Tai's once-hesitant gaze had hardened into resolve. He reached up with his right hand, pulled the Crest out from under his shirt, and shouted,
"Greymon, digivolve to Ultimate!"
A beam of light shot out from the Crest, wrapping Greymon in its radiance. His entire body began to change.
"Greymon digivolve to… MetalGreymon!"
The children watched as MetalGreymon appeared before them, his huge, ferocious body gleaming with metallic sheen. His right arm was a massive mechanical claw that shone with razor-sharp metal light, and the armored plating on his head granted him tremendous defensive power.
"What? That's impossible!"
The Digimon Emperor's mocking expression twisted into shock. In his knowledge and experience, any Digimon within the range of his Dark D-3 Digivice's field shouldn't be able to digivolve at all—yet what was happening now completely shattered everything he thought he knew.
"Trident Arm!"
MetalGreymon's left metal claw shot out, the metal cables attached to it whipping around to seize all of the Waspmon and Snimon at once, binding them together into a single bundle. The hatch on his chest snapped open and two Giga Destroyer missiles launched from within—but the moment the shells left his chest, MetalGreymon was already engulfed in light and de-digivolved back into Agumon.
Under the stunned, disbelieving gazes of Davis and the others, the Giga Destroyer missiles slammed into the bound Waspmon and Snimon in midair and blew them to pieces.
"Tai…" Agumon called weakly from where he lay on the ground.
"Agumon, are you okay?"
Ignoring the surprised and angry stares around him, Tai hurried over and helped Agumon up. "How do you feel?"
"I used too much strength… other than that, I'm fine."
"As I thought, forcing you to reach Ultimate is still pushing it too far," Tai said. He helped Agumon toward the front door, then looked back and called, "Kari, Sora, we're going home."
Without paying any more attention to the others, Tai stretched out his right hand toward the space in front of them. A pillar of light shot out, striking seemingly empty air. Space itself shattered like glass, revealing the scene beyond—it was Tai's home.
Supporting Agumon, Tai stepped through. Kari glanced back at everyone and said, "I'm sorry. I'll go on ahead." Then she followed Tai with Gatomon in her arms.
Sora hesitated for a moment, looking at the kids behind her whose faces were still filled with anger, but in the end she turned around and went into the portal with Biyomon as well.
Izzy let out a helpless sigh. Instead of following, he turned to look at Davis and the others, preparing to send them back to the human world.
"Hang on a sec, Agumon."
Tai helped Agumon over to his bed, then went to the fridge and pulled out a pile of food, carrying it back toward the room to help Agumon regain his strength. When he opened the door, he found Kari and Sora standing there with Gatomon and Biyomon, looking at him.
Kari helped by peeling open the package of ham and feeding it to Agumon, speaking gently as she did. "Slow down, Agumon. There's plenty more."
Agumon didn't even have time to answer; both of his hands were busy shoveling the food spread over the bed into his mouth. By the time he'd finished off half the contents of the fridge, he let out a loud burp and covered his stomach, mumbling, "I'm so full…"
He certainly should have been. The food Agumon had eaten already took up more space than his entire body. No one knew where he had managed to put it all.
"Agumon's okay now, right?" Tai asked, worried.
"Yeah, I feel like I could digivolve into MetalGreymon again right now without any problem." Agumon sounded completely confident.
Hearing that, Sora, who had been quietly standing off to the side, finally spoke up. "Tai… can Agumon reach Ultimate on his own now?"
"Not yet," Tai said, shaking his head, his tone a little heavy. "Just now, Agumon only managed it because he combined my power with his own. And if he digivolves without using the power of the Crest, the strain on his body is just too much."
"Strain?" Sora repeated, puzzled by the word.
"That's right," Tai said. "Back then, the reason Agumon and the others could borrow the power of the Crests to digivolve to higher levels was because the power of the Crests in our hearts and their own strength could be brought into sync through the Digivice and the Crest emblems.
"But when Agumon digivolved just now, he used my power directly. Power that doesn't properly match his own puts a huge burden on him—like using the wrong kind of gasoline in a car. The engine will still run, but it'll be under tremendous strain."
"Mm…" Sora nodded slowly, finally understanding.
"I'm sorry, big brother… and thank you for what you did back there." Kari lifted her head and bit her lip as she spoke.
"You don't need to thank me," Tai said with a smile, reaching over to ruffle her hair.
"Tai, you should explain everything to the others," Sora said from the side. "All of you are DigiDestined, after all. And after what happened today, I think they'll understand."
"I will, Sora."
"In that case, I'm going home first. Tai, could you walk me back?"
"Sure. Agumon, get some rest for now."
The night streets were quiet as they walked. Moonlight fell on Tai and Sora, and Biyomon waddled along behind them.
"Tai, you shouldn't carry everything on your own shoulders," Sora said, stopping and lowering her head.
"Someone has to do it, don't they?" Tai stopped as well and looked at her.
"But… why does it have to be you?"
"Once Koromon first came to my house, some things were already decided for us," Tai said quietly. "Since I can't run away from it, I might as well do my best, right?"
