D3.8: DARK REUNION

“Where is she?” Yolei fussed, as she scanned the crowds at the airport for Mimi. She was holding a sign above her head on which “WELCOME HOME, MIMI!” was printed in glittery, pink letters. Kari, Izzy and Sora were standing beside her and holding bunches of helium balloons, although the younger girl looked less than excited. She couldn’t understand it - it was almost as if Kari wasn’t looking forward to seeing Mimi again. Dressed in their usual, dodgy disguises, their Digimon stood at their feet, and Palmon’s radiant smile more than made up for any lack of enthusiasm on Kari’s part.

Suddenly, she spotted her friend coming out one of the gateways and sighed in admiration. Only Mimi could come off a planetrip of hours looking like she had just stepped out of a beauty salon. Her friend’s candy-floss pink hair was twisted back into an bun, and held in place with a butterfly clip. Her clothes were equally elegant: she was wearing a lilac, sleeveless poloneck and a short, black skirt with strappy sandals to match. Mimi was the most stylish person Yolei knew, and she never failed to live up to her expectations.

“Miiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiii,” she called, waving her sign above her head and jumping up and down, “We’re over here.”

“MIMI! MIMI! MIMI!” Palmon added her voice to Yolei’s.

The girl paused, turning her head to look at them, and a brilliant smile spread across her lips. Quickly saying something to her parents, she dropped her bags to the ground and ran to throw her arms around a leaping Palmon. And, if the Digimon’s smile had been blissful before, it was ecstatic now.

“You came!” she squealed, “You are the best friends ever! And Palmon too! I’m the luckiest . . .” she trailed off in mid-sentence, taking a step backwards to look at them, a frown coming to her pretty face, “But where is everyone else?”

“Tai and Davis have soccer training this morning,” Kari replied with an apologetic smile, “And Matt and T.K. have some sort of family thing, because it’s their cousin’s birthday today. The Teen-Age Wolves are providing the music. I’m not sure about the others, though.”

“Joe informed me that he was not feeling well, and to give you his apologies,” Izzy added, clearing his throat nervously.

Yolei looked at him suspiciously. Joe had sounded fine when she had phoned him the previous evening to tell him that they were planning to meet Mimi at the airport. And he had seemed anxious when he had called her to tell her that Mimi was back in town. At the time, she had dismissed it as Joe always being anxious about something or other, but it seemed to take on a more sinister significance now. Was he pretending to be sick to avoid having to see her? She couldn’t see him faking it, not when it came to Mimi. According to T.K., who was the unashamed source of all her gossip about the original Digidestined, the two of them had always been close. She shrugged.

::He probably did get a bug overnight.::

“Cody has Kendo, and Ken didn’t want to leave Wormmon by himself,” she finished for them, feeling her cheeks grow warm as she mentioned her boyfriend’s name, “Did you know that Ken and I are dating now, Mimi?”

“REALLY?” Mimi clasped her hands in front of her, “That’s the coolest, Yolei! He’s such a cutie!”

“What about you and Michael?” Yolei asked, “He’s gorgeous as well.”

She laughed, “Well, you know my Michael . . . “

*

As the two girls continued to swop stories about their boyfriends, Sora allowed herself to drop a little way behind them along with Izzy, Kari and their three Digimon. Once the two of them got started on the subject of boys, she knew it would be a long time before they got off it again. Boys were more than an interest for Mimi and Yolei; they were an all-consuming passion.

She had never gotten it until she had fallen in love with Matt. She had never expected that to happen. She had always thought it would be Tai. They had the most in common, and she had even had the beginnings of a crush on him when they had been younger. She remembered hours of sitting by the phone and waiting for him to call, his gift of hairclips safely hidden beneath her hat. As time had passed, however, she realised they would only ever be best friends. She thought of him like a brother, not like a boyfriend. And then she had started thinking more and more of Matt. She did not understand why she wanted to be with him, why she loved him. There were the obvious reasons - he was gorgeous, he was talented, he was sweet - but she knew it was none of those. The heart had its own mysterious reasons that reason could not explain. (1)

She wished there was someone with whom she could talk about it. Apart from Mimi and Kari, all her closest friends were guys. Mimi, incorrigible gossip that she was, was out of the question. It would take her all of three seconds to spread the news around their group. Besides, she would inevitably return to America and her feelings for Matt weren’t something she could set down in an e-mail or explain over the phone. It was something that had to be whispered at a midnight sleepover, or over ice-creams at a kitchen table. And Kari was Tai’s sister, who would never understand why she had chosen Matt instead of him. Or would she?

