Chapter 10
"Pipermon..."
Pipermon moaned as half a dozen voices swirled through her mind.
"Pipermon..."
She felt dizzy and weak, a little nauseous. Her head was pounding, she felt like she had been through the spin cycle with a bag full of bricks. She moaned again, and tried to open her eyes as new voices lilted through her brain.
"She moved!" said one. Izumi-san, she thought, a little confused.
"Her eyes twitched!" said another. Jyou-san...
"Is she coming around?" a third asked. Kamiya-san...
She could her them...all of them now...soft and frightened voices. Were they really so worried about HER? She found that a little hard to believe. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she stared up into a pair of dark, anxious eyes. She blinked rapidly, trying to get her bearings back, and her eyes moved from face to face in a horseshoe shape.
Jyou, Mimi, Sora, Izzy, TK, Kari, Tai... She looked at each face, still blinking away the haze of unconsciousness.
"Do you know where you are?" the dark eyes asked. She blinked again.
"The top of the hill, near the Shin'en, last I checked," she said softly.
"Do you know WHO you are?"
Pipermon groaned and ran her hands down her face.
"Not a good follow-up question, Jyou-san," she muttered, "I'm not sure WHO I am anymore..."
Jyou smiled, and his dark eyes brightened.
"Well, if you know who I am, then that's good enough for me," he said with a grin.
Pipermon scanned their faces again. Jyou-san, she counted, Mimi-san, Sora-san, Izumi-san, Takeru-san, Hikari-san, Kamiya-san...but that was only seven! Who was missing? She counted again--one, two, three, four--
"Yamato-san!" she cried, and sat up quickly. Big mistake. The world flashed white, and the trees bent and swayed before her as though she were staring through thick heat distortion. She yelped, and clutched her temples as a searing agony jolted through her head. She pitched to the side, and suddenly felt two hands grip her shoulders as she swayed like a sapling in the wind.
"Easy, Pipermon," Jyou chided. He lay the back of his hand across her forehead. "Your fever's broken," he told her, "but you're not in any shape for shenanigans, I'd say."
"Yamato-san," she repeated weakly, still clutching her temples. She looked up at Jyou, who still had one hand on her shoulder. "Where's Yamato-san?"
"I'm right here, Pipermon," said a soft voice. She glanced up, and sighed with relief as Yamato stepped out from behind a nearby tree, as though he had been waiting for some sort of a cue.
"Yamato-san," she said as the boy knelt down beside his brother. She brushed off Jyou's help and leaned forward, reaching her arm out. Yamato looked down on the ground as Pipermon swept his hair back away from his face and lay her palm over his brow. She smiled. "Cool as a cucumber," she said quietly. "You're all right?"
He avoided her eyes.
"Yeah," he said, fidgeting, "yeah, I'm fine now." He looked at her, and his chest tightened at how pale she suddenly looked. Somehow, it seemed to shock all of them when a digimon--any digimon--was injured. The digimon seemed so invincible...especially in their higher evolutions... When one of their digimon allies was hurt, it was almost like a blow to the heart, like the children themselves had been shot down. "Thanks," he added, almost inaudibly. "Are you...are you gonna...?"
"I'll be fine," she insisted wanly. "This won't last."
"What is it?" Tai asked. "What happened?"
She scowled.
"Something went wrong," she said, gritting her teeth. "Something went terribly wrong. Kurarimon...she knows..." She paused. "She knows I've been helping you, and she knows my power limits. She's trying to dissuade me from helping you further. She knows what I'm capable of, that my magic can, in many cases, counteract hers. She sent this to me as a warning."
"A warning?" Mimi echoed, frowning.
"Yes," Pipermon affirmed, "a warning. A warning to stop..." She didn't finish her sentence. To stop helping you, she added silently. To stop helping you...to stop betraying HER... She sighed hopelessly, then looked up. "Ohmigosh!" she cried, eyes wide. "The sky! Look at where the sun is!" She pointed. "It's so low! What...what TIME is it??"
Jyou looked at his watch.
"It's 4:17 PM," he replied.
