Disclaimer: I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove
anything. Er...wait, that's not it. Well, anyway, due to the amount or
people demanding I stop with the cliffhangers...here is the resolution
to the last cliffhanger I left you with...
Games of the Mind *Chapter Ten*
"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!
(
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