Akiko and Muchomon braced themselves as Cheshiremon put them in this illusion eye. Aki wached her digimon mumble something angrily to herself.
Cheshiremon smiled at Muchomon. "Now now, we musn't be grouchy just because of a few illusions." Shintaro continued to watch Derek and David, through the illusions.
Sasha was silent as they watched the twins spar, and frowned, remembering the robed man's test of having her face-off against Rick. Even though they were hidden by Chesiremon's tree illusion, she couldn't help but feel there was someone watching them. Frowning, she looked at her digivice. The black dot that was approaching them had vanished.
As Shintaro and Akiko, along with their digimon, watched Derek fight his twin, David, Sasha couldn't shake the impending doom feeling she was getting. Suddenly, her eyes went blank and pupil-less and looked more like a wax statue.
"Be grateful, Muchomon!" Akiko told her. "Did you realize that one of the two could've killed us?"
Muchomon looked at her partner and nodded.
Shintaro was blissfully unaware of Sasha's weird eye-i-ness. Cheshiremon, devoting his energy to the illusion, didn't notice either.
"Something's coming," Sasha's voice sounded distant, old, and tired. "It's drawn to the illusion of the chesire cat..."
"Don't get any ideas, Muchomon!" Aki warned as Muchomon planned to maim Cheshiremon when she was done saving the world with him. "You'll not attack him!"
Shintaro's eyes widened. "Cheshiremon, take down the illusion!" he told his digimon.
"What?" Cheshiremon replied vaguely.
"Take down the illusion, Sasha says it is attracting something," Shintaro explained.
"Nothing will see us here," Cheshiremon assured him. Shintaro growled.
"Just...take...down...the...illusion!" he growled. Cheshiremon sighed and the tree became an image of purple light, swirling round and round in a whirlwind and back into Cheshiremon's third eye.
"I'm worn out," Cheshiremon muttered.
"Could be the elaborate illusion going back into your eye," Seraphmon supplied. "And I don't think we're going to bother the boy's test over there. We're invisible to him anyway." She hopped onto Sasha's knee and looked at her. "Are you alright?"
Suddenly Sasha's pupils returned to her eyes. "It isn't safe here! Derek's going to be fine on his own! We have to get away from here!" Getting up, her eyes widened seeing a black Birdramon in the distance. "Oh no ..."
Sheathing his sword, Derek ran back past the bridge, than just before David got near the bridge, he sprinted forward, leaping up to grab the side of the bridge, his forward momentum swung his legs forward to kick David and knock his sword away. Quickly landing he grabbed his own blade and back his twin into a corner. The prey becomes predator, he thought as David cowered before him. "Do you like this David?" he hissed, voice enraged. "Do you like crouching before me? Remember me, shoved against the wall while you hit me?" His voice was cold and emotionless. "The positions are switched now... are you having fun, David?" He toyed with the intention of killing his brother. He made my life a living hell... but he's still my brother... my blood kin... He slashed both of David's cheeks with his sword. The cuts were shallow, but there would be scars. "Remember this. Whenever you begin to bully someone, remember how you felt, defenseless, scared, remember that!" he spat, then threw his sword to the ground and stalked off. The illusion of David vanished and the ruined castle was replaced by a steep ravine. A wobbly, narrow plank stretched across the divide.
"Well done. You have completed the first test. You've shone strength and skill as well as brains and compassion."
Compassion? Riiight, Derek thought, rolling his eyes.
"The next test will be a riddle. You will walk across that plank to the middle then you will answer a riddle. Go quickly, after the time limit, the plank will fall."
Uh-oh! Aki said as she and Muchomon saw Derek walk forward. At least he can't see us or he'll get distracted.
"He's another digidestined who's being tested," Muchomon told Aki quietly.
Shintaro saw Derek pass his first test and remembered how he had killed the illusion, therefore failing his second test. How am I supposed to be a digidestined? I failed one of the tests! he thought. I will ask Cheshiremon about it later, when nobody is around to ridicule me. He hid behind a tree to watch Derek's next test.
Akiko and Muchomon continued to watch as Derek headed to the plank. Muchomon didn't have that when I was taking her test.
