After the whole battle on the bridge event with Mammothmon, we were a little shaken up, but decided to get on with our mission.
"Should we get a snack before we start looking?" Mimi asked.
"There's no time." Tai said, "We've gotta get to Odaiba and find that ninth kid before somebody else does."
"But how will we get there? Do you think there are any fast food places along the way."
"Would you knock it off about the food?" Tai asked annoyed, "Anyway, we've only got enough money for our subway tickets."
"Subway?" Joe repeated nervously, "Oh, ok, my parents won't let me ride the subway by myself."
"But, Joe, you're not alone. We're riding with you." I said smiling and beginning my way to the train station, "Now, come on before we miss the early trains."
We walked down the streets and arrived at the subway station in record time.
"Are subways like regular trains? I mean, do they have snacks cars?" Mimi asked.
"Just drop it! And stick together everybody, it can get confusing down here." Tai said. We walked down the stairs and split up. Half of us looked at the track map to figure where to go, while the others went to buy the tickets.
Of course, I knew the subway lines by heart. I would travel all the time like this to meet my physical therapy doctors while I was still healing.
"I hope Myotismon has as much trouble reading these maps as I do." Joe said.
"Okay, so what do we do now besides starve to death?" Mimi asked.
"Don't worry, I know this map by heart." I said. I pointed up to the symbol for the number 12 train and followed the line of the tracks leading to Odaiba.
"See, the best and fastest route to Odaiba is to take the number 12 train to Nakano and transfer to the Marinucci line, then transfer to the Ginza line and then get off at Shinbashi." I explained.
Everyone looked confused, but Matt, Tk and Izzy understood what I was talking about.
"How'd you figure that out, Raya?" Sora asked.
"Well, after my accident, I was treated at a hospital near Highton view Terrace. But we moved a little while after the whole battle on the bridge thing. However, I could just change my doctors and treatments, so I kept going to the same hospital for checkups and examinations." I said.
"Yeah, Raya was eager to get better and after a few months, she was able to read the subways maps like a pro." Luna said happily sitting on my shoulder.
"Well, the directions seem simple enough, now all we have to do is find the right fare." Tai said.
"What's that, Tai? What are you getting?" Koromon asked as Tai put the money into the ticket machine.
"A ticket." Tai replied, "You can't ride the train without one." The ticket popped out of the slot and into Tai's hand.
"What's a ticket?" Palmon asked.
"What's a train?" Patamon asked and was shushed by Joe.
"C'mon, guys not a another word out of you from now on, okay?" Joe said, "We dont want any body seeing you and then asking a bunch of questions that we dont want to explain the answers to."
"Yeah, while we're here, you've gotta pretend to be toys or stuffed animals like Lunamon does." Sora further explained.
"I know, I'll pretend to be like one of those dolls that you squeeze and they go Wah wah wah!" Yokomon said, pretending to cry like a baby doll.
"Be a doll that doesn't talk." Sora said, quieting her digimon.
I over at Luna on my shoulder. I opened my arms silently telling her to come down. She got my silent message and jumped into my arms going stuffed animal style like she always has when in public spaces.
"Remember, Luna, be a doll, okay?" I whispered.
"I know, I remember." She said smiling and went limp like a doll.
We purchased our tickets and went off the train stop. However, the digimon were a little confused by the change of scenery. I couldn't blame them, Luna was a little confused as well when she first came to a subway station.
"It's some kind of cave." Koromon said.
"I don't like being underground." Tsunomon commented.
"Hey, put a lid on it." Matt whispered.
"Dont be rude, Matt." I said jabbing him in the side with my elbow.
It was around 3:57 when the announcer called out for the arriving trains.
"Attention, number 12 train now arriving at platform seven." The digimon were now even more confused, wondering where the voice came from.
"Huh, where'd that voice come from?" Koromon asked looking around the person who spoke.
"You heard it? Then it's not just inside my head." Tsunomon said. A minute later, the train lights appeared in the tunnel heading our way.
"Something's coming!" Koromon shouted.
"Look at those glowing eyes! It's one of Myotismon's goons!" Tsunomon shouted. The two digimon jumped out of their partners arms and onto the tracks.
