[novel] digimon adventure: chapter 8

小説 デジモンアドベンチャー〈3〉
冒険はまだ終わらない

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Chapter 8; The Dark Masters

① Spiral Mountain

The earth will split, the waters will part, and all will be swallowed into the skies.
It will be followed with the division of towns, forests, ocean, and darkness,
to build the tall spiral mountain in the sky.

— “Digimon Book of Revelations,” Chapter 15, Verse 5

The prophesy was on its way to being fulfilled.
The mountains, hills, forests, rivers, ocean, buildings, and the Digimon of File Island were one by one swept up into the sky.
Leomon could only watch in amazement, unable to move into action right away. He was in awe of the horrible catastrophe that was progressing before his eyes. Of course, he knew that even if he wanted to run, he had no place to run away to.
This catastrophe wasn’t occuring on File Island alone. It was happening all throughout the Digital World.
The substances that were swallowed up on the other side of the sky rumbled as they swarmed like a whirlpool. They seemed to follow a certain rule, dividing into four belts that entwined together like snakes, creating a massive cone shape altogether.
File Island was about to be rebuilt into it now as well.
“Urgh!”
The land that Leomon was standing on shook. It ripped itself off the ground as a giant clump of dirt and began to rise up into the air at incredible speed.
Leomon hurriedly tried to grab onto the trunk of a large tree in front of him. But even the tree was pulled out of the ground, along with its roots. Leomon laid on his stomach in the dirt to keep from falling off the lump of earth.
Screams of other Digimon in his surroundings came flying into his ears.
His surroundings transformed into a living hell.
There were some who were crushed between rocks, while others had their bodies ripped apart as they were caught in the flow of data separation. Bile rose up his throat as he imagined that he could have met an end like that if he had taken one wrong step.
Leomon looked away in horror.
Below him, the destruction of File Island progressed moment by moment. Holes appeared throughout the island, and through them, he saw the night. A night without stars. An empty sky.
If there was a place where he could escape this catastrophe unfolding on the Digital World, then it could only be that empty sky. Everything else was reconstructed into the four strips of that outrageous giant spiral, the Spiral Mountain…

○

There was a great number of Digimon who lost their lives in this catastrophe, but there were still many who survived.
Leomon was one of the survivors who ended up on one of the four strips on Spiral Mountain, the world of darkness that was ruled by Piemon.
Although it was called the world of darkness, the darkness in it wasn’t jet-black but that of faded twilight. There were no buildings or woods in it. It was a simple, desolate, petrified-looking plain that stretched for miles.
Leomon wandered through it, searching for friends.
Along the way, he found a group of Digimon who had miraculously survived like he had.
They were a group of various types and attributes. They must have been a discouraged lot who tried to discuss with each other on what to do after being thrown together into this crazy world, but had started arguing from a difference of opinions.
Leomon approached them to try and mediate. However, he stopped in his tracks. He had seen black gas suddenly envelope them from behind.
The gas coiled around them like a living creature, attacking the defenseless Digimon.
Once the black gas surrounded them, the color of the Digimon’s eyes changed. They were controlled by the powers of darkness.
And then, they began to kill each other.
As Leomon watched with his mouth agape, the Digimon died one after the other. The last one to remain standing was so excited by the smell of blood that it laughed wildly as it slit its own windpipe, then died.

○

The boundaries between strips was evident, like single lines dividing them. Leomon moved from the world of darkness to the world next to it: the world of cities.
This world was ruled by Mugendramon. All of the cities in the Digital World were lined up and divided into regions in systematic fashion.
However, there was a great deal of inconsistencies in the mix of different landscapes. It was a clear display that, to Mugendramon who had the heart of a machine, a perfect blueprint of his cities did not include an artistic eye to judge whether or not it was also beautiful.
Tankmon filed in patrol formations along the wide roads that formed the grid-lines of the cities. Their cannons were propped up, ready to fire at any intruder that showed up on their radar.
Leomon stood back for a bit to watch them. From there, he learned that the patrol took place in intervals of fifteen minutes, so he used that time to move ahead and hide on repeat.
But as he got closer to the center of the city, the patrol intervals grew shorter, so Leomon gave up moving on land and dove into a nearby manhole.
Fat pipes and cables crossed from right to left everywhere underground, making Leomon think that he was inside the belly of a machine. Small platoons of Hagurumon were mainly here, patrolling under a regular timetable.
Leomon evaded the Hagurumon’s surveillance, using the cables to travel to the heart of the city.
There, Leomon reunited with Andromon.
Andromon, along with all of Factorial Town, had been pulled into the world of cities, and now he was leading his group of comrades in an underground resistance movement.
To put it into more concrete terms, they were using the underground cables to infiltrate the network, manipulating them to secretly keep in contact with their comrades and hack into the enemy’s secret information.
In doing so, they had a general idea on the process that had led to this catastrophe.
According to Andromon, “The program that Nanomon made was the trigger for this catastrophe.”
When Nanomon was worked like a slave under Etemon, Nanomon received orders from the Dark Masters to develop a certain program. The program was built to divide all the information of the Digital World into the elements of city, forest, ocean, and darkness that would be reconstructed into separate areas that would each be ruled by the Dark Masters.
The idea of dividing areas into belts that twisted into a fourfold spiral was modeled after a description of “Spiral Mountain” that appeared in the Digimon Book of Revelations. The stability that came from forming such a shape must have made sense to Nanomon as well.
Nanomon himself was swallowed into a black hole and was no longer of this world, but the program was passed down from Etemon to the Dark Masters, who waited for the moment to start it up.
“I see,” Leomon nodded. “But isn’t a vast amount of power needed to change the entire Digital World? How did they get such power?”
“They didn’t get it, rather, they sealed away the powers that oppose it. They sealed away the power of the four Holy Beasts who protect the Digital World.”
The Dark Masters’ plot had been carried out secretly for centuries, according to the Digital World’s time flow. That was the long, long battle that had overwhelmed the four Holy Beasts.
During all of this, the Dark Masters had left control of the Digital World to their subordinates Vamdemon, Etemon, and Devimon. When the sealing away of the four Holy Beasts was at last complete, they started up the program that would restructure the world.
“I don’t think that was all,” Andromon said. “There may have been another reason for all of this. After Etemon was defeated, an abnormality in the net— Well, the venerable Gennai and Centaurmon are investigating that right now, so we should wait for their report.”

