Kouji felt a bit uncomfortable standing in that same spot. Apparently Izumi and her new friend, Sora, were on their way to a nearby park for a party of some sort, and it was just his luck that he'd come across these two and end up being invited to said party. Great timing.
Well, since Izumi had invited him to tag along with them, he hadn't been able to object… even more so with that unnerving warning look she gave him. But in all honesty, he'd rather be elsewhere right now. Parties and gatherings just weren't his thing.
It was then that a soft melody rang out in the air. Kouji's eyes trailed down to the source of the noise—his front pocket, and, momentarily forgetting the two girls in front of him, he took out his cellphone and flipped it open, opening the new message that had arrived.
"It is time, my warriors. It was said that we would call you back in our time of need. The digital world is waiting for you. Venture to the Odaiba television station. Your call is now."
The message was prompt and to the point, and didn't have the sender's name or number either. But somehow, Kouji had a sure hunch as to who sent this. Feeling a sense of déjà vu all of a sudden, he narrowed his eyes at the message. Odaiba television station? Wasn't that the Fuji TV Station? Why would anyone want him there—or rather, what business could he possibly have there?
He snapped back to reality when he felt two pairs of eyes watching him. Kouji glanced up to see both Izumi and Sora looking at him inquiringly, and in response, he casually clamped his phone shut and pocketed the device, looking back at them with an indifferent look.
"Sorry, Izumi, I can't go with you to the party. Something came up," he cryptically stated, turning around, "I've gotta go now."
And without even giving the blonde girl a chance to give him a response, Kouji had quickly walked away from them. Once he was a fair distance away from them, however, he let out an exhale of relief. Well, glad he was able to avoid the invitation somehow, and he was a bit thankful that neither girls tried to catch up with him, but still… he felt somewhat guilty for turning down the invitation and leaving them like that. Even so, he was just as curious about the enigmatic message he'd just received, so his sudden change of plans would be excusable, right? Of course.
But, he had to wonder… shouldn't Izumi have received a similar text message too? In their request, the sender did refer to "their" warriors—the Legendary Warriors, so shouldn't that include her as well…? Tomoki, Junpei… Kouichi… Takuya…
His thoughts began to wander to Takuya's sudden absence that day. It was strange that he hadn't at least let someone know about it beforehand; he didn't even respond to his call after school. Kouji scowled at the concrete sidewalk. The gogglehead should be glad that he actually tried calling him this time, instead of the other way around.
Picking up the pace as he walked, Kouji tried to remember the way to the aforementioned site. He could recall what street the large building was established at, as well as the other buildings that surrounded it, but he couldn't possibly pinpoint his current spot and find the quickest route from here; he was still unfamiliar with most areas of Odaiba, only recently moving in and all.
Kouji paused in his tracks for a moment and took out his cellphone once more, opening his GPS application—this was going to take a chunk out of his already low balance, but right now he didn't care about that. After entering the TV station's name in the search bar, he waited as the coordinates began to load, and no sooner did an easy-to-follow map of the area pop up, showing him his current location, as well as a highlighted path and an arrow that lead him the way.
With his eyes fixed on his mobile device's screen, Kouji resumed his walk, striding quickly and following the directions as precisely as he could. Nearly half an hour later, the sight of the TV station's elliptical sphere came into view.
Just as Kouji began to approach the building's property, the map displayed on his cellphone screen suddenly distorted, then disappeared within a blink of an eye— but before he even got the chance to react, a vivid orb-like holographic map suddenly projected itself from the device, coupled with intangible-looking golden rings rotating around the orb, and a reddish dot blinking on a particular area.
"What the…" Kouji trailed off in a murmur, eyes wide with surprise. The mere sight of the holograph had evoked a distant memory within his mind; the same map had also exposed itself during his search for his human Spirit years ago. He couldn't help but stop and wonder about what was happening—or rather, what was about to happen. That message… this map… it couldn't possibly be what his intuition was telling him, could it? And furthermore, this was the real world; how could an insubstantial image project itself from a cellular device? A D-Tector, maybe, but a phone?
Brushing off the sudden feeling of nostalgia, Kouji closed his eyes for a brief second, then glanced back down at the holograph with a hard gaze. He can save his questions for later. Right now, he had to get to the bottom of this. The recent message seemed rather urgent… was there a crisis happening in the Digital World?
…This wasn't some kind of lame prank, was it?
He hoped to God it wasn't.
Kouji ignored the doubts and questions that swirled in his mind and briskly walked into the building with long strides, watching as the little dot moved around and come closer to the middle of the dual-colored platform—the middle being his present location. He stopped in the middle of a large hallway when he noticed the dot remained unmoving. Was the appointed spot in another level of the building…?
Catching sight of a couple of elevators and a flight of stairs across him, Kouji opted to take the stairs; he might miss a floor—and possibly his allotted destination—if he took the elevator instead, he deduced. As he jogged down the stairway, he could feel his legs begin to fatigue, and despite his efforts to ignore the weariness setting in, he had to admit that it had been a long day for him; what with school and kendo training. And it didn't seem like the day was about to end just yet.
As he continued to the basement floors, the blinking dot approached closer and closer to the middle. Kouji smirked to himself as he looked down at the map. 'Getting warmer.'
But just as he was close to reaching the bottom of the staircase, a couple of employees passed by and caught sight of him. "Hey, kid, what are you doing here? This is a restricted area—"
Shit. He hadn't taken into account that he might have to overstep limited grounds, let alone get caught doing so.
"—Only authorized personnel are allowed to—…Hey!" The employee warning him had yelled out when Kouji immediately leapt down the remaining steps, hand swiftly sliding down the guardrail, then sprinted off to their left. "Hey, get back here!"
Kouji wasted no time as he raced towards the area where the dot seemed to be. When the dot appeared to be the closest to the center of his map, he slowed his steps, coming across a plain-looking door that seemed to lead to a storage room— this particular door caught his eye due to the peculiar light that seeped through from under it. The holographic map instantly disappeared as he approached the door, and just as he placed his hand over the handle, Kouji paused.
If whatever was beyond this door would take him back to the Digital World—the place where he thought he'd never be able to return to once again… what would he do? No, what could he do? He was unarmed at the moment, but as a matter of fact he had also been in the same state when he first ventured into the other world. But, things may be different for him this time. He shouldn't get his hopes high and expect that he'd be equipped with his D-Tector and have his Spirits by his side once more. He wouldn't know if he'd have his friends fighting by his side.
Because as far as he knew, he was taking the risk alone.
…Was he truly ready for this?
Snapping him out of his train of thought was the sound of boisterous footsteps approaching. Kouji clenched his jaw tightly as his intuition took over; he ultimately decided to throw away his hesitation, hastily twisting the doorknob open and diving into the luminous gateway.
Disappearing into the room's light, the door had firmly closed behind the raven-haired teen. When the employees finally arrived at the storage room's front, one of them yanked the door open expectantly, only to find nothing but a rather vacant room with supplies and other material stacked here and there.
"He couldn't have left already, could he?"
"Hey, think we should report this?"
"…Nah, I don't it'd be necessary. He's probably just a scared kid who got lost."
{{ ...If you actually managed to read all this in one sitting, I'll forever love you. }}