A thoughtful expression on her face, Sora looked at the younger girl who was walking a little way in front of her and laughing over something with Gatomon. The other night in the park, she had been sure that there had been something going on between T.K. and Kari when they had been lying on the floor. There had been something in the way she had lifted her head ever so slightly to him, the way he had hesitated just a fraction too long to get to his feet, the way they had both been blushing when they did. On their way home, she had mentioned that to Tai, who had only laughed and replied that she was getting as bad as Davis. Maybe she was seeing something that wasn’t there, maybe they were just best of friends, but . . . she had a feeling Kari might understand what it was like to be in love with an Ishida, even if hers was sunshine to Matt’s storm-clouds.

Occupied with her own thoughts, she walked along the street in silence, half-listening to them chatter, occasionally trading amused glances with Biyomon at their friends’ conversation.

“Hey, Izzy,” Kari turned from Gatomon to look at the older boy, “Have you made any progress with finding out how we can get back our crests?”

He nodded, “After I got back from the concert hall last night, I sent an e-mail to Gennai. He replied almost immediately, saying that he would meet all of us in the usual spot in the Digital World tomorrow. It’s a good thing that Mimi’s come back from America, actually.”

“So he tells you we can get them back?” Gatomon said longingly. Biyomon echoed her sentiments with a wistful sigh. Sora gave her a sympathetic smile. Necessary as it had been to give up their crests for the protection and the preservation of the Digital World, she knew it had been hard on their partners. It had meant giving up a part of themselves - perhaps the strongest, truest part - without knowing if they would ever get it back. For Biyomon’s sake as much as for the sake of defeating Myotismon, she hoped they would.

“That would be the logical conclusion,” Izzy replied, “But, if not, remember how we managed to make our Digimon evolve without our crests when we faced Apokalimon, how they were no longer needed because their power was in our hearts? We still have those qualities, and we will find a way of using them to make you Digivolve, no matter what happens with our crests.”

“And what about us?” Hawkmon asked suddenly, as he came flapping to join them, “Will I be able to digivolve beyond Aquilamon? And will Veemon and Armadimon?”

Izzy’s gaze slid to the pavement and Sora could see he didn’t want to answer the question, “I know Wormmon will, because Ken had the Crest of Kindness. But the rest of you . . . Your partners never had crests. I’m sorry.”

“But they did have Digimentals, like Yolei has the Digimentals of Love and Sincerity,” Kari argued, “That has to count for something, doesn’t it?”

“That might be the problem,” Izzy replied, “Think about it, Kari. We all got our crests, because they represented our strongest quality at the time. I know it’s a bit more complicated in your case and T.K.’s, but you still essentially got your crests because the Digital World saw Light and Hope in the two of you. But how can you have two strongest qualities, like Yolei has Love and Sincerity? It’s an oxymoron.”

“A what-moron?” Biyomon chirruped, “Are you calling Kari a moron?”

“An oxymoron is a paradoxical statement,” Izzy saw the blank look on the Digimon’s face and added, “It’s a statement that contradicts itself. It’d be like saying I like bananas best of all fruit, but I also like oranges best.”

“But I like bananas as much as I like oranges,” Hawkmon insisted, “I do not understand your point, Izzy.”

“Never mind,” the boy sighed, “My speculation could be wrong. We’ll see what Gennai says tomorrow. Just so you know, we’re all meeting at Matt’s apartment in the morning.”

“The disaster zone?” Kari laughed, “I’ll tell Tai to pack his telescope.”

“And Mimi’s compass might be useful as well,” Gatomon added wryly.

“Kari! Gatomon!” Sora exclaimed, “That’s not nice! You know things aren’t easy for them. Mr Ishida works long hours, and Matt’s busy with his band too.”

“Sorry,” the younger girl smiled apologetically at her, “But I am just using T.K’s name for their apartment, you know.”

“Well . . . he could be more understanding too.”

Kari gave her a puzzled frown, then shrugged and ran to catch up with Izzy. The two of them started chatting about how good it would be see to the Digital World, interrupted at regular intervals by Tentomon and Gatomon.

Sora felt the blood rise to her cheeks, and ducked her head to hide her embarrassment. What had gotten into her? Why had she snapped at Kari like that for what she had said? There had been no malice behind it. The younger girl had just been making the sort of wisecrack that their group made all the time. She had heard T.K. teasing Matt dozens of times about having to fight his way through the piles of junk to get to his room. At which point, Matt had usually handed his younger brother his famous pink apron and told him to get busy. Kari’s joking had been no big deal, but she had jumped on her as if she had said the worst thing in the world.

Sora let out a little groan. She had never expected love to be this embarrassing.