Cheshiremon turned to Sasha. "Is that thing still coming for us Sasha?" Cheshiremon asked.
Shintaro laughed and shook his head. "It is just a bad feeling, don't take it so seriously, Cheshiremon!" Shintaro chuckled.
Cheshiremon would have raised an eyebrow if he had any. "You told me to lower the illusion," Cheshiremon told him. Shintaro remained quiet.
"...Yes," Sasha interjected into their conversation. "It's still coming."
"How do you know?" Seraphmon questioned, looking at her curiously.
Sasha bit her lip. "It's more than just a bad feeling," she explained, and trailed off as the large, black Birdramon's shadow hovered over the six of them. The Birdramon squawked loudly (Derek was unaffected, as per the test's illusion), and dove down at Shintaro. Suddenly she pushed him out of the way, getting grabbed by the Birdramon's left claw.
"Aki look out!" Muchomon told her as she and Akiko ducked to dodge Black Birdramon's claw. They turned to Sasha.
"What do you think we should do?" Akiko asked. "I'm open for suggestions."
Shintaro turned to Cheshiremon. "Well do something!" he told his digimon.
Cheshiremon shrugged as the Black Birdramon became a black spot upon a cloud. "I can't attack that high," Cheshiremon explained.
"An illusion then!" Shintaro told him.
Cheshiremon shook his head. "We have seen already that that thing is probably immune to illusions and it is attracted to them!" Cheshiremon explained, and Shintaro smiled.
"It is attracted to illusions and too far up for you to attack it, Cheshiremon create an illusion and as soon as it gets close enough to attack then...attack!" Shintaro outlined his plan to Cheshiremon, the grinning cat nodded.
"Illusion Eye!"
"Aki, stay down!" Muchomon shouted as she and Akiko stayed down. "Don't let that Birdramon see us!"
The Birdramon squawked as Aki and Muchomon saw Derek unaffected.
Sasha grimaced as the Birdramon's claw tightened around her waist. Pounding her fists against the rubbery skin wasn't doing much except angering the large black bird further. "Ugh ... didn't they always tell you playing hero always gets you in tight spots?" she muttered to herself. It landed on a cloud, and Sasha blinked. Wouldn't it fall through the cloud? Her eyes widened as she saw the sudden change in the black Birdramon.
It wasn't alive. It was moving, but its body was just an illusion, in reality, it was a rotting horrific carcass. Like something out of a Wes Craven movie. If it was undead, then that would mean it would be weak to curative magic. Sasha then sweatdropped. "This isn't one of my RPG games!" She let out a cry as the Birdramon squawked, gripping her body tighter. "Okay, okay .. I'll shut up .. ow .. jeez ..."
Shintaro's eyes widened as he watched the bird become...undead.
Akiko and Muchomon watched as the Birdramon became undead and continued to attack them.
Even though she hated heights, Sasha forced herself to look down at Shintaro, Akiko, and their digimon. Chesiremon's third eye appeared and it began to glow. Looking up at the Birdramon, its eyes sharply looked downwards to the cat. He's using an illusion to draw it closer...
Seraphmon looked at Chesiremon. "Keep it up. When it comes down here I know what to do!"
"How much longer?!?" Akiko asked Muchomon as Chesiremon worked on his third illusion eye.
Cheshiremon's third eye let off a brilliant purple glow. "We'll just have to wait for the bird to come to us," Shintaro muttered. Cheshiremon strained to continue his illusion.
They didn't have to wait long. Sasha winced as the Birdramon's deterriorating claw seemed intent on crushing her internal organs. The Birdramon squawked and began flying down towards the brilliant purple glow at breakneck speed.
"Attack now!" Cheshiremon called, Shintaro ducked from the bird.
"Tropical Waves!" Muchomon shouted as she attacked Birdramon. "Aki, stay down."
The attacks barely phased the irate bird. Seraphmon's damaged wings spread out and she began glowing a greenish blue colour. "Clear tranquil!" A rather large bubble of healing magic formed around the undead Birdramon. Sounds of intense agony errupted from the bird digimon's beak.
