Chapter Text
Miyako woke to the sounds of cursing. Her eyes fluttered open at the dull thump that followed. Unfamiliar constellations twinkled back down at her from an inky sky.
“Come on, Taichi. It’ll be alright,” Agumon said, barely audible over the crackling of the fire. “Don’t give up.”
“This is a wild goose chase,” Taichi hissed.
“We’ll figure something out. We’ll find them.”
“Yeah? How?
Miyako squeezed her eyes shut, hoping against hope that she would fall back to sleep. The Digital World was so creepy at night. She preferred to experience as little of it as possible.
“It’s just the dark. Things will seem better in the morning. We can talk to the others and make a new plan…”
“It’s not going to make any difference,” Taichi said. “How the hell does Gennai expect us to track anyone with these useless things?”
Something small went tumbling through the grass.
“They have what? A kilometer range? What a joke. We’re searching an entire continent.”
“Taichi…”
Miyako rolled onto her back. The moon glitched when she sought it out. Full- A crescent- Waning gibbous- Back to full. Goosebumps raised up and down her arms and she sat up quickly, hugging her knees.
Hawkmon trilled in his sleep, his beak pressed to her hip. She stroked his feathers and focused on the downy feeling beneath her fingers, attempting to settle her twisting insides. She was only somewhat successful.
Taichi wasn’t saying anything she hadn’t thought herself over the last few weeks, but it was a little disheartening to hear it coming from their oldest team member. Not that he’d ever been much of a reassuring presence. Still, it would be nice if he pretended. For their sake.
Miyako missed Mantarou.
She missed his goofy smile, and the way he used to let her crawl into bed with him when she was small and scared of thunderstorms. She missed how he never got mad at her for getting worked up about trivial things. When her parents and sisters grew exasperated with her, he laughed and said she was passionate.
When she was in kindergarten, she’d jumped him for snatching the last slice of cake when she wasn’t looking. He’d wrestled with her and told her she was scrappy. He’d said it like it was a good thing.
Miyako rubbed a thumb over her crest. It sat heavy on the end of its string, dormant.
Tenacity.
Was that what he’d meant?
How was she supposed to channel that now? It was hard to feel scrappy when she had been thrown into a dying world and told to do the impossible.
Okay, that was a little dramatic.
Miyako sighed, putting her glasses on. Sleep was not coming back to her tonight.
Palmon stirred when she got up, lifting her head and humming a sleepy question. “Miyako? Everything okay?”
Miyako crouched and patted her. “I’m alright. You get some rest. Thanks for checking on me.”
“You’re welcome…” Palmon sunk back into the grass and nodded back off immediately.
Miyako was jealous.
She stretched her arms over her head and headed to the fire. Agumon perked up at seeing her approach, wiggling his claws at her. She gave him a weak smile.
Taichi stood a few feet behind his partner, staring out into the night. He didn’t turn around until she plopped down on a log and announced her presence with a loud yawn.
“Hey, uh, can’t sleep?” he said.
“You woke me up.”
“Oh.”
Miyako waited for an apology and didn’t get one. Nice.
Taichi took one last look out at the dark, rolling hills and sat down, arms propped on his knees. He frowned at the fire. He looked more troubled than usual but Miyako was too tired to play nice and ask what his problem was.
Agumon fished around in the grass at the edge of the firelight. He made a noise of success and hurried back, offering Taichi his digivice. Taichi didn’t take it. Didn’t acknowledge him. Agumon sat down and held it in both paws, his head drooping.
Miyako felt bad for him. She adjusted herself on the log, bark snagging at her clothes. Irritation bubbled in her stomach. She missed being comfortable. She missed the hum of cars and trains passing her apartment. There weren’t even crickets or other night bugs here.
The dark was silent.
Movement in the distance made Miyako stiffen. A wide swath of pixels rolled over the landscape toward them like a silent wave. She held her breath as it bore down on them.
The nothingness of the pixels rippling beneath her was unnerving. Grass, pixels, and grass again. Miyako couldn’t feel the difference. It always felt like it should come with some noise. An earthquakey rumble or static. Sometimes it seemed like she could feel a tingle as the waves passed, but she was never sure she wasn’t just imagining it.
