Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I will probably never forgive you.

Clock ticking at 4 AM. Taichi turns in his bed after finally ending Ordinemon… no, Meicoomon a few hours ago.

Yesterday was a total wreck.

It was early in the morning when Meicrackmon attacked. He has been dead to his friends for more than half a day, Yamato makes sure he knows that along with a fist to his face. He doesn't know how many hours he fainted after… that. Glad that his phone still worked to call an emergency for Daisuke and the others.

Everyone is tired today, mentally and physically. So he called out a rest day for today and they will share whatever they have on the next day.

He rolled around in the unknown room. He tried to close his eyes again, only to see a bloodied hand behind the controls. He's tired but not feeling like sleeping at all. It has been hours since they were escorted out after the whole ordeal by the JSDF and placed in separate rooms.

Now I think about it again, we never got caught before and now we got caught twice just in the span of two days.

Taichi chuckled to himself, musing how everytime problem happens on this side they will always run away from the authorities. And he started at 7 apparently. Not a good social track record, as Joe suggested.

Now, amusement turns into irritation. 

They have prevented the technology apocalypse, but they got trapped here instead. The reason?

It was the media. Reporters.

Those damn busybody, have a little bit of tact won't you?

The field guys and their higher ups are busy with the clean up and they can't spare the time to create a cover story yet. So, how to avoid conflicting stories? Hide the source it seems.

The Data Bureau or whatever it is cannot send a car to pick them up because mobs are blocking the military blockade even with the emergency evacuation order so they have to be escorted out with military helicopters to a nearby base and get their temporary lodging. And so they have to live in hiding under supervision until the government knows what to do with them.

It seems it was not a problem before because there was no physical evidence with Digimon’s messing with electronics and the internet wasn’t a big thing back then, only a few witnesses that were probably bribed into silence. And Yamato's dad practically exhausted his connections to make sure they remained anonymous in the media.

But it's now different with electronic devices having more capacity to function even in digimon’s vicinity and that they were caught in news footage being probably involved in recent incidents with videos probably already uploaded here and there.

Aren't we still entitled to child protection service?

Well, considering that they got the military to hide them, it seems yes, they're entitled, Taichi realized with a sigh.

It's just not as fun as he preferred.

5 AM. He tried to close his eyes again while focusing on Koromon's not so gentle snoring. Another blood, enclosed space, sound of beeping and scream, burning sensation in his eyes, deafening static noise from the communicator, and a feeling of frantic breathing. He just realized the last one is not from memories, he's actually hyperventilating now.

"Taichi, you okay?"

Taichi rolled around to face Koromon. The digimon's eyes softened as soon as their eyes met. He must be a mess.

Taichi reached out his hands, noting how numb his arms are, hugged Koromon and buried his face on top of Koromon's round body. He didn't even manage to say anything, not even to cry as Koromon's two ears softly stroked the back of his head.

It seems like he finally fell asleep sometime in that silence because the next time he realized, the sun was already poking from between the drawn curtains and Koromon was already snoring loudly despite being used as a pillow by him.

On his blurred sight he saw someone sitting at the corner of his makeshift room. On second look, it's Hikari, her face lacking any distinct expression as dark aura seems to surround her. Probably not so different from him.

"Hikari…?"

"You're awake."

Her voice is soft, almost disappearing.

He tried to rub his eyes but a sharp pain ran through his entire arm. It was so sudden that he accidentally let out a pained yelp. In the corner of his eyes he saw Hikari standing up, knocking her chair in the process.

“Taichi!”

She rushed to his size, but immediately froze. Her mind seems to shut down as her face frozen in panic, not really able to make a decision.

It seems the ruckus was louder than he expected because the next moment the door opened revealing a certain blonde.

"Hikari, is there something… TAICHI!"

Yamato quickly rushed to see him intuitively, but then rushed out again and later reappeared with a confused Joe in hand. Upon hearing Taichi's pained moan, Joe instantly pushed Yamato aside and checked on him.

"Yamato, ask someone to get the doctor!"

Yamato nodded and rushed out again. Joe gently pried the blanket and Koromon off him, and laid him on his back. Joe gently rubbed his arm and proceeded to unbutton his shirt before remembering about the other occupant.

"Hikari, can you please get out for now? I'll look at your brother so you don't have to worry."

Hikari snapped from her daze and slowly nodded. She silently walked outside, somewhat dejected, and closed the door. Joe then continued to undress him without hesitation. At that point the pain has been dulled and he's left cringing whenever Joe touches the place that hurts.

"Joe, how is Taichi?" Koromon awkwardly asked.

"Worse than I thought. He probably got all these wounds when falling off the fissureー"

Taichi cringedー

"ーAnd got worse when he pushed himself running around pulling all those acrobatic stunts." 

ーand audibly groaned at this.

"How are you feeling?"

"As good as you described."

"Not good then."

Joe pulled some cotton and alcohol and began to clean his wounds.

"I can treat the smaller wounds, but you will need to go to hospital to get the worse treated. The swelling on your right hand and torso looks bad enough. And your legs doesn't looks any better if not downright worse."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, it seems like you're not going to play in this month's match. If it's even still held with all of this chaos."

Joe and Taichi laugh dryly at this, though he's kinda happy that Joe remembered despite never actually coming.

The door opened again and Joe panickedly threw the blanket over Taichi's mostly naked body only to realize it's just Yamato bringing in the emergency doctor and a male nurse holding a medical supply. The two of them talked at the other side of the room while Yamato strolled to his bed.

"How bad is it?"

"Seems pretty bad according to Joe. So, what's up?"

"A lot of things other than you."

"Very funny. Now would you kindly tell me, Mr. Knife of Udon?"

"I like ramen better, and it's Knife of the Day. Seems like we're moving again. Heard they have prepared a better accommodation for us."

"But you have to visit the hospital first." 

Joe entered the room, trailed behind the doctor. Taichi made an annoyed groan which earned him a sharp glare from Yamato.

"And it seems the media found out about Daisuke and the others. They will probably make it to tomorrow's paper. The bureau arranged to get them moved with us along with the medical team so you're only in for the check up." 

Taichi sighed in relief at Joe's explanation.

"I have heard the gist from him, but I'll check you again to be sure."

The doctor checked him again, and the result is not so different from Joe, only a bit worse. There's a chance that both of his legs are broken it seems. Though he would need an actual scan to be sure how bad is it.

He then soon left to arrange for the extra patient as the base was still very busy dealing with the collateral damage and wounded soldiers. Yamato followed him to fetch clean clothes for Taichi while Joe and the nurse continued to apply first aid to his wounds.

"So, how's Daisuke and the others?"

"Motomiya had it the worst, but he has woken up this morning even though he has since fallen asleep again after seeing his friends. The others are doing rather well, physically at least." 

The nurse explained while dressing his wounds.

Yamato came back a bit later holding a spare hospital gown and underwear. Taichi cringed again at the idea of someone else having to help him change his underwear. In the end the nurse helped him after he drove both Joe and Yamato out of his room, along with the ever anxious Koromon.

No, not even Koromon got to see this.

When the nurse was done with him and left, the rest of the team flocked into the room.

"Taichi!" Meiko called out.

"I'm glad you're alive!" Mimi almost went for a hug, but refrained herself from worsening his wound.

"You idiot, pushing yourself to this extent!" Sora scolded him.

"But I'm amazed that you can move that much with these wounds," Takeru backed up after Sora turned her glare to him.

"Probably the adrenaline. Though I have to admit that was very reckless," Koushiro smiled despite his words.

"Right? I admire your courage but think about yourself too!" Joe finally lets out his frustration now they're done with the treatment.

"His idiocy won't be cured even in or after death. Just give up," Yamato sighed.

"Okay, okay, fine. Now just let me have a peace won't you?"

The reunion disturbed by a loud rumbling sound. The atmosphere turned dull in the instant as they simultaneously turned their head towards the source.

"Sorry, I'm hungry…"

"Koromon, you…"

Taichi is about to protest at his partner when his stomach lets itself known too. It's now Yamato's turn to look at their leader.

"Taichi, you…" 

"Sorry. Now I'm calmed down, I just realized that I have not eaten anything since dinner two days ago."

Taichi laughed sheepishly, which in turn invited more laughter from his friends and a huff from Koromon.

Taichi noticed Hikari standing alone a bit further than the group and silently reclaimed her spot at the corner of the room. Yamato also noticed Taichi's line of sight and turned his head towards Hikari which in turn caught the attention of the rest of the group.

"Hikari, are you still feeling unwell? Maybe you should rest a bit more." 

Takeru broke the awkward silence and approached Hikari. He knew how awful she felt when they lost Taichi for a moment, not that anyone would need to be told about that since they all, except Taichi, saw how the ever so sweet child of light made her partner dark digivolve. Takeru tried to escort her out, but Hikari gently pried his hands off her and rooted on her seat.

"I want to be here… if it's not a problem."

Again, with the almost disappearing voice, the last part was added like an afterthought. It reminded Takeru of the night Ordinemon broke loose.

I want to disappear too.

It was like she lost all the will to live, not even to save nor caring about anything, not even her friends and parents. It was clear to him how much her brother's existence means to her.

But when Taichi came back, the leader still held onto the decision to destroy Ordinemon and permanently kill Meicoomon along with it. Hikari stated how she probably will never forgive him with such conviction. It must be painful for both of them, but Takeru secretly glad that Hikari found her light back and managed to digivolve her partner to the correct evolution path. It seems he was hoping too much as the dark cloud surrounding Hikari is even thicker than before. He expectantly looked at Taichi. He knew that they had a fight, kinda. But he doesn't have any other ideas.

"Of course, you can stay here."

Taichi gave her a slight smile, maybe a bit forced.

"Thanks."

Hikari didn't even lift her face.

The others are taken aback by their stiff interaction. Hikari is rather obvious but Taichi is almost equally uncharacteristic when interacting with Hikari. Usually even when Taichi loses out to Hikari's whim he would add on something about not pushing it, especially when she looks unwell. She looks beyond unwell right now, she looks like the walking dead.

Taichi looks expectantly at Yamato, the said teen just sighed and clapped.

"Come on, we need to get our stuff before our ride comes."

"Our stuff? But we're..."

Mimi started complaining when Sora silenced her and pushed her towards the door.

"Yeah, let's just go. It's already past lunchtime anyway, let's just get something to eat. Our partners probably already fainted from hunger while waiting."

Sora terribly faked laughter as she and Mimi exited the door.

"That's right! Motimon!" 

The others start to leave one by one, leaving Yamato as the last.

Meiko looked back at Taichi and Yamato, Tachi gave the latter a silent thanks before Yamato turned to leave the room too. Meiko quickly turns tail and chases after Mimi and Sora.

Once everyone leaves, Koromon looks left and right in confusion.

Taichi just lay back in his bed and Hikari kept looking down at her seat, none of them said anything or did anything in particular. He knows that Salamon sat in front of the door, probably waiting for Hikari to come out on her own. 

Sometime later, Sora brought 3 sets of food to the room, Salamon peeking from outside the room. He's thinking of lightening the mood while eating, but it only earned him the usual grin from Taichi with the 'eat slower!' scolding. Fortunately, Yamato came in again a few moments later to inform them that the pick up had already come. At that point Koromon was already close to tears.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Yamato asked after looking at the distressed digimon.

"Nothing. Not that I can do anything."

Yamato raised an eyebrow. It's not like it could stop Taichi from annoying literally everyone endlessly. A moment later some medical staff came in and put Taichi on a stretcher. Hikari silently trailed behind until Taichi was about to enter the ambulance.

"Can I come too?" Hikari softly asked.

"You're Hikari Yagami, right?"

Hikari slowly nodded. The man looked at Taichi who also nodded.

"Of course, we already called your parents too…"

Yamato wasn't able to hear anything else as he headed to a different car.

Chapter Text

It was noon when they arrived at their new lodging.

It's a hotel. And looks pretty expensive too, with more scary looking men in uniform.

Mimi immediately squealed as she made a mad dash while yelling something about the shower.

"Worrying about Taichi?"

Takeru called out to Yamato from behind.

"No, he's too stubborn to stay injured for long,"

"Then, Hikari?"

"Yeah. I mean, I know she had it hard. But I just wish I could do something for her."

"Yeah. I feel the same. But I don't think there's anything we can do now."

Takeru looked down in worry. It must be hard for him. No, it's hard for everyone too, including him. 

He parted with Takeru and entered the room assigned to him. A duffel bag was already sitting in the chair. He vaguely remembered one of the Data Bureau agents explaining that they have already got their personal items from their parents.

He opened the bag, and sure, his stuff was already there.

He followed Mimi's example and took a bath himself and lingering around in the lounge. It seems the bureau has got them the whole floor for them to roam free. Sora and Mimi were already there chatting with Meiko. He knew that they were trying to distract the girl from grim thoughts. Fortunately Meiko herself is rather willing to talk away her sadness, unlike Hikari.

Well, they know that Meiko still silently cries while clutching her digivice when left alone, but still better than Hikari.

It was hours later when the lift reached their floor again. He thought about Taichi and Hikari, but it was later revealed by a loud feminine yell to be false.

"I can't believe they threw us out in hospital gowns!"

"Miyako, calm down," A soft voice tried to calm the first one.

"At least it looks like a good hotel," A calm younger voice added.

"Can you keep it quieter? I'm having a major headache here," Another voice complained.

Their voices grew louder as they entered the lounge. It's a girl with lavender hair who kept squinting her eyes, a boy with dark brown hair, and another boy with dark violet hair who pushed another boy with spiky reddish hair in a wheelchair.

Yamato stood up and greeted them.

"Daisuke! Miyako! Iori! Ichijouji!"

As being called, the others, except Meiko, also stood up and crowd around them while guiding them to the sofa.

"Everyone! What are you doing here?" Daisuke excitedly yelled back.

"Or rather, what are we doing here? Not hospital or home or digital world?" Miyako huffed.

"Well, it's kinda a long story," Koushiro sighed.

"Actually we don't know the full story either. We're still waiting for everyone to gather so we can piece off our stories," Sora added.

"Yeah, we have a long story too," Iori also sighed.

"Now that you mention it, where's Taichi and Hikari?" Daisuke turned his head left and right.

"And who is that person?" Ken asked while looking at Meiko.

The said girl stood up, hearing that she was being called and bowed down.

"She is Meiko Mochizuki. Long story short, she is our new member," Yamato gestured to Meiko to come over.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Meiko Mochizuki from Tsukishima High School 2nd year," Meiko bowed down again.

"I'm Daisuke Motomiya! Odaiba Middle School 2nd year!"

"Miyako Inoue, same but 3rd year! Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Iori Hida from Odaiba Elementary School, 6th year. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Ken Ichijouji. I'm from Tamachi Middle School, 2nd year."

"Tsukishima 2nd year means you're the same grade as Yamato and the others, right?" Daisuke excitedly asked again.

"She's Taichi and Sora's classmate," Yamato answered.

"That's right, where's Taichi and Hikari?" Miyako asked before Daisuke was able to.

"Hospital," Yamato answered again.

"Are they injured too?" Iori asked.

"Only Taichi. Hikari is just accompanying him," Sora answered.

"By the way, Mochizuki is a digidestined too, right?" Daisuke asked again.

"Um, yes. Actually," Meiko nervously answered.

"Thenー"

"Now, now."

Mimi interfered before Daisuke could ask again. 

"You must be tired, why don't you rest for now?"

Mimi pushed Miyako ahead to the corridor with their rooms.

"Wait, Mimi!"

Miyako whined but let her be guided by the older girl.

"That's right, Iori. You should rest too," Koushiro steered the boy away.

"Daisuke, Ichijouji. You two should rest too. We'll be waiting for Taichi here," Yamato assured them.

"Come on, tell me about what the doctor told you."

Joe patted Ken's back and took one of Daisuke's wheelchair handles while pushing them towards the corridor. The remaining four stood in silence until the younger boys out of sight.

"Thank you," Meiko smiled slightly.

"Meiko, I think you should go rest too."

Sora placed a hand on Meiko's shoulder, worry painted clearly across her face.

"But…"

"Don't worry, we'll wait for Taichi and Hikari," Takeru offered.

"Nah, it's okay. You can rest too, lil bro."

"Not before you, big bro."

Meiko chuckled at the brothers' exchange.

"I'm sorry. I will take the offer then," Meiko bowed and left with Sora.

Yamato and Takeru sat back at the sofa, occasionally making small talk and taking drinks from the vending machine with the small change that was also packed with their stuff.

It was past midnight when they heard a ding from the lift again. They waited a few more minutes for the sound and wheels and finally the entrance revealed the ever so gloom Hikari wheeling Taichi in a wheelchair. Koromon is sleeping in Taichi's lap while Salamon walks along Taichi's wheelchair.

"Taichi!" "Hikari!"

The two of them run to greet them. Taichi put out a very punchable grin, in Yamato's opinion, and lifted his less injured left hand.

"Hey! What are you doing here this late?"

"Waiting for you obviously."

Yamato flicked Taichi's forehead, instantly replacing the grin into a pout.

"So, how was it?"

"Mom cried a river and dad tried to take us home. But the men in black manage to convince them that it would be safer here than home."

"And your injury? It looks worse than what Joe and the emergency doctor told us."

"Actually it's not that bad. It's just that a reporter managed to slip in and take a photo from the window. It kinda pissed me off so I kicked her out."

Both Yamato and Takeru's eyes went wide and looked at Taichi's feet, both heavily bandaged with cast. 

"It seems there was a request to help us recover as fast as possible so the doctor made sure I won't be moving my limbs excessively for a while."

"I see," Yamato is still astonished.

Sometimes he's wondering how this guy is still alive.

At his side, Takeru burst out laughing.

"Good decision I must say!"

"It's not a laughing matter! They practically threatened to literally tie me down! Can you imagine? Me. Being bound to a wheelchair."

Yamato started laughing too after Taichi got angry which made the brunette angrier.

"Taichi, aren't you supposed to take a rest?" Salamon called from below.

"Ah yeah, you're right. Sorry guys, doctor's order," Taichi winked at them.

Salamon nudged Hikari's feet and she started to wheel him again. Both Yamato and Takeru kept looking at the siblings until they're gone. Hikari didn't say anything, she didn't even move when they're talking until Salamon signaled her to move again.

"We should go get some rest too," Yamato suggested.

"Agreed."

In the other room, Hikari helped Taichi to get into his bed. But after that Hikari didn't move to exit the room. She picked up Taichi's bag from the chair, put it on the table, and sat on it herself.

"... May I be here?" Hikari softly asked.

It was like she just remembered to ask it first before settling in.

"If you want to be here, then sleep on the bed. It's not good to sleep on the desk," Taichi sighed. 

It's still awkward for him to talk with her, but he decided that Hikari's well-being takes priority over his pride.

Hikari silently moved and got into the bed. It's a double bed so there's plenty of space, but Hikari lies down on the farthest edge from Taichi. 

Salamon looked at him worriedly. Taichi gestured to the puppy digimon to come over, so Salamon took the lower part of the empty space between them and curled up while Koromon took the upper part.

The three of them lied down in silence, Koromon already fell asleep long before they arrived. It was Salamon who broke the silence with a yawn.

"Good night," Salamon sleepily said.

"Good night," Taichi replied.

They took it as the chance to finally fall asleep.

Miyako could hardly sleep that night. It was so bizarre.

After being tossed so suddenly into the Digital World, she somehow found herself in a hospital bed.

She reached for the empty bed. Hawkmon has unfortunately left to the Digital World along with the other digimons last year so she should be used to the days without him. But after that awful day it suddenly felt so empty.

"Hawkmon…" she closed her eyes.

It felt so soon when she unceremoniously woken up again by a loud banging and yelling.

"Taichi! Taichi!!!"

Miyako recognized the voice.

It's Hikari's.

She quickly rose up and exited her room, picking up her spare glasses while at it since her previous one was lost somewhere in the Digital World. She thought all of the adventures in the Digital World would make it impossible for her to be surprised with anything, but it seems she's wrong.

Hikari is up, still in her green school uniform, and screaming, barging in into every room calling for her brother. In an instant everyone is on the girl, including her. She saw from the corner of her eyes that Daisuke tried to get up from his wheelchair too, only to be held down by Ken.

"Hikari, what's wrong?"

Sora, being the team mom, is the first one to check on her.

"Taichi… he was gone. I slept in his room, but he's gone when I woke up!"

"I'm sure he just went somewhere, maybe breakfast?"

"LEAVING KOROMON BEHIND?!"

Miyako is shocked when her evolution partner lifts her head.

Bad doesn't even describe it.

She looked like something hell just spat out. Her hair is a mess, her skin is sickly pale, thick eyebags, and bloodshot eyes. Her face is a weird mix of expressions. Somewhat angry, somewhat sad, mostly desperate. She didn't even look anywhere half this bad when they took the trip to the Dark Ocean, and she was even shocked back then.

She wasn't aware how long Hikari was screaming in the corridor. At one point she had to physically restrain her from going out to find her brother. She didn't know the details, but she is sure that there is a reason why they're locked in such a fine facility. It's hard to describe how glad she was when Taichi finally came.

"What are you doing here?"

She didn't see him yesterday, so it definitely shocked her.

He is in a wheelchair. But unlike Daisuke who just has difficulty standing for a long time due to light concussion, both of his prided legs are in casts. His right hand is heavily bandaged, while his left not far off. His head also wrapped with bandages with gauzes patched some part of his face and neck.

Even so, he ironically looks healthier than Hikari. 

Behind him is a young man in military uniform. He looks somewhere in his twenties with standard short black hair. Hikari literally shoved everyone else to run to him.

"Taichi!!!"

She suddenly stopped just in front of him, almost went to hug him but managed to hold out at the last moment. She stood frozen, no one even dared to breathe until she dropped to her knees in front of Taichi.

"Hikari…"

They stayed like that for a minute or so. Hikari finally looked up to him, suddenly so silent after all those screaming. Tears welled in her eyes as she choked back any sobs that were threatening to come out of her mouth.

Taichi turned his head around and looked up at the man who held the handle of his wheelchair.

"Sir, I should be fine from this point."

"You sure?" The man raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"Okay then. Make sure you contact me if whatever happens, understand?"

"Yeah, thank you very much."

The man left them.

They still stood in silence, still shocked by the sudden change. Hikari finally calmed down after a few minutes. She stood back and reached towards Taichi's wheelchair handle. It was then that they finally remembered to move. Yamato walked forward and stopped in front of Taichi.

"Where did you go?"

"I was downstairs for additional checkup. Hikari and Koromon still weren't up yet so I told Salamon…"

The puppy digimon walked forward dejectedly at the mention.

"I'm sorry. I tried to explain, but Hikari..." her long ears dropped.

She was trusted by Taichi to relay the information to her partner and she failed miserably.

"It's okay. I'm here after all."

Iori looked over at everyone. The problem is resolved and they all already gathered in the corridor. Might as well continue with their discussion the day before.

"Now everyone has gathered, can we startー" 

"Taichi! I'm hungry!!"

"Koromon! They're in the middle of an important discussion!"

Iori was suddenly interrupted by hopping digimons. Koromon is being chased by an angry Tsunomon.

"But I'm hungry!"

Koromon landed on Taichi's lap to escape Tsunomon's wrath.

"Koromon!"

Tsunomon jumped up and down between Taichi and Yamato.

"Sora…"

Sora looked down to an ashamed Pyocomon and Tanemon.

"Sorry, Mimi. But I'm hungry too."

On cue Bukamon, Motimon, and Tokomon also exited their room.

"Joe, where's food?"

"Koushiro, I'm sorry."

"Takeru..."

Yamato approached his partner and picked him up.

"Tsunomon, you're hungry too?"

"Well… A bit… Sorry Yamato."

The humans laughed at the digimon's innocence.

Taichi looked at the embarrassed puppy in front of him. Just like Joe always tried to be the responsible one as the oldest, Tailmon, or Salamon now, always tried her best to keep the others in line. After her previous failure, she's even down with her inability to keep the others in line. Even though they all know doing the latter is way harder than beating MaloMyotismon barehanded.

"Sorry Iori, it seems like breakfast first,"

Taichi grinned a bit sheepishly at the youngest member. 

Iori opened his mouth when another loud noise interrupted him again.

"Daisuke," Ken whispers to the other boy.

"Sorry Iori. I'm in for food first," Daisuke laughed sheepishly. 

Iori started to laugh instead of being angry or frustrated.

"Everyone sure doesn't change, I see. So many things have happened recently and honestly I'm so confused. But it seems there's something I can still count on."

"Of course, you can count on us!" Koromon said proudly.

"Why are you so proud?" Taichi scolded his partner.

"Oh well!" Miyako clapped.

"It seems to be a long story anyway, let's just eat first and talk later."

"But first! Let's change!"

Mimi yelled with a pump and a big smile on her face.

It was then that they realized that most of them are still in their sleepwear. It didn't take them long enough to change and they gathered in the lounge.

"By the way, is it okay for us to wander to the lower floor?" Koushiro asked.

"Should be okay. Most people in this building are affiliates. If anything happens I'll just call Serg over," Taichi answered.

"And who is that Serg?" Daisuke chimed in.

"Sergeant Gorou Hinata, the guy from before. One of the JSDF members guarding outside. The platoon he belongs to is in charge of this building's security," Taichi grinned mischievously.

"Sergeant? JSDF?" Miyako knitted her brows.

"The scale is suddenly too big," Iori knitted his eyebrows together.

"I guess it's correct to have a meal first," Ken smiled.

"Right? It's good right?" Koromon huffed proudly.

"Again, why are you so proud?!" Tsunomon complained.

Once again, all of them except Hikari laughed.

At the dining hall, Daisuke tried to sit with Taichi and Hikari, but Yamato pulled him and Ken to sit with him and Takeru. At the other table, Iori sat with Joe and Koushiro while Miyako sat with Mimi, Sora, and Meiko.

The girls' table is rather lively. Miyako seems to get along pretty quickly with Meiko.

Iori seems to be talking actively with Joe and Koushiro, probably trying to get even a slight idea before they start the meeting with Bukamon and Motimon chimed from time to time, probably some joke.

At his table, it seems Yamato, Takeru, Ken, Tsunomon, and Tokomon are talking pretty actively. But he can't concentrate on them. He can't help but to wonder what happened at the Yagami's table.

Hikari is clearly uncharacteristically silent and gloomy. Koromon is talking with Salamon, more like Salamon is constantly annoyed by Koromon while Taichi silently smiles at them barely touching his own food, which is also not so like his usual self.

He tried to ask Yamato but he only got the same 'We'll talk later.'

He got impatient and finished his food early. But the others are still eating so in the end he has to wait.

"Daisuke, be patient. Here, have some desserts."

Ken placed a plate of desserts in front of Daisuke.

"That's right, Daisuke. There will be time for that."

Takeru put a creampuff to his partner's mouth.

"Come on, don't tell me you're hoping that doesn't bother me."

"Everyone is bothered by that. It's just no one knows what to do," Yamato interjected.

"Come on, at least tell me a bit. It's killing me!" Daisuke pleaded.

Yamato and Takeru clearly looked down at this.

"Daisuke, please..." Takeru pleaded back.

He never saw the blonde who wields the crest of Hope that down before.

"Okay… sorry," Daisuke apologized.

"No, we're sorry," Yamato apologized back.

Ken looked back and forth at them and decided that maybe he should step in.

"Why don't we get something else to eat? Everyone is still eating anyway, we got time for another plate."

"By everyone you mean the digimons, right?" Daisuke commented with dessert in his mouth.

"And Daisuke," Yamato added.

"And Daisuke," Takeru repeated his brother.

When Daisuke just blinked at their comment, they finally broke out laughing along with Ken.

"Come on, why are you always turning the joke in my direction?"

Daisuke pouted, but still ate regardless. The remaining three laughed at this.

They followed Ken's suggestion and got some more food.

Despite Takeru's plea, Daisuke can't help but keep glancing at the other table. It's just so unnatural. Whatever caused it must be so serious that even the holder of light looks so dark. This time he actually tried to get into the conversation to distract himself.

It sure does help because the next he realized the girls and their partners were done with the food and went upstairs first. The rest of the group soon followed, and he couldn't help but to be bothered by the fact that the Yagami siblings went last. Usually it would be Taichi who looks over and calls out to everyone, then they would go upstairs together.

Maybe it was why the breakfast dragged out for so long. They just instinctively wait for Taichi to do something.

"Sorry for the wait!"

Taichi greeted them when they finally arrived in front of the dining hall. Hikari pushed his wheelchair while Koromon and Salamon cramped on his lap.

They went up the elevator together and settled at their floor lounge. Yamato stepped forward since Taichi is definitely not in the position to do so.

"So, where should we start?"

Chapter Text

"So, where should we start?" Yamato started.

"I want to make sure of something first," Taichi began.

"Daisukeー" 

Daisuke tilted his head when called. Taichi pulled out his phone and fiddled it with his less injured hand for a few seconds and showed it to them.

"ーThis is not you, right?"

Daisuke looked confused.

Ken stepped away from him and took Taichi's phone and showed it to him.

"What is… this?"

Daisuke scrolled through Taichi's message box. Especially the one from 'Daisuke.'

"I was still in touch with you up until a week before the incident. We, or actually I was in touch with the rest of you through this Daisuke . And when the incident escalated none of us could contact any of you."

Daisuke hurriedly opened the message from him one by one. 

"This wasn't me. I didn't remember sending any of these."

Daisuke fearfully looked up from the phone. Taichi looked at Koushiro and he nodded.

"We should start from the very beginning then."

Koushiro looked at the group and they nodded.

"First, last year the gate between our world and the digital world suddenly weakened. Just in case it's closed we send our digimon back to the digital world so it won't burden them, and finally a few months later the gate finally closes for good."

Koushiro paused. He looked at Taichi to continue.

"It was around the beginning of the school year. Roughly around two weeks after school opened, Daisuke and Ken informed me that they got into an exchange program at a school in Osaka. It seems Ken was the one who originally applied and teased Daisuke into applying to and somehow got accepted. I, Hikari, Takeru, Sora, and Miyako went to send you off at the station, and since then I only got to contact you through messages."

Taichi looked straight at Daisuke and Ken. Their confused faces confirmed that this is indeed false.

"I guess I should be alarmed by the fact that Daisuke was uncharacteristically silent because of the flu and Ken does all the talking."

Taichi turned his head at Takeru, signaling the boy to explain next.

"The school informed us about it too. That's why we stopped at it being odd and didn't think much about it."

Daisuke fearfully turned his face at Takeru.

"I'm in the same class with you, remember?"

Takeru turned his face away from Daisuke and continued.

"A few days later Iori mailed me that he went back to his grandparents from his mother's side in Izumo. He said that the recipient there is rather bad so it would be hard to communicate." 

Now it's Iori's turn to be surprised. Takeru looked at Koushiro to take over.

"It was also around the same time that Miyako went to Kyoto for a programming competition. She mailed me that she went straight to a bootcamp program there for a while."

Miyako wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion.

"I checked the program, it indeed exists and Inoue Miyako was listed as one of the participants," Koushiro finished.

Taichi looks at each of them once they're over.

"Now, which part was you, which part was fake?"

Iori raised his hand first.

"My mother's parents sure live in Izumo, but I only went to their place during new year. And the reception is not that bad."

"Me too!" Miyako yelled.

"I did get into the competition in Kyoto but I didn't sign up for any bootcamp!"

The rest of them looked at Ken and Daisuke.

"I didn't apply for any exchange program," Ken said, his voice trembling a bit.

"And of course nor did I! Besides, even if I do, I would invite Hikari too!" Daisuke added.

There was a grim silence until Koushiro continued again.

"So, the question. What actually happened to you?"

They looked at each other. Then, Daisuke started to retell his story first.

"It was two weeks after opening," Daisuke grimly looked at Taichi.

"I was on my way to Taichi's match with Ken when he messaged me that the match was postponed and he needed to vent. We met up halfway along with Hikari too. The four of us headed to a nearby field. I remember Taichi was pretty grumpy back then."

Taichi looked very surprised. Even Hikari, who has been hanging her head low since morning, lifted her head in surprise.

"A distortion opened during our game and we ended up in the digital world. I was alone when I came to. It took me some time to meet up with Ken so I thought the two of you were also separated from us. Obviously, we never found you until the very end. Now we know why." 

Daisuke paused, taking a slight breath before continuing again.

"After meeting with Veemon, Ken, and Wormon, we met up with a Candlemon that was a partner of a chosen in America. He told us about the weird things that happened in the digital world before suddenly becoming mad and attacked us. He went normal but lapsed more and more often. Ken and I discussed how to help him and Ken finally realized something."

Daisuke paused again and looked pleadingly at Ken. Ken took it over from him.

"We come to the conclusion that the only way to remove the madness is to permanently delete him or reconfigure him with Imperialdramon Paladin Mode's Transcend Sword. I realized that the madness was not natural and actually orchestrated by an enemy since they obviously want me and Daisuke out of the game. It was just unfortunate for them that Taichi was with us, so we only need Yamato here to cleanse the madness and foil any of the enemy's plans. So I blasted an email to all of you, but it only reached Miyako and Iori before getting intercepted."

Ken looked at the other two.

"I remember the game," Miyako started.

"Taichi was actually grumpy because the two of you canceled at the last second."

Miyako looked at Daisuke and Ken, who is now surprised again.

"I received the mail a week later just before the competition. Then someone pushed me from behind and I ended up in the digital world. Daisuke and Ken told me that they have been here for the past week. Like Taichi said, I was there to send you off, but I thought it was just the digital world messed up with the time since the gate was unstable and all, so I didn't mention about the match."

Miyako looks apologetically at Daisuke and Ken.

"It was pretty much the same for me. Someone pushed me from behind and I ended up in the digital world. After meeting with Armadimon and the others, that digimon attacked us…" Iori clenched his fist.

"What… digimon?" Joe asked.

"I don't know, it was so strong. Probably as strong as BlackWarGreymon, if not stronger" Daisuke started.

"Imperialdramon didn't even stand a chance, not to mention Aquilamon and Ankylomon. They defeated our partners in no time and we lost consciousness after a blast. The next thing I remember is Taichi calling for an ambulance. I thought he somehow found us, got us away from that digimon, and back into the real world, but now I guess it's not the case…"

"Can you describe the digimon?" Koushiro asked.

"It was a big knight like a digimon with black armor, probably Mega level" Ken answered.

"Alphamon…" Yamato whispered grimly. Taichi clenched his fist.

"So… what actually happened here?" Iori finally asked.

They looked at Koushiro and the redhead started recounting the event. From the Haneda incident, Ogremon at the park and fallen helicopter, Leomon, and finally the incident at the back of school.

"Imperialdramon?!" The four of them shouted together.

"Yes, but it has a dark color and is a bit weaker. We managed to take it down with Vikemon, Rosemon, and Leomon," Koushiro nods.

"So Joe and Gomamon is the first one to get ultimate evolution after WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon!" Iori excitedly exclaimed.

Joe and Bukamon are obviously super smug about this.

"Then Mimi and Palmon! As expected!" Miyako yelled.

Mimi and Tanemon turned smug following Joe and Bukamon.

"The problem is Digimon Kaiser..." Ken wondered loudly.

"We thought that the enemy has done some brainwashing to you since he has Imperialdramon and all four of you went no contact. But we later know that he was just a fake avatar. Now after we know the enemy is capable of making a fake us even in the real world, not just an avatar, that Imperialdramon were probably fake too. It explains how Imperialdramon is weaker and went straight into data once we defeated it," Koushiro explained.

"We made sure to hold back, you know?" Bukamon chimed.

"Right he said," Tanemon added.

Daisuke looked at Meiko. He has been wondering where her partner is. To think that her partner got infected and killed Leomon… It makes him feel bad for almost asking.

"Then we should continue."

Koushiro then started retelling the event again. From how they tried to contact the 4 of them to no avail, how the Data Bureau lied about their whereabouts. Takeru then continued about Patamon's infection. Iori was shocked at the revelation, but he let Takeru continue his tale. Then Koushiro took over again and explained until the reboot.

"So, in the end everyone got infected?" Ken asked.

"Everyone except HerculesKabuterimon," Joe corrected.

"And the only way out is to forcefully reset their data and memories… Does that mean our partners too..." Daisuke added.

"But Bukamon and Tanemon remembered fighting Imperialdramon just now," Miyako pointed out.

"Yes, we'll get into that later," Koushiro assured.

Then he continued to the part where they went back to the digital world despite the unstable gate to meet their amnestic partner and found Meicoomon wasn't rebooted and still carries the infection. And how they met Machinedramon and got separated. From here they took turns to tell their story until they got together again.

Meiko also added the bit where she refused to come at first and finally gathered her resolve and brought herself to Big Sight even though she knew they probably already long departed.

When it came to their turn, Hikari refused to talk while Taichi only gave them the basics when Tsunomon and Salamon took over the story. She even added the point where Taichi got mad at Gabumon for calling him without honorifics which made Yamato laugh.

Sora took over the story again until they reached the ship. Then they split the story again, Koushiro telling the story about Machinedramon and Evil Gennai, Yamato telling about their fight against MetalSeadramon, and Sora about how she first was with Meiko, but then left to help with Machinedramon. Finally, Meiko told her side about how Evil Gennai attacked her and finally made Meicoomon snap.

"I'm sorry. Oh, God, I'm so sorry. I should not leave you alone!"

Sora apologized to Meiko again and again.

"No, we should not only focus on Machinedramon and chase after him back then!"

Joe actually balled a fist and punched the wall.

"It's not your fault! No one would know about that! If you actually go back Machinedramon will only follow you to the ship and it would not be only me but all of you!" Meiko yelled back. It was clear that she's holding tears.

It took them a bit more of the emotional exchange until they finally apologized and sat down again.

Koushiro continued narrating about how they chase after Meicrackmon and being attacked by the world itself, Daisuke and the others shocked by this. Koushirou then told them how they could finally return to the real world, got arrested by local police after they took flight with digimon and got bailed out by the Data Bureau, but cannot go back to their home to rest because of the reporters.

"Yeah, just like now!" Mimi complained.

"Maybe we should put down another helicopter so they would give up!"

"Mimi, are you serious?" Tanemon worriedly asked.

"No! But if they keep this up I probably will!" Mimi huffed.

"But you actually got arrested?" Iori asked in disbelief.

"Detained, but yeah," Yamato answered.

"Maybe I should really kiss goodbye to my preferred school…" Joe sighed.

Sora coughed and took over, but she just got to the part where they spent the night in Tsukishima High until the digimons interrupted.

"Taichi tried to cheer Meiko that night!" Tsunomon started.

"But he failed miserably!" Bukamon practically sings.

“You guys saw that!” Taichi glared accusingly at the digimons.

"We thought about telling Mimi and the others," Tanemon added.

"But in the end we can't decide so we didn't" Motimon concluded.

"Taichi you're hopeless," Sora facepalmed.

"... sorry..." Taichi mumbled, his eyes not meeting anyone's while Meiko just blushed.

"Agumon took over after that," Tokomon continued.

"Actually we sent him to clean after his partner," Pyocomon added.

"Yeah, best idea of the century," Salamon snarked.

"No, I actually did great! Right, Meiko?" Koromon yelled.

Most wanted to facepalm at this. Meiko yelped, but smiled at the pink digimon.

"Yep, you cheered me buncha lot. Tha much!" Meiko answered with a smile.

Koromon turned so smug towards Salamon and Taichi from Meiko’s smile. Both glared at the digimon.

Koushiro then continued to the Meicrackmon attack at the next morning, how Jesmon interfered, how Meicrackmon digivolved into Raguelmon, how they found out that Homeostasis has thrown them away and decide to simply destroy all the obstruction, how Raguelmon protected Meiko, how Hikari rejected Homeostasis for the first time, how Omnimon reopened the closing distortion to get them back to the digital world, and how they decide to protect Meicoomon at all cost.

"So, what happened after that?" Ken asked, pulling them back on track.

The 9 of them shuffled and looked at each other. It's clear to the remaining 4 that everything went down from this on since no one seems to be willing to narrate the next part.

Well, the story, while bigger in scale, was their usual heroic story. But the result doesn't seem to prove it.

Taichi's injuries, Hikari's dark cloud, missing Meicoomon, and mobbing reporters. They expected Taichi to step in like always, but it was Yamato who finally spoke.

"With Omnimon in, it was a 3 way battle between Omnimon, Raguelmon, and Jesmon. But then Alphamon came and it became a 4 way battle. It was chaotic. And… and then… and then…"

Yamato's voice faded. No one spoke after that, not even Daisuke and the others.

"After that I asked Raguelmon to be put down," Meiko stated.

Before anyone, mainly the younger gang could comment on it, she continued.

"Taichi and Ishida had a fight after almost everyone else beside Taichi argued against killing Raguelmon," Meiko started.

"I thought everyone was being considerate of me, so I thought I should disappear so they can kill Raguelmon with ease. I ran to the battlefield but Ishida stopped me. I'm not sure what happened after that..."

"Yeah, next thing I know the ground beneath us cracked and this idiot pushed us out of the way." 

Yamato gestured to Taichi at the idiot part, which gave him a very displeased look from the brunette.

"If I remember correctly, Jesmon tried to fire this laser thing at Raguelmon," Sora recalled.

"But then Alphamon attacked, then it misfired in your direction."

"After that Taichi asked us to take care of the two of you," Tsunomon continued.

Yamato glared at Taichi.

"Well, between me alone and the two of you, I had a better chance of surviving!" Taichi argued back.

"But still, you're insane!" Yamato yelled back.

The two of them locked in a glaring match until Meiko spoke again.

"I think I heard Mr. Nishijima reach out for you," Meiko furrowed her eyebrows.

"That's right, where's Mr. Nishijima?" Yamato asked, completely forgetting their comfortration just now.

"We got separated, I'll tell you later. What happened after that? I mean, besides the obvious," Taichi asked back.

"The fissure was closed tight. So our conclusion was that you fell so deep to the oblivion or crushed between the rocks. Neither had an actually high chance of survival" Koushiro answered grimly, Taichi winched at this. 

No wonder they thought he was dead.

"Hikari was shocked the most," Takeru started. 

"She repeatedly calling for you."

Taichi heard a quiet choking sound above him and his wheelchair trembled a bit.

"There was this purple thing surrounding her body as she walked to the spot you disappeared," Takeru continued again. 

"Her crest glowed with the same dark glow before the black light rained down and warp digivolved Nyaromon into Ophanimon Fallout Mode. She then fused with Raguelmon and formed Ordinemon."

Taichi felt it again, the trembling in his chair and the choking voice from his sister. At this point it finally clicked on him, but he let it slide for now.

"Ordinemon disappeared into the portal to the Real World, so we had no choice but to leave you and chase after her. Sorry," Yamato said weakly.

"You made a good choice. And thanks, for covering me," Taichi thanked him casually. 

Even so, Yamato can't brush out the guilt.

"So, after that?"

After that Yamato continued to tell their tale in the Real World.

Takeru stayed with Hikari until she calmed down. He also talked about Hackmon, who is actually the Jesmon that was partly responsible for Taichi’s 'death' and that he is Homeostasis' messenger. Then they got to Homeostasis' plan to reboot the Real World and got into an argument with Koushiro and then split again, they went on with Reboot for the time being while Koushiro holed back in his office to find another way. Then they use Meiko as bait to lure Ordinemon away from the crowded place to the ocean where the rest of them and the JSDF, who are already allied with Hackmon, and wait to ambush her. Their plan was to stall time and minimize the damage until Reboot.

"Around that time Koushiro called me that someone found you guys and sent you to hospital" 

Yamato gestures to Daisuke and the others.

"That must be Taichi!" Iori chimed.

"I was still half hoping at that point but we got a bigger problem at hand. It wasn't until Hikari came and managed to contact Gatomon, who was inside Ordinemon, that the tide turned. After Koushiro found Meicoomon's happy memories along with the whole Digital World's memories sealed in Mochizuki's digivice with the hint from Gatomon, we could finally stop Ordinemon and restore our partners' memories. After that Jesmon helped to separate Gatomon and Meicoomon and stop the reboot sequence," Yamato explained again.

"But that's not the end, isn't it?" Ken asked which Yamato replied with a nod.

"We managed to get Gatomon to safety, but Meicoomon stayed as Ordinemon. Yggdrasil has filled the void that was Gatomon with a lot of data and revived Ordinemon. But unlike before, Ordinemon didn't recognize Mochizuki and acted more viciously. She even tried to kill Mochizuki," Yamato said grimly, which made the younger team look at Meiko in worry.

"Don't worry, I'm okay. Taichi and Agumon saved me in a nick of time" Meiko assured them.

"That was quite a save wasn't it?" Takeru teased.

"Shadap, Takaishi. You're just jealous of my godly maneuver," Taichi shot back.

"Whatever you say," Takeru shrugged.

"So! With Taichi back, we could finally fight with Omegamon," Koushiro interjected.

Yamato shot him a thankful look and took over.

"But even with Omegamon, Ordinemon is not an easy opponent. With all of our resolve, we managed to digivolve the rest of our partners to ultimate level and merged into Omegamon, formed Omegamon Merciful Mode and defeated Ordinemon for good this time. That was 2 days ago," Yamato concluded the story and turned to Taichi.

"Now, your turn."

Taichi made a displeased sound which gave him another glare from Yamato.

"Okay, fine!" Taichi raised his hand.

"I don't know where it was, but I woke up in a lab of sorts with Mr. Nishijima and found the four of you plus Gennai, probably the real one we knew, in capsules. There, he confessed about everything the Data Bureau keeped from us, like Daisuke and the other's whereabouts. But then we got the honor of talking with that evil Gennai. Long story short, a fuー"

Cue a glare from Sora.

"ーahem, a complete jerk. He turned off the life support for all of you so we have to go to Real World ASAP. Unfortunately there was only one capsule left and the lab will be locked down upon transfer. Mr. Nishijima kinda tricked me into the capsule and here I am."

"Why do you just tell us now?! We need to get Mr. Nishijima now!" Sora scolded him.

"First, I don't have any clue where it was. There's maybe some clue in the capsules, but we can't really reach that until the mobs calmed down. Second, you're all exhausted and in no condition to fight. If we go to the Digital World again with Yggdrasil still on loose, we won't be off with only this much damage. Third, since there was no other way, I asked Hackmon to search for Mr. Nishijima, or at least contacted his partner and he agreed to help. We should wait for Hackmon to return or for the condition to stabilize to get to the capsules safely. By the way, I also entrusted Gennai, the probably real one, to Hackmon," Taichi explained with a finality.

Yamato thought about the time Taichi decided to kill Raguelmon… no, Meicoomon. He felt it was wrong to abandon a friend. Most of them did. But what he said was right, so no one argued with him. Well, Yamato did before but in the end he couldn't make even a single good argument against him. It took him half a day with Taichi's presumed death to understand how he could take such a cold approach. Yamato clenched his fist.

"I understand. I guess… There's no other way," Yamato said through gritted teeth.

"Thanks, Yamato," Taichi turned to the rest, waiting if anyone had something else to say.

"It may be hard to accept, but it sounds like a reasonable plan," Koushiro agreed.

"I guess… there's no choice," Sora reluctantly agreed.

"No choice. We need to prioritize everyone's safety too," Joe agreed.

"No choice… but it's hard just to wait..." Takeru also reluctantly agreed.

"Wait, did you just say Mr. Nishijima's partner?" Mimi pointed out.

The others finally realized and turned their head to Taichi in unison.

"Ah yeah. That's one other thing the Data Bureau hides from us. Koushiro, remember the prophecy about chosen children?"

"You mean the chosen children before us who defeated the evil from beyond the wall of fire?"

"Yeah, that. Apparently Mr. Nishijima was part of the original five. Himekawa too." 

There was silence after the revelation. Taichi starts to sweat under the weird silence.

"WHAT?!"

Everyone yelled in unison, even the younger team was surprised.

"Your teacher is the original chosen?!" Miyako yelled excitedly.

"That's like, so cool! That Mr. Nishijima sounds like a total badass too!" Daisuke followed.

"At least there's less worry if he was in Digital World before and has a partner," Ken sighed in relief.

"I want to meet him too. I hope he's okay…" Iori also added.

"Yeah…" Taichi smiled at their enthusiasm.

Yamato noticed the odd behavior again.

Usually Yagami Taichi only has two moods. Being their responsible leader or being a crazy teenager.

If he's being the responsible leader, he should have assured the younger team that Nishijima will be okay. If he's being a crazy teenager, he should have made a remark about an old man.

This is none of that.

Salamon also perked up from her spot beside the annoying pink blob. She quickly connected the dots and nudged Taichi.

"Taichi, isn't it about time to take your medicine? You look awful. The discussion is over, right? He should rest now," Salamon addressed the others.

"Sorry Taichi!" Daisuke quickly apologized.

"If you're still that unwell, you should say so!" Joe scolded.

"Honestly, I don't feel that unwell… ugh!!!"

A stomp from Salamon effectively cut him off and proved him wrong. 

"Okay, fine. My bones ache here and there but it's not like it's unbearable!"

A puppy glare and lifted foot along with a rare glare from Joe silenced him again. But it wasn't until he saw Takeru and Yamato looking at Hikari in worry that he gave up. 

"Fine, you win," He sighed.

At cue, Hikari pushed his wheelchair towards the corridor.

"Sorry! I'm going ahead then!" Taichi yelled from the corridor.

Two siblings turned around and walked away. Their smiles dropped as they looked at the two’s retreating shadows.

Chapter Text

Daisuke stayed silent as Taichi, Hikari, Salamon, and Koromon faded away in the distance.

He never thought such a grand thing would happen while they were knocked out. No wonder the usually cheerful Hikari is that down.

Daisuke grabbed Ken’s hand and tried to stand up.

“Don't,” Takeru softly stopped him.

Daisuke doesn't say anything and just collapses back into his wheelchair.

“Is there really nothing we can do…?” Daisuke asked sadly.

“No… I don't think so. This is their problem to sort out,” Yamato said while closing his eyes.

“It’s sad, but there is nothing we can do right now.”

On the other side of the corridor, the siblings finally entered Taichi’s room. It’s still bright outside, but the curtain is drawn, only allowing a limited ray of lights entered.

“It’s not about Meicoomon, isn’t it?” Taichi suddenly said.

Hikari paid him no mind and helped him get into his bed. Taichi let himself be helped while sighed.

“Koromon, Salamon, can you leave us for a while?”

“But…”

Koromon protested, but Salamon nudged him before he could say anything else.

“Koromon, let’s go.”

Salamon walked first, followed by the reluctant Koromon. She pushed the door closed as soon as Koromon was out with her.

