Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Daisuke had been sleeping when it had happened.

He remembered the evening in an odd mix of muddiness and clarity. The events before were all hazy, as memories made at a younger age often were, but the events after he could recall vividly, the sights and sounds and feel of the concrete burned into his mind and onto the back of his eyelids.

He had been sleeping, he knew that. Jun had been cuddling him before he fell asleep, because the storm outside had scared him. And then the storm had stopped, and there was another, different noise - the screech of a bird, then the high-pitched shriek of a whistle, and the bellowing roar of a beast. Daisuke had been awake between the two moments, shivering and trembling in Jun's arms, and between that moment and the next Jun was awake as well, eyes darting around the room like they so often did. 

"Something's happening." She whispered in the quiet of their shared bedroom, and Daisuke nodded, unsurely. 

"Do we gotta look?" He asked, his tiny hands clutching at her pajamas. 

Jun only nodded. "C'mon. Let's go look out the window and see what it is."

 "What if it's a monster?" Daisuke asked, head tilted to the side and mocha eyes wide. 

"Then we get dressed as quick as we can, and we go out and see if it's friendly or not." Jun decided, wiggling her way out of the position she had been in. Putting her feet upon the floor, Jun picked up Daisuke and carried him, with some effort, over with her to the window. 

Jun pulled back the blinds, and they showed the sight Daisuke worried about. There were two monsters in the middle of the street, arms locked and struggling against each other in a sort of wrestling match. One was a big green bird with arms, who called something out and hit the other monster with lightning. The other monster was a big orange dinosaur, with red stripes all across their body and with a brown crest-like thing on their head, with three horns, two on the sides of the back end of their head, and one where their nose would be. In retaliation to the bird’s attack, the dinosaur called out something different, and threw flame from their mouth towards the bird.

While Jun was busy looking at the two monsters, Daisuke looked around them. The parts of the city where they'd fought were crumbled and broken and Daisuke was scared of those monsters.

Then he saw something near the dinosaur.

"Jun-nee-san, look!" He pointed with his short little arms towards the bird and the dinosaur and the things he had seen near them. "There are people there, Nee-san!"

 Jun looked, and swore. Then she froze, gave Daisuke a glare, and told him, "don't tell Kaa-san or Tou-san I said that."

"Okay." Daisuke said. He didn't know what the words were, only that they were bad words, but Jun only ever said them once before, so she shouldn't get in trouble if she didn't say them too much, right?

It seemed like a long time, but it was probably only a couple of seconds that they spent looking at the two fighting monsters. Then, Jun was pulling Daisuke away from the window, further into their room. Daisuke made a confused noise, and her stony expression softened at him. "I said that if it was a monster, we'd get dressed and check it out, right?"

 Daisuke nodded. Jun looked at him a second. Then - "oh! Okay. I'm gonna get dressed now." He told her, and rushed to do just that. 

Jun had gotten dressed just before him, and she grabbed their jackets, throwing hers over her shoulders and bundling Daisuke up in his, before she was out of their apartment, Daisuke firmly in Jun's arms as she ran towards the two dueling creatures. Stopping a few yards away, she paused to catch her breath, and Jun set Daisuke down on the ground.

It wasn't long that the two monsters had decided a winner of the battle; the big orange dinosaur roared towards the heavens, and the green bird relented. The sky shone with wrongness , something blue and green and maybe yellow, and the bird flew into the wrongness and vanished. The dinosaur, too, was slowly drawn towards it, and rose through the air towards it. The two kids under it called for it to stay, but it didn't stop rising.

Daisuke looked around for something he'd seen in the edge of his view, and he froze. "Jun-nee-san," he said again, "the sky's broken a little bit away from us." It was; the wrongness that the bird had flown through had extended somewhat, leading to a thin strip of it right in front of Daisuke. "I think it wants us to go into it." He said, the blue-green- wrong all his eyes could look at.

"What-?" Jun said, looking down at him. Then, "No, Daisuke - !"

But he didn't know what else she'd said, because by then Daisuke was walking through the break in the sky.

His memory of the trip from reality to the other place he was now in was hazy and muddled, and he was glad for it. The parts of the trip he did know seemed kinda scary and painful.

He did remember when he got to here. Wherever here was. He'd woken up, as if he had been a dream, but it hadn't been a dream, because if it was a dream then Jun would be there, and Jun wasn't anywhere nearby. Not that Daisuke could really tell, since he was only four and wasn't very good at looking around yet, but he knew that Jun wasn't there. So it couldn't be a dream, because Jun wasn't there. But where was he, then?

Something moved in the plants around him, and Daisuke whimpered, pulling his arms to his chest. He didn’t want whatever it was to hurt him. He was alone, without Jun, and he was scared. A few tense seconds, and then something small and blue walked through the brush. 

They were small and blue, but only small considered to a grown-up, because whatever they were was as tall as Daisuke. They had little floppy ears that pointed backwards from their head and were kinda zigzag-y in shape, and they had a yellow "v" on their forehead and another yellow mark just under their eyes, and a small little horn on their nose that was grey. Their eyes were big and red, and their arms had five fingers with white claws at the end of each one. Their legs were kinda a mix of human legs and dragon legs, and their feet had three claws for toes. Lastly, they had a white belly and muzzle, and a tail that was about half as long as they were tall.

"Hi." Daisuke said, because Jun and Tou-san and Kaa-san had told him to be polite when meeting new people, and he was polite, even if his voice was a little tremble-y. "My name's Daisuke. What's yours?"

 "I'm V-mon." The small dragon creature said. "Are you my partner?"

 "I dunno." Daisuke said. Something near his feet whistled, and he looked down and picked it up. It was a small oval-shaped object, with a blue rubber around the edge and with handgrips, and it had an antenna sticking out of the side (only a shorter one than the kind they used in TVs), and a screen with two buttons. Daisuke held it in his hand, and it's whistling stopped as it and V-mon glowed with a golden light. Then, a second later, the light was gone.

"I think that means I am." Daisuke said, still holding the object in his right hand, while with his left he reached out to V-mon. V-mon took Daisuke's hand, and Daisuke began to walk, V-mon following him, as he put the strange no-longer-whistling object in the pockets of his pants. 

"So where are we?" Daisuke asked as he continued to walk, not going anywhere in particular. 

"You're in the Digital World." V-mon answered. "How come we're walking?"

 "Jun-nee-san said that if I get lost in a jungle, I should away get out of it, 'cause I dunno what could be in it." Daisuke said, still walking and holding hands with V-mon. "What does it mean that we're partners?"

 "I don't know for sure." V-mon told him, "But I know it means that we're supposed to be with each other, to keep each other safe and happy."

 V-mon paused, then, and Daisuke looking into his red eyes. "Will you let me keep you safe and happy?" The small blue dragon asked, a serious tone in his voice that hadn't been there a second ago.

"Hmm. . . Okay!" Daisuke cheerfully exclaimed, eyes closing and a large smile on his face. "You don't need to be so serious, V-chan." He said. "Just having you as a friend is making me happy!"

 V-mon nodded, soft smile on his face. "Yeah. You're right." 

The two continued walking. "So," V-mon began, his footsteps making a pat-pat-pat sound and tail swaying slightly from side to side, "where are we going?"

 "Dunno." Daisuke answered. "There's a tingly thing telling me to go this way, though."

 V-mon gave Daisuke an odd look. "'Tingly thing'? What do you mean?"

"Well. . ." Daisuke's pace slowed, and the two of them slowly meandered for a short while as Daisuke tried to explain it. "It's just a tingly thing. You know how when your foot falls asleep it gets all tingly when it wakes up? Like that, but the feeling says I should go this way."

 "Well. . .  if you say so." V-mon said, scepticism in his voice.

"It'll be okay, V-chan!" Daisuke tried to reassure the blue dragon that was his new friend. 

By the time they'd finished that conversation, Daisuke and V-mon found themselves in a small clearing. The only thing to signify that it was a clearing was the small spot of light in the center of it, as the canopy up above was so thick that barely any light got through. With the low light levels and the near complete silence and stillness of the place, it reminded Daisuke of the forests from the scary movies that Tou-san and Kaa-san watched when they thought he and Jun weren't looking.

"What's that light in the middle of everything?" V-mon asked in a whisper, eyes darting around to take in as much of the clearing as possible.

"Dunno." Daisuke tilted his head. "But I think it's where the tingly feeling is coming from." He looked at V-mon. "Wanna check it out?"

 "Yeah!" V-mon said, pumping a fist into the air. 

With that agreement made, the two once again began walking, this time towards the golden light that shone dimly from the center of the clearing. The closer they got to it, the brighter the light became, until eventually the area around them was as bright as it had been outside of the clearing, everything covered in a gold glow. In the very center of the clearing was a small, box-shaped golden object with around eight sides, flat on the bottom and without corners at the top, and it had a strange making on it. Glowing, it appeared to be the source of the light that Daisuke and V-mon had seen.

"I wonder what this does?" Daisuke said aloud, reaching over to poke it. As he did so, the light from it intensified, and Daisuke hurriedly snatched his arm back. The object slowly rose through the air to land in Daisuke's hands, and he and V-mon looked down at it in wonder. 

"So. . . What do you do with it?" V-mon asked.

"I. . . dunno." Daisuke answered. "We should hold onto it though, right? It floated to me, so it has to be mine somehow, so we gotta hold onto it." 

"Makes sense to me!" V-mon cheered. "Let's get out of this clearing though. It's giving me the creeps."

 Nodding and making sure to keep a secure grip on the object with one hand while holding V-mon's other hand, Daisuke started walking again, continuing forwards "so that we don't go back where we started.'' It hadn't taken very long to get to the center of the clearing, so it didn't take very long to get to the other side of the clearing, either. 

Once they'd made it to the other side, the jungle around them got noticeably lighter. Daisuke turned around, confused about why, only to see that the clearing they'd walked through was gone. "Wha. . . ?" He stood there, blinking and staring dumb at where the clearing had been. "Where'd it go?"

 "Where'd what go?" V-mon asked, head tilted like Daisuke's was and eyes wide. 

"The clearing! It was just here!" Daisuke insisted, pointing in the general direction of where it had been.

V-mon turned around and looked too. "Huh, so the clearing is gone. Guess that's that." He was nonchalant about the whole thing. Seeing Daisuke's confused look, the dragon explained. "Sometimes things in the Digital World change for no reason. Like how the clearing was here and now isn't here. Stuff like this is normal."

 Daisuke nodded slowly. "If you say so. . ." Doubt crept in his voice, but if V-mon noticed, he didn't say anything. "What's the Digital World?"

 "Well, that's easy!" V-mon said, perking up a bit. "The Digital World-"

 "Is not for your kind." A new, deeper voice interrupted him, and Daisuke and V-mon both turned, slowly, to see the source of the voice. The creature it had come from looked like a cream-colored horse, but with armor on their hooves, face, and chest, and they had a large pair of feathered wings. Green eyes glared at Daisuke and V-mon, as the creature loomed over them both.

"What do you mean?" Daisuke asked, while beside him, V-mon tensed up. 

"Daisuke." V-mon said, completely serious. "I don't think he's too friendly."

The creature bowed his head in agreement. "The V-mon is correct. I, like all Pegasmon, am trusted to keep dangers out of this section of the Digital World. And you ," he glared at Daisuke, "do not belong here. Leave , before I make you."

 "But I don't know how to leave." Daisuke said, head tilted. "Is it really a big deal that I'm here?"

 " Yes ." Pegasmon said, glowering. "If you won't leave on your own, then I'll just have to get you to leave by force. Needle Rain!" He announced, stomping the ground with both forehooves. As he did so, the hair from his mane shot out towards Daisuke and V-mon, suddenly being much more like needles than like hair.

Daisuke scrambled out of the way, V-mon right behind him, as he tried to avoid the attack. "Please don't attack us." Daisuke pleaded. "We didn't do anything to you."

 "You still should not be here ." Pegasmon repeated. "Shooting Star!" He flapped his wings, and small clusters of stars flew out, causing small craters into the dirt where they landed.

Daisuke wasn't fast enough to avoid all of them. One of the stars scraped over his leg. It burned, worse than any kind of burn he’d felt before, and he screamed on instinct, pain and panic making the noise that much louder. 

" Daisuke !" V-mon rushed to Daisuke's side. As he did, V-mon, the golden box, and the oval-shaped device that Daisuke had found all began to glow gold. V-mon spun around to face Pegasmon, a furious look on his face. "I won't let you hurt Daisuke!" V-mon yelled, and the glow got brighter, and brighter, intensifying as the seconds went on, until-

" V-mon, armor evolve! "

 The glow surrounding V-mon got brighter, too bright to see him through, and it shifted to form a figure, covering the entirety of where V-mon was.

" Radiance of Miracles, Magnamon! "

 Where V-mon had stood now was someone else. They looked kind of like V-mon, with the thin blue and white fur and the tail and the zigzag-y ear things, but they also wore gold armor and they were twice as tall as V-mon had been. On their forearms were gauntlets, and their legs wore boots. They also had a chestplate with shoulder and hip armor, and a helmet that covered most of their face. On their hip armor was the same symbol as had been on the gold box. Daisuke noticed their eyes were even the same red of V-mon's eyes.

"What the-?" Pegasmon shook his head. "So you evolved. That won't help you here."

"You should not be so confident, Pegasmon." The newly-arrived Magnamon said. He rushed forwards, and threw a punch at Pegasusmon. "Magnum Punch!"

 "Shooting Star!" Pegasmon announced again, and Magnamon dodged the projectiles easily. 

"You'll have to try harder than that to hit me." The golden armored dragon said, taunting.

"It wasn't you I was trying to hit." Pegasmon replied, with a sneer in his voice.

Magnamon's red eyes widened, and his head whipped around to look for Daisuke.

Daisuke froze as the stars came soaring towards him. He wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time before, and now he had an injured leg. He was going to get hit, and he couldn't do anything about it, and it was going to hurt a lot more than just a graze. Daisuke decided right then and there that he didn't like horses with wings or the stars that they threw at you.

" Daisuke !"

 A gold blur streaked into his vision, and then Daisuke found himself cradled against Magnamon's chest, one arm keeping him secure, the other left free to attack with. "Are you okay, Daisuke?" Magnamon asked softly, concern in his voice.

"My leg hurts." Daisuke said, and he clung to Magnamon a bit tighter. "But you're here, so I'll be okay!"

 "As touching as this is," Pegasmon interrupted, as both of their heads snapped over to look at him, "my goal still remains. Needle Rain!"

 "Light Aura Barrier!" A golden light materialized in front of Magnamon and Daisuke, and the attacks slammed it, dispersing as they did. Magnamon stepped forward, Daisuke still held against his chest, red eyes glaring at Pegasmon as he did so. "Like I said before, you'll have to try harder than that to hit me. Magnum Kick!" The golden dragon rushed forwards, dodging around Pegasmon's attempted attack, and slammed his foot down onto the equine creature's head, before stepping back and delivering a spinning kick for added measure.

