Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon: Data Storm ❯ Things left worth doing ( Chapter 5 )

*A whiplash is heard off-stage, immediately followed up by a yell of pain. Jean-Seb enters, rubbing his ass. He glares at somebody the public cannot see*

Okay,okay, I'm doing it now!

*He realizes everyone is staring athim and clears his throat*

Hum hum... Digimon is not my property, but I'll do as I wish with my own characters, capiche? Thanks to Shirubie and Oreo man for their help!

TLAMICHÏHUALONIH OC IN ÄYILIZTLI - Things left worth doing

Huehuenpol Gazimon and Andrea lagged behind in the humid afternoon. Gazimon realized the woman had grown tired, both emotionally and physically. He approached the fountain erected in the middle of the place and sat on the basin's edge, the carved stone both cool and hot beyond his fur.

Andrea sat by his side mechanically. Her elbows somehow collided with her knees and her face burrowed behind her fingers. She produced a single sniff. Huehuenpol shook his head, leaned it backward and departed his thoughts. Something or someone kept him from perceiving the future. Intentionally or not, it clouded his perception. Everything beyond the duel was left in the complete dark to his prying mind and he didn't like that. He had grown used to certitude over the years. Was the future really that uncertain? He hoped he hadn't escaped the priests' fanaticism just to be slain by a near psychotic warrior.

He snapped his head back and settled his eyes on the back of his hand, his fingers still gripped around his faithful stick, his looks unfocused. He could feel each of his hairs, most of them floating in the occasional weak gust of wind, each of his muscles and bones. Damn, he felt alive. More alive than he'd felt for all these years. Too much alive.

Another memory went and vanished, sending a pang through his face. Ohocelotzintli. So Tönalmicqui knew. He snorted, causing Andrea to shift and moan slightly. They'd given him that name so he could be full of life. Full of the life he would be taking from others, as was his duty. Now he couldn't even bear thinking about it. He turned his eyes away from his claw fingers, not wanting to see the droplets of blood.

From the dark continent of his memories, his thoughts drifted back into the strait of Andrea and Sepikmon. He had landed both of them in a world of trouble. Not even Santiramon's will could abate the priests' anger now. No, he hadn't really sent them into trouble, had he?. Andrea had. Ah, but you helped her a bit along the way, didn't you? The though came and he batted it away like an annoying fly. That only made the matter worse as far as Sepikmon was concerned, of course. The swordsman was terribly angry at him, and with every right to be. He wouldn't forgive the child digimon anytime soon, but right now, it didn't matter. Right now, he had to guide Andrea, to keep her moving. If she stopped, she would collapse.

"Gazimon, Andrea! There you are," Derek's voice derailed his train of though.

He glanced at the sky and smiled. There were still things left worth to do. His stomach grumbled, causing Andrea to jump and look at him with wide, inattentive eyes. He smirked weakly and rubbed the back of his head.

"Ah, err exc..."

His excuses were interrupted by a much louder grumble coming from Andrea's belly. The woman clutched at her midsection with an arm. The sound froze Derek a few steps short of them.

"Oh I need to eat. Badly," the woman groaned.

"I could have told you that," the furred creature retorted. He jumped to his feet.

"We found a dinner where we can eat," Derek pointed off, "this way."

Andrea smiled and got up after the digimon and Derek. Gazimon's face darkened.

"Damn, that's the Geckomons' dinner. I hate tamalcecëc," he moaned. Derek grinned.

"Well, I suppose that's Sepikmon's payback for using him as defence," he suggested.

"Bah!"

Gazimon remained silent as they walked in the abandoned street. The occasional bit of conversation floating to them through an open door or window. The opposite would have been surprising considering that traditional architecture in Axolotl did not involve closing doors or windows.

They reached a building slightly larger than the others. A staircase lead to a terrace roof with set tables and consumers busy eating and talking. Andrea noticed the furniture was of wood instead of stone, and that gave her a renewed sense of normalcy. That was smashed when she took a look at the parchment-written menu. The multicoloured glyphs meant absolutely nothing to her.

"Sorry guys, I can't read Atlahtolli," she pointed out.