“You know, I’m bad at stuff like this. I won’t know what you’re thinking unless you say it.”

Hikari pulled a chair and sat at the side of his bed, still not saying anything.

Taichi sighed again and reached for Hikari. A hesitant touch at first. But she didn’t flinch away from him so he put his whole palm to stroke her head just like how he used to do when she’s upset. He could feel she trembled under his touch.

“You killed Meicoomon,” She stated weakly.

“Yeah, I did.”

“But everyone did it too. Yamato, Sora, Mimi, Koushiro, Joe, Takeru, even Meiko. And me too...”

“There was no other way.”

“I know. I understand. That was why I fought.”

There was silence. Taichi kept stroking Hikari’s head until her trembling lessened.

“I said a horrible thing to you.... That I might not be able to forgive you.”

“It can’t be helped. I know what I did wasn’t the best decision.”

Hikari shook her head, Taichi stopped his stroking.

“No, it was the best decision. I was the one not in the right mind.”

Taichi could feel her trembling again.

“I was… afraid. It was my fault that Meicoomon became that. But we killed her before I could make it right again… not that I know what to do anyway. So I… I panicked, and I said… said that horrible thing. I tried to manipulate you not to kill her, but… but you didn't bend… like you always did for me. Then… then I know how much I messed up…”

She made a choking sound, but Taichi didn’t say anything and just started stroking her head again.

“I was afraid… It was my fault Meicoomon became like that. It was… my fault…”

“Why do you think it was your fault?” Taichi calmly asked.

“... after you… disappeared… I thought. That there was no point to this world without you.” 

Taichi’s eyes widened, but he didn’t cut her nor did he stop his hand.

“It was me who tried to end the world… It was… me… all along… I don't want to live on without you. Even though all I did was being a burden to you.”

“What?! I never thought you’re a burden! Why would you think about that?!”

“When we were younger, you would check on me in the middle of night. You would take blame after all the mistakes I made. When we were in elementary school you would leave class for me and take all the blame again. Every time, you’re always there for me. But I wasn’t there when you need me.”

“When did.... Wait, is this about the soccer match?”

Hikari nodded.

“Come on! That’s not a big deal! I’m not mad or anything!”

“No, you were. You’re just too nice to say it, I know it.”

Taichi groaned. Sometimes it’s hard to have a practically psychic sister.

“Yeah, I was kinda disappointed. But it can’t be helped. I’ll win so there will be next game real soon, but if you skip your friend’s birthday it would be a pain to repair the friendship you know!”

“But! There might be no next time!” Hikari suddenly yelled. 

Taichi looked at his legs. It felt numb thanks to the painkiller, but he knew better than to move it and face Joe’s wrath.

He had Hikari, Salamon, and Koromon sit this one out, and made his parents keep this a secret, but the doctor was not sure if he can still play again even after rehabilitation. His bones break in several parts, but luckily the breaks are unusually clean so there's still a decent hope for his recovery. Not high enough to be sure, but worth a shot to keep hoping.

“I’m alive and my legs will heal, no matter what the doctor says. The game was canceled anyway, so no loss,” Taichi shrugged.

“But what if it doesn't?! I would never be able to repay you for all you did for me...:”

“Oh, come on. You don’t need to repay me for anything besides breakfast and lunch and dinner… and desserts. Why do you insist on repaying me so much?”

“... I don’t want you to hate me…”

Taichi widened his eyes again, but this time didn’t manage to keep his mouth shut.

“Huh?”

“Everyone said that you’re lucky to have a well behaved sister. Everyone said that you were lucky to have such a capable sister. But I’m not! I’m not well behaved! I’m rotten spoiled! I can’t do anything without you! I’m so selfish! In the end I didn’t think about what was best for Meicoomon but for myself! I’m so stupid not to see what you’re trying to achieve until much later. I’m nothing like everyone said I was… I’m the worst...”

She started to sob, but was still trying to hold her tears.

“But you… you’re everything. You’re so kind, so considerate and selfless. You’re so brave and strong. And you’re so smart and clever. Everyone looked up to you. I’m the one who is lucky to have you for a brother.”

“Um… Hikari, have you ever tried to count how many people said I'm such a pain in the ass? And I’m pretty sure you saw my score card too…”

“They just can’t understand. And being smart is not all about scoring good at school.”

“I guess… Joe is smart after all. But that’s beside the point,” Taichi debunked.

“You said that everyone else just can’t understand me, but that goes for you too. You think I thought about you the same as everyone else? Not even a tiny bit! I know you longer than anyone else, probably including mom and dad. And I know for sure you’re not the perfect little girl everyone said you to be. For one, you’re greedy when it comes to sweets. Don’t ever think I don’t know about those ice and cakes you ate in secret.”

Hikari’s body suddenly stiffened which made Taichi chuckles a bit.

“And you remember the first time you went to the Digital World? Back then LadyDevimon attacked us and Angewomon fought her. It soon went down to a catfight. You were encouraging Angewomon to kick her ass so vigorously. I remember MegaKabuterimon went to her aid only to be casted aside. Koushiro is still kinda scared of girls because of that,” he laughed a bit.

“Don't get me wrong, you're still the best sister I could ever ask for. You never complained, never being selfish, you would only tease me when I'm feeling playful and always so patient when I'm upset. Mom used to joke that she can't tell who is the elder one," Taichi bitterly laughed.

“But you see, I never thought you’re perfect. Never expect either. After all, you're my little sister. So what if you made a mistake? I made my mistake too. What is important is that we learn from it.”

“But I said a horrible thing to you. And I did a cruel thing to Meicoomon too…”

“Oh, come on. It’s nowhere as bad as the things Takeru used to say to Yamato. It's pretty tame actually. I can give you a crash course on how to properly be an ass if you want. Besides, if it were not for Tailmon and you, you guys won't be as close as saving Meicoomon to how you almost saved Ordinemon. It just sucks that Yggdrasil interfered. If it bothers you so much we’ll go and apologize to Mochizuki later, okay?”

“... I don’t think it’s a good idea...” Hikari’s tone suddenly got a little lighter.

“I said I’m not good at things like this,” Taichi sighed with an annoyed look.

“You’re right… you’re not the perfect bother I thought you to be…” She finally chuckled.

”You’re so helpless with girls beside me.”

She finally lifted her head, eyes glittering with unshed tears and mouth crooked into a strained smile.

“Told you so. Honestly, I’m kinda afraid to talk to her right now even though my crest is courage. So it doesn’t mean you have to be always bright and bulby just because your crest is light. You’re free to be yourself. If thriving to be the perfect girl makes you happy, then so be it.”

He pulled Hikari’s face to his lap.

“But if you’re tired and need a place to cry or just venting in general, you’re welcome to come to me anytime. You can hate me all you want, but I will never hate you no matter what.”

She started with a quiet sob. Then it soon got louder, and soon turned into a full blown wailing.

“WHY?! Why must you disappear?! I hate you! I hate you for disappearing! I hate you for not being there! Why must you go anyway?! I don’t want to be away from you! Not like that! I’m so tired of all of this! Why must it be us?! Before you say anything, I know why and I don’t mind! But still!!”

“You’re suddenly doing both?!”

“You offered!!”

“And I’m alive, okay! No corpse, not dead! You can’t get rid of me even if you want to anyway!”

“I didn’t know! And I did horrible things to Tailmon and Meicoomon! But I didn’t mean it! I don’t want a world without you, but I didn’t mean that I want the world to end! I just… I just wanted you to come back… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… Meicoomon… Tailmon… I’m so sorry… Taichi… I’m sorry… Please... don’t leave me alone...”

Hikari’s voice faded into sobs as she gripped Taichi’s hospital gown tighter.

“I won’t.”

Outside the door, Salamon and Koromon had been waiting patiently. They can’t hear the conversation at first, but suddenly they hear Hikari’s crying which startled Koromon.

“Hikari’s crying. I wonder if they’re okay…” Koromon anxiously wondered.

“If Hikari’s crying that means they’re okay.”

“Why is that? Doesn't crying mean you’re hurt? It doesn't seem like she's crying out of happiness to me.”

“I thought so too,” Salamon said sadly, turning away from Koromon.

“When I was in Vamdemon’s captivity, I thought crying does nothing but to show that I’m hurting, so I stopped doing so. But after meeting you guys, I understand that crying is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s better to let your feelings out than bottling it for a long time. Her rain of tears would wash away the dark cloud surrounding her. And after the rain stopped, her light would shine again. So, Hikari would be okay.”

Koromon looked at the solemn puppy, then back at the door. He still could hear her sobbing loudly.

“But, isn’t that bad? She’s crying so hard.”

“Koromon…” Salamon said irritably.

“If she’s crying so hard, her throat will be hoarse. She should really drink something.”

Salamon looked at Koromon like he’s grown a second head… no, at this state it was more like a second body.

“Did I say something wrong?” Koromon tilted his body.

Salamon laughed heartily.

“No, you’re completely right. We should get them something to drink”

“But… how?” Koromon wriggled his ears.

Salamon sat at her butt and brought her front paw in front of her face.

“I miss having a pair of hands…”

“Me too…”

"We should get some help…"

"Yeah, we should."

The two digimons nodded to each other and walked… or hopped away from the door.

Inside the room, Taichi kept stroking Hikari's head as she cried. He didn't even bother to look at the clock even until her cries faded into sobs and finally a gentle snore. 

He finally stopped his hand and noted how sore it feels. Either it's actually got a lot worse or it was actually long enough for his medicine to wear off. Joe will probably kill him anyway, if he knows that is.

He leaned back to the pillows in exhaustion. His eyes are heavy from the lack of sleep, so he closed them for a moment. His mind wandered to that moment again now he's out of distraction. He quickly shot his eyes open again and looked down at Hikari sleeping in his laps. He smiled and started to gently stroke her head again.

"You know what, Hikari. Actually I'm the one who is scared to be alone. Especially now."

He let himself be distracted by continuing the gesture. A knock stopped him on his track. For once he's pretty sure Salamon can't knock the door right now, not to mention Koromon.

"Taichi? Hikari?"

It's Sora's voice.

"Come in. It should not be locked since doggie and pink ball definitely can't lock it without hand."

The door opened revealing Sora with a tray. Behind her Salamon and Koromon puffed their cheeks, completely frowning.

Taichi laughed at the two digimons. Sora sighed, pushing down the urge to massage her temple since both of her hands are occupied.

"Salamon and Koromon asked me to bring some drinks for you two, but I didn't feel like interfering so we waited until she calmed down. And it's now lunch hour so I thought to get you some simple food."

Sora placed the tray she brought on the bedside table. There are two bottled mineral waters, and four sandwiches. Definitely something he can eat with one hand without trouble.

"Thanks, Sora."

"How is she?"

"She'll get better. Just having too many unvented problems. Probably too much and too heavy for a 14 year old girl."

"Don't we all?"

Taichi and Sora laughed dryly as Sora uncorked the bottle caps for him.

"Hey Sora, can you help me with one more thing?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Move Hikari to the bed. This is definitely not a good way to sleep."

Sora looked down at the girl. Her lower body was still sitting at the chair beside Taichi's bed, but her upper body leaned forward to his laps with her arms folded under her head to prop her head a bit higher.

"But you would always sleep like this during class."

"This is this, that is that. And how do you know anyway? You sit in front of me." 

Taichi sent her an accusing glare which she shrugged off.

Sora put her hands around Hikari's torso and pulled her into a sitting position. She placed herself in front of the sleeping girl and slowly pushed the said girl forward again towards her back. Once she was sure with her grip on the girl, she slowly stood and piggy backed the younger girl towards the other side of the bed and gently lowered the body to the soft bed.

"There, all done."

She cracked her shoulder and hips. She has not been doing as many physical activities as she used to be and definitely not building any muscle mass lately.

"Thanks again, Sora. You're the best mom!" Taichi grinned at her.

Mom… huh…

Sora stopped her movement and inhaled deeply.

"Taichi, are you still up for serious talk?"

"Sure, anytime for you," Taichi was a bit confused but agreed anyway.

"This is about me and you… and Yamato."

Taichi stiffened.

He knows that this topic will come sooner or later. They have been avoiding it for 3 years after all and still willing to keep it buried until… Who knows? Until he got a girlfriend of his own?

But he didn't expect Sora to actually bring it up now. He thought that this topic should have Yamato in person too, but he thought that maybe he should hear her first then decide to call Yamato or to tell him after they're done.

"Okay, shoot."

"First, I never get to say this but… Thanks. For sharing your courage on that Christmas day."

"Anytime. Glad it worked up great," he grinned again at her.

Sora turned her head away in response, and seemed to be struggling with her words.

"Hey… were you really glad? What was in your head at that time?"

"... What do you mean?" He dropped his grin.

He knows what she means, but he didn't get why she would ask.

"You remember Mina?"

"Takatsugi?" Sora nodded.

"She was your bathroom mate in elementary school, right?"

She raised an eyebrow at the description, but nodded anyway.

"Not really remember enough, but heard she went to another middle school and now she's in Tsukishima high too. Never talked to her though. What about her?"

"We had a catchup when we knew we would go to the same school again. Naturally I told her that I'm dating Yamato. She was really surprised since she was pretty sure I would go with you."

"She guessed wrong then," Taichi shrugged.

"Yeah… She said..."

Sora gulped, growing more nervous with each passing word.

"She said… that she thought you liked me. In fact all the other girls thought so too. They thought… no, actually they're pretty sure that you will confess to me. So it was a big surprise that you would actually push me to confess to Yamato."

Sora's voice started to tremble and yet he didn't say anything to confirm nor to deny.

"Hey… what do you think of me? What was in your head that day? What was in your head up until now? Is that the reason why you have been avoiding me?"

He stared back at Sora's gaze.

He can see a lot of emotion swirling. Anger, regret, desperation.

But more than all of them, it was there, the fear. 

The fear of crushing someone else's love in pursuit of her own.

"... you want me to answer honestly?"

Sora sweated at his straight gaze, but eventually nodded.

"I loved you then, even before that day. And I still love you now."

Sora slowly raised her trembling hand to her agape mouth. She made a roughed sound as she struggled to breathe. Tears rolled down her cheek but he was sure it's not the tear of happiness he often saw in the romantic drama Hikari and his mom like to watch.

"I thought… you're just living your life like everyone else. We don't really hang around often besides whenever digimon is involved or our regular member outing. So I didn't think much about it… until Mina pointed it out for me. But even then I thought you're okay since you still hang with Yamato and all. But it must be horrible… No, I'm so horrible. I have been hurting you all these years and I didn't even realize it. No wonder you have been avoiding me."

Sora started to sob.

Taichi closed his eyes. Honestly, he doesn't want anything to do with anyone crying. Beside his sister of course. The words that made them stop crying and crying harder are always separated on a blur line for him.

But this time, he knew for sure why Sora was crying. And that he would try better this time around.

"Sora, I'll admit that I have been avoiding you, but believe me, it's not because I'm jealous of you and Yamato or anything. I was really glad that it worked out great for the two of you, that was not a lie."

Her tears didn't stop, but she was paying attention so it was a start.

"But it would be a lie if I said that I'm not disappointed that you chose him over me. But you love him and he loves you too. There was no mistake in that," He smiled at her.

She has stopped sobbing and that is great in his book.

"At first it confuses me too that I'm surprisingly okay with you dating Yamato. I thought that my love for you is only that much. No wonder I lost. But last year, I accidentally saw class prez talking so happily to you. Red face and all. My first instinct? I want to punch his face so bad!" Taichi huffed.

Sora instinctively chuckled, though tears were still evident in her cheeks.

"You okay with Yamato dating me but you're mad that another guy approached me? That's unreasonable."

"Right? That's why I'm convinced that I still love you even now. But then again, I realized it's different from how Yamato loves you. It's more like how I see Hikari. I'm fine if Hikari said she would date Takeru or Daisuke or even Ken. But if it's another guy I don't know, they have to go through me first."

"So that means..."

Sora finally pieced up what he's trying to say, but is still afraid to say it out loud.

"I loved you then. I love you now too. But it's because you're like a family to me. You, and everyone else too. And for me, that's more important than this romantic thingy I don't really get."

Sora already stopped crying, but still hesitates to fully believe in him.

"Ah, yeah. The reason I've been avoiding you. Actually I talked about it with Hikari just now, but… tact? It seems I'm really lacking in that department. From 0 to 10, my score is probably minus. But I'm trying, okay? It's just… I said it before, but you're too kind. If I mentioned something, you'll make it a mission to fulfill it. It took me a long time to think how to say anything to you without making it seem like a must do to you and most of the time I just failed to hit send and deleted the message. I just don't want to be the third wheel between you and Yamato but I don't know how to do it and kinda avoided you as a result. So, yeah… sorry about that."

"Don't be… It's my fault too."

Sora finally smiled again.

"I made you worry about me. But you know… I prefer it if you treat me the same way."

"I would… But if you promise me that whenever you need some time off with Yamato, you tell me. I'm trying, but I'm obviously hopeless, so I won't know that and might ruin something along the way. And that you discuss with Yamato too."

"It's a promise."

Sora leaned closer and offered her pinky. Taichi blushed a bit but intertwined his non injured pinky with her's.

"Pinky promise. If you lie, you will eat Birdramon's Meteor Wing."

"Wait, what?"

"Promise settled."

Sora ended and pulled back her pinky with a pleased smile.

"Isn't that supposed to be a thousand needles?"

"I'll tell that to Mimi. If she wants a boyfriend and still wants you to treat her the same, she will have to make a pact with Togemon's needles."

"No, I didn't say anything about Togemon!"

Taichi quickly rebuked, but Sora was already at the door and opened it.

"It's a joke. But thanks… for hearing me out."

Sora smiled and waved as she closed the door again.

Taichi stared silently at the door and back to his pinky.

"Taichi, you're so mature!" Koromon yelled.

"Not a bad performance I must say," Salamon chimed too.

Taichi opened his mouth to rebuke, but then froze.

"Koromon! Salamon! Since when?"

"We've been here since the very beginning if you bother to remember. It just tact worked better with us so we kept silent. Pretty easy for a doggie and pink ball who can't lock the door" Salamon smiled teasingly.

"You're mad," Taichi stated the obvious.

"Rare moment you actually get it."

Salamon sighed dramatically and jumped to the bed and curled herself at the spot between Taichi and Hikari, grinning mischievously.

Taichi opened his mouth again, but got interrupted by a knock.

"Taichi, you're awake?" Yamato called from outside.

"Yeah, come in."

The door opened to reveal Yamato. His eyes darted sideways as he silently closed the door. He quietly seated himself on Hikari's previous chair and stayed there awkwardly silent with a serious look, his head down prompted by one of his hands.

"If it's about Sora, you don't have to worry anymore. Or actually you don't have to worry about me anymore."

"Huh? So that's what she talked about with you?" Yamato lifted his head in surprise.

"You're not here about that?" Taichi raised an eyebrow.

Yamato stared at him for a while before sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"I thought to eventually talk about it with you, but not now. Maybe we can talk about that later," he sighed.

Taichi furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Then, why are you here with such a serious face?"

"That is… well… I mean…" he stuttered, eyes darting here and there.

"What?"

Taichi started to get irritated by his weird nervousness. If he didn’t just have that talk with Sora, he would guess Yamato is about to confess to him.

"Damn fine. I want to apologize."

"For?"

"For being hard with you before. You didn't deserve that."

This got Taichi even more confused.

"Why so sudden?"

Taichi leaned away, not being able to run without enticing Joe's wrath. It's hard to believe he and Yamato are actually talking civilly without any shouting or physical comfortration beforehand.

Yamato sighed and leaned forward, both hands prompting his chin as he looked Taichi straight to his eyes.

"When you're… missing, I tried to pull everyone ahead. But in the end I didn't know what to do and just made a cheap imitation of what you did. I got into a fight with Koushiro thanks to that."

Yamato started grimly, but his face turned into a surprise when Taichi made a weird face, between surprised and disgusted?

"Ahem. No yelling, nothing physical I assure you. I won't stoop that low. That was actually the reason Koushiro went on his own when Hackmon suggested the real world reboot just like I said this morning. We instantly put that aside because of the emergency."

Taichi sighed in relief, so Yamato continued.

"It was when I lost you I finally understood  the gravity of our situation. You were always shouldering such a heavy load and yet I have always taken it for granted and won't understand your burden. Your fear was completely reasonable and my accusation was out of line. Friendship my ass," Yamato laughed bitterly.

"Yamato…"

"So yeah… sorry about that."

Yamato looked away scratching his reddened cheek.

Taichi smiled. He thought about teasing him, but went against it in fear of stepping on a landmine.

"No, what you said was actually right. It would be far worse if we refused to fight. But reality check made me too scared to move. Like you said, I lacked the resolve to shoulder the responsibility. Courage my ass," Taichi laughed as he mimicked Yamato.

"But it can't be helped! You're still 17! You should not be the one to be blamed for saving the world!"

"No matter how good you are, there will always be someone who won't like it. If it's not me then who else?"

"Us."

Yamato stared straight at him. Taichi blinked and started to laugh.

"Thanks for your concern, but it's okay really. I already made up my mind not to hesitate anymore. So it's okay. It's my role anyway."

"Then at least let me shareー"

"Yamato."

Taichi quickly cut him off.

"I appreciate your concern. But it's my role so let me shoulder it. Besides, I need each of you to focus on your own role instead of sharing my job."

"So then… What is my role?"

"Like you said, I'm only 17. No way I could make the best decision all the time. I have my fear but what you said was on point. So, when I stray from my path, beat some sense into me."

"Then you should really listen to what I said then," Yamato sighed.

"Besides, if you want some actual sound sense, Koushiro would be a better fit than me. I notice you and him are more of a package deal than you and I."

Taichi looked back at him with, ‘Are you serious?’ expression.

"You know that guy is even more insensitive than me when shit goes down despite being a genuine genius. And besides I'll 100% fight back so he's not cut for the role anyway. Daisuke is not really sane either while Ken and Takeru would rather look away than cross paths with me. So don't worry, you're still my go to guy!"

Taichi dared to give him a thumbs up and a grin.

"So you're saying my role is to be your punching bag?" Yamato started to get irritated.

"As expected from Yama. You know me so well!"

And there is the very punchable grin again.

"Don't get carried away. But I guess I can't really sacrifice other guys to you either. At least you realized that you're crazy. And don't call me Yama."

"I said Daisuke is not really sane, not that I'm crazy," Taichi frowned playfully.

"You said either. I thought you already matured, but here we are, square back to 6 years ago."

"That's just right. I prefer it that way. I need you to be the idealist free of burden. If we're being burdened by the same pressure, who would make an actual sense?" Taichi grinned again, but Yamato knew he's dead serious.

"... ... Mimi?"

Taichi dropped his grin into a frown at Yamato's suggestion, and seemed to actually consider it.

"Wait, no. Don't consider it. She has the heart and the smart, but she's competing with Daisuke for No.2 craziest spot. Miyako saved No.4 for herself by the way so she's out too."

Taichi blinked at Yamato's sudden explanation.

"Who's No.1?"

"You."

Taichi actually frowned at this. If it's not for his hand being sore after Hikari's episode he would make sure Yamato's face meets a flying pillow.

“You know I'm so gonna chuck that smug face once I'm out of Joe's radar,” Taichi hissed.

“Yea, right. Make sure you heal before you forget.”

Yamato wasn't so smug before, but he surely is now. Taichi sighs as his face turns serious again.

“Yamato, can you do me a favor?”

“No.”

Yamato didn't even miss a beat before declining the request. Taichi was about to protest that he's not joking but Yamato held a hand to him.

“I will do you a favor for another time, but I feel this is not one. I'll do it on my own volition, so you owe me nothing. Though that might change depending on the request.”

Yamato put out a smirk at the end because Taichi's dumbfounded face was oh so funny. Taichi catches this and frowns again, but decides to let it slide.

“I want you to watch over the younger group for a while, especially Daisuke and Ken.”

“Spot on, this is not a favor. Of course I will, but why so suddenly?”

Yamato leaned back on the chair again. He followed Taichi’s line of sight as the brunette turned his eyes into his own heavily injured feet.

“I guess, just kinda convenient with me being incapacitated and all. One of the good things that came of it at least,” Taichi let out a dry laugh at the last part.

Yamato kept himself silent as Taichi leaned back on his pillows.

“Daisuke and Ken… In a way, their dynamics is kind of the reverse of ours. Daisuke is the idealist, he keeps his team in high spirits as the pragmatic realist Ken ironed out the details to make Daisuke's ideal a more sensible thing. They're also calmer and able to talk things without useless fights. Considering that Daisuke also inherited the courage to take actions and Ken with the intelligence to make sense of Daisuke, ideally they are an upgrade from us.”

“But?”

Yamato leaned over to Taichi again.

He agreed with Taichi's point. He also feels the same, which is why he stood back during their 2nd adventure.

But the way Taichi put it, it seems it's not quite there yet.

“Ken's days as Digimon Kaiser left a deep trauma. He's still quite a people pleaser these days because he still believes that he's not supposed to make a decision and has to atone for a lot of things, so he just went along with everyone else even though he might have a better idea. He’s not willing to go against Daisuke even if it kills him.”

“I see, it makes sense. You did say that you need someone to put you back on track even by force. But doesn't Takeru fill that role for him?”

“He is. It's kinda a weird dynamic, but if things go down between Daisuke and Takeru, Hikari will have the final say.”

Taichi sighs a little, maybe even a bit embarrassed for his sister to be in that position.

“Ah, youth. But I thought Daisuke already got over his little crush over Hikari?”

Yamato chuckled a little, his little brother sure grew out quite fast.

“Nah, he just learned not to be too desperate.”

Taichi laughed a little too, but then went back to being serious again.

“Anyway, Takeru is kinda in a weird position himself. He is part of Daisuke's team, but he is also a part of our team. When he goes against Daisuke, he's unconsciously trying to emulate me. It is the dynamics he's used too, can't blame him. It's not a bad thing either, since it does help to bridge so that our two teams don't clash against each other. But he got himself a full plate juggling through the two different ideals, I don't think he could spare a breath to completely think objectively from an outside perspective.”

“So that's why you want Ken to grow out of his current passiveness.”

“Yeah. And besides, he needs to regrow that backbone. It will come handy down in his life.”

“Ah, lucky him to have such a caring senior.”

Yamato grinned slyly, which granted him a tongue from Taichi.

“And what about Daisuke? I thought he did a pretty good job, that you even acknowledge him. He could need some more rational thinking, but isn't that why you want Ken to grow up to cover that?”

Yamato turned back to serious again and Taichi also quickly mirrored the mood.

“Yeah, he did a good job. With Ken, they are great. But that's only when I'm out of the picture.”

“I see, that's why you said it's a good thing you're completely incapacitated this time.”

Yamato folded his hands, finally having an answer to his question.

Taichi nodded, looking rather guilty and ashamed.

“Daisuke… his admiration of me has become a heavy shackle. He is capable of making a decision himself. And when he’s lost, the others will always have his back. But when I'm there he will naturally back off and just blend in, just like this morning.”

“Wait, you dragged out the breakfast on purpose!”

Yamato let down his hands and leaned to Taichi again.

“You just realized?”

Again, Taichi with that punchable grin.

“I thought you were just too preoccupied with Hikari,” Yamato dropped his sights towards the sleeping girl.

Taichi's gaze also softened at the mention of his sister.

“I was, but I want to see how Daisuke would act too. And as you can see, he stood back instead of taking initiative even though the others were clearly bored already,” Taichi laughed again.

“You're having more fun than you're supposed to have.”

Yamato leaned back again, eyebrows raised at Taichi.

“I need my regular kicks. But enough about that. He is aware that we're just got back from our adventure and assumes that I'm still in charge even in this state. Well, he is injured too but I clearly looked worse,” Taichi waves his bandaged hand.

Yamato felt the guilt creep back, but quickly push it down again.

“You see, we still have a lot of homework back in the Digital World. But I'll step back for a while once I do my last job. Then I want you to watch them, maybe spice things up here and there, but just… make sure when the clash eventually happens, it won’t go overboard.”

“Your… last job?” Yamato sweated a little.

It surprises him that Taichi still wants to go back immediately even in this state.

“Retrieving Mr. Nishijima. After we're done, they're yours.” 

Yamato opened his mouth, but then closed it again and clenched his fist.

It's there again, the odd feeling that he got from Taichi's action.

He thought about confronting Taichi about it, but decided against it since it might put an unnecessary burden on Taichi if he's wrong.

“Fine, I'll do what I can. Just… focus to heal for now,” Yamato sighs and stands up.

He feels if they drag the conversation longer, he will eventually force Taichi to spill the beans. He prefers to wait until Taichi is willing to speak for himself.

That's why this conversation ends here.

“Oh yeah, Yamato! Before I forget. Speak with Sora, okay?” Taichi called out as Yamato headed for the door.

“Yeah, I plan to. And make sure you don't walk around or use that right hand. I'll come to check again later.”

Yamato steps out from the room and points to Taichi from beyond the open door.

“Yeah, yeah. Just go already!”

Taichi shooed Yamato with his left hand. He thought about using his right hand just to spite Yamato, but that will lead to another argument.

Yamato scoffed off to Taichi and finally closed the door.

He walks down the hallway still in his thoughts, mostly about Taichi.

He feels that Taichi too has something bothering him. Everyone could see those thick eyebags even if Taichi tried to laugh it off. He suspects the brunette has not slept properly since the incident.

Yamato feels bad, but he actually listened from outside Taichi's door last night but could not hear Taichi’s usual snoring, only Koromon’s.

Worse than that, he swore he could hear a very soft whimper hidden behind Koromon's loud snore.

Whatever it is, it's definitely not a small thing and has something to do with Mr. Nishijima and whatever happened at the mysterious lab.

Yamato sighs again, he's a bit disappointed that Taichi doesn't immediately trust them with his worries. But if it went out just like what he suspected, then Taichi might be still in denial himself.

So he decided to just let it be and wait until they could ‘retrieve' Mr. Nishijima.

Chapter Text

Hikari flickered her eyes.

It felt like it's been a while since she slept this well.

As she awakened, the first thing that came back to her was hearing. There were a lot of voices, some cheering and some shouting.

She forced her eyes to open, but it's so blurry.

She laid a bit more in the bed as more of her consciousness returned and everything started to get clearer.

“Miyako wins this round!”

Hikari heard someone's voice followed by some cheers and some other frustrated yells.

She tried to remember what happened before she went to sleep.

Wasn't she together with Taichi in his room? Why is Miyako here?

“Come on, keep it down a bit! Hikari is still sleeping!”

She heard her partner yell in a hushed voice.

“Nah, she needs to wake up. It's almost dinner time now.”

She heard her brother again and shot up at the mention of dinner and looked outside.

The sun was already set, leaving just a bit of orange glow on the dark sky.

“Seems like the sleeping princess is finally awake," Takeru said teasingly.

Hikari widened her eyes and looked around.

It's not only Miyako and Takeru, the whole gang and their digimon is here, cramped inside Taichi's room.

“What… is everyone doing here?”

Hikari asked, only to get several nervous chuckles and embarrassed faces.

Salamon climbed to Hikari's lap and sighed hard.

“After you fell asleep, people have been going in and out of this room. Some need a few personal discussions, some are just curious about you two, eventually even bored people come here regularly in the name of checking up.”

Hikari could hear several nervous chuckles and coughs at Salamon's accusing tone.

“Taichi just had enough of them coming in and out and just told everyone who wanted to check regularly to just stay here. Then somehow it turns into everyone.”

Salamon gestured her head to the brunette boy. Taichi himself does what could only be described as facepalm without an actual palm on face.

Mimi stood up from her seat on the floor and raised her phone at Hikari.

“Then, since we had enough serious talk this morning, we just decided to do something fun! And so we started the snake tournament!”

Hikari looked closer at Mimi's phone. It had the snake game on the screen.

“Ahem, if we can continue."

Hikari hears Koushiro this time. It was Koushiro's voice that she first heard.

“Final round! Mochizuki VS Miyako!”

The two girls grip their phones tight at Koushiro's announcement.

“Ready… Start!”

The room went silent after Koushiro's announcement, only occasional beeping noise from the game. Hikari turned her head towards Taichi who was unexpectedly invested in the match.

“Taichi, how far did you go?”

“Lost in the first round. Pretty hard playing with only my left hand. I would love to use my right hand, but…”

“Use it and I'll make sure it ends up in full cast next morning.”

Joe interjects Taichi, the latter just shrugging.

“What he said.”

Hikari giggled a little and turned back at the two contestants.

Miyako finished a few minutes later and turned her phone to Koushiro who recorded her final score. Meiko finished not long after and did the same. Koushiro passed the note to Mimi who instantly went extra on her MCing.

“Ahem, so after assessing the final score… The Champion of Chosen Children 1st Snake Tournament is… Inoue Miyako!”

“Aw yeah!!!”

Miyako pumped her fist high as everyone clapped and offered her several congratulations. Sora moved closer to Meiko who also clapped at the champion.

They went a few more minutes recapping the highlights of the tournament, but the excitement didn't last long before they all, once again, sloped down in boredom.

“So, what now?” Bukamon finally asked.

“Dunno. Why are there no parents thinking of packing some cards? Snake tournaments can only go so many times, but a deck of cards can get us the whole night.”

Daisuke sighed, Takeru eying him from across the room.

“In this kind of situation, no parent will think that their kid would need cards of all things. My mom especially will probably tell me to rest if I get time instead of playing,” Takeru sighs.

While he understands his mom's point of view, Takeru can't deny he's disappointed that there's no cards. Yamato can already picture their mom saying it.

“Ah, but my dad packed a card in my bag!"

Mimi suddenly exclaimed, gathering the focus on her. She reached into her pocket and pulled something from it.

“A credit card!”

She pulled out her tongue with a wink. Some sweatdropped, while some others fell down in comical ways.

“Hey, can someone figure out a way to play with a credit card?”

Taichi asked in a low voice, undoubtedly annoyed since he kinda expected it too.

Mimi quickly put her credit card back inside her pocket and guard it protectively.

“Come on! I'm just joking!”

Laughter erupted from the group, Hikari finally joining them this time. But they stopped by the sound of a growling stomach.

Hikari grabbed her stomach, face red. She skipped lunch after all. But then the growling sound came again, but it's not from her.

“Taichi…”

Koromon, who was surprisingly silent all this time, finally gave up and whined. Hikari sighs in relief that she didn't embarrass herself.

“It’s kinda early, but let's go have dinner."

Taichi grinned, a bit embarrassed for his partner.

“Agreed!”

The whole group cheered at the idea.

They all finally went out of Taichi's room into their own respective rooms to take a quick shower, leaving only Taichi, Hikari, Koromon, and Salamon.

Taichi looked over to Hikari. She's no longer down and depressed, but still rather uneasy.

“Hikari, you go take a shower too. You look like shit.”

“But…”

Hikari tried to argue back, but whatever she tried to say was lost when Taichi started to stroke her head again.

“I'm not going anywhere. Joe will kill me for sure this time if I do.”

Taichi grinned which finally made Hikari giggle again.

“Okay, then. I'll be quick.”

Hikari picked up Salamon and walked back towards her own room. But before she could close the door, Taichi yelled back again.

“Make sure you wash the doggie! She doesn't have a hand!”

“MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!”

Salamon finally lost her patience and yelled back. But her annoyment disappears after finally hearing Hikari laugh out loud at their exchange.

“Seriously that guy…”

Salamon sighs, still with a smile.

She might be Hikari's partner but it seems she is still no match against the brother.

If only he did it without my expense…

Hikari and Salamon finally entered the room prepared for her.

She has been staying in Taichi's room ever since they arrived here. In fact, this is the first time she opened her own bag.

She got a set of casual clothes and the hotel's towel and started showering.

Usually she would like a longer bath, soaking her whole body in the bathtub while relaxing, but she wants to go back to Taichi as soon as possible. She finished quickly and proceeded to help Salamon bathe too. Taichi might be teasing Salamon, but it's true that she doesn't have a hand right now and can't really scrub herself with soap.

Salamon herself is cooperative and calm, this is not her first time being bathed by Hikari. Just annoyed because Taichi dared to poke at her current situation. 

Hikari quickly dried her hair and Salamon’s fur before heading back to Taichi's room. But to her surprise, Sora is standing in front of the door facing outside, as if guarding so no one will enter.

She looks very embarrassed while at it too. Hikari was about to ask her, but then a yell prevented her from doing so.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” 

Hikari recognized her brother's sound instantly.

He sounded so… scared? Angry? Hard to guess, but the panic is definitely there.

Hikari rushed to the door but then stopped when Sora raised her hand, and used the other hand to facepalm.

At her feet, Pyocomon giggling silently.

“STAY STILL YOU BASTARD!”

This time it's Yamato's voice. Hikari is relieved a little knowing it's just Yamato, but what exactly happened inside is a mystery.

“YAMATO, HOLD HIS FEET! TSUNOMON, BUKAMON, HOLD HIS HANDS DOWN!”

“HOW?!"

“SOMEHOW!”

“I CAAAAN'T!!!”

It's Joe, Bukamon, and Tsunomon’s voices now. It seems the partners are also inside.

“WAIT! WHERE ARE YOU TOUCHING?! SERIOUSLY! STOOOOP!” 

“KOROMON, SILENCE HIM!” 

“ROGER!”

“HMMP! HMMMMMPHHHH!!!”

“Oh my, oh my…”

Mimi suddenly appeared from behind Hikari, making the younger girl yelp and jump aside.

She's grinning widely as she stands closer to the wall, even leaning her head on it. Hikari herself only stands there with a blank look which is shared with Tanemon. Salamon mimicked Sora which was already fully facepalmed, the digimon buried her face in Hikari's arm since she doesn't have a hand to facepalm.

Eventually the whole group and their digimon came out from their own room. Their expression could be easily grouped in three. Either blank, embarrassed, or facepalm.

Eventually Taichi's muffled yelling stops and Sora steps away from the room.

Actually she ran to the back of the group, placing herself as far as possible from the incoming group.

The door opened and now Yamato is rolling Taichi's wheelchair. Taichi is now out of his hospital gown and changed into a simple t-shirt and shorts. Yamato and Joe also changed into another set of casual clothes, but honestly they looked worse before they left to take a shower. Yamato finally notices the audience while Joe is catching his breath.

“For the record, we're just trying to give him a bath and change his bandages. Nothing else!” 

Yamato is also getting embarrassed now he notices some people are purposely taking it in… an indecent way.

Taichi, either not noticing or ignoring them, still huffed as he yelled back at Yamato.

“Bath? Bath?! I can take a bath myself! I can even get up right here right now and dance! I don't need you guys stripping me butt naked and wiping me off everywhere!”

“You may be able to, but you're not supposed to do it! Just be obedient and let us take care of you!”

“But you guys don't really need to pull down my underwear! That's uncalled for! I can do it myself!”

“Underwear?!” Meiko startled quietly, her face is as red as tomato now.

“Oh my…”

Mimi grinned again. Things are getting spicier here.

Joe, finally recovered from trying to bathe Taichi, grabbed the brunette’s head hard and hissed lowly, almost growling.

“Uncalled for…?! Did you forget that you pulled down my towel before?! And you think this is uncalled for?!”

“How many years ago was that?!”

“Six years ago! So what?! Do you want to admit that you finally learned shame in these 6 years?!”

“It was a public bath! Everyone is supposed to get naked there!”

“But there's no harm in having a towel in the bath! While this is a big health risk for you! It's not the same!”

While Joe and Taichi are having a heated argument, Sora finally has enough and steps back to the front. Stomping all the way.

“Guys! Enough! Enough!”

Sora is finally able to catch the remaining boys' attention.

Actually only two, since Yamato has long abandoned his post and retreated after getting too embarrassed being associated with them.

“How long are you going to argue about… that!!”

Joe finally looks around to them and becomes mortified. Taichi still held his ground, not letting the other’s gaze bother him and continued to stay angry.

At the back, Daisuke inched closer to Ken, not really catching up with things.

“So, what’s his problem after all?”

“Well… that’s…”

Ken averted his eyes, not really looking at Daisuke. Miyako snickered behind them.

They just dropped the subject after that, leaving the one who didn't get it remaining in the dark while the one who wanted to bring it up again got shut down quickly by Sora, Yamato, and Joe.

Hikari took back the handle to Taichi’s wheelchair that Yamato abandoned for his own dignity.

“I think it’s your fault, Taichi. They’re just trying to help. Your hands actually still hurt a lot, right?” 

Koromon casually hopped onto Taichi's lap, talking just loud enough for Taichi to hear.

“I know that. It’s just the matter of principle.”

“What principle?”

“It’s just… pride, mostly.”

Taichi sighs, admitting that he doesn't want to be helped just because he’s ashamed of it.

“Hmm… I don’t get it.”

Koromon hummed as he turned away from Taichi.

Hikari and Salamon silently listened in, while trying to make sure the group that was still bickering behind them didn't listen.

She giggled a bit.

It’s one of the things Taichi is truly bad at, to be spoiled for once.

He is never against being helped, in fact he is a very great team player and doesn’t hesitate to ask for help when needed.

But when it goes to the one sided pampering, especially the one he didn’t ask for, he becomes agitated. Maybe it’s her fault too. Because she always lets herself be pampered by Taichi, he becomes uncomfortable being on the receiving end.

She should have a talk with him later so this won’t get repeated again tomorrow.

The dinner went a lot livelier than breakfast. 

Daisuke finally got the chance to talk with the Yagami siblings, but it ended up with everyone coming along anyway, so they just brought their own plate and stood in a big group and chatted along.

At one point, Mimi suggested an indoor picnic which got shot down pretty fast this time. As the day got late, they finally decided to save the rest of the topic for tomorrow and went back to their floor.

“I got an idea!”

Mimi suddenly exclaimed when they exited the elevator.

“What is it this time?” Taichi asked rather irritably. 

He knows Mimi is just trying to lighten the mood, but her idea is getting more and more weird. At this rate, he will even ask Yamato to move her into the number 1 craziest spot.

“Somehow, you see… Since it’s kinda rare that we all spend a night together, why don’t we have a sleepover? You know, not separated by rooms, but everyone together! The floor lounge is big enough, we can lay down sheets and sleep there!”

“No!” Joe answered rather strongly. 

“We have wounded people here, it would be better to let them sleep in bed. And besides, we don’t know when we’ll be going out again. We need to get as much rest as we can”

“Awww… I’m disappointed, but you got a point,” Mimi pouted, but still accepting anyway. 

“But since our rooms have double beds, let’s room share instead! Mei-mei, wanna share with me?”

Mimi turned towards Meiko, who was surprised that Mimi suddenly put her in the spotlight.

“Huh? Me? Sure, I don’t mind.”

“Okay then, let's go!”

“Go!" Tanemon shouted following her partner.

Mimi dragged Meiko away with the energy unthinkable for someone who is about to go to bed.

“Hmmm… what should we do?”

Sora wondered, tapping her chin with one hand and holding Pyocomon with the other.

“I want to sleep with Sora!”

Pyocomon yelled excitedly, making Sora smile again at her partner.

“Of course, Pyocomon. But, other than that…” Sora looked around.

If she were to share a room the only remaining options are Hikari and Miyako. Well, they can cram together since the bed is quite large, but Hikari shakes her head.

“I'll sleep with Taichi tonight,” Hikari smiled, showing a bit of uneasiness.

Usually people will find it a bit weird for teenage siblings of the opposite gender to still sleep together. Takeru especially would love to tease Hikari to no end if she did. But considering what just happened, they just nodded understandingly. Taichi doesn't even protest as Hikari pushes his wheelchair to his room.

“Then Sora, Pyocomon. Let's share with me!” Miyako grabbed Sora's hand excitedly.

“Of course! Let's sleep together” Sora laughed softly, and then they too disappeared to Sora's room.

The remaining boys stand in the corridor awkwardly.

“Takeru, you're not sharing?" Tokomon finally called out.

“Um… Tokomon, you see…” Takeru answered hesitantly.

With the penetrator out, they don't really need to follow the room share plan. Especially since it would be embarrassing for boys their age.

“I wanna room share too!” Tokomon starts to wail.

Takeru looked around in panic and finally stopped to glance at Yamato.

“Yamato! Let's share a room!"

Takeru immediately shot out loud, his tone suggesting that he won't take no for an answer.

“What? Yeah? Sure. Tsunomon, you're okay, right?” Yamato flinched and threw the question to his partner.

“Yeah, of course! The more the merrier!” Tsunomon smiled brightly.

“Yaay!"

Tokomon let out an excited yell and urges Takeru to go to their room quickly. Takeru and Yamato walk together rather awkwardly while Tsunomon just laughs weakly.

“I have to look after Daisuke, so I'll room share with him."

Ken suddenly declared once Yamato and Takeru were gone.

“You worry too much, I'm fine!"

Daisuke pouted, but Ken won't have it and starts to push his wheelchair to his room.

“Now, don't be stubborn. Just in case, you know.”

“Okay, okay. Fine.”

Now the remaining three stand there awkwardly.

Koushiro is sweating. At first he thought about ditching the room share plan and sleeping alone, but now everyone went along with it, it will be too sad if he becomes the one who got left behind. But then again, asking one of them means leaving the other one as the leftover. Truly a dilemma.

Meanwhile Joe looks at Daisuke and Ken and wonders why Taichi is not that easy to handle. The last member, Iori is tapping his feet with arms crossed, seeming to be in deep thought.

“Ummm… Joe?”

Bukamon pulled Joe's sleeve to catch his attention. He finally got out of his thoughts and finally realized how awkward they are.

“Koushiro?”

Motimon followed suit and tried to get his partner to move. But Koushiro still stands there awkwardly even though he did notice Motimon.

“Okay!”

Iori finally raised his head with determined looks and pulled both Joe and Koushiro's hand.

“Huh?"

“What?”

Koushiro and Joe are both confused by their youngest sudden assertiveness.

“Come on, I still have some points I need to reconfirm from the story this morning. It will be easier with both of you.”

Joe and Koushiro sweatdropped at their ever so diligent successor. The boy seems to fully intend not to let them sleep tonight.

In another room, Hikari once again helped Taichi to get into the bed before settling in herself. But instead of sleeping, she kept on staring at her brother.

Taichi was actually kinda reluctant to let Hikari sleep with him again, considering his recent trouble with sleep. But after everything happened, he let her be while counting on her to sleep first like yesterday. But it seems he miscalculated quite badly this time.

Koromon panicked, already seeing how troubled Taichi is and that he wasn't ready to share it yet.

Hikari sighed after a while and sat up again. Salamon knowingly stepped away from her side to settle beside Koromon.

“Hikari?” Taichi asked worriedly.

But before he could ask anything else, Hikari pulled him to her side. Positioning so that his head rests on her laps.

“Wait, Hikari! What are you doing?!” Taichi struggled, but was quickly held down by Hikari. 

Technically he can break free easily, but he won't risk hurting his sister in the process.

“You know what, you sucks.”

Hikari cupped her hands on his cheek and loomed down with a smile on her face.

“What? Why so sudden? Did I say something insensitive again?”

Taichi starts to panic and looks beside both Salamon and Koromon.

“I don’t think so…” Koromon arched his eyebrow.

“Who knows?” Salamon snickered, not really elaborating further.

“That’s not it, silly,”

Hikari patted Taichi’s forehead while giggling. 

“What I’m saying is you sucks at getting spoiled.”

“..... huh? Why should I get spoiled in the first place?”

It took a few seconds for Taichi to catch on to what Hikari was actually saying.

“First off, you’re wounded. Pretty badly if I should add. How are you supposed to take care of yourself when you’re not supposed to move at all?”

Taichi was about to answer back, but Hikari silenced him with a finger to his lips.

“Second, there’s something bothering you. You’re not fooling anyone, you know? Everyone is worrying about you,” Hikari smiled softly.

Taichi averted his eyes, trying to look for any way to escape. Hikari chuckled at her brother’s obvious attempt to escape.

“You said it before right, sometimes there’s just something you don’t want to face right away. It’s okay, no one would force you to confess. But it’s not good you know, to push everyone who just trying to help.”

“I know about that…” Taichi mumbled again.

“That’s why…” Hikari grinned and covered his eyes.

“Hikari, wait!!!”

Taichi tried to move her hand with his less injured hand but Hikari caught that hand with her other free hand.

“Nope. You’re not sleeping properly, don’t you? Come on, just close your eyes and breathe slowly.”

“Hikari! Seriously! Let me go!” Taichi started to raise his voice and struggle a bit.

“No, I’m not going to back down this time!''

Hikari was startled at first, but took it as her brother being extra stubborn just like when he did it with Joe and Yamato.

“Hikari… I think that’s enough…”

Koromon shuffled closer, earning him a weird look from Salamon.

“Koromon? What’s wrong?” Salamon asked worriedly.

At this point, Hikari finally noticed something was terribly wrong. But before she could release him, Taichi pulled his hand from her grip forcefully.

“I said! Release me damn it!!!” “Kyaaaa!” “Hikari!” “Taichi!”

It happened in an instant. Taichi didn’t only use his badly injured hand to push Hikari away, he also used both of his legs to scramble away from her.

“Taichi!”

Koromon jumped right to his chest. Taichi caught him with both of his hands, not really remembering that he's not supposed to use them until the pain hit him.

Fortunately, the very same pain is what finally snapped him back and saw what he did.

Hikari massaged her head, seeming to have hit the headboard when he pushed her away. Salamon is already on her side, confirming her safety.

“Hikari… are you okay? Sorry, I didn't mean to…”

Taichi crawled closer to her, completely ignoring the pain from his hands and feet.

“Yeah, I'm okay. It's not a big deal. But more importantly, are YOU okay?”

Hikari shot back, both her hands grabbing Taichi's shoulder.

“Well, I…” Taichi averted his eyes again.

He couldn't lie now that Hikari saw that, but he's not ready to open up just yet. Hikari sensed her brother's reluctance and once again pulled him down to their previous position, his head on her lap.

“Hikari?” Taichi asked curiously.

“Sorry, I approached it wrong. It's okay if you don't want to talk about it yet. But let me try it again!”

Hikari has a very determined look now, which makes Taichi even more confused.

His confusion soon answered with her hand on his hair, gently stroking it just like what he did to her earlier today.

“This should be okay, right?”

“... Yeah.”

Salamon smiled and finally settled in again beside Taichi. Koromon is still a bit confused, but decides that all is good since Taichi is calm now. He finally settled himself beside Taichi, on the opposite side from Salamon.

They stayed like that for a while. Koromon already fell asleep sometimes during that.

Honestly, Salamon was getting sleepy too but neither Taichi nor Hikari were close to sleep. In fact, the warm atmosphere got rather awkward now that she can see Hikari start to get tired while Taichi felt rather guilty for not falling asleep.