○

Leomon stayed in the world of cities for some time, aiding Andromon and the others in their fight.
But beyond fighting enemies, he couldn’t figure out a way to return the Digital World to normal or — if that was impossible — to destroy this Spiral Mountain. Being unable to come up with a plan was making him visibly irritated.
One day, Leomon went up above ground for the first time in a long time.
Something strange hung in the sky like a mirage, replacing the stars. It was land and sea hanging right above his head.
Why was that up there? Did water somehow end up in the sky and reflect this world on its surface? But the shape of it looked so different. What on earth could it be, then…?
Just then, on it flashed one point of bright light. It was a rainbow light. It flew from the air towards Spiral Mountain, falling to the ground like a comet with a long tail.
Leomon clenched his fists without realizing that he was doing it. He knew from intuition what exactly that rainbow comet was.
It was the Digital World’s last hope.
There was no doubt in his mind that it was the return of the Chosen Children, who had followed Vamdemon and left for the real world.

○

“Fist of Domination!”
The green goblin, Ogremon, used all of his power to attack the Woodmon.
The response was effective. The Woodmon’s body crumbled into splinters. But it wasn’t a single Woodmon that he was facing. Because they were attacking him in a large swarm, they kept coming and coming no matter how many times he took them down.
When they kept coming in swarms like this, not even Ogremon whose life revolved around battle could handle them.
“Damn it! I’m gonna have to run!”
In the end, Ogremon ran off.
But there was no chance that the Woodmon would quietly overlook him. He was their long-awaited prey. They shook their withered branches as they chased after Ogremon. If the event was seen from the skies, it would probably have looked as if the entire forest was moving.
They were in Pinocchimon’s domain, the world of forests.
Ogremon had only just arrived in this world, having wandered through the other worlds previously in search of Leomon.
To Ogremon, Leomon was his eternal rival. Defeating Leomon was Ogremon’s reason to live.
“That’s why I can’t die until I’ve achieved that! I can’t let nobody Digimon like Woodmon kill me!”
The Woodmon moved slowly, so Ogremon thought that he could outrun them.
However, while he knew the forests of File Island like the back of his hand, he was now in an unfamiliar land. When he pushed out of the forest and thought that he’d found the exit, he instead found himself at a dead end, face to face with the bottom wall of a precipice.
“C–Crap!”
He tried to turn back, but it was too late. The head of the Woodmon pack had already reached him.
“Geehhh!”
Ogremon took a step back. The Woodmon surrounded him, leaving him with no other means of escape beyond scaling the precipice.
“I–Is this it? Is this where it all ends…?!”
He wasn’t moaning out of fear of death, but at how he had pathetically allowed himself to be cornered like this.
He would have been satisfied to die if it had been by the hands of Leomon, but to think that his death would be from these small-fry Digimon ganging up on him and sucking dry his energy…
“Leomon…Leomoooooooon!”
Ogremon cried out towards the upside-down land and waters floating in the blue sky like cirrocumulus clouds.
Did my voice reach you? I’m not asking you to save me, I just want you to be the last one to hear my voice.
Will not even that wish be granted?
The Woodmon rustled closer.
Ogremon waved his bone club in a last ditch effort of retaliation, but the Woodmon moved first, thrusting the pointed edge of the branches that acted as their arms into Ogremon’s entire body.
“Gyaaaaah!”
Ogremon’s energy was being sucked from his wounds.
Shit, I’m fading…
He collapsed onto his back to the ground and the Woodmon fell upon him.
Tch, the sky is so bright…
Just then.
Through the cracks between the bodies piled on him, he could see someone behind the Woodmon.
It jumped down from the cliff above Ogremon’s head. It had brilliant yellow fur with red stripes, two long fangs that protruded out of its mouth, and a tight small waist framing a ferocious-looking body frame. The claws on all four of its limbs gleamed like steel.
“Grrroaaaaaaaar!”
The Digimon landed gracefully at the bottom of the cliff, jumping on the Woodmon from behind. Standing upright on its rear legs, it used the sharp claws on its fronts to slice the Woodmon as if with an axe, splitting them vertically, horizontally, diagonally, or merely in two.
There should have been a considerable number of them, but it didn’t take very long for the Woodmon to be wiped out.
When it was over, the unknown Digimon approached the fallen, injured Ogremon and spoke. “Are you all right, Ogremon?”
Ogremon was so sure that he would be killed next, so he blinked stupidly upon hearing his name.
The other Digimon smirked at him, then reverted before Ogremon’s eyes in an instant.
It was Leomon, the very one that Ogremon had been searching for.
“L–Leomon! Since when were you able to evolve?”
“Not too long ago. I don’t know how it happened either. According to Andromon, it might be because the Chosen Children’s digivices touched me while I was on File Island.”
“…Ahh.”
Ogremon could only huff a deep sigh of disappointment because his rival Leomon had opened up such a big lead over him.
“By the way, Ogremon, did you see a rainbow-colored comet?”
“Yeah, I did. It fell into the world of oceans.”
“The world of oceans…”
It was an area that Leomon hadn’t explored yet, so he asked, “What kind of place is it?”
“Just like the name says: It’s an ocean. All ocean wherever you look. It has beaches and islands here and there, but it’s a tough place for me to live.”
Leomon remembered that Ogremon couldn’t swim.
“Are you going to the world of oceans?” Ogremon asked.
“Yeah. I have to find the Chosen Children.”
“Wait, if you’re going, then at least fight me before you go!”
Ogremon challenged him to battle even though he couldn’t even stand.
“Don’t be stupid. Even if I fought you now and won, it would leave a bad taste in my mouth. We’ll fight after you’ve healed those wounds.”
As he spoke, Leomon broke off the branches of a nearby tree, heaping them around Ogremon to camouflage him. It would keep him from being spotted by enemies as he healed.
“That’s what you say, but you’re not really trying to run away, are ya?” Ogremon said, still putting up a tough front.
Leomon lightly shrugged him off. “Don’t worry. Once my business is finished, I’ll return. So stay quiet here and take care of yourself until then.”
Saying this, Leomon turned his back and raced to the world of oceans.
Behind him, Ogremon shouted, “Hey, Leomon! Don’t you dare die on me! I’m the only one who gets to beat you! Don’t you dare die!”

② The Unmerciful Sea

“Wh–What is this?!” Mimi cried out, but at least she was still able to cry.
Jou was floundering beside her, kicking wildly with his arms and legs. Fortunately, Gomamon was there to give him a hand so he didn’t drown.
Still, being dumped into the ocean right after they had been cheering each other on about going to the Digital World sure took the wind out of their sails.
Luckily, there was a small island nearby, so they managed to swim towards it.

