The rainbow-colored energy cannon dissipated. A vast stretch of seawater in the Dark Ocean had been vaporized by the Infinite Dimension Energy Cannon, revealing the deep seafloor and a crater at least a hundred meters deep where the blast had struck. The surrounding water roared in to fill the emptiness like a sudden tsunami. And the Dark Dagomon that had been there had already vanished without a trace.
"It's finally over…" Kari murmured. Her body seemed to lose all strength at once, and she sank to the ground. Up in the sky, Ophanimon glowed, turning into a streaking meteor that flew down to Kari's feet, then de-Digivolved into Gatomon. The moment Gatomon's form finished reconstituting, she collapsed onto Kari. Kari hurriedly held her close, gently stroking her silky fur with aching tenderness. "Thank you, Gatomon."
Tai and WarGreymon exchanged a look, then both flew toward where the others were. After landing, WarGreymon de-Digivolved into Agumon. Agumon could still stand on his own, but his face looked awful—exhaustion written all over him.
"It's all over, Kari. You're safe now." Tai smiled as he patted Kari's head.
"Thank you, Tai." Kari smiled back.
"Alright, everyone, we need to get home quickly. It's already really late." Tai spoke to the group.
The walk home was silent. Everyone had something on their mind—thoughts only they understood. The atmosphere was heavy. In the quiet of the dark forest, they could hear nothing but footsteps and breathing.
They returned to the place they'd set out from—the edge of the dark forest. A veil of translucent fog shrouded the area, hiding everything beyond.
Tai extended his hand. The Holy Ring on his right wrist gave off a faint glow that shone into the fog, carving open a narrow passage. The kids filed out one by one. The passage sealed shut behind them. Davis turned around curiously, but saw nothing unusual—as if the place they'd just passed through had never existed at all.
"Alright, hurry home. It's late. Whatever it is, we'll talk tomorrow." Tai said, seeing their grave faces, their worries practically written on them. Outside, the sky had already grown dim—the sun was about to set.
Still silent, the kids hugged their Digimon, said their goodbyes to each other, and split up to head home.
Kari waved as everyone separated. When her hand lowered, she turned back to Tai. "Tai… it feels like everyone's thinking about something else."
Tai smiled, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Don't think too much, Kari. It's late—if we don't get home soon, Mom and Dad will worry." He deliberately changed the subject.
Kari lowered her head. "Tai… am I really that useless? I even got taken by the darkness. Today… it was all because of me—"
Tai cut her off. "Kari, remember this: leave those things to me. Don't carry it all by yourself. I told you before—if anything happens, tell me. Don't shoulder it alone, okay?"
"I get it… and thank you." Kari looked up and smiled.
"Let's go home."
"Yeah."
With a flash of light, the kids emerged from the computer screen. Izzy closed the laptop in his hands. "You're back."
"Yeah! Today we reclaimed another area!" Davis said, brimming with excitement. But Yolei and Cody looked like they couldn't muster any energy.
Since they couldn't use the computer lab today, they'd had to bring a laptop to a secluded park to enter the Digital World.
"Yolei, Cody—what's wrong?" Izzy asked, seeing the gloom on their faces.
"Yeah, you've both been like this since yesterday." Davis scratched his head.
"It's nothing." Cody turned his head away and answered flatly.
"What happened yesterday?" Izzy asked, puzzled.
"Yesterday, Kari got captured into the Dark Ocean. Tai took us there. Kari's Gatomon Digivolved into Mega—Ophanimon—and together with Tai and WarGreymon and MagnaAngemon, they dealt with the Dark Dagomon there." T.K. gave a brief explanation.
"I don't think we're useful at all," Cody said, head lowered in frustration. "In yesterday's fight, all we could do was stand off to the side and watch. I feel like the Digital World doesn't need us. Just WarGreymon is enough to beat the Digimon Emperor."
"Yeah," Yolei said just as dejectedly. "We're way too weak right now—we can't help with anything. So maybe the DigiDestined shouldn't include us… maybe only you guys are needed to save the Digital World."
"How can you say that?" Davis started, then hesitated, and his shoulders slumped. "But… what they said is true. We really couldn't help…."
