Yang-Yin
Chapter Thirty-two: “And Now For Something Completely Different”

There was a time once when breakfast meant warm hearts and full stomachs. It was the controlled chaos of laughter and talking in a warm environment, no matter where they were. There were good feelings all around. It was an important start of the day, putting the heart back into the team even after the worst things they’d ever faced.

That heart seemed to be gone now. Now, everyone sat around the table in the kitchen, alternatively eating and watching Koichi and Chiaki ignore each other. Their moves were carefully choreographed; no crumb of food was dropped, no drop of tea spilled. Koichi had even avoided complaining about drinking tea and just sipped at it occasionally to give him something to do. Neither spoke. A question had to be yes-no for either to answer, otherwise they ignored it just like they did each other. Finally, they got up at the same time and went off in different directions.

Seeing the exasperated look on Teruo’s face, Teppei said, “I hate it when Mommy and Daddy fight.” Teruo snorted and nodded in agreement.

“I wish they’d just get over it already,” he added.

“We’re dealing with two of the most stubborn people in the Digital World,” Bokomon reminded him. “It won’t be easy for either of them to swallow their pride.”

“You know, I’d actually prefer it if they were arguing,” Katsuharu said. “The silent treatment is a pain in the ass, and they take it out on us too.”

Koichi was heading out when a messenger knocked on the door with a loud clank of metal on wood. He let in the Ryudamon before walking out the door himself. Everyone still in the kitchen was either finishing breakfast or washing dishes when Ryudamon brought his forelegs up onto the table and dropped off the letter. Looking over at Teppei, he said, “Official request from the Daimyo.”

Teppei opened the envelope and scanned over the letter’s contents with surprise. “Wait a second, he wants me?”

“For what?” Katsuharu asked.

“To train,” Teppei said. “The Daimyo wants to train me.”

“What?” Katsuharu asked in shock, and he and everyone else grabbed the letter and read it over themselves.

“I don’t believe it,” Bokomon declared. “The Daimyo actually wants to train Teppei.”

Teppei frowned. “Thanks for having so much faith in me, guys.”

“It’s not that!” Teruo protested. “It’s just…”

“It’s kind of weird,” Katsuharu admitted. “Why just you? Aren’t we a team?”

Teppei looked at his friends’ disappointed faces and saw what they meant. Teruo had his lack of faith in himself that ate at him the longer he went without his Spirit. Katsuharu, the leader who knew he wasn’t fit for the role, wasn’t acknowledged even though he’d certainly proven himself worthy in battle. It was only him, and he’d only been back for a few days now.

“Yeah,” he agreed, crumpling the letter. “We are.” He tossed it toward Ryudamon. “Tell the Daimyo I said ‘Thanks but no thanks.’”

Ryudamon sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

Before anyone had the chance to question him on that, several smoke bombs exploded as a team of Ninjamon leapt from the ceiling. There was a minor scuffle and then the smoke cleared for everyone to see that Teppei was gone.

And to add insult to injury, Chiaki burst in at just that moment, asking, “I heard fighting, are you guys okay? …Where’s Teppei?”

It took a minute for everyone to recover long enough to sigh. Finally, Katsuharu said, “Let’s just go back to bed and pretend this morning never happened, okay?”

--

Teppei was unceremoniously dropped in the middle of a misty wasteland, and the Ninjamon vanished. As he got up, swearing, a group of Digimon looked on in confusion.

“Pardon me,” said a Penguinmon, “but would you require assistance?”

“He means, ‘Do you need help?’” a Renamon translated automatically.

“Figured that,” Teppei groaned, rubbing his back.

A Biyomon giggled. “It’s not everyday that someone understands him right off the bat.”

As Penguinmon began to flush, a black Gabumon threw in, “Aw, you know she doesn’t mean anything by it.”

“So, since you’re here, I’m guessing you’re looking for the Daimyo,” the last, a Guilmon said.

“Not really,” Teppei answered. “But if it’s the only way to get him to accept that I don’t want to train with him… Anyway, you guys know where I can find him?”

The Digimon gave each other worried looks before Guilmon stepped forward and said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t let you go like that.”

Teppei sighed. “Look, I don’t like hitting kids anymore, but if I have to push my way through you, I will.”

“Who said anything about kids?” Gabumon asked.

There was a flash of light as Fractal Code surrounded Gabumon, Biyomon, Penguinmon, Renamon, and Guilmon. Teppei had to shield his eyes until it faded, revealing a Mammothmon, a Pteramon, a Triceramon, a SaberLeomon, and a Tyrannomon in the kids’ places.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Teppei deadpanned.