The glitching was always worse at night.
The fire popped and Miyako jumped hard.
“Do you think the Pillar kids ever feel intimidated by their crests? Like they don’t really… match?” she blurted out. Her crest was back in her hands. She twirled the necklace until it grew tight, and then the other way.
Taichi chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Probably more than us.”
Miyako disagreed and it showed.
“They’re the ones that are supposed to be saving the world,” he said before she could argue.
“But we’re supposed to save them,” Miyako stressed. She let go of her crest, growing agitated at his apparent calm. “It’s so much pressure! And I- ugh.”
“We’re just the backup team,” Taichi said, glancing at her and then back at the dancing flames. “If these Pillar kids have all this legendary power and they’re having a tough time, who can honestly expect us to be able to do anything?”
“You seemed pretty pissed a minute ago.” Miyako felt a little petty. “I think you’re just mad because Iori’s the only one who’s activated his crest.”
Taichi scowled. “I think you have a big mouth.”
“Like you’re the first person to say that,” Miyako said, barely resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at him. “And if I’m wrong, please enlighten me. What’s got you so peeved that you’re stomping around at three in the morning? You woke me up. I deserve an answer.”
Taichi crossed his arms and leaned away from her, ever subtle. “It’s none of your business.”
Miyako threw her hands up. “We’re supposed to work together, you know. Last time I checked we were on the same team. But, fine. Sure. Be a jerk.”
Agumon put a paw on Taichi’s leg, eyes pleading. “Taichi…”
Taichi’s knuckles were white, gripping his own sleeves so tight it looked like it hurt.
“Why are you people talking in the middle of the night?” Mimi’s voice rang through the campsite, thick with sleep.
She was sitting upright in her bed of leaves and glaring heatedly at them. The fire cradled her face with flickering light. She was grumpy, half asleep, and still completely gorgeous. Miyako tried not to swoon.
“Sorry,” she called in a whisper, her cheeks blazing. Her voice squeaked. “We’ll keep it down.”
“You better,” Mimi slurred. “I already did my watch. A girl needs her beauty sleep.”
She lay back down and threw her arm over her face. And then she started snoring.
“She’s so pretty when she’s angry,” Miyako said dreamily, and unfortunately, very much out loud.
Taichi looked at her like she had said something disturbing. He scooted away from her on the log.
“Oh, shut up,” Miyako said, covering her face. “Anyway! You were saying?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Yeah, and that’s the problem. You say you don’t care, and you say, ‘How are we supposed to do anything?’ but you’re trying harder than anybody else here.” Miyako stared him down.
Taichi held the eye contact for a long time. He finally looked down, lips pressed together. “Maybe I just need a win.”
“What does that mean-”
“Cool that you’re up now, though. You were next anyway. Night.”
Taichi got up and walked away from her with no more than a lazy wave over his shoulder. Agumon’s head swung back and forth between them and ultimately ran after Taichi, his digivice still clutched tight.
“Taichi! Taichi!” Miyako whispered at the top of her lungs.
Nothing.
Miyako bit back a frustrated screech and spent her watch strangling him in her mind.
Miyako had never played a team sport beyond the activities she participated in during gym class. Computer Club was social, and while there were occasional cooperative videogame events, that was by no means enough practice for being on a team with the least cooperative humans on the planet.
Thank god she already knew and liked Iori, because otherwise she might have already combusted. He could be a little stiff, and still saw the world in terms of black and white, but he was also proving himself to be steadfast, and reliable, and the only one capable of keeping his head when things got heated.
“This way,” Taichi said, stalking away through the trees.
“You’re not getting me in there!” Mimi scoffed. “All that tall grass is going to go right up my skirt. I’m staying by the river.”
“Taichi, wait up!” Agumon called.
“Ugh, why? Because Miss Priss decided to wear a miniskirt on a hike?”
“Hey!” Palmon said.
“You know none of us decided anything, Taichi!” Miyako said. “Back off, alright?”
