Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Shuffle ❯ War of Machines ( Chapter 24 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Lord Archive 
With Hikari and Daisuke in Xuanwumon's dimension, the fight against the machine digimon continues.
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Hentai / Sci-fi / Romance / Adventure | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 09.14.2012 | Pages: 5 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 620 | Status: Completed
With Hikari and Daisuke in Xuanwumon's dimension, the fight against the machine digimon continues.
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Hentai / Sci-fi / Romance / Adventure | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 09.14.2012 | Pages: 5 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 620 | Status: Completed
The Shuffle
Chapter Twenty-four - War of Machines
By: Lord Archive
Digimon belongs to Toei Animation and Akiyoshi Hongo. They are used without permission or the intent of profit. All rights reserved.
--
Takeru's Journal:
With Hikari and her lover in Xuanwumon's dimension trying to grab as much information as possible before the main group of Chosen arrive, the war of the Machine digimon continued.
--
Taichi frowned as he came upon the aftermath of a battle. The land scape had been torn to shreds. Worse was that it wasn't just digimon sporting injuries. Jyou's girlfriend sobbed while clutching her Otamamon tightly, while Kido was busy taking care of the wounded. He shook his head. "What the hell happened here?"
Sayuri looked up at him, while holding her digimon, now a Tsunomon. "The Vermillion faction got more insistent about having Mugen Dramon's empire set up before his resurrection."
"Tell me you fed Giga Dramon his tail," Taichi groused.
Sayuri shook her head. "He was never here."
"Just wonderful. He may be starting another attack somewhere else right now." Taichi whipped out his D-Terminal and fired off a message. "Now tell me exactly what happened."
"The machine digimon were marching toward Kero Village. We ordered them to turn back, they 'answered' by firing at us. I sent off the call for help, but the battle had already started. They were out for blood, our blood. Their leader, Metal Tyrannomon, never fired a shot at our digimon, but at us Chosen," Sayuri related.
Tsunomon yawned. "I killed him good."
Sayuri stroked her digimon fondly. "That you did. I now have Perfection."
"She certainly lived up to Takaishi's and Hida's expectations," Kasumi voiced tearfully. "If not for her leading us... I don't think we would've made it. She ordered our some of our digimon to position themselves to protect us while others were set to attack."
Sayuri looked away. "It didn't do enough. Yume took a direct hit from a Kokuwamon, and others also got hurt."
"You managed a win against superior forces without anyone dying, that's a victory in any book," Taichi praised.
"Which way did those machine digimon retreat to?" Agumon wondered.
"They didn't..." Kasumi sobbed.
Sayuri looked down. "Metal Tyrannomon was among the last to fall. And after Yume was hurt... none of us held back. We all scored kills."
--
Iori didn't waste any words when he saw her walking alone down the street, he rushed over and gave Sayuri a hug.
Sayuri returned the hug. Tears started to leak from her eyes.
Iori didn't need to ask why she was crying. He, or rather the Iori side of him, knew all to well why. After the battle at the hospital when Hida had killed for the first time, the boy had wanted a hug so desperately, to be able to let his emotions go. Sure this was not the girl's first kill or even the first time her life was at risk, but this battle was more desperate, more emotional, and the lives of her friends were in danger. She had to step up, reach beyond herself, even going as far as evolving her digimon to Perfection for all the right reasons without use of a crest or any other enabler but her pure force of will and desperate need.
"I... I messed up," Sayuri sobbed. "Yume and the others got hurt. I tried my best and I failed them. Yume still hasn't woken up. I should've done more. I-"
Iori cut her off by kissing her soundly on the lips. "You did everything you could and then some. You did something extraordinarily hard and rare. You evolved your digimon without anything but your desires to protect your friends. Only a couple of us have pulled that off. Even I haven't done that. You saved them, Sayuri. Without you, Yume and the others would be dead."
"I was supposed to be the leader. To protect them. They got hurt. They had to kill," Sayuri protested.
"That was unavoidable. The machine digimon forced all of you to fight as you never had before." Iori held her tighter. "I know you feel responsible. Nothing I say will change the guilt and worry you feel. However, I can tell you this: I'm proud of you. You proved yourself today. I won't fight you coming with us to Xuanwumon's dimension."
Sayuri clutched onto him for dear life as she began to cry even harder.
--
"Hey there," Takeru whispered gently.
"Hey," Yume croaked out.
"How are you feeling?" Takeru asked.
"If I find out I can't walk in the Digital World anymore, I'm going to go on a killing spree," Yume replied in a somewhat joking tone.
Takeru stroked her hair. "That shouldn't be an issue. Once you've recovered, we'll go for a nice long walk, just the two of us."
"Four of us," Bakumon stated firmly, counting herself and Armadimon. "I'm NOT leaving her side. Not now, not ever."
Takeru chuckled. "Right, the four of us."
Yume giggled a little. "How are things in the Digital World?"
"Nothing for you to be concerned with," Takeru insisted.
"There's been more battles, hasn't there?" Yume guessed.
Takeru nodded slowly. "Yes, but none of them were as bad as yours."
"How did we win?" Yume wondered. "They had us out gunned."
"You have friends willing to do their all to protect you. Sayuri even managed to evolve Psychemon to Perfect and defeated Metal Tyrannomon herself," Takeru told her.
Yume pouted. "What aren't you saying. Bakumon won't tell me what happened after I was hit."