“Sorry, Hikari. I’m sorry that you have to go through this just after getting here.”
Taichi apologized to Hikari, even though none of it was his fault.
In response, Hikari said, “What are you talking about? It’s not your fault.”
“Well, it’s not, but…”
Everyone laughed, seeing Taichi unexpectedly be so caring towards his little sister.
“Anyway, what is this place? Is it close to File Island?” Jou asked, grimacing because he had swallowed a lot of saltwater and it stung his throat.
“What do we do? If we are to think that the world floating in the sky is our world, then this place we’re in should be the Digital World…”
Koushiro booted up his laptop, thinking that he might learn something. When they were falling within the rainbow, he had seen that there was an ocean beneath them and had hurriedly pushed his laptop into Tentomon’s arms so that his laptop remained safe.
“Did you find something?” Yamato asked.
But, unable to find any clues, Koushiro said “No” and shook his head.
“It feels weird, though, doesn’t it?” Patamon piped up.
“What’s weird?” Takeru asked.
“I’m not exactly sure, but it doesn’t feel like the Digital World.”
“Now that you mention it…” Sora asked the question that had been on her mind. “When we were falling, the landscape looked like it was twisted up into a spiral. Was that my imagination?”
“Oh, I saw that too. I thought I was seeing things, but you saw it too, Sora?” Taichi said.
The others also said, “Come to think of it, me too!” “Me too!”
But none of them could explain why that was. Everyone’s gazes naturally turned to Koushiro.
“I–I don’t know either…”
In any case, what was clear was that this wasn’t the time to be dawdling. They moved on to discussing how to swim to other land.
“How about having Gomamon evolve to Zudomon?” Yamato suggested.
“I can do it anytime,” Gomamon said. He was itching to evolve once more to Perfect level.
But there was no need. A Digimon had arrived for them.
It was the whale Digimon who had carried them to Server Continent after they had beaten Devimon on File Island — Whamon.

○

The inside of Whamon’s mouth was like being inside a cathedral. Even the smallest noise echoed noisily. There, Taichi and the other children discussed the various new pieces of information that Whamon told them.
“I can’t believe this all happened during the 2-3 days we were fighting Vamdemon in Odaiba,” Piyomon said, her face pensive.
Koushiro said, “That’s not so. The flow of time is different between this world and our world. If, for example, we are to consider that one minute in the real world is one day in this world, it would mean that a considerable number of days or even years have passed.”
“Who are the Dark Masters anyway?” Palmon asked.
If Palmon didn’t know them, then naturally their other Digimon partners had no idea either. The only one who could possibly know, while indirectly, was Tailmon, who had worked for Vamdemon.
It was Tailmon who answered. “They’re Mugendramon, Pinocchimon, MetalSeadramon, and Piemon. All of them are Ultimate level Digimon plotting to rule the Digital World. Vamdemon, Etemon, and Devimon were merely their underlings.”
“Which means they’re stronger than Vamdemon…”
At Yamato’s words, everyone nodded silently.
“If we’re comparing strength…” Tailmon added, “Then yes, they rival in power to the four Holy Beasts. The Dark Masters managed to seal away the four Holy Beasts, after all.”
“What are the four Holy Beasts?” Takeru asked curiously.
“They refer to Qinglongmon, Baihumon, Xuanwumon, and Zhuqiaomon…” Tailmon paused just then because her knowledge on the four Holy Beasts was obscure. “Um… To sum it up, they’re the Digimon who protect the Digital World’s time and space.”
“So, these four Holy Beasts…” This time, it was Jou. “Are they our friends? And if that’s the case, are they the ones that chose us?”
“I don’t know that. I was on the antagonist’s side when I learned of them. They would certainly be the enemy of our enemy, but whether that makes them our allies… I’m not sure…”
In the end, all they had were more questions. But at least understanding that the Dark Masters were their real enemy was something of a gain.
“This fight is going to be tougher than anything we’ve ever faced before, but let’s do our best, guys!”
Just when Taichi said that—
There was a sudden boom and violent shaking.
“What’s going on?”
Whamon’s voice was low in his throat when he replied to Hikari’s question. In agony, all he said was, “The enemy…”

○

Whamon silently swam through the deep sea in order to avoid the enemy’s eyes, but it was impossible to escape surveillance completely.
Whamon himself was prepared for this eventuality, but he wasn’t expecting them to chase him all the way down to the ocean bottom, where a normal Digimon would have been flattened from the hydraulic pressure.
As far as he knew, only one Digimon was capable of that: One of the Dark Masters. The raging king of the sea, MetalSeadramon.

When MetalSeadramon saw the rainbow-colored comet falling from the sky, he quickly ordered his Hangyomon subordinates to converge on where it landed.
However, the Chosen Children had already fled with Whamon by the time they’d reached there, so MetalSeadramon mobilized all of his troops and went in search of the children.
Whamon’s location was caught by Anomalocarimon’s radar eye.
But even though his location was found, he was too deep underwater to be attacked.
“Then I will have to go.”
The ruler of the world of oceans, MetalSeadramon, stirred himself into action.
MetalSeadramon was the type who preferred joining the battlefield with his troops and fighting rather than sitting imposingly on a throne. When faced with a worthy opponent on top of that, his fighting spirit boiled.
In those terms, he considered himself extremely lucky that the Chosen Children had fallen into his territory.
MetalSeadramon elegantly winded his long, narrow body through the waters, tracking Whamon. Quietly, so that his presence would not be felt.
And then, he fired his first attack at Whamon from behind.
That was the identity of the shaking blast that Taichi and the others had felt.
The force of it was slightly weakened due to the hydraulic pressure, but the Ultimate Stream that had unleashed from his nostrils like an energy beam left deep lacerations across Whamon’s back.
MetalSeadramon could have shot his Ultimate Stream consecutively, killing them instantly, but that wasn’t his style.
If he was going to kill someone, then he preferred tormenting and then killing them, rather than just killing them. That’s right. He wasn’t going to let them die easily.
Making his decision, MetalSeadramon began to use his tail made of Chrome Digizoid to dig into Whamon’s fresh wounds.

