animepup: HAI I KEPT MY PROMISE HERE IS NEW CHAPTER ENJOY PLEASE

jc: …..grammar much?

animepup: I just…um…uh…its uh…. don't judge!

jc: …..alrighty, well at least you're actually progressing with the storyline this chapter

animepup: Yeup! The title "The True Spirit" shall be explained! probably

jc: ACTION!

Disclaimer: this should be obvious by now… but I own nothing except for my Yuki and all extra Yuki-ness

RECAP:

Takuya's POV

I...just...experienced…hell…THOSE GIRLS ARE DEMONS I TELL YOU! DEMONS! I shuddered in the memory…

"Why was I the only one punished…" I grumbled.

"It was your idea, you idiot." Kouji scoffed at me and I glared in response.

"Yeah well…you saw them naked! They should beat you up too!" Kouji jolted and looked away.

"…I saw nothing" I scoffed loudly and Yuki shot me a glare. A chill went up my spine and I broke out into cold sweat, so I decided to shut up.

I have learned a very valuable lesson today…never EVER piss off girls…

"Is that the Forest Terminal?" I asked as we approached a sad looking wooden sign.

"It's called the Forest Terminal but…" Takuya scanned the area,

"It doesn't look like any Trailmon are gunno show up." We all nod and look for any signs of life or trees or whatever.

"But first, let's stuff ourselves!" Junpei cheers and skips off. I glance up at the little restaurant-like-shack place that Junpei disappeared into.

"With Junpei, food is always a top priority, huh?" I sigh.

"They DO say you can't work on an empty stomach!" Takuya grins when he walked past me. I shoot him a glare and he jumps a meter away from me.

"Oh come on! You're still mad?!"

"…Shut up…and besides, I'm not even that hungr-" Before I could finish the sentence, my stomach rudely cuts me off with a loud grumble. Gee thanks stomach, I REALLY appreciated that.

"Pfft, you are SO starving!" Takuya laughs and I hear Kouji chuckle behind me.

"S-shut up! Both of you!" My face heats up and I glare daggers at them. Before I could say anymore, I'm cut off by a pair growling stomachs. I smirk as both boys turn as red as tomatoes,

"Looks like I'm not the only one whose stomach has something to say." Takuya rubs the back of his neck and laughs awkwardly. Kouji just "hmphs" and turns his face away from me.

Feeling satisfied, I happily walk into the diner and plop down beside Izumi.

"So, noodles, huh?" I glance at the bowl in front of me and Izumi nods.

"Yeup, and it's even free!"

"Uh, why's it free?" I raise an eyebrow questioningly. Izumi opens her mouth to answer when suddenly she's cut off by the... chef? owner? peacock? I don't even know…

"You're my first costumers in a while so of course it's my treat!" The peacock-looking digimon smiles as he tosses a handful (wingfull?) of eggs into the air. He quickly breaks all of them with his beak and the raw eggs fall perfectly into our noodle bowl.

"Itadakimasu!" We all pick up our chopsticks and dig in. Well I guess it's better than nothing…!

"Tastes horrible!"

"Yuck!"

"What IS this?!"

"I think I'm going to be sick…"

I take that back. I'd rather have nothing, thank you very much.

"There's nothing worse than free food." Bokomon says.

"This was a valuable lesson." Neemon adds and I nod in agreement. An anger mark appears on the peacock's forehead and he looks ticked off. But he changes the topic all of a sudden,

"If I'm not mistaken, are you going to the Forest Terminal?"

"Yeah, so?" I raise an eyebrow.

"You shouldn't go!" The peacock snaps.

"Why?!" Takuya asks, bewildered. A shadow covers the digimon's face and he speaks in a serious tone,

"Those who get close to that place never come back…or so I've been told." There's a long silence…

"Tch, I can't believe what someone who makes such terrible noodles says." Takuya huffs and crosses his arms. The rest of us nod in agreement as I push the noodle bowl as far away from me as humanly possible.

"How mean! And here I was warning you out of kindness!" The digimon exclaims as anime tears stream down his face.

"Even if you say that…we were summoned to the Forest Terminal." Takuya replies.

"We can't just go back after making it this far." I add in as we all get up to leave.

Kouji is at the head of the group. He pauses and stares into the thick blanket of fog. For once, no one was talking or making any noise. There's an eerie silence…and I don't like it. After what feels like an eternity, Kouji breaks the silence,

"Let's go."

