Chapter Nine - Of Chosen and Digimon

The concept and characters of Digimon belongs to Toei Animation
and Akiyoshi Hongo. They are used without permission or the intent of profit.

Who's who:
Taichi is in Sora's body, Sora is in Taichi's, Koushiro is Miyako,
Miyako is Koushiro, Hikari is Jyou, Jyou is Hikari, Mimi is Ken,
Ken is Yamato, Yamato is Iori, Iori is Takeru, Takeru is Daisuke, and Daisuke is Mimi.

Reminder, I will be referring to the characters per the body they
are in. For example, if Mimi in Ken's body thinks about Daisuke
in Mimi's body, then Mimi thoughts will regard that body in the
masculine possessiveness, that Tachikawa's body is HIS real body
since Mimi is currently male and will be referred to as such. When
Hikari, in Jyou's body, is talking she will be referred to as Jyou.
The only exception is dialogue where the characters are the ones to refer to each other.

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Lost moments, insensitivity, not speaking up. These sound like little
things, but Taichi and Sora would certainly disagree. Part of the
reason she started dating Yamato was she had never told Taichi how
she felt, and she got tired of waiting for him to show interest in her.

We were all anxious to get back into our real bodies. And it was
finally time to begin our quest to put everything right.

-----------------

While Gennai had told the Chosen to meet him at noon, the portal
to his house opened fifteen minutes early, spilling out all of them.
However, they did not see what they expected.

Gennai's house had holes in the walls and broken furniture. The
place was trashed. They quickly scattered, searching for Gennai and their digimon.

Mimi froze as she opened a door. "Ah, guys? Come over here."

"What is it, Daisuke?" Sora asked. She looked into the room and swore, "Ah, shit."

The other Chosen quickly converged and their hopes were dashed.
Gennai hung from the wall, supported by Piemon's swords. A message
written in blood was next to him.

'To gain your true forms and your digimon, meet me at Digital Labyrinth.'

Yamato and Ken immediately went to Gennai and were thankful to hear him moan.

"Are you hurt?" Ken questioned as he helped Gennai down.

"Only in my pride," Gennai replied in a joking tone, despite the pain in his voice.

"What happened here?" Taichi questioned.

"Piemon, of course," Gennai answered. "He came here and took the
digimon and the fake crests. You must go and get them back."

"Duh. Where is this Digital Labyrinth?" Daisuke asked.

"On the other side of the Digital World. Our world's representation of Crete," Gennai answered.

"I'm calling Noriko and the others to help you," Taichi stated.
"The rest of us have to go after Piemon now."

-----------------

The Chosen appeared in the center of the Digital Labyrinth. Giant
hedges, several stories tall, towered over them. Many different
directions were opened to them. They all looked around, expecting trouble.

"Well, well. Here already? Did you leave Gennai hanging on the wall?"
Piemon gazed down at the Chosen with a delighted, but malevolent look.

"All right, you fucked up clown, change us back!" Taichi shouted.

"Oh, but it wouldn't be fun to just change you back. You've got to EARN it," Piemon chastised.

"And how do we do that?" Sora called out.

"Simple. You play my little game." He pointed at one of the passage
ways in the maze. "Your fake crests are that way. Find them. Then
you have to find the associated digimon. But do be careful, there
are traps and wandering digimon lost in this maze," Piemon informed
them with barely contained glee.

"You'll change us back after we get our digimon?" Iori questioned,
expecting that there would be more to this.

"It won't be THAT simple. There are nine different exits. You must
find the exit associated with your new trait. And at each exit is
an opponent you must kill with your digimon at Perfection level.
Those of you have switched one for one, like Taichi and Sora, have
to work together. Both must meet the requirements. If you leave
the maze without doing that, you'll be stuck in the wrong body for the rest of your life!"

"We HAVE to kill them?" Koushiro squeaked.

"Yes, you do. Now let the fun begin!" Piemon vanished with his laughter echoing after him.

The Chosen went to the path Piemon indicated, but it quickly forked into many other directions.

"Split up," Taichi advised. "If your path dead ends, trace your
route back and place a mark at the entrance."

"And remember, be careful of traps," Hikari reminded everyone.

-----------------

Jyou and Hikari were the first to find a circular opening in the
maze. Hung from the hedges were the crests, each one a couple meters from the next closest one.

Jyou moved left, while Hikari went to the right. They both passed
the crest of the body they were in, and then each other.

As Jyou approached the fake Crest of Light, it began to shine. On
the other side, Hikari found the Crest of Sincere Faith glowing brightly.

"Good, we still have our original crests," Jyou commented.

"Yes, but we better get going and find our digimon," Hikari replied.

-----------------

Daisuke entered the circular opening from a different path. He quickly
looked around and saw a nearby crest glowing in golden light. He
ran over and grabbed it, but was surprised that it was not the one
for hope. He frowned looking at what looked like a stylized image
of a stealth fighter. "Must be Daisuke's Crest of Miracles," he
muttered to himself. "Well, at least someone got it." He then left,
unknowingly following Hikari and Jyou.

