[novel] digimon adventure: prologue + chapter 7

小説 デジモンアドベンチャー〈3〉
冒険はまだ終わらない

Where to buy: Amazon.JP.

Go back to the previous chapter.

Prologue

The directions of “East, West, South, and North” also existed in the Digital World. The idea of the four cardinal directions was used by humans on Earth to accomodate their lifestyles, but perhaps the Digital World used them as a starting point grid when its world was first functional.
At its east end, an enormous sound echoed.
Something abnormal had been occurring in the four cardinal directions of the Digital World for several years now. If one were to travel from its center to the edges of the world, less and less creatures could be seen and the sky grew more and more overcast with dark clouds. No movement could be seen anywhere.
Because of that, hardly anyone was there to hear that enormous sound.
Signs of life were fading from this side of the earth. All that could be seen were rocky mountains on top of rocky mountains, and no wind to be felt. The sound seemed to have been that of something enormous falling, landing on the rocky crags and smashing them. It even sounded like the moan of an immense dragon. The crushed rocks sent a cloud of dust high into the air, covering the entire eastern sky. It took several days for that dust to settle back from the sky onto the ground.
Only marks remained on the ground, about a hundred meters wide and thirty meters deep. Its length was almost three kilometers. The marks were from the Ultimate level Digimon who had guarded the eastern end of the Digital World, Qinglongmon.
Qinglongmon had vanished. He had been sealed away by the powers of darkness.

After a while, the Digimon who guarded the south, west, and north were also sealed away, vanishing in the process.
At the center of the four cardinal directions was a small island that stood alone in the center of the ocean, File Island. The area that lined the backdrop of File Island was covered in darkness.
“The sealing is finally complete.”
“Finally.”
“Let’s do this already.”
“Don’t fret. At this moment, no one stands in our way.”
The Digimon who was as big as a adult human, smirked. This was Piemon, who had sealed away Qinglongmon.
“Let’s begin the reintegration.”
Signals ran through the black network laid throughout the Digital World. Those signals reached File Island, Server Continent, the ocean depths, as well as other continents and islands.
Black gears lay buried beneath all of those lands. The sizes of the black gears varied, ranging from the size of a fist to that of a three-story building. After receiving the signals, all of the gears slowly began to turn.
The earth split open, falling away into many fragments that began to move.

Chapter 7; August 2nd, 1999

① Memories of Hikarigaoka

“So, all of us here lived in Hikarigaoka four years ago?” Sora Takenouchi asked as if seeking affirmation from everyone.
It was still early in the morning, so the only ones in the public park adjacent to the Odaiba apartment buildings were the seven children and their Digimon partners.
“Takeru too,” Yamato Ishida said, speaking for his brother. Takeru had returned to their mother in Sangenjaya some time yesterday.
“Apparently it was a really big incident. I had just entered elementary school that time.”
Not even Taichi Yagami, who had said this, remembered the incident until he’d heard about it from his younger sister Hikari.
“Here’s the newspaper article about it back then. It doesn’t have much details though.”
Koushiro Izumi showed them his laptop screen. The library wasn’t open yet, so he couldn’t use their newspaper microfilm archives. Instead, he had to pick it up through the internet from the newspaper’s company database.
Jou Kido read the article on the screen. “A terrorist bombing at the Hikarigaoka apartment complex, huh? Come to think of it, I may have heard people talking about that back then.”
“You know… When I first saw Greymon…” Mimi Tachikawa said slowly in reflection (Palmon, having evolved from Tanemon that morning, stood beside her), “I thought that he looked familiar. But since it was our first day in the Digital World and so many confusing things happened that day, I just thought that I was mistaken.”

The incident from four years ago.
In 1995, Taichi and the others had lived in one section of the Hikarigaoka apartment complexes. On the night of one spring day, light suddenly emitted from Taichi’s father’s computer monitor. The first to notice it was Hikari, who was still too young at the time to even attend pre-school. She felt a presence of some kind from within the monitor, even though it showed nothing on display.
Her older brother, Taichi, was the second to notice. As Taichi watched, an egg even bigger than an ostrich egg popped out of the screen.
From that egg hatched a round, pink creature— Koromon. Taichi and Hikari hid Koromon from their parents. But not for very long.
Koromon evolved into a bigger form, gaining arms and legs to achieve the appearance of a small dinosaur named Agumon. The Agumon at that time was a whole lot bigger than the Agumon that currently stood before Taichi and his friends in 1999.
“I thought that it only looked that big to Hikari because she was still small back then. But as she kept describing it, I began to remember more about the Agumon back then too. It was bigger than an adult.”
“So that’s why Hikari said that I was small this time when she saw me yesterday,” the Agumon with them now muttered to himself.
The large Agumon, from four years ago, had run off into the town during the night with Hikari on his back and with Taichi chasing after him. Then, a creature that appeared to be a giant bird had appeared in the skies of Hikarigaoka.
“That must have been a Digimon too, now that I think about it! Although I don’t know what it was called.”
Agumon and that bird Digimon had fought, and Agumon had evolved into Greymon. Even that Greymon was a size larger than the Greymon that they knew now.
The two giant Digimon unleashed light right in the center of Hikarigaoka’s streets.
Once they heard that part, the other children who had been silently listening up to now, remembered.
“I saw it. I’m pretty sure I saw that fight with Takeru.”
“Why did we forget about it until now?” Koushiro mused. “Something’s not right.”
“I was the only one who saw it, and when I told my mom about it, she wouldn’t believe me,” Sora said.
“That’s right! I was the only one who saw it in my family, but neither of my brothers saw it…”
“I talked about it with my friends the next day, but then we gradually stopped mentioning it…”
“A lot of kids were looking outside their windows in the apartment complex, but none of the adults were watching.” Hikari even remembered that little detail. “But that’s all I can remember. I don’t know what happened to Koromon and that huge bird after.”
Because the Agumon/Greymon from four years ago did not speak words, Hikari still thought of it as Koromon in all of its forms to this day.
“Me too… I do remember there was an explosion of some kind, but…”
It wasn’t only Taichi who couldn’t remember; none of the others could remember what had happened at the very end. But what did remain were the signs of battle throughout town. Pedestrian bridges were destroyed, and giant holes gaped in the middle of the streets.
“There must not have been any adults who saw it. That was why it was handled as a terrorist bombing.”
“Even if they did see it, they probably wouldn’t have believed it. It’s just like how they dealt with Shibuya yesterday.”
Yamato had seen WereGarurumon and Angemon’s fight with Vamdemon in Shibuya, but the TV news channels had reported it as a bombing incident of unknown origin.
“Apparently, there was electromagnetic interference throughout Shibuya and video recordings were full of static, so nothing could be seen from them,” Jou said, remembering the morning news. He had no idea that the news report was the result of a Digimon fight until he’d heard his friends’ accounts.
“But something is unnatural here. Especially compared to what happened four years ago. Greymon and that other Digimon back then were a lot bigger than our Digimon now. What’s even stranger…” Koushiro looked around at the group, “What’s even stranger isn’t that all of us lived in Hikarigaoka four years ago, but that we’re all in Odaiba now.”
There must have been crowds of children who had witnessed the incident at Hikarigaoka. So why was it that seven of those children were in Odaiba now, on top of being the “Chosen Children”? Was it a mere coincidence?
Could the reason that they were “Chosen Children” be because they were in Hikarigaoka? That they had moved to Odaiba? Or even, that they had gone to camp?
“I think my parents said that it was scary to continue living in a place that had a terrorist bombing, which is why we moved.”
“I moved because it was closer to my dad’s workplace.”
Yamato didn’t want to remember much more beyond that. It had suddenly occurred to him that whether their sons had seen a monster or not had been one of the many arguments his parents had had right before their divorce. The divorce and the move had happened pretty much at the same time. “Anyway, first things first. We should figure out how to protect Hikari-chan from Vamdemon, right?”
“Right. I can’t believe it was Taichi’s sister who was the eighth child!”
“We have to be careful. Vamdemon is not only cruel, he’s ruthless. He’ll even kill those who work for him without batting an eye.”
Pumpmon and Gotsumon’s deaths in Shibuya remained vividly in Yamato’s mind. He didn’t think that he would ever forget that sight.
“That’s the same thing you told me over the phone last night.”
When Taichi was heading to pick up that phone call, Tailmon and Wizarmon had disappeared from the balcony.
“Maybe it would be best to hide Hikari-chan somewhere.”
“But Tailmon needs to come back.” Hikari had stayed up all last night thinking only of that and waiting for Tailmon.
“Besides the eight Chosen Children have to be together, right? We need to get Takeru-kun over here too.”
At Jou’s words, Yamato averted his eyes slightly. Sora could tell that it was because he didn’t want his younger brother to be involved in these fights. Taichi had a complicated look on his face as well, so he must also be thinking the same thing about his sister. Hikari was the same age as Takeru.
“The problem won’t be solved unless all eight of us go to the Digital World together. I’m not quite sure what that means in itself, but time must be passing by at an exponential rate in the Digital World even while we’re sitting here. I think we need to hurry.”
At Koushiro’s words, Mimi spoke up, sounding very much fed up: “But Vamdemon and his lackeys are here in Tokyo already. What do we do about that?”
“Well…”
There were so many problems that no one could come up with a substantial way on how to start tackling them.

“Taichi-saaaan!”
They heard a young child’s voice approaching from outside the park.
“Hey, Daisuke! What’s up?”
Taichi ran towards the voice, in order to prevent its owner from entering the park and seeing their Digimon.
“Who’s he?” Jou asked Hikari, but it was Sora who answered.
“He’s a junior from our soccer club. If I remember right, he’s in second grade. The same age as Hikari-chan and Takeru-kun.”
After a few moments, Taichi returned to them, his face pale.
“There are monsters rampaging around Tokyo. Apparently it’s on the news. They must be Digimon.”