"4:17??" she cried, snapping her head toward Jyou. She yelped and flinched at the sudden movement. "4:17?" she asked again, wincing. "I've cost you guys nearly a whole day! How long was I unconscious?"
"About five hours, actually," Izzy said, frowning.
"Ohhhh, man," she groaned, making a face, "way for me to blow any and all chances of making headway today..." She squared her shoulders and moved to get up. "Come on, if we get moving now, we can still--" She let out a yelp and clutched her forehead. Jyou grabbed her shoulders again as she pitched forward.
"I don’t think you're in any condition to get moving anywhere," Jyou chided as she plunked back down on her knees, feeling rather foolish. She looked up at him.
"But--"
"No buts, Pipermon," Jyou said firmly, shaking a finger in the air. He smiled inwardly, he loved it when people actually listened to him. "You're staying right here." He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Look at you, you can't even sit up straight."
Pipermon pouted. She hated to admit it, but he was right. Kurarimon had really gotten her good. She wasn't certain she would be able to go more than a few steps without stumbling. She clenched her fists and grit her teeth.
"Then..." she began slowly, "then go on without me."
"What??"
The collective gasp of shock that arose from the children startled Pipermon, and she looked up at them. TK looked absolutely horrified.
"We'll get lost!" he wailed. "We dunno the way!!"
"It's just a straight shot for the next couple of miles," Pipermon assured them, "just stick to the trail and you'll be fine. I'll catch up when I can."
"If you can afford to catch up with us then we can afford to wait for you," Kari piped up.
"But, Hikari-san--"
"We're not just going to LEAVE you here," Sora said.
"You don't have a choice!" Pipermon said sharply. "You have no choice. You haven't got the time to just sit around and wait for me, you have more important things to take care of right now--" She stopped in mid-sentence when someone grabbed her by the wrist. She spun, and blinked rapidly, a little startled. "Kamiya-san?" she gasped.
"Pipermon," he said seriously, a little surprised himself. He hadn't expected to find her arm so easily, considering his complete inability to see anything at all. "Pipermon, you have to remember," he went on, a sort of desperation in his voice, "this is war, and in war the most important thing you can have is an ally." She inhaled sharply at his words, frowning as he continued, "There is nothing more important than your allies, and if it means falling a day behind schedule to keep that ally, then so be it."
She pulled back.
"Mophead, you just don't understand," she said.
"Mophead??" Yamato snickered. Pipermon shot him a playfully malicious glare, and he immediately fell silent, but she could tell he was trying to stifle more laughter. She turned back to Tai.
"You just don't get it, do you, Kamiya-san?" she sighed, shaking her head. "The enemy is growing stronger with every day that passes by."
"So are we," Tai protested. "And you know what?" She looked at him. "We'll be even stronger if you're with us."
She sucked in another sharp breath and held it for a moment before letting it out in a gusty sigh.
"All right, all right," she said, "you win." She smiled. "I guess you guys have earned a day off, anyway." She paused. "We should head back to camp, though," she added after a moment, "we don't want to be on the Shin'en come nightfall."
The children agreed, and a few of them started forward, back toward camp, their digimon in tow. Yamato hesitated a minute, then hurried over to Pipermon and slung her left arm around his shoulders.
"Yamato-san?" she queried as he lifted her from the ground. He smiled his rakish smile, his blue eyes sparkling.
"I hope I didn't hurt you," he said softly. "The others tell me I punched you..."
She laughed.
"No, I'm fine, Yamato-san," she promised him. She looked at him sideways. "Although you might consider trying out for your school's boxing team," she added, "that's a mean right hook you've got there..."
When the group arrived back at the campsite, Pipermon sat down on a log near one of the tents, thanking Yamato for his help. She watched as the children set to the task of re-lighting the campfire. Agumon spouted a well-aimed Pepper Breath fireball, and the fire flared to life. She grinned as Yamato leaned down near the fire and blew at its base, the embers glowing a bright neon orange. The fire sparked and popped. He yelped as a spark shot out of the fire toward him, and Pipermon laughed when he stumbled back and ran into Gabumon, the both of them pitching backward until they were sprawled in a tangled heap near the fire.