"Alright!" Takuya follows close behind, not trying to act all-mighty and leader-like for once.

"Will we be okay?" Junpei asks doubtfully.

"We've made it all this way, so we have to go." Tomoki replies in a serious tone. Aww my little boy is growing up~ *mental slap* Yuki! Now is not the time for that, what is wrong with you! Ugh I blame the noodles. I take a deep breath to regain focus and follow the others. I had only taken a few steps when suddenly, a feeling in my gut makes me whip around to find…nothing. I know there's nothing there but…why do I feel so uneasy? It's almost as if something evil is following us… I shake my head to clear my thoughts. I'm probably just being paranoid.

"Yuki-han~ You're going to be left behind!" Bokomon's voice calls out from within the fog.

"Coming!"

-I'M SWIMMING IN A CLOUD-LA-LA-LA- (jc: you're high animepup: LALALALALAA~)

"We've climbed up, now what?" I ask as we all stare at the fork ahead of us.

"Let's flip a coin or something." Takuya shrugs. Before any of us could comment on how stupid and unreliable that was, Tomoki's digivice suddenly started glowing. He takes it out of his pocket and a little map appears.

"This way?" Tomoki points to the right path. A cluster of branches blocked our way before we could get very far.

"Huh? It's a dead end!" Takuya exclaims, gesturing to the branches blocking the path.

"Maybe we should have picked the other one…" Izumi says. Then, just like Tomoki, Junpei takes out his glowing digivice and the branches obediently move out of the way, clearing the path.

"Now we can pass through!" Junpei grins. Why, thank you captain obvious.

We continued walking and the fog continued to get thicker and thicker.

"I can't see anything." Takuya pauses.

"We may get lost." Kouji adds. I squint my eyes and try to focus on the path ahead of us, but I could barely see 3 feet in front of me.

"This time it's my digivice!" Izumi gasps, holding her glowing digivice up. The light expands and the wind blows. In a matter of seconds, all the fog had cleared. I gasp and stare awestruck at the sight before us.

It's a gorgeous castle, made entirely of glass like stone material. The surface reflected the sunlight and shone with all the colours of the rainbow. The shape and design was simple yet elegant. We continue walking, heading toward the castle. Suddenly, Takuya stops without warning and I bump into him. Before I could regain my balance, someone runs into me. I hear an "oof" from Kouji, followed by an "ah" "ow" "ack" and all of a sudden, there was a mini human domino on a tree branch like 100 ft in the air.

"Ahh! Watch it!" Takuya barely stops himself from falling.

"Don't just stop all of a sudden!" I snap, holding my sore nose.

"Why did you stop?" Kouji asks calmly, although he looked a tad annoyed.

"What's wrong, Takuya-niichan?" Tomoki calls from the back.

"It's another dead end, the path just...ends. It doesn't look like we can go any further." Takuya explains.

"Hold on, let me see." Takuya moves to the side without a word and I step in front. He was right; the branch just appears to be chopped off or something. Hm…maybe we can fly or-

"Yuki, your digivice!" Takuya cuts off my train of thought with his loud voice. I glance down at my pocket and take out the glowing device. The blue light grows and the air in front of us shimmers. Then, as if appearing out of nowhere, there is now a wooden bridge.

"Huh, guess there was an invisible force field or something…" I mumble to myself.

"Looks like we can cross now." Kouji shrugs and we step onto the bridge.

"What's a palace doing in the middle of the woods anyways?" I questioned as we approached the grand doors.

"It's just like Sleeping Beauty! Maybe there's a princess in there!" Izumi squeals and giggles.

"Or it could just be an enemy ambush." Kouji retorts and Izumi pouts while sticking her tongue out.

"Don't be so negativistic." I add in, earning a questioning eyebrow from the lone-wolf,

"Don't you mean pessimistic?"

"No, I mean negativistic." I cross my arms and huff.

"That's not even a word! There's something wrong in that head of yours." He finishes by tapping me on the head, chuckling. I don't get him. I just don't. I swear-gah boys… I sigh and my attention is brought back to the issue at hand.

"We can't get in!" Junpei exclaims while trying to push the doors. Then, as if on cue, Kouji's digivice lights up and the doors open up by themselves.