② Ambush

The order that PicoDevimon received from Vamdemon was:
“Gather all of my Digimon subordinates to Odaiba before the night arrives.”
After getting in contact with the Digimon scattered throughout Tokyo, PicoDevimon decided to sleep for a bit.
“I’ve been working without rest the whole night. Besides, it looks like later tonight is gonna be another round of hard work.”
But as he slept, something unexpected happened. Large-sized Digimon had slipped into the underground sewer system during their roaming. Since they only needed to look at whether or not their copies of the Crest of Light reacted, they had wandered aimlessly, moving through places that were easy for them to pass through. However, once they were given the order to head for Odaiba, they found out that there were certain places underground that did not give them passage. They had to spill out from beneath the roads.
There were even some flying Digimon who dropped from the skies to rampage on land. They were starving.

○

All divisions in Odaiba’s TV station, not just the news department, were in a state of confusion. There were reports that monster-like creatures were going crazy throughout various parts of the metropolitan area, but no solid video proof could be made.
“Hm? Oh, it’s just you, Yamato. I’m busy right now, don’t call me in the middle of work. Huh? What? You want me to tell you the locations of the monsters showing up? What do you wanna know that for?” Yamato’s father, Hiroaki, said irately, but he relayed the reports to his unusually serious-sounding son all the same.

○

Sora Takenouchi’s mother, Yoshiko, was at the “Takenouchi School of Flower Arrangement” office on Block Eight in Ginza.
Sirens from police cars rang uninterrupted outside. Sometimes, something like explosions or (quite large) beastly roars seemed to be mixed in. The TV and radio had strong static, so they were unable to be viewed or listened to. Not even the phones worked, so she had no idea what was going on.
“I wonder if they’re filming for a movie. All I hear are police car sirens, so it can’t be a fire,” Yoshiko whispered as if to herself, looking up from her examination of documents for the fall exhibition.
The Takenouchi School wasn’t that big, but it was a school of long old tradition, and Yoshiko had dignified, strong-willed eyes that were befitting for the head of the school.
Because of its long-standing tradition, her husband, who was an assistant university professor at the time they were wed, chose to take on her surname. It didn’t mean that he was adopted into her family, but while her apprentices would frequently visit her home, her husband Haruhiko was not at home, or even in Tokyo, for long periods of time since his field research on folkloristics kept him away. It was possible that others saw her as a person who treated her apprentices highly, but her own husband frivolously. Even her only daughter, Sora, gave her a hard time when she secretly took on a rebellious attitude because of it.
But when Sora had returned home yesterday, she was surprisingly obedient. In fact, she looked as if she had wanted to say something. Originally, since Sora was supposed to spend the night at summer camp^[22], Yoshiko had arranged her own schedule so that she could work on tasks late into the night. It was already past 10 PM by the time she had gotten back home, so she’d rebuked Sora that they would talk tomorrow and to go to bed immediately.
And she didn’t even make a single complaint. I wonder what that was about?
In the end, when next morning came, there wasn’t any time to talk even though she was curious about what had happened at camp.
“Master, look! There’s a walking cactus! A really huge walking cactus!” One of her apprentices shouted, looking out of the windows.
“Don’t make such a fuss! I’m sure they’re only filming for a movie.”
“But it’s— Oh, a giant praying mantis!”
Five or six more people in the office also ran towards the windows, clamoring in loud voices of “Wow, you’re right!” and “What is that?”
A large fireball flew across the windows.
“Whoa!”
All of them jumped back. Then they heard the sound of a loud explosion.
Not even Yoshiko could ignore it any longer. She stood up, heading towards the windows.
An even bigger fireball flew across their sights. This time, it looked like a flaming bird. But Yoshiko’s eyes were drawn to the figure wrapped around the phoenix’s legs.
“…Sora!”
The young girl hanging off the giant phoenix’s legs looked like none other than her very own daughter.
In a panic, she raced to the window and looked outside, but it must have already flown off, because she couldn’t see it anywhere.
Not even the giant cactus.

○

“Fox Fire!”
Garurumon spit out blue flames from his mouth. A lump of rotten sludge, filled with pieces of metal and some kind of wreckage, scorched against the flames as it trudged along. The lump was a span of ten meters long, and it glared at them with milky eyes.
“Raremon… It’s an Adult level,” Koushiro said, looking at the Digimon’s analysis on his laptop.
Without a moment’s pause, Kabuterimon unleashed a ball of electricity mid-air.
“Mega Blaster!”
There were a bunch of warehouses in Shibaura, and the Raremon who was cornered to one of those warehouses got hit with the attack directly, abruptly disappearing.
“Yamato-san, hurry!” Koushiro shouted, jumping onto Kabuterimon who had flown down to low altitude. Garurumon, with Yamato on his back, pounced up, reverting to Gabumon in mid-jump.
It was, of course, all part of the plan, and Yamato and Gabumon landed perfectly on Kabuterimon’s head just as he began to ascend.
The police cars and officers surrounding the warehouses looked up at them in gaping astonishment.
“At least we cleaned up this place.”
“Next is… Asakusa. We’ll fly towards it now.”

The Chosen Children couldn’t disregard the Digimon showing up in Tokyo. They decided to split up and deal with them.
Unsure of when Vamdemon would come to attack Hikari, Taichi decided to be on standby in Odaiba to protect her.
Sora headed to Ginza while giving encouragement to Mimi, who seemed rather unwilling to fight.
Koushiro and Yamato went to Shibaura.
Along the way, they kept in contact with each other through Koushiro’s PHS^[23] and the cell phone that Mimi borrowed from her parents. The blunder to this idea, however, was that electromagnetic interference was horrible while their Digimon partners were Adult level, so they couldn’t connect to each other.
If the time called for it, Taichi’s Agumon, who was protecting Hikari on his own, could evolve to Perfect level, along with Sora’s Piyomon, Mimi’s Palmon, Koushiro’s Tentomon, and Yamato’s Gabumon. Their fighting power was evenly distributed, and what’s more, Sora’s Piyomon and Koushiro’s Tentomon could fly the skies as Birdramon and Kabuterimon. They had to move quickly; otherwise, they could get caught by the police and be hindered from taking out Vamdemon’s subordinates.
Jou and Gomamon, who were still unable to evolve to Perfect and were also not so great at moving around on land, had a different role to play.

○

Takeru Takaishi and his mother, Natsuko, took the Setagaya Line from Sangenjaya to Goutokuji station. An avenue that led off from the main street into a residential road had a small French restaurant among the private houses.
“I’m so sorry about yesterday. I never thought that camp would be cancelled.”
When Natsuko had returned home late last night, she was surprised to find Takeru at home before her.
“If I had known, I would have made you dinner.”
Upon hearing that Yamato had made dinner for him, she decided that the two of them should eat lunch at a French restaurant the next day as a small penance.
“But Brother’s spaghetti was delicious. Besides, you were busy with work.”
“But I ended up waiting for nothing on one of them, and it pushed back the rest of my plans. That person said he could only meet me on a Sunday, and since that was a camp day, I thought it worked out perfectly and made time for him. And in the end, he stood me up. Isn’t that horrible?”
Because her father was French and she herself had lived for a long time in France, Natsuko worked as both a French translator and a writer of non-fiction. Most of her work involved being a reportage writer for physics and chemistry research. Although she couldn’t say that she was paid well for it, she felt that this suited her better than a regular desk job.
Among her normal jobs, a side project that she was working on involved investigating the “Hikarigaoka terrorist bombing incident” four years ago.
It was an incident that occured in the very place where they had lived. Not only did it capture her interest, but as she kept investigating it, she found many aspects about it that weren’t acceptable explanations to her. It still wasn’t enough information for her to put into an article or a book, but someone, somehow, had managed to find out that she was working on it and had contacted her wanting to talk. But when the time of their appointment came, the man she was supposed to meet didn’t appear.

What was that man’s name? Oikawa? I think? Well, I’m never going to set up a meeting with him again.
She crunched into an artichoke from their appetizer dish, and heard a stomach growl from across the table.
“Takeru? Were you that hungry?”
“N–No…”
Takeru couldn’t tell her that the stomach gurgles were coming from Patamon, who he’d placed on the seat next to him. Patamon was pretending to be a stuffed toy. Because Takeru’s mother was with them, he hadn’t been able to eat anything since waking up that morning.
I can’t believe it’s harder to find food here than in the Digital World…
Patamon suppressed his tears. Last night, he had eaten his fill of Yamato’s spaghetti, but that energy had been spent evolving to Angemon.
Patamon continued to be hungry until Takeru pretended to eat bread and secretly nudged it in Patamon’s direction.

The French restaurant naturally had no TV or radio playing in the background, but a quiet stream of classical music. Mother and child had no idea on the chaos that was happening until they stepped outside.
The Setagaya Line was suspended. The roads were terribly congested for some reason.
“It’s a bit late, but why don’t we go for a walk to work off that meal?” Natsuko said, unhurried, but Takeru felt on edge.
“Could this be… the work of a Digimon?”
All he knew was that something had happened. But how was he going to explain that to his mother?

After walking for thirty minutes, the cause of what had suspended the Setagaya Line grew clear. Police cars and fire trucks gathered in front of an area lined off by police tape. The earth protruded out like mounds, while the railway tracks on them were devastated and pulled to shreds.
“What’s this…?”
Natsuko stood paralyzed, looking dumbfounded, but Takeru knew right away. It had to be from a Digimon, one of Vamdemon’s lackeys.
There was a sunken hole made out in the center of the mounds of earth, and a large Digimon appeared to have emerged from underground.
No, that Digimon— Gesomon, had not appeared above land yet. It changed direction halfway and looked for a different spot that was easier to exit.
There weren’t many passages in the sewer system that were wide enough, so it kept running into dead ends. In pure irritation, it decided to force its way through to the surface.

