Frontiers Unexplored

44) Traces of Flame

Chihiro didn't know where they were, but they absolutely hated it. 

The ground below was metallic and hard, and the air smelled of smoke. The stench refused to leave Chihiro's nostrils no matter how long they remained stretched out on the floor. The sun burned brightly overhead, a scorching blaze of anger that only upset Chihiro further. They were already covered in bruises and unable to escape their own pain, but then the world just had to make everything worse. Just their fucking luck. 

Chihiro had to practically pry their back from the ground, and they glanced around in curiosity at their surroundings. There were trees on all sides that were made of metal with leaves that crackled like flames. There was a large building off in the distance that resembled the Trailmon station that they had found themselves in after first arriving in the Digital World. The ground was silvery with traces of black, giving it the appearance of singed steel. 

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Chihiro practically jumped out of their skin upon hearing Neemon's voice, and they got to their feet slowly before starting to walk in the direction of his voice. Neemon repeated the cry a few times before he came into Chihiro's line of sight. He noticed their arrival immediately, and he practically threw himself onto Chihiro's legs, wrapping his arms around their calves. 

Chihiro instinctively went tense at the contact before carefully removing Neemon with distasteful fingers. Their aversion to touch had remained even after the Royal Knights destroyed them. Good to know. "What's going on?" they questioned, trying not to sound too angry. All Chihiro wanted to do was find the Royal Knights and obliterate them with the full force of a thousand earthquakes, but they saw that this wasn't an option, so they remained in place instead. 

Neemon, who was currently dangling from Chihiro's hands, shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he confessed before looking down to the ground once again. Chihiro took this as their cue to set him back down, so they did so without hesitation. Neemon rubbed at the space beneath his arms to disperse any tension left behind by Chihiro's grasp. "We're in Flame Terminal again."

"Flame Terminal?" Chihiro echoed, sifting through their memories to figure out where that name had first come from. They decided it was familiar, but they didn't know where from. As soon as it clicked that Takuya had been the one to say it, the pieces fell into place. This was the area where Takuya had first arrived in the Digital World alongside Tomoki, Izumi, and Junpei. From there, they met Bokomon and Neemon, and then they set off towards Evergreen Dawn, meeting Koji along the way. 

Neemon nodded before starting to walk away. "I'm sure there's someone else around here..." he murmured. "The Royal Knights hit hard, don't they?" The small Digimon rubbed at a bruise that had formed on his side, whimpering when he accidentally pressed down with too much force. 

Chihiro hissed their agreement, but their cheek immediately gave off a pained sensation that attracted their attention. They touched at the area and realized that they had likely hit their face on the ground when landing from Alphamon's previous attack. They could feel a few other bruises and cuts scattered throughout, and their hair was beyond messy. Still, Chihiro couldn't bring themselves to check the injuries, instead simply removing their hat and tucking it under their arm before getting to work on retying their ponytail. 

Neemon suddenly took off running from his place a few feet in front of Chihiro, and they frowned before following him, adjusting their hat along the way. They weren't sure about what could have attracted his attention so suddenly, but he figured it was worth at least checking out briefly. It wasn't as if they had anything else to do. Chihiro didn't know where anybody else from the group was, and they were positive that something was going to happen sooner or later if they weren't careful. The least they could do was see if Neemon had stumbled upon something that would benefit their chances of surviving against a roaming Royal Knight.