Tokyo City, Hospital.
In the long, narrow corridor,
Red alarm lights flashed incessantly, emitting a wailing sound. Medicine bottles, IV stands, blood plasma bags… all were scattered on the floor, no one picking them up.
The white coats symbolizing angels of mercy were torn into countless long strips, made into white flags to surrender to the monsters outside.
Social order had collapsed the moment the Digital Rampage began.
In Sora's hospital room, Yamato hugged his knees, curled up in a corner of the room, his body trembling uncontrollably.
"It can't be... it's impossible... Apocalymon was defeated... It absolutely... absolutely cannot be a crisis caused by the Digital World." Yamato looked at the flickering TV on the high stand,
Muttering to himself, constantly self-suggesting.
"It's just a natural disaster. Once the Self-Defense Forces handle it, I can still live a normal life. No need to fight, no need to worry about my life being threatened."
Ten years in the real world.
Yamato had long lost his former drive and had become cautious about preserving his life.
Unlike Taichi and the others, with his quarter-French noble bloodline, he was born at the pinnacle of the pyramid.
Money, women, dreams…
If he wanted it, there was nothing he couldn't obtain.
Occasionally, in the depths of night, he might reminisce about how thrilling their adventures back then were.
But if you asked Yamato to experience it again?
Absolutely impossible!
"Right! Even if it really is a crisis from the Digital World, there will be a new group of Chosen Children. Didn't the old man Gennai say it back then? The Digital World only welcomes children under twelve." Yamato's eyes suddenly lit up, exclaiming in pleasant surprise.
Just as he thought this, a golden flash suddenly streaked past the window.
HerculesKabuterimon's wings vibrated violently, shattering the hospital windows.
"Koshiro?!" Seeing the man outside the window, Yamato's pupils instantly contracted sharply, shouting in shock.
The creature he was standing on, if he wasn't mistaken, was probably Tentomon's evolved form.
"No time to explain! I need your help! Mount Fuji will erupt in a few hours at most! Only your Gabumon can save this!" Koshiro, straightforward by nature, got right to the point.
'Mount Fuji erupting?'
'Only I could save it?'
Yamato instinctively shook his head, his face full of resistance.
"What about the Self-Defense Forces? What about the other Chosen Children? Why come to me first of all? Besides, I have Sora to take care of! Look, Sora is right here." Yamato seemed to have found a get-out-of-jail-free card.
He hurried to Sora's bedside, grabbed her pale, bloodless right hand, and held it high.
"You..." A flicker of disgust passed through Koshiro's eyes.
Sure enough, just as his investigations suggested.
Over the past ten years, Yamato's character had become increasingly repulsive.
Indulging in bars and nightclubs, entangled with multiple girls.
Frivolous, irresponsible, accustomed to using money and power to pressure others.
And now, even when Koshiro came to him personally, Yamato was still making excuses.
But…
The Mount Fuji eruption crisis required his power to possibly resolve.
"I'll arrange for someone to take care of Sora. The situation at Mount Fuji is extremely critical. We absolutely need your… "
"Why does it HAVE to be me?!!" Just as Koshiro, enduring his inner discomfort, tried to explain again, Yamato's emotions erupted first, roaring angrily, "Time and time again, who ever considers whether I agree or not?!"
"It was the same ten years ago! My brother and I were living just fine, then suddenly we were told we were Chosen Children! Why hand such troublesome and dangerous work like saving the world to people like Taichi?! Why must I do it personally?!"
Yamato's face was flushed red, staring straight into Koshiro's eyes, shouting.
"It's so unfair, right? I have a life everyone envies. I don't need to do anything, and the world will be saved by someone else anyway. But you just have to seek me out, drag me into those incredibly dangerous things. Why? Even if I don't go, the world will still be saved, just like ten years ago! If it weren't for my brother Takeru, I would never have risked my life with you all! Whether it's seven or six kids, in the final battle, it makes no difference, right?!"
He finally said it.
He's venting the deepest thoughts in his heart all at once.
Yamato's nerves, fraught with fear and tension, suddenly relaxed.
His whole body went limp like mud as he slumped onto the bed.
"So... that's what you thought." Koshiro's eyes went from shock, to stupefaction, to deep disappointment.
It took less than five seconds.
He thought that even if Yamato had made many mistakes, he would still stand up firmly like before in the face of a world-ending crisis.
But he was wrong.
Yamato, from the very beginning, from ten years ago, never felt that saving the world was his mission.
Everything he did was for his brother.
For his family's quarter-French noble, superior bloodline.
"Heh. I originally thought, after finding Taichi, I'd have you apologize to him. No matter what, I wanted to see you reconcile." Koshiro looked at the Crest of Friendship in his hand and laughed self-deprecatingly.
"Now I realize it's completely unnecessary."
That glistening crest was tightly gripped by Koshiro, then crushed into powder.
"The Crest of Friendship... you are utterly unworthy of it."
"You have no friendship, no love. In your mind, there is only class and bloodline. You only acknowledge elites who share your so-called superior blood." Koshiro pronounced his cold judgment.
For someone like Yamato, who had no concept of friendship in his heart, even if given the Crest of Friendship program, it would be impossible to achieve a successful evolution.
The last hope was shattered.
"HerculesKabuterimon, let's go. There's only one last hope now. If we can find the old man Gennai, there might still be a way to solve this." Koshiro was calm and rational by nature.
Even with disaster looming and the apocalypse approaching, he would still exhaust the last of his mental capacity to calculate the possibility of rescue.
"Understood." HerculesKabuterimon cast a cold glance at Yamato. That look was as if he were looking at a human with no connection to him whatsoever.
Then, fluttering its wings, it vanished from the hospital.
Yamato watched Koshiro's retreating figure and burst into maniacal laughter.
"Look down on me! Laugh at me in your hearts! You big idiots!"
"Working so hard, risking so much for the world, betting everything you have! In the end, aren't you just serving people like us?"
"Once the world order returns to normal, I can still live a superior life! And you? Your bones might already be cold, buried who knows where!"
The night grew deeper.
Yamato's roars echoed in the profound darkness, transforming into ripples that spread out in all directions.
When dawn breaks and the mist clears…
Who is right? Who is wrong? Who will have the last laugh?
No one knows.