Cruel Sincerity [Armor Hunt/Complete]

“The Demon King has returned? Where is he? Show yourself, scoundrel!” A Yokomon emerged from the crowd, who looked identical to all the others, yet its deep, grown up voice totally contrasted its cute appearance.
“Ah, the Yokomon Elder! Long time no see, old friend.” Jokermon squatted on his lanky knees and casually greeted the talking little plant.
The so-called Yokomon Elder’s eyes narrowed, which would have looked threatening, if not for the fact that it was… well, an adorable Yokomon. “Demon King of the Digital World, Clown Prince of the Dark Area. You have a lot of nerve showing up in our peaceful village after what you did in the past. These children here are far too young to know of your ghastly crimes, but the older Yokomon remember the scars to this day.”
“Is this about that whole Ornismon incident? Come on, that was CENTURIES ago! You’ve rebuilt your village and everything. Besides, we all had a good laugh that time, didn’t we?” The flamboyant jester said with an unhinged, toothy smile.

The Yokomon Elder, however, did not laugh with his theatrics, addressing Yuko directly instead. “Tamer, you and your partner Digimon are forever banished from our village. His awful face is scaring the children!”
“Hang on a sec, you can’t just kick us out!” The Japanese delinquent rightfully objected.
“Bubble Blow!” The Yokomon Elder shot an almighty bubble out of its mouth, hitting the human in the face with the full force of a harmless bubble.
“Ow! Did you just hit me with freaking bubbles?! I mean, it didn’t hurt that much, but… it was still rude!”
“Bubble Blow!” The rude little plant shot yet another bubble at the complaining girl, who held her cheek in slight pain. “This is the last warning! Leave now, before I release the Monochromon herd!”
“Alright alright, we’ll leave! Jeez!” Yuko finally complied, grabbing Jokermon’s pointy ear - who let out a high-pitched squeal in response - and dragging him along. She was a tough girl, but not even she could do anything against freaking bubbles.

Banished from the village of Yokomon with their old traditions, the duo ventured deeper into the forest, surrounded by towering trees whose foliages blocked out most sunlight. Once again, Jokermon - being the only one among them who actually knew his way around the Digital World - acted as the guide. This annoyed Yuko, since it meant that once again, she was at the mercy of the clown’s mysterious whims. “I hate sounding like a broken record, but where the heck are we going?” She finally asked, having had enough of this secrecy.

“The whole debacle at the Yokomon village had me thinking… I’ve really lost touch with today’s youth.” The demonic jester casually explained. “The hip and young crowd is harder to impress. They don’t have enough artistic sense to appreciate good comedy. Therefore, I must update my repertoire!”
“Lovely. And how do you plan on doing that?” Yuko half-heartedly asked.
“Same way human actors reinvent themselves… with a wardrobe update!” Jokermon replied, raising his white-gloved fist up, index finger pointing towards the sky. “Ever heard of Digi-Eggs?”
“The eggs that Digimon are born out of?”
“No no, those are Digitamas. They’re totally different.” The self-proclaimed Demon King wagged his finger, correcting the human. “Digi-Eggs are not for hatching and certainly not for boiling. They’re rare and powerful artifacts that allow Digimon to perform an ancient type of Digivolution… Armor Digivolution!”
Yuko raised her pierced eyebrow curiously at that. “Okay, now I’m a little concerned. Last time you Digivolved as a Dracmon, you peeled your own face off.” And that was definitely not something she wished to witness again. Still, she followed him, even though her mind was practically screaming at her that this was a terrible idea. “So, do you know where to find one of those Digi-Eggs?”

The jester hummed loudly. “Hmmmm, a teardrop… Ah, that would be the Crest of Sincerity. That’s it, Yuko! In order to prove that you’re worthy, you need to be more sincere!”
“Jokah, I don’t have time for this! Move your lazy ass and get me outta here before these vine-tacles get any funny ideas!” The punk girl lost her cool and screamed at him, her limbs losing mobility as more and more of said vine-tacles coiled around them.
“Yuko, that is so inconsiderate of you! First of all, it’s Jokah-sama! Secondly, if I help you, I’ll use up energy, and if I use up energy, I’ll revert back into a Dracmon. Do you want me to sacrifice this gorgeous form just because you can’t be sincere enough?” Jokermon said, gesturing at himself.
It was at that point that Yuko finally had enough of it. “Why can’t YOU be more sincere, Jokah-SAMA?! You have all the answers, but you refuse to give me any until it’s too late! You’ve done nothing but trick me with half truths and outright lies! That Yokomon Elder called you a criminal and you kept smiling that idiotic smile of yours! Is there nothing that can get to you?!”
Even now, with the threat of his own Tamer dying or having very disturbing things happen to her, Jokermon’s idiotic smile did not falter. However, the girl’s outburst did get him to face her and finally look her in the eye (literally one eye, on account of his other being covered by his bandana). “Why should the truth get to me? I’ve never lied to you about what I am, have I? I’ve tricked and manipulated you, naturally. That’s what a Demon King does, after all. But I haven’t actually lied to you. Do you think I’ve lied to you, kid?”

The Demon King’s conficent, cool-headed argument juxtaposed the bundle of chaotic, bottled up emotions that Yuko was letting out of her system. She felt a pain much worse than the vines currently constricting her, and she couldn’t take it anymore. “HE lied to me! My father… he was a criminal, like you… and a clown, but not the kind that wore silly makeup. The kind that lied to his own family! I hate him, aaah!” The teenager let out another scream, as the vines nearly crushed her torso. “Alright, I don’t hate him! But he hurt me, and he hurt Mom too! If I had known, maybe… maybe I could have saved him! But I couldn’t do anything, because he never told me anything!” The girl had become a crying mess by this point. Interestingly, the more she talked, the more the vines around her loosened their grip, but she was too distraught to notice. “I’m scared… I try my best not to show it, but I am. I barely know a thing about the Digital World, except that it wants to kill me. If I can’t trust you, then I can’t trust myself. And if anything happened to the boys… Junpei, Mika… I wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. I don’t wanna die… and I don’t wanna lose them. They’re the best thing to have happened to me in a while…”