Pegasmon sneered from where he'd been forced to the ground. "I see you're more powerful than I was aware of, to beat me down so easily. Very well." He said. "I shall leave for now."

 The horse-like creature stood, on wobbling legs, then began walking away unsteadily. Daisuke and Magnamon both looked at each other. "Should we go after him?" Magnamon asked. Daisuke shrugged. Magnamon hummed. "Then, maybe we should let him go. You're still hurt." He pointed out.

"Oh, yeah." Daisuke looked at his leg, still stinging. The skin on the area where the star had hit was an angry pink from the burn, with several blisters, and his pants had been burnt partly as well. "At least my pants kept the star from going through my leg."

 "You're. . . Oddly calm about this." Magnamon said, concerned. He shook his head a second after. "It doesn't matter. We need to try and get that leg fixed. Come on," he told Daisuke, shifting the four-year-old around some so easy to more comfortably carry him, "let's see if I can find some of my friends."

 As Magnamon walked, Daisuke dozed, the small bit of adrenaline brought from being in the new world having wore off. Being woken up in the middle of the night by monsters did tend to make one tired. And Magnamon was warm and comfortable to snuggle against. The rhythmic movements of Magnamon walking plus the gentle sounds of the jungle soon lulled Daisuke into a peaceful, almost-asleep state, and he closed his eyes, relaxing ever further against Magnamon's armored chest.

Someone was shaking him. Gently, but still. Yawning, Daisuke opened his eyes and made a questioning noise.

"You're awake now, good." Oh, was Magnamon the one who had woken him up? "I wasn’t able to find my friends, but I did find these.” Magnamon held up a cluster of some small kind of berry, the same color blue as his fur, each berry no bigger than one of Daisuke’s fingernails. “These will help.” Magnamon promised, and the golden-armored dragon slowly, gently, set Daisuke down on the ground, propping the burgundy-haired boy against the trunk of one of the trees that were so plentiful in the jungle that they were still in.

"What do the berries do?" Daisuke asked.

"They're used as a kind of medicine." Magnamon explained. "Aloe plants are the best for burns, but there aren't very many of those near here, so these are the next best thing. You can squish them into a paste and put that on a burn, and it'll help heal the burn faster." As he spoke, Magnamon gathered berries, grabbing the biggest ones but making sure to leave plenty on the bush they'd come from. That done, he began putting them into a nearby stone bowl and grinding them up with a different piece of stone.

"How come those two rocks are there?" Daisuke fidgeted a bit as he spoke.

Magnamon glanced over at Daisuke as he worked. "Lots of Digimon use these berries, since the paste you can turn them into helps heal pretty much any wound. Because of this, a while back the stronger-leveled Digimon left these here so that the weaker-leveled Digimon could get access to the paste easily, without having to use up half a bush or more each time."

 "Oh. So it's kinda like a niceness thing?" Daisuke asked, holding his leg still as Magnamon put the berry paste on the burn. It stung a little, but felt better after a few seconds.

"'Niceness thing'?" Magnamon asked.

"Yeah!" Daisuke tried to stand up. "Like, you do a nice thing for one person, and the person does a nice thing for the next person because you did something nice for them, and it goes on like that!" His legs, one still hurting from the burn, wobbled a little as he stood, and Magnamon carefully caught Daisuke in his arms and leaned him back down against the tree. "That's what Jun-nee-san tells me, anyways."

 "And who's 'Jun-nee-san'?" Magnamon asked.

"Jun-nee-san is Jun-nee-san!" Daisuke said. That was obvious, wasn't it? Magnamon just gave Daisuke a blank look. (Or, he thought it was a blank look. Most of Magnamon's face was covered by his helmet.) "She's my big sister!" 

"Oh. That makes sense." The two of them were quiet for a few moments. Daisuke mostly sat and thought about Magnamon. Magnamon is a cool name. . . But Magnamon is what he is, so if we meet another Magnamon how are we gonna tell between the two? Daisuke hummed, resting his face in his hands, elbows on his legs, as he remained leaning on the tree. "Oh!" I got it! I'll just give Magnamon a nickname!

It made perfect sense, in the four-year-old's mind. He looked at Magnamon and grabbed one of Magnamon's hands with his own much smaller hands, sitting up straighter. Magnamon looked at him and chirruped questioningly. "Can I call you Kiseki?" Daisuke asked.

Magnamon tilted his head and repeated the chirping noise. "I'm not against it," he began, shuffling so that he was sitting closer to Daisuke, "but why the nickname?"

 "Well 'cause," Daisuke decided he was bored of leaning against the tree and tried to crawl over to Magnamon, "if we meet another Magnamon and we call both of you Magnamon then we'll get confused on which Magnamon we mean. But if we call you Kiseki, then we won't have that problem!" 

Magnamon, probably worried that Daisuke was going to hurt himself further (which he wasn't , he was smart, he knew how not to make yourself hurt worse), picked Daisuke and put the burgundy-haired toddler in his lap, gentle as ever, and adjusting his own cross-legged sitting position so that his armor wouldn't be too uncomfortable for Daisuke to sit on and lean against. "That does make sense." He agreed, loosely wrapping his arms around Daisuke's chest.

"Good!" Magnamon was warm, and Daisuke leaned back against the blue-and-gold dragon. "Kiseki means 'miracle', and you said you were the 'raindance of miracles', so it fits!"

"Raindance of. . . Do you mean radiance of miracles?" 

"Yeah! That!" Daisuke stretched his arms and yawned a little. "So, can I call you Kiseki?"

 "I said yes, didn't I?" Magnamon - Kiseki said, fondly. "Are you going to add an honorific to my name as well?" He questioned aloud.

"Yeah. . ." Daisuke said, yawning again. "I'm gonna call you Ki-chan." He blinked his eyes sleepily. "I wanna sleep. . ."

 "Then sleep." Kiseki suggested. "I'll still be here when you wake up." He was warm, and mostly comfy, too.

"Mmkay. Night night, Ki-chan."

 As his eyes closed, Daisuke heard Kiseki laughing softly, the slight shake of his chest not really bothering Daisuke. "Goodnight, Daisuke. Sleep well."

 And then Daisuke was asleep.

~~~

Daisuke woke up as slowly as he’d fallen asleep. Stretching his slightly stiff limbs, he yawned, snuggling up more against the warm pillow he was laying on. The pillow moved, and Daisuke whined in protest, blinking his eyes open slowly. Oh, it wasn’t a pillow. 

“Did you sleep well, Daisuke?” Kiseki asked, amused, in a low tone. The rumble of his chest shook Daisuke a bit, but only a little bit.

Daisuke’s response was to whine and bury his face further into Kiseki’s warm belly. “Dun’ wanna wake up.”

“And why is that?” Kiseki asked again, voice still as amused as it was.

“‘Cause if I wake up then I’ll have to move, and you’re warm and I don’t wanna move!” That was just logic , surely Kiseki could understand that?

Kiseki chuckled. “Is that so.” He ran a hand through Daisuke’s hair, and Daisuke hummed and snuggled even further into the white-furred belly. “I can still carry you, though, if you want me to.” He offered.

Daisuke slowly raised his head to meet Kiseki’s eyes with his own. “You promise?” His tone was dubious. “If I get up, you’ll carry me?”

Kiseki nodded, and his voice was serious. “I promise.” 

Daisuke whined again, but did push himself to a more sitting-up position than from where he’d fallen asleep on Kiseki. He stretched again, fists balled up and behind his head and legs stretching out in front of him against the tree that Kiseki had leaned against. 

Kiseki began to stand as well, pausing a moment to gather Daisuke into his arms. Once the toddler was securely kept in place, the golden-armored dragon-man began walking. 

“Where are we going now?” Daisuke looked up at Kiseki’s face (what parts of it weren’t covered by the helmet), head tilted the way it always did when he asked a question, and his own brown eyes looking into Kiseki’s red ones.

“We’re going to go to one of the villages on the outskirts of the jungle.” Was Kiseki’s response. “It’s not in the jungle proper, and there’ll be more digimon who’ll probably be willing to let us stay for a few days while we wait.” He stepped over a root, ducked around a drooping tree branch, and weaved through the forest at a steady pace. “You mentioned your sister, right? You seem to respect her a lot. If she’s the kind of person you look up to, she’ll probably be looking for you, so she’ll probably be somewhere in the jungle around where you first appeared.” Around another branch, over another root. “If we stay at the village, we can rest and still be close enough to look for her.”

“That makes sense!” Daisuke agreed. They fell into a comfortable silence as Kiseki continued to walk, and Daisuke’s thoughts wandered some as Kiseki moved. “Hey, Ki-chan?” 

“Daisuke?” Kiseki didn’t slow down at all, but he did glance down at Daisuke. “Is something wrong?”

“No!” Daisuke quickly assured him. “Just. . . you’re really warm and comfy.”

Kiseki did pause, then, and blinked at Daisuke for a second or two. Then he chuckled softly. “I’m glad you think so. Do you think you can avoid getting lulled to sleep for a little bit? We’re close to the village.”

He was right - the jungle around them was a lot less dense, and there were more sunny areas than shady ones. “I’ll try.” Daisuke promised, and with that, onwards they went.

They arrived at the village soon after that. There weren't too many people - Digimon - that Daisuke could see, but maybe that was because it was still early morning in the Digital World. Or was it early evening? Daisuke hadn't asked, and he didn't know how long he'd been asleep, just that it was noon when he'd slept, and that the sky was darker now.

Kiseki continued forwards, eventually running into one of the Digimon that lived in the village. "Excuse me," he asked, "but do you know where the leader of this village is? I have a bit of a favor to ask him."

The Digimon that Kiseki had asked looked kind of like a four-legged bird. Their body was covered in red feathers, save the lower parts of their legs, and they had two fake arms with claws at the end extending from the side of its head. Their head was mostly covered by a metal helmet of some sort, with two bat-wings extending from either side of it. The helmet covered the Digimon's face and curved to form the upper part of a beak. They thought a moment, then nodded. "I'll take you to Sagittarimon-san. Follow me." 

Kiseki followed behind them, and Daisuke looked around the village. There were so many different creatures in the small village alone, he wondered how you could remember the name of everyone. It also looked pretty easy to get lost in the village, as well. The four-legged bird Digimon seemed to know where they were going, though, and Kiseki and Daisuke were led to a Digimon who was talking with a few others. 

The Digimon that Daisuke was guessing was Sagittarimon turned towards them. They were tall, and were a kind of centaur, if centaurs had dragons for upper bodies instead of humans. Sagittarimon was covered in black armor, save for their red chestplate. On each of their four, three-clawed feet was a smooth piece of red metal, and the armor on the shoulder portions of their forelegs had a lightning design on them. They had a red sash hanging from where a tail would be, and another red sash with golden symbols etched onto it served as a border between their upper and lower body. Their chestplate also had golden designs on it, and on their hands were two gauntlets that were rounded and had flame-like designs on them. Their helmet covered their face, save their eyes, and they had a single yellow lightning-bolt shaped horn on their head. Lastly, their blue and white fur could be seen through the gaps in the armor.

"Hello." He greeted. "A Magnamon, yes? You are of a rare species."

 Kiseki nodded. "So it would seem. My name is Kiseki. This," he motioned to Daisuke, still in his arms, "-is Daisuke. We were wondering if we might be able to stay here for a few days? We're waiting for his sister to arrive."

 Sagittarimon dipped his head. "Of course. All are welcome in this village. It is one of the main crossroads of the jungle." He began walking towards one of the huts Daisuke had seen, and Kiseki followed. "You may stay here." The black-armored dragon-centaur stated, voice level.

"Thank you." Kiseki said, bowing his head in thanks.

"Thank you!" Daisuke echoed, bowing his head as well.

"It is nothing." Sagittarimon replied. "Feel free to ask myself or one of the other inhabitants of the village should you need something."

 "I'll keep that in mind." Kiseki replied. Then, the golden armored dragon looked down at Daisuke. "Well. Shall we enter our new temporary home?"

 "Yeah!" Daisuke said cheerily, pumping a fist into the air. 

The inside of the hut was relatively simple. It had only one room, being a simple hut, with the floor covered in packed-down hay and long grasses. There was a lone window on the opposite side of the hut from the door, but apart from that the hut was empty aside from a small wooden bin near the window.

"There's not much in here, is there?" Kiseki commented, looking at the interior.

"Maybe it's so you can put what you want to put into the rooms, and not have to move stuff out of it?" Daisuke suggested. 

Kiseki hummed thoughtfully. "Well, if we decide we went anything, we can always go to the village's market and see what we can bargain for." Saying that, he walked through the door, ducking slightly. Thankfully, the interior was more than tall enough to fit Kiseki's height in it. Not that Kiseki was very tall compared to others like Sagittarimon, but it was good that Kiseki wouldn't have to duck the whole time he was in their temporary home.

"We should check on your leg." Kiseki said suddenly, rousing Daisuke from his half-dozing state. The dragon Digimon walked to the side of the hut and set Daisuke down, leaning him against the wall like how Daisuke had been leaned against the tree. 

Daisuke and Kiseki both looked at the burn left over from the fight with Pegasmon. True to his word, the paste from the blue berries had worked their magic; while the burn wasn't completely gone, it wasn't as much of an angry red, and the parts where the star had broken skin had begun to scab over. It didn't hurt as much, either. 

"Well, at least it's healing." Kiseki said, relief in his voice. "We might need to keep putting that paste on for a few days, but it should heal quickly enough."

 "That's good!" Daisuke said, glad that he wouldn't have to deal with it much longer. 

Kiseki nodded. "Yeah, that's good." He stood from where he'd been crouching and stretched, arms above his head, legs spread, and tail stretched out being him, the tip higher than the rest of the limb. Then he looked at Daisuke. "Do you want to go get more berries for the paste now, or do you want to sit for a little bit?" He asked.

"You're the one who's been walking everywhere. You should get to choose what we do." Daisuke pointed out.

"Hmph." Kiseki huffed amusedly. "True enough. In that case, why don't we stay here, and you can tell me about yourself?"

 "That sounds fun!" Daisuke scooted over a couple inches, patting the ground next to him for Kiseki to sit. The blue dragon did so. "So," Daisuke began, "you know Jun-nee-san, right?" Kiseki made a noise in agreement. "She's my big sister, like I said. She looks kinda like me, but her hair is longer and more red. Her eyes are the same color as mine, though. And she's really nice!" He added. "She acts kinda mean sometimes but she's nice!"

"You'd know better than me." Kiseki replied, his back leaning against the wall. "Do you have any stories about her?"

 "Yeah, I have lots!" Daisuke said with enthusiasm, and began rambling about the time Jun had helped him learn to play soccer (even though he wasn't very good at it yet), or how she'd rescued a kitten from a tree and she and Daisuke had kept it hidden in their house for a little bit until they could find the kitten's owner, or how Jun would make ramen for Daisuke when he was feeling particularly down.

Daisuke finished his storytelling with, "She's just really, really a good person!" 

Kiseki chirruped in agreement. "She definitely seems like it."

 "Yeah!"

 They fell into silence after that. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable at all. Just a nice, content quiet. Daisuke’s thoughts began to wander, and he wondered what Jun was doing.

Oh . Jun. Was she okay? Where was she right now? For the first time since Daisuke could remember, he’d been away from Jun for more than half a day.

"I. . ." Daisuke began. Kiseki looked over at him, and the four-year-old faltered a second before continuing. "I miss Jun-nee-san." His voice was soft, with emotion in it.

". . . I'm sorry." Was all Kiseki could say, voice just as soft.

A moment passed.

". . . Hey, Ki-chan?"

 "Hmm?"

"Can I hug you?"

"Of course, Daisuke."

 Daisuke shuffled over to Kiseki, and the blue dragon gently wrapped his arms around the burgundy-haired toddler. They were both still quiet. Daisuke shuffled further into Kiseki's arms, to where he was mostly laying on him again, and the two of them stayed like that for a while, cuddling. Daisuke pressed his face to Kiseki's softer belly and tried not to cry from the sudden wave of homesickness, and Kiseki just tried to be there for his partner. 

Eventually, Daisuke was able to dry his tears, and he pulled away from Kiseki to wipe his eyes. Then, he leaned back down against the warm, evenly-breathing dragon.

". . . Hey, Ki-chan?"

 "Daisuke?"

 Daisuke looked into Kiseki's eyes. They were red, but a pretty kind of red. The kind of red that came with bravery and loyalty, the kind that came from people blushing, the kind that covered your hands when you'd been holding something tightly. The kind of red you saw in sunrises.

"Thanks." He told the golden-armored dragon, simply.

Kiseki dipped his head and closed his eyes. "Of course." He replied. "I'll always be here if you need me."

 Daisuke settled back down against Kiseki, his armor warm and smooth. "I'm glad." The toddler said. Then, they went back to their silence, still comforting despite everything that had just happened.

Things would be okay. Daisuke was sure of it.

Chapter Text

In the darkness of a dried, woven-grass hut, a dragon sat. His fur was a royal blue, save the blue-tinted white fur of his underbelly. He wore a chestplate,  shoulder and hip armor, a helmet, and gauntlets and boots. All of his armor was a yellow-gold color, though the small amount of moonlight making its way through the window of the hut warped the colors to more muted shades, the metal glinting slightly. His arms rested by his sides, five-fingered hands with their small white claws, while his legs were crossed underneath his body. Laying asleep against his chest and belly was Daisuke, who breathed slowly and evenly, shifting every so often to get to a warmer or more comfortable place. Loosely wrapped around the child was the dragon’s tail, blue fur turned several shades lighter by the light of the moon.

Kiseki sighed, softly, so as to not disturb Daisuke’s rest, and thought. A lot had happened in two days alone. He’d been small, without much strength or need for strength, body easily injured and uncovered by anything but fur. Now, though. . . He was stronger, now. He had a reason to be strong. Daisuke was as vulnerable as he had been, and Kiseki had to protect Daisuke. Where he once had had bare, thin fur he now wore golden, chrome armor, all smooth metal and sharp edges. The armor was sturdy, though slightly flexible, and it held a constant warmth, likely drawn from Kiseki’s natural body temperature. Kiseki supposed that the warmth was one of the reasons why Daisuke so readily laid himself on top of his draconic partner. Daisuke was young, after all, barely a hatchling, and the younger ones always did prefer warmth over coolness. Stretching his arms slightly, he lifted his arms and removed the golden helmet he wore, placing it in his lap.

Another sigh. He tipped his head backwards and rested it against the dried grass walls, eyes staring almost blankly up at the ceiling. It was late, the risen moon was evidence of that, but he was unable to sleep and he didn’t know why. 

Daisuke shifted again and snuggled closer to Kiseki, resting his tiny little face on the armor that covered the crook of Kiseki’s shoulder. Kiseki slowly relaxed from where he’d unthinkingly tensed up, for whatever reason, and gently, slowly, ran his fingers through Daisuke’s hair. The toddler didn’t have very long hair, but it was soft, and a bit gravity-defying.

Daisuke shuffled a little bit more, yawning and blinking his eyes open slowly. They were unfocused, cloudy - he wasn't fully awake yet. His little hands patted Kiseki's face (they were warm little hands), and Daisuke mumbled something to himself that Kiseki couldn't hear. Whatever it was, Daisuke seemed happy, so Kiseki was content to let him be.

The hands wandered to his ears, and- oh . That felt nice. There was a rumbling in his chest, and the action was done without any conscious thought. Were he a different Digimon, Kiseki might be embarrassed that he was purring because his ears were being pet. But he wasn't, so he really didn't mind. Being pet felt good, actually. 

His eyes closed slowly as he continued to purr, even after Daisuke had stilled and slipped back into a deeper sleep. It was nice, he thought, there in the dark hut with Daisuke in his arms and on his lap, and Kiseki himself purring. It was nice. There wasn't any danger. No one was going to attack them right then. They'd be okay. Kiseki had Daisuke, and Daisuke had Kiseki, and if they had each other then they would surely be okay. Kiseki's jaws cracked open with a yawn, his purring still as strong as it had been, and he shifted around for a couple seconds until he got into the most comfortable position he could. He lay on his side on the floor, legs pulled closer to his torso, arms loosely wrapped around Daisuke's back, and tail holding the boy close to Kiseki's chest. And like that, cuddled next to Daisuke and purring hard enough to vibrate his chest, Kiseki fell asleep.

