The Shuffle

Chapter Eleven - Pure Knowledge


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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Takeru's Journal:

The maze trials had begun. With a little help, Hikari and Jyou managed to find their exit and defeated their designated opponents. Now they have returned to their original bodies. Their digimon have reverted back to baby stages, as their partners readjust to being changed back.

More challenges awaited the rest of us.

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"I will kill that fucking clown," Koushiro cursed, running as fast as he could.

"I share your sentiments," Miyako replied, also running like mad.

Unlike most of the vast array of traps that were set for fairly large digimon, the area the two were running trough was a virtual minefield. The duo had to run, dodge and leap their way past columns of fire, swinging blades and a cornucopia of lethal pitfalls.

Rounding a corner, the pair screeched to a halt as not only did the traps end, but three cylinders loomed in front of them.

Palmon frowned as her container opened. "Guess I don't get to partnered with Mimi."

Koushiro gave an apologetic smile while panting heavily and holding up the Crest of Purity. "Sorry."

"At least I still have Koushiro," Tentomon commented, flying away from his temporary prison and over to the bespectacled, lavender-haired girl.

"Yeah," Miyako wheezed. "Now all we have to do is find the exit, evolve you two to Perfection level, kill a couple digimon and we'll be back to normal."

"WHAT?!" Palmon shrieked. "I need to kill a digimon?!"

Miyako smirked. "YOU don't have to kill anyone. Just evolve to Perfection. Tentomon can handle the killing part."

"Joy," remarked the flying bug sarcastically.

"That still doesn't make me feel any better." Koushiro huffed.

"So, you'd rather be 'Daddy Miyako?'" the girl retorted.

Koushiro frowned. "No... I'd rather not remain a boy."

"Exactly," Miyako agreed. "Now let's get going."

Palmon looked up at Koushiro. "How are you supposed to evolve me if you don't really want to fight?"

"I don't know." The boy sagged. He then glanced over at a third cylinder which housed the hawk digimon. "What happens to Hawkmon? If neither of us gets him...?"

Miyako frowned. "Damn, forgot about that. No matter what, someone is out a digimon. But if the rest of us succeed, Piemon would have to change him back, too."

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"Lovely. We somehow walked into a funhouse," Koushiro commented bitterly, seeing mirrors lining the path ahead of them.

Miyako turned around and frowned. "We can't go back. There's a mirror blocking us."

Koushiro scowled at that.

As the small group debated their options, looking at their reflection in the large mirror that blocked the way they had come. Their image began to fade as another one took form on the mirror.

A titanic battle raged before them. A feathered, white knight flew through the air combating a demonic figure. A red and green woman held a digimon tightly with her thorny whip. An enormous golden beetle shoved a Venom Vamdemon headfirst into a mountain.

"What's going on?" Koushiro questioned.

As if to answer the question for them, the scene playing across the mirror showed them a lavender-haired woman that reminded the pair of Miyako's mother.

"This is our future... or a possible one at least," Miyako answered.

Koushiro nodded. "Would that mean all these mirrors will show us possible futures?"

"Possibly. They might also show us alternate timelines as well," Miyako replied. "I guess we'll have to find the one that shows us leaving this maze and somehow go through it."

"Right," Koushiro agreed. "We better start looking. We've got a LOT of mirrors to look over."

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Miyako stared at a mirror. "This one went all black on me."

Koushiro walked over to her. She then frowned at the image that formed. "I guess you can't see anything because you're dead in this timeline."

"HUH?!" Miyako chirped in distress.

"I'm seeing a home, with two children. With me trying to take care of them, but having trouble... being their father. There's a shrine with a picture of your current face, but a bit older," Koushiro described morbidly.

"Does this mean we're going to lose?" Miyako questioned with dread. "I don't want to be a girl, let alone a mother."

"These are alternate futures," Koushiro reminded. "I'm pretty sure the one I was just looking before had us switched back as I didn't see this body anywhere in the image. And I'd seriously doubt Michael is your type considering I seemed to be married to him."

Miyako let out a relieved laugh. "Good, so even our parent's arrangement may not hold."

Koushiro nodded. "Too bad there doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason to when these mirrors show us the future. The four I've looked at had me from twenty to forty years old."

Miyako nodded. "Which one showed you with Michael?"

Koushiro looked confused and pointed. "That one. Why?"

