Empathy of Nightrianmon : Part One
By Debbie
Author's Note: If you don't know anything about the new girl, Kim,please read 'The New Kid on the Block' to find out. Like the others, Kim has her own crest, which is the Crest of Empathy. It's perfect for her because, like Sora, she is very caring of the others.
The kids were separated after Tai and Agumon leave over to Tai's hometown, and then returned. Matt, Izzy, and T.K. are trying to find her, but somehow, she is not the same. The tale is also based on one character, not all the kids, like when a kid discovers something new about himself/herself from the crest. The story happens after Izzy is found. Read on!
The path is rugged and steep, winding up a small mountain, weaving through high walls of rocks. The path is difficult to climb and is often left behind by digimon who believe it is just too hazardous. But a small group of humans and digimon is climbing the path, acting on confidenceto search for one of their lost companions. Three boys walk in a singleline. The oldest one is at the lead, tossing away a lock of blond fromhis sweating forehead, but his blue eyes are hard with the desire to continue. The littlest boy in the middle of the line follow his brother,his blond hair also drenched with sweat under his green-blue hat. The last boy at the end pants, not used to walk a lot, his thick red hair clouding his eyes, sticking to his forehead. "Ah, I can't believe it," complains Izzy. "If we are going to find Kim that way, our feet will be black and blue with bruises." He may be harsha bout the walking, but he is gentle to his digimon partner. Motimon heavily dozes in Izzy's arms, resting from the hard battle with Vademon.Izzy is very gentle not to wake him.
"I think we will be black and blue all over by the time we find her,"says T.K. He takes off his hat and fans himself with it. He even helps fans his digimon pal, Patamon, who hovers by him. Patamon smiles with relief at the cool breeze. T.K.'s brother, Matt, or his digimon companion, Tsunomon, say nothing, just moving on. The path becomes less rugged and more level. They find that the path abruptly ends at the edge of a jungle tangled with thick vines. It looks like there is no way to enter the thick vines.
T.K. drops down to the ground, leaning on his arms. "I don't wanna go anywhere." Patamon lands on his lap, also tired from flying. Izzy collapses by the boy, panting still. Motimon opens one black eye and yawns. Matt looks back to the young boys and grimaces. They shouldn't stop looking. They should keep searching for Kim. He wants to find her. The very idea of not able to find her is enough to make Matt feel anxious. He hopes she is safe. . .
Looking again to the boys, he sighs and mutters, "Ok, guys. We will take a break." He could hear T.K. and Izzy exhale their breaths with relief. Turning back to them, he begins to wonder if he ever find her. . . As if he can read his mind, Tsunomon says, "I wonder where can we find Kim." Silently, Matt lands his blue eyes on the jungle and strolls to the edge of the jungle, scanning around with serious concern. Tsunomon stands by him, also searching.
"Maybe I can find something in my computer," suggests Izzy as he opens his green backpack that contains his yellow-and-white laptop. Motimon jumps out of the way and watches with sleepy eyes while his human partner types on. By the red-haired boy's side, T.K. watches his brother with a thoughtful, sad gaze.
He misses Kim. He misses her simple, gentle smile that reminds him so much of his mother. He misses the way she speaks, so patient and kind; she never loses her temper with anybody. He alsomisses the protective Iyumon, the strong compassion hiding behind her hard, cautious red eyes. The adventures would be not the same without them. He wonders if Matt ever misses Kim. "Izzy," T.K. turns to him, "do you think we will find Kim?"
"Precisely," answers Izzy, his black eyes glued on the glowing screen,his fingers tapping in a blurred motion.
"How?"
"We will find a way." But Izzy doesn't sound so positive. T.K. watches him typing, curious at what Izzy is searching. Izzy's faceis carved into a focused expression. He mutters quietly to himself, soquietly that T.K. doesn't understand what he is saying, but he assumeshe is a bit aggravated about something. Izzy grunts with frustration. "All the information and still nothing about where is Kim." He rests his chin on one of his yellow-gloved handsas the other taps at the keyboard.
T.K. sighs. He leans back on his hands, his eyes on the sky. He wondersif they could ever find her. Suddenly, a beep comes from the right sideof his backpack. His digivice is beeping! All turns to T.K. in surpriseas he looks at the digivice. A red spot blinks in the tiny screen,blinking along with the repeating beep. "Your digivice found Kim!" Patamon remarks from T.K.'s lap. T.K. stands up so fast that Patamon has to flutters his wings to get out of his way. T.K. runs toward Matt, Tsunomon and the jungle. The digivice beeps louder and frequently as he moves closer to the edge."Kim must be in the jungle!" he says, pointing to the jungle.
"Mm-hmm," Matt murmurs.