~~~

Early morning came quietly. The sky was lighter, and Kiseki awoke as slowly as the sun rose. He blinked a few times to get his eyes to stay open, and looked at where he and Daisuke had ended up while sleeping. Daisuke was still asleep and still held against Kiseki's chest by the blue-furred tail, but the boy with the tan brown skin had wrapped his arms around Kiseki's neck, and his head had been moved from the crook of his shoulder to the crook of his neck. Kiseki's arms had loosened their hold, but remained around Daisuke, while his legs were splayed out in front of him. At some point he'd moved onto his back, as well. 

Yawning, Kiseki stretched as much as he could without disturbing Daisuke's rest, and, standing up and wrapping his tail further around Daisuke to keep the child secure and asleep, Kiseki went to go get his helmet from where it had been tossed the night before. I must have moved in my sleep. He idly thought. I woke up on the opposite side of the hut. Still, the hut wasn't very big, so it didn't take too long to walk over and pick the helmet up and put it back over his head and face. 

Then, Kiseki was left the only one awake, watching the sunrise through the window. The ambient sounds of a village just waking up surrounded Kiseki and Daisuke, muted by the grass walls but not blocked out entirely. From the song of bird Digimon to the stomping of bestial Digimon's feet, there was a wide range of sounds. But it was a comforting arrangement, Kiseki sitting in front of the window taking a moment to relax, Daisuke asleep against his chest with Kiseki's tail still wrapped around him, and the sun rising slowly and turning the sky brilliant shades of red and pink and orange. 

Daisuke woke up then, too, slowly, like how Kiseki had. Kiseki looked from the sunset to Daisuke; his eyes widened with curiosity, probably about how he and Kiseki had gone from the wall to being in front of the window, but if he had any questions he didn't ask them. Instead, the toddler simply said, "good morning, Ki-chan!"

 "Good morning to you as well, Daisuke." Kiseki loosened the grip of his tail some, so that Daisuke could get more comfortable. "Did you sleep well?"

 "Yeah!" His smile was as heartwarming as ever. Good . Kiseki thought. You deserve to get good sleep . Then the child tilted his head and looked at Kiseki with his big, chocolate eyes. "You're purring, Ki-chan."

 "Ah." So he was. Kiseki hadn't noticed, but now that Daisuke had pointed it out, the rumbling feel and noise was definitely there, although softer than it had been last night. "Do you want me to stop?" He asked, tilting his head in the same manner that Daisuke did.

Daisuke shook his head from side to side, fast. "No!" He said, shaking his head again after that to add emphasis. "I like when you purr! It's nice to listen to and you don't purr unless you're happy, so you gotta be happy right now, and that makes me happy! And it makes your chest all tremble-y." 

"Do you mean that it makes me chest vibrate?" Kiseki asked, un-tilting his head and sitting down on the floor so that Daisuke could sit on his lap instead.

"Yeah!" The toddler agreed. "That."

"Well, then," Kiseki said, purring increasing in strength almost without thought as he spoke, "I'm glad that I can make you happy." 

Daisuke beamed up at Kiseki, face aglow with happiness. "I'm happy that I can help you be happy!" 

Kiseki laughed softly. "If we don't stop soon, we'll be in an endless cycle of saying we're happy about each other being happy." He stood again, tail tightening its grip, and Daisuke wrapped his arms further around Kiseki's neck. "Do you want to go look for food and anything else we can find in the edges of the jungle?"

 "Yeah! We found the gold thingy that turned you from V-mon to Magnamon, so maybe we'll find something else that's pretty in the jungle!" Daisuke answered, all cheeriness and soft edges.

"I can't fault that logic." Kiseki said, and thus walked out of the hut and into the surrounding village.

It was still relatively early in the day, so there weren't as many Digimon up. Mostly just the older ones, like a Lighdramon, a Shurimon, some Honeybeemon,  the Holsmon who had led them to Sagittarimon, and Sagittarimon himself. Despite this, there was still the noise of daily life, which slowly increased in volume as more and more of the village woke up. 

They passed part of the market. It was one of the loudest and busiest areas, even at that early morning hour, with several Digimon moving from shop and back trying to find good deals, or Digimon fine-tuning their selection of wares, or even Digimon that still rushed to set up shop. It was chaotic and wild, as markets tended to be, but aside from that it had the average marketplace air of having hidden things that one could find, and it didn't seem very dangerous. A bit crowded, maybe a bit confusing, but not dangerous.

Daisuke's head swiveled around, taking in all the sights he could, while Kiseki kept walking forwards. They both received a few friendly nods from the Digimon of the village, and Kiseki acknowledged their nods with a nod of his own as he walked. Daisuke waved back at them, instead. Regardless, the village Digimon seemed kind and respectable, so Kiseki didn't worry. Instead, he ended up wandering over to one of the shops. 

The owner of the shop was a tall, fox-like Digimon, with yellow fur on most of their body, and white fur on their underbelly, hands and feet, and the tip of their tail. They also had purple segments of fabric being worn on their wrists, and two swirling black-and-white symbols on their thighs. They dipped their head as they looked at Daisuke and Kiseki. "Hello." They greeted. "Come to look at my wares?"

 "As long as we are only looking." Kiseki stated. "We don't have much coin at the moment."

 "That is fair." The Renamon agreed, dipping their head again. "Feel free to look, and if you find anything you like we may be able to work out a deal." They bowed to him, then turned and wandered a bit deeper into the hut that was their shop. 

"Well, let's see what we can find, right, Daisuke?" Kiseki said, wandering through the areas of the shop, with their own items. 

"Yeah!" Daisuke said. He was still kept pinned to Kiseki's belly by his long blue tail, but Daisuke still managed to wiggle around enough to get a better view of the items. 

There were quite a bit of things available. There were writing instruments, what looked like things to embroider to cloth, a few metal trinkets here and there, and the occasional odd item that was different enough from the rest of its surrounding ti be worth taking notice of. One of these was a necklace, which had a pendant at the end that was teardrop shaped, only with straight edges as corners, and was a dull golden color. Additionally, the pendant had a hollow space, where it looked like something could be added to it. 

"What's this?" Daisuke asked, leaning towards the necklace (Kiseki's tail kept the boy from falling) and poking it. The necklace shone gold for a single second, before the glow dulled and vanished.

"Ah, you've found one of the Tags." Renamon said, adding over to them on their two-jointed legs. "There is a story that a hundred years ago, some old protectors of the Digital World were defeated by their four enemies, and made the Tags and Crests as a last resort failsafe." 

"What does it mean if it glowed when I touched it?" Daisuke asked, arms crossed over Kiseki's chestplate, and leaning against the limbs.

"If the story is true, then that means that you are on of the humans partnered to a Digimon. I'm assuming that is the Magnamon, yes? He is your partner?" Reason looked at Kiseki as they said this.

"Yes," Kiseki confirmed, "I'm Daisuke's partner."

 Ramon nodded, seeming to want to keep that information. "Well. If the story is true, then both of you have the potential to use one of the Crests."

 "So, we gotta save the Digital World from bad guys?" Daisuke asked, clinging a little tighter to Kiseki.

"Hm? Oh. Oh, no no no. Don't worry, you don't have to. You have the potential to, but you're under no obligation." Renamon assured. "Moreover, the story only calls for eight human-digimon partnerships, but there are eleven Crests. So even if you do find and use a crest, there's no obligation for you to help."

 Daisuke nodded slowly. "Okay, that kinda makes sense. . ." He said. "It's a pretty necklace, but I don't think it would fit on me."

 Ramon chuckled, slightly. "No, I do not think so." They gazed around the store, then looked back at Kiseki and Daisuke. "Is there anything else you were interested in?" They asked.

Daisuke and Kiseki shook their heads. "No, thank you, but we haven't found anything that stands out to us more than the rest."

 Ramon bowed. "Quite understandable. Farewell, then. I hope to see you again at some point."

 "Farewell, Renamon-san." Kiseki said.

"Bye bye, Renamon-san!" Daisuke called it as well, before the two turned and exited the store.

"We really gotta get stuff to trade now, Ki-chan. Then we can get nice stuff!" Daisuke said, looking right at Kiseki's face. 

Kiseki walked at an even pace, allowing Daisuke to view more of the village while Kiseki tried to think of where they could go. "You're right." Kiseki agreed. Could go to the jungle like I said earlier. He mused to himself. Yes, that would work. "Well, to the jungle." He told Daisuke. "We'll find stuff there."

Daisuke's only response was to nod. He looked tired. Did he need more rest? Kiseki knew that younger Digimon often slept a lot more than they were awake, the Baby I and Baby II level Digimon especially. Perhaps it was the same with humans. Still, Daisuke stubbornly kept his eyes open, so Kiseki had no way of knowing if his theory was correct or not.

Deciding he'd figure it out later, Kiseki kept walking, back towards the jungle. The day was warmer than the previous one had been; not by much, but enough that Kiseki noticed. Hopefully Daisuke wasn't having any trouble from the heat.

It didn't take much longer for them to enter the jungle. It was still the chaotic jungle, still filled with dangers and who knew what. But this time, at least, Daisuke would have Kiseki with him every step, ready to protect Daisuke however the mocha-eyed toddler should need him to. Kiseki would do whatever it took to keep Daisuke safe.

There were not very many Digimon in the outskirts of the jungle. Those who were around it preferred to either be inside the jungle or outside of it, so Kiseki wasn't surprised that he saw no one else. Still, being the only one there, aside from Daisuke, as well as the silence save the rustling of tree leaves and occasional call of a wild Digimon, gave the area an eerie feel. A twig snapped behind him, and Kiseki spun around, surprising the three or so Honeybeemon that had followed him.

