Disclaimer: do not own digimon, bandai, disney, & toei do

Digimon: Darkness Returns
Chapter Two


     Hiromi Yoru tapped his pencil on his desk, bored.  How long does math class take?  
It wasn’t even the fact that Hiromi hated math and was not all that fond of school altogether 
(you tend to meet people there) that he was irked.  He had something important after school 
that he had to do.  He had seen her.  She was tall and black-haired, from his history class.  
He had seen her doodling a picture of an egg.  But not just any egg.  This one had stars and 
stripes on it.  Under it she had written Kuamon.  Hiromi had a feeling this was not her 
boyfriend’s name, but a Digimon’s.  And if so, maybe she could help him.

Sakura was walking on the sidewalk headed to pick her little brother up from school 
when she heard another pair of footsteps.  She turned and saw a boy from one her classes.  
He was sort of a loner with no real friends.  He had messy dark green hair and brown eyes 
and was wearing a black tee and black jeans.
  She looked ahead and decided to ignore him.  They were probably on the same 
path by coincidence.  Until he asked, "Are you Sakura Kano?"
  She stopped and turned to face him.  "Yes, why?"
     "I need your help," he said.
  "Let me guess, someone said I’m smart, and you decided to ask me to help you 
with school, am I right?"
  He shook his head and pulled out a small device.  It was just like the one she had 
found in her room the day she had made her Digimon.  It was an oval, hand-held device, 
with glowing screens and an extendable antenna.  The only parts that had color were the 
sides, antenna, and buttons.  Four of the buttons were triangular, all pointing towards a 
round center button.  His device was exactly the same except the sides, antenna, and buttons 
were green instead of black.  "Do you have a Digimon?"
     "Yes," Sakura said, hand resting on her device, which she had strapped to her 
side.  "Where did you get that?"
  He smiled.  "I think I could ask you the same question."  He held out his hand.  
"Hiromi Yoru."
     She shook his hand.  "Do you have a Digimon?"
          Hiromi unzipped his backpack.  A small face poked out.  It was snow white and 
fluffy with large black eyes and floppy ears.  It was panting a little, like a dog.  
"Hiromi, who’s this?" It asked in a high-pitched voice.
  "This is Sakura," he said, picking the Digimon up, "she has a Digimon, too."  
He turned towards her.  "Sakura, this is Rokomon, my fearless In-training Digimon."
     "Darn tooting!" said Rokomon proudly.
  Sakura tried not to giggle.  Hiromi’s Digimon was so cute!  "Pleased to meet you," she said, 
shaking one of Rokomon’s paws.
  "So where is your Digimon?" asked Hiromi.
  "Uh," Sakura said uneasily, "in its egg."  Right as her face went red from embarrassment, her 
backpack started to shake.  She took it off and unzipped it.  Inside, the egg had started to 
hatch.  The shell cracked and light shone through.  Before their eyes emerged a baby Digimon.
     It was small, round, and white.  It had two ball-shaped ears on either side of its head 
and pink cheeks.  "Make that outside its egg."

 
  The Digimon shivered.  Suddenly a voice droned, "YukimiBotamon.  
Type: Vaccine, Level: Baby, 
Partner: Sakura Kano."
  Sakura jumped at the mention of her name.  She looked at her digivice and 
realized the voice came from there.  A digital image of YukimiBotamon bounced there happily.  
"I’ve never seen a YukimiBotamon up-close before," murmured Hiromi.
     "That makes two of us," muttered Sakura.  "What does it become?"
  Hiromi picked it up to study it.  "Gatomon, I believe."
     "Cool!" exclaimed Sakura, thinking of her personal favorite Digimon.  "I’d love 
to have Gatomon!"  She then realized a very small kid was watching them and their 
Digimon, awestruck.  "Um, let’s go somewhere else.  I don’t want the whole world seeing the 
Digimon.  I have to pick my little brother up from school, anyway."  
  "Can I come with you?  I still need your help."
     "Sure, I’ll introduce you to Yuki.  She has a Digimon, too," Sakura zipped up her 
backpack and carried YukimiBotamon in her arms.
  Another one? wondered Hiromi.

