Digimon Story: Rainbow Traverse -- Interlude 2 (Chp 23-24)

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"Tch, course it don't," said the boarman, folding his arms. "Cuz Malie's too smart for your tricks."

Growing, Malie put her fists akimbo. "Kamy, HEEL!"

The steel in the masked giant gaze faltered. Snorting, he turned his head to one side, ear twitching as he grumbled to himself.

"Don't you look away from me, piggo!" said Malie. "You got no right acting all high and mighty!" Kama glanced back at the girl out of the corner of his eye, ears folding back as he held his stance. "You wanna be a butt, do it after you restock our fridge!" As the girl stared him down, Kama withered in place, biting his lip as he shrank between his shoulders.

“Tricks? What the hell are you talking about Kama?”

(“Renamon.. what happened? Besides him sniffing us out. Are you okay?”) he mentally asked, letting Malie take care of dressing down her partner… worried that any potential butting in would anger both of them.

("Yeah, I'm fine,") thought Rena. ("Just surprised how far he can jump, or how well camouflaged he was.")

"Ignore him," said Malie. "Dummy pua'a's blowing hot air out his butt."

"Hey!"

Malie gave the giant another piercing glare, shutting him up. "Now before anyone else gets started, you two're gonna shake hands and apologize! GOT IT?!! If I gotta babysit you nerds, it's gonna be civil as fuck!"

Al would almost smile, but the intensity of her order would make him straighten up “I was always going to apologize… we need you big guy, you and Malie are possibly the best hope we have for saving the world.. all the worlds. But even more than that, I love you two. I don’t want us to just be at each others necks forever!” He then sighed “I’m sorry for not listening to you back then, Kamapua’amon.”

The tusked giant's arms remained folded, even as he flinched at Malie's berating, yet as Alemana finished speaking, Kama mumbled something under his breath.

"I'm sorry, too."

"Louder," said Malie.

Kama gritted his teeth, looking away. "I'm... sorry too," he said. Malie kicked his ankle. "Alright, I'm sorry! E kala mai ia'u!"

"For?"

"For being ōkole!"

"Now shake!"

Grimacing, the boar man let his arms drop as he turned his attention to Alemana. Cringing, he looked down at his massive hand before offering it to the teen.

Al would shake his hand and nod. “I accept your apology.” He then would look at Malie, giving a faint smile

“That just leaves one thing left.. figuring out why Kama is stuck as- well.. Kama!” Al said as he looked back up at the boar man “have you been able to remember anything at all before you digivolved big guy? That might give us a clue as to what happened to you…”

"I remember being pissed off," said the giant, the olivine crystal spines on his back glinting in the sun. "That's about it."

"We've been checking his stats on my digivice," said Malie. "Nothing says his body's stressed or unstable. Even after passing out, it's nothing but normal readings."

Kama raised his chin, smirking. "I could swim from here to O'ahu and back," he said, flexing his muscles. "Physical, peak performance!"

Al would furrow his brow in thought. “Something happened to him all the same. There could’ve been something in that CODE Node,” he paused to snicker at his own rhyme before continuing “That caused you to get boosted like this.” He said.. then his eyes trailed down to his Digivice “Could it be that..” he then looked at Malie “I have an idea.” And he would carefully take his Ki’i out from storage, holding it in his hand. For a moment he would simply stare down at it.. noticing how the scars on his palm still matched the the Ki’i’s shape.

“Kumon’s the Akua of Conflict, and is counterbalanced by Lonomon..” he said as he carefully stepped closer to Kama, holding up the relic as he did so. “What if..”

As the relic was motioned towards the giant, it thrummed in Alemana's hand, a shimmering heat haze rising from it before igniting into an aura of red-black flame. Kamapua'amon took a step back, his eyes wide. Then, just as fast, the Ki'i aura faded, through it continued to pulse and glow.

"Kâhâhâ!" said the masked giant. "The hell was that?!"

Al watched as the flames flared up in his hand when it was near Kama, and for a moment he expected to get burned again.. but then it stabilized. The look of worry on his face then turned to one of exuberance. “I knew it! Do you know what this means? Somehow.. Lonomon super charged you big guy!” He said excitedly as he looked at Malie.

“Hey.. bring out Lonomon’s Ki’i too.. maybe it’ll react like Kumon’s did!”

Malie blinked, snapping her attention away from the Ki'i on hearing Al's request. As the longhaired tamer began tapping at her digivice, Al felt Renamon's presence behind him.

"Was wondering when you'd show up," said Kama, watching as the vulpine ceased her invisibility.

"Don't know what you mean," she said, smiling. "I've been here the whole time."

Their conversation was cut short as they heard Malie exclaim. "The Ki'i! It won't come out! I-I'm tapping on it, but it won't give me the option to take it out of storage!"

Al smiled as Renamon reappeared, but it quickly faded when Malie said that she couldn’t get the Ki’i out. “What?” He asked. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

The longhaired tamer hurried to show the trio her screen, her finger tapping the name 'Lonomon Ki'i' in her storage box over and over again. Every time, the space surrounded the word blinked a coral-orange, but no follow up window appeared asking for the tamer's confirmation.

"Is it broken?" asked Kama.

"Try bringing out a different item," said Rena.

Nodding, Malie tapped the item below the Ki'i: a mallet.

++//Retrieve Mallet from storage?
-->Yes
-->No++

"There it is!" said Malie. Tapping 'yes', the grid-like wireframe for a mallet took shape above the digivice, pixels filling it out bit by bit till it became solid. "See? It's just the Ki'i! The rest of my inventory's fine!"

“That’s really fucking weird,” Al said as he glanced down at his Ki’i before putting back in his Digivice and taking a few paces backwards, and then a few more. “Maybe if I’m further away and my Ki’i is put up, you can take yours out?” He offered, though the frown on his face made it clear he wasn’t certain that it would be that simple.

The group repeated the process, and achieved similar results, though there was less intensity from the aura of Kumon's Ki'i.

Malie sighed. "Still nothing," she said.

"When's the last time you took it out?" asked Kama, the giant crouching down beside her.

"I dunno, a while? It's not like the leftovers in the fridge, Kamy, it's not gonna stick to the back because we forgot to throw it out."

"Wait, there was something that old in--" The boar man's cheeks inflated, forcing him to cover his mouth.

Renamon folded her arms. "Bad food aside," she said. "This is too much of a coincidence to shrug off. We've seen Malie's digivice seal the INAS at the arcade, which means she could still use Lonomon's Ki'i. If she can't seal a new INAS, however, that would prove that whatever's going on with her Ki'i is related to what happened at Hotel-Alfa."