Chapter 5
"Who's that?" Tai asked as Agumon took his human companion by the arm to push him to his feet.
Agumon hesitated until the new figure stepped into the light of the setting sun. The dinosaur-like digimon gasped in utter shock.
"No, it...it CAN'T be!" he choked out.
"Can't be what?" Tai demanded. "Who is it?"
"It's...it's..." Agumon stammered as Tai pulled the last broken strands of ivy from around his wrists. "It's PIPERMON!"
Kari blinked.
"What's a Pipermon?" she asked, grabbing Tai's wrist again.
"Pipermon is another one of the fourth type of digimon," Agumon told them. "She was created by Piedmon to be his pawn, to do his bidding. She has a fife that she uses to do attacks, and she is also capable of using magic."
"Magic?" Mimi gasped.
"P-P-P-Piedmon??" Jyou cried, leaping back. "This is NOT good!"
Hollymon and Ivymon jumped up in the air, where they hovered like hummingbirds.
"Pipermon, what are YOU doing here?" Hollymon asked cattily.
Pipermon grinned wickedly and narrowed her bright blue eyes.
TK gasped.
"She looks like us!" he said quickly. "Yama-chan, she looks like a human girl!"
Jyou, Yamato, and the others stared at this newcomer in shock.
"I have to agree with your little brother, Yamato," Jyou said, "she DOES look human."
Koushiro made a face.
"Minus that hair..." he muttered.
She wasn't much bigger than the children themselves, maybe a few inches taller than Jyou. She looked about seventeen--er, well, she WOULD have looked about seventeen, had she been human. Her longish two-tone hair was pulled up in two ponytails high on her head, one white, one a pale lavender. Each ponytail had two bells at the base and one at the end, like a jester's cap. Come to think of it, she DID sort of resemble a jester, with her harlequin-like costume. She wore a unitard and skirt, each of two colors, one side indigo, one side a light seafoam green, the colors split down the middle of her body. The sleeves came to points at the back of her hand, and continued down her middle finger. Two tiny bells were tied around her right wrist and her left ankle, and jingled softly like Chinese therapy balls whenever she moved.
Pipermon hovered just above the ground, the confident smirk never leaving her youthful face.
"Why don't you two bunglers pick on somebody your own size?" she asked menacingly. Her voice had a slight accent no one could quite pinpoint.
Hollymon blinked.
"But...they ARE our size," she protested.
Pipermon balked.
"Oh...well, then," she huffed, holding up one hand. A long thin panpipe materialized in her upturned palm. "Then why not pick on somebody TWICE your size? Dance of Swords!"
The little daggers shot out of the end of her fife as she swung her arm forward and around.
"Binding Tendrils!"
"Prickly Heat!"
Pipermon deftly dodged the enemy attacks and shot upward, higher into the air. She paused, about seven feet above the ground, then raised her pipe to her mouth.
"Midnight Lightning!" she shouted, and played a deep, haunting melody into her flute. Crackling purplish lightning blazed from the end of the flute, and she pulled the instrument away from her face, thrusting it forward toward Hollymon and Ivymon. The purple lightning quickly wrapped itself around a very startled Hollymon and Ivymon, rendering the two twin menaces immobile.
"Shame on you two," she chided, "tormenting poor defenseless human children." She sneered. "Well, what have you got to say for yourselves?"
They both stuck out their tongues.
Pipermon was taken aback.
"You're very rude," she scolded. "Perhaps I shall have to teach you some manners."
She swung her arm out again, then quickly raised the flute up over her head, lifting the twins from where they hovered in the air.
"Say sayonara," she taunted, and flicked the end of the fife toward the horizon. The purple bands of lightning tossed the twins like ragdolls up over the treeline and out of sight into the crimson sunset. "Don't forget to write!" she shouted after them, waving, as the purple lightning evaporated, its job complete. Pipermon laughed to herself, then turned back to face the children.