  Kaji Kano waited patiently for his older sister to pick him up.  His friend Hana Oshima 
sat down next to him. Sakura was supposed to baby-sit them.  Kaji wondered what was taking 
her so long.  Usually she was pretty much on time, but today she was 5 minutes later than usual. 
It wasn’t really very long, but it felt like it.  
  Kaji was six years old, skinny, with black hair like his sister’s, and blue-green eyes.  
He was wearing a green tee and baggy shorts.  Hana was the same age, with blonde hair in a 
ponytail and blue eyes.  She was wearing a lavender sundress and her ballet slippers.  
Kaji had been very surprised when he had found a strange device in his room, and even more 
surprised when Hana came running to see him and showed him a similar thing.  They were almost 
exactly the same, except for the color.  Kaji’s was yellow and Hana’s was light lavender.  
They looked a lot like digivices.  The twosome decided they were and looked for their Digimon 
at recess.  They didn’t find any.
  Hana looked up and cried, "There she is!  Sakura!  Sakura!"  
   She ran and threw herself at Sakura, ignoring the stranger who followed behind.  
Kaji did the same and noticed Sakura was carrying something.  "What’s that?"
     Sakura looked uneasily at the stranger, who was also carrying something.  The stranger 
shrugged.  "Um, it’s a stuffed animal.  Cool, isn’t it?"
  "Who’re you?" asked Hana, referring to the stranger.
  Sakura waved this away.  "This is Hiromi, I know him from school.  Hiromi, this is Kaji, 
my little brother, and Hana, his friend.  I baby-sit them.  Let’s go-what is that?"  She 
pointed at their digivices.  
  "They’re Digimon devices," said Hana proudly.
"What?!" asked Sakura and the Hiromi in unison.
     Kaji sighed as if they were stupid.  "We have Digimon, Sakura."
"But, how?" Sakura was puzzled.
  "We don’t know," admitted Hana.
     Kaji looked at his older sister pityingly.  "Maybe you can get one too, someday."
"I already do!" Sakura blurted out.
          The kids’ eyes widened.  "Really, where is it?"
  "Right here!" she held her Digimon out.
     "You said it was a stuffed animal."
"She didn’t realize you had ones too, then" offered Hiromi helpfully.  "Where are yours?"
  "We don’t know," Hana said uncomfortably.
     "You don’t know," Sakura echoed hollowly.
"No," confirmed Kaji, "but we have digivices."
  "Let’s straighten this out at home," Sakura massaged her forehead.  "Maybe I can borrow 
some of Yuki’s brain cells."     


Far off, a girl stood watching them.  She had long red hair pulled back by a purple bandana, 
had purple eyes, and wore blue jeans and a striped purple-and-white shirt.  In her arms rested 
Poromon, a pink bird Digimon.  "So that’s Yoru’s son.  And he and that girl have Digimon.  
Interesting.  I wonder how he snuck a prize Digimon from his father’s lab.  Who knows, maybe 
he can control Cerberumon.  I know I could."
  Poromon looked up, worried.  "You aren’t going to leave me for Cerberumon, are you Sydney?"
     Sydney smiled.  "Now why would I do that?  You know I love you.  You’re all I have left, 
anyway."
  The little Digimon seemed relieved.  "Good, ‘cause I don’t want to go back to the bad people. 
They are evil, and their whips hurt."
     She stroked Poromon gently.  "Don’t worry.  Those schmoes from Ragnarok won’t 
touch you with whips ever again, if I have anything to say about it."
     Poromon sighed contentedly and asked, "So, will that YukimiBotamon become a Gatomon?"
  Sydney shrugged, "I think so, but I’m not positive.  Surprises are always popping up 
all over."
          Poromon fluttered his little wings.  "Maybe we can digivolve into Sylphimon.  
That would be cool!"
  She smiled, watching the back-haired girl.  She wanted desperately to have friends again.  
She hadn’t really had any for the past six years, other than Poromon.  Work had taken up most 
of her time.  When her old friends saw her, they were scared of the change in her.  She had 
become very cold and heartless.  But battling does that to you.  Now the only one she could 
really show affection for was Poromon.  "I hope so, Poromon.  I hope so."