BlackWarGreymon's icy, sarcastic words pierced Hikari's heart like a sharp blade.
'What did this black WarGreymon mean? Why did he say Onii-chan had been deeply hurt by them? What did he know? What had Onii-chan experienced? Why didn't I know any of this? Why hadn't she I by Onii-chan's side!'
"Tell me! Where is Onii-chan? What did he go through? Why does he want revenge on me? Tell me, why?!" Hikari's red-rimmed eyes fixed on BlackWarGreymon as she shouted.
But all she received was his mocking sneer and a look of grim determination.
"You don't deserve to know."
'You. Don't. Deserve.'
Those three words completely snapped Hikari's sensitive, fragile nerves.
"Aaaaaaah!"
She roared like a madwoman, the white light around her swelling into the phantom of a giant hand.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The immense white light, symbolizing the power of 'Light', lifted BlackWarGreymon high and smashed him deep into the ground. Each impact created a crater several meters deep, worsening his injuries.
"Tell me! What exactly happened?!" Hikari waved her right hand, the white light phantom gripping BlackWarGreymon tightly, lifting him to face her as she asked with a tormented expression.
"Heh." A scornful, cold smile touched BlackWarGreymon's blood-stained lips.
"Ptui!"
He spat on the protective barrier in front of Hikari, conveying his utter contempt.
He was a solitary challenger, a warrior under Taichi's command. No matter how he was treated, he would never reveal his lord's whereabouts to this woman.
"AAAH! Tell me! I'm his sister! I'm the one he should trust the most!" Hikari attacked BlackWarGreymon frantically, countless beams of white light bombarding his body, leaving numerous savage scars.
Taichi. Her brother. Her most treasured family.
'What had he encountered?'
'What had he endured?'
'When he shut himself in his room, suffering in agony... what was I doing?'
Hikari clenched her fists, her teeth sinking deeply into her red lips until a trickle of crimson blood appeared.
Memories from the days before Taichi's disappearance surfaced in her mind.
'Onii-chan, Takeru asked me to hang out. I'm heading out.'
'...Yeah.'
'Onii-chan, I left the food Mom made by your door. Remember to eat.'
'...Yeah.'
'Onii-chan, the school is organizing a field trip. I might not be able to...'
'You should go.'
Taichi's tone grew more despondent day by day. He shut himself behind that cold, lonely door, staying inside all day long. And Hikari had watched it all happen right before her eyes. And did nothing.
Seeing Hikari lost in memory, BlackWarGreymon let out a cold laugh. The words he had held back for so long finally spilled out.
"Someone like you, worthy of Taichi's trust? When he was downcast, when he was betrayed, when he endured loneliness and solitude, where were you? Did you stay by his side, even for a single minute?!"
The icy interrogation was deafening!
Tears streamed uncontrollably down Hikari's face. No matter how she wiped them, she couldn't stop the flood.
Her heart ached so much.
The pain of being misunderstood.
The pain of being unable to explain.
The pain of regretting the past.
And the deepest pain of all... her heartache for Taichi.
"That's not it! It's not like that!"
"Then what is it like? Tell me! When you were dating the brother of the one who betrayed him, did you think of Taichi then? When you went out to have fun by yourself, did you consider Taichi's feelings?!" BlackWarGreymon roared.
These were things he had overheard inadvertently while alone with Agumon.
'A woman like this, this person who called herself his sister... what right did she have to say she cared about Taichi?'
"It's not, it's not, it's NOT!"
"Everything, everything is NOT like that!!!"
Hikari's emotions finally shattered completely.
Say it.
Say everything.
The thoughts she had hidden in her heart for years.
The truth of the matter.
Say it all.
Even if the consequence was being rejected by the whole world, being abandoned by society... it would be better than this heartache, a billion times more intense than being sliced by a thousand blades.
"How could I not care about Onii-chan?! I love Taichi the most! During class, after school, on trips... I think of him every minute, every second! Even the gift I got for him, I asked countless people for advice and spent a whole year's allowance to buy it! How could I just watch him stay alone in his room and not ask what was wrong?!"
"But... but..."
Hikari looked at BlackWarGreymon, at the star that had been knocked away. Tears fell in large drops, shattering on the ground like pieces of her broken heart.
"What could I do? Faced with my beloved brother and the conflict with the girlfriend he chose, what could I, just his little sister, really do?!"
Her trembling voice conveyed the truest feelings in Hikari's heart.
...She had been jealous of that person.
Sora.
Someone who was vain deep down, who wasn't particularly pretty, whose personality wasn't that great either... yet she monopolized the best Taichi in the whole world.
Why?
In her younger years, Hikari never hid her deep jealousy. She followed behind Taichi, hugged his legs, constantly acting spoiled towards him.
'Don't play with Sora. Stay with Hikari.'
'Sora went to see Yamato again secretly, Onii-chan. Just ignore them, okay?'
'Onii-chan... today is Hikari's birthday... are you really inviting Sora?'
Time and again, her intense jealousy, her powerful desire to have her brother all to herself... were met with Taichi's patient lecturing.
'Hikari, Sora and I are boyfriend and girlfriend. We're going to get married someday, you know.'
'Hikari, you're just my little sister. You'll find your own special someone one day. Then you won't be thinking about your brother so much.'
Looking at her brother's gentle expression, Hikari just shook her head, shaking it desperately.
'No! Hikari will always be Onii-chan's Hikari! Yagami Hikari... Yagami... is Yagami Taichi's Yagami! Yagami 'Light'... is Yagami Taichi's light! I will be with Onii-chan, forever, never apart!' (T/N: Hikari means Light.)
Little Hikari clung tightly to her brother, pouring out her sincere feelings. But Taichi just smiled and shook his head, patting her head, saying she was too young to understand.
Gradually, Hikari learned to hold back. She learned to put on the image of a proper, refined young lady in front of her brother.
She watched her brother be with Sora. Even though her heart felt like it was being sliced by knives, she still had to wear a bright smile and greet them.
'She was Onii-chan's choice. She was the one Onii-chan loved.'
'No matter how she felt inside, as long as Onii-chan was happy, as long as Onii-chan was willing, then it was all okay.'
Hikari only cared about her brother's feelings.
That's why she endured the intense revulsion in her heart and went on dates with Takeru, for the sake of her brother's friend's pride.
That's why, when she saw her brother shutting himself in his room, she suppressed the urge to barge in, not wanting to interfere in his relationship with Sora.
'But...'
"Why did things turn out like this?! If only I had known earlier, if only I had realized sooner..."
Hikari wept, her voice already hoarse from excessive screaming.
"...Even if it meant making an enemy of the whole world, I would have followed closely behind him."
"Because, Hikari's light, from the very beginning, belonged only to Yagami Taichi!"