The trees lining the streets began to tilt from their roots and noisily fall.
When mother and son turned, they could see white tentacles poking through the ground.
“…A squid?”
The earth bulged up and Gesomon’s body sprung out. It looked nothing more than a giant squid.
As they hurriedly ran away, Takeru held Patamon close to him.
“Should I evolve?”
“But my mom…”
The police fired their pistols. The dull sound of shots echoed, and the bullets hit Gesomon full-on.
Gesomon’s body surface was smooth, but certainly not soft. The bullets bounced off its skin, landing slowly on the ground.
Its two long tentacles mowed down the officers standing at the very front with a single swipe.
Gesomon, when standing upright, was eight meters high, even bigger than the roof of a two-story building. Its slippery eight legs wriggled, chasing after Takeru and his mother.
“I think it’s coming after me,” Patamon said in realization. “It knows that I’m a Digimon!”
He tried to remove himself from Takeru’s grasp, thinking that he should evolve and fight.
Gesomon’s tentacles shot out in front of them. When stretched out, the two tentacles were as long as fifty meters. The tentacles easily slipped behind them, blocking their path. The alleyway, which wasn’t that wide to begin with, was barred on both sides.
“Takeru!”
Natsuko held Takeru close to her. The tentacles closed in.
“Harpoon Vulcan!”
A long, narrow triangle shape came flying from over the roofs of the houses. Its shell split open mid-air and the organic missile inside flew out, aiming straight towards Gesomon.
The first one hit, followed without pause by five more. Gesomon dissolved into particles without even the least resistance.
A young boy carrying a large sports bag over his shoulder came running towards Natsuko, who continued to stand there, petrified. He was a lanky boy in glasses.
“Takeru-kun! I finally found you!”
“Jou-san!”
Takeru ran towards the boy.
Was Takeru friends with him? Natsuko wondered, still unable to process what was happening, when the boy turned to greet her.
“Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you! I’m Jou Kido. I’m a sixth grader from the same Odaiba elementary school as Yamato Ishida-kun.”
“Jou, what are you standing around talking for? Let’s hurry up, I’m hungry!”
A voice called out from inside the sports bag. Then a head popped out.
“Oh crap, someone else was here.”
Seeing Natsuko, Gomamon scratched his head sheepishly.
“It spoke…” Natsuko said slowly in surprise, but that wasn’t the end of it.
“Gomamon…”
Not only did Jou and Takeru sigh, but so did the stuffed toy that Takeru held in his arms.

③ Barrier of Darkness

Tachikawa Mimi’s father, Keisuke, headed back to Odaiba from his studio in Shiba. He worked mainly as a freelance audio mixer for rock music, so his workplace was in an underground recording studio. However, he had been unable to get any work done since the early afternoon today. Regardless of whatever sound generator he reproduced, he would always catch static mixed into it somewhere.
After looking through his various audio sources, he decided that all of his equipment would need to be checked over. The day ended with him having to put his work on hold as he waited for a serviceman to arrive and do maintenance.
Because he always walked from the studio to Shinbashi to ride the Yurikamome^[24], he was unaware of the traffic congestion that was taking place in various parts of the city.
“Wow, the sunset sure is red today.”
As he absentmindedly gazed out the window, the scenery began to cloud over faintly.
“Fog? That’s weird.”
The Yurikamome that he was riding on arrived at Odaiba without any predicament. Thirty minutes later, it suspended all services.

Around the same time, Taichi Yagami’s father, Susumu, was riding the Rinkai Fukutoshin Line^[25] from Shinkiba to Odaiba.
“Sure, tell me to come home early because there are monsters or whatnot going crazy in Tokyo, but… man…”
Since he hadn’t seen such a thing for himself, he was feeling more put out than nervous. Pretty much the rest of the crowd with him returning home was feeling the same way.
Standing behind Susumu, back to back, was Koushiro Izumi’s father, Masami. Of course, neither of them knew who the other was at this point in time.
Masami was looking very apprehensive. Last night, his son Koushiro had apparently locked his bedroom door and then had secretly slipped through his window to go outside.
“Today… I’m going to need to talk with Koushiro.”
There was something that he knew he would need to speak to his son about one day. Would today have to be that day? Even as the train glided into the station, he couldn’t decide.
There were more people than usual at the platform stop. The people who’d come to visit Odaiba had heard the weather conditions within the city and had decided to return home early.

○

Although it had gotten pretty dark, the sunset had turned the sky such a bright red that Birdramon was barely noticeable as she flew through it.
Birdramon landed on the roof of the condominium, returning to Piyomon. Sora, Mimi, and Palmon were with her.
“Good work today.”
“Sora~ I’m hungry~”
“Hang in there just a bit longer, Piyomon. I’m sorry about this, but could you come in from the window again? I’ll open it and signal you once I’m inside.”
Kabuterimon landed some short moments later. Riding on him were Koushiro, Yamato, and Gabumon.
Kabuterimon turned back into Tentomon, and when the electromagnetic interference died down, Yamato grabbed Koushiro’s PHS and looked at its display. There was no message from Jou.
“Nothing yet, huh?”
Apparently, the last message that they had sent before flight was taking time being sent because communications had been cut off along the way.
“That took longer than I thought,” Koushiro said. The Digimon who had appeared in Tokyo had not only attacked aimlessly, but several had even managed to skillfully hide themselves. It had taken time just trying to find them. “The day is almost over.”
“Yeah… But Jou ought to be all right. On another topic…” Yamato looked around at their tired Digimon. “Let’s eat something now while we can and store our energy.”
“We should hurry. Taichi and Hikari-chan are waiting,” Sora said, but it was actually Sora who needed to hurry the most. Yamato’s father wasn’t due to arrive home yet, and Koushiro could escape through his window. Mimi could also manage somehow, but Sora alone needed to eat and leave home before her mother came back. She did not expect her mother to be very understanding about these circumstances.
All of them rode up the elevator, dispersing to their seperate floors.
Because they had been battling throughout Tokyo, they didn’t realize that Vamdemon was already targeting Odaiba.

“Sora, I need to talk to you.”
She wasn’t expecting her mother to be home already.
“Please don’t think that I’m saying something stupid, but… Could you tell me where you were this afternoon?”
She saw Birdramon.
Her mother’s tone of voice wasn’t accusatory. She spoke hesitantly, as though she was unsure and confused.
That only made it harder for her to find a more ideal moment to talk to her mother about Piyomon.
If I knew this was going to happen, then maybe I should have brought her in with me instead of telling her to come through the window.
What would be the best way for her to tell her Mom what was going on without giving her too much of a shock? Sora thought about it, but immediately got overwhelmed. She got the sense that it would be best if she told her mother everything from the top, and then had Piyomon come in at the end to meet her.
“Mom… It’s kind of a long story, but will you hear me out?”
Piyomon was left spending more time waiting outside the window.

The sun set.
Under more usual circumstances, the sun would have set at a later time than this. But in the west, a heavy sheet of fog hung over thickly, darkening the sunset early. The sunset, which everyone today had felt was more red than usual, disappeared completely behind the fog.
After it had swallowed up the sun, the fog surrounding Odaiba increased in density. It writhed like a living being.
As it encircled the whole area of Odaiba,
“Hehehe…”
A low laugh could be heard coming from somewhere within.
Both the Yurikamome and the Rinkai Fukutoshin Line stopped functioning. Even all of the automobiles crossing Rainbow Bridge^[26] died because their electrical systems failed.
No phone calls would go through. This not only applied to landlines, but wireless connections as well.
The television radio waves that were being sent from Odaiba were also shut down, their channels showing up in households all across the nation as nothing but static.
From outside its surrounding areas, Odaiba looked as though it were covered in a giant dome of fog. But the residents who were inside didn’t realize right away that something was wrong. The fog was thick only at its outline, while the inside of it was sparse. No changes were noticed in the electricity and water supply. The only people inside who noticed something was odd were those making phone calls or watching TV. All TV and radio stations inside the dome had poor reception.
During its initial formation, the fog dome could still be cut through. People who had stopped their cars on the highway, leading to the Rainbow Bridge and Shinkiba, had left them to walk across, so they were able to slip through the fog and out of its dome. They had no idea that they were the lucky ones.
Not even ten minutes passed when the fog intensified until it was almost solid.
“Now, no one can escape from my barrier.”
Within the fog, a human shadow stood on the rustic triumphal arch rooftop of the Telecom Center building^[27]. His dark cape with crimson lining fluttered behind him. It was Vamdemon.
His cape spread out like wings.
“Go now, my servants of darkness.”

④ The Captured People

Taichi’s family lived in a four-unit condominium that was partitioned by a road from the condominium of Sora and Koushiro’s families. Yamato lived in yet another unit that was closer to Fuji TV station.
The Ishida family’s front door slammed open and a voice rang into it.
“Yamato, are you in?!”
It was Yamato Ishida’s father, Hiroaki. He walked hurriedly into the living space without stopping to take his shoes off.
“We need to get out of here—”
Yamato and a large stuffed dog doll with a horn on its head both looked up at him from the dining table in the living room.
“From Odaiba…”
Both of them were holding chopsticks in one hand, eating mackerel cooked in miso with their rice. His son and that stuffed doll were both irrefutably in the middle of eating dinner.
The doll— Gabumon, looked at Yamato helplessly. Yamato hurriedly set his chopsticks down.
“D–Dad! This is…!”

○

Needless to say, it was the people within Fuji TV station who were the first to notice that something was wrong with the signals.
No transceivers could be sent or received. All video equipment were non-functional. No matter what was put on display, all that could be seen were screens filled with static.
Hiroaki’s intuition told him that, with the news of monsters going wild early that afternoon as well as the radio interference yesterday, this couldn’t be just any regular abnormality. It was this intuition that had primed him into a skilled director.
He also knew, from the wide view of the city at the top of Fuji TV station, that their surrounding areas were closed off by fog.
He went straight into his next course of action without a moment’s hesitation. He left the broadcasting station in its bustling confusion and headed for home.