"Oh. I'll take command for you, okay?" Gazimon proposed.

"Thanks."

"Are the Cöcohuatzin ready?"

Andrea goggled at the small creature that was the waiter. It was a humanoid green frog with glistening skin. His overly large eyes made it seem like the digimon was on a permanent sugar high. Andrea wasn't sure what was the most disturbing: the shirtfront hanging on his thin chest or the large bugle sprouting from his neck.

"Erm, yes," Sepikmon said. "I'll have 2 möltamalli and beer. Clockmon and Derek will have xocotamalli and chocolatl."

As he talked, the Geckomon produced a few notes with his bugle, instead of scribbling them down like Andrea would had expected.

"Yacacolnacatamalli and maguey juice for me. Ahcamatetelquïc tamalli and water for her," Gazimon continued. The Geckomon hesitated for a moment, as if expecting his furred counterpart had made a mistake, but eventually sent the musical order, than walked away to greet new customers.

"What did you take?" Andrea asked Gazimon.

"Bland tamalli. You should like them. I think they use chevon here," Andrea nodded. At least she knew what it was. Clockmon and Derek obviously had no idea what they had ordered and appeared not to want to ask.

Sepikmon was talking with Derek and Clockmon about some sort of defence the latter had apparently set up in some place he kept spelling the name. The masked digimon was pointedly ignoring Gazimon's comments and she couldn't blame him for it, though she felt sorry for the little guy. Huehuenpol settled for toying with his stick, knocking the ground lightly in musical patterns.

I don't get him, she reflected. He's constantly bursting away at people little a crazy bumblebee. He keeps contradicting others and seems to take pleasure in it, yet he moves around with that stick he doesn't need. Like he's looking for support. No. Like he's dead. He moves around as if he was already dead.

"Why are you dead?" The question whispered straight in his ear startled Gazimon. He would have fallen off the chair hadn't Andrea caught his arm.

"What?" he looked at her in fear.

"Why are you dead?" she repeated softly.

Gazimon's mouth gaped. Then he closed his eyes and let out a desperate sigh. There was no way out of this one.

"Well, some would say I've been graced with the gift of knowing the past and the future. In truth, it's really a curse. You see, I can't really react to anything anymore. You follow me?"

"Uh uh." Obviously you couldn't react to things if you always knew about them beforehand. She got that.

At this point the Geckomon came back with an immense plate divided in five parts, each filled with two or three sheets of paste wrapped in small round mounds. Derek and Clockmon looked around for cutlery, but did not find any. The native digimon lunged at the dishes. Andrea was more careful, having once burned herself with hot tamales in Mexico, but the dish was apparently served lukewarm here. She took a bite and fire burned her mouth. She immediately gulped half her glass of water. The meal might not have been hot, but it was terribly spicy. Sepikmon chuckled.

"It's not even got enough cuechtic tëpanahuihqui to call it seasoning," he mocked her. She glared back. "Now, that's more like it," he added, approaching his own tamale from her face.

It was filled with a molass-like meat stew. Her nose hair started to curl and her eyes to tear up when the smell reached her. She held her breath, not sure she wanted to test the effects on her lungs. Then a drop of blood fell on the table. She immediately put her finger to her nose to stop the flow, Sepikmon returned the tamale behind his mask.

"It does that to some people," Gazimon commented with a mouth full of his own red-colored tamale. "There's barely a pinch of dried tëpanahuihqueh in the whole serving." He motioned toward the two portions left in her plate section. "During the ceremonies, we had to eat whole dried ones." Andrea winced.

"That sounds painful," Sepikmon said with an obvious tint of joy that got him a glare from Andrea.

"It was. We never really recovered our sense of taste. Actually, I think it was a preparation to later... rites." Andrea recalled the little she new about Aztec religion and felt like someone had given her pharynx a full twist.

"Please! We're eating!" Clockmon pleaded, disgust painted all over his greenish face. Even the eye of his mechanical lower part carried the emotion.

Gazimon looked down, still munching as if nothing had happened.

"Sorry."

Andrea took another tentative bit and had to finish her glass of water, which didn't really help. She looked around for assistance. Gazimon edged his glass toward her.

