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The wind beneath her wings drove her on and on, keeping her in the air and carrying her across the grasslands of the Digital World.
She was Fairymon, warrior of the wind. The wind was her ally. Here she was free. The wind would carry her where ever she wanted to go.
A feeling of unspeakable freedom filled her as the landscape glided beneath her. Wasn't that the Digimon
school at which she and Junpei had ended up, after the Numemon mountain had been destroyed?Yes, she even recognized the tiny shapes of the baby Digimon. And there were Gabumon and Togemon too!
Laughing, she waved back before gaining height.
Free as the wind, that's what she was in this form. No one could hold her down, no one could imprison her. She could let herself be blown wherever she wanted to go.
Driiiiiiiiin!
Izumi was rudely roused from her sleep by her alarm.
Still sleepy, she looked at the clock. It was just after seven, but… Right, today was a Saturday. Had she forgotten to turn off the alarm?Grumbling, she turned onto her stomach and buried her head under her pillow as the spring sun shone relentlessly through the window, refusing her to sleep on for any longer. Was the sun trying to keep her awake? Was it some old goddess trying her best to keep Izumi from her sleep? No way, it would be that easy, Izumi thought to herself and tried to close her eyes again.But she could no longer find any peace. Her mind was already wandering.Finally, she sighed, sat up and stretched her arms extensively.Her family's house on the outskirts of Tokyo was surrounded by a small garden, where everything was currently blooming and thriving. The flowers on the hedge had slowly turned into a wonderful blue color that shimmered out of the green of the leaves. But she wouldn't be able to delight in this view for much longer…Sighing again, she got out of bed and looked in the mirror that was mounted to the wall in her room. Her nightgown was completely rumpled, as if she had had a restless sleep.She smoothed out the fabric and left the room to get something to eat in the kitchen.The house was quiet, she noticed. Her father was probably already on his way to work and her mother... She didn't know where her mother was, as she didn't actually have to work on Saturday. Maybe she was already on her way into town.The city… Maybe Izumi should go there later. At least she wouldn't be so alone in Shibuya. She could call one of the boys… But wouldn't she see them next weekend anyway? Then she would turn twelve years old and…
Shutumon, her Beast Spirit.
In this form, she could move even faster and more freely than in Fairymon's body. She had feathered wings that she could spread and that carried her far, far across the world.
A Digital World that had successfully recovered from the war that had happened nearly two years ago?
A healed Digital World in which several thousand years had surely passed by now…
The rather full train arrived at Shibuya Central Station and released a whole mass of people onto the platform. It was a warm day and yet most people were probably here to spend the day in stores or arcades without even noticing the good weather.While the crowd was already streaming towards the stairs to the main building, Izumi remained standing on the platform. Even here in the shadow at the platform was quite warm. The sun was visible of course, but the roof of the platform protected her.The train moved on and she looked after it.They had traveled to the Digital World from this station, well, not from here, but from the underground station that had later been destroyed by Lucemon.What was she actually doing here?She was wearing a short skirt, as she liked best in this weather, and a white T-shirt. With her bag in one hand, she slowly walked to the stairs and went into the underpass that led to the building itself.The elevator…She stopped in front of the metal door and looked at it briefly.This elevator had taken her to that secret underground station back then. Should she perhaps…?Although she thought it was a stupid idea, she reached out and pressed the button to request the elevator. It was at least worth a try, even if she wondered what she was supposed to do when she got there…
Pling!
The elevator arrived and she got in, selected the lowest level of the subway and waited. Another pling sounded and the doors opened. To the normal subway station. Of course!Stupid, she scolded herself in her mind and took the elevator back up.It wouldn't do any good to go back to the Digital World alone anyway. Alone she was weak… Without her friends… What was she supposed to do without her friends? As quickly as time passed in the Digital World, she probably wouldn't even meet Neemon and Bokomon there.She sighed. Why had she even gone to Shibuya?
The water that surrounded her.
It wasn't a dream. It was a memory...
She caught her breath, though she sank further and further down into the water. And then she knew that the glow she saw below her belonged to her B-Spirit. She knew that she too could fly.
The cars sped past beside the avenue, while Izumi sat lonely on a bench under one of the trees, not far from the Hachiko statue. She had bought herself some ice cream on a stick and was now eating it more or less listlessly.Since they had returned from the Digital World, everything had become better than it had been before. She had been doing really well since then. She had Takuya, Koji and the others. She had also made friends in her class. She now felt really at home in Tokyo.And now she was supposed to leave?Why?A voice startled her out of her thoughts: “Izumi-san?”She looked up and recognized Koichi, who was coming towards her with his cap on backwards and leaning on the back of the bench.“Koichi-kun,” she greeted him in surprise. “What are you doing here?”“I'm here to meet Koji,” he said with an undertone that told her they were probably looking for a birthday present for her. “And what are you doing?”“Nothing… Nothing really.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But my parents are out. And I was kinda bored.”“I see.” With that, he fell silent for a moment. “You look unhappy,” he then noted. “Is something wrong?”“No,” she lied, “everything's fine. I just had a strange dream.” She put her head back and looked up into the branches of the tree that were shading both of them from the sun right now.The leaves moved slightly back and forth in the faint early summer breeze.“Koichi,” she began suddenly and he looked at her in surprise.“What is it?”“Don't you sometimes want to go to the…” She lowered her voice. “Don't you also want to go back to the Digital World?”He shook his head vigorously. “No… That world… No.”She sighed. Was she perhaps the only one who wanted to go back or had she just asked the wrong person? Was it because he associated so many bad memories with that other world? After all, he had had his memories wiped, had been controlled and abused while in that world. While she? Well, she had made her best friends, and had lived out an amazing adventure.She didn't want to ask any more.Wasn’t it crazy? That other world, it had been so apart from everything in the human world. And yet, for the first time in her life, she had felt like she was part of something. And now that she was here – now that she knew that they would leave Tokyo soon… She would feel just like back then, when she had moved here in the first place. Untethered. Like a kite lost, drifting in the wind.“Are you sure everything is okay?” Koichi asked.Izumi nodded slowly. “Yeah. I am fine. I am just…” She tried to smile, though she was not fully certain she succeeded. “I just dreamt about it, you know? The Digital World. I dreamt about being Fairymon again. And some part of me… I guess some part of me just misses flying.”Koichi hesitated for a moment. “Yes. I think I somehow can understand that.” His smile was about as labored as her own.Koji got there not soon after this, and soon the twins disappeared into the nearest shopping center leaving her to her lonesome.“The Digital World…” she mumbled. This world sometimes seemed more unreal to her than the one they had traveled through almost two years ago. Maybe she was just imagining it. It would go away... eventually.
Being Fairymon always made her feel light. She could drift in the wind forever, and nobody could hold her down. She flew along the train tracks, that somehow had returned here, and saw a Trailmon drive along those tracks. It made her want to find something out. Her form changed into Shutumon, as she tried to outfly the Trailmon’s speed. Just to find out if she could be faster – and she could. Because as a Digimon, she could be so many things that she could not be as a human. She could be fast. And she could be strong. She could be free.
Though some part of her wondered, if it ever had been true. Or if whatever had happened to them in that world had just been some sort of dream.