Salamon accidentally made eye contact with Taichi. He pretty much wordlessly said ‘do something' to her. She silently bared her teeth to him, returning somewhat a ‘no, you do something!' message.

Taichi looked beside him, catching Koromon already snoring blissfully and resigned to his fate.

“Umm… well… Hikari? Are you okay?” Taichi awkwardly asks

Salamon expectantly looks at Hikari who seems to be snapped out of her daze.

“Uh? Huh? Yes, I'm okay,” Hikari smiled.

Taichi tried to look through her expression, but it's harder to see from his position. He glanced at Salamon, the digimon shook her head in response.

“You can stop if you're getting tired, you know? I'll be fine.”

“No! I decided that I'll be the one to do the pampering this time! I won't give up until you have a good sleep!”

Salamon sighed at her partner, thinking something around ‘like brother like sister’. Taichi sensed what Salamon was actually thinking and cringed, since he couldn't really deny it.

“So, Taichi. Realistically speaking, how close are you to sleeping?”

Salamon finally broke the ice, deciding to just ask him directly rather than letting Hikari do this for who knows how many more hours.

“Honestly, not at all,” Taichi smiled apologetically.

“Huh? Why? Am I doing this wrong?” Hikari stopped and started to panic.

She has been trying to mimic what Taichi has been doing for her since the moment she can remember. It has been proved effective towards Gatomon, and even to post-reboot Salamon. She never did it to Taichi himself before, but she was quite confident. But now her confidence was completely crushed into fine shards.

“No, it’s not… Forget it. Just go to sleep. I’ll sleep at my own pace,” Taichi sighed, trying to at least coax Hikari to rest.

“No! I won’t sleep until you do! Is there anything else I can do?” Hikari asked back with even more determination.

Taichi sighed at how stubborn his sister could be. He racked his brain, trying to recall what could calm him at his current state. He didn't really mind his current lack of sleep, but he won’t let his sister get deprived of sleep because of him.

“Can you… talk to me? Anything is fine.”

Taichi finally asked hesitantly. Hikari crooked her head.

“Talk? Won’t that keep you awake instead?”

“It calms me. Come on, Salamon you come here.”

Taichi raised his hand, gesturing to Salamon to come closer. The digimon tilted her head, but came closer anyway.

“Finally in the mood to get pampered?”

Salamon snickered, settling in under Taichi’s arm and resting her head on his chest.

“You guys offered. Gotta take full advantage while it lasts,” He relaxes himself under Hikari’s touch.

“And you were surprised when I immediately took your offer,” Hikari grinned, finally regaining her playful mood.

“I just took my own advice. Come on, keep on talking.”

“Hmmm… what should I talk about…”

Hikari taps her chin, filling out the silence with loud humming.

“Why don’t you talk about that?”

Salamon grinned mischievously, which spread to her partner.

“You’re right. We need to talk about that!”

“Somehow I don’t like where this is going…”

Taichi sweated with both girls leering at him like a predator would to their prey.

“It’s about what you did to Joe and Yamato. That was not nice at all. They were just trying to help!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You guys were listening when I was talking to Koromon anyway. No need to keep pressing the issue.”

“So you’re going to be obedient tomorrow?”

“This is this, that is that.”

“What?! Why are you always so stubborn?!”

“I don’t want to hear that from you of all people! And besides, they’re…”

Salamon listened to it as the two siblings started arguing. It’s rare for them to raise their voice against each other, unless the memories she got back post-reboot is lacking, which is undoubtedly. Usually their fight consists of continuous smug teasing until one of them pouts in defeat.

She chuckled as they got escalating even more and started to argue even unrelated things.

“Good night.”

Salamon whispered softly as she once again settled in and closed her eyes.

In another room, a pair of brothers with different last names were wide awake with another dilemma.

The dilemma being the voice from the neighboring room which is coincidentally inhabited by another pair of siblings.

“Hey, what are they talking about?”

“Don’t listen in. Let them be.”

They both lie down in silence. Tokomon and Tsunomon have long since fallen asleep.

They were having a lighthearted chat when they heard Taichi’s yelling, followed by a loud thud and Hikari’s loud yelp. And then they have been too much on edge to be able to sleep.

Honestly, the Yagami siblings have always been quite an oddity. They never have an actual fight, only slight quarrels here and there, which is very rare for any siblings. It almost seems like they were the very picture of what a perfect sibling was supposed to be. That’s why this situation is too out of character for both Yamato and Takeru to sleep off.

The late night surprise was followed by a long silence. They were finally about to sleep for real this time since it seems nothing else happened, but then they started to hear both Hikari and Taichi arguing again. This time not too loud so they can’t really hear what they’re arguing about. But it did keep both of them wide awake all night.

“Come on, just a little bit. I’m curious… um, I mean, I’m worried.”

“Don’t. I’ll snitch if you dare.”

And so they both lie awkwardly in bed, listening to muffled arguments in the other room.

It was around 4 AM when they finally stopped arguing, and 5 AM when the boys finally felt reassured enough to sleep too. Unfortunately, the sun rises early at the peak of summer and they’re awake again by 8 AM. They both feel too much like shit to sleep again and just decided to be awake. For some reason, they were greeted by the rest of the gang, sans Taichi and Hikari, mostly looking as shitty as they are. They all looked at each other and laughed awkwardly.

“We were having quite a heated story telling competition until late night.”

Mimi answered rather cheerfully despite looking like shit. Meiko laughs awkwardly while holding half-asleep Palmon.

“We were talking about some stuff I missed on. You know, since we went MIA for some months.” 

Miyako tried to laugh it off, but it dampens the mood quite a lot early in the morning. Beside her, Sora is practically sleeping with her eyes open. Biyomon is literally sleeping on her head.

“Well, actually we do too. I mean, there’s too much stuff to digest.”
h
Daisuke admitted, Ken looking rather embarrassed and sleepy at his side.

“We need to have a clearer image on what is currently happening to make a correct decision!”

Iori said rather proudly despite looking like he’s about to fall asleep again.

Behind him, both Joe and Koushiro look like they’re about to collapse. Motimon and Bukamon… or rather Tentomon and Gomamon nowhere to be seen. Probably still asleep.

They’re looking to Yamato and Takeru now, signaling that it’s their turn to confess.

“Well, the next door makes us too curious to sleep,” Takeru finally admitted.
h
The rest of them looked confused while looking at the door next to them.

“Next door is…” Sora trailed.

They finally noticed that both Taichi and Hikari are not awake yet.

“Actually…” Yamato starts to recite what they heard from the next door.

“Taichi and Hikari… arguing?!” Daisuke yelled in surprise.

The others don't really voice it, but they’re equally surprised. They then looked over to Sora since she knows them the longest.

“He was only a neighbor kid and classmate before I joined his soccer club after we moved to Odaiba. To be honest I don't know much. Even after that, I never heard him complaining about fighting with Hikari, until…” Sora looked down and trailed off again.

No one misses how her eyes wanders to Meiko for a split second. Meiko herself looks down again, and of course Mimi doesn’t miss it.

“Okay! Enough about that! Sibling fights or not, it’s time for breakfast! Can’t leave the digimons hungry!” Mimi marches to the last closed door.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! The sun is up and so are you! It’s time to… oh, my…”

Mimi stopped midway, making the others curious and started to peek into the room from behind her.

The image is very far off from what they imagined after hearing that they might have an argument, but is still equally unusual. There at the bottom of the pile is the usually tidy Hikari, sleeping haphazardly across the bed. Blanket only covered one of her legs and part of her hand. On her uncovered hand is Agumon, being held by the jaw. Next is Agumon who is sleeping under Hikari’s arm. He held out his hands to hug one of Taichi’s arms while the other one was occupied by Gatomon, who was sleeping comfortably under Taichi's arm with her head on his chest. Taichi himself is quite as usual, sleeping messily but this time manages to mostly stay under the blanket. The unusual point is that he’s using Hikari’s belly as his pillow, which is the reverse of what they usually expect from the siblings.

Mimi giggled silently, her own sleepiness long forgotten. She tiptoed inside and pulled out her phone to take as many pictures as she needed.

The rest of the group laughed and soon followed Mimi to flock the room and take pictures.

That is until Gatomon finally disturbed enough to wake up and ended up waking the other three, which grants them another precious (or funny for some) reaction from the siblings.

Chapter Text

It has been 4 days since they were dropped off at the hotel. Daisuke has been feeling a lot better now and is able to walk on his own, but Ken still trailed off just in case.

Meanwhile, Taichi was still in his wheelchair, complaining every chance he got. But now he’s rather obedient after the supposed bad argument between him and Hikari and lets Joe take care of him. On condition that it is only Joe alone and no one else. Fortunately it has been working well so far.

The rest of them spent their time alternating between sharing the finer detail of their current situation and being bored to death. Joe especially anguished that none of his parents and brothers thought about packing his textbooks. The world wasn't doomed so he had to be ready for the university entrance exam after all. He actually told them just that when all of them minus Taichi and Hikari phoned their parents to let them know they're alive and still in one piece.

Daisuke wasn't really thrilled to hear Jun's nagging, but the call ended up pretty fine.

“I’m bored…”

Daisuke slumped on the lounge couch.

It was 9 AM. They just finished breakfast and proceeded to just hang around in the lounge.

Koushiro was busy explaining the tech details about infection and whatever other technical stuff to Miyako, Tentomon drops off once a while to give them some oolong tea.

Joe was trying to study out of memory. Gomamon would once a while bring him drink and snacks as a support, or ask him something else which broke his concentration for fun.

Mimi was pulling Hikari, Takeru, Meiko, Sora, Iori, Ken, Patamon, Biyomon, Palmon, and Gabumon for god knows how many rounds of shiritori. Gatomon was napping near the window, while Agumon was still stuffing his jaw with food he brought from the dinner floor.

Yamato was at the farther corner, practicing air guitar or doing vocal training once a while.

Taichi was sitting in his wheelchair near Hikari, probably already dead inside from boredom after he stopped engaging in the game when it went past the 6th round. And it all started because he asked Mimi to teach him a more casual spoken English because he was bored.

“Hey, can I…”

“No.”

Taichi tried to ask to move, but Joe quickly shut him off and got back to his study. The brunette sighed dejectedly and back being dead inside. Daisuke thought about striking a conversation with him, but they had exhausted their topics on the 3rd day, which is the source of their utter boredom right now.

The elevator dinged again on their floor.

Their first reaction is to check if anyone is missing from the lounge. But everyone is here, so whoever comes is not a part of their group.

It might be bad news, something might be exploding somewhere, but despite all things that went around each of their heads, there was a single thought they all shared.

Finally, something to do!

Stepping out from the elevator were Hackmon, along with two men. A young man with dark brown hair and glasses and an older man with graying hair and stern look. They're both in sharp formal suits.

“Greetings, Digidestined.”

Hackmon greeted them first, walking along with the two men.

“Dad!”

Meiko called out, approaching the elder men.

The rest of the group watched as she got up and ran to her father, and led him along with the other men and Hackmon to the couch. Daisuke politely picked himself up from his previous nestling place and stood beside the seats.

“Wait, your dad?!”

They finally registered what just happened a few seconds too late.

“Yes, this person is my father. He is the lead researcher at Tottori. He is currently here cooperating with the Data Bureau to investigate this case.”

“Mochizuki Hirohito. I want to thank each of you for taking good care of my daughter Meiko… and Meicoomon too.”

Meiko's smile dropped at the mention of her partner. But to them, the father Mochizuki seems to be equally sad, if not downright grieving, when mentioning Meicoomon. The younger group tried to retreat to the background while the older group turned their head towards Taichi out of habit.

“Uh… Um… We're only doing what we believe is right. Mochizuki is our friend after all.”

Taichi started out a bit nervously, but quickly relaxed after mentioning Meiko and continued.

“Of course, Meicoomon too. Both of them are precious friends of ours.”

Both of the Mochizuki smiled at Taichi's words. But Mr. Mochizuki didn't really linger on it and stepped aside for the other men.

“Itou Kyoya. From now on I will be replacing Agent Himekawa as your point of contact.”

The man, Itou, offered them a card. As Taichi was definitely not supposed to stand and took it the polite way, Yamato took the card and read it aloud for the rest of the group.

“Itou Kyoya… from… Ministry of Defense?!” Yamato yelled out the last part in surprise.

When he said he's replacing Himekawa, they're expecting another agent from the Data Bureau, not downright Ministry of Defense of all things.

“I thought the Data Bureau is the one handling Digimon cases?” Joe asked.

“I have come here to talk about that. Along with what is currently happening outside and what will happen to all of you from now on,” Itou added quite ominously.

They all gulped nervously, but followed along and seated themselves around the couch, pulling some extra chairs.

Tentomon has wisely pushed the other digimons into Koushiro’s digital space, saying something about letting the humans do the weird human things.

Yamato cringed that somehow he got the middle seat while Taichi settled on his own wheelchair on the end of the middle couch. The brunette even has the nerve to grin at him to his annoyance.

And Daisuke being Daisuke chose to sit closer to the Yagami siblings than in the middle and of course Ken was sitting beside him.

“First off, Yagami Taichi," Hackmon started.

Taichi immediately dropped his grin and stiffened that Homeostasis’ messenger actually addressed him by name.

“I have tried to follow the lead you gave me, but have found nothing. But for better news, I have found the partners of the first digidestined group. Homeostasis has put them in stasis to prevent the infection and they have remained so post reboot. I have managed to restart them, and they are ready to go with you anytime.”

“I see… Thank you…”

Taichi sighed a bit sadly, but still uttered out of gratitude anyway. 

Hackmon simply closed his eyes and nodded in acknowledgement.

“And regarding the lead for Agent Nishijima, we were finally able to stabilize the mass and retrieve the capsules. It should arrive here by afternoon,” Itou added.

The group finally brightened. At least there’s one good news. The man opened his bag and pulled a clipped stack of paper and began to flip it around.

“And regarding your previous question, the National Data Processing Bureau is under investigation due to the revelation that one of their executives, Agent Himekawa, has been working with Yggdrasil. Charges are piling against her, including and not limited to, unlawful use of government position, data manipulation, faking official report, privacy violation, impersonation, kidnapping of minors, and terrorism,” Itou listed, his voice remained neutral the whole time.

The group, besides Taichi and Sora, gasped at the revelation. The younger one at the mention of their kidnapping and the older one in disbelief. Meiko in particular took it rather hard.

“No way… Hime…”

Meiko covered her mouth, too shocked to even cry. Sora is quick to console her.

“The Evil Gennai mentioned it. But I thought it was just a way to shake us. Are you sure about that?” Sora tried to ask again, trying to make sure of the info.

Instead of Itou, Taichi was the one who answered.

“It might be the truth. Mr. Nishijima personally told me among the things the Data Bureau is hiding from us. Though if we put the possibility that Himekawa is lying, there’s no guarantee that Mr. Nishijima is telling the truth. But one thing that is sure is that one of them is lying and not everyone in the Data Bureau is our ally. Call it personal preference, but I think Mr. Nishijima is the one telling the truth,'' Taichi sighed.

Even though their time together was short, he still doesn't want to believe that one of their two new mentor figures is actually a traitor.

“That is correct. It is worth noting that the main evidence against her is a research note regarding Reboot and encrypted chat log between Agent Himekawa and Gennai that was left by Agent Nishijima before his disappearance. Unfortunately for her, all other supporting evidence that was not related to Agent Nishijima has also pointed to her direction. Regardless if Agent Himekawa is the mastermind or not, the fact that someone in the NDPB has kidnapped 4 minors and actively concealed their whereabouts for months is not to be taken lightly. The fact that the kidnapping has indirectly resulted in unnecessary destruction of several places around the world has put the Japanese government under a lot of pressure. The Bureau will be slowly dissolved and be remade to be a special task force under Ministry of Defense instead of an independent organization with the executives on house arrest until the investigation is complete.”

The digidestineds are surprised again. Less from the information itself and more from the fact that this government agent is sharing seemingly confidential internal situations of the government that are not directly related to them without batting an eye. So different from Himekawa and Nishijima who seem to be rather secretive and do a lot of ‘just leave it to us’ unless things have gone out of hand.

“We also searched both her office and her residence for more evidence. But we have not found Ichijouji Ken's digivice and D-Terminal anywhere. We got the information that it was missing, so we took the liberty to start the search."

Itou looked over to Hackmon, who in turn looked over to Taichi. 

Taichi noticed that Ken doesn't have the digivice when checking them over after they arrived in the real world, even though  Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori still have theirs. And then he remembered Himekawa pulled out a suspiciously familiar sample digivice and might as well ask Hackmon about it.

He confirmed it with Ken later, and sure the younger boy can't find his digivice anywhere which means Himekawa still has it with her, wherever she was.

“Next, about the case,” Itou continued.

“The government has decided to tell the truth that it was a disaster caused by Digimon. But we will also disclose that the one that handled the disaster is the combined effort of the Ministry of Defense and JSDF, along with our allied Digimons, Jesmon and Omegamon. There won’t be any mention of you and your partners' individual names in official media as long as you wish for it. The government will put out support funds into the affected business and begin the rebuilding of the destroyed sectors. While we were still compiling the total damage, we were expecting that the city would be back to normal by the end of this year.”

The children now signed in relief. With the negative view of Digimons, the government at least tried to do something about it by announcing that there are good Digimons at humanity's side. The man then flipped his report again and continued to read it out to them.

“Next, about your current situation. Out of 13 of you, 9 in which consists of Yagami Taichi, Yagami Hikari, Ishida Yamato, Takenouchi Sora, Mochizuki Meiko, Izumi Koushirou, Tachikawa Mimi, Kido Joe, Takaishi Takeru has all their names and face revealed for being associated with Digimons. Unfortunately, the moment you have appeared in plain sight with your partner digimons matched with agent Himekawa disappearance and the NDPB wasn’t able to react in time with the broken chain of command which resulted in information leak from the police department that has detained you. Currently we’re doing damage control as much as we can. We were able to stop the official news from reporting it, but it was too late to prevent gossip that already went around. In brighter light, the extent of said gossip is rather varied, with most being heavily extragraded which make it lose its credibility. Even so, it might be wise to brace for the change that will happen in your daily lives from now on.”

The previously mentioned 9 looked down at the information. Somewhere in their mind, they have the feeling that it would turn out like this when Mr. Nishijima told them that the reporters had mobbed their homes. But with all the bad things that have happened, their mind opted to take it as light as possible in order to preserve their sanity and keep them level headed in face of danger. But now that they have too much time to brood on it, being told about it right in their face makes them finally hit with the severity of their current situation.

“Then for the remaining 4, Motomiya Daisuke, Inoue Miyako, Hida Iori, Ichijouji Ken.”

The four of them looked up from sympathizing with the previous group to the man.

“Fortunately, all of you arrived after the evacuation order. We were able to intercept the ambulance and secured all of you into a protected military hospital before the information leaked. All you will see in paper is the mystery about 4 teenagers in capsules that might or might not be related to the Digimon disaster. Another fortunate thing is that the impersonations done by Yggdrasil to hide your whereabouts has worked in your favor this time by acting as alibi that you were not here at the time of disaster. While some gossip might go around due to your friendship with the previously mentioned group, it should be possible for you to return to your daily lives as long as you stay low until the storm passes.”

They should be relieved, but considering that the other group was not as fortunate as them they can’t really be happy about that.

“Lastly, about your current whereabouts. With emergency order still in place and summer break, it should be safe for you to keep hiding for the time being. Your parents will also provide our prepared story about your whereabouts to the reporters. That will be all about our current situation in the Real World.”

Itou flipped back the report into a neat stack and gestured for Hackmon to take over.

“Now I will be explaining on the Digital World side. Currently Homeostasis has successfully shut down several of Yggdrasil functions in the digital world. While we were unable to locate the core, the Digital World should be safe for the time being. Most of the partner digimons that have fallen have been reborn as eggs at the Primary Village, free from infections. With the memories that were safely stored within Libra released back into the Digital World, it should not take long for all of them to be restored to the initial stage before the infection. Some of the digimons that were deleted permanently due to various reasons are also restored. Although the situation of their memories might be questionable if they had fallen long before the backup was taken by Libra.”

From inside the digital space, Gatomon perked her ear. Even when her fellow digimons are more interested in the snacks from Tentomon, she has also tried to listen in to make sense of the situation on hand as the sole ‘adult’ of their group.

It was then she heard about the rebirth of permanently deleted digimons, her mind automatically went into the form of her best digimon friend.

“Wizardmon…”

Tears started to drip down from her eyes. Even if the newly reborn Wizardmon won’t recognize her, she is happy that he is at least alive this time.

“Gatomon, what’s wrong? Are you hungry? Here, have some of mine.”

Agumon approached her, offering a dorayaki in his clawed hands. Gatomon looked up to Agumon, then to the dorayaki. While it seems odd, she knows that it is Agumon’s way to show his concern. Gatomon quickly wiped her tears and took the dorayaki carefully with both of her paws.

“Yeah, thank you.”

Gatomon smiled and bitten down the snacks. Agumon grinned as both of them walked back to their group.

Back to the outside, several digidestineds are sharing the sentiment with Gatomon, reminiscing the fallen digimons from the recently died Leomon to the long gone Gotsumon and Pumpmon. Meanwhile Iori looks down, knowing that BlackWarGreymon is exempt from that good news, having never been an actual digimon in the first place.

Hackmon closed his eyes and leaned back, fully knowing their thoughts and letting the new settle in with them before continuing again.

“On the downside, the gate following the reboot is still as unstable as before. I was able to pass through it safely because I was created with the sole reason to preserve the relation between the Real and Digital World, but the same thing cannot be said for you even if you’re the digidestined. There is no distortion that could easily send you back to the Real World this time. And since the Digital World has been rebooted into the initial stage, the D3 gate is also unusable. Please keep it in mind if you’re trying to cross to Digital World again anytime soon.”

Hackmon bowed down, signaling that he had finished with his explanation. Itou nodded to the digimon and took over again.

“That should be all about the current situation. Is there any question?”

They looked at each other, shaking their heads. Once again, Taichi represents them to answer.

“No at the moment. More importantly, we are more concerned about what will happen from now on.”

“Of course, but before that please let me talk about a personal story of mine. This might sound like an excuse, but as a personal acquaintance of both Himekawa and Nishijima there is one thing that I must tell you no matter what.”

Itou put down his stack of paper and slumped down, behaving much less formal. His eyes look a lot more weary.

“No matter which of them ended up being the traitor, not everything they did up until now is downright evil. Since the first time our society has become aware of the digimons through Myotismon’s takeover of Fuji TV building, the government has been investigating this new mysterious creature. I’m sure you have heard about this from either Himekawa or Nishijima.''

They all nodded, Daisuke and the others had also heard about it secondhand from Taichi and the others.

“Despite Takaishi Natsuko, Takenouchi Haruhiko, and Ishida Hiroaki’s best effort to keep you anonymous, it doesn’t take long for the government to track down the 8 children that were projected in the sky at that night of Apocalymon attack. All of you have been on government radar ever since. The sightings of digimons increased ever since and peaked at the Diaboromon incident. The government finally took this very seriously and has formed a special task force to deal with the digital world related incident. But without any certain knowledge about the digimons and how to deal with them, they turn towards the only known solution…” Itou trailed, his weary eyes staring hard to each one of them.

“... Us…”

Taichi fearfully spoke, in which Itou just silently nodded.

The man pulled another clipped stack of paper from inside his bag and placed it on the table at the center of the room.

“This is the initial proposal from 6 years ago. To summarize it, the government was planning to place all 8 of you into a specialized facility to nurture your ability to fight along with your partner to the fullest. Strategy, survival, decision making, martial arts, all sorts of the discipline from education to physical training to make sure you can lead your digimon partners to certain victory at any given time.”

The man stopped again, once again looking at them and waiting for their answer.

“Somehow I don’t like how it sounds…”

Daisuke clenched his fist. He knows they need to do anything to be able to fight, but that seems just too much.

“I agree. The specialized facility part doesn’t seem like it will come with much freedom.”

Ken followed along. Spelling out the underlying message of the proposal.

“Freedom? Forget about that! To me, that sounds like they’re trying to make us into child soldiers or something!”

Joe shouted, not even trying to be subtle like Ken did.

“What does that mean?! We’re not some kind of stringed puppet for you to move around as you please!”

Mimi slammed her hands at the table. Anger clearly displayed on her face.

Itou sighed again, rather irritably and clearly losing his composure this time.

“I wholeheartedly agree. The old men in high seats would argue that it’s for the best in the world, but it’s not them who will have their whole future and freedom stripped off.”

The man is clearly slipping off. His words turn into more of rambling venting than an actual explanation. He seemed to catch himself and coughed.

“Anyway, it was Himekawa along with Nishijima and Gennai who managed to fight back against the proposal. Gennai, through Himekawa and Nishijima, has given information about digimons and the digital world to the government, letting them develop weapons against digimons that escaped to the real world while Gennai and his comrades shifted the digital world so it would remain undetected. Himekawa has pushed for digital research to lessen the dependency on your partners, while Nishijima appealed to any children protection agency to push them to drop the proposal. At the same time, Homeostasis through Gennai, has also pushed out the plan to close the digital gate for good using your crests. The urgency to fight against digital beings has receded ever since the gate was closed, and so the proposal was dropped for good.”

The original group looked down again.

Honestly their opinion of Homeostasis was shit after their… disagreement. But now they think about it again, the original Gennai that has been hand holding them the whole time was also Homeostasis’ messenger. And to think they have been doing so many things for them in the background surprises them.

“Moving down to 3 years later, when Digimon Kaiser first appeared, the stable status of the digital world was once again shaken and Homeostasis was forced to take action once again. But with all of you having given up your crest ability to digivolve and being on government supervision, along with the fact that traditional digivolution was blocked by Dark Towers, Homeostasis has taken the option to choose a group of new children instead of doing something about the digivolution method. All to shake off government pressure on the original digidestined. The fact that 2 of the original group, Yagami Hikari and Takaishi Takeru, had become digidestined once again was a slight improvisation on the Holy Beasts’s part. The plan went well and the new digidestineds has managed to save the digital world before the government even notices the problem.”

Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori looked down.

To think the condition of their being digidestined was that complex. They initially thought that it was simply because Taichi’s group was unable to digivolve properly.

But now that they think about it again, Takeru and Hikari managed to armor digivolve by converting their old digivice into D3. Qinglongmon said it was because they’re compatible with armor digivolve or something. But since Homeostasis created the whole crest and partner things in the first place, it should be possible to fix the original group’s problem with digivolution instead of choosing a whole new inexperienced group of children to do the job.

No one thought that it was because putting them more into the spotlight would put their whole future at stake.

“Unfortunately, Oikawa Yukio with Arukenimon and Mumimon infiltrated the real world which in turn gave Daemon and his army a chance to chase Ichijouji Ken’s dark seed in the real world. The still young Data Bureau was not equipped enough to deal with sudden aggression and we were once again forced to rely on the children. But even with your shift resolution to the disaster, there are things that could be dealt with better if the government was able to be more involved such as clearing out the fact that a group of Japanese children has been actively trespassing to other countries without Passport let alone Visa on a digimon. Even crossing from India to China would be much easier and less risky if you leave it to us.”

The group, except Meiko, sucked out air sharply and sweated nervously. They, especially Joe and Iori, were actually wondering about that fact from the very start. But considering that it is an emergency and that digimon was not widely known yet, they just put it aside as ‘no one would believe we’re traveling the world on a giant dragon lol’ and forget about it. The fact that no one ever mentioned it again helps them to forget it, but they were wrong.

So very wrong.

Taichi and Daisuke looked at each other, both smiling nervously. They then turned around to see the other have a rather similar reaction, all filtered through their personality. After a bit of silent debate between them, they finally came to a single conclusion.

“We’re really sorry!”

They all chorused at the same time. Itou simply raised his hand to dismiss it.

“That’s all good. It was an emergency and you all did great. It took some effort, but it has been cleared out. But for the record, there is my contact number on the card. Please at least send me a message beforehand if you’re about to do it again.”

They sighed in relief. Joe in particular is so relieved he’s about to faint.

“But the incident has made it clear that no matter how much the NPBD has improved in dealing with Digimon related cases, the gap between them and your group is too large. And there’s some cases where we have no choice but to rely on all of you. Not to mention that now not only the Japanese government, but all countries are hunting for children with partners. Under the heavy pressure, the Japanese government brought out the proposal from 6 years ago again. But even with Himekawa and Nishijima's best effort, the most they could afford is to keep all 12 of you on 24/7 surveillance in exchange for other children's anonymity.”

All of them, besides Yamato, gasp at this. Yamato was already somewhat aware that they were being watched, but didn't really imagine that it was full surveillance. Meiko was not included due not being part of the original group, but even then she felt rather angry on their behalf.

“24/7 since then… That means…” Iori whispered in disbelief.

“3 years. We have been stalked without our knowledge for 3 whole years,” Ken gritted his teeth, showing a rather rare anger on his face.

Itou nodded again and pulled a rather thin stack of paper. This time he handed it directly to Yamato instead of placing it at the table along with the other papers.

Yamato reluctantly took it and scanned the title. Noticing that every page has a different name. He quickly unclipped the paper and passed it along so everyone could see their own paper. The rest of them waited until the papers were properly distributed before reading it. Yamato scanned the inside and started to read it out loud.

“Ishida Yamato. 5 April 2005, The Beginning of the School year. 06:35 Waking up, proceeding to make breakfast for his father, Ishida Hiroaki…”

Yamato started to read, but his voice getting quieter as he read.

“07:03 Running out from home and taking a bicycle to school in a hurry… There is no morning practice at the beginning of the school year…?” Taichi pretty much growled at the last part.

He was still half asleep when he ran out through the house, not listening to Hikari and his Mom who tried to remind him that there's no morning practice and ended up making a fool of himself as soon as the school started. Sora and Yamato laughed when they remembered that. He must be so pissed off that it ended up in the government official report.

“It's pretty detailed. Even to the slightest change in routine," Sora commented as she ran through her sheet.

“They even have mine too…”

Meiko is surprised that she also has her own page despite being excluded from the whole talk up until now. Not only that, her page is also as detailed as the rest of digidestineds.

“That is each of you on the first day of school. Mochizuki Meiko surveillance began 1 years ago after Meicoomon's initial rampage.”

“Mei…”

Meiko whispered softly, clutching the paper on her hand that still has Meicoomon's name splattered all over the page.

“Why are you telling us all of this?"

Takeru asked accusingly. Not really ready to believe after too many things that happened.

“You have the right to know, and we want to rebuild the trust with your team. Because it's extremely important for what we will talk about next.”

“What will happen from now on…” Hikari whispered, quite loud enough for everyone to hear. Itou nodded again and pulled another stack of paper from his bag.

“What will happen from now on. This is our proposal for you. I will leave it here so you can read it carefully later, but I will just summarize it now. Basically it's identical as the proposal from 6 years ago that I mentioned, but with more freedom. If you accept it, you will work under the government, but as an independent group. All we ask is for you to report your activity, especially the one related to digimon, and being involved in your activity when it comes to a large case. We would also ask you to give us any other info that could help us in handling digimon, like Meicoomon's infection data that Izumi Koushiro currently has.”

Koushiro held his notebook closer at the mention of his data.

“There might be some mission assigned to you, but you will be doing your things just like what you did up until now. In exchange, the government will fully support you for anything you want to do. Money, restricted information, digimon research, full ride scholarship to top university, the whole plant of data center with highest spec available, personalized vehicle, a base, even certain degree of law immunity within Japan and free pass to some country without going through immigration procedure. There's currently no limit on what you can request, but we will has to discuss it first, if it's too big or unreasonable.”

“What will happen if we refuse?” Koushiro asked this time, as his personal research has been mentioned.

“Nothing will happen. We will continue as we are now. You work on your own, we work on our own. We will keep supporting you from the background, but some confidential and important formation might not be able to reach you nor us in time without a proper communication channel. We both know how disastrous it could be, especially when fighting here in the real world.”

This put them in deep thought again. They have been doing this digimon thing without much support, or so they thought. And now the government suddenly claims that they have been supporting them from behind while also admitting all the shady things they have done? Nothing makes sense.

“Let us think about it,” Taichi answered again.

While some of them are leaning to downright refusing, in the end they agreed with Taichi that giving a neutral answer is probably the best for now.

“Of course, you might discuss it among yourself for as long as you need. There’s no time limit to the offer. You can refuse it now and change your mind later. But besides that,” Itou pulled another stack of paper from his bag.

Just how much paper was stuffed into that bag actually?

“This is a care package for you as a part of our damage control, unrelated to the offer just now. Digidestined or not, all of you are still regular citizens and we are responsible for your wellbeing. You might think this as a small compensation for everything you have done up until now. While we wish you can go back to your normal life as smoothly as possible, please be aware the reality you will be facing now will be very different from how it was up until now. You will need this, so please accept it. That will be all from me.”

The man bowed down and straightened his back again.

“As for why I am here,” Mr. Mochizuki spoke next.

“This is more of a personal business than a job. Meiko, I want you to go back to Tottori as soon as possible.”

All of them, of course except Meiko, looked at the girl rather shocked. Meiko herself looked down, already expecting that it might come to this.

“I’m sorry to do this while your grief is still fresh, but it will be more dangerous from now on. Even more without Meicoomon. Not only that, there’s no merit in you staying here in Tokyo now that your face is revealed. News and gossip are slower there, it would be safer for your being now. Currently there is a mass exodus with people escaping Tokyo, especially Minato Ward after the incident. You should be able to go back to Tottori without trouble now by riding the exodus wave.”

“I…”

While she expected it, Meiko is still unsure. What her father said is true, but she still doesn’t feel she deserves to escape to safety alone.

“Mochizuki, you should go home,” Taichi started. “The gossip started because we were seen with our partners. But you weren't with digimon and only got pulled along by me. Even if there's a witness who took a picture, it won’t be a problem since I did pull you along and you didn’t have Meicoomon at the time. If it’s Tottori, there should only be a handful of reporters and you can explain it just like that. If you stay in Tokyo, you will always get lumped in with us.”

Meiko clenched her hand. Breathe in, breathe out.

“Are you telling me to put the blame on you?”

“Yes.”

Mimi looked at her side to Meiko, then to Taichi. The girl is rather upset while Taichi doesn’t seem like he wants to back down.

“Taichi!” Mimi yelled out, but quickly cut down by Meiko grabbing her hand.

“Mimi, it’s okay. I will go home. Dad is right, it will only get dangerous from now on. I will just get in the way without Mei,” Meiko said, looking rather calm now.

Mimi looks toward Taichi, expecting him to deny it or whatsoever. But now of all time, Taichi opted to be silent. Instead it was Daisuke who was about to speak but held himself in, knowing that it’s not his place to decide having only known Meiko for a few days. Mimi looked at the rest of the team, all of them seemed like they wanted to say something but kept silent in respect of both Meiko and Taichi. Although it doesn’t stop them from giving him a long hard stare for not saying anything. Mimi bit her lips and backed down. Meiko smiled softly at her and turned back to Taichi.

“I will go back to Tottori, but I won’t throw you under the bus. Because doing so will also deny my bond with Mei.”

“Mei-mei…”

Mimi looked back at Taichi, the other boy finally dropping his stubborn face and smiling in relief.

“Do whatever you want. But be careful, okay?”

“Yeah.”

Mimi turned her head to Meiko, then to Taichi, then to Meiko again. She fell in deep thought, already getting over that she was upset at Taichi.

“Thank you for understanding,” Mr. Mochizuki bowed to them, then turned towards Meiko again. 

“Meiko, I will come to pick you up again in 2 days. I’ll tell mom to pack out your things today.”

“Okay.”

Itou and Mr. Mochizuki bowed out after that, having another appointment to attend.

“If you find some clues from the capsules, please do inform me. I’m with the Ministry of Defense at the moment, you can contact me through Itou Kyoya.”

Hackmon addressed them one last time before following the two other men to the elevator. The digidestineds stayed at their seats as the elevator closed and stayed so until it moved several floors down. When it touched the ground floor they all sighed and slumped down.

“That… was one hell of an information dump,” Daisuke massages his temple in frustration.

“And did he expect us to read all these papers? It’s even thicker than my textbook when stacked together…” Joe complained, picking up the thickest stack that detailed the current situation and damage report.

“Maybe we can split the papers and read it separately. It should be quicker that way,” Koushiro suggested, eying the very same stack that is currently in Joe’s hand.

“But Taichi. That was not good, you know,” Takeru said to Taichi.

“I know. But I don’t know how else to phrase that,” Taichi sighed, knowing very well that he messed up that part.

“Takeru, it’s okay. I understand that Taichi is just worried about me,” Meiko interjected, trying to diffuse the situation.

Takeru smiled softly at her, but still continued regardless.

“I know that, but he completely stole Yamato’s character just now. That’s not good,” Takeru closed one of his eyes and snickered towards Yamato.

“Huh?” Yamato is surprised since the topic suddenly turns towards him.

“Takeru, you’re wrong. Yamato won’t be directly worrying about someone like that,” Hikari chirped in, making whoever was blessed to listen to it laugh out loud. Including Meiko, excluding Yamato.

“He’s not very honest after all,” Taichi snickered, getting back into his usual playful mood.

“Tsundra! Tsundra!” Mimi pointed at Yamato while laughing.

“This again?! And I didn't even say anything this time!” Yamato yelled exasperatedly.

“What is a tsundra?” Iori asked.

“I think she meant Tsundere,” Ken answered, trying his best to describe it to their youngest member.

“It refers to someone who usually says something opposite from what they actually feel. It originally consisted of two words which are…“

“I don’t think you need to explain it too much in detail,” Miyako cuts off the boy before he goes dictionary mode.

“More importantly, let’s throw a farewell party for Mei-mei!” Mimi pumped out cheerfully.

“It’s okay, I don’t want to be a bother. And besides, it’s still in two days,” Meiko nervously tried to stop Mimi from rushing out again.

“It’s never too soon to prepare. Let’s ask the cook if they can do something about it!”

“Agreed!”

All of them chorushed, Meiko lost out instantly to their enthusiasm.

From then they split into two groups. One group is preparing for the party while the other picks up the papers and starts reading.

“I know I will end up here…” Joe sighed, flipping another page of report in his hand.

“Stop complaining and continue reading,” Yamato retorted, flipping another page of his report.

In the lounge were only the report team reading the reports. Joe, Koushirou, Iori, and Hikari split out the thickest report about the current situation. Yamato and Ken split out to read the newest proposal. Taichi picked up the report for their care package. They decided to leave the past proposal alone so as not to cloud their judgment with the what ifs and the daily activity report… for obvious privacy reasons. In fact they want to burn it right away and pretend it never exists.

Taichi decided to skim his report first before reading in detail and caught a part that made him frown.

There is ‘homeschooling’ offered as part of their care package.

The government expected that much impact to their social life to offer such an obvious way out without damaging their ‘normal education’ too much. It seems the situation with public opinion is even worse than before even with government efforts to introduce ‘good digimons’.

He sighed and went back from the first page again.

The digimons brought lunch to the report team before heading back to digital space and left them with their weird human things.

In the evening the capsule came and carried up to the floor just below them. Koushiro briefly explained his part of the report before heading down while Miyako also left the party team to help out with the investigation.

They gathered again at dinner since the report and investigation team definitely needs some breather judging from their faces.

The next day went out similarly, but with Meiko’s farewell party at night. They ended up having a blast but wrapped it out rather early so as not to trouble the kitchen staff, but still ended up talking until late at night at the lounge.

On the promised day, they halted their tasks and sent Meiko off when her pickup came.

“Mei-mei! I’ll miss you!” Mimi went on a full hug without restraint.

“I will miss you too Mimi.”

“Meiko, take care of yourself, okay. And don’t forget to take a regular meal,” Sora sent her off with her full mama-bear mode.

“Yes, I will.”

“Meiko, let’s talk more again sometime!” Miyako also followed, having gotten closer to her in the last few days.

“Yes of course, Miyako.”

“Take care. And don’t be reckless, okay?” Taichi waves her off.

“Yes, but honestly the same can be said for you to Taichi. No more reckless okay,” Meiko chuckled.

Hikari and Takeru approached Taichi from behind with a mischievous grin, their hands on both of his shoulders.

“Finally you got that said to you,” Takeru patted his shoulder in mock sympathy.

“Listen to her, no more reckless okay,” Hikari patted his shoulder too, but she’s a lot more serious than Takeru.

Of course this initiated another laughter from the group at Taichi’s expense.

They all give their own farewell words to Meiko and send her off to the lobby since they’re not allowed to go out just yet. Just before she exited the building, she turned back one last time. Her hands clutching the strap of her bag so hard it turned white.

“Taichi, about Mei… it's not your fault. Please don't blame yourself for it. And thank you… for everything.”

And then she dashed out the door.

They stood in silence until Meiko’s car disappeared into the distance. Taichi's bitter laughter is what finally broke the silence.

“She just really has to say that at the very last, doesn't she?”

The group looked at him with concern. Taichi let out a big huff and turned his head slightly to face them again.

“Okay, enough with this. Time to continue with the tasks at hand.”

Taichi declared, already back with his usual grin. Some of them groaned. But in the end it’s still better than being bored to death.

Chapter Text

“Sorry for the wait! I have figured out the origin of the capsule!”

Koushiro announced 2 days after Meiko departed.

While the group were worried that Taichi has not been sleeping well and has been looking worse each passing day despite the boy’s skillful effort to act normal, they are now more worried about Koushiro who straight up skipped sleep fair and square for the past few days. Even the hyperactive Miyako who was investigating with him looked like she was about to collapse on her feet.

“I’ll spare you the details, but in short we have found the route the capsule has taken. But due to the digital world resetted after reboot, the network layout we have mapped before can’t be used. I will need to find the point where it entered the real world and traces the network back to the mystery lab. For that, I need Taichi’s digivice since his is the only active digivice at the point of transfer,” Koushiro looked apologetically at Taichi.

“But the digital gate is not stable, and we might not be able to go back anytime soon. Is it okay to bring Taichi?” Daisuke looked worriedly at Taichi too.

“I want to say I’m okay, but you guys just won’t believe me.”

Taichi just shrugged, gesturing at Yamato, Joe, Hikari, and Sora who gave him the stern look as soon as the word ‘okay’ left his mouth.

“But we’re racing against time too. While we’re waiting, Mr. Nishijima could be…” Mimi looked down worriedly.

Yamato stared at Taichi who also looked down, probably for different reasons.

“I agree, we should make haste. Not only about Mr. Nishijima, but also Veemon and the others. We don’t know when Yggdrasil will try something funny again, it’s better if we can regroup as soon as possible,” Taichi said.

Of course Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken are worried about their partners. But with Taichi like that, they are also hesitant to step back into the digital world.

“But Taichi. What will you do once we are attacked? How are you going to escape?” Joe as always, asking the more practical thing.

Not even bothering with ifs, just straight to when.

“I’ll get up and run of course. Might as well bid farewell with this damned chair,” Taichi huffed. 

Joe felt his temper rising. Just when he thought Taichi was getting obedient this happened again.

“Now, now, now. Maybe we should try contacting Hackmon first and ask if he has a better idea? Better than arguing all day long!” Takeru trying to diffuse the situation.

Yamato remembered Taichi said that Takeru would rather look away than cross him. He never thought of it that way before, but now he can see it. But instead of envy, he is more amused. Maybe he is changing too. At least he wants to believe it’s for the better.

They decided just that and practically pushed Taichi to call Itou. The man relayed it to Hackmon and said they will come over in the afternoon.

Meanwhile Joe was once again lecturing Taichi on how he doesn’t take care of his own body, to which Taichi actually has the gall to reply he’s actually doing it better than Joe since he practically has to do it to keep himself on top form for soccer matches.

As expected from the bearer of Courage. But Sora thought he’s just a stubborn idiot.

A few hours after lunch, Itou came in with Hackmon. The man noticed that there seems to be an argument, but not commenting anything about that. They sat together again and explained the situation.

“I see. I understand your concern but unless Yggdrasil decides to strike again, the current digital world should be relatively safe. The wild digimons are just recovered from reboot, most of them should be only about adult level at most. Not only will I come with you for this expedition, but the past digidestined’s partners will be joining us too. They are still on ultimate level due to being spared from reboot. As long as your own partner could help him move around, there should be no problem. I will assure you that the digital world won’t try to repel you again this time,” Hackmon reassured.

Joe for once, is not the one who would resort to violence.

Not at all. Well, usually no.

But he finally understands what Yamato means with the very much punchable grin. Taichi is so very smug right now that he just wants to slap the other boy’s face to wipe it out.

“So, when are you planning to go?”

Itou inquired, already pulling out a notebook and pen out of his bag.

“Probably as soon as we figured the way,” Taichi shrugged and gestured to Koushiro to continue.

“Previously we were using our crest and Ichijouji’s D3 to reopen the distortion left by Meicoomon. But since there’s clearly no distortion to use this time, is there any other path we can use?” Koushiro asked.

“I will open the initial path. There should be no problem going there,” Hackmon answered.

The keyword is ‘going there’ which probably doesn’t include ‘going back’ here.

“How about the day after tomorrow? It should be enough time to open everyone’s schedule and for you to prepare,” Itou suggested.

“Everyone?” Mimi asked, curious about the wordings.

“I'm thinking of inviting the remaining 3 of previous digidestineds to join you on this expedition. I think this should be a good time to let them reunite with their partners. Of course if you don't mind,” Hackmon explained, unexpectedly softer than they expected.

The current digidestined perked at this info. They’re finally going to meet the rumored digidestined that have protected the digital world before them.

Taichi looked around at the others, confirming that they all agreed on this.

“Okay, sure, why not. The day after tomorrow then. At what time?”

“Let’s set it at 9 AM for now. I’ll let you know if there’s any change.”

Itou noted in his notebook as soon as Taichi nodded at his suggestion.

Both Itou and Hackmon followed Koushiro and Miyako to the lower floor to explain the details since they’re already here. Once they’re gone, Taichi smiles at Joe with the same punchable grin.

“So Joe, seems like I’m going,” He said cheerfully.

The rest of the team's reactions are pretty much either facepalm or worrying.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Joe lecturing Taichi again while the brunette half heartedly listened to him, more intrigued with the proposal report. Sometimes later, Joe, Hikari, and Iori side-eyed Taichi who lectured the importance of sleep to their two tech geniuses after Itou and Hackmon left. Sora and Yamato already shrugged it off as Taichi being the ‘do as I say not as I do’ guy. Mimi, Takeru, and Daisuke thought it’s hilarious. Ken pretends it never happened in the first place. At least Koushiro and Miyako actually agreed to sleep very early after that.

They spent the night after dinner relaxing, since they won’t be able to for a while after they departed to the digital world, and went to bed earlier.

Hikari had another argument with Taichi about her wanting to finally make him sleep today for sure and Taichi didn't want Hikari to get dragged down with his insomnia. Something they have been doing every night ever since that day.

In the morning, the digidestined except Taichi, Hikari, Koushiro, and Miyako, started preparing for their trip.

They let Koushiro and Miyako sleep in for the obvious reason, while Taichi and Hikari had been sleeping in until midday lately. It no longer bothers Yamato and Takeru since it is already an everyday thing, but it still doesn’t stop Mimi from sneaking in every morning and taking pictures.

According to her, they always ended up in a hilarious position. Taichi, Hikari, and Tailmon never really appreciate it while Agumon didn't really understand why it’s such a big deal that she probably will make a whole album of it.

Around midday, the late group finally woke up and munched their very late breakfast that Sora set aside for them so they could last until lunch.

“So, about our trip tomorrow,” Taichi started seriously, still munching on his sandwich.

At this point no one was actually bothered by his non-serious-like seriousness.

“We will split into two teams. One team will go to search Mr. Nishijima while the other will go to Primary Village to retrieve Veemon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon, and Wormmon’s eggs. Of course me and Koushirou will go to search Mr. Nishijima, while Daisuke, Ken, Miyako, and Iori go to Primary Village. Yes, Iori!”

Taichi stopped his speech when he noticed the youngest boy raising his hand.

“Why do we need to split up? Won’t it be better if all of us stayed together?” Iori asked.

Yamato glanced at Daisuke immediately after. The younger googlehead seems like he wants to agree with Iori, but holding back.

“Good question. First off, we don’t know when Yggdrasil will strike again so I thought it would be better if we can build back our force faster. And after that we still have to secure a base since we don’t know how long we will stay in the digital world. Then from there we can finally search for a clue for Ken’s digivice which probably is still with Himekawa who went missing and a way to go back to the real world. Of course this is under assumption that the digital world is as safe as Hackmon said. We should tackle as much of our objective as we can while it’s still safe. If it’s more dangerous than we expected, we stick together and head to Primary Village first then search for Mr. Nishijima second. Of course I’m still open if anyone has another idea,” Taichi finished off, looking at each one of them as he swallowed the last of his sandwich.

“No, I understand. You have a point.”

Iori backed down after Taichi’s lengthened explanation. The older boy nodded in thanks.

“So, for the actual team split…” Taichi trailed off, seeming lost in thought.

“Since Daisuke and the others don't have their partner yet, then it would be a 4-4 split between the rest of us, right?” Takeru chimed in when Taichi didn't continue.

“The rest of our partner can digivolve to ultimates already, then it should be a matter of preference,” Sora followed up.

“You can leave it to us, Sora!” Biyomon chirped out all while smuggling with Sora.

“Thank you, Biyomon.”

“Then I’ll go with Taichi!”

Joe, Yamato, and Hikari shouted out at the same time. They all looked at each other, trying to force their way in.

“Even if it seems to be safe, it would be better to keep Omegamon around just in case. And I can carry him in case we need to run,” Yamato started.

“He’s wounded, if something happened I should be able to at least do something quicker if I’m in the same team,” Joe went on next.

“I… I…!” Hikari started, but can’t find another reason besides she wants to.

The rest of them looked at her in pity, knowing how well she still felt especially after Taichi’s presumed ‘death’. Even Joe and Yamato started to feel guilty, but they are still trying to hold on since all of them know that it is for the best but still unable to argue against her.

Taichi sighed and finally spoke once again.

“Hikari, you hear them. It’s a team of 4. You go to Primary Village.”

“But…”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Joe and Yamato will take a veeeery good care of me,” Taichi grinned slyly at the other two.

Yamato and Joe were surprised that Taichi would throw the ball at them but decided just to play along.

“Of course, someone needs to be this idiot’s sitter,” Yamato sighed.

“If only he would just obediently get taken care of,” Joe decided to add off also with a heavy sigh.