"Hey watch out!" Tai and Matt shouted. The train came closer and closer as the two digimon finally realized their mistake. They jumped out of the tracks and back onto the platform just before the trains arrived.
Koromon and Tsunomon were safe for the time being, but we were all on edge now.
Once the train arrived, we didn't hesitate to take our seats and wait for the train to leave the station.
The train set off a little while later and thankfully there weren't many people on board, so we didn't have to worry too much about our digimon.
"Jeez, we can't take you guys anywhere." Tai said, hitting Koromon lightly on the head. We all laughed softly at the interaction.
Suddenly, we heard a baby crying loudly in the background. We looked up and saw a woman carrying her crying baby as she tried to soothe it.
"Oh, there now. Hush, hush." The mother softly cooed to her baby.
Sora smiled and stood up, "Here ma'am, take my seat." She offered.
The woman looked surprised for a moment, but then smiled, "Oh, thank you." She said as she sat down, "Now wasn't that nice of the girl, we've been on our feet all day, haven't we?"
The baby kept crying, but stopped when he spotted Yokomon in Sora's arms. We all visibly tensed when the baby reached out and grabbed one of Yokomon's antennae.
"Um, excuse me." Sora politely said grabbing the mother's attention.
"Hmm, oh, what are you doing now?" The mother asked, trying to pull her baby's hand off Yokomon, but only seemed to make him want to tug even harder.
The baby tugged and tugged harder and harder, and with every tug, our worries grew and Yokomon's patience wore thin.
Finally, Yokomon finally had enough.
"Hye, would you let go of me?" She shouted, letting everyone in the small car hear her scream.
It was dead quiet, the only sounds heard were the train tracks colliding with the wheels. We were terrified. It was all over. The world now knew about digimon and they were going to be taken away for experiments by the CIA and we would be locked away for harbouring suspicious alien life.
At least, that's most likely what we were all imagining in our heads. Thankfully, it didn't turn out like that. The baby, being so surprised by the sudden outburst, let Yokomon go and stared at a shocked Sora.
"I guess my toy didn't like it when you pulled on it." She said.
One of the kids on the train jumped up suddenly and pointed towards Sora and Yokomon, "Hey, ya hear that? That toy can talk." He shouted.
Sora stood still for a moment thinking of ways to get out of this tense situation, when suddenly, she smiled and laughed.
"Wow, it really worked. All that practice paid off. Fooled them didn't we?" She said then leaned forward, saying that last part in a higher pitched tone.
"C'mon the baby pulled your hair because he likes you that's all. 'Oh, really?' No need to bit the poor kid's head off. "Oh, I'm very sorry I shouted.'"
The baby laughed and smiled at the little play of fake ventriloquism, and it seemed in impress the other people on the train.
"See that, son, shes just making it look like the doll is talking, it's called ventriloquism. Shes pretty good." The father of the young boy said.
The people on the train were whispering to each other, complimenting Sora on her ventriloquism act. We all breathed a sigh of relief that the act was bought.
"I want one!" The young boy said, pulling his father's arm and pointing at Yokomon, "Daddy, I want that doll. If I dont get one right now I'll start screaming at the top of my lungs!"
The father shushed his son, stood up and walked over to Sora.
"Excuse me young lady, may I ask where you bought the doll? I need one right away." He asked.
Sora looked shaken, "Where I bought it?"
"It's not that hard of a question, is it? C'mon, you'll be doing me a huge favor. Where did you find it?"
Everyone was staring, it was an utter mess we got ourselves into.
I acted fast, standing up with Luna in my arms and walking up to Sora's side.
"Sorry, sir," I said, "My friend here didn't buy the doll anywhere because I made it for her." Sora looked over at me and I winked at her to get her to play along.
"You made this doll?" The man asked.
Sora nodded, "Yeah, Raya here is really good when it comes to toy making and sewing. She's made all of us little toys like this one."
Sora gestured to the rest of our friends and their digimon, or, toys.
The man looked at the many little toys and then back at me.
"Wow, amazing work, young lady." He said, "If it's not too much trouble, do you think you can make another one just like that little doll? My son would really like one."
I nodded happily, "Of course. It shouldn't be too hard to recreate a doll like her's."
"Great. Thank you so much." The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card the handed it to me, "This is my business card. Can you call me when the doll is done?"
