Chapter Text
I'm sitting in the waiting room for my doctor's appointment. “I don't want to go in, dad! They poke me with that needle over and over every time!”
Dad doesn't look up from the magazine he's reading. “Well Saki, they would only have to do it once if you would just behave yourself.”
“I do behave myself!” I cross my arms like mom does when she gets mad. “I never complain, even though it hurts a lot!”
Dad flips a page. “Well, that can't be true, because we haven't even gone in, and you're already complaining.”
“That's not--”
Dad shuts the magazine and throws it onto the table. “Just shut up, Saki! You're going in there, and that's that! All you have to do is sit still, and they'll only need to poke you once!”
I start crying. I really don't want to, but I can't help it. It's how I feel. I don't know what I'm supposed to do to stop.
What am I doing? What's the matter with me? I sit as still as I can, and nothing changes.
Inside, the nurse pokes me with a needle six times.
“That only happened because you kept squirming, Saki,” dad groans from the corner. “If you'd be a good girl instead of moving around so much, they'd be able to hit the vein the first time.”
I try really hard not to cry, and I almost don't cry at all. I sit as still as I can. The doctor talks to dad about complicated grown-up things I doesn't understand. For some reason, the conversation involves touching my head a lot. Even though I don't like it, I don't say anything.
“I hate going there,” I declare on the car ride home.
Dad shakes his head. “It's embarrassing, you know, being in public when you act out like that.”
Why is everything I do wrong? What do I need to do to not be hated? I don't understand at all. If only I could just be someone else...
While Saki twisted and turned in her sleep, Miu snuck out of the castle throne room where they had retired for the night. She was far too wired to sleep, far too full of thoughts. If she didn't let them out, the pressure was going to make her head explode. She walked around the park grounds while the others rested in their nightmares.
“I don't know what I'm going to tell mom and dad.” Saying it out loud helped a little. “I know you'd just tell me not to worry about it, Kaito. 'It's not your responsibility to look after me, Miu.' And maybe nobody else thinks so, but I still should have! I should have listened to you when you told me not to go to the shrine, because now--" Miu sniffled. "You were all I had...”
Eventually, Miu found herself at the Ferris wheel. “I wonder if it actually works. This place runs on dreams or whatever, right?” There was a small enclosure off to the side the platform. Miu walked over and found it unlocked. Inside was a very rusty control panel. Miu could barely make out the labels, and it was hard to tell what was a button, a light, or a knob.
“Clockwise, counterclockwise. Makes sense. But why are there two power buttons? Jog? Running? What is this, a treadmill? ...I'd better not mess with it.” Miu frowned. “Jijimon might have known how to work this.”
After wandering around the park for a while longer, Miu's exhaustion from the day caught back up to her, and she made her way back to the throne room. She was surprised to see Saki awake, sitting on the throne with her head in her hands. “Saki?”
Saki jumped a bit in her seat and looked up. A relieved smile swept across her face. Trying not to wake the Kemonogami, she whispered. “Oh Miu, thank goodness. I woke up from a nightmare and I couldn't remember if you were still alive.” The smile faded as Saki sunk back into imagining that of all the humans who had come to this world, she was the only one left. “I realized that Syakomon was still here, so everything was alright. You go out for air?”
“Something like that.” Miu wasn't very good at whispering, and the sound of her voice made the Kemonogami stir. Covering her mouth, Miu stayed perfectly still until she was sure they were all still asleep.
“Leave it to me, Takuma,” Agumon mumbled under his breath, sleeptalking.
Saki couldn't help but smirk at that. With a gesture toward the door, she led Miu out to the hallway so they could talk more. The two girls slumped on the hard floor under the window directly across from the stairs to the throne room. A soft, cool moonlight filled the air.
“So...” Miu started noncommittally. She wasn't sure what she could say to Saki that would mean anything. They'd both lost so much. Anything she could imagine saying to comfort Saki over Aoi, she knew would ring hollow if Saki said it about Kaito.