○

“Explain later! Right now, we need to get out of here!”
But his quick actions were almost in vain. White blankets floated into their home through the open front door. They looked like the depictions of Western ghosts, as if they were people with white blankets over their heads; but they were Digimon named Bakemon.
“Petit Fire!”
Gabumon immediately spat out blue flames, holding back the Bakemon, and then ran for the front door.
“Gabumon, evolve! Garurumon!”
He loped through the long corridor as he evolved, scattering the attacking Bakemon in his path. Garurumon was just barely small enough to squeeze through the corridor. Yamato chased after him, along with his father Hiroaki, who had no idea what was happening but followed anyway.
Their surroundings were thronged with angry bellows and screams. An immense number of Bakemon had appeared, capturing the residents of the condominium. As Digimon went, the Bakemon had weak fighting strength, but they could still easily overpower regular humans. Whoever ran out into the hallways or jumped out from windows were snatched right up into the air and taken hostage.
To those people who tried unreasonably hard to resist, there appeared to them a Digimon wrapped in a red robe that covered his entire body: Phantomon. The giant sickle that he carried could soundlessly cut through walls and steel-thick doors. No human kept up their will to fight after seeing that in action.

Yamato and the others arrived outside the condominium, on the ground floor. Garurumon was able to fend off the attacking Bakemon, but he did not have the leisure to save the people being taken away. The Bakemon’s numbers were great, but if he made any clumsy attacks, he could end up injuring the humans in the Bakemon’s grasp.
A dazzling light broke out from a corner of the unit across from them. It was the light of evolution.
“Agumon, evolve! Greymon!”
Agumon was unable to evolve to Greymon in the narrow indoors, so he could only evolve after he had finally come outdoors. But during the time that took, Taichi’s parents were captured by the Bakemon.
“Taichi! Hikari!”
Their parents cried as they were taken away.
Taichi kept hidden behind Greymon, holding Hikari tightly to him to protect her.
“Dad! Mom!”
Greymon couldn’t use his fireball attack since it could hit Taichi’s parents. Using only his claws and horn to keep the Bakemon from grabbing Taichi and his sister was the best he could do. Greymon turned to Taichi. “Taichi! Please! We have to get out of here!”
Yamato’s group ran up to them, fending off the Bakemon in their path.
“Taichi! Is Hikari-chan okay?”
Taichi had to make a decision. He would save his parents later. Right now, he needed to protect Hikari.
“Let’s get outta here!”

Birdramon was also unable to evolve indoors.

The Bakemon attacked them just when Sora had more or less described how they had gone to the Digital World, their adventures, and then had invited Piyomon to come into her room through the window.
“Is this… Piyo-san?”
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Piyomon.”
Sora’s mother Yoshiko timidly stretched out her hand just as the door flew open behind her and Bakemon swarmed in.
At first, Piyomon’s “Magical Fire” drove them back. But gradually, the number of Bakemon surging in was too great. Piyomon flew out of the window and evolved.
“Piyomon, evolve! Birdramon!”
The Bakemon closed in around them even as she evolved. Yoshiko pushed Sora towards the windows, then turned to face the Bakemon herself, pushing for time.
“Run, Sora!”
Sora clung to Birdramon’s legs, and when she turned around to look, Yoshiko was already surrounded by the Bakemon. There was no way to retrieve her from outside the window.
“Mom! I’ll come back to save you, I promise!”
As Yoshiko was dragged away, Sora thought that she saw her mother smile.

⑤ A Chance Meeting at Tokyo Bay

By the time Jou, Takeru, and Natsuko arrived in Shinbashi, the Yurikamome had stopped working. Ships were also prohibited from leaving port, so there was a crowd of people at the Takeshiba Terminal^[28]. Odaiba was covered in fog, and there could be no doubt that it was already in a state of chaos.
“In that case…” Jou said, facing Gomamon.
“Yeah!” Gomamon nodded.

Their group left the pier and went to a jetty that didn’t have any people around.
“Gomamon, evolve! Ikkakumon!”
Before Natsuko’s eyes, Gomamon, who was as big as a medium-sized dog, was enveloped in light before transforming into Ikkakumon, who was the size of a small truck bristling with fur.
“This is…”
Along the way here, these four had told her about the Digital World. Although she had trouble believing them right away, it did explain all of the baffling things that had happened in Hikarigaoka four years ago. There was also the Gesomon that she had witnessed earlier. Gomamon and Patamon were clearly both living beings, and they even spoke human language. And now, she had seen this phenomenon of “evolution” before her very eyes.
At this point, there was no longer any point in hesitating.
“I’m going, too.”
She couldn’t let her young son and this slightly helpless-looking boy go on their own.
The three humans and Patamon climbed onto Ikkakumon’s back and they entered the ocean.

○

As they approached the dome of fog, they realized that it wasn’t just the thickness of the fog that made it abnormal. It had an invisible pressure as well that blocked them out.
Something approached them from within the fog.
“Jou! Hang tight!”
Just as Ikkakumon finished saying that, something that looked like a giant snake’s head surged through the water surface.
“It’s huge…!”
Even just the part alone that rose from beneath the ocean was as big as a three-story building. Its actual body span was probably over tens of meters in length.
In the past, they had met an Adult level Digimon named Seadramon, but this Digimon was several times larger and wore a headpiece over its giant head. They could see that it was much stronger than the Seadramon they knew.
“It must be a Perfect level!”
Even so, Ikkakumon didn’t hesitate on firing his horns. There was no doubt in his mind that this was one of Vamdemon’s minions.
“Harpoon Vulcan!”
Natsuko, seeing the flying horns, established that it was this Ikkakumon that had saved them from Gesomon. However, unlike that time, the organic missiles that he was firing didn’t give any damage to their opponent, no matter how many were fired into it.
The Digimon— MegaSeadramon, fired a lightning bolt from the horn on its head.
Ikkakumon quickly moved away to dodge the blow. But the power of the lightning bolt when it hit the ocean surface was dreadful, and the sea swelled up as if it exploded.
Ikkakumon was flown up into the air.
Jou, Takeru, and Natsuko were also thrown down. As Jou’s mind slowly faded to unconsciousness from the blow, he only had one wish in mind.

“I have to do whatever it takes to protect Takeru-kun and his mother. I have to get us to Odaiba.”
The digivice on Jou’s bag began to glow brighter than it ever had before.

○

Ahead of the Odaiba Seaside Park^[29] was a place called “No. 3 Battery.”^[30] It was the remains of a gun battery from the Meiji Restoration period, sitting on a square plot of land that jutted out from the water ahead of a long thin road. It was the place where Tailmon and Wizarmon had fought Vamdemon the previous night. Wizarmon had sunk to the ocean depths right next to No. 3 Battery.
Vamdemon’s herd of bats in his “Night Raid” attack had wounded Wizarmon deeply. Since his body was like the composition of a stuffed doll, being permeated with water made his limbs drag down. He was unable to move with his own strength any longer. The only things he did not lose his grip on, even in unconsciouness, were his magic staff and the two Crests.
One of those Crests began to glow.
The Crest began to move forward as though it was being pulled by something. Wizarmon, still unconscious, tightened his hold on it.

Jou and the others floated in the water. Ikkakumon wanted to rescue them, but he couldn’t move.
MegaSeadramon, confident in its victory, approached them leisurely. The horn on its head glittered dangerously, ready to strike lightning at any moment. With a direct hit, Ikkakumon wouldn’t stand a chance.

Wizarmon was traveling through the ocean at incredibly high speed. The Crest in his hand was bucking forward with amazing strength. He cut in between MegaSeadramon and Ikkakumon, bursting out of the sea. The Crest, still in his hand, glowed brightly in mid-air.
Bathed in that light, Ikkakumon evolved to Perfect level.
“Ikkakumon, super-evolve! Zudomon!”
The hard shell of a turtle’s. The long tusks of a walrus. The horn on his forehead as Ikkakumon changed into a different one with more serrations. His whole body length grew twice as big in size, and he was now as big as MetalGreymon. What was even more different was that he was carrying a giant hammer in his right hand, the Thor Hammer.
He raised the Thor Hammer high, bringing it down on MegaSeadramon’s head.
The hammer, made out of Chrome Digizoid, the Digital World’s strongest metal, easily shattered MegaSeadramon’s headpiece to smithereens. Sparks so big that it might as well be an explosion flew from the point of impact. That single strike obliterated MegaSeadramon’s nervous system.
MegaSeadramon slowly fell back into the ocean, not even given the time to scream, disintegrating into particles.

