Arisu’s Saga - Part I

• March 20, 2033: With Alice’s approval, Arisu and friends use GCIM’s facilities to travel to the Digital World for a picnic. They’re shocked to find themselves ambushed by the Father of Demons, Samael, and his servants. Arisu is appalled to see Samael’s consort is none other than Takako.
• In Tokyo, Alice and the others notice all access to the Digital World has been blocked. They can only watch the unfolding events with terror gripping their hearts.
• Samael orders Takako to kill Arisu and the others. Rika, who had been in the Digital World for several days already, appears to defend her daughter.
• Rika is defeated by Takako. She begs her to spare her daughter, for the sake of Takato’s memory. Takako laughs at this, and finally reveals that Arisu is not Takato’s daughter, but Moloch’s. Using her dark powers, she makes Rika and Renamon disappear before Arisu’s eyes. Kotoko, Karen, Jun and Lillia soon follow.
• Broken by both rage and despair, Arisu lashes at Lilith, and is brutally beaten before she’s caught by the same technique.
• In a world of darkness, Arisu realizes that, despite everything, she still does not hate Takako.
• Samael, still untrusting of Takako’s loyalty, orders his servant, the demon Murmur, to keep watch on her at all times.
• March 21, 2033: Arisu wakes up at an unknown place in the Digital World. Renamon is with her, and the Orichalcum Omnivice is on her right arm.
• Arisu and Renamon quickly realized Takako fooled Samael by teleporting them behind the guise of a deadly technique. Together, they set out to find their friends.
• Lillia awakens at the Blessed Gardens and quickly befriends the plant Digimon there and their leader, Rosemon. She’s puzzled by the Alicorn Omnivice she’s wearing, though…
• Kotoko, with much misfortune, awakens a prisoner. She’s in Zatrikion, the city of strategy. She spends her first day in prison meddling with her new Adamantine Omnivice.
• Kotoko’s Quest
• While the guard of Kotoko’s cell, a black PawnChessmon, is rather stiff and reluctant to speak to the prisoner, Kotoko manages to get some info out of him. She learns that the Digimon of this city greatly value strategic thinking and would never refuse an invitation to play chess or any other contest of similar nature. She also learns that she’s scheduled for public execution, ordered by QueenChessmon.
• At the time of the execution, Kotoko challenges QueenChessmon to a chess match, and wins. KingChessmon is so impressed that he cancels the execution, ignoring his queen’s demands and arguing that they found her unconscious and he does not see how the young girl could be a threat.
• PawnChessmon is often bullied for his ineptitude at chess, so Kotoko offers to teach him. When asked why, Kotoko explains that she wants to help him the same way Arisu helped her when they were younger.
• When they are ambushed by a white KnightChessmon, Kotoko discovers Bio-Evolution and merges with PawnChessmon to become KnightChessmon (black).
• As the days pass, Kotoko’s suspicion of QueenChessmon increases. She tries to follow the Mega Digimon during her long walks throughout the city, to no avail.
• Groups of vile Digimon invade the city at night with apparently no reason but to kill and destroy. Kotoko and her new partner aid in the city’s defense. The intruders increase in number every night and Kotoko cannot help but wonder just how they are making it past the city’s vigilance.
• Kotoko and her partner reach the Ultimate level when a large enemy force strikes, led by Karatenmon. They evolve into BishopChessmon to defeat him.
• At the end of this battle, QueenChessmon announces that KingChessmon has disappeared. When she thanks Kotoko for slaying Karatenmon, Kotoko asks her how she knew the name of the enemy leader. Laughing, QueenChessmon reveals that her form is but an illusion. She is really the Demon Lord, Barbamon! After announcing that the end of this city is soon to come, he departs.
• Wondering why Barbamon didn’t just kill them all on the spot, Kotoko leaves Zatrikion with her new partner, determined to find her friends and unveil the truth of the latest events.
• Lillia’s Quest
• The forest surrounding the Blessed Gardens is being rapidly chopped down by Digimon under Lucemon Falldown Mode. They know the only reason the Blessed Gardens still stand is because the Demon Lord has not yet joined the battle.
• Knowing that Rosemon does not stand a chance against Lucemon, his servants have become haughty and often terrorize the Gardens. When Lillia finds a Vilemon attacking her friend Lalamon, she cannot not intervene; going so far as to slap the offending Digimon.
• After urging her new friends not to tolerate such humiliation, the plant Digimon begin to fight back, even if the threat of a Demon Lord makes it seem hopeless.