○

Whamon desperately endured MetalSeadramon’s persistent attacks.
The pain made him want to scream, but with Taichi and the others taking refuge in his mouth, he couldn’t even do that. All he could do was keep still and take it.
But the shivering of his body from the intense pain and the moans that blurted out even when he wanted to hold them back, didn’t go unnoticed by the children.
“Stop!”
“Surface!”
“We’ll fight him!” They cried.
He was happy that they worried for him, but there was no way that he was going to do any of that.
If he surfaced, he would still be in the middle of the ocean. Their Digimon partners, excluding Zudomon, who weren’t fit to fight on water would only die in vain. All of his efforts in enduring this pain would have been for nothing.
MetalSeadramon seemed to think that simply whipping him with his tail was unrefined, because he moved into a different attack method.
With his body that easily exceeded two hundred meters in length, as well as the overwhelming power of an Ultimate level, he constricted himself around Whamon.

○

Splaaaaash!
On top of a small hill that lay near the boundary between the world of oceans and the world of forests, Leomon observed Whamon jump vertically high out of the waters. His pathetic body, riddled with wounds, was painful to look at.
Whamon’s giant body heavily hit the water surface, causing massive tidal waves. The waves broke through the boundary, surging onto the world of forests.
Whamon summoned up the last of his strength to push himself past the boundary so that his upper half beached onto the world of forests.
Then, he opened his mouth which he had kept shut like a clam this whole time, and the Chosen Children stepped out of it.
“Everyone, over here!” Leomon shouted, waving his arm from the top of the hill.
The children saw Leomon, but they couldn’t leave Whamon behind.
Even Leomon wanted to tell Whamon “Hang in there,” but it was already too late. He saw that Whamon was beginning to disintegrate into particles of light starting from his tail, the particles rising up into the sky.
MetalSeadramon appeared out of the water.
“Oh no!”
Leomon ran down the slope of the hill.
“Leomon, warp-evolve! SaberLeomon!”
Evolving into SaberLeomon, he boldly leaped at MetalSeadramon as he was about to attack the children.
“Leomon has evolved! We should fight too!”
It was Yamato, not Taichi, who was the first to say that. His eyes burned with a desire to avenge Whamon’s death.
“Gabumon, warp-evolve! MetalGarurumon!”
A short time later,
“Agumon, warp-evolve! WarGreymon!”
“Gomamon, super-evolve! Zudomon!”
The three of them headed straight for MetalSeadramon.
SaberLeomon, reaching MetalSeadramon first, targeted his attack on one spot. He knew that attacking MetalSeadramon’s body wouldn’t make a scratch on him since it was made of the Chrome Digizoid alloy.
What he went for was… the eyes!
SaberLeomon’s pointed front claws stabbed through MetalSeadramon’s left eye without any hesitation.
“Gyeeeeehhhhhhhhhh!”
One of MetalSeadramon’s eyes was wrecked.
SaberLeomon tried to go for the other eye, but he was thrown off by the thrashing MetalSeadramon and slammed into the water surface.
“How dare you!”
MetalSeadramon opened his giant red mouth to chew SaberLeomon to pieces, but just then, he saw MetalGarurumon, WarGreymon, and Zudomon from the corner of his working eye.
“I’ll start with you guys first! Ultimate Stream!”
Changing targets, he aimed his special attack at them.
Luckily for the three of them, MetalSeadramon’s aim was off due to SaberLeomon destroying one of his eyes. They dodged a direct blow. A small hill in the world of forests took the blow instead, vanishing without a trace.
But that failed attempt helped MetalSeadramon to adjust his aim. He computed the deviation from his right and repositioned his aim to the left.
“Die!”
MetalSeadramon got ready to unleash his second wave.
Just then,
“What?!”
SaberLeomon clung to MetalSeadramon’s nose, covering the nostrils with his body.
“Do you want to die?!”
Unable to cut off his Ultimate Stream’s barrage, its high energy gushed out. However, blocked by SaberLeomon’s abdomen, the energy had no other exit and instead backflowed into MetalSeadramon’s insides.
Craaaaaaash!
MetalSeadramon’s head blew off.
SaberLeomon was also thrown back by the blast, falling somewhere into the distance.
Under normal circumstances, that would have concluded the fight, but MetalSeadramon was tenacious.
Even without a head, his body headed for WarGreymon and the others.
“That guy’s unbelievable!”
The children shuddered from his fierce will to live that went beyond all common sense.
MetalSeadramon’s body wrapped around MetalGarurumon. It tightened around him.
“You bastard! Let go!”
Zudomon used his Thor Hammer, which was made of the same Chrome Digizoid as MetalSeadramon’s body, on MetalSeadramon’s tail but it only caused sparks to fly. It had no effect at all.
“Leave this to me!”
WarGreymon tore through MetalSeadramon with the pointy claws of his arms. They were Dramon Killers, the greatest weapon that could be possessed by Dramon-type Digimon, and it split MetalSeadramon’s remaining body into two from the base of his neck to his tail.

③ A Falling Out Among Friends

The oceans were vanishing…
Spiral Mountain’s ocean area disassembled into data once more and vanished. All that remained from the empty space, where the world of oceans used to be, was the boundary of the world next to it.

Before he was caught in the blast, Leomon was prepared to die at the very moment he chose to block Ultimate Stream with his body.
He had reverted back to Leomon after spending all of his energy, and the upper and lower halves of his muscular body were held together by mere threads.
“Don’t die, Leomon!” Taichi screamed, clutching Leomon’s hand.
Behind him, the other children and Digimon watched silently. They had no other choice but to watch Leomon’s end.
Leomon let out a long sigh and spoke to the children. “Do you remember the Village of Beginnings?”
“Y–Yeah?”
What is he bringing that up for? Taichi thought. Maybe he was getting flashbacks of fond memories right before his death?
“Did I ever tell you? After a Digimon dies, they are reborn in the Village of Beginnings. They become digieggs and have another chance at life. So… there’s no need for sorrow.”
“Really?” Takeru asked.
Leomon looked into Takeru’s eyes. “Yes.”
His eyes crinkling and his smile soft, he nodded.
The bottom half of Leomon’s body radiated faintly with light. His cells disintegrated into glittering particles, starting from the tips of his feet, that rose silently up to the sky.
“Anyway…” Leomon continued. “The battle is only beginning. I’m sorry to involve you humans in our fight, but you, Chosen Children, are the only ones who can save this world. It will be tough, but good luck.”
“It’s not just the Digital World’s problem anymore. Strange things are taking place in the real world too. If nothing is done, both worlds will be destroyed.”
Taichi told Leomon about what had happened in the real world — about the Digital World’s shadow in their sky after Vamdemon’s fog had cleared, as well as the crystallization of objects that touched it.
“I can’t believe that’s happening…” Leomon bit his lip in frustration from hearing this news.
He had perhaps rushed to his death too soon. He wished that a miracle would take place and that he would be immediately reborn in the Village of Beginnings so that he may fight alongside the children once more, but…
“Anyway, I wish you luck. Our allies will do whatever they can to back you up. If the fates allow it, then let us meet again.”
And there, he stopped speaking.
Leomon’s data turned to dust that rose up towards the blue sky…

○

Mimi said that she wanted to make graves for Leomon and Whamon, so everyone lent her a hand.
Hikari said “And one for Wizarmon too,” so there was a total of three graves.
The graves were simple structures of small stones gathered up into three piles, with the names of each written with black marker on scrap lumber as the headstones.
They all lined up before the graves, folding their hands together in prayer. They all prayed that the three dead souls would rest in peace.
Everyone was silent except for Takeru, who said out loud, “I pray that all three are reborn in the Village of Beginnings.”