Takeru looked away. "It was a battle to the death, and all the Chosen and their digimon made it home."
Yume blinked with unseeing eyes. "All those machine digimon..."
"Have been forcibly reincarnated," Bakumon spat.
Yume looked at her partner. "Did you...?"
Bakumon looked away. "Six Kokuwamon, including the one that hurt you. It's all I could manage before my power waned."
Yume pulled her partner into a tight hug. "You shouldn't have done that. They shouldn't have done that. Wasn't there something else we could've done?"
Takeru shook his head. "In seven battles only three machine fled the fight and two more were captured. The remainder died fighting or committed suicide for their failure to win."
"That's horrible!" Yume gasped.
"Something is going on with the Vermillion faction. We haven't figured it out, but we will get to the bottom of this," Takeru vowed.
--
Jyou knew this wasn't the best thing to do. She was hurting from having to fight desperately to stay alive, to protect others, and because she had to kill digimon in battle. Yet she was the one to beg for this, pleaded him to make love to her. It was a request he found that he could not deny her.
As the pleasure subsided, Kasumi's tears returned. The girl clutched desperately to her boyfriend. "Don't leave me. Don't you ever leave me."
Jyou stroked her hair tenderly. "I won't. I promise I'll always be here for you."
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep," Kasumi sobbed into his chest.
"You can trust me. It's in my very nature to keep my promises," Jyou assured her.
"So what if I need you while you're taking a test? Or when you're needed in the Digital World? You can't be with me all the time," Kasumi protested. "You can't live up to all your responsibilities and promises."
"I... guess, but you will always come first," Jyou insisted. "Look, I know anything I say won't exactly help you. Even reminding you that digimon are reborn isn't much help, but, maybe, just maybe, when they're reborn they won't just be better digimon, they'll be partnered as well."
"Or they may come back worse than ever," Kasumi retorted. "Is that what really being a Chosen is like? Killing digimon over and over again until they play nice?"
Jyou sighed. "If that is what it takes. We can't exactly arrest evil digimon, we don't have any place to put them, nor any means to watch them. This way they have the best chance to restart their lives and learn not to hurt others."
"Stay with me tonight," Kasumi pleaded.
"I'm not going anywhere," Jyou promised, thankful they had done this in an empty home in the Digital World. He was amazed that she managed to fall asleep despite that the reason no one was here was because one of the machine digimon factions was only a few kilometers away. Still, he held her tight, wishing he could've kept her safe. He felt like he had failed her. The nagging feeling that he was missing something did not help. Eventually he too fell asleep.
--
"When will Mugen Dramon be resurrected?" Miyako wondered. "We're not going to set the issues to rest until he appears."
Ken sighed, setting down the reports for the latest set of battles. "In all probability he has already been reborn. The issue is that as a baby digimon there is little that can be done to prove he's the real deal or a digimon pretending for some reason. There has been two digimon claiming to be him so far, but most of the machine factions discount them as the true Mugen Dramon."
"I guess." Miyako walked up behind him and started to rub his shoulders. "We've got to do something. These battles are getting increasingly worse. And the machine factions are even attacking each other."
Part of him wished that Mimi was the one massaging him, but the girl was in another dimension and was involved in a different war. Still he was not about to stop Miyako from helping with his tension.
"There must be a reason for all these battles," Hawkmon noted. "I doubt they're just random strikes."
"Giga Dramon certainly has a plan of some sort, but no Chosen has seen him in months. He's up to something, and I feel these attacks are distractions from his true goal," Ken surmised.
"What does he want?" Wormmon questioned.
"If we knew that we could stop him." Ken frowned.
"It does seem odd that the battles his troops fought were all near Chosen teams. None of them waited for when we weren't there. They didn't even use our school hours against us," Miyako pointed out.
"If he's targeting us, that's hardly a surprise. If he's not... why would he decrease his own troop size?" Ken questioned.
--
"Oh, hello," Mrs. Izumi barely greeted.
"Hello, Izumi-san," Ayashi returned more respectfully.
Mrs. Izumi let her son's girlfriend into the apartment, despite the girl's attire. It would be considered modest clothing if the blouse didn't look ready to burst open and if the clothe skirt wasn't meant for someone that was shorter. "Koushiro still has his nose buried into his computer."
Ayashi nodded. "I know. He's been sleeping in class because he's been working too much."
"I was afraid of that." Mrs. Izumi sighed. "It's not healthy for him to be doing this. I know what he's working on is important, but he can't keep this up."
Ayashi smirked. "You're not the only one to think that way. My homeroom teacher told me to make sure he gets some rest, even if I have to 'exhaust' him first."
"Teachers should not encourage that," Mrs. Izumi muttered.
"He didn't tell me straight out to have sex with him, just implied it," Ayashi returned.
Mrs. Izumi gave the girl a good long look. "Is it true what your father said? That you'd confess to doing something bad that you actually haven't done?"
Ayashi smiled sheepishly as she nodded. "It's a bad habit. I want to know what kind of trouble I'd get into if I did do it. If the punishment is too much I can simply prove I never did it. If I'm okay with it, then I'd go and do that bad thing."
Mrs. Izumi folded her arms. "You've never slept with Koushiro, have you?"
"Not yet." Ayashi folded her arms. "Though apparently there's a good chance I will eventually have his daughter."