"Yes, of course." I said taking the card as the train stopped at Nerima. Several people got off the train, leaving only us on the train.
I sat down next to Matt and Tk and Sora sat back down next to Tai. We all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well, that was a close one." Sora said.
"Pretty weird how that kid went mute over Yokomon." Tai said.
"If we don't find the ninth child we c ok old go into the.." Joe trailed off.
"Toy business?" Sora leaned over, "I'm really sorry about making you put yourself on the spot, Raya."
I leaned over and smiled, "No worries, Sora. I was happy to help. This will give me an excuse to start sewing again."
"Wait a minute, you can really sew toys?" Mimi asked.
I nodded, "Yeah, it was a good way to pass the time while in the hospital and during physical therapy."
I looked down at Luna, who frowned at the mention of me being in the hospital. It wasn't very fun for her when she would come with me to physical therapy. She didn't like it when I looked like I was in pain.
"How much longer till we get there?" Tk asked sleepily, his head bobbing up and down as he nodded off to sleep.
"Who knows. Someone wake me when we get there." Mimi said, just a sleepy as Tk.
"Yeah, me too." Matt said.
Pretty soon everyone was asleep, including me. And as I slept, I dreamed about a child from years ago.
I was just given my new leg. It was a small prototype but later in the years there would be advancements to it. Although I had a new leg, I still couldn't use it because it was still healing, I couldn't walk properly without feeling a lot of pain, so I was confined to a wheelchair until it was time for physical therapy.
My parents were out at work and Matt and Tk had school, so I was alone for the time being. Bored, I asked the nurses to place me in my wheelchair so I could just wheel around.
They did as I asked and put me in my wheelchair. Once I was settled, I wheeled around the halls, listening to the doctors and nurses talking and hearing several kids laughing and talking.
"Kari, you shouldn't get up yet." I heard a woman say in a worried tone. Curious, I wheeled over to the place where the voice came from. It was a hospital room and the tag next to the door said 'Kari Kamiya'.
"But, mom, I'm getting bored in this bed." A weak voice said, it sounded like a little girl.
I peeked into the room and saw a woman and who seemed to be her husband sitting next to the hospital bed which held a small girl with brown hair and bright smile.
But her body seemed to be shaking and her skin was very pale.
The little girl looked towards the door and straight at me, "Hello." She said.
I stiffened when she greeted me and her parents followed her gaze towards me.
"Hello." The girl's mother said, "Can we help you?"
"Uh, no, I just heard something and thought something might have happened. Sorry for intruding. I'll be going now." I said, beginning to wheel away.
"Wait!" I stopped when the little girl said that, "Can you stay here for a little bit? My big brother's at school and my parents will have to go home soon, so I'm a little lonely."
I was surprised at first but I smiled and wheeled into the room.
"Oh dear, what happened?" The father asked.
I looked down at my leg and gently rubbed my thigh.
"I was in an accident a while back and I lost a leg in it. It was replaced with a prosthetic just a couple of weeks ago." I explained, then lifted my hospital gown to show off my leg.
The little girl was smiling brightly and pointing at my leg, "that's looks so cool!" I smiled an laughed at her enthusiasm, "My name is Kari Kamiya. What's your name?"
"My name Raya Kurasama. It's nice to meet you, Kari."
First the duration of her stay in the hospital, Kari and I had met and talked a lot. She told me about her older brother and how much fun she would have when she was feeling better. It was nice to talk to her when my parents, Matt and Tai weren't around at the hospital.
My eyes opened, ending my dream and my nerves were going crazy when I heard the announcement of our stop.
"End of the line. Shinjuku. Please exit. Again, end of the line Shinjuku, please exit."
I jumped up abruptly onto my feet, "Guys, wake up, we missed our stop!" I shouted. Everyone slowly woke up and shared in my panic when they noticed our stop.
"How did we miss our stop?" Mimi panicked.
"All of you were sleeping right through it." Patamon said.
"Huh, Patamon you were awake?!" Tk asked.
"Sure."
"What's wrong with you, why didn't you wake us up?"
"How could I? You told us not to make a sound."
We all groaned at our words of the past.
"So what do we do now, go back to our stop?" Joe asked.
