She has rarely complained in front of me. And even though I try to help her as much as I can, she protests because 'it's her job' to take care of me. But I don't care," he smiled brightly. "I plan on earning a lot of money when I grow up so I can buy a house and take her to live with me, and she won't have to work hard anymore."

Bokomon teared up.

"Kouichi-han, you're such a good kid...!"

"Such a good kid..." Kouichi sighed. "But I keep lying to my mom. I lied to her about what I was doing when I was looking for Kouji. I lied to her about how I met Kouji. And I'm going to lie to her when she comes home tonight so she doesn't find you. But... would it be so bad for her to know?"

"Hmm..." Bokomon crossed their arms and thought. "I guess it would come down to whether you trust your mom—"

"I do!" Kouichi snapped. "When I lied to her before, it was because I didn't want to add to her worries, not because I didn't trust her."

"Then, tell her. I'd be happy to meet her!"

There were still a few hours before his mother arrived home, and they spent it with Kouichi sharing his own books with Bokomon and watching some TV, while Kouichi ignored the temptation of attempting to cook all by himself to surprise his mother with dinner.

He decided to do some laundry instead.

While he was hanging the clothes in the balcony, he heard the front door opening, and it was just as he thought 'Oh, Mom is home' that he remembered that Bokomon had gone to the kitchen to get some water— 

"Ah, you must be Kouichi's mom! Nice to meet you, I'm Bokomon."

Chapter Text

Kouichi ran towards the door, only to find his mother frozen at the entrance, staring intently at Bokomon, who was standing on the stool next to the sink, smiling.

“Mom!”

“Kouichi, what’s going on here?” Her voice was shaky, but it was obvious that she was trying to keep her composure. Kouichi smiled.

“Don’t worry, mom, it’s fine. Bokomon is my friend,” he said, standing in front of her. “I met them two years ago.”

“Two years…?” Megumi breathed deeply, trying to calm down. “You mean, around the time you met Kouji?”

“Yes. In fact, weren’t you there when that happened, Bokomon?”

“That’s right! I witnessed the moment Kouji-han saved Kouichi-han!”

“Kouji saved you? From what?”

It was Kouichi’s turn for his voice to turn shaky. Bokomon held his hand.

“From myself.”

“So, you actually met Kouji on the same day you fell in Shibuya Station…”

“Yes. Mom, if he hadn’t reached out to me while I was in the hospital… I don’t think I would have woken up.”

Hearing the confession, Megumi turned pale and her hands trembled as she held them together in front of her.

“While we were in the Digital World, I thought I might not survive, so I made Kouji promise to come visit you, because I didn’t want you to be alone if that happened.”

Megumi couldn’t contain her tears anymore; she held Kouichi tightly for several minutes until she was able to calm down.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that. It’s my fault; if I hadn’t hidden Kouji’s existence from you, then…”

“It was part of your agreement with his dad, so I don’t really blame you. The fact that you didn’t hide that you were divorced helped me find Kouji, after all.”

"Still, I'm sorry…"

Kouichi hugged his mother.

"What I did wasn't your fault. It was all me. I'm just happy Kouji cared enough to help me, and that I was able to make up with him. I'm glad I can see him now."

He looked at his mother, who had a strange look in her eyes and seemed to hesitate before smiling.

"Thank you for telling me this, Kouichi. How about I start making dinner? Especially since we have a guest," she said, smiling at Bokomon.

"Can I help?" he asked, but his mother gave him some money and a list.

"You can help me by going to the store."

Kouichi sighed.

“Fine… Is it alright if I leave Bokomon with you?”

“Sure, maybe they can help me around in the kitchen?”

“I’d be honored to!”

With Kouichi gone, Megumi took a deep, shaky breath.

“What should I do? What should I have done?”

“What do you mean, Megumi-han?”

“About Kouichi… That boy has always been like that. Carrying more weight on his shoulders than he ought to, worrying more about me than about himself, placing his own needs last.”

“Yes, I think I’ve come to learn that about him. He didn’t mention it, but when he found out he was… well, a spirit, he kept the secret from the others because he didn’t want to worry them, even though it was eating him up inside. He made me promise not to tell anyone when he found out I knew.”

“I didn’t like it when I heard about it, but maybe Hisateru was right in telling Kouji his birth mother was dead. If I had told Kouichi the same, maybe the other kids wouldn’t have pushed him away for being the son of a single mother, and he wouldn’t have to worry about me.”

“I don’t think that would have been a good idea,” said Bokomon, getting on the stool so they could be closer to Megumi. “Kouji-han suffered a lot as a result of that lie, and I feel like Kouichi-han would take it much worse than he did.”

“I think you’re right… If he was able to find Kouji on his own, he would probably end up figuring out that his father was alive if I had lied. And then he would have found out about Kouji.”

Megumi turned around to start cooking, but paused for a moment.

“Bokomon… could you keep something a secret from Kouichi?”

Bokomon whined.

“I’d like to say yes, but I actually ended up telling everyone else about Kouichi-han being a spirit, so…”

“Ah, I see… never mind, then. I don’t want to burden you with this.”

She started cooking quietly, until she realized something.

“Bokomon… Please don’t think I’m being rude, but… what are you doing here, in the Human World?”

“Oh, right, we haven’t gotten to that yet,” Bokomon cleared their throat. “Well, there’s a new enemy who is too strong for the Three Angels or the children to fight as they are, so in order to give us and the children the chance to escape and find new Warriors… Angemon and the others stayed behind.”

Bokomon had hidden their worry before so Kouichi wouldn’t feel worse, but it was impossible to hide anymore.

“I’m so worried about them! Angemon is just like Kouichi-han! I know it’s his job to look after the Digital Word, but he doesn’t think about himself at all! Darcmon and Lopmon too! I know it’s their duty, but after raising them, I can’t help but worry…”

Their tears streamed down their face without stopping, and Megumi knelt down to their level.

“So you understand how I feel, right?”

“I do!”

Megumi held Bokomon’s hands between hers.

“Bokomon, will you tell me more about what’s going on? I’m sure Kouichi won’t tell me everything so I don’t worry. At the very least, I’d like to understand what’s happening.”

Bokomon sniffed and nodded.

“Megumi-han, you’re taking this so well… After what happened to Kouichi-han last time, I thought you’d stop him.”

Megumi smiled, but it was a deflated, resigned smile.

“Even if I tried, he would just figure out a way to do it anyway. I know he’s still a child, but he has always done what he thinks is right regardless of what anyone thinks. There’s only one time he listened when I asked him to stop. I’m not going to lie; I don’t like it. But that’s just how Kouichi is, and I’d rather have him come home and trust me with his problems if they ever get too big for him, instead of pushing him away by constantly scolding him. I just wish he’d rely on me more.”

Outside the door, Kouichi clutched the shopping bag closer.

It was finally Monday; the day of the entrance ceremony.

Since it was only a ceremony and there would be no classes yet, they decided to leave Bokomon and Neemon at home, with clear instructions not to go outside. They would figure out what to do during classes later.

Takuya and Kouichi met at a corner near Takuya’s house. Takuya looked around and behind Kouichi, looking confused.

“Isn’t your friend going to come today? I thought you said he lived nearby.”

“Oh, eh… No, he’s not coming. He had… something important come up. I’ll have to introduce you later.”

“Ah, alright.”

They made their way towards the school; as they got closer, more and more students with the same black gakuran as theirs started showing up. Eventually, they arrived at the building.

After the ceremony was over, Takuya noticed how Kouichi’s mom wasn’t present— “She’s working,” he had said—,  so he forced Kouichi into taking some pictures with him and his parents. Both adults had been apologetic about Takuya’s forcefulness, but it wasn’t like Kouichi was the slightest bit surprised.

They were finally able to take a look at the class lists, and much to their joy, they were in the same class, with Takuya’s name being right above Kouichi’s. Unfortunately, Kouichi’s friend, Chikara, was in the neighboring class, but at least they would be able to share a couple of classes like P.E. and art, and spend time together during lunch.

Before leaving, Takuya noticed that Kouichi checked the list for their class once again and sighed heavily, before changing his expression and turning to look at Takuya.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join the soccer club?”

“Yeah, I already told you, I still have headaches. Plus, the cost of the equipment…”

“I’m sure your dad wouldn’t mind—”

“I don’t want to ask Kouji’s dad for that kind of thing.” 

Takuya raised his hands, giving up on the topic… for a moment.

“I guess you don’t talk to Kouji about him, do you? Or with your mom?”

Kouichi just shook his head weakly.

“It’s not like I hate him, but I managed all this time without him. I had no interest in having a relationship with him, or even meeting him; that was just a consequence of finding Kouji. When I first met him in the hospital’s waiting room, I told him I would only spend time with him if Kouji asked for it.”

“Has he?”

“A couple of times, but I think he noticed the awkwardness. Especially because I call him by his name, while he does call mom ‘Mother’ when he visits us.”

“Doesn’t that sound weird?”

“It does, but he insists he wants to call her and his mom different names.”

“Hmm… So, if your mom remarried, would you call her husband ‘Dad’?”

Kouichi stopped in his tracks, and even forgot to breathe for a second.

“...You’ve never thought about it, have you?”

Kouichi just shook his head.

“I mean… I’ve never had a dad before, so it would be weird to do that. On top of that, she has never mentioned dating again, and I don’t remember her going out if it wasn’t for work or errands, so the thought never crossed my mind…”

“Oh… I see…”

After hearing Takuya’s answer, Kouichi walked on ahead. Takuya walked a few steps behind him, looking at his raised head and squared shoulders.

It was finally time for classes to start; once again, Takuya noticed how the mysterious Chikara was, once again, not present when he met up with Kouichi to walk to school together. 

Kouichi sighed, amused.

“He’ll get to school late, so I’ll introduce you during lunch, I promise. He said we could meet at the rooftop.”

“Fiiiiine. But I get more and more curious about him every time.”

Kouichi chuckled and they made their way to school. They had been told to sit according to their number in the class roster, so that meant they would be sitting together for the rest of the year. Once settled, waiting for the bell to ring and the teacher to arrive, Takuya noticed a pair of boys sitting towards the end of the classroom, who were looking in their direction, snickering.

“Hey, do you know those two?”

Kouichi didn’t even look in their direction. In fact, he looked the opposite way.

“Just ignore them.”

The bell rang and the teacher came in, preventing him from asking any more. After introducing himself, Hifumi-sensei began taking attendance, asking each student for any information they might want to share with their classmates, like which club they wanted to join. It didn’t take long for the list to reach Takuya.

“Just call me Takuya! I just moved here from Jiyuugaoka, and I have the intention to join the soccer club!”

“Alright, that makes it three already that want to join the soccer club. Next is… Kimura Kouichi-kun.”

“Right,” Kouichi said as he stood up. “I’m Kimura, and I’m not planning to join any club for now.”

“Are you sure?” the teacher asked, eyeing the list. “We have a good selection of clubs, you could try—”

Towards the end of the classroom, a hand rose up.

“Sensei, please don’t pressure Kimura! He’s poor, after all!”

Takuya turned around and was about to tell him off, but the teacher sighed.