Mrs. Izumi pouted. "Right. The mirror maze. You do realize that if you do start having sex with him, I won't need to punish you. Having his daughter may be a promise of a blessing, but the responsibilities and sacrifices you'll have to make for her will be punishment enough."
Ayashi nodded. "I'm seeing that all too well with Sora and Taichi."
"I can't believe I'm actually going to say this..." Mrs. Izumi placed her hand on the girl's shoulder. "If sex is what it takes to get my son to take a break..."
Ayashi grinned like a happy cat. "I'll make sure to pry him from the computer." She then slipped into Koushiro's room and frowned finding it empty. She approached the computer noting some sort of portal program was open. She squeaked with surprise as it activated sucking her in, causing her to do a complete flip before landing on her back.
"Did I forget to cancel a study session?" Koushiro wondered, helping the girl to her feet.
Ayashi quizzically looked around her. She was surrounded by metal walls and circuit boards. "Where in the Digital World are we?"
Koushiro shook his head. "We're not in the Digital World. We're inside the Internet."
"Wait! Inside the Internet?" Ayashi asked in surprise.
"Yes. There's no way I can do everything from a computer terminal, no matter how good it is." Koushiro waved his arm out. "Here I can access any computer network directly. If the computer is on, I can go into it and remove what shouldn't be there."
"Like what?" Ayashi wondered. "You've already come forward. What else is there to hide?"
"Piemon's curse. The time line mirror maze. Odaiba had been one point two seconds from being wiped off the face of the Earth from a nuclear missile." Koushiro sighed. "And other secrets that must not get out."
Ayashi pouted. "Secrets you can't even tell me?"
"If they were my secrets, I would. I'm not about to tell you other people's secrets," Koushiro retorted.
"Fair enough." Ayashi nodded. "But shouldn't you have been done by now?"
"Remember the phrase 'once on the Internet, always on the Internet?' Well, it's less a warning and more a universal law here. Much like in our world energy can't be destroyed, only changed. It's the same with information. No matter what I do, the information that we Chosen put up is still out there. It's now a matter of hiding, encrypting and securing that information," Koushiro informed.
"If that's true why can't I get emails I accidentally deleted back?" Ayashi questioned.
"That information has been lost, not destroyed." Koushiro pinched the air and brought up Ayashi's email reader. He then reached into the deletion folder and pulled out a thick folder. With his finger he wrote on it, 'lost email' and shoved it back into her reader. "There every email you ever deleted is back on your computer." The reader then blinked red. "Oops, forgot I mentioned Piemon's curse to you before the explosion of digimon partners." He reached back in and pulled out a couple icons which he promptly shoved into a safe that suddenly materialized next to him.
Ayashi folded her arms. "Have you been reading my emails?"
"No." Koushiro raised an eyebrow. "Should I?"
Ayashi laughed. "Doubt you'd find anything interesting, unless you're into yaoi drawings."
Koushiro shook his head. "Definitely not. But you see the issue. That information still existed, it was lost and can be easily found once a person learns how."
"And how many people are capable of finding that?" Ayashi asked seriously.
"Today, myself, Gennai and his clones. But with the explosion of Chosen, it's only a matter of time before governments gain access to the Digital World. Once they know how to do that, the Internet won't be far behind. Considering the Internet is closer to us, dimensionally speaking, they may find their way here before the Digital World. And while I'm not worried about what the government would say about Piemon's curse, if a reporter ever gained access and found out about it, that particular reveal would be damaging to more than to Taichi and Sora. The panic caused by learning that their are digimon who could do things that some would consider 'worse than death' is a scenario I don't want to contemplate," Koushiro explained.
"That's a threat for tomorrow, isn't it?" Ayashi pointed out. "It's not one to be killing yourself over today."
"Probably. There's still the risk a digimon will gain access as well, and use some of the information against us," Koushiro returned.
Ayashi pulled the boy into a hug. "That may be so. But you're really starting to worry people, myself included. You've spent weeks at this and only sleeping at school. You can't keep this up."
"I'm fine," Koushiro protested. "This is too important to let it sit."
"Look I know it's important." Ayashi held him tighter. "But you shouldn't be doing this alone. Teach me what to do and I'll help you."
Koushiro sighed. "That'll take time and I am being helped by Gennai's clones. This is really that huge of a task."
"Take a break."
Ayashi jumped away from Koushiro and giggled nervously. "Ah, hello..."
"Benjamin," the clone supplied. "She's right in that you need a break. You failed to notice her presence tried to launch a video of you two online."
"Crap, did anything I say get out?" Koushiro wondered.
Benjamin shook his head. "It went straight to the vault."
"Can you send us somewhere in the Digital World?" Ayashi wondered.
Benjamin nodded. "Your wish is my command." He snapped his fingers.
"Wait!" Koushiro cried out and then slouched. "I was working on something."
"Let Benjamin finish it," Ayashi asserted. She nodded to herself finding that they were now is a building with stairs going all over the place, each leading to a closed door.
Koushiro sighed. "Fine. But why did you have him send us here."
"Teacher's and your mother's orders," Ayashi replied coyly.
Koushiro blinked. "What orders?"
"Make you take a break, no matter what I have to do to make you," Ayashi explained. "And I'm going to make sure you get some rest, even if I have to exhaust you first."
"How is exhausting me going to help me get some rest?" Koushiro wondered.
Ayashi pouted at him. "You've been over using this." She pointed at his head.
"Well... yeah. Still don't follow," Koushiro admitted.
