Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

2) Fated Encounters

In Taichi's opinion, everything could not have chosen a worse day to happen. Hours had passed since the battle with Kuwagamon, but he could still feel a burning sensation in his calves from all of the pedaling that he had been forced to do as a way of escaping the giant bug Digimon. He was exhausted, but it wasn't as if he could bring himself to sleep given how many things he had to think about. Each attempt to close his eyes only caused him to remember everything that had taken place throughout the day, and all he could do was sigh in frustration as sleep evaded him time and time again. 

"You sure do seem nervous."

As expected, Hikari was able to read Taichi without any issues. He was sprawled out on the bottom bed of the bunk that he had once shared with Hikari before she moved out into her own room a few years prior. He had come to use the top mattress for storing things that he was too lazy to give a proper home, and that left a blanket halfway draping off the side of the frame of the upper layer of the bed. It cast a shadow across Taichi's face as he pushed himself into an upright position, another sigh leaving his lips. He was tired of hearing himself exhale in disappointment, but it wasn't as if he could do much else given the circumstances. 

"I can't stop thinking about Kuwagamon," Taichi told her even though he was confident that Hikari was already fully aware of such a truth. "No matter how hard I try, he just keeps coming back to my mind. It's starting to get really annoying."

Hikari offered him a sympathetic smile as she sat down beside him, pushing the blanket back into its place on the top bunk to keep it from getting in her way. "You aren't the only one," she confessed. "I've been worried about everything today too. I didn't think that we would be running into a situation like this again."

Taichi slammed his hands onto his face before shaking his head. Agumon and Tailmon both came into the room, Agumon holding tightly to a small nutrition bar. He had said that he wanted one last snack before they went to sleep, and Tailmon had wound up accompanying him back to Taichi's room when she realized that Hikari was inside. Both of them sat down on the bed beside their respective partners as Taichi responded to Hikari's words. "It's been three years, but everything is happening all over again," he muttered. 

"I think I know what's really bothering you," Hikari told him. "We don't know as much this time as we did the previous times that the Digital World was in danger. Everything is different because we lack information. The first time, you understood that there was a higher power putting the Digital World in danger, and you realized soon enough that it was Devimon. The second time, we heard about the Kaiser almost right off the bat. This is different, and we don't have anywhere near enough information to figure out what is exactly happening."

"I feel like there's something here that we just aren't seeing," Taichi admitted. "I don't know how to pin it down specifically, but... Kuwagamon was targeting me specifically, Hikari. Before you and Sora showed up with the Digimon, it seemed pretty obvious that the Kuwagamon was trying to hurt me in particular. That... That hasn't happened before. Targeting us when we didn't have our Digimon on us, I mean."

"I suspect that there is something larger at play here the way that you said," Tailmon chimed in. "But we'll just have to wait a bit longer to figure out what it is. I'm sure that the other Digimon will be with their partners by now too. We'll be able to take care of anything that comes our way in the future, Kuwagamon or otherwise."

Taichi nodded with a light hum, wishing that he could believe the words with as much striking confidence as Tailmon did. He watched as Hikari began to run her fingers lazily down Tailmon's spine, and the cat Digimon purred as she curled up against the girl's side. Hikari smiled fondly at Tailmon. 

"You should get some sleep soon though," Agumon told Taichi, nudging his partner with his shoulder as he finished off the last bite of his snack. He began to crumble the wrapper a moment later. "I know that tomorrow is your first day of school."