I'm Sure We Can Fly Again (Artifact Material Hunt)/(Ask)

"Are you feeling okay, Kaya?" A certain V-forehead-ed red dragon asked the young girl as the two of them, as well as Adrian and Hawkeye, were visiting the Lux Harmony Festival in Ys.

"I don't know..." she replied halfheartedly, her arms crossed and her sullen eyes staring at the ground. It has been a week since Kaya and Hawkeye had gone through the ExD virus incident in the Server Woods, and of course told Adrian and Shoutmon about it prior. They tried to be as supportive as they could, but not much with lifting Kaya's mood. She at least agreed to come to the festival with them, but even this has shown to been unsuccessful in lifting her spirits.

"I understand if you just wanna go home," Adrian told her. "You went through something absolutely hellish. I'd be feeling the same if I were in your place. We just thought a festival in Ys would help you feel better."

"It's fine, Adrian, really. I just... don't know, okay?" It was hard to for her to put her own current emotions into words at the moment. All she could do was try to move on... but how do you move on from something like the ExD virus? She eventually gazed up at the sky... where she saw a flying taxi heading for the outer wall of the city. Something was definitely off. "Y'know, Adrian, I think Hawkeye and I are gonna leave for a bit, see something that caught my eye."

"We are?"

"Are you sure, Kaya? You don't know Ys all that well."

"Yeah, totally sure," she said as she used her Digivice to armor evolve Hawkeye to Halsemon before climbing onto his back. "We'll meet up back here in an hour!" she called out before Hawkeye took to the skies, subtly following the flying taxi.

---

Hawkeye followed the yellow taxi to a certain point before he landed on the ground, as to not let whoever was inside see them. Devolving back into Hawkmon, both Hawkeye and Kaya would hide behind a nearby wall or bush, whatever was closest, and see what was going on. Hawkeye would've asked questions right about now but at this point it was pointless questioning Kaya, especially if something caught her attention like this did.

The taxi door opened, revealing both Itou Yuuki and the king of Ys, Hikaru. The same ones that fought the ExD Digimon with Kaya and Hawkeye, as well as Hana, Data, Rush and Sakura. What were they doing out here by the city wall?

The moment that the two of them touched the wall, a strange sound was emanated that was heard throughout the entire city. It was a very odd sound, especially from just touching a wall. Kaya had enough playing spy at this moment, she wanted to get confrontational. She got out of the bushes along with Hawkeye and started walking towards Yuuki and Hikaru. And boy oh boy, did she look scary for a thirteen year old. "I came here to the festival with my friend to have fun. Please tell me that what just happened was one hundred percent normal and that nothing scary or weird is gonna happen," she told them, crossing her arms once she stopped talking.

"I-It is nice to see you again, Yuuki and Hikaru," Hawkeye awkwardly added.

Naoki Aizawa had been having quite an odd day, considering he had spent the day gallavanting about a fantastical city after having met/reunited with two strange creatures that not only claimed to be siblings, but also knew him specifically. Like, by name and everything. It was very odd, but Xu and Filia were pretty dead-set on the subject.

As much as he wanted to deny all of that, though, he felt like that may well have been the case at some point. He was close to this pair at one point. Why did that change? The three had been engaged in conversation at the lobby of the hotel that Ryouta had dropped Naoki off at, before a strange...tune was heard. One that echoed throughout the city.

"...Oi. Are we just going to ignore that?" Filia stated, her expression as irate as it usually was. "Those noises don't just come out of nowhere in this city." To which Xu gave a shrug. "The call on what -we- do's on Nao like it's always been. And I don't blame him if he doesn't want to intervene..."

Seriously, this was all a lot to deal with right off the bat, but Naoki had been looking pensive for about all of five seconds. "...Well, if you were my partners at one point, then I guess this makes us partners once more. So...Let's go. That was from the wall, right?"

"Precisely."

"Then, I've got a fairly simple plan."

The plan? Hail a goddamn taxi. "...You know I could've fli-" "No, you couldn't. Remember how long it took us to reach champion?"

"...Ooooh...Dang it."

The flight over to the wall was uneventful but...free, thankfully. And there were people there already. At least one of whom Naoki Aizawa recognized as a friend from college, and high school. The trio disembarked, and stared towards everyone gathered. To them, they'd see a teenager in a labcoat around Yuuki's age, accompanied by a Coronamon and a Lunamon.