“Nah, keep on dreaming,” Taichi snickered again.

While the others, including Hikari, laugh at his blatant rebel. Yamato and Joe already feel the impending headache.

And so they finally decided on the team. Taichi, Yamato, Koushiro, and Joe go to search Nishijima while Sora, Mimi, Hikari, and Takeru will accompany Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken to Primary Village.

Then the topic shifts to what they should pack.

“First aid kit of course. Maybe a change of clothes and one or two blankets just in case.”

Sora started listing what she practically brought the last time.

“Speaking about change of clothes, what did you wear last time? I’m not sure if my parents packed anything besides t-shirts, pajamas, and school uniform in that bag.”

Daisuke asked, already going through his bag but only to find just the bare minimum.

“Does it really matter? Our clothes will get changed anyway once we’re in the digital world,” Miyako shrugged.

Honestly the clothes were cool once. But now that she's older, she sometimes hopes she can change to other clothes too. 

Daisuke disagreed. The flame and fur never went out of fashion for him.

“Since the digital world was rebooted, your clothes might stay the way they are, considering the fact that D3 no longer, or I might say not yet, working. At least Hikari and Takeru’s clothes didn’t change the last time,” Koushiro corrected.

The costume change and D3 was added quite later after all. If D3 gate didn’t work, then the costume change probably would not happen either.

“So, what did you wear before?” Ken asked again, rather curious himself.

The original team shuffled again, looking at each other nervously.

“For some reason we thought wearing school uniform was a good idea.”

It was Hikari who ended up answering, followed by a combined nervous laugh or cough for some who were too cool to laugh nervously.

“School uniform? Why?” Iori, the ever curious precious boy, innocently asked.

“Why indeed. And it was after the summer vacation started…” Takeru trailed off and looked towards Yamato.

“How should I know! It just ended up that way and another! Why was it again?” This time Yamato threw the ball to Taichi once again.

“Dunno, some weird teen logic?” Taichi shrugged it off.

“At least I’m wearing sneakers while you guys wear uniform dress shoes. Isn't it hard to run in?”

He’s trying to justify that he still had the most common sense out of all of them. Of course this earns him a dirty look from the rest of the original team.

“Wait, I was wearing sneakers too!”

Well, the rest of them besides Mimi, since she also wears sneakers.

“So, back to what to wear,” Daisuke reeled back the conversation again.

“Whatever is fine as long as it’s comfortable!” Sora laughed it off and they finally dropped the topic at that.

Joe went off to the first floor searching for a first aid kit that they could bring. The rest of them started to pack things available and get as much rest as possible, some spent time playing with their partners for refreshment.

The next morning they woke up rather early. Sora made sure to wake both Taichi and Hikari who are probably going to sleep in again if they let them be.

They went separate ways again after breakfast to prepare themselves, Mimi saying something about ‘the last shower’. They gathered again at the lobby before heading towards the hotel’s multi-function hall on the first floor.

The ones who waited for them at the hall were Itou and Hackmon along with Hinata, the soldier that arrived with Taichi on their first day at the hotel.

Itou wore more casual traveling clothes which consist of a simple t-shirt with short sleeved jacket on top of it and jeans along with sneakers. Hinata wore something that could only be described as a military training uniform with form fitting shirt, long cargo pants, and combat boots. Both of them carried a decently sized backpack, about just the right size for hiking and camping.

Itou looks over their group, from left to right, then back to left.

“Why are all… or maybe most of you wearing school uniforms?” He’s asked the question right away.

“Why was it indeed…” Taichi answered nervously.

They know it’s a bad idea but still went with it again for some reason.

“It’s fine, isn’t it? We survived on these clothes before, we can survive it again!” Mimi argued back, all while laughing.

“And besides, it makes me feel pumped out! Like, we’re really together in this as a team!” Miyako pumped up, always the most energetic mood maker of the team along with Mimi.

“But not all of you went to the same school, right? And there is one who doesn't wear a uniform,” Hinata pointed out.

They groaned that someone just had to lampshade it. Iori looked down at his own outfit. Odaiba Elementary School doesn't have any uniforms after all.

“Please don’t touch that part. It’s sensitive.”

Takeru requested, already feeling the sting from the words.

But the man is right, the uniforms they wear are too varied to be actually called their uniform.

3 boys from Tsukishima high wore a white shirt with navy trousers and necktie while the 2 Tsukishima girls wore navy skirts with red ribbon ties.

The other 2 boys from Odaiba middle wore white shirts with black tie and gray trousers, although Daisuke didn't wear his tie. While the 2 Odaiba girls wear olive green accented sailor uniforms.

Iori, being still in elementary school without uniform, wore a casual shirt and shorts. While it was not a school uniform, it was what he usually wore to school.

The last two boys each went to a different private school with Joe wearing the same white shirt with green tie and navy trousers and Ken with dulled red tie and black trousers.

“Then maybe we should really make one. Our own uniform,” Daisuke grinned, suddenly struck with a genius idea.

“Oh, I like how you think! We should totally do that!” Mimi snickered alongside him.

They sure are in the same wavelength in the weirdest way. Some of the more sensible ones look at them like they’re a whole different species.

“Yamato, I’m 100% sure they’re crazier than me,” Taichi whispered to his unofficial right hand man.

“They still don’t hold a candle against you at your craziest,” Yamato replied back.

“Stingy jerk,” Taichi scoffed at him.

Yamato was about to escalate it again when he noticed that Sora is actually humming in deep thought.

“Hmmm… if we are to make a uniform, then it should totally not be a regular shirt. Maybe I should try checking out sports wear and see what I could work with…”

Sora wondered loudly, going along with Daisuke’s crazy idea for some reason.

Well, the world is still in danger and they’re thinking of making uniforms? Absolutely insane. Even Taichi is aware of that.

“By the way! Sir Itou! I didn’t hear that you’re coming with us! You too, Serg!”

Taichi quickly changed the subject before they went too deep with this uniform plan.

“Wait, Kyo. You didn’t tell them?” Hinata was surprised, turning his head at the other man.

“Wait, I didn’t tell you?” Itou was surprised too, then turned his head back at Taichi.

“Huh?” Taichi is confused and looks towards Yamato for an answer.

“What?” But it seems Yamato himself doesn’t know anything.

“I have told them the previous digidestined will be joining, but you have never told them you are one,” Hackmon pointed, being as precise as he is.

“Sir Itou, you’re a digidestined?” Koushiro asked, having spent a bit more time with the man than the rest of them but still not knowing it up until now.

“I didn’t tell you?” The man looked at Koushiro, then at Hinata.

“Seems like no,” Hinata just shrugged in response.

Itou removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Kyo my dude, you should really sleep.”

“I sleep about one or two hours per day. More than that I might as well count myself being fired,” The man massaged his temple next.

He does seem like he can use some sleep. Like, a week long hibernation.

“Whoa it must be sucks so much to be an adult"

It was just an innocent comment by Daisuke, but for some reason the original team had the same thought towards the only technically adult on their team.

“Why are you guys looking at me? I'm a changed man now! I work my best and rest when I need to! Unlike two certain workaholics!"

Joe pointed towards Koushiro and Miyako this time, both of them tried to hide themselves behind their laptop bags.

“Anyway!"

Taichi cut his outburst off which irked Joe.

“Don't change the subject!”

“There are supposed to be three of you, right? Who's the last person?" Taichi ignored Joe anyway and continued with the topic.

“She said she's on the way. It's not the time yet, let's wait for her a bit more," Hinata answered rather calmly.

The girls are excited that the last digidestined is a woman.

It was 8:45 when the digidestined arrived at the hall. They let their partner out from the digital space as soon as they're done talking. All 12 of them plus 7 rookies + 1 champion digimons are too cramped on the elevator after all. The digimons are rather excited too after they introduced the two men as fellow digidestined.

“What happened to him?" Palmon curiously stared at Itou.

The man was told to get a bit of a shut eye before they departed.

“Who knows, maybe he's not feeling well?" Gabumon joined her, observing their newest mystery.

“Come on, he's just tired. Let him rest,” Tentomon, who was already used to Koushiro workaholic-ness, quipped understandingly.

“Ah, I see! He's a Joe-type isn't he?" Gomamon cheered.

Joe went on another rant on how he's a changed man.

9 o'clock and still no trace of the rumored last member of digidestined.

Hinata is already calling to no avail. Itou, for some reason, knows it's already 9 and wakes up. He already went on a rant on how her tardiness never changes.

9:18, finally the hall door opened again, followed by the sound of a heavy suitcase being dragged on its wheel.

“Sorry I'm late. It took me more time to pack up!”

Appearing at the door was a woman, rather average height and weight. Her brown hair tied low and draped over her shoulder. Her glasses glistened with the sunlight. She also wore casual clothes, similar to Itou.

What was surprising was the amount of her luggage. She has two shoulder bags criss-crossing at her chest. A small one on the right and a larger one on the left. On her hand, she's dragged a rather large suitcase. It seems to be very heavy from the sound.

“Ah."

Both her and Taichi uttered at the same time.

“You're the peeping tom reporter that I kicked out of the hospital!”

“You're the rude kid that got me kicked out of the hospital!”

“Ahem," Itou cut them off before it escalated again. 

“Let me introduce her. This is Sogame Ritsu, she's one of the researchers that works on digimon research and the last digidestined we're waiting for.”

“Sogame Ritsu," The woman repeated, introducing herself and glared at the other children, especially Taichi.

“For the record, I'm not a reporter but a biologist!”

“And why would a biologist sneak around the hospital with a camera in hand?! Are you trying to search for a test subject or something?!” Taichi shot back, not really appreciating the stare.

“I'm not searching for a test subject! I'm just following a concentrated data cluster and followed it to find some research material and it just happens to lead me to you so I tried to take a picture to analyze later! How should I know you're a digidestined too?!” The woman shot back again.

“That's the same thing…”

Taichi just sighs and decides to drop it off. Wisely concluding that he can't speak sense with the other, considering that Sogame herself has already confessed but still sees no fault in her way.

“Sogame, we'll have a talk later.”

Itou suddenly put a hand on her shoulder, his glasses glinted ominously. Sogame eeped and made a quick dash to hide behind Hinata.

Meanwhile, Yamato slowly moves towards Hikari and subtly draws her attention.

“So… that story was true? Not him exaggerating things?” Yamato asked.

“Yes, it's a true story. But don't worry, it's not like he physically kicked her," Hikari laughed softly as she answered.

Yamato sighed in relief that at least Taichi is not that crazy.

“But that punch was a bit weak, not like his usual punch…” Agumon added, a bit disappointed.

“He's wounded. Give him some slack," Tailmon scolded Agumon from where she comfortably snuggled in Hikari's hand. 

Yamato just laughed nervously and backed down. While it's not an actual kick, he does not really expect that it still actually involves physical violence with his injured limbs. Well he kinda expected it, just not really wanting to believe that it actually happens. It won't explain the reason why the hell was that guy still alive at this point after all.

“And what's with this luggage? We're not going to play you know?" Hinata scolded the woman again, stepping out of the way so as not to be used as her shield again.

“I'm not playing around! There's a limit on how much I can research here due to the lack of samples! So I have to make the most of this trip since I don't know if I will ever get a chance to step foot into the digital world again! Don't worry, these are spare equipment. I won't hesitate to dump them when it gets dangerous. You know how important my research is to me, so please…” Sogame pleaded again, this time with puppy dog eyes.

Itou sighed and turned back towards the younger group again.

“I'm sorry, can she bring her equipment? I'll take responsibility for her wellbeing," Itou asked the younger group.

Well, technically this is their expedition, the adult group are just tagging along with them. Of course, the younger group turned their heads towards Taichi by default.

“Fine. But keep your words and dump them if we need to run. Peeping tom or not, I don't want to see anyone get injured or worse,” Taichi also sighs, can't really refuse the woman.

“Thank you very much!" Sogame bowed her body 90 degrees, not really bothered by the peeping tom comment anymore.

“But that seems heavy. Maybe you should at least let someone carry one of the sling bags,” Sora commented.

Her motherly tendencies don't stop just because the other party is more than a decade older than her.

“At times like this, having a knight in shining armor would be nice. And coincidentally, our resident cool guy does not seem to carry anything,” Mimi teased, her Cheshire smile directed straight at Yamato.

“Yamato!” Iori yelled, stomping as he marched towards Yamato.

“I was wondering where's your bag, but you're actually not carrying anything?! How irresponsible can you be!”

Yamato looked away from the angry boy, looking for an exit. But the other digidestined seem to have abandoned him as they snickered. Sora particularly shot him a look of disappointment. Especially after she tore both him and Taichi the last time they came empty handed.

“Bag could be in the way at times! And besides, Taichi…” He looked towards his partner in crime. 

The said partner pointed out a decently sized duffel bag from behind his wheelchair. He thought it was Hikari's, but now he noticed the girl already had the same bag she carried to their recent digital world expedition.

“Sorry, dude. Gotta bring my shoes for when I abandoned this chair. And some medicines to survive Joe just in case,” Taichi put a very big grin to add on Yamato's suffering.

“TRAITOR!”

And so Yamato got the honor to carry the bigger one of Sogame's sling bags as punishment. And it's a lot heavier than it looks.

Koushiro and Miyako put up the spare laptops Itou provided to open the gate while Hackmon helped them setting it up to connect with his path.

Taichi got his wish to abandon the chair, but it's just because experience said that they will fall. And falling in a wheelchair will be dangerous so he will be carried by someone instead. The amount of displeasure he put on his face is immeasurable.

“Don't you dare to drop me," Taichi warned Yamato.

Due to being partners and things, Yamato ends up piggybacking Taichi while Hinata secured Sogame's giant suitcase so it won't accidentally drop on someone.

“You have so little faith in me. Of course I will drop you later. Both you and the bag are so damn heavy. Have you tried dieting?” Yamato scoffed.

“I'm dieting everyday, just not to lose weight. You're just jealous I have more muscles than you.” 

That earned Taichi a good shake from Yamato.

“The gate is ready!” Miyako called out.

They dropped the playful banter and gathered at her call.

Daisuke, Iori, and Miyako stand in the middle, circling the laptop that is connected to Hackmon's path. Around them, the other 8 digidestined and their partners circled them. Outside the main circle, Ken stands with Itou, Hinata, and Sogame.

They all looked at each other, then defaulted to Taichi again, waiting for the cue. He smiled a bit before looking back to Miyako.

“Miyako, your cue,” Taichi gestured to the girl.

Miyako inhaled sharp. Of course she was the one who was in charge of the gate, but that was only because their team was the most active while the older team were too limited on what they could do. Now that the older team is active again, she just presumed the role will automatically go back to Taichi who is the team leader. Honestly, she's a bit disappointed, but even she knows her place. Even if Taichi, Yamato, and Koushiro are very involved in their past adventure, there is still a gap that separates ‘their team' and ‘our team'. So she is pretty surprised that Taichi would appoint her now.

“Miyako.”

Miyako turned to Iori, the boy smiled softly at her. She turns to her side and sees Daisuke giving her a thumbs up and a grin. She returned the smile and inhaled deeply.

“Hackmon!” She cued their guide.

Hackmon leaped high above them and disappeared to what could only be described as a crack in the space. That is the path they need to open. Miyako clenched her D3 and inhaled again.

“Digital gate, open!”

She, Daisuke, and Iori concentrated at their D3 while the original team on their crests.

A bright light raised from their circle into the crack and dissipated, formed a golden ring.

They felt the ring sucked them, but still holding on. Miyako raised her head and shared a smile with Daisuke and Iori. Then to the original team, their partners, and finally to the 4 digidestined outside the circle.

“Digidestined!”

Miyako yelled out, relaxing her body and letting herself be sucked into the ring. One by one they followed her and floated to the ring. They share a final smile with her confident one before continuing her catchphrase.

“Let’s roll!”

Chapter Text

The transfer was over in an instant. The next moment after the bright light was them in various heaps of bodies. They had once again arrived in the lake with the cable train.

“Good thing I'm the one carrying this thing. Other people might have gotten worse than a bruise." 

Hinata lifted Sogame's suitcase to the side and examined his reddening arm. The woman smiled sheepishly, lucky enough to only land in her butt.

“Taichi, get off!”

Yamato said, annoyed that he ended up at the bottom. Well, considering Taichi's injuries he won't have it the other way. But it doesn't make it less annoying.

“Can't. Joe told me not to move," Taichi said playfully.

Yamato justified himself that he has a right to be annoyed.

Of all time he decided to be obedient…!

After a lot of shuffling around, they finally manage to untangle themselves and confirm that no one is injured, sans Hinata on the courtesy of a certain brick suitcase. Yamato lets Taichi sit down on a nearby rock as the rest of them gather their things.

“So, Hackmon. Where's Sir Itou, Serg, and Sogame's partner? You said they're coming with us, right?" Taichi asked Hackmon who was as free as he was.

“What kind of digimons are they?" Agumon added, preferring to stay near Taichi than help.

“They will be coming soon. As for what kind of digimons… it's easier that you see them than I explain,” Hackmon simply answered, a rare humor in his voice.

Both Taichi and Agumon tilted their heads at this, but decided to just wait.

They soon finished checking their things and gathered near Taichi, Agumon, and Hackmon. 

Itou, Hinata, and Sogame seemed pretty nervous as they glanced up every few minutes. The children kept out for the nearby bushes and trees, keeping their ears for any approaching digimon while Koushiro already started analyzing Taichi’s digivice to find the coordinate he went through before. Unbeknown to them that a literal digimon would descend from the sky.

“It’s been a while, digidestined.”

Azulongmon’s voice boomed, his gigantic body covering the sky around them.

“Azulongmon!”

The younger group chorused, not expecting to see the Azure Dragon of East. Azulongmon nodded before sifting his gentle gaze sideways.

“Hackmon, you have my gratitude for inviting me for this occasion.”

Hackmon also nodded to acknowledge the dragon.

“Huh? Hackmon? Inviting Azulongmon?”

Joe fixed his glasses out of nervousness, looking to Hackmon, then to the adult digidestined.

“Azulongmon…”

Itou whispered as he stepped forward, head looking up high at the dragon.

“Kyo, it’s been a while. Look at you, growing so much since the last time…”

Azulongmon descended further, bringing his face closer to Itou.

“Right back at you. You weren’t this big the last time,”

The man extended his hand, touching the holy dragon’s snout.

“Wait, so Sir Itou’s partner is… Azulongmon?!” Sora gasped.

“Then the other partners are…” Koushiro also stopped his task to gawk at the dragon.

“That’s right, Azulongmon. Where is the other?”

Itou asked, looking back at both Hinata and Sogame who seemed rather anxious.

“Unfortunately, we have to stay at our assigned place and I too have to return soon,” Azulongmon explained calmly.

The three adult digidestined clearly disappointed at the news.

“In exchange, I have been entrusted with these.”

Three digicores descended in front of them. Each colored red, pale yellow, and bright yellow. Azulongmon descended one of his blue digicore to add to the three.

“These are a portion of our powers. We can’t physically join you, but with these digicores we will be able to communicate and join you in battles when needed through our apparition. While we would love just to abandon our post and personally escort you, our own presence might pose more danger than protection. I’m sorry, Ritsu, Gorou,” Azulongmon apologetically said as he retracted back to the sky.

“It’s okay. I’m happy enough that we can talk again even though you guys are not physically here,” Sogame answered.

Her eyes mellowed, so unlike the childish woman she first presented herself.

“I’m kinda disappointed, but gotta agree that having this big ass dragon following us would stand out too much,” Hinata grinned while raising his fist at the dragon.

Azulongmon chuckled at his energetic response. The childrens and their partners almost dropped their jaws to the ground after hearing the God-like dragon chuckling.

“Azulongmon, see you later,” Itou smiled at Azulongmon.

“See you in a few minutes.”

Azulongmon corrected and then disappeared back into the sky.

Yamato recovered first from the shock and started to shake Taichi back and forth.

“A bit of warning would be nice you idiot!”

“I don’t know! I really don’t know anything! Mr. Nishijima didn’t tell me any of this! If any, blame Hackmon! I asked him and he said it’s better if we just see them instead of telling me!”

Taichi pointed at Hackmon, the digimon tilted his head innocently.

“I see no merit nor demerit in either telling or not telling you. And so I have taken an option you humans might take in order to relate better with your kinds. Am I doing it wrong?”

Yamato twitched his eyes. Hackmon was not wrong that some of the troublesome members of their group will definitely do it. Especially someone like Taichi, Mimi, Takeru, Daisuke, and Miyako.

“It’s your fault after all!” Yamato resumed his assault on Taichi.

“Why only me?!” Taichi, easily reading Yamato’s line of thought, complained.

“Guys! Don’t fight again!” Sora’s caring instinct overrides her shock as she went on to save Taichi.

The lighthearted fight finally snapped them out of their shock as they laughed. Koushiro immediately resumes his task as the rest of them, including the adults, watch in amusement as Sora tries to put down both Taichi and Yamato, of course pulling Joe for her support.

A few minutes later, not long after Sora and Joe done with their mission, the digicores glowed. Azulongmon emerged from the blue digicore, a lot smaller this time, probably only about the size of regular Seadramon and without any digicores floating around him.

“Azulongmon!” Itou exclaimed excitedly.

“I'm sorry for the wait,” Azulongmon apologized as he greeted them again.

He then proceeded to loosely coil himself around Itou as they watched the rest of digicores glowed.

From the red digicore, was a bipedal crimson bird a size smaller than Birdramon. From the pale yellow digicore was a black turtle with two serpent heads and a tree on its back about Ikkakumon’s size. The last emerged from the yellow digicore was a white tiger, a size larger than Garurumon. Daisuke recalled Miyako’s story about the 4 guardians of Kyoto. If they could equalize Azulongmon with Seiryu, the other three would be Suzaku, Genbu, and Byakko respectively.

“Let me introduce you, the guardian of the south, Zhuqiaomon,” Azulongmon introduced the crimson bird, Zhuqiaomon.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, digidestined. And you too, Gorou,” Zhuqiaomon greeted them and walked over to Hinata.

“Next is the guardian of the north, Ebonwumon,” Azulongmon introduced the black turtle, Ebonwumon next. 

Before he could greet the children, Sogame rushed past them and planted herself between Ebonwumon’s two heads.

“Ebonwumon! I missed you sooooo much!” She rests her head at Ebonwumon’s shell.

“I have heard your heroic tales from Azulongmon. It’s an honor to finally meet you,” The turtle digimon uses one of his head to console Sogame, while the other head greets the children.

“And lastlyー”

“I am the guardian of the west, Baihumon.”

The white tiger, Baihumon, didn’t wait for Azulongmon’s introduction before introducing himself and provided no further greetings. 

The rest of the sovereigns looked at him sympathetically since the tiger’s partner was not present.

Now that they’re done with the introductions, Itou turned towards Taichi again.

“So, what is the plan now?”

“We’re splitting into two teams. Me, Yamato, Koushirou, and Joe will search for Mr. Nishijima. Sora, Mimi, Takeru, and Hikari will accompany Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken to get their partners. Those are our primary objectives this time. If we’re not arrived by the time you’re done, Team Primary Village will secure a base and search for clues about Himekawa. She probably still has Ken’s digivice with her. After that we search for a way to go back to the Real World. Of course, we will abandon the mission and regroup the moment Yggdrasil starts to act up again. Our survival is the most important priority after all. Any questions?”

The adult digidestined are taken back at the sudden change of attitude. The boy just naturally went to business and the rest of the team immediately calmed down following him. This came a bit shocking since the children have been acting either fooling around like teenagers they are, or as upset as they supposed to be, even during their serious discussion with Itou.

“No, but maybe we should split up too,” Itou looked at his two companions and the four digimons.

“Me and Ebonwumon will search for Daigo. There is something I want to make sure no matter what. Of course, Baihumon will come with me,” Sogame answered almost immediately.

She too has dropped her laid back attitude. Baihumon perked up and walked to her side, showing his approval.

“Then me, Kyo, Zhuqiaomon, and Azulongmon will go to Primary Village,” Hinata continued.

Itou, Zhuqiaomon, and Azulongmon nodded along.

“The Primary Village team should depart first. We’ll be waiting for Koushirou to finish his analysis before departing,” Taichi said with finality, turning his head from the group to Koushirou.

The Primary Village team confirmed their belongings one more time before moving out. The village is rather easy to locate due to being located at the base of Infinite Mountain.

Hikari looked back for a moment before turning again and followed the rest of their team.

Back at the lake, Koushiro was diligently analyzing Taichi’s digivice. Meanwhile, Yamato, Joe, and Hackmon helped Sogame loading her luggage into Ebonwumon. Joe mumbling something about bad karma by using a practically guardian god as a carriage. Gabumon and Tentomon went into the forest to search for some fruits and Gomamon went into the lake to catch some fish.

While everyone else was busy with things, Taichi sat awkwardly with Agumon. Baihumon curled up right under his feet. Agumon made some remarks about searching for food too, but Taichi was not letting the orange dinosaur go as he needs someone to hang on with this awkwardness.

“Um… so… you must be Mr. Nishijima’s partner, right?”

Taichi finally spoke, not being able to endure the awkwardness any longer.

Baihumon stared at him right in the eye, his expression unreadable. Taichi sweated again, pretty much convincing himself that he had once again stepped on a landmine. Considering Nishijima’s situation, he should already have guessed that it was a sensitive subject for the tiger. But then Baihumon broke eye contact and turned to Sogame.

“So that much time has passed in the human world. Look at Ritsu, that little girl is a grown up adult human now. And to think Daigo of all people got to be called ‘sensei’ by someone way older than he was back then. Humans sure are strange creatures,” Baihumon said with a lot of fondness in his voice.

“Baihumon…” Taichi whispered.

Agumon looked at Baihumon too, and then his own human partner. He can relate to Baihumon in a way. Taichi was barely taller than him the first time they met. He was only barely able to lift him, let alone throw him over the controlled Yukidarumon. That kick was both hurt and humiliating, but that was the only way Taichi could throw him over Yukidarumon. And yet now Taichi not only towers over him, but also casually carries him in his hands, his bags, his shoulders, and even manages to walk normally as Agumon clinged to his waist without support. It seems humans naturally grow with time instead of a rush of data that comes with digivolving. Time must have flown that much for Taichi to grow, overtaking him.

“I heard… you were the last human to be with Daigo,” Baihumon turned to Taichi again.

This time his eyes seemed more curious.

“Yes, I was.”

Taichi breathes slowly, trying to push down the incoming panic attack after remembering the incident again. He unconsciously reached out to his bag to get the medicine just in case.

In truth, he has been only barely hanging on all this time. All the fooling around is mostly him trying to distract himself instead of him being his usual groovy self. Hikari keeping him company through the night also helps a lot, no matter how much he dislikes the idea of his baby sister missing sleep because of him. He also had the medicine for emergencies which he passed on as painkiller for his wounds. It will be fine as long as he hid it behind the actual painkiller and doesn't let Joe inspect it directly.

Agumon sensed his partner’s distress and snuggled closer to Taichi.

“Taichi~ give me head pats~”

Taichi smiled and started stroking the dinosaur’s head gently. He doesn't comment on his partner's sudden request since somewhere he knows that Agumon was only looking out for him.

“It's not your fault. Daigo is always like that. Always meddling in someone's business, not thinking what will happen to himself or the others,” Baihumon said softly, already back to laying down while shifting his tail.

“Can imagine," Taichi snickered, his hand never left Agumon.

“By the way, do you know that Mr. Nishijima dated Himekawa?” Taichi suddenly asked. 

Baihumon perked up at this, and seems to be very interested in the topic.

“I'm not familiar with the concept of dating, but it is what humans do with other humans they love, right? Daigo and Hime?”

“Yeah. They broke up though.”

“I see… That's a shame. While it's unexpected I thought both of them could create a splendid digi-egg,” Baihumon flattened his ears in disappointment.

Taichi almost snorted through his nose but ended up coughing violently instead, earning him another concerned look from Agumon.

“Taichi, you okay?” Agumon reached up and rubbed Taichi's back to ease him.

“Ye-yeah, I'm okay.” Taichi said through the coughs.

Baihumon tilted his head in confusion.

“Taichi!"

Yamato jogged up to him, then looked worriedly at him when he kept coughing.

“I'm okay, what's up?” Taichi asked as soon as his cough stopped.

“Koushiro found the location. Unfortunately it leads to the server continent so we have quite a long way ahead of us,” Yamato handed Taichi his digivice back.

Gabumon, Koushiro, Tentomon, Joe, and Gomamon also came up behind him. Following them is Sogame, mounted on Ebonwumon along with her belongings.

“I got us lunch!” Gomamon held up several fishes on his flippers.

“And we got some fruits!" Gabumon added, referring to both him and Tentomon.

Taichi looked at his digivice, it’s 11:02. It was about half past 9 when they left the real world. He didn't keep track of time after that, but it seems that they already spent a few hours here.

“Okay, we'll pack the fruits and eat the fish for lunch. Joe and Yamato, you guys gather the branches for fire and skewers. The rest of us will gather more fruits to pack up. We have a sea to cross," Taichi instructed.

But then he tried to stand again out of habit and flinched when he accidentally put his weight on his injured right hand.

“Taichi! What are you doing?!"

Joe is quick to push him down again. He gently pried Taichi’s hand from the rock to avoid him putting weight on it again.

“Just sit down. We'll do the rest," Yamato looks at him worriedly.

Taichi's face seemed to be disappointed for a moment before it turned into more annoyed.

“Fine. Gabumon, Tentomon. Can you show them where you got the fruits?”

“Sure. Everyone, follow me!” Tentomon waved and flew away.

Koushiro, Gabumon, Gomamon, and even Hackmon and Sogame looked at him worriedly before going off following the insect digimon. Joe sighed and pulled Yamato along to pick up some branches.

“Taichi…” Agumon pulled his sleeves.

“Agumon… I’m useless aren’t I?”

Taichi just sighed and prompted his chin on his less injured left hand.

“No, you’re not. I’m sure everyone will agree with me,” Agumon snuggled to Taichi again.

“Yeah right.”

Taichi agreed, but is still looking down at the fact that he’s resting while the others are working.

“Child of Courage… Taichi was it?” Baihumon called out to both Taichi and Agumon’s surprises. 

Before they could respond, Taichi’s body glowed in white light. He floated up and soon ended up in Baihumon’s back.

“Taichi…” Agumon called out again. His hand stopped midair.

“Um… Baihumon?”

Taichi turns his head down at the holy tiger digimon, also confused about what is just happening.

“So, are we getting the fruits or gathering the branches?” Baihumon asked nonchalantly.

“Hmmm… branches?” Taichi decided to just answer instead of remained confused.

“Ebonwumon, I believe you're watching the luggage” Baihumon turns his head at the other sovereign.

“Of course.” “It should not be a problem, " Ebonwumon answered.

Rather than watching, the luggages is on his back after all. Baihumon nodded and walked to the direction Joe and Yamato went.

“Wait up!!”

Agumon was so busy being confused that it took him a few more seconds that Baihumon was walking away with Taichi on his back and ran after them.

Despite all the confusion, Taichi decided that Yamato and Joe’s hilarious faces are worth it.

“What are you doing here?!” Joe yelled pretty much instantly.

“It should be alright as long he’s not moving, right?” Baihumon answered.

Joe immediately backed down, but quickly recomposed himself.

“He also has broken ribs! It could be bad even if he’s not moving by himself!” Joe answered back.

Taichi almost clapped at the older boy’s courage, but it would make Joe even more mad so he held back.

“I’m using my power to stabilize him. There’s no need to worry, " Baihumon explained.

Taichi let out an impressed ‘oooh’ while Yamato whistled. Joe just sighed in defeat.

They spent a few more minutes gathering the branches. Or rather, Taichi just pointed out which branches are usable while Baihumon lifted them with his power and dumped them on Agumon while Yamato and Joe gathered them the normal way.

They soon went back to the lakeside. Joe started to arrange the branches for the campfire while Yamato put the fishes on skewers. Agumon helped Joe to start the fire and then both of them arrange the fishes around the fire.

“We’re back!” Gabumon rushed back carrying the fruits.

Koushiro, Tentomon, Gomamon, Sogame, and Hackmon followed behind.

“Is this enough?”

Sogame asked as she put down the fruits she’s holding along with the others in a neat pile.

Taichi eying the pile of fruits.

“Should be enough for a while.”

“We’re done with the fishes too,” Yamato said, holding two sticks of nicely cooked fish.

“Great! We eat now and then head for the server continent!” Taichi pumped up excitedly.

There’s a chorus of yeah and sure. Not as cheerful as he likes, but no choice as the moodmakers are on the other team. He just shrugged and focused on the more important things, namely lunch.

The other team are also sitting in a forest clearing, just finished their lunches and rested up a bit. Especially for Itou to catch up for a bit nap. Hikari absentmindedly stroked Gatomon’s fur as she sighed again.

“Are you still worrying over Taichi?” Miyako sat down next to her and eyed her worriedly.

“Yeah…”

“Yamato, Koushiro, and Joe are with him. He will be alright!” Miyako squeezed her hand gently.

Hikari smiled at the gesture, but then looked down again.

“I know. It’s just… I feel anxious. It feels like he will disappear again if I take my eyes off him…”

“Hikari…” Miyako whispered again.

She was not there with her when it happened, but it sounds really bad even from what she heard.

“You two sure are alike.”

Both of them looked up at Sora who chuckled, earning the redhead a weird look not only from them, but also the rest of digidestined.

“I don’t know if you remember, but there was a time when you almost died due to sickness. It was soon after we moved to Odaiba, I think it was when you were 5 and he was 8.”

“I think I remember… I was playing with him when I collapsed at the park…”

Hikari struggled to remember. Her mom would mention it from time to time, but she barely remembers it herself.

“I don’t know the details, but he kept saying it was his fault. After that he stopped going to the soccer club for a while, he would even snap at the mention of it, and be glued to you almost all the time. During class he would anxiously turn his head towards the direction of your preschool and dash out to pick you up the moment the bell rang.”

“Taichi did…” Hikari whispered in disbelief.

She knew her brother was somewhat overprotective of her, but she never really thought much about it. Only thought that he was just like that because that’s what he did as far as she can remember.

“Of course he got over it eventually, but he was still about to miss that fateful summer camp because of your fever, you know? I just barely managed to coax him to come by pointing out that missing the camp after he dragged Koushiro out to come would be too cruel. Imagine that and it was even worse back then,” Sora chuckled again.

“I had enough of his anxious sulking, so one day I snapped at him. I told him that you will be alright. Guess what he said after that,”

Sora smiled at Hikari, the younger girl shook her head.

“He said that he can’t help it. It just feels like that you will faint again the moment he takes his eyes off you,” Sora giggled again.

“Silly Taichi. I'm not going to faint that often,” Hikari giggled along with her.

The rest of the team soon follow the laughter, but she feels that the laughter is directed at her instead of her brother.

“Did I say something strange?" Hikari tilted her head.

“Hikari, you're basically saying the same thing as Taichi!" Miyako answered from between her laughter.

Hikari brings one hand to her mouth. Indeed, she said the almost identical sentence just a few minutes ago. Not only that, but she just casually shrugs off his worry as silly. Which means her own worries are also silly.

She felt another gentle squeeze at her other hand. Miyako held Hikari's hand in her own, smiling in relief that she was finally laughing again after being separated from her brother. Hikari smiled back and sighed.

“Yeah, it's silly. He will be fine. If plunging him into a fissure didn't kill him then there's no way he will suddenly die now just because I take my eyes off him,” Hikari chuckled again.

“Besides, my brother is there. If something happens to Taichi, I'll finish him off on your behalf!" Takeru gives her a thumbs up.

“I'll help too!" Patamon pumps up, scarily excited at the idea.

“Of course I will join in. I bet Veemon would gladly help!" Daisuke grinned.

“I don't think finishing anyone is good…” Ken laughed weakly.

“Come on, Ken. You're no fun!” Daisuke elbowed the other boy.

“And why are you guys already talking about finishing off Yamato? We're trying to reassure Hikari here that Taichi will be alright!” Sora scolded the younger boys.

“Sora, you're supposed to go with the flow at times like this," Mimi said while laughing.

“Right! The flow is important!” Palmon chirped, backing up her partner.

“Mimi! Palmon too! Piyomon, you say something to them!" Sora reached out to her partner.

Piyomon gives her a concerned look.

“Sora, you know how pointless it is…”

“Then… then… Gatomon!"

Sora searched out another ally and finally settles with the adult digimon. Gatomon perked her ears and glared at Daisuke and Takeru.

“That's right, why are you trying to finish off Yamato on your own.”

Gatomon started off, Sora finally sighed in relief.

“As Hikari's partner, if something happened to Taichi then I got the first dip. You guys can go after my first strike,” Gatomon finished off while showing off her sharp claw.

“Deal!”

The two boys and one Patamon chorused. Sora facepalmed by now.

“But if we're talking about who got the most right, shouldn't it be Agumon?" Iori added.

Of course he is going to be serious at times like this, and in the whole wrong direction.

“Okay, I give up,” Sora threw her hand and retreated.

“Wise choice," Piyomon handed her a fruit which she bit off.

“Aren't they a lively bunch of kids? They're tough."

Hinata laughed while watching the chaos that is the digidestined in front of him.

Zhuqiaomon nodded in agreement.

“Do you listen to what they're talking about? These kids are messed up in the head!”

Itou lifted himself, still holding his head from sudden dizziness.

“Oh, Kyo. You're awake,” Hinata cheerfully said. Itou just groaned.

“I want to say I'm impressed they survived this far with this kind of mentality, but again I remember you, Daigo, and Ritsu were the same,” Itou sighed again.

“Aw, you're making me blush.”

“I'm not praising you.”

The two sovereigns chuckled at their exchange.

“It feels so nostalgic isn't it Zhuqiaomon?" Azulongmon wondered.

“Yes, no wonder you're so fond of those children,” Zhuqiaomon agreed, snuggling closer to Hinata.

“Yeah, right. Time flows faster in the Digital World until 6 years ago…" Hinata wondered while scratching the underside of Zhuqiaomon’s bill.

“Yes, it's been thousands of years since the last time we saw any of you,” Azulongmon confirmed, his voice a bit sad.

“Azulongmon…” Itou also whispered sadly, letting the dragon coil closer to him.

“Even so, the memories we share are our treasure that keeps us going. And now that we could reunite like this is already more of a prize we could ever ask for,” Zhuqiaomon whispered softly, laying his head on Hinata's shoulder.

“Let's just pray the other team is not as crazy as this one,” Itou leaned back on Azulongmon, still praying for his sanity.

“Aaaacho!"

“Ew, Yamato gross. Why the hell you sneezed on my neck?!”

Taichi leaned forward, almost bending his body enough to lay flat on Baihumon's back. Yamato uses one hand to hold Taichi and his other hand to wipe his nose.

“Like I know?! Someone must be talking about me.”

“Yeah, yeah, must be hard to be popular,” Taichi shot back in a monotone.

After finishing their lunch, they immediately flew to the server continent on Baihumon and Ebonwumon. Taichi, Yamato, and Hackmon on Baihumon while Koushiro, Joe, and Sogame plus the luggage on Ebonwumon. The other digimons are tucked inside Digital Space. Moving on the Sovereigns is faster instead of MetalGreymon or even Zudomon, but there was definitely less space with their current size. After all, it did take them 5 days on Whamon and they don't have that much time now.

“And you over there! What are you doing?!”

Taichi is yelling, now pointing at Sogame who was flying at the other sovereign.

“Hm? Collecting samples.”

The woman answered as she put her hair she just cut into a sealed plastic bag. Other than that, she also has put out her cut nails, skin, and even blood.

“By the way, Sogame. You mentioned being a biologist, right? Are you by any chance studying Digimon’s biology?” Joe asked curiously.

Being an aspiring doctor who wishes to specialize in Digimons, having a chance to talk to a professional researcher about Digimon’s biology is a golden chance to learn more.

“Yes, that’s right. Although I’m still limited to the little sample we could find in the Real World so unfortunately the majority of my research stuck on hypotheses. That’s why this expedition is a big chance for me!” She tucked her own hair sample into her bag with a serious face.

“Ah.” Koushiro gasped.

“Taichi! Yamato! We’re nearing the server continent!” He yelled towards the two boys on the other Sovereign.

“Got it! We’re landing on the seashore for a quick break before continuing!” Taichi yelled back.

Koushiro turned his head towards Sogame. The woman smiled and tapped Ebonwumon’s shell near the base of his head.

“Ebonwumon, you hear them.”

“Got it, Ritsu!”

A few minutes later, both Ebonwumon and Baihumon landed at the seashore. Yamato, Koushiro, Joe, and Sogame climbed down from the sovereigns while Taichi stayed on Baihumon. Koushiro then opened his notebook and let the digimons out.

“Finally out!”

Agumon cheered, jumping out from the cramped digital space followed by Gabumon, Tentomon, and Gomamon.

“I’m sorry, it took a lot of resources to maintain a digital space. That’s all the space I can afford with this notebook,” Koushiro apologized.

“It’s okay, Koushiro. You tried your best to accommodate all of us” Tentomon consoled Koushiro.

“If only there’s some snack…” Gomamon sighed.

“Now, Gomamon. Don’t be selfish” Gabumon scolded.

“Here, we’re only resting for a bit. Eat up while you can!” Joe put down several fruits that they gathered in front of the digimons.

“Yaaay! Food! I’m so hungry!” Agumon immediately picked one and ate it without hesitation.

“Hungry? We’re only been flying for 3 hours since lunch, you know,” Taichi commented while looking at his partner picking up the second fruit.

“Just in time for an afternoon snack, right?” Gomamon answered as he finished his first fruit.

“Gabumon, you can eat too if you want to,” Yamato walks beside his partner who looks pretty envious of the other two digimons.

“Is it okay…?”

“Of course!”

Gabumon still hesitated, but eventually joined Agumon and Gomamon on their crusade to eliminate the foods.

“Sogame, is there something wrong?” Koushiro asked the woman.

“You haven’t moved an inch since we arrived here,” Tentomon continued.

True to their words, Sogame hasn’t moved at all since she climbed down from Ebonwumon. Her hand rested on Ebonwumon’s side while eyes glazed over the vast land in front of them.

“I know this is not the time for this, but this thumping… this excitement… It's already almost 20 years since our adventure, but I remember this exact feeling of arriving in the new unknown land just like yesterday…”

The three other boys stopped, letting their partners wolfing down the foods and looking at the woman too.

“Can’t say I don’t understand it,” Yamato started.

“Our raft broke midway though. Good thing it was Whamon,” Joe laughed dryly.

“It was quite a journey wasn’t it?” Koushiro smiled.

“But that feeling when we get off Whamon… Definitely can relate.”

Taichi leaned into Baihumon and joined the others gazing longingly at the server continent.

“Taichi, what’s wrong? You’re hungry too?”

Agumon pushed a fruit to Taichi’s cheek, much to the latter annoyment.

“Agumon, you… We’re having a good emotional moment here, and you just… If I’m not injured I would have you eat my headlock of death.”

“Aaaaah! No! No headlock!”

Agumon scrambled away from his partner while guarding his neck and hid behind Gabumon.

“That’s your fault. Don’t rope me in!”

Gabumon turned back and pushed Agumon back to Taichi.

“That’s right! Face your punishment like a man!” Gomamon joined Gabumon in pushing Agumon away.

In the end, Agumon got a light headchop from Taichi along with laughter from the others. The orange dinosaur sulked after that, but was still eating anyway.

“What are you doing?”

Hackmon asked Tentomon who stood rather far from the other digimons.

“Ah yes, I prefer just looking from here.”

Tentomon bowed his head in embarrassment of his 3 energetic friends.

“Okay, since the mood is ruined anyway we’re taking a short break now. According to Koushiro we should reach our destination in another hour or two at this pace. Make sure you finish all your business before we depart again!” Taichi instructed, stressing the last part at Agumon, who responded with a pout.

“Roger!”

Chapter Text

“Finally! I’m first!”

Daisuke yelled as he stepped into the bouncy floor of Primary Village.

“Daisuke! Don’t run around! It’s dangerous!” Sora scolded the boy.

Daisuke turned back and rubbed his head in embarrassment.

“I’ll go get him” Ken walked ahead towards Daisuke.

“Is Primary Village always this far…?” Miyako complained, catching her breath.

Hikari patted her back and giggled.

“We arrived pretty fast actually. It took us half a day 6 years ago to walk from here to the lake and now it only took us 4 hours. Usually we come here though DigiPort or riding our partners so it feels pretty close,” Hikari smiled to her evolution partner, seemingly unfazed by all the walking.

“I understand Daisuke, Takeru, and Ken since they’re in a sports club, but I’m surprised that Hikari has this much stamina too,” Iori said, not really tired himself.

“I occasionally bike from Odaiba to Tsukishima and back to Odaiba before school, that's at least a 10 km trip in the morning alone. You know, delivering Taichi’s lunch. He forgets at least twice a week,” Hikari shrugged.

“What a big brother he is,” Gatomon sighed.

“Iori, you’re still doing kendo too, right?” Takeru asked back to Iori.

“Yes! Grandpa said I should keep up with my practice routine! I might be the youngest but I’m not going to slow you guys down!” Iori replied proudly.

“So it means I’m the one slowing you guys down,” Miyako hangs her head low while sitting with her back to a tree.

Hikari handed her a water bottle.

“Don’t worry, Inoue. We have worse luggage,” Hinata snickered while pointing at Itou.

The man collapsed about an hour ago and was carried on Azulongmon’s back.

“Old man,” Miyako spit out.

Fortunately the man is completely out of it and unable to rebuke.

“But I’m impressed that Takenouchi and Tachikawa are also this fit. Are you doing any sports?” Hinata asked the remaining two girls.

“While I’m not joining any sports club, I still play tennis occasionally with my mom. But I still keep jogging in the morning,” Sora answered.

“Fufufu, be amazed! Back when in America I was in girls scout and had a ton of badges! Cookies, volunteer, camping, hiking, first aid! Leave it all to me!” Mimi pumped her chest. 

Palmon clapped from her side.

“Mimi is so cool!”

“As expected from Mimi!” Miyako also clapped along, already forgetting her fatigue.

“Anyway, aren’t we supposed to go to Primary Village? Why are we stopping here right outside the village?” Patamon asked innocently.

Several coughs followed and they finally moved into the village. Daisuke and Ken were already waiting for them at the entrance.

“Come on. What are you guys doing?” Daisuke frowned.

“Sorry, sorry,” Miyako laughed.

It’s technically her fault that they stopped.

“Now, let’s get to our main objective!” Daisuke marched again.

It took them a bit more walking until they found the caretaker of Primary Village, Elecmon. Takeru quickly ran past Daisuke and greeted the digimon.

“Elecmon!”

Takeru and Patamon yelled out to the digimon.

“Takeru! Patamon! You came again!”

Elecmon ran out to them and finally noticed the big group.

“Elecmon! Actually, we're searching for Veemon, Wormon, Hawkmon, and Armadillomon's egg. Have you seen them?” Takeru asked.

“Of course! They were reborn a few months ago. I've been wondering when you guys will pick them up after regaining my memories. Takeru didn't say anything the last time. They can't really be reborn properly without their partners after all!” Elecmon teased.

Ken raised his eyebrow, finding Elecmon's statement a bit weird.

“Elecmon, can I ask something?”

“Sure.”

“How long was it between you being reborn and meeting Takeru? Then from meeting Takeru and regaining your memories?” Ken asked the digimon.

“Hmmm… I don’t remember correctly… but from egg to meeting Takeru, probably 2 or 3 months. Then from meeting Takeru to regaining my memories… about 2 or 3 days.” Elecmon answered.

“Then how long was it from regaining your memories to now?” Ken asked again.

“Hmmm… about a week and half!”

Ken turns to Takeru, Hikari, Sora, and Mimi. It finally clicked then they fell into their thoughts.

“From reboot to us going to digital world was about a week…” Sora recalled.

“Then we spent about 3 days in digital world,” Mimi added.

“We went back and spent a night at Tsukishima High, then we came to the digital world again in the morning and the restoration happened at midnight the same day,” Hikari recounted.

“Then from restoration, we reunited with you guys at Hotel the next night,” Takeru looked back at Daisuke, Ken, Miyako, and Iori again.

“From us meeting with you guys to now it is about a week and half,” Miyako recounted.

“Wait, the time after meeting Takeru seems to match, but before that it’s a mess!” Daisuke yelled out.

“It was just rebooted after all. It was like that during Takeru and the others' first visit, right?” Iori asked, looking back at Takeru.

“The time conversion is off but yeah, you’re right,” Takeru answered back.

“No wonder Meicoomon was that upset when she finally reunited with Meiko… It has been months for her…”

Sora recalled their 2nd night in the digital world after being separated from the others.

“The important thing is, even after reboot the time flows the same as the real world now,” Iori concluded.

“That means we don’t have that much time until summer vacation ends…” Hikari bit her lips.

It would be hard to go search a way back, let alone getting all of their objectives within the time limit.

“Well, no use worrying about that now we’re here. We just have to do what we need to do, especially because our time is limited. Let’s save that after we’re done with our things,” Daisuke got up and grinned.

The group watched him with mouth agape.

“What?”

“You sure say good things sometimes,” Miyako teased, laughing out loud at that.

It invited several other chuckles from the other digidestined and digimons.

“I said good things all the time! Come on!” Daisuke pouted and walked away.

“Hey! The eggs are not that way!” Elecmon yelled out to stop Daisuke.

The boy stumbled at the info, which ignited another round of laughter.

They started over again and let Elecmon led them to the eggs after they tucked Itou in a more comfortable place and left Azulongmon, along with Hinata and Zhuqiaomon with the eggs and babies.

“I put their eggs away in a safer place as soon as I got my memories back. If I remembered sooner, I could have given them to Takeru when he came here before…” Elecmon apologized.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know. And besides I don’t think I can carry all the eggs through that mess,” Takeru laughed, but everyone can tell it’s a bit forced.

They stopped in front of a fluffy block and Elecmon pulled out something from the block to deflate it. He pushed the deflated block away, revealing a secret passage under it.

“This way.”

They followed Elecmon again to a secret chamber and shortly arrived at the clearing with 4 eggs stored on it. The passage itself seems rather new and hastily dug out just to be safe enough to store the eggs. No doubt Elecmon made it as soon as he regained his memories.

“I believe you know which is your partner,” Elecmon stepped aside, opening the path to them.

Ken directly approached the white egg with purple heart patterns. The others looked at each other, not sure which egg was which. Ken looked back at them while holding the egg, encouraging them with a smile.