She couldn't believe how things had come full-circle--how she had risked her own safety to help the children who were supposed to be her enemies, and how they had, in turn, put their journey on hold to help her. They had waited by her side for five hours while Kurarimon's poisonous mind games had crept their way through her thoughts. She sighed. No one had ever really cared enough about what happened to her to do ANYTHING like that before... What was it about these children? she wondered to herself for the millionth time. What made them so special? She couldn't quite put her finger on it. She knew it was more than just the fact that they were digidestined...or maybe that was ALL it was...perhaps the children chosen to be digidestined were a special breed, she thought. It didn't really matter, though, she told herself. All that mattered for now was that they were all okay.
She turned when she heard a soft cough from behind her, and her expression turned to one of concern when she saw Tai seated near the fire, his knees drawn up to his chest. He looked so small, with his chin resting on his knees like that. In the dusky purple vespers of twilight, the golden flames from the campfire cast eerie shadows across Tai's face, but Pipermon could see the weariness in his sightless eyes. She frowned, and slowly got to her feet. She carefully walked over to him, still not entirely sure of her own footing, and sat down on her knees on the ground beside him, looking at his profile.
"Still don't feel so hot, ne?" she asked him, and he jumped, a little startled. She knit her brow. "Still feeling tired?"
He frowned.
"I dunno what it is," he said honestly, shaking his head, "usually I'm just a ball of energy...most of the time I feel like I could just go for days and days and never get tired..."
"But...?"
"But not this time," he told her, turning his head. She winced at his monochrome eyes. "This time...I feel downright lousy," he went on, setting his chin back on his knees. Pipermon frowned at the bitterness in his voice. She knew, from the moment she had first laid eyes on this boy, that he wasn’t one to go down quietly. She could tell by the way he had carried himself, even in the situation he was in, blind and reliant on the others around him, that he was ardently independent...even when he was in no condition to be striking off on his own. The fact that something he couldn't identify was seeming to drain the energy from his body was tearing him apart inside. He hated it, she could see it in his face, he wanted to know what it was...and how to stop it. He despised the fact that he wasn't in control of what was happening, and made no attempt to hide that. Pipermon wished she could have given him the answers he so desperately sought after. Then she thought of something.
"Mophead, give me your hands," she said quickly.
He blinked, and lifted his head, turning to her.
"My hands?"
"Yes," she said with a nod, and barely noticed when Agumon came over to see what was going on. Tai did as she said, a little perplexed, holding his hands out in front of him. Pipermon clasped her fingers over his wrists, closing her eyes, concentrating. Sora and Biyomon followed Agumon over toward Tai, and soon the entire group had gathered, like they had so many times before, around Pipermon to marvel at the magic that was so second nature to her.
With a soft gasp, Pipermon drew back quickly.
Damn you, Kurarimon, she thought, wincing. Damn you... She shook her head quickly. No way, she added silently, you won't take this one without a fight...
"What is it?" Tai asked, a little worried by Pipermon's startled gasp. Pipermon didn't even try to be tactful about it.
"She got you, too," she said softly, more to herself than anyone else. "Kurarimon got you, too... Dammit!"
Agumon stepped up beside Tai.
"What's going on?" the digimon asked, frowning at the scowl on Pipermon's face. Pipermon didn't reply immediately, rather she turned to Jyou.
"Jyou-san," she said, "you're a doctor...did you examine Kamiya-san's eyes at all before you left your world?"
Jyou nodded.
"Yes, I did," he said, "and Izzy scanned a line drawing of his eyes into his computer. Why?"
"You found a black lens, didn't you?" Pipermon asked, narrowing her eyes. She looked at Koushiro.
Izzy looked startled.
"Yeah, we did," he said, "there was a sort of black film in his eyes!"
Pipermon let out a sound very much like a growl and stood up.
"So, she got you, too," she said to Tai. She hesitated. "Damn her anyway, but she hit you with a double whammy."
