2Kuwagamon said nothing to the children, who only heard the loud buzzing of its wings. It didn't want to negotiate with them, didn't want to hear them beg for their lives, and was more than willing to be thought of as just a dumb beast. After all, the Chosen Children hadn't actually done anything wrong yet; they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Kuwagamon was not going to let them purify the digital world on Homeostasis' behalf.
Not if it had anything to say about it.
There would be no waiting around, no ordered boss fights, no time for them to level up and give them a chance to figure out what they were doing. It was lucky enough to spot them on File Island while they were still introducing themselves to (or in one case, fleeing from) their digimon servants; the sound of a Pukamon chasing after its terrified alien master was so disgusting and servile that Kuwagamon actually flew away to target the others.
Still, it intended to make the most of this opportunity. Killing innocent children was never pleasant, but Kuwagamon would do what it must for the sake of the digital world. Or at least, it would try.
The child looking through his telescope on the tree looked vulnerable, but his comrade's Mochimon was a clever one, and the four of them ducked into another tree – this one hollow and way too small for Kuwagamon to enter. But it didn't matter. They couldn't hide in there forever, and stayed for just long enough to give Kuwagamon time to fly away and make another pass.
The trees slowed it down, and the hair of the boy he had first attacked made it misjudge his height, but Kuwagamon chased them to a cliff's edge all the same. The servants tried to protect their masters, and fought bravely, but seven baby digimon were nothing to an Adult.
The legend did say, Kuwagamon would later admit in retrospect, that the Chosen Children would give their slaves the power of evolution. But it didn't think it'd work on exhausted digimon, didn't think it'd be instantaneous, didn't think they could do it after taking a Power Guillotine; at the time, it was honestly surprised they hadn't completely disintegrated.
The evolution was like nothing Kuwagamon had ever seen, and for a moment it seemed like Homeostasis' puppets had actually won. Then again, Kuwagamon had chased them to the edge of a cliff; one clean cut and it'd all be over. Even if they did somehow survive the fall, it wasn't alone, and surely Shellmon would finish them off.
Or at least, that was what Kuwagamon thought until the black gears switched direction, File Island reunified, and it learned that Devimon was dead and the children had fled all the way to Server.
The Net Ocean was vast, and many a bird digimon lacked the endurance to cross it, but the actual flying came effortlessly to Kuwagamon. It had no love for the taste of fish, but the thought of defeat left a far more bitter taste in its mouth, and enough DigiAnchovies swam close enough to the surface that it only rarely had to endure hunger. Only once – probably around the eighteenth day, but Kuwagamon had honestly lost count – did it grow hungry enough to doubt it could cross the sea, to fear it would perish in the middle of nowhere, with no one knowing where or when it died. But the precious sight of a DigiSeaBass offered Kuwagamon the hope of rejuvenation, and surely it wasn't so weakened by hunger that it would fail to catch a fish.
"Scissor Arms!"
It wasn't a very clean cut, and half of the fish sunk deep beneath the sea. But the other half was just barely enough to fill Kuwagamon's empty stomach, and the next day it found more than enough fish to put any thoughts of hunger to rest.
For most of the journey, in truth, Kuwagamon's real problem was boredom. No one to fight, no one to spend time with, not even strange sounds or a pleasant breeze to help it pass the time. All that kept it going was the thought of its mission; it wanted revenge for Devimon, deeply regretted letting the Chosen Children escape, and feared for the place of virus-types (and to a lesser extent, of all digimon) in the balanced world that Homeostasis desired.
Since when is a world saved by an alien invasion?
In time, the sound of still water gave way to that of waves crashing against the shore, then finally to the high plateaus of Server's western coastline. Kuwagamon continued its search for the chosen children, receiving tips from a number of helpful Gazimon, but some traced them to a relatively nearby Pagumon or Koromon village (they seemed confused about the identity of the inhabitants, but the directions clearly pointed to the same place) and others to a desert larger than File Island, hundreds of miles away.