Miyako smiled sheepishly. "Just curious about what might be in store in our future."

Koushiro folded his arms. "So that's why you've only looked at two mirrors so far."

Miyako nodded and peered into the mirror the boy had indicated. She did not see _herself_ but her real body. And he seemed to be married to a woman that looked familiar but he couldn't place who it would be. The woman was rather beautiful with a nice, and rather full, figure. As a girl, she would be jealous, but truly being a guy she hoped to see that future personally.


"My Ultimate form sure is beautiful," Palmon commented cheerfully, gazing into one mirror.

"And I'm one big, hunky brute," Tentomon added, posing like a muscle-builder while looking at the same image as Palmon.

"I don't know about the 'hunky' part," Palmon teased.

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The small group spent more time peering into each of the mirrors than they should've. They knew they should move quicker, but curiosity of what the future might hold was too tantalizing for them.

Thankfully only a few of the images were black. Still too many for their tastes, but one would be too many in that regard.

Koushiro's earlier assessment of their being no pattern to what the mirrors showed proved true.

In one mirror, an image of Koushiro and Miyako, who didn't look any older than they were now, were in a quadruple wedding with Hikari and Daisuke, Taichi and Sora, as well as Mimi and Ken. If the bulges were any indications, ALL the girls were pregnant. It didn't help that, by the looks of things, neither Miyako nor Sora had succeeded in changing back considering that the Izumi and Yagami families stood behind the girls respectively.

Then the next mirror held a decidedly male Koushiro in his fifties lording over a computer firm, while the elderly Miyako wasn't in the image that was revealed.

The many differences between the mirrors were a bit distressing. If every random event, every choice, offered a new possibility, a new timeline-- these mirrors would be near infinite in number. They could spend eternity looking at potential futures.

Miyako sighed as she approached the next mirror. When the image revealed a male Koushiro in his twenties, she added it to her count. Ten male-self, nine female, five uncertain, and two dead. Her eyes widened in horror noticing upon the far wall was a trophy case... which held the decapitated heads of several Chosen, including Miyako's.

Miyako was about to turn away as she noticed something on a computer monitor. It was a message.

'Greetings, my past self.

'It is time you stopped gazing into the future and joined your present. Remember, I represent a possible future, and yes I'm evil as sin as I have done what the Digimon Kaiser had only dreamed of doing. I won't tell you how that happened, as in doing so would surely unravel the series of events that led me to be what I am now. Nor will I tell you how to defeat the digimon at the end. Despite winning being necessary for me to become Emperor, telling you how would actually jeopardize your chances of winning.

'Go ahead and look at the next few mirrors. I know you will, because I did that too. You want to know how likely this future is. And I'll tell you right now, it's not as strong a possibility as I would like. However, if you stay in that maze, I'll never have a chance to be realized. Then again, neither would the images in the other mirrors.

'The exit you seek is as follows: go down the path, turn at the first left, then take the second right, and count the mirrors on the right hand side. The eighth one will show you walking through that mirror, which is exactly what you need to do.'

Miyako covered her mouth as she finally stepped away from the mirror and continued onto to the next one. What she saw in that one was early-to-mid thirties Koushiro glued to a computer with a young girl tugging at his arm for attention. The next one had a slightly older Odaiba team sitting nervously on a parade float being hailed as heroes.

Miyako's hand returned to her mouth as she saw what appeared in the next mirror. A twenty-ish Koushiro tenderly held Miyako's hand as a doctor approached them, holding a tiny infant. The two new parents absolutely glowed as the newborn was placed into her mother's arms. The new father doting on the precious little baby.

The lavender-haired girl stepped back. The evil Koushiro of that one timeline was right. She couldn't stay here. He was but one possibility. The children he had seen, whether she was the father or the mother, were a much greater probability. If she just had the one daughter or had a few children, her future as a parent had appeared much more often. For some reason, her having a daughter in the future was near certain, and she was not about to deny the girl a future to spite an evil situation that was unlikely to happen. That girl may even exist in that timeline, attempting to undo her father's evil deeds.

"I know where the exit is," Miyako announced.

"You do?" Koushiro questioned.

Miyako nodded. "Follow me."