"Define 'whammy'," Tai said.
Pipermon looked at the children.
"Not only did she blind you, Kamiya-san," she said, "Kurarimon poisoned you."
All of a sudden, Tai looked a tad green around the gills.
"Poisoned?" he queried meekly, suddenly feeling rather ill.
"That black lens has nothing to do with your inability to see, Kamiya-san," Pipermon told him, an angry note in her voice. "It isn't causing the blindness at all."
"Whaddya mean?" Sora asked.
Pipermon knit her brow.
"You humans are such a peculiar species," she said. "Somehow, you got this weird notion that everything that happens must have some sort of logical explanation."
"So the black lens is there for an explanation??" Izzy cried. "Isn't that an awful lot of trouble to go through for a mere justification of his condition??"
"No, it's more than that," Pipermon explained, "Kurarimon's smarter than that, she wouldn't have wasted her time if that's all it was. Though that black film isn't to blame for your blindness, Kamiya-san, it IS to blame for your present condition. It's just...sucking all your energy away."
Tai blinked and swallowed hard.
"Uh...that...can't be good..." he muttered, and Kari clutched his arm.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" she cried. Pipermon shook her head.
"Not you," she said, "but there's something I can do." She took Tai's wrist. He quickly jerked away.
"No way, Pipermon," he said, "you're in bad enough shape as it is. There’s no way you're using that spell on me and taking this on, too."
She was startled at his concern.
"That's sweet of you, Kamiya-san," she said, her face breaking into a smile. "Not to worry, though," she went on, "I'd be using a different spell than the one I used before, this one of no consequence to my health. The black film in the eye is a secondary magic, she used the real stuff to blind you. The dark lens in your eyes, Kamiya-san...that's just small potatoes."
"Small potatoes, ey?" Jyou asked, amused.
"You're sure?" Tai prodded. Pipermon laughed.
"Trust me, I'm sure," she replied, and took his wrists again. She positioned his hands so that his palm were against hers, as though they were playing pat-a-cake. The children and their digimon watched intently as Pipermon closed her eyes and whispered softly,
"O-Kuni-Nushi's Silver!"
She snapped her eyes open and clasped her fingers around Tai's. A silvery light glowed between their hands, then zoomed like lightning up Tai's arms and exploded all around him. A black mist rose from his body as the light faded and he slumped forward with a soft groan.
"Tai!" Kari yelped as Pipermon caught him by the shoulders.
Tai shook his head quickly, as though trying to clear it. He blinked rapidly, then raised his hand to his forehead.
"What...what happened?" he asked. "I don't...I don't FEEL any different..."
Pipermon let go of his shoulders as he regained his composure and sat down indian-style, his hands resting on his ankles.
"You won't feel the effects of the spell tonight," she told him, "but, come morning, you should be good as new."
"What...what about his eyes?" Sora asked after a moment of silence. She sounded worried and hopeful at the same time. "Will they be fixed, too?"
Pipermon grimaced.
"That, unfortunately, is beyond my power," she explained. The children frowned, having believed that their newfound ally was capable of near about anything.
"Whaddya mean?" TK asked.
"Why isn't it within your power?" Kari added.
Pipermon fidgeted.
"Because she did more than just blind him," she said, "she stole his sight away."
"Stole it away?" Tai echoed, flabbergasted.
Pipermon nodded.
"Yes," she affirmed, "Kurarimon stole it, and until we are able to retrieve it from her, Kamiya-san, your vision cannot be restored." She frowned. "In order to heal your eyes, Kamiya-san, you must first defeat Kurarimon."
"B-b-but that's just not POSSIBLE!" Jyou shouted. "How can you STEAL somebody's VISION, for crying out loud?? Vision isn't a tangible object one can just pilfer!"
"She MADE it tangible," Pipermon explained. "She used her magic to make it tactile so she could steal it away." She fisted her hands in anger. "I don't know how she does it," she admitted, "her powers are phenomenal. I can counteract most of her magic with my own..."--she hesitated, and looked at Tai--"but without the physical manifestation of your vision, Kamiya-san...without taking back what she stole from you..." She relaxed her hands. "I cannot heal your eyes, Kamiya-san, without first having your vision in my possession to return it to you..."