“You are… Watanabe Wataru-kun, right? Please do not interrupt your classmates again. Otherwise, I’ll need to see you in the teacher’s room at lunch, understood?”

Watanabe drawled a ‘yes’, but Takuya saw him roll his eyes. Before sitting correctly again, Takuya looked at Kouichi, who had sat down and was looking away from Watanabe’s direction.

Class continued normally; they got to meet a couple more teachers and, due to sitting together, Takuya and Kouichi were able to pair up for Science class for the rest of the year.

And finally, lunch time arrived. As they took out their lunch and stood up to join the famous Chikara on the rooftop, Watanabe and his friend, Yamada, approached them.

“Hey, you’re Kanbara, right? I heard you’re joining the soccer club too, wanna have lunch together?”

Takuya showed his disdain on his face, although he had decided not to get into a fight on his first day of middle school.

“Sorry, I already have plans to eat lunch with Kouichi for the next three years, so…”

“Huh, so you’re friends with Kimura?”

“Yeah, what of it?”

Yamada finally spoke up.

“I didn’t know Kimura had any friends… well, apart from Minami, but I guess bad families have to stick together.”

Fine, he would have to get into a fight.

“Now, wait just a—”

Kouichi grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the door.

“Hurry up, Chikara is probably waiting for us.”

Takuya let himself be pulled until they were far away from the classroom, when he yanked his hand out of Kouichi’s grip.

“What was that all about? You didn’t mention you had bullies !” 

Kouichi wasn’t looking at Takuya.

“It’s not a big deal, they’ve been doing that since we were six.”

“And you’re just going to ignore them?”

Kouichi nodded. Takuya crossed his arms.

“So you talk back to Cherubimon but not to a couple of kids?”

“And what do you want me to do?” Kouichi turned his head around to look at Takuya. “I got in trouble for four years straight for fighting back against them. The only thing I managed to do was make my mom worry; I couldn’t keep doing that.” 

Takuya looked like he was going to say something, but then sighed.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I still wish you would have told me, though.”

Kouichi smiled a little.

“I didn’t tell you because you would have gotten angry before anything even happened. Don’t worry about them; it used to be worse, but a lot of the kids who went along with them matured a bit or lost interest and stopped. Now I just have to deal with those two assholes, and their bark is worse than their bite. Now let’s go before Chikara wonders where we are.”

Takuya shook his head; of course Kouichi would worry about him more than about himself, but didn’t say anything and followed him to the rooftop.

“You’re late; for a moment I thought you might have fallen down the stairs again… Maybe this time in Odaiba or something. It would be just like you to fall on the exact same date twice.”

Takuya failed at covering his laugh and snorted instead.

“Funny. Anyway, this is the friend I told you about, Kanbara Takuya.”

“Nice to finally meet you! I’ve been waiting for days.”

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Minami Chikara, but it seems like you already knew that…?”

Takuya shrugged.

“I’ve been pestering Kouichi about meeting you. I like having friends, y’know. Particularly now that I moved and all my other friends are elsewhere in Tokyo.”

Chikara finally smiled, although it was a bit strained.

“Well, I’m glad to meet one of the people who were there when this idiot fell down the stairs. Thanks for being with him in the hospital.”

Takuya chuckled sheepishly as they all sat down to eat.

“Someone had to! The other guys had to go home because they lived farther away, especially—”

“—Tomoki, he was just eight at the time and it was late, so he really had to go home.” 

Takuya looked at him, bewildered, and Kouichi just shook his head while Chikara was busy taking his lunch out of its bag. Takuya sighed in resignation, but shot Kouichi a questioning glance. 

Kouichi just shrugged.

“...Did I just witness you two having a… ‘telepathic’ conversation?”

Chikara was looking between them, holding a rice ball from the convenience store. Takuya tensed up and wondered whether he had figured out that Kouichi had just changed the course of the conversation. Kouichi, on the other hand, gave Chikara a sly smile and leaned closer to him.

“Why? Jealous?”

Chikara shoved his face away.

“No way, Mr. Headaches.”

“Excuse you , my headaches don’t transfer over to other people, just ask Takuya.”

“I meant how you make everything more complicated than it needs to be. I’m lucky your mouth can’t keep up with your train of thought.”

Kouichi stuck his tongue out at Chikara, who lightly pushed him away again. They then went on to discuss clubs, the incident with Watanabe and Yamada, and Takuya and Chikara getting to know each other. Still, Takuya was bothered, so he let Kouichi know once they had separated from Chikara.

“Why didn’t you let me mention Kouji? Also, won’t Chikara ask about it later? The way you cut me off wasn’t exactly subtle.”

“He won’t. We have an unspoken agreement that if we change the topic, we don’t ask… It’s not like I have the intention to keep Kouji a secret forever, but around the time I found out about him, Chikara had some family matters that made it hard to bring it up.”

“Why don’t you tell him now?”

Kouichi sighed.

“Still not a good time.”

There was a pause when they reached their seats, and Takuya got closer to Kouichi so he could whisper.

“Have you considered asking him?”

Kouichi nodded.

“He’s the only one I would trust with this. So I really can’t keep Kouji a secret from him anymore.”

They decided to tell Chikara on Friday after school. In the meantime, they would walk to school and back home normally. It would give Kouichi some time to figure out how to tell Chikara about the whole twin brother he had kept hidden for two years.

Unfortunately for them, Piemon had other plans.

They had decided to leave the school immediately instead of hanging back in order to start showing Takuya around the neighborhood. They took him to the convenience store near the school—the same one where Chikara had gotten his lunch from earlier—, then to the field where they sometimes kicked a soccer ball back and forth—the ball Kouichi had originally wanted for his eleventh birthday, and eventually got for Christmas—, and finally to the library where they sometimes did homework together and where Kouichi constantly borrowed books and movies from.

They finally reached the secluded park they sometimes used as a shortcut. It was rather old and overshadowed by the bigger and newer one that was down the street, with a better playground that attracted plenty of children and their parents; this older park was mostly frequented by older people during mornings and delinquents during nights, and so, it was deserted in the afternoons.

As they made their way through the park, already making plans to spend Friday afternoon at Kouichi’s house away from adult supervision, shadows began to rustle the tree leaves. Takuya and Kouichi picked up on it, having been just a few days away from battle, but they tossed the alarmed thoughts away—they were in the Human World. They were safe, right?

Wrong.

A group of Evilmon flew straight towards them, attacking from all angles. Maybe they could pretend to believe these were just unbelievably big, ugly bats, but it was still the middle of the day, and if they started using real attacks instead of just tackling and scratching, that would just not work.

“ Nightmare Shock !”

Yeah, it wouldn’t work. The attack wasn’t very strong; the Evilmon probably figured they didn’t need to go all out on a couple of kids who wouldn’t dare to evolve in the Human World.

But, well, they couldn’t exactly let themselves and Chikara get attacked by them, and there was no way that they would be able to fight them off as they were; they couldn’t get an opening to pick up a branch or a rock to even try to hit them. So Takuya and Kouichi sneaked a look at each other, nodded, and brought out their digivices.

“Spirit Evolution!”

A light blinded Chikara, who covered his eyes, only to find a pair of freakishly tall armored men.

“What the hell?!”

He looked around to look for Kouichi and Takuya, but the tall men looked back at him, and even though the eye colors looked different, there was no mistaking it.

“We’ll explain later, please go hide.”

It was the red-armored man—Takuya?—who talked, so he nodded weakly and ran for cover behind a tree. In no time at all, the two of them got rid of the ten or so creatures that had attacked them, with fire darts and a black spear.

The strange light surrounded them again, and in their place, Kouichi and Takuya stood. Takuya immediately turned around to make sure Chikara was fine, but Kouichi kept his back to him. 

“Are you hurt?”

“No, but uh, what the fuck. What was that?”

Takuya scratched the back of his head, and Kouichi’s shoulders tensed.

“Well, it started the day Kouichi fell down in Shibuya Station—”

A heavy thud interrupted him, and they found Kouichi on the ground. Yelling his name, Chikara placed Kouichi’s head on his lap, and Takuya stayed in front of him, trying to see if he would wake up. Not even a minute later, Kouichi groaned and opened his eyes, only seeing Takuya.

“Don’t tell Kouji.”

“Who’s Kouji?”

As soon as he heard Chikara’s voice, Kouichi jumped to his feet, almost losing his balance, turning around to see his friend kneeling on the ground, frowning.

“Who’s Kouji?”

They decided to relocate to Chikara’s house; it was the closest, and his father hadn’t arrived from work yet. Takuya noticed some pictures around the entrance that look weirdly off , like if they had originally been larger and then had a piece cut off, and the four-seat person table with only three seats arranged to be used and the remaining place lightly covered in dust, but with a chair that looked decently worn either way.

Once in Chikara’s room, Kouichi took a deep breath.

“Remember when my grandma died?”

Chikara nodded.

“The day I went in to say goodbye—,” he took another deep breath. “—I hadn’t been allowed to see her much, but the doctors were sure she didn’t have much time, so they let me see her, and she asked the doctor and Mom to leave. Then, she told me about Kouji. My brother.”

Chikara’s shoulders tensed. He wasn’t particularly surprised to hear the word ‘brother’; it was quite obvious with the matching names. However, he knew how hard his grandma’s death was on Kouichi, and he was no stranger to the feeling, so he chose not to interrupt yet.

Kouichi’s shoulders were shaking.

“That’s all she told me, and almost immediately she lost consciousness and just… didn’t wake up anymore. My mom didn’t let me help with the funeral arrangements, so I took it upon myself to start cleaning up her things. Among them, I found a box. It was locked, but a corner of a photograph was peeking out from under the lid.”

Now even Takuya was paying close attention; Kouichi had never actually told them how he managed to track Kouji down.

“I pulled it out, because I saw the bracelet with my name embroidered on it that I used to wear when I was a baby. I always wondered why they had me wear it, and with what my grandma told me, I couldn’t help looking at the picture. There I was, but there was also another baby, slightly smaller than me, with an identical bracelet with ‘Kouji’ embroidered on it. I ended up breaking the lock, and there were more photographs, and some letters from ‘Minamoto Hisateru’. I knew that was my father’s given name, so I started reading the letters. That’s how I found out they lived in Yokohama, that Kouji had been told Mom had died, and that he was remarrying.”

Kouichi paused, whether because he was trying to figure out how much more to say, or because he was trying to keep calm after recounting such painful memories, Takuya wasn’t sure.

“After the funeral, I decided to go look for Kouji. Grandma had told me about him even when Mom didn’t, so maybe she thought we should meet after all and wanted to make sure I knew. But I couldn’t bring myself to talk to him no matter how many times I tried.”

“Luckily you two are able to see each other now!” Takuya decided he should interrupt now; he could feel the emotions coming from Kouichi. Relieving the memories of his discovery of Kouji was also making him relieve the sadness, anger, and loneliness he mentioned back then, and maybe they should focus on the urgent issue at hand before focusing on past events too much. 

Chikara held his hands together in front of his face.

"Okay, so your grandma told you you have a twin brother. And you found him and... started stalking him?"