“Yeah,” Saki whispered, seemingly in response to Miu's thoughts. “I don't have the slightest clue what to say, but I know that we understand each other right now. Everyone we lost, we both cared about. Maybe in different ways, but if you look past all that, I think we're the same.”
Miu could feel tears starting to flow. Much as she didn't want Saki to notice, the feeling of moisture on her face bothered her too much not to wipe them with her sleeve. “I thought you would blame me. This is all my fault, after all. You were minding your own business back then, and I made you follow me to the shrine.” Miu was trying really hard not to sniffle.
“Miu...” Saki placed a hand on Miu's shoulder. “Even if I wanted to put the blame on you, I couldn't. It was me who asked you to show us the shrine, remember? If anything, you should hate me. And I should have known everyone at the camp would follow us. It's because of me that--”
“Don't say that!” Miu blurted out the words more loudly than she'd meant to, but the passion of her words couldn't be muted. “I could never hate you! You've been nothing but kind to me from the moment we met! No matter what happens, you're my friend! So please don't blame yourself!”
Saki was speechless. Miu could be loud, but usually it was because she was annoyed or angry. The tone of her voice still was, but the words were so nice... Despite herself, Saki laughed.
Miu was thankful to the low light hiding the color of her face, because she was sure it was red. “I'm being serious, don't laugh.”
Saki tried, but a bit of laughter peppered her words still. “Sorry, Miu. I'm not trying to make fun of you. It's a nervous laughter. Plus, you have to admit,” Saki looked down, “it's funny how we're tripping over each other to blame ourselves when that's not what either of us want.” Miu smiled a bit at that. “When all this is over, each other is all we'll have.”
“Hey!” Saki and Miu looked over to the source of the exclamation. Floramon, Syakomon, and Agumon had arrived in the hallway. Floramon continued. “Don't forget about us! We all want to come with you to your world! I'd be completely lost without you, Saki!”
Syakomon stretched her membrane in agreement. “And I don't even want to think about not having you in my life, Miu.”
Agumon nodded. “And I still have a promise to keep to Takuma. We're all going back together.”
Miu's heart healed a bit, hearing everyone so unified. She didn't feel better, exactly. Losing her brother and so many friends left a scar that might never heal, but in that moment, Miu felt similarly to the first time Kaito said he believed her about the stalker. Not an end of pain, but a sense of comfort in knowing that the pain wasn't the end of everything, that things could be okay, someday. The hope would suffice in the absence of comfort.
When the group returned to sleep, they all rested just a little more easily.
Piedmon stumbled through the woods. He had no idea why he was going on at this point. He'd lost too much blood and was barely keeping himself together. His death was only a matter of time. And no sign of The Master besides this disgusting fog. That self-important human was right. I'm disposable.
Piedmon walked facefirst into a wall. He groaned. “This blasted fog!”
Looking up, he saw that the wall he wandered into was part of a large wooden building. Perhaps I can find a comfortable place to lie down and die. Halfway around the perimeter, he found an entrance, and he stepped inside. The building was in such a dreadful state of disrepair, this could only be the dwelling of primitive humans.
I'll bet that brat's friends are here. Maybe I can give them a taste of revenge, courtesy of--. Piedmon stepped on a loose piece of wood and tripped onto his side, causing shockwaves of pain throughout his body and a coughing fit.
"Eugh..." Not likely, in my current state. I'd have to trick one of them into healing me or giving me their power.
As Piedmon got up and continued through the school, he began to realize there was actually nobody here. He stumbled into a large open room with a stage in the back. Some sort of place for humans to do rituals? There was another door near the stage. Piedmon opened it to find a room too small to even enter, filled with empty shelves.
I'll never understand these creatures.
Piedmon collapsed to the floor and felt the world go dark. He closed his eyes and readied himself to be resigned to the void.