“Thank you, Miyako. Come on.” Mimi snatched up her hand and tugged her away.
“Mimi, no...” Miyako said, digging her heels in. “We’re just going to end up at the waterfall we fell down.”
Taichi groaned. “See? You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We should go back to the Pagumon village,” Miyako said, well aware that the other two wouldn’t listen to her. She had to try anyway. “They were acting so weird. I still think they knew something they weren’t telling us.”
“We should vote,” Mimi said, sticking her nose up.
“Not if you get a vote,” Taichi said.
“It’s not going to work if you all have a different idea…” Armadimon said weakly.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do just because you’re oldest, Taichi!” Mimi said. “You’re hardly a Digital World expert.”
“Mimi…”
“Fine. Don’t come with me.”
“Oh dear, he’s leaving again,” Hawkmon said.
“Taichi!” Agumon held onto the back of Taichi’s shirt and tried to drag him to a stop.
“Would you knock it off?” Iori marched into the middle of them. “You’re all acting like you’re five years old. Taichi, you’re going to walk straight into the swamp. Mimi, Miyako is right. That’s the way we came. If we want to go North like Gennai said, we need to go that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction they’d both been heading.
Thank god for Iori.
Tenacity, Miyako learned, meant bouncing back from group implosions on the daily. It meant out-stubborning the three most stubborn people she had ever met. It meant out-tantruming Mimi when all else failed and Miyako needed to get everyone’s heads out of their asses long enough to remind them that there were lives on the line.
It meant being the cheerleader their team needed, even when she barely believed her own words.
Being tenacious meant she didn’t hesitate when the digimon they had been about to get a lead from was snatched up by a Velgrmon. The others were entangled in a battle on the ground. It was just her.
Miyako gathered every shred of Mantarou’s beloved scrappiness within her and leaned into the wind.
“After him, Aquilamon!”
“Hold on tight!”
Raw, salty air burned Miyako’s eyes. She squinted through her lashes and laid low over her partner’s neck. The trees flashing by turned into a blur. Cold red rays of the sunset strobed across her face.
They were catching up. Miyako’s heart pounded. Aquilamon was fast, and flying with him was every bit as invigorating as it was terrifying.
Dobermon and Sangloupmon raced along below, baying and barking and working themselves into a frenzy. Dozens of them. Black pixels spread beneath their paws, opening wider like a toothy maw. The Dark Ocean was surging.
It was all the confirmation Miyako needed. Wizarmon would be worth the week it had taken to track him down.
“Faster!” Miyako urged, her stomach swooping.
Wizarmon spotted her.
“Electro Squall!” Lightning struck the Velgrmon out of nowhere and Miyako screamed. The clap of thunder that followed left her ears ringing.
Velgrmon shook Wizarmon mercilessly. Wizarmon endured, conjuring a second bolt of lightning.
It connected, both digimon illuminated by a blinding light.
And then they fell.
“No!”
Aquilamon angled them, and Miyako reached-
Her chilled hand slipped off Aquilamon’s horn.
Gravity took ahold of her even as her fingers cinched around Wizarmon’s cape. Her insides clenched. Her lungs emptied themselves in a silent scream. She plummeted headfirst, the ground approaching at a terrifying rate.
“Miyako!”
Warm light from her crest cut through the taint that came with the Dark Ocean’s denizens. Another burst of light from above threw shadows across the landscape. Wizarmon’s eyes flew open with a gasp. His arms came around Miyako’s waist, and he raised his staff.
They slowed.
Below, the hellhounds yelped and howled. They scattered as the light dimmed and a magnificent golden eagle descended upon them. Miyako’s partner gave an earth-shattering cry.
“Gildemon!”
Miyako stared. She was barely aware that they were reaching the ground. Her knees were too shaky to hold her weight. She folded, a hysterical sound stuck in her throat. She’d done it. Hawkmon reached Perfect.
Wizarmon gripped her shoulders, eyes wide beneath the singed brim of his hat. “You’re a Chosen Child...? I don’t understand.”