For a moment, neither parties moved. Kiseki and Daisuke stared at the Honeybeemon. The Honeybeemon stared back. After a second, Kiseki relaxed. "Apologies," He said to the three, "I wasn't expecting other Digimon to be around here."

 "Ah, it is no fault of your own." One of the Honeybeemon said. "We shouldn't have been moving so stealthily as to scare you."

 "Fair enough." Kiseki shifted Daisuke from being held against his furred chest with his tail to being held by Kiseki's arms, letting the blue and white dragon's tail rest. "Were you wanting to speak with me?"

 "Yes!" One of the other Honeybeemon said. "We wanted to gift this to you." Each of the small, golden bee Digimon held up two jars of honey. "You are an armor evolution of a V-mon, like ourselves, yes?" Kiseki nodded. "It is our policy to gift honey to any newly evolved armor evolutions of V-mon, as a sort of congratulations." The Honeybeemon in the middle explained.

Oh. "That is very kind." Kiseki said, bowing his head to them. "Thank you."

"It is nothing." The first Honeybeemon said. "Simply a gift."

 "We hope you continue to enjoy your time as an armor evolution." The second one added.

"We shall leave the honey at your hut." The third stated, before the three of them turned and went back the way that they had came. Then it was Kiseki and Daisuke, alone in the outskirts of the jungle again.

"They seemed nice." Kiseki said to Daisuke.

"Hmmm. . . Yeah. . ." The child yawned, for several seconds, and tucked his head against Kiseki's neck. "I'm sleepy, Ki-chan. . ."

 "Then sleep." Kiseki said, cradling Daisuke closer to his chest. "I'll make sure you're okay while you do."

 Daisuke yawned again. "Okay, Ki-chan. . . I'm gonna go to sleep now. Night night." 

