Japanese Title: The New Warriors of Darkness! Löwemon and KaiserLeomon
Kouichi wakes up in a daze, and Takuya recalls how he saw Kouichi following Kouji to Shibuya Station. Kouji approaches Kouichi and demands to know if everything is true: if Kouichi had been following him to the station, if Kouichi truly is his twin brother, and if their mother truly is alive.
Kouichi, distressed from recent events, confirms that it’s true and tells his story: on her deathbed, his grandmother had told him that he has a brother named Kouji. Wanting to know what kind of person his brother was and what kind of life he lived, he’d tracked down Kouji and followed him for a few days, and although he wanted to talk to Kouji during then, he was never able to bring himself to reveal himself to him. In addition, he hid his activities from his mother, and was only able to watch as she worked herself hard through a difficult job.
The day Kouji had left for the Digital World, Kouichi had followed him to Shibuya Station, but didn’t make it to the elevator and, having fallen down the stairs and gone unconscious, is unable to remember the details. The next thing he remembered was being taken into a dark and twisted world, which he had mistaken for the afterlife, and seeing images of Kouji’s supposedly happy family in contrast to his suffering mother. Consumed with loneliness, Kouichi became victim to Cherubimon’s Spirit of Darkness, was transformed into Duskmon, and lost his memories.
Izumi, Junpei, and Tomoki arrive with Angler, and Takuya catches them up on what’s happened with Duskmon and Kouichi. They approach the castle under the Rose Morning Star, but nobody is very excited about the fact, especially with Kouji and Kouichi sitting in separate cars with an awkward silence. As Angler takes a food break, Takuya, Junpei, Izumi, and Tomoki step outside the train momentarily to discuss what they can do to help Kouji and Kouichi. Junpei says that it’s best to leave them alone and not meddle in their business, but Takuya feels like he can’t do that.
Takuya enters the train again and asks Kouji if there’s anything they can do, and Kouji, still trying to get used to the fact he has a brother and having been raised as an only child, asks Takuya what it’s like having a sibling. Takuya talks about his relationship with his own brother, admitting that he doesn’t think he’s been a very good brother to Shinya and wants to do better. The other kids come in and provide their input: Tomoki talks about his own older brother, saying that while his older brother doesn’t seem to play with him much, it may be his own fault for not ever actually asking him to play; Junpei doesn’t have any siblings but would like to, and Izumi muses that while she wouldn’t want a sibling with the same personality as her, she might like a younger sister. Kouji thanks them, and Takuya says that the best way to approach this is with trial and error - and a little time.
Kouichi, meanwhile, is troubled over the fact that he recently tried to kill them all and wonders why they’re not giving him a hard time over it. After the train begins moving again, Patamon approaches him and tells him that light and darkness are siblings, and that since there’s always darkness where there is light, Kouichi shouldn’t hate himself for being the darkness. Kouichi recognizes Patamon as one of the Angel Digimon, and thanks him for accepting someone like him.
The train is shortly after attacked by Cherubimon, and Cherubimon kicks Angler’s front car away. Izumi, Junpei, and Tomoki spirit evolve with their Beast Spirits and Takuya and Kouji double spirit evolve, but they’re unable to leave even a scratch on Cherubimon while Kouichi can do nothing but watch. Cherubimon summons lightning from the sky to attack them, and as one of the bolts is about to hit Kouichi, BeoWolfmon shields him and takes the attack.
The attack is powerful enough to revert everyone to their human forms, and Cherubimon comments that his opponents are weak and asks Kouichi why he wasn’t able to defeat them. Incensed, Kouichi goes up to confront Cherubimon despite Kouji’s protests and yells at him for forcing him to fight his own brother. Cherubimon replies that Kouichi wished for it, since the Spirit of Darkness doesn’t work unless the holder has dark feelings in his heart. This has an effect on Kouichi, and Cherubimon tells him to accept it and return to being his servant, but Kouichi declares that while he accepts it as the truth and acknowledges that he once held hatred and envy towards Kouji, he’s changed and won’t lose to the darkness again.
With that, Cherubimon decides to kill Kouichi, but Kouji calls out to him, which causes his Digivice to light up, give Kouichi his own Digivice, and purify the Spirits of Darkness. The purified Spirits enter the Digivice and Kouichi, feeling the true power of darkness that can be used to fight evil, is able to spirit evolve to Löwemonnote . Löwemon is able to attack Cherubimon effectively as Kouji cheers him on, and when he slide evolves to KaiserLeomonnote , he’s able to defeat Cherubimon with no effort at all.
However, Cherubimon dissolves without revealing a DigiCode, and the kids realize that they haven’t fought the real Cherubimon but a copy. The real Cherubimon’s voice tells them that they still have a long way to go and that he’ll be waiting under the Rose Morning Star. Kouichi decides to find Cherubimon and defeat him alone and telling the others to go home, saying that only the true power of darkness will be able to defeat him. Kouji refuses to let him go alone, saying that darkness exists because there is light, and the other kids quickly join in, wanting to rescue Ophanimon. With all of them agreeing to go, the six of them, Bokomon, Neemon, and Patamon head to the Rose Morning Star.
Tropes:
- Actually a Doombot: After KaiserLeomon skewers him, it's revealed that the Cherubimon the kids have been fighting the whole time was actually a digital copy.
- Blade Run: KaiserLeomon does this with Cherubimon's Lightning Spear attack.
- Dark Is Not Evil: While feeling guilt-ridden about his actions as Duskmon/Velgmon, Patamon gives Kouichi some encouragement that darkness and light are two sides of the same coin and that neither side is inherently good or evil. Upon standing up to Cherubimon, Kouichi causes the Spirits of Darkness to transform into a purified form, making him realize that Patamon was right and that even the power of darkness can be used to fight evil.
- Eye Catch: In addition to adding Kouichi to the roster of eyecatch candidates, this episode has his version of the eyecatch shown twice, as it’s Kouichi’s formal evolution episode.
- Image Song: “With Broken Wings” returns once again for Kouichi’s flashback at the beginning of the episode. For some reason, however, the dub chooses not to likewise use “Darkness in My Heart”.
- Duskmon’s image song “Blader” also appears during the part where Kouichi recounts how he was found by Cherubimon.
- Sixth Ranger: With the Spirits of Darkness purified, Kouichi becomes an official member of the Warrior kids.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out what happened to the poor Angler whom Cherubimon kicked away...for all we know, he could have been kicked back to the Trailmon graveyard and left to die.