"Are they inviting us in?" Takuya asks.

"Maybe the one who summoned us is in there?" Tomoki concludes and I nod,

"That would make sense, considering she was the one who called us here."

We walk in and are met with another set of doors, except this time there was a handle. Takuya knocks but nothing happens.

"There's no one here." Tomoki and Junpei glance behind us.

"What could possibly be in a place like this-" Takuya gets cut off by his own digivice glowing, and the doors open just like before. However, this time, there was a weapon pointed at us.

"Who are you!" The wizard-looking digimon demands.

"It's Wizarmon!" Tomoki exclaims in surprise.

"But the colour is different…" Junpei comments as Kouji and I share a look. Did we miss something?

"Is he an enemy too?" Takuya growls and steps into a fighting stance.

"Human…children…?" The digimon says uncertainly,

"I had thought you were Cherubimon's servants."

"If you're guarding against Cherubimon then…" Kouji steps forward,

"You're not our enemy, I guess." He finishes and the digimon lowers his wand.

"What are some human children doing here? Nevertheless, I'm surprised you made it to this castle." He seemed less threatening, but he was still cautious.

"We came here after hearing a voice, a woman's voice that told us to go to the Forest Terminal." Takuya explains. The digimon seems to ponder this thought and mumbles something under his breath. Then, he seems to come to some sort of conclusion and bows.

"My apologies, my guests. I'm Sorcerymon." He lifts his head and turns around,

"Please, come this way." He leads us down a hallway.

"We're here." Sorcerymon opens a pair of glass doors and we walk into a huge, but empty, room. He looks up and we follow his gaze up to a rock crystal on the ceiling.

"Who's that?" Izumi asks and I swallow a sarcastic reply. Isn't it obvious? Of course it's rock man!

"He's Seraphimon-sama." Sorcerymon answers.

"Seraphimon?" Takuya echoes questioningly.

"One of the three angel digimon who once governed this world." Sorcerymon replies.

"Angel?! Who are the oth-" I'm cut off by the woman's voice,

"Gather the light of your digivices." My god woman, thanks for cutting me off! Well, at least we got some guidance for once.

"Ophanimon-sama?! I just heard Ophanimon-sama's voice!" Sorcerymon's eyes search the room frantically.

"Ophanimon? Are you Ophanimon?" Takuya asks the air.

"Ophanimon-sama entrusted me with protecting Seraphimon-sama." Sorcerymon explains.

"Of course." Bokomon says, knowingly.

"You knew?" Neemon asks.

"Nope." *facepalm*

"Say, what's that about gathering the digivices' light?" Izumi stares at her digivice then glances at Junpei's.

"No idea…" I reply when all of a sudden, a white light beam shoots out of all the digivices.

"Gather this light!" Takuya commands and we all turn as the light focuses on Seraphimon on the ceiling. Sparks fly everywhere as the lights drive through the rock, freeing Seraphimon.

"Sorcerymon…I…"

"Ophanimon-sama was the one who saved you. Then, she created a barrier to protect you until you woke up." Sorcerymon answers Seraphimon's intended question.

"Ophanimon…Is Ophanimon safe?" Seraphimon asks anxiously.

"That…I do not know where she is…But she sent these people here." Sorcerymon gestures towards us. Gee, thanks for remembering us.

"Human children…" Seraphimon says uncertainly. Bokomon steps in to defend us,

"They may be human children, but they hold the spirits of the legendary warriors!"

"What the heck is going on? Who's this Ophanimon!" Takuya fumes.

"Why were we brought here?" I add in, demanding for answers.

"Give us a proper answer!" Izumi adds.

"We've made it this far, so we have the right to know!" Kouji steps in.

"Very well, I shall explain." Seraphimon turns to face us,

"Once, in this world, there was a war between human form digimon and beast form digimon. That is when Lucemon appeared, leading this world to peace." He pauses. "However, Lucemon selfishly used his power to make the digimon suffer. At that time, the ten legendary warriors appeared. After defeating Lucemon, the legendary warriors disappeared. After that, Cherubimon, Ophanimon and I protected the Digital World and kept peace. But Cherubimon…he suddenly attacked me. I lost consciousness and have been in slumber since."

"While Seraphimon-sama was asleep, Cherubimon and his allies have…" Sorcerymon projects an image with his wand. "turned this world to ruins."