"What is it, Matt?" asks Izzy as he arrives, Motimon in his arms. Matt shakes his head.
"Nothing." Inside, he struggles to hold down the sudden joy to see Kim at last.
Motimon catches something in his vision. He points toward it, saying,"Hey, I see a path in the jungle." All follow T.K. down the path, the beeping digivice leading the way. The path is clear of the tangling vines, though some hang low enough to force Matt to duck under. As the digivice beeps louder, T.K. become so excited to find Kim, and he runs faster with ease through the path. Izzy and Matt shout at him to wait, to slow down, but he doesn't listen. Followed by Patamon, T.K. keeps running and almost bursts himself out ofthe vine-tangled path into a river beach. Ahead of him is a wide, quiet river, the sounds of the water humming among rocks wonderful music toT.K.'s ears.
Upstream, he could sees a beautiful-sculptured, white-marbled bridge across the river into another area of the jungle,with no vines. The river passes through the jungle. "Wow, it is so beautiful!" Patamon murmurs in awe as the other kids steps out of the path.
Matt looks upstream and downstream. "Yeah, but where is Kim?" He almost sounds disappointed. Something near the bridge draws T.K.'s eyes. A mass of purple lays near the bridge, moving a little, almost like is sighing sadly.
He squints and gasps. "Oh, look over there!" he points. All follow his pointing finger and sees the mass. All gasp almost in shocked unison. "Iyumon!" Deeply sorrowed, Iyumon lays on her stomach, her horned head resting on her fore paws. Her curled tail rests among her paws. Her usual cautious red eyes are clouded with sadness, staring out in the river. And at hers ide, lay a golden crest and a digivice, as if were tossed away with no care. Iyumon looks up when she hears her name called by familiar voices. She sees the three boys and digimon and a bit of joy stirs in her heart.
"Iyumon, are you all right?" Izzy asks with concern as they arrive toher.
"I'm so glad to see you guys!" Iyumon says with happiness.
"Where is Kim?" Matt asks with gentleness, remembering the pain in the purple lizard-like digimon's eyes. His heart clenches painfully at the thought of Kim being in danger.
Iyumon's red eyes gazes up to Matt's blue eyes and looks away. "Who cares? She is gone forever." The boys and digimon gasp.
"What do you mean, she is gone forever?" Tsunomon says from at Matt's feet.
T.K. gently speaks, "Please tell us what happened." Iyumon turns to the littlest boy and suddenly is warmed by the innocent eyes.
She sighs softly. "Well, we had searched nearly everywhere. We had just loss hope that we might find Tai and you guys. But one night, I eavesdropped Kim talking with a voice."
A flashback . . . A fire roared in the center of the clearing in a forest. Kim rested against a willow tree as her digimon friend, Iyumon slept at her feet,her snout usually hiding in her paws. Kim was almost tranced by the fire, watching the red-orange flames dancing on the sticks. Often she saw, one by one, the hazed faces of her friends, long gone and she was missing them greatly. She still hoped that she will find them.
"Couldn't sleep?" Kim started at the voice. The voice seemed to come from everywhere and she looked around with uneasiness as she stood up.
"Who is there?" her voice quavered.
"Don't be afraid. I am a friend," the voice soothed. Kim suddenly had a strange feeling that she shouldn't trust the voice, but the voice was kind and peaceful.
It continued, "Could you not find your friends? Don't you know the reason why they left you?"
"What?" Kim asked. When the voice didn't answer, Kim walked to the edgeof the circle of the firelight. Her brown eyes searched the darkness behind the light.
"Do you know?" The voice seemed to completely change, sounded dark and bitter. "Don't anybody? They don't care about you."
"Care?" Kim paled, stunned.
The voice hissed, "If they care, why would they leave you?" Then silence.
Kim blinked at the silence and yelled out, "Hello? Hey, where did you go?" She stopped at a thought. Her voice was low, shaking, "Maybe it left because it doesn't care." Her dark-skinned face slowly frowned, a rare frown she barely has on her face. The frown is displeased. Kim was not naive, but the bold words of the voice had a strong effect on her. She heard the yawning of a waking Iyumon.
She doesn't move when Iyumon asked with concern, "Kim, what's the matter?" Kim looked down, her back facing the digimon. Maybe she doesn't care about me, Kim thought and her frown deepened.
Her voice was monotoned as she answered, "Nothing."
"We wandered longer, but one day Kim snapped."
Kim and Iyumon were crawling through a thorn bed. They were blocked by the thorn bed and the only way to get to the other side was by crawling through. Kim forced to crawl on her belly, pushing forward by her arms.The thorns tug on her shirt and black braids, and often she had to duck to avoid the stinging branches. Iyumon crawled behind, pushing forward by her black talons, digging in the soft ground. A thorn scratched on Kim's left cheek, drawing a thin streak of red.Kim groaned and grimaced.