"No, it's out of the way, but I think we can change trains here and be okay." Izzy said and so that's what we did, but as we walked to the ticket counter, our digimon were whining in hunger.
It was a tough choice, but we eventually went along to eat somewhere. However, we were missing two people in our group. And I was the only one who noticed, but when hunger strikes, you dont think about anything else.
We eventually found a nice fast food restaurant, ordered and began eating. I only ordered the bare minimum to eat, enough to fill me up at least halfway, not to mention to feed Luna.
"I feel like a new woman." Mimi said eating her cheeseburger happily.
"Man, this taste great." Tai said.
I ate slowly, and fed Luna on my lap carefully so no one would suspect that she was alive.
"You people are lucky." Tsunomon said as he took a bite of the burger, "Yum, yum, you guys get to eat this stuff everyday."
"A little louder why don't cha, there's still a couple of people not staring at us yet." Matt said.
"Actually, no one's noticed yet, but Matt's rights you should be a little more careful." Mimi said then gasped when she saw the last two members of our group walk through the door.
"Joe, Izzy you made it." Tk said.
"What are you waiting for order something." Tai said.
"How can we, when all of you have the money?" Joe asked.
"Whoops, sorry. We went ahead and spent it all." Mimi said. In his anger, Joe trembled and dropped Gomamon.
"You see, we were all super hungry so we ordered the super duper combos." Sora said.
"Except for me." I said raising my hand.
"Great, you went and spent it all. That was all the money we had in the world!" Joe said, before his face turned red in embarrassment and he stormed out of the room muttering things under his breath.
Suddenly, Izzy's digivice began beeping.
"Look at that, now the digivuce is responding." He said.
"Yeah, why wouldn't they be?" Sora asked.
"Well, it wasn't working at all when I tried to use it in the station. I guess in this world they only function at a close distance."
"That's great, but meanwhile, what are we going to do now?" Mimi asked.
"We start walking. They won't let us on the train without any money." Tk suggested.
"I'm sure not looking forward to doing anymore walking." Matt muttered.
"Ha!" Tai laughed, "I know a way that won't cost us any money. Leave it to me."
We were skeptical with Tai, but did we have any other choice?
We did.
Not take Tai's way.
We stood on the side of the road with Tai shouting at passing cars like a hitchhiker.
"This was his brilliant idea?" Matt said.
"Even if police stop, he'll probably lock him up for disturbing the peace." Izzy said.
Tai shouted loudly when one of the cars got a little too close.
"Hey watch it! I've got the right of way!" He shouted.
"Way to look cool, Tai." Matt said sarcastically.
"At this rate we could be sitting here all day." Joe said.
"And night." Izzy added.
"Then you try to get us a ride." Tai yelled pointing at Joe.
"What? Me? No way."
"And how about you, Matt?"
Matt shook his head. Eventually, Izzy and Joe came up to hitchhike, blushing red in the face and weakly holding out their thumbs hitchhiker style.
They didn't have much luck, hailing down a taxi but were rejected when asked if they had money.
"Next up is Matt." Tai said. Matt nodded, stood up and lifted his hand up, his thumb up and out.
Almost immediately he got a car, just got the type we were hoping for. The car was a red convertible with a woman driving. She wore sunglasses and a purple collar that matched her purple lipstick and short tight dress.
We shooed off as quickly as possible.
Matt turned around towards us and blushed bright red.
"Not so easy, is it Matt?" Tai teased.
"Well at least my car isn't stuck up a tree!" Matt yelled.
Next it was the girls turn to hitch a ride. We did the same thing as the boys and waited for someone to stop. We waited for a few minutes until we heard loud music coming from down the road. We looked down the road and saw a blue van rushing towards us.
"Sora?" The driver asked as he pulled over.
"It's my cousin." Sora said, "Hi Wayne."
"You kids need a lift?"
"Yeah."
Finally we had scored a ride. We all hopped into the van and drove off.
"Okay, here's the rules." Wayne said as we drove, "I'm gonna say this once so listen. Dig it, you're only here because Sora is my cousin, you're like her luggage. And luggage doesn't make a sound, you got me? Or else you'll get thrown out of the car. Right?"
We all agreed on the rules as we stopped at a red light. Suddenly, I gasped when I felt something dark close by. I looked out the window and saw the crossing children with a strange man.