Takuya laughed and Kouichi grimaced.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. That's not the point."

"You're right. What's important here is why you felt the need to hide it—to hide him —for two years."

Kouichi sighed.

"It's because it was around the time your brother left."

There was silence hanging between them; Takuya wondered if the pictures he had seen were cut because of the brother who left.

"I know that. But what does that have to do with your brother?"

"Because I didn't want to rub it in your face!" 

"Rub what in my face?!"

"That I found a brother when you had just lost yours!"

Chikara let out a rough sigh while covering his face.

"You stupid idiot, why are you like this?"

Kouichi looked away with tense shoulders.

"You know damn well that Chihiro was an awful brother, and you helped me talk to Dad about it. It's thanks to you that I don't have to deal with him anymore."

Kouichi's shoulders relaxed.

"Also, your grandma died before Chihiro left. If you had told me about it, I would have gladly helped you stalk your brother."

"Shut up!"

Takuya laughed again.

"Anyway, you have a brother. What does that have to do with... whatever happened at the park?"

"Right... Well, the day I met with him—"

"Oh, so you aren’t stalking him anymore."

"Yeah, pay attention! That day was the day I fell in Shibuya Station."

"Okay..."

Takuya decided to take over.

"The reason we were all in Shibuya Station that day is because we got a mysterious message telling us to go there and get the elevator to the underground platform."

"But there's no underground platform in Shibuya Station."

"There is, but it's inaccessible through normal means."

As Takuya took over explaining the bare basics of their previous adventure, Kouichi rummaged inside his backpack and brought out the four digivices that Lopmon had entrusted him with: brown, light blue, orange, and teal. He turned to Chikara.

"We can go into details later, but this Sunday we were called to the Digital World again to help the Three Angels fight against a new enemy. Because of his strength, we had to come back to look for reinforcements."

Immediately drawn to the brown digivice, Chikara took it and inspected it. 

"It's like the ones you have, right?"

Nodding, both Warriors took out their own digivices.

"Each Warrior has a different element; I'm Fire and Kouichi is Darkness. The rest of our friends are Wind, Thunder, Ice, and--"

"Light? That's Kouji, right?"

"Right. The one you're holding is the Earth digivice."

As Kouichi said it, the Earth symbol flashed on the screen. Chikara held it a bit tighter.

"If you're willing to help us, you can keep it, though we were planning to gather everyone during the weekend and have them choose then."

"I'll help. The, uh... Dark Trailmon? can help us come back quickly, right? So dad wouldn't worry."

"That's right."

"Then count me in."

As Takuya and Kouichi left Chikara's house, Kouichi turned around.

"Sorry about everything, by the way."

"I'm still angry. And there's still a lot we have to talk about."

Kouichi grimaced.

"There's still a lot I have to say, but I'd rather only do it once. I'll do it when everyone gathers."

"...Is it that important?"

"It'll be better if everyone hears it from me."

The way Takuya looked at Kouichi gave Chikara a knot in his stomach. Just what was it that he wanted to say? Was it that horrible? Maybe it had something to do with his fall.

"Are you sure? I know it's important, but... none of us would blame you if you wanted to keep it secret."

Kouichi shook his head.

"No, like I said, it's better if they hear it from me. If I don't, Piemon could tell them and it could drive us apart. I'm not going to let my pride get in the way again."

Takuya sighed, but said nothing of Kouichi's 'pride'. 

"Isn't it going to hurt to talk about it?"

"It hurts every time I think about it. But it ended well. I'm alive, I can see Kouji, and we met you guys. It'll be fine."

"What if the new guys don't think it's fine?"

"I can live with that. Honestly, I'm surprised you took me in without much fuss at all."

"What, really?"

"I mean, I tried to kill you. I wouldn't have blamed you if you wanted nothing to do with me after that."

"Yeah, but... You were going through a rough time and all..."

"That doesn't justify it."

"I know, but after Kouji scanned the corrupted Spirits you looked so... sad, and guilty, and it was obvious you felt bad about it."

Kouichi sighed. He was fighting a losing battle against Takuya's idealism.

"Anyway, I'm going to tell them. I'll be honest with them; I can handle it if they don’t like me. And if they don't want to help, we'll find someone else, but I'm not going to allow my actions to become a weak point for us."

Chapter Text

“It’s today!”

Izumi woke up early, eager to start at a new school. With both her parents out of the house working, and Floramon content to look after all the plants in Izumi’s house, she left to meet Kouji at the spot they had agreed on, halfway on their paths to school. 

When she got there, Kouji was looking away, with his hands on his pockets, so she took the chance to surprise him by locking her arm around his.

“Good morning~!”

He tensed and looked at her, alarmed, until he realized what was going on and relaxed.

“Oh, good morning.”

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I guess… Let’s go.”

They started walking just like that, mostly quietly until Izumi started humming. It was the same tune she always hummed, and the sense of familiarity helped him relax his jaw, that he wasn’t aware he was clenching.

“I hope we’re in the same class! Are any of your former classmates coming to this school too?”

“Hm, yeah, some of them.”

“Maybe you can introduce me!”

Kouji hesitated for a moment.

“It’s not like I’m friends with them, you know?” He sighed. “Well, at least, not yet… I hope. Gottsumon suggested that I should try approaching them, even though I did my best to keep them away before.”

“That’s a good idea!”

“I’m not sure how well it’ll go, though.”

“That’s fine; I was also nervous when we came back and I decided to try making friends. It was a bit hard at first, but eventually I was able to get along with everyone, even with people who I had argued with before.”

Kouji took a deep breath.

“I’ll try.”

Izumi tightened her hold on his arm.

“I’ll be there too, so I’ll help you.”

“Thanks.”

Finding out they were in the same class was a huge relief, and Izumi’s excitement attracted the attention of some of Kouji’s former classmates who, curious about the blonde girl who had been hanging from Kouji’s arm since their arrival, decided to approach them.

“Hey, Minamoto! Seems like we’re in the same class again.”

“Ah, right.”

Izumi chipped in before the silence became awkward.

“Hey, Kouji, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”

He was about to correct her ‘friends’ with ‘classmates’ before realizing she was helping him, and cleared his throat.

“Oh, sure. Izumi, these two are Mori and Gotou, we were in the same class last year. Guys, this is Orimoto Izumi, a friend who just moved here from Shinjuku.”

“Nice to meet you, Orimoto!”

“ Piacere di conoscervi !”

“Piache… what?” They looked at Kouji, puzzled.

“She lived in Italy for a long time,” he explained, looking at her.

“It means ‘nice to meet you’ in Italian.”

“Oh, cool!”

“By the way, have you decided which club you’re joining…?”

“See? That went well!” Izumi said, looking at the new pictures in her phone on their way back home from the entrance ceremony. “You even have their contacts now!”

Kouji was looking at the names ‘Mori’ and ‘Gotou’ on his own phone.

“Yeah… Thank you.”

Izumi said nothing, but smiled, until she remembered something and placed a hand on her chin.

“Hey, Kouji, didn’t you notice that person looking at our class list? I think they might be a foreigner, but I’m not sure… It just looked like they were having trouble finding their own name.”

“Oh, you mean that person with curly hair?”

“Yes, that one! I also saw them with their dad talking to the principal at the end. Though he didn’t look like he had any trouble speaking Japanese.”

“...Do you want to try approaching them tomorrow? You’ll probably understand what they’re going through if they’re really a foreigner.”

“Sure! Let’s become friends with them!”

They did end up approaching the foreigner once classes had started. Both of them arrived early, only to find that many of their classmates were already there, and the curly haired student was sitting at a corner, reading a book, completely ignored by the rest of the class.

Izumi took the initiative, sitting on the desk beside them, which caught their attention.

“ Ciao ! I’m Orimoto Izumi, what’s your name?”

The curly haired kid hesitated before replying.

“Uhm… Aoi. Tategami Aoi.”

Kouji sat on the desk in front of them.

“I’m Minamoto Kouji. So, you’re Japanese after all?”

“Half. Dad is Japanese, Mom is American. Dad got a new job, so we moved.” Aoi shifted uncomfortably in their seat. “Sorry, my Japanese is bad.”

“No, no, it’s good!” Izumi dragged her chair closer to Aoi’s desk. “But I guess your English is better?”

“[Yes!]” Aoi finally smiled. “I was smart in America, but here… it’s difficult.”

“[I can help you!] You too, right, Kouji?”

“Yes."

“[Thank you…]!”

Lunch time came before they realized it, and Aoi took out the book they were reading along with their lunch. Izumi turned her chair around to eat with them.

“Aoi, what’s that book you’re reading?”

“It’s my favorite book, ' Howl's Moving Castle '. I read it many times in English. Now I’m reading it in Japanese, to practice.”

"I like it too! But I read it in Italian… Oh! I heard they’re making a movie about it!"

“Really?”

“Yes! We should go watch it!”

Izumi turned to look at Kouji, who was also taking out his lunch and turning his chair around to face both of them.

“Hey, Kouji, let’s go watch the movie when it comes out.”

“Yeah, sure. We should invite everyone then.”

“Great idea! But we were talking about books, so what’s your favorite book?”

He stopped.

“Uh, a book…?”

Izumi rolled her eyes.

“Sorry, I forgot your brother was the reader. Your favorite movie, then.”

“Hmm… ‘Family Game’ , I think? Kouichi and I watched it last year.”

Izumi laughed and Kouji’s face went red while Aoi looked at them, confused.

“What’s ‘Family Game’?”

“Oh, it probably has a different name in English, right?” Izumi calmed down. “In Italian it was called ‘ Genitori in Trappola’ , hmm… [ ‘Parents in a Trap ?]”

Aoi gasped.

“[ ‘The Parent Trap ’?]”

“Yes, yes, that one with the twin girls!”

“What’s that about the twin girls?”

Gotou had approached the trio, having come back from the cafeteria, just in time to hear them talking about the movie.

“Oh, Gotou-kun! Kouji and I were talking about our favorite books or movies with Aoi.”

Aoi nodded at Gotou and muttered ‘nice to meet you’.

“Oh, Tategami, right? So, who likes ‘ Family Game’ ?

“Kouji does!”

Kouji went red again and avoided looking at the others.

“I know it came out some years ago, but I didn’t care to watch it until Kouichi convinced me last year.”

“Oh, so it was Kouichi’s idea?”

“No, it was Takuya’s.”

“Wait, hold up, who’s Kouichi? And Takuya?”

Gotou was confused, as was Aoi, and Izumi and Kouji looked at each other. Kouji sighed.

“Takuya is a friend of ours. Kouichi… is my older brother.”

“What?!”

“Yeah! They’re twins!”

Mori appeared behind Gotou.

“Wait, so you have a twin ? 

Izumi looked at Kouji’s conflicted expression, wondering how he was going to explain the situation. Mori and Gotou also looked at him, wondering what was up with his conflicted expression.

“It’s a long story…” He tried leaving it at that, but when no one said anything and they were still looking at him, he sighed again. “Basically, our parents divorced when we were… babies, I guess, each one took one of us, and proceeded to hide the fact that we had a brother. Kouichi found me somehow a couple of years ago; I’m not sure how he did it but he followed me for about a month.”