Tai looked toward her with his sightless eyes, and he wished he could see her. Even if it was only once, only for a second, he wished he could see her. She had done so much for him...for ALL of them...and he couldn't even see her face. She had saved them all from a dozen different disasters...and he didn't even know what color her eyes were... She had put herself in danger of dying to save his best friend's life, and he didn't even know what she looked like.
"It's all right, Pipermon," he said slowly, "it isn't your fault."
She was glad he couldn't see her wince.
That's just it, Kamiya-san, she thought as a knot of guilt tied itself in her stomach, it IS my fault...
Yamato frowned.
"Pipermon, I'm curious," he said, a hint of suspicion creeping into his voice. "How do you know so much about Kurarimon and her powers?"
Pipermon thought quickly.
"This forest is her creation," she said, looking at Yamato, "she forged this forest entirely from her own magic. In doing that, she left a signature, if you will. There is a residual power signature left behind for long after the magic is used. Hers is a very strong contrail of magic...this forest has been here for over two years, and the power signature is still very, very apparent." She paused dramatically. "That was some really powerful stuff she used, to still leave traces of it behind after two years."
"But...how did you know how she blinded Tai?" he went on, still not entirely convinced.
"I'm familiar with the spell," she fudged. It wasn't a TOTAL lie...she justified to herself. She WAS familiar with the spell...just not how she was letting on... Oh, she HATED deceiving them like this...but...it was the only way...wasn't it? She shook her head quickly, forcing the thoughts from her mind. "I'm familiar with the type of magic she uses to get into your minds...it's a stronger magic than my own, so I cannot counteract it...I can't override her power and restore his vision unless I have the tangible vision in my hands to return it to him." She hesitated, and thought of something. "But now that Kamiya-san has been healed of the dark energy, Agumon should be able to digivolve again."
"Really?" Tai asked. He fished out his digivice and held it in front of him. "Is it glowing?"
"Like a firefly," Kari said happily, with a squeak of elation. "Oh, Tai, it's glowing just like the rest of them now!" She laughed and threw her arms around his shoulders.
"All right!" he shouted, pumping his fist into the air. "So that means the black lens isn't in my eyes anymore, right?" he asked. Pipermon nodded.
"Yes, the dark films are no longer blocking the light in your eyes, Kamiya-san," she said sadly. "Unfortunately, that was never really the problem."
He seemed unfazed.
"Hey, it's okay," he said, sensing the distress in her voice. He smiled. "You did all you could."
She winced again, clenching her fists.
"Yeah..." she said quietly.
"So," he went on, "how do we beat Kurarimon?"
She snapped her head up.
"I'm sorry?" she asked.
"You know so much about her," Yamato said, frowning. "If you know all about her powers, can't you then also sense what her weaknesses are?"
"Yeah," Tai said, getting to his feet, "what level is she at? Should I hit her with Wargreymon or should Yama go with Metalgarurumon?"
Pipermon hesitated, and her breath caught in her throat. What could she say? Should she lie to them and say she didn't know? Or should she tell them the truth and betray Kurarimon? A thousand questions raced through her mind at a million miles per hour, and she couldn't figure out which ones were the right ones to answer.
"Pipermon?" Yamato asked after a second of silence. "Which one, Pipermon? Wargreymon, or Metalgarurumon?"
Pipermon grit her teeth.
"Neither."
"NEITHER??"
The children all gasped at her reply.
"Whaddya mean 'neither'?" Sora cried.
Pipermon sighed.
"It doesn't matter how strong your digimon are, they will never be able to harm her significantly," she said. "Kurarimon is a Mega digimon herself, of a type of digimon stronger and more powerful than anything you've ever faced before. Besides, she has a resistance to physical attacks."
"A resistance?" Jyou asked. "You mean like an immunity?"
"Something like that," she answered.
"How can that be?" he prodded. "How can someone have a resistance to getting beat up? I'm so confused..."