Suddenly, he awoke, feeling as good as new. Looking around, it was clear that he was not where he had been. Nothing seemed to occupy the vast room except for a small red light. The clown spoke to the light. “Who are you?”
“Who am I? You dare speak to me so disrespectfully?” The voice from the light was booming, somehow filling this endless void of darkness to bursting with its presence. “I am the great Zhuqiaomon of the Four Sovereigns! Why don't you tell me why you reek with the stench of Haruchika?”
Piedmon had no idea what this being was talking about, but he could glean from context that Haruchika was surely another name for The Master. “I worked with him once, but I was betrayed and thrown aside like so much trash! I have no allegiance to him any longer.”
“Betrayed by Haruchika! Ha! This is a familiar story to me! My brothers and I were the original victims of his deceit. I have laid dormant in this chamber for a millennium, trapped by the power of that human's duplicity!”
'Human'? Piedmon was shocked to hear the truth of his former Master's identity. Everything I have done has been the machinations of a human. Is it possible? Did The Master fool me so thoroughly I did not even realize I was working toward the destruction of all Kemonogami!? “I see. So the humans who I fought were all on the same side. This entire time, they've had me trapped in a rat maze.”
“More humans in this world!?” The red light seemed to shake the very fabric of reality with its hate. “Tell me, creature, would you like revenge on these humans and their lies? I cannot leave this wretched place, but I can give you power, make you my eyes and ears so that you may use my talons to crush those dark interlopers!”
As much he didn't like the idea of serving yet another master, the prospect of squeezing the life out of those damned children filled Piedmon with a certain pleasure. Besides, this Sovereign didn't seem like the kind of being to take 'no' for an answer.
“I accept your offer, Zhuqiaomon. Give me the power to destroy those humans.”
Saki was filled with a modest sadness as she ate breakfast alongside the others. Room-temperature canned soup. It was impossible not to think about the obvious: Aoi would have made something better, even without access to a proper kitchen. Exchanging a glance, Saki could tell Miu was thinking the same thing.
“So,” Agumon started, “what's our plan at this point? All that talk about returning home last night was good, but how are we going to do it?”
Syakomon concurred. “If we need Miyuki to open the portal, and The Master has Miyuki, then there's really only one option, isn't there?”
“Yeah,” Saki replied. “I think we just have to take our chances with the least bad option. We have to fight The Master.”
Floramon nodded. “I like our chances. Every time something goes wrong, it's because we let someone go off on their own. I'll look after Saki, and Saki will look after everyone.”
Saki blushed at the amount of confidence Floramon had in her. “Hey, it's not like I'm the leader or anything! We're all going to look after each other!”
Miu smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
Agumon felt energized by the the attitude in the room. After all the division and doubt, it finally felt like everyone was on the same page. “Thank you, guys.” As he was about to declare that it was decided, Agumon realized something. “Uh, one problem. How do we find The Master's lair?”
Everyone's mood turned a bit sour at the realization that despite their resolve, they really didn't have any leads.
It was Floramon who offered a suggestion. “The Master still has subordinates, right? Besides the Kenzoku? Maybe we can get one of them to talk.” She raised a tendril and waved it back and forth in a pantomime of how Kaito shook his fist when he suggested something similar with Arukenimon. Saki smiled at the cute sight and stopped just short verbalizing the 'aww' that was screaming in her heart.
Miu pondered the idea. “We tried that with Arukenimon and it didn't work at all. She said she'd rather die than help us, and then she literally did.”
“Arukenimon was a true believer, to be fair,” Syakomon offered. “There were more low-level grunts working with her. If we found, like, Kabuterimon, what are the odds they wouldn't talk?”
“Good thinking, Syakomon!” Miu was beaming with pride in her partner.
Agumon stood up from his breakfast. “All right! Let's get ready to go and--”
Agumon sat back down. “How do we find a low-level grunt working for The Master?”