“Wow, that’s crazy—” by then, Mori had brought his own chair over. “Wait, I thought you had a mom?”

“Yeah, my dad remarried some years ago. I met my birth mother shortly after meeting my brother.”

Gotou, who had been silent while listening, gasped.

“It wasn’t around the time you were in the hospital, was it? I remember the teacher said you were in a hospital in Tokyo, and then something about a complicated situation.”

“Yeah, it was back then. Well… my brother didn’t tell his mom about trying to find me, and I didn’t tell my parents when I met him. Then my brother organized for me to meet his mom about a month after we met, and that’s when I had to go to the hospital. Of course, my parents were called, and they all found out we met and it seems like our parents ended up arguing.”

“You’re not sure?”

“That’s what I was told; I was unconscious at the time.”

“And then Kouichi took him hostage!”

Mori almost spit out his drink.

“Your brother did what ?!”

Izumi was laughing and Aoi looked amazed, but Kouji was smiling rather fondly.

“Yeah, he was trying to get them to stop fighting, so he locked himself in my room after yelling at them. I woke up while he was glaring daggers at the door and he explained the situation.”

Gotou chuckled.

“You sure sound like you look up to him even though he stalked you and took you hostage… Your brother sounds kinda crazy, to be honest.”

Before anyone could say anything else, the bell rang and Mori and Gotou went back to their places. After they had put their chairs back, Aoi patted Kouji’s shoulder, getting his attention.

“You should write a book about all that.”

“I’m not a very good writer, though.”

“Can I write it, then? Though, I prefer writing fantasy…”

Kouji caught Izumi winking at him.

“I wouldn’t worry about that.”

They had another homeroom period toward the end of the school day, and this time, their teacher had asked them to consider any of the school clubs to join and gave them some time to discuss among themselves. Like they had done at lunch, Izumi and Kouji turned their chairs in order to face Aoi, who was staring hard at the pamphlet with the list of clubs.

“Is it hard for you to read it?”

Aoi nodded.

“A bit. Hiragana and katakana are easy, but some kanji I still don’t know.”

“We can help you! Tell us which ones you don’t understand.”

“Thank you! I know this one is [baseball], this one is [volleyball], this is [soccer], and this one is [swimming]. Sports ones are easy.”

“Well… half of them are in katakana.”

“But the cultural clubs are harder…”

Kouji looked over the pamphlet.

“Let’s see… There’s calligraphy, math, literature, and English.”

Aoi gasped.

“[English?!]”

Izumi smiled.

“Kouji and I were thinking of joining the English club.”

“But you like reading, so maybe you would prefer the literature club?”

“Maybe, but I’m worried that we’ll read very hard books and I can’t keep up.”

“Oh, that’s true…”

“Also, in English club, I could help people with English, and everyone could help me with Japanese, maybe…”

“That’s a great idea! I’m sure the English club would love to have an American student!”

As they were packing up their things to go home, Izumi caught Kouji looking at her, and then nodding towards Aoi.

Izumi nodded back.

“Hey, Aoi! Kouji and I were wondering if you’d like to hang out with us! Maybe today or tomorrow?”

Aoi’s face lit up.

“Yes! Hm, tomorrow I have cram school, so today is okay. But I need to tell my parents first.”

“Of course. Izumi and I will be waiting at the entrance, alright?”

Once there, Izumi turned to look at him.

“Nice to know we both agree on asking Aoi. What made you decide? Yesterday I thought you might ask Gotou-kun or Mori-kun.”

“It’s because of how they all reacted to what I told them about Kouichi. Gotou and Mori thought he was crazy, but Aoi’s opinion was that I should write a book about it.”

“Kouichi is crazy.”

“If they think he’s crazy after that , imagine how they would react once we tell them everything .”

“True… Then, let’s tell Aoi today. It’ll be hard if they have cram school the day after tomorrow too, right?”

<[Oh, you’re already making friends? That’s great, Aoi! Of course you can go, but please don’t come home too late, ok? If you need help coming home, please call me.]>

<[Of course, Mom. I’ll be careful. I’ll ask Izumi and Kouji for help to go back home.]>

<[Alright. And you can invite them over on days you don’t have cram school.]>

<[Thanks, Mom!]>

As Aoi walked towards the entrance to meet with Izumi and Kouji, they could hear a few students whispering as they passed by. Aoi wasn’t naïve; of course there would be some people who would think they had found a nice target for bullying; it wasn’t like Aoi hadn’t suffered it at some point. But at least Aoi could genuinely not understand what they were whispering about and maybe they weren’t even paying attention to the foreigner.

Even if they were, Aoi wouldn’t care. Izumi and Kouji were nice, and made the transition from homeschool back to the school system easier. And sure, they hadn’t talked as much, but Mori and Gotou also seemed nice. They seemed to be friends with Kouji, after all.

Aoi left the school building, and saw Izumi and Kouji smiling, waiting at the entrance like they promised.

Izumi’s parents were less likely to bother them than Kouji’s, so they decided to hang out at her house. Gottsumon would be a little lonely, but he would cheer up once Kouji told him what had happened.

They decided to take the long way around, which meant they could walk through the biggest park in the area. Lots of trees, a clear area in the middle, and a little bit away from the gymnasium and the athletic field the local clubs used to train. It was perfect for a picnic later on, and as they approached the tree line, they spotted a few sakura trees that still had some blossoms left.

“I always loved these. When I was a kid, a friend, uh… he wanted to see them together.”

“That’s so nice, Aoi! You’re here now, so he can come visit you, right?”

Aoi weakly shook their head.

“[No, not anymore.]”

“Huh? What do you—”

“Shh!”

There was no time for Izumi to get angry at Kouji for shushing her; she knew exactly why he had done that. They looked around, and clutched their digivices inside their backpacks.

“Izumi? Kouji?”

“ Nightmare Shock! ”

A few Evilmon flew out from the trees and towards the children, claws out and ready to scratch. As one of them threw itself in Aoi’s direction, Kouji tackled them out of the way as Izumi brought out her digivice.

“ Spirit Evolution! Fairymon! ”

While she made quick work of about half of them with Roseo Temporale , Kouji pushed Aoi behind a bush and took out his own digivice.

“ Spirit Evolution! Wolfmon! ”

The rest of the Evilmon were defeated with his Licht Kugel , and both of them devolved once they were sure no more Evilmon would come their way. After that, they checked on Aoi.

“Sorry for pushing you. Are you okay?”

Aoi nodded weakly, mouth and eyes wide open, until they blinked a few times and started gesturing wildly.

“[What was that? What were those things? What happened?]”

Kouji and Izumi looked at each other, Izumi smiled and shrugged, and they turned towards Aoi.

“Those were Digimon.”

Izumi tried to announce the arrival of a stranger a bit louder than she normally would to make sure her mom would hear her; she also made sure to request to be left alone since they were going to be busy ‘doing homework’. 

Once they reached her bedroom, she let her two friends inside before announcing she was going to get snacks and winking at Kouji, who looked at her in disbelief for a brief moment.

Not that he didn’t like Aoi, but why did he have to start this very important conversation by himself?

You’re the one who needs to work on making friends, I’m just helping you out!

That would be her answer, he was sure of it. He could practically hear it. Maybe he did.

As both of them sat down on the rug in the middle of the room, Aoi looked around the walls at all the fairytale art and flowers.

“Izumi really likes fairies, right?”

“Yeah… I guess… you could say she identifies with them.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess,” Aoi continued looking at the walls, while Kouji tried to figure out just where exactly Floramon was hiding. The only possible places were under the bed and inside the closet, but he couldn’t exactly check without Aoi noticing, and he didn’t want to scare them with another surprise Digimon.

No, there had to be a way to talk about it without dumping so much information on them all at once. 

“Uh, by the way… You like fantasy books, right? Is there a character type you like?”

Aoi’s face lit up.

“Oh! Oh! Yes! I like… [uh… how do you say it… magic users… mahou —] ah, wizards! I like wizards and knights!”

“Hmm… I guess I like knights too, now that you mention it.”

“I wish I could be one, it would be cool!”

“Really?”

“Yes! You know…” Aoi paused, thinking about the next words, pulling their legs close to their chest. “Back in America, school got dangerous. So much that Mom started teaching me at home. I didn’t like it, I was bored and missed my friends. So I started reading a lot. When I read about knights, I thought, maybe if I could be a knight, I could fight the bad guys and go back to school… But then, my friend died there, and I wanted magic to bring him back. I was so sad because I couldn’t.”

Aoi had gradually lost their smile.

“I can’t bring Sigi back, or make the bad guys pay, but helping others with problems, that would be nice, I think. Like how you protected me back there.”

The silence was shattered by the door being slammed open.

“Then I have [good news] for you, Aoi!”

“[Good news?]”

“[Yes!] You can be a warrior! With powers!”

“..What? Like you guys?”

“Izumi, what the—”

“Shush, Kouji!” She put her fingers to his lips, ignoring his bewildered expression. “I’m serious, you could help us in a fight.”

“...Like back at the park?”

“Yes, like that.” Izumi’s excitement died down, and she went looking for something under her bed. Kouji sighed.

“There’s a lot you need to know before,” he said, and Izumi brought a flower doll from under her bed.

“This is our friend Floramon. She’s a Digimon too.”

“Nice to meet you, Aoi!”

They spent the best part of the afternoon going over the story: how two years ago they received a mysterious message telling them to go to the underground platform in Shibuya Station, they boarded a train, and it brought them to a different dimension called the Digital World.

They showed Aoi their digivices, and talked about how they found the Spirits.

How they fought against Cherubimon, and the Royal Knights, and Lucemon.

How Kouichi saved them.

Oh, yeah, Kouichi and Kouji met in the Digital World. While stalking Kouji, Kouichi fell and his spirit found its way to the Digital World.

And now, they were needed again, but their power wasn't enough against their new enemy. They came back so they could look for new Warriors.

Aoi looked halfway between excited and dumbfounded. 

“And… you want me to join? Though we just met?”

Izumi nodded.

“We know it’s a big request, so it’s fine if you say no, but it’s hard to find someone who would believe us, you know?”

“Oh, yeah. If it wasn’t because of the Evilmon…”

Kouji crossed his arms.

“And you didn’t call my brother crazy, so I like you.”

“So it really was that important to you…”

“Of course. I know they didn’t mean to offend him, but I don’t want to risk them calling Kouichi crazy to his face.”

Izumi decided to say nothing else, but her smile betrayed her intentions; Kouji wasn’t amused.

“I want to meet Kouichi. He sounds like Sigi.”

“He’s great, but he also gives us heart attacks from all the stuff he does, so be careful.”

Aoi just smiled.

“Sigi was the same! I’m in! I want to help!”

“Really?! [Thank you, Aoi!]”

“Well, you told me about the time travel stuff, so it’s fine. My parents won’t worry.”

Kouji hesitated for a moment, but spoke up. 

“You said you started homeschool because of violence. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Aoi’s smile fell a little, but it didn’t leave their face.