The village was a Pagumon one, but its residents confirmed the latter story, so Kuwagamon had no choice but to search for human children in a desert so large it was traversed by luxury liners. If the smell of humans mingling with seven rare digimon species had been any less distinctive, Kuwagamon could probably have searched its whole life without ever finding them, and there were still enough gaps in the trail that it attributed its ultimate success to luck.
Kuwagamon found the children tired, downcast, and moving in a straight and predictable line. A burrow trap could be a waste of time in a desert without roads, but seven on one was a risky enough fight that there was no such thing as being too careful. Unfortunately, its surprise attack was insufficient to finish off either the Agumon or his master, but Kuwagamon had grown many times stronger while traveling across the ocean, and could certainly beat it in a straight-up fight; it shrugged off a Baby Flame like it was nothing.
Praying for another miracle, the children begged the Agumon to evolve, but the very thought seemed to terrify it as panic filled its lizard brain. The human child (who the Agumon called "Taichi") recovered enough to dash back into the fight and tackle his slave out of the way of one Scissor Arms – its nemesis, Kuwagamon had to admit, was a brave master who genuinely cared about the digimon under his yoke. Perhaps this fact startled Kuwagamon enough that it messed up the angle on its second attack, cutting narrowly above their heads. But its foes remained prone, and none of the other six digimon had yet joined the melee; it seemed likely that they planned to run and save their own skins, but were too frozen in fear to start. And surely a third Scissor Arms would be enough to kill at least two of its enemies.
But Kuwagamon never managed that third, clean cut, for Piccolomon announced its arrival with a Pit Bomb, and ducking into the sand trap it had dug earlier was the only way Kuwagamon could (barely) survive. If someone as strong as Piccolomon had sided with the human children, there was simply nothing Kuwagamon could do to protect the digital world from humans, except to hope that stronger virus digimon had could finish the job it could not. Then again, along the way to tracking down the children, it had heard that Etemon and Vamdemon were looking for them too...
The humans ultimately defeated Etemon, but went home in pursuit of Vamdemon, and the years went by with nary a word from either. Kuwagamon had assumed the children had defeated Vamdemon's invasion of their world, but had no more interest in involving themselves with Homeostasis' schemes for its own.
As the Digital World became Spiral Mountain, those old prophecies became no more than a distant memory. Kuwagamon lived a peaceful life, spending its days hunting, flying, and sparring with other digimon. It considered applying to work for Pinocchimon, like so many other Wind Guardians, but received a tip from a RedVegimon acquaintance that the forest's new lord was notoriously short-tempered and prone to killing underlings, so it wisely chose to keep its distance and live outside the flow of history.
Until the day when the clouds disappeared and the air pressure changed, and as Kuwagamon flew higher to investigate, it heard a strange world below, with constant noise, polluted air mixed with slowly dispersing fog, and even more metal towers than Mugendramon's quarter of Spiral Mountain. Kuwagamon heard something like a legless Pteranomon in the distance and approached it to attack; the day had been long, and Kuwagamon was suddenly feeling hungrier than ever.
The impact with the Pteranomon-like UFO was strange; Kuwagamon passed through it as if it was transparent, but the object's wing crystallized on contact and it fell out of the sky. The insect digimon wondered if it had learned a new attack; if so, it was a powerful one that'd serve it well in the future. If Kuwagamon were an ordinary digimon, perhaps it would've thought of a name for the technique like "Crystal Wing!" but it wasn't even the type to usually shout "Scissor Arms!" even when sparring with opponents that knew it wasn't a dumb beast. But however powerful the attack, the UFO it hit was made almost entirely of metal, with a hollow interior and no warm saurian flesh to eat.
And then it heard the familiar, panicked voice of a human child, and the digimon it had last met as a Piyomon evolved from Birdramon to Garudamon. Were Homeostasis' followers behind this object?! While the Garudamon ignored Kuwagamon to hold up the UFO, the virus-type saw its old nemesis, Kabuterimon, flying high into the air to help out. Apparently, the child's Tentomon had chosen the most spiteful possible evolutionary path.