No one felt like moving for a while.
They were exhausted. Both physically and in spirit.
But they couldn’t keep staying like this forever.
Taichi pushed himself back up and said casually, “Let’s go,” as if he were speaking to himself.
“Yeah,” Yamato said grievously, also standing up.
It was easy to tell from the way they sluggishly stood up that no one felt enthusiastic about what they had to do. None of them stood up briskly.
Mimi didn’t even bother to stand up.
Did she not have the energy to stand?
“Mimi-chan.”
Sora held out her hand to help her up.
But Mimi didn’t bother grabbing it. Instead, she said, “I’m not going.”
The way that she said it wasn’t in her usual pleading whine, but in a gloomy, oppressed tone. It threw Sora off.
“What do you mean you’re not going, Mimi-chan…?”
“We fight, and fight, and then what do we gain from it? Nothing is born out of it. All that comes out of it is sadness and hate. I don’t want to deal with that anymore. I’m not going!”
Sora looked at Taichi’s face, troubled. Taichi also searched for the right words to speak to her when,
“You can’t just not go,” Yamato spat harshly at Mimi. “You’re shocked by Whamon and Leomon’s deaths. I get it. But we need to fight, or someone else will get killed just like them. Do you want that blood on your hands?!”
“Of course not! But I just can’t see fighting as the only answer to our problem!”
“What other choice is there? Should we propose a cease-fire? I doubt they’d even bother to agree to that.”
An uncomfortable silence fell among them.
Jou thought that it was his turn to lighten the mood and stepped in.
“Now now, you two, calm down. I understand both of your views. But let’s calm down and talk about this. Okay?”
Yamato and Mimi continued to glare at each other.
Thinking that he was inadequate after all,
“C’mon, Taichi, say something!” Jou said, looking to Taichi for help.
“Say something…?” Taichi sighed. “To tell you the truth, I’m troubled too. The Dark Masters are too strong. If we face them head-on, we’ll suffer damages. Maybe there’s a way. Some nice way for us to get through this with the least damage…”
Yamato got a little annoyed at the way Taichi spoke. Fighting was the only option here.
Even Koushiro said, “Actually, I was thinking the same thing as you, Taichi-san. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are Ultimate levels, but they don’t have the same amount of experience as the Dark Masters. Which means that they aren’t an opponent that we can fight hand-to-hand with. Maybe we can ask Gennai-san or someone what their weakness is.”
Tch. Yamato clicked his tongue. What was the point depending on other people for this?
Yamato felt that he couldn’t get along with the rest of them.
Now that they knew the Dark Masters were their real enemy, this was exactly the time when they needed to band together and fight.
While they were in the tomb room in Vamdemon’s castle, Yamato had accepted Taichi as the leader of the Chosen Children. But now, he didn’t think so.
After seeing Whamon and Leomon’s tragic deaths, Taichi was faltering.
Would they be able to continue fighting the Dark Masters this way? There was a chance that one indecisive mistake would lead them to digging their own graves.
He couldn’t trust Taichi with this at all!
Making his own decision, Yamato said to Mimi, “If you don’t want to fight, then leave!”
And he cast her out.
Mimi smiled at him coldly and, without any protest, turned her back on them and walked off.
“Mi–Mimi…”
Palmon hurried after her, along with Sora and Jou to try and persuade her to stay.
“What did you say that for, Yamato?!”
Taichi grabbed Yamato by the shoulders, trying to figure out his intentions.
But Yamato said curtly, “Having someone like her around will affect our morale. If you’re the leader, you should know that.”
“I did know that. That’s why we were trying to persuade her, weren’t we?!”
“You’re soft. Or maybe I should say, you’ve gotten soft. In the past, you would have made snap decisions. But the reason you can’t…” Yamato looked at Hikari. “Has gotta be because your sister’s here.”
“Wh–What are you talking about…” Taichi was at a loss for words.
He hadn’t gotten timid because Hikari was with them. But it was true that he had gotten more careful so that no one got hurt or pushed themselves.
He couldn’t call that a con as a leader.
By thinking about how Hikari would feel about it, it led to him guessing how the others felt. It made him think about how to speak so that the others would feel motivated, and how to ask things that made them feel enthused about doing. Was sympathizing with how others felt affecting his position as leader?
That was a problem that Taichi needed to agonize over and conquer from here on. He just needed some more time on it.
But Yamato, who didn’t understand that at all, said, “Looks like I’m right.”
He continued triumphantly, “You’re a failure as a leader.”
That was when Koushiro, who had kept himself from arguing with anyone before, said in a stronger tone than usual, “I’m against this. I don’t want to acknowledge anyone other than Taichi-san as our leader.”
Koushiro had never spoken to anyone in a quarrelsome manner before, and it shocked Yamato.
“Well,” he said, trying to put up a tough front, “I guess I should expect that coming from one of Taichi’s fans.”
But Koushiro hadn’t spoken out of loyalty to a single party.
“Yamato-san, you’re unfit for leadership because you’re too emotional. If the leader lets his emotions get the better of him, then he loses his followers.”
Yamato hated to admit it, but he was right.
The people around Yamato may have thought that he was a cold, aloof person, but that was only because he didn’t show what he thought to other people.
When had he become like that? He hadn’t been like that when he was younger. But after his parents decided to divorce and his mom took Takeru by the hand and left home…
Don’t go! Please don’t go! Don’t leave me!
The truth was, he had wanted to plead with her and cry — but he couldn’t.
Part of it had to do with his father standing by his side.
Maybe his mother had secretly wished for Yamato to say that to her.
But at that moment, Yamato had thought that he would never show weakness in front of his mom, even if he died from it. It was his own decision to follow his dad.
Ever since coming to the Digital World, even Yamato was surprised by how much emotion he expressed. All of the emotion that he’d held back while at home, at school, had come bursting out without pause.
And this Yamato was the only one that Koushiro knew. That was why Koushiro’s view of Yamato was “an emotionally unstable upperclassman.”
Yamato took on a nasty attitude to hide that Koushiro’s words had ruffled him.
“I’ve known this for a long time now, but it looks like I can’t work together with you guys after all. I’m leaving. Let’s go, Takeru.”
And he turned to Takeru with a gentle older brother smile.
But Takeru looked troubled.
“Hey, Brother, why don’t you reconsider? We need everyone if we want to beat the Dark Masters. Even Gennai-san said so. All eight of us have to be together.”
Yamato’s smile dropped and he took on the stern face of a guardian who knew better. He rounded on Takeru, giving him only two choices. “Are you coming or not?”
“Brother…”
Taichi intervened, taking pity on Takeru. “Don’t do this, Yamato. Whatever I have to change, I’ll change. You’re putting Takeru in a tough position. You need to understand him.”
“Understand him…?”
Yamato looked at Takeru again. Just as Taichi said, he was looking in bewilderment at Yamato, as if he was saying, “Please understand.”
Yamato was shocked.
Taichi knew how Takeru was feeling, while he didn’t understand Takeru at all.
Even though they were brothers…
Well… Well, there was no helping that, was there? We may be brothers by blood, but we aren’t living together.
The Takeru that I know is the baby Takeru from when we lived together as a family. Takeru is a crybaby, who’s extremely shy around other people, and who would always hide behind my back whenever someone came to visit. That small Takeru. That cute Takeru who always begged to hear my harmonica…
He’s in the third grade now.
But the Takeru that’s within me is still the baby from back then. He hasn’t grown up at all.
No… The one who hasn’t grown up here is me.
Ever since we came to the Digital World, Takeru has changed from being a crybaby to a more stronger person day by day. He even overcame Angemon’s death to become a worthy fighter who holds up his own now, without dragging anyone else down. He handled himself on his own in the Village of Beginnings, even without me around.
That’s right.
He doesn’t need me.
Compared to him, I’m… I’m…