“Well,” Floramon replied, “I can think of a pretty simple way. We walk into the woods, and whenever we sense danger, we turn toward it instead of away. Think about how many little detours we take all the time to make sure the coast is clear. It shouldn't be hard to just not do that.”
Saki smiled. It was a sound plan. Looking at Miu made her feel a little ashamed of how jazzed she was about the idea.
Miu idly poked at her soup. “That could work, but what happens if we find someone really dangerous, like Rena--” The stop in her throat felt almost physical. She spoke more quietly. “--like Renamon?”
Saki wasn't sure what to say. “Miu... I...” I hate that Renamon so much! If we come across anyone like that, I'll do the same thing I did to her! “That won't happen! We're going to watch each other's backs! Friends to the end, right?”
Miu was startled by the outburst. “Y-- yeah! Friends to the end!” She liked the sound of that a lot, actually. Looking around, she saw nothing but friends. Syakomon, who kept her safe. Saki, who treated her like she was a real person. Floramon, who protected everyone from Renamon. And Agumon, who always had something insightful to say. “If we work together, we'll get through this!”
Agumon stood up once more. “All right, it's decided! After breakfast, it's into the forest!”
“Actually...” Miu spoke softly, looking a bit embarrassed over deflating Agumon yet again.
“Hmm, what is it, Miu?” Saki asked.
Miu looked up with a coy smile. “Can I get you all to help me with something?”
Everyone followed Miu to the location of her late-night field trip, the Ferris wheel control panel. “I was hoping you guys would help me figure this out. I never got to go on any of the rides, and I'd really like to take a trip around the Ferris wheel at least once before we leave!”
Syakomon frowned. “Are you sure this is safe, Miu? The Ferris wheel is really old.”
Saki waved a hand dismissively. “I'm sure it'll be fine if we can get it working. These controls are all rusted, but the Ferris wheel itself looks like it's in really good condition. Let's just see if it turns on.”
Syakomon wasn't exactly convinced, but the pleading face on Miu's face made her bite her tongue. “Let's just give it a try, I guess.”
After a bit of fiddling, the group confirmed that the controls worked fine, despite the appearance of the panel. With a bit of trial and error, they seemed to have a decent grasp of which buttons made it start, slow down, speed up, and stop. Miu offered to draw straws to see who would go first and who would keep an eye on the controls, but Agumon volunteered to man the panel.
“You guys should all ride with your partners. Takuma and I will go to an amusement park in the human world when I get back.”
Everyone thanked Agumon and boarded the pod. Saki gave a thumbs up to Agumon, and away they went.
“Wow, I can see the whole park from up here!” Miu's face was pressed against the glass window. “I think I can even see the other islands! Oh, Syakomon, look, over there by the radio tower! That's where we met, remember?”
Syakomon stretched to see out the same window as Miu. “It looks so small from up here. That's totally cool!”
“Hey Saki, check it out!” Miu turned to see her friend looking a bit pale. “Saki?”
Saki was breathing slowly. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
“Are you okay?”
Saki made eye contact with Miu and nodded. “Just a little lightheaded. I'm fine, really.” Saki smiled. “The doctors always told me I shouldn't go on theme park rides, but I thought a slow one like this would be okay. I don't know if it's the air pressure this high up or what, but it's getting to me a little.”
“That doesn't sound fine...” Miu was starting to feel guilty for pressuring Saki to come up here.
“Miu, listen to me. I'm being honest with you, okay? If this was serious, I'd say so.”
Miu nodded but wasn't fully convinced. I hate it when people don't believe me, though. I should leave it alone if Saki wants it left alone.
“This was a great idea, Miu. It's a lovely view.” Saki continued breathing carefully as she turned to admire the shoreline. “So much has happened here, but you can't deny how beautiful this world is.”
“I'm more excited to see what your world is like, Saki,” Floramon said.
“Don't worry, Floramon. I'll give you the whole grand tour.”
“I'd like that.”