She took a gulp that managed to calm her burning taste buds. The juice was an off-white thick, sweet-scented liquid that coated her mouth and throat.

"Thanks."

"My pleasure," Huehuenpol nodded.

"You were talking about reacting..." Andrea trailed. Gazimon cursed himself for allowing the subject to re-emerge.

"You see, what doesn't react, doesn't learn, and what doesn't learn, doesn't grow... Doesn't really... live."

Andrea swallowed. The taste seemed to claw less and less at her mouth as she ate.

"That sounds horrible."

"I've had years to learn how to cope with it," he simply stated.

"How?"

"By helping people to be more alive." His eyes widened as he completed his sentence. He crammed the rest of his tamale in his mouth, hoping to avoid further questions.

"You help them react you mean?" Andrea asked with an equal tone. Sepikmon now seemed to take a strong interest in the discussion, but Gazimon wanted to club himself with his own stick.

"MmMMmh," he mumbled with his mouth full. Sepikmon cocked his head, finished his food and rubbed his hands together to clean them.

"Like you 'helped' me?" Andrea persisted, her face still showing no expression. Gazimon's neck notably widened as he swallowed with a loud gulp. It felt as if his Adam's apple had been in the way.

"You could say that."

"You manipulated me."

"No I didn't." He cursed life, the universe and everything. That was what really made life as a precognitive difficult. People always reacted like this, even when he didn't actually use his abilities. That had been one of the reasons he'd moved into the mountain. Of course, the fact the place was far away from the killers sent by the priests had played no little role in his decision.

"You little foul piece of fur."

Gazimon closed his eyes, knowing what came next. Andrea was infuriated at that and splashed the glass of juice in his face. She then got up and stormed down the stairs and away from the restaurant under most of the patrons' curious looks.

Andrea stomped down the street, attracting the attention of the occasional late afternoon walker. She reached the edge of the village, where the forest still battled with crops she couldn't name. She extended her arms and yelled her anger for the entire universe to hear. Her leg kicked a branch, sending it flying into the bushes. Then she slumped and sat down, but the emotions stirring her guts wouldn't leave her steady. She stood up and punched wildly in the air in a random kata.

"I think you need anger management therapy," a voice behind her calmly said.

She stopped moving, her head throbbing.

"Get lost."

"There there. It's that bad, isn't it?" He couldn't help it, he chuckled. "You're so much like him. Such a horrible actress. And you let everything well inside. Wouldn't like to see what you'd have done if you'd stayed."

Andrea slumped down on a well-placed stump and grumbled.

"His life was at stake, I can't really blame him yet I do. I can't help myself and it's more infuriating than that he could use me. I mean, I know it since we met the priests earlier, but it's a whole different thing to have it slapped in your face! It's that whole "coping" thing. It's just... Raargh!"

"I think the word is 'unbearable'."

He knelt down to look at her.

"He's not as bad as you'd like to believe. I don't think he faked that nervous breakdown on the road. And, besides, I think you'd have helped him anyway. Either you or Sepikmon," the man explained.

Andrea gave a sigh full of unreleased anger.

"Pollen shower!"

"What's..." Andrea started as they were surrounded by a shimmering golden cloud. Then she fell over to the ground, her eyes closed in a dreamless sleep before her head reached something solid.

Two plants with flowers for heads and hands walked out of the underbrush. Shades covering both creatures' eyes. A large cream and red peacock-like bird appeared shortly after. He took Andrea's head in his hand and examined her.

"Hmm... Interesting..." He turned carelessly to the two plants. "Get them to the camp."

"You had it coming," Sepikmon stated, Gazimon could tell by his tone that he was smiling.

"Wasn't careful enough," Gazimon answered behind the small towel a Geckomon was pressing at his face. Sepikmon shook his head

"Don't ever tell her that. She'll clobber you." The Geckomon finished drying the small digimon's face and pulled the towel away before it stuck.

"Hey, give me some credit here, will you?" He looked around the table. "Where did the other went?"

"After her," Clockmon said simply.