Miyako was the first to move, confidently approaching the red egg with a yellow cloud pattern. Daisuke and Iori turned to each other and smiled. They both reach each of the remaining eggs. Daisuke to the white egg with blue dots, Iori to the yellow egg with green fossil-like pattern.

“First mission complete, right?” Daisuke grinned at the others.

“Not until they are born safely,” Sora chuckled.

“But how to hatch them?” Iori asked, inspecting the egg carefully.

“It’s easy, you just have to rub it like this…” Ken demonstrates it to Iori by gently rubbing the egg he’s holding.

“Rub it…” Iori starts to rub the egg too.

“Seems easy enough. Pururumon, just wait for me…” Miyako stuck out her tongue as she prepared to rub the egg.

“Wait!” Mimi stopped the girl in action.

Ken and Iori also stopped on their track.

“Before that, let’s get out of here first. I don’t think they want to be born in a suffocating place like this,” Mimi smiled brightly.

“Suffocating?!”

Elecmon shocked the secure cave he dug out with care being called suffocating.

“Mimi!” Sora scolded her.

“Don’t worry, Mimi didn’t mean any harm…” Hikari went straight to console Elecmon.

“Sorry, sorry,” Mimi laughed and pat Elecmon in her own attempt to console him.

Even so, they decided to follow her suggestion and went outside. While Daisuke, Ken, Miyako, and Iori focused on their task to hatch their partner's digiegg, Sora, Mimi, Hikari, and Takeru helped Elecmon to inflate the cube again to cover the hidden cave.

A few minutes later, several poof sounds with a bit of smoke appeared, giving out that the eggs had hatched.

“Chibomon!" “Daisuke!”

“Leafmon!" “Ken!”

“Pururumon!" “Miyako!”

“Tsubumon!" “Iori!”

The rest of them let the 4 digidestined and their newly reborn partner to have a little more reunion time by sitting a bit farther and playing with their own partner. Patamon in particular was having a bit of a heated conversation with Elecmon.

“Sorry for the wait!"

Daisuke approached them with Chibomon on his hand still snuggling into his chest. Ken, Miyako, and Iori with their own partners following behind him.

“You sure? We can spare a bit more time," Hikari asked, wanting to give them more time for their reunion.

“Yes. We don't have much time left, right?” Iori answered.

“And besides, Pururumon will be with me again from now on. We’ll have more time to snuggle later," Miyako grinned confidently. 

“Like she said!"

Pururumon also puffed his... chest? center of his round body? pridefully.

“I will always, aaaaalways be with Ken!”

Leafmon snuggled even closer and rubbed his head at Ken's chest.

“Leafmon…” Ken smiled at his partner.

“With this, Mission #1 complete, right?” Daisuke grinned again.

“Daisuke, what's with this mission thingy?” Chibomon asked.

The humans and 4 digimons looked weirdly at him.

“Oh yeah, we still need to explain things to them,” Gatomon sighed, almost ashamed of forgetting.

“Why don't we go back to Hinata and the others? I don't think they have the whole story yet. It should be a good opportunity to let them catch up too,” Sora suggested.

“But, should we? I mean, Taichi didn't really let them in with our situation the few times Sir Itou came over. I think we should talk with him first,” Daisuke asked, uncharacteristically hesitant to let the two men into their group.

“What are you saying?! They're digidestined too! And besides, we would be long goner if it's not for Azulongmon and Sir Itou is Azulongmon's partner! We owe him at least that much!” Miyako shot back.

“And besides, that's before we knew he's a digidestined, right? We only figured out right before we departed and only saw the proof just before we split up. I think Taichi just didn't have the chance to let them in yet instead of purposely keeping them out,” Hikari also argued back, Daisuke flattered a bit.

“He might be a digidestined, but he's also on the government’s side. And we still have to consider the fact that either Nishijima or Himekawa have definitely betrayed us despite us fully believing in them. We can't be sure that he's completely on our side. I agree with Daisuke on this one, we should talk together first," Takeru ironically is the one who agreed with Daisuke and went against Hikari this time.

“I don't think it matters. We're just sharing, not really letting them dictate our actions. I don't think Taichi will care much either way,” Mimi shrugged.

“I understand that we should not blindly trust them despite them being the sovereign’s partners. But…” Iori paused, inhaling deeply before continuing.

“I think we should tell them. At least about Mr. Nishijima. I don't know any of them very well, but Sir Itou… He seems to really care about Mr. Nishijima and Ms. Himekawa. And I'm sure it's the same with Mr. Hinata and Ms. Sogame. I think we should at least let them prepare… At least I want to prepare... if it was any of you…”

“Iori…”

Daisuke finally mellowed down, knowing the issue with Iori's father after Oikawa dug the whole emotional grave raw again.

“Ichijouji, what do you think?”

Mimi unexpectedly threw the question to the unexpecting Ken, making the younger boy back down at the sudden physical closeness.

“Umm… Well… I agree with Iori. If it were me, I do want to be prepared…” Ken started.

While it's no longer as raw as Iori's, Ken did have a bad time coping with his own brother's death.

“But I also think Takeru has a point. With traitor accusations at hand, we can't be too careful especially since the danger is still lurking around. But since we're literally stuck together this time, we still need a certain level of trust with each other.”

“So you're saying we should be wary of them but also trust them? You're asking the impossible, Ken,” Daisuke grumbled.

“It doesn't sound that difficult in my head, maybe I phrased it wrong…” Ken argued back, but still stepped back to rethink his opinion.

Sora raised her hand before he could dwell too much.

“He means, we should at least be able to work together with them but don't expect too much with important things. How about this, we tell them only the important plot points but leave out the more personal intimate part, then we make another time to explain the remaining parts to Chibomon and the others. We'll decide to tell them the full story or not after discussing it together with the other team,”

“Sounds good to me,” Takeru agreed.

“Well, I guess that's okay,” Daisuke finally relented with a sigh.

They discussed a bit more about what they will tell and what not before going back to the nursery and meeting up with Hinata and Itou again.

Hinata was playing with the digimon babies while Itou looks like he's being assaulted by the small blobs. Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon sat a bit farther from the mess, even the babies knew better than to bother the sovereigns.

“Hey, you guys are back!” Hinata greeted the group.

He plucked the babies off himself gently and jogged to them.

“I take it these are the partners you came for?" Hinata excitedly said while rubbing Chibomon's head with his finger.

“I'm Hinata Gorou! Nice to meet you!” Hinata gave them a bright smile.

“I'm Chibomon!" “Pururumon.” “Tsubumon." “Leafmon.”

The digimons introduced themself once after another.

“Nice to meet you!”

“Come on, Kyo is awake.”

Hinata turned back and led them back to the nursery.

“Is he fine now?” Sora asked worriedly.

“Yeah, he just doesn't have enough sleep. And too much stress dealing with the case. He's not been working out the past few years anyway so there's that too,” Hinata just shrugged.

As they got to the nursery, Hinata jogged ahead again to his partner's side.

“This is my partner, Zhuqiaomon.”

The crimson bird nodded at his partner's introduction.

“And over here is the rumored no stamina Itou Kyoyaー"

“Shut up!"

“ーand his partner, Azulongmon.”

Hinata carried on with the introduction despite a protest from the other man.

“Nice to meet… Azulongmon?!"

The baby digimons yelled synchronously after they're done processing what is being told to them.

“Oh yeah, forgot to warn them,” Palmon let out a small nervous laugh.

Piyomon and Gatomon also looked away in guilt.

“I remembered, but I thought it's more fun this way,” Patamon smiled innocently.

“Takeru, you're a bad influence to Patamon,” Sora smacked the younger boy's head lightly.

The said boy just turned at her with his usual sweet smile.

“Ehe~”

They sat down in a circle at the nursery. Takeru started to retell the event, leaving out the personal things like Taichi and Yamato's constant argument, their internal turmoil, and the how much Taichi's ‘death' affected them beside Hikari is shaken enough that her partner dark digivolved. Itou, Hinata, Zhuqiaomon, Azulongmon, Elecmon, and the baby partners listened to him silently, nodding along the way. Itou added some bits from their discussion at the hotel.

“I see, so that's what happened…” Elecmon tapped his clawed finger on a nearby rock.

“By the way, what actually happened at your side?” Daisuke asked curiously.

“Just like Leomon said, one day digimons just suddenly snap and rampaging here and there. Eventually Ogremon too…” Elecmon looked down sadly.

“Leomon went out to stop him and then never came back. I stayed here to protect the surviving eggs and babies. Then everything just went blank. Next thing I knew, I was Punimon again and remembered nothing. It took some time and I eventually digivolved into Elecmon and chose to stay here again. Then Takeru came here with sprained legs and suddenly went away again. After that everything went weird again. Not long after that my memories came back and I was really confused, but everything went normal again. Nothing makes sense. So thank you… for filling me in," Elecmon sighs.

“So you're back into egg too, Elecmon?" Iori asked.

“No, I don't remember hatching. Just… suddenly baby again,” Elecmon sighed.

“Actually we weren't born from eggs either,” Patamon added.

“Yeah, me too. Just suddenly YukiBotamon again,” Gatomon also added.

“And I have Hikari's whistle with me. I should have hid it securely in the digital world when the infection started.”

“Wait, that whistle was something I gave you, it’s not supposed to exist in the digital world. So the whistle didn't get rebooted somehow?” Hikari asked, arching her eyebrow.

“No, it was rebooted," Miyako interjected.

“Hikari, you sent Gatomon to digital world with the whistle last year, right?”

“Yes… I did. But it does have more scratches and dirt than the last time I left it with her,” Hikari answered hesitantly, still not catching on.

“I see!" Ken exclaimed.

“The whistle’s condition itself was not rebooted. But the location, or probably the ownership was rebooted!”

“Bingo!” Miyako snapped her finger with a grin.

“So it means anything that originated from the real world probably won't be affected by reboot even if it exists in the digital world?” Mimi put a finger on her chin.

“Probably…” Ken answered.

“Man, we choose the wrong team. Ritsu would be thrilled to hear this,” Hinata sighed and leaned back at a soft block.

“Sogame? She is a biologist, right?” Sora asked.

“Yes, but her field of study is digimon biology.” Itou confirmed.

“She worked at the NDPB, but in a different department from Agent Himekawa and Agent Nishijima. Last time I heard, she tried to compare human and digimon cells to see the difference. She might be interested in this different treatment between digital and real world objects during reboot. Might be useful for her research or something, I don't know. I'm afraid the working of a scientist's brain is beyond me.”

“Come on, drop the formality and just call them by name like you used to. Repeat after me, Da-i-go. Hi-me. Not Agent Nishijima and Agent Himekawa,” Hinata started slowly.

Itou scoffed at him, not really following his demand.

“Speaking about scientists, Koushiro would definitely be interested too,” Daisuke laughed.

“But Koushiro has to search for that Nishijima person with Taichi, right? I mean, he's the brainy one,” Chibomon quipped.

The human children and four digimons looked shocked at him.

“Did I say something weird?”

“Not exactly weird… just…” Daisuke trailed, looking behind him at the other digidestined.

About an hour before, after deciding which part of the story they should omit, they stuck on the biggest task. Who will tell the two men and sovereigns about Nishijima? No one wants to. Actually, no one ever wants to go near that topic, not even Mimi and Miyako.

Taichi and Koushiro, or even Yamato are convenient at times like this. Well, not Taichi this time, he will avoid this topic to the other side of Earth or digital world, or parallel worlds, or whatever other worlds exist out there. Maybe Joe since conveying this kind of information will be included inside of his future job description. Too bad all of them are on the other team.

So after a round of rock-paper-scissors Daisuke started to bang his head on the nearby pillow block. He decided that fate, lady luck, the world, the universe, the digital beings, and maybe Homeostasis hates him. Not even Ken wants to be on his side this time.

“So, well… actually… about Nishijima…”

Daisuke trailed, looking back again. The others have the gall to look guilty while keep edging him to continue.

Itou and Hinata exchanged glances with each other, then to their partners. Azulongmon gave Hinata a nod and nudged him.

“Daigo… He's dead isn't he?" Hinata went straight to the point.

Cue to panicked 8 children and 4 digimons. The remaining 4 baby digimons look at their partner in confusion.

“Well… Actually, we're not really sure,” Daisuke replied back.

He's looking behind him again with teary eyes, signaling that he can't really do this anymore. He felt a hand on his head. He turned back again to face Hinata.

“It's okay, we noticed. By the way, Yagami… is not doing really well, isn't he?”

The group looked at Hikari first until Hinata makes it clear that he's talking about Taichi. They kept silent, already agreeing to keep the personal things hidden from the two men until they can discuss it together. Well, Hinata got his answer anyway. It's all shown in their face.

“As I thought,” Hinata sighed, but backed down anyway.

“Hackmon told us," Itou started.

“That it was Yagami Taichi who tipped him of Dai… Agent Nishijima's ‘disappearance’. At that point, I still didn't put it together that he was already gone, but I got worried anyway and arranged for Hinata's troop to stand guard at your hotel so he can keep an eye on you guys.”

“On the first day, I took him to the first floor, right?" Hinata continued.

“I thought he was Motomiya. A boy in a wheelchair, pretty roughed, kinda dark, seems traumatized. He had a breakdown in the elevator, both ways. Can't blame him if he was missing for 4 months in the digital world and trapped in that capsule. Color me surprised when I learnt he was Yagami Taichi himself. I was picturing someone who is… you know, more optimistic? Motivated? I mean he just stood at the battlefield a few days prior, and still pushed through to the next task of finding Daigo. But he was there… looking like he wants nothing but to curl up and disappear. Making small talks clearly just to distract himself. He probably let his guard down, thinking I'm just a random face he won't see again. That's when it clicked for me. That Daigo is dead," Hinata gripped his hands together, looking at the children sympathetically.

All 8 of the younger group looked at each other again. They know Taichi's condition is really bad but not to the extent of how really bad it is. The boy himself is very stubborn in covering his own struggle, no matter how much his physical condition told them otherwise.

Hikari knew his brother had attacks very often. When he did, he just sat up and struggled in silence, letting out an almost inaudible wheezes and whimpers. She caught him several times since they shared a room. He assures her that it's just once in a while. She suspects it actually happens every night. She is supposed to have as little sleep as he is, but she doesn't look that bad.

“But he never had any panic attacks in the elevator… And we ride it with him at least 6 times a day,” Daisuke clenched his fist.

Because if the elevator is indeed a trigger, then they never noticed his distress. And they had 6 chances a day over more than a week to notice.

“Taichi said talking calmed his nerves. And we always went up and down together. Except for the first few times…”

Hikari turned her head towards Hinata, referring to the incident the man just recounted.

“Hikari was out of it, but he had it rough when we arrived on the first night and Koromon was asleep. Taichi made me swear to keep it, but I see no point in hiding it now that everyone is aware of it,” Gatomon shrugged.

Honestly, Hikari wants to be mad at her partner for hiding such an important thing. More than that, she is upset at herself because her brother had a breakdown right in front of her and she still managed not to notice.

Takeru also looked away. He and Yamato spoke to Taichi right after that and still didn't notice it. Of course, he eventually noticed it too but it was after the physical evidence became too glaring to ignore.

“Does… Does Sogame… knows?” Ken whispered, changing the subject from Taichi since it seems talking about him would only upset all of them even further.

“Yes, she knew. That's why she went with the other team,” Itou answered this time.

“Iori… I don't get it,” Tsubumon said while pulling at Iori's sleeve.

“Iori's dad doesn't come back because he died in the real world, right? Digimon doesn't either. But this Nishijima died in the digital world, surely he would come back as digi-egg just like digimon, right?”

Iori pulled Tsubumon closer, his face wrinkled in the mix of grief, confusion, frustration, and whatever hurtful feeling swirling inside.

“I don't know, Tsubumon… I don't know…” Iori choked on his answer.

“Oikawa died in the dream world. He consciously chose to die there to be one with the world. No human ever died in the digital world before…” Miyako added, hugging Pururumon closer to her.

Elecmon stared at the group. Honestly, he doesn't understand whatever they're talking about. Only that it seems really bad… and sad. From the corner of his eyes, he saw someone standing up.

It’s Daisuke.

“Come on, we still have another job and we don't have that much time! Let's mop about this later after we regrouped with Taichi's team, okay?" Daisuke yelled out, probably a bit too strongly as if to convince himself.

“He's right!" Mimi is the one who followed right after him.

“We need a base to get comfy. Primary Village's ground is bouncy and all but it's still a ground. No offense Elecmon!" She winked towards the small digimon, her voice was cheerful even with tears still hanging in her eyes.

“None taken,” Elecmon smiled softly.

The rest of the group followed suit and picked up themself together, wiping the sad face and slapping back the optimistic smile.

“Okay, but before that let's gather some food for dinner first. We have babies to feed," Sora clapped her hand with a big bright smile, gesturing not only to the 4 baby partners, but also to the babies around the Primary Village.

They quickly dispersed after splitting the task, Hinata and Zhuqiaomon followed suit to help Elecmon with the manual labor.

“Kyo?" Azulongmon asked, nudging his snout to the man.

Itou was told to stay to keep an eye on the babies since he's clearly still not in top condition. But despite the babies’ loud squealing, he kept a frown as he saw the kids doing their task.

“Homeostasis is such a cruel God…”

Azulongmon tilted his head, not really getting why Itou suddenly said that.

“Is it about Daigo? Or Hime and Bakumon?”

“Both. But more than that…”

The man didn't continue beyond that. Azulongmon followed his gaze to the younger digidestined then back to Itou.

The man simply stood and took care of a baby that just pooped.

Chapter Text

“Finally arrived!”

Gomamon hopped out from Koushiro's laptop and stretched. Agumon, Gabumon, Tentomon followed after him and shared a similar sentiment. They stretched and ran around to make up for the long hour being stored in a small space.

“This is nowhere near the crack…”

Yamato assessed, hopping down from Baihumon and looking around.

“There's like, nothing here but barren land though,” Sogame also hopped down from Ebonwumon and looked around on the opposite side from Yamato.

“I'll scout the area nearby," Hackmon said before disappearing.

“Let me check once again,” Koushiro opened his laptop and started typing again.

Joe also hopped down from Ebonwumon and approached Taichi.

“Taichi's are you okay? How are you feeling?”

“Yeah, I'm okay,” Taichi immediately answered with a bright smile.

“Come on, don't be stubborn and just tell me if your wound starts aching again!” Joe scolded.

Taichi's smile turned upside down into a frown.

“Like I said, I'm okay!”

Taichi answered again, probably a bit too strong since both Yamato and Sogame walked towards them. Koushiro was already lost to his computer.

“Like hell you are. It's already been about 7 hours since we departed from the hotel and I still haven't seen you take your medicine since then. Now, tell me honestly!" Joe crossed his arm.

The young man had never been this stubborn before. But considering that his teammate's well-being is on the stack, it's probably a good thing he grew a strong enough backbone to glare back at Taichi. At least Yamato thought it's good. He expected Taichi to yell back stronger, but the brunette unexpectedly backed down. Even his frown softened into a more confused expression.

“Yeah, you're right. It's supposed to hurt like hours ago. But seriously, I feel fine!”

Joe searched Taichi's face for any sign of lies, but the other boy seems to be genuinely confused by his own condition which in turn makes them confused too.

“Yagami, lend me your hand,” Sogame suddenly stepped forward.

Taichi and Baihumon exchanging glances. After a nod from Taichi, Baihumon lowered himself so Sogame could reach up to Taichi. He gave her his less injured left hand and Sogame took it gently with both of her hands.

“There's supposed to be a big gash in this hand, right?” Sogame asked.

Taichi shared a confused look with Joe, then nodded at the older digidestined.

“Yes, it's a long gash running from his forehand until the middle of his lower arm and some smaller wounds in this hand,” Joe described.

Sogame nodded.

Before anyone asked what she's doing, she pulled the knot of the bandages and loosen it out for all of them to see. Taichi, Joe, Yamato gasped at the sight.

They have already seen the wound before, it's quite a gruesome thing. The wound is not that deep but pretty long. It's not actually that bad, but seeing such a large wound in the process of healing is not something Yamato wants to see very often. Joe said he has toughened up from seeing stuff like this from the textbook while Taichi just shrugged since wounds like this were not a rare sight for him especially since he plays sport for a long time. But this… This wound was not something that has ever been written in any medical textbook.

The base shape was the same gash as it originally was. But the wound itself was not normal.

It's not the red raw flesh covered with wound drainage liquid, scabs forming at the edge with this weird skin sans scar in the making. It's now pretty much a dry crimson patch on the skin. Instead of the thick liquid, light pink mini cubes of… something leaked out from the wound. It looks similar to this -not blood- that came out of digimons when they took damage.

The edges of the wound already have this light skin formed that clashed with the rest of Taichi's tan skin, continuing from the already formed scar tissue on the same light shade. The skin itself was very smooth, more like normal skin than scars. And it seems to spread into the center of wounds in these square shaped pixels instead of the irregular shape of growing cells. The little scabs that were already forming in the real world peeling off, some even already fallen out when Sogame loosened the bandages. Most of the smaller wounds already fully healed, leaving patches of lighter skin and scars.

“Sogame… What is this?!” Joe asked, already on the way to his usual panic.

“Thisー” Sogame pointed at the wound. 

“ーis probably the same thing as what we call bio-data cells. It's…”

Taichi cut her off by raising his other hand, signaling her to stop.

“Koushiro! Come here!”

Yamato turned towards their last member. Surprisingly Koushiro quickly peeled himself off from his laptop and climbed down from Ebonwumon and jogged towards them, Tentomon following close behind. The rest of their partner also hears Taichi's voice and gathers again.

“What, what? Something about to happen?" Gomamon sang as he flops on his flippers.

“You don’t have to be so happy about that…” Gabumon scolded.

“Taichi, you okay?” Agumon ignored his two friends and went straight to Taichi.

“Taichi, this is the correct coordinate. It seems the lab is hidden somewhere,” Koushiro reported immediately, cutting off Agumon's question.

Taichi nodded and turned his now open wound to the boy.

“Look at this.”

Koushiro leaned his face closer to Taichi's hand and gasped too before he examined it closer without actually touching it.

“You said it's a bio-data cell, right? What exactly is it?"

Yamato turned to Sogame, snapping Koushiro from his analysis and paying attention to the woman too.

“Yes, it is…” She now got cut off again by a loud growling sound.

All the humans and digimons instinctively turned their head at Agumon.

“It's not me! I swear!” Agumon waved his hands around.

“I'm sorry… it's me…” Tentomon raised his hand.

His face would be bright red if he's not an insect.

“... That's why I told you to eat afternoon snack,” Gomamon finally broke the awkward silence.

They laughed at the digimon's antics. Taichi looked at the sky, it's already painted in light yellow with bright orange on the horizon.

“Okay, let's save the discussion later and set a camp while we still have some sunlight. If the lab is hidden here, then Hackmon might find something. We'll continue our search tomorrow.”

Yamato, Koushiro, and Joe nodded at their leader.

“Is that okay with you guys too?” Taichi turned his head to Sogame, then to Ebonwumon, and lastly to Baihumon.

“Sounds good to me,” Sogame nodded.

“I have no qualms if Ritsu is fine,” Ebonwumon also nodded along.

“... I don't mind,” Baihumon finally said after a slight pause.

“Thanks,” Taichi said, softly stroking Baihumon's fur.

Joe helped Taichi to rewrap his hand. After that they split the task and wander around to look for something that could keep the fire up for the night.

Koushiro and Ebonwumon stayed behind. Koushiro to check if he could find some clue before Hackmon returned, and Ebonwumon of course to watch their luggage. Definitely not because the still-giant-even-in-smaller-size digimon is an easy landmark to mark their base. 

Definitely not.

The sky was already dark by the time they finished with the camp. The stars and whatever shining in the sky of the digital world makes it pretty bright since they're in the middle of open space, but the chilling wind definitely did not go well with their summer uniform.

“Okay, so why are you boys wearing summer uniforms of all things? Don’t any of you bring jackets or something?”

Sogame bluntly asked after Joe made a comment about how nice and warm the fire was.

“Sora has some blankets,” Taichi and Yamato answered at the same time, only their tone differs. 

Taichi more like stating a well-known fact, Yamoto more like as if Sogame is asking a stupid question.

“By the way, Sogame! Let's continue where we left off! What is this bio-data cell thing?”

Joe quickly interjects before she comments on their poor choice of clothing further.

Koushiro, who hid behind his screen the moment their uniform gets mentioned, raised his head at the topic.

“That's right! I was in the middle of the explanation!”

Sogame finally remembers what they were doing before.

Joe sighs in relief at his successful attempt to change the topic.

“Like I said, I was studying digimon's biology. But digimons are made of data, right? Data is intangible things. Even if they can exist in the real world, we should not be able to physically interact with them. But we can, so there must be some physical structure behind digimons, biological or not. That is why I decided to pursue the topic of digimon biology 6 years ago. Although it was only 3 years ago that I could finally move on from it being my personal research on the side to it actually becoming my job.”

Sogame paused, a bit. Confirming that the boys still follow her explanation, she continues.

“So, back to digimon biology. We manage to get a sample of digimon to study, don't ask what and how. What I found is something that could be said to mimic the rough function of similarly shaped animals or plants. If we take Yagami's wound as an example, there's a long biological process of him eating the food, to the food being broken down by enzymes, the absorption of nutrients, then the body separating the nutrients needed to repair the damaged body parts, and finally the reparation itself. And there's still countless other processes happening at the same time inside our body. I'm sure you boys already learnt that in biology class.”

Joe nodded along at Sogame's explanation. Taichi scooted closer to Yamato, good thing that at least one of his limbs could work now.

“Did we?” Taichi whispered to the blonde.

“No clue,” Yamato whispered back.

Sogame ignored them and continued her explanation.

“But for digimons, the process is simplified. They eat, data extracted from food, extracted data converted into energy, energy used for daily activity, digivolve, or recovery, then the physical waste converted into poop and ejected. That's all. It doesn't matter what kind of nutrients they ate, if it's food then it works. Simple as that”

“Hmmm… no wonder Agumon ate everything,” Taichi hummed. 

“What’s about me?” Agumon stopped eating at the mention and turned his head around.

“Nothing!” Taichi grinned at his partner.

“Now, now. Let's just let them do the human things,” Tentomon ushered Agumon back to the food.

Agumon frowned, but finally relented at the thought of food.

“So, in other words while digimon doesn't have what we would traditionally call intestines, they still have these simplified biological functions. Bio-data cells are what we call these pseudo-biological cells that make up digimon's body. Just like the aforementioned biological functions, these bio-data cells also have over simplified functions of actual cells, mainly to form the physical shape. One big difference is unlike biological cells that have varied dynamic shapes depending on the functions, these bio-data cells are all perfectly smooth cube shaped and could function as any cells.”

Sogame ended her explanation by pointing to Taichi's hand.

“So you're saying… That Taichi's biological cells are being replaced by digimon's cells?” Joe finally concluded.

“That is a hypothesis that I need to prove while I'm here. Though, I don't think that applies only to him,” Sogame shrugged.

“Say, have any of you entered the digital world while carrying injuries just like Yagami right now?”

The boys looked at each other then shrugged.

“Not that I know of,” Taichi answered.

“Despite everything, digital world is still a very dangerous place. We won't let anyone sick or injured come along unless it's an emergency,” Yamato added.

Joe rolled his eyes, Koushiro sweated, and Taichi snickered.

Despite everything, like picnics and traveling and playing around.

Yeah, sure, dangerous.

“Okay, now has anyone seriously hurt in this world?” Sogame asked again.

Now the group is looking at Joe since clearly the young man is in charge of their wellbeing.

“Not that I know of. We have scratches, bruises, some cramps, and so on, but miraculously nothing major so far… until now,” Joe recounted, then pointed at Taichi.

The teen makes a displeased face.

“We don't… But I think we should have,” Koushiro quietly added.

His voice is soft, still deep in his thought, but everyone heard it clearly.

“Are you saying we should have gone to get ourselves badly injured just like this idiot here?” Yamato’s voice is sharp and low.

Taichi grabbed his hand in a gentle warning, letting the idiot part aside, and sent another warning look to Koushiro. The redhead caught himself and coughed.

“Apologize, I phrased it badly. I don't mean we should get injured from now on, but judging from the past experience we should have more scars from the past injuries. Tumbling down cliffs, sliding down slopes, rolled off the grounds evading missiles. None of us should have come out all of that with only light injuries. I don't think there's enough miracles for us to pull all of that flawlessly.”

Koushiro elaborated, putting the stress on the miracles part.

“I'm sorry too… It's just…”

Yamato backed down, but his body was still tense and his eyes couldn't help but to glance at Taichi once very often. Taichi sighed hard at this.

“Yeah, we get it. We're all worried about Taichi too,” Joe said in which Taichi frowns again.

“Hey, I'm here!”

“But Koushiro, we're not just lucky. Our partners have helped us along the way too. Like the first time we dived from a cliff, it was thanks to Gomamon's Marching Fishes that we came out unharmed.”

“You called?” Gomamon called out. 

Gabumon quickly shoved a fruit to his mouth to silence him and apologized while dragging out the seal.

“Okay, that might be true. We can't rely on our memory to analyze every single one of such incidents to find out how much we should have been hurt. So let's take a much more recent example, Sora,” Koushiro started again. 

“It was not even two weeks ago that she got slammed to a giant glacier by Machinedradom. A regular high school girl against a giant mecha dragon monster. I'm no doctor, but isn't it normally won't be weird if she ended up… I'm sorry to say this, permanently impaired from that? She only had a minor bruise and ended up a bit sore from that.”

“That's… actually right. It has always been that way since we're younger and I never question it… I'm such a failure for not realizing it…” Joe gripped his pants, his face wrapped in frustration.

“Joe, please don't blame yourself. Even I just realized it now after Sogame pointed it out!” Koushiro said back in panic, trying to mend back Joe's confidence.

“So, it means Sora might also have these digicell things?" Yamato reel the conversation back on track.

“Bio-data cells, but probably yes. In fact 8% of my body is made of these exact cells,” Sogame revealed.

The boys gasped from the revelation. She waited until they're done processing it before continuing again.

“Well you know, I scanned some regular animals too to compare with digimon cells. Well, one day I was drunk and scanned myself,'' Sogame confessed rather easily.

They can see Ebonwumon jolted from the corner of their eyes, probably doing whatever dignified silent version of spit take the deity does.

“I sobered up and thought, well why not and processed the data. To my surprise, I found bio-data cells in my body. To be sure I made up whatever reason to take more human samples and so far only I and Daigo had it. I still haven't scanned Kyo, Gorou, and Hime yet. My theory was either it comes as a package from being a digidestined, or from living in digital world for a while, or both. Though after looking at Yagami's wound earlier, I think I'll need to rethink this part,” Sogame shrugged.

“Wait, you said you made up whatever reason. So it means no one knows about this research?” Koushiro asked back.

“Yeah, the one who knows about humans with bio-data cells was only me. I made sure to hide it well, not even Daigo and Hime knew it. And now 4 of you and 6 digimons I guess, so make it 11 of us.”

“Why are you telling us all of this?” Yamato asked again, a bit warily.

“I assumed that you guys won't freak out from this and I need you guys to cooperate with my research. I want to scan all of us while we're here, which is why I insist on bringing in my equipment, I can't convince the rest on my own. Second, if you're okay with it I want to observe the progress of Yagami's wounds too. This was unplanned so it's okay if you're uncomfortable, I understand. Lastly, I want access to Daigo's body while we're here. Of course if we ended up going home immediately, I would give up and give back the body to his family. I'm explaining it first so you can see where I'm coming from,” Sogame raised 3 fingers.

“Daigo… Mr. Nishijima's… body?”

Yamato whispered, his eyes wandering to Taichi again. Koushiro and Joe also realized the implication and looked at Taichi. The said brunette’s eyes darkened as he hung his head.

“Yes, he's already dead isn't he?” Sogame asked back nonchalantly.

“... Yes, I think he is. But I’m not sure if there's even any body left behind…” Taichi finally answered after a long silence.

He inhaled hard once and lifted his head again.

“I'll tell you guys, truthfully this time.”

Taichi retold the whole story again, from Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken's disappearance, Meiko and Meicoomon's arrival, the infection, reboot, Gatomon's dark digivolution, and finally what actually happened at the mysterious lab. All of them are painfully aware that Taichi has struggled a lot more as he goes more into detail. At one point, Agumon left his food to snuggle with Taichi. No one misses how he held his partner's hand for support.

“And… and after that… was exactly what you saw at Odaiba that night,” Taichi ended the explanation.

Sogame looked down, her earlier energy seems to be drained empty.

“I'm… I'm sorry. I got the most shitty timing to bother you and your sister at the hospital.”

“Nah, I'm sorry too for breaking your camera too,” Taichi shrugged back.

“Camera?” Yamato curiously asked.

“Yeah. You think I would actually punch her? Wow. I'm so flattered at how much faith you got in me!”

Taichi mocked an offended face playfully, though his face is still a bit pale and he still hasn't released Agumon yet.

“Well, forget that stupid camera!” Sogame threw her hand up and closed in quickly to Taichi. 

“More importantly, are YOU okay?”

Taichi looked away, his face twisted in frustration.

“Come on, I already have 3 mother hens…”

“Don't forget to count us!”

Agumon cuts off then points to his behind.

He finally realized that Baihumon, who has been silently curling at his back, has never left him since they arrived in the digital world.

“Okay, 5 mother hens…”

“Ahem.”

Gomamon cleared his throat. Beside him, Gabumon and Tentomon don't look really pleased at being excluded.

“Fine, 8…”

“Don't forget the other team including our actual mother hen,” Yamato pointed out. Taichi finally ticked off from all the cutting.

“Too many mother hens to count! I don't need one…”

Ebonwumon’s both head peeked from both of Sogame's shoulder.

“Okay, 2 more mother hens!”

“Fine, I won't pester much. But just tell me if there's anything I can do, okay?” Sogame sighed and went back to her previous spot.

Ebonwumon also retracted his head back, but still looked closely at Taichi.

They changed the subject into some lighter topic while Koushiro kept trying to find any clue. Hackmon came back some time after.

“There's a valley ahead with a cave at the bottom. It seems to continue this way, but I'm not too sure.”

“I'm not finding anything. I'm sure the coordinate is here, but since I don't have the altitude it might as well be underground. I thought we could dig it up, but… I'm not sure how deep it is…” Koushiro added.

“Thanks, Hackmon, Koushiro. We'll head out to the cave once the sun is up. If nothing comes up, we dig. Is that okay?”

He got a round of approval and after that they decided to call it a night.

Koushiro and Sogame slept first, Taichi insisting that a good rest is too important for their precious brain which all of them need right now followed by the digimons. Joe and Yamato stubbornly try to stay up and keep watching over Taichi while Hackmon goes away to scout the surroundings again.

The brunette entertained the idea and after a few more hours of conversation, Yamato is sure that Taichi is a genius at pissing anyone off, purposely or not. Yamato swears up and down that he doesn't use more than shampoo and conditioner for his hair, let alone those hair products that Taichi starts to list off out of nowhere. Why was he able to list off the priciest brand of hair oil anyway? Yamato knew Taichi is the guy who would use soap bars for both face and hair, he found out the hard way after an accident at school’s shower one day.

The hours clicked past midnight and Yamato could barely keep his eyes open.

Joe already fell asleep, definitely not out of his own conscious will since he literally slumped down sideways on a rock. Yamato put him down on the ground in a more comfortable position and yawned again. Even so, he stubbornly keeps himself awake and stares at the campfire along with Taichi. Both are silent now that Joe went to sleep. It's not rare for both of them just to hang around in silence. It looks super awkward from the outside, but personally it's one of the most comfortable situations for Yamato. He likes to think that Taichi feels the same.

2 AM, Yamato is still looking at the fire while fighting the urge to sleep. Still keeping his ears open for any noise beside the digimons snoring.

“Taichi?”

Yamato hears Agumon's raspy voice. He looked towards where the digimon should have slept at Taichi's laps and found the orange digimon up and trying to gently shake Taichi. His first thought is that Taichi fell asleep since they're so silent, but on closer inspection he can't be farther from the truth.

Taichi's eyes are wide and glassy. He held both his hands over his mouth to kill any sound that might escape while his chest heaving hard.

If this is another situation, Yamato might be impressed how much the loud mouthed teen could force himself to be so silent.

But now is definitely not the time.

“Taichi!” Yamato yelled out and rushed over to Taichi.

His yell startled Joe, Koushiro, Sogame, and of course the remaining digimons awake.

Yamato quickly kneeled down to Taichi and tried to shock the other boy out of whatever it was. Taichi looked up straight into his eyes, or at least Yamato is now staring into Taichi's eyes. The usual warm brown eyes full of mischief is now colored with terror.

By the time Yamato gasped, the terror turned into pure rage and Yamato was thrown away from Taichi before he could even process it. It took him a second to register that he is now far away from Taichi and another second for an intense pain to hit his side.

He groaned in pain while clutching his side. Yamato forced his eyes to open and see that Taichi had actually kicked him.

Taichi never kicked anyone. Unless it's a life or death situation.

“Yamato!”

“Taichi!”

Yamato could hear voices mixed around calling out for both him and Taichi.

A moment later he found himself being helped to sit up leaning to Ebonwumon by Koushiro and Sogame, Gabumon standing worriedly in front of him. On his blurred vision, he could see Agumon and Joe working up to gently shake Taichi up from whatever situation he has while Baihumon keeps the boy still to avoid Taichi injuring himself further.

Gomamon and Tentomon hovered around just in case they need to restrain Taichi from harming anyone.

Yamato sat in silence as Sogame, who is probably the only one detached enough to take action, treated his side with a salve she took liberty of taking from Joe's bag. Yamato could feel Koushiro gripping into his sleeve, his eyes also glued as Joe tried his best to talk soothing words to their leader, just like calming a child who just had a very bad nightmare.

Except that Taichi was not asleep.

“Okay Taichi, can you hear me now? How many fingers do I lift here?"

Joe asked after he felt Taichi was lucid enough.

“... three?” Taichi answered after he managed to focus his blurry vision.

His heart was still beating fast. Too fast to breathe.

“Okay, good. Agumon, help him to breathe slower, I'll check on his leg. Gomamon, get me my bag! Tentomon, fetch some water!”

The digimons quickly went on with their task. Taichi tried to breathe slower following his partner. Joe straightens Taichi's leg, the one he used to kick Yamato, and checks the cast. It's damaged as expected. Yamato was not able to hear it due to the shock but for the others, the kick made a very loud sound. Something definitely broke that time, hopefully just the cast.

Joe sighed hard and decided to just remove the cast altogether, already questioning if it was the right choice to bring Taichi along if Nishijima is already dead anyway.

Gomamon and Tentomon came soon after with the supplies he needed and he quickly started to clean Taichi's leg. The leg itself seems fine, the smaller wounds already closed up, leaving lighter patches of skin just like his hand. The black and blue bruises were already back to purplish color. The other wounds are still red, but seems to be healing fine even with the -not blood- bio data cubes leaking out from it. He cleaned the still healing parts with alcohol and rewrap the leg as much as he can.

“Joe, how is he?”

Joe heard Yamato ask. The blonde staggered to them, Koushiro and Sogame holding him from his sides while Gabumon stood behind him just in case.

“I don't know how to make it. Definitely not good, but honestly a lot much better than I expected,” Joe sighed.

Yamato cursed under his breath. Not a worst scenario and already this bad. Yamato feels someone tugs on his pants.

“Ya… Yama… Sorry… I… I didn't…” Taichi said between his breaths.

He seemed to be much better, but only from suffocating almost to death to running a marathon five times without rest.

“Shhh… I'm okay. Just… focus on yourself,” Yamato bent down to Taichi, Koushiro and Sogame adjusted so he wouldn't fall over.

“Sorry… Yama… to…” Taichi's eyes dropped as his breath slowed.

Baihumon adjusted his position so Taichi wouldn't fall sideways. They waited until Taichi's breath slowed enough and they're sure he’s passed out.

“So, what happened to him? Did he have a panic attack?" Yamato sits down again while Joe is still working with Taichi's leg.

Koushiro and Sogame sat beside him, Gabumon poked his head from Yamato's armpit.

“No, not a panic attack but a flashback,” Joe sighed again.

“Flashback? He's remembering bad memories?” Koushiro asked, his hands clenched on his laps.

“In this case it's worse than just remembering, he's living the memories. Maybe it's just easier to say he had a very vivid nightmare, unless this nightmare doesn't require him to be asleep to appear. I think he mistook Yamato's sudden shaking with assault from whoever this nightmare attacker he saw and acted in self defense,” Joe explained.

On a more peaceful time Taichi will probably mention how weird it is for Koushiro to have things explained in normies terms to the genius. But unfortunately Taichi is out of commission right now.

“Is… Is there anything we can do?” Yamato asked.

“I… I don't know. I mostly studied about injuries and physical illness… I only read a bit about mental illness and trauma, so… I honestly don't know… I'm sorry…” Joe said as he finished up wrapping Taichi's leg in bandages.

“You did great, Joe. At least much better than me," Yamato let out a bitter laugh while rubbing his side.

“Koushiro, Sogame, both of you should get some more sleep. We're going to have a long day tomorrow too.”

“What?! Are we continuing?!” Sogame protested in a low hissing voice.

“I mean, I'm a biologist not a damn doctor or a neurologist or even a psychiatrist, but even I know that was really bad!”

“Yeah, I know that was bad. But I was there and this is not my first time on night watch. I was sleepy and looking elsewhere but I had my ears open and I didn't realize he had… had… that until Agumon spoke out. He's that determined to keep on going, you think he'll just give up like that? No, never. He'll even go alone if he needs to. The least we can do is just to make sure he stays alive through the ordeal. I owe it that much to his sister,” Yamato gritted his teeth.

He knew he was emotional, but he can't lose it to Sogame.

“He'll destroy himself and you’re enabling him,” Sogame replied accusingly.

Yamato averted his eyes from the woman.

“Fine then, Ishida. Have your way. Kido, you're the closest we have to a doctor here. Do you think we should continue?”

“I… I think…” Joe clenched his fist.

Yamato peeked at the young man. Joe is the eldest, always the responsible one. Yamato sympathizes with him. Taichi made it look so easy, but deciding for the whole group and taking responsibility for all the risks is not an easy task.

Joe is more like Koushiro, the specialist, the consultant. The one who spells any objective advantage and disadvantage but never the one who makes the final call. Being suddenly put in the spotlight must put so much stress on him.

“I think! We… we should continue,” Joe finally choked out.

Yamato widens his eyes in surprise as he's completely sure Joe will put Taichi's well-being on top of the boy's own will.

“I'm not saying it out of a sense of loyalty like Yamato did! Or maybe I am… But! I have a reason I could work out with. Both for his well being and our mission objective.”

Joe inhaled and exhaled several times to calm down his beating heart. Yamato was worried that their only doctor would have a panic attack next. Gomamon put his flipper for Joe to grab on after a silent encouragement from Agumon. Joe gladly took it.

“I… I think… No, we’re pretty sure that Taichi wasn't able to get rid of the lingering hope for a miracle… that Nishijima somehow survives. Everyone can see it from the way he evades the topic. And I think he saw it too, that it hinders his process of grieving and moving on. He’s rushing to retrieve Nishijima's… corpse or whatever is left of it so he can quickly crush the hope and move on. We need him to move on. We all need to move on ourselves. I know it might not be the healthiest way to cope, but if I were to borrow Taichi's words, Yggdrasil is still out there and we need to rebuild our force as soon as possible.”

Joe was finally able to get it out even with his sweaty hand clenching and unclenching on Gomamon's flipper all the time. Sogame seemed to have finally backed off, but Joe was not done yet.

“I don't know how it was during your time. But now, our partners rely on our traits to digivolve. We have a lot of examples of how our hesitation hindered the digivolution process of our partners, and the latest, Taichi managed to break off Omegamon with his anxiety. Omegamon is our strongest fighter! We can't have that repeated again! What do you think will happen if Alphamon attacks when Taichi is having his episode? Or when we're counting on Omegamon so the enemy digimon won't destroy a building with all its occupants? How many will die? I don't want to send one of my best friends to grave! None of us wants to! I bet even Taichi doesn't want to keep killing himself if he can! But what else should we do? Standing still and resting while watching everything burn down?! He'll literally go insane from that! I know I will! We all need our crests to be up and functioning whatever it takes! No matter how much it hurts us… it's still better than being crushed under guilt and going insane.”

“Joe…” Gomamon gripped Joe's hand.

Joe pulled out one of his hands to remove his glasses and wipe out the tears that are now flowing out from his eyes.

“Okay, sorry… I…”

Sogame stopped herself before she could make an excuse and forced a smile.

“You're right. I'll go catch some more sleep. I'll just focus on the expedition. Good night.” And then she ran off to Ebonwumon.

“Good job, Joe. You have once again made a mess,” Joe laughed bitterly at himself.

“She's just worried about us and I blew up at her. I was talking about keeping our crest up and here I am being unreliable as always. This is why I'm never a leader material. Taichi would have dealt that better.”

“I wonder about that…” Gomamon retorted back.

“Joe, just… go to sleep. I'll deal with her tomorrow,” Yamato sighed.

He wanted to encourage Joe again, but honestly he can’t think any good words for now. It's not his speciality in the first place.

“Somehow I don't think Yamato is up for the task…”

Gabumon whispered, but Yamato heard it just fine. It ticked him that his partner thinks so little of him, but also Gabumon is not wrong.

“Don't worry, I'll follow up if needed,” Koushiro gave Gabumon a reassuring smile.

Gabumon just forced himself to smile back. Koushiro then went to talk with Yamato and Gabumon took this chance to pull Agumon, Gomamon, and Tentomon.

“Is it just me or did we end up with the most emotionally dysfunctional team?" Gabumon questioned.

“Took you long enough," Gomamon sweated.

“What is dysfunctional?" Agumon asked, but no one bothered to answer.

“Now, now don't be rude. They just have a lot to process,” Tentomon tries to defend their partners but is still worried himself.

“Tentomon!" Koushiro called out to him.

Joe and Yamato are also looking at them, probably expecting them to come along too.

“Let's… just go to sleep tonight,” Koushiro started.

“We will continue the expedition tomorrow. Baihumon agreed to keep an eye on Taichi, so Agumon, you should get a rest too.”

They agreed and went to catch a bit more sleep. Agumon agreed to get some sleep, but he still went to curl up beside Taichi just in case.

Farther from where they sleep, Sogame lies down on Ebonwumon's shell. She is still not asleep, but not moving either.

“Ritsu…” Ebonwumon whispered softly, careful so the other didn't realize that she's still listening.

“Ebonwumon… it's frustrating. I'm the adult here, why can't I protect any of these children just like Daigo and Hime did? Am I that useless?”

“Ritsu, you are you. Not Daigo, not Hime. If you can't do it like they did, then you just do it your way. Like you always do.”

“Like I always do… What kind of person I was anyway…” Sogame wondered as her eyes dropped. Her breathing slowed down as she fell asleep.

“Good night, Ritsu.”

Time ticked away, and soon enough the sun climbed high in the sky. Yamato shielded his eyes from the bright light, trying to go back to sleep again. It feels too soon to wake up.

“GOOOOD MORNING! COME ON BOYS, TIME TO GET UP!”

Yamato shot up from the ground. He could also see Gabumon, Koushiro, Tentomon, and Agumon also waking up. Baihumon growled slowly, but curled closer around Taichi as he flattened his ears to block the sound. Taichi stirred, but didn’t wake up. Hackmon landed on their camp after the loud voice.

“Come on, time to eat! Here, one for each of you!”

Yamato took the fruit without any thought. His mind finally cleared enough to see Sogame smiling down at him before moving on to give the fruit to Gabumon.

Koushiro also looked up while rubbing his eyes. 

“Sogame?”

The woman smiled out to him, but then moved on to Taichi.

“Yagami, wakey wakey! You gotta eat breakfast if you want to heal faster!”

Taichi finally stirred, his eyes opened just enough to see the fruit in front of him while his mind was only cleared enough to take it.

“What?” The only response came out from him.

“We’re continuing the expedition, right? We should start soon while the sun is up!”

“Sogame… san?” Joe called out to her too.

“I’m still against it, you know? But since you boys are too stubborn, I’ll just have to stick along. And yes, I’m talking about you, Yagami!” Sogame poked Taichi in the forehead.

Taichi, being still half asleep, could only respond with a single “What?”

“And so, Yagami! You take it easy for now! I may look like this, but I’m the head of my own department! Just leave the rest to big sis!” Sogame beamed.

Yamato, Koushiro, Joe, Gabumon, Tentomon, Gomamon, and Agumon looked at each other then at Ebonwumon. The deity has both of his heads tucked down under his front legs. Hackmon, who went back in panic, just sighed and made a tactical retreat. Baihumon rolled his eyes and shut his eyes. Lastly, Taichi is finally awake enough to notice that he has food on his hand and takes a bite.

“What the hell happened here?”

Chapter Text

Back at the Primary Village, the degidestined group ended up spending a night there. They're in the more resourceful part of File Island, but it would never hurt to have stocks. And so, they spent the remainder of the first day just that, restocking, while helping Elecmon.

Night came and they went to sleep across the fluffy grounds.

When the sun rises again, they awake one by one. Hinata woke up first, being used to starting very early in the morning, followed by Iori. Takeru, Ken, and Sora followed suit. Sora, Hinata, and Takeru went on to fetch breakfast with Zhuqiaomon and half asleep Patamon, Leafmon, and Piyomon.

Miyako, Mimi, and Itou wake up next. Iori and Ken told the three about breakfast. Mimi then went on to the nearby river to wash her face and brush her hair while dragging Palmon. Ken, Iori, and Itou, along with Leafmon, Tsubomon, and Azulongmon helped Elecmon with the babies. Miyako chooses to stay and sit down to collect the will to actually start her day with Pururumon on her lap. Beside her, Hikari starts to stir. Brown orbs opened up and she started to scan around before finally landing on Miyako.

“Miyako, where's Taichi?”

Miyako tilted her head.

Is she still half asleep?

“Hikari, Taichi is not here. He'sー”

“I'll go get him then.”

Hikari stood up without waiting for Miyako to finish her answer and walked away. Miyako was finally fully awake and grabbed Hikari's hand, accidentally dropping Pururumon in the process.

“Hikari! Where are you going?!”

“I'll go wake Taichi up.”

“Taichi is not here! He'sー”

“He's here! He must be here! He promised not to leave again! He's not dead!”

Miyako quickly stoid and wrapped her arm around Hikari, restraining the smaller girl from flailing around. She then kicked her down and followed her to the ground when she realized Hikari was about to escape.