"Thankfully Benjamin did understand," Ayashi muttered. She grabbed him by the hand and lead him up one of the stairs. Considering they were without their digimon, she peaked into the room before opening it all the way.
Koushiro looked at the room. "I've never been here before. Looks like something you might find in a love motel."
Ayashi nodded in agreement. "Benjamin really did get the right idea."
"What do you mean?" Koushiro wondered.
Ayashi let out a frustrated sigh. She pointed at herself. "Girlfriend." She motioned at her clothes. "Barely fitting outfit." She then waved at the main piece of furniture. "Bed."
Koushiro pointed at himself. "Idiot."
"Got that right," Ayashi returned.
Koushiro pulled her into a hug. "Um... by exhausting me into resting... do you really mean...?"
"If the condoms I brought leak, you may have your daughter in forty weeks," Ayashi returned.
Koushiro laughed nervously in a way that didn't sound entirely sane. "You're too good for me."
"Got that right," Ayashi teased. "Now, less talking, more kissing."
"Yes, ma'am." Koushiro kissed her deeply. He wondered if she was teasing him, that she wasn't going to go all the way. This time she wasn't toying around with the notion. They put her condoms to the test.
--
Sora knew very well this was a delaying tactic set up by Taichi. That he did not want her to go to the Digital World with the threat of battle looming. She added it to her mental checklist of things he'll have to deal with when they switch back and the mother of their next child. Still it was annoying being left as a general of their army stuck behind a desk, hearing team leaders accounts of battles but not letting her join the fight. "What's the latest on the field?"
Ken cleared his throat. "There has been seven battles with the Vermillion group so far this week. When a group from Hokkaido was forced into retreat, the Vermillion digimon annihilated the village they had tried to protect."
"Would that mean that we're not the true targets?" Noriko wondered.
Sora shook her head. "Even if we are Giga Dramon's main targets, he cannot back away from his threats, else we'd know retreat is an option."
Iori reluctantly nodded. "Since every single attack has had a team of Chosen nearby, it's clear they want to engage us in battle. The defeat of the Hokkaido team did not embolden them nor did it change their tactics."
"The only change in tactics from the initial attacks is their willingness to retreat," Taichi noted. "However, that has more to do with the dwindling number of digimon under Giga Dramon's command."
"But why would they want to fight us? All they've done is make us more powerful by forcing us to evolve our digimon," Sayuri wondered.
"That does seem strange," Sora agreed.
"It's especially questionable when you take into account digimon do not always regain their original form when they reformat," Koushiro added. "By sending waves of machine digimon to their deaths, their will be less machine digimon even after they reincarnate."
"With the explosion of digimon partners, some of those machine digimon we killed may end up partnered with Chosen," Jyou added.
Noriko pouted. "Would that put spies into our mix? Could they still be loyal to Giga Dramon and Mugen Dramon after joining us?"
"Don't know how well that would work," Jyou admitted. "It's a risky plan. But we've killed hundreds of Giga Dramon's digimon in the past month. It would then become a question of how many of them would reformat as a Chosen digimon and then how many of those would remain loyal to Mugen Dramon."
"Even one could prove dangerous," Koushiro added. "The more that die, the more likely one could be reborn as a spy."
"Why do I think we're missing something here?" Sora wondered.
As one all of their D-Terminals went off. None of them wasted a word and opened the digital e-mail reader. There was no protest nor comment as Sora joined the others at the computer and ported to the Digital World.
--
The village behind them suffered some damage, yet all the landscape for kilometers to the west of it was now a barren field, stripped of all signs of life and littered with craters.
"What a mess," Miyako commented.
"What happened here?" Noriko wondered.
One of the younger Chosen limped forward. "We were attacked by Vermillion group. They killed a couple digimon from the village. Amagi Saito got... angry."
"Don't tell me he dark evolved his digimon?" Sora asked with dread.
"Depends on your definition of dark evolution, Taichi," commented Commandramon, a meter tall cyborg dragon with body armor and an assault rifle who approached them with the third grader, Saito, next to the digimon.
Sora blinked. "Mugen Dramon?"
Commandramon nodded curtly. "It would seem I find myself once again partnered, this time properly to one who prefers order to chaos."
Miyako shifted nervously. "You had a partner before?"
Commandramon let out a cold chuckle. "If you could call my brief merge to Akiyama's true partner as such."
Noriko nervously raised her hand. "If that's Mugen Dramon, are we supposed to kill him?"
Saito immediately jumped in front of his digimon. "You can't!"
Sora glanced at the girl before assuring the young boy, "Don't worry, kid. Killing your partner won't do anything, he'll just keep being reborn to you."
"Indeed. There is no need to worry. To kill me would mean having to kill you as well, and they would never willingly bring harm to an innocent," Commandramon added. "And do not worry yourself either, Mother-Taichi. I have had my revenge on you for killing me."
Sora bit her tongue as it was Hikari who evolved Agumon to War Greymon, not her. She would take this curse over letting either of them be hurt. "So, what do you intend to do now?"
"You Chosen seek to bring order to this chaotic world. That is something I can find agreeable. Sure it may not be the order I once saw to perfect as a Dark Master, yet I've found there is no such thing as perfect order," Commandmon answered.
Taichi had been nearby the entire time. "You were the one to cause this destruction?"
