“Kari, you’re going to be okay,” worried Gatomon as she took hold of Kari’s hand and checked for her pulse. Kari was sprawled out on the sofa, black under her eyes and feeling really weak. She coughed a little. “Gatomon…I wanted to tell you something. Something I’ve always wanted to tell you.” “What is it?” asked Gatomon, close to tears. “Through every single battle I’ve fought with you, I felt happy that you escaped the clutches of evil and fought for a brighter future in the Digital World. Without me to accompany you, things would look bleak had Myotismon delivered the prophecy earlier. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…”
Kari was in tears, which spilled onto the floor beside her sofa. “Kari?” said Gatomon quietly. “I…I never got time to say…” “Say what?” asked Gatomon. But Kari just clutched where her kidney was and screamed in pain, coughing up blood. Gatomon stepped back, not wanting to be involved in the pain too. Until at last, there was silence. “...Kari?” asked Gatomon. But there was no response. She slowly approached her limp body, and listened to her pulse. It had stopped beating. Kari was dead. “Kari…” whimpered Gatomon, now in tears.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
“I can fly,
I can fly,
Dancing in the sky,
Dancing in the sky,
How about you?
How about you?
How about…
Feel me…
I know where the light is…”
Gatomon ran down the hallway and threw off her gloves in tears, not daring to believe what has happened to her partner. She was dead. Gatomon didn’t know what was happening to her at the time, she just thought she had been infected by a Digimon who had been sent from the net to plague Digidestined. But she was wrong.
“I’ll spread my wings
And go with you to Paradise…”
Gatomon galloped down the stairs and burst through the front door out into the streets. She wasn’t careful to look where she was going, and ran out into the road. Cars screeched to halt in her path, and drivers beeped their horns angrily. With nowhere to go, Gatomon ran further down the road onto the pavement.
“Oh love…
Oh Gatomon, don’t cry now
Oh Gatomon, don’t panic now
Your future…”
As she ran down the road, she saw two dog statues by two limp, lifeless trees, still growing their leaves as Winter had passed. The two dog statues were holding up a water trough of sorts. Instead of stopping to take a drink, Gatomon bowed down to them, praying Kari would go to Heaven peacefully. Had she gone to Hell, there would be no future inside her.
“Oh Gatomon, don’t cry now..
Oh Gatomon, don’t worry now…
Your destiny…”
She ran past a fence, and behind it, further away, was the local noodle shop. By the fence was a group of Japanese chavs smoking and drinking alcohol. What they were doing made Gatomon really nervous, and memories of Kari suffering came into her mind. She ran off down the road worrying more than ever, whimpering and screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Where are you?”
“Fall away…”
“Kari, where are you?!”
Running past an assortment of buildings, Gatomon found herself standing on an air vent near a rusty old gate. Some air gently blew up through the vents and caused her fur to blow like water bubbling in a pot on the stove. Gatomon felt free and sensitive feeling the wind in her fur, yet she still heard the voice of a toddler named Kari inside her head.
“Into the night sky…”
“I love you, mommy…”
“I love you daddy…”
“DADDY!”
Hearing this cry for help snapped Gatomon out of her fantasies, and she kept running. She saw a pair of tumbledown houses on the other side of a wooden fence, and climbed onto the top of it. She kept her balance and stood on her own feet as she balanced across the fence, suddenly enjoying herself.
“Hold on, my child…”
“Where are you, Kari?!”
“Your destiny is waiting…”
“Where are you, Kari?”
“I love you, mommy…
I love you, daddy…”
As she balanced, she saw a group of mirror signs nearby. She looked, and saw her own reflection on one of them. It looked a bit…tubby. Gatomon got a bit scared by it, and tried to run across the fence. She fell off, and landed on the roof of a car. However, she was lucky to be alive, and held on tight as she sped across Tokyo like a cat on a journey to the vet.
“Oh Gatomon, my little one…
Oh Gatomon, my child gone…
Your future…”
The car took Gatomon across the street, past houses and fences and gates into town. At last Gatomon leapt off the car and saw a vending machine nearby. She was thirsty, and as all Digimon know, they always crave something to eat or drink after a long and heavy day. Gatomon looked into the bending machine and found a can of blackcurrant juice - just what she fancied.