“Hikari! Taichi is alive! He's not here but he's fine! He's with the other team searching for Nishijima, don't you remember?”

Miyako started strong, but her voice softened as Hikari started to tremble.

“I don't know… He's not here, how should I know if he's really fine? I have to see him… I need to see him!”

Hikari started to cry after that.

Daisuke, along with Chibomon and Gatomon tried to check on Hikari, but stopped by Pururumon.

“Please just leave this to Miyako.”

The four of them watched as Miyako rubbed Hikari's back while letting the younger girl cry on her chest.

“Daisuke, what's going on? Is there any enemy around?"

Chibomon looked up to Daisuke. The boy just silently looked at the two girls with an unusual shadow casted on his face.

“Daisuke?”

“You know what, I kinda feel bad for even thinking that I'm glad I was not there.”

Daisuke lifted Chibomon from the ground and placed the baby dragon on his lap. Gatomon walked closer and sat beside him. Pururumon stayed far between them and the two girls.

“I didn't have my memories during the incident. And I was swallowed up by Hikari's intense emotion right away. It was scary, but what's more scary is the thought that it might have ended far worse if I had my memories.”

Gatomon kicked around the bouncy ground on interval.

“Daisuke? Gatomon? What are you guys talking about?”

“Chibomon."

Daisuke lifted the baby digimon so they're face to face.

“What would you do if I died and never came back in any form?”

“NO! I DON'T WANT THAT! I WANT TO STAY WITH DAISUKE!” Chibomon yells and starts to thrash in Daisuke's hold.

Daisuke laughed.

“How about Hikari? Or Ken?”

“NO! I DON'T WANT THAT EITHER! If you guys are not here, I… I…”

Tears dripped down from the small digimon. Daisuke put Chibomon back to his laps.

“Sorry for scaring you, lil' guy. But that's what I and Gatomon talked about.”

Cibomon looked back at both Daisuke and Gatomon. His tears stopped, but still looked sad and confused.

“It's about Taichi you dumb,” Gatomon huffed.

“But Taichi is alive, right? You're not lying, right?”

Daisuke grinned at his partner again. At least the question is not as piercing as Tsubomon's.

“He's alive, I saw him complaining energetically like he always does. It's just, there's a moment where he actually died to everyone and both you and me are lucky enough not to live through that. Gatomon too, in a not so good way. But Hikari… I guess she accidentally slipped into that weird world where he stayed dead and is having trouble getting back here.”

“I… see…”

Chibomon snuggled closer to Daisuke.

“Hey, Daisuke. If you're gone, I'll cry harder than Hikari. I'll cry harder and longer. I'll cry for the remaining year if I have to.”

Daisuke chuckled at his partner.

“You don't have to cry that much.”

“Oh no, I will! Mark my words! So… don't go anywhere, okay?”

“You're such a worrywart," Daisuke leaned back.

“I can't promise. But even if I do, I'll go back and find you again, just like now.”

“Okay… I can live with that.”

Chibomon closed his eyes and leaned back to Daisuke.

The three of them stayed like that for some more minutes. Daisuke and Chibomon are quiet for once, the only sound being Hikari's crying, Miyako's conforming whispers, and the occasional tap from Gatomon's tail.

Sora, Takeru, and Hinata along with Piyomon, Patamon, and Zhuqiaomon returned with a Village amount of breakfast and lunch soon after. They sent a concerned look, but backed off and went away to prepare the food after a combined head shake from Daisuke, Chibomon, Gatomon, and Pururumon.

A few more minutes, Hikari finally stopped crying and Miyako released her. Daisuke quickly went on to Miyako, helping Hikari to move from the middle of open space to lean on one of the fluffy blocks.

“You okay now?" Miyako asked.

“Hmmm… No. My head hurts, my eyes stings, my throat dries, and my heart's still pounding hard. Being depressed sucks… Am I even being depressed?”

Miyako and Daisuke exchanging glances. They expected her to give her usual “I'm fine” and were ready to make her spit out her actual condition. Hikari isn't usually the one to complain after all. But at least it's good that she's being honest now.

“I don't know about being depressed, but I think you're certainly traumatized,” Daisuke shrugged.

“I see…” Hikari sighed and leaned back again.

Miyako put a hand to Hikari's forehead, and another one on her own.

“At least no fever.”

“Miyako, I'm sorry… for drenching your shirt.”

“This? No biggie. I'll just take it off and let it dry for a few hours and we're good again.”

Miyako pulled her tie loose and started to lift her uniform top above her head.

“Miyako! What the heck?!” Daisuke hurriedly covered his eyes and turned back.

The lavender haired girl giggled and poke him from behind.

“Didn't know that you're such a gentleman. You can look, you know? I don't mind if it's you,” Miyako whispered in his ears from behind.

Daisuke's face exploded in a bright red blaze, but he still refused to open his eyes. It was after a faint snicker he presumed Hikari and Gatomon that he suspected Miyako was only playing with him. He turned his back and peeked from below. After he caught Miyako's well covered belly, he fully opened his eyes to see that Miyako wore a plain black tank top under her uniform top. It has a bit of wet stain on the chest area but is relatively dry compared to the outer sailor uniform.

“Hahahahahahaha! Oh my gosh! Did you see his face?! That was sooo gold!”

Miyako dropped down and rolled over in laughter, she also had bike shorts under her skirt that covered her underwear well. What makes it more embarrassing is that both Hikari and Gatomon are also laughing. A small silent laugh, but a laugh nevertheless.

“Miyako you bastard…” Daisuke growled with his hand clenched.

Miyako continued to laugh until someone put a hand on her shoulders and prompted her back to sitting position.

“Miyako, that's improper. Shorts or no shorts, you're still wearing skirts.”

Sora scolded the younger girl and sat down beside her. Miyako just pouted away.

The others followed after her, each of them carrying food and drink. Mimi, Palmon, and Piyomon handed some food and drink to Miyako and Hikari while Takeru gave one to Daisuke and Chibomon. Then they settled down on the ground, making a big circle.

“Hikari, you okay now?” Sora asked worriedly.

“Yeah, I think, for today," Hikari laughed weakly and coughed.

“Maybe after I drink this.”

Hikari takes a big gulp out of her newly replenished water bottle and coughs again. Miyako quickly put a hand on her back.

“Slow down.”

It took a few more seconds until Hikari's cough stopped and she took a sip, slowly this time.

“So, we’re searching base today?” Daisuke asked while chewing a grilled fish.

“Daisuke, don’t talk with your mouth full!” Sora scolded the boy.

Daisuke quickly swallowed his fish before talking again.

“I saw some decent sized caves while scouting yesterday, but dunno how good they are for a base. I guess when compared to this place. At least no back pain here.” 

“But as Taichi said, Yggdrasil is still out there, we don’t know when we will have to fight. We can’t have the babies and eggs involved in this,” Takeru argued.

“I guess you’re right. Should we check out the caves?” Daisuke asked back.

“But if we’re factoring the potential combat too, wouldn’t caves be dangerous?” Iori asked too.

“Well, when it comes to fighting then we would risk potential cave-ins. Not to mention, mapping the entrance and exits could take time. But it does give us more protection from the wilderness,” Ken added to Iori’s points, but also provided the obvious pros of caves.

“This is hard. We just camped out the last time we stayed here for a few days. How did you guys survive Digital World for so long anyway?” Daisuke arched his eyebrows in frustration.

“We’re always on the move, camp or no camp. We’re not really planning to have a long camp anyway,” Hinata shrugged.

Itou nodded along with him.

“Same here,” Sora said next.

“We were camping, but only Joe and Mimi had their supplies when we got dumped here. And we always have a destination to go anyway. You know Taichi. He’s probably going to die out of boredom and frustration if we stay in the same place for too long.”

“Yagami?” Itou asked, Hikari stared at him questioningly before he could continue.

“The elder one,” he clarified.

“Obvious issue aside, he seems to be pretty patient, calculating, and level headed. Hard to imagine that.”

“He has grown a lot the past 6 years, but he was quite a reckless bullhead back the first time we’re here,” Sora laughed at the memories.

“Are you sure? He didn’t bring anything the last time we’re planning to get stuck here. Which was like, last week?” Mimi raised her eyebrow.

“I take it back, he’s still a reckless bullhead. Thanks for reminding me,” Sora massaged her temple.

“On that aspect, I guess my brother hasn't really grown much either huh?” Takeru laughed.

The entire team laughed at that.

Far away on the server continent, Taichi and Yamato sneezed. Joe went into a panic.

“Okay, so back to no idea for the base,” Daisuke reeled the conversation back.

“Honestly, my respect for you guys just skyrocketed now for surviving the digital world with almost nothing for months. But we can’t really do that now, can’t we?” Daisuke continued.

“Definitely not. We have injured people and no clue where to go next. Survival is our priority here,” Sora answered.

“Is there really nothing? Anything you used to call a base?” Ken asked again.

Sora, Mimi, Hikari, Takeru, Itou, and Hinata closed their eyes, trying to remember their time being stuck in the world. Patamon flies from where the digimons, besides the sovereigns, huddled to let the humans do human things into Takeru’s head.

“Takeru, didn’t we stay at that park for a few weeks before?”

“Ah yeah. The park. I guess that could be called a base? The ferris wheel was quite comfy. But that was somewhere in the server continent, I don’t really exactly remember where. And since DemiDevimon was there, I won't call that safe anyway,” Takeru sighed.

“Ah yeah, how about that meanie Digitamamon’s restaurant?” Iori asked.

“I think I remembered the story about Yamato and Joe working there…”

“But according to Hackmon, wild digimons are mostly adult level at best right? He might not be Digitamamon opening a restaurant yet,” Takeru argued back.

“How about ShogunGekomon's castle? Mimi lived there for a few months, right?” Miyako asked.

“Aaaah, aaaaaaah. I didn’t hear anything,” Mimi covered her ears and closed her eyes.

“Sorry, that was not the best moment of hers,” Sora chuckled at the other girl’s antics.

“But anyway, probably not the best idea either. It was on a server continent, and there’s probably only a bunch of Otamamon inside right now. Can’t risk them getting in a crossfire.”

“Damn right! I went there through the distortion last time, and there’s just a lot of Otamamon! I can’t get my cute followers killed again!” Mimi huffed.

“Followers?” Both Itou and Hinata asked.

Sora just laughed nervously in response.

“So we got the caves and park now. Any other ideas?” Daisuke asked again.

“Andromon’s factory, Centaurmon’s ruins, Piximon's hideout… There’s some candidates, but there’s always the risk of crossfire…” Sora tapped her chin.

“I think there was that empty mansion where we used to rest when I was sick. But that was in Spiral Mountain wasn’t it?” Hikari turned to Takeru.

“Yeah, but it got bombed by Machinedramon's troops quite early in the game. Probably not safe if we can’t take control of the whole digital city. But if we can, that might be quite a good base. We need to find out where in the digital world it originally was before getting absorbed by spiral mountain though,” Takeru answered.

“Finally a good candidate! As expected from Hikari!” Daisuke exclaimed, getting himself a few chuckles which he ignored.

“Speaking of mansion, how about Deviー”

“No!”

Mimi asked, which was instantly replied by both Sora and Takeru before she even finished.

“Aw, at least that got a bath…” Mimi pouted.

“Speaking about baths, there was that other place, right?” Sora asked brightly.

Mimi and Takeru looked at her for a full second before finally getting what she hinted at.

“Gennai’s house!” They both yelled at the same time.

“Gennai’s house? That guy has a house?” Daisuke asked.

“Yeah! A pretty large traditional Japanese house, has a lot of room and bath, hidden from sight, isolated from major digimon habitat. It’s perfect!” Mimi squealed.

“But Gennai is…” Iori left it unsaid, but they all understand the implication.

“So our best candidate is Digital City, which is who knows where. Next is a park in the server continent, and lastly some random caves around here,” Daisuke summed.

“I’m sorry to say this, but if I take an assumption from your discussion, Digital City might not be a good candidate,” Zhuqiaomon cut in.

“The city is in my territory and it has been a Hagurumon and Numemon’s natural habitat before the Dark Masters took control. Since you’re talking about not involving digimon habitat, it might be wiser to take another place,” the phoenix sovereign finished.

Daisuke sighed again.

“So we’re back to the park or cave again.”

“Azulongmon, is there any way to access this Gennai’s house?” Itou asked Azulongmon.

“The house was something that was made especially to house the 8 digidestined, it doesn’t exist anymore thanks to the reboot,” the dragon replied.

The humans sighed at the answer.

“But it doesn’t mean we can’t create a new one,” Zhuqiaomon pointed out.

“REALLY?!” The digidestined yelled out at the same time.

“Yes. Even in this state, we should still be able to materialize inanimate objects and put on protective barriers,” Azulongmon answered.

“PROBLEM SOLVED!” Daisuke yelled out.

“Well, I guess we do have two deities with us…” Iori whispered behind the loud cheering from the other digidestined.

“Yeah, right,” Ken laughed, not joining the cheering.

They finished their breakfast rather quickly after that. Miyako pulled out her laptop and opened a map. It was a digital world map from 6 years ago that she got from Koushiro. It might not be 100% accurate but better than nothing. She opened a notepad on another window.

“So, where are we building the thing?”

“If we want to be hidden then here, File Island. If we want to cover more ground then Server Continent,” Ken suggested.

“Our primary objective is to survive, which would be better if we’re hidden. But on the other hand we have to search Ichijouji’s digivice and find a way back to our world so we need coverage too,” Takeru summed.

“If we’re thinking for the long run, this base could be our permanent base. Especially if we’re planning to keep visiting the digital world. Which I think we do,” Iori added.

Daisuke hummed out loud and rocked his body back and forth before finally slapping down to the ground, which bounced as expected.

“We’re going to the server continent!” Daisuke decided.

“Is it okay? Shouldn’t we wait for Taichi’s team first?” Miyako asked, Daisuke instantly flattened this.

“It’s okay, it’s okay! Their fault for taking so long!” Mimi laughed.

“And besides he did say that whoever finishes first secure the base, knowing fully that we would probably finish before them. It means he believed in us,” Sora added.

“Okay then, so for the actual location… somewhere far from digimon’s habitat and spacious enough for us to settle in with extra space…”

Miyako starts to fiddle with the map. Zhuqiaomon and Azulongmon went over to her to point out if there’s any notable difference between the map and actual terrain, especially on their territory. The other digimons finally join their respective partners.

“So, what should we do while we wait?” Daisuke leaned back again, this time with Chibomon back on his laps.

“Shouldn’t you start with the base design for your base?” Itou pointed out.

“That’s right! So, what should we do with our base?” Daisuke asked.

“I have an idea! Any paper? I’ll draw it out!” Mimi excitedly asked around.

“But Mimi, you sucks at drawing,” Palmon pointed out.

Mimi pouted really hard at her partner.

“I have paper. Just describe it, I’ll try to draw it out,” Hikari said as she pulled a notebook and pencil from her bag.

“Thank you Hikari! Then first, a big bath!” Mimi pumped out.

Everyone sweatdropped at her suggestion, but it was Sora who reeled the energetic girl back to reality.

“Mimi, as a fellow girl I know how you feel. But I don’t think a bath is very high on our priority list…”

“Why? If we’re going to use this base as our permanent base from now on, it would be better if we make it as comfy and livable for everyone as possible, right? I bet even the boys and digimons need some relaxable space especially between big fights!” Mimi frowns as she argues back.

“She actually has a point…”

Surprisingly, Iori is the first one to agree.

“Okay, fine. But let’s… just list out the mandatory features first, okay?” Sora massaged her temple again.

They went on back and forth again. A little while later, Miyako, Pururumon, Azulongmon, and Zhuqiaomon joined them, noting that they still haven’t even finished the base’s basic features. They took a lunch break and then continued arguing again for a few more hours.

“So, after a long discussion…”

Daisuke sighed hard in exhaustion and gestured to Hikari to take over.

“First priority feature; A building with firm flooring and sturdy roof and walls.”

“I can’t believe we have to start from that,” Miyako commented.

“It’s important!”

Six former homeless in another world team, which consists of Sora, Mimi, Hikari, Takeru, Itou, and Hinata, instantly cut her off.

“Okay, I’m sorry for never being homeless before,” Miyako pouted back.

“I’m continuing,” Hikari coughed to gather the attention again.

“Optional for the feature; traditional Japanese style building.”

“Why Japanese style building again?” Iori asked.

“Americans love Japanese culture. Japanese love Japanese culture. Everyone loves it. It’s nice and exotic just in case the international team decides to crash along in the future,” Mimi shrugged at the answer.

“That’s one big stereotype right there…” Ken commented in a small voice.

“In a way, I’m envious of her confidence,” Takeru laughed.

Hikari sighed at another intervention, but decided to ignore it and go on.

“Second priority; boy’s and girl’s separated sleeping space and toilets. Optional for sleeping space; beds, but futon could also work.”

“Traditional Japanese style buildings with beds still sound kinda weird…” Daisuke started again.

“It’s actually pretty common. It could work,” Sora answered the boy.

“Third priority; functional rooms. Currently we have a kitchen, dinner/meeting room, infirmary, and computer room. We’re also adding some spare empty rooms for later use.”

Hikari looked around and sighed in relief that no one was interfering this time.

“Fourth priority; relaxation rooms. So far we have a lounge, bath, and training room. Fifth priority; separated private sleeping quarters. That should be all.”

Hikari put down her notebook and pencil.

“We found a good space in the server continent. Should be big enough to build all of that!” Miyako grinned.

“I guess no problem with space then, only time. Any idea where to start this big project?” Daisuke asked back again.

“We can sketch out the final floor plan with all the rooms first so we can decide where to place the pillars and supporting walls. Then we build the base bare building separated in big rooms so at least we can achieve the first priority. After that we can just add more partitions to make out the details for the rest of the room.” Ken suggested.

“As expected from Ken! I know I can rely on you!”

Daisuke pulled Ken into a side hug, the raven haired boy blushed a bit from the praise.

“Okay, finally time to sketch!” Mimi pumped up again.

“Again, Mimi. You sucks at drawing!” Palmon argued again.

“Palmon!”

After another good laugh, they start with the floor plan. At first Hikari started to sketch on her notebook. But after everyone wanted to have a turn with the pencil, they moved out to the outskirts to draw a big picture on the ground with a stick so everyone could quickly pitch in. Hikari copied what they had drawn on the ground to her notebook before they started with dinner and moved back to the village.

After dinner, they put the floor plan on hold since it’s too dark to sketch and started to discuss the labor split. That solved pretty quickly with the digimon’s help.

The fact that the younger team had experience with rebuilding destroyed villages and infrastructures after the final fight with Digimon Emperor helped.

The fact that Miyako thoughtlessly mentioned that to Ken’s face did not help.

Hikari had another breakdown the next morning. But this time Miyako was quick to handle it. The others went on to resupply their foods. Hikari calmed down by the time breakfast was ready and they continued with the floorplan sketch. Sora has taken over since Hikari’s condition was actually worsening. They finally finished the sketch by noon. Miyako compiled the data and copied it into a flashdisk to pass on to Koushiro when they came. They didn't have any means of communication after all. Hikari won’t be this miserable if they have. Then they relaxed for the few remaining hours before calling it a night.

The next day started out similarly with Hikari’s breakdown. She calmed down even quicker this time, but all the stress finally showed out in her face. After all, it has been 3 days since the last time they heard anything from the other team.

“Hikari, I’m sure Taichi is okay,” Takeru whispered soothingly to Hikari.

“Yeah, I know…” Hikari sighed.

They woke up before the sun was up and were standing around at the entrance of Primary Village, except for Hikari who sat down with Gatomon on her side. They already have all of their belongings plus the food stock packed up for the trip while waiting for Miyako to finish the business with Elecmon.

“Everyone! I have left the pouch with our message and flashdisk to Elecmon. He agreed to pass it along to Koushiro if they came,” Miyako explained as she walked to the group, Hawkmon flying along with her.

“Great! We’re done here, then!” Daisuke grinned.

At the boy’s feet, Veemon also grinned following his partner.

“So finally…”

“Yeah!” Daisuke nodded and turned his back from the village.

“To the Server Continent!”

Chapter Text

Back to a few days ago at Taichi's team.

After the morning scare that was Sogame, the group finished their breakfast and Joe went on to change Taichi's bandages. Unfortunately for their leader, Joe once again has to strip him of most of his clothes and there's no privacy in this open space.

“Why the hell are you looking here?!"

Taichi half yelled at Sogame as Joe pulled off his shirt.

“Don't worry, I'm only interested in your wounds and not your body. You're too young for me anyway,” Sogame replied, not taking her eyes off now half naked Taichi.

“That's even more creepy!”

Joe keeps on working on his bandages despite the protests. The wounds in his left hand are mostly healed now, just leaving the big gash which is certainly a bit smaller than yesterday. Joe applied medicine before rewrapping it.

“It probably will fully heal in 2-3 days," Joe said.

Taichi almost cheered at that.

Joe checked the other wounds. The cuts and bruises in his head and back are mostly healed, so Joe takes off the bandages and gauzes. Some places are still a bit red, but nothing major anymore. Joe pressed his sides a bit and he winced. Joe took off the bandages and some parts are still purple so he rewrap it again after applying some medicine.

Joe moved to his right hand and pulled off the bandage that covered his whole arm. The arm still looks really bad, mostly covered in purplish bruises and multiple gashes just like the one in his left hand. The wrist is still a bit swollen, but already a lot smaller than before they entered the digital world. All of the open wounds have the same disturbing bio-data cubes floating around it and start to heal up in pixels. Joe just shakes his head, cleans it, and applies some medicine before he rewraps the arm.

Joe helped Taichi to put on his shirt again before moving on to remove his pants.

“Do we really have to do this?”

“Yes.”

Fortunately, Joe let him keep his underwear this time and focus to treat his wounds. He started from the right leg with a broken cast first. It was still in similar condition as before, with stitches, cuts, and bruises in the same fashion as Taichi's right arm. Joe did the same, but added two sturdy wood sticks that Ebonwumon materialized outside the first bandages and wrapped it again for a makeshift cast. Lastly, he moved on to the left leg. Joe left the part with the cast alone and focused on other parts and did the same treatment. After that he and Yamato helped Taichi to put his pants on again.

“There, done. It was not so bad, right?" Joe stands up.

“It… it was disturbing actually. Those cubes are really creepy,” Taichi said, his face actually turning rather green.

“Really? I think it's better than the plain old blood and flesh,” Yamato raised his eyebrow.

“You're only saying that because it doesn't come out of you!" Taichi rolled his eyes at the blonde.

Ignoring the two bickering teens, Koushiro approached Joe who still had his serious thinking expression.

“Joe, is there anything wrong?”

“Well… After our talk yesterday, I was just trying to reflect back on what happened in our childhood that was not supposed to be normal… and…”

Joe sighed and put a hand on Taichi's shoulder, stopping the brunette from bickering with Yamato even further.

“Taichi, sorry if I ask a weird thing, but… Did you even have these wounds during the fight with Ordinemon?”

Both Taichi and Yamato stared at Joe. Koushiro looked down trying to rack his memories. Even Sogame stopped her note taking and looked at the boy.

“Well, I didn't check myself. But if I didn't, it would means I just sprouted random wounds overnight because I definitely didn't go anywhere after that.”

Joe turned his head from Taichi to Yamato and Koushiro.

“I… think he didn't have it… I mean, I would like to believe that I would notice if he was this wounded. But then again if he didn't, it doesn't explain his current state. And I was tired and probably just too relieved that this idiot was still alive at all so I thought I just kinda missed it," Yamato answered.

“Same with Yamato. It's hard to say, but now that I know three of us saw the same thing then there's a big probability that he actually wasn't wounded during the fight,” Koushiro confirmed.

“Make it four!" Agumon raised and waved his hand, huffing while he did so.

“I want to say that I actually got injured in the real world AFTER the fight doesn't make sense. But nothing ever makes sense in this world anyway, so any brain can make sense of this?” Taichi sighed hard.

“Probably, you did get the injuries in the digital world and it's healing like now, but then you go to the real world before it's fully healed and it reopened? I mean when the wound is healing like that, I won't be surprised if it's reopened in the same way. Um… you know… like… the healed tissue evaporates in pixels…” Koushiro theorized.

All of them turned their heads expectantly towards Sogame. The woman scribbled madly on her notepad, her eyes glittering like a kid in a cake store. She stopped her hand when she realized all the eyes on her and put on a serious face again, albeit a bit too late.

“Ahem. That's a good theory. It should be easy to prove once I got to scan Yagami's injuries. But it means we need to hurry up and finish our mission so I can get a good full scan on his injuries before it’s fully healed.”

“It won't be fully healed if you guys let me walk,” Taichi grinned.

Joe put his hand on Taichi's shoulder and leered down, his glasses glinted ominously.

“Aren't you a bit too daring today?”

“Come on, it's just a joke…”

After that they finally left their camp towards the cave with Hackmon on the lead. It takes an hour descending the valley on Baihumon and Ebonwumon. Once they landed, Koushiro let the digimons out from digital space.

“The entrance is kinda small… Ebonwumon can't go in and while Baihumon could squeeze in it would be hard for him to move around,” Yamato said as he walked around the entrance.

“Koushiro, you think WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon could go in?” Taichi asked.

“WarGreymon could go in, but it might be hard to move freely. MetalGarurumon should have no problem,” Koushiro answered.

“Better than nothing. Agumon!" Taichi turned towards his partner.

“Gabumon, you too!” Yamato followed suit.

““Leave it to us!”” Both digimons replied at the same time.

Both of Taichi and Yamato's digivice shine and soon Agumon and Gabumon start to glow.

Agumon warp digivolve!
Gabumon warp digivolve!

The light died out and digivolution didn't happen. Both Agumon and Gabumon are still in their child form.

“That's weird. I’m sure I feel the power and I'm not hungry…” Agumon whined out.

“Maybe it's because we're not warp evolving lately? I mean, we did start taking turns when evolving,” Gabumon suggested.

Taichi and Yamato looked back at Koushiro.

“Worth a shoot,” Koushiro shrugged.

“Okay, Agumon! Once again!”

“Gabumon!”

“”Okay!"”

Agumon digivolves! Greymon!
Gabumon digivolves! Garurumon!

“Okay, it works…” Yamato sighed.

“Greymon! Once again!” Taichi shouted and his digivice glowed white light.

Greymon super digivolution!

The light died out and Greymon is still in champion form.

“Taichi, it's different from usual…” Greymon bent down to be more on eye level with his partner.

“Taichi, your digivice is not changing color. It's supposed to glow orange right?” Joe pointed out.

“Now that you mention it… It was white," Taichi pulled out his digivice and examined it.

“Garurumon! We're trying too!”

“Okay, Yamato!”

Yamato pulls out his digivice and it also glows the same white light.

Garurumon super digivolution! 

And then the light died out without any digivolution happening.

“Yeah, it was white not blue," Taichi stared at Yamato's digivice.

Yamato massaged his temple in frustration.

“So the problem is our crest? I mean Taichi has been avoiding topics left and right and I was being a shitty friend, but we didn't start just now and it worked before!”

“Hey, did he just imply that I’m a coward?" Taichi asked Greymon.

“But he's not wrong,” Greymon answered, grinning as his partner glared back at him.

“No, I can feel your crest activating. It just doesn't have enough power to trigger a higher digivolution,” Baihumon informed.

“Feeling his crest? You can feel his but not mine?” Taichi asked, growing anxious from the sovereign’s answer.

“Yes, but it was not your fault. Friendship and Reliability are the crests that I created, which is why I can feel them. Courage and Love was created by Zhuqiaomon so I have no connection to it.”

Taichi sighed in relief. Even he knows he has not been very upfront lately. He's just not mentally prepared yet. But if it hinders Agumon's ability to fight it might be better to just let all of it out whatever his mental state says. So far survival is still higher in priority than sanity.

Koushiro looked up from his laptop towards Ebonwumon.

“Ebonwumon, does Knowledge happen to be your crest?”

“That is right,” “Well done figuring it out,” Ebonwumon spoke with each of his head.

The other humans and 4 partner digimons let out a loud ‘oooh', being impressed by the boy.

“It's just I remembered Hikari said Azulongmon mentioned about crest of Hope and Light was the one who freed him from his seal, so I just guessing that those crests was Azulongmon's. That means the remaining Knowledge and Sincerity must be yours,” Koushiro rubbed his head and blushed.

“That is correct,” “Must not expect less from the holder of knowledge I see.”

Another round of ‘oooh' and red Koushiro.

“Ahem. Then me and Tentomon should try digivolving too just to be sure. Joe and Gomamon too!” Koushiro quickly changed the subject back.

“Okay. Gomamon!”

“Right here!”

“I'm ready, Koushiro!”

Both of Koushiro and Joe's digivice glow in white light.

Tentomon digivolves! Kabuterimon!
Gomamon digivolves! Ikkakumon!

“Once again!"

Kabuterimon super digivolution!
Ikkakumon super digivolution! 

The light died out and once again, no digivolution.

“White light, just like us,” Yamato sighed.

“How was it?" Koushiro asked.

“Just like Baihumon said, I can feel the crest activating,” “But the power was too weak,” Ebonwumon answered.

“It's the same as Friendship. The power is weak,” Baihumon confirmed.

“Is our trait no longer strong enough to power our crest…?"

Now it's Joe's turn to grow anxious.

“I don't think so."

Hackmon, who has been silently listening in, finally joined the conversation.

The others, humans and digimons including the sovereigns, looked curiously at him.

“During the last clash with Ordinemon I could feel a great power like no was like ever from Omegamon. And not only that, I'm sure that the digivolved Omegamon also has the power of Libra just like Ordinemon. It was as if I was watching the Light and Dark side of Libra fighting each other.”

Koushiro perked up again at Hackmon's information

 “Libra? You mean Meicoomon, right? She was also inside Omegamon while being inside Ordinemon at the same time? Howー”

“Hold your horse, Koushiro!"

Taichi raised his hand and stopped Koushiro from asking even further.

“Sorry, Hackmon. We should finish this first. Though I would absolutely love to know what actually happened to Meicoomon after we're finished here,” Taichi continued while putting a lot emphasis on the latter part.

Hackmon nodded along.

“Very well. Though what I wanted to say is your crest has probably exhausted its power after not only merging 8 powerful megas into one, but also to hold in Libra's tremendous power. I don't think it's something to be worried about. It happened before when you used your crests to free the sovereigns. Just give it more time to recover and it should go back to normal.”

“At least that's one less thing to worry about. But what should we do now? Even digging from the top will take too much time without our megas,” Yamato asked.

“Hmmm… Good question," Taichi leaned back on Baihumon's back again.

“I could go in and retrieve the body if you wish to," Hackmon offered.

“Hmmm… That might be the safest way, but…” Taichi leaned forward again.

“I want to go by myself if I can…”

Taichi stared forward at the entrance, his eyes cloudy. Dark as if he's about to cry but no tears to make it glassy.

“I'm sorry, but I'm coming too. My research aside, I want to be the one to send off one of my best friends. Whatever state he's in,” Sogame also added.

The humans look back at Hackmon again. At this point he's probably the best option for protection that they have. Though a bit awkward one due to their very recent history with Homeostasis.

Hackmon closed his eyes for a moment before opening again.

“It should be no problem. I have checked this area and it seems there's no giant cluster of data. Unless there's some kind of portal, we should be able to handle wild digimons even with only 5 child levels.”

“... Hackmon, you're a child level?" Taichi asked.

“Yes, I am.”

Kabuterimon slowly bent down to Koushiro and whispered to his partner.

“Koushiro, you forgot to tell him.” 

Unfortunately, Kabuterimon’s voice is too loud to be a whisper. Taichi glared at the tech genius who in turns looked away from the offending gaze.

The 4 champions dedigivolved back into rookies. After a bit of struggle getting Taichi down from Baihumon to Yamato's back (He's getting too comfortable riding Baihumon! - Yamato), they finally set out to explore the cave while the two sovereigns wait outside.

“So, anyone got light?” Yamato asks as they stand at the entrance.

No one answered. Taichi sighed and pulled out his phone with his left hand and set it to flashlight mode.

“Here,” He tossed the phone to Joe.

“Of course! We have our phones!” Koushiro would have been facepalmed if he didn't have his laptop in his hands.

“That's clever coming from you," Yamato snickered.

“When you wake up alone in a completely pitch black place totally sore while the world is probably ending outside, what is the first thing you do? Pull out your phone of course! We're in the 21st century dude!”

No one bothered to challenge his logic and just gratefully accept the phone and go inside the cave while Baihumon and Ebonwumon waited outside. Joe has his own first aid kit pouch and Taichi's bag after so much persuasion from the younger boy. There's a lot of harmless wild digimon inside the cave, mostly still in-training. They have a bit of a run with a horde of Numemon and Chuumon but manage to drive them off after a bit of struggle.

“Why are there so many Numemons?! Aren't they champions?!” Taichi yelled in frustration.

“Well, it's Numemon…” was the only answer he got from Koushiro.

They followed Koushiro's navigation again and arrived at a dead end.

“It's a dead end…”

Joe knocked at the rock to make sure it's actually there and not a hologram.

“It looks like the path has collapsed. If it went just like what Taichi described, then it means we're on the correct path,” Koushiro mused.

“How close are we, Koushiro?” Taichi asked.

“Pretty close. I think we can even dig to force our way in from here.”

“Okay, let's take a break then. It's lunch time now.”

Before anyone could ask, Taichi pointed at Yamato. The blonde might try to act strong, but he's heaving hard. They have been walking for an hour now and Yamato has to do that while carrying an almost adult teen on his back. Not to mention that Taichi is actually a lot heavier despite looking quite slim and smaller than him. He thinks Joe mentions something about muscle mass or something.

“No, it's okay. I can go on just a bit more,” Yamato said between his heaving.

“No, you're resting. We still have to walk back after we're finished, unless you want to let me walk on my own then fine we can go on. And besides, we need to think how to dig this thing anyway so we're resting. That's final.”

Yamato sighed and gently lowered Taichi to the most comfortable looking ground before collapsing himself nearby. The others huddled closer and sat down themselves.

“It's not fair that you can force me to rest when we have to struggle to make YOU rest," Yamato grumbled under his breath but everyone could hear him clearly.

“It means you still have a long way to go, dear Matty,” Taichi grinned.

“Who the hell is Matty?!”

Joe put Taichi's phone in the center of their circle as Tentomon and Sogame distributed their rations. Koushiro is already back to checking their coordinates while eating.

“There should be about 200m left until the transfer point. But I don't know how thick this wall is. If we're lucky, it will be just a thin wall that we can break through to another path. The problem is, how we're going to dig it,” Koushiro summed up their condition.

“Hey, Taichi. Don't you happen to have some handy tool that we can unexpectedly use?" Joe asked a bit hopefully.

“Well, last time I checked my phone couldn't be used to dig. It's not some kind of 22nd century tanuki robot's handy tools, you know? It's a plain 21st century phone!” Taichi answered.

“And you can simply say no," Yamato rolled his eyes at Taichi.

“Agreed!" Agumon added once he swallowed his food.

“And what fun in that?” Taichi grinned back.

“Anyway! Back to how we'll dig it!" Joe reeled back the conversation again.

“Hackmon, can you digivolve into champion? Maybe you could fit?” Sogame asked.

“I might be able to fit in as BaoHuckmon. But as my original purpose is to be Homeostasis’ messenger and executioner, I rarely spent any time using other forms besides Hackmon and Jesmon that I'm not sure about the extent of my control over my own digivolution. And I thought we should have avoided any ‘accident' here,” Hackmon replied.

Speaking about accidents, Hackmon's other form, Jesmon, is about as big as Omegamon. If he by any chance over digivolved straight to mega, big chance they will be buried here. The thoughts sent a shiver down their spine.

“Don't worry, I have an idea. But my condition is that Yamato gets a proper rest first,” Gabumon smiled slyly.

“See?! Gabumon see my point!” Taichi yelled out.

“Gabumon, you traitor…” Yamato growled.

“Sorry, but as a digimon partner, my first priority is always my human partner, whether you like it or not," Gabumon shrugged as he reached out for another fruit.

“Agreed~” Agumon, Tentomon, and Gomamon cheered.

They finished their lunch and relaxed back a bit after repacking their things. Yamato urged for them to move along but Gabumon and Taichi made sure that they won't move anywhere until he's somewhat rested. Koushiro went back to his laptop, checking and rechecking their coordinates for who knows how many times. Somewhere during that, they swapped Taichi's phone with Yamato so Taichi still could have his battery left just in case. It already saved him once after all.

“Okay, I should have rested enough. It's already 2 PM now or should we wait out until night before we move again?!" Yamato yelled out in frustration.

Taichi and Gabumon looked at each other. Gabumon shrugged, which Taichi took as he already thought it's enough.

“Okay, let's go.”

Yamato carried Taichi on his back again and they lined up in front of the collapsed path with Gabumon in front of them.

“Okay, everyone! Now, step back!” Gabumon ordered.

The group seemed confused but obeyed anyway and walked a few steps behind.

“Back down a bit farther! Hmmm… Around that rock!” Gabumon demanded again, this time pointing at a rock a bit farther than them.

The group shrugged and walked towards the rock. Gabumon smiled, now satisfied at their distance.

“Now, Yamato. Let me digivolve!”

"Digivolve? Are you sure? This tunnel is narrower than the entrance. I don't think you could even stand here?” Yamato asked back.

“Don't worry! Believe in me!" Gabumon assured.

Yamato exchanges glances to Koushiro, who in turn looks towards Taichi who is in Yamato's back. After a chained nod, Yamato looked back towards his partner.

“Fine then. Gabumon!”

Yamato's digivice glowed in white light, then followed by Gabumon.

Gabumon digivolves! Garurumon!

The white light dimmed down and the giant wolf is now filling up the tunnel in front of them. Garurumon stood awkwardly with bent legs as the tunnel was clearly not high enough for him.

“This is narrower than I thought…”

Garurumon sits down flat to the ground and extends his front leg to the wall. He tapped a few times before sinking his claws in and bringing down a good chunk of dirt.

“I see, it doesn't matter if he can't walk! As long as he can extend his leg then he can dig!” Koushiro exclaimed.

Garurumon repeated the process a few more times until he could see a dent in the wall.

“Seems like I can go through. You guys sit down while I dig," Garurumon said before starting to dig again.

“And why can't he dig while we rest before? This is a waste of time!" Yamato sighed hard.

“Gabumon needs some rest too, you know?" Taichi countered.

Yamato shut down real quick this time.

It took Garurumon another half hour and several sneezes until he finally broke through to the other side. Fortunately, the wall is not that thick and it does lead to another path. He did hit a metal wall after digging through some collapsed dirt, but he made quick work through it with a few kicks. Garurumon dedigivolves back into Gabumon before joining the group again.

“Should be enough to go through!" Gabumon said proudly.

“Thanks, Gabumon” Yamato thanked his partner which made the digimon smile even wider.

“Here, Gabumon. You have dirt on your snout,” Tentomon pulled out a handkerchief from who knows where and wiped Gabumon's face.

“Thanks, Tentomon!” Gabumon happily said.

Joe stepped forward with Yamato's phone light and stood in front of the hole.

“Okay, let's go then!”

Joe entered the hole first, followed by Gomamon and Hackmon, then Sogame, Koushiro and Tentomon, Yamato and Taichi, and lastly Agumon and Gabumon.

The passage they entered looks more man made than the rest of the dirt tunnel with most of the wall and ceiling covered by several metal sheets. The part they opened the hole from seems like the entrance from the cave that already collapsed. There are several broken walls and ceilings that also have collapsed, but at least there's still enough space from them to pass through.

“Hm? What is that?”

Something caught Joe's eyes while walking and he directed the light to the opposite path from where Koushiro directed him to.

“Joe, please be careful. We don't know what's in here.”

Joe nodded at Koushiro's warning and slowly walked to the strange wall, Gomamon and Hackmon creeped slowly beside him. He focused the light on a stain in the wall and gasped loudly. The group went alert in an instant and followed the young man and faced the same scenery.

“It's… it's blood…”

Joe pointed at the stain, his face went blue.

Before Yamato could look closer, he felt Taichi struggled behind him.

“Taichi! What…!”

Yamato yelled out, but Taichi's struggling made it hard for him to keep Taichi on his back and finally he accidentally dropped Taichi down after a hit to his head.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Yamato yelled out at the same time he went to check the brunette. But instead of answering him, Taichi puked his guts out. Yamato can even see tears hanging at the corner of their leader's eyes even only with the faint light from Yamato's phone on Joe's hand on the front. Agumon quickly took over when Yamato froze and patted Taichi's back while whispering comforting words.

No one managed to say anything until Taichi had nothing more to puke out and finally ended his episode in short wheezes. But at least Joe has enough conscience to point the light away from the blood stained wall as soon as Yamato dropped Taichi.

“Taichi, you okay?” Yamato asked as soon as the wheezing calmed down.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Don't want to puke over your precious hair,” Taichi let out a weak laugh.

“Sora's right, you're an idiot. You're having a big mental issue over there and you're more worried about my hair?”

Yamato also laughed a bit as he helped Taichi to sit down properly and not burdening his wounded limbs.

“I'm sorry to say this, but with Taichi having such a violent reaction it means that this is the correct place isn't it?” Koushiro asked.

“Yeah… That was where I found him…” Taichi answered.

He looked over the wall again. He can't see the blood anymore without Joe pointing the light over it, but in his mind he can see it clearly. Nishijima smiled gently with his black suit tied over his abodemen, the white shirt he was wearing splattered with still expanding red stains.

“You should rest," Yamato said.

“No, the sooner we're done, the sooner I can get over this. Even I'm tired of feeling this way,” Taichi said back, not leaving any room for discussion.

Yamato sighed and lifted Taichi to his back.

“Fine. But this time just tap my head twice if you need to go down. No more dropping from my back,” Yamato demanded.

“Okay, fine.”

Yamato nodded at the rest of their group and let Joe walk past them so he once again stood in front of them as they took the opposite route.

Chapter Text

“This way.”

Koushiro didn't even need to reconfirm with his map since it seems Taichi unfortunately remembered every detail of the lab he only visited once. They walked a few more turns into a room with rows of busted control panels and broken glass windows on the other side. Taichi tapped Yamato's head twice and Yamato quickly lowered him to the ground. Taichi hacked a few times but nothing went out besides some acidic stomach fluid.

“Th… There… Behind the second row of panels…”

He pointed towards the rows of panels. The others instantly knew what he meant and gulped hard. They're finally here.

Taichi pulled Yamato's hand to pull himself up, but Yamato pushed him back down.

“No, I don't think you should see that.”

“Yamato… please…”

Yamato never saw their leader this wrecked before. His eyes glittered with unshed tears while his breath hitched. Sweat runs down his face and his chest heaving up and down. Either saliva or stomach fluid dripped from the corner of his mouth.

It reminds Koushiro of that time they were desperately searching for Hikari's medicine in the digital city. But back then Taichi still had the energy to fight him and enough rationality to realize that they're being followed. This Taichi doesn't have any of that.

Yamato looked over to the other three humans. None of them know what to do.

Taichi released Yamato's hand when he realized that the blonde wouldn't pull him up and crawled closer to one of the panels and used it to pull himself up.

“Taichi!”

Agumon ran up to his partner and helped him up by supporting him from below. He knows whatever he say won't sway Taichi. The brunette has always been somewhat stubborn, especially now that he's clearly not in the right mind.

Yamato almost went up to Taichi and Agumon to help him. If Taichi is that determined, then he has to deal with his own consequences on his own later. But then Sogame's words rang in his head.

‘He'll destroy himself and you're enabling him’

Yamato gritted his teeth. They denied it before, but he can't help but to agree this time. Now they're this close, even Yamato is sweating hard and having a second thought from taking the last few steps to face Nishijima and he's not the mentally traumatized one. Well, he's kinda traumatized too but not to Taichi's extent. He doesn't even want to imagine what will happen to Taichi if they proceed.

“Taichi!”

Agumon's voice snapped him back to reality. It seems Taichi has slipped and dropped down again and is now heaving hard. Yamato quickly went over to put Taichi into a more comfortable position, but was still unsure whether to help him up or keep him down. His current priority is to let Taichi breathe, nothing else matters.

“Yagami, do you really have to do this?” Sogame asked.

“Yeah… I… I need to…”

Taichi's eyes glazed over again. Sogame sighed and mumbled out, “Can't really say anything against you anymore, Ishida…”

Sogame then took out her own phone, switched the flashlight on, and walked forward without waiting for Joe who held their light the whole way. Joe quickly followed the woman. Koushiro followed next with Tentomon hovering above him. Gomamon and Hackmon stood by the entrance while Agumon and Gabumon hovered around Taichi and Yamato just in case.

Yamato sighed and finally steeled himself. If Taichi breaks down from this he will just have to stay with Taichi all the way. No, not only him… all of them. They will stay with Taichi and fix him again and again, no matter how many times they need to do it.

Yamato made sure Taichi was secured on his back before following the three. Agumon and Gabumon followed close behind just in case Taichi struggled again.

The first one to throw up was Joe. The young man quickly put Yamato's phone on somewhat sturdy remains and dashed to a corner where he emptied his stomach. Koushiro’s face is green, but he managed to hold himself by throwing both of his hands over his mouth. Yamato managed to toughen it up with his hands still securing Taichi on his back. Admittedly, some managed to escape his mouth but he swallowed it back. Felt gross, but if he let it out, he’s sure he won't be able to stop the rest from coming out.

Taichi's lack of response worries him, but he doesn't think he can handle it if Taichi reacts violently again.

Sogame put down her phone and took out her notebook.

“A week old corpse, no smell, no rotting. Still rather intact even with the destruction around the area. Blood mixed with bio-data cubes… perhaps the cubes tried to replace the blood he lost before his death…?” Sogame mumbled out. 

Yamato widened his eyes at the woman.

This is… this corpse is… was her friend. She is one of his best friends. How can she calmly observe it?

“Ha… hahaha…”

Yamato heard a laugh from behind. The laugh doesn't feel like a fake one but it feels very hollow. And that's worse than the forced one in Yamato's book.

“Look at him… smiling so satisfied. Does he know what he made me go through?”

Taichi had his usual teasing tone, but it all sounded so humorless. He then fell silent again, not really taking his eyes from Nishijima.

Sogame put down her notebook and pen to the side and fumbled with her pouch.

“Kido, Izumi. If you're done could you hold the lights for me? I want to take pictures before we wrap him up.”

Koushiro and Joe looked at each other’s pale faces and shrugged. They each took Yamato and Sogame's phone and aimed it at the corpse. Joe's stomach retched again while Koushiro just decided he couldn't take it anymore and closed his eyes while breathing out slowly to calm his own racing heart.

Yamato gathered his courage and looked at their mentor for the last few months, if only to honor the man for the last time.

Just like Taichi said, Nishijima was smiling. His empty eyes are still open halfway. His upper body was miraculously still mostly intact from being hidden below the control that took most damage from the collapsing room. The lower body is not so fortunate. One of his legs disappeared under a boulder in this weird messy cube mixed with blood and flesh. The other parts are not far different. Some wounds are a weirdly half digitized mix of cubes, blood, and flesh. The white shirt he's wearing was soaked in blood until just under his chest while the rest are covered in dirt and ash. The suit jacket he used to wrap his abodemen loosened and ripped in several places. Under the corpse was a pool of blood and pink bio-data cubes.

The camera stopped after several clicks and Sogame took a bit of time to review the pictures.

“Sorry, it's all blurry. I need to retake it.”

She started over and reviewed again after the clicks but it all ended up blurry again. Yamato took his eyes off the corpse to the woman. That was when he noticed that Sogame's hands were trembling. No wonder the pictures are all so blurry. He took a peek at her notebook. The neat letters from what he thought her note from this morning blended into what he could only describe as barely eligible chicken scratch. She's trying to deal with Nishijima's death in her own way, probably by drowning herself in her work-mode.

And you're the one to talk about self destroying behavior.

Yamato sighed and shifted Taichi so he could support the boy with one hand. He used the other hand and reached towards Sogame's camera.

“Here, I'll support it so hurry up and take the pictures.”

He didn't mean to sound so mean, but he doesn't feel like he has the energy to correct that.

“Yeah… thanks,” Sogame replied.

The woman quickly went back to taking pictures with Yamato's help. Fortunately this time it was mostly clear so they just had to retake a few more pictures until Sogame got what she wanted. It took about 15 minutes max, but for them it feels like a whole day already went and gone.

“This is enough, thanks.”

Sogame secured her camera on her pouch again. Joe and Koushiro placed back the light and sighed in relief.

Sogame reached down towards Nishijima’s face and closed his eyes.

“Sleep well, Daigo,” She whispered.

Joe and Koushiro stepped back to give them space.

“So… so, how do we… um… carry him out…?” Joe asked after a few minutes of silence.

They all almost facepalmed for not thinking that far. Well, they kinda expected that Nishijima was already dead, but somehow it still strikes them like a fetch mission. The one to get things and go back like that. It kinda slips out their mind how disturbing retrieving a corpse was.

“Joe, my bag… There's a body bag in there," Taichi softly whispered.

Joe quickly retrieved the bag and opened it. Sure, there was Taichi's shoe bag and smaller pouch he presumed was Taichi's medicine. A few more items like his monocular and goggles, Joe just noticed that Taichi is not wearing it, was buried inside and under all of that is a thick black object.

Bodybags.

Two of them.

Joe shook off the implication and pulled out one of it and zipped the bag close again.

Yamato already put Taichi down in a stable looking heap of rubble. The brunette seems pretty unresponsive but at least there's no violent reaction again. Yamato went to help Koushiro and Sogame clean a part of the floor to lay down the bag, Gabumon, Tentomon, Gomamon, and Hackmon also helped. Agumon is torn between helping out too or staying beside his unresponsive partner, Gabumon convinces him to stay with Taichi.

Once the floor was clear enough, Joe laid down the bag and pulled down the zipper. Koushiro apologized that he couldn't handle it and stepped away while Yamato, Joe, and Sogame put down as much of Nishijima’s torn off parts as possible inside the bag. After they found all the parts they can find, Yamato and Joe proceed to rearrange it so it won't get too messy on the move while Sogame collected more samples from the blood stained stones, fleshy bits, bio-data cubes, dirts, anything and place it on separate sealed bags.

Once they secured all of it they walked back through the path. Tentomon and Hackmon were in the front since they're the one who remembered the path, followed by Sogame who hold the light and Taichi's bag, Gomamon, then Joe and Koushiro who carried Nishijima, then Yamato and Taichi, lastly Agumon and Gabumon. No one really spoke beside the utmost necessity. They encountered the Numemon herd again but the killing intent from the guarding digimons were enough to keep them away this time.

