"This is the course we will follow then," Koushiro announced, handing the map to ken. "It will take two days to cross the forest if you stop every six hours to rest plus sleep. And then another day to climb the mountain."

"If all goes according to plan," Yamato sighed, earning himself a slap on the back from Mimi.

"Don't be like that," she scolded him fondly, the tag already hanging from her neck.

"Daisuke and Ken will be in contact with everyone," Iori assured. "If anything happens they'll tell us."

"Leave that to us!" Daisuke grinned, giving their friends a thumbs up.

Sora smiled at his obvious enthusiasm.

"Taichi and I will be right ahead, we'll protect you from the front," she said, already up in the air.

"Iori and I will be to your right," Takeru assured, though Daisuke was sure it was more for Yamato's benefit than their own.

"Great, then Miyako-chan and I will go left," Hikari nodded, smiling at her partner.

Koushiro sighed.

"Jyou-kun and I will wait half an hour after you leave and take the rear. You'll be covered on all sides."

"You guys know how to make a girl feel special," Mimi giggled. Yamato rolled his eyes and got on top of Garurumon.

"Let's just go," he said.

Ken nodded, mounting onto Raidramon's back, right behind Daisuke and wrapping his arms around his waist for support.

Taichi and Sora have them all one last hesitant smile before leaving, their good humor unable to hide the tenseness of their shoulders, the straight set of their backs.

Hikari nodded, eyeing Miyako's clenched hands.

"Let's go, Miyako-chan…" she encouraged and they all pretended not to notice how she physically had to drag her partner away.

Ken didn't look at her once.

Daisuke sighed, sadly.

"Ken-chan," he began.

"Don't, Dai-chan," Ken interrupted, his arms tightening around d Daisuke's waist and he rested his forehead against the redhead's shoulder. "Please."

The other teen nodded, uncomfortable.

Mimi sighed at them.

The began their journey in silence.

"Is everything okay, Mimi-san?" Daisuke asked after a couple of hours, eyeing the girl.

She nodded.

"I'm fine it's just… heavy," she said. "The virtue is so very sad."

Daisuke shook his head.

"Don't call it a virtue, Mimi," Yamato snapped, eyes set on the road. From behind Daisuke, Ken nodded.

"Darkness is not a virtue," he told them. "It swallows everything, muddles the mind… makes you think things you would not normally think, do things you would never do on your own."

Yamato frowned.

"It's a curse," he agreed.

Mimi frowned as well, her hand reaching for the tag.

"It might not be pleasant," Daisuke said suddenly, his own frown curling his mouth downwards. "But it is necessary."

"Dai-chan…?" Ken asked, shocked.

"Without darkness, there is no light," the redhead continued, hands clenched. "Without darkness there is no rest. How can one appreciate the stars if there is no darkness in the night? It's a balance."

Yamato's eyes focussed on him with intensity, his cheeks coloring, his frown deepening.

Mimi rested a placating hand on his arm before the blond could start arguing.

"I think Daisuke is right," she said. "We have spent so long fighting darkness that we haven't stopped to think that maybe it's not the darkness itself that is the bad thing. Maybe it's the imbalance."

"Gennai-san told us," Daisuke said, shooting Mimi a grateful smile. "The digiworld needs it's darkness, they are working towards a balance now. And we are here to support it."

Ken looked at his best friend in shock.

Yamato pulled his arm from Mimi's grasp.

"Maybe the tag is affecting you after all."

"Or maybe," Daisuke replied instantly, his eyes fierce, determination making them sparkle. "I just accepted that there is darkness in all of us, and instead of fearing it and fighting against it, I decided to embrace it and make it my own, so it complements the part of me that is light."

Yamato looked away with a scoff.

Mimi breathed a sigh of relief.

"... Do you… really think like that?" Ken's small voice called from behind him, forcing Daisuke to turn lightly. "After all that's happened? All I… did?"

Ken's eyes were set on his hands, curling nervously on his lap, his hair hid his face from view save from the trembling of his bottom lip.

Daisuke's shoulders slumped.

"I do…" he confirmed.

"Why…?" Ken asked. "Why would you think…"

"Because it's true, Ken-chan," Daisuke pleaded. "Because I've seen what that fear can do to people and… and how could I tell you not to be afraid if I was afraid myself? I'm not as smart as you, but I'm no hypocrite either."

Ken remained silent and tense behind him, his shoulders shaking.

Yamato's scowl deepened.

"Time to switch, Mimi," he announced suddenly. "Come here, Daisuke."

Silently the teen made his way towards the older pair, his upset evident in his clenched hands and the purse of his lips. Mimi looked at him worriedly as she slipped the tag from her neck, gently placing it around Yamato's.

"Try to calm yourself, okay?" She advised her friend win a whisper. The blond nodded, already reaching for Daisuke's hand, entwining their fingers together as the redhead sat behind him.

Mimi got onto Ken's back, her hands unable to remain idle as they continued their journey.

"You don't think that," Yamato whispered to Daisuke after a few minutes of oppressing silence.

Daisuke sighed heavily.