“Support team. We- We gotta find them. The Pillars,” Miyako stuttered out. It was hard to focus when she still felt a little bit like she was falling. Was she dizzy? “You- Someone said you knew them.”
Wizarmon sagged, but his grip on her remained firm. “Thank goodness. I don’t know how much longer they can last.”
“Gennai said Hope and Light had been seen around here.”
Wizarmon pulled her close, eyeing the very ground as if it might overhear. He nodded. “Not two days ago. North of the forest. They might have reached the Data Desert by now. They will not cross it. You should not either.”
He smelled of smoke and ozone. Miyako breathed through it and listened.
“Hope is fading. You must convince him to find sanctuary… He may fight you. But without Hope, the others will fail.”
An attack struck the dirt a meter away and showered them in grass and pebbles. Wizarmon sheltered her with his cape. Not all the dogs had fled.
“Thunder Bomb!” Wizarmon swung his staff at the Dobermon and sent it running, yipping and whining.
Miyako swallowed past a lump in her throat. “Gennai told us to take them to the Village of Beginnings,” she said, desperate to make some sense of it all. “How are we supposed to do that? Its unfindable.”
“Did he?” Wizarmon hummed a solemn note. “I wonder…”
Gildemon’s shadow fell over them. “Miyako, look out! Solar Scream!”
The Velgrmon was up.
Miyako clapped her hands to her ears and ducked away from the assault of heat and noise. When she blinked, purple spots danced in her eyes.
The Velgrmon withstood the attack, but only just. It screamed its fury and spun around, whipping Gildemon with its tail. Gildemon veered too late and went crashing to the ground.
He was only down for a moment, but it was one moment too many.
“Zone Deleter!” Velgrmon cried, raising its wings.
Gildemon scrambled. “No!”
“I don’t think so,” Wizarmon said. He put Miyako behind his back as the wind began to rip apart the world around them. “Bolt Break!”
Lightning exploded from his staff, tearing through the Velgrmon in an instant. Wizarmon went to one knee. He kept up the attack until the enemy toppled forward in a puff of dispersing data.
“Woah.”
Wizarmon went to his hands and knees. His staff never hit the ground. It was blackened, bits of it floating away on the breeze.
“Wizarmon?” Miyako asked. Her meager breakfast curdled in her stomach, threatening to come back up. “Hey. Hey, you’re okay, right?”
“Heh. I’ll be right as rain,” he said quietly. He sat back on his knees and turned to her, his eyes dull. “Tell Hikari and Takeru I’ll see them soon. And that I said sorry.”
“No. No, no, no- Don’t say that. Hey!” Miyako steadied him when he wavered.
His hat tipped off his head and vanished.
There was growling in the background. A fireball. Taichi. The others.
Too late.
“Miyako…” Her own partner was behind her, touching his feathered cheek to hers. “Thank you, Wizarmon.”
“Anything for a Chosen Child,” he said with a cough. “It was an honor to meet you, Miyako. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Oh, don’t…”
Miyako’s fingers closed around thin air, data swirling up and into the twilight. She sat, growing cold as the Ocean’s lingering pollution faded and was replaced by the clear chill of night. She felt empty. Hollowed out in both brain and body.
A hand touched her shoulder lightly. It brushed the hair behind her ear with a gentleness that brought tears to her eyes. Smaller fingers threaded through her own, cupped in her lap.
“Damn.” That was Taichi, somewhere to her left.
Everyone was alright.
Except no, they weren’t. They’d seen death before. Had deleted the Dark Ocean digimon before. But those weren’t real digimon. Not really. Conglomerations of corrupted data and human data, they rarely spoke and could not be reasoned with.
“I’m not okay,” Miyako said, shaking her head. Hot tears dripped to her chin and she hiccuped.
Mimi went to her knees and hugged her, murmuring something Miyako couldn’t make out through her hitched sobs.
This was the first death of an ally.
“We’ll make him a grave,” Iori said softly.
“That’s a good idea.” Mimi hummed, rubbing her back. She settled down and guided Miyako half into her lap. “Shh… He chose this. He wanted to protect you,” she said, but she sounded a little choked up herself.