In the end it took them less time to exit the cave compared to when they entered it.

Ebonwumon silently greeted them back at the entrance. Baihumon slowly walked towards the group.

Joe and Koushiro hesitantly offer the body bag they're holding to the tiger. Baihumon narrowed his eyes and used his power to lift Nishijima's body from the boys' hands.

Worried about the tiger, Sogame followed Baihumon into a bigger clearing where the tiger placed Nishijima's body. Sogame unzipped the bag a bit to show Nishijima's face and pulled a handkerchief to clean it as much as she could. Beside the bruises and cuts, Nishijima looks like he's peacefully sleeping in his sleeping bag. Baihumon stared longingly at Nishijima's face and curled down beside his partner.

“It's been a while, and this is how we meet again… At least now I know you have lived your life to the fullest.”

Sogame stepped back quickly and fidget.

“I'll just… um… leave you two alone, okay. Call us whenever you're ready.”

Sogame hastily walked away from the clearing.

“Ritsu… thanks. Give my gratitude to the rest of the children too.”

“Will do.”

Sogame ran back to the group, leaving the griefing digimon behind.

“Sogame, is Baihumon…”

Koushiro wasted no time to ask. Worry was clear in his face.

“I don't know… But I think... he will get over it. No clue if that counts as okay.”

Koushiro nodded, then turned his head towards the rest of the group. Joe was looking after Taichi again, checking if the fall and dirty space did something bad to his wounds. Yamato and Agumon are watching closely while the other digimons help with whatever they can. Taichi was uncharacteristically cooperative, only speaking to answer some questions.

“Sorry guys… I think I need some time off alone. You know, checking the samples. I'll see you guys tomorrow.”

Sogame shrugged and walked away. Despite her excuses, they all understand what she needs her off time for. Ebonwumon had one of his heads looking towards Sogame while the other looked towards the group.

“Don't worry, I will patrol nearby,” Hackmon assured the sovereign.

“Thank you.”

Ebonwumon dragged his large body to follow Sogame.

Koushiro walked back to the group just in time as Joe finished rewrapping Taichi's wounds again. Koushiro was looking towards Taichi. Taichi's head was down but it doesn't really hide how empty his eyes are. Then he looks towards Yamato, the blonde looks very exhausted in a lot of ways, but still holding on. Then lastly, towards Joe. The oldest member of their team also looks utterly exhausted, mostly mentally.

Koushiro bit his lips and decided he should take control now.

“Joe… Let's build the camp while it's still somewhat bright. Everyone, please help us with the food,” Koushiro said while looking over to everyone.

“I'll help too.”

Yamato tried to stand, but Koushiro put a hand on his shoulder and put him back to sit down.

“Yamato, you're exhausted. Please rest. Hackmon is patrolling nearby and he can digivolve into Jesmon in this open space. We should be safe.”

Tentomon nudged Gabumon who instantly got what Koushiro was getting at.

“Koushiro is right, Yamato. You should rest. Leave the rest to us!”

Gabumon patted the blonde's arm and looked over to Gomamon. The seal got the message.

“Ah, yeah! I'll get some fish or whatever to eat. Come on, Agumon!”

“But, Taichi…” Agumon protested.

Gomamon glared at Yamato while Gabumon squeezed his arm. That finally got Yamato to turn the gear in his head.

“It's… It will be fine. I'll stay with Taichi,” Yamato forced a big smile.

“... if you say so…”

Agumon finally agreed and followed Gomamon to the river. But then he looked back one last time to Yamato.

“Don't get kicked again, okay.”

With that Yamato is left alone with Taichi.

“Like hell I will…”

Yamato sighed and turns his head towards Taichi again.

“Taichi…”

He called softly once, but no response.

“Taichi!” He tried stronger.

Taichi finally lifted his head and stared Yamato dead in the eye.

“What?”

“What… what?”

Yamato didn't think that far when he called out to Taichi. Maybe he half expected Taichi would start ranting so he knew where to start. But again, he forgot how tight lipped the other boy could be when he's truly pissed off and giving everyone a silent treatment.

How did he do it again when Taichi got like this? Ask him what happened? Well, Yamato knows what exactly happened this time. Force him to spill what's wrong? Everything was wrong, even he didn't know where to start with what's wrong with himself. Physically shakes him off? Well, getting punched by Taichi is one thing, getting kicked is a whole different thing. The brunette was not the 2nd year team captain for nothing.

He looked over to Taichi again. The brunette was patiently waiting for him, though his lips are pressed into a thin line and his eyebrows angled down like he's starting to get impatient.

It hurts to see him like this. It hurts to think about Baihumon. It hurts to think about Sogame's trembling hands too. Even Koushiro and Joe who were less emotionally invested in this are making such pitiful attempts to appear unaffected that it hurts to listen to.

Everything hurts.

Yamato reached his hands towards Taichi and pulled the other boy into a hug. His face is buried in Taichi's bushy hair while Taichi's forehead was touching Yamato's chest.

“Yamato…?” Taichi hesitantly asked.

Yamato doesn't answer. But Taichi could feel that the blonde was trembling.

“Yamato… are you… crying?”

There's no answer. Taichi hesitantly brought up his left hand to Yamato's back and rubbed it up and down.

“... yeah. I'm crying… I'm fucking crying okay?!”

It started as a whisper between sobs, but then turned into a yell. Yamato still doesn't released Taichi yet.

“Just for you to know, I cried on that night when we thought you died too! Mimi also cried herself to sleep! Sora cried right away as soon as you're gone! Hikari was too shocked to cry but I bet she's crying so hard inside! Takeru tried to hide it but he cried too! You know how much a crybaby he is! Koushiro drowned himself on the screen! Joe of all people looks extra pissed off!”

Taichi just silently listened as Yamato kept yelling out.

“Everything just sucks you know… It's just… It never got to THIS point… I'm just so frustrated how painful everything is…”

Yamato's yells die down to whispers as he keeps sobbing.

“Taichi… why are you so silent? Why won't you cry? You're not shutting down like Hikari did… It might be simpler if you do… I just… I don't know what’s going on inside your head and it frustrates me…”

Yamato clenched his hands on Taichi's back. Taichi stopped and lowered his hand.

“I… I don't know. I don't think I can cry. At least not now…”

Yamato pushed Taichi, his tear soaked face is now facing directly towards Taichi's. 

“WHY?! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST CRYING! I SAW YOU CRYING A PLENTY OF TIME BEFORE! YOU CRIED YESTERDAY! WHY CAN'T YOU CRY NOW?!”

Yamato is full blown yelling now. Taichi widened his eyes. Yamato could see something swirling back in Taichi's eyes, setting the fire back into the empty irises. But whatever it was, Taichi quickly pushed it back and it frustrates Yamato even more. He grabbed Taichi's tie and pulled their faces closer. He's yelling directly to Taichi's face now.

“Why… Why do you need to push it back…? Why don't you just let your feelings out?! You'll explode if you keep everything bottled in you idiot!!!”

“Because I'll get myself killed at best, or the whole world to crumble at worst.”

Yamato released Taichi's tie and leaned back. Staring at the brunette with a confused look.

“I was… sad, and lost all this time ever since I escaped that hell. I keep telling myself that there's still a 0.0001% chance that Mr. Nishijima is still alive even though I know very well how impossible it is. I have to, otherwise I might go mad. And maybe I have gone mad now.”

Taichi shifted and leaned forward now, his eyes now staring hard at Yamato's. The blonde can tell that his eyes are not empty and very much alive. But it's still not Taichi's warm brown eyes. He can't recognize these eyes.

“Yamato… I don't think I can cry now. Simply because I don't feel sad anymore. I'm not even frustrated nor lost. Yamato, I'm angry. So damn fucking pissed off I don't even trust myself doing anything not stupid or suidical.”

Yamato can finally identify the unknown fire that flickers behind his best friend's eyes. Burning flame of rage. But this flame feels so cold and ruthless. Not the ‘imma kill someone' that Taichi often utters when it comes to Hikari's potential boyfriend. This one is so pure that it frightens him. Not even once he saw so much rage inside the brunette. Though never does any of them ever get killed, like seriously killed for real with corpse and stuff.

“When I saw Mr. Nishijima's… corpse, my mind went into overdrive. Thinking dozens over dozens of scenarios of what ifs, what I could have done to avoid this outcome. The first one to come is despair upon realizing whatever I choose, I will have to sacrifice someone. And then frustration upon realizing how weak and stupid I am. If it's Koushiro there, he might be able to figure something out. If I'm with Agumon, then we might be able to force our way out. With only me, everything is impossible. I'm so powerless and useless. After I'm done feeling sorry for myself… I'm just… angry about everything. If I let my emotions control myself right now, I would already be running around to who knows where so I can shred Yggdrasil to shreds with my own hand. Both of us know that I'll just get myself killed that way so I won't. The more I feel it, the more unbearable it becomes so I just don't.”

“... you just… don't? Don't what?” Yamato hesitantly asked.

“Don't think much about it. You know, just prioritizing, stuff like that.”

Yamato shot him a horrified look, and Taichi sighed irritably.

“It's not something new, you know? I did it all the time. Maybe ever since 6 years ago.”

“Our first adventure…”

“Yeah. You guys told me right? That I'm always acting reckless, letting my emotions get the best of me and not thinking with my head. You guys were right, SkullGreymon was proof of my foolishness. That's why I start trying to think everything over first before acting. Sometimes my emotions are too unreasonable it clouded my judgment so I kinda learned how to shut it down. It works very well with my crest too. The act of courage is not to feel fear, but to feel the fear and overcome it, was it? Pretty easy once I figured out how to do it. Though to be honest, it's kinda different this time. I'm sure I've never been this mad before. It took me everything just to keep myself still and speak to you like this instead of… you know.”

Yamato widened his eyes. How can he not see it, the dark side of their crest. Mimi's sincerity made her brutally honest to the point of hurting everyone around her. Joe's reliability made him take on too much responsibility that he became too overwhelmed. Koushirou's knowledge made him become frustrated when there's something he can't figure out. Takeru's hope made him cling to an empty hope instead of finding his own way out. Sora's love made her unable to love herself as she has given too much to everyone else. Hikari's light is so blinding that it casts a giant shadow on her feet.

Everyone has shown theirs and either embrace or overcome it in order to digivolve their partners to the mega level. But he and Taichi never need to face it since Gabumon and Agumon could digivolve into mega from the start. He liked to believe that he understood how bad it was after he saw Takeru's, but it seems he's wrong.

Taichi's courage… The crest has made him overcome his own fear too many times that he started to overcome many other important emotions too. The emotions that made out the lovable jock Taichi they knew. If this keeps going, eventually there will be nothing of Taichi they knew left within this person in front of him.

Yamato clenched his hand over his chest.

Then what is the dark side of my crest?

“Yamato?”

Yamato turns back at Taichi again. The boy has a concerned look. The burning rage is gone, but his eyes are not empty. For a split second he’s relieved that Taichi is back to normal again. But then he remembered what was just told to him. He’s not back to normal, just shoved off that terrifying rage to the back of his head for later.

“Taichi… I… I still don't think you should bottle it up like that. You know, you can punch me if it makes you feel better. Let it out somewhere… somehow…”

“Easy for you to say that. The only thing I want now is watching Yggdrasil and that bastard dead, preferably in the most agonizing way possible. Punching you won't make it better. Just… leave it out, okay. It will die out eventually. It always did.”

Yamato could feel frustration rising in his friend's voice, but that too was shoved back as the boy leaned back and forced himself to relax. Now that he knows, Yamato realized that Taichi does this all the time. Forcing himself to be calm instead of lashing out when he's angry or frustrated.

The thing is, there's barely anything behind the rage now. Once he tucked the ugly emotion away, there's nothing else left.

He still remembered Taichi lashing out every time the boy was angry, panicked, or frustrated. 

When did it start?

When he realized, tears flowed down from his eyes again.

“Taichi you idiot. Stupid idiot. Peas sized brain idiot.”

“Dude, you're stealing Sora's role now,” Taichi sighs again.

“Like hell I care. You're an idiot. I'll let Sora have a go at you later. But it's just you and me now. I'll call you an idiot as much as it takes for it to sink in! And since you won't cry, I have to cry twice now! It's all your fault!”

Yamato pulled Taichi in a hug again. He doesn't like it when Taichi stares him down while he's this vulnerable.

“Fine, just don't get too much snot on my hair.”

In a clearing nearby, Joe and Koushiro sat down while Koushiro arranged the branches for the campfire and Joe shaved another set of branches for the fishes that Gomamon promised.

They didn't mean to listen in, but with how eerily silent the forest was, it just kinda happened. In the north clearing is Baihumon, he's been dead silent for some time now. In the west was Sogame and Ebonwumon, they could hear faint sobs even from this far. In the South East direction was where they left Yamato and Taichi. They can hear some pieces of Yamato's one sided yelling but only ineligible whispers for Taichi's answer. From what they hear, things are not going pretty well over there.

“Joe… You okay now?” Koushiro asked.

“No, I still feel like puking but I don't have anything inside anymore.”

They continued their task in silence again, Yamato's and Sogame's sobs continued in the background. Koushiro eventually finished with the fireplace and drew his knees up, watching the burning fire silently. He thought about opening his laptop again but he's not in the mood for that.

“I guess Taichi is fine now. As in an acceptably functioning sense of fine. Dunno how much fine he's inside. He has not been in good shape mentally ever since this all started.”

Joe mindlessly continued his task as he spoke. Koushiro just silently listened to the young man, his face buried in his folded arm.

“Maybe because I'm not around as much as I like. The image of you guys inside me are just snippets, a precious photo album instead of a continuing roll of film. It's easier to notice the difference the wider the gap is.”

Joe set down the branches and joined Koushiro at the fire.

“I guess I'm lucky that I'm not emotionally invested with Nishijima as much as you guys. I have only met him once, the day he bailed us out from the police station to Tsukishima High. After that we're too busy chasing Meicrackmon to have any meaningful exchange. Even so, it hurts so much. That's why… no need to be ashamed for crying.”

Even so, Koushiro kept his teeth gritted tightly as he let a stream of tears flow down on his hidden face.

Joe sighed and turned over to Taichi and Yamato's direction.

He's worried about Taichi. The boy is the same as his sister, they are both the type to bottle up their feelings. But Taichi knows his outlet. Healthy on or not aside, Joe knows that Taichi will get over it eventually.

Now, he's more worried about Yamato. The blonde might not realize it, but he's not coping very well either. Not only about Nishijima but also about Taichi. He's overcompensating his relationship with Taichi in a different way from Hikari, but they are both doing the same thing.

After all, Taichi was gone in the heat of their argument. And to top that, Taichi turns out to be the right one. The guilt and regret must be so crushing.

“Why can't everything be as simple as it was in the past…?”

A bit farther away, Gabumon, Tentomon and Agumon sat by the river with a stack of fruits and some fishes, waiting for Gomamon to finish his dive for the meal. They were about to split into two groups, but Gabumon insisted that they went together to give their partners some more private time. This upseted Agumon who won't stop fidgeting all the time.

“Hey, I should really go back to Taichi… He needs me.”

Gabumon sighed at Agumon's 5th attempt to leave the group. He understood how precious their human partners are, they're practically soulmates… not in a romantic way.

But Gabumon also thought that they're ultimately different individuals and need their own private time here and there. Of course Agumon should understand that too. Though he has to admit that he doesn't know what it feels to lose a partner and not knowing how hurt it was until much later.

During one of their private time… or more like digital space time out duration, Agumon let them in with the dinosaur’s current problem.

When Taichi disappeared, Agumon still doesn't remember anything about Taichi. The only thing he knows is the boy's overwhelming courage and the great amount of sense of security. That there was nothing impossible when he was with Taichi. That's where the unusual confidence that Taichi survived comes from. A naive ignorance that just happens to be true.

But when he regained his memories, all the time they shared rewinded again. There he relieved again a ton over tons of his partner's vulnerable moments. While precious, it broke the invincible image of Taichi. That's when he was suddenly shocked by the realization of how bad it could have ended. It was late, there was something more pressing at the moment, but after everything ended, Agumon finally experienced the mind numbing shock over losing his partner.

Like Yamato said, Agumon and Taichi are more like 2 wounded animals licking each other's wounds. Just like Taichi seeks comfort from Agumon, Agumon too seeks assurance by being near Taichi.

Gabumon sighed, all these emotional things are just too complicated for his programming to keep up. Besides him, Agumon fidgeted again after not getting any answer. Gabumon is making such a painful and complicated expression and Tentomon… hard to understand his expression when he's not talking.

“Gomamon will come back soon. Let's wrap things up before we go back.”

Tentomon flew away, setting the plastic bag Joe gave them and started stuffing their spoils. Agumon instantly brightened and dashed to help, but stopped when Gabumon didn't move.

“Gabumon? You okay?” Agumon curiously peered at the horned digimon.

“Uh? What?” Gabumon startled after noticing Agumon's face right in front of him.

He looked around and his sight landed on Tentomon who silently cued him to the food.

“Oh! The food, right! Let's wrap up!” Gabumon hurriedly dashed towards Tentomon.

“Thanks for the help,” Gabumon whispered to Tentomon.

“No problem, but I don't think there's any need to hide that you're worried about Agumon.”

“Well, yeah… I just don't want to stress him any further”

Tentomon nodded and went back to his task.

“What did you guys talk about?”

“Nothing!”

Gabumon answered Agumon who finally managed to catch up a bit too fast that his voice cracked. Tentomon snickered behind the bag. Agumon looked at them weirdly. Then they got hit by raining fishes. They silently looked down at the flailing fishes, then towards the river where Gomamon slowly surfaced.

“Hey guys! What's with such a difficult face?” Gomamon cheerfully pulled himself out of the water and flapped to the group.

“... Nothing!”

Gomamon blinked at the group curiously.

After a few minutes, they finished wrapping the goods and walked back to the camp.

“I see… So you're anxious about leaving Taichi… Can't say I don't get that. Joe is… well, actually still always worrisome though. A seal needs a break here and there. Though I think it's for the better that you guys give each other a space once a while. Being too dependent is no good you know, both for you and for him.”

Gomamon flapped around in the front of the group. While he's not Gatomon, he shares Joe's sense of responsibility and takes the leading position of their temporary little group.

“Yeah… I guess you're right,” Agumon said weakly.

They walked in silence again.

“Come on, no one is going to comment something like ‘as expected from the runaway mon, you speak differently’ or something? I left myself open for retort on purpose!” Gomamon sighed. The other three digimons stared at him blankly.

“I'm sorry, I did try to learn about slapstick comedy but I don't really get it.” 

One of Tentomon's hands on the back, bowing a few times, all while still holding his share of a bag of food.

Having 4 hands sure is convenient.

“Never mind. I picked the wrong crowd,” Gomamon huffed and walked away again.

“... Hey Gomamon, what would you do if Joe… um… gone?” Agumon asked hesitantly.

Gomamon stopped and turned back, blinking at the dinosaur a few times before putting his flipper on his chin.

“Hmmmm… Tough question. For once I don't think I'll be alive if Joe got killed. I will never let that happen while I'm still alive. But if… Let's just put a big IF I somehow still alive after Joe died of old age or something, I think I'll either follow him or take on his dream. Be a doctor so great I could treat humans and digimon likewise. To say to the world that Joe was here and he was and is my greatest pride and joy! That if I didn’t end at the first option!” Gomamon ended in a big laugh.

“Gomamon… You're so strong. I… I don't know what I will do if… if Taichi is truly gone…”

Agumon clenched the bag in his hand, carefully not to poke a hole with his claws. Tears dropped slowly from his eyes.

“Agumon…” Gabumon whispered.

“Of course! Because I don't know how it truly feels, and honestly I don't want to know,” Gomamon said a bit irritably, but grinned anyway.

“Come on, let's just quit thinking about what ifs and go back. I thought you prefer it that way?”

“Yeah, you're right!” Agumon grinned and jogged ahead.

Gabumon and Tentomon exchanged glances and followed the dinosaur. Gomamon looks at his friends blankly before starting to chase them.

“Guys! Wait up! My flippers are not made to run on land!”

At some point, Yamato and Koushiro stopped crying. Joe carried Taichi over to their makeshift camp since Yamato does wobble despite whatever the blonde claimed to be. Joe won't risk Yamato dropping Taichi, and it's only a few meters anyway, he can manage.

And while it was harder than he expected, he did it. Yamato sure is a lot stronger than he looks.

The digimons returned sometime after and they had dinner, the standard unseasoned grilled fish and mystery fruits. Most of them have no appetite but Joe threatened to shove it down their throat if they won't eat. After they finished, he made a quick run to deliver it to Baihumon, Sogame, and Ebonwumon, making sure he didn't linger too long.

Hackmon stayed for dinner after much insistence from Joe and the digimons. Hackmon offered to take the night watch to make sure all of them rested well. Taichi took the offer and that night they all slept very early.

Chapter Text

Morning comes and goes. At noon they were finally awakened by the intense sunlight and uncomfortable heat. One thing Joe noticed is most of them are down with extreme headaches.

“Never know you can get a hangover from crying too much," Yamato complained.

“Yamato, you're not supposed to know what a hangover feels like!” Joe immediately retorted.

“It’s worse than pulling a 3 day straight,” Koushiro added his own complaint.

“Koushiro, you're supposed to have at least a healthy 7 hours of sleep everyday, not every 3 days!” Again, Joe is quick to scold the boy.

As Joe helped the boys to lie down, Ebonwumon appeared from the forest carrying Sogame with his mouth.

“Someone, kill me already…” Sogame sobbed as she dangled from Ebonwumon.

“Sorry, she's down,” Ebonwumon apologized with his free head.

Joe sighed and moved out quickly.

“Lie her down here. And Sogame, please stop crying if you can. You'll make it worse.”

Joe adjusted the woman's position to be more comfortable as Ebonwumon lowered her down.

“Gomamon, Tentomon, fetch me water as much as you can carry!”

“Okay!"

“Leave it to me!”

Joe started to rummage his bag and pulled a bottle of pills. Yamato, Koushiro, and Sogame probably need an extra. Taichi said he's okay and is in the middle of what he could almost call meditation except Taichi never really meditates so he doesn't know what to call it. Agumon blissfully snored while leaning on Taichi. Hackmon went on his usual patrol.

And then Gabumon… Gabumon?

“So, Gabumon. You're not okay,” Joe simply stated.

“Yeah, we're talking about… well, you know what yesterday. I had a bad nightmare and cried myself to sleep. I want to go back to sleep again but I can't sleep…” Gabumon whined.

Joe lies Gabumon down beside Yamato and looks at the digimon sympathetically. He had a rough guess about the discussion and the nightmare was about. He looked down at the bottle and then back to the digimon.

“Does paracetamol work on digimon?” Joe asked Ebonwumon.

“I'm afraid I'm not sure.” “Digimon doesn't usually get sick like that.”

Joe shrugged and turned back to Gabumon.

“So, you want to be probably the first digimon to try paracetamol?”

“Yes please… Anything to get rid of the headache…” Gabumon weakly answered.

Joe turned his head to Yamato. Well, Yamato is Gabumon's partner and thus his guardian.

“I won't oppose it if Gabumon wants to try.”

Joe nodded. He popped one pill and put it inside Gabumon's jaw and helped him to drink water from their water bottle to wash it down. Then he proceeded to pop out two for Yamato, Koushiro, and Sogame and proceed to help them the same.

“We're back!”

Gomamon announced as he and Tentomon entered the clearing again, each holding water in a makeshift container they made during the trip from File Island to Server Continent.

“Thanks, put it over there.”

Joe picked up a stick and tried to wake Agumon up, but the digimon just refused to wake up. He could swear Taichi sighed irritably before stopping Joe.

“Agumon, wake up,” Taichi whispered softly.

“I'm up! Taichi what's wrong?! You okay?! How are you feeling?! Is there anything I can do?!”

“It's not me, silly. Joe needs you. Go help him,” Taichi chuckled at his partner's attic.

Joe arched his eyebrow in confusion at the drastic change in attitude. Did he just imagine Taichi being mad?

“Joe?” Agumon tilted his head.

“Ah, yeah. You see, we got more patients. Can you help me to warm the water up? It should help to let their muscles relax.”

Agumon peered beyond Joe and sweatdropped when Gomamon cheerfully waves his flippers towards the 3 humans and 1 digimon lying down. Tentomon quickly carried over one of the bowls for Agumon to work on.

Once the water was warm enough, Joe took several small towels from his bag and wet it in warm water before handing it to each of the ‘patients’.

“Just hold it over your head, neck, or shoulder where you feel tense the most. Tell me if it got cold, I'll replace it.”

After a series of thanks, Joe moved on to his next task.

“Now, Taichi. Your turn.”

There's no protests, just a simple nod and Joe is down on his routine to take care of Taichi's wound. He finished very quickly this time.

Hackmon came back not long after, carrying some edible mushrooms and fruits for their lunch. After the meal, Joe went on to take care of the sick members with Tentomon and Gomamon's help. Agumon occasionally helped to warm the water back, but they let him stay with Taichi most of the time. In the afternoon, Baihumon finally joined them again, the bag with Nishijima's body on his back already zipped up tidily again.

“... What happened?” Baihumon curiously asked about the bizarre situation at the camp.

Ebonwumon gladly filled him in on the weird human and now 1 digimon thing.

It was almost dinner time when Yamato finally felt the invisible demon stop pounding his head and made an annoying constant tapping instead. They barely moved anywhere today.

Yamato, Koushiro, Sogame, and Gabumon were still lying down on the same spot. Joe worked on their campfire with Hackmon while Gomamon and Tentomon prepared the dinner they caught just a few minutes before. Ebonwumon sat near them, keeping eyes on the sick human and digimon. Baihumon also sat near to the group, placing Taichi so the boy would lean back against his soft fur instead of the tree with Agumon sitting beside Taichi. Nishijima's body was conveniently placed on the other side of the large tiger so it would stay out of view. Taichi was also looking a lot better. While he's still not talking much and not being annoying, at least he's not trying to actively ignore them unless he's needed anymore.

“So, what's next?”

Joe asked as soon as he's done arranging the branches for their camp fire.

“We'll go to Primary Village,” Taichi instantly answered.

“Though with our situation I don't think we can go with our previous arrangement, especially now we know anything beyond champion level is out of reach. So first, Tentomon. You digivolve to Kabuterimon so we can carry all of our ‘extra luggage’ to the shore.”

Yamato glared at the ‘extra luggage’ part. Tentomon just nodded at the idea.

“Then once we're at the shore, either Baihumon or Ebonwumon will carry the luggage and some of us to the other side then go back to the server's shore and pick up the rest of us. Of course if you don't mind…” Taichi trailed at the last part.

“That would be okay,” “I will go,” Ebonwumon answered.

“Thank you, Ebonwumon,” Taichi thanked the sovereign.

“Okay, that settled pretty quickly. So… what now?” Gomamon asked.

Now they have finished their chore and preparation for the night, all that was left was to eat dinner and rest. But the sun was still peeking shyly over the horizon and the night was going to be too long just for them to rest.

“Hackmon… Can… can you tell us about Libra… and Meicoomon?" Koushiro asked weakly, rolling over so he's facing Hackmon at the campfire side.

“Not even sickness could hold your curiosity I see” Ebonwumon chuckled.

Koushiro blushed. “I… I mean, I can't think of another topic. Maybe it's not the best time, but I can listen even if I can't do anything else, so yeah…” Koushiro ended it by scratching his reddened cheek.

Hackmon looked at Taichi, who he has come to recognize as the leader of the group.

“Sure, I'm curious too,” Taichi shrugged.

“Very well, then I will explain about Libra first,” Hackmon started.

They all nodded.

“Libra, first of foremost, is a program, a system part of Yggdrasil main system designed to maintain the balance and harmony of the world”

Koushiro nodded along.

“I see. Hence, Libra. The scale. But isn't that Homeostasis’ role?”

“That is correct. Homeostasis share a very similar role to Libra. But they have a single definite difference. That is Homeostasis is an entity while Libra is a system. Libra, while holding a tremendous amount of power, cannot function by itself so it absorbs the data from its surroundings. As time goes, Libra has eradicated and absorbed too much discarded data that was unneeded by the world and became corrupted. You should have come to recognize the end result as Apocalymon.”

“Apocalymon?!” Koushiro, Taichi, Yamato, and Joe gasped at the same time.

“Yes, it was a fatal design flaw of Libra which led it to be replaced by Homeostasis. Libra doesn’t have its own will and latch on whatever it could gather. But the discarded data it absorbed has bent its perspective of balance and fairness. You should be familiar with Apocalymon's view on this matter.

Once Homeostasis came into power, it decided that Libra had become unneeded and banished it to the other side of the wall of fire. But it doesn’t last long until Apocalymon’s leaked infection starts to affect the digimon inside the wall even without breaching the wall itself.

At that time, Digital world was still young. Without Libra’s power, no digimon was able to digivolve high enough to combat the Dark Masters. And so Homeostasis summoned 5 children as a makeshift Libra’s replacement to power up digidestined's digimons to level the battlefield.”

“That was… us,” Sogame whispered.

“Yes. Nishijima Daigo, Himekawa Maki, Itou Kyouya, Hinata Gorou, and you, Sogame Ritsu.

Just like it predicted, the prototype digivice was able to draw explosive emotional data from the children and use it to power up the digimons.

But in the end, the power was still lacking to stop the Dark Masters. In order to banish the Dark Masters and keep the children alive, Homeostasis stepped in and used the strongest data of all 5 children, Himekawa Maki and Megadramon, as a catalyst to forcefully digivolve the other 4 into a higher being. It drew everything from both of them and split it into four. As the result, not only Megadramon is permanently deleted, but Himekawa Maki was also left with a gaping hole where her too strong emotion used to be. That is Homeostasis’ first sin.”

“Hime…? I mean, she’s kinda weird after we got back to the real world. But honestly we’re all pretty depressed for years after that, so… Well damn, I’m just making excuses am I?” Sogame laughed humorlessly.

“Ritsu…” Ebonwumon bumped his head towards her and let Sogame pet his head.

“Gennai used to lament… That perhaps Himekawa Maki’s soul was already dead that day.” Hackmon whispered.

“With the Dark Master and Apocalymon still on the other side and the wall of fire slowly, but surely dimming day by day, it would be inevitable that Homeostasis will need another force to fight back. Even so Digital World is as young as ever and with Apocalymon still spreading infection, the inhabitant of DW was still too busy to survive and revive to be able to grow strong enough to be an executioner. It was inevitable that a new set of children would need to be called again as no better alternative existed at the time.

Even so, Homeostasis recognized the flaw in its own way with the first set of children that led to Himekawa Maki’s incident. The reason why the first digidestined’s digimon wasn’t able to digivolve to ultimate level steadily let alone to mega is that the children’s emotions, while powerful, were too scattered. Around that time, a rogue digimon entered the real world and came into possession of two very young children.”

“That would be Taichi and Hikari,” Koushiro said, in which Hackmon nodded.

“The two children effortlessly digivolved a Botamon all the way into Greymon in a very short time and fought back against the much stronger Parrotmon, all without the help of digivice. The reason is these young children not only have a very strong emotion, but also a very straightforward trait that enables the emotion to be converted into digivolution power a lot more efficiently. This definite trait is what was lacking by the first group as it was more common in younger children than older ones. But if the children are too young, they’re less likely to be able to survive the digital world. And so Homeostasis scanned as many children in the area as it can and gathered children with similar quality. From their data, Homeostasis has chosen another 6, and created each a set of powerful crests and digimon out of the children's data. This is Homeostasis’ second sin.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! How, like how in the hell our crest and partners are a mistake?!”

Yamato interjected quite immediately, and then regretted it as it came back in full force to his aching head.

“Yeah, while I already come to terms that Homeostasis created me, I don’t really appreciate being called a sin,” Gomamon tapped his flipper irritably against the ground.

“That’s right. I might not agree with Homeostasis’ way this time, but I never regretted meeting Agumon. If I got to go back in time and choose, I will still choose this way,” Taichi said flatly but Yamato still could feel the cold anger leaking from his voice.

“... Gennai never wants you to realize this, but personally I have a different opinion. I think you have the right to know. Have you heard what your crest is for?”

They all looked towards Koushiro. While they’re all aware of the crest, Koushiro is most likely to put it into words the best.

“Gennai told us… that our crest is not the only way to digivolve. Taichi did it before with SkullGreymon, it was not meant to happen but was still a possibility. Our crests… probably it's best to say that it’s a guidance so we can consistently digivolve our partner into the most stable and powerful version and restrain them when they digivolved the wrong way… wait. That’s the problem with the first group of children!”

“Yes, it is,” Hackmon nodded.

“But I still don't see the problem. It proved to be effective, and does what it was designed to do. Why does it count as Homeostasis’ sin? Even if we disagree this time, it was without a doubt an achievement at that time,” Koushiro arched his eyebrows. He looked towards the other three and they all shook their heads.

“The purpose of the crest… is not only to guide the digimon’s partner digivolution into the strongest version, but also… to make sure the human children will never grow out of their strongest trait even when they grew older so they will never face the problem of inconsistent trait like the first group of children.”

The boys widened their eyes while the digimon partners might as well dropped their jaws.

Sogame felt a bit bummed from being a failed prototype just a few minutes before, but now she feels more pity towards the boys for being the perfected ‘product’.

“I… we… but…”

Joe stuttered as he remembered his own speech about consistently preserving their trait just the night before.

“From Gennai’s observation, humans tend to grow more complex as they become older. While some manage to preserve their defining trait from childhood, it would be too toned down in the attempt to fit into the more monolithic ‘society’ to be used for digivolving. That was why you were chosen as a child with just barely enough survival instinct to live in the digital world. Not only because it’s where the emotions are the strongest, but because it will be harder to set your personality back into your strongest trait the older you are. Giving you the incentive of survival and great power would strongly imprint the idea of your traits less as part of your personality and more as a necessary tool you need in order to survive. And just like Homeostasis designed, now 6 years later all of you still perfectly preserved your assigned trait even if it cost you your own personality and place in society. More than that, it has now grown stronger and consumed more portions of your personality compared to when you were younger, the age when your trait was supposed to be the strongest. And none of you see anything wrong in that.”

Yamato sucked a dry air, his throat seems to be too narrow to breathe now. He felt Gabumon grab at him desperately. Gabumon looked really scared as the digimon’s big red eyes looked up to him. Yamato gave Gabumon a reassuring squeeze and looked around as Joe and Gomamon, Koushiro and Tentomon, Taichi and Agumon did the same. Taichi’s soft expression turned back into a stoic one as he turned back his head from Agumon to Hackmon.

“To sum up, Homeostasis’ first sin is to kill Himekawa’s partner and thus destroying a part, or might as well be her whole soul. And her second sin is that she’s practically erased our supposed to be normal future self and replaced it with a living device whose whole personality designed to generate a stable energy for digivolution,” Taichi summed up, his tone is pretty calm but Yamato can tell that he’s very very angry.

“Quite a blunt way to put it together, but that is correct.”

Taichi took a deep breath once, grabbed Agumon closer, and slumped back towards Baihumon.

“Okay. Now let’s go back to the main topic,” Taichi is already back to his ‘normal’ self.

“You’re quite accepting,” Hackmon tilted his head, seemingly more intrigued towards his reaction than continuing the story.

“Not like there’s anything I can do about it. Have to admit Homeostasis knows her thing. Let’s see, now I know how fucked up it is what I should have done? Rebel against her design and try to reclaim my own self? Then what? What would become of Agumon then? Would he still be able to digivolve? What if not? Should I just let Yggdrasil wreck my world just because I’m salty that Homeostasis has played me like a puppet? It’s not like I feel inconvenienced the way I am now. I don’t even know what my ‘real self’ is supposed to be like and honestly, I don’t trust what I don’t know even if it’s supposed to be myself. I don’t see any merit in rebelling,” Taichi calmly explained. His voice raised a bit with venom when he mentioned Yggdrasil, but besides that his tone is more resigned than angry.

“I see…” Hackmon looked down, somewhat sad, somewhat guilty.

“Very well then, let’s continue. As you know, the project went well this time. Even though you weren't able to destroy Libra, you managed to seal Apocalymon and strip Libra out of its corrupted data. Even with the evil data purged, Libra remains corrupted. In an attempt to purify Libra, Homeostasis created another partner digimon to carry Libra so it won’t randomly absorb bad data and assign it to a human child in hope that Libra will regain the correct perspective of what harmony and stability is supposed to be like.”

“And that is… Meicoomon and Mochizuki,” Koushiro said in which Hackmon nodded again.

“Even with slight problems, Mochizuki Meiko has done a great job at keeping Libra relatively dormant within Meicoomon… Until Yggdrasil through Himekawa Maki starts to meddle.

As Itou Kyoya explained the other day, Gennai has been in contact with Himekawa Maki and Nishijima Daigo in order to handle your case in the real world. But about two years ago, Yggdrasil hacked into Gennai’s supporter system and hijacked the communication line. Himekawa Maki, even knowing that the Gennai she’s speaking to is not the Gennai she was originally in contact with, decided to ride with Yggdrasil’s plan in order to revive her partner behind Nishijima Daigo’s back.

Together, they arranged for Meicoomon to be separated from Mochizuki Meiko’s side and awaken the corrupted side of Libra. Libra’s suppressed power explodes the moment the seal is broken. As the corruption and distortion got worse, Homeostasis decided to close the gate for good so the infection won’t leak into the real world. But Meicoomon escaped through the distortion anyway. Homeostasis has concluded that soon Mochizuki Meiko's sole presence won’t be able to hold back Libra and has tasked me to remove Meicoomon and retrieve Libra. That’s how we got into this situation.

When your partner has also come to this world through distortion, Homeostasis has decided to let you deal with the infected digimons while I continue to hunt Meicoomon. But of course Himekawa Maki has arranged so Mochizuki Meiko would come in close contact with your group and form a close bond. As Yggdrasil’s planned, you have come in Meicoomon’s defense and so Homeostasis has discarded the hope that you would cooperate in eliminating Meicoomon and went straight to reboot. But when even reboot failed to revert Libra to the initial state, Homeostasis has tasked me with a more direct approach to remove Meicoomon. But unfortunately even that turned into a worse situation when your supposed death awakened Yagami Hikari’s dark trait and gave birth to Ordinemon.”

Hackmon paused and looked towards Taichi. By now, all of them understand what the executioner refers to.

“With all hope seems to be lost, Homeostasis decided to pull the ultimate trigger that is the real world reboot. But it turns out that Mochizuki Meiko and Meicoomon’s project was not a total loss. In the most ironic way, Libra has regained the correct perspective of harmony and stability by absorbing the Child of Light’s partner. But the infection and dark emotion from Ophanimon Falldown Mode has convinced it that the only way to regain such harmony is to reset the world to nothingness before rebuilding it anew.

After Izumi Koushiro released Meicoomon’s memories, Libra was split into two. The part that follows Ordinemon’s destructive way of harmony and the part that believes in the harmony being built by bonds. A piece of the latter stuck with Gatomon when she escaped from Ordinemon. It strengthened the bond between the digimons and the humans and joined them all to fulfill the single wish of relieving Meicoomon’s soul from the suffering.”

“So, Gatomon has a piece of Libra now?” Taichi asked.

“No. It seems that particular piece has also exhausted its power to destroy Ordinemon just like your crests right now. But unlike your crest, it cannot be restored as it’s separated from the core. But your crests should be able to recover with time since you are your own's core. Libra’s core program should have gone dormant again now that Meicoomon, the container, has been destroyed. But the problem is, I still cannot retrieve Libra. If I'm to be honest, it might not be out of stretch to assume that it's already in Yggdrasil’s hand.”

“Wait, isn't that like… bad? I mean if Yggdrasil has Libra then we will have to face things like Apocalymon or Ordinemon again. Are you sure you're okay being with us?" Joe asked.

“Yes. Libra wasn't destroyed but it has disappeared completely. If it's already in Yggdrasil’s hand, it would be dangerous to chase after it. If any, I want to rebuild the trust that has been lost between us so we can brace for the next enemy better than last time. After witnessing the miracle that is Omegamon Merciful Mode, even Homeostasis has to admit the error in its way of trying to reject all of you instead of working over our differences. If I'm to be honest, Homeostasis is just helpless when it comes to communication without the supporter system. Which is why I have decided to use this short calm time to rebuild our relationships while Homeostasis works on restoring the supporter system.”

“Supporter system… you mean Gennai… and all his ‘friends', right? In the end, what are they?" Koushiro asked.

“Yes, Gennai was the first avatar used for the supporter system. Their whole system was designed to understand and mimic humans, a feature that was intentionally omitted from Homeostasis to maintain neutrality. The supporters' job is to observe and study humans and design a proper way to execute Homeostasis' will in the most humanly acceptable way. While Homeostasis was the creator of the crest system, Gennai was the one who adjusted and introduced it in the way that it would hurt you the least. After the whole system got hijacked by Yggdrasil, Homeostasis lost the way to properly communicate with you and so it ended up in this mess. I should have stepped in the moment we lost Gennai, but I was too ignorant to do something outside what I'm designed to do. For that I sincerely apologize.”

Hackmon bowed his head awkwardly. It's clear that he's not very familiar with the way communication works between them, but at least he's putting an effort in.

“By the way, how is Gennai? Is he… um… corrupted too?” Joe asked.

“Yagami Taichi has recovered Gennai's core program, he's fine as of now. Homeostasis is upgrading the whole system's security to make sure Yggdrasil won't be able to take it over again before restarting the system along with Gennai. The man you met before was just another avatar Yggdrasil made out of the supporter system. In a sense, it's not Gennai so you can rest assured.”

“Phew… I'm glad,” Joe sighed in relief.

“So, to sum it up. Homeostasis is a socially inept Goddess who can’t communicate with mortals without her ever so trusted secretary. The secretary took a sick leave and she made questionable over questionable decisions without anyone to smooth it over which led to her approval rate taking a skydiving journey. Then our lovely executioner here thought ‘shit she's so bad at communication’ and decided to take the position he's not qualified in until the actual secretary clocked back to the job. Am I getting it right?” Taichi summed.

“That's… quite a crude way to put it, but I think you got the idea right,” Hackmon stammered a bit at his answer.

“You really don't pull back your punches, do you?" Yamato sweated.

“Why should I?" Taichi rolled off his eyes.

“By the way, we have heard about Sogame's group, our group, and Mochizuki's situation. How is Daisuke's group fit in the story?" Koushiro asked again.

“There's nothing much more that I'm aware of about the third digidestined’ situation beyond what Itou Kyoya already relayed to you. The only thing is that Ichijouji Ken's prototype crest was scrapped very quickly after Gennai discovered the side effect your crest has on your development as a human child. It contributes to the reason why he asked you to give up your crest even though it unfortunately seems already too late. As a result, the third group of new digidestined was never granted a crest and instead given the power to combine their partners as the alternative way of reaching stable digivolution. While it's not as strong as crests, it has zero side effects to the children which is what Gennai thought as the most ideal. The other two digidestined from your group were chosen again for two reasons. The first is to support the new digidestined since they're more experienced. The second one is to give them alternate means of digivolution in the hope that it could lessen the side effects of the crest. They were as young as you were before so in theory there should be a possibility for them to return to normal. Though I don't know if we can call it a success or not.”

“So in short, both Homeostasis and Gennai have thoroughly given up on our case huh,” Taichi spat out.

“Taichi!" “Taichi!” Yamato, Joe, and Koushiro whisper yelled at Taichi.

“I'm not in the mood to sugar coat things. But as I said, if I get a chance to travel in time, I'll still choose this path. I like it with Agumon here. If any, I'm thankful of Homeostasis for creating Agumon… and if the current me exists because of her, then I guess I'll have to be thankful for that too. But remember, we're still in disagreement over her actions during Meicoomon… I guess, Libra's case.” 

Taichi ended his speech with a finger to Hackmon.

“Thank you… I'll keep that in mind,” Hackmon bowed down again.

“You're a good guy. I’m still wary of our socially inept Goddess, but I trust you. But that's just me personally. You gotta earn the rest of the trust yourself.”

Taichi gestured towards the others.

“Well… I mean, you helped us a lot. And during the fight with Ordinemon, you’re willing to bargain with Homeostasis on our behalf. So I guess… you're okay,” Yamato started.

“Yamato, are you embarrassed?” Gabumon teased his partner which earned him a loud “AM NOT!”

“I'm on the same stance. Real World reboot is something I want to avoid the most. I'm thankful that you gave me the chance to stop it. And besides, I trust Taichi's judgment. If he decides to trust you, then I'll trust you too,” Koushiro said.

“Same here. I mean, I still don't know what to think about Homeostasis. But I try to think about the points Taichi raised and… and I think I like the way I am now. And I have Gomamon too. Can't imagine anything better than this. So no hard feelings on that part. And Taichi is our leader, I trust him so I trust you,” Joe smiled softly at Hackmon.

“Uuuuu…. Tentomon, did you hear it? Joe said he likes me here. I'm so touched I'm gonna cry,” Gomamon tugged at Tentomon with one flipper.

Tentomon pulled out a handkerchief from who knows where and wiped Gomamon's face with it.

“Now now…”

Joe’s face went instantly red.

“Honestly, I'm still upset over Hime’s case. But that's to Homeostasis not you. If any, I owe you a big one for proposing to let us tag along this time. I'm just happy I can meet Ebonwumon again,” Sogame said.

“So, no thanks to me,” Taichi smirked.

“Oh yeah, forgot. Thanks Yagami. There,” Sogame added hastily.

The others laughed at her response.

“Thank you. I owe you all one,” Hackmon once again, bowed to them.

Gomamon smirked and pulled Tentomon to pile up on Hackmon, knocking the rookie executioner down with them.

“Come on, we're friends now! No need to be so stiff! And no one owes anything, okay!” Gomamon laughed.

“Heavy…” Hackmon whimpered, but not struggling against the seal.

“Now, Gomamon. We should let him go,” Tentomon flies away from the pile, pulling Gomamon along with him.

“Come on! Skinship is important!” Gomamon complained as Tentomon handed him over to Joe.

“Okay, stop right there,” Joe tapped Gomamon's head. The seal pouted hard at that.

“I think we have enough answers for the night. We should eat some dinner now,” Joe suggested, looking over to Taichi.

“Yeah, agreed. We should depart early tomorrow. You fourー”

Taichi pointed at Yamato, Gabumon, Koushiro, and Sogame.

“ーshould get a proper rest. No staying until late at night, you hear me?”

“I don't want to hear that from you!" “You're the one to talk, Taichi!” “Did you even hear what you say yourself?!” “But you're not even trying to rest!” Yamato, Koushiro, Sogame, and Gabumon complained at the same time.

“Hear that, Taichi!" Agumon nudged from his side.

“Sorry, can't hear a thing out of that mess,” Taichi shrugged and cuddled towards Baihumon.

Baihumon sighed and experimentally swung his paw, gauging if he could whack the boy's head without seriously maiming him. Even so, he let the boy cuddle anyway.

“Okay, that's enough! We're having dinner and then resting. That includes you too, Taichi!" Joe pointed at the leader, but no response as he has gone into ignoring mode again.

Joe sighs in defeat.

“Oh well, dinner anyway. Hackmon, you're joining us, okay?”

“If it's fine with you.”

Gomamon coughed hard at Hackmon's answer.

“Ahem. I mean… yeah, sure.”

Chapter Text

“Just a bit more until Server Continent!” Miyako yelled out from Aquilamon's back.

Initially they were planning to fly out in Hououmon, Azulongmon, and Zhuqiaomon. But after finding out that Piyomon cannot digivolve further than Birdramon, they have to shuffle the arrangement a lot.

Currently riding on Azulongmon are Itou, Daisuke, Ken, Veemon, Wormon, and Armadillomon. On Zhuqiaomon are Hinata, Sora, Piyomon, and Palmon. Takeru and Iori on Pegasmon, Hikari and Mimi on Nefertimon, and Miyako is alone on Aquilamon since she needs space to open her notebook for navigation.

It took them more time than expected to fly out without Hououmon and both Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon had to match their speed with the champion and armor digimons. Even if they're a lot faster than they actually are due to the two sovereign's help, they are still a bit slower than the actual sovereign. While they depart quite early in morning, they have to take a detour midway since Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon sensed the other two sovereigns, Baihumon and Ebonwumon in the other direction. So they decided to head there so they won't miss each other.

Currently it's already past midday, and almost 6 hours have passed since their departure from Primary Village. And flying in front of them is… 

Kabuterimon waving light sticks? In the middle of the day?

“Oh, good you guys noticed,” Kabuterimon said excitedly.

“How can you even miss a giant four armed insect waving light sticks?” Miyako whispers to Aquilamon.

“Honestly, I don't know," Aquilamon whispered back.

“Come on, follow me.”

The group followed Kabuterimon down to the shore. Even from the air, they can see Baihumon and Ebonwumon, then the rest of the other team's members sitting around forming a loose half circle.

Hikari leaped down as soon as Nefertimon landed on the ground.

“Oniー”

A blue blur sped off past her and cut her off mid sentence, stopping her from throwing herself to her brother.

“Taichiiiii!”

Veemon throws himself at Taichi… forgetting how hard his head is as he hits the brunette.

“Heー hey, Veemon. Long time no see.”

Taichi pushed Veemon a bit so the rookie dragon wouldn't put much more pressure on his still healing abodemen.

“You're alive!! You're really aliveeee!!” Veemon cried out.

Taichi took his eyes off Veemon and glared accusingly at Daisuke.

“What the hell did you tell him?”

Daisuke rubbed his cheek and let out a nervous laugh.

“Just… a bit of figurative talk that he took too literally. Come on, Veemon. Get off.”

Veemon reluctantly released Taichi when Daisuke pulled him off.

Hikari, losing her chance for dramatic entry, just walked slowly towards Taichi. The others just trailed behind so she won't get disturbed again.

There's so much that she wanted to say over these three days but no words came out of her as she stood there looking down at her brother who was sitting on the ground while leaning back to Baihumon.

“Hey, sis. Looking stellar right there.”

Taichi grinned teasingly, referring to how messy she is after a rough morning and long flight.

Hikari finally relaxed as she returned the grin.

“Get a mirror, dummy.”

“After you get your eyes checked. I'm the best looking dude here,” Taichi motioned at the rest of his group.

She looked over to the rest of the group. Yamato, Koushiro, and Gabumon are leaning back hard against Ebonwumon's shell with Sogame doing the same at the other side, all shielded from the sun by the large tree on the sovereign's back with their faces looking rather pale. Near them, Joe is sleeping if not passed out with Gomamon draped over his belly.

