The Ninth

June Motomiya sat alone on the ground alongside Heighton View Terrace. She ran her hands through the grass, facing the busy streets and the towering buildings. As people walked by, they stared at June, her eyes fastened to the scene before her, her hands brushing the long grass. June was fully oblivious to the bewildered looks she was getting. What did they matter to her? She was too busy trying to remember the events of the last seven years. Trying to figure out the exact events she had witnessed. Trying to figure out what exactly she did wrong.

June figured it all started when Davis was born, and that had been the moment when her destiny really started to begin. Her brother had been born sickly. Despite a surgery that had been performed after birth, Davis never fully recovered. He coughed all night, and ran high fevers. He hardly slept due to the coughing, and he never seemed to stop crying. It was really a bad time to be a Motomiya. During the times when it was particularly bad, June got sent away to her aunt's apartment in Heighton View Terrace.

On that one fateful night, when June was nine years old, her four year old brother hit an all time low. She had been sent away to her Aunt's apartment, and things were not going smoothly. Her Aunt had been complaining of loud noises from the apartment below- the Kamiya family, June recalled after listening to one of her Aunt's long rants. The young girl was sitting in her room, looking out her balcony window. It was a nice night, with only a few clouds. June was looking into the night sky, praying for a wishing star. She wanted Davis to get better, or at least a way for her to fix him herself. She didn't want to be forced out of her home anymore. She just wanted to be with her family, most especially her little brother.

As she started to turn away from the window, a loud roar could be heard from the outside. She quickly returned to her vigil by the window, and thought that she must be dreaming. There, in front of her balcony, was a giant bird and a large orange dinosaur. She ran outside to get a better look of the scene. The dinosaur was spitting out fire, and she could feel the heat graze her skin. As June looked closer, she could make out two tiny figures. Two humans. A boy and a girl. She could barely make out the bushy, brown hair adorning the boy's head. It was the Kamiya children from one floor below. June continued to stare at the children below her until the battle subsided, and the bird and the dinosaur ascended into the night sky in a column of light. June wandered back into her room, looking back occasionally. She knew that she would never forget this momentous event.

Her Aunt told her that she was dreaming. There was neither dinosaur nor giant bird. It was a terrorist attack, her Aunt told June. An evil man came and made bombs explode throughout the neighborhood. June must have witnessed the horrific event, and her child's mind had twisted reality. June went along with the thought, until she almost believed it. But something felt wrong, like she was missing a part of the story.

Four years passed before she ever got a glimpse of the monsters again. June was making a list of things that she would need for summer camp. She hated to leave home, but her parents wanted her to have some fun because of Davis' illness. It had reached a point where the boy was not going to live much longer. June felt guilty. She got to go do something interesting while Davis got to be transported from home to hospital, and hospital to home until it reached the end. He was at home for now, but that didn't stop the worry the thirteen year old felt.

June was fairly focused on her thoughts when she heard a faint clicking noise. She turned to the computer in her room and noticed that there were constantly changing scenes moving their way across the monitor. She watched as meadows and oceans and deserts flashed in her eyes. Then, suddenly, the images stood still, and one seemed to grow on the screen: a looming mountain, dark clouds, a deep canyon, and a castle place precariously on the mountain's summit. Unconsciously, June reached forward to touch this image. Her fingers had barely brushed the screen when she fell through the monitor.

The girl found herself standing at the base of the mountain, with the dark clouds circling ominously above her. She looked around, trying to find a way home. She banged at the side of the mountain and kicked at the rocks on the ground, bit she felt stuck. June began to scream and cry, frantically clawing her way through the dust that was starting to surround her.

After a few minutes, a voice called out for her to be quiet, and June stopped, now more scared than anything. Her hands quivered at her sides as she watched a large, black hand reach towards her and touch her face gently.
"Now, now child. You need not be afraid. I am only here to… help you," the chilling voice explained to June. The girl calmed down, and looked towards where the hand appeared. And asked the voice if he could help her brother.

The voice told her to bring her brother to him. With a wave of his hand, June disintegrated, nodding enthusiastically as she was transported back to her room. Devimon laughed and smiled an evil, cracked smile.

As June landed back in her room, she looked at the clock. No time has passed during her few minutes in the canyon. But, yet, she was happy. She just needed to find a way to get Davis to that other world. She knew that if she could do it once, she could do it again. She decided that she would bring Davis at night, so her mom wouldn't get mad at her. As the moon started to rise, June snuck out of her room. She crept over to Davis' room, where he was soundly sleeping for a change. She picked him up, for he was small and light from his sickness. Quietly, she walked back to her room, careful not to wake up the sleeping boy.

As she got back to her room, she regarded happily as she saw the picture of the canyon on her computer monitor. Holding her brother's fragile hand, she gingerly touched the screen. As they landed in the other world, dark clouds instantly blinded them. June felt her brother get yanked out of her arms, and heard a bone chilling laugh mixed with her brother's tired, weak scream. Her body convulsed as she was torn away from the canyon, where she promptly passed out.