Miyako could only sit and watch while Iori gathered loose soil into a small hill. He placed a circle of stones around it and bowed low.
“Thank you for protecting our friend. We wish you peace.”
Mimi put her hands together in prayer. She dipped her head respectfully. “Thank you, Wizarmon.”
Miyako sniffed. She should bow. She should say thanks. Yet her body would not cooperate. More tears spilled over, and she sought out Taichi, though she was not sure what she wanted from him.
Taichi stared at the grave with his hands in his pockets, his eyes fathomless. The fading light made them look unnaturally dark.
“We should get out of here,” he said tonelessly.
“Oh, give her a minute. Someone died, for goodness sake,” Mimi said.
“No, I know,” Taichi said, and there was an undertone of anxiety in his voice. He turned his head but his eyes were locked on the mound. “But some of the Sangloupmon got away and I really don’t think we want to be hunted down in the dark.”
Miyako hated that he had a point.
“Just let me-” She took off her glasses and wiped her face on her sleeve. Her heart beat painfully in her chest. “I can go, but. One minute.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry, Miyako,” Hawkmon said. He crawled into her lap, clumsy with exhaustion. “I am not used to Gildemon’s maneuverability. I feel terribly at fault for this.”
Miyako shook her head. “You did amazing.”
“Congratulations,” Iori said, the praise at odds with his somber expression.
Miyako ignored her glittering crest. “I’ll be happy later.”
“Take your time.” Mimi kissed the top of her head.
Miyako’s heart did a miserable somersault. She snuggled further into Mimi’s arms, hiding her face in her friend’s neck. It was selfish, but she would treasure this while it lasted.
When they got up, Mimi and Iori didn’t let her go. They held hands all the way to a new campsite and insisted she take the final watch so that she could rest. Taichi agreed. It might have been the first time their group came to a unanimous decision.
Sleep took a while to come to Miyako that night. She curled around Hawkmon and tried not to relive the day. Armadimon and Palmon cuddled on either side of them, and it was a little better. There were voices around the campfire. Hushed, familiar voices. There were no sounds of arguing, nor the brittle air of cold shoulders.
Miyako hated that it took someone dying to unite them, but unite them it had.
She was woken early in the morning for her watch by Iori, and met the dawn with a heart that felt scraped out and over-full at the same time. Miyako breathed deep and let the morning air clear out her mind. The task they had been given no longer felt like a pipe dream. They needed to do their job so this couldn’t happen again. By the time the rest of the group roused, Miyako had been overtaken by a new sense of resolve.
“I know where we have to go,” she said, the words slicing through the mists that had risen with with sun.
The others looked to her, breakfast frozen halfway to their mouths.
“You do?” Taichi said.
At his side, Agumon hopped to his feet, mouth open in excitement.
Mimi patted her face lightly, trying to wake herself up. “Where? Is it close?”
“Wizarmon said that they were up by the Data Desert just a day or two ago. That’s not that far. We can catch up with them.” Probably. Neither Aquilamon nor Gildemon was capable of carrying all four of them.
Iori pulled out his digivice and oriented himself, looking toward the forest. “Did he tell you anything else?”
“Only that we shouldn’t go into the desert itself. And that they’re not doing so hot. Which we already knew, but he made it seem a little… worse.”
A collective grimace ran through the group. Despite it all, Miyako found herself biting back a snort.
Armadimon cocked his head. “Something funny?”
“I kind of want Hikari to be Hope’s name, because Light being named Light is a little… You know?” Miyako said. “Ah, but no, Wizarmon said ‘he’ when he talked about Hope, so I guess Hope is Takeru. If they were going to match crests and names, they should have done it with all of them. I’m sure there’s kids named Kibou. Missed opportunity.”
“It feels almost strange, knowing their names,” Mimi said. “They feel like real kids now.”
Iori nodded. “It does. And that is a weird coincidence if it is one.”
Miyako only distantly heard them speak. Taichi had gone a sickly shade of white and was staring through her with wide eyes ringed with fear.
