Island arrival

[wrecking_yard]

After all of that, everyone pretty much staggers into the rocky beach. The Professor is definitely concerned, herding us into an alcove where it’s less visible. There’s no argument with the idea to rest and try to recover before anything else. The backpacks with supplies stashed in them are intact thankfully - nobody carrying one got dunked like I did. Aoi takes over them, silently passing out a random mess of bottled drinks; water, juice, sodas, sports drinks. There’s not really any conversation and nobody’s paying attention to what they get beyond that it’s liquid.

The Professor finally breaks the silence, startling most of us.

“What happened to everyone?”

There’s more quiet, then Takuma glances around the circle and sighs. “Well, we were trying to find clues about why we’re here and how to get home. We ran out of other options, so we were going to confront the ones that were trying to hunt us for sacrifices.”

The professor frowns deeply at that. “You’re sure there aren’t other options?”

“Jijimon only knew a little, and it wasn’t a lot of help,” Miu says, tired and hunched over her drink, leaning on Syakomon’s shell.

“Garudamon, who taught me, is no more - the few of his people we found knew nothing,” Falcomon adds sadly.

“And Saberleomon didn’t know anything that’d really help either,” Dracmon continues. The idea that we’re all called as some kind of attempt at this world seeking help fits with what’s been going on, but I wonder if the way that happened isn’t a sign of just how bad things are.

“Birdramon said the kidnappers will hunt down anybody who starts getting strong enough to challenge them who isn’t already established and staying out of their way…. so there aren’t that many old enough to know much still alive,” Dracmon continues. It’s depressing, yeah, but it’s part of the problem.

The professor nods slowly. “That would fit what Aquilamon told me - he lives at the old lighthouse on the edge of the island.”

“So the only people who seem to have a clue are the kidnappers… we’re just not sure how to get them to tell us.” Takuma’s got his knees pulled up to his chest, slumped over them, and he’s half leaning on Agumon, who’s half asleep.

“And it looks like you all had a very serious fight on the way.” I know he paused on me as he scanned the group, and I still haven’t taken stock of what new bruises I have thanks to Seadramon.

“Hah. If only it were just that,” Ryo quips bitterly, which gets the professor looking more concerned.

Nobody’s in a hurry to talk about it that part, and finally Takuma draws in a deep breath. “There was this - other weird fog, and we all got separated from each other for a while. We couldn’t see or hear very far, and the place was more of a maze than we realized, so we were all lost. Everyone ran into - what looked like their partners, but running them down and trying to convince them to give up…”. He pauses, glancing at me, and I nod that I got that too. “And… other things. Like nightmares and whatever would bother or hurt us most.”

Shuuji might still be acting like a zombie, but he shrinks in on himself more, burying his face in his sleeve. Lopmon’s flopped over Syakomon’s shell with their back to him.

“Most of us managed to find our real partners and each other, but… Shuuji had already been having a pretty hard time…”. Ryo raises an eyebrow with a spectacular face, Minoru shoots Shuuji a venomous look, and even Aoi and Saki wince. “And I think Arukenimon singled him out - he was upset at Lopmon, and… this awful black smoke started to form around Lopmon. It didn’t stop until Ryo got him to settle down and apologize to Lopmon.” Now pretty much everyone is giving Takuma a bit of a look for drastic understatement, including me - I may not have seen part of this, but I know what was building when I got separated. The rest of our reactions are definitely not lost on the professor, who is looking more and more quietly alarmed.

“Nobody knows what almost happened besides that it was awful, and - that’s when we had to fight our way out.”

“That’s…. Quite an ordeal.” He rubs his temples, and adjusts his hat thoughtfully. “One thing that came up in my studies of the legends was that, when a Kemonogami bonded with a human, they drew power from that bond - but that they also would mirror the mind and emotions of their human, and it would change them.”

“I think Baasan mentioned something like that…”, Miu muttered, and got the professor’s undivided attention. “Baasan? The old lady up on the hill kind-of away from things?“.

He definitely lights up with recognition and a nod. “It sounds like that was what they were trying to assault - to weaken all of you and your Kemonogami by undermining both your own confidence and your trust in them.”

There’s a muffled “so it was my fault all along” from Shuuji’s sleeve, and another mutter from Minoru that I don’t catch. It sinks in that we don’t have a very big camp circle; Aoi, Saki, and Minoru would usually be more on top of their partners, but have more distance between them than usual. Kunemon’s on Ryo’s lap, which is also new, but much less worrying.

I cut off both the professor and Takuma from saying anything. “Yeah. What are you going to do about it now?”