“Like I said before, I really wanted power to defeat the bad guys, or magic to bring Sigi back. I can’t do that, but if I can help others, then I’ll be happy. I’m sure Sigi would do it.”

As the sun started setting, Kouji and Aoi decided to leave. Aoi’s mother texted the address so they could find the house, though as it turned out, it really wasn’t too far away from their own.

“You’ll go to the reunion this weekend, right?”

“Of course! I want to meet everyone! I really want to meet Kouichi.”

Kouji was smiling, but it disappeared.

“You said your friend died at school, didn’t you?”

Aoi nodded.

“A person with a lot of guns went into the school. He used to be a student. Then he started shooting everyone. Sigi… he died because he protected someone else from the bullets.”

All Kouji could picture was Löwemon intercepting Dead or Alive .

“We didn’t say it earlier, but when my brother almost died at the end, that’s what he did. He protected us from Lucemon’s attack.”

“...He really sounds like Sigi, then.”

A silence started growing between them. It didn’t feel completely awkward, but Kouji felt compelled to say something. He had decided to do his best to connect with people, and Izumi had helped him approach them, and now that Aoi knew of their secret and he didn’t have to worry about minding his words, it should be easy to talk, right?

But what could he talk about?

“...You know, your Japanese is great.”

Smooth.

“Well… I was nervous. It has been a while since I went to school. Even when I came to Japan, I was with my family or the tutor at the cram school, so everyone has been patient. I still have a hard time reading and writing, though.”

“I see. I moved a lot when I was little, so I can understand. Every time I had to go to a new school, it was very hard to make friends. I ended up giving up, even when my parents married and we stopped moving.”

“You said you met Izumi and the others in the Digital World, but you seem to be good friends with Mori and Gotou.”

“We’re not. We’ve been classmates since third grade, but I just started talking to them, thanks to Izumi. They’re nice guys, so that’s why we seem like good friends. But as you saw today, they didn’t even know I had a brother.”

“Well, you’re also nice, so it’s easy to get along with you.”

Kouji stopped.

“Really?”

Aoi nodded. “Really!”

Kouji made it back home in time for dinner. Aoi’s mom and grandmother had insisted that he stayed for dinner as thanks for walking Aoi back home, but he had Gottsumon alone in his room, and he knew his mom had cooked his favorite food since it was the first day of school. 

He ended up promising to visit later, along with Izumi. He texted her informing her of the arrangement after he was in his room.

<So, did you and Aoi talk during the walk? Or was there awkward silence?>

<No, we talked a bit. Aoi said I’m nice and easy to get along with.>

<Awww, Kouichi will be so happy when he hears that!>

<Do not tell Kouichi about that!>

<Why not? He’ll be happy!>

<I know, but he’ll tease me about it, like you’re doing right now.>

<So? Let him! That’s his right as your older brother.>

<Ugh, why couldn’t it be less obvious who’s older…>

<Ask your parents!>

Kouji sighed. He didn’t have to ask; the topic came up after he woke up in the hospital, two years ago.

<They said they took the ‘teru’ from Dad’s name and just read it in a different way. When we ended up being twins they just added the numbers.>

<Oh… So, if you had a sister, would they have gotten her name from Kouichi’s mom’s name?>

<Huh… maybe, I guess. I’m not gonna ask.>

<What if your parents have a baby?>

What was Izumi even talking about? 

<…You’ve thought about possibly having a new sibling, right?>

<No? They never said they wanted to have a baby?>

<Well, it took you three years to accept your Mom, so a baby…>

Well, that was true, but…

<There’s enough to worry about to think about my parents having a baby now.>

<Yeah, they might be thinking about Kouichi too.>

<You’re talking as if they had already decided to have a baby. They might not want one.>

<You’re right… Wouldn’t it be cute, though?! Imagine having a baby sibling!>

<Stop>

<Fine, fine. Anyway, since you got along so well with Aoi, you should try hanging out with Mori-kun and Gotou-kun.>

<I mean, yes, but maybe when we come back. It’s already mid-week and I want to focus.>

Right as he sent that text, his phone pinged. It was a text from Takuya.

<Kouichi and I got someone! He got the Earth digivice!>

The text triggered Junpei and Tomoki to send their own texts as well.

<So did I! I don’t wanna get ahead of myself, but I’m sure she’ll get the Water spirits!>

<Me too! I don’t know which spirits she might get though!>

He received Izumi’s text as she sent it to the others.

<Yeah, Kouji and I got someone too! Can’t wait until everyone meets!>

Kouji sighed and plopped down on his bed.

“What’s the matter? You were happy because you already got a new warrior!”

“Yeah, it’s nothing. I’m just tired.”

“Uh-huh. Let’s sleep then, you have to gather your strength back before the fight.”

Gottsumon rolled under the bed after saying good night. He had rejected the futon when Kouji offered it; of course, Gottsumon was made out of rock, so it wasn’t that weird, but Kouji didn’t think he would go to sleep under his bed .

Then again, he lived in a cave in the Digital World.

He turned off the light and closed his eyes. Really, what was Izumi thinking, bringing up baby siblings all of a sudden? She had mentioned wanting a younger sibling back when they first went to the Digital World, so maybe she was still holding onto that idea? He didn’t know about Izumi’s mom, but Kouji’s mom was young enough to potentially have babies of her own if she wanted to. 

And yet, in the five years since they had married, his parents never mentioned the idea, let alone the possibility, of having more kids, not even after he had whole-heartedly accepted his mom.

Thinking about his parents’ issues was giving him a headache, and that was without getting into the possibility that maybe they were also taking Kouichi’s feelings into account now. But his brother had made his feelings on that kind of matters clear two years ago…

Chapter Text

“Kouichi! Tell me what’s going on already!”

“No! It’s a surprise, I told you! Just wait, I swear you’ll love it.”

A couple of weeks prior to Mother’s Day, Kouichi had outright demanded that she take the day off from work. She usually didn’t do so, but she hadn’t taken a day off since her mother’s death a few months ago, and that was her bereavement leave, so, at the end, she decided to oblige.

And maybe, she thought, Kouichi was still shaken from his accident. She was still shaken about it, after all. It hadn’t even been a month since then, and the doctors had made sure to explain that they had just decided to give up on resuscitating him when he miraculously regained consciousness.

(They still had to take him into surgery and keep him at the hospital for a week, though.)

So now she found herself at Kamezuka Park, with her son pulling her arm and guiding her to a corner isolated from the other families who were also celebrating Mother’s Day at the park.

“Okay, now close your eyes, please,” Megumi raised an eyebrow, wondering just where Kouichi was going to get her gift from. “Please! Just do it!”

“Fine, fine.”

She couldn’t help but smile. Kouichi wasn’t usually so… insistent, except when he tried to get her to take a day off, so she just humored him. She could hear the bushes beside them rustling and some steps.

“Okay Mom, don’t open your eyes yet.”

Her son took her hands in his, and then, he told her to open them.

That was not Kouichi holding her hands. It was a boy who looked like Kouichi, but that long hair wasn’t his. The look in this boy’s eyes was different.

“Kou—Kouji?”

“Mom—”

She hugged him, tightly against her chest.

“How? What are you doing here— Kouichi!”

She didn’t let go of Kouji, who was clinging to her and crying into her chest, as she turned her head to look at her smug-looking older son.

“Surprise~!”

“Come here, you little troublemaker!”

Kouichi joined the hug, and though he tried to hide it, both his mother and his brother noticed his shaking shoulders.

Once the shock of the reunion had faded a little, they sat on a bench in their little hide-away spot.

“Okay, first of all, Kouichi, I need to know how you found your brother.”

“Eh—,” Kouichi looked away. “That’s not important, what’s important is that you should get to know each other—”

“He went all the way to Yokohama to stalk me for a month.”

“Kouichi!”

“Kouji! I told you not to tell her!”

“Knowing you, you were never gonna tell her yourself.”

“I would have found out at some point, Kouichi isn’t very good at lying,” Megumi smiled at Kouichi. “I knew you were hiding something, but I never thought you had found Kouji. When did you two have time to meet, anyway?”

“Ugh, well…” he paused for a moment, but one look at his mom’s face told him it wouldn’t matter if he lied. Another look at his brother told him that if Kouichi didn’t do it, then he would. “It was last month, when I ended up in the hospital.”

Megumi looked at him in silence.

“So that’s what you were doing in Shibuya?”

Kouichi nodded.

“I was running to go meet Kouji, that’s why I fell down the stairs.”

“When he didn’t show up, my friends and I got worried and went looking for him, we found the police officers and they told us what happened, so we went to the hospital.”

“And then Kouji barged into the operating room without asking for anyone’s permission and yelled at me until I resuscitated.”

“Kouji!”

“Kouichi! Why would you say it like that ?”

“Payback.”

Megumi couldn’t help but laugh, especially when they started sticking their tongues out at each other, causing them to stop and look at her, puzzled.

“I’m sorry— It’s just— It’s like you were never apart in the first place.”

She continued laughing, but the twins looked at each other; they knew that wasn’t true, and that it had taken them a long time spent in the Digital World to be able to behave somewhat normally around each other.

Being this comfortable only happened while they were setting up the surprise.

Megumi only calmed down when Kouji started coughing.

“Are you okay? You’re not feeling sick, are you?”

“No, don’t worry, I’m fine,” he said, but he caught Kouichi’s eyes, and his brother did not believe him.

“I’m fine, nii-san , it’s just a bit of a cough.”

“Well, it’s just like you said, I’m the older brother, of course I’m gonna worry.”

“Speaking of worry,” Megumi interrupted. “Kouji, does Hisa— I mean, does your dad know you’re here?”

“Uhm, well, no, I didn’t tell my parents. I told them I was meeting with a friend, and I told them we were meeting here at the park, but they don’t know I’ve met Kouichi, or that I know you’re alive.”

“Wait, what do you mean, that you know I’m alive?”

“Uh, sorry, I—”

Kouichi moved from his mother’s side to sit by his brother.

“It’s okay,” He put an arm around his brother; he had been worried about how she would take it when she found out the truth. “His dad not only didn’t tell him about me; he also told him you had died.”

Megumi contemplated her children in silence for a moment, after which she sighed.

“I guess I have no right to complain, since we hid your existence from each other.”

Kouji coughed again. Kouichi held him a bit tighter.

“You’re not angry?”

“I guess it’d be useless to lie about this now, right?” She sighed again, looking away from her children. “I’m angry, but also, that has nothing to do with you two. Right now I’m very happy that you were able to find each other, despite everything— despite us.”

As she turned back to look at her children, Kouji started having trouble breathing. Kouichi grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Kouji, what’s wrong?”

“Wait, Kouichi, let me.”

Megumi knelt in front of her younger son, who now had a pained expression on his face, and placed her hand on his chest.

Then, Kouji collapsed.

The following minutes were a blur. Before Kouichi realized what was going on, his mother had Kouji laying on the ground while she did compressions on his chest —CPR, he remembered—, and then spoke to him firmly, like she rarely did.

“Kouichi, I need you to call for help, now .”

He nodded, but it took him a moment of gathering himself before he remembered that Kouji had a cell phone, and as he reached for it, he realized his hands were trembling way too much to reliably dial 119.