“H–Hey! Where are you going, Yamato?!”
Taichi was taken aback when Yamato abruptly ran away.
“Don’t go, Brother!” Takeru pleaded desperately.
But Yamato did not look back. It wasn’t that he had a place in mind to go, more like he wanted to get away from there as far as possible.
Gabumon frantically chased after him.

While Taichi and the others were at a loss, Sora returned from her attempts at persuading Mimi, looking haggard.
Mimi was resolute on her decision, and Sora hadn’t been able to change her mind.
After discussing it with Jou, the two of them decided to respect Mimi’s opinion. They decided that either of them should accompany Mimi and continue to persuade her, rejoining with the others once Mimi understood.
Sora said that she would take on that role, because it would be better for girls to travel together but,
“Leave her to me.”
Jou was unusually assertive.
“I think that each of us has a part to play, in the same way that each of our Crests has a different meaning. And I think that this is my job. Please, let me go with her.”
After being told that, Sora couldn’t find any other argument.
She left Mimi in Jou’s care and returned to the others.
There, Taichi told her what had taken place with Yamato.
“I should have been more levelheaded…” Taichi cursed his own timidness.
“You’re wrong. Yamato needs time to be by himself. It’ll be okay. I’m sure that he’ll come back.”
Sora felt that she understood what Yamato was going through. When she had been on her own at Temp Lake, she had felt the same way.

④ The Forest of Hatred

Within the forest was a mansion made out of toy building blocks. Inside of it came the sound of continuous gunshots.
“Hyaaaaaaaaah!”
Pinocchimon, who was shaped like a wooden puppet, was running throughout the mansion shooting a 0.44 magnum. He was playing tag and he was It.
“Found you, Mushmon! Bang!”
Once he found Mushmon hiding beneath the table, he pointed his gun at it and pulled the trigger. It wasn’t a toy gun, but a real gun. The bullets were dum-dum ammunition.
“Gyaaaaaaah!”
The dum-dum bullets flew into Mushmon’s stomach and exploded. Pinocchimon watched and laughed joyfully as the Mushmon clutched painfully at its abdomen and died.
“Aww, this is fun! Now, who’s next?”
Just then, from outside the window,
“Young master.”
Pinocchimon’s loyal butler, a giant tree named Jureimon, had arrived to make his report.
“The Chosen Children have beaten MetalSeadramon and have arrived in your forests.”
“The Chosen Children! Oh boy, they’re here already! I should welcome them!” He exclaimed innocently, as if he were welcoming a distant penpal.
“Let’s see, which one should I go with…”
He turned the toybox in the corner of his room upside down, spilling its contents.
“The hand grenade? The automatic rifle? What about the flamethrower?”
“Please, anything but the flamethrower,” Jureimon humbly requested. “It will burn down the forests.”
“Oh, right. Then I’ll go with this.”
What he chose was his Bullet Hammer, where the head of the hammer was turned into a revolver. A massive load of gunpowder was stuffed inside the revolver’s storage, so that it created a huge explosion whenever he hit with it.
“I’m off to play!” Pinocchimon cried, running out of his house joyfully.
After seeing him off, Jureimon sighed. “Good grief. It sure is a lot of work babysitting young master Pinocchimon.”

○

“I’m sorry, Jou-senpai.”
Mimi looked apologetically at Jou, who was sitting beside her stuffing himself with the berries that Palmon and Gomamon had gathered.
Jou swallowed down the contents in his mouth with one huge gulp and said, “Don’t worry about it. Go on, Mimi-chan. You should eat too.”
“Okay.”
Mimi plucked the berries one by one with her fingers, bringing them to her small mouth.
“Besides, you don’t have to rush. Um… think through this carefully, Mimi-kun. Until you’ve come up with an answer that you agree on. There’s plenty of time.”
He meant that in terms of the flow of time being different between the real world and the Digital World.
But whenever he looked up and unavoidably saw the real world in the sky, he couldn’t help but feel that they did have to hurry.
Just then.
“Hey, do you smell something?” Palmon asked Gomamon, sniffing the air.
“Uh, no?”
Gomamon didn’t notice anything, but Palmon seemed to have locked onto the source of the smell.
“It’s coming from over there! There’s someone there!” she said, and ran towards it.