Miu chimed in. “And I'm gonna do the same for you, Syakomon!”
Syakomon smiled. “I look forward to it!”
When the ride was over, Miu jumped out of the pod first and helped Saki get out safely.
Agumon emerged from the enclosure that housed the control panel. “How was it?”
“It was really fun!” Miu replied. “You sure you don't want to take a ride?”
Agumon shook his head. “Nah, I don't think it would very fun without Takuma.”
“All right. In that case, I think we're all ready to go!”
With murmurs of agreement, the five children went into the woods looking for trouble.
“Aha! I've found you! The Master will be so pleased when I bring him more sacrifices! Surrender now, or face my wrath!”
Saki and Miu exchanged a exasperated look. It can't be this easy, can it?
The tiny Kemonogami in front of them is one they both recognized, Kiwimon. A small brown bird-looking thing with a white mask.
“Listen,” Saki started, “we've taken on all of The Master's strongest guys. Arukenimon, Monzaemon, Fangmon. You name 'em, we whooped 'em. We know you were just one of Piedmon's guys. Probably didn't get any respect, right? The Master doesn't care about you. So why don't you just answer some questions, and we can be on our way?”
“I see you have chosen death!” Kiwimon rushed at Saki. She didn't even flinch. Blossomon intercepted the attack and knocked Kiwimon onto their back. “I surrender! Spare my life and I will tell you anything!"
A short burst of laughter erupted from Miu's lungs without thinking. Mermaimon didn't even have to get involved. “Uh, seriously? That's all it takes?”
Kiwimon stood up and turned to the group with a dejected look on their face. “Yeah... Honestly, I don't even know why I bothered. The Master hasn't communicated with any of us in a while. Once he got his maiden, it doesn't seem like he needs any of us anymore...”
Mermaimon was surprised, but she wasn't about to complain. “Almost makes you feel sorry for them.”
“Yeah, almost...” Agumon agreed.
Miu took a step forward. “All we wanna know is where The Master's lair is. If you can tell us that, you're free to go. No harm, no foul.”
Kiwimon looked around left and right in a panic.
“Hey!” Blossomon yelled, taking a few steps forward. “Don't even think about running away!”
Kiwimon sighed. “I'm sorry! Please don't kill me! I don't know! Mooks like me don't ever go there! You'd have to find one of the big-shots like Puppetmon or Piedmon!”
“Can you tell us where to find one of them?” Agumon asked.
Kiwimon lit up. “Yeah, yeah! I can do that! If you guys follow me, I can take you to Puppet--”
Before anyone could react, Kiwimon's head was rolling on the ground a meter away from their body. A sword with a spade on the bottom of the hilt pierced the ground.
“Sorry about that. It's just that I heard my name, and I absolutely hate when people talk about me behind my back.” The source of the voice jumped from a treetop and landed in front of Kiwimon's head. Agumon couldn't believe his eyes. The same figure he'd fought twice before, but something was different now. He could sense a powerful darkness within the clown, and his clothes were all black and white. “Though really, I prefer to go by ChaosPiedmon now.”
“Wh-- why would you do that!?” Miu gasped. “You two were on the same side, weren't you?”
“Don't patronize me!” ChaosPiedmon yelled. “I heard you all conspiring to hunt down Puppetmon! I see now that there are more traitors working with the humans than I realized!” He reached behind his back with both hands and pulled out two more swords. “Well, I'm sick of it! I see how the real problem has always been that we let you humans into this world at all! Now take this! Trump Sword!” Swinging broadly, the swords went flying toward Miu and Saki.
“Spiral Flower!” Blossomon's attack intercepted the two swords mid-air, knocking them away.
“Thanks, Blossomon!” Saki cried out. She turned to Miu and Mermaimon. “Come on, let's do this!”