"I did, but only in retaliation to Vermillion group's attack. I may have over done the purge, but it is no less than you have done," Commandramon replied. "Giga Dramon somehow knew I would be reborn amongst you chosen. The attacks were meant to force my awakening. Though I suspect it was not to bow to me, but to rally the machine digimon under his flag."
"Well, let's hope with you on our side, we can put an end to this war soon," Miyako stated.
Chapter Twenty-four - War of Machines
By: Lord Archive
Digimon belongs to Toei Animation and Akiyoshi Hongo. They are used without permission or the intent of profit. All rights reserved.
--
Takeru's Journal:
With Hikari and her lover in Xuanwumon's dimension trying to grab as much information as possible before the main group of Chosen arrive, the war of the Machine digimon continued.
--
Taichi frowned as he came upon the aftermath of a battle. The land scape had been torn to shreds. Worse was that it wasn't just digimon sporting injuries. Jyou's girlfriend sobbed while clutching her Otamamon tightly, while Kido was busy taking care of the wounded. He shook his head. "What the hell happened here?"
Sayuri looked up at him, while holding her digimon, now a Tsunomon. "The Vermillion faction got more insistent about having Mugen Dramon's empire set up before his resurrection."
"Tell me you fed Giga Dramon his tail," Taichi groused.
Sayuri shook her head. "He was never here."
"Just wonderful. He may be starting another attack somewhere else right now." Taichi whipped out his D-Terminal and fired off a message. "Now tell me exactly what happened."
"The machine digimon were marching toward Kero Village. We ordered them to turn back, they 'answered' by firing at us. I sent off the call for help, but the battle had already started. They were out for blood, our blood. Their leader, Metal Tyrannomon, never fired a shot at our digimon, but at us Chosen," Sayuri related.
Tsunomon yawned. "I killed him good."
Sayuri stroked her digimon fondly. "That you did. I now have Perfection."
"She certainly lived up to Takaishi's and Hida's expectations," Kasumi voiced tearfully. "If not for her leading us... I don't think we would've made it. She ordered our some of our digimon to position themselves to protect us while others were set to attack."
Sayuri looked away. "It didn't do enough. Yume took a direct hit from a Kokuwamon, and others also got hurt."
"You managed a win against superior forces without anyone dying, that's a victory in any book," Taichi praised.
"Which way did those machine digimon retreat to?" Agumon wondered.
"They didn't..." Kasumi sobbed.
Sayuri looked down. "Metal Tyrannomon was among the last to fall. And after Yume was hurt... none of us held back. We all scored kills."
--
Iori didn't waste any words when he saw her walking alone down the street, he rushed over and gave Sayuri a hug.
Sayuri returned the hug. Tears started to leak from her eyes.
Iori didn't need to ask why she was crying. He, or rather the Iori side of him, knew all to well why. After the battle at the hospital when Hida had killed for the first time, the boy had wanted a hug so desperately, to be able to let his emotions go. Sure this was not the girl's first kill or even the first time her life was at risk, but this battle was more desperate, more emotional, and the lives of her friends were in danger. She had to step up, reach beyond herself, even going as far as evolving her digimon to Perfection for all the right reasons without use of a crest or any other enabler but her pure force of will and desperate need.
"I... I messed up," Sayuri sobbed. "Yume and the others got hurt. I tried my best and I failed them. Yume still hasn't woken up. I should've done more. I-"
Iori cut her off by kissing her soundly on the lips. "You did everything you could and then some. You did something extraordinarily hard and rare. You evolved your digimon without anything but your desires to protect your friends. Only a couple of us have pulled that off. Even I haven't done that. You saved them, Sayuri. Without you, Yume and the others would be dead."
"I was supposed to be the leader. To protect them. They got hurt. They had to kill," Sayuri protested.
"That was unavoidable. The machine digimon forced all of you to fight as you never had before." Iori held her tighter. "I know you feel responsible. Nothing I say will change the guilt and worry you feel. However, I can tell you this: I'm proud of you. You proved yourself today. I won't fight you coming with us to Xuanwumon's dimension."
Sayuri clutched onto him for dear life as she began to cry even harder.
--
"Hey there," Takeru whispered gently.
"Hey," Yume croaked out.
"How are you feeling?" Takeru asked.
"If I find out I can't walk in the Digital World anymore, I'm going to go on a killing spree," Yume replied in a somewhat joking tone.
Takeru stroked her hair. "That shouldn't be an issue. Once you've recovered, we'll go for a nice long walk, just the two of us."
"Four of us," Bakumon stated firmly, counting herself and Armadimon. "I'm NOT leaving her side. Not now, not ever."
Takeru chuckled. "Right, the four of us."
Yume giggled a little. "How are things in the Digital World?"
"Nothing for you to be concerned with," Takeru insisted.
"There's been more battles, hasn't there?" Yume guessed.
Takeru nodded slowly. "Yes, but none of them were as bad as yours."
"How did we win?" Yume wondered. "They had us out gunned."
"You have friends willing to do their all to protect you. Sayuri even managed to evolve Psychemon to Perfect and defeated Metal Tyrannomon herself," Takeru told her.
Yume pouted. "What aren't you saying. Bakumon won't tell me what happened after I was hit."
Takeru looked away. "It was a battle to the death, and all the Chosen and their digimon made it home."
Yume blinked with unseeing eyes. "All those machine digimon..."
"Have been forcibly reincarnated," Bakumon spat.
Yume looked at her partner. "Did you...?"
