Digimon Frontier: A Hidden Passage

Chapter 3: Kumamon Baby, Light My Fire

Hideko stared at her feet, being careful to put one foot in front of the other. Had she known she was going to do a lot of walking, she definitely would have brought better shoes. Tommy walked beside her, doing his best to walk on the train tracks like a tight rope or balance beam. "Hey, Tommy," she said, getting his attention.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure you wanna stick around here? It isn't exactly... you know, safe."

"Of course I do," He responded, smiling big. "I wanna be a superhero, just like Takuya! What about you?"

The freckled girl put a finger to her chin in thought. "I would be lying if I said I didn't want a spirit, but until I get one, I wanna keep my distance from battles."

JP started laughing a tiny bit, clapping a hand on Hideko's back. "With vision like yours, you probably wouldn't help even with a spirit."

Her face turned red with anger as she pushed him off of her. "That sounded kinda ableist, JP."

He pulled back with a face that showed that he realized he messed up. "Sorry, Spock. I didn't mean it that way. I'm just worried about what you'll do when you get a spirit. You can barely see. How would you be able to fight?"

Hideko let out a heavy breath and explained. "Are you familiar with Karate?"

"Yeah?"

"Then you should also be aware of the concept known as Zanshin." And as soon as she said "Zanshin", she made a hand gesture that looked like she was pointing her index and middle fingers at her head. (A/n: if you're wondering what the hand gesture looks like, if you've watched the Friends episode The One With Unagi, it's that hand gesture.)

"What's that?" Asked Tommy.

"It's a state of total awareness," the red-head explained. "Only by mastering it can you be prepared for any danger that will befall you."

"Are you sure?" Zoe asked.

"Yup," Hideko responded, matter-of-factly. "Sparring is one thing, but what about a real battle? You have no idea what your opponent's gonna do. That's why you must be completely aware of them and your surroundings."

The "elven" girl's explanation was interrupted by a bunch of beeps.

"Go to the Forest Terminal," said the voice on everyone's D-tectors.

"The Forest Terminal?" Takuya questioned. "How do we even get there?"

"It's very simple, my boy," said Bokomon with a smile. "We'll just follow the tracks."

"Yeah, but how far?"

The white, bookish Digimon's smile turned nervous. "..."

"..."

"..."

"...All the way."

All the humans groaned in response.

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They followed the tracks for quite a ways until they came to a certain point. They stopped abruptly at the edge of a trench and continued again on the other side. Through various observations, Hideko was able to gather that there may have once been a bridge here, but for one reason or another, it was no longer operational. How could they reach the Forest Terminal now?

But the more pressing issue was that it was getting dark out. Night one in the Digital World and they had nowhere to rest. That's when their loud-mouthed leader pointed something out to them. "If there's no bridge, we'll just climb down and then up the other side. Look!" A path of stone led down into the chasm, so the party proceeded onward. What appeared to be a village with a roaring bonfire could be seen not that far off and as soon as they reached the chasm floor, Neemon cried out, "Someone wrote on the wall! They're gonna get in trouble~!"