Koushiro took a reluctant step away from the mirror that had held his attention. He then spared a gaze at the last mirror Miyako had looked upon and saw both of them as proud new parents. He frowned at that, wondering how the girl discovered the means out of here. His fists tightened looking at the little baby. He would not forget the futures he had seen and vowed that he would do as he must.

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The alien digimon, Vadermon, glared angrily. "Well, look who's finally here. I'll take more than your curiosity this time."

"Whatever," Lady Devimon tsked. "They aren't that bitch of light."

Miyako frowned at the alien. There was no mistaking him. That digimon was her first kill.

Koushiro knew that wasn't the same Lady Devimon Sylphimon had killed, and the real Izumi's memories supplied who she really was: Piemon's general during the battles against the Dark Masters. Still, the devil held the same appearance as the digimon he had first helped kill.

"We'd better take care of them," Tentomon commented.

Miyako nodded and grabbed her digivice. Koushiro did the same. With a pair of blinding pillars of light, Tentomon and Palmon were replaced by the giant blue beetle, Kabuterimon, and the large cactus with boxing gloves, Togemon.

"Oh, I'm shaking in my boots," Lady Devimon remarked sarcastically.

"Let's cut to the chase. Abduction Ray!" Vadermon blasted his gun at the insect digimon.

Kabuterimon leapt out of the way and returned fire with an electric ball. "Mega Blaster!"

Vadermon was struck by the attack, but didn't seemed bothered by it at all as he continued to fire off his ray gun.

Togemon proved to be just as ineffective against Lady Devimon. A rain of punches was answered with an axe-kick that sent the huge cactus into the labyrinth's giant hedge wall.

The two teens clenched their digivices tightly as they watched the mismatched battle continue. Kabuterimon dodged the various attacks of the Vadermon, while Lady Devimon toyed with Togemon. They knew that without evolving again, there was no hope of surviving this battle, let alone having the humans returned to their real bodies.

"Togemon, hang in there!" the boy shouted. "Koushiro, we have to do something. Shouldn't they have evolved again by now?"

"Yes," Miyako agreed. "I can think of only one other way to reach the next level."

"Jogress," Koushiro replied.

"We have to try it," Miyako affirmed.

"We've become reflections of each other...," Koushiro commented.

"So let our hearts beat as one," Miyako continued.

"Tentomon is the better fighter. Let him take the point," Koushiro suggested.

With that, the Chosen digimon began to glow.

"Kabuterimon!"

"Togemon!"

"Jogress evolve!" the two digimon cried out as they took to the air. Then, with an earth-shattering thud, a gargantuan mauve beetle with green claws, instead of his normal dark blue, crashed to the ground. "Atlur Kabuterimon!"

Lady Devimon twirled her finger in the air. "Oh, wow. You've joined. That makes it two against one now."

"Abduction Ray!" Vadermon fired his gun repeatedly at the giant bug, but now it was his attacks that ineffectively hit the opponent. What he wouldn't do to be in his own sub-dimension where he ruled and could bend the laws of physics to his personal desires.

"Horn Buster!" Atlur Kabuterimon called out and head-butted the alien digimon into oblivion.

Lady Devimon glared. "What a fucking wimp. Don't think for a second that you can beat me that easily."

"Mega Blaster!" the beetle replied, using the amped up version of his adult form's attack. He only succeeded in burning a hole through the thick plants that made up the labyrinth wall as the devil woman evaded the strike easily.

"Darkness Wave!" Lady Devimon counterattacked with pure dark energy.

The insect was far too large to dodge while still being in the labyrinth, and grunted in pain from being hit. Atlur Kabuterimon began to charge at her, trying in vain to nail her with his Horn Buster attack. Though while it proved ineffective against her, it did enough damage to the labyrinth by taking out the walls. Now, at least, he had more freedom of movement.

The teens would love to say Lady Devimon was merely toying with or even underestimating the giant bug, but they saw through her tactic. She was a naturally evolved digimon verses the empowered evolved beetle. Eventually Atlur Kabuterimon's energy would run out and devolve, allowing the devil to move in for the kill.

"We have to do something. We can't lose now," Miyako commented desperately.

"Atlur Kabuterimon isn't being as effective as we hoped," Koushiro agreed. He looked across the battlefield. Branches and leaves were strewn everywhere from the beetle's failed attacks striking the giant plants that had made up the labyrinth's walls. "Perhaps Lillymon would be better now?"