Tai walked over. After hearing Yolei and Cody, he said, "No one starts out strong. When we first began our adventure, we were just as weak. A single Adult-level Kuwagamon chased the seven of us until we were running all over the place. A single Adult-level Devimon beat us so badly we couldn't even fight back. But we didn't give up. We kept going, kept working, and we defeated one powerful enemy after another—Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, Apocalymon. Back then, they felt impossibly strong… but one by one, they still fell before us. What we relied on was the spirit of never giving up, and the courage to step forward. So are you really going to quit being part of the DigiDestined?"
Listening to Tai, Cody, Yolei, and Davis slowly hardened their expressions, a new resolve settling in.
Davis asked in amazement, "You really beat that many enemies?"
"Yeah," T.K. said firmly. "One after another, they appeared in front of us. Honestly, sometimes it really felt like we couldn't win—but we still had the courage to challenge them. In the end, everyone came together and overcame enemies that should've been unbeatable."
"Can you tell us your adventure story?" Yolei clenched her fists, looking at them with eager hope. "Last time Tai only gave us a quick summary."
"Sure," Kari said with a smile. "Tomorrow, we can all sit down and talk properly."
"Why tomorrow?" Davis asked, confused.
"Because tomorrow we have a get-together," T.K. answered.
"We? Who do you mean by 'we'?" Davis pressed.
"The eight of us who were DigiDestined back then," Tai replied as he walked over.
"Three years ago—August 1st—back in the summer of 1999, we were chosen and went to the Digital World," T.K. said, reminiscing.
Kari added, "I was sick at the time, so I didn't go with them. That's why every year on August 1st, we all get together."
"Do you want to come too?" Izzy invited.
"We can go as well?" Yolei asked, delighted.
"Of course," Tai said as if it were obvious. "You're DigiDestined too now. Naturally, you can join."
That night at the TV station, two staff members were editing the footage they'd shot during the day, preparing for tomorrow's broadcast. Since it was late, they chatted while working to pass the time.
"Hey, Chioka—did this show's footage go through an exorcism ceremony?"
"No," Chioka said nonchalantly. "Do we need that?"
"Because paranormal shows like this—don't weird things happen all the time?"
"Weird things?"
"Like ghost shadows showing up in the video and all that."
"How could a show like this have ghosts?" Chioka laughed carelessly. But the instant he finished speaking, a black shadow drifted across the screen. The eerie sight scared him so badly that the cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth dropped straight down.
A faint, indistinct shadow appeared in the upper-right corner of the screen.
They worked up the nerve to rewind and replay the footage… only to stare in shock as the shadow changed position again. Neither of them could make sense of it.
"How is this so weird? If the camcorder captured it back then, then when we rewind and replay, it should be exactly the same. Why is it like this now?"
"This is my first job…" Chioka said, face twisted in despair.
And the strange phenomenon wasn't limited to that one tape anymore. Across the entire Fuji Television building, every channel showed eerie black shadows. Most bizarre of all, the shadows appeared only inside the Fuji Television building—when those programs were broadcast, the images received by viewers were completely normal.
"This station has to be cursed."
"Stop talking nonsense. This building was just built."
"It's not just this building—the whole area was only built not long ago."
"Yeah. Three years ago, a gigantic creature appeared here, destroyed the entire area, and then vanished."
"I was watching from not far away. And it wasn't just that creature—there was also this guy, shining gold all over."
"Not one—two."
"Not two—there were several. And there was a big bird and an angel, too."
"…."
Their discussion grew more and more animated, and they ended up pushing the shadow to the back of their minds.
"Hey, T.K.! Kari!" Tai's voice called out from far away.
The five kids looked up and saw Tai and the other six standing on a raised platform nearby. Tai was waving his arm at them.
"It's Tai and the others!" Davis shouted excitedly.
"Mimi!"
"Hi!"
Two generations of DigiDestined greeted each other, walking together toward the place they'd agreed to meet. Along the way, everyone talked at once, laughter ringing out down the whole path—like the battles that had weighed on them for so long had finally, for a little while, lifted away.
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