Iyumon saw what happened and said with worried concern, "Be careful, Kim." Kim answered none, crawling on.
Finally, they arrived at the river with the marble bridge. Iyumon shook dirt off her fur and moved on to the bridge. When she noticed she was alone, she looked back at Kim, who stood frozen, her yellow-gloved hand touching the bleeding scratch on her cheek. "Come on, Kim. We just can't stop now," Iyumon said.
Kim gazed down to her hand, the blood drying on the glove. Slowly, the hand shook, clenching into a fist. Her face was pure fury. Her voice boomed with new ferocity. "Ohh! It's hopeless! We had been searching for the others for nearly two months, and they are gone! There is no way we will find them!"
Iyumon gasped softly, but shook her head in confidence. "Kim, we will find them -"
"No, Iyumon!" Kim cut her off.
"We will never find them! It's hopeless.I don't understand why should I search for them?' Her brown eyes unusually hard with hatred, Kim stared at the slowly flowing river. "I don't care about them anymore. If we can't stay together, why should Isearch for them?"
"They are your friends!" Iyumon said, beginning to worry about what had happened to the gentle Kim.
"No, they aren't if they leave us. I don't care what would happen tothem. I don't care! And you!" Kim turned to her digimon with fury. She stomped nearer as her voice strained with scorn. "If you still want to find them, be my guest. You don't need me. I don't need you." She said the last right in Iyumon's face. Iyumon cowered, her red eyes misting over. With two yanks, Kim pulled off the string around her neck that held the small golden crest, and jerked the digivice from her greenbelt. "Take the crest and digivice if you care. I have no care about them." She threw them at Iyumon's feet. Kim turned on her feet and ran across the bridge, disappearing in theopposite side of the jungle. Iyumon stood in stunned silence, two tears running down her face. Her eyes never left the spot where Kim vanished in, the tears landing on the red tag of the dull-shined crest. . .
Matt kneels and gently picks the crest and digivice. He could see two dry spots on the crest where the tears landed on. He shakes his head in disbelief at Iyumon's tale. It is not like Kim. He knows she will never hate anybody. It must be the voice. "I will bet that the voice Kim was talking to is Demidevimon." He scowls at the thought of the sly batty digimon.
"It was exactly like when I got angry with Tokomon," says T.K., looking at Patamon. He remembers when Demidevimon had a dark plan to make T.K.and Tokomon mad at each other for no reason in particular. T.K. would hate to see his friend hate each other. Turning to his brother, T.K.says, "We must find her, Matt!"
Izzy stands by Matt's other side, looking down to the crest. "I am afraid that the crest would be worthless to Kim if she stops caring. But T.K. is right. We must find her."
Matt nods in agreement. "All right. Lead the way, Iyumon." The boys follow Iyumon across the bridge and enters the jungle. Whatthey didn't know is that two yellow eyes, sly and dark, watch everymove.
Meanwhile . . . Kim brushes back a low branch as she ducks under a tree. Her blackbraids have few leaves entwined together. She has several scratches onher arms from the clawing branches. Her red tank top and dark blue jeans are streaked with dirt and so is her face. But she didn't care. She doesn't care about anything. Her mind is empty; she doesn't even wonder about any of her friends, or Iyumon. Her face is scowling so long that it would be permanent on her face.
"Hello, dear." Kim doesn't stop weaving through the jungle when she hears the hissing voice. She had heard that voice before - at the campfire when it showed her the realization that her so-called friends never care about her.
She mumbles bitterly, "Ah, it's you again. Leave me alone." She could hear a rustling above her, but she moves on.
The voice comes out almost sad. "Is that the way you treat your friend?" At the word friend, Kim stops, resting against a trunk. She pushes awaya branch and tries to see what is the creature above that the voice belongs to. "Friend?"
The voice is closer, like it is whispering in her ear. "It appears that I am you only friend. Your ex-friends left you, but I didn't leave you." Kim scoffs and ducks under the branch, moving on. "I have no friends. I don't care about you."
Two slanted red eyes watch with pleasure as the girl vanishes in thelow branches. The voice hisses, "It is good she is hating. She is very valuable to me. As long as she hates everybody, she will be useless to the digidestined." He laughs maliciously and the creature slithers down the ground. The creature slinks the opposite way, moves so fast that he is like a green flash. He arrives at a space in the middle of the jungle. A decaying building made of dry mud, tan and black, stands inthe center. The sunlight shines through countless cracks, illuminatingwilting and drying plants inside. The rays don't even light up the snake-like creature, who seems to have the darkness cloaked around him, making a dusky aura. The creature himself is dark except his red eyes. Scales of slimy green and night blue covered his serpentine body as black stripes lining his back. A long mane of dark red runs down his back. Two arms jerk with the thought to grab something, never rested. Serpenmon is my name. Hatred is my game. I go around the world to spread hatred.