“What, Taichi…?” she asked warily.
He swallowed. “Her name is Hikari?”
“Why is that bad?”
He didn’t seem to hear her. “Hikari and Takeru and… Oh my god. There were four of them,” Taichi said. His hands were shaking around his digivice. Miyako hadn’t seen him take it out. “I’m so stupid. Of course the police couldn’t find them, they were here. Oh my god.”
“The police?” Mimi breathed.
Miyako’s stomach squirmed. “Wait, wait- Do you know them?”
Taichi shook his head stiffly, like he couldn’t remember how to complete the motion. “Takaishi Takeru. Motomiya Daisuke. And Ichijouji Ken. They went missing August first, 1999.”
“And you know that off the top of your head, because…” Iori sounded like he didn’t want to hear the answer.
Taichi looked unwell. “Because the fourth kid that disappeared- Hikari. She’s my little sister.”
A thick tension descended over the campsite. None of the digimon dared interrupt.
Mimi hugged herself, taking an uncomfortable step towards him. “Taichi… there’s more than one girl named Hikari...”
“Of course there is,” he snapped, breaking out of his trance. “But a Hikari and a Takeru together? That- That’s his name. Takaishi Takeru. It has to be- I’m not remembering it wrong. I had to look at their pictures.” Taichi fisted his hands in his hair, digivice and all. He paced back and forth. “The Pillar kids had to have come from somewhere! I’m such an idiot. I should have figured it out the second we got here!”
He kicked dirt over the dying coals of the fire, suddenly frantic. “We need to- I- We have to go. Now. I can’t believe this. What are you waiting for? Come on!”
“Okay. Okay, Taichi calm down, please.” Miyako hurried after him when he sped away from them. “We believe you. We’ll go. But let's do it right. Taichi.” She got him by the arm and tugged.
He looked down at her with tears brimming in his eyes and Miyako held him tighter.
“You gave me a minute last night. Give me one more,” she begged. “It’ll take a full day to get to the Data Desert. We don’t know if there’s going to be food there. There’s food here. We’ll pack up Mimi’s bag and then we can go. As fast as we can.” She waved her hand behind her and the others jumped into action.
There was a rushed discussion on whose partner would be most practical. None of them were convenient for traveling long distances or being at all inconspicuous.
“I honestly don’t give a shit about that anymore,” Taichi said, his trembling ramping up the longer they stayed in one place. “The whole Dark Ocean could come after us. I don’t care. I’m getting my sister back.”
Discussion over. Ankylomon galloped over the rocky ground, all of them held in place on his back by Palmon’s vines. When Ankylomon was too tired to go on, Togemon took over, carrying them in her hands. It was an uncomfortable day, and yet Miyako couldn’t deny that they’d covered more ground than ever before.
It was hard to convince Taichi to rest for the night.
“Please, I know you’re upset, but all the digimon need to sleep. We can’t afford to wear them out like this,” Mimi said, not unkindly. “We can’t help Hikari if we’re too tired to fight.”
“You don’t get it!” Taichi shouted. “You don’t have a clue! You don’t have siblings. Hikari-” He choked on his words and then blazed on. “She was so little. She was sick. She was sick all the time! I’m supposed to keep her safe. I’m her big brother. I’m supposed to protect her.”
The expression on his face was ruined. Agony.
“Taichi, we can find her.” Agumon squeezed his leg. “I promise.”
“She was sick,” Taichi said, scrubbing his eyes. There were no tears, but his eyes were bloodshot.
“We won’t stop for long,” Iori consoled him. “We all need a snack and then we can get up early and keep going. We’re close. I don’t think she and Takeru are going to travel at night either.”
That last part was more of a guess, but it worked. Taichi sat. He ate. He made sure Agumon ate his fill, and let his partner nod off in his lap. They would leave at first light.
“Do you want to tell us about her?” Iori asked quietly when no one else was brave enough to start a conversation.