“Let’s get him!” Tyrannomon shouted, followed soon by everyone’s battle cries. He started blasting fire, forcing Teppei to roll out of the way.

“Okay then,” he muttered. “It’s evolving time.”

He pulled out his D-tector and quickly evolved to Grumblemon. It was just in time because Mammothmon and Triceramon charged him from either side, forcing him to put his surprising amount of agility to the test, leaping into the air to force them to crash into each other. But as he did, SaberLeomon slammed into him with a Nail Crusher, sending him flying. He hit the ground, his head reeling, and he looked up to see Pteramon circling overhead.

“I don’t suppose you’d be too kind-hearted to hurt me, would you?” he asked.

“No, but maybe I’ll kiss it better after,” she answered with a smirk.

“Huh, sarcastic? Not bad, beautiful,” he replied. “But I’ll have to pass on that one.”

He pulled out his hammer and swung it at her from the ground. Because of the long handle, Pteramon was forced to fly up a little to avoid it, allowing the hammer to smash into the ground, splitting it in half underneath Grumblemon, who smiled and waved as he disappeared into the earth. She fired missiles into the trench, trying to blast it open, but it was no use.

“He’s under there!” she cried as the others got closer. Tyrannomon began blasting fire down into the trench while she continued firing missiles. Inside, Grumblemon was huddled, waiting it out.

“Okay, so long as there’s no green dragon coming, I should be okay,” he muttered. “At least till they combine into some mega-mecha Digimon.” He looked around at his surroundings, glad his Spirit had gotten him used to tight, enclosed spaces. An idea hit him, and he began to tunnel.

Tyrannomon and Pteramon managed to open the trench wider, and Mammothmon blasted some icy wind into it to cool the burning red rock. The five peered through the steam, searching for any sign of Teppei, but there was nothing—not even a pebble out of place.

“Hey, what gives?” Mammothmon asked. “We had him—how’d he get out?”

“Perhaps there was…” Triceramon started.

But before he could finish that thought, Grumblemon interrupted with, “Or maybe he just dug his way out without destroying the rock, then put it back just the way he found it.” Everyone turned to see him standing on a short spire of rock, his hammer over his shoulder. “Seriously, guys, Warrior of Earth, remember?”

“You’re going to need a lot more than that evolution and a few tricks to beat us,” Tyrannomon challenged as they raced forward.

Grumblemon smirked. “Who said anything about beating you?”

Pteramon was the first to reach him, and he leapt up, swinging his hammer like a baseball bat before letting it fly, clipping her wing and forcing her to the ground. Her friends stayed close beside her as she fell, making things a lot easier. The ground was thin, several layers of rock underneath it shifted or destroyed by Grumblemon during his escape. It could barely stand up to five heavy Digimon. The force of the hammer hitting the ground when it fell was the last straw, and the ground split completely, trapping them in a deep and tight canyon. The Digimon were forced to devolve to their Rookie levels just to have room. And once he was sure they weren’t going to escape easily, Teppei devolved and made his way across the firmer ground.

--

Miles away, and completely unaware of the ninja abduction, Koichi was still walking after storming out of the house. At first, his D-tector beeped as his friends tried to get messages to him, but he ignored it until they finally gave up. He wasn’t in the mood to talk, or listen much for that matter. He hadn’t been for a while.

He really wasn’t sure where he was going, but he didn’t care all that much either. It was just an excuse to get away from the house, get away from her. He just kept on walking, stopping only briefly at a garden when he saw that a ShogunGekomon was watching him intently.

“You look like you’ve got woman troubles,” the ShogunGekomon noticed.

He sighed. “You have no idea.”

ShogunGekomon smirked a bit. “Oh, yeah? Try me. I’ve been around a while, heard a lot.”

“You hear the one about the girl who betrayed her friends and two people that she said she loved?” he asked cynically. “She says this just before running through one of the boys. Then it turns out she wasn’t really betraying them—instead she was trying to trick everyone around her. Didn’t trust a single one of them with the truth.”

ShogunGekomon whistled. “Yeah, that’s a tough one. But…” And here, he gave Koichi a piercing stare. “That’s not all the trust issues you have, is it?” Koichi gave him a shocked look before sighing and nodding. “So, where do you want to begin?”