"Serpenmon!"
The snake-like digimon hoods his eyes at the annoying voice. A small flying digimon soars in the building, black feathered with two yellow eyes. Serpenmon arches one of his scaly eyebrows and hisses, his tongue rippling out his mouth,
"What's it, squirt?"
Demidevimon flushes red, furious at being called a squirt, but keepshis mouth shut. Serpenmon isn't known for his temper, but is known forthe way he expresses his anger. He would not try to test that. He clears his throat. "How does it go with the girl?" Serpenmon crosses his arms and grins, revealing two rows of yellow-rotted fangs.
"She is doing well. She will be perfect to spread hatred for me. She has a lot of hatred." The last sentence he speaks is rich with savor. Demidevimon wrinkles his nose in disgust at the hideous digimon and flutters his wings to add boldness to his voice.
"Don't you forget our deal."
Serpenmon lowers his eyelids over his eyes farther. His tail coils around him and he lays back casually. "I don't forget. I get the girl and you get the crest. Fair deal." His yellow eyes blazing with delight, Demidevimon nods.
"Very good." He turns away to leave, but holds back on a thought. "Oh, one thing. Three of the girl's friends are coming here to find her." The tongue flickers hungrily.
"Excellent! More kids to spread the hatred!"
"Don't let them get to the girl." Serpenmon's red eyes opens wide so sudden that Demidevimon is almost blinded by the red blaze. Serpenmon's voice is warningly.
"You forget what I do for a living, squirt." Seeing that no discussion is continued and an excuse to escape that bizarre digimon, Demidevimon turns away and flies out the building. He could hear the snaky digimon snickers evilly.
Kim steps around a thick tree and finds herself in a clearing. A glass-dome stands radiantly in the center, its multicolored windows reflecting off every color of light, seeming to glow with its own light. Kim stands for a moment, cherishing the sight.
"Wow, it is beautiful. It would bean illusion, but who cares?" She runs toward it. Her back bag with her precious camera inside slides off her shoulder to the ground, forgotten. The dome has no doors, but an entrance to open from inside. She enters and sees beautiful blossoms lined the path, the sweet, spiced stench filling the air. In the centerof the garden, stands a swing, the rudder seat gently dangling by aninvisible breeze. Kim walks up to the swing and touches the seat. It is warm, like someone had recently swung. She speaks lowly, "I remember . .. I like to swing and dream as long as I want, having no care about the world."
A hissing voice whispers from above, answering her, "Yes, Kim. Go ahead and swing. You don't care about anything. You don't care about your family. You don't care about your friends. You don't even care about yourself. Swing." As if is hypnotized by the voice, Kim sits down on the seat and grips on the cool chains that connects the seat to the swing. She begins to swing, not the excited swing that often brings your feet up in the air,but the calm, thoughtful swing that your feet still tough the ground. Her brown eyes close, her face almost seems to soften with the memory. And Serpenmon chuckles darkly from above.
Iyumon steps out of the jungle and finds herself in a clearing. She could hear the boys complain about the thickness and shakes her head,smiling. Humans can be so weird, she thought. She waits until the boys and digimon get out the jungle. Tsunomon, Motimon, and Patamon are small enough to pass through with ease. Even though Iyumon is far bigger than them, she knows her way well around jungles. The boys have leaves and dirt all over and they dust themselves off. The group see a colorful glass dome in the center, shining brightly. They stand in awe until Izzy squints his black eyes toward the dome.
He blinks and says, "Hey, it is an illusion."
"How could you tell?" Matt asks, looking down to him.
Iyumon squints her red eyes and nods. "He is right. Look harder." The rest squints their eyes and for an instant, the dome seems to shimmer like in the heated air. Realizing the truth behind the illusion, they now see a tan-black dried mud, decaying building that seems ready to fall apart.
"What a strange building," says Tsunomon.
Patamon suddenly sees a hint of red near the building. "Hey, I see something!" He soars forward, his friends following. He lands and picks up something. As they come closer, Patamon is holding a small red bag in his black paws.
"That's Kim back bag!" Motimon remarks as Izzy picks it up delicately.
His brown eyes grow concerned. "She never goes anywhere without her camera."
Iyumon eyes the bag and gazes up to the slack building. "She might be inside that."
All enter the building and see the colorful flowers everywhere. But they now see the truth, and the blossoms are actually drying and wilting plants, all ugly brown. The stench of bitter rot floats in the air. And in the center, a girl swings calmly, her eyes closed.
"Kim!"
To be continued!