Taichi blinked at him. His jaw clenched and he looked down. “Hikari… She was- She’s a good kid. She liked cats. She was always playing with Miko. She was really good at card games, and she had insanely good luck. Used to find money everywhere.” A tear made its way down his face and he didn’t move to wipe it away. “She used to save up all the money she found all year and play at the arcade in the summer, and then- and then give the tickets to a littler kid. She was eight.”
“She sounds like a sweetie pie,” Mimi said.
“She never complained. Ever. Even when she was miserably sick, she would try to cheer me up so I wouldn’t be worried about her. It was maddening,” Taichi said, his voice rough.
Miyako held back, doing what she could not to drown in memories of her siblings. She had never missed them this acutely. She held Hawkmon like a stuffed animal and breathed through her nose evenly. She would not cry. It wasn’t about her.
Taichi picked up a rock beside him and hucked it into the gloom. Grabbed a second and squeezed it. “The police thought she got feverish and walked out the door. I didn’t buy it. She was too sick to go to camp, but she wasn’t that sick. Not that summer.”
“Camp? Wait-” Mimi gasped. “Wait, I knew I knew you! We went to camp together, didn’t we?”
Taichi shrugged. “I don’t know. I was barely there. My mom and dad had me picked up on the second day.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Were the other kids from Hikari’s class?” Iori asked. “I can’t imagine that went unnoticed.”
“The Motomiya kid was from a block over. He wasn’t in her class, but they went to the same school. The other two were in different districts. It took a month for their cases to get connected. The police thought it was a coordinated kidnapping, but there was no evidence of… anything. It was like they just didn’t exist anymore.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “Though I guess they weren’t far off. They just weren’t kidnapped by anyone on Earth.”
Miyako’s brows furrowed. “She’s twelve now? Or thirteen?”
“Thirteen. All of them are.”
The idea of all the Pillar kids being younger than her put a bad taste in Miyako’s mouth. Even knowing they were in need of help, she had built them up in her head to be impressive. That usually meant taller than her.
The picture of them she had created in her mind was being rewritten too fast to catch up with.
“I’m-” Taichi stood abruptly, Agumon in his arms. “I’m going to bed.”
“Goodnight,” Mimi said faintly.
“Goodnight,” Miyako and Iori echoed just as softly.
Once Taichi was far enough from the fire, Mimi turned to them. Her eyes blazed with a trembling determination. She pursed her lips.
“Before the sun is up,” was all she said.
Miyako and Iori nodded.
Dark Ocean digimon data trailed up into the air, thick like glittering smoke. Craters decorated the landscape.
Miyako dismounted Aquilamon and could only stare, at a loss for words, as Mimi jumped Taichi and straddled him. She sat on his stomach and shook him for all he was worth.
“Are you stupid?” she shrieked. “You could have died! How are you going to help Hikari if you’re dead, you idiot? Huh? Did you think about that?”
Taichi tried to roll out from under her, and Mimi didn’t let him. “Well, I can’t be that stupid, because I’m not dead, and neither are you. And look, now we’re all able to reach Perfect. MetalGreymon can fly us the rest of the way. He’s huge.”
Both their crests gleamed bright against their chests, green and orange glows casting wavering shadows over their clothes.
MetalGreymon put his heavy paws on the ground and leaned down until his massive head was only feet from his partner’s face. “Don’t do that again, Taichi,” he said in a voice that rattled Miyako’s bones.
Lilimon clicked her tongue and put her hands on her hips. “I could have protected Mimi on my own, thank you very much.”
“Why is everyone mad at me?” Taichi dug his elbows into the grass and tried to crawl away. “No one got hurt.”
“You threw yourself in front of a missile!” Mimi said at a pitch Miyako had never heard a human reach before.
“I was being Courageous!” Taichi waved his crest at her.
“You have the Crest of Being a Stupid Boy,” Mimi said, swatting it out of his hand. It swung around on its cord and smacked him in the head.
“Ow!”
Mimi got up and brushed imaginary dirt off her knees. She stomped over and put an arm around Iori’s shoulders, steering him away. “Promise me you won’t be like him when you’re older.”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”
“Okay, but it worked…” Taichi said to the sky.