"Good to see you, Yuuki. And....you people who...I don't know yet. At least I'm certain I don't know you guys."

"...Amnesia's a bitch."

"Please forgive my partner's tone," Hawkeye said as he bowed to Yuuki and Hikaru. It was understandable that they each didn't appreciate being called a source of danger. "She is only stressed because we both have been having nightmares since that day. It was going to happen regardless of if you were there or not. Your presence even saved us, we would not have defeated it on our own."

Kaya just looked away. Like all teenagers, she didn't want to admit that she was wrong. Still though, the part about Yuuki being victims just like the others were, it made her feel pretty bad. She was indeed just stressed from the nightmares... the horrible, horrible nightmares... but she shouldn't put the blame on Yuuki, or even Hana. She couldn't help but feel bitter though... and she didn't wanna be bitter at the fabulous doru king in front of her!

Speaking of, she was the next to arrive, alongside Data, Rush and Sakura. Of course Hawkeye could hear Data mumble under his breath about his disappointment meeting up with Yuuki and Hikaru again. Hawkeye simply looked at him with a serious expression. "I recommend you show a little more respect. That is the king of this city right in front of you. That goes for you too, Kaya, regardless of your personal feelings."

"Yeah yeah," Kaya uncharacteristically muttered like some moody teen.

"...just what has gotten into you today?"

Before more could be said, another person showed up. Another human, and a Twin Tamer at that. He seemed to have history with Yuuki and Hikaru, with the latter calling him "Naoki" and his partners Xu and Filia. Naoki sort of greeted the others, though he seemed to not be sure if he knew them or not. "No, we've never met. I'm Kaya Matsui, and that's my partner Hawkeye."

Hikaru told the group that they were as lost as anyone else about this whole thing... before another tune started to play. And this time, it actually sounded like a proper song. A butterfly sigil appeared on the wall as the song played before opening a path at the end, with several Morpho butterflies flying out before disappearing once they reached the sky. Yuuki announced that he was going to go in, letting the others decide if they wanted to stay or go. Kaya and Hawkeye looked at each other, each with expressions of indecisiveness.

"I'll understand if you want to go in," Hawkeye said, grabbing onto Kaya's hand with his wing. "And I'll understand if you want to go back and meet up with Adrian and Shoutmon. I won't think of you any less. Whichever path you choose, I will follow without question."

Kaya looked back at the opening. She had a bad feeling about this... but she was already feeling pretty nasty at the moment. If this did turn out horribly, it's not like it would change her that much. She took a deep breath, and stepped up beside Yuuki along with Hawkeye. "I'm going with you. And... and I'm sorry about earlier."

Unfortunate as it was, the gathering here came dangerously close to turning into something akin to a confrontation, but it was swiftly defused. "I guess being a first responder to danger leads to a level of association...?" Xu mused aloud. In the meantime, Naoki had received a quick reintroduction to Hikaru--the furry companion of yet another friend of his from high school.

"Xu gave me the rundown--it's nice to meet you again, your highness." Naoki replied with a smile on his face, still. Filia would let out a huff. "We're past that, I'd hope. It was a long time ago, after all, and we're both way older..."

There was a chime that drew the attention of all three, and Naoki winced a little bit. It sounded familiar in a way. And there were butterflies going around...? Regardless, he turned to Kaya and Hanako (and their partners, I'm not writing ALL OF THOSE NAMES down!) and gave a formal bow. "Aizawa Naoki. It's nice to meet you. These are my partners, Xu and Filia."

"Hi." "Yo."

Turning their attention back to the hole in the wall, this was something that was...actually far more familiar to Naoki than he thought. Yes, he had seen something like this before, but not...quite like this...

"Well, no sense in letting you go in alone...Plus? I feel like we've been here before."

...A very simple decision. It seemed like everyone was ready to go in.

So it was all agreed, the group was going to go in. Hikaru pulled out something that resembled a shield, which would then split into two and start to orbit around him. He announced that he would be taking front, with Naoki taking center. The rest of the group would be able to choose where to go, but Hikaru suggested that Hawkeye be up front with him for better aim in case something goes wrong. "A wise idea," the Hawkmon agreed, taking his place beside Hikaru at the front. Kaya decided to just stay behind those two for the time being.