"It's not important," Pipermon said. "All you need to know is that, as long as you fight with your digimon...you cannot win."
"So what do you suggest, thumb-wrestling?" Tai snapped. Pipermon shook her head.
"You're not listening..." she said. "Most of her attacks--the most devastating ones, anyway--are psychological ones."
"Psychological..." Yamato said. "Meaning what?"
Pipermon frowned.
"Kamiya-san, Sora-san, Yamato-san," she said, "you all had the same dream, did you not?" They nodded. She set her jaw. "That is one of Kurarimon's most powerful attacks...the Black Phantasm attack."
Tai's jaw slackened.
"Black..." he breathed, and his voice trailed off.
"Phantasm...?" Yamato finished for him.
"The dreams frightened you, ne?" she asked, and again, they nodded. "That's how she hurts you, that's how the spell works. A human being's brain is at its weakest and most vulnerable when it is asleep, and a human's body when it is tired or frightened. In your fear, the three of you were weakened, and that's how she got into your heads and caused you to be sick. The headache...the fever...the fatigue, the blindness...she did it all..." Pipermon lowered her head, feeling angry and ashamed at the same time. Then she thought of something, and looked up. "It also seems that she likes to toy with you...it's almost like she's teasing you...testing you...seeing if you can keep up with her game."
"What do you mean?" Yamato asked.
"Who was in front of you, Yama?" Sora asked. "In the dream...in the dream you had...who was running right in front of you?"
Yamato blinked.
"In...front of me?" he asked. "But...what are you talking about?"
"In front of you, Yama," Tai reiterated. "I had the dream first, the night before I..."--he paused, grimaced, and inhaled sharply--"the night before I lost my sight. Sora was running right in front of me. The next night, Sora had the same dream."
"And in the one I had," Sora said with a frown, "YOU were running right in front of ME...and then the dream got you..."
"We saw a sort of pattern forming, Yamato-san," Pipermon said, "we think the order is in the dreams...so whoever was in front of YOU...will most likely be the next one to be hit."
Yamato paled.
"You...you really...think so...?" he asked, looking ill. The group nodded, and Yamato clenched his fists and glared at the ground.
"Yamato-san?" Pipermon said softly, getting slowly to her feet. "Yamato-san, what's wrong?"
"Who was it, Yamato?" Mimi questioned.
He avoided their eyes.
"I...don't remember," he said haltingly. Tai's jaw fell open.
"Yamato," he cried, "whaddya mean?? You HAVE to remember! This is a matter of life and death!"
"We have to know, Yamato," Izzy said. "We need to know who was in front of you so we can protect that person from Kurarimon's spell."
"Yamato-san," Pipermon said firmly, approaching him on shaky legs. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently. "Yamato-san, you MUST remember..." She suddenly felt dizzy, and fell quickly to her knees, her hand to her forehead. Brushing Jyou's help away, she glared up at Yamato. "Please...THINK, Yamato-san," she implored. "You have to try and remember...we HAVE to know!"
He grit his teeth and refused to look at them. He couldn’t believe that...he couldn't believe that the order was foretold in the dreams...he WOULDN'T believe it.
"Yamato-san!!" Pipermon cried desperately.
"It's TK!" Yamato shouted. There was agony in his voice, and he staggered backward the second he had spoken, as though the very act of speaking those words had exhausted him.
The group stopped and stood deathly still. It was like time had frozen...no one moved. All eyes were trained on Yamato, who suddenly dropped hard to his knees, his hands fisted tightly at his sides.
"TK," he said again, his voice cracking, "it was TK who was in front of me..." He looked up at his little brother, tears glittering in his blue eyes. "TK... TK will be...next..."
Bwaahahaahha!! And I leave you with a NEW cliffhanger! Hah! I love this! You better review it, too! ~_^ V Sugoi, this is
so much fun... }:D
~~hikari
PS: "Sugoi" means awesome. ;) Oh, and "O-Kuni-Nushi" is the Japanese god of sorcery and medicine. Just a little
Japanese mythology lesson. Ja ne!