Zudomon brought Jou and the others to rest on his immense back, and stepped into the fog. Of course, he scooped up Wizarmon as well. As a Perfect level, the pressure of the fog felt like nothing and he was able to enter into Odaiba.
Wizarmon’s consciousness fluttered back faintly. He was able to register that he had been saved by Jou, and that he was gripping his staff and the Crests in his hands. He could also feel that the Book of Sorcery he’d kept hidden in his chest pocket was gone. It must have slipped out and fallen somewhere down into the ocean.
That Book, along with his staff, had been items that he had always carried on his person since his time at his hometown, and the Book had also been the reason for why he was exiled from his hometown. However, there was something more important to focus on than that right now.
“This Crest… It’s yours.”
He stuck his arm out, handing the Crest, that had just moments ago glowed and delivered him to them, to Jou.
“This is my Crest?” Jou asked, accepting it quietly.
“That’s right. What you hold is the Crest of Sincerity… And this one…”
Wizarmon motioned to the other Crest.
“Is the Crest of Light… I must give this one to Tailmon… and Hikari…”

⑥ Escape from Big Sight

Everyone in Odaiba was gathered in Tokyo Big Sight, an enormous convention and exhibition center. Despite the rush of bodies from the earlier chase, none of the humans were hurt because the Digimon were given strict orders not to harm them in any way. Since they were going to end up as Vamdemon’s food, they needed to be treated delicately.
Large Digimon, such as the black dinosaur DarkTyranomon, were deployed around Big Sight so that no one could easily escape.
Mimi was there with her parents. It was possible that she wasn’t recognized as one of the Chosen Children because she wasn’t wearing her usual ten-gallon hat.
Palmon was pretending to be a doll, wearing a large baby doll’s apron and hat that had been hurriedly grabbed from Mimi’s room and thrown onto her. Palmon had low offensive ability since she couldn’t breathe fire, like Agumon and Gabumon, and hadn’t had the chance to resist capture. Of course, she couldn’t evolve to Togemon while in the condominium either. But now—
“Mimi, should I evolve?”
“Not yet, Palmon. Let’s wait until we have a chance.”
The wide convention center was packed tightly with people. Crying and murmuring could be heard all around them.
“Damn it! If I had the power, I’d beat those guys up!”
The young junior in Taichi’s soccer club that Mimi had seen running to them earlier that morning at the park was there, crying in frustration. The girl next to him gently comforting him must be his older sister.
It must be nice to have a sibling, Mimi thought wistfully. Palmon was by her side now, but if Mimi didn’t have her, there was no telling how much she would have bawled her eyes out.
At any rate, even if they evolved here now, they would simply be outnumbered.

“Foolish humans.”
Vamdemon appeared at the center of assembly hall, floating in the air. He hadn’t raised his voice that much, and yet it seemed to seep into every corner of the hall. He held something small and white in one hand.
“You have been gathered as valuable nourishment for my work in sealing up all worlds into darkness. But for now—”
His eyes glowed red.
“For now, wait. There is business that I must take care of first.”
When his eyes turned red completely, the people who had been watching those eyes were pulled in by his gaze, falling to the ground like dolls with their strings cut. They had been put into a deep, unshakeable slumber.
Vamdemon continued to look down on the humans as he spoke to Tailmon dangling from his hand.
“Looks like your partner isn’t here.”
Tailmon kept silent.
“Hehehe. I know the truth even without you telling me. I also know that she hasn’t escaped beyond the boundaries of my barrier.”
A small, black Digimon came flapping towards Vamdemon. It was PicoDevimon. He whispered something into Vamdemon’s ear, who laughed loudly.
“I see, you’ve found her. Do you hear that, Tailmon? Like a fool, your partner was found from her hiding spot. Hahaha!”

Mimi didn’t fall asleep. She didn’t realize that she had been prevented from this through the power of her digivice that she kept hidden within the folds of her clothes. But when she saw the other people in the hall falling to the floor, she decided that it would be safer if she also pretended to be one of them. If Vamdemon left, Mimi thought, there might be greater chances to escape from here. As Vamdemon did just that, his laughter fading into the distance, now was her chance.
“Palmon, let’s go,” she said out loud after she was sure that Vamdemon wasn’t coming back. Palmon immediately opened her eyes.
“Palmon, evolve! Togemon!”
Togemon and Mimi began to run, although not at full-speed since they had to avoid stepping on the fallen people as they moved.
Immediately, the Bakemon on lookout came towards them.
“Mimi, get down! Prickly Prickly Bang Bang!”
Togemon spun her body at high speed, shooting her thorns. More than ten Bakemon were disintegrated into particles in an instant. But there was an abundant numbers of Bakemon still present and they kept coming in swarms.
Togemon punched a hole through the shutter of the exit closest to her. Unfortunately, it didn’t lead to the outside of the building but to another hall.
For starters, she could evolve to Perfect level after slipping through this hole.
“Togemon, super-evolve! Lilimon!”
The petite flower fairy Lilimon posed with both arms as she turned around. The Bakemon pursuing them had tried to squeeze through the tear in the shutter all at once and were caught in it.
“Flower Cannon!”
A rainbow light shot out from Lilimon’s arms. The swarm of Bakemon disappeared inside its sparkling light.
“I’m sorry.”
Lilimon looked pained. That went for Mimi as well. She forced herself to keep from crying and ran for the exit.
Outside, the giant dinosaur DarkTyranomon was waiting for them. And there were three of them. They pounced upon her as one.
“Flower Cannon!”
But the rainbow light was only enough to take down one. DarkTyranomon’s fiendish claws were coming down on her before she even had time to aim at her next target.
“Lilimon!” Mimi screamed sorrowfully.
“Giga Destroyer!”
The voice came from behind DarkTyranomon. The DarkTyranomon quickly reacted by turning around, but reflected in their eyes were two organic missiles flying towards them trailing smoke. The missiles hit the two DarkTyranomon with deadly accuracy.
From the sound and flash of the explosion, it appeared to be of a higher magnitude than usual, but strangely enough, only the DarkTyranomon broke down into particles. The building of Big Sight itself, which was right beside them, remained unscathed. Perhaps the Giga Destroyer could self-adjust its own destructive force and level based on its target.
After the hot blast died down and Mimi opened her eyes, she saw the orange giant MetalGreymon flying at low altitude towards them from a vacant lot behind Big Sight. His bottom claws grazed against the ground as he flew. Taichi was riding on his back, waving.

Taichi and Agumon had left Hikari in Yamato’s care and come to do some enemy surveillance. Taichi was also worried about his parents. But while they were investigating how to get inside the building, the Bakemon suddenly bustled in agitation and they saw that Mimi and Palmon were inside, trying to escape. Agumon managed to evolve just in time to rescue them.

The Bakemon within Big Sight attacked MetalGreymon, but this time there weren’t any hostages around to make him hold back from attacking. Against what looked to be more than a hundred Bakemon, one swipe of MetalGreymon’s claws from his left metallic arm was enough.

“Where are my parents?” Taichi asked Mimi as he dropped down from MetalGreymon.
“Everyone’s just asleep. I think they’re all okay.”
Taichi almost let out a sigh of relief, when Mimi’s next words set him back on edge immediately.
“But Vamdemon left here not a moment ago saying that he found Tailmon’s partner. Where is Hikari-chan?”

⑦ Leaving Only A Smile Behind

The condominiums, recreational facilities, company buildings, and hotels in Odaiba were as empty as the Fuji TV office building. Not a single human remained. Vamdemon’s subordinates were scarily efficient.
But not even the Bakemon were aware that Yamato and the others were hiding inside a building in front of Fuji TV that was under construction. The construction site, which was planned to be a comprehensive recreational facility called “Aqua City” when complete, was still covered by cloth on the outside, while the inside was bare with steel beams.
Hikari hid herself in its dark belly. Yamato, Gabumon, Yamato’s father Hiroaki, Sora, Piyomon, and Koushiro were also with her.

○

When the Bakemon began kidnapping citizens, Koushiro was the first to realize it. He was online when his internet connection shut down, and looking up, he saw Bakemon approaching the condo from the first floor window.
Remembering one of the programs that Gennai had installed into his laptop computer, he immediately copied it onto his desktop computer and booted it up after forcing both his parents to join him in his own room. He had no idea how effective it was going to be. It was a gamble.
The software, called “Digimon Barrier,” worked wonderfully.
When the Bakemon broke down the door, they couldn’t see Koushiro and the others inside the room and promptly left to check other rooms.

“Do you really have to go?” Masami said just as Koushiro was about to leave the room. Even though he knew his son couldn’t be stopped, he tried anyway.
“Yes. You two should stay here until I come back. Quietly though, this barrier doesn’t seem to be able to mute sound.”
His mother, Yoshie, couldn’t stop herself from speaking up either. “You must return to us safely.”
“Don’t you worry. I’ll be with Koushiro-han and protect him.”
Although it had been explained to them, hearing a ladybug who was almost as big as a toddler talk to her almost made Yoshie faint.

Koushiro eluded the Bakemon wandering aimlessly around the area, and followed the reactions on his digivice to reach the construction site. In turn, Taichi left Big Sight.
Tentomon went alone to check their surroundings. Piyomon and Gabumon needed to rest and recover the energy that was spent on their evolutions, so he was the only one capable of moving at the moment.

○

When Tentomon returned, he made his report.
“I didn’t see anything that looked like an exit anywhere. The fog is so thick that no one can get through. However…”
Tentomon pointed directly above him.
“The fog up above is thin and I could see stars. It’s pretty high up, but we might be able to get through if I evolve to AtlurKabuterimon.”
But it was also highly likely that Vamdemon would spot them along the way.
“Satellite communication!” Yamato’s father, Hiroaki, murmured. “We might not be able to send regular radiowaves, but if we use satellite communication, it’s possible that we can communicate with the outside.”
Naturally, Fuji TV had a facility for that. The possibility of it was low, but it was worth a try. Tentomon could evolve to Perfect level and force their way out after if they had to. Hiroaki, Koushiro, and Tentomon left the construction site and snuck into Fuji TV station.

The only ones left were Hikari, Sora, Piyomon, Yamato, and Gabumon.
Somewhere in the background was the sound of water dripping.
A wind gently lifted up one end of the cloths covering the building under construction.
Without anyone noticing, two streaks of red lightning extended through that gap. They hit Gabumon and Piyomon directly.
The wind rose into a gust, blowing the cloths wide open to reveal Vamdemon waiting for them outside.

