Digimon Adventure: Continuing Evolution

6. Unfamiliar Skies

A/N: If you have not seen the Digimon 20th anniversary memorial short Sora e ("To Sora", or perhaps "Toward the Sky"), which takes place just before LEK, you should do so before reading this chapter, as it will make much more sense. You can find it on YouTube here: watch?v=rtnwIuJy5BY.

6. Unfamiliar Skies.

Odaiba, Japan; August 18th, 2010 - 8:17am

"The sky is vast, because it was probably made to freely fly there. If you're ever worried to fly on your own, I'll be there to fly with you together. Because I'm your partner, Sora."

Sora Takenouchi squeezed the pink bird digimon tighter. She had been in a funk lately, feeling guilty for not going on the last several digimon missions in the area, and she was stressed about having to make something for the flower arrangement exhibit next Friday. But after an encouraging phone call with Mimi, and a pep talk from Biyomon, Sora was beginning to feel a little better.

"Thanks, Biyomon. It means a lot knowing that you'll be there with me. I feel like I've been pulled in so many directions for such a long time that I didn't know where I was supposed to go. But I think you and Mimi finally helped me figure it out."

Biyomon shut her eyes and gave her best birdlike imitation of a smile. "I'm so glad to hear that, Sora!"

Sora continued, "I felt like a bad friend for never being able to help the others with digimon incidents, especially since you're always so ready to go, but the two of you made me realize that it's not something I have to do anymore. I'll miss going on adventures, but I have my own things that I want to do, and I know the others can handle it without me. I believe in them. So...would you be okay if I stopped fighting? Permanently?"

Biyomon hesitated, as though she wasn't quite sure. Then she said, "If that's what you really want, then I'll stick by you, Sora!"

"Really, Biyomon?" Sora asked, relieved. "Oh, thank you! This will be so much easier with that off my mind. Now I can finally focus on making these flowers perfect and-" Sora paused, and her smile faded. "I wonder what Tai will think. He probably won't understand..."

"I'm sure he will if you explain it to him," Biyomon suggested. "You should do whatever you need to so you'll be able to spread your wings and fly freely. And if that means no more fighting, then I'm sure he'll understand."

Sora looked skeptical. "Hmm. Maybe I'll get Matt to talk to him", she mused. Sora stood and put her hands on her hips. She felt liberated. "I'm not going to fight anymore," she formally announced. "I'm Sora Takenouchi, and I'm going to walk down my own path."

An unfamiliar sound rang through the air, startling Sora and Biyomon.

"What was that?" Sora wondered aloud. It couldn't have been her phone; it had been a strange sort of chime, and none of her phone sounds were anything like that. She turned toward the direction it had come from and reached out for the top corner of her bookshelf where her old digivice lay, the thin layer of dust over it suggesting it had been unused for some time. She grabbed it and turned it over in her hand to look at its face where, to her surprise, she discovered a ring of light glowing around the screen.

Biyomon hopped up onto the table so she could see, and looked to her perplexed partner when she saw the light coming from the digivice. "What is it, Sora?"

Sora's eyes remained glued to the seemingly innocuous ring. Something about it seemed dangerous somehow, though Sora couldn't say exactly what. She lowered her hand and turned to her partner, a sour, inexplicable sense of foreboding settling in her gut.

"I...I don't know, Biyomon."

* * *

Answers came later that evening while Sora and Biyomon were having dinner, in the form of Gennai when he materialized unexpectedly through Sora's laptop screen.