The illusion eye stopped glowing and Cheshiremon slumped to the ground. "Tired," he muttered.
"Cheshiremon!" Muchomon shouted as Aki stayed down. "Ardent Flare!"
The attack hit Birdramon as it sqwaked at her.
Seraphmon kept using her healing magic and two more giant bubbles enveloped the Birdramon. There was a sickening SPLAK sound as it exploded. Sasha, still in the Birdramon's claw, was dropped from a rather high distance, not enough to kill her, mind you, but she hit the grass with a dull thud, covered in the Birdramon's rotting organs. "Lovely..."
Shintaro raised an eyebrow and made no move to help Sasha up. "Rather foolish, pushing me out of the...the...former bird's way wasn't it? I'm sure you see that now you're covered in dead bird," Shintaro chuckled slightly and strolled to one side to find Cheshiremon sleeping.
Akiko got up from the from the ground and came towards Sasha.
"Sasha-san!" Aki yelled as she and Muchomon faced her. "You ok?"
"I see that, and I smell it. And it wasn't foolish," Sasha half-snapped, pushing herself to her feet. Picking off random organs from her shoulders and head, and being half snide, replied, "your response leads me to believe you'd be rather girly about having dead bird organs on you. I've dissected animals for biology! This is grander, but no big."
Seraphmon tugged on her pant leg. "There's a small lake near here. You can clean up there."
Shintaro threw Sasha a look of pure contempt and didn't reply. Cheshiremon was snoring happily and occasionly murmering something like "Come back little fishy!" and "I just want to eat you!" Shintaro sweatdropped.
Akiko snickered at what Sasha said to Shintaro. Muchomon rubbed her head on her partner's leg.
"Let's not start that again!" Muchomon told her. She then turned to Seraphmon. "I'm taking Aki to the lake as well because she's also covered in Birdramon's organs."
"Yup!" Aki said. "But I'm tough about it."
"Good to know," Seraphmon smiled, and turned her head to Shintaro. "I'm not sure myself if we should wake him. He looks so... peaceful." She sweatdropped.
Sasha began walking as she could see the lake in sight. "Well that was fun..."
Shintaro sighed to himself as Aki and Sasha insulted him. To be expected, he told himself. When has anybody acted differently? He walked over to a nearby ridge and watched as Derek did his tests. "Isn't he done yet?" he muttered. Cheshiremon was still asleep.
Muchomon tugged at Akiko's leg and she headed with Sasha to the lake to wash her off.
Sasha pulled her shirt off once they reached the lake. Kneeling down she began washing off the dead bird guts and blood off of it. She then frowned. Did she respond the wrong way to Shintaro's comment? She shook her head. It seems he thinks it's perfectly okay to insult someone and then be "hurt" when they retort? Oh, Sasha, shut up. He must have his own burdens to deal with just like you do.
She was pulled out of her thoughts as Seraphmon commented, "That's a rather lovely picture on your back. What is it?"
Blushing, Sasha nearly forgot about the phoenix tattoo on her back. The large firebird spread its wings majestically, its claws ready to strike on her lower back. "It's a phoenix, the legendary firebird. It may be defeated, but it always rises from the ashes and moves on. I like to think that I could do the same."
Shintaro shook Cheshiremon. "Wake up!" he barked.
Cheshiremon yawned and woke up. "Where are the mice?" Cheshiremon ased, rubbing his eyes.
Shintaro rolled his eyes. "There are no mice!" he told his digimon, and the feline sighed. Shintaro found it impossible to tell his mood because of the giant grin on his face. "I take it you're not too happy?" he guessed, but Cheshiremon was gone chasing a butterfly. Shintaro sweatdropped.
"That's really cool," Aki told Sasha as she pulled off her school uniform to reveal a wolf type on her back. She washed off the remains of the Birdramon's blood off her body and her school t-shirt.
Muchomon looked at wolf-like painting on Aki's back. Should I ask her about it? Muchomon said in her thought.
"I'm more of the wolf type," Aki told Muchomon. "It reminds me 'bout being cunning, smart and passionate towards those I care about."
