Darkest Before Duskmon

Duskmon confronts the warriors and effortlessly defeats them. They barely escape, and while they regroup to think of a way to win against him, Koji confronts Takuya about his haphazard thinking.

Summary

After defeating Arbormon, Duskmon begins to fight all the Legendary Warriors. Their attacks do little to hurt him until BurningGreymon gets angry and engulfs him in fire. Lobomon is skeptical of victory and tells everyone to run away, much to Takuya's chagrin. They begin to bicker, but Bokomon breaks it up by suggesting food. As they're setting up camp, Takuya and Tommy come up with a plan to defeat Duskmon, but Koji gets angry and takes Takuya aside to talk. Koji insists that Duskmon is too powerful, and the two fight. Koji asks Takuya if he knows why he's here. When Takuya says it's to save the world, there is hesitance in his voice and Koji doesn't think he knows what that means. Koji says that Takuya doesn't get it; he thinks it's obvious that Takuya doesn't care if he gets hurt and asks for a promise that none of the others will—and that if he can't make that promise, then he should go home now. Suddenly, Duskmon attacks and the DigiDestined put their plan into motion. It fails when Duskmon absorbs all the attacks. He turns to attack Agunimon, but KendoGarurumon jumps in the way and reverts back to Koji, who is seriously injured. Takuya screams Koji's name, gathering him in his arms, and Duskmon begins to act as if he's in pain and engulfs the area in darkness. When the darkness clears, Takuya finds himself alone and at the Dark Terminal. Demoralized and depressed about causing Koji's pain, Takuya is offered a ride home by the Dark Trailmon, and he accepts.

Featured Characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance. Bolded characters are fought by the protagonist(s), and italicized characters feature non-explicitly, e.g. voice, silhouette, image.)

Humans	Rookie	Champion	Armor	Hybrid
Koji Minamoto (11) Zoe Orimoto (11) J.P. Shibayama (11) Tommy Himi (14) Takuya Kanbara (15)	Neemon (7) Bokomon (7)	Dark Trailmon (19)	Pipismon (16)	Duskmon (1) MetalKabuterimon (2) Zephyrmon (2) BurningGreymon (2) Lobomon (2) Korikakumon (2) Beetlemon (9) Kumamon (9) Agunimon (17) KendoGarurumon (18)

Digivolutions

MetalKabuterimon	1	Beetlemon	3	J.P. Shibayama	8	MetalKabuterimon

Korikakumon	1	Kumamon	3	Tommy Himi	8	Korikakumon

Zephyrmon	3	Zoe Orimoto	8	Zephyrmon

Lobomon	3	Koji Minamoto	9	KendoGarurumon	11	Koji Minamoto

BurningGreymon	7	Takuya Kanbara	9	Agunimon	12	Takuya Kanbara

Quotes

"It's the combination of all our differences that make us such a good team. We balance each other."

—J.P. to Zoe when she is preoccupied about Koji's and Takuya's argument

"Why do you think you're here, Takuya?"

—Koji to Takuya after Koji confronts Takuya about his plan to defeat Duskmon

"It's obvious you don't care about yourself, but can you promise me the others won't get hurt? 'Cause if you can't, then you better just go home now, because I won't let you risk their lives."

—Koji to Takuya at the end of their argument

"End of the line, huh? That sounds right. It's where guys like me end up. Guys who hurt their friends."

—Takuya finally recognizes his faults...but goes too far.

Other Notes

Animation errors

When Duskmon is retreating and covering everything in darkness, KendoGarurumon (Frontier) can be seen, even though Koji Minamoto had already degenerated.

Real-world references

The title is a reference to the adage, "It's always darkest just before the dawn."