June was woken up by a frantic shaking of her side. Her eyes slowly opened to see her mother with tear stains down her cheeks. A police man came up behind her mother and placed a hand on the distraught woman's shoulder. Looking at June with a sorrowful gaze, the man explained that her brother had been kidnapped.

And all June could do was cry, because she knew what really happened. She knew where he was. She didn't know who had him, or why she felt that she could trust that voice. But above all else, she knew that it was all her fault.

In the days that followed, June walked as if she were half dead. The guilt of what she had down was weighing down on her. As hard as she tried to explain what had happened, no one believed her. It was just like the event four years previous. They said that she was traumatized by the event, that she was seeing an alternate version of reality. Even her Aunt told them that June's mind warps events, turning people into monsters. Even though they worried for their daughter, the Motomiya's still send her to camp to clear her mind.

At camp, June's mind was anything but clear. She had started to put everything together, the world she had ventured into must be in connection with the monsters four years ago, the thirteen year old decided. Her seeing the monsters must have meant something, it didn't help her mind being surrounded by children her brother's age, or the spontaneous snow that started to fall. Curious, she stopped paying attention to the commotion and ran into the forest to investigate. Walking around, she saw nothing, but as she approached the clearing by the cliff over the sea, she saw something all too familiar. A head of bushy brown hair. The Kamiya boy! Surely he could explain to her what happened four years ago.

As she ran towards the boy, she noticed a group of other children around him. Not wanting to interfere, June hid behind a tree, the snow was falling softly around her face, she felt a faint glow warm her, and she looked up to the sky. Her eyes widened at the sight of bright, colourful lights. June recognized the phenomenon as an Aurora. But she was confused. She thought those occured farther north. However, what happened next really caught her attention. Seven shining balls of light came flying down from the sky. She watched as they fell in front of the children in front of her. Seven lights for seven children, she thought. That's when she heard the water. She looked on, helplessly, as a giant wave came from nowhere and swept away the children.

The children showed up again near where the buses were being loaded, they were dry, and looked more than a little confused, but they were alive. Nobody knew of their absence, because they were gone for only a few minutes, and June was the only one who knew of the wave that took them away. And June was pretty sure she knew where they had been swept off to. Those children were sent to the same world she had, that was why they were gone for mere minutes. She was in that world for what felt likes minutes, but only seconds had past at home. And it looked like to June that they had made some friends, judging by the tiny monsters that they held in their arms. Everyone else seems to believe that those creatures were only stuffed toys, but June saw past that, she vowed to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Things only got weirder for June once she got home. The police had located a lost, scared, but healthy Davis. He had amnesia, and didn't recall the events of the last few days. Not even the identity of his kidnapper, which relieved June for she didn't want her brother to hate her. But, above all else, Davis was healthy. A medical examination showed that whatever was making him sick was gone. The girl smiled, knowing that the creature she met had kept its promise.

June had started to put everything together. She had seen the monsters that night, and four years later, saw another in another world. The Kamiya boy was also there that fateful night, and disappeared without a trace for a few minutes. When he returned, he had a monster. The young girl knew that this couldn't just be coincidence any longer. His sister, the Kamiya girl, was also a witness to the attack on Heighton View Terrace. Surely then she must also have a connection to the monsters. The other seven children June did not dwell much on. She had heard them ask a teacher supervisor if they could be dropped off at Heighton View Terrace, so they must have also known about the attack.

The night June was brought home from camp prematurely, all Hell broke loose on Odaiba. There were monster sightings across the city. Some people were panicking, and others were calling it a hoax, but June knew the truth. Whatever force was keeping the monsters in their world was breaking, causing them to fall into her world. But nothing prepared her for the monsters attacking people on purpose, or taking her family out of her house. She didn't struggle when the ghosts took her away. She understood that if they were taking her, it must be for a reason, right? Besides, then she might learn more about this life she was unknowingly put into.

She found herself in front of a vampire. In front and behind her were other children, some sobbing, all of them scared. She could hear a voice repeating the same word over and over again, "Next. Next. Next." Like clockwork the word was spoken, and children left the room just as quickly. June found herself moving closer towards the voice and the vampire. The vampire, the girl thought, must be one of the monsters as well, and therefore would know that she knew so. With each step forward, she grew more and more nervous. As the numbers in front of her dwindled, the source of the voice became clearer. Before her was a white cat, looking as if it didn't wasn't to be there. She watched as a ball of light came forward, and the cat's eyes widened. The vampire grinned and sent all the children away. June scarcely had to time to see the Kamiya girl turn around to look at the retreating children.

Back in the convention center, time flew by quickly. She watched as the children from camp, one by one, attack the monsters with their own monsters. June could feel the friendship between the children and their monsters. She had a sudden feeling of longing. She couldn't help but think why she didn't get the chance to work with these monsters. She had witnessed the attack, she had been to their world, yet this seemed to not be enough. She looked on solemnly as these other children, the ones who were chosen she thought bitterly, destroyed the vampire and ascended to the sky, the young Kamiya girl now among them. As she watched them rise, all she wanted to do was scream out "Take me with you!"