“Kouichi—”

He stood up.

“There—There’s a police box on the other side of the park—”

He ran off. ‘They’ll get an ambulance faster’ was left unsaid.

Sure, Kamezuka Park was big, but Kouichi was fast. He hadn’t spent his childhood wandering his neighborhood (and others), playing soccer with Chikara and occasionally outrunning bullies without building some sort of physical condition.

Not that he should have been running yet , but he didn’t have time to think about that when his brother was on the floor, unconscious, being resuscitated—

Just like you , his mind told him.

And I almost died.

I did die.

And if it wasn’t for Kouji—

He ran faster.

Fortunately, he found an officer halfway to the police box, and somehow managed to inform him of what was going on. As he expected, the officer used his radio to immediately call for an ambulance and had the presence of mind to actually tell them where in the park they were. In the meantime, he was rushing back with Kouichi to the place hidden by bushes, where Megumi was still doing her best.

The trip on the ambulance was another blur; he mumbled a ‘thanks’ to the officer before getting on, and after that, he could only focus enough to hear some stuff like ‘heart’ and ‘congenital’ and ‘surgery’, but other than that, his full attention was on Kouji’s pale, pale face.

Did he also look like that, just a month before? 

He tried, but the hospital staff very obviously did not allow him to follow Kouji to the operating room, and he wondered how Kouji and their friends managed to do just that for him. Maybe they overpowered the staff with numbers alone.

He allowed his mother to lead him to a chair in the waiting room while his mind was occupied with such pointless thoughts, and it was only as he sat down that he realized he was still holding onto Kouji’s cell phone.

The cell phone that received Ophanimon’s message. That became a digivice, which Löwemon then used to push Kouji to find him immediately. The cell phone he had been calling for a month from a payphone near his house just to make sure his mother or a neighbor wouldn’t hear him planning this day with his brother.

He gripped the cell phone tightly, and looked at his mother.

She was paler than normal (but not as pale as Kouji), and she seemed to be praying with her hands clasped together, close to her face, and her eyes closed. Kouichi took the chance to stand up.

“Kouichi?”

He sighed. Of course she’d notice.

“I thought… I should call Kouji’s parents.”

“Parents? Oh, right, Kouji did mention them too…”

Of course, they hadn’t gotten to talk about that yet, and with them deciding to cut any contact, of course she wouldn’t know he had remarried.

“Kouji says his mom is very nice. From what he’s told me, I think you would get along with her. I bet Kouji would like that.”

Megumi gave him the most sincere, bittersweet smile that he had ever seen on her face, so much that he had to look away.

“I’ll go call her. His dad must be working.”

“Wait, Kouichi, let me. I’m the adult here, after all. And also… maybe I’m not Kouji’s mom , but I still gave birth to him.”

“No, let me. You’ll probably have to talk to her once she gets here, right?”

Megumi gave up. He was right, but also, knowing Kouichi, he wouldn’t hand over the phone. If he had decided he had to make the call, he would first climb a tree before giving it to her (Like the time he did climb a tree because he just had to do his homework by himself and insisted she had to rest. He was very satisfied with his 85.). He was a good kid, so it was best to choose which hills to die on and let him come to terms with things first. Usually . She certainly didn’t expect him to find his brother, stalk him, and get himself in the hospital before waiting a month to tell her about it.

Kouichi walked out of the hospital, opened the phone, looked for the contacts, and found Mom . Did he secretly always have it saved with that name? Or did he just recently change it? He hesitated before calling; what was he going to say? ‘Hello, I’m your son’s twin brother, I had him meet our birth mom and he’s now in the hospital having emergency surgery’ ?

Oh, wait. Kouji said he was meeting a friend. He could deal with the truth once she was at the hospital.

“Kouji? How are you? Did something happen?”

“Sorry, I’m Kimura, Kouji’s friend.”

“...Is everything alright?”

“No, I’m sorry—” his voice broke for a moment. “We’re at the Furukawabashi Hospital— he collapsed while we were hanging out and the doctors said something about his heart and surgery—” He couldn’t help but break down. “I’m so sorry—”

The silence from the other end of the line made him anxious; she had all the right to be mad at him.

“Thank you for calling me… Kimura-kun, was it? I’ll be heading there right now.”

“I’ll be waiting at the entrance. I’ll tell the doctors you’re coming, Minamoto-san.”

“Thank you for being there for Kouji, Kimura-kun. I’ll see you soon.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He ended the call before she could say anything more. When she said his name, it occurred to him—did she know about everything? Did Kouji’s father tell her he was divorced and that Kouji had a twin brother? Or did he lie to her too? Kouji certainly didn’t know, and he was nervous about finding out the one time the topic had been brought up while organizing the day.

He was more agitated when he walked back in the waiting room than when he left, and Megumi noticed.

“Is everything alright? What did she say?”

“She’s coming now… but, Mom… I don’t know if she knows. I don’t know if she knows that you’re alive or that I exist .”

The empty, desperate look on her son’s face broke Megumi. Much more than when Kouichi, as a baby, and freshly separated from his twin, had cried for days straight. It wasn’t hunger, or cold, or his diaper. It was a uniquely painful cry that didn’t subside until he tired himself out.

“I’m so sorry…”

Megumi held her son tightly against herself, and while he let himself be held, he didn’t really react. She knew he had to have some kind of resentment against her for not telling him about Kouji as well. She was surprised his first reaction was to organize a meet up between Kouji and her, instead of calling her out after finding out the truth, which—how did he? The only other person around him that knew was her own mother, and it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if she told Kouichi, as she had been vehemently against splitting the boys up. But Megumi was in so much pain and grief back then, and Hisateru was as well, and they could only agree that neither wanted to lose all their kids at once but also couldn’t bear to look at each other again.

She continued holding onto him until she felt a tug on her arm.

“Mom, we should tell someone that Minamoto-san is coming.”

“Right.”

They remained together for a while, with Kouichi silently tagging along when she went to speak to one of the receptionists. They went back to the waiting room, and Kouichi remained eerily silent. Megumi thought he’d be more restless considering his brother was undergoing surgery (and shouldn’t she be restless as well? It was the son she hadn’t seen since he was a little baby—).

Suddenly, Kouichi stood up. 

“Minamoto-san should be arriving soon. I told her I’d be waiting outside, so… we’ll see if she knows.”

Megumi couldn’t say anything to that, and just nodded. She watched her son’s straight frame hunching over the closer he got to the hospital gates.

How foolish they had been.

Kouichi sat down on a bench just outside the hospital, and couldn’t help but keep his head down. It was nerve-wracking; he figured Kouji hadn’t been told about his existence, and found out he was told their mother died when he forcibly looked into his memories as Duskmon (—his screams—), so he already had had time to deal with that information. But he never thought he would have to meet with Kouji’s mom so soon… if ever. 

“Are you perhaps… Kimura-kun?”

He froze. She was there and when he raises his head to look at her she’ll probably realize what’s happening and—

He sighed and covered his face with his hands.

“Yeah, I am. I’m so sorry…”

“Please stop that, Kimura-kun, it’s not your—”

Kouichi looked up at her, and suddenly, Riko felt like she knew why the boy had been apologizing so much.

“Kou—Kou… ichi…kun?”

She looked like she was seeing a ghost, and Kouichi nodded. Now that she was the shocked one between the two, he had the strength to move forward.

“I’ll take you to the nurse we’ve been talking to… We can figure the rest out later.”

Riko nodded, and walked behind Kouichi. After a moment, she caught up to him.

“You said ‘the nurse we’ve been talking to’... Did you mean your mom, Kouichi-kun?”

Kouichi didn’t look at her, but nodded.

“I’m sorry, I asked Kouji to come meet her for Mother’s Day.”

She didn’t have the chance to reply as they arrived at the counter where the nurse was busy with Megumi, trying to fill as much of Kouji’s information as possible.

“Kouji’s mom is here.”

Both Megumi and the nurse turned to look at them; the nurse looked relieved and immediately hoarded Riko’s attention, but Megumi looked at her with an expression Kouichi couldn’t decipher. Was she sad? Relieved? Curious? Kouichi didn’t know, and he could feel a knot forming in his stomach with each second that passed. His mom found out, Kouji’s mom found out, and it was a guarantee that Kouji’s dad would also find out at some point during the day, if he hadn’t already.

Riko found them waiting for her as she made her way to the waiting room. 

“Minamoto-san,  it’s… nice… to meet the woman who has been taking care of Kouji.”

She stayed in silence for a moment as she regarded Megumi.

“Same here… It’s nice to meet the woman who gave birth to such a good kid.” She turned to look at Kouichi. “And it’s nice to meet Kouji’s brother, as well.”

With tentative smiles, they all sat together in the waiting room, trying not to let the somber reality that Kouji was in surgery hit them.

“It’s a bit weird seeing Kouichi-kun, to be honest. It’s like seeing Kouji with short hair, and he’s had it long ever since I met him for the first time.”

“It was a shock for me too, when I saw him earlier. I had my eyes closed and when Kouichi told me to open them, Kouji was standing in front of me.”

“He looks a lot like you, uhm… Kimura-san.”

“Why don’t you call me ‘Megumi’? After all, we’re both Kouji’s moms, aren’t we?”

“Alright, Megumi-san. But only if you call me ‘Riko’ as well.”

“Alright, Riko-san.”

This was perfect. Kouichi was sure Kouji would love to see both of them getting along; he had expressed some fear about their mom not liking that he decided to call his step-mom ‘mom’. 

“Honestly, now that I’m looking closely at Kouichi-kun, it gives me the impression that he looks like Hisateru-san, despite being identical to Kouji.”

Megumi looked at Kouichi, who was quietly sitting by her side, and brushed his bangs aside.

“Hisateru actually had his hair like Kouichi when he was younger, back when we met. He cut his hair when he graduated from college.”

Kouichi shook his head, getting his hair back in place, earning a chuckle from Riko. Megumi, however, placed a hand on his head.

“Kouichi, you shouldn’t be moving your head like that yet .”

Riko was about to question the reason when she was interrupted by her phone’s message notification.

“Oh, speaking of the devil—,” Riko paused after reading the message. “...Should I tell Hisateru-san that you’re here?”

She spoke cautiously, as if she wasn’t sure how good it’d be for them to meet again. Did Hisateru not tell her how the marriage had ended? Of course, she was shocked at Kouichi’s presence but she seemed to have an idea of who he was, so who knew what Kouji’s father had told her about the divorce.

Kouichi himself had no idea.

“...Tell him. It’ll be harder if he just sees me out of nowhere.”

Riko nodded, and took her time typing the message. Just saying ‘By the way, your ex-wife and older son are here’ was probably not the right approach considering all the issues between all of them. While she was busy choosing the right words, Megumi turned to look at Kouichi.

“You seem awfully calm considering Kouji’s in surgery.”

Kouichi looked toward the operating room doors and brought his knees up to his chest.

“Because I know he’s doing well. I’d know if he wasn’t.”

“You would?”

Kouichi nodded.

“He could tell when I fell down the stairs back then… That’s how he knew to go look for me.”