Miu's eyes were transfixed on Kiwimon's body. They were speaking to them mere seconds ago, and now it was fading into flecks of light. It never stops. Her brother's words echoed in her mind like a siren. We haven't had a single thing go right this entire time. Maybe he'd been right about everything, even back then. Don't call it a 'Kemonorium'. Just stay away from that shrine, Miu. The village believes in retribution.
“Miu!” Mermaimon's voice snapped Miu out of her trance. Miu looked up to see her evolved partner locking blades with ChaosPiedmon, her anchor blocked with a one-handed sword. “He's so powerful!”
This is no time to be thinking about that stuff, Miu thought. “Come on, Mermaimon! You can do it!”
Blossomon flanked ChaosPiedmon, lunging at his left while Mermaimon kept his attention to the right. She whipped a vine with all her strength, aiming for the head. Without looking, ChaosPiedmon snatched the attack with his spare hand.
“You can't honestly believe it would be that easy, can you?” ChaosPiedmon laughed at Blossomon's attempts to get free of his grip. “This is what happens to human-loving degenerates like you!” With a kick, Mermaimon went flying backwards into a tree.
“Mermaimon!” Miu cried out in fear and began running toward her partner who was crumpled on the ground.
ChaosPiedmon twisted his body and pulled Blossomon by the vine, chucking her toward Mermaimon. The sound of the crash was deafening. The shockwave of the impact sent a dust cloud that engulfed Miu.
Saki fell to her knees. How did it all go so wrong so fast? They were working together, and it wasn't enough.
ChaosPiedmon walked into the dust cloud with a ball of dark energy in his hand. “This is the power I was able to achieve by working with a fellow Kemonogami. You weaklings chose incorrectly when you decided to betray your own kind. And now you have to pay the price. So sad.”
He approached the collapsed tree. As the dust settled, he could see that his victims had reverted to their base forms. The vegetable shook with pain, while the clam seemed to be completely still in its closed shell. ChaosPiedmon laughed. “That's the problem with relying on humans. Even when you manage to squeeze some strength out of that perverse bond, it's always temporary. Now...” The dark energy in his hand began to grow. “It's time to die!”
ChaosPiedmon raised his hand. “Mask's Squ-- AHHHHH!” A sharp pain shot through his neck. Floramon raised her head to see what was happening. Agumon had jumped onto ChaosPiedmon's back and bitten into the nook of his neck!
“Get off me, you traitor! Let go!” ChaosPiedmon reached back and pulled as hard as he could, but Agumon's teeth were latched in like meathooks. ChaosPiedmon could feel his own flesh and muscles tear with each pull. “Why are you doing this!? Why do you and that goggle-wearing freak show up every time to ruin my plans!?”
Saki ran through the dust to see what was happening. Her lungs were on fire from breathing in the debris, yet she couldn't help but gasp at what she saw. Floramon struggled to her feet. She was too weak to evolve, but she still had some fight left in her. “Pollen Rain!” Floramon shot a puff of toxic spores into ChaosPiedmon's face. Saki lifted the collar of her dress to her face, trying not to breath anything in.
ChaosPiedmon was flailing around, trying shake Agumon off his back and wave the spores out of his face. Agumon's jaw was clamped on for dear life. His body was knocked this way and that, but his bite did not falter. I'm not letting go. I can't let go. I'm never letting go again! His mouth was filled with the taste of blood.
Nobody noticed Floramon lassoing one of ChaosPiedmon's legs with an extended tendril. He tripped, falling backwards onto Agumon. The impact forced the bite all the way shut. Agumon's sharpened teeth tore away a chunk of shoulder and torso the size of his rather large mouth. The screech from ChaosPiedmon made Saki's ears ring. Her vision doubled as she lost her balance.
Agumon crawled out from under ChaosPiedmon's writhing body. His jaw was far too tired to open wide enough to expel the wet flesh that filled his mouth. Instead, he let it slowly fall out, chunk by chunk, each one hitting the ground with a sickening slap.
Slap.
Slap.
Slap.
“Syakomon, no...”