Koichi sighed and sat down. Maybe it was time that he talked, if at least to a neutral observer. “This is going to take a while.” But ShogunGekomon nodded, ready to listen. And finally, the words came out: “I think it started with my family…”

--

Teppei had never loved the compass function of his D-tector more. Even while he was wandering the wastelands of the Continent of Darkness, searching for the truth and trying to understand Chiaki’s betrayal, he had never appreciated the holographic sphere pointing to his heart’s desire more than he did now. After about thirty-seven wrong turns, a near death experience via a cactus that appeared out of nowhere, and a maze of empty warehouses, Teppei was glad he wasn’t navigating on his own.

“Where the hell am I now?”

More or less, anyway.

Sighing, Teppei sat down against a wall, looking at his compass in exhaustion. It kept pointing in the same direction, reminding him momentarily of a puppy eagerly waiting for him to throw the stick for a game of fetch. But he was tired, he was pretty sure he was lost, and he just wanted to get out of here and back to his friends right now—forget the Daimyo.

The compass didn’t change direction, regardless of the change in his desire.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Let’s fetch.”

As he walked through the narrow passageways, he began to hear halting electronic voices that got louder the farther he went. At first, he tried to ignore it, but soon enough he began hearing the hostile intent in their voices and dangerous words: “conquer,” “inferior,” “exterminate”… Most people would keep quiet and continue spying. Teppei evolved to Gigasmon, tipping off the four Mekanorimon with the intense burst of light.

“What was that?” one asked.

“Identify yourself!” another ordered.

The wall came crashing down, and Gigasmon glared at them. “Teppei Yamaguchi, Warrior of Earth. That enough identification for you?”

“It is the fleshbag human that returned to the village,” the third noticed.

Gigasmon raised a brow. “Fleshbag? Pretty funny coming from a walking trash compactor. Who are you guys anyway?”

“We are the Cult of Machinedramon,” said the second, whom Teppei assumed was the leader. “We have been waiting countless ages for the chance to conquer this world, and now with the current crisis, things are finally destabilized enough to put our plan into action!”

Gigasmon stopped, blinked, and deadpanned, “Right. I’m going to beat you up now, okay?”

“You will not succeed in preventing our conquest,” the leader boasted.

“So four lone Mekanorimon aren’t afraid at all of an entire village of warriors?” Gigasmon asked.

“That is correct.”

He grinned. “I like those odds. ‘Cause wouldn’t that mean four lone Mekanorimon should be very afraid of one Legendary Warrior?”

The grin faded as he heard jets closing in all around him, and the next thing he knew, the entire district was flooded with Mekanorimon—in the streets, on the buildings, and hovering in the air.

“We are not ‘lone,’” the leader said.

“Kinda figured that,” Teppei sighed.

There was an explosion as the Mekanorimon fired lasers at Gigasmon, and he jumped up to avoid it, screaming at the top of his lungs while running for his life. The Mekanorimon took chase, and he started gunning it, smashing through buildings as he tried to escape.

Got to change to Ymirmon, he realized. But that meant he’d have to devolve, and then he’d be prime pickings for the Mekanorimon army chasing him.

A Mekanorimon got in front of him, ready to fire. Gigasmon squeezed his eyes shut and crossed his arms in front of himself, plowing through the Mekanorimon and the wall behind it. He’d fully expected to be struck down before he could make it, so the feeling of metal suddenly giving as his body crashed into it and then into a wooden wall was a surprise. He had a moment to pause as he nearly ran into the next building, and he looked back to see a digiegg flying away.

“That…” he started. “That was easy!”

He stared at the Mekanorimon as they began to fire on him—all of their lasers bizarrely missing. A smirk formed on his face as he realized the implications of what just happened.

“Oh, this is good,” he said. “This is really good.”

He leapt into the air with a spin before smashing his foot onto the ground for a Tectonic Slam. The earthquake that issued forth knocked several of the weak buildings to the ground, including the one containing the Mekanorimon. Many were destroyed from the collapse, but those who weren’t had a very smug Teppei to deal with when they flew out of the rubble. He slammed into them mercilessly with his Quagmire Twister, and digieggs went flying everywhere. When all was said and done, he touched down on the rubble of the buildings, slamming a fist into the ground as the digieggs floated off. All that was left were just the four Mekanorimon from before.

“So?” he asked. “Ready for the same?”

Four lasers hit him immediately, sending him flying back about a hundred feet until he crashed into another building, destroying it outright. As he dug himself out of the destruction, he coughed up dust and muttered, “It figures. A hundred? Piece of cake. Four? Now, I’m in for a fight.”