Gazimon bonked his head down on the table. Damn. I messed up big time. Then the thing sprung up in his mind, clear as water, and he snapped back up. Unfortunately for drama, it took him two attempts to pry the table cloth off his sticky face.

"What now?" Sepikmon asked, his voice dripping with annoyance.

"They're going to get attacked!"

Sepikmon got up stiffly, causing his chair to fall backward in the process and earning the group a few more curious glares. He shuffled to get a few golden pieces of various sizes that he threw on the table. Then he took off after Clockmon and Gazimon, who hadn't waited for him. He hoped to be in time, but Gazimon's worry was not a good sign, if it was real at all.

They reached the edge of the village. A faint golden powder finished dispersing in the wind. It made Gazimon slightly drowsy. He yelled and kicked at the stump in a small explosion of splinters.

"Where are they? What happened?" Sepikmon yelled at the child digimon.

Still shaken, Gazimon sat down much like Andrea had done a few minutes minutes ago.

"Two Floramon. They wore shades. And another digimon. A champion. I couldn't see him well." His tone lowered to a whisper as he spoke.

Sepikmon's massive hand grabbed Huehuenpol around the midsection and raised him too close to the mask for comfort.

"If anything happens to her, I swear I'm hanging your hide off the ceiling of my bedroom," he growled. Gazimon tried to wriggle out of his gripe.

"Calm down!" Clockmon put one of his mechanical hands on his arm, forcing it down.

"Remember the prophecy. 'She will stream out,'" he reminded the masked digimon. Eztepoztli dropped Gazimon unceremoniously.

"Well, what do we do now?"

"I don't know. For the love of Qinglongmon, I can't know!" he yelled back. "I can't even tell if there's going to be anything to tell anymore! I'm clouded completely from anything but the closest future!"

The other two just stared blankly at this outburst. Then Sepikmon threw his sword to the ground, where the blade sunk a good feet deep, and his arms up in despair.

"Well, that's convenient! How are we supposed to rescue them and get the D-coder back, now?" he asked.

Gazimon joined his hands over his knees, looking down.

"You need to go through that duel. No matter what we do now, you can't escape it. If there's a future to be, it goes through Tlaïxtotocani. Besides, I don't think you want to have to steal the D-Coder from Owlmon."

His stance full of worry, Sepikmon looked at the forest again. Whoever had come here was talented. They'd managed to get Andrea and Derek away without leaving so much as a disturbed leaf.

"The sun is setting, we better get there," the warrior said. He made sure to shower the smaller digimon with dirt when he pulled out his sword, then spun around and walked toward the main road. Gazimon patted the earth off himself and followed him. Then a large landed on his shoulder and and dangled him off the ground. Gazimon saw the world move around him, then cold metal under his cheeks. Clockmon's voice came from his left.

"That's going to make matter simpler."

Gazimon smiled weakly. He hoped with all his might that the large machine digimon was right.

What do these shade-wearing digimon want with Andrea and Derek? What's going on with Sepikmon and Musyamon's duel? Why can't Gazimon perceive future events anymore? Get your answers while they're fresh in chapter 6: Tzintizquia möztla ye teötloc

Johnny's culinary trivia
So, what was in that order? Well, mostly, various sorts of tamales. That is, corn paste wrapped around various stuffings, often served with an aditionnal layer of corn leaves. The Geckomon serve them by three and wrapped in round mounds. In Axolotl, all tamalli are usually spiced more or less generously with cuechtic tëpanahuihqui (Powder of the peppers Andrea saw back in chapter 2), even "bland" ones, like Andrea's. Chevon is goat meat.

Derek and Clockmon didn't have that problem, since Sepikmon ordered fruits tamalli for them. Fortunately, the chocolatl drunk in Axolotl isn't made in the same manner as the ancient Aztec's. Gazimon, for his part, ordered regular meat tamales, but amaranth and corn ones instead of just corn, they are actually a bit more spicy than Sepikmon's möltamalli.

Author's note
I'm afraid this is a bit different than I originaly meant. I must say the chapter kinda... evolved on it's own. I wanted to try a different PoV, and it kind of... grew by itself into a character vignette. I think I develloped too much material around Gazimon beforehand. Oh well, that's it for now.