He wasn't very much taller than the children he was leading, holding a hand full of balloons and dressed like a tattered wizard.
I immediately put myself of guard. There was something strange about that little wizard.
We kept driving down the streets and got closer to Odaiba. The music was so loud in the car, I mean, how has Wayne not gone dead after listening to hard rock on full volume yet?
We were relieved of the music when an announcement came on.
"Now for a news update. Officials have yet to find an explanation for the devastating explosion at the Highton View Terrace apartments in the Nerima district earlier today."
We were all in sudden attention.
"Power in the area is still out and the injured are still being counted after the bizarre incident. While official sources have not given out any information, there are reports of several eyewitness accounts, however these accounts have served only to further mystify investigators. Tales of the accounts differ, but several witnesses agree that an elephant, some kind giant fire bird and a small unidentified creature were seen in the vicinity."
"A giant fire bird? Ha you've gotta love the crazies in this town." Wayne laughed, but we all internally panicked.
People had heard and seen us, especially me. If word got out about our digimon being here and me being able to so things I can, it would be a catastrophe.
Unfortunately, my thoughts were interrupted by Tai shouting at Wayne to stop the car. We stopped right then and there and once we got out, all we saw was a small pink blob on the seat cover.
"Alright, which one of you did it? Which one of you made a mess on my new seat covers?" He shouted.
Tai looked down in guilt and raised his hand, "I'm sorry it was-"
"Me, I'm the one!" Sora interjected, ""I'll clean it up, I'll even detail it for you."
Wayne wasn't buying it, "Don't to cover up for these losers!" He shouted, "Which one of them did it?" He looked over at Joe with an angry gaze.
"Mr. peepers it was you wasn't it?" Wayne stomped over to Joe and grabbed him by the collar.
Izzy quickly rushed over to help Joe, "Hey, let him go he didn't do anything wrong."
"Back off." Wayne said pushing Izzy away and right towards danger.
Wayne didn't see the caution sign near the edge of the bridge and Izzy stumbled right over it. I didn't even think before acting, I ran over to Izzy and grabbed his hand.
"Izzy, Raya no!" I heard my friends shout as we fell over the bridge.
Suddenly as we fell I felt Motimon digivolve and Izzy's digivice emitted a high pitched shriek.
Tentomon was back and he rushed over to grab Izzy, however, I was not as lucky. I landed in the water, shocked but otherwise all right.
But my situation would only get worse. Before Luna could digivolve in Lekismon, we were grabbed by something big and white.
We were forced out of the water and held high for everyone to see.
"Raya! Lunamon!" Izzy shouted.
"Oh, no, its Gessomon!" Tentomon said, "Take a bit of everything nasty that lives underwater, stick them together and that's him."
Wayne, freaked out of his mind, ran off and left us to defend for ourselves. Gomamon quickly jumped into the water and digivolve into Ikkakumon.
Tentomon moved Izzy out of the way and I held on to Luna for fear life as Ikkakumon began to battle. He tackled Gessomon down and the sudden jerk released us from his hold, making us land back into the water below.
I swam as fast as I could to the shore and looked over to see the fight. Butbthen, just as the fight was ending, I saw something floating in the water near the shore.
Luna jumped out of my arms and went back into the shallows to pick it up.
"Raya, did you lose your tag and Crest in the fall?" She asked coming back with the strange object.
"No, it's still around my neck, why?" I asked.
"Well, this was floating in the water." I bent down and grabbing the thing she was holding and held my breathe when I saw a tag and crest.
The crest was pink with the symbol for light on it. It was strange to see it, but what was even more strange was that my crest began to glow softly. The other tag and began to glow softly too before turning into dust and scattering away.
"Raya!" I heard Matt shout from the waters. I looked up and saw my friends sitting on logs tied to Ikkakumon.
"Come one, Raya, we need to go now!" Tk shouted. I hurried onto Ikkakumon and we rode off in the water.
"Well, so much for keeping a low profile." Matt said.
"At least we got away from lame Wayne and all in one peace." Tai said.
We rode around in the waters past the bridges, enjoying the beautiful fresh air. But as we relaxed on Ikkakumon riding back home, I couldn't shake this terrible feeling that we were in more danger than we thought.