• Lillia and Lalamon bio-evolve into Sunflowmon. Lillia does not particularly enjoy being a giant sunflower lizard.
• News of a human in the Gardens disturbs Lucemon. He cannot kill the plant Digimon just yet, so he leaves MaloMyotismon in charge while he leaves to report to Samael. Rosemon sees this as their chance for a counterattack.
• Their advance is slow, but a series of hit-and-run attacks and their better knowledge of the territory give them the upper hand over Lucemon’s henchmen. In the end, Rosemon and friends make it to the main lumber camp. Rosemon takes on MaloMyotismon.
• Superior number of Ultimate-level Digimon and type advantage begin to turn the tide of battle. Even Rosemon is about to fall. Sunflowmon is trapped inside Phelesmon’s Black Statue attack. Desperate, she calls for someone, anyone, to help her.
• Suddenly, Lillia experiences a vision. Within it, she realizes that she has made it this far with her own will and power, even if she had always hoped for someone to save her from her loneliness after the loss of her parents. A voice tells her that life will only reward her if she’s willing to take the extra step.
• With newfound determination, Sunflowmon jumps past the Ultimate level and straight into Mega. Lillia finds her appearance as Lotusmon much more appealing. Phelesmon is quickly defeated.
• Together, Rosemon and Lotusmon defeat MaloMyotismon. The Blessed Gardens are free, at least until Lucemon returns. The strange wooden structures built around the garden also raise questions. Feeling that Samael is somehow behind Lucemon, Lillia departs, promising to find the others, contact the Archangels and put an end to this crisis before the Gardens are destroyed.
• Arisu’s Quest
• Arisu and Renamon soon understand they are in very dangerous territory. Adonamon’s message has not reached thoroughly to this remote area, and a defamation campaign by Daemon has converted the region into no man’s land. The two mostly avoid other Digimon and rely on foraging and scavenging for sustenance. When they are found by aggressive Digimon, they succeed with a combination of well-placed traps, Renamon’s strength and intelligence, and Arisu’s uncanny sense of tactics.
• It is obvious to Renamon that Arisu’s very worried about her friends, and even more worried about Takako’s revelation of her parentage. Renamon assures that, regardless of who her father is, when she looks at her the one she sees is Matsuki Takato and no other. Arisu is not very convinced.
• When they are hunted down by a particularly vicious Devidramon, however, no amount of thinking can counter its superior power. Renamon goes into a frenzy when the Virus Digimon gores through Arisu’s torso with its long, sharp claws. While bleeding to death (or dissolution into data, whatever), Arisu has a flashback to a time when she was shy and insecure, overwhelmed by her parents’ greatness and the expectations placed upon her. Remembering the words Takako offered her back then, Arisu refuses to die in such a pathetic way.
• Arisu and Renamon Bio-Evolve into Youkomon and defeat Devidramon. Renamon does not comment of this, but she notices that, as Youkomon, she is much stronger than she ever was as Kyuubimon. She does remind Arisu of how Takato’s Guilmon first evolved into Growlmon. The similarity brings a smile to the girl’s face.
• With the days, they fight more and get more accustomed to fighting together. Their trip takes them to a strange excavation site, which apparently has no purpose other than making a giant hole in the ground. Further exploration reveals six more places like this, tracing a circle around Northstar, the largest Digimon settlement in the region.
• The two are wondering what’s up with these things when one of them is utterly destroyed in an explosion of hellish fire. It’s Rika, and she’s after Daemon!
• The Demon Lord’s response is, of course, to take the town hostage. Rika seems unfazed by this and determine to plow through everything in her path to get to Daemon. Arisu tries to stop her mother’s recklessness, to no avail. Rika leaves Renamon to look after her daughter. To their surprise, Renamon declares that, from that day onwards, she is Arisu’s partner.
• Rika goes to fight Daemon, while Arisu tries to stop Daemon’s minions rampaging through Northstar. Using the snowy landscape to her advantage, Youkomon makes an admirable defense of the town, but she’s eventually struck down by a swarm of Chrysalimon.
• Once again, in the verge of defeat, Arisu experiences a vision. First she’s reminded of all the times she was compared to her mother, and how she felt she did not have an identity of her own. She was then reminded of her mother’s abandonment, and how Arisu hated her mother for chasing after Takato’s memory instead of looking after her daughter. This was followed by a vision of Rika, as Sakuyamon, fighting a horde of Diaboromon to protect a fallen Takato, and a vision of Takako challenging an entire division of Moloch’s army for Takato’s sake. Arisu realizes that she envies Takato, because he has claimed Rika’s and Takako’s hearts to the point that Arisu cannot reach them.