Shuuji actually looks up, stricken, glasses half sideways from the way he was sitting. There’s a tiny little “Stupid Shuuji” from Lopmon, and Miu absently pats their head.

The professor sighs, shaking his head. “As blunt as it is, Kaito has a point - the only way to repair damage done is to try to do better.”

“Sssooo… do you have an idea what that black fog was?”, Minoru asks nervously.

The professor hunches, staring through the ground into the middle distance for a long few minutes. “I don’t know. If I had to guess… there was a story of a child who had been treated horribly by the village…. The overwhelming pain, fear, and anger he carried turned his Kemonogami into a monster that rampaged across the town.” He paused, still thinking. “I don’t mean to scare you, but you may have had a close call.”

It’s hard not to think of Dracmon’s new form, and the feeling that I was holding a very thin leash on a very big tiger. One of Dracmon’s hands shifts, clearly catching my unease and watching me, even if he’s keeping his face forward on the circle.

“Well, that’s great.” Minoru laughs nervously, shifting a few more inches away from Falcomon, whose feathers flex in offense.

Takuma scans all of us, looking more and more worried, and I can see the wheels turning as he’s mentally tallying everyone; Agumon mumbles something and opens an eyelid, which gets Takuma visibly pausing to close his eyes and breathe, until Agumon settles back into their nap.

No wonder Takuma’s ended up de facto leader; he’s the one who’s got his shit the most together.

“… Well, since I’m the one with the most energy here, I’ll go take a look around and make sure everything’s clear.” The professor claps his hands on his knees and stands up, to four or five different protests, human and otherwise; between not having gone through Hell and surviving on his own fine here alone while looking for us, he wins that one, although he pauses on his way out, asking Shuuji to step aside and talk in private. Lopmon makes no move to follow.

It’s probably for the best; the professor is both the person who’ll probably have the best advice and someone Shuuji seems to respect completely.

The camp circle is quiet again for a while.

Then Minoru opens his mouth. “So you’re not going to turn into a monster, right?” He’s half trying to sound like he’s joking, but he’s failing.

Falcomon twitches. “After all this, you think that little of me?!”

It quickly escalates into a very loud argument, with Takuma and Agumon frantically trying to mediate, and my nerves are getting worse by the second - I think I snapped something in that we all knew now it was a possibility, and Takuma facepalmed, and then I stalked out, Dracmon shadowing me. Aoi tried to call me back, something about needing to stay together this close to the enemy base, and I told her I was just trying to get air and left anyway.

It takes a bit to get far enough along the beach to be out of sight and for the argument to just be muffled voices. Ryo’s definitely in it and I can hear Saki’s voice once or twice, with Blossomon sounding indignant.

I find a rock overlooking the water and sit on it. Dracmon perches on another one next to me, one hand still turned to keep an eye on me.

The argument quiets down after a minute, but it doesn’t sound resolved, just delayed.

“… so. What was that, earlier?”

Dracmon actually turns his head to face me, even if it is just an affectation. “What?”

“That new trick of yours.”

There’s a pause, both hands blinking at me. “Vamdemon?” Then, another beat. “Oh, come on - not you too.”

“You weren’t even talking like you.”

He growls in frustration, teeth flexing. “Yeah, and Greymon doesn’t talk like Agumon either. Or Dobramon like Labramon, or…”

“Not the same kind of difference!” They seem older and calmer somehow when they shift; this was…

Ominous.

“Well, it’s drawing on you, so if I start rampaging we’ll know whose fault it is, won’t we?”

The worst part is, that doesn’t do anything for the unease, even if trying to come up with a response feels scratchy and like too much to deal with right now.

I hunch in and stay on the rock, and Dracmon stares at me for a good couple minutes before muttering, “Oh. Great,” and having his own sulk on the other rock.

The quiet stays. I’ve been here long enough to know why I’m not hearing birds or insects, but finding coastline just makes it jarring again - beach and ocean with no seagulls.

Eventually Takuma and Agumon wander over, doing one of their restless rounds checking on everyone.

“Hey.” Takuma waves; Agumon is looking between me and Dracmon uncertainly. I look over, but don’t really respond.

He starts to ask if I’m okay, but stops partway through the first syllable. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m not dead, I’m not panicking, I’m not getting in stupid fights.”

Agumon tries to whisper, “Dracmon, are you okay?”, but he’s way too close for me to not hear it, making Takuma’s tense smile a little more awkward.

“Fine, absolutely wonderful, couldn’t be better.” He’s not trying to whisper, and the sarcasm could choke the Seadramon we just fought.