Mimi gripped Sora's shoulder, and TK clung tightly to his brother's arm.
"What's she gonna do to us, Yama-chan?" Takeru asked fearfully. Yamato shook his head slowly, his eyes never moving from Pipermon.
"I'm not sure, TK," he replied, moving his younger sibling behind him, "I'm not sure."
Pipermon blinked her large azure eyes and stared at the group of children. She frowned and gripped her flute with both hands, pulling it up to her chest.
"You all look so frightened and hostile," she said. "Why such unpleasant faces?"
No one said anything, by Yamato took it upon himself to step in front of the rest of the group, standing between Pipermon and the rest of the children. Pipermon lifted one eyebrow.
"What gives?" she asked, placing the end of her flute in one hand and balancing it there for a second. She placed her other hand over the mouthpiece and slowly pressed her hands together until the flute vanished between them. "Did I not just save you from those two hoodlums?"
"Why?" Yamato snarled, narrowing one eye. "So you could get rid of us yourself?"
"What??"
Pipermon stopped levitating and dropped softly back to the ground.
"What are you talking about?"
Koushiro stepped up beside Yamato.
"You ARE one of Piedmon's lackeys,” he said with a frown, "are you not?"
Pipermon rolled her large blue eyes and sighed hopelessly.
"Ohhh, is THAT what this is all about?" she muttered. "Good grief, you guys, you of all people should know that I've retired from that position...were you not the very children who defeated Piedmon?"
"Wha--how did you know that?" Tai demanded, squaring his shoulders. Kari frowned, hoping this wouldn't get too messy. Tai wasn't in any condition to be picking fights.
Pipermon folded her slender arms across her chest.
"You'll find that most digimon can't keep a secret," she said softly. The children blinked. She laughed. "I just figured that since you were the only humans I had ever seen in this world, and one of you has a digimon with him, you must be the famous digidestined children from the real world."
Tai frowned.
"So what do you want?" he asked suspiciously.
Pipermon threw her hands in the air.
"Good grief," she cried, "what IS the digital world coming to? You can't even help somebody out anymore without their expecting to have to reciprocate. Yeesh, it just doesn't pay to be nice anymore..."
Yamato wasn't fooled.
"This is all a very nice charade, Pipermon," he said, "but even if Piedmon HAS been defeated, how do we know your intentions are honorable?"
Pipermon placed one finger on her chin.
"Well, I suppose you don't," she replied with blunt honesty, "but I might be able to prove it to you."
"How so?" Mimi asked, narrowing one eye.
Pipermon lifted off the ground again and crossed her ankles, looking as though she were sitting on an invisible chair in the middle of the air.
"They don't call this the Forest of Illusions for nothing," she told the children. "If you don't know what you're doing--which you obviously don't, walking about with nothing but an Agumon for protection--you could all end up meandering aimlessly through this forest for the rest of your lives."
Koushiro stumbled backward.
"Th-the rest of our LIVES??" he cried incredulously. "Inconceivable! What are you talking about?"
Pipermon set her chin in her hands and rested her elbows on her knees.
"This forest is in a constant state of flux," she answered. "It's always moving, always changing. Even as we speak, the forest is shifting around us."
"But why?" Yamato questioned.
Pipermon straightened up and spread her arms out to her sides.
"The entire forest was created by a new enemy to this world," she said, "they created it as a trap for anyone who might oppose them. Should any digimon show any sign of opposition toward them, they would banish them here, with the hopes that they would be stuck here...forever."
Agumon gasped and whispered to Tai, "That must be why me and the other digimon were sent here. The new enemies must have known that we were the digimon of the digidestined, and figured you would be less a threat to them without your digimon."
Tai grinned.
"But we found you anyway," he said, "so we've foiled them." He winked.
Sora frowned.
"How did they do it?" she asked. "How does this new enemy have the power to keep an entire forest in such an unstable state?"
"If I knew that, Little Girl," Pipermon laughed, "I would have fixed it by now."