“And that’s why you worried about him even when he told you he was fine.”

Kouichi nodded again.“He should listen to his older brother.”

Megumi laughed.

“You’re only older by two minutes!”

“That’s still two more minutes in the Human World than him.”

Kouichi closed his mouth tight as soon as he realized what he was saying, but his mother laughed again. Meanwhile Riko, who had received another message from her husband, sighed.

“He said he’ll be coming soon. It’s kind of a busy time at work for him, so he’ll try to get away as soon as possible, but he’s relieved Kouji wasn’t alone.”

“Did he really say that?”

Riko smiled at Megumi’s incredulity, and showed her the message. Megumi just pressed her lips together.

As time passed, Kouichi became more and more restless. Megumi and Riko seemed to have kept themselves distracted by chatting lightly and getting to know each other, but Kouichi’s confidence on his brother’s wellbeing was quickly being eroded by the anxiety of Kouji’s father's imminent arrival.

This wasn’t how he wanted the day to go. He just wanted Kouji and his mom to meet after ten years as a Mother’s Day gift to her, and if it went well then maybe Kouji could come visit him at home, or at the very least Kouichi could stop lying to his mom about where he was going.

Instead, he was sitting on a chair in the hospital’s waiting room, with his mom and Kouji’s mom, while Kouji was in the middle of heart surgery and his father was about to arrive.

Kouji’s mom was very kind and understanding, but how would his dad react? Would he blame him for what happened to Kouji? Not that he would be wrong, because Kouichi was blaming himself plenty already, but it would hurt. He hadn’t been expecting to see him, and he wasn’t really thinking about ever having a relationship with him, but it would still hurt if the first words he received from the man were blaming him for his brother’s situation.

“Oh, Hisateru-san says he’s about to arrive,” Riko announced, looking at her phone. “I think I’ll go greet him at the entrance, and explain the situation… before he just comes in here.”

Kouichi hid his face behind his knees and grabbed a fistful of his hair. 

“Kouichi, what’s wrong?” When he didn’t reply, she placed a hand on his head. “Is it… are you nervous about seeing your— Kouji’s— Hisateru?”

Kouichi nodded, still hiding his face.

“Don’t worry, it should be fine. None of this is your fault.”

He heard the smile in her voice, but it did nothing to calm his nerves. The footsteps that approached a few minutes later didn’t help either.

“Hisateru.”

“Megumi.”

The voice that called his mother’s name was strangely familiar, and Kouichi remembered having heard it before, while he was following Kouji around. This time it was tense, like how it sounded the time he looked into Kouji’s memories.

“...Kou—Kouichi?”

Kouichi curled a bit tighter into himself, not daring to see his face. He wished he could have a bit of the courage he had as Löwemon, or even a tiny, minuscule, little piece of the absolute confidence he felt as Duskmon.

But some place in his mind reminded him that he faced Cherubimon as himself, with no Spirits to back him up, and he was willing—he really was—to die confronting him. This man couldn’t be worse than that; he certainly wasn’t going to kill him.

So he put his feet down on the floor and looked up, trying to summon the courage he felt in that moment.

Instead of a menacing Cherubimon staring down at him, he found a confused man with wandering eyes, looking him up and down and occasionally looking away towards his wife and then towards his ex-wife.

“He’s not going to bite, Hisateru.”

Kouichi questioned his mother’s answer, because he had most certainly bitten someone before (in a fight, when he was six, of course), but that seemed to snap the man out of his nervousness.

“Right. I’m glad to see you’re doing fine, Kouichi.”

“Kouji’s in surgery. I wouldn’t say I’m doing fine,” he looked around at the adults. He was going to take the chance to change the topic before his confidence left again so he could get some answers. “I heard everyone talking on the ambulance ride; what’s going on with Kouji? Why did he need surgery?”

His mom sat down by his side, while Kouji’s parents sat on the other.

“Kouji was born with a heart defect,” his mom said as she put an arm around his shoulders. “It was minor and the doctors weren’t concerned about it at the moment. They just suggested to take care of his diet and make sure he does moderate exercise,” She looked up to Kouji’s parents.

“Even before marrying Riko, I made sure Kouji had a good diet. I’d cook for him myself to make sure he didn’t eat anything that might affect his health,” Kouji’s dad explained, while Riko held his hand. “And when he was old enough, I encouraged him to take up a sport.”

“He told me he does bojutsu,” Kouichi didn’t bother to look at him anymore.

“Yeah. I thought he’d choose something like soccer or basketball, but I think martial arts fit him.”

“They’re not as strenuous as other sports, either,” Riko added, smiling a little. “And it taught him to be disciplined, so he always took care of himself. So it’s kinda strange…”

“Right,” Hisateru continued. “It’s really weird that he’d get to the point of needing surgery.”

“Kouichi,” Megumi looked down at him. “How many times did you two meet before today? What did you do during those times?”

Kouichi just shook his head weakly.

“We met in person only a couple of times, and we did nothing special. We just talked. When we happened to eat, I’d always get a rice ball or something like that and tea, and Kouji would always get fruit and water. He said he’d rather eat fruits than sweets.”

All of them fell silent, and Kouichi brought his legs up to his chest again. 

Some time later, a nurse came by to tell them the surgery was over, and Kouji was being moved to a room. Kouichi allowed himself to relax a little, but it was short-lived. Just as they decided to allow them to see Kouji and were making their way to the room, Megumi spoke up.

“Before we go to see Kouji, there’s something I want to discuss.”

They all stopped walking and Riko and Hisateru looked at her, but Kouichi continued looking straight at the door of Kouji’s room.

“Now that the boys know each other, it’s impossible to keep them apart,” she sighed. “My mother was right. It was cruel to keep them apart to begin with.”

“You’re right, we can’t separate them again,” Hisateru crossed his arms. “Do you have any suggestions?

Megumi sighed, exasperated.

“There you go again, pushing the mental burden on me.”

“I’m asking because you knew they met before I did! I thought you might have already thought of something!”

“I already told you I just found out this morning! I barely know anything because Kouji collapsed! Didn’t you promise to keep him healthy?!”

“And I did! Nothing has gone wrong until today!”

“Are you suggesting this is my fault? I barely spent enough time with him to learn you told him I was dead!”

“He wasn’t supposed to meet you again! I did it to protect him from people’s talk!”

“So it’s my fault that Kouichi got bullied for not lying to him even more ?!”

The yelling became too much, even with Kouji’s mom trying—and unfortunately, failing— to mediate, so Kouichi just ran the rest of the way to Kouji’s room before they were kicked out of the hospital. Fortunately it didn’t go unnoticed by his mother.

“Wait, Kouichi!”

He was followed by all the adults, but he made it into the room before them and locked the door. His mother knocked on it.

“Kouichi, what are you doing? Open the door.”

“No,” he said firmly, hoping to be taken seriously. “I’m not letting anyone in until you stop fighting.”

“Be reasonable, Kouichi:” Hisateru said, gripping the door knob. “You can’t—”

“I can and I will . I won’t let any of you see Kouji until you can talk to each other normally.”

I won’t let Kouji see you like that.

Hisateru tried opening the door, but it really was locked. Kouichi had also sat on the floor with his back against it, for good measure. Just as he was starting to consider knocking down the door, consequences be damned, Megumi put a hand on his shoulder.

“Give up already, he’s not moving.”

Hisateru shrugged his shoulders and she let her hand slip away.

“Are you just going to let him do whatever he wants?”

“He’s not doing this for fun! Didn’t you listen? He wants us— no, he needs us to be able to communicate. Knowing him, he doesn’t want Kouji to wake up to us fighting about them. And if you do manage to get in there without listening to him, he’s never going to forgive you.”

That seemed to take him aback, and he let his shoulders slump. The boy already didn’t seem to particularly care about him, so if he got on his bad side… yeah, he would probably have to say good-bye to his chances of ever getting to know his other son.

“Fine…” Hisateru took another look at the door, and approached enough that Kouichi would hear him. “You win, Kouichi. We’ll go and figure things out like adults . Please, look after your brother, okay?”

“...Obviously.”

Once he heard them walk away, Kouichi ventured a peek out of the door. Riko was still in the hallway, talking with a nurse, but neither his mom nor Kouji’s dad were there. Sighing, he closed the door, but left it unlocked. He sat down on the right side of Kouji’s bed and looked down at him. He seemed… fine. He was breathing, and the monitors indicated that his heart was fine. But his hair was messy and untied, and he looked so terribly pale… did he look like that back then? Was Kouji as scared as he felt back in the ambulance? 

He grabbed his brother’s hand, softly so that he wouldn’t wake up, and prayed that their parents would manage to get along, at least just enough that they would be able to keep meeting. 

They wouldn’t be so cruel as to continue keeping them apart, right? Even if they couldn’t stand each other?

As they walked away from Kouji’s room, Hisateru turned towards Megumi.

“Is he always like that, though?”

Megumi sighed.

“Just this year, Kouichi somehow found out about Kouji’s existence, tracked you down all the way to Yokohama, stalked his brother for about a month before finally talking to him, then almost died after falling down the stairs at Shibuya Station when he was running late to meet Kouji, and then both of them planned for a month to surprise me today. All the while Kouichi has been mourning his grandmother’s death and healing from his fall. You have no idea what that boy is like.”

She said the last line with a smile, but Hisateru failed to see the amusement.

“Wait, Manae-san died?”

“Oh, yes… She died back in February,” she sighed. “Kouichi hasn’t told me, but I figure that she told him about Kouji.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“And he must have gotten information somewhere about where to find you,” she turned to look straight at him. “You wrote to my mother, didn’t you?”

“Only a few times, and I stopped once I started dating Riko… She asked that I at least keep her informed about Kouji’s wellbeing, if she couldn’t see him grow herself. I had already moved to Yokohama by then.”

Megumi sighed once again.

“After she died… Kouichi insisted that he would help pack up her things. I missed work to arrange her cremation, so I didn’t have much time to do it myself. She probably kept some of your letters, and that’s where Kouichi found your address.”

“Well, she was always a sentimental woman.”

Kouji started stirring, which brought Kouichi out of his own thoughts. He panicked a little, and opened the door to find the same nurse that had been talking to Riko standing right outside of the room.

“Oh, Kimura-kun! You finally opened the door!”

“...It was unlocked. I only locked it until they left. But anyway, Kouji is waking up.”

“Ah— okay! Let me check on your brother then.”

There wasn’t much to check—the monitors would have alerted the nurse if something was wrong, and she already had the key in case that happened. Honestly, they would have opened it right away if it wasn’t because Riko had talked to the head nurse on his behalf.

“Minamoto-kun, can you hear me?”

“Hmm…”

“How are you feeling?

“Hmm… thirsty… my mouth’s… dry…”

“Oh, that’s normal, don’t worry. I still can’t give you fluids though,” Kouji grimaced and tried to clear his throat. The nurse smiled sympathetically. “I’ll bring you something to keep your mouth moisturized, okay? I won’t be long.”

She left after nodding at Kouichi, who immediately rushed to his brother’s side and held his hand.

“Kouji…”

“Nii-san…?”