Hikari turned back towards Taichi. Sure, his injury and eyebags aside, he looked the least done among the humans on the team. But then she moved down to his legs. His right leg is not in the cast he originally came in. The cast has been replaced by makeshift wood supports. The others also noticed this and became tense.

“Did you get attacked?"

Takeru kneeled down and asked seriously while staring straight at Taichi in the eyes.

“Attacked… I guess so…”

Taichi grinned as he looked towards Ebonwumon and his inhabitants’ direction.

Yamato is not pleased if his glare is any indication.

Takeru stepped back and exchanged glances with Hikari, who was also looking back confused.

Baihumon shifted and gently pressed down his paw on Taichi's head.

“No need to be rude.”

That shut down the brunette fast.

On the other side, Itou and Hinata walked away from the children towards Sogame, Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon trailed behind.

“Hey, Ritsu. So… how is he?" Hinata asked.

“As expected. But at least there's something we can bring back.”

Sogame turns her head towards Baihumon. At the other side from where the children are laughing is a black human sized object, away from anyone's sight. Itou and Hinata instantly understand what it means.

“I'll plan the funeral as soon as we're back," Itou sighed.

“And how is Baihumon?" Azulongmon asked.

“He's grieving as expected,” One of Ebonwumon's head answered.

“He seems close to the child of courage. Did the boy remind him of Daigo?” Zhuqiaomon asked.

“No, definitely not."

Both of Ebonwumon's heads and Sogame answered at the same time.

“I think… he just feels responsible,” Sogame pushed her body forward and sighed.

“Daigo died protecting him, so I think Baihumon thinks it's his duty to protect Yagami so Daigo's death won't be in vain,” she continued.

“And the boy is the same,” Ebonwumon added.

“He feels guilty of Daigo's death.” “He's just letting Baihumon do anything to him.” “Good thing his partner is not a jealous type.”

Itou sighed hard, again.

“This is getting too complicated.”

“Chill, dude. I have a feeling things are going to be even more complicated,” Hinata patted Itou on the shoulder.

Itou let out the biggest sigh of the day.

At the other side of Ebonwumon's shell, Yamato, Koushiro, and Gabumon tried their hardest to be silent as they looked at each other. They didn't mean to overhear the adult digidestined's conversation, but with how close they were, they just did.

Koushiro raised his eyebrow at Yamato. The blonde shook his head and put a finger on his lips.

Keep quiet of what we heard for now. No need to make others worry.

The message was pretty clear. Koushiro and Gabumon nodded along.

“Everyone!!! We got lunch!!!” Greymon yelled out.

From the opposite direction, Greymon jogged towards them, making a small tremor at every step. On his claws was a big bag of food. Hackmon was sitting on his head, just behind the front horn.

“Food! Do we get any shares?"

Veemon excitedly yelled. He jumped down from Daisuke's hold and jogged towards Greymon as the giant dinosaur gently lowered the bag down.

“It’s food dagyaaa!” Armadillomon also launched himself quickly at the mention of food.

“Armadillomon, wait!” Iori chased after his partner.

“Of course, we got plenty. I'm starving too!” Greymon gave the small dragon a big toothy grin.

“Dedigivolve before you eat, Greymon!” Taichi yelled out.

“Oh yeah, right!”

Hackmon hopped down and walked towards the center of their group as Greymon glowed and shrunk. He let down another bag he's holding and dumped down a lot of branches before starting to build a campfire.

“Agumon, come and light up the fire! I'll line down the foods!” Hackmon yelled out.

“Coming!” Agumon dashed as he and Hackmon traded places.

“I'll help.”

Tentomon flies to Hackmon and starts to put the fishes and mushrooms on skewers together with Iori. Veemon and Armadillomon impatiently waited at their side.

Taichi looked up towards the other group as they blankly looked at the three working digimons.

“What's wrong?" Taichi asked.

“Nothing. It's just kinda…” Takeru trailed.

“Unexpected. I mean, Hackmon is Homeostasis’ lackey, right?" Mimi continued without hesitation.

“Mimi!" Sora scolded the younger girl.

“Well, we do have a score to settle with Homeostasis. But if we put that aside, Hackmon is a good guy,” Taichi explained with a rather unexpected gentleness.

Hikari let out a small pleasant sigh and sat down in front of him.

“If you say so, then I'll go with it.”

“It doesn't seem like Yamato minded either. And if he doesn't mind, then I don't have any reason to mind either,” Takeru added.

“So you trust Yamato's judgment more than me,” Taichi mocked in an offended tone.

Takeru laughed.

“Of course, I trust you Taichi. It's just… Yamato could be unreasonably untrusting sometimes. And if Hackmon could convince the unreasonable one, there's no reason for us, the reasonable guys, to worry right?”

“Seems like you're keeping your neck for another day, Takaishi,” Taichi grinned teasingly.

“Reasonable guys huh… If only there’s a mirror that could reflect your own personality, I would love to give it to both of you,” Sora sighed at the two boys.

“That’s right! I won’t put Taichi and Takeru in the reasonable category even if I got a gun to my head!” Mimi scolded the two boys.

“Sora, I think you need three.”

Piyomon flew up to Sora’s head and whispered to her, but the others heard her fine anyway.

“Wow, so rude!” Mimi huffed.

“Ken, should we go to help the others too?”

Wormmon pulled Ken’s sleeve to grab the boy’s attention.

“Oh yeah. I’ll go help with the food.”

Ken bowed down and jogged towards where the digimons and Iori were working for their lunch.

“I’m coming too!”

Sora chased after the boy, Piyomon followed her quickly.

“Sora, wait for me!”

“Takeru… I’m hungry…” Patamon whined from his spot at Takeru’s head.

“Let’s get some fruit first before the lunch is ready, okay?” Takeru waved over and walked towards their food bag with Patamon.

“I’ll go bug Joe then! Let’s go, Palmon!”

“Okay, Mimi!”

Mimi and Palmon skipped over to Ebonwumon’s direction.

“Hold yourself and don’t wake him up! Just let him rest! I owe my sanity to him!” Taichi yelled out at the girl.

“Roger that! I’ll bug Koushiro and Yamato then!” Mimi saluted back before going back on her merry way.

Now only Taichi, Daisuke, Miyako, Hikari, Gatomon, and Hawkmon left at Baihumon’s spot. It doesn’t seem like they need more people to work on lunch and it doesn’t seem like Hikari is going to move around soon.

“I’ll go over to Koushiro then.”

“Wait, Miyako!”

Miyako was about to walk over to Koushiro, but Taichi quickly stopped her.

“Gatomon, Hawkmon, you guys must be tired from flying all the way here. Lunch will still take some time, why don’t you get something to snack on meanwhile?” Taichi suggested the last two digimons.

Gatomon immediately got what he meant and pulled out Hawkmon with her.

“Come on, let’s grab something before Patamon eats it all.”

Hawkmon raised a hypothetical eyebrow before following his digivolution partner in quest for food.

Miyako and Daisuke exchanged glances before stiffly turning their heads to Taichi. The older boy laughed at their nervousness.

“Relax guys. I just want to ask what you guys are doing all the way here on server continent. I only sent Gatomon and Hawkmon away since they looked tired and not doing anything anyway. I see you guys retrieved your partners, so it’s the base?”

Both Miyako and Daisuke mouthed an oh before taking a seat themselves. Daisuke explained their plan for the base while Miyako opened her laptop to show him the layout design that they thought of.

“This is actually pretty well thought out. Good job, guys!” Taichi beamed at the two.

Daisuke and Miyako high fived each other in response. Hikari smiled softly while looking at them. But then Miyako nudged Daisuke at his side and gestured to Taichi. Daisuke looked at her uneasily but then sighed in resignation.

“Uh… um… Taichi…”

“Everyone! Lunch is ready!”

Daisuke got cut off by Sora’s call for lunch.

Daisuke got distracted by Sora, but then turned his head back to Taichi again. The older boy glowed a faint light then floated and ended at the top of Baihumon.

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell you guys everything after lunch.”

Taichi smiled faintly as he let himself get carried away by Baihumon.

Hikari picked up herself and chased after the sovereign and her brother. Daisuke and Miyako hesitantly followed them.

All of them circled near the fire including Joe and Gomamon. They seem to have pulled a whole day's work and then all nighter nursing the others who are down due to… stress and ‘other things’ Yamato refused to elaborate. But Sora begged to differ that they needed to eat anyway instead of sleep because of their tiredness. Yamato calls it karma for forcing them to eat the day before.

They keep the topic light during lunch. Taichi especially steers the conversation to their plan for the base, consistently gushing over the good work like an overproud parent. The other group started to get embarrassed from the excessive praise, but Yamato noticed Taichi clenching and unclenching his fists numerous times while stalling. But eventually, they finished the lunch and Taichi had nothing else to say to stall time without sounding like a broken record.

“Taichi!” Yamato sternly called out to the other boy.

“I know!” Taichi yelled back irritably, gritting his teeth hard.

Koushiro, Joe, Sogame, Agumon, Gabumon, Tentomon, Gomamon, Hackmon, Baihumon, and Ebonwumon looked away knowingly. The others looked at the retrieval team confusedly. The mood was so light just a few seconds before Yamato’s single call turned the situation so suffocatingly tense.

“If… If it’s about Mr. Nishijima, then we… we know. You don’t have to force yourself to say it,” Sora said knowingly.

Even so, Yamato continues to tap his finger away and Taichi continues to grit his teeth.

“Yeah… it’s about that… but not only about that…” Taichi looked over to Hackmon who looked down guiltily.

“Everyone. I have something to tell you,” Taichi looked over to them with determination.

He then recites back the actual event that happens in the lab truthfully. He also talked about the retrieval itself, though there’s nothing much to say besides the condition was so bad but it still went without a hitch. There’s no need for the gruesome detail and he’s sure Sogame will fill Itou and Hinata the ugly detail later. The other group was surprised at first, but it soon turned more into pity than sympathy for them. It was pretty bad, but then Taichi said that the main topic starts here.

He then talked about what Hackmon told them. About Libra and Homeostasis’ digidestined project. The primary village team, including both Itou and Hinata, has so many things they want to ask at first. But as the story goes on, they fell silent and just silently listened to Taichi calmly talk about everything, both the minus and the plus.

By the end of it, Mimi is the most seething.

“So, what… What the… So I… Mei-mei… What the fuck?” Mimi cursed, but Sora doesn’t stop her as she’s still in shock herself.

Miyako looked at Mimi. She might not have the crest, but she inherited the Purity trait. The trait that focused on being true, being pure to oneself. It must be a huge shock for Mimi to know that she is not as much of herself as she thought to be.

“So, Taichi… you’re saying that… that we’re just Homeostasis’ puppet? All this time?” Takeru smiled, but his eyes were wide in shock, definitely not smiling.

“No. In a way, we’re just like our digimon partners, a product of Homeostasis’ creation. But puppet is a bit of a stretch as both us and our partners still have our free will. The fact that she chose to remove us instead of forcing us to bend to her will during Meicoomon’s case is proof,” Taichi replied calmly.

“But still…” Sora whispered.

“I know. But the question is, what will you guys do? Me, Yamato, Koushiro, and Joe already talked this over and decided that we will continue as we are now. It still pisses me off that I have to willingly choose to play into Homeostasis’ hand but we still need the crests’ power. I won’t blame any of you if you want to drop off here. And this goes to you guys too, Daisuke, Ken, Miyako, Iori,” Taichi turned his head towards the younger digidestineds. 

“If you continue down this path, there might come the time where you will have to harness your trait even by force, with or without crest. It’s not like you have to part ways with your partners if you drop off from the frontline, the other digidestined are doing well even if they’re unable to digivolve further than champion level. You can just leave it to the four of us, we’ll manage somehow,” he ended it slowly.

The group fell silent again. It's understandable, even if they have a hard time coming to their own conclusion. Taichi sighed and smiled a bit, finally changing his flat serious expression.

“You don't have to answer now, we’re stuck until we find a way back after all. And before I forgot… Ebonwumon!”

Ebonwumon nodded and glowed a black and yet soft light. The light went up and concentrated into an orb that flew to Ken.

“This is…?”

Ken reached towards the orb. The light died down and revealed a white digivice. The same model as Taichi and the others', his old model before it transformed into the dark D3.

“A replacement digivice.” “Whichever path you choose, it'll be inconvenient for you not to have one if you want to keep your partner." “I have tuned it to work with you and Wormmon, and the other digivices.” “But it lacked the most new features of D3." “Including armor digivolution and DNA digivolve.”

Some of the children and the digimons are getting confused by the way Ebonwumon talks since they have to focus on different heads in every sentence.

“Hey, why does he talk like that?" Hinata whispered to Zhuqiaomon.

“He thought it's funny and it's kind of stuck now,” The vermilion bird sighed.

Ken sweatdropped. It was such a… serious moment and it all went down the drain. The sovereigns were kind of the ethereal deity to them. Azulongmon being the casual doting partner is surprising enough, but Ebonwumon definitely takes the cake.

“Uh… um… so Wormmon can digivolve into Stingmon with this digivice, and the others can track me and vice versa. But I can't open the D3 port and Stingmon and ExVeemon cannot DNA digivolve into Paildramon and so, no Imperialdramon either. Am I getting it right?” Ken trying to steer the conversation back.

“Yes." “You are right.”

Even so, it's funny to see some of them turn their heads every time Ebonwumon switches the speaking head. Sogame definitely is not shy to show that she is indeed holding out her laughter.

“Thank you, Ebonwumon,” Ken decides to ignore them and do the polite thing to do.

“By the way, Miyako. How far are we until your designated spot?” Taichi asked.

“Ummm… We're close. Probably another 2 or 3 hours at our previous pace,” Miyako answered.

Taichi pulled out his digivice and checked the time. “2:30 huh… If we hurry, we still can make it before night. Patamon, Gatomon, Hawkmon, can you guys take another journey?" Taichi asked again.

“Yeah of course!" Gatomon answered first.

“I'm eaten now, I can fly again!" Patamon giggled.

“Just leave it to me!" Hawkmon also confirmed.

Taichi nodded at the digimons then to their partners. Hikari, Takeru, and Miyako also nod their heads in confirmation.

“We're departing then. We should cover as much ground as we can while the sun is still up,” Taichi decided.

He got various positive answers. Not as cheerful as they usually are, but at least not completely down either.

It took a few hours, but they managed to reach the destination just as the sun started to sink at the horizon. It took them more time to split the accommodation, but the non-sovereign digimons make it up by flying as fast as they safely afford to.

Miyako is still alone with Aquilamon at the front, leading them to their destination. Taichi and Hackmon are on Baihumon just like before, along with Daisuke who takes Yamato’s place to secure Taichi. Agumon, Veemon, Palmon, Gomamon, and Armadillomon are cramming inside Koushiro's digital space. Hikari and Mimi are flying on Nefertimon while Takeru and Iori on Pegasmon. Ken and Sora are riding with Ebonwumon, looking over Joe, and Sogame while Wormmon nestled safely at Ken's shoulder. Hinata is on Zhuqiaomon watching over Yamato, Koushiro, and Gabumon. Birdramon followed after them, holding a big bag that the sovereigns' conjured to carry all of their belongings while Tentomon perched on her talon to make sure nothing got scattered accidentally. At the rear is Itou on Azulongmon along with ‘Nishijima’.

They landed in open space, hidden by several mountains surrounding them. Birdramon was extra careful not to land before they moved the luggage aside.

“There's a cave just ahead. We can use it as our temporary base until the actual base is finished,” Miyako informed them.

They dismounted the digimons and took their own bags from the giant bag, Hinata carried his own and Sogame's sling bag plus suitcase. The digimons dedigivolved while Koushiro lets Agumon, Veemon, Palmon, and Armadillomon out from the cramped digital space.

“Finally out!" Palmon cheered.

“That's surely one cramped space,” Veemon complained.

Agumon and Gomamon were already used to the cramped space and just gratefully enjoying being outside. Armadillomon ran out to Iori, enjoying his freedom.

They took the rest of the way to the cave by foot.

The cave itself is big enough to house Ebonwumon and sturdy enough to provide them a shelter just in case of rain or storm.

They quickly dumped their things and started to get ready for the night. It didn't take them long to get everything done with so many hands working.

As they enjoy dinner and light chatter, Hikari glances towards her brother. Taichi is uncharacteristically silent. Only occasionally giving them a small smile coupled with short ‘hmm' or ‘yeah'.

Of course she's not the only one who catches this.

“Taichi? Is there something wrong?" Daisuke asked.

Yamato looked away. He wanted to say everything was wrong, but he held it down. Taichi, again, gave the younger boy an uncharacteristic small smile before looking down again. At this point the other chatter also died down as they focused on their leader.

“I… want to apologize. For lying. I knew Mr. Nishijima was already dead from the start. There was no rush to go back here. And yet I misled you, making out excuses, and pulled all of you here with no way back for no real reason. I'm really sorry.”

They all fell silent as Taichi bowed down. His voice was so soft that it's hard to believe it actually came out from the usually annoyingly loud Yagami Taichi.

“Wha… what are you talking about, Taichi?" Daisuke finally said nervously. 

“If we don't come here, Veemon and the others wouldn't be able to hatch. And god who knows what that Yggdrasil will do if we keep on stalling. Coming here is the right decision! You're not wrong! You’re never wrong!” Daisuke desperately said as he held Taichi's hand.

“Daisuke is right. You made the right decision. It doesn't seem like Yggdrasil is doing anything right now, but we can't wait until they do to take action. It's what you said, remember?" Takeru added.

“I agree too. And it's not only on the practical side. I think I won't be able to stand being separated from Wormmon for longer after… that. So I'm thankful that all of you let us go to get our partner back,” Ken also added his own thoughts.

The others start to voice their agreement too, both verbally or even just nod their heads in agreement. Even so, Taichi only smiles sadly at their encouragement.

“Thank you, everyone. If it's not much, can I ask something else?” Taichi asked again.

“What is it?! You can ask me anything!" Daisuke immediately answered eagerly.

“I want you guys to leave me alone for a while. As in, don't even bother to call me unless you absolutely need me. That's all.”

“Taichi…?” Daisuke whispered, still not done processing the request.

Baihumon lifts Taichi to his back again, away from Daisuke's hold, and carries him deeper into the cave. Taichi turned back one last time and gave them a big grin.

“Don't worry. I'll come out on my own once I’m done moping. Sorry, but I'm leaving the rest to you, Daisuke.”

Daisuke could only stare as Taichi and Baihumon disappeared into the darkness. He finally snapped out from his shock and pulled himself out.

“Wait! Tai…!!!”

Daisuke chased after the older boy but got hit by an invisible wall. No doubt a barrier that Baihumon set up. Veemon ran up to him and patted his back as Daisuke nursed his aching nose.

“Daisuke…” Veemon called up worriedly.

“Don't worry. I'll get you guys updated,” Agumon ran off to his partner, passing the invisible barrier with ease.

“Daisuke…”

Daisuke now hears Ken's voice whispering from above him as he crouches to the ground.

Daisuke just continued to stare ahead.

Chapter Text

Taichi's withdrawal put a damper on their mood. Ken coaxed Daisuke to just rest for the night. Eventually everyone followed along, deciding that they already had enough shock for the day.

Yamato sat down in front of the fire at the cave entrance. He slept too much during the day and was not sleepy at all, so he offered to do the night watch since he's feeling better now. Gabumon is sleeping beside him just in case anything comes up.

He heard footsteps from behind. The footstep stopped as he saw Sora sat down besides him and leaned her head on his shoulder. They talked about their relationship after her talk with Taichi and decided just to change nothing. They're officially dating, but they do their own things. Touches are reserved for their rare private moments.

“Hey, was it that bad?” Sora asked.

“Yeah. He cried, thrashed, puked, you name it. But then when we finally got there, he just… stopped. I don't get him. I don't think he got it himself,” Yamato sighed.

“Is there anything we can do?”

“No… I don't think so. Maybe it's better to just let him be for a while.”

“I see…”

Sora sighed and leaned a bit away from the blonde.

“Yamato… you think I'm too clingy?” Sora asked, still not meeting his eyes.

“What?! Of course not!” Yamato snapped his head towards her.

“Piyomon said I'm too in love with everyone that I didn't love myself. But she said that's my good point. Taichi said that too. But is that me or my crest?” Sora whispered.

“Yamato… I don't remember myself.”

Yamato closed his eyes and sighed. The whole crest thing sure has shaken their belief on what they perceived as themselves.

“You're you. Always worrying about everyone even when you struggle with yourself. Remember the first time Taichi ‘died'? After everyone got scattered, you have been supporting us from shadow all along even if you're still struggling to come to terms with your own crest. Taichi alone won't be able to keep us all safe without our dearest ‘mom’ you know?" Yamato snickered at the last part.

Sora pouted and punched his leg.

“I'm your girlfriend, idiot. You spent too much time with him I'm afraid there will be no brain cells left in that pretty head if this goes on.”

“You'll still love me either way,” Yamato grinned slyly.

“Yeah, you and your pretty face,” Sora snickered back.

“And everyone too,” Yamato added.

“And everyone too,” Sora repeated.

They spent a few minutes silently, just staring at the burning flame.

“Sora… what was Taichi like?” Yamato asked.

“Stupid impulsive insensitive reckless short-tempered blockhead. He must think that he's the most righteous person on earth. But also kind, attentive, and understanding. Always shining brightly with that stupidly invincible smile of his,” Sora smiled fondly.

“Is he now?”

Sora dropped her smile and looked back down at the fire.

“... I don't know. He's definitely not impulsive nor reckless or even short-tempered anymore. He’s probably the most level headed person among us now. I never see him truly angry lately. Has been keeping up with his grades, might not be genius but definitely far from stupid. He’s pretty open minded and always gives everyone a chance to speak, a far cry from the blockhead I thought he was before all of this. He's still as insensitive as ever thought. But at least he's learning to keep his mouth shut,” Sora chuckled at the last part.

Yamato didn't laugh along with her and was still keeping his gaze down at the fire.

“Yamato… What's wrong?”

“That's just… half of him.”

Sora dropped her gaze again.

“People grow, Yamato. Of course I'm sad too that the lovable jock that is my childhood friend is changing. But I also love him for whoever he is, then and now. Isn't it great that he’s continuously trying to grow up and improve himself? If any, we should support him more than ever.”

Yamato sighed again.

“I… don't know about that. I don't know. He… always gave me the impression of eternal youth. A stability that will never change. And yet he's the most changed among us. Trying to step into the responsibility of adulthood faster than anyone. Putting up a make up on his mask like a clown to make everyone believe nothing has changed. I… still think. That it might be a mistake to ask him to be our leader. Not because he's not capable… but because of all the burden he has to shoulder alone up until now… and probably from now on and forever.”

Yamato looked up at Sora, his eyes were sorrowful.

“I'm afraid, Sora. I'm afraid that he'll be gone this time for sure, whether he physically survives or not. I… I don't want to lose him.”

Sora just silently looked straight at his eyes. Her face was sadly understanding at first, but the more she stared at his eyes, the more she realized that this is not about that.

“Yamato, what else happened?”

“What? Why do you think anything happened?”

Yamato leaned back as Sora leaned forward. But Sora yanked his necktie to force him closer.

“Yamato. I have known Taichi for more than a decade. But I have also known you for 6 years now. We're all basically a big group of childhood friends. You're wrong if you think I know you less than Taichi,” her caring girlfriend act dropped as her stern mom of the group side came out.

Yamato doesn't answer, but he also cannot meet her eyes.

Sora sighed and released him, shoving him a bit while at it. She leaned back and folded her arm. One finger tapping against the hand.

“Well?”

Sora is not letting him go. Honestly, she almost looks like a spitting image of his own mom, Takaishi Natsuko, when she's pissed. Hard to go against this.

Yamato still looked away, back to the burning flame. But his body relaxed as he sighed in resignation.

“Sora… That's not Taichi. I don't know that guy I saw that night. He's my best friend but at the same time he's not… I… I don't know what I'm talking about, honestly…” Yamato starts to mumble.

Sora tilted her head.

“So, what actually happened?”

Yamato sighed, trying to regulate back his breathing.

“I told you, one time he's Taichi. He's tormented, struggling, but even with all that, he's still Taichi. But when we found Mr. Nishijima, he just… stopped. But not like Hikari. He's still there, but also not there. I asked him what's wrong, and he said… he's just too pissed off that he can't feel anything else. That unmasked face I saw… that's not Taichi. There's not even a trace of him. Just a bundle of pure hatred and cold ruthlessness. He got better now, but even then… this monster is still lurking behind him. And it took all he had to suppress it that he had to physically withdraw away from us. None of us know where this came from and he's as confused as I am. I think… I'm afraid that this monster will eventually take over Taichi…”

“Yamato…” Sora whispered.

She wrapped her hands from behind Yamato, feeling his trembling straight to her own.

“It's okay… It's going to be okay. He's strong. He'll get over this. And none of us will let him go that way. I know you won’t and nor will I. We'll drag him back to our side kicking and screaming if we have to,” Sora whispered softly to Yamato’s ear.

Yamato relaxed into her hold, but then Sora released him and stepped backward. Confused by the sudden lack of warmth, Yamato turned around to face Sora. Her eyebrows pushed together in deep thought.

“Sora?”

“... Yamato. Are you sure that’s Taichi speaking?”

Yamato kept staring back at her blankly. Sora sighed and hugged herself as she looked away.

“You… remember? The cave. And the negative emotions. It feels so weird, like someone keeps feeding me the unpleasant emotions I never imagine myself feeling. The description seems to match.”

The memories flooded back to Yamato. How can he forget it? It makes a lot of sense now. It was jealousy for him and self doubt for Sora. It’s not weird for it to generate an irrational amount of rage for Taichi. He remembers feeling helpless when the negativity flooded into him and could not help but to get swept by it. It gives him a newfound respect for the brunette for being able to hold it in and not get swept for this long.

Yamato smiled, finally finding the light of hope at the dark tunnel.

“You’re right. I’ll try to talk to him if he could at least sulk outside tomorrow. It might help to improve his mood.”

Sora dropped her hand and smiled back at him.

“Yeah, he always loves to get under the sun whenever he can. I’ll be counting on you then. I'll handle it so the rest won’t bother him. They trust me more on stuff like this.”

Sora waves off as she walks away.

“Thanks. Good night, Sora.”

“Good luck on your night watch, Yamato.”

Yamato's jaw dropped at her return greeting.

“Come on, give me a good night!”

Sora giggled softly, careful not to wake anyone else.

“Maybe next time.”

Sora waved back again as she headed back to the cave, not stopping this time. Yamato sighed and turned back towards the fire, with a smile this time.

Morning came fast when Joe stepped out from the cave along with the first sign of morning light.

“Yamato, switch out. You're about to drop.”

“Hey, Joe. Done with Taichi yet?”

Joe sighed.

“Not yet. He's still asleep. I don't want to wake him up.”

“Okay, wake me up when you're checking him. Come on Gabumon, we're done here,” Yamato sighed as he shook his partner awake.

“Huh? Oh.”

Gabumon rubs his eyes as he looks around and notices it's already pretty bright now.

“I'll go get breakfast then. You go catch some sleep,” Gabumon said again before departing to the forest.

“Seconding him. I'll go get someone else to help,” Joe said.

“No, I need to talk something with him so make sure to wake me up, okay?” Yamato rises up from his seat and walks towards the cave.

“Fine then,” Joe sighed again.

Yamato rejoined the others around the now dying ember of the fireplace. Agumon is obviously not there. He lays down and closes his eyes, feeling the sleepiness taking over his consciousness.

He was woken up again a few hours later. Turns out breakfast came before Joe’s morning checkup.

The others are woken up now, either woken up by themselves or got shaken up roughly by Sora if some of their grumpy faces could be an indicator.

Agumon ran up to them just as the food was ready. Most of them turned their heads at the digimon in expectation.

“Agumon, is Taichi up yet?” Joe asked.

“Not yet. I just smelt delicious food and got hungry,” Agumon said while drooling at the food.

Most of the humans sweatdropped.

Of course he is.

So they all minus Taichi and Baihumon had breakfast. Sora and Joe were arguing whether to wake Taichi or not, they finally decided to let him sleep in. Agumon went back inside, carrying breakfast for Baihumon. Joe convinced Yamato to go to sleep again, he does so.

Before he fell asleep again, he could not help but to worry about Hikari and Daisuke. Hikari still looks dejected, but according to Sora, she's at least not having another meltdown. 

Daisuke seems pretty lost and depressed. The boy always seeks approval from Taichi. Of course Yamato noticed how the boy almost burst out from the sheer happiness when Taichi wouldn't shut up about their plan, even if Taichi did it mostly to buy out time. It was like back then when Kaiser enslaved Agumon. Taichi broke down and Daisuke instantly became a blubbering lost child. Back then he went through Taichi and Taichi in turn, went through Daisuke. Of course it was Yamato who talked friendship into the younger boy, but it all would be pointless without Taichi's approval.

Yamato sighed again. He promised Taichi he'll look after Daisuke. But he’s totally sleepy and probably snappy too. He needs to catch some sleep first, then talk to Taichi, then talk to Daisuke. It won't do any good if he snapped to either Taichi or Daisuke… or both.

On his disappearing consciousness, Yamato wondered if this is what Taichi always felt. The mental load is so damn exhausting even without Ordinemon rampaging around. No wonder the brunette is downright crazy when he's relaxed. People could easily go insane if this goes on without any outlet.

It was nearing lunch when Joe shook him awake.

Yamato rubbed his eyes. Along with Joe are Agumon, Gomamon, and Gabumon. It's time for check up then.

The four of them followed Agumon towards the cave. They went through the barrier rather easily.

Just a few steps behind a giant rock, still within earshot from their main ‘fireplace' was Taichi, sitting unmovingly with his back on Baihumon's side. His eyes were pretty wide awake, but nothing really reflected on it. Almost like a doll. Back to that night again.

“Hey,” Taichi greeted them softly, expression not changing.

“Taichi, we're checking your wounds, okay?” Joe asked softly, right to the point.

“Yeah,” Taichi answered softly, not even moved enough to nod.

Joe sighed and got down to his task. Yamato, Gabumon, and Gomamon helped to move Taichi around. There's no resistance at all. Not even a squirm from the boy.

The wounds were still not fully healed. The one in his left hand shrinked a lot, but there's still some raw part so Joe wrapped it back again just in case. The right hand was still swollen and the open wounds were still angry red, but at least it's now lighter purple, same with his abodemen. Lastly, his legs. The one with no cast was still pretty bad. Joe just sighed and checked if his bone shifted before treating it as much as he could. The other leg seems to fare better. It seems like he can remove the cast soon. Taichi were not moving anyway.

He finished quickly and let Yamato, Gabumon, and Gomamon redress Taichi while he cleaned up his stuff.

Joe looked back to Yamato as he turned to leave. Yamato just gestured him to go ahead and so he did, along with Gomamon.

Now he's alone with Taichi… well, not really since Agumon, Gabumon, and Baihumon were also there with them. Baihumon gave him a curious look, but thankfully not saying anything.

Yamato takes a deep breath once, hand clenching, before he faces Taichi again.

“Taichi, can… can we talk for a bit?”

Taichi’s expression didn't change, but he did tilt his head aside and rolled his eyes so he could look at Yamato straight. Yamato took this as a cue to sit down. Taichi followed him with only his eyes.

“......sure,” Taichi finally answered shortly after a long silence.

Yamato clenches his hand again.

He doesn't want to, just tolerating it for me

Yamao exhaled softly and raised his head again.

“It's… I mean, I… kinda talked with Sora. She mentioned about this time we're trapped in this cave thing filled with negativity, and we both thought maybe that's, or at least something similar is what influencing you right now. So, I don't know… Maybe you should go outside during the day? I mean, not with everyone. I know you don’t want anyone to see you like this. Just a bit out of the way, maybe on top of a cliff or something? Hiding in a dark place like this doesn't feel like it's doing you any favor”

Yamato took a breath and glanced at Taichi again. Still no reaction.

“And… I think it will give both you and us more peace of mind if you're at the place where you can see us even if we can't see you.”

That finally got an honest reaction from the brunette. It was small, something like guilt, but it finally broke that stone mask face as he closed his eyes. Yamato is almost relieved he doesn't have to see those cold, empty eyes again.

“Fine, you win.”

Yamato finally relaxed as he sighed in relief. His face broke into a more confident grin.

“You promised, okay. I'll check with Agumon later if you're keeping it. And don't worry about Daisuke, I'll keep my end of the bargain. I'll give you a service and look after Hikari too.”

Yamato rises up and walks away towards the entrance. Gabumon trailed behind him.

“Thanks, Yamato,” Taichi called out softly, Yamato didn't miss it.

“Get well soon, you idiot.”

Chapter Text

That day Daisuke woke up feeling the worst in a while. Well, maybe not the worst. Waking up after getting beaten down by Alphamon with concussion and his partner missing was definitely worse, but this was probably the second worst in a few years.

Daisuke rolled around to Veemon. His partner was sleeping blissfully while about half of their group were already up and preparing for breakfast, Yamato was already back from his night watch and sleeping in the innermost space of their circle.

Daisuke finally gave up and sat up. His eyes unconsciously trailed to the deeper path where Taichi retreated yesterday.

“I'm completely useless, am I?” Daisuke whispered to himself.

“Daisuke?” Veemon whispered. Rising up while rubbing sleepiness off his eyes.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?”

“Mmm, no. But that sure is. I feel danger from that.”

Veemon pointed towards where the others were sleeping. There is Sora roughly pulling anyone who refuses to wake up at a simple call and nice shaking. Some of the digimons followed along with Veemon, waking up before Sora could do anything to them.

Daisuke laughed, glad that he woke up first.

“Come on, everyone! Up! Up! Up! Breakfast is almost ready! Go finish morning business and wash your face! We have a long day today too!” Sora clapped along while making sure no one would fall asleep again.

Daisuke groaned, but did what she said anyway. The morning is always the most awkward time, especially with this big group. The problem is, there's no toilet. And everyone wakes up around the same time. It's kinda hard to secure a place to finish their ‘morning business’ without bumping into someone else. The perks of waking early it seems. The perks Daisuke could never have.

The morning routine ended without any… incident. Seems like there were incidents before but even Daisuke knows better not to ask. They gathered again at the cave for breakfast, Yamato already up now.

Agumon runs up to them just as they are about to eat. Most of them turned their heads at the digimon in expectation.

“Agumon, is Taichi up yet?” Joe asked.

“Not yet. I just smelt delicious food and got hungry,” Agumon said while drooling at the food.

Daisuke laughed out loud.

Of course he is!

They finished the breakfast and Agumon went back inside. Yamato also went back to sleep after much insistence.

“Thank you for the meal. It has been fun, but I'm afraid I have to go now,” Hackmon said, bowing down again as he did.

“Is it Homeostasis again?” Koushiro asked.

“No, but it doesn't sit well with me that nothing major happened so far. The calm is too much, I'm afraid whatever Yggdrasil will throw to us next would be even worse. I'm going to run a full round again for anything out of the ordinary just in case.”

Daisuke shivered.

Alphamon was like real bad, bad. Then the image of Ordinemon he saw in news and footage Koushiro showed them was like that creepy apocalypse mecha anime Jun told him he should not watch for several more years, something about something something instrumentality and then everyone turned into orange Fanta. He can't, and doesn't want to imagine something worse than that.

Hackmon looked over to them. Daisuke almost swore his eyes met the digimon's when Hackmon stopped at him. But Hackmon turned towards sleeping Yamato then to where Taichi is.

“Give my regards to the two of them.”

Hackmon dashed away after that. Daisuke blankly trailed the digimon as he disappeared in the distance.

What was that?

“Okay, then. I'm using the other chamber okay.”

Sogame pointed to a chamber on the deeper part of the cave, opposite from where Taichi went.

“Already went on an emotional road trip, gotta go back to work. Just come in whenever you need me, but try to be mentally prepared first okay. Don't want to give more patients to poor overworked Kido. Let's go, Ebonwumon,” Sogame winked as she walked away.

Zhuqiaomon and Azulongmon looked at Ebonwumon confusedly. The guardian of the north just shakes both of his heads.

“It seems like she's this ‘Joe-type' person.”

Ebonwumon sighed with another of his head as he spoke before following Sogame with her stuff on his back. Joe is left gaping with a face as red as Koushiro's hair.

“GOMAMON!” Joe screamed so loud it echoed several times.

“Whoops. With all her jumbo-mumbo stuff, maybe she should have been Koushiro-type after all,” Gomamon snickered.

Koushiro spit out his drink.

After a good laugh, they changed the subject into something else while Iori and Ken helped Sora to clean up the place.

“Ummm… shouldn't we start working soon?"

Iori asked after no one moved when the three of them were done with cleaning. He's not really referring to anyone, but it's clear that he's locking his eyes to Daisuke.

“Working…? Oh… Oh yeah. The base. Right,” Daisuke started to scramble. He didn't think about what they should do at all.

“And Hime,” Hinata added.

“And Ichijouji's digivice,” Itou also added.

“And a way back,” Miyako added last.

Then they focused on Daisuke again.

“Uh… um, yeah. Let's start with the base. Then… then…” Daisuke clenched his hands.

What to do… what to do… If it's Taichi… Taichi…

His train of thoughts stopped again at the image of the older teen. He squeezed his eyes, trying hard to spin the gear on his head again to no avail.

I can't think of anything… I'll never be able to replace Taichi…

They all noticed that Daisuke started to heave. Joe quickly went over to him and put a reassuring hand on his back while giving the now panicking Veemon a reassuring smile.

“Daisuke, breathe. It’s okay, just breathe,” Joe whispered slowly.

Daisuke does as he's told.

“That's right, slowly. Just relax,” Joe continued.

Daisuke finally calmed down, but no one dared to say anything.

“I think it's better that he gets a rest. He did have a concussion after all, better not to push him too much,” Joe finally took back the charge.

Daisuke arched his eyebrow. He’s aware that he's just weakly cracked under the pressure of having to fill in for Taichi, it has nothing to do with his already healed concussion. But everyone bought Joe's suggestion anyway and started to apologize.

“Well, then we should start working at the base then. We can discuss everything else later when everyone is at a better headspace,” Miyako clapped along, already standing up on her own.

“Um… Can I go help Sogame? Her research intrigues me,” Koushiro raised his hand, not sure whom to ask permission from.

They just looked at each other, some nodded, some shrugged. Koushiro took that as an okay and went over to Sogame's chamber with Tentomon after a short thanks.

Most of the older team and adults awkwardly went out to start working. Miyako looked back at thim apologetically before following them outside. She holds the blueprint after all and nothing can be started without her.

Hikari also silently went outside without giving him any second glance, but Gatomon does turn back and give him the same apologetic smile Miyako gave him before following after Hikari.

Daisuke just sighed and slumped forward, burying his face on his knees.

“Daisuke… you okay?”

Veemon also sat down beside Daisuke. His hands awkwardly on the boy's back, trying to roughly imitate what Joe did to calm his partner down.

“Sorry, buddy… I don't think I am…”

Daisuke looked up when several shadows casted on him. Ken, Wormmon, Iori, and Armadillomon also help themselves to sit in front of him.

“Daisuke, it's okay,” Ken started softly, rubbing the other boy's folded hands.

Daisuke sighed and buried his face back.

“No, it's not. I know no one expected anything from me but that's just simply pathetic.”

“That's not…!”

Iori was about to deny it, but could not finish it anyway.

That's not true that no one expected anything from him? That means he failed to fulfill the expectation. That's not true that he failed? That means no one actually expects anything from him. It's a lose-lose situation and Iori knows it.

Daisuke lifts his head and smiles anyway. Iori might not be able to finish his line, but Daisuke does appreciate the support from his two friends.

“Okay! That's enough mopping! If I failed today that means I just have to try harder tomorrow! Let's go outside, the base is not going to build itself!” Daisuke spring back to his feet and grinned.

Veemon quickly springs up too and exchanges grins with Daisuke as they walk outside. Iori smiled in relief and followed along with Armadillomon. Meanwhile, Ken stays and looks as Daisuke starts to chat with Iori like the episode never happened.

“Ken? Something wrong?” Wormmon pulled his sleeve a few times to grab the boy's attention.

Ken looked down at Wormmon and smiled warmly.

“Yeah, it'sー”

“Ken! What are you doing?! Come on now!”

Daisuke's yell cut off whatever Ken was about to say. The raven sighed again as he held his partner up again.

“Coming!”

Ken yelled back as he sprinted up to catch up with Daisuke and Iori. Wormmon just dropped his eyes in worry.

“By the way, where's Takeru? I'm kinda hurt that he didn't come for my emotional support,” Daisuke pouted with his hands already crossed behind his head.

“Takeru went over to Hikari. She's also… you know, not feeling well,” Iori said, suddenly finding the ground he's about to step very interesting.

“Ah… Yeah. I guess so,” Daisuke is feeling bad again.

He’s so full of his own misery that the fact Hikari is also as depressed as he is, if not more, almost slipped out of his mind. Somehow he still recognizes that she will not come to encourage him, but the fact that Takeru will want to support her manages to slip off.

“Miyako said she will talk to her during lunch. So Takeru just has to hold off until then,” Ken added.

“I see. I guess it best to leave her with another girl. Miyako strangely got to make Hikari open up after all,” Daisuke shrugged.

They quickly arrived at the open field where their base is about to be built. Miyako is talking with Itou while the others seem to sort the materials Zhuqiaomon and Azulongmon conjured.

“Daisuke! Are you okay? You don't have to join us today if you're not feeling well!”

Sora quickly jogged to him as soon as she saw them.

“I'm okay! Just having a rough morning,” Daisuke laughed it off.

“Really?” Sora asked again.

“Really, really!” Daisuke gives her a big grin.

“If you say so… but just sit down if you're not feeling well, okay?”

Sora went back to the heap of materials, leaving them behind. The three boys and digimons went over to Miyako next.

“Hey, Miyako! Any problem?” Daisuke asked.

“Oh, not really a problem. It's just that the layout is a bit different than expected, so we need to build the plumbing first before we can add anything in the area. We're shifting around the manpower, especially since some people are not… well… doing rather well…” Miyako trailed as she smiled nervously at him.

“In short, you removed me from the list,” Daisuke said bluntly.

“Glad you caught on,” Miyako laughed.

“But it's fine, if you're joining then I got just the perfect spot for you!”

Daisuke was about to ask back, but a hand landed on his shoulder. He noticed that the other hand was also on Iori's. He looked back and saw Hinata with a suspiciously big smile.

“You guys are with me then. We're building the septic tank!”

Iori groaned loudly. Then he noticed Ken backed out not to be caught along. He felt someone tugging on his pants, finding Veemon and Armadillomon looking up at him with big eyes.

“What is that septic something?" Veemon asked.

“Dunno.”

Daisuke shrugged, Iori facepalmed.

Daisuke was about to feign sickness again when Hinata explained the septic tank to him, but it turns out it's not as disgusting as it sounds.

“It's brand new after all! There's literally nothing inside!” It was what Hinata told him with a big laugh.

Iori and Digmon helped out with digging the big hole for the tank and pathway for the pipes. They then went back to the main site to dig some more holes. Daisuke, Hinata, and XVeemon stayed to assemble the pipe.

“Why do we even need to assemble it little by little like this instead of asking Zhuqiaomon to conjure the pipe just in the right shape so we can just put it down and be done with it?” Daisuke asked while grumbling about his sore back.

“First off, it will be hard to clean if it's just a single long pipe. Secondly, if there's damage to the pipe, we will need to remove the whole thing and install a completely full pipe instead of just picking a damaged part and replacing a bit of it. Third…” Hinata started to explain it in length, but Daisuke lost him somewhere in the middle.

They were only halfway with the pipe when Sora called them out for lunch. Daisuke and the now dedigivolved Veemon waste no time dashing back to the cave.

Daisuke entered the cave just in time to see Yamato walking back from Taichi's direction. He vaguely remembered that Yamato is helping Joe with taking care of Taichi's wound, but Joe wasn't with him when the blonde walked back.

“How was it?” Sora asked.

It seems like she still hasn't noticed Daisuke is there.

“He said yes,” Yamato smiled as he sat down between Sora and Joe.

“Daisuke? What are you doing here?" Daisuke turned around to see Ken and Wormmon.

“... lunch?” Daisuke tilted his head.

Honestly, he doesn't know why he was hiding in the first place. Veemon just crossed his hands impatiently.

The four of them joined the three older digidestineds and their digimons in the middle. It was pretty hot to be near the fire during the day, so he sat a bit farther back. Eventually the others joined them for the meal. Agumon came out once to get food for him, Taichi, and Baihumon while Tentomon also made two roundtrip trips to get food for himself, Sogame, Koushiro, and Ebonwumon.

The lunch is as lively as it always has been, filled with useless chatter until they have enough and one by one leave the cave to get back to work. Daisuke, Veemon, Ken, and Wormmon stayed back to help Sora and Piyomon to clean up. Surprisingly, Yamato and Gabumon also stayed around to help. Sora and Piyomon left as soon as they finished. Daisuke, Veemon, Ken, and Wormmon were about to leave again when Yamato stopped them… or rather, him.

“Daisuke, we need to talk. Just the two of us,” Yamato said simply.

Daisuke turned over to Ken and Wormmon. The two just shrugged and turned to leave. Veemon looked at Daisuke worriedly, but simply sighed before turning away.

“Wait, I'm helping with Daisuke's share!" Gabumon yelled out as he chased after Veemon.

Daisuke glanced at Yamato nervously as the other teen silently gazed at the two digimons.

“Let's go to more… private place,” Yamato finally said as he walked away. Daisuke quickly went after him.

The place Yamato chose was a hill a bit further away. It still has a few trees, but otherwise has a clear view of their main construction site. Quite a perfect place to place an observatory deck. Daisuke takes a mental note to suggest it later.

Yamato looked down towards the main site for a moment, and seemed to be enjoying the view just like Daisuke did. But then he sighed and sat down on the soft grass, gesturing to Daisuke to sit beside him.

Neither of them talk for a few minutes, just sitting together on the hill, enjoying the soft breeze and beautiful view. Daisuke started to shift impatiently, glancing at Yamato once every while.

“Um… Yamato. This is about what happened this morning right?” Daisuke decided to just bring it out, unable to bear the awkwardness anymore.

“Yeah,” Yamato confirmed softly.

“As I thought,” Daisuke sighed hard.

“I mean, I was super lame back there. Taichi trusted me but I broke down pathetically like that. It's okay, I promise I'll do better tomorrow!”

Daisuke grinned confidently at Yamato.

Yamato turned at Daisuke for a moment, but then turned away again and sighed. Daisuke dropped his grin, starting to feel uneasy at the blonde’s reaction.

“Yanato, is there something wrong with Taichi? Or… or with me? I mean, I definitely failed a big time over there, butー”

“Daisuke!”

Yamato quickly cut off Daisuke's rambling. His eyes are now sharp towards the younger teen.

“Let me preface this first. I’m not Taichi, and there's a good reason why he and I always fight all the time,” Yamato paused, taking a deep breath.

“Um… yeah. That's kinda obvious. What about it though?" Daisuke laughed a bit to hide his nervousness.

“Ah, well damn it. I should have put this as a favor after all,” Yamato grumbled under his breath, confusing Daisuke even further.

“Okay, now we’re on the same page on that part, let me just be blunt with you. Daisuke,” Yamato started again.

“You're not Taichi. You can't be Taichi. No matter how hard you try, you will never be Taichi!”

Daisuke dropped his smile, his face shifted from shock to sadness, then further to a resigned smile.

“Yeah, that's kinda obvious too. I mean, there's no way I could do it like Taichi. I make mistakes all the time, I can't make decisions like he did, hell even I don't know why he chose me in the first place, both now and three years ago. I think if anyone should fill his absence it should be you, Yamato. You're his partner… kinda. I'm just some tagalong kid. Even so, I want to try… I don't want his choice to be a mistake. I promise I'll do better tomorrow, so please give me another chance!”

Daisuke rambled off, his voice started to shake in the middle, and at the end of it Yamato could swear Daisuke was already holding back his tears.

Yamato sighed again.

“Just shut up and listen for now,” Yamato said, already trying to put down his rising temper.

“You said it should be me, but let me tell you, I tried. I messed up badly. I'm not fit to be a leader,” Yamato laughed dryly.

“And you said I'm kinda his partner? Well yeah, you're right. But let me tell you, before the incident started, we rarely spent time together. Our weekend and after school activities often clash badly, my gig and his game. Other than that, we eat together during lunch when he's not mobbed by his soccer bros and some rare weekend we're both open which is probably once every one or two months or national holidays if he's not on some sort of training camp. Nowadays, besides Hikari, out of 6 of us Koushiro is probably the one who hangs out with him the most. That guy only goes to school out of obligation after all. But even then there's someone else who he spends a lot of time with. Someone who he especially makes time to meet,” Yamato looked straight at Daisuke now.

Daisuke gulped and looked away.

“It's… just a weekly practice. And besides Ken is more on his level than me, on all things. I'm just tagging along.”

“Even so he chose you. Not me or Ken. He even gives you his personal goggles. Why do you think that is it?”

“I… don't know. I think Takeru kinda said I reminded him of Taichi a lot at first. I'm just a cheap imitation though, but maybe because of that? Better have a knock-off than nothing at all,” Daisuke laughed bitterly again. Yamato sighed.

“For someone who worships Taichi to an unhealthy amount, you sure have little faith in him. That's quite a big insult not only to yourself but also to Taichi you know? Do you seriously think he's that shallow?” Yamato snickered now.

“No! That's not what I meant! I trust Taichi! But… I just don't know why he would choose me out of everyone. I mean, besides our first impression, we're nothing alike. And there's others who are a lot better than me. So I… I just don't know…” Daisuke sighed, his head down.

Yamato finally smiled and stood up from the ground.

“Let me tell you then. He might have the emotional sensitivity of a boiled crab, but he's observant and a great judge of character. He chose you not because he thinks you're a good replacement to him. He chose you because there's something only you can do because you're you. Think about it before you make a fool of yourself again.”

Yamato left him without giving him any chance to answer. Daisuke thought about chasing the blonde, but decided against it because it would be super awkward.

Daisuke sighed again and turned his gaze back towards the main site. He hugged his knees while looking at Birdramon and Kabuterimon lowering a big piece of flooring towards the ground. He rolled his head so his cheek rested on his knees.

“There's something only I can do because I'm me huh… I don't even know myself, how should I know the me that Taichi sees?”

Daisuke sighed and flopped back to the ground. He put his hands on the back of his head and lay down, letting the gentle breeze sweep through him.

“And why a boiled crab?”