"So what makes you such an expert on this Forest of Illusions?" Jyou asked cynically, toying with his glasses.
"I live here," Pipermon replied concisely.
"Mimi lives in New York," Tai muttered, "but that certainly doesn't make her a stock-broker..."
Kari elbowed him.
Pipermon's eyes narrowed at the children's suspicions.
"Fine," she replied, eyeing Tai with a sneer, "if you kids don't want my help"--she dropped to the ground and started to walk away--"that's fine with me. I'll leave you to your own devices." She cracked her knuckles and glanced back over her shoulder. "Oh," she added, "you might want to keep an eye on your visually impaired comrade there." She smiled snidely. "This forest can be very dangerous if you can't see where you're going."
Tai cringed visibly, and Pipermon almost regretted saying such harsh words. She saw Kari's eyes blaze with fury.
"Don't give me such angry eyes, Little One," Pipermon snapped, turning one palm skyward, "I'm merely thinking of his well-being." She turned back to face them. "In this forest, the very directions of North, South, East, and West have no meaning. They can change as quickly as the wind."
She watched as Koushiro dug into his pocket and pulled out a compass.
"Useless, my friend," she said. "A compass will do you no good here. Walking around in this forest is like walking on the inside of a hollow rubber ball floating in a pool of water. No matter which direction you go, or how far you walk, you're never very far from where you started."
Yamato's eyes widened as he watched the needle of Izzy's compass spin uselessly behind the glass crystal. He looked up at Pipermon.
"Well, what would you suggest?" he growled, still wary.
Pipermon tilted her chin and smiled prettily.
"Let me help you," she said, extending one arm. "I know I must have done some awful things while I was under Piedmon's control. For so long after, I wished for nothing more than to atone for those things. There was nothing I wanted more than to make up for the sins of my past and put this wretched reputation behind me,"--she sighed--"but no one would let me. They were all too afraid of me." She pouted. "Guilty by association?" she asked softly, then folded her arms over her chest. "Well, that's not very fair, is it?" She knit her brow.
The children were silent.
Tai lifted his head, still stinging from Pipermon's earlier remark.
"What sort of guarantee do we have that you won't be leading us into some trap?" he asked slowly.
Pipermon frowned, then twitched her nose.
"Well, if I really had it in for you kids," she said with a wink, "don't you think I would have already destroyed you?"
Her words were a little shocking, and the children were all a little taken aback by them, but they rang true. Pipermon was a fully digivolved digimon, in her Ultimate form, and the children, with only Agumon, who was unable to digivolve for some reason, to protect them, would have been easy pickings. She could have defeated them twice over by now without even breaking a sweat.
"Yamato," Tai said softly.
Yama looked up, and walked to where Tai stood.
"Yeah?"
"Whaddya think?" he asked.
Yamato blinked, and looked around. He pointed at himself.
"You're asking ME?"
Tai sighed and ran his hands down his face.
"Well, jeez, don't whack out on me," he whispered fiercely, "if you don't have an opinion--"
"I ALWAYS have an opinion!" Yamato snapped back.
"So voice it," Tai hissed. "For once, I WANT to know what you think! I don't want to make a rash decision that affects everyone when I'm not in the condition to reap the consequences. I don't want to voice my opinions as everyone's when I'm not at a hundred percent, don't you get it?" Yamato was startled by his words. Tai's expression softened. "So I'm asking your advice, Yama," he went on reluctantly, "do you think we should trust her or not?"
Yamato balked. Tai NEVER wanted to know what he thought about a situation. Yamato was suddenly a little humbled when he realized that Tai truly was a leader, even with his sudden handicap. He never stopped thinking of the team and what was best for them. If that meant asking for help from someone he normally wouldn't ask, then so be it.
"I..." Yama stammered. He hesitated. "I don't see that we have much of a choice, Tai" he admitted. "If what she says is true, and this forest is constantly moving, we may end up walking around here till the digital cows come home."