"This… is the Digital World?" I gasp at all the missing chunks.

"It looks like swiss cheese." Junpei comments. *Facepalm* Junpei you idiot…

"We have to hurry and find Ophanimon." Seraphimon says, ignoring Junpei's rude comment.

"Now that Seraphimon-sama is awake, we can relax. If you and Ophanimon join forces, you can defeat Cherubimon and bring peace to this world once again." Seraphimon nods at Sorcerymon then turns to face us,

"Allow me to thank you for coming all the way here. You are all truly brave." Everyone beams with pride and I smiled.

"However," Seraphimon's tone darkens. "I cannot allow you to get involved any further. Before the battle starts, please return to the human world."

Wait what. I frown. We can't just LEAVE! I mean, we've come so far and we got spirits and everything! There must be a reason as to why we were brought to this world other than freeing some angel guy from rocks!

"Wh-what are you saying?" Takuya asks in disbelief.

"We can't just leave after knowing all this!" Izumi exclaims but before Seraphimon could reply, a wall behind us is smashed into pieces. We turn around to find ourselves face to face with our old friend…

"Grottomon!" Takuya growls.

"Found ya, brats! Meet MY allies!" Grottomon snickers,

"Ranamon!"

"Nice to meet you!~" The blue fish like digimon greets in a flirtatiously sweet tone. Ugh I have goose bumps.

"Arbormon!" The wood one with the spiky teeth growls but says nothing.

"Mercurymon!"

"Ooh I like this place! This is where Cherubimon-sama defeated Seraphimon!" The walking mirrors exclaimed in a grand tone of voice. As if he was giving a speech or something…

"Seraphimon…? Ah I see, so this is the great Seraphimon!" Grottomon cackles mockingly.

"Aaah so handsome!~" Ranamon coos and more shivers go up my spine.

"You're Cherubimon's servants? Where is Ophanimon!" Seraphimon demands.

"How would we know? Give me back my beast spirit you brat!" Grottomon roars and lifts his hammer.

"Let's go, Spirit Evolution!"

"Agnimon!"

"Mizumon!"

"Wolfmon!"

"Blitzmon!"

"Chakmon!"

"Chakmon, protect Izumi!" I ordered as the rest of us advanced. Chakmon nodded and stepped in front of Izumi, Bokomon, and Neemon.

"Burning Salamander!"

"Licht Kugel!"

"Wasser Strahl!"

"Thor's Hammer!"

We all attacked at full power, yet none of them were affected. They haven't tried to counter either, all they were doing was dodging. It was like they were playing with us!

"Now it's my turn to pay-you-back~ Rain Stream!" Ranamon summons a storm cloud. WAIT! Why do we have such similar attacks?! As I was distracted by my thoughts, the dark rain had drenched Agnimon and Wolfmon and they fell to their knees, as if they had their energy drained.

"Wasser Peitsche!" Thinking quickly, I tore the storm cloud apart with my water whip. To my surprise, I lose control of my whip and it hits me square in the gut, sending me flying back.

"Mizumon!"

"I-I'm fine!" I grunt, getting back on my feet.

"Machine Gun Dance!" I turn to see Arbormon defeat everyone with one attack, and they crashed into the walls. Grottomon cackles and raises his hammer above Agnimon.

"No!" I rush forward to help, but Ranamon jumps in front of me, blocking the way.

"Kachikachi kotchin!"

"Crystal Cloud!" I relax once I see Chakmon and Sorcerymon blast Grottomon back. The others were slowly getting up as well. I turn my focus back to Ranamon. Looks like I'll have to defeat miss flirty here first.

"Wasser Strahl!" I aim a huge blast of water but just like earlier, I somehow lose control and it curves around and hits me instead. I gasp as the breath is knocked out of me. What's going on?! This has never happened before! I glare at Ranamon, who was just sitting on her storm cloud, studying her nails.

"What are you?!" I growl.

"Oh? Are you finished already?" She glances at me with a fake innocent face.

"Don't count on it! Wasser Peitsche!" I try the whip once more, this time, I create 4. With so many, at least one had to hit. I take a deep breath and gather my focus. I cannot, will not, lose control this time.

"Ok, playtime's over~" Ranamon snaps her fingers and the whips change direction. I grunt and leap into the air. But the whips move way faster than me and before I could react, my arms and legs were bound and I was dangling in the air. I struggle against my restraints but to no avail.