"Switching the jogress has been done before," Miyako added. "But could she bring herself to kill?"

"Don't tell Mimi, but I'm not exactly the pacifist she is," Palmon's voice informed from the huge beetle. "I may not like killing, but I will do what I need to."

"Aw, your bleeding digital core is set to kill me." Lady Devimon started to laugh sardonically. "I'm so scared."

"Let's do this," chorused the teens and the dual voice of the jogressed digimon.

"Atlur Kabuterimon jogress switch!" the beetle began to glow as if he was incased into an egg, which then shrank. The glowing egg then fell away revealing a humanoid figure with pink petals and green leaves for clothing and a mauve helmet resting on her head. "Lillymon!"

"That means nothing to me," Lady Devimon mocked. Her fingernails extended and melding into a single red blade which she tried to disembowel the pink digimon with.

Lillymon evaded the attack. "Now is that anyway to say, 'hello?' I think you're too wrapped up in all of this."

Lady Devimon scowled at the plant fairy. She was then surprised as plant branches started to wrap themselves around her, momentarily immobilizing her arms and legs. "Don't think this will hold me."

Lillymon gave the devil a sad smile. "I don't need it to hold you for long." The fairy digimon flew closer to the struggling leather-clad digimon.

Lady Devimon looked up at her opponent, but only saw a large pink lily.

"Flower Cannon," Lillymon announced with remorse, firing her attack at point blank range.

Lady Devimon's body continued to struggle for a half second before realizing she no longer had a head and then exploded into data.

Almost immediately, Lillymon glowed and reverted back to Tentomon and Palmon.

"That was interesting. Being a girl was different," Tentomon commented.

Palmon frowned. "Being a boy was no picnic." She shuddered slightly. "If Mimi asks, Tentomon did the killing, okay?"

Koushiro nodded. "That was the plan. Even if we didn't follow it."

Miyako glanced at the boy. "You didn't hold us back. I thought you didn't want to kill."

Koushiro frowned. "One of the images I saw... wasn't pretty. We were in battle and I wasn't fighting as well as I could've. I know I was refusing to kill in it. And because I didn't, innocents were dying. You, my children, everyone was dying. Then it went black.... I don't want to see that future come to pass. I will do what I can to protect those I care about, even if it means I have to start killing."

"Ah, guys? Piemon's here!" Tentomon called out.

"Oh, don't stop talking on my account." The devil clown smiled dementedly at them. "I'd like to know about what happened to you, considering you disappeared from this maze for a time."

Miyako smirked. "We ended up in another maze. One that showed us our future. I didn't see you in any of them."

Palmon shuddered. "I did. I was his... slave. I REALLY didn't like it."

"Oh, and why not? Don't like a little S&M? Or is anal not your thing?" Piemon taunted.

Koushiro frowned. "So, there's a chance you'll win, but there's a greater chance we'll defeat you."

"Oh, sure, I may lose at this, but YOU won't be the ones to defeat me," Piemon countered. He pitched two cards at the teens, who then glowed along with their digimon.

Miyako grabbed her own chest and bounced her tits. "YES! I'm a girl again!"

Koushiro similarly patted himself to make sure his male equipment was in order.

The two teens then looked upon the digimon. Tentomon had reverted to his baby stage two form of Motimon, while Palmon became the even younger form of Yuramon. With a sense of shared dread, they instantly knew what Piemon had meant. If they all succeeded in being changed back, there would be nothing to stop the evil clown from killing them all. They would all only have baby stage digimon and would be easy targets for the evil clown.

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Author's Notes:

And the tale continues. (Finally!)

Note: I will mock anyone who says Kabuterimon and Togemon should have different Perfection levels through jogress. Toei, the creators of Digimon, have repeatedly noted that a jogressed digimon is the natural evolution of one of the two digimon involved. No matter how Daisuke evolves XV-mon, Paildramon will be the result. This is Digimon Adventures canon, and is not my idea nor interpretation. And as I try to adhere to canon as best I can, Toei's statement in regards to jogress is what I use.

Coming Next:
Iori, Ken and Yamato, or should I say Yamato, Mimi and Ken, fight their way through the trials of the Digital Labyrinth.

I could use a little help in determining what each of the remaining Chosen will face in the labyrinth. The trials should be geared towards personally challenging them.