“Right.” Takuma wilts a little. He’s thoughtful and sharp, but there’s a visible struggle right now between him wanting to say something and him being just as exhausted as the rest of us. Finally he rubs the back of his head, eyes closed. “Listen, Kaito…. What I said before - that whole offer still stands.”

Talk things over. It’s tempting, but right now everything’s exhaustion and angry static with a heavy layer of tired numb. “Yeah. I know.” He’s one of like… two people here I’d consider talking to, if I could figure out what to even say, and he’s a bit weird with the amount of genuine concern he’s got for everyone. “Make sure you get some rest, too - you can’t help anyone if you’re falling over.”

He does look relieved at that. “I will. Thanks.” He starts to turn to walk back to the others, then stops. “… you really are dependable, you know?”

I don’t have much response beyond staring at him like he’s grown a third arm, but he heads on after a beat anyway, leaving me to try to figure that one out. Dracmon is facing that way, but I can see one hand turned up to shoot me a look.

Eventually I catch myself nodding and get up to head back to the makeshift camp. Minoru’s there but Falcomon’s nowhere to be seen. Aoi’s struggling to stay awake with Labramon waiting next to her in case she does slump over; Saki and Floramon aren’t there, but there’s footprints to a different t part of the beach. Miu and Syakomon are napping, her head resting on Syakomon’s shell; she’s curled up with Lopmon like a living plushie, and Lopmons’s dozing too. Ryo’s splitting a half-melted chocolate bar with Kunemon; they still seem better off than anyone else.

The sun’s still high in the sky and it feels wrong somehow even though I know it’s just early afternoon.

I start dozing off a few times, but it never gets far; there’s early flickers of nightmares jarring me out of it each time.

Shuuji wanders back, sitting on the ledge over the camp and staying quiet; Takuma and Agumon settle in and end up splitting a couple of snack cakes, both looking depressed. Saki and Floramon come back; they’re not being distant but they are definitely subdued.

The professor isn’t long after.

“I found what looks like an abandoned town-“ he pauses, scanning the camp. “Where’s Falcomon?”

“We had a fight.” Minoru sounds… Completely leveled. “We had a fight and he was being stubborn and I was stupid and panicked and said things I shouldn’t and he said he’s not coming back and I’m not sure I blame him.”

The professor closes his eyes and pauses for a couple seconds before he walks down to sit by Minoru. “Why do you think that?”

Minoru glances around at everyone and slumps more, defeated. “Because I’m kind of a coward and I don’t know what I’m doing and if that’s going to hurt him then maybe he’s better off without me?”

“Really? That’s your problem?”

They both turn to stare at Ryo.

“Man, if that’s all it took, Kunemon would’ve gone nuclear in like, two days!” He’s laughing and patting the caterpillar’s head, and Kunemon just makes some kind of wry warble and nods. “Like. Seriously. As much shit as it took to start getting to Lopmon? And as crazy and terrified as we’ve all been? It’s not gonna happen accidentally that easy.”

“He’s got a point,” Takuma adds.

“Easy for you go say, Mr. never-blinks,” Minoru grumbles, shooting a half-hearted glare at Takuma.

“You think I haven’t been screaming in my head half the time?” He grins nervously.

Kunemon warbles, getting attention back on them, even if it’s just Ryo with this dumb broken grin patting his partner on the head. Minoru makes about three attempts at arguing that never manage to make it to words; we all know Ryo can shoot down any protest there easily just by bringing up his whole breakdown facing Arukenimon.

Minoru folds his arms, but he does look less deflated. “Okay, fine. But what if he doesn’t want to come back? I’m not gonna force him.”

“I don’t think he actually wants to leave - he seemed pretty conflicted to me… like he was making a show of being more mad than he was,” Takuma offers.

“Yeah - he looked really sad when he had his back to you!,” Agumon adds.

Minoru’s not computing anything. “… then - why did he go?”

“Something must be bothering him, as well.” The professor puts a hand on his shoulder. “If we can find him, you can apologize and ask him what’s wrong.”

Minoru waffles a little more, but Takuma and the professor convince him to go, and anyway, we need to scout out the town the professor found.

Lopmon climbs up on Miu’s hat, and Shuuji wilts, sticking close to the professor. It pretty quickly turns out that finding one small Kemonogami in even a fragment of an abandoned village isn’t easy, and we end up splitting up and scattering to look.