Powered as much by an ancient, genetic resentment as by concern for the Digital World, Kuwagamon flew towards Kabuterimon, but missed. Kabuterimon fired back with a Mega Blaster, which flew at a trajectory that should've connected, but strangely, Kuwagamon didn't feel a thing. Kabuterimon dodged its next attack, but could not long maintain its new form, and soon devolved all the way to Mochimon. On a better day, Kuwagamon might have finished the children off, but it was very hungry and disoriented, and what in the world had happened to the sky?
In later years, Kuwagamon would count this encounter as its third victory over the human children and regret it as a missed opportunity to finish them off. But at the time, Kuwagamon was uncertain if it could defeat Garudamon, and did not know whether the humans were to blame for this situation… or if the Dark Masters were. Perhaps, it genuinely wondered, the children were the lesser evil.
Kuwagamon ignored the children when it heard them traipse through Pinocchimon's forest; it was perfectly happy to let them take out Pinocchimon, and intended to finish them off after their fight concluded. Unfortunately, when Pinocchimon died, so did the forest it called home, and the loss of any navigable landmarks let the children escape, unaware that they had ever been followed. Kuwagamon did not learn they had arrived in Mugendramon's city until said city was already no more, and did not reach the summit of Spiral Mountain in time for the final battle; although Kuwagamon had not been defeated, the Digital World was still purified despite its violent opposition.
Yet purification, truth be told, at first seemed like less of a tragedy than Kuwagamon feared. It couldn't fight digimon without prior agreement anymore, and was restricted to meat farms and fish for food. There were no more boss digimon to swear allegiance to, and as a virus-type, it was certainly viewed with suspicion. But the great tragedy Kuwagamon had tried so hard to stop seemed stillborn, and the humans went home; if this was Homeostasis' victory, Kuwagamon could live with it.
In truth, the tragedy came three years later.
First came the obelisk – erected overnight, disrupting wind patterns in its home forest and towering high above the trees. An annoyed Kuwagamon, taking it as a prank from the local Scumon and Chuumon, approached to demolish it, when it heard the approach of a human child whom the air moved strangely around – as if he was wearing a cape and brandishing a whip.
Homeostasis had chosen a child, Kuwagamon figured, to finish what the last eight could not. A self-proclaimed Digimon Kaiser, who was not content with one servant, but had already assembled a miniature army of slaves. And, apparently, who wanted to add Kuwagamon to his collection.
A black ring flew through the air from behind Kuwagamon, which would likely have trapped lesser digimon, but this one had superb hearing and had been on File Island in the days of Devimon, so it understood exactly what that ring meant. Gaining a bit of altitude was enough for it to dodge the first throw, but the Digimon Kaiser was not one to be so easily deterred.
"Go, Airdramon!"
Kuwagamon continued flying forward as it heard the winged serpent approach from the other direction; it doubted it could dodge repeated God Tornadoes from behind, and didn't want to run from this fight. Being flanked was far from ideal, but unavoidable against the kind of cowards who wouldn't take on Kuwagamon one on one; humans just didn't know how to fight fair.
Then again, Kuwagamon didn't ultimately dodge a single attack from Airdramon. The one God Tornado it took hurt, but its exoskeleton absorbed the wind and heat well enough, and there was no avoiding it at such a close range; at least Airdramon's thin, frail body could not endure a single Scissor Arms. The human child was thinking strategically, although he did not anticipate a direct assault; a couple more Evil Rings flew at Kuwagamon, one on each side, leaving it with no option but to push forward.
Kuwagamon wanted to turn back around to descend and face the human boy; it didn't smell any larger digimon standing between the two, just a Drimogemon and a Monochromon on opposite edges of the battlefield, probably held in reserve to cut off Kuwagamon's escape route. (Probably a mistake, Kuwagamon reasoned; the Drimogemon was a problem, but Monochromon couldn't shoot its fireballs high enough to trouble any digimon that could fly.) A Wormmon was standing beside the boy, but even if it was his partner, it seemed unlikely that it had learned the secret of evolution. (If it had, why was it still a Wormmon? The battle had already begun.)