A Digimon lay fallen on the ground, camouflauged within the heap of branches over it.
“They look hurt!”
Palmon and Gomamon began to clear away the branches to help the poor Digimon. As the branches cleared, they saw the familiar ugly face of a green demon.
“It’s Ogremon!” Jou cried. “Let’s get outta here, Mimi-kun!”
Jou hurriedly ran off. He turned around, expecting Mimi to follow him immediately, but Mimi wasn’t there.
“Mimi-kun!”
Mimi was still in the same spot, beginning to treat Ogremon’s wounds of all things.
“Don’t be crazy!” Jou said, hurriedly rushing back.
Ogremon regained consciousness and saw Mimi and Palmon, his enemies lending him a helping hand. He looked at them like he couldn’t believe what they were doing.
“Wh–Why? Why are you helping me…?”
“Stay quiet! You’ll open your wounds!” Mimi chided Ogremon in a severe tone.
But Mimi’s way of wiping around Ogremon’s gaping wounds with her handkerchief lacked some delicacy, so Jou, watching this, said, “Let me. I am a doctor’s son, after all.”
He didn’t know any special training, despite being a doctor’s son. The most he ever did was look through his father’s medical textbooks and play doctor with his older brother Shuu, as a child.
Still, he knew a bit more than the average kid.
He promptly told Gomamon to bring water and for Palmon to bring medicinal herbs. He asked Mimi to be his assistant.
Ogremon’s right arm appeared to be broken, so he put a splint against it and used the toilet paper that he’d brought from the real world as a sling around Ogremon’s shoulder.

It was self-evident that Ogremon, who only knew a life of fighting, was puzzled by Mimi and Jou’s act of charity that did not discriminate between ally and foe.
“I tried to kill you guys on File Island. It would’ve made sense to anyone if you’d killed me here. So why…?”
Mimi looked annoyed at his question. “Could you stop that? Stop talking about killing and being killed. Why doesn’t anyone think about living together as friends?”
Ogremon took a moment to imagine everyone living together as friends, but it made him feel ill.
“Well, anyway, I guess I should say thanks. Thank you.”
He staggered to his feet.
“By the way, did you guys meet Leomon? He said he was going to get you guys—”
Mimi’s face, which had looked energetic only moments before, suddenly darkened and fell. Jou answered him instead, solemnly.
“Leomon is dead. He died protecting us from MetalSeadramon, one of the Dark Masters…”
It was so hard to believe at first, that Ogremon could only stare at them with his mouth open. It was only after Jou repeated himself, that Ogremon’s large chin began to tremble.
“You’re kidding… Leomon is dead…? He died without settling the score with me?”
He held his face in his hands. “How the hell do I live now?!”
She could have left him be, but Mimi thought it would be comforting to remind him. “At least he’ll be reborn in the Village of Beginnings one day—”
But Ogremon shook his head.
“He won’t.”
“What do you mean, won’t?”
Ogremon slowly raised his head.
“The Village of Beginnings is dead…”
“Dead? What do you mean?”
Just then, they heard the sound of an explosion far away.

○

“Bullet Hammer!”
Pinocchimon jumped into the air, bringing down his cylinder-shaped iron hammer on WarGreymon.
WarGreymon quickly pulled out the Brave Shield on his back to protect himself, but the impact was intense. White smoke and an explosion that split the eardrums covered that entire area.
In that white darkness,
“Are you okay, WarGreymon?!” Taichi’s voice echoed.
WarGreymon didn’t reply back, but Tailmon answered. “He’s okay! He’s reverted back to Koromon, but he isn’t dead. Let’s run now while we still can!”
“Where are you?! Bam! Bam!”
Pinocchimon continued to swing his Bullet Hammer even though he was unable to see his surroundings in the smoke.
Taichi decided that it was the better choice that everyone split up and got far away from here, rather than gathering everyone up first to run. “Guys, run away from here!”
“Run where?!”
“Anywhere! Just get outta here!” Taichi shouted, and he, too, ran blindly within the gunpowder smoke.

The smoke gradually cleared. Taichi hid in the shadows of the trees, looking at the screen of his digivice.
The dots indicating where Sora, Koushiro, Takeru, and Hikari were blinked in scattered directions.
“I have to regroup with the others!”
When one of the Dark Masters, Pinocchimon, had suddenly attacked them, he had made Agumon warp-evolve to WarGreymon without a plan. Now he regretted that decision.
Maybe the decision that WarGreymon was the only one who could fight the Ultimate level Dark Masters wasn’t a wrong one, but he hadn’t even considered what to do with their remaining fighters in the event that WarGreymon was beaten.
Maybe he should have trusted the other Perfect levels to fight first, in order to assess the opponent’s abilities, if not to also think of an effective strategy to take the opponent down.
Taichi remembered SkullGreymon.
“Tch. I haven’t learned anything,” he said, but that self-criticism didn’t have a lasting effect on him as it had back then. In fact, it was more positive. When he said it, he meant that this failure would be the ingredient for his next success.
But first, there was something that he had to do.
Taichi used the blinking dots on his digivice to move towards gathering up his friends.

○

“97… 98…”
Pinocchimon knew that the children had escaped, but he didn’t chase them right away.
Instead, he closed his eyes and counted.
“99…”
Hide-and-seek had begun. A survival game where, if you were found, you were dead.
“100!”
Pinocchimon finished counting to one hundred. The rule for counting to one hundred first was a rule that Pinocchimon had come up with on the spot. In this world of forests, Pinocchimon was the law.
The smoke had cleared, but the sharp stench of nitric acid still lingered. Pinocchimon breathed it in as if it were the most delicious smell.
“Now then, time to look for everyone!”
He ran into the forest, searching for his prey.