Miu's voice was the first distinct sound Saki heard as her hearing began to return. “Please, no. I can't do this without you. I need you. Anything but this, please...” Syakomon's membrane looked almost like a green puddle resting at the bottom of her shell. It was awful seeing her like this. And then, she began glowing that awful glow that they had come to understand meant only one thing.
Death.
Syakomon's voice was soft and hoarse. “Miu, please don't blame yourself. No matter what happens, you have to go on. I want you to go on. You're so kind...”
Miu was ugly crying. “Syakomon, I can't take this. Please stay with me! You're like a sister to me! I've already lost one sibling! I can't lose you too!”
The sound of Miu's pleading was overpowered by ChaosPiedmon's villainous laughter. “Hahaha! How beautiful to watch a hated enemy die! And to get to hear the sound of their friends' voices when they see their death! I accept my fate. I didn't lose, not really.”
“Why does this keep happening...?” Miu's tears began falling onto Syakomon.
“Why, she asks!” ChaosPiedmon sounded legitimately offended by the question. “Because you miserable humans came to this world! You offer nothing but suffering to us! If you had just stayed home, none of this would have come to pass! How stupid can you be not to understand that!?”
Saki wanted to object, but the debris and the toxins in the air left her too short of breath to force anything out but a cough.
Syakomon began to speak, but the words in her heart never made the way to her mouth. The golden light of death surrounded Miu.
“So this is retribution...” Miu whispered. “This really is all my fault. Everything is all my fault. From the moment I made that stupid wish, everything has been God's punishment. But why do my friends have to suffer for my sins? Am I supposed to be alone? Is that the lesson I need to learn?”
“Miu...” Saki's voice didn't reach farther than her lips.
“I'm done.” Miu stood up. Looking down at the ground Syakomon occupied moments before, Miu couldn't help but notice how much blood was on her shirt. Poyomon, Labramon, and now Syakomon. The blood on her hands? Everyone she cared about. Kaito, Jijimon, the campers. She looked over and saw Saki coughing and wheezing. She could be next.
“I'm done pretending. What's the point, right? It only makes it hurt worse when it all blows up. I hope you get home all right, guys. I...” Miu suddenly couldn't talk. Her throat wouldn't let her. She sniffled. “Please don't follow me. Just go home.”
And with that, Miu turned and ran into the woods.
“Miu, no!” Agumon had finished spitting out the last bits of flesh. “We're supposed to stay together!” He started to chase after her. As he passed Floramon and Saki, he called out to them. “You two stay here! Don't let Piedmon out of your sight!”
Saki was filled with a disturbed sense that she would never see either of them ever again.
Slap.
“I just want to go home. I don't care about anything else.” Saki's heart burned with frustration as she choked out the words. “I don't care who hates me or wants to be my friend. I don't care if I'm supposed to save the world or if I'm the reason it needs saving. I'm just so tired of relying on others.”
Floramon began to crackle with dark energy. “Is that really how you feel, Saki? Because you know, I wasn't kidding about what I said way back when. If you go off on your own, I'm with you. You're the only one I care about.”
Saki felt something break inside. She knew it was the wrong thing to say, but she was well and truly over it. “Yes, Floramon. I just want to go home.”
Black thunder rained from the sky and crashed down upon Floramon. A wave of wind coming from her body blew away all the dirt and dust. For what felt like the first time in forever, Saki could breathe. A low voice bellowed from the dark aura surrounding her only real friend.
“Floramon, warp evolve to!” The dark aura ballooned in size a dozenfold, more. As the aura dissipated, it left a monster in its wake. All the same colors as Floramon, but twisted into a hideous new shape, and bigger than any Kemonogami Saki had seen. Three feral heads peaked out of a tangle of thorned vines, with a fourth mouth lower, an emergent gullet hiding in the web of green spikes. It leaked a fluid that seemed to corrode the ground it dribbled onto.
“Hydramon!”