Bakumon looked away. "Six Kokuwamon, including the one that hurt you. It's all I could manage before my power waned."
Yume pulled her partner into a tight hug. "You shouldn't have done that. They shouldn't have done that. Wasn't there something else we could've done?"
Takeru shook his head. "In seven battles only three machine fled the fight and two more were captured. The remainder died fighting or committed suicide for their failure to win."
"That's horrible!" Yume gasped.
"Something is going on with the Vermillion faction. We haven't figured it out, but we will get to the bottom of this," Takeru vowed.
--
Jyou knew this wasn't the best thing to do. She was hurting from having to fight desperately to stay alive, to protect others, and because she had to kill digimon in battle. Yet she was the one to beg for this, pleaded him to make love to her. It was a request he found that he could not deny her.
As the pleasure subsided, Kasumi's tears returned. The girl clutched desperately to her boyfriend. "Don't leave me. Don't you ever leave me."
Jyou stroked her hair tenderly. "I won't. I promise I'll always be here for you."
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep," Kasumi sobbed into his chest.
"You can trust me. It's in my very nature to keep my promises," Jyou assured her.
"So what if I need you while you're taking a test? Or when you're needed in the Digital World? You can't be with me all the time," Kasumi protested. "You can't live up to all your responsibilities and promises."
"I... guess, but you will always come first," Jyou insisted. "Look, I know anything I say won't exactly help you. Even reminding you that digimon are reborn isn't much help, but, maybe, just maybe, when they're reborn they won't just be better digimon, they'll be partnered as well."
"Or they may come back worse than ever," Kasumi retorted. "Is that what really being a Chosen is like? Killing digimon over and over again until they play nice?"
Jyou sighed. "If that is what it takes. We can't exactly arrest evil digimon, we don't have any place to put them, nor any means to watch them. This way they have the best chance to restart their lives and learn not to hurt others."
"Stay with me tonight," Kasumi pleaded.
"I'm not going anywhere," Jyou promised, thankful they had done this in an empty home in the Digital World. He was amazed that she managed to fall asleep despite that the reason no one was here was because one of the machine digimon factions was only a few kilometers away. Still, he held her tight, wishing he could've kept her safe. He felt like he had failed her. The nagging feeling that he was missing something did not help. Eventually he too fell asleep.
--
"When will Mugen Dramon be resurrected?" Miyako wondered. "We're not going to set the issues to rest until he appears."
Ken sighed, setting down the reports for the latest set of battles. "In all probability he has already been reborn. The issue is that as a baby digimon there is little that can be done to prove he's the real deal or a digimon pretending for some reason. There has been two digimon claiming to be him so far, but most of the machine factions discount them as the true Mugen Dramon."
"I guess." Miyako walked up behind him and started to rub his shoulders. "We've got to do something. These battles are getting increasingly worse. And the machine factions are even attacking each other."
Part of him wished that Mimi was the one massaging him, but the girl was in another dimension and was involved in a different war. Still he was not about to stop Miyako from helping with his tension.
"There must be a reason for all these battles," Hawkmon noted. "I doubt they're just random strikes."
"Giga Dramon certainly has a plan of some sort, but no Chosen has seen him in months. He's up to something, and I feel these attacks are distractions from his true goal," Ken surmised.
"What does he want?" Wormmon questioned.
"If we knew that we could stop him." Ken frowned.
"It does seem odd that the battles his troops fought were all near Chosen teams. None of them waited for when we weren't there. They didn't even use our school hours against us," Miyako pointed out.
"If he's targeting us, that's hardly a surprise. If he's not... why would he decrease his own troop size?" Ken questioned.
--
"Oh, hello," Mrs. Izumi barely greeted.
"Hello, Izumi-san," Ayashi returned more respectfully.
Mrs. Izumi let her son's girlfriend into the apartment, despite the girl's attire. It would be considered modest clothing if the blouse didn't look ready to burst open and if the clothe skirt wasn't meant for someone that was shorter. "Koushiro still has his nose buried into his computer."
Ayashi nodded. "I know. He's been sleeping in class because he's been working too much."
"I was afraid of that." Mrs. Izumi sighed. "It's not healthy for him to be doing this. I know what he's working on is important, but he can't keep this up."
Ayashi smirked. "You're not the only one to think that way. My homeroom teacher told me to make sure he gets some rest, even if I have to 'exhaust' him first."
"Teachers should not encourage that," Mrs. Izumi muttered.
"He didn't tell me straight out to have sex with him, just implied it," Ayashi returned.
Mrs. Izumi gave the girl a good long look. "Is it true what your father said? That you'd confess to doing something bad that you actually haven't done?"
Ayashi smiled sheepishly as she nodded. "It's a bad habit. I want to know what kind of trouble I'd get into if I did do it. If the punishment is too much I can simply prove I never did it. If I'm okay with it, then I'd go and do that bad thing."
Mrs. Izumi folded her arms. "You've never slept with Koushiro, have you?"
"Not yet." Ayashi folded her arms. "Though apparently there's a good chance I will eventually have his daughter."
Mrs. Izumi pouted. "Right. The mirror maze. You do realize that if you do start having sex with him, I won't need to punish you. Having his daughter may be a promise of a blessing, but the responsibilities and sacrifices you'll have to make for her will be punishment enough."
Ayashi nodded. "I'm seeing that all too well with Sora and Taichi."