“What’s wrong, Sora?” Biyomon chirped.

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

Preoccupied with her own thoughts, only half-listening to the others chat, she continued down the road in silence. They were passing a dark alleyway, when Kari suddenly stopped and turned to look down a dark alleyway. She had a strange look on her pretty face. Her nose was crinkled at its bridge; her lips were a tight line. Her own muscles tensing, her fists clenching at her sides, Sora followed her gaze, but there was nothing in the alleyway.

“Are you okay?” Gatomon asked.

“Fine,” the younger girl replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “I thought I could feel something, but it must have just been my imagination.”

“With everything that has been happening lately, I’m not surprised you’re jumpy,” Sora said kindly. It was the least she could say after leaping on her earlier.

“I know I’m as jumpy as a cricket on a hot stove,” Tentomon quipped to everyone’s groans.

As Kari opened her mouth to reply, her face twisted and she collapsed onto the sidewalk.

“Kari!” Gatomon scampered across to her fallen partner. Sora dropped to her knees beside them, feeling her neck for a pulse. Her heart was racing, and her breathing was shallow and rapid. Her skin was warm and clammy to the touch as well. Sora looked up at Izzy in horror, “But she’s not meant to get sick like this anymore. Tai said she’d grown out of it.”

By now, Mimi and Yolei had realised something was wrong and had run back to join them.

“Kari!” Mimi exclaimed, just as Yolei asked, “What’s wrong? Kari?”

“We must get to her a hospital,” Izzy bent to scoop her up in his arms. Her legs and arms dangled down loosely, and her face was white and glistened with sweat, “There’s one a few blocks away from here. I’ll carry her. Yolei, try and get through to Tai or her parents,” he looked down at the limp girl, a worried expression on his face, and his voice, when he spoke, was urgent, “Kari, can you hear me? Kari, wake up . . . . ”

*

“Kari, can you hear me? Kari, wake up . . .”

“Unnn . . . .”

Slowly, Kari opened one eye to see Izzy looking down at her, his face hazy and obscured by spots of dancing light. He was carrying her - she could feel his arms beneath his knees and shoulders - and she knew she must have fainted. Her head still ached, and she felt like she was going to be sick. Wincing, she put a hand to her forehead. It was hot and damp. The last time she had felt like this . . . . The last time she had felt like this had been at the Teen-Age Wolves’ concert when Gabumon had Dark Digivolved. Her eyes widened in horror, as she realised what must be happening.

“Thank goodness you’re awake,” Izzy said emphatically, “We’re getting you to a hospital, and Yolei’s going to call your family when we arrive there.”

“You’re okay, Kari,” Gatomon added, relief in her voice.

“No . . . .”

Field of vision clearing, she looked backwards over Izzy’s shoulder to see Myotismon standing there. He was holding a small, glistening object in his hands, and she recognised it immediately as a Shadow Crest. His lips curled back to reveal white, pointed teeth, then he mouthed very slowly so that she could read every word: “Child of Light, guess what I have here . . . .”

“Izzy, put me down,” she said weakly, “Myotismon is here. He has another Shadow Crest. That’s why I’m like this.”

The older boy’s eyes widened, and he set Kari back on her feet. She kept a hand on his shoulder to steady herself, and felt him slip an arm around her waist. Together, they turned to face Myotismon.

“Ugh! I can’t believe he’s back again!” Mimi sounded disgusted, “When will we get rid of him?”

“Bad luck, you creep!” Yolei said triumphantly, “Agumon and Gabumon aren’t here with us!”

“Yes, so run back to your cave!” Hawkmon added. Electricity crackled between Tentomon’s antenna, making his own feelings perfectly clear. Palmon nodded her agreement, bunching her vines in a tight fist. Gatomon simply growled, the fur on her back and tail standing on end.

“Ah, but this isn’t the Crest of Cowardice or Enmity,” a slow smile spread across his face, “This is the Crest of Deceptions.”

Quickly, Kari’s mind went through their Crests and tried to match them up with an opposite quality. Her Crest was Light, so Gatomon would Darkdigivolve with the Crest of Darkness. Izzy’s was Knowledge, so Tentomon would be affected by something like the Crest of Ignorance. And Mimi’s was Sincerity, so . . . .

With a jolt, she realised exactly who was in danger.

“Quick, Mimi,” Kari yelled, “You have to get Palmon out of here.”

“Too late,” Myotismon held out the crest, so that it glistened its greasy rainbow in the light, “Palmon .... Dark Digivolve....”

****

(1) Paraphrase of one of Pascal’s most famous quotes: “The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know.”