As the Mekanorimon came after him again, he did the only thing he could—he turned and ran, once again screaming at the top of his lungs while desperately dodging their lasers.

Now what do I do? he wondered, panicking. I need to shift evolutions, but these guys aren’t the pushovers the army was! It was time to stop playing around. Granted, he was risking a lot on his defense in order to show off his offense, but he needed to stop these guys before they killed him!

He put some distance between himself and the Cult and managed to locate a sturdy building. He landed as deftly as possible and bent over, pounding into the ground to get a good grip on the foundation. The noise attracted the Mekanorimon, but by that point, he’d managed to lift the building over his head. He threw it as hard as he could, and the Mekanorimon fired upon it to try and reduce the impact. It still landed on them, and Gigasmon leapt onto the roofs of neighboring buildings. Lasers fired again as the Mekanorimon shot their way free from the destroyed building, somewhat dented but still perfectly capable of fighting back. That was when he jumped on top of them, managing to land on the leader, and then he proceeded to ride him like a bucking bronco.

“Cease and desist!” Mekanorimon shouted.

“Not a chance!” he yelled back, pulling up on Mekanorimon’s arms to maneuver it.

A laser shot at him, but a good yank put his steed in the path of the attack. It was a hard impact, and it was tough trying to stay on the head, but somehow or another, Teppei managed it.

“Huh,” he mused. “Wonder how you make the lasers shoot out.” He pulled on the arms again, but that only made Mekanorimon change direction. Finally, he kicked its front, and a red beam shot out. “That’s more like it!”

The strategy, insane as it was, did work incredibly well. As long as he was riding on Mekanorimon’s head, Gigasmon was able to outmaneuver most of the lasers, and it provided a wonderful shield for attacks he couldn’t dodge. However, Teppei also made a horrible cowboy, and he ended up crashing more times than he escaped. More often than not, the other Mekanorimon were running away from him, trying not to get crashed into. And because Teppei’s aim was off, the lasers often destroyed buildings, making far more damage for them to deal with, and they had to flee from lasers, horrific driving, and collapsing buildings.

It was quite possibly the greatest idea he’d ever come up with.

Finally, Teppei and his Mekanorimon crashed to the ground, and both staggered to their feet. The remaining Mekanorimon came over to aid their leader while Gigasmon swaggered drunkenly, trying to keep track of how many there were.

“Oh hell,” he muttered, deciding to simply go with a Quagmire Twister and be done with it.

He slammed into two of the Mekanorimon before missing the other two and crashing into a wall and bringing the entire building down. He then hit the next building, very low, sending it crashing down on top of the other. The constant earth-shaking that it created caused a domino effect, bringing down several buildings in about a block radius, and bizarrely attracting them to the same spot—right on top of the Cult of Machinedramon. After all was said and done, a devolved Teppei pulled himself out of the wreckage and flopped down on his back on top of the rubble, watching the digieggs fly away as he waited for the world to stop spinning.

“Well, that’s that,” he muttered when the dizziness passed. He got up and started brushing himself off when he heard heavy, clanking footsteps coming his way. The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by an army of Andromon.

“You will identify yourself!” they demanded.

He groaned and reached for his D-tector. “Not again.”

--

After an unsuccessful attempt at pretending nothing weirder than usual had happened, the Warriors gave up and decided to at least try getting on with their day. Telling themselves that eventually Koichi and Teppei would get back, they mostly waited around, ready to make intense interrogations when they did return.

But now, it was dinnertime and uncomfortably quiet at the table. Because of the two seats that were empty, no one felt much like talking, and Chiaki was trying to pretend to ignore Koichi’s absence. But Teppei’s absence was something none of them could ignore…mostly because it was the reason things were so quiet, not even bringing the awkwardness into account.

“Guys, I’m starting to get worried,” Teruo admitted at long last. “They both left hours ago, and we haven’t heard from either of them since.”

“What about the D-tectors?” Neemon asked.

“Tried it,” Katsuharu said, shaking his head. “Nothing but static. Got a signal for Koichi earlier, but he wasn’t answering, and finally it went dead. I think we should start looking for them—everyone go a different way so we cover more ground. Bokomon, think you guys can stay behind in case one of them comes home, then tell them we’re looking for the other?”

“Of course,” he answered. “But be careful! The last thing we need is any more ninja abductions.”

They all looked at the ceiling, expecting more Ninjamon to burst from the rafters. But when nothing happened, they sighed in relief and took off.

