Japanese Title: Knight of the Skies, Aquilamon
Daisuke begins to discuss the idea of having Ken join the group with the others, though they’re uncertain; Hikari thinks they should watch him a little longer, Iori can’t even think about forgiving Ken after his antics as the Kaiser, Miyako’s unsure about Ken’s morality when he’d killed a Digimon, even a hostile one, and while Takeru agrees that Ken has changed, he doesn’t think it’s a smart move to have him join.
Ken isn’t doing very well on his end; he’s become the talk of the school after his grades have dropped significantly. While he’s on his way home, he’s approached by Daisuke, who offers to set him up a time for him to make a formal apology to the others. Ken is completely open to the idea but disagrees with Daisuke’s statement that they’re all “partners”. As Ken takes his leave, Daisuke decides that Ken probably just needs time to get his feelings sorted out; Takeru, watching over them, notices that Ken indeed seems to look more determined than condescending like he used to, and wonders what Ken is thinking.note
Miyako’s siblings, seeing Miyako stressed about something, decide to give her some counseling and tell her that she has to sort out her own feelings...only for Miyako to realize that they’re under the impression she’s having problems with a boyfriend. Still, she takes the part about “her feelings” into consideration, but even though she has Ken’s email address on hand from a magazine article, she can’t bring herself to ask Ken himself about it.
Ken and the Adult form of Wormmon, Stingmon, successfully fight off and kill a rampaging Snimon. Once the job is done, the two of them look at the Dark Towers that surround them...
As Mimi tends to some YukimiBotamon near a dam, Palmon goes off to find herbs to make tea with. On her way back, she sees the mysterious blue-haired woman and is surprised to see an adult in the Digital World. As Palmon watches, the woman plucks a hair from her head and inserts it into a Dark Towernote , and as the area is enveloped in light, the woman gives the order to someone to destroy the dam and flood the town down the river. Palmon runs to Mimi to warn her, but before she can reach Mimi, she and the area around her are attacked by a Golemon. Mimi goes to Palmon, who can only tell her that Golemon is trying to destroy the dam before passing out.
Mimi calls for help and the kids answer her call. After being informed that the nearby town will be flooded if the dam is destroyed, the kids attempt to fight off Golemon, but have a hard time as he also turns out to have no Evil Ring or Spiral. He also turns out to be extremely strong and shows serious dedication to actually destroying the dam, making the kids wonder why he would do such a thing when he’s not being controlled by an Evil Ring or Spiral.
Daisuke tells the others that maybe the only option is to defeat - and therefore kill - Golemon. Miyako refuses to do such a thing, but it seems impossible that they’ll be able to stop Golemon destroying both the dam and the town without killing him, and Miyako wonders if Ken had come to the same conclusion that killing the enemy was the only way to save everyone. Iori is flatly against it, saying that “they’ll just be the same as him by doing so”, but Daisuke is sure that there must have been a reason for Ken to do what he did, while Miyako is even more conflicted.
Mimi decides that any help is better than no help and gets Ken’s email from Miyako in order to send an SOS. Miyako is unable to rationalize her feelings about the situation, which is only made worse when Shurimon is incapacitated in the fight against Golemon and reverts to Hawkmon with the others following suit shortly after. Ken and Stingmon arrive in the nick of time to stop Golemon from completely destroying the dam.
Palmon wakes up and reveals to the kids that she saw the mysterious woman turning a Dark Tower into Golemon, meaning that Golemon is not a real Digimon but a Dark Tower with the shape of one. Takeru realizes that this is why the Dark Tower had disappeared as soon as Thunderballmon had appeared, and that Ken had so freely killed Thunderballmon because he was also a Dark Tower and not an actual Digimon. Now sure that Ken is no longer the Kaiser, Miyako accepts Ken as their partner, and this triggers Hawkmon’s evolution into Aquilamon.
Miyako informs Aquilamon about the fact that Golemon is actually a Dark Tower and not a Digimon, which allows Aquilamon to attack without restraint. Aquilamon causes damage to Golemon, revealing a black shiny surface like that of a Dark Tower underneath and confirming this fact to all of the kids. Together, Aquilamon and Stingmon finish off Golemon.
Now that everything is over, Ken makes his formal apology to the kids and their Digimon. He tells them that the only thing he knows about the woman is that she can make Dark Towers into Digimon and that the Dark Towers regain their functions of inhibiting evolution when she’s around. They ask him why he hadn’t told them this earlier, and he tells them that he wants to take responsibility alone for the damage that he caused as the Kaiser, which is why he also refuses to join their group. Ken excuses himself and goes off, but while walking off receives an email from Miyako on his D-Terminal, thanking him for his help today and telling him that she’ll be waiting for the day he joins them.
Tropes
- All There in the Manual: Miyako's siblings are only named in supplementary materials: Mantarou, Chizuru, and Momoe.
- Poor Communication Kills: The whole debate over Ken’s morality and killing Dark Tower Digimon would probably have been avoided if someone managed to tell the other Chosen about this. It’s understandable in Ken’s case since he didn’t really care whether the others trusted him or not (nor did he want them involved in the issue), but Palmon seems to fall unconscious early just so that the other Chosen can be in doubt for a little longer.
