Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

57) Trust Amid Flames

The Chosen Children touched down in the Digital World soon after entering the gate through Koushiro's office. They had gotten reports of Piemon's army continuing to advance, so they headed out with hopes of coming to clash against him for hopefully the second and last time. There were no guarantees that would be the case, of course, but there had never been any guarantees in the past either. Taichi still allowed himself to feel something vaguely resembling hope as he turned his face towards the sky, his eyes shut. He was feeling infinitely better since his conversation the day before with Yamato, and he couldn't imagine that this feeling of bliss was going to be fading any time soon. 

Unfortunately, the situation wasn't exactly cut and dry complete the way that Taichi would have hoped. He had confidence that Omegamon was going to be making his glorious return when the group had to come to clash against their foes since he and Yamato had managed to talk through everything that they had been struggling with. But Yamato had been acting rather strangely ever since the group first came together for the day. He had brought a small bag of supplies along with him, but he couldn't seem to stop messing around with it, and Yamato refused to meet Taichi's gaze for some reason or another. Despite Taichi's attempt to scrutinize him, he wasn't able to glean why it was that Yamato's behavior had shifted so dramatically compared to their conversation on the bridge the day before. 

Taichi did his best to not get distracted though as he glanced around the area. He had to have faith that Yamato knew what he was doing even if he was a lot more worried about this than he was willing to admit openly. The radar that the original Chosen Children had been looking at implied that they were going to be fighting against Piemon himself during this battle, and that only made Taichi more antsy about the upcoming fight. How could he not be? This was going to be the moment of truth, and unfortunately for him, he was going to be testing his resolve against Piemon rather than only Singed Ones. It was concerning, but Taichi knew that he couldn't back down quite yet. There was too much at stake for him to retreat into himself and not recognize what he had to do. 

"We're not far from the place that they should be pushing from," Koushiro declared as he looked down at his D-Terminal. He glanced up to the rest of the group, a light frown on his face. "We should be ready as soon as possible for everything that they could be bringing us."

Taichi frowned, doing his best to try and shove his concerns about Yamato as far from his mind as possible. That was much easier said than done, though he supposed that was to be expected in any situation where Yamato and his emotional states were involved. His foot started to tap against the grass in agitation, his way of passing the time and doing his best to force his impatience to the wayside. It wasn't working well or anything, but it was certainly something, and Taichi was willing to accept that for the time being. 

"Taichi... Can we talk?" 

The brown-haired Chosen Child glanced up when he heard a familiar voice from just in front of him. He was met with none other than Yamato, who appeared to be more insecure and anxious than he had been in years. That was enough to set off more than a few alarm bells in Taichi's head, but he did what he could to remain rooted to the spot, trying to shove his nerves away along with his lack of ability to wait for what was bound to happen next. "Yes?" Taichi questioned, doing what he could do keep himself somewhat composed in the face of his own nerves. 

"There's something I want to give you," Yamato said. He reached into his bag, and Taichi noticed that Gabumon was watching them both with wide eyes and a smile on his face. That was enough to let him know that, at the very least, this conversation wasn't going to yield anything unfortunate. Still, Taichi was on edge as Yamato continued to shuffle through his bag for whatever it was that he was planning on using in this moment, but he did his best to try and stay calm even in the face of this uncertainty.