--

Teppei left the warehouse district in Ymirmon’s form, as everything exploded behind him. Maybe it had been overkill using Ragnarok on the Andromon, but he was sick of all these battles and the last thing he wanted was another catastrophe like the battle with the last four Mekanorimon.

There was a vast courtyard in front of him, along with a massive gate. And before that gate was an Orochimon. Some unlucky Gladimon was trying to fight it, but it was swiftly beaten and eaten. One of Orochimon’s heads was still swallowing the mane from Gladimon’s helmet when a sighing Ymirmon made his way over.

“I’m going to guess you’re the next superpowerful crazy I’ve got to fight?” he asked. Orochimon remained stoic. “So, what’ll it be? All-out brawl? Mad chase through the courtyard?” Still, there was no answer. “Or a staring contest?”

Teppei frowned. He didn’t like being ignored, but on the off-chance he could just walk by through the gate, he figured he might as well try it…

And that was when Orochimon finally moved, hitting him with one of his heads and sending him flying into a tree, adding a smug, “None shall pass.”

Teppei groaned. “Whatever.”

He ran at the Orochimon, mace ready to strike. A head came at him, and he smashed his mace into it as hard as he could, trying to render it less a problem. To his surprise, however, the head dissolved into data.

“What the hell was that?” he cried.

“What was what?” Orochimon asked.

“That!” Ymirmon answered, pointing at the gap where the head had been. “I just cut your head off!”

“No, you didn’t,” Orochimon insisted.

Ymirmon gave him an incredulous look. “Your freaking head fell off!”

The other heads looked to where the missing one had been before making a gesture equivalent to a shrug. “Just a flesh wound.”

“Just a what?”

“Have at you, then!”

Teppei groaned in disgust and returned to battle. Another head came at him, and he cleanly smashed it off—a contradiction if he’d ever heard one. And Orochimon still kept coming at him, using the same stupid tactics no matter how many times a mace took off one of his heads. Finally, it came down to the inevitable: all eight heads had been destroyed, yet Orochimon was miraculously still alive and insisting he could fight.

“Face it, you’re through!” Ymirmon said.

“No, I’m not,” Orochimon argued, somehow still able to speak.

“You stupid bastard, you’ve got no heads left!” Ymirmon shouted. “What are you going to do, disintegrate on me? You’re too stupid to even die properly!” And just as he said that, Orochimon’s tail slammed into him. With a groan of disgust, he summoned Ragnarok, and the meteors rained down on Orochimon, destroying his tail and trapping the rest of his body underneath burning rocks.

“Oy, oy, get back here!” Orochimon insisted as Teppei began to walk off. He didn’t know what he’d expected in this battle, but certainly not something as pathetic and admittedly disappointing as that.

He went up to the gate and kicked down the door. Just as it hit the ground with a loud crash, there was a flash of light not far in the distance, so he raced toward it, ready to fight once again. He raised his mace with a fierce cry and brought it down…only for it to be held off by a familiar staff in a defensive position.

“Koichi?” he asked. “You’re the next opponent?”

Loewemon just gave him a confused look. “What?”

“Oh, you finally got here,” a ShogunGekomon noticed as the two Warriors backed off and devolved. “Took you long enough.”

“Yeah, well, I had a ton of homicidal maniacs to get through,” Teppei answered. “Did you know you’ve got a ballistic cult on the loose here? Or an insane and utterly useless guard? Or a bunch of monochrome kids who evolve into superheroes and aren’t us?”

“Yep,” ShogunGekomon answered. “Thanks of taking care of them for me, by the way.”

Koichi was watching the whole exchange in complete confusion, and it only got worse when Teppei suddenly turned on him and said, “And you! How did you get to see the Daimyo without going through half the shit I did?”

While Koichi was blinking, ShogunGekomon said, “He came through the front.”

Teppei turned his crazed look on the Daimyo. “The what?”

And it was then that he noticed he was back in the village, though in a more spacious district. His jaw dropped as he looked between the Daimyo’s residence and the courtyard and the massive gate he’d broken down, leading to the destroyed warehouses and desert wasteland he’d just been through. He groaned and gritted his teeth, palming his forehead in absolute disbelief.

“That was it,” he realized. “That was the training, wasn’t it?”

“Yep,” ShogunGekomon said. “You didn’t figure it out sooner, eh?”

“I think part of me did, but I didn’t want to believe you were so incredibly sadistic to put me through all that,” he muttered.

“Just…what’s going on?” Koichi asked at long last.

