*Jap. Names vs. English Names*: (I will not be using the acknowledgement of
- i.e.-Izumi-chan...Takuya-kun...etc.)
Izumi-Zoe/
Junpei- JP/
Tomoki-Tommy/
Kouichi- Kouji/
Kougi-Kogi/
Takuya-Takuya/
(Digimon names will stay in English version)
also
D-Scanner - D-Tector
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, Digimon Characters or any other related
subjectives that is directly copyrighted towards Toei Animation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pure of Heart: Netherworld Journey {I}
"I WANT DATA, NOW!"
-Chapter 2-
She had said this many times before during their journey since
Cherubimon, but how she had said it now could not hold solace in Takuya's
mind.
"I'm not going to make it, Takuya." Izumi earnestly convicted of
herself, not daring for a second to meet with his gaze.
Takuya sat across from her, his throbbing headache subsided, only to find
that soon after a sharp jolt from inside had been sorely connected to what
she had just confessed.
"You can't mean that... you can't." he said in reproach. He knew her to be a strong-willed spirit, a fighter--surprisingly--
amongst all the boys, and she was certainly more than just the innocent,
sweet girl Takuya previously presumed of her.
No, she was much more...
So, why now did her strong front come crashing down...Why had she felt so
inclined to say a such a thing?
"...Lucemon is winning this fight...almost all the data has been
collected... this world is falling apart faster than we can ever stop it
from doing so...and even with the data we tried to save for the Digital
World can't possibly rival of what Lucemon has already...he's still got
Tomoki in his capture...and...and...now we're lost without any of our
friends at our side." she mumbled miserably, her head now willingly hiding
from his sight; facing the ground.
Takuya caught a very slight glimpse of her eyes--the eyes she
shamefully hid from him--her face had been freely streaming with a
faltering attempt of suppressive tears. His insides gave another painful
jolt as he continued to peer openly at her face. He couldn't help but think
if he were the cause for her sobbing.
Whenever or however these tears started they did not seem to show, but it
certainly looked as though she had been holding back for quite some time
now.
He had seen her shed a few anxious tears when he had been in danger--
this was only natural to do for a girl, he thought carelessly-- but he
never knew how suddenly it would effect him, and so severely at that. Her
hands covered her tear-soaked face, now. Takuya never had dealt with a
situation like this before. What was he to do?
"Erm...Izumi?" he said nervously and winced to see her tearful eyes
again.
He didn't know why but it truly ached to see her in this condition.
"Oh, Takuya." she whimpered silently and flung her arms round his
neck.
Takuya, instinctively, took his arms to hold her much in the same way. He
did undeniably embrace her, but rather shakily.
For a moment that seemed to hold such a lingering time, Takuya knew that
there came a fleeting second where he had felt it right just to stay this
way for truthfully a long time.
This long moment came to a reluctant halt however; they had parted.
"Look you can't keep talking like that." he encouraged sincerely.
"All you're doing is making it seem more impossible then it already has
gotten. I told you to trust me...remember?"
Izumi solemnly wiped away the tears that continued to roll down, her
now, rosy cheeks. A meek smile broadened across her face slowly but surely,
to Takuya's relief.
"You've changed." she said still smiling, her eyes flashed an
innocent glint.
"For the better I hope...?" he curiously asked.
She paused reflectively, then answered. "Of course!"
Takuya's cheeks began to gently redden as he grinned to her compliment.
Unbeknownst to the pair, they--out of their subconscious and absent-
minded feelings--always seemed to share their true intentions...their true
thoughts and emotions... to each other in secret. In a way that, far from
the prying interest of others, they often talked their mind... Very
frankly...very bluntly...sincere honesty. They grew to be knowingly
insightful of each other--possibly knowing each other more than they would
of the other children they travelled with. Though the thought of this had
been kept solely to themselves, in fear of not knowing how or why they felt
this way...and possibly for each other.