“Oh Gatomon, my only child…
Oh Gatomon, my little friend…
She won’t be here…”
Suddenly, Gatomon swore her eyes were playing tricks on her. She seemed to see Kari’s ghost with her, inserting a coin into the vending machine so she can get a drink. Angry over these memories, Gatomon raised a paw and smashed it through the glass. Her paw bled a little bit, but she was able to remove the shards from her bleeding cuts without yowling in pain and get her drink just like she fancied. She went off down the street, drinking as she went.
“Ah-ah-ah-aaaaahhh…”
Gatomon sat by herself on the pavement drinking her fruity beverage and gazing at the cuts on her paws. She had injured herself all because of Kari’s death. Would she die too?
“Ah-ah-ah-ah aaaaaaahhh…”
Gatomon hid her face in her knees and began to cry. Her tears made the pavement moist and dark like the rain did to it as she wept, but suddenly she heard rumbling in the air.
“Ah-ah-ah-aaaaahh…
Oh, Gatomon…”
Gatomon looked up. Dark clouds floated overheard, thunder flashing in them. It was going to rain.
“Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaahhh…”
It started to trickle lightly, and Gatomon ran across the street, attempting to look for shelter. She had left her drink behind, and in the rainshower that followed, some ants arrived and drank from it with their pincers, looking forward to a drink for their colony.
Running across the street, Gatomon saw a village nearby and decided to let anyone know if she wanted help. “HELP!” she cried. “Anyone there? I need a vacancy!” There was no response. She went to the bridge and looked over it. There was a river of muddy water rippling its way to the sea far off. “I wish Kari was there,” whispered Gatomon to herself, “She would’ve loved to see the water with me. Now…she’s not there.” Suddenly, among the sound of the rain splashing into the river, Gatomon heard mournful music. She followed the music into the village to see where it was coming from.
She passed a junkyard where a truck stood rusty and falling to bits behind an electric fence, and by a building with a small tabby cat about to swipe at her. “Mrrow!” it hissed. Gatomon squealed in fear and ran further to where the music was coming from.
The music was coming from a nearby haulage station, with trucks loading up furniture and other household goods. The music flew mournfully out of a truck which was about to make its move to a family’s new home. As it set off however, the door at the back of the truck clanged open and a velvet sofa fell out. Gatomon clambered up the fence and landed on her own two feet into the truck yard, where she ran towards the sofa.
She sat on the sofa and gazed up at the greying sky and pouring rain. “Is Kari crying up there?” asked Gatomon to herself. “I bet she’s missing me.” There was a long silence, giving Gatomon time to remember her fallen partner. Then a flash of something appeared in her mind.
“KARI!!”
She saw a beam of white light, and in it, a Digivice falling to the ground and smashing to pieces.
Gatomon tried hard not to cry. She curled up on the wet sofa and tried to listen to the soothing sound of the rain to get to sleep. But all she could hear was crying. Crying coming from her Digimon friends.
“Where are you, my dear friend
I’ve lost you, is this the end?
Come and find me where the swallows sing.”
In the darkness, she heard all her Digimon friends crying out for their partners. She saw beams of light revealing each of the Digidestined dying from terminal illnesses, and their Digimon by their side, comforting them until their final breath. “Tai, why do you have to leave me?” cried Agumon as Tai coughed up blood and weakly tried to hold Agumon’s claws. “No, Joe, don’t leave!” screamed Gomamon, almost in tears as Joe weakly took his final breath and passed away. “Sora, please, don’t give up!” cried Biyomon as Sora tried to get up, but collapsed onto her sofa. “T.K!” wept Patamon in tears as T.K lay on his hospital bed, dying from his own disease.
“Help me find the courage to
Lift my head and say I love you
And then we’ll be together forever more.”
“No! Don’t leave them!” cried Gatomon, but the images vanished, leaving her in the silent darkness. She slumped down onto the floor and began to sigh softly. “Why does this have to happen to us Digimon?” She shut her eyes tight and tried to keep the tears from coming. Then she heard a voice say:
“涙は愛する人を取り戻すことのできない水です.”
That meant, “Tears are the water which can’t bring back the ones you love.”