Miyako watched Mimi stalk off, her heart pitter-pattering beneath her ribs.
Wow, she just might love her.
They reached the southern border of the Data Desert before nightfall. Agumon was ready to drop by the time he devolved, and Taichi piggybacked him while they decided where to go from here.
“They can’t be more than a day away,” Iori said, gazing out along the expanse of reddish sand. He shielded his eyes and peered at his digivice. “We made good time.”
“Wizarmon didn’t say anything about where they might be heading?” Mimi asked.
Miyako shook her head. “We didn’t exactly get to have a leisurely chat.”
“If I may suggest an idea,” Hawkmon said, tapping Miyako’s side. “I have been of little use the last few days. Why don’t you and I scout out the area? I’m small enough to be less noticeable.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. They had been sticking close to the ground even with MetalGreymon, afraid to attract the attention of the Dark Ocean’s airborne spies.
“Don’t go too far,” Taichi warned.
Miyako mounted Aquilamon and saluted him. “We’ll be quick.”
Taichi nodded.
Mimi gave her a thumbs-up. “Be careful. You got this.”
Miyako sent her a goofy, pink-cheeked smile and took off.
It felt good to be flying with her own partner again. The others were so bulky. Aquilamon fit just right beneath her. They flew in a rising spiral, the world dropping away and the deep blue sky opening up for them.
Hot desert wind buffeted Miyako’s face, her hair whipping around.
“I’m going higher, Miyako,” Aquilamon called.
Miyako clenched her knees firmer to her partner’s sides, swallowing her nerves. There were no enemies here. There was no reason to fall. It was wonderful to be flying with Aquilamon again, yes, but as he spread his strong wings and caught an updraft, Miyako fought the urge to look down.
She’d never been quite this high.
The Digital World spilled out beneath them, a patchwork of brown and green and desert-red. A dot of grey decorated the far horizon. A city, perhaps? Aquilamon banked, and Miyako caught sight of a stripe of blue to the east. She hadn’t realized they were this close to the coast. The water sparkled, and Miyako repressed a shudder. The Dark Ocean had put her off beaches for a while.
“Do you see anything?” she asked, ignoring the way her words sounded.
She felt the vibration of Aquilamon’s hum all through her body.
“Something doesn’t feel right…” he said, leveling out and pointing them toward a set of low cliffs. “Over there. Do you see that shadow?”
Aquilamon’s eyesight was a hundred times better than hers. Miyako strained to pinpoint what he was talking about.
There was a patch of trees in the distance that was darker than the rest. Miyako leaned down and pointed past Aquilamon’s eye. “That?”
Aquilamon tensed. “That is not a shadow.”
“What?”
As if it had heard her speak, the darkness shifted, spreading and then concentrating among the green of the leaves. Miyako’s stomach swooped when the not-shadow suddenly lifted right out of the forest.
Dark Ocean bats.
Thousands of them.
Miyako recoiled, fear racing ice-cold through her veins. She tugged at Aquilamon’s feathers. “Get us out of here!”
“No, Miyako. Look!”
The swarm swelled outward like a horrible black bubble, and from within burst two bright specks.
Miyako’s digivice trilled.
“We found them? Oh my god, we found them! Aquilamon!”
The lights raced parallel to the desert, away from them.
Aquilamon nosedived, and Miyako screamed. They rushed toward the ground. Toward the rest of the team. Miyako hugged herself to Aquilamon’s neck and shut her eyes, swearing under her breath. All she could hear was the whistle of the wind.
She picked a bad time to open her eyes.
Miyako let out a shrill yelp and Aquilamon pulled up, circling their startled friends.
“What? What’s wrong?” they cried.
“I got them!” She waved her digivice, two dots blinking at the very edge of the screen. “Catch up with me!”
“What?!”
There was no time to waste. Aquilamon exploded into light and Gildemon emerged from it, already ascending again.
The cloud of bats was a smear against the sky. Gildemon aimed for it, accelerating. Faster and faster until Miyako could not distinguish the pounding of his wings from the thunder of her heartbeat.
Now came the hard part.