Tai nodded once, and turned back in Pipermon's direction, his hands clenched.
"Pipermon," he said, "we're gonna give you a chance to prove yourself. We'll trust you, for now, to get us out of here."
Pipermon gave a playful salute.
"You won't live to regret it," she replied.
"I don't like the sound of THAT..." Jyou muttered, frowning and looking a little nauseous.
Pipermon rubbed her chin and stared at the group for which she had suddenly been appointed tour guide.
"Well, are you going to tell me who all of you are, or shall I have to guess?" she asked.
The children paused, and Tai squared his shoulders again.
"I'm Taichi Kamiya," he said, "but I usually go by just Tai. This is my sister Hikari,"--he patted Kari's shoulder--"but she usually goes by just Kari." He gestured to the rest of the group. "Yamato Ishida is the tall blond one, and the short blond one is Takeru Takaishi, his little brother. We just call him TK." Pipermon grinned. "Koushiro Izumi--Izzy--is our resident computer wizard," Tai went on as Izzy nodded crisply, "and Jyou Kido is the one with the glasses. And the girls are Sora Takenouchi--she's the redhead--and Mimi Tachikawa."
"Much better," Pipermon said, "I wasn't looking forward to having to shout, 'Hey you!', whenever I wanted to get anyone's attention." She looked at Tai, frowning at his eyes. This wasn't gonna be easy, she thought. She'd never known anyone who was blind before, and she wasn't quite certain how to go about leading a blind person anywhere. She glanced at Kari.
"Hikari-san," she said, turning around and taking a step forward, "keep a hold of your brother's wrist. Yamato-san, Takeru-san, keep to his left, and the rest of you, to his right. That way he's covered from all sides." She paused and glanced over her shoulder. "You'll have to be his eyes. Don't let anyone fall too far behind, this forest gives a whole new meaning to the word 'lost'."
Tai felt his face flush. He wasn't used to being looked after, and he didn't like it. The blindness was frustrating...he could still move, it wasn't like he was bedridden, HE wanted to lead the group to safety, that had always been HIS job. Somehow, being bedridden would have made the blindness easier to deal with. At least then it wouldn't have been so aggravating to have to be watched out for. But when your eyes don't work and everything else does... He sighed. It was hard, because he didn't feel sick, he didn't feel tired...he just couldn't...see. He felt useless, a burden, and scowled down at the ground, letting his thoughts fume silently inside his head.
Pipermon saw his troubled expression, but decided it wasn't her place to get involved.
"Okay everyone," she said, "let's get a move on. We can still cover a mile or two before nightfall."
And so they walked. For over an hour they walked, with Pipermon leading them through the forest, snaking out such a precarious route with so many twists and turns that Izzy was certain they must have been walking in circles.
Mimi let out a gusty sigh.
"Can we take a break?" she asked. "I'm starving..."
"I'm hungry, too," TK piped up.
There was a chorus of voices as the rest of the group admitted that they, too, wouldn't have minded stopping for a quick bite to eat. Pipermon looked back over her shoulder.
"Okay, I guess we can stop here for a little while," she said. "But not for too long, it'll be getting dark soon, and there's still about half a mile to the lake."
"Lake?" Tai asked.
Pipermon nodded.
"There's a lake not too far from here where we can set up camp for the night," she explained, "but I want to make sure we reach it before nightfall."
With a sigh, Mimi plunked down on a log near the side of the path and placed her purse in her lap. She rifled through it and pulled out a large Ziploc bag of steamed rice, still warm. She dug a little deeper into the bag and retrieved several pairs of chopsticks, some matches, and a handful of packets of soy sauce. Pipermon laughed.
"Good grief, Mimi-san, you brought EVERYTHING!" she said, bemused. "I didn't know so much could fit into one little purse, you must have packed everything but the kitchen sink!"
Mimi grinned.
"Well a girl is only as prepared as her purse allows her to be," she said winking.