○

Patamon held down his breath as he hid in the shade of the trees.
“Where are you? Here?” He heard Pinocchimon drawl. The violent explosions of the Bullet Hammer came in succession.
Boom! Boom!
Apparently, the Bullet Hammer never ran out of bullets. Pinocchimon had been discharging it so many times already that the trees blocking his path were blown to smithereens. Maybe he was planning to make a path within the forest. He didn’t seem to mind that he was decimating the forest’s natural beauty, or that he was letting them know where he was. Maybe he didn’t care, or maybe he just didn’t realize it.
“He’s getting closer…” Patamon heard Hikari’s small voice say behind him. He turned around to see that Hikari was clearly afraid.
When Takeru saw that, he said, “It’s okay. Don’t worry. I’ll protect you, Hikari-chan.”
He smiled comfortingly at their new friend, this small girl who was the same age as him.
Takeru has gotten to be so strong, Patamon thought, his eyes crinkling.
Although Takeru was currently the only one without a Crest, Patamon was certain that Takeru would obtain it soon, in the near future. And when that happened, he too, would evolve to Perfect level. Just what sort of form would he end up as? As he was imagining it,
“Are you here? Bam!”
Pinocchimon’s voice and the impact of the Bullet Hammer interrupted his thoughts.
He sounded pretty close by.
Patamon looked at Tailmon, and Tailmon nodded back at him quietly.
Tailmon was carrying the injured Koromon in her arms. Koromon had spent all of his energy when taking on Pinocchimon’s attack, and now that he was separated from Taichi, there was no chance that he could evolve to Child level, much less warp-evolve.
Which meant that the only ones here who could fight were Patamon and Tailmon.
Would they have to fight the Ultimate level Pinocchimon, much less beat him?
“That’s weird… You’re not here? But that’s all right!”
The sound of Pinocchimon’s Bullet Hammer continued.

○

Taichi thought that it was strange when the explosions unexpectedly stopped.
Just then,
“Hey, Chosen Children, can you hear me? I’m gonna start the execution now. I’ll keep killing, so if you want me to stop, just raise your hands and come out! Okay?”
When Taichi heard Pinocchimon announce this, he thought that Pinocchimon had captured one of his friends.
He hurriedly looked at his digivice. Out of the four dots, two were overlapping each other in one spot, while the other two were moving closer like Taichi to try and regroup with everyone.
The two moving dots had to be Sora and Koushiro. Like Taichi, they knew about this function on their digivice.
Which meant the two unmoving dots were Takeru and Hikari. Although Tailmon could evolve to Perfect, Taichi hadn’t told Hikari yet about this function on her digivice. Too many things had happened ever since they had arrived here, so he had lost the chance to tell her.
“Did Takeru and Hikari get caught?!”
That was why, when the first execution was carried out, Taichi went pale.
“Here’s the first one!” Pinocchimon said out loud, and without even a countdown, the explosive sound of the Bullet Hammer and screams reached Taichi’s ears.
“Hikari! Takeru!”
Taichi was on the slope of a hill at the time, so he quickly slid down from it.
“If you wanna kill someone, kill me!”
Just as he was about to shout that, the smoke cleared and he saw Pinocchimon leaning his Bullet Hammer on one shoulder. Neither Takeru nor Hikari were next to him. Of course, neither was it Sora or Koushiro.
The only ones there were forest Digimon who must be Pinocchimon’s subordinates.
Taichi hurriedly hid himself. Thank goodness he hadn’t spoken out loud. It was a trap. Pinocchimon was only pretending to execute someone in order to lure them out.
But that wasn’t true.
Pinocchimon looked around with a hand over his eyes, but seeing no response from the children, he said petulantly, “Why aren’t you coming out? These guys are gonna die! Are you okay with that?”
As he spoke, he pulled out a Floramon that was in line behind him and threw it to the ground in front of him.
“Well, here’s the next one!”
The Bullet Hammer came down on Floramon.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
Taichi couldn’t believe his eyes. Pinocchimon was executing his own comrades, all to lure out the children.
I have to stop him, Taichi thought, but he didn’t have Koromon with him.

○

I won’t forgive him…
The only thing that Yamato felt in his heart right now was hatred.
On top of a distant precipice, as he watched Pinocchimon execute his friends without batting an eye, he painfully flashbacked to the time in Shibuya, when Vamdemon had killed Gotsumon and Pumpmon.
I won’t forgive him! I… will kill Pinocchimon!
The force of Yamato’s hate was transmitted to his digivice, causing the gauge to shoot up.
“Gabumon, warp-evolve! MetalGarurumon!”
Gabumon evolved to MetalGarurumon.
“Go, MetalGarurumon!” Yamato screamed.
The laser wings on MetalGarurumon’s back allowed him to fly at superspeed. MetalGarurumon headed for Pinocchimon like a jet fighter.
Zchwing!
By the time Pinocchimon hurriedly turned around to look, it was already too late.
MetalGarurumon sank his steel fangs into Pinocchimon’s middle and flew up into the air. He didn’t attack right away because he didn’t want Pinocchimon’s subordinates who were nearby to be dragged into this battle.
“Get the hell off me, you bastard!”
Pinocchimon tried to hit MetalGarurumon’s head with his Bullet Hammer. But MetalGarurumon shook his head widely from side to side, causing Pinocchimon to drop his Bullet Hammer to the ground.
“Let go of me! Let go!”
Pinocchimon flailed his arms and legs like a spoiled child.
At that moment, the words “Kill him” resounded as a refrain within MetalGarurumon’s head.
Kill him, kill him, kill him…
It was Yamato’s voice. The voice of Yamato’s soul, filled with hatred.
MetalGarurumon flipped his neck, throwing Pinocchimon up into the air. Then, as Pinocchimon fell,
“Cocytus Breath!”
Hatred increased the power of his absolute zero breath to an even stronger degree.
“Waaaaaah!”
Pinocchimon’s body instantly froze over, splintering into ice fragments when he hit the ground.

From the top of the precipice, Yamato shook a fist into the air and cried “Yes!” as he watched the battle.
Since Pinocchimon was one of the Dark Masters, he thought he would have a much harder time of it, but it had been so easy to beat him. It was almost disappointing.
Yamato didn’t know why he had been able to do it, but it was because he had gained the power of darkness through his hatred.
Using the powers of darkness to beat the powers of darkness was the most effective way.
Letting oneself be seeped in darkness made people, and Digimon, stronger. This was because it allowed them to devote themselves to defeating their opponent without mercy.
Even when that opponent is begging for their life, if you allow any moment of hesitation, the opponent will use that to their advantage!
Once you’ve decided to kill, then kill!
All other emotions are unnecessary for battle.
But at the same time, Yamato did not realize that he had lost something important.
In any case, he felt, as long as he didn’t forget this feeling, he could defeat the Dark Masters all on his own.
Just as that thought struck Yamato, the world of forests began to fall apart.
MetalGarurumon returned to him and Yamato jumped nimbly onto his back.
To the next battle! I’ll handle them all by myself!
Just then, threatening black gas appeared from the world of darkness and crossed the border.
“Wh–What’s that?”
The black gas engulfed Yamato and MetalGarurumon.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
The black gas tangled around Yamato and MetalGarurumon, and they were dragged into the world of darkness…

Read on to the next chapter.