Sora fell silent. After a moment, she started walking again, Tai matching her pace at her side until they reached the front of her building. Just as Tai was about to leave, Sora spoke again.
"Tai… you have to take good care of yourself," she said, lifting her head and mustering her courage. "I'll be waiting for you."
"Yeah."
Tai turned and headed for home, his figure disappearing into the patches of light and shadow cast by the streetlamps. Sora stood there for a long time, watching in the direction Tai had gone.
What she didn't say aloud was: I'll be waiting for the day you tell me everything.
On the balcony, Kari stood staring blankly up at the bright moon in the sky. Gatomon padded up behind her and looked at her back. "Kari?"
Kari turned around, looking at Gatomon with sadness in her eyes. "Gatomon… do you think I've always just been a burden to my brother? It was like that before, and it was the same today. He's always protecting me, but I can't do anything for him in return."
Gatomon lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Kari. If I were stronger, today wouldn't have turned out like that."
"Gatomon…"
Kari picked Gatomon up as she spoke, and tears slid down her cheeks onto Gatomon's soft fur. "I really don't want to fight, because when there's fighting, someone gets hurt. But now—I want to fight. I want to help my brother, even just a little. He's really tired… I just want to share a bit of the burden with him."
"Kari…"
Gatomon could feel the light within Kari trembling. That light of pure goodness filled Gatomon with power. From a distance, it looked as though both Kari and Gatomon were wrapped in a faint halo of light—it was impossible to tell whether it was just the moonlight, or…
Down below, Tai suddenly felt something glowing in his pocket. Whatever it was trembled as though it wanted to fly back to its true owner. Tai hurriedly poured his own energy into it, soothing it until it calmed down and returned to normal. He stood there, unable to settle his feelings for a long time.
"Why… Is this really what destiny is supposed to be?" he murmured.
Meanwhile, Izzy had brought Davis and the other three back to the computer room. This time, they'd brought their Digimon back with them as well. For Veemon, Armadillomon, and Hawkmon, it was their first time in the human world, and all three de-digivolved into their In-Training forms.
Unlike the last time they'd all come back cheerful and excited, the atmosphere now was heavy. They had not only witnessed the harsh battles of the Digital World—they had also seen life itself being snuffed out.
"I've got to go home. My mom must be worried sick."
Before he could finish his sentence, Cody turned and ran off in a rush.
"I'll go with him," Yolei said, hurrying out after him.
"Hey, hey…" Davis muttered in annoyance. "What's with them, anyway?"
He turned back to see only Izzy, who wore a helpless expression, and T.K., whose face was shadowed and gloomy. Davis let out a long sigh and suddenly shouted up at the ceiling,
"How could things end up like this?!"
Cody was at kendo practice, wooden sword in hand, swinging it in the proper stance—yet he kept repeating the same motion over and over, clear proof that his heart was nowhere near focused on his training.
In his mind, that scene replayed again and again: MetalGreymon gathering the enemy Digimon together, then the two Giga Destroyer missiles blowing them to bits.
Why? Why did he have to kill them? Why did it have to be like that?
Cody's sword suddenly trembled violently in his hands.
On her bed, Yolei lay staring at the ceiling, also reliving the day's grim events. Her first successful Armor Digivolution with Halsemon had ended in defeat. She could almost feel again that moment when Halsemon fell from the sky, and she, too, plummeted—just remembering that weightless sensation made her heart shudder.
But the worst blow of all was seeing a Digimon's death with her own eyes. The image of MetalGreymon's terrifying body, and the Giga Destroyer missiles that obliterated those Digimon in an instant, filled Yolei with confusion and anger.
Now, Yolei felt a creeping fear toward the Digital World. Ever since MetalGreymon's appearance, battles between Digimon had suddenly become so horrifying. Tai, too, had become almost unrecognizable in that moment—cold and distant as he calmly ordered MetalGreymon to destroy those Digimon.
Yolei couldn't understand it. All she could think was: Why did we have to kill them?
Davis, on the other hand, was cheerfully bathing with his partner Digimon. Boy and Digimon splashed water at each other, laughing so loudly that Davis's older sister in the living room couldn't stand it anymore.
"Davis, what are you doing in there? How can you be that noisy just taking a bath?" she yelled toward the bathroom.
Davis quickly clapped a hand over DemiVeemon's mouth, pricked up his ears, and listened for any movement outside. When he heard his sister flop back onto the sofa and resume watching TV, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Later, Davis lay on his bed with DemiVeemon beside him. Without meaning to, his thoughts drifted back to that shocking scene from earlier. MetalGreymon's incredible power had left him speechless. Snimon and Waspmon—enemies that even Flamedramon and the other three Digimon together couldn't defeat—had been taken out by MetalGreymon in a single attack.
He couldn't help wondering whether DemiVeemon might one day become that strong too.
Thinking about it, Davis ignored DemiVeemon's protests and lifted him up in front of his face. "DemiVeemon, you've gotta digivolve to be as strong as MetalGreymon someday, okay?"
"I will, Davis."
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