“Some people need to learn a lesson from a more indirect approach,” ShogunGekomon explained. “Your friend’s a great fighter, but he’s not going to get anywhere if he doesn’t get creative and think through his situations.”

Ignoring the oddly sensible advice, Teppei turned his attention back to Koichi. “So just what were you doing here anyway?”

A look of remorse crossed Koichi’s face as he answered, “I needed to get some things straight.”

Teppei backed off. “Oh. Okay.”

“So did you learn anything?” ShogunGekomon interrupted.

Teppei gave him a flat look. “Yeah. I learned just how annoying we must seem to everyone else when we show up as harmless kids and suddenly morph to something dangerous. I also learned that Mekanorimon rodeos aren’t for me, and that Andromon are highly explosive when you drop meteors on them. I didn’t learn anything from Orochimon.”

“Eh, I threw him in there for laughs,” ShogunGekomon answered.

“Cute,” Teppei answered. “So can we go now?”

ShogunGekomon shrugged. “Might as well.”

“About freaking time,” Teppei muttered, storming off while a still confused Koichi followed after him.

--

Once they were back home and the D-tectors’ communication systems were working again, Teppei and Koichi separated to wait for the others. Teppei went for a shower and then to his room, muttering curses under his breath about the ordeal he’d been put through. Koichi, instead, waited outside.

It wasn’t long until Chiaki arrived, and she was about to ignore him with the cold, careful choreography they usually treated each other with when he said, “Chiaki, can we talk?”

“Fine,” she answered, tonelessly. “What about?”

He noticed how she wasn’t looking at him, so he confessed, “I know lately, I’ve been a jerk…”

“A jerk?” There was a touch of emotion there, but she still wasn’t looking at him. “That’s what you call it?”

“Okay,” he admitted. He deserved that. “I know I’ve been unfair…”

And now, she turned to him, fury on her face. “Try suspicious, unforgiving, insensitive, thick-headed…”

Koichi flinched. “I was going to just leave it at ‘jerk.’”

Chiaki shook her head. “That doesn’t even begin to cover it. I hurt you guys, and it took me a long time to come to terms with that. But every time I tried to redeem myself—in my eyes at least—you shot me down, even though everyone else had forgiven me.”

He nodded and looked down. “I know. And I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “And you know what?” This time, he couldn’t make himself look at her. He didn’t want to see the expression on her face for whatever she was going to say next. “I’m going to forgive you.” But this caught him by surprise, and he looked up to see a pitying expression—a far cry from the hatred and anger he expected and undoubtedly deserved. “I’m going to forgive you because I can’t keep that anger inside me until it turns into hate. I don’t know how you can manage it.”

He offered a sheepish smile. “So, friends? Or whatever we are?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” she replied.

“It’s about time,” a quiet voice interrupted. They looked over to see Teruo climbing down from one of the trees.

“How long were you there?” Chiaki asked.

“Long enough to hear the apologies,” he answered with a small smile. “I’ve got to say, it’s hard when your two best friends are fighting all the time. Or not fighting, the way you were.”

“Sorry,” Koichi said.

“Yeah,” Chiaki agreed.

Teruo smiled wider this time. It still wasn’t his ear-to-ear grin, but it was closer than it had been for a while now. “It’s okay. Just as long as it’s over now.”

There were no more words among them as Teruo followed them inside. But this time, the silence wasn’t as choking.

--

Teppei woke up early thanks to terrible soreness from the battles he’d gone through the day before. Everyone else was still asleep, so he figured he’d bring in the torches this morning.

As he walked outside, he caught a glimpse of Ninjamon in the yard. They saw him too, and they dropped smoke bombs to try and escape. But a light breeze blew the smoke away from them, preventing their escape.

Teppei grinned and evolved to Ymirmon, holding his mace in both hands while looking at the Ninjamon with unholy amusement. “You know, this really is overkill, but it’s just too much fun.”

The title of this chapter comes from Monty Python, as does the battle with the Orochimon. The “Cult of Machinedramon” and the Andromon were a direct rip on the Daleks and the Cybermen from Doctor Who, and the five evolving Digimon in the first battle were the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Yes, there is a black-colored Gabumon, but he has no official dub designation (unlike “ShadowWereGarurumon”), so I relied on Teppei’s observation. The way Teppei beat the Rangers came straight out of Lion King 1 ½. Teppei’s own fighting was an odd hybrid of Sokka from Avatar, the Flash from Justice League, and Kevin Levin from Ben 10: Alien Force. Major thanks to Shaun Garin and Ryan Griffin for help throughout.