○

Because Zudomon was now evolved to Perfect level, Jou’s digivice unlocked the ability to detect his friends’ digivices and thus their locations.
“If only I had this earlier, then I wouldn’t have had to make Takeru-kun and you two wait so much.”
Jou laughed, but it didn’t work at relaxing everyone’s nerves.
The digivice showed that three of their friends were in one spot, while the other three were off at a distance.
“But this direction looks a little different from where we live…”
Jou tilted his head in thought. The three closest dots didn’t look like they were at the condominiums, as he was expecting, but closer to Fuji TV station. Zudomon headed that way. As he did so, the three dots that were further away looked to be heading their way. One of the dots from the three closest to them broke off from the group. Jou didn’t know that the three dots at a distance were Taichi and Mimi, with Taichi holding Hikari’s digivice, while the one dot that separated was Koushiro.
From the ocean, they saw a building in front of Fuji TV station that was under construction. They could see a dark, caped shape ascending from inside.
“It’s Vamdemon,” Patamon said in a low voice. Luckily, Vamdemon had his back turned to them.
Vamdemon disappeared at the top of Fuji TV station at the same time that Zudomon reached the shore. They also heard sounds of destruction inside the construction site.
After Zudomon let Jou and the others off his back, he hurled off the cloths covering the building with one flick of his hammer.
Yamato and Sora were inside. They were each holding Gabumon and Piyomon close to them.
With them were a giant praying mantis, Snimon, and a dinosaur with two giant horns like those of a bull protruding out from its shoulders, Tuskmon. Snimon’s scythes easily cut through steel beams, and the power from Tuskmon’s charges could easily bulldoze Digimon of the same level. What’s more, Vamdemon’s earlier attack prevented Piyomon and Gabumon from moving, so they had no way of defending themselves.
But for a Perfect level like Zudomon, they were no threat.
“Hammer Spark!”
Zudomon struck the Thor Hammer in his right hand at the closest steel beam. Sparks flew.
The real power of Zudomon’s attack was neither from the hammer nor the destructive force that came from his arm strength. With one focused swing, the sparks that were created when both the Chrome Digizoid and his force of will combined could destroy the data composition of Digimon itself.
The steel beams of the building stood in lines so close that Zudomon couldn’t slip through them, but the sparks became a dazzling striation that flew and hit Snimon and Tuskmon directly. The two of them were paralyzed, breaking down into particles in the next moment.

Yamato and Sora turned around slowly. Next to a large Digimon that they’ve never seen before was Jou, running towards them waving one arm. Takeru, Patamon, and Natsuko were there too.
“Mom…”
Yamato was dumbstruck.
“Thank goodness we made it!” Jou said, beaming. It was Sora who recovered first.
“Vamdemon has taken Hikari-chan!”
Jou learned that he hadn’t made it.

○

If they kept this up, Vamdemon would kill them all. Hikari gave herself in to Vamdemon on the condition that they did not attack Yamato and the others anymore.
But after Vamdemon had taken Hikari from the building, PicoDevimon had summoned Snimon and Tuskmon to finish them off.

Vamdemon and Hikari were on Fuji TV’s globe-shaped observation deck.
“What do you think, Tailmon? It’s a tearful reunion with your partner.”
He thrusted Tailmon, still dangling from his grip, towards Hikari.
“I don’t know this human.”
“It’s no use trying to fool me. Either way, you two are destined to die here. PicoDevimon.”
“Yes, Lord Vamdemon.”
The black, round Digimon pointed the needle of a large syringe at Hikari’s neck.
“Hikari!’
“See, you already gave yourself away.”
Tailmon bit her lip in frustration. Just then…
“Mega Blaster!”
At the same time as that voice, a part of the floor blew off. Electric shock pierced through the round ceiling. Kabuterimon rushed in from the bottom floor. Koushiro and the others had seen that Vamdemon was in this room through a window in Fuji TV.
“Heh, how interesting. You wish to battle me? Very well!”
Vamdemon flew out through a split in the ceiling. PicoDevimon took Hikari and was about to follow him, but WereGarurumon smashed through a window with a kick and jumped in, stealing Hikari back.
Outside, Garudamon was carrying Zudomon up to the top.
“Hammer Spark!”
Zudomon hit a corner of the Fuji TV building, sending sparks flying. But Vamdemon shook the sparks off with his cape.
“Shadow Wing!”
Garudamon’s advancing shadow lit up in flames. This was absorbed by the large swarm of bats that flew out from within his cape.
Once outside, Kabuterimon evolved to AtlurKabuterimon in mid-flight and rammed into him with his enormous horn.
“Horn Buster!”
A mysterious power dwelled in his horn that, normally, would pulverize whatever it hit. But even that was shaken off with one wave of his cape, and AtlurKabuterimon himself was snapped backwards.
“I suppose it’s time that I make my attack.”
Vamdemon tossed Tailmon aside, long strips of lightning stretching out from both hands like red whips.
“Heaven’s Knuckle!”
“Kaiser Nail!”
Angemon and WereGarurumon attacked at the same time. It was a direct hit.
But it had no effect.
“Remember where you are?”
Red lightning swung. Angemon and WereGarurumon were hurtled into the air.
“This is my barrier.”
His next hit sent Zudomon flying off the roof.
“My domain!”
Garudamon and AtlurKabuterimon were blown away to as far as the sea.
“The first step to turning the real world and the Digital World into darkness will take place here!”
Within his barrier, Vamdemon’s powers were amplified to ten times their original force. From behind him,
“Giga Destroyer!”
MetalGreymon’s organic missiles came flying at full speed.
Vamdemon’s eyes flashed red. The missiles came to a standstill just in front of Vamdemon, disappearing into particles. Lilimon flew out from a blind spot with both arms poised.
“Flower Cannon!”
But before she could fire the beam of rainbow light, red lightning cracked and Lilimon flew backwards, slamming into MetalGreymon who was inside, causing him to fall as well.
“Hehe. You fools.”
Vamdemon didn’t realize it yet, but MetalGreymon’s actions were part of a diversion. While Vamdemon was distracted, Taichi ran to Hikari, and Hikari took back Tailmon. Then, Taichi handed Hikari her digivice.
“Hikari!”
“Tailmon!”
Hikari held her partner in her arms for the first time.
It was then that Vamdemon realized that he had fallen into a trap.
“Night Raid!”
Wrath. And fear.
A great swarm of bats flew towards Hikari and Tailmon. They were no longer living life forms, but a lethal weapon that immediately deleted their own data upon hitting their target, forcing their opponent to be annihilated as well.
It was neither Hikari nor Tailmon that was hit.
Mustering up the last of his magical powers, Wizarmon flew through the air and stood in front of them. The bats disappeared into Wizarmon’s body as if they were being sucked in.
Wizarmon fell slowly to the ground.
The data composition of his body was already breaking down.
“This is for you.”
He handed Hikari her Crest.
“Wizarmon,” Tailmon whispered in a dumbfounded stupor. “I’m sorry, Wizarmon… for getting you involved in this.”
Wizarmon looked into Tailmon’s eyes.
“I should be thanking you. If I hadn’t met you, my life wouldn’t have had any meaning.”
And then, he smiled.
“I am glad… to have met you.”
Leaving only that smile behind, he vanished.
“Wizaaaaarmoooooooon!” Hikari shrieked.
Vamdemon tried to strike with his Night Raid a second time. He was too late.
Like a mini-explosion, light erupted from her Crest and digivice.
Enveloped in white light, Tailmon’s body rose into the air.
The light was so bright to Vamdemon that he was forced to cover his face with his cape.
Hikari, Taichi, along with Yamato and the others who had come to the top floor of Fuji TV, saw Tailmon change dramatically within the light.

“Tailmon, super-evolve! Angewomon!”

She looked like a celestial maiden wearing an angel’s raiment, or like an angel with spread wings. The only thing different was the helmet she wore that covered her head down to her eyes.
It was this evolution that Vamdemon had feared. This holy power exceeded even his barrier made of darkness, rendering it utterly powerless.

“Vamdemon!”
Angewomon spoke sonorously within the light. “You invaded the real world for your own ugly desires and took numerous lives, even the life of my friend Wizarmon. For these crimes, you shall pay.”
Vamdemon could finally look upon Angewomon. “What nonsense you speak of! After I have combined the Digital World and real world, I will seal it up with darkness and become its ultimate ruler! I won’t let the likes of you get in my way!”
As he spoke, he prepared to fire his red lightning.
Angewomon stretched out her left arm in front of her, while her right hand posed as if ready to let loose an arrow. The feather ornaments on the long arm glove she wore up to her left elbow extended out in the shape of a bow, and a bowstring and arrow made of light appeared.
“That’s…”
Vamdemon shuddered in fear. Apathetic, Angewomon drew back her bow,
“Holy Arrow!”
and unleashed the arrow of light.
“Nooooooooooo!”
Vamdemon’s scream bellowed until the arrow pierced through his heart.

After Vamdemon fell to the ground, disappearing into particles, the group had to quickly descend to the ground level. The battle at the very top of the globe-shaped observation deck had caused cracks in its structural support, and it could collapse at any moment.
But even when it did collapse, the fog barrier did not clear up along with it.

⑧ Ultimate Level

Takeru was so happy that his entire family of four had come together.
Hiroaki and Natsuko honestly couldn’t celebrate as he did. Yamato felt even more bummed out.
Jou was curious about how his own family was doing and went to his family’s apartment. No one had the time to fill Jou in about what had happened at Big Sight.
“I need to go,” Koushiro said, running off. His parents were still inside their apartment.
With no other ideas, the rest reluctantly headed towards Big Sight. Taichi and Mimi’s parents were there.
If the fog continued to persist, then they would have to evolve to Perfect level and break through it. Zudomon was proof that the topmost part of the fog dome wasn’t the only exit; a Perfect level would be able to travel through it via the ocean. However, Zudomon had turned back to his Baby form Pukamon. The other Digimon were also fatigued.
Tailmon was the only one who reverted back from Angewomon to her Adult form, Tailmon. Since that was the level she normally was, it was possible that she didn’t revert any lower than that so easily.
Hikari walked along carrying Wizarmon’s staff, which for some reason had remained, in her arms.

