Chapter 20: Post-War Respite
"Hey~ Mizuki~"
Mizuki had just finished his heart-to-heart with LadyDevimon when a familiar voice, brimming with energy, called out from nearby.
Listening to the sheer sunshine and vigor packed into that single shout, Mizuki knew exactly who it was without even looking. It was that human sunbeam… or rather, the Crest of Courage had arrived.
"Tai? And Greymon, too?"
Cradled in LadyDevimon's arms, Mizuki turned his head. The moment he saw that Agumon had already evolved, he understood everything. It was, as he'd suspected, impossible to get them to wait obediently on the sidelines.
Still, with the DigiDestined here, the Village of Beginnings should be completely safe now.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Tai and Greymon, guided by a frantic Elecmon, finally reached them.
"I don't see any enemies. Is the battle over?" Tai asked, his eyes scanning the quiet clearing in confusion.
"Yes," Mizuki confirmed. "Devimon has left." He then shifted his gaze to the guardian of the village. "More —Elecmon, are the Village of Beginnings and the other children alright?"
"They are, thanks to your warning and the help of these DigiDestined," Elecmon replied, his answer exactly what Mizuki had hoped to hear.
At that moment, the rest of the children caught up, rushing over in a scattered group. Their eyes immediately fell on Mizuki, held protectively by the imposing LadyDevimon, and then locked onto his horribly twisted leg. A wave of worry and fear washed over their faces.
"Mizuki, your leg! What happened to your leg!?" Tai cried out, instinctively starting forward before Koushiro shot out an arm to stop him.
"Koushiro?"
"Mizuki's leg is seriously injured," Koushiro said, his voice firm as he shook his head at Tai. "We can't touch it rashly." Because of the help Mizuki had given them, Koushiro already considered him a comrade, but his rational mind always took precedence, reining in his impulses.
"Mister Mizuki… with your leg like that, it must hurt so much…" Takeru asked, his small voice filled with cautious concern.
"What on earth happened here…?" Sora murmured, her fists clenching instinctively at her sides.
"Um, I actually know a little first aid," Joe stammered, forcing himself to step forward despite his lack of confidence. "I-I don't know if it'll be useful, but—" It was painfully obvious that Mizuki's situation couldn't be ignored a moment longer.
"Elecmon, don't you have any medicine here?" Mimi suggested, her gaze snapping toward the small Digimon.
"If you need help looking, I can help, too," Kari added, nodding in agreement.
"...And me." Even Yamato, after a moment of tense silence, spoke up.
"We can help, too!" their Digimon partners chorused, echoing their humans' sentiments.
A warm current flowed through Mizuki's chest as he watched them. They were clumsy, earnest, and so genuinely desperate to do something—anything—to help. Seeing Elecmon about to lead the well-meaning search party back to the village, Mizuki quickly called out.
"Hey, wait a moment."
"What is it, Mizuki?" Tai asked, pausing mid-stride to look back at him.
'How should I put this?'Mizuki thought with a wry internal smile.'My leg is twisted into a pretzel. A bottle of antiseptic and some bandages aren't going to solve the problem.' Their immediate leap to conventional medicine was endearingly, and perhaps naively, human.
"You really don't need to worry so much," he said aloud, his voice surprisingly steady. "It's just a leg. It's nothing significant." He then gestured with his chin. "More, Tai, could you please pick up my jacket for me?"
Mizuki pointed to the dark jacket lying in a heap on the grass not far away. Tai, momentarily confused by the bizarre request, quickly jogged over and picked it up.
"Can you even wear this anymore? It's completely torn up…"
"It's fine. Just bring it here."
At Mizuki's insistence, Tai brought back the jacket that Devimon's attack had shredded. After taking the ruined garment, Mizuki looked back at the concerned faces gathered around him.
"Do you remember what I told you all before?" he began, his tone shifting to that of a teacher. "Digimon are a unique group of life forms made of network data. This world itself is an alternate dimension composed of countless streams of that same data."
He paused, letting the concept sink in. "Here, theoretically, as long as you have enough data, you can do almost anything."
He laid a hand on the tattered jacket. "For example—"
A soft hum filled the air as strings of glowing code flowed from his palm into the fabric. Before their astonished eyes, the rips and tears sealed themselves, the frayed edges weaving back together as if time were reversing. In seconds, the jacket was miraculously restored to its original state.
"See? Pretty amazing, right?" Mizuki said with a small, self-satisfied smile.
"It's amazing, but is this really the time to be fixing a jacket!?" Joe burst out, snapping back to reality. He gestured wildly. "The most important thing right now is your leg! Mizuki, it's bent the wrong way! If you don't deal with it soon—"
"Hey, I told you not to be so nervous," Mizuki sighed, a hint of amusement in his voice. He looked up at the powerful being holding him. "LadyDevimon, how is your Holy Power recovering? Can you switch your evolution to Angewomon?"
"Yes," LadyDevimon confirmed after a brief internal check. "It is stable now."
A brilliant pillar of holy light erupted around her. The oppressive, dark aura she radiated began to recede, melting away as the light intensified. The black leather of her demonic attire dissolved into flowing white silk, and her tattered, bat-like wings reformed into magnificent feathered appendages of pure white.
When the light finally faded, the sacred form of Angewomon knelt where the dark lady had been.
"Whoa! A demon turned into an angel!?" Tai exclaimed, his jaw hanging open.
"That's Angewomon," Gomamon explained, looking at his startled partner with a long-suffering sigh. "Joe, why are you always so timid?"
"Mind your own business, Gomamon! I'm not timid, I'm just… surprised!"
"Right, right…"
Ignoring the familiar banter, Angewomon carefully set Mizuki down on the soft grass. She knelt beside him, raising a hand over his mangled leg. Just as the data records of her existence dictated, she began to channel the potent holy energy within her.
A gentle, golden light enveloped Mizuki's leg. Under its warmth, the horrifically twisted limb—an injury that in the human world would almost certainly mean amputation—began to slowly, miraculously heal. The sound of bone grating and then clicking back into place was audible as the unnatural angle corrected itself.
"This is… healing power!?" Sora breathed, her eyes wide with disbelief.
The other children watched, utterly captivated.
"More accurately, it's the power of light," Mizuki explained, deciding to use the opportunity for a lesson. "In terms of raw destructive force, light might not always be as potent as darkness. However, light also possesses abilities for healing and purification that darkness lacks."
He watched as his skin knitted itself back together under Angewomon's care. "As an Ultimate Level, Light-attribute, Vaccine-type Digimon, Angewomon is a natural conduit for this power. Even if she isn't a specialized healer, she can perform a relatively simple restoration like this just by mobilizing the holy energy within her body."
As for why he hadn't started the treatment immediately, it was simple. LadyDevimon's internal data, particularly the reserves of holy power, had been dangerously unstable after the fight. If they had rashly attempted the transformation and healing then, with her light and dark data so imbalanced, there was no telling what kind of unforeseen catastrophe might have occurred.
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