It’s a little eerie - the place isn’t as overgrown or broken down exactly as the school is, but it still looks like it’s been abandoned for a long time. Not just abandoned - like it was just…. Lifted in the middle of a normal day and plopped here. There’s more to give a sense of time period too; broken down old cars and window decorations here and there, storefronts even in a little part of it, still stocked.

“So this is what your world’s like?”

I’d been lost in thought and almost forgotten about Dracmon. “Kinda. This is all pretty old.”

There’s a couple thoughtful teeth-clicks. “SaberLeomon said once that there used to be villages and such here, back in the old days.” I make a quiet acknowledging noise. “Course there’s nobody alive anymore who remembers them, at least that I’ve ever heard of.”

There’s the eerie quiet again for a few minutes, just occasional sounds of movement off one direction another. Most of what SaberLeomon had to say was passed down; it was kind of like talking to a big, furry Baasan.

“Do you believe all that? About destined heroes and all?”

Dracmon pauses, hands turning to look up at me. “… I dunno. I mean, it’d be great if there was some way to fix all of this. Definitely helped me out - apparently I’d normally be like, a bad omen or something that hadn’t been seen in ages, but they said my egg was marked or something and they really weren’t expecting what came out. You had to notice the weird looks I get around there right?”

I catch myself almost laughing at that - it’s ridiculous but it’s familiar, having everybody grown who’s supposed to be responsible and all acting like you might be a bomb about to go off.

Everything’s quiet again, except there’s movement closer - just around a corner.

Dracmon edges closer, shifting to peek around the corner with me right behind him; if Falcomon’s trying to avoid people, we might need to be more careful, and we’re close enough to the enemy base to worry about ambushes.

He slumps and walks around the corner; it’s Takuma and Agumon.

“Any sign of him?”

I shake my head. “Nothing so far.”

“Any trouble?” He’s definitely as aware as I am of how dangerous this area might be.

“No sign of them, either.”

That doesn’t seem to comfort him entirely, and it is a bit quiet for getting close to their base.

“… you know, it looked like Arukenimon committed a lot to that attack, and we did a lot of damage breaking out. Maybe they’re lying low to lick their wounds.” I’m trying to be positive.

“Yeah. Maybe.” He doesn’t sound convinced and I’m not sure I believe it either. He shifts, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking around. For a second, it looks like he’s going to say something else, then he looks down at Dracmon. “You have everything handled here?”

Dracmon pauses, hands turning to both of us. “… yeah, I think I’ve got it.”

Takuma smiles. “Alright then. Good luck. We’re gonna head over that way, I’m not sure anyone’s searched there yet.” He waves as they walk off, and Dracmon waves back.

I wait until it’s sure they’re out of earshot. “Have what handled?”

“What do you think?” He’s got his hands on either side of his face, grinning up at me. Takuma really did just defer ‘worried about Kaito’ to Dracmon.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I’m bristling at him a little, but it’s mostly exhausted irritation.

“That I think I figured out what your problem is, you’re just gonna be stupid if I call you on it straight.”

“I thought you couldn’t read minds?”

“I can’t. You’re just easy to figure out.”

“… Shitlord.” I turn to go back to searching, and he’s practically bouncing ahead.

We get close to the edge of the patch of apartment buildings when Dracmon motions to stop - and we both spot Falcomon a couple seconds before he sees us.

“What do you want?”

“For you to get your dumb ass back and sort things out so we can focus on something important.”

“As full of social graces as ever, I see.” Falcomon rolls his eyes.

Dracmon steps forward, and I let him take over. “Look, we both know they’re all young and kinda dumb, especially when they’re stressed out, right?”

“That does not excuse such behavior.”

There’s a bit of exasperated clicking. “You know I’m bonded to the reigning champion of ‘pretend to be angry to deflect shit’, right? And you’re really bad at it.”

Falcomon huffs to himself, then looks away, grumbling something.

“So why don’t you tell us what your actually problem is, and maybe we can help you get your head on straight?”

Falcomon looks at us like a cat we just dunked in water. “I CANNOT go back.”

And then, he turns and runs.

I take off after him - the little bastard’s fast, but I’m not at the top of the track team for nothing. He realizes pretty quick that he’s not going to lose me on a straight sprint, and starts ducking around buildings and flap-jumping over obstacles, forcing me into some very clumsy parkour. It’s an old truck right by the end of a building that finally does it; he’s small enough to lose sight of him while I’m clambering over it, and I have no clue which way he went.

I also left Dracmon lagging behind somewhere.

As I’m backtracking rounding a corner I can faintly hear him cursing me out. I shouldn’t be smug about it, but I am anyway.