While Aki and Sasha were washing at the lake, Shintaro and Cheshiremon (who were lucky enough not to get dead Birdramon guts splattered over them) ventured deeper into the forest.
"Lookey lookey!" Cheshiremon called to his tamer. "Fruit!"
Shintaro hurried over. "That's fruit?" he asked incredulously. Cheshiremon nodded and picked one off the tree.
"We can take these back to the group!" Cheshiremon smiled, pleased with himself.
Shintaro's eyebrows shot up into his forehead. "Not the group Cheshiremon, the people who found it, you and me will eat them!" Shintaro grinned.
Sasha smiled a little at Aki's reasoning. "To each their own," she said, wringing out her shirt. She studied the piece of fabric and noticed there was a gash across the stomach. Looking down to her bare stomach, she saw a rather nasty looking cut. Then, it promptly began to sting. "Ow ow ow ...."
Seraphmon's ears flicked as she heard her partner whine in pain. "Do you need me to heal you?" she asked, concerned.
"No, I'm good, actually," Sasha managed, digging around in one of the many pockets on her bondage pants. "Dressing 'street pop' has its advantages." Pulling out a roll of bandage from a larger pocket, she unravelled it a bit. "Aki ... could you do me a favour and help run this around? I could if I had four arms."
Derek gulped then strode out onto the wobbely plank. "Al' right...I'm ready," he said trying to keep his voice calm.
The man recited the riddle.
"Once a peach untainted by gin,
Them maimed by an angel who left his side,
And tortured and torn by blood kin,
Til mutated into a twisted lie.
A monster of rage and sin,
Harder than ice, numb inside,
Only warmed by finding the key,
Lost, time it shall bide.
Look ahead and then you will see,
The answer of this riddle you shall find."
He smiled sinisterly.
Derek repeated the riddle in his head. "Peaches are soft and sweets...and gin is like beer...so once soft and sweet and innocent..." Derek proceded to unscramble each line. "Look ahead and then you will see..." He muttered.
"Time is running out." The man informed him.
Derek looked in front of him and saw, himself. "I know it...I have the answer." His voice cracked slightly. "It's my heart...the answer of the riddle is my heart." Suddenly the plank began to shake and he fell. But instantly the ravine was replaced by a cliff. Derek landed with a dull thud.
"Congratulations. You have shown there is something up in that head of yours." Derek glared at the man. "Now there is just one test left."
"Good," Derek muttered.
Shintaro and Cheshiremon munched on fruits. "Delicious!" Cheshiremon commented, Shintaro nodded and pulled another of the fruits of the large tree.
Sasha winced as she began wrapping the bandage around herself, with Aki helping with the wrapping behind her back. Her stomach growled as she frowned. "We haven't even thought about food yet..."
Muchomon peered in her partner's school bag that she uses for school whatever Muchomon deems to think of it. Aki finished wrapping the bandages off of Sasha, grabbed her lunch box and pulled out a sliced ham and cheese sandwhich.
"I can split my sandwhich with you, Sasha!" Aki said.
"Can I have some too?" Muchomon asked. "Please, Aki."
After eating all the fruit off several trees, nausea started to set in along with dizzyness and sharp pains in the head. "Oh!" Cheshiremon mumbled. "Did I mention, those fruit are poisonous?"
Shintaro turned to stare at him, but another wave of nausea forced him to close his eyes. "You idiot!" he spat before collapsing, unconscious. Cheshiremon followed, but not before staring with concern at his partner.
Cheshiremon shoulda told that baka from the start that those fruits were poisonous, Muchomon shouted in her head as her partner faced him.
"Now for your final test, you will be tried on your courage."
Courage? Hah, yeah right! Derek thought bitterly amused.
"Look in the river below this cliff," the man instructed. Derek looked, and in the raging river he saw a white figure struggling to stay afloat.
"Rescue him."
Derek looked at the man unbelieving what he heard. That was a suicide mission! But still, against his judgement he dove off the cliff. Derek you IDIOT! You stupid brainless idiot, what mess have you gotten into this time! he thought as a uttered a string of incoherent profanities, then plunged into the icy river. Only then did he realize that he couldn't swim. Oh crap. He grabbed onto the little dog-like digimon and pulled himself to shore with the help of the rocks. Dragging himself and the little digimon onto the grassy bank they both coughed up water.