"Thank you...for everything." she whispered graciously. "I feel quite
better know." "No, problem. Now come on, we should start exploring this place...
who knows, we might even find the others." he said grinning and brought
himself to his feet.
Izumi took another hesitant glance around the outlandish surroundings,
until afterwards being helped upright by Takuya.
This in truth, was a splendid world they coincidentally, had been
trapped in. Gakido Woods was the complete opposite of this unknown land. In
fact it was: beautiful, just absolutely lovely, Izumi silently thought
dreamily.
They continued to tread through a nearby seaside. Willow trees followed
throughout the path they walked upon, the leaves on these willow trees were
particularly peculiar however. They were translucent; the sky's two or
three suns beamed a trail of light that shone through the leaves. It
created a radiating prismatic effect. To the ground lay, and grew, the
blossoms of flowers of violets and forget-me-not buds flourishing at a
rapid rate. These blossoms grew wild and extremely enormous-- to about five
feet tall. And then their was the spectacular view from their left, where
they couldn't help but avidly watch the rise and fall of the stunning ocean
waves. This body of water remained down below the cliffs they were
presently on and extended from miles and miles into the distance. Its
waters like shimmering diamonds embedded within blankets upon blankets of a
cascading sapphire sea.
Yes, this place had genuinely seemed peaceful enough, safe enough,
and wonderfully pleasant to watch. But one aspect about this Digital World
had been missing...
The Digimon. Where had they all gone?
Continuing their exploration in this strange world, they had come
across a near-distant forest that followed along a path they were now on.
It lie beyond all the willow and pine-coned spruce trees settling among a
grassy trail they presently strode upon.
At the brimming edge of this woodland came a dreary sense to it all as they
slowly entered--defences and all alertness considerably low.
This forest looked fairly mundane too, with little or less vegetation
growing in the land. They had ventured deeper and willingly farther out
into the forest where the noticeable grey tinge of light seeped through the
tree branches above. Again no sign of danger or visible creature for that
matter had arisen. It was only until they had reached a more foreboding
part of the woods that they hesitated in walking for the first time. A
whistling in the wind came from behind like an icy, cold draft. Izumi
shivered unpleasantly to the feel of it. Both reluctantly began to move
again. A furious grunt had abruptly sounded from their turned backs.
"W-What was that?" Izumi whispered frantically to Takuya.
"I don't know." he replied and turned to look behind. "But whatever
it is...it doesn't seem too happy that we're here."
Panic-stricken and alert with all senses in strain, they both
scrambled to find their D-Scanners. Their eyes incredulously narrowed at
the bushes and trees in front of them, anxiously trying to see what was
making such a noise.
"Who's there?!" Izumi shouted fiercely into forest, her voice
followed through with a loud echo.
Takuya held his D-Scanner tightly by his side. Both firmly stood
their ground in an tentative stance. The loud grunting of what sounded as a
large creature continued through their nerve-wracking wait. They spent no
time in waiting for an ambush of other creatures to appear, Takuya and
Izumi quickly activated their D-Scanners.
"Execute!" they shouted in unison.
Their spirit evolutions of Agunimon and Kazemon now stood
materialized from their previous human forms.
"What happens now?" Kazemon implored fluttering her wings and hovered
close by Agunimon.
"We wait..." Agunimon answered, clenching his fists readily.
A gleaming set of eyes suddenly appeared before them, blood-curdling
and eerily red in colour. The eyes floated a good few feet away from the
two. Izumi was the first to indignantly ask it a question,
"Who...or...uh... What are you?"
It did not reply, instead it determinedly stayed silent. It was only until
Agunimon made a sudden movement from where he stood that the eyes averted
from it's previous spot.
"ARGHHH!" Agunimon shouted as a streak of blue flames came spurting
at breakneck speed towards him. Agunimon was thrusted into the air, crash-
landing into the tree next to Kazemon.
"Agunimon!" Kazemon cried out and turned to him.