-----------------

Iori was the next to find the fake crests. He frowned at stylized
image of balance scales, suspecting that this was the Crest of Justice.

Koushiro and Miyako entered shortly after Iori left. A nearby crest
began to glow, and they both approached it.

"That's the Crest of Knowledge," Koushiro observed. "But which of us does it belong to?"

"I'll walk away from it," Miyako replied. "If it stops glowing, it's mine."

Koushiro was a little thankful as the crest began to dim and then
stop glowing. When Miyako walked back, it started to shine again.

"All right! Got my crest!" Miyako cheered.

"Now to find mine," Koushiro said to himself. He started to walk
around the clearing and grimaced at the glowing crest. "I got Purity."

"That's not good. We can only hope Mimi gets kindness and Ken friendship,
or one of those two will be out a digimon," Miyako said with a frown.

"Let's hope so," Koushiro replied.

-----------------

Mimi dashed into the clearing and saw something glowing nearby.
"Ah, damn," she cursed seeing as it was the Crest of Friendship.
She checked the clearing to see if the Crest of Miracles was there,
but it was already taken. "Better than nothing," she said with a sigh.

-----------------

Yamato entered the circular clearing, looking around and spotting
the various crests. He looked over each of them, and while he found
the Crest of Kindness, it did not react to his presence. Uncertain
of what else to do, he sat down in the middle of the clearing.

A moment later Taichi and Sora found Yamato.

"Something wrong, Ichijouji?" Taichi questioned.

"That is what's wrong," Yamato replied, pointing behind the pair.

They turned to look at a glowing crest.

"It's the Crest of Courage!" Sora cheered, but then frowned. "None of the crests reacted to you?"

Yamato shook his head. "No, they didn't."

"What are you going to do?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure yet. I have an idea, but I don't know if it'll work," Yamato replied.

Taichi walked away from the Crest of Courage to look for the Crest
of Love. He found it, but it wasn't glowing. He turned to see that
despite Sora standing near the crest, courage wasn't shining. He
frowned. "Taichi, come over here."

"What is it, Sora?" the redhead asked as she approached.

The crest next to Taichi began to shine. "Is that one yours?"

Taichi shook his head. "No, Taichi, it's YOUR Crest of Love. It didn't react to me."

"That can't be right," Sora commented.

Taichi walked back over to the Crest of Courage, when shined brightly
as he got near it. "It may not be right, but that's what we've got. Be good to Piyomon."

"You take care of Agumon," Sora replied with a sad tone as she took her new crest.

The pair left Yamato as he waited of the rest of the group to arrive.

"Hello, Ken," Takeru greeted.

"Hello, Iori. You should have a crest here," Yamato replied.

Takeru didn't say anything as he found the Crest of Hope glowing
at his approach. He nodded as he picked it up. "You didn't get a crest?"

"No," Yamato replied simply.

"I see. I wish you luck," Takeru told him before leaving.

Yamato didn't have to wait long before Ken entered the area.

"Why are you sitting here?" Ken asked.

"The last two crests are here. Yours should be that one." Yamato pointed.

Ken went to where Yamato was pointed and gasped as the Crest of
Kindness began to glow. "This one isn't yours?"

Yamato shook his head as he stood up. "None of the crests reacted
to me when I got here." He walked over to the last remaining crest,
which vaguely looked like two open hands. "I guess I'll have to borrow Hawkmon."

"But how can you evolve him if the Crest of Compassion doesn't react to you?" Ken questioned.

"I'm going to have to make it work," Yamato replied with a frown.
"Or hope that everyone else defeats Piemon's maze forcing him to
change me back with everyone else."

Ken sighed. "Well, good luck."

Yamato nodded. "I'm going to need it."

-----------------

Author's Notes:

Next: Chapter 10 - The Light of Faith
Can Hikari and Jyou overcome what Piemon has in store for them?

While my plot outline has specified that some characters will succeed
and others fail, I'm going to put this up to another case of random
chance, at least from my perspective. I'm going to let you vote
on whether or not the characters do succeed in their challenges.
A couple characters are firmly locked as either succeeds or fails,
but I won't tell you who. Most, however will be up to you.

Jyou/Hikari
Miyako/Koushiro
Taichi/Sora
Yamato as Iori
Iori as Takeru
Takeru as Daisuke
Daisuke as Mimi
Mimi as Ken
Ken as Yamato

Just a note: If Yamato as Iori succeeds, but Ken as Yamato fails,
Ken's spirit will end up in someone else who also failed.

Another note: I can go either way on Jyou/Hikari, however, if those
two succeed-- there will be at least one, possibly two lemon scenes.
If they fail, there probably won't be any featuring either of those
two.