○

The people at Big Sight were still asleep. None of the Bakemon who were standing guard had stuck around.
“His pulse is normal. If I had the equipment, I could do a brain MRI for a more in-depth examination…”
Jou’s oldest brother, Shin, was taking their sleeping father’s pulse.
Shin, currently a student doctor, had come back home after staying up all night working on his research to take an evening nap. However, ever since the family had moved to Odaiba, his bed for some reason was the top layer of the closet where all of the futons were kept. Because the sliding door was closed while he was sleeping, the Bakemon hadn’t noticed him and neither had he noticed them. He had only woken up when Jou had gone home to investigate the rooms.
“Jou, listen…” Shin spoke up, looking at Jou who was peering worriedly into their parents’ sleeping faces. “You don’t have to push yourself to become a doctor.”
“Hey, you’d better not be making fun of Jou or you’ll be answering to me!” Pukamon cried out, poking his head out from inside Jou’s bag.
“I’m not. I’m just saying that a guy like him who faints at the sight of blood might wanna reconsider being a doctor.”
“Oh, then I’ll have to agree.”
Pukamon shifted back inside the bag again. Shin continued talking to Jou.
“You don’t need to live your life the way that Dad tells you to.”
“Huh? But…”
“After I pass the national exam, I won’t be working at Dad’s hospital.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m planning on going to an isolated island that has no doctor. Dad will probably try to stop me.”
“I had no idea.”
“You gotta make your own decisions on where you wanna go. No doubt Shuu will do that without me having to tell him, but I figured, with you, I should give you this talk.”
Shuu was the second-oldest brother between Shin and Jou. He was currently away for a summer training camp with his high school’s track team.
Jou didn’t know how to answer Shin. Shin clapped Jou on the shoulder, then stood up and looked around.
“Anyway, at this rate… We need help from the outside.”

Koushiro stood facing his parents in a corner of Big Sight’s empty main lobby.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
His father, Masami, spoke heavily. “While we were hiding at home, your mother and I had a talk and we decided to tell you the truth. The thing is—”
He knew that this day would one day come.
“We’re not your real parents.”
“…I already know.”
His mother, Yoshie, wasn’t surprised at all. “I knew it…”
Just before they had moved to Odaiba, Koushiro had woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. His parents’ voices could be heard through the thin crack of the open door.
“I decided to pretend that I hadn’t heard it. I tried to act as if everything was the same as before… but I just couldn’t do it. The more I tried, the weirder it felt… Until in the end, I became obsessed with computers… So that I could escape from reality…”
“It’s okay to be obsessed with computers!”
Koushiro looked up wonderingly at Masami’s sharp voice.
“Is there something wrong about that? No! It’s what makes you unique.”
Masami’s gaze changed to a reminiscent one.
“Also… It’s something that you share with your real father.”
“My real father…”
Koushiro’s real father, who was a distant relative of Masami Izumi, was a university lecturer and genius mathematician. His wife, Koushiro’s real mother, was an assistant professor, but despite having such a promising future, they died in a car accident almost right after Koushiro was born.
Around the same time, the boy that had been born to the Izumi couple had died young from illness.
When asked if they could take Koushiro, it was Yoshie who had accepted first.
“To us, you are our real son,” she said now. “We raised you as if you were our own.”
“…Is that so.”
“We were planning to tell you when you were a bit older.” Tears appeared in Masami’s eyes. “But you already knew… It must have been so hard for you. I’m sorry.”
“No. In fact, I’m very grateful that you told me the truth.”
As he said this, he realized that it sounded like he was still speaking to a stranger. How did a normal child say thanks to their parents?
“Ah, I mean… T–Thanks…”
Masami smiled at him kindly. “You don’t have to change.”
Yoshie, too, spoke while wiping away her tears. “Yes. As long as you’re happy, that’s all we want for you.”
As he was listening, Koushiro’s eyes sprung with tears and he scrunched his face.
Koushiro flew into Yoshie’s arms and began to cry loudly. Yoshie gently folded her arms around him, and Masami quietly embraced the both of them.

Tentomon hid behind one of the lobby’s pillars, crying his eyes out.
“Koushiro-han… Cry as much as you want. Let them pamper you.”

○

No one had noticed that when Vamdemon had fallen and vanished into particles, his red mask had fallen to the floor and remained.
An innumerable number of bats flew out from the mask, spreading throughout Odaiba. Not all of the Digimon who had worked for Vamdemon were dead. With no one to give them orders, they had hidden in places where Taichi and the others couldn’t find them.
The bats attacked them. Not even the Perfect level Phantomon stood a chance.
The Digimon were consumed by the bats in a blink of an eye.
The bats grew in size, returning to the red mask and holding it up into the air.
The mask itself also changed in size to about twenty meters. How big would the body be that corresponded to it? The mask rose even higher than the top of the Fuji TV building.
The only subordinate left was PicoDevimon.
“Hehehe! Lord Vamdemon is being resurrected!”
Happily, he flew around the mask.

The first person at Big Sight to notice was Yamato’s father, Hiroaki, who was having a smoke outside.
Something red was floating above the familiar Fuji TV station. It was Vamdemon’s mask, no matter how he looked at it, but the size of it was what threw him off.
From where he stood, he couldn’t see the powers of darkness that collected underneath the mask.
The dim darkness gradually became more concentrated, forming a body.

By the time Hiroaki ran in to call the children and their Digimon standing by their sleeping parents and came outside again, the mass of darkness that made up the body was visible to the eye.
The body shape released a flash of light. Apparently that was the final step, because it materialized perfectly as flesh. As it stretched out its enormous bat-like wings, the gust of wind it created knocked into the Fuji TV building, smashing it entirely to pieces.
“Ah… Hey, that’s my workplace…”
There was no time to gape in amazement. Their Digimon evolved and rushed towards it. Taichi, Yamato, and Sora rode on their Digimon. Koushiro decided to go with his parents. Jou rode on the back of Shin’s scooter, while the other children broke up into two groups, riding in Hiroaki Ishida’s and Masami Izumi’s cars.

When Taichi and the others got closer to the giant Digimon, they were surprised once again by how huge it was. It was over 200 meters high.
“Kyahahaha! Lord VenomVamdemon has returned as an Ultimate level! You guys will never be able to stop him!”
PicoDevimon appeared before them, sneering.
“Ultimate?! There’s a level above Perfect?”
“Kyahahahahahahahaha! All of you humans will be food for Lord VenomVamdemon!”
As he said this, PicoDevimon flew up to VenomVamdemon. VenomVamdemon spoke for the first time.
“That’s right. And I’ll start with you.”
He breathed in, mouth open wide. PicoDevimon was sucked into his mouth as he flapped noisily to get away.
“A–Ahhhhhhhhh! Lord VenomVamdemon!”
It was over for him all too soon.

VenomVamdemon took one step forward on a beastly leg that was covered in bristles. The earth sunk beneath his foot, shaking as though from an earthquake.
After lowering their humans onto the ground, the Perfect level Digimon began their attack.
MetalGreymon’s organic missiles exploded violently, while Garudamon’s flames knocked into it.
WereGarurumon leaped, using VenomVamdemon’s body to climb up all the way up to his masked face. From point-blank range, he used his Moonsault Kick, its vacuum wave cutting into VenomVamdemon’s forehead. But dozens of tentacles shot out from the open wound, tangling around WereGarurumon and flinging him aside.
“Gehehehehehee! Your attacks have no effect on me!”
He spoke in a slow, dumb tone, as if his intelligence had declined in exchange for amassing greater power. He flourished his arms and Garudamon and MetalGreymon were swept away by a single swing.
Neither the waves from AtlurKabuterimon’s horn nor the rainbow beam from Lilimon’s arms made a scratch on him.
Not even the holy powers from Angemon’s fist and Angewomon’s arrows of light made a dent. He had become a Digimon that was of a completely different dimension from Vamdemon.
VenomVamdemon walked slowly, sometimes unleashing colorful indescribable light from all over his body. It looked like chunks that carried viscosity, and the buildings around him that the light touched, even a little bit, corroded and crumbled.
The children realized something even more frightening.
“That guy… He’s headed to Big Sight!”
Was it true what PicoDevimon had said, that the humans were all fodder? Was VenomVamdemon heading for the sleeping humans at Big Sight?
Even if that was the case, they had no means to stop VenomVamdemon right now.
The Digimon fought desperately. Pukamon evolved to Gomamon and then Ikkakumon, shooting missiles from his horn in succession. However, the attacks of an Adult level had no effect on him.
MetalGreymon and WereGarurumon, who were fighting at the forefront, were blown back along with everyone else. As they tumbled to the ground, they changed back into Agumon and Gabumon. They had used up all of their energy.
Taichi and Yamato ran to them.
“I’m sorry, Taichi… We’re not strong enough…”
Nothing could be done. Behind Taichi and Yamato, a car stopped and Hikari jumped out of it, saying something to Wizarmon’s staff that she held in her hands.
“No, we can’t do that!”
“What’s wrong, Hikari?” Angewomon asked as she alighted next to Hikari.
“I can hear Wizarmon’s voice from this staff… He says that if we all surround VenomVamdemon, we can stop him from moving.”
“Really?!”
Taichi and the others turned around.
“But that won’t be enough to beat him… He says we need to shoot the holy powers at our brothers— Wait, no way am I—”
The staff in her hands crumbled into particles, disappearing.
Taichi and Yamato looked at each other.
“It’s worth a shot.”
“Yeah, of course. There’s no other way.”