"Spendid you have passed all three tests and are now rewarded with your digimon. Now go meet the group." With that the man and the illusion faded and Derek was back at the mountain.
"Hullo Derek!" the digimon chirped. "I'm Karamon, you digimon!"
"My what?! And how did you know my name?" Derek looked Karamon with shock.
"Your partner, I know every thing about you. You're here with the rest of the digidestined to save the digital world. It's all part of a prophecy."
"Dude, save the world? I can't even keep my room clean! And what's this about a group?!" He looked at his digimon apprehensively.
"There are others working with you, now let's go meet them! Walk towards the colored dots on your digivice."
"My what- oh this." He looked at his digivice. "But wait, I don't wanna meet the others."
"Well too bad, bub. Yer gonna wheather ya like it or not." The sight of the digimon trying to look tough was so comical, Derek had to laugh.
"Alright little man, let's go." Together they approached the group.
Sasha pulled on her shirt and stood up, stretching a little. She had given the sandwich to Seraphmon who looked terribly hungry. In the utter quiet of the field, she heard footsteps and animated chatter. Turning, she saw Karamon and Derek. Oh, he's passed his test already... Brushing her pants off she walked over to him and gave him a little smile. "Hello."
"Muchomon, Cheshiremon and Shintaro have passed out," Akiko said as they saw Sasha and Seraphmon with another boy and Karamon. "Hai! My name's Akiko but I'm called Aki and this is Muchomon."
"Hello Karamon!" Muchomon said, relieved.
"Oh, um, Hullo... I'm Derek, and this is Karamon..." Derek was alittle taken aback by the air of friendliness. How long ago had someone besides his bandmates said a decent word to him? He shrugged the thought away, what did it matter?
"Hiya!" Karamon chirped, then noticicing the boy and Cheshiremon unconcious. "What happened to that fish-head Cheshiremon and his partner? I bet he forgot to mention that some sorta food was poisonous." He rolled his eyes.
"Obviously!" Muchomon agreed with Karamon. "I saw them munching on poisonous berries." She shook her head in disbelief. "They ended up like this."
How long ago has Akiko talked to anyone else besides the students at Kendo class? This boy doesn't seem to trust me. Aki said in thought as she faced Derek. It will take him a while.
"It was like you were here," Seraphmon quipped.
Sasha nudged her digimon with her foot lightly. "Be nice," she warned. Looking back at Derek, she then said, "I'm Sasha. This is Seraphmon. Eh - " She stopped, remembering Aki's words. "Shintaro's still poisoned -- oh no!" She was then horrified. "If we don't do something quick, he'll die or something!"
Seraphmon walked over to Shintaro and Chesiremon. "It's not a bad poison, just some sort of sleeping fruit," she explained. "Clear Tranquil!" The bubbles floated above the two then popped, splashing healing water over them. "Wakey wakey."
"Yeah!" Muchomon said as she faced Shintaro and Cheshiremon. "You forgot to warn him about the berries being poisonous."
Akiko sweatdropped and fell back, anime style.
Cheshiremon and Shintaro bolted up then groaned. They groaned because they were suffering from simultaneous headaches, heartburn and hiccups. Poison berries will do that to you...
Aki and Muchomon shook their heads.
"Cheshiremon, you baka," Muchomon said as her partner looked at the puppy digimon. "You forgot to warn him about the poisonous berries."
"Does anybody have a first aid kit?" Akiko asked Derek and Sasha. "Or at least any kind of medicine."
Cheshiremon narrowed his eyes. "I am not a baka!" he growled. Meanwhile Shintaro was passing the time having a coughing fit.
"Excuse Muchomon," Aki said as she faced the angry Cheshiremon. "I need some medicine for Shintaro."
"Seraphmon said it wasn't poison, I think it's like a simulation of poison.. well that's what Shintaro's body must have interpreted it as," Sasha explained, shrugging a little. "Shintaro, hold on for a second, I'll get you some water."
Seraphmon glanced at Shintaro.