Kiseki smiled softly as Daisuke's eyes closed and his breathing evened. "Night night, Daisuke." Then he adjusted his grip, and kept forwards. There were still things to be looked for. Let's see what I can find, shall we?

~~~

He hadn't found much, but he hadn't found little, either. A few red, ruby-looking gemstones, some ore that looked like it could be chrome digizoid, a few dimly-glowing blue-green gemstones, and a pair of dirtied and battered goggles. Still, Kiseki hoped that even if some of the items were a bit odd, they would at least be able to be traded for something. Or kept, if Daisuke decided he wanted to do that once he woke up.

The toddler had remained asleep in the two hours or so that Kiseki had been looking. He'd shifted a few times, almost woken up once, but for the most part the burgundy-haired boy had remained asleep and still.

At least Kiseki had found a metaphorical goldmine. And a literal one. He'd followed a fleeting thought and entered a cave that he had seen, to be rewarded with several chunks of golden and red and blue and purple-black ore deeper in. This ore was definitely chrome digizoid. Kiseki tried to only take smaller pieces, since he didn't know how much ore there was in total, and he didn't know if anyone else had found it or would be using it.

With his small hoard of objects acquired, Kiseki began the journey back to the village. He'd wandered kind of deep into the cave, so he resigned himself to having to spend more time than he'd wanted to get out of it. The tunnels were winding, and complex, and after the twentieth minute of walking he was beginning to think that maybe he wasn't going the right way. Another three minutes, and then the blue dragon stopped, sighed, and decided to sit down and let his aching legs rest.

The action stirred Daisuke, who stretched and yawned before opening his eyes. "Hi, Ki-chan. Where are we?"

 "In a cave." Kiseki answered. "I found a lot of ore that we can trade for things, but we're in kind of deep and I don't know if we'll be able to get out soon." It never occurred to him to lie to Daisuke about their situation - why would he? They were partners. They shared the same soul, and what was one's was the other's. There was no reason not to tell Daisuke the truth.

"Oh." Was what the child in question said. He scrunched his eyebrows and hummed for a few seconds. "Maybe that light will help us?"

What light? Kiseki turned, to look at where Daisuke was pointing. Oh . That light.

It was a blue-green light, the kind that came from sunlight shone from a blue, cloudless sky. The light wasn't overly strong from where Kiseki and Daisuke sat, but it was bright enough to be visible. Had Kiseki really been closer to the entrance to the cave than he'd thought?

"That light would probably help." He agreed. "Want to follow it?"

 "Yeah!" Daisuke said. "And then when we get out we can look at all the stuff you found!"

Chirruping in agreement, Kiseki stood back up, trinkets and ore started away in the numerous hollow spaces of his hip and shoulder armor, and Daisuke once again kept close to Kiseki's chest by his long furred tail. One last check to make sure everything was secure in its places, Kiseki began walking again. He was still tired, but the exit was so close, it would be better to get out of the cave before resting.

The light grew brighter and more intense the more they walked. Daisuke pressed his face against Kiseki’s armor, his eyes not being strong enough to handle the light, while Kiseki squinted and pressed forwards stubbornly. They hadn’t been underground for so long that their eyes weren’t able to adjust to the sunlight, had they? No, there was no way that that could have happened. Right?

The further he walked, the more doubts Kiseki had, but he’d already walked this far, so would it be worth walking back all that way? Dilema aside, the light’s intensity and brightness continued to grow, until Kiseki had to squint to keep from going blind from it. Onwards he walked, until he couldn’t see even while squinting, and the only basis he had for what was forwards and what was not were his nose, ears, and his sense of feel. The stone was cold and rough, and his fingers gripped it with perhaps more force than necessary, not willing to risk losing his way. Additionally, the place that the light was coming from had a sharper, more distinct scent than the damp water-moss scent of the rock behind he and Daisuke.

The shift from the overwhelming light to a much, much softer one came so suddenly it startled Kiseki, clutching at the wall with one hand and Daisuke the other, not knowing anything but wanting to keep Daisuke close to him just in case. Cautiously, he opened his eyes, not entirely sure what he was expecting. What Kiseki found, however, was something breathtaking. He and Daisuke had somehow stumbled into a cavern, big enough to fit at least four Whamon inside of it, with an abundance of eerily glowing blue-green crystals. While the crystals themselves didn’t glow too brightly, the stone that surrounded all the passages leading to the cavern had a reflective sheen to them, and had probably been what amplified their light in the first place.

Daisuke wiggled around in Kiseki’s arms, turning to face the crystalline cavern as well. “Woah. . .” His bright little eyes gazed in wonder at the sight before him, and Kiseki had the sudden thought that he’d do anything to protect those soft, innocent, wondrous eyes. Then the thought passed, as Daisuke said something else. “The light doesnt hurt my eyes anymore.”

“Huh, you’re right.” Kiseki agreed. “It’s not nearly as bad as before.”

“I wonder why?” Daisuke asked, wiggling around a little more still.

“Probably because the walls are reflective.” Kiseki answered. “Do you want me to put you down?”

“ No! ” Daisuke said, suddenly clinging tighter to Kiseki as he all but screamed that syllable, tears welling in his eyes. “If I let go of you what if the ground-sky breaks and you go down and don’t get up and I have to get out of here without you?”

“Okay!” Kiseki said, grabbing ahold of Daisuke’s back and pulling the toddler any remaining distance towards him. “Okay. It’s okay. The ceiling isn’t going to fall down on us, I promise. I’ll be here, I’ll make sure neither of us dies. Okay?” He might have been babbling, just a little bit, but Daisuke had started crying and the part of Kiseki that dwelled in his digicore was wailing to try and fix whatever the problem was and to keep Daisuke safe and not in pain and please stop crying he promises it’ll be okay --

“I don’t want you to go down, Ki-chan.” Daisuke sobbed. “In the movies people get hurt and they go down and they don’t get up again and people put them in boxes and put them in the ground. I don’t want you to go into the ground. I want you here where you’re warm and safe and you can cuddle me.” He was outright wailing now, tiny toddler fists clinging to Kiseki’s armor with all the small strength that they had, tears streaming down his face, voice breaking every other word.

Kiseki’s digicore ached and he just wanted Daisuke to be happy and for him to not be hurting from whatever was making him cry -- but he didn’t know how to do that. Kiseki didn’t know how to calm Daisuke down and he was babbling nonsense words and sweet nothings but Daisuke still wouldn’t stop crying and Kiseki didn’t know what to do . He wanted to press Daisuke to his chest as tight as he could and not let go, but Daisuke was so small and fragile and Kieki’s armor was so non-bendable that doing that might do more harm than good.

Unless he wasn’t wearing his chest armor or helmet?

Half of his instincts screamed at him to not let his guard down, to not let himself become more vulnerable, but the other half wailed at him to calm Daisuke down and soothe his troubles, danger be damned. Eventually one side won over the other, and Kiseki stripped off the armor of his upper body, starting with his helmet, then removing the shoulder-mounted armor, then finally the chestplate itself, tossing the golden metallic pieces carelessly to the side as he threw himself at Daisuke and scooped the smaller thing into his arms. Tucking the burgundy-haired head under his jaw and wrapping his arms around Daisuke’s tiny body, Kiseki pressed the toddler as close to him as he physically could without causing injury. They sat there for who knew how long, Daisuke trembling and sobbing against Kiseki’s fur, arms grasping Kiseki’s sides and face shoved against Kiseki’s shoulder, and Kiseki keeping his arms and tail wrapped around Daisuke as tightly as he could, muzzle resting on top of the child’s head as he kept his eyes closed tightly, knowing that if he saw Daisuke crying again it would only make the need to calm Daisuke down even stronger and more unbearable. 

Slowly, eventually, Daisuke’s sobs stopped, slowing until he was just trembling, face pressed against Kiseki’s thin royal blue fur. Kiseki gently leaned back from Daisuke, reaching with his clawed fingers to wipe away at the tear tracks shimmering on Daisuke’s cheeks. “Feeling better?” He asked, softly, a trembling chirp-like noise trailing at the end of the last word, sunset-red eyes pouring into Daisuke’s mocha ones, still shimmering slightly.

Daisuke nodded, slowly, and sniffed a couple times. He leaned back into Kiseki, and Kiseki wrapped his tail around the child again, and they stayed like that for another couple of minutes, in a silence that wasn’t quite happy but was better than meaningless words. Kiseki didn’t speak, but he chittered away in the mix of chirps and clicks and slight whistles, and when chittering didn’t seem to make Daisuke feel any better he settled for purring, as loud and strongly as he could, keeping Daisuke held close. 

The purring seemed to work. Daisuke grew more relaxed, and stopped trembling as badly, and simply laid his tiny head against Daisuke’s white-furred chest and underbelly. His breathing evened, and Kiseki only purred, running his fingers through Daisuke’s hair in an action that had so quickly become common, and sat on the rough cavern floor, surrounded by glowing crystals and light.

Some time later, the silence was broken. 

“Ki-chan?”

Kiseki looked back down at Daisuke, whose eyelids were half-closed and eyes held a more quiet stillness to them than Kiseki had seen in the two days they had known the other. “Yes, Daisuke?” The Magnamon kept his voice soft, gentle, barely audible over his deep, rumbling purrs.

Daisuke opened his mouth, intending to say something, then closed it, face in an almost pouting expression as he searched for the words to articulate the thoughts in his young, young mind. Eventually, he just looked back up at Kiseki. “. . . Thanks, Ki-chan.”

Kiseki sighed, happily, chest still moving up and down with the rise and fall of his purring breaths. “You’re welcome, Daisuke.”

Daisuke chirruped back to Kiseki, a near copy of one of his own. At Kiseki’s dumbfounded face, Daisuke grinned lopsidedly, eyes squinting themselves closed along with the action. “What? I can learn stuff! You always chirp at me to make me feel better, so I thought maybe if I chirped at you it would make you feel better!” He explained, proudly. Then the grin slid off of his face, and he peered up at Kiseki. “Did it work?”

“Yes.” Kiseki answered, huffing in amusement. “Yes, yes it did.”


Daisuke beamed at him. “Good!” He gave Kiseki one last squeezing hug, before trying to wriggle out of the blue dragon's grip. Key word 'tried', because Kiseki's mind was still yelling a him to keep Daisuke safe and happy, and where Daisuke pushed away Kiseki pulled forwards. Daisuke made a questioning noise.

"Sorry." Kiseki apologized. "I. . . Don't want to let you go just yet." He was still purring, and his long ears had nearly tucked themselves flat against his skull in his distress. "I really, really don't want to let you go."

"Okay." Daisuke said, simply. "You don't have to." He reached up and gave on of Kiseki's ears a few pets. "Are you going to put your armor back on, though?"

"I suppose I have to, don't I?" Kiseki answered. "Even so, I don't want to let you go. . ."

"Maybe you can hold onto me with your tail while you put your armor on?" Daisuke suggested. 

Kiseki nodded, slowly. "Okay." He released his grip on Daisuke and gently, gently placed the toddler down next to his tail, the limb in question wrapping around the child as soon as the action had been completed. Then, he grabbed his armor from where it had been tossed, and donned it all as hastily as he could, leaving the helmet off for the moment. That done, he lifted Daisuke back up to his chest and pinned him there, tail wrapped around both Daisuke and Kiseki's torsos. 

"Not gonna put the helmet on?" Daisuke asked, tilting his head.

"Well, I would," Kiseki admitted, "but having my ears pet feels nice."

"Oh. That makes sense." Daisuke agreed, then reach up to do exactly that, petting Kiseki's left ear this time, and drawing a longer rumbling purr from the dragon-man.

"So," Kiseki began (purring still), "what are we going to do now that we're here?"

 "We could grab one of those pretty rocks." Daisuke suggested. "They're pretty, and we could probably trade them for something."

 That made sense. "How many should we get, then, and what sizes?" Kiseki asked, standing up with freshly-donned armor and Daisuke secured to his wait and chest. 

"Get the biggest ones you can carry easy, and get ten of them!" The toddler said, pointing in a random direction in the cavern.

"Why ten?" Kiseki asked, beginning the task. There were several of the crystals, all of different sizes and cuts.

"Ten is a big number." Daisuke stated.

"Makes sense." The biggest of the crystals ended up being about the size of one of Kiseki's hands, but were still small enough to stash into the hollow spaced of his armor. The Magnamon throw in a couple additional crystals, just in case, before walking back over to where his helmet still lay on the ground. Then, putting it back on over his head, he turned towards one of the other tunnels that led to the cavern. "How are we going to get out of here now, I wonder. . .?" He asked himself aloud.

"Pick a direction and hope for a miracle!" Daisuke suggested. "The worst thing is that we go deeper, and if we do that we can just turn around and try again, right?"

 ". . . Right." Kiseki agreed. "Well, here goes nothing." He ended up choosing the closest tunnel that looked like it sloped upwards. It was a bit smaller than the one he'd entered the cavern from, and the return of the brightness of the light put Kiseki off-balance for a few seconds, but he went forward anyway. The father he walked, the more the light dimmed, and the more the tunnel went upwards. It wasn't steep, but upwards it went.

He could have been walking for five minutes or for fifteen, but Kiseki noticed when the smell of damp earth became apparent. His ears perked upwards as much as they could, and he removed his helmet and raised his muzzle into the air, following the smell of the surface as best he could. As the tunnel led aboveground, Kiseki replaced his helmet, no longer needing it, and shifting his hold on Daisuke to his arms instead. "Come on, then." He said. "Time to get out of here."

 It had become night while Kiseki and Daisuke were in the cave. The jungle looked much more eerie now, with all its shifting shadows and noises coming from unseen places. Daisuke pressed himself closer to Kiseki, and Kiseki held Daisuke tighter.

"Time to go back to our hut." Was all the red-eyed dragon said. 

Trekking through the jungle at night was dangerous for those without night vision, due to the many traps that were both naturally-made and set by Digimon. Accordingly, Kiseki walked slowly and cautiously. He and Daisuke were both silent; if he had been unable to feel Daisuke's breaths, and the grip of his tiny hands, then Kiseki would have thought Daisuke was dead.

While Kiseki's eyes suffered in the dark, his ears and nose did not . Generally the stronger two senses of any draconian species of Digimon, here in the dark they proved essential to getting out of the jungle in the same place they entered. The scent trail left by he and Daisuke earlier that day was a bit faint, but it held up well enough. With his ears perked to catch any antagonistic Digimon that may appear, and relying on his spacial awareness to avoid falling into any holes, Kiseki navigated Daisuke and himself back to their temporary home.

He'd known that they were close when he picked up the smell of the Honeybeemon; from there, it was following a scent trail of five people, not two, and it made following the trail much easier. Within a few more moments, Kiseki and Daisuke were in the village, lit up with lanterns and candles. 

"The village is pretty with the lights." Daisuke said.

"Yeah. It is." 

Kiseki turned from the main road to one of the smaller side roads, following it down until he ended up at their hut. Someone had set a lantern on the hook hanging just above the door, so the hut had slight illumination from the outside. The blue dragon nudged the door open with a foot, setting Daisuke down on the floor for a few seconds while he removed everything he'd stashed in the hollow spaces of his armor. The Honeybeemon had visited like they'd said, and the three of them had left their gifts on the edge of the room, left from the door. This was where Kiseki placed his trinkets.

With that done, Kiseki let himself flop onto the center of the floor of the hut, generally exhausted. Daisuke crawled over and snuggled up next to him, and Kiseki wrapped his arms and tail around the toddler like before. Then, there in the partially set-up hut, curled next to each other, they both fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Jun hissed as she came to awareness. Her entire body felt like she'd hit something, and for a few minutes she laid in place, trying to heal even a little bit. However, she soon got up, despite her body's protests. She still had things to do.

The area around her was some kind of jungle, with tall, green-blue trees and a thick canopy from which light filtered down. That's odd. There aren't any jungles in Japan . Which reminded her - where was she, exactly? The last thing she remembered-

The last thing she remembered-

" Daisuke !" She was suddenly panicked as she remembered what she'd been doing before waking up. She and Daisuke had woken up and seen the two monsters fighting. They'd gone outside to see what else was going on, and then the sky had split open somehow. The two monsters had disappeared into it, and Daisuke had seen a closer patch of whatever it was in the sky. Daisuke had walked through, and Jun had followed him a few seconds later, shoved through the area by a falling piece of debris.

So this is where those two monsters went? Jun thought. This is where Daisuke is? At least the immediate area didn't seem too dangerous. Who knew what could happen, though? Jun was alone in this jungle, and she needed to find Daisuke fast . He was only four - if something got to him out here there was no way he would make it. So she'd need to get to him quickly.

The problem now, now that she'd decided what to do, was to pick a direction. Jun didn't want to accidentally go the wrong way, but she had no idea of where Daisuke could have gone. Deciding that doing something was better than nothing, Jun started walking in the direction where there was more sunlight. Daisuke would probably go to the place where he could see, right? Right. You'll find him. Stop worrying, Jun .

She continued through the more sunlit area of jungle, noticing a few odd plants she didn't recognize, but ultimately not paying them much attention. She’d be able to freak out about this strange new place later, but right now she just needed to find her little brother.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, give or take some, Jun took a short rest, leaning against the trunk of a tree. There was a bush with some odd berries, small and royal blue in color. They smelled like peaches, for whatever reason. Jun decided that she wasn’t going to think too much about it. She'd rest for now, and then get up and go looking for Daisuke again. 

Sighing, Jun wasn't surprised by how tired she was. She had woken up in the middle of the night, and one tended to be more likely to fall asleep if they'd been taken by an outside force rather than naturally. She'd just rest her eyes a little bit, then she'd get up. Just for a little bit. . . 

When she blinked herself awake from the impromptu nap, Jun was a mix of emotions. Mostly being resignation and disappointment. A little bit of annoyment, but mostly disappointment for falling asleep and resignation for the situation. At least she wasn't as tired as she'd been before. 

It was after about twelve seconds of being awake that she registered the warm weight on her legs. Jun looked down. There was some kind of bird creature, peacefully asleep, in her lap. They were covered in glossy red feathers, save the off-white reddish ones on their head, and additionally they had a singular white feather that was red at the tip pointing up from the back of the triangularly-patterned headband that they wore. They had yellow-ish legs with clawed talons and a beak of the same color, as birds should, but they also had three claws at the ends of both of their wings, which was unusual. Still, the bird slept peacefully, and Jun didn't want to be the one to wake them up. Even if she didn't know why they were there in her lap.

A couple of seconds later, and the bird stirred, blinking open their eyes. 

"Hi." Jun said. "I'm Jun. What's your name?" A rather direct greeting, but Jun wanted to at least know the name of the bird that was sitting in her lap.

"Hi hi!" The bird chirped at her. "I'm Hawkmon. Nice to meet you, Jun!" He said to her. (Jun was glad that his sentence structure at least helped her figure out what gender he was. She wasn't sure what she would have done if he used a language like English, which didn't really have the same set of rules. Jun didn't even know English very well, either, so it worked.)

"You're a very excitable bird." Jun commented, as Hawkmon began fluttering around her and the tree that she sat in. 

This made him pause a second, before he zoomed over back in front of her. "What's a 'bird'?" He asked, feathered head tilted. 

"Isn't that what you are?" Jun was confused now. If he wasn't a bird, then what was he?

"No?" Hawkmon tilted his head back the normal way, but began hopping from standing on one foot to the other, wing-arms bouncing along with the rest of his body. "I'm a Hawkmon! That's the kind of Digimon I am."

 "So you're a Digimon, then?" Jun asked. "Is it like how there are lots of different kinds of dogs, but they're all dogs?"

 Hawkmon paused again, one leg raised off the ground. "Uh, I guess? I don't know what a dog is."

 "That's fair." Jun sighed. "Well, whatever or whoever you are, I hope my lap made a comfy pillow for you."

 "It did!" Hawkmon cheerily stated, eyes close and beak in an almost smiling shape. "Your lap is very comfy."

 "Glad you think so." Jun said, standing up and stretching. "Well, I've gotta go now. Bye Hawkmon."

"Wait, what? Why do you have to go?" Hawkmon asked, trailing behind her as Jun continued walking in her chosen direction.

"I gotta find Daisuke. He's my little brother." She explained. "He's really really little, so if something gets to him he won't be able to protect himself. So I gotta find him."

 "Can I go with you, then?!" Hawkmon asked, smaller legs struggling a bit to keep up with Jun's longer stride. "Two sets of eyes will be better than one!"

Jun paused and considered it. The bird did have a point. "Okay, you can come." She said. "But you gotta help look for Daisuke, okay?"

 "Okay!" Hawkmon readily agreed, smiling again. "What does he look like?"

 "Like me, but shorter darker hair, and smaller and probably the person to ask a lot of questions all at once. His skin is a little bit darker than mine." She bared her arm to demonstrate her tan skin. "Also, his eyes are a chocolate color, and mine are a coffee color."

 "I don't know what all of those things mean, but okay!" Hawkmon said. "I'll help you look, don't worry!"

 Jun gave him a softened look. ". . . Thanks, Hawkmon."

 The bird-like Digimon beamed at her, and they continued their search for Daisuke. At some point Hawkmon presented some purple device, which was shaped like an oval and had grips where she could hold it, and a little screen. Jun accepted the gifted object and put it in her pocket for later, and they kept on walking.

The dense jungle grew less and less dense, until it was more like a few trees that happened to be near each other than an actual jungle. A well-walked dirt road led from somewhere further inside the jungle to a village that Jun noticed in front of she and Hawkmon, and even if the path was directly in front of the two it was nearly. 

"What do you think, Hawkmon?" Jun asked, looking down at the feathered thing. "Wanna go into the village?"

 "I don't see why not." He answered, and followed her as she went about doing just that.

The village was populated with many other creatures, with their own unique appearances, probably more Digimon. As soon as she walked into the village proper, one of them (who was four legged and looking kind of like Hawkmon, but with a metal bat-winged helmet) took one look at Jun and turned and ran the other way. "Stay right there, I have someone who wants to talk to you!" They called out, leaving Jun and Hawkmon very confused. Still, they stayed right there, as the Digimon had asked. It was only polite.

"Who was that?" Jun asked Hawkmon as she waited.

"That's Holsmon. They used to be a Hawkmon before they armor-evolved." Hawkmon told her.

"Armor-evolved?"

"We Hawkmon, and other species of Digimon, can use Digimentals to armor-evolve into stronger and usually wiser forms. Not all Digimon can armor-evolve, but you can usually tell if they did because a lot of armor evolutions look like their Child-level forms."

 Jun would have asked more, but at that moment Holsmon came bounding back towards the two of them, with another two people behind them. One of them was some kind of golden-armored dragon-man, with blue and white fur. Carried in his arms was-

" Daisuke ?!" 

Jun looked at her little brother in shock. Then, not giving him a chance to respond, she rushed forwards to pick him up and hug him (noticing that the dragon-man willingly let the toddler go - that was probably a good sign). "Thank the gods you're okay!" 

Daisuke wiggled around in her grip. "Jun-nee-san!" He complained. "You're squeezing me too tight!"

 Ah. "Sorry, Daisuke." She apologized, loosening her grip. "I'm just glad you're okay. Where have you been, what happened to you? You didn't get hurt did you?!" Her tone grew more worried as the entrance went on.

"Well. . ." Daisuke started, little eyes looking at her. "I got put in the jungle when I went through where the sky was broke. I met Ki-chan there when he was little, and I found a gold box thingy. Then we walked for a little bit more and a mean horse with wings tried to make us go away. Ki-chan got bigger and beat him up. Then we went to the village and got a hut. Then we looked at a shop with lots of fancy stuff in it, so we went to go get stuff to trade with so we could get stuff. We went to a cave and it had big pretty crystals in it. Then we went back to the hut."

 "I'm Ki-chan." The blue-furred dragon-man clarified. "It's short for 'Kiseki'. Daisuke gave me the name. To explain things a little better. . ." He paused a few moments, getting his thoughts organized. "Well, Daisuke and I met before I'd evolved to this form. We found one of the few Digimentals of Miracles that are floating around. A Pegasmon tried to kill us because Daisuke isn't technically supposed to be here because he's human."

 "Someone tried to kill him?!" Don't panic Jun, don't panic don't panic-

" Tried , yes." Kiseki confirmed. "I armor-evolved mid-fight to protect Daisuke. We did go to this village and we were given a hut to stay in. The next day we visited the market to see what was there, and then went back into the jungle to find things to barter with, like Daisuke said. I found a cave with ores in it. Daisuke took a nap inbetween then and when I found the cavern with the crystals." He lifted Daisuke in his arms, lifting the toddler back up from where he'd slowly been slipping down Kiseki's side. 

"Daisuke was scared the ceiling would cave in on us and that we'd die, so I had to comfort him." Daisuke held onto Kiseki a little tighter. "After that we went back to the hut, like Daisuke said."

 "Anything else after that?" Jun asked, wanting to make sure she knew everything that had happened before bombarding them with questions.

Kiseki shook his head, light catching on the metal helmet and glimmering slightly. "Nothing of any note, no. Just getting adjusted to staying in the village for the rest of the week while we waited for you."

"It's been a week?!" Jun looked back and forth from Daisuke to Kiseki. "How can it have been a week?! I was only a few seconds after Daisuke when I went through the same portal he did!"

 "Maybe your world and this world don't move at the same speed?" Hawkmon suggested from where he stood, next to Jun's legs. "Maybe time moves slower in your world, so a few seconds is a week."

"That. . . would make sense." Jun agreed. Then she sighed, and shook her head, banishing bad thoughts. "It doesn't matter. You guys said you had a hut you were staying in, right?" She asked Kiseki and Daisuke.

"Yeah!" Daisuke said.

"Can we-" she gestured to herself and Hawkmon, "-see it?"

"I don't see why not." Kiseki reasoned. "Follow me." He turned and, long blue tail waving through the air with each step, began leading Jun and Hawkmon to where he and Daisuke were staying.

"So," Jun started as she and Hawkmon weaved through the crowds of Digimon after Kiseki, "there are different kinds of Digimon, right? What kind of Digimon are you?"

 "I'm a Magnamon." Kiseki answered. "I evolved from a V-mon. I'm an Armor-level Digimon, since I armor-evolved with a Digimental of Miracles."

 "That's cool." Jun responded. "What's the difference between the levels, and how many of them are there?"

"Oh, I know this one!" Hawkmon chirped. "Can I answer it, can I answer it, please Kiseki-san?"

 "If you want to. . .?" The Magnamon ( that's a cool name for a Digimon ) replied. "And you don't have to be so formal. You can just call me Kiseki if you want to, or use any honorifics you'd like. I don't really care."

 "Okay, Kiseki-kun!" Hawkmon said. "So there are five levels that we know for sure! There's Baby I, which is the Digimon who've only just been born. Then there's Baby II, who are still young but older. After that is the Child-level Digimon, who have a lot more possible evolutions. They're older than Baby II Digimon and are stronger, too. Then there's the Armor level, which is just Digimon who armor-evolved with a Digimental. And the last one we know definitely exists is the Adult level. They're older than Child-level Digimon, and stronger, but there's not very many of them because it's hard to get the energy and strength you need to do that. So most Digimon are either Child-level or Armor-level." He finished, lifting his beak into the air proudly.

"You said that some levels were older than others?" Jun asked again, looking at Kiseki this time.

"Usually, yes. Evolving naturally happens as you age. As you get older, you'll evolve at some point or other. So Baby II Digimon are less mentally mature than Child Digimon, who are less mentally mature than Adult Digimon." The blue dragon said.

"What about Armor-level Digimon?"

"Armor-level Digimon kind of fall into a category of their own. Sometimes they get more mature when they armor-evolve, sometimes they don't. Some Armor Digimon are stronger than Child Digimon but weaker than Adult Digimon, some are stronger than Adult Digimon, and rumor has it that there are two species of Armor Digimon who are at the strength level of Ultimate Digimon." He explained. "But there's been very few Perfect or Ultimate-level Digimon, so we don't know which two species the two are."

 "What are the Perfect and Ultimate levels?" Jun said, paying more attention to the conversation than where they were going at this point.

"The Perfect level is the level above Adults." Hawkmon said. "And the Ultimate level is the level above that. And some people say there's a level above Ultimate, too. They say it's Super-Ultimate, and if it exists then it's the strongest level." 

"But even Adult-level Digimon are rare, and it gets rarer as you go up the levels, so even if a Super-Ultimate Digimon did exist it would be near impossible to just stumble upon one." Kiseki finished. "Anyways, we're here."

 The hut was what Jun would expect a hut to look like. Thatched roof, walls made from woven dried grasses, a simple door. Still, it looked reasonably liveable-in. When she walked through the door, Jun saw that the inside was as simple as the outside, just that it had a few objects on the floor near the wall to the side. Some of these were chunks of a red or gold or blue or a purplish-black ore. Some were a type of blue-green rock, which Jun was guessing were the crystals mentioned earlier. There were also three jars of honey, and, for whatever reason, a set of goggles that looked like they would be pretty if they were properly cleaned.

"It seems cozy." Jun commented.

From his location of being held in Kiseki's arms, Daisuke beamed. "It really is!" He agreed. "It's comfy, especially when you can cuddle up to Ki-chan, because he's warm."

 "I'll take your word for it." Jun told her little brother.

The four of them (well, three, since Daisuke was being carried) stood around a bit awkwardly for a few seconds. 

"Well," Kiseki announced, "I've been up for several hours without rest, so I am going to lay down for a while. Feel free to explore the village, or to do the same as me." That said, he set Daisuke down and went over to one of the sides of the hut, taking off his helmet and curling up where he lay. Daisuke waddled over to the dragon, in the way that toddlers do, and wiggled himself to where he was cuddled against Kiseki.

Just seeing them lay down made Jun tired again, and she yawned. She hadn't napped for very long before, so she didn't get as much rest as she probably should have. "It's probably a good idea for us all to be on the same sleep schedule." She said to the room. "You two don't mind if we join the cuddle pile?"

 Kiseki opened an eye and shrugged. "Fine by me, as long as you don't crush my legs or something."

 Jun nodded. Scooping up Hawkmon (which drew a surprised squawk from the bird), she wiggled her own way into the cuddle pile, eventually using Kiseki's lap as a pillow, Hawkmon tucked against her chest, while Daisuke was tucked against Kiseki's. It was a bit odd at first, but Jun quickly got used to the sleeping arrangement, and before she knew it, she'd fallen asleep.