Then the group would descend through the door and deeper into whatever it truly was. And it was taking quite a long time, too. Kaya couldn't exactly tell how long they had been walking, but Hawkeye figured it was at least half an hour. On the bright side nothing dangerous had popped out of nowhere, so there was no need to worry about being attacked, at least for now.

"This just keeps going and going..." Kaya muttered, not from boredom but just from a sort of... impressed feeling? She didn't really know how to describe it.

They finally arrived at the bottom, and what they saw was unlike anything they had ever seen before. It was like a naturally-made corridor, with lots of pretty crystals covering the walls. Kaya's smile grew as she looked around her, she had never seen anything this beautiful in her life. "So amazing...!"

"This city sure loves its crystals, doesn't it?" Hawkeye said in jest.

When Yuuki scanned the wall with his Digivice, he suddenly yelled "30%?!" as if he was surprised by that number. "Wait a second, thirty percent of what?" Kaya asked before she attempted to read what was on the D-NexT. "Pearl Digicite? Main component of creating ancient Digivices... this is the first I'm hearing of this."

Hikaru asked if the others could hear something. Before anyone could properly respond, Yuuki touched one of the crystals before some sort of... video started playing on the wall, as if the crystal itself was some kind of projector. It showed a young Yuuki, and a newly hatched Hikaru... as well as someone else that Kaya and Hawkeye didn't recognize. "What is this...?"

More videos of Yuuki and Hikaru would continue to play. It was like... it was like they were seeing their past adventures. Then, the memories got... dark. A train with several other Chosen were shown trying to get out of the Server Woods, four rookies against a Champion... someone's death... Hikaru in a state of near death... Then another man with a fellow Dorumon appeared. Hikaru armor evolving into a Halsemon-like wolf dragon, the other Dorumon into a Sangloupmon. This particular memory made Yuuki visibly upset. He mentioned how they would never return. Kaya quickly put the pieces together.

"...that was Tatsuya and Blake... wasn't it, Yuuki?" she asked him in a somber tone.

It wasn't long before Hawkeye began hearing sounds as well. It sounded like... someone talking. He too would slowly walk up to the wall and touch another one of the crystals.

-I'm the fastest 'mon in history, Eizo, you'll never be able to catch me!

"What the-?!" Hawkeye gasped as he looked back at the wall. It was now showing a scene in the Server Woods, specifically a large tree nearby a flowing river. There was a happy looking Poromon playfully being chased by a young man, no older than Yuuki currently was. This man had blonde hair like Kaya's, only it was cut at medium length, parted in the middle. He was smiling as well as he played around with the Poromon, the two of them looking like they were having the time of their lives. "This... this cannot be..."

The scene would suddenly change. It was still the same location, only the man in question was sitting under the tree and a crying Poromon hopped up to him, digging his face into the boy's lap. He was clearly upset about something.

They were bullying me again, E-Eizo! Th-They were s-saying mean things to me! New mean things! They know about you, they were calling me a traitor for being friends with you,  they kept pushing me into the mud, they-they-they... why don't they like me?! Am I a bad Digimon, Eizo? Am I broken? The Poromon kept on blubbering like this, as waterworks of tears fell from his eyes. In response, Eizo scooped up the little guy in his arms and held him in a nurturing fashion.

Of course you're not broken, and you're certainly not a bad Digimon. You say you'll never be able to Digivolve, right? I say who cares? The same thing happens a lot in the human world... we just aren't as accepting of people who are different as we should be. I deal with something similar at home. My sisters are very abusive, and they do similar things that the Digimon in your village do to you.

They... they do?

Mhm. I don't know why they do it, I feel like they just torment me for fun sometimes. That's part of the reason why I like coming down here, it's because for at least a little bit I don't have to put up with their intolerance. And of course, you're the other reason I like this place. You're a good Digimon, Hawkeye. No matter how many Digimon try to tell you otherwise, try to demean you or push you down, you have a spot in this world. A well deserved spot. Someone is always going to be there for you. And I promise you, Hawkeye, I will never abandon you. We're in this together 'til the end.