"I do," he replied, as if the whole thing was a tiresome topic for him. As if the act of defending himself was some sort of annoyance. "Look around you, Yamato-san, this world is made of wonders, the wishes of thousands and thousands of creature made this world."

"Not all wishes are good, Daisuke," Yamato cautioned.

"Perhaps," Daisuke agreed. "Or perhaps it's just that some wishes just go unanswered for long enough that they turn to despair. You saw what all that anger and frustration can cause, you faced the embodiment of that hurt. Can you honestly look at me in the eye and tell me all those digimon that were hurt were bad?"

Yamato turned lightly, his sky blue eyes solemn.

"You seem to know a lot," he mused. "About this world, about the darkness."

The redhead sighed.

"It didn't make sense to me, when I was a kid," he said simply. "We visited primary village and all the babies were so happy, you know? And I found myself wondering, if all those baby digimon are so happy, how come there are some that go bad? Why do virus digimon turn to evil and hurt the others?"

"There are no viral digimon in primary village," Yamato replied immediately.

"Aren't there?" Daisuke countered without missing a beat. "Because I clearly remember being told all digimon hatch there, not just data and vaccine."

Yamato frowned.

Daisuke sighed once more, his shoulders relaxing, as if he was physically forcing himself to remain calm.

"I've thought about it a lot… after our adventure was over, about that time Agumon was made to digivolve," he said, calm. "Taichi-san says he turned into blackwargreymon because of darkness but…"

"But you think that's not the case," Yamato finished for him.

Daisuke nodded.

"It doesn't make sense, you know?" he said. "If virus and darkness are that bad, why hasn't the digiworld gotten rid of them all? Why aren't they deleted from the code?"

"And you think it's balance…" Yamato finished for him.

"I think it's fairness," Daisuke corrected. "You know this world, you have a partner like I do. Don't you think they are as complex as us humans? I do."

Yamato looked at the teen from over his shoulder, surprised at how he was just now finally noticing the scrawny little kid he had met so many years ago was long gone. Gone were the knobby knees and rounded cheeks, the set of his jaw that had once spoke of bravado and stubbornness was now soft with the calm of experience.

His once honey colored eyes shifted from behind burgundy eyelashes, sometimes brown, sometimes gold.

Always wise.

"You've changed," he said finally, Daisuke's cheeks colored a faint pink, slender fingers tightened around his own, offering support at the same time as his gaze wandered over the trees and Yamato was suddenly reminded that this child, this friend of his, had seen as much death and destruction as Yamato himself, maybe even more and it seemed stupid of him to expect the kid's loud declarations of justice now.

"How so?" the younger teen asked, blinking, uncertain.

"A few years ago you would have screamed until Ken and I listened to you," Yamato explained simply. "Refused to let us part without changing our minds… loudly."

Daisuke's adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed.

"I…" Daisuke hesitated, surprise coloring his voice, making it softer, younger. "I think I had a lot to prove, back them. A lot of … time I had to make up for."

Huh, Yamato hadn't been expecting that.

"And now?" he asked.

"Now I know I have time," the other replied, a soft exhalation. "I don't feel the urgency to chase you all down and make you listen to me. I am not alone anymore and you disagreeing with me is not you rejecting me. Friendship doesn't work like that, right?"

The redhead laughed softly, his eyes still lost in the distance around them, as if searching for something Yamato himself couldn't see.

"Still, if I think Ken-chan is harbouring some wrong thoughts, the kind that are going to hurt him if left unchecked, I will fight him. I will throw him to the ground if necessary and hiss in his ear until he finally sees what a wonderful and incredible person he is, darkness of not," the teen smiled, not an ounce of guilt in his expression. Almost preternaturally golden eyes finally met Yamato's with an intensity that sent a shiver down his spine. "Same as I will do with you if you keep insisting that whatever part of what made you who you are is a curse, Yamato-san."

Yamato stared at the other teen, speechless.

Daisuke smiled a small, soft smile full of fond affection.

Yamato wanted to deny how the pit of his stomach seemed to coil and twist warmly at such smile, such certainty.

Daisuke rested his forehead against Yamato's back, huffing a contented sigh against his shirt.

"I hope you don't mind I take a nap now, Yamato-san?" he asked. "I couldn't sleep all that well last night, Jun-chan and I had a lot to talk about, and this morning Ken-chan was bright and early at my doorsteps, also I want to be well rested by the last hours of your turn, in case you are tired and need the help."

The blond swallowed the lump that was settling against his throat.

He nodded.

"Yeah, sure," he said, more to calm his nerves, center himself than Daisuke needing his verbal approval. "I'll wake you up in a few hours."

"Thanks, Yamato-san," Daisuke whispered, his hand still tight against Yamato's, even as his whole body relaxed trustingly against his own.

Yamato kept silent for the rest of his turn, mostly thinking about what he had heard, what he had felt.

Ignoring Ken's eyes that had nailed themselves to the back of his neck with ardent attention.

Around Yamato's neck, the tag seemed to whisper a sorrowful, lonely sense of relief.