~~~

Jun woke up the next morning slowly and quietly. She stretched some, but didn't move aside from that. The cuddle pile had curled inwards on itself through the night, she was guessing, because she found her limbs tangled with Kiseki and Daisuke's, Hawkmon being firmly wedged under her armpit with his head on Daisuke's stomach. At least it was warm.

The others woke up, too, at their own speeds, and they all eventually untangled themselves. Inwardly, Jun mourned the loss of the warmth, but she didn't dwell on it. 

"So what are we gonna do today?" She asked the other occupants of the single-roomed up.

"We'll probably start moving." Kiseki answered, putting the various trinkets into hollow spaces in the armor on his hips and shoulders. "We only stayed at this hut to wait for you, so we'll need to go somewhere else. This area tends to have a certain amount of holy Digimon, like that Pegasmon, and if we run into any of them chances are they'll attack us at minimum."

 "So we need to go somewhere with less holy Digimon." Jun summarized.

"Yes."

“Well, let’s get going, then!” 

They didn’t say anything, but everyone all seemed to come to the silent mutual understanding that they were leaving at that moment. Kiseki had stashed away all of his trinkets by this point, and had Daisuke firmly held by both his arms and his tail, while Jun followed him as he exited the hut, Hawkmon held in her arms. Jun felt a bit bad for Daisuke and Kiseki - they’d probably only had enough time to get attached to the place, before having to leave it again. If they felt this way, though, neither of them showed any of it; at most Daisuke patted the doorframe, before Kiseki walked through it.

They didn’t walk so much as they wandered out of the village. The four of them walked the opposite direction of the jungle, Daisuke still in Kiseki’s arms, Hawkmon still in Jun’s. The path was still dirt, still somewhat trodden on, but as they went further from the village it became more run down. Still, onwards they went.

After some point the air seemed. . . colder . Jun couldn’t describe it all too well. It was like the difference between the inside of a room and the outside air on a cold day, only if the sky had dimmed as well and if the colors of the world had lost their edge. The air felt staticky and fuzzy , and Jun didn’t like that feeling at all .

“I don’t like this place.” Hawkmon said, feathers puffed up as much as they could be, and shrinking down in Jun’s arms to hide. “I don’t like it.”

“Yeah, me neither, little bird.” Jun agreed, pulling him closer to her chest as she sped up to be next to Kiseki.

“Ki-chan?” Daisuke asked, leaning into Kiseki in much the same way that Hawkmon was leaning into Jun. “Where are we?”

“Well, I don’t know for sure,” Kiseki began, and from the movement of his tail at the base Jun guessed that the limb would be lashing if it wasn’t holding Daisuke close to him, “but I think we might be in the Dark Area.”

Just the mention of the name sent shivers down Jun’s back, and the strangled half-squeal, half-chirp of terror from Hawkmon only made it worse.

“What’s the Dark Area?” She asked, cautiously.

Kiseki paused, ears flopping slightly from one direction to the next as he tilted his head in a very Daisuke-like manner, trying to find answers. “I suppose the best way to summarize it is. . . well, it is the place where the data of dead Digimon goes. It is where every Digimon dies and is reborn. A place of resting and a place of rebirth and of stillness and motion.”

“It’s kinda scary.” Daisuke said, tucking himself further against Kiseki’s chest, his head wedged underneath Kiseki’s chin and his arms wrapped around the golden chestplate.

“Yeah. . . yeah, it is.” Jun agreed again, and she stepped closer to Kiseki at the movement of something out of the corner of her eye. “But if it’s like Ki-kun says then it can’t be that bad, right?”

“‘Ki-kun’?” The Magnamon in question raised an eyebrow. Or, Jun thought he raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t see his face behind the helmet. She also didn’t know if he even had eyebrows.

“Ki-kun.” She repeated. “Saying ‘Kiseki-kun’ is too much work, so I can just call you kin-kun and it’ll be shorter.”

“Are you sure that’s the only reason?” He replied, voice the same light tone, yet with traces of amusement or annoyance. One of those.

“Well, Daisuke gets to call you ‘Ki- chan ’, so I should be allowed to call you ‘Ki-kun’.”

Kiseku squinted at her for a couple seconds, before relenting. “Fine. I can’t really stop you.” His carefree voice was back again, and his arms went from his sides to wrapped around Daisuke again, like they had been.

“Haha!” Jun cheered in momentary triumph, pumping her fists into the air. Poor Hawkmon was accidentally launched slightly, and Jun hurried to catch him before he could get snatched away by anything. “Sorry.” She apologized.

“It’s fine.” The red-feathered bird said back to her. “Just please don’t do that again. It wasn’t fun.”

“I promise I will not do that again.” Jun told him.

The four of them fell into a silence after that. Not intentionally - it simply happened. Whenever there was a rustle in the bushes around them, Jun and Kiseki would press closer to each other, so eventually it got to a point where Kiseki had an arm wrapped around Jun as they both walked carrying the smaller two, as if the blue dragon would be able to prevent some evil from stealing Jun away so long as he held onto her.

Eventually they arrived at some sort of cabin. It was not very large, and looked like the kind you’d see in a movie, where the lone hero character would live for the years that they spent brooding for the sake of the story. Jun looked at Daisuke, and Hawkmon, and Kiseki, and then back at the cabin.

“. . . do we go in?” Kiseki asked, tail twitching like it wanted to be moving more than it currently could, still wrapped around Daisuke’s midsection.

“Can’t hurt to try?” Jun answered hesitantly, scooting just a bit closer. Nevermind the fact that she was practically glued to his side by now. Better to stick with your friends than be separated. “Daisuke, Hawkmon, what do you think?”

“Whatever you think is best, Jun-nee.” Hawkmon said.

“‘Jun-nee’, huh?” Jun looked down at the little bundle of feathers in her arms. “I’m your older sister now?”

“Yeah!” Hawkmon said. Then he paused. “Unless I’m not allowed to have you be my sister. . . ?” He added hesitantly, voice quieter.

“Nah. It’s too late. I’m your older sister now, Daisuke is your little brother. Kiseki. . .” She thought a moment. “Well, Kiseki can be my little brother and your older brother, how about that?”

“Do I get any choice in these decisions?” Kiseki asked from next to her. 

“Nope!”

“Very well then.” He muttered under his breath. (Jun could still hear him. He didn’t make it that quiet.) “Anyways, are we going to enter the cabin or not?”

“We should.” Daisuke said all of a sudden. “Go inside the cabin. It’s scary out here.”


“Well. The votes have been cast.” Kiseki commented.

“In we go!” Said Jun with fake cheer. Throwing an arm into the air again (but not both, she didn’t want to launch Hawkmon again), she went forwards, Kiseki’s pace even with hers, and they reached the cabin within the next few minutes.

The cabin looked more well-taken-care of here than it had from the distance. The walls were made of stacked logs, wooden planks making a porch that led to the door. A window, fogged up by the cold, was placed next to the door.

"Do you think there's someone here?" Jun asked.

"Only one way to know." Kiseki answered. Striding forward, he knocked solidly on the door. 

There was no response for several moments. Then, a voice. "Come in."

The four did so. The inside of the hut was about as simple as the outside, with a wooden table in one room and a rug on the center of the floor of the room they'd walked into. 

"Welcome." Said the owner of the voice. They were a large, well-built dragon, mostly covered in blue fur, but with white on their underbelly and muzzle. They had the same ears that Kiseki had, a longer tail, a bladed horn on the top of their nose, and a set of white furred wings on their back.

"Hi." Daisuke said, waving to them and uncurling slightly from his own blue dragon. "What's your name?"

 "I am Yushisa the XV-mon." He said, dipping his head in greeting. "And you?"

"I'm Daisuke!" He smiled at Yushisa, because of course he did, he was Daisuke, and he was kind like that.

"My name is Kiseki." The golden-armored dragon bowed his head, unable to do much more than that with Daisuke still held to his chest. "I'm a Magnamon."

 "I'm Jun, and this is Hawkmon." Jun introduced herself and her small bird friend, choosing not to question the fact that this giant dragon’s name was ‘gentle’. 

“Hi.” Hawkmon waved a clawed wing, still snuggled in Jun’s arms. “You’re not gonna eat us, right?”

Yushisa snorted. “Why would I do that? Even if I wanted to, none of you would make very much of a meal, even put together.”

“Hey!” Jun protested.

Yushisa looked at her oddly. “Yes?”

“I know we’re noodles and aren’t very big yet, but that’s still kinda rude!” Jun said, looking at Yushisa with a firm look in her eyes. “It isn’t nice to be rude.”

“Ah.” Yushisa dipped his head again. “My apologies. I was not intending to be rude - I will choose my words with more caution in the future.” He lifted his head and tilted it, one ear raised in the air higher than the other, before turning around and ambling through the hut on all fours, tail lazily waving in the air. “You are all free to stay here if you wish.” He called back to them. “And if you would prefer not remain in the Dark Area, I can help you exit it.”

“We appreciate the offer.” Kiseki said, and he and Jun followed the bigger blue dragon. “We’ve walked for most of the day,” - and they had been, now that Jun thought about it - “and I, at the least, would appreciate somewhere to rest. If that is not too much to ask for?” His voice became a bit more anxious in tone at the end of the question, but other than that it remained his smooth, calm and level voice.

“My legs hurt.” Jun added. 

Yushisa dipped his head for what was at least the third time in as many minutes. “Of course.” He said. “There are plenty of places where you may rest in the cabin. Please, follow me.” 

Jun, Kiseki, Daisuke, and Hawkmon all looked at each other. Then, in unanimous action, turned and followed the white-winged dragon. The cabin seemed to go on farther than it should have, and seemed bigger than the walls had suggested. If any of the others noticed this, though, then they didn’t bring it up, so Jun was mostly just thinking to herself.

Eventually they entered a large room, with light streaming in through skylights and windows letting in breezes that brought the smell of rain. The atmosphere from the previous rooms was different from the one here; this room had a much more lived-in, happy, comfortable feel to it.

Her face must have gave away her amazement, because Yushisa chuckled, standing back on two legs as he wandered over towards one of the three or so cushion-covered benches that the room contained. At first, Jun didn’t know why. But there was a small chorus of cheeping noises that came from somewhere, which got louder when Yushisa made a trilling noise back.

Then he reached down through the cushions and pulled up several small baby dragons. They were mostly blue, with white-furred faces and bellies, and they had small tails and limbs, but big red eyes, and the same ears that Kiseki and Yushisa had. The baby dragons, however many that there were, cheeped in a louder intensity after Yushisa replied, many of them trying to climb onto him from where he stood at that particular cushion-covered bench.

Jun wandered to one of the other ones to see more of the baby dragons there. Those of them that weren’t dozing turned and cheeped at her, and tried to climb onto her, and those that were dozing or such only cheeped at her, quieter than the rest.

“I’m sorry about the Chibimon.” Yushisa apologized. “My children don’t get to see a lot of strangers.”

“Oh, are they your children?” Jun asked. “They’re all very adorable.”

“I’m glad we agree!” Yushisa replied, pride momentarily filling his voice. “But yes, they are my children. Not entirely made from my data - only about five are actually made with any spare data of mine - but they’re all my children, regardless if they’re made from my data or if I found their eggs in the world.”

Daisuke poked Kiseki’s shoulder and whispered something to the blue-and-white dragon that Jun didn’t hear, and he began an explanation.

“There are two main ways that a digimon’s egg can be formed. It can be created from spare data of one or more digimon, like Yushisa-san said, or the data for their egg can be created from random data that’s in the Digital World in the first place.” He’d gone to lean against a wall.

“So Digimon hatch from eggs?” Jun asked Hawkmon, choosing to sit on the floor near one of the benches (and consequently, being covered in chirping Chibimon that decided she was warm and fun to climb on).

“Yep!” Hawkmon confirmed. “Every Digimon hatches from an egg. And every Digimon can evolve, too.”

“How exactly do you use your own data to make another Digimon though?” Jun asked tilting her head.

“I can answer that.” XV-mon said, also seated on the ground and covered in Chibimon. “Most digimon have an average amount of data in their body, but they’re constantly creating new data, so old data gets shoved out of our bodies to make room for the newer data. Digimon can take that older data and sort of scoop it up in our talons or wings or what-have-you, and shape it into an egg. Generally if you use the data of only one digimon, the digimon that hatches will have a near identical evolution line to you, but if you add the data of other digimon it gains variety. Add data from Digimon of enough other attributes or type and you could have no idea what the egg would hatch into.”

“Huh.” Was Jun and Daisuke’s response.