Cheshiremon stared at Karamon for a moment. "Karamon." Cheshiremon grinned. "How have you been?"
Shintaro was ignoring Derek, being much more concerned with his vomiting. "Simulation?" he yelled and vomited again. "Some simulation!"
Aki shook her head as Muchomon narrowed her eyes at Cheshiremon quietly. Derek shouldn't worry about us. I wanna make friends with him and Shintaro, well he's a loner. Aki said in thought. She turned to Sasha.
"I can split a sandwhich with you," Aki said as she held a sandwhich.
Sasha, ever the biology geek, explained further as Seraphmon went off with a little cup that Muchomon found earlier in Akiko's bag. "Look, our bodies are pretty complex, and our nervous system respond to stimuli, right?" She looked to see if they were following. "Well, Shintaro's body, when he ate the fruit, must have interpreted the stimulus given by the fruit's natural chemicals as a type of poison. It's really not, maybe a sleeping type of fruit for the natives here. But to our human body, the fruit is classified by our brain as poison, and that's why Shintaro's vomitting. He should be fine soon."
Aki sweatdropped as Sasha talked biologically as she explained about the reaction.
"Yeah!" Akiko said, confused. "I guess I'm not a biology fan. I failed Biology countless of times."
"Aki, You don't have to get into the details," Muchomon assured her partner.
Shintaro who at the slightest mention of biology became hopelessly confused just blinked at Sasha. Cheshiremon summoned up an illusion of a brain and hovered it in front of a mallet.
"What Sasha is saying Shintaro is that this illusion is your brain," Cheshiremon told his partner and the illusion exploded. "Do you see my point?" Shintaro was mortified.
Aki felt something that resembles cold.
"What was that?" Aki asked as she began to freeze.
Muchomon sensed something wrong and she faced Aki.
"I sense something wrong," Muchomon said as she saw Akiko continue to freeze. "IceDevimon, what is he trying to do to Aki? Kill her."
"Who me?" Karamon asked Cheshiremon.
"Yes you, you little idiot," Derek replied.
"Well I've been doing great! Playing pranks on poor little digimon, but never getting caught, of course. I'm far to innocent looking for that!" He grinned impishly. Derek looked at the little digimon oddly.
"Err...okay..."
"That the cold I felt," Muchomon raged as she faced Karamon. "Quit playing these pranks!"
"Who, me?" He smiled innocently and fluttered his eyelashed. Derek promptly kickes him, though not very hard. He tries to hide behind Derek, and ends up tripping him. Derek fell rather ungracefully into the lake. He stood up and grabbed Karamon, who was hiding behind a rock, by the scruff of his neck. Karamon grinned sheepishly at Derek, who was not amused. "I don't believe I needed a bath."
"Well, in my opinion-" Derek pitched the digimon into the water.
"Bath time!" Akiko said as she and Muchomon splashed Karamon before returning to the tree.
Aki faced Derek as she and Muchomon got out of the pond.
"I don't care what people think of me at times," Akiko said. "I only trust my family and my friends Yuri, Ruki and Makoto. I think at heart you're a really nice guy. But maybe I should leave you alone."
Muchomon looked at Aki as she saw her partner leave Derek and Karamon.
"You want to be his friend," Muchomon said. "But leave him alone."
Shintaro felt the nausea subside and stood up.
Seraphmon flew over to the lake, where Karamon was currently having an impromptu swim. "Is the water cold?" she asked idly.
Sasha looked embarrassed as all this transpired after her crazy biology rant. "Uh...well the good thing is that we're in a group. I hope we can stay that way. It wouldn't do any good for us all to be separated."
Karamon spluttered and glared at Seraphmon. "It's perfectly fine thank you." He climbed out of the water and shook out his fur, purposly on Derek. "Why don't you find out for yourself?" He grinned, knocking the digimon into the water.
Derek quirked up an eyebrow at Aki. "Um suit yourself..." he mumbled, pushing a strand of his, now wet and unspiked green hair, out of his eyes. He noticed Karamon knocking Seraphmon into the water and grinned slightly. "It's nice to know I'm not the only one you have to bathe."