Kuwagamon's momentum from the attack on Airdramon kept it flying forward until it careened right into the obelisk; as it crashed down to earth, it began to think it had finally lost to a Chosen Child. Yet the moment the tower fell, the Monochromon smashed its tail into its own back leg, breaking its evil ring, and the Drimogemon sawed its ring off with its drill, while the badly wounded Airdramon thrashed around the ground until its ring also broke. Knowing nothing of what the Dark Towers were, Kuwagamon took it for a miracle; perhaps Yggdrasil itself wanted it to win this fight. Kuwagamon picked itself up and charged on foot at the seemingly defenseless child, but soon heard a cry of "Sticky Net!" and fell flat on its face, legs bound together with thread.
And worse, some of Wormmon's net had got on its wings, and although Kuwagamon tried to take back to the air, it wasn't flying nearly as fast as normal. It chased after the self-proclaimed Digimon Kaiser, but he scampered away into the bushes with his Wormmon, never to return.
The Digimon Kaiser would rule over half the digital world before his fall, but he would never again erect a Dark Tower in Kuwagamon's forest. Kuwagamon, for its part, resented that yet another human had run away – and that it hadn't been able to chase him down and stop him.
The Kaiser fell eventually, but the rumors around his demise were so strange as to be outright unbelievable, for who had ever heard of humans fighting other humans? The Dark Towers he built continued to dot much of the Digital World, and a fully evolved human couple transformed many of them into powerful, artificial digimon; humans, like digimon, evidently grew even more dangerous as they evolved. Kuwagamon briefly encountered their final menace, an Ultimate-level monstrosity named BlackWarGreymon who had taken to destroying the Holy Stones which kept the Digital World stable. The insect digimon hid behind a tree in terror, and by doing somehow escaped BlackWarGreymon's wrath.
In time, Qinglongmon defeated BlackWarGreymon, but more puzzling rumors swirled around this event; apparently, a squad of six humans, including one or two of its old targets and, bizarrely, the self-proclaimed (now former?) Digimon Kaiser, had been fighting to limit BlackWarGreymon's damage every step of the way. A few heretics even proposed that Qinglongmon itself had once possessed a human partner.
Somehow, the battle had forced open the digital gate, and digimon poured through to join a massive, worldwide human festival – but humanity only reacted with panic and violence, and Homeostasis' minions eventually forced them back through the digital gate. But apart from a brief incident with Vamdemon, who was warped beyond recognition by extensive contact with humans and ultimately defeated by all the Digital World together, the next three years were peaceful, and the digital gate usually remained closed.
Until a terrifying computer virus, which originated in the human world and spread through countless digimon via one of Homeostasis' own chosen children, finally forced the Digital World's host computer, Yggdrasil, to take action. Kuwagamon eagerly answered its call, and even hired a couple more members of his species to back it up if needed on this mission; they were younger and lacked its experience, but Kuwagamon knew it wasn't going to win this eight-on-one.
There would be no more excuses this time, no more withdrawals. Kuwagamon was going to enter the human world itself, and pursue the enemy children until he finished them off, like it should've done six years ago.
It first smelled Yagami Taichi stretching on a strange, square patch of grass, with Agumon nowhere in sight; after all these years, Kuwagamon felt a touch of melancholy at finishing Taichi off without his sickeningly servile lizard, but wasn't one to pass up such good fortune. Taichi jumped on some kind of metallic human contraption (with two wheels, by the sound of it) and fled at a surprising speed; Kuwgamon could easily chase down a human on foot, but these paved roads, built for wheels, were another matter. Luckily, the sound of its wings shattered glass, which humans actually used to coat their buildings and vehicles; hopefully it'd be enough to trap him. All Kuwagamon had to do was climb high into the air (human settlements didn't have many trees, but their metal structures worked well enough) and launch at him with one good dive.