“That’s pretty cool actually.” Jun said, petting one of the Chibimon behind the ears. The tiny thing purred, their whole tiny body trembling with the force of the action, and several other Chibimon climbed on top of her to receive behind-the-ear scratches as well.

Daisuke climbed down from Kiseki and waddled over, as toddlers do, to join her, quickly becoming covered in Chibimon as well. “They’re all so cute .” He said, eyes lit up in wonder. “Ki-chan, were you ever this little?”

“I was once, yes.” The golden armored dragon stretched. “But I grew up since then. So I’m sorry if I’m not as cute as the Chibimon.”

“No!” Daisuke turned his whole body around to look at Kiseki, and Jun watched as he did so. “You’re still cute the way you are, Ki-chan!”

He didn’t say anything, but Jun thought that she saw Kiseki smile. “. . . Thank you, Daisuke.”

“Of course!” said the mocha-eyed toddler, who then went back to being cuddled by the many Chibimon. “You’re Ki-chan, so that means you’re warm and soft and safe and cute.”

Now Jun thought that Kiseki looked like he might have been trying not to cry. “. . . thank you, Daisuke.” He said. “You’re very kind.”

Daisuke beamed at him.

Jun, meanwhile, was watching all of this with a fond smile on her face, running her fingers absent-mindedly through Hawkmon’s feathers. The bird Digimon in question had melted somewhat, and was laying almost limply in her lap, cooing, with the Chibimon still clung to Jun. She looked to Yushisa. “Hey, we were in the Dark Area before, right? How come it doesn’t feel like we are now?”

“We aren’t in the Dark Area at the current moment.” He explained. “This cabin happens to pass through both the regular areas of the digital world, and the Dark Area. My partner and I built it so that Digimon would be able to find shelter here in both sections of our world.”

“Who’s your partner? What are they like?”

Yushisa smiled softly as he began, a smile that grew as he talked. “My partner is Tenkuu, the Devidramon - the name of his species sounds scary, but he’s a real sweetheart. He’s always making sure that there aren’t any real dangers to anyone or thing. He prefers not to talk, but you can still figure out what he’s saying if you know body language.” Yushisa sighed and laughed softly. “Maybe I’m biased, but I really just think that he’s the best thing that happened to me.”

“You sound like you love him a lot.” Jun noticed.

“I do love him a lot!” Yushisa agreed. “His body is bigger than mine, physically, so he has more extra data and was able to help make the eggs for some of our children, and he’s very good for cuddling. That plus our habit of impulsively adopting any eggs we come across probably doesn’t do us much favors with all the children we have, but, well,” he rubbed the back of his head with a hand, “we both can’t help but fall in love with the little things, you know?”

“Are they all Chibimon?” Jun asked.

“Hmm?”

“Your children. Are all of them Chibimon, or are there just more that are?”

“Oh, there are plenty that aren’t Chibimon!” Yushisa told her. “They’re just mostly asleep by now. Come, come look.” He waved her over to where he sat. Walking over, slowly so as to not knock off the Chibimon clinging to her, Jun saw that there were indeed baby Digimon of several other types, most of whom were asleep save for two, a green one with a round head and big eyes and little ear-flaps and a squiggly body, and one that looked identical to the other save that they were brown in color instead. Both had large eyes. 

“This is Chocomon and Gummimon.” Yushisa said. “They’re waiting for someone, but none of us know who.”

“Maybe another human?” Jun suggested without really thinking about it. At Yushisa’s questioning chirp, she elaborated. “Well, Ki-kun and Hawkmon were both waiting for Daisuke and me, and we’re both humans, so maybe Chocomon and Gummimon are waiting for a human? I know we weren’t the only ones to see those Digimon that were fighting back home.”

“There were Digimon that were fighting?” Yushisa asked. Jun explained the scene as quickly and as best she could, trying to leave in as many details about the actual fight and appearance of the Digimon as she could. Once she’d finished, Yushisa nodded slowly. “That sounds like a Greymon and a Parrotmon. The two species don’t like each other much.” He shook his head. “Well, regardless, I’m sure it had to have been very scary for you, and I’m glad that neither of you were hurt. Both of you are young. Young ones shouldn’t be hurt.”

“I second that statement!” Kiseki piped up from where he’d been dozing, curled next to Daisuke and leaning against one of the benches, Chibimon and various other baby Digimon covering both he and Daisuke. 

“You’re also a child!” Yushisa called back. “You evolved but that doesn’t make you any more grown up!”

While the two of them began a sort of playful banter over whether or not Kiseki counted as “grown up” now that he’d evolved, another one of the sleeping Chibimon stirred. Gold eyes opened slowly, and they slowly looked around the room, before getting to their feet - small as they were - and beginning to waddle somewhere.

“Chibimon?” Yushisa asked, turning his head to look at the tiny thing. “Where are you going?”

“Gotta go.” Chibimon said, gold eyes wide and searching. Searching for something. “Gotta find her.”

“Find who?” Yushisa asked, eyes holding concern in them.

Chibimon shook their head. “Dunno. Just gotta find her.” They waddled some more, to one of the windowsills. “Can I have help?” They asked, looking back up at Yushisa. “Gotta find her. Dunno where she is, but I gotta find her.”

“Is. . . is she nearby?” Jun asked, a bit hesitantly.

Chibimon turned his gold, gold eyes to look at her. “Don’t think so.” they said, shaking their head, ears flopping as they did so. “But I gotta find her. She’s alone and gonna be scared. Gotta find her.”

“Well, do you at least want us to help you get outside?” Jun asked.

Chibimon nodded as fast as they could. “Please please please!” They said. “Gotta find her.”

“Okay!” Jun said. “Let’s go, then. Maybe we can find Chocomon and Gummimon’s partners.”

“Partner.” Gummimon said, and Chocomon beside him nodded. “We share a partner.” 

“We’ll find your partner, then.” Jun said. “Come on, let’s go.”


Their small group - Kiseki, Daisuke, Jun, Hawkmon, Chocomon, Gummimon, and Chibimon - bade Yushisa farewell, exited the doors of the cabin, and true to their word began wandering around mostly. They weren’t sure what they were looking for, exactly. At some point Chibimon had asked to be let down, and said that they were going to find “her”, whoever she was. None of them had really stopped them, though Jun and Kiseki did wonder if it was safe to do so. 

They wandered a bit more, not really sure who they were looking for. Then -


“I found someone!” Jun looked at where Hawkmon was pointing. It was a small boy, around Daisuke’s age, with short blonde hair and blue eyes. Not Japanese - she could tell that by his face and the words he spoke that she didn’t entirely understand.

Chocomon and Gummimon jumped out of her arms and began jumping around the boy, squeezing their way between his arms and into his lap. “It’s our partner it’s our partner it’s our partner!” they both chanted over and over. The poor boy just looked confused.

At least they’d found him.

Chapter Text

Wallace was many things in that moment. Tired, sure. A little bit hungry. And a fair bit afraid. Mostly, however, he was just really, really confused.

Two small creatures hopped around him, large heads and small floppy ears and identical aside from color. They were saying something over and over, but he didn't know what it meant. 

There were other people there, too. A girl with long auburn hair and brown bird who held a red bird that had dark purple claws at the end of its wings stood to one side, talking with the bird. She looked like she was older than Wallace by at least four years. Next to her was a boy that was Wallace's age, with darker burgundy hair and tan-brown skin and the same brown eyes. He was being carried by a tall blue dragon person, who had white fur on their neck and belly, and wore gold armor on his chest, arms, shoulders, hips and feet. Wallace could have been terrified, but the scariest looking one was the dragon, and he was being really gentle and nice to the boy, so Wallace hoped that he'd be nice.

He watched them for a few seconds, letting the two twin creatures wiggle their way under his arms and into his lap. Then the four other people turned and looked at him and said something. 

Wallace stared back at them, blankly. "I only speak English. I don't know any other languages." He told them.

The four looked confused, like they didn't understand him (which they probably didn't), except for the girl. She slapped her face with her hand.

"Uh. . . Hi?" She said. "Am I say this right?"

 "You know English?" Wallace asked.

"We learn in class." She said. "I can understand good, I can't speak good yet. Still learning."

 "Oh." Wallace guessed that it made sense. 

"Am I say the words right?" She asked again.

"Yeah!" Wallace said. "I know what you're trying to say."

 She nodded, satisfied with the answer. 

"It sounds better if you say 'am I saying the words right', though." He told her.

She nodded again. "I'll try to remember."

The two creatures in his lap said something. Wallace looked down at them.

"They want to know your name." The girl translated.

"My name is Wallace." He said to the two of them. The girl translated for him.

The creatures said something else. "They say their names are Chocomon and Gummimon. The green one Gummimon, the brown one Chocomon."

 Chocomon and Gummimon - now named - squiggled in his arms some more. "I need to teach you English." He told them. "Then we can all know that I'm saying."

 "I can help teach you Japanese." The girl offered. "I'm Jun."

 "Nice to meet you." He said to Jun. 

"Didn't you already say that?" Jun asked. 

"I don't know." He admitted. "But Momma says to be polite."

 "Makes sense." Jun nodded. "Oh yeah!" She then lifted the bird. "This is Hawkmon. That's Daisuke," - she pointed at the boy - "and that's Kiseki." She pointed at the dragon. "I thought we should all know each other's names."

 "That's a good idea." Wallace agreed.

Daisuke asked something in what Wallace now knew as Japanese, and Jun answered him, speaking the language fluidly and rapidly, unlike the slow are careful way she spoke English. "Daisuke wants to know if you want to come with us." Was the translated sentence.

"I don't have anywhere else to go." Wallace said, picking up Chocomon and Gummimon and holding them in his arms.

The information was relayed. Jun and the others started walking, so Wallace followed them. "I can help you with words." He offered. "If you'll teach me Japanese."

 Jun looked at him a second, then nodded. "I already said I would, dork. Will you teach Daisuke, too?"

 "Sure." Wallace said. He had no reason not to. Daisuke was his age and knew as little English as Wallace knew Japanese. So they could both learn at the same pace. He thinks. Either way, there would be learning. 

The group fell into silence as they walked. There were occasional small conversations within Daisuke, Jun, Hawkmon, and Kiseki, but these were all quiet and short. Wallace didn't mind the silence. It wasn't a scary silence that there was when you were the only one home. It was more like the silence of being home with family, and choosing not to talk. 

The sun fell in the sky, and it started to get dark. Jun said something to Kiseki, who said something else. Another while and then there was a wooden cabin in front of them, nestled into the surrounding forest area like it had always been there. 

Jun paused and looked at Wallace. "The people who live here are nice, so we gonna go inside and ask if we can stay the night."

 "Okay." He said, and followed her and the others. As it turned out, the answer was yes. Wallace was glad, even if he didn't say anything. A cabin was warm, and better protection from most everything than a tent was. If they had a tent.

The person who greeted them was a muscular blue dragon with white wings. Wallace was scared at first, but Jun said he was nice, and he seemed nice, so Wallace would trust him for now. The blonde learned that the dragon's name was Yushisa, that his boyfriend was Tenkuu, and that the two dragons adopted pretty much any baby Digimon they saw. 

The four of them were offered places to sleep, and even if he didn't know Japanese Wallace could tell everyone was grateful. The place where he'd curled up was a couch-like thing, with plush cushions on it. There wasn’t a blanket, but it was warm enough that Wallace didn't need one. Chocomon and Gummimon snuggled against his neck, and they were warm. Wallace said as such, even knowing they wouldn't understand him.