• This realization of her feelings triggers her next evolution into Doumon. The Chrysalimon also merge into twelve Infermon: an Ultimate-level mirror of Rika’s fight seventeen and a half years before. Where Rika failed, however, Arisu succeeds. Renamon is amazed at the difference in power between Rika the Tamer and Arisu.
• Rika beats Daemon and atones for the time she was not able to protect her beloved from another Daemon, so many years ago.
• Surprisingly, Rika does not join Arisu and Renamon. She tells her daughter to focus on finding her friends while she learns more about the current situation in the Digital World and Samael’s intentions. She also tells Arisu to be proud of herself, for she has become a much better girl than she is, and apologizes for not being there for her.
• Other Developments
• Jun Vandenberghe wakes up under the care of Astaroth. Despite her cold attitude, she tells him to travel with her until they find a way to send him ack to Tokyo. They make way to Merkabah, The Chariot of God.
• Karen Vandenberghe wakes up completely alone. Worried and afraid, she’s soon found by a pack of Fangmon. She is saved by Adonamon and taken to his residence in the sky, Merkabah. While his mighty appearance is intimidating, the Digimon God is kind and friendly, and the two quickly engage in almost endless conversation. Later Karen would say she learned more from the Digi-God than from all her years of school education. She notices that Adonamon is very interested in Arisu, and wonders if Matsuki Takato is not really gone after all.
• Ryo meets Taichi and Shinobu somewhere in the Digital World. They have been there for a while and do not know about Arisu and the others. They are worried about strange constructions they found in their travels. Later they will meet Rika, who tells them what’s happening and brings up the strange digging sites. They separate to look for Samael’s hideout.
• Samael has been copulating with Takako every night, hoping to get her to give birth to a new generation of demons. Takako does not intend to let that happen, though. After receiving Lucemon’s report, he beats Takako savagely for her treachery and orders his servants to hunt down the stranded humans. For some reason, Takako wordlessly takes the punishment…and then kills her guard, Murmur, takes his data, and disappears.
• Lillia, who at least has figured out how to activate the Omnivice’s radar function, follows a signal that takes to the Tenth Archangel, DC. Needless to say, she’s elated, even if she doesn’t really understand why. DC is just a little disturbed with the teenage girl’s attention.
• The Step to Mega
• Arisu and Kotoko meet in Asiyah, the Heavenly City; the residence of the Three Great Angels (replacing the Solaris of the former Digital World) and the religious capital of the Digital World, where worship of Adonamon is strongest. It is around this time that Kotoko realizes she might like Arisu as more than a friend.
• While wondering what the Demon Lords are up to, they’re summoned by the Three Great Angels. Of course, they want to meet Arisu, which disgusts the girl. They also meet Dominimon, who apparently also arrived to the city recently. The Dominion Digimon seems to make an extraordinary effort to dismiss anything the girls say to the Great Angels, including their report on Demon Lord presence in the Digital World. Arisu’s strong personality and harsh criticism of their ways makes a terrible impression on the Three Great Angels. Arisu does not apologize for not being the paragon of virtue they expected.
• That night, Arisu, Kotoko and their partners are kidnapped from the inn and taken to the top of Mount Adal by Digimon fanatics, where they intend to pray so that Adonamon “cleanses their souls.”
• Dominimon appears and slays the kidnappers, revealing himself as Barbamon. He believes Arisu is an Incarnated Aeternal, and intends to become a true demon by taking her powers. Renamon manages to free herself and Kotoko (Arisu was knocked unconscious for resisting the kidnappers).
• Renamon and BishopChessmon are defeated.
• Kotoko experiences a vision. She meditates on her feelings for Arisu and the rest of her friends. She has always admired Arisu’s strong personality, and took up studying hard because it was the one thing she’s better than Arisu at. She believes that, as long as she’s smart and studious, she will be useful to her friends and they won’t reject her. The voice tells her that friendship and love do not work like that, that love is not something that can be built like that. The voice urges Kotoko to be who she wants to be and do what she wants to do; if her friends truly deserve her, they will love her and accept her regardless. Kotoko claims she just does not want to lose Arisu.
• BishopChessmon evolves into QueenChessmon and battles Barbamon fiercely.
• Astaroth arrives with Jun. Together with QueenChessmon, she defeats Barbamon.
• At the same time, Adonamon sends Karen to reunite with her friends, telling her to be kind to those she loves. When she is teleported to Mount Adal, she realizes that Merkabah is in fact floating far above the mountain, but keeps this info to herself. Her friends agree that she’s a changed girl. She claims that they would change too if they met the Digimon God.