The scenes would continue changing. Various scenes of the two playing together, telling jokes, singing, laughing, having fun... then only three short scenes would play next. The first was Eizo and Hawkeye hanging out, before a red-scaled Magnamon appeared before them. The second was Eizo and Hawkeye being cornered by this RedMagnamon, with Eizo throwing Hawkeye out of the way before the RedMagnamon's hand went right through Eizo...

And the third was worst of all. It showed Hawkeye mourning over Eizo's now lifeless body... the one person who said they'd never abandon him... and now he was alone again...

Hawkeye fell to his "knees" as he stared at the memories on the wall. Tears were falling down his face, and he wheezed with every breath he took. He just couldn't take it... he covered his face with his wings and began crying audibly. "Why... why would it show me this?!"

"Hawkeye..." Kaya cried as she knelt down to give her partner a big hug, tears falling down her face as well since she knew what came next. The beauty of this place has effectively been completely sucked out from the both of them, now all they feel of this damn corridor are bitter feelings of hate for being shown such things.

"He's never coming back..." was all that Hawkeye was able to say after that. Kaya just hugged the bird 'mon closer...

Well, plans were being established rather quickly. Even if he had been friends with the king at some point, Naoki felt a liiiittle weird just calling him by name and not by title. There was a modicum of respect required here. One that prompted him to look to his partners, who each shrugged. With Filia being a bit more dismissive about it.

"Guess being a worrywart's one thing that's the same as always."

"...Wow."

Naoki and pals decided to take center, with the twins taking one flank each so they didn't get beset from either side. It was a fairly good plan as they made a long descent into what seemed to be a passage...With the bottom leading into a crystalline corridor. "...As unprecedentedly pretty as this might be, this isn't supposed to happen, right?" As the others began to see, or hear things upon the walls, Naoki found himself running his hand across the crystalline wall, staring at a scene playing upon it.

If people had been seeing their memories, then Naoki Aizawa was unsure what this was.

---

For the trio, the scene that played was one set upon an island, an island with a ruined city, dominated by six sinister individuals that have been lost to time. Naoki could see himself--younger, about fifteen to sixteen years old, surrounded by two blobs that vaguely resembled the Digimon he had with him right now.

Well, we're Digimon! Digital Monsters!

The others weren't having all too grand of an experience right now. Data's memory played next, showing a memory of when he and his father, an Andromon, were spending their last happy day together before his father was viciously deleted right in front of him. Kaya gasped and covered her mouth as this happened, the way that it all just happened so suddenly... it stunned her. Then it was the newcome Naoki whose video would play next. It was a younger Naoki meeting what seemed to be Xu and Filia for the first time before the scene shifted, and now Naoki was speaking to someone who looked awfully similar to Naoki. A sister?

The image became grainier as the memory played out, with only one line being heard before it cut entirely. Naoki and his partners would discuss what they just saw. It seemed that that was Naoki's sister Rei in the images, and something had happened to Naoki in the past. And Yuuki would be the one to at least paint a clearer picture for the others who were not involved in this story.

Yuuki did confirm that the friend in his own vision was indeed Tatsuya, and his Dorumon partner Blake. He explained that thanks to drama and the Digital World working against him, Yuuki had lost several friends in the Digital World during his adventures... but they weren't dead. Just... lost. He said he just hoped that his friends would return to the real world, with no memories of the Digital World or their Digivices would be smashed. And through his tears... Hawkeye felt his pain. He knows better now, but back after it happened Hawkeye would pray every night that he would wake up and Eizo's death would've just been a very bad nightmare. That he would wake up in Eizo's arms, and see the young man smiling back down at him. But that was years ago by this point...

Kaya slowly walked up to Yuuki. She wanted to say something so badly to cheer him up. She hated seeing people like this... she hated seeing Hawkeye like this... 

Eventually Yuuki stood back up, stating that he was ready to continue further. He gave the others an offer to either continue resting for a bit or leave this place if their psyche was too damaged. Kaya looked back down at Hawkeye. "What do you think?"

"...I think I'm feeling better..." Hawkeye responded, wiping away his own tears. "If you want to continue going down the path I'll still follow you without question."

"Are you sure? You told me how bad Eizo's murder was, but what I just saw-"

"I'm going to need to confront it eventually. I assure you it's perfectly fine," Hawkeye said. He was sounded a bit pissed off by this point, perhaps he just didn't want to discuss this any further.

"Alright... we're right behind you, Yuuki."