"Who... ARE YOU?!" She levelled her eyes to meet the large ones now
menacingly glaring at her.
"Data....Data...DATA!" the eyes now voiced out for the first time, a
shrill peircing cackle.
Kazemon quickly flew over Agunimon, "Agunimon...wake up...please wake up!"
She looked over at the evil eyes once more, they were hungrily looking at
the both of them. "I need DATA!" the eyes now began stalking towards them.
"Agunimon!" called Kazemon again.
Agunimon's eyes stirred awake, "Kazemon...? Wha-"
Kazemon shrieked as the eyes from behind grew hands, hands which now
grasped onto her, away from Agunimon's reach.
"Kazemon!!!" shouted Agmion, he shot upright and readied his attack.
"Pyro darts!"
A blazing row of fiery bolts sparked from his arm. The creature merely
evaded the attack with its extending hands which captured and extinguished
the flames. Agunimon stared after the possibly invincible monster of a
creature, he found himself feeling frantic in finding another way to
attack.
"Data...I need your data!" the monster raged on with its hungry eyes.
" I heard you the first time!" Agunimon irritably spat back him.
The monster rolled its glaring eyes at Agunimon as if he were bored,
though it did stare interestedly at Kazemon: she still lay unconscious to
the ground nearby the ever-growing monster. As it turned to her side trails
of ground below began to dissolve from where the monster once hovered
above.
"You have much data....yes...data..." the monster delightfully spoke
in its shrill and ear-splitting voice as it neared Kazemon.
"You keep away from her!" Agunimon threatened and bared his teeth
angrily, "Pyro darts!" The monster's back swallowed Agunimon's attack whole, no trace of
pain was apparent in the monster's movement but the sign of his growing
increased on the double. The monster advanced further towards Kazemon,
enough so, that he now hovered over her. Its hands extended to Kazemon's
forehead, a glowing of green emitted from a chant that had been muttered
under its breath. A rim of fractal code began to extract from Kazemon's
being.
She had awoken with a start and gasped in fright to what was happening to
her.
Agunimon stared thunderstruck, without any ideas how to counter this
creature's impenetrable body. The only possible idea he had soon thought of
was...his very own brute strength.
Agunimon sped towards the monster with a directed fist to its head--
one swift blow would do it, Agunimon thought confidently. One powerful blow
indeed; the monster staggered to the side and jerked uncomfortably to the
sudden painful wound to its head. As quickly as Agunimon's effective fisted
attack temporarily ceased the monster's advances, the monster also quickly
grew twenty sizes larger than before; stronger as well. The roar from the
monster shook the ground below. The trees were no match for its size.
Kazemon struggled to lift herself up as she sided Agunimon, her wings
feeling quite heavy.
"What is that thing?" gasped Kazemon breathlessly.
"I haven't a clue." Agunimon replied staring after the monster in shock.
"Do we run?" said Kazemon fearfully.
"No. We have to at least slow it down...it might follow us later... when
we'll be too tired to Digivolve." replied Agunimon and clenched his teeth
again.
"All right then." answered Kazemon and gulped inwardly. "Tempest
Twist!"
The attack didn't do as much as tickle the monster. And Kazemon flew a good
distance away from the monster's failing arms.
"We aren't strong enough, Agunimon!" Kazemon yelled to him below.
"Right!" called Agunimon after her. "Slide Evolution!"
Kazemon nodded.
BurningGreymon now joined Zephyrimon in the air.
"If he can take our spirit attacks and not budge... then maybe he
wouldn't be able to take the full throttle of our beast spirit attacks...
if we combine them!" BurningGreymon told Zephyrimon.
"Right!" she nodded, acknowledging his proposal.
"Wildfire Tsunami!" "Hurricane Gale!" they cried out.