"I can't believe I'm actually going to say this..." Mrs. Izumi placed her hand on the girl's shoulder. "If sex is what it takes to get my son to take a break..."
Ayashi grinned like a happy cat. "I'll make sure to pry him from the computer." She then slipped into Koushiro's room and frowned finding it empty. She approached the computer noting some sort of portal program was open. She squeaked with surprise as it activated sucking her in, causing her to do a complete flip before landing on her back.
"Did I forget to cancel a study session?" Koushiro wondered, helping the girl to her feet.
Ayashi quizzically looked around her. She was surrounded by metal walls and circuit boards. "Where in the Digital World are we?"
Koushiro shook his head. "We're not in the Digital World. We're inside the Internet."
"Wait! Inside the Internet?" Ayashi asked in surprise.
"Yes. There's no way I can do everything from a computer terminal, no matter how good it is." Koushiro waved his arm out. "Here I can access any computer network directly. If the computer is on, I can go into it and remove what shouldn't be there."
"Like what?" Ayashi wondered. "You've already come forward. What else is there to hide?"
"Piemon's curse. The time line mirror maze. Odaiba had been one point two seconds from being wiped off the face of the Earth from a nuclear missile." Koushiro sighed. "And other secrets that must not get out."
Ayashi pouted. "Secrets you can't even tell me?"
"If they were my secrets, I would. I'm not about to tell you other people's secrets," Koushiro retorted.
"Fair enough." Ayashi nodded. "But shouldn't you have been done by now?"
"Remember the phrase 'once on the Internet, always on the Internet?' Well, it's less a warning and more a universal law here. Much like in our world energy can't be destroyed, only changed. It's the same with information. No matter what I do, the information that we Chosen put up is still out there. It's now a matter of hiding, encrypting and securing that information," Koushiro informed.
"If that's true why can't I get emails I accidentally deleted back?" Ayashi questioned.
"That information has been lost, not destroyed." Koushiro pinched the air and brought up Ayashi's email reader. He then reached into the deletion folder and pulled out a thick folder. With his finger he wrote on it, 'lost email' and shoved it back into her reader. "There every email you ever deleted is back on your computer." The reader then blinked red. "Oops, forgot I mentioned Piemon's curse to you before the explosion of digimon partners." He reached back in and pulled out a couple icons which he promptly shoved into a safe that suddenly materialized next to him.
Ayashi folded her arms. "Have you been reading my emails?"
"No." Koushiro raised an eyebrow. "Should I?"
Ayashi laughed. "Doubt you'd find anything interesting, unless you're into yaoi drawings."
Koushiro shook his head. "Definitely not. But you see the issue. That information still existed, it was lost and can be easily found once a person learns how."
"And how many people are capable of finding that?" Ayashi asked seriously.
"Today, myself, Gennai and his clones. But with the explosion of Chosen, it's only a matter of time before governments gain access to the Digital World. Once they know how to do that, the Internet won't be far behind. Considering the Internet is closer to us, dimensionally speaking, they may find their way here before the Digital World. And while I'm not worried about what the government would say about Piemon's curse, if a reporter ever gained access and found out about it, that particular reveal would be damaging to more than to Taichi and Sora. The panic caused by learning that their are digimon who could do things that some would consider 'worse than death' is a scenario I don't want to contemplate," Koushiro explained.
"That's a threat for tomorrow, isn't it?" Ayashi pointed out. "It's not one to be killing yourself over today."
"Probably. There's still the risk a digimon will gain access as well, and use some of the information against us," Koushiro returned.
Ayashi pulled the boy into a hug. "That may be so. But you're really starting to worry people, myself included. You've spent weeks at this and only sleeping at school. You can't keep this up."
"I'm fine," Koushiro protested. "This is too important to let it sit."
"Look I know it's important." Ayashi held him tighter. "But you shouldn't be doing this alone. Teach me what to do and I'll help you."
Koushiro sighed. "That'll take time and I am being helped by Gennai's clones. This is really that huge of a task."
"Take a break."
Ayashi jumped away from Koushiro and giggled nervously. "Ah, hello..."
"Benjamin," the clone supplied. "She's right in that you need a break. You failed to notice her presence tried to launch a video of you two online."
"Crap, did anything I say get out?" Koushiro wondered.
Benjamin shook his head. "It went straight to the vault."
"Can you send us somewhere in the Digital World?" Ayashi wondered.
Benjamin nodded. "Your wish is my command." He snapped his fingers.
"Wait!" Koushiro cried out and then slouched. "I was working on something."
"Let Benjamin finish it," Ayashi asserted. She nodded to herself finding that they were now is a building with stairs going all over the place, each leading to a closed door.
Koushiro sighed. "Fine. But why did you have him send us here."
"Teacher's and your mother's orders," Ayashi replied coyly.
Koushiro blinked. "What orders?"
"Make you take a break, no matter what I have to do to make you," Ayashi explained. "And I'm going to make sure you get some rest, even if I have to exhaust you first."
"How is exhausting me going to help me get some rest?" Koushiro wondered.
Ayashi pouted at him. "You've been over using this." She pointed at his head.
"Well... yeah. Still don't follow," Koushiro admitted.
"Thankfully Benjamin did understand," Ayashi muttered. She grabbed him by the hand and lead him up one of the stairs. Considering they were without their digimon, she peaked into the room before opening it all the way.
Koushiro looked at the room. "I've never been here before. Looks like something you might find in a love motel."