“If I had to do it over again,
I’d feel trapped in a world of pain
But now I have you…
All I can do…”
Gatomon heard an eagle’s cry and, as if one cue, an eagle swooped over her head and began to float in front of her, flapping his wings and morphing into a Digimon. Someone who felt evenly familiar to Gatomon…it was Wizardmon. “Wizardmon?” asked Gatomon. A smile spread on her pretty little white face. “Gatomon…these are challenging times for you.” said the wise Digimon. “What do you mean?” asked Gatomon. “This is the time when a Digimon is set free into the world.”
“Is say how I feel
Say imagination’s not real
And I have to face reality
To be just you and me…”
“That’s my time, isn’t it?” asked Gatomon. “It’s your time,” sighed Wizardmon. “When a Digidestined dies from an illness, his or her Digimon races out into the world to find a new life. However, there’s a piece of Kari that’s inside the most important part of you - your heart. For it’s inside your heart that the good times you spent with Kari are still there. It’s like a photo album. When you touch your heart, memories of Kari will flash back into your mind.”
“I’ve been foolish and wrong
To say you’re equally strong
And I can’t face my dark heart anymore…”
“Does that mean I can see you too?” asked Gatomon. “Yes. You can.” said Wizardmon. He pulled down his mouth cover to reveal his stitched up mouth. He too was in tears. Happy tears. “Remember, I will always be there for you…as will Kari.” Wizardmon dissolved away into millions of tiny green bits of data as his voice echoed: “As will Kari.”
“Tell me it’s reality
You can’t escape it for me
Then what can I do to love you?”
“Wizardmon, come back! Please, don’t go!” Gatomon fell to her knees and cried out in anguished pain, “WIZARDMON!!”
In a flash of white, Gatomon woke up in the back of a truck, on the sofa she slept on before. She was being carried somewhere. She could hear the driver of the truck speak to his co-worker. “We should forget about the cat that we left in the van. She’s too little and stupid to remember when we left it there.” The co-worker laughed. “Oh boy, you won’t know what she did to save Odaiba from some creepy vampire guy who thinks he’s Vincent Price.” The loud laughter of the workers was too much for Gatomon, and she covered her long, huge ears with her scratched paws.
The journey took her a long time, until she arrived at a little house with a green entrance and a beautiful white door. There was a balcony at the top of the house, overlooking all of the village. The men came out of the van and carried the sofa all the way to the house. Gatomon was still there, and she didn’t know that the men were delivering the sofa to a kindly old couple who lived there. Their old sofa was broken and needed a new one. The old sofa had already been moved out of the house to make room for the new one.
The men lifted the sofa into the old couple’s house. The couple were unaware that Gatomon was there, so they talked with the men and thanked them as they left to continue their job. When the couple tested out the sofa, they were shocked and surprised to discover a white cat Digimon sleeping on there. “My goodness!” said the old lady in surprise, “I know that person. It’s Gatomon!” Gatomon woke up, yawned and stretched. “Who knew my name?” “We did, deary,” said the old lady. “What are you doing all alone?” said the old man. “It’s a long story.” said Gatomon sadly.
Gatomon was soon sipping a warm mug of cocoa and telling the old couple about Kari and how she lost her fight with kidney failure. “And as a result, I am sent to wander on my own. I was told that in a dream I had last night.” “Poor thing.” said the old man. “Must be all alone without her owner. We should keep it at our house.” “Maybe we should,” said the old woman, “I do believe that with such a tragic early past and her old owner abandoning her, I think we should take her in.” “Then what’s your name, little one?” asked the old man. “Gatomon.” responded the young Digimon. “Gatomon, eh?” “We know that,” said the old lady. “Anyway, welcome home, little one.” Gatomon was delighted.
Even though there were no more evil Digimon to fight, Gatomon knew she would enjoy her stay at the old couple’s house. The couple gave her a nice warm bath because of how dirty she was, then settled her down at the dinner table for some omurice with ketchup. Gatomon hadn’t had omurice in many a long day, and felt happy and content. The old lady prayed. “We give thanks for the bounty given to us by our lord and master. For our food will keep us healthy and strong, and ne’er will we have to starve again. Bless us and thanks for good food.” “Amen.” whispered Gatomon.
At last, Gatomon lay on the sofa, full up from eating such a hearty meal.