VenomVamdemon kept walking. The eight children ran around him, splitting into two groups that surrounded him from all sides.
All eight digivices let loose rays of light. The lights extended until they gathered at one point above VenomVamdemon’s head, forming an octagonal pyramid.
“Gurgkhh, what the hell?!”
VenomVamdemon squirmed, but he couldn’t move his legs.
“He really stopped!”
“Okay! Next!”
Taichi and Yamato yelled out to Hikari and Takeru.
“Shoot us with the holy powers!”
“But—”
“Brother—”
“Just do it!”
“Things can’t stay like this forever!”
Hikari and Takeru nodded.
“Please, Angemon!”
“Angewomon!”
The angel Digimon did not hesitate. The fist of light aimed at Yamato, while the arrow of light aimed at Taichi.
Maybe there was meaning behind them being siblings. The two holy powers passed through Taichi and Yamato without harming them and their digivices released a new light.
That energy poured into Agumon and Gabumon.
“Agumon warp-evolve! WarGreymon!”
“Gabumon warp-evolve! MetalGarurumon!”
Agumon evolved into a warrior Digimon that wore armor all over his body, while Gabumon evolved into a mechanical wolf Digimon.
“Those… aren’t Perfect levels.”
“Are they Ultimate?”
It was understandable that the children hesitated. WarGreymon was way smaller than MetalGreymon, who was over two meters at best. Even MetalGarurumon wasn’t any bigger than a large dog. However, their fighting strength was beyond extraordinary.
All of the missile launchers on MetalGarurumon’s body opened and he fired several missiles at once. Each of them had destructive power greater than Giga Destroyer, and VenomVamdemon fell down to one knee from being hit by all of them. A second large mouth that was on VenomVamdemon’s body, not his head, opened wide and let out a snarl.
WarGreymon joined his arm gauntlets together over his head so that his long nails aligned against each other. He twirled like a tornado, plunging into the mouth on VenomVamdemon’s body. The inside of VenomVamdemon’s body was ripped viciously to shreds, and WarGreymon flew out from the base of his neck. But perhaps WarGreymon’s size didn’t bring enough damage to VenomVamdemon’s 200 meter height because he still struggled stubbornly.
“Things are about to get dangerous now. Taichi, get yourself and the others far away from here!”
“We’ll finish him off.”
So those attacks weren’t even at full power? Taichi and the others, while surprised, hurriedly ran for safety.
Even when the barrier of the octagonal pyramid was released, VenomVamdemon could not move. That was what those attacks had been for, to keep him immobile.
“Cocytus Breath!”
MetalGarurumon shot a blast of cold air from his mouth. It instantly froze VenomVamdemon’s entire body.
WarGreymon began to create a ball of fire in both hands. It looked like a small Sun as he raised it high above his head. Its diameter went over ten meters.
“Gaia Force!”
He threw the ball of fire straight into the wide open mouth of VenomVamdemon’s body.
It exploded on the inside.
The frozen VenomVamdemon broke off into chunks. The pieces scattered into particles before they hit the ground, while at the same time, the fog cleared as if it had never existed in the first place.
“We did it!”
“We beat VenomVamdemon!”
The children, their Digimon, and their parents ran to each other, rejoicing.
That joy only lasted until the fog had completely cleared.
Something unfamiliar floated in the expanse of the night sky. From one end of the horizon to the other, several strips could be seen that showed earth, cities, and ocean. They appeared upside-down across the night sky, shimmering like a mirage.
Only Taichi and the other children knew that it was no mirage. What they saw wasn’t a place from Earth. It was, without a doubt, the Digital World.

⑨ Once More to the Digital World

Immediately after Jou and Takeru had plunged into the fog covering Odaiba, the strips of different lands in the sky had appeared one after the other. It was also happening throughout the entire world at the same time.
The strips increased in size as time went on, and it could easily be seen that they were slowly lowering altitude.
The US Armed Forces aircraft that approached it for investigation became inoperable and went out of control when they got close. Parts on the aircraft that came into contact with it were crystallized.

In Tibet, an entire mountain was crystallized because its peak touched the lowering strips.
At this rate, if nothing was done, it would only be a matter of time before the entire world became crystallized.
No attacks that were fired into it had any effect, but a strange one-sided phenomenon occurred. Creatures that were seen from within the strips came down to Earth.
They were Digimon, of course, but no one knew that.
Compared to this worldwide panic that the entire world was going through, the fog incident that happened in Odaiba was only a local occurrence, so it wasn’t treated with that much importance.

○

The passenger plane, Flight 117, heading from London to Narita, was in flight when the tip of its main wing touched the strip and crystallized. The plane began to nosedive, unable to be controlled.
Chikara Hida was on that plane, having gone to London to bring home the remains of his son who had died there. As passengers screamed and items flew about, he prayed fervently that at least his daughter-in-law and grandson, who was still too young to attend elementary school yet, would be saved.
The plane suddenly up-righted itself. He thought his prayers had been answered and that a miracle had happened.
They landed safely and gently on Tokyo Bay, as if the plane had suddenly sprouted wings.
Chikara took the helm, guiding the other passengers towards evacuation onto the water surface, sliding down himself after everyone else had left.
While he was occupied, his grandson Iori witnessed strange creatures flying away into the night sky. It was a birdman, about twenty meters big, and a red rhinoceros beetle that was just as big.
It would be a couple of years later before Iori found out that they were actually two Digimon named Garudamon and AtlurKabuterimon, and that they had been the ones who had held up the crashing airplane so that it could land safely on water.

○

“Good job, Piyomon.”
“Thanks, Tentomon.”
Sora and Koushiro said, welcoming back their Digimon as they reverted from their Perfect levels.
“Just glad to be of service,” Piyomon answered, hiding her weariness.
“But this place isn’t the only one that’s in trouble.”
At Tentomon’s words, the children looked at one another.
A motorcycle scooter came driving towards them. It was Jou’s brother, Shin.
“Everyone at Big Sight has woken up. You don’t need to worry anymore.”
“Good. Okay then…”
Taichi looked at the others.
“We need to go.”
The children looked back at him with serious faces. Koushiro looked up at the scenery above them and spoke.
“It’s been a few days since we left the Digital World. Several years must have passed there while we were here. The distortions in the Digital World must be intense. That could be why we’re seeing that up there.”
Yamato looked up as well. “We’re the only ones who can do something about it.”
“Besides, we need to hurry.” Sora looked around. “Things that happened to that airplane are happening around the world. Our electronics are out of whack and, with Digimon showing up, even more trouble might come up.”
Everyone could see all of that already without having it be put into words. Right now, they were checking to see that everyone was feeling the same way.
“The hospitals are in trouble. There may be people in the middle of surgery right now.” Jou said, looking more rigid than usual.
“But… How do we get there?” Mimi asked, looking worriedly at the others. She had retrieved her trademark hat from her room at some point and was already raring to go.
“It must be these.” Takeru held out his digivice. “When we first went to the Digital World, these digivices came flying at us and glowed.”
“That’s right. Our digivices guided us,” Taichi said, holding out his own as well. Now that he knew his parents were safe, he didn’t hesitate.
“Everyone, hold out your digivices.”
Taichi was certain about himself. They had found the eight child, Hikari, and all eight of the Chosen Children were together here.
The children brought their eight digivices together, raising them up to the sky. The digivices began to glow, creating a circle of light.
A rainbow stretched out vertically from the circle towards the strips in the night sky.
“Takeru…”
Takeru’s mother, Natsuko, stepped towards him.
“Mama, I’m sorry that we have to go again, just when all four of us are back together.”
“We have to go! I promise to bring Takeru back safely.” Yamato said, searching for the right words as he spoke to Natsuko in earnest.
Natsuko looked like she still wanted to say something, but it was Hiroaki Ishida who stopped her.
“Let them go. We need to have faith in our own children.”
Koushiro looked at his parents, who nodded at him silently. Koushiro nodded back at them, said,
“I’m off.”
and entered the rainbow. The other children and Digimon followed.
The eight children and eight Digimon rose swiftly into the air, being carried up through the vertical rainbow.
It was at that moment that they could see the people from Big Sight running towards them. Among them were Taichi’s parents, Sora’s mother, Mimi’s parents, and Jou’s parents.
“Mom…”
“Mama! Papa!”
“Dad! Mom!”
“I promise… I promise we’ll come back safe!”
The feelings that they had all been holding back came bubbling up, and tears sprang from the children’s eyes. They didn’t know if their voices could be heard, but they waved their hands with all of their might. Both sides grew smaller and smaller from the other’s view as the children continued to rise through the rainbow, but they never stopped waving.
Before long, the eight children and their Digimon disappeared into the Digital World and the rainbow disappeared into the air after them. All of it could be seen clearly, even from the opposite shore of Odaiba, at Shinbashi.

Read on to the next chapter.

FOOTNOTES
[22] 本来ならサマーキャンプで一泊してくるはず
In case this needs clarification, summer camp in Japan usually takes place for only 3 days and 2 nights, and it is aimed mostly at elementary school kids (starting at 4th grade to 6th grade, using the USA school system) during their summer vacation. The purpose of summer camp is for children to play sports, enjoy a campfire, and other outdoor activities that they normally would not be able to experience. What I always found poetic about "Digimon Adventure" is how their adventure itself became the equivalent of a summer camp experience. 
[23] PHS
Short for "personal handyphone system," it is a portable wireless telephone that functions as a cordless phone in the home and as a mobile phone elsewhere. [Wikipedia]
[24] Yurikamome (link to Wikipedia).
[25] Rinkai Fukutoshin Line (link to Wikipedia). It was renamed to "Rinkai Line" in September 2000.
[26] Rainbow Bridge (link to Wikipedia).
[27] Telecom Center Building (link to Japanese website with photos).
[28] Takeshiba Terminal, known as Takeshiba-Sanbashi (竹芝桟橋) is a harbor for passenger ships/ferry service. Link to an English website with descriptions and photos.
[29] Odaiba Seaside Park (link to English website with photos). May also be translated to Odaiba Marine Park in some sources.
[30] No. 3 Battery, renamed to Metropolitan Daiba Park when it was refurbished in the 1920s and opened to the public. This link goes to an English website with descriptions and photos. I'll also provide you with this link to a Japanese website that provides more photos.