• The next morning, Kotoko finds Lillia’s and DC’s signal far to the east. The half-Belgian siblings stay with Astaroth in Asiyah.
• That night, Kotoko confesses to Arisu, who runs away in shock. She is not shocked by the confession itself, but by the fact that, after listening to Kotoko’s words, what filled Arisu’s mind was Takako’s smiling face…
• Lillia and DC, meanwhile, have been busy in Fairbreeze Port, a large coastal city. A huge army of evil Digimon, led by Lucemon FDM, seems intent on conquering the city. With its population limited to Rookies and Champions, it is up to DC and Lillia to defend them, all the while wondering where all these evil Digimon are coming from.
• In the intervals between battles, they talk a lot. Lillia shares her feelings about the death of her parents due to Merodach. DC talks about his role in the Holy War as Sandalphon, as well as about Takato and his “sister.” He confesses that, since the end of the war, his life has been aimless and dull. He doesn’t know what to do with his life anymore. Lillia confesses that she does not hate Takato, for she knows that he is a great person. Takako, on the other side, she cannot forgive. DC tells her that, after their battle on The Day of Revelation, he thought he understood Takako, but now he’s not so sure anymore. He thinks that, as long as he does not deal with that issue, he won’t be able to move on.
• When Lucemon jumps to the front line and challenges the two defenders, DC faces him. It should not have been much of a problem for him, but in that precise moment Leviamon emerges from the sea behind them and begins to crush the city from within!
• DC has to take on the bigger (far, far, bigger) menace, leaving Lillia alone against Lucemon and what’s left of his army. It seems hopeless, but Doumon and QueenChessmon arrive in time to handle the other Digimon while Lotusmon fights Lucemon one-on-one.
• As she fights, Lillia wonders what’s driving her to try so hard. Why does she want to help the Tenth Archangel? Why does she want to be close to him? Why does she fight in the war that killed her parents, on the side of her parents’ killers?
• Lotusmon, Doumon and QueenChessmon reach a standstill against Lucemon, who cannot believe he’s been matched by those three. Then, to everyone’s shock, Takako appears, offering Lucemon a chance to become more powerful. She kills him and absorbs his Light data, adding her power to the Dark data for it to be reshaped into Lucemon Satan Mode.
• While Lotusmon and QueenChessmon face the new threat, Arisu loses her temper and goes after Takako, only to be brutally beaten once more until Doumon de-evolves back to Tamer and partner. When asked why she acted so recklessly, Arisu claims she doesn’t know; her body moved on its own. With tears on her face, and crawling to reach Takako’s feet, she asks the Ninth why she’s doing this, what she plans to do, and why she betrayed her trust. Takako said she did it because she’s the empress of wicked, distorted love; it’s her nature. Arisu asks her, then, if all the smiles, hugs and precious memories Takako gave her were lies. Takako leaves without saying a word. Kotoko, who witnessed all this, experiences heartbreak for the first time.
• After that brutal rejection, Arisu is ready to give up. Lotusmon and QueenChessmon cannot break through Lucemon’s Gehenna. In the midst of this desperation, Arisu experiences a third vision. Reliving the best moments of her life, the times when she was the happiest, the memories, thoughts and events that marked her and made her who she was, she finds an important person. The one person in this world who does not treat her neither as a child nor as the daughter of Matsuki Takato and Nonaka Rika. The one person who sees her as she is, without putting her on a pedestal. This person is rude, mean and very, very selfish, but she’s the most honest and beautiful person Arisu knows. She finally understands that she fights for that person. To be with that person. To save that person.
• Arisu and Renamon bio-merge into Kuzuhamon. Renamon is overwhelmed by the sensation of power that fills her. It reminds her of when she bio-merged together with Takato, so long ago.
• Kuzuhamon breaks open Gehenna, allowing Lotusmon and QueenChessmon to destroy the larva within.
• DC defeats Leviamon, but notes that the Demon Lord Digimon was abnormally powerful, well within mid-forty Supernal levels.
• Ryo arrives to Fairbreeze. From the information they’ve all gathered, they realize that the mysterious clusters of structures they’ve seen not only surround a major population center each, but also, when taken together, create a large circle with Mount Adal at the center. Whatever’s going to happen, it will happen in Asiyah. The two Archangels and the three girls hurry there.
• That night, Arisu politely rejects Kotoko’s feelings. The small shy girl dismisses her, saying that she already knew Arisu loved someone else.

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