Ayashi nodded in agreement. "Benjamin really did get the right idea."
"What do you mean?" Koushiro wondered.
Ayashi let out a frustrated sigh. She pointed at herself. "Girlfriend." She motioned at her clothes. "Barely fitting outfit." She then waved at the main piece of furniture. "Bed."
Koushiro pointed at himself. "Idiot."
"Got that right," Ayashi returned.
Koushiro pulled her into a hug. "Um... by exhausting me into resting... do you really mean...?"
"If the condoms I brought leak, you may have your daughter in forty weeks," Ayashi returned.
Koushiro laughed nervously in a way that didn't sound entirely sane. "You're too good for me."
"Got that right," Ayashi teased. "Now, less talking, more kissing."
"Yes, ma'am." Koushiro kissed her deeply. He wondered if she was teasing him, that she wasn't going to go all the way. This time she wasn't toying around with the notion. They put her condoms to the test.
--
Sora knew very well this was a delaying tactic set up by Taichi. That he did not want her to go to the Digital World with the threat of battle looming. She added it to her mental checklist of things he'll have to deal with when they switch back and the mother of their next child. Still it was annoying being left as a general of their army stuck behind a desk, hearing team leaders accounts of battles but not letting her join the fight. "What's the latest on the field?"
Ken cleared his throat. "There has been seven battles with the Vermillion group so far this week. When a group from Hokkaido was forced into retreat, the Vermillion digimon annihilated the village they had tried to protect."
"Would that mean that we're not the true targets?" Noriko wondered.
Sora shook her head. "Even if we are Giga Dramon's main targets, he cannot back away from his threats, else we'd know retreat is an option."
Iori reluctantly nodded. "Since every single attack has had a team of Chosen nearby, it's clear they want to engage us in battle. The defeat of the Hokkaido team did not embolden them nor did it change their tactics."
"The only change in tactics from the initial attacks is their willingness to retreat," Taichi noted. "However, that has more to do with the dwindling number of digimon under Giga Dramon's command."
"But why would they want to fight us? All they've done is make us more powerful by forcing us to evolve our digimon," Sayuri wondered.
"That does seem strange," Sora agreed.
"It's especially questionable when you take into account digimon do not always regain their original form when they reformat," Koushiro added. "By sending waves of machine digimon to their deaths, their will be less machine digimon even after they reincarnate."
"With the explosion of digimon partners, some of those machine digimon we killed may end up partnered with Chosen," Jyou added.
Noriko pouted. "Would that put spies into our mix? Could they still be loyal to Giga Dramon and Mugen Dramon after joining us?"
"Don't know how well that would work," Jyou admitted. "It's a risky plan. But we've killed hundreds of Giga Dramon's digimon in the past month. It would then become a question of how many of them would reformat as a Chosen digimon and then how many of those would remain loyal to Mugen Dramon."
"Even one could prove dangerous," Koushiro added. "The more that die, the more likely one could be reborn as a spy."
"Why do I think we're missing something here?" Sora wondered.
As one all of their D-Terminals went off. None of them wasted a word and opened the digital e-mail reader. There was no protest nor comment as Sora joined the others at the computer and ported to the Digital World.
--
The village behind them suffered some damage, yet all the landscape for kilometers to the west of it was now a barren field, stripped of all signs of life and littered with craters.
"What a mess," Miyako commented.
"What happened here?" Noriko wondered.
One of the younger Chosen limped forward. "We were attacked by Vermillion group. They killed a couple digimon from the village. Amagi Saito got... angry."
"Don't tell me he dark evolved his digimon?" Sora asked with dread.
"Depends on your definition of dark evolution, Taichi," commented Commandramon, a meter tall cyborg dragon with body armor and an assault rifle who approached them with the third grader, Saito, next to the digimon.
Sora blinked. "Mugen Dramon?"
Commandramon nodded curtly. "It would seem I find myself once again partnered, this time properly to one who prefers order to chaos."
Miyako shifted nervously. "You had a partner before?"
Commandramon let out a cold chuckle. "If you could call my brief merge to Akiyama's true partner as such."
Noriko nervously raised her hand. "If that's Mugen Dramon, are we supposed to kill him?"
Saito immediately jumped in front of his digimon. "You can't!"
Sora glanced at the girl before assuring the young boy, "Don't worry, kid. Killing your partner won't do anything, he'll just keep being reborn to you."
"Indeed. There is no need to worry. To kill me would mean having to kill you as well, and they would never willingly bring harm to an innocent," Commandramon added. "And do not worry yourself either, Mother-Taichi. I have had my revenge on you for killing me."
Sora bit her tongue as it was Hikari who evolved Agumon to War Greymon, not her. She would take this curse over letting either of them be hurt. "So, what do you intend to do now?"
"You Chosen seek to bring order to this chaotic world. That is something I can find agreeable. Sure it may not be the order I once saw to perfect as a Dark Master, yet I've found there is no such thing as perfect order," Commandmon answered.
Taichi had been nearby the entire time. "You were the one to cause this destruction?"
"I did, but only in retaliation to Vermillion group's attack. I may have over done the purge, but it is no less than you have done," Commandramon replied. "Giga Dramon somehow knew I would be reborn amongst you chosen. The attacks were meant to force my awakening. Though I suspect it was not to bow to me, but to rally the machine digimon under his flag."
"Well, let's hope with you on our side, we can put an end to this war soon," Miyako stated.