It wasn't a clean hit, but knocking him from his vehicle was enough to ensure he couldn't get away. The kid didn't go down easy, even got back on the device for a few seconds before getting knocked off again. At the time, Kuwagamon genuinely believed that Taichi was only delaying the inevitable.
Had it not been for Homeostasis' favor, perhaps Kuwagamon would've truly won without a fight – but it should never have been so naive as to think such a thing was possible. It didn't matter that the gate had been closed for a while by now, didn't matter that they were in the wrong world. Of course Agumon appeared, of course their final battle wouldn't be a simple assassination.
The fight with Agumon (soon to evolve to Greymon) was strangely nostalgic; they went in and out of the digital world for hours, stopping by the cliff where they had first met and the deserts of Server where Piccolomon had protected the children, and just like the old days, neither could finish the other off. Eventually they wound up in a place the humans called "Haneda Airport", filled with objects like the false Pteranomon that Kuwagamon had brought down; close enough, Kuwagamon supposed, given that their third encounter had involved one of those vehicles.
But Taichi and Greymon weren't about to finish this one-on-one. Somehow five of the other children had made their way to Haneda as backup, along with seven servile digimon, five of whom (not just the Tentomon and Piyomon) evolved on command, just like Taichi's Agumon! Kuwagamon's own mercenaries soon joined the fray, and an injured Greymon devolved, but its two new comrades, although they fought hard, weren't quite strong enough to survive this five-on-three fight.
Dying on Earth… Kuwagamon couldn't help but feel a bit of guilt for their fate, even if it was what every digimon risked when they left the Digital World. What every digimon might suffer if Homeostasis wasn't stopped, if the human and digital worlds became one. At least their sacrifice seemed meaningful; although their numerical ratio had worsened, the traitor digimon were exhausted, and Kuwagamon genuinely believed it could finish the rest five-on-one. The Garurumon in particular was all but dead, and one more attack would be enough…
Until a digital gate opened behind Kuwagamon, and Alphamon's strong hand gripped it and pulled it back into the Digital World, leaving it to tearfully ask "why?!" Perhaps Yggdrasil really cared as little as Homeostasis did about the digimon themselves; gods never stopped playing their strange games.
August 1st, 2006.
The date it overheard meant nothing to Kuwagamon, save that it was a date in the human calendar; digimon counted months instead of years. Even if Kuwagamon wanted to convert the date, it wouldn't begin to know how, especially given that the date might've been all the way back before the flow of time had synchronized in their respective worlds.
All it knew was that it seemed special to the thirteen humans (not quite adults, but no longer children) and twelve digimon who had gathered on File Island for a picnic, which they spent happily, and at times not so happily, reminiscing about their experiences in the Digital World. Some of the voices were familiar – the seven Kuwagamon had first attacked, and the former Digimon Kaiser – but others it had never met before. And strangely, Kuwagamon found itself stopping to listen for a while before it flew out of the bushes to finish things.
"Gabumon, time to Warp Evolve!" one of them shouted, but Taichi stopped him.
"Let's give Kuwagamon a fair fight. One on one, same level. Crushing it with nine Ultimates just doesn't feel right when it was nice enough to show up to the party." It was strange how he seemed almost happy about its presence. "Seven years of interruptions – let's finish this!"
"Agumon, shinka! Greymon!"
Kuwagamon waited patiently for its rival to evolve, then tried to shrug off a Mega Flame. But Kuwagamon wasn't the only digimon to grow stronger over the years; that attack hurt! Still, the virus-type digimon charged forward – not like an assassination, but like it was sparring with an old friend.
"Scissor Arms!" Kuwagamon hadn't meant to speak when it attacked, yet it had lost itself in the moment, and twenty-five voices simultaneously expressed their surprise that it could even speak, that it wasn't a dumb beast. It was silent for the rest of the fight, letting its scissor arms and the buzzing of its wings do the talking.
But when finally bested, after a long and enjoyable battle, Kuwagamon spoke once again.
"Maybe you humans aren't so bad after all."