She watched the other world in the sky, and saw just how beautiful that other world could be. And as she learned their names (mostly from hysterical parents) she vowed that she would become their friend, and learn more about this world she now so desperately wanted to see.

Three years had gone by, and June had seen neither hide nor hair of a monster. She had found it harder that she had originally thought to get closer to these children. One of them, a boy named Matt, had a band, and she regularly went to the concerts to the point where she decided she might as well disguise herself as a crazed fan, she looked that way at least. Davis, now a healthy, energetic boy, was closer to knowing more about this world than she was. He played soccer with the Kamiya boy, whose name was Tai, and was in the same class as his little sister, Kari. June was happy that her brother had these siblings as friends, for both of them seemed to brighten his mood every time he saw one of them. June had no idea the ultimate impact the Kamiya children would have on her brother.

One day, in mid-November, June walked into his room to clean up just a bit of the rotting food and garbage strewn across his floor while he was asleep, and she saw it. In her brother's arms was a monster, and on the table by his bed, two small devices. She let an almost inaudible gasp, and backed up out of the room. She collapsed onto the couch, and she couldn't- wouldn't- believe it. Even her own brother, chosen to deal with monsters, when it could have been her.

And in between sobs, she wondered, why couldn't it have been her?

She made hopeless attempts to get close to the other children, but she was always shut down from her "beloved" Matt, as Tai Kamiya so kindly put it whenever she came around. June found herself forced to watch once more as other children saved the day. She watched as monsters overran the city again, and her brother desperately trying to help. She watched as her brother flew away with the other children (there were three new children, besides her brother, as well. She couldn't help but wonder what they did to be so honored,) in a giant monster to fly across the world to help other children with monsters. June was starting to realize that she was becoming one of the only children in the world without a monster friend. She felt depraved. She felt as if she had been denied an opportunity to have a true friend, and she hated whoever made her so miserable.

New year's eve, she found herself in a car with her parents, following six of the original eight children to the old campground where she had watched them get swept away all those years ago. She watched as they raised little devices (and she knew now that these were the lights that had fallen to them from the sky,) and flew back into that world. She watched still as the vampire rose again, and watched the children, now teenagers, heroes in their own right, defeat it once more.

A year passed, and June had never told her brother about her own connection to the monsters. Her parents were delighted to have a hero in the family, and doted on his monster, DemiVeemon. Davis was enjoying his spotlight, and it was like when he was younger again. June, all grown up now, was now used to being pushed to the side in favor of her brother. She could walk down the street and see monsters and their children at play. Even adults had their own monsters. Every day it seemed as if more were turning up. June hadn't yet gotten one, and from her experiences in the past, knew that she would probably be overlooked, and would die without one.

One day, while she was home alone, a knock on the door came. Dutifully, she answered, and there on her doorstep was a man with a braid in a robe.
"My name is Gennai." He said with a smile, "May I please come in? I am a friend of your brother."
June, naturally, let him in. She had heard his name before, and welcomed him with great hospitality.
"Ms. Motomiya, I am afraid I am in a hurry, and have something I need to explain to you. You were never meant to see the attacks of Heighton View Terrace."
June stared at the man before her, unbelieving of his words, and he took this cue to finish what he needed to say.

"Myself and a few others had already chosen the eight we had wanted to be our champions from their birth. We knew that evil would come to our world- commonly known as the Digital World. And I would be very appreciative if you would stop referring to it as 'that other world'- and that the only way to defeat said evil was to harness the power of Digivoloution. Only a child's heart can fully harness this power to a partner digimon. We chose eight digimon, and eight children. To test their ability, we sent two digimon to Heighton View Terrace, to see if they would be able to see the monsters. We were not anticipating a ninth child you see, and we thought if we just ignored your presence, you would simply forget. As it seems, this was not the case for your curiosity got the better of you, and you stove to find out more. We were also not expecting Devimon to come for you. It was a great shame that you gave up your brother to such evil, but the love you did it out of was astonishing. But you must be curious as to what Devimon did to your brother. He tortured the disease out of him, to create what are called black gears: evil devices used to control the minds of digimon, turning them into slaves. When the children defeated Divimon, we made sure your brother's memory was completely erased. You caused us to send in the children earlier than we had anticipated. This was for the best, as it turns up, and we thank you tremendously. It is a shame that you had to watch them come and go, knowing it could have been you. When it seemed eminent that there was a bigger threat emerging, and that more children were needed, it was heavily debated whether or not you should be given a chance. It was decided against you, however, even though I was in your favor, and your brother was chosen because of the hardships he had already faced.  Eventually, we decided to give children around the world the chance to have digimon, and gave them partners as well. But know you this, Ms. Motomiya, you were never forgotten. This is why I am here today, to give you a sincere apology for the stress and sadness that has been thrust upon you by our own will, and to give you these."

Gennai gingerly put an egg in June's arms, and two small devices on a nearby table, and swiftly walked out the door. June stood there crying, stroking the egg in her arms.

She finally got everything she had ever wanted,