Pipermon's eyes widened.
"You must be the most prepared girl around..." she said, shaking her head.
Yamato rubbed his hands together and took the bag of rice from Mimi.
"Okay, gang," he said with a grin, "who's up for some of my famous Ishida Riceballs?"
Everyone laughed and took a seat as Yamato started on some riceballs. Pipermon watched in amusement as Yamato rolled the rice into small, palm-sized balls, and handed one to his brother. He tossed one to Sora, then passed one down to Agumon.
"Who wants some soy sauce?" Mimi called, holding up half a dozen of the little plastic packets.
What strange creatures these human children are, Pipermon thought, shaking her head. She jumped up into the air and hovered there for a moment before finding a perch on the branch of a nearby tree where she could watch the children from above.
Sitting beside her brother on a log across the path from the one where Mimi sat, Kari munched slowly on her riceball. Mimi glanced up from her food and looked at Tai intently.
"You know, Tai," she began, but was cut off when Yamato held up a riceball.
"Here, Tai," Yama called, and tossed the food. He nearly choked when he suddenly remembered Tai wouldn't be able to see it to catch it.
"Huh--ACK!"
Tai lifted his head at Yamato's call, and was smacked dead in the forehead with the incoming riceball. He froze, as did everyone else, as the riceball slid down his face and into his open upturned palm.
Mimi slowly blinked her large brown eyes.
"You know, Tai," she said again after a moment, "if this doesn't fix itself, and you wind up being unable to see for the rest of your life...how will you ever know if your socks match your clothes or not?"
Tai plucked a grain of rice from the tip of his nose in a very slow and deliberate manner.
"I mean," Mimi went on obliviously, "that would be, like, totally bad, don't you think?"
"Oh PLEASE, Mimi," Tai growled, throwing the riceball down on the ground.
Mimi jumped.
"What??" she cried, her eyes widening. "All I did was ask you a simple question, is there something wrong with that?"
"YES there is something wrong," Tai shouted, jumping to his feet, "I'm getting food thrown at me and all you care about is whether or not my SOCKS match!!"
"Whoa, whoa, hey," Pipermon said, floating down from the tree. She put her arms out at her sides and stood between Tai and Mimi. "Don't make me separate you two."
Mimi's eyes filled with tears.
"All I said was--"
"We heard what you said, Mimi-san," Pipermon said, forbidding herself to grin at the silliness of it all, "but I think Kamiya-san has more important things to worry about than color-coordination."
Mimi pouted and folded her arms across her chest.
"What could POSSIBLY be more important than that?" she grumbled.
Pipermon frowned and shook her head.
"Friends shouldn't fight," she chided, a hint of guilt creeping into her voice. There was a moment of awkward silence, and then she took a step forward. "Come on, I think we should get moving. The lake isn't too far, we should reach it in another twenty minutes or so."
Yamato placed the three leftover riceballs back in the Ziploc bag to save for later. No one had really had much time to eat anything before the argument broke out...they would eat later, maybe once camp was set up.
Mimi frowned as Kari grabbed Tai by the arm and they started off after Pipermon. Quickly shoving the chopsticks, matches, and the rest of the soy sauce packets into her purse, she jumped up and ran after them, weaving through the rest of the children until she was walking right behind Taichi.
"Tai," she said timidly, grabbing his free arm just below the elbow. He didn't acknowledge. "Tai, I...I'm sorry, I never should have--"
"No, it's okay, Mimi," he replied softly, closing his eyes. "I shouldn't have made such a big deal out of it. I guess I was being al little hypersensitive about it..." He paused. "It's just that...well...sometimes, Mimi, your blunt honesty is a little...TOO blunt." He grinned at her, his famous lopsided grin, and Mimi instantly felt better.
Pipermon glanced behind her out of the corner of her eye and shook her head with a quiet laugh.
Definitely very strange creatures, she thought. Very, very strange indeed.