Kouichi held his hand tighter. He hadn’t sincerely called him ‘nii-san’ since he was in the hospital himself.

“You’ll be fine, Kouji. The doctor said so.”

“Wh… happen…?”

Kouichi hesitated until Kouji weakly squeezed his hand.

“We were at the park with mom… we were telling her how we met and you just… collapsed. So we brought you to the hospital.”

“Bu—” Kouji tried to clear his throat again. “Wh—”

“I’ll tell you everything, but don’t talk anymore,” Kouichi sighed, but Kouji nodded. “First of all, your parents found out about us too, I had to call them when we arrived at the hospital.” Kouji opened his mouth, but Kouichi glared. “We’ll deal with that after you’re okay.”

“Whe…”

Kouichi rolled his eyes.

“I locked them out of the room because my mom and your dad started arguing. I’m not letting them see you until they can talk like adults.”

Kouichi frowned and crossed his arms. Kouji was about to speak again when the nurse came back and handed him a wet ball of gauze.

“You still can’t drink anything, but you can use this to feel more comfortable. Still, don’t make him talk too much, alright, Kimura-kun?”

Kouichi nodded, and as soon as she left, Kouji started talking again, his dry mouth relieved by the wet gauze.

“You said… the room was locked.”

“Only until our parents left. Of course I wasn’t going to keep it locked! What if something happened?”

“Anyway… taking hostages… isn’t your style.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re the type to go for the kill,” Kouji said, weakly imitating a sword slash with his right hand. Kouichi did not find it amusing.

“Don’t joke about that when you’re recovering from emergency heart surgery.” 

“Sorry, sorry… Wait, what the hell? … Heart surgery?”

Kouichi sighed.

“I was told earlier that you were born with a heart defect. At the time the doctors weren’t worried, and you should have been fine as long as you had a healthy diet and some exercise, so this came as a shock to everyone.”

Kouji stared at the ceiling in silence for a long moment.

“That… explains a lot, actually. Other kids always thought it was weird that dad would always cook for me, no exceptions. Well, none of them were raised by a single dad, so they all thought the whole thing was weird to begin with.”

“...Did you ever get bullied for that?”

Kouji shrugged and frowned.

“Even if they tried, it usually stopped when I told them my mom was ‘dead’. Suddenly, some of their moms would offer to help.”

“...Maybe your dad was right about doing that.”

Kouji was about to yell at him (or at least try ) when he saw the expression on his brother’s face.

“Did you… get bullied for having a single mom?”

Kouichi shrugged.

“Kids can be cruel. If it hadn’t been that, they would have found some other reason, or some other victim,” he then put his hand on Kouji’s shoulder before he could even move. “Don’t even think about getting up.”

“But—!”

“Let me remind you that you just got out of surgery. You can’t go around fighting assholes yet.”

Kouji sighed.

“Fight… I think maybe that’s it.”

“What do you mean?”

Kouji looked up to the ceiling again.

“You can ask Takuya, but… after the first few times I evolved, I had a very hard time breathing, and my chest hurt a lot. I didn’t know why, and none of the others had the same issue. It happened a few more times before I permanently joined in with them, and with time, our battles got so hard that I couldn’t tell if it was the same type of pain or if I was just injured from the battle.”

“...I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“I probably made it worse. If I hadn’t insisted on fighting you—”

“Nii-san—”

“Even if I didn’t kill you back then—”

“Nii-san, listen,” Kouji awkwardly placed his hand over Kouichi’s mouth, still too weak to properly stop his brother. “You didn’t kill me. And I wanted to fight you too back then. I chased after you too, remember? And in the end, I took your Spirits, so we’re even.”

Kouichi took Kouji’s hand off his face.

“That makes no sense at all; you’re still under the effects of the anesthesia, aren’t you?”

Megumi looked at her ex and his wife sitting in front of her.

“They can call each other as much as they want.”

Hisateru nodded. “And they can see each other on their birthday and as much as possible on vacations, including sleepovers.”

“We’ll take Kouichi-kun if we travel somewhere,” Riko added, looking the most excited out of the three.

“And… are you sure you’re okay with me having Kouji for both Obon and New Year’s?”

“Yes. You know my family, so I don’t usually take him to visit them, and we haven’t gone to see them for Obon since I married Riko anyway.”

Megumi turned to look at her.

“And what about your family? Don’t you see them either?”

“Yes, but my parents and grandparents are still alive, so we don’t really do Obon with them either. We see them at other times of the year.”

“Oh, I see…”

“Well, since we’re all in agreement, shall we go and see Kouji and Kouichi-kun? We need to ask their opinion as well, don’t we?”

Hisateru cleared his throat.

“Why don’t you go ahead and tell Kouichi we managed to reach an agreement? I wouldn’t want to show up if he’s still upset.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll tell him,” she said with a smile before leaving. Once she was gone, Hisateru turned to look at Megumi.

“So you told Kouichi you were divorced… Did you tell him why we got a divorce?”

Megumi sighed.

“How could I? It’s not that I’m proud of lying to him about Kouji, but… there’s no way I could tell him that . I’m still not over it, all these years later.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever get over it, which is why we divorced.”

She bit her tongue before she called him out about telling Kouji she was dead. Again . After all, now she was starting to think it might have been kinder to tell Kouichi the same thing about his dad.

But it was sch a blessing to see them together that she couldn’t completely convince herself of that.

Once they made their way back to Kouji’s room, they were pleased to find Kouji awake; however, Kouichi was frowning at them, and they noticed he got closer to his brother when they approached. 

“Calm down, we were able to talk.”

Kouichi sighed at his mom’s words, and his tense shoulders relaxed.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t want Kouji to be stressed out as soon as he woke up.”

“Idiot brother, I would have been fine,” Kouji said, weakly flicking his brother’s forehead. “But I’m glad you were able to talk. Now let’s talk about the heart disease I was born with.”

He said that looking straight at his father, who had the self awareness to look apologetic.

“Yes… I guess your brother told you, right?” He sighed. “It’s not that I was purposefully hiding it from you, it’s just… the doctors said you’d be fine with a healthy diet and moderate exercise, so I figured I’d just get you used to living that lifestyle from the beginning. You never questioned it, so I guess I never had to explain it. I’m sorry, I should have told you when you got older.”

Kouji grumbled, but held his tongue. He wasn’t finished lashing out at his father but, after talking to Kouichi, he thought he might have had a point in telling the lie. He still wished he didn’t do it.

“Anyway, what’s important now is figuring out what caused—”

“I think I know what caused it.”

Everyone turned to look at Kouji, Kouichi included. Just what was he going to say? There was no way he was going to tell them about all the fighting, right?

“You said I only needed moderate exercise.”

“Yes. More than that would have put too much strain on your heart.”

“Well… I might have been training a bit too hard lately. You know… working out the emotions from finding out I have a brother and that the mother I thought was dead was actually alive.”

He couldn’t help adding that last bit in there; he was still angry.

“So! Kouichi, this is your fault. Take responsibility and come visit me every day I’m stuck in the hospital.”

Kouichi laughed.

“Idiot brother, I would have come anyway.”

Soon enough, Kouji got tired. After a meeting with the doctor, who told him that he’d stay for a week so they could also run a bunch of tests, Kouji fell asleep, but not without insisting that Kouichi stay with him until then and making him promise to visit the next day after school.

Once he was asleep, Kouichi silently exited the room, staring at his sleeping brother for a few seconds before finally closing the door. Outside, his mother and Kouji’s father waited for him.

“Where’s Riko-san?”

“She went back home to get some things, since she’s staying here overnight,” Hisateru explained while the three of them walked towards the exit.

“Before we leave though, there’s something both of us want to ask you.”

Kouichi stopped and looked at them, puzzled. 

“We’ll discuss how and when you can see each other after your brother is discharged, but we already know Kouji intends to keep communication with your mother, even when he has accepted Riko as his mom.”

Oh, now he knew what they were getting at.

“We want to ask you what you want to do.”

When his mother said that, he turned his back to them, not even glancing at Kouji’s father. He was honest about what he was going to say, but he knew how it might affect them, and he couldn’t bring himself to see that.

“I grew up without a father, and I wasn’t looking for one when I was looking for my brother. Everything I did was to find Kouji. However… If Kouji asked me to, I wouldn’t mind spending time together. Because it’s not like I hate you; I just… don’t need you.”

Megumi all but collapsed once they made it back home. She managed to make it to the room and lay out her futon, and she instantly fell asleep.

Kouichi sat at the dinner table. Only after making sure his mother was deeply asleep did he dare to relax his muscles. His hands instantly started shaking, and before he knew it, there were tears running down his cheeks. 

Kouji could have died.

Kouji had a heart problem that he didn’t know about and he could have died.

He could have died if the ambulance didn’t arrive fast enough to get him into surgery.

Even during the surgery he could have died.

The fear and the guilt was eating at him, and he had to cover his mouth so his mother wouldn’t wake up from his sobbing.

Maybe if he hadn’t fought him and pursued him and attempted to murder him back in the Digital World, Kouji wouldn’t have collapsed in the park.

Everything was his fault, and even though Kouji was joking, it was serious for Kouichi. He would take responsibility and protect his brother as much as he could. He couldn’t allow him to be in danger anymore.

He felt like he was about to explode; he needed to talk to someone. Anyone. But he refused to wake his mother up to tell her about feelings she wouldn’t understand the source for, but there were other people who knew.

Takuya. He could call Takuya.

With still trembling hands, he reached for the phone, and had to dial the number several times before he managed to hit the correct digits in the correct order.

“Kouichi! How did it go? Honestly, I thought Kouji would call first, or that you’d call together, but— anyway, how did it go?”

Takuya’s cheerful voice made everything feel even worse.

“Takuya, Kouji is—”

…..

…….

“Oh, shit. Calm— calm down, okay? You said he’s fine, right? Crap, I wish it wasn’t so late… Anyway, you know what? I’ll go to see him tomorrow with you. And I’ll tell the others, alright? So you don’t have to worry about it.”

…..

…….

“No, it’s not your fault… I swear, it isn’t! Wait, no, you don’t have to apologize to me either! I’m fine, I’m fine. Honestly, just look at it this way, if it wasn’t for you scaring the crap out of me, I wouldn’t have stopped making stupid plans! So, if anything, you helped me keep everyone safe.”

…..

…….

“Hey, you’re getting tired, aren’t you? You had a long day, after all. I promise I’ll meet with you tomorrow. Actually, why don’t I go meet you at your school? We can go straight to the hospital.”

……

“Wha—? No, of course I’m not going to skip any classes! I— uh— actually, tomorrow’s a half day at school! So don’t worry!”

…..

“No, I’m not lying. But you don’t have to worry about anything, just go to sleep for now. You need to rest, or— or Kouji will get worried! You think he won’t notice you didn’t sleep? He can’t focus on getting better if he’s worrying about you, so go to bed already. I promise I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After some more coaxing from Takuya, Kouichi did finally go to bed. Now that he thought about it, it wasn’t likely that they would be called to the Digital World, again, right? As much as they wished for it… as long as it remained peaceful, there would be no reason for them to fight.

So, Kouji would be safe, right?

Right?