We end up meeting halfway somewhere in the maze of buildings; he’s still grumbling. “You’re a real asshole sometimes, you know that?”

“Why didn’t you shift up?” I know Sangloupmon’s a lot faster than I am.

“Because you were too stuck in your own head to give me any leeway!” He’s facing me, head turned as if looking at me, but his emphatic gesturing is half scanning the area. “It takes a damn long time for us to hit a change like that on our own, and you have to work with me here!”

“Wait. I was blocking you?” I’m not even sure how I did that.

“Yes! You get all afraid of yourself and afraid of how you’re gonna affect me and you shut shit down. Why do you think Falcomon didn’t just shift up and leave you in his dust, you big moron?”

That. That’s an almost physical twinge as a lot of that uneasy static starts snapping into something clearer.

He gets power from me. His metamorphoses draw on me and will reflect me. That barely contained ominous force earlier was because of me, and in the end it doesn’t matter if I trust him or not, because just like Falcomon said, if something horrible happens, it’ll be from me, not him.

And I know what I’m capable of when I’m just confined to a tiny human body with a knife and a rock.

“Now I don’t know why you seem to think you’re gonna corrupt me when I’ve heard shit about ‘demon lord’ thrown around before, but-“

He trails off suddenly, and both hands are turned toward me. “But?”

His hands shift and I realize he’s looking behind me, and he’s stopped yelling at me.

“But we’ve got company, and if you want to live, you need to start trusting yourself again now.”

The sun’s behind me, and there’s a very large shadow on the ground drowning out both of ours.

We both dive away from the bigger shape, and I can feel a very large set of claws close on the air just behind me.

I scramble to my feet with the dagger drawn and it immediately feels incredibly inadequate. There’s two large red insectoid shapes - each easily the size of Greymon without as much bulk, and one big silvery stag-beetle thing that’s the size of a tank and has a much bigger sense of presence. There’s a glimpse of one of the little spiders vanishing around a wall, making it clear who’s responsible.

“How did they sneak up on us?”, I hiss sideways.

“Both looking the wrong way?”, Dracmon offers helplessly. “Are we doing this or not?”

He has me dead to rights - we need to fight. I take a breath, and try to shove aside the uneasy shaken feeling and focus on what’s in front of us and Dracmon, who needs my help.

He shifts up… and Sangloupmon looks over his shoulder with a distinct wave of exasperation, before leaping on the face of the biggest one, silver talons digging into the carapace.

He’s got his claws full with that one, but the other two are cutting around him after me - they’re being opportunistic while we’re all shaken and exhausted. I duck around a bike rack and spot a long handled wrench in the grass - at least this area’s better for improvised weapons.

It flinches when I hit the claw reaching for me with the wrench, shaking the claw with a visible crack across the carapace, but it seems more irritated than injured.

I don’t need to beat them, I just need to survive.

I’m managing to dodge and fend them off for a while. The dead car’s great cover until one of them gets fed up and throws it further away, its buddy stepping in between me and it. They’re smart enough to not let me get too close to the buildings, either, and Sangloupmon’s having a hard time with the big one.

It only takes a half second distracted by that for one of them to grab me and take off, which distracts Sangloupmon enough for the big one to throw him into a wall.

There’s not much time to think - I’m being the weak link here, and even if I’m not sure I trust myself, I trust him here… so I try to focus on every shred of it all and shove it at him.

He doesn’t waste any time, and I feel the shift just before the one carrying me stops sharply, everything darker than it was a second ago. The claw carrying me goes slack and drops, a clawed hand already grabbing me. There’s a couple sharp wing beats and he’s calling the shadowy swarm again around the bug, ripping it to pieces before it can charge.

The other red one starts to take off, but the big one seems to have second thoughts and gives a chattering shriek; both of them fall back, darting between the buildings.

Vamdemon lands on the roof, setting me down carefully. “I think we got off on the wrong foot.” He bows, which doesn’t do much to change how much taller than me he is in that form. “Vamdemon, at your service.”

It’s still a big tiger on a light leash, but less prickly than it was earlier. “Yeah I. Think I owe you an apology for that.”

He just looks down at me, bemused. “Accepted. This should do for now, but I can’t carry everything for you for long.”

He’s right, but everything is scratchy and raw, so I shrug. “I’ll deal with it later.”

He tilts his head, thinking but not arguing, then his attention fixes somewhere a few buildings over - right before there’s another chattering shriek from that direction.

I heave a frustrated sigh, and he drops down to Sangloupmon - less energy and easier for both of us covering distance fast right now.