"Wh-what are you! How are you doing this?!" I snap as Ranamon raises her cloud so we were at eye level.

"Now now, struggling is futile~ After all, you're powers are simply a part of me." She coos as she strokes my braid. I glare back at her. What is she saying?! My powers are a part of her…?

"Yeah right!" I spat back.

"You see, I am the TRUE legendary warrior of water! After all, I can freely control your attacks~" Ranamon leans back and speaks as if she was a teacher talking to a naïve child.

"How is that even possible?!" I growl as I try to free my limbs. She ponders that thought for a second and her face darkens,

"Oh it was simply an unfortunate ACCIDENT where my spirit was split by that Ophanimon." Ranamon spat out the name. "But no worries, as soon as I take your spirit, I shall be complete again! I will be the most powerful and most beautiful digimon in the world!" She smiles at that thought. What a narcissist.

"Well, it was nice meeting you~ Time to say bye~ Jealousy Rain!" Ranamon summons another attack.

An eerie black smoke curls around my body. Everywhere the smoke touches burns. I can't breathe. The pain is agonizing…but my senses are numbing…The edges of my vision goes black and I fight to stay conscious. I felt all my power drain to one point again, and I knew it was my spirit. But I just don't have enough energy left…

"Seventh Heaven!" Balls of light blast Ranamon into the roof, along with Grottomon and Arbormon. My restraint disappear and I unDigivolve. Izumi rushes over and catches me just before I crash into the floor.

"Yuki! Are you okay?" She looks at me with concern.

"…yeah, I think so."

"Please hurry and escape." Seraphimon steps in front protectively, "Leave this to me."

"We can't just leave you here!" Chakmon exclaims.

"But if we stayed, we'd only be burden." Blitzmon reasons.

"Hurry up and go!" Seraphimon urges, "I will not be able to protect you in this situation."

"What are you thinking?!" Agnimon fumes, "There's no way you can fight 4 of them on your own!"

As we were arguing, the enemy prepared to attack again. Seraphimon quickly turns around to defend us.

"Seventh Heaven!" Out of nowhere, Mercurymon appears right in front of Seraphimon.

"Generous Mirror!" Somehow, his mirror absorbs the attack and reflects it right back! Seraphimon didn't even have time to dodge. The attack was at such a close range.

"I'll be taking Seraphimon's data!" Mercurymon laughs as we all stare in shock and disbelief.

"Seraphimon-sama!" Sorcerymon cries, but there was nothing we could do.

"Now our only hope is gone…" Sorcerymon mumbles in despair, "The Digital World is done for…"

There's got to be something…something we can do…Suddenly, I knew what could be done.

"…The digi-egg…" I mumble and immediately sprint towards the glowing egg.

"Yuki! What are you doing?!" I faintly hear Izumi behind me, but all my focus was getting to the egg as quickly as possible.

"It's not over yet! We still have this egg!" I exclaim as I catch the egg in my arms. I can hear the enemy giving chase so I pick up speed. I just barely manage to not get caught. Everyone immediately forms a wall between me and the egg and the evil warriors.

Suddenly, the wall we were against cracked and there was a blinding light. We were all shoved through a secret passage.

"Hurry! This way!" Sorcerymon urges as everyone unDigivolves and run for our lives…literally. There's an explosion behind us just as we reach another door.

"Get on that Trailmon and escape!" Sorcerymon orders and we rush on obediently.

"Sorcerymon…what about you?" I ask anxiously, although I feel like I already know his answer…

"I entrust the digi-egg, Seraphimon-sama, to you." Sorcerymon closes the door and I feel my chest tighten. I swallow my tears and hug the digi-egg tighter. I promise…I, no we, will do everything in our power to protect this world.

"No!" Tomoki cries, tears streaming down his face.

"Don't cry!" Takuya snaps. "Seraphimon protected us and turned into an egg. And then Sorcerymon…" Takuya trails off.

"We have to protect this digi-egg at all costs!"

TBC

animepup: and that is a wrap peoples! My god its way past midnight and this is finally done…*plops on bed and dies*

jc: *pokes animepup with a stick* Yeup, she's dead. But don't worry, I'll make sure she's up and full of energy for the next chapter *evil glint in eye*

AnimePup1599 and MangaluverJC out~