A raging swirl of flames and piercing winds erupted from each
Digimon. Another powerful blow to the monsters head had exposed a second
wound. A high-pitched screech had then been sounded from the creature, they
both had to shield their ears from hearing its awful anguished cry. The
blast of both their attacks had finished him, the monstrous creature swayed
to and fro. Though its hungry red eyes still remained intently staring into
their direction. Zephyrimon readied another attack from seeing his apparent
consciousness, but BurningGreymon projected his outstretched arm to stop
her.
"Wha-" she began.
"I think that did it." he interuppted her.
"We should make sure he's completely knocked out, at least!" she protested
back.
" Zephyrimon, he's done." he replied. "Look he's about to collapse!"
"We--need--to--make--sure!" she said fervently.
"No! We need the rest--to conserve our energy for the trip ahead of us." he
said just as firmly as she had.
Zephyrimon scowled at him furiously, leader or not, it would be best
to make sure so there would be no surprise ambush later on if the beast
decided to follow them while they were vulnerable enough. The nerve of him,
arguing right in the middle of a battle--he apparently still had much of
his stubborn, foolhardy and hot-headed attitude from before--
"ARGH!!!" BurningGreymon suddenly shouted.
"Taku--BurningGreymon!" Zephyrimon called out nervously.
The split second in which she had left her attention of any danger
from, had been fatal. The monster had been still alive and had used its
last ounces of spared strength to attack the distracted BurningGreymon.
"NO!" she cried still and in desperation flew to him.
He was being thrashed about by a barrage of burning-blue digital spears.
The infinite number of spears had continued to multiply from the steadily
descending monster. Zephyrimon had been too late to stop the attack from
happening but she had hoped if she streaked down the sky fast enough that
she could, at the very least, safely help BurningGreymon back down. In the
corner of her eye she noticed the monster gradually shrinking in size as
faint fractal code slowly revolving and vanishing along with the creature.
But she focused towards the rapidly falling BurningGreymon, to her nervous
state of mind's terror, he had hit the ground hard--the fiery spears still
pelted down towards him. The aching and tired Digimon began fading back to
Takuya, of whom lay stiff on the ground not aware of the spears just nearly
skimming his skin.
When he had awoken just seconds after-- from his senses tingling of danger--
another flaming spear headed towards him, he rolled to the side narrowly
escaping certain injuries. These spears however, were relentless their were
too many to count and still more of them came.
"Argh!" shouted Takuya, he was hit by a smaller spear still burning
intensely.
He hastily ripped it out, he yelped momentarily to feel the excruciating
pain surge throughout his body as if his very blood had caught fire.
" Takuya!" Zephyrimon finally touching back down to his side, she was
regretfully too late to save him from this incident. "You're wounded--No!
Don't move!"
The winged Digimon returned to her form as Izumi. Her eyes too--had
returned to its original state from before--welled up with stinging tears.
She gasped to see his bleeding shoulder, his shirt was stained with blood
and his goggles thrown askew.
"Takuya...oh, Takuya you're so stupid! I knew we should have made
sure he was completely incapable of hurting us...look what it did to y--
...oh--" she cried and glared at him, her face paled chalk-white.
"Izumi..." he groaned irritably. "Even when a I'm injured...argh! In
pain and lying helplessly on the ground...not to mention..." he winced to
painfully grasping his shoulder, "and not to mention bleeding....You still
insist on nagging...."
His voice trailed off into a raspy whisper. He struggled to lift himself in
an upright position; supported by a tree.
"Oh!" she cried again. "I told you not to move!"
She came closer to his side forcing him to stop moving. Izumi
continued to ramble on how careless he seemed to be in not avoiding the
injury, her voice shook fearfully.
Takuya's mind was elsewhere, his head was spinning, his heart thudded
loudly and his stomach gave a funny churning flip. Soon Izumi's ranting
seemed distant, his eyelids drooped and felt as though they had been
weighed down heavily.
~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Okay, so I made a couple adjustments to all three chapters...just so
it is easier to read and looks more presentable....I hope you enjoy (for
those of have not read yet, I guess ^_^;)