"Good night!" He said to the others, and they replied with what was probably the same. Then Wallace closed his eyes and fell asleep.

~~~

He woke up covered in tiny baby creatures. He'd had Digimon explained to him yesterday, but he couldn't believe that these tiny things could get very much bigger. They were all very small, and very soft, and very warm. And there were a lot of them all cuddled on top of Wallace and Chocomon and Gummimon. 

He looked to see if anyone else was awake. Jun was sprawled out, having fallen to the floor at some point, with Hawkmon asleep on her head and several baby creatures covering her as well, almost like a living blanket. Daisuke was cuddling Kiseki, his head on the dragon's chestplate, while the dragon had his arms and tail wrapped around Daisuke. The two of them were mostly covered by tiny blue dragons that had white faces.

The first one out of anyone else to wake up was Kiseki. The blue-and-white dragon twitched, before yawning and stretching what limbs weren't being laid on by Daisuke, which meant he mostly just stretched his legs and tail. He chirped something at Wallace.

"I dunno what you're saying, but good morning." Wallace told him back.

Hawkmon woke up next, fluffing his feathers and chirping to Kiseki and Wallace.

"Good morning." The blue-eyed toddler said again.

Chocomon and Gummimon woke up, and after a few seconds of shuffling they settled back down into Wallace's arms, amidst all the other baby Digimon. Kiseki and Hawkmon greeted them, and Wallace did the same.

The last two to wake up were Jun and Daisuke, in that order. Jun, once woken up, was up, and returned Wallace's greeting politely. Daisuke, on the other hand, whined and tried to go back to sleep. Sadly for the brown-eyed toddler, neither Jun nor Kiseki was having any of it, and the two of them managed to wake him up enough that he wouldn't immediately fake back asleep again. Then, he leaned against Kiseki, petting the ears (Wallace was assuming they were ears) of the many baby dragons that we're still on him and his bigger, golden-armored dragon.

Jun stretched again. "Wanna start learning Japanese while we wait for Yushisa-san and all these babies to wake up?"

"Okay." Wallace agreed.

The 'lessons' weren't hard , but he was only four and he was learning a language from scratch, so Wallace was still disappointed when he was only able to learn as little as he did. 

"You're doing good." Jun told him in Japanese. "Learning quickly."

 Then it was time to teach Daisuke English, which was just as hard. At least he was as eager to learn as Wallace was.

"Thank you for teach me." He said, in English.

"No problem." Wallace said back, in Japanese.

Yushisa was awake then, so the three humans and four digimon helped he and Tenkuu, the large black dragon-looking thing with four bat-like wings and a long tail, gather up all the babies and move them to the cushioned sorts of the benches while they slept, getting several of them off the floor. 

"Thank you." Yushisa told them. Wallace couldn't tell what he said next, but the blue and the black dragon both seemed glad to have had company in the form of the small group that was being made.

The five of them thanked the two dragons again, before they all exited the cabin. Once they were all assembled on the porch, Jun spoke. "So! What are we gonna do?" (He thought that was what she was saying. She said it in Japanese.)

"We go find food?" Wallace suggested, using the words he'd learned that morning. If he spoke in Japanese, then he'd learn Japanese faster, right?

"That's a good idea." Jun agreed. "Daisuke?"

 "Food sounds good." He agreed, in English. He turned, smiled at Wallace, then turned back to facing Jun. Wallace guessed Daisuke had had the same idea Wallace had.

"Ki-kun? Hawkmon? Chocomon, Gummimon? Any objections?' Jun asked again.

"No!" Everyone chorused. 

"Food it is then!" Jun declared.

“Where are we going to go to get food though?” Wallace asked in English. "I don't know where food is. Do you know where food is?"

 Jun head up a finger in a 'wait a second' gesture. She turned her face to Chocomon and Gummimon and asked them something quickly in a low voice, listening for their response. Wallace was pretty sure he heard the words for "food" and "find" in the short conversation. Jun nodded, then started forwards. "Chocomon and Gummimon says food is this way."

Jun and Kiseki took the lead of the group, Chocomon still in Wallace's arms while Gummimon sat on Hawkmon's head and gave directions. They walked for a few minutes. The area around them was some kind of forest, like the kind Wallace saw at home, only these trees had strange colors and looked kinda weird. The trees were spread far enough apart that they let light through the leaves, and aside from the occasional breeze, the air was still, so it made a nice atmosphere.

They eventually walked into a small clearing, which had several apple trees in it, each tree having several fruits. "We're here." Jun announced. 

"Where's here?" Daisuke asked, kind of drowsy, his English slurred some, but otherwise good.

"A meat-apple orchard." Kiseki answered. "The apples taste like meat, so you have to cook them if you don't want them to taste raw."

"Those kinds of trees exist?" Jun asked, a disbelieving tone in her voice.

Kiseki nodded.

"How do you know if they're meat apples or regular apples?" Wallace said, Gummimon jumping back into his arms. 

"Meat-apple trees have apples that are shimmery." Chocomon explained to the blue-eyed toddler. "See?" He wiggled out of Wallace's arms and bounced over to one, trying to pick it up. When he was unable to do so, the brown Digimon pouted, and drooped. Gummimon went over to join him, and the two of them tried again to pick up an apple. Still no luck. Frustrated, Gummimon stared at the meat-apple as if it would do something.

A small blue glow surrounded the creature. " Gummimon shinka! Terriermon! "

 Gummimon had gotten bigger. He now looked like a sort of dog-rabbit, with long ears that we're the length of his entire body, a little tail, and five little claws. His fur was a pale green, except for two darker green spots on both ears, and a sort of collar of darker fur around his neck.

A glow surrounded Chocomon as well. " Chocomon shinka! Lopmon! "

Chocomon still looked identical to Gummimon, except he was mostly brown with some sports that were pink.

Gummimon and Chocomon then looked at each other, before Gummimon picked up the shimmery apple, waddling over on his tiny legs to where Wallace stood, Chocomon trailing after him. “For you!” The rabbit-dog announced.

While Wallace took the offered meat-apple, the others all looked at Gummimon and Chocomon.

“Did you evolve out of spite?” Kiseki asked (Jun had said shinka meant evolve, right?).

Gummimon looked at the blue dragon. “Yes.” The green dog-rabbit offered no further explanation.

“Well. . . fair enough then.” He said, tail twitching as if it were looking for something. Wallace didn’t know what, though. Kiseki’s tail didn’t look too strong, even if it was kinda long, and it didn’t look like those monkey tails that let the critters carry stuff, so Wallace didn’t think Kiseki was trying to find something for his tail to hold.

He saw the others go wander off a bit to do something, but Wallace wasn’t paying attention. Chocomon and Gummimon, now drunk with power after having acquired arms, were running around, trying to pick up as many meat-apples as they could to give to Wallace. Each apple that they picked up would be deposited in Wallace’s lap, before both of the dog-rabbits took off again. 

"Having fun?" Wallace asked them, sometime later. He'd moved to sit against a tree, so that he'd have something to lean against. Also so that if he was lucky some apples would fall from above and into his lap. 

"Yeah!" Gummimon said, stopping in front of Wallace, and flopping over on the blue-eyed boy's meat-apple-filled lap. Chocomon added over, deposited one last apple, and joined Gummimon. Now Wallace has two Digimon and a ton of meat-apples in his lap.

Kiseki asked Wallace something. Wallace looked at him. "I didn't hear that. Can you say it again?" 

"Want help?" The dragon repeated, Daisuke firmly kept close to his chest by his long, blue-furred tail. Oh, so maybe Wallace was wrong about Kiseki's tail not being able to do things?

Anyway. "Help is nice." Wallace agreed. "Can you help me carry the apples?" 

Kiseki shrugged. "Why not?" He walked over to where Wallace sat and gathered all but three of the twenty-something meat-apples, holding them in his hands and arms. 

Wallace stood up, picking up his three apples. Chocomon and Gummimon whined about losing their spot on his lap. "I'm sorry." Wallace said to them. "But I can't carry both of you at the same time anymore. You're both too big."

Gummimon pouted again, and muttered something about something not being fair under his breath. Chocomon just sighed in acceptance, and snuggled up to Wallace’s leg, furry head reaching Wallace’s chest. 

“Hey, can we start a fire?” Jun asked, looking at Kiseki. “To cook the apples?”

Kiseki shrugged. “I can’t really stop you if you do.”

“I’m gonna take that as a yes, then.”

She went about arranging a fire, with sticks to stick the apples on so that she wouldn’t have to hold them above the fire with her hands as they cooked. Looking into the flames, Wallace yawned, the sheer oddity of this morning’s events catching up to him. He’d woken up, covered in tiny creatures, then followed more different creatures to an apple orchard, where the two tiny creatures that were his friends had become slightly bigger tiny creatures. And now there were apples being roasted by a fire.

“You can sleep, you know.” Jun said to him. 

Wallace made a confused noise.

“You’re four, right?” she asked. “Same age as Daiske? You’re little, so you’re gonna get tired easier. You can sleep if you want.”

Wallace yawned again. “If you. . . say so. . .” another yawn, and he shuffled closer to Jun and Kiseki, who were sitting around the fire. Daisuke was already asleep, being held gently by Kiseki, and Hawkmon had passed out a short while ago. Chocomon and Gummimon crawled into Wallace’s lap, and he shuffled until he was leaning against Kiseki. “Can I use you as a pillow?”

“Go ahead.” Said the blue dragon. “I don’t mind.”

“Mmmkay.” A last yawn, and then Wallace closed his eyes, leaning into the warmth and letting his mind rest a bit. Chocomon and Gummimon nestled into his lap, he felt like things were almost as they should have been.

~~~

Wallace woke up to a darkened clearing, a small fire, Chocomon and Gummimon asleep in his lap, Hawkmon and Daisuke still asleep as well, and Jun and Kiseki chattering quietly about something. "Oh, you're awake." Kiseki noticed. "Feel better now?" 

Wallace nodded. "Not as tired." 

Kiseki nodded again, the firelight glinting off of his golden armor and turning it a more orange shade than it already was. He and Jun didn't go back to their conversation. 

"Do you want a meat-apple?" Jun offered Wallace, holding a cooked apple in her hands. "It's cooked, so it won't taste raw." She paused for a moment. In a softer voice, she added, "you need to eat."

Wallace took the apple she gave him, and bit into it. It tasted like bacon, and the apple itself was nice and crunchy, not too soft or squishy. Wallace ate his apple, and when that was done the three of them who were awake fell into silence again, the crackle of fire and chirping of crickets and forest nightlife being the only noises.

Wallace looked at Jun and Kiseki from across the fire. Hawkmon was asleep in Jun's lap, and Daisuke was asleep in Kiseki's, and the two mostly just petted the heads of their respective partners, still watching the fire in silence. Wallace looked down at Chocomon and Gummimon, both still asleep as well, snoring softly and tucked firmly against Wallace's sides. 

The night was dark, and the fire was one of the few sources of light. It reminded Wallace of the movies he'd seen parts of where the people would go camping and wandering on their quests to find stuff. Then he was reminded of home. Home, with warm blankets and the tire swing hanging off of the tree in the front yard and Momma making sure he wasn't hurt too badly by whatever playing around he did. Wallace missed home so, so much.

"Hey. . . You okay?" Kiseki asked, head tilted and looking at Wallace. "You're sad, did something happen?"

 Wallace shook his head. "I just miss home."

 "Ah." Kiseki bowed his head, looking into the fire now. "I'm sorry."

 "It's okay." Wallace looked into the fire too, trying not to focus on home and make himself more homesick than he was.

". . . Yeah, I miss home too." Jun admitted. "Daisuke and I have been gone for a couple days already. My parents are probably worried." She laughed a bit after that, but it wasn't a happy laugh. "Nah, they're just as likely to not notice we've been gone. They don't know where we are half the time. Too busy working and stuff like that." Her voice became bitter towards the end. Hawkmon's eyes scrunched in his sleep at this, and the auburn-haired girl gently pet the feather sides of his head until he relaxed.

"I'm sorry." Wallace said. I'm-sorry. The words that people said when they felt bad and wanted to help but didn't know how. Saying I'm-sorry didn't always make you feel better, though.

Jun shrugged. "It's okay. It's not their fault. Daisuke and I are pretty quiet, so it's kind of our fault as well. She stretched, yawning. 

"You can sleep." Kiseki told her. "I can watch the fire."

 "Yeah, but if you do that then when are you gonna sleep?" She asked him back.

Kiseki was going to speak (or at least Wallace thought so), but Daisuke woke up then, yawning and stretching his arms and legs. "Hi, Daisuke." Kiseki greeted, softly. "Did you sleep well?"

 Daisuke nodded, still sleepy. "You're a good pillow, Ki-chan." Daisuke yawned again and looked around. "Did anything happen when I slept?"

 Jun shook her head. "Not much, no. Wallace woke up, but that's about it."

 "She hasn't slept yet." Wallace told Daisuke, hoping he was getting his words right. "Kiseki hasn't either."

 "Why haven't you gone to sleep yet?!" Daisuke cried, looking at the two of them with all the disappointment his four-year-old self could muster. 

"If we both go to sleep, who'll watch the fire?" Jun asked.

"Can't we just all sleep and not worry about the fire?" Wallace asked. "It's little so it should die on its own, right?" 

Jun raised a finger to respond, then lowered it as she thought about it. "Well. . . I guess so. As long as it's okay with everyone." She looked around. None of them said anything against it. "Well, okay then. It's sleepy time."

Daisuke chirruped (how'd he do that?) and snuggled back close to Kiseki's chest, burying his face in the white and blue fur of the dragon's neck. Jun adjusted herself so that she was laying down on her back on the ground, Hawkmon resting in her belly. Wallace got into a similar position, with Chocomon and Gummimon resting on his chest like furry little heavy blankets. Then, once more, Wallace fell asleep.

~~~

Terriermon was smart. Terriermon was also reckless and didn't think things through half the time, but that was okay, because he had Lopmon to worry and watch over him and keep his twin slive, just like how Terriermon kept him alive. Even when they'd been Gummimon and Chocomon, and Zerimon and Cocomon before that, they always had each other's backs. They'd always been together, looked out for the other.

Then, it was no surprise that they felt the same pull . What the pull was for or to neither of them knew, but as Gummimon and Chocomon they'd known that it was important and that they both needed to find it, whatever it was.

The nice people - humans, that was what they were, they weren't Digimon, or at least not in the current moment - had suggested that maybe they were waiting for their own human. The humans had had a Hawkmon and a golden armored Armor-level dragon Digimon that looked kinda like the legends of Magnamon, but he was shorter than most dragon Digimon were, so Chocomon and Gummimon hadn't known if that was what the Armor-level was or not. Maybe he was just a runt. There had been a Chibimon who'd joined them as well. Chibimon was Chocomon and Gummimon's friend; he felt the same pull that the two twin Digimon did, just not for the same thing. Maybe it was a human.

Chocomon and Gummimon had gone with the two humans and the Hawkmon and the maybe-Magnamon, and Chibimon had wandered off somewhere. Gummimon and Chocomon weren't too worried, Chibimon was smart and could protect himself. Chocomon worried, of course he did, but he always worried, and they both knew that Chibimon would be fine.

They traveled with the humans, and they found another human. And then - and then -

Well, then Chocomon and Gummimon weren't the most important things in each other's lives before. Now they had Wallace, small Wallace, with his hair and eyes and skin lighter than those of the other two humans, his face less round and his limbs a little longer. He spoke words that the twins didn't know, but they promised to themselves that they would learn these words, that they would learn if only to speak with their sweet, sweet Wallace, with his blue eyes full of wonder and curiosity and a gentle light.

There were introductions. The humans were named Jun and Daisuke, and Jun's Hawkmon (because he was hers as much as she was his) didn't have a name, but Daisuke's Magnamon (and he was a Magnamon, and he was Daisuke's and Daisuke was his, and the dragon's body language screamed he is mine and you shall not touch him ) was named Kiseki. And Wallace told them that he was Wallace, and of course he was Wallace, how could he be anything else? He was Chocomon's and Gummimon's and Gummimon and Chocomon were his, just like the Digimon belonged to their humans and the humans belonged to their Digimon.

Jun knew the words that Wallace spoke, if not very well, and Gummimon was content to wish to learn, and Chocomon was envious of her for knowing what their Wallace said when they did not. It was not a spoken decision, but a decision nonetheless, that Gummimon and Chocomon would learn this language as much as they could.

Jun taught Wallace Japanese. Wallace taught them English. There wasn't very much teaching, but it was a start, a crack into the wall of a language barrier, and Chocomon and Gummimon did their best to open up that crack, talking and talking in the language Yushisa had taught them and the language they learned from Wallace. The humans didn't notice that they were learning faster than they should have been. Gummimon didn't either, because he thought that they were learning too slow, but Chocomon paid attention. Humans weren't like Digimon - they couldn't have knowledge of languages coded into them like Digimon could. They only learned as fast as they did because the Digital World was nothing if not adaptive, and for whatever reason it had chosen these small humans, and so it worked to take what data the humans had and manipulate it to favor their survival. You couldn't help your friend if you didn't know how to talk to them. You couldn't warn them of danger if you couldn't do that.

Gummimon was smart, but Chocomon was wise, and Chocomon paid attention.

They'd gone to an orchard for food. Gummimon and Chocomon had wanted to give Wallace an apple. Just an apple, they wanted to get it for him because they were his and he was theirs, and what good were they as partners if they couldn't even get their partners food? But they had no arms or legs, and Gummimon was frustrated and Chocomon was in despair. And Gummimon had glared at the apple and evolved, and Chocomon with him because they were twins, they had hatched from the same digitama, and they were linked in more ways that one. 

Terriermon and Lopmon were bigger than they had been, but they had limbs now and little tails and long ears and they could do things now, they could bring Wallace food. They brought Wallace a lot of food. He was little, and needed to eat more.

They slept. Wallace was warm and comfortable, and they had eaten and were full, and so they slept. They both trusted Jun and Kiseki to make sure Wallace ate - the two were too kind and responsible-like not to. So Terriermon and Lopmon slept, and were warm, and safe, and comfortable.

They woke up to the light of dawn. Lopmon woke after Terriermon, because Lopmon had fallen asleep after Terriermon had. Wallace, their sweet Wallace, was still asleep. So was everyone else save one. Red sunset-holding eyes curiously looked at into brown-black and greeb-black eyes. A dragon stared at two rabbits. Blue and gold and white against brown and green and pink and green. 

He said no words, but Kiseki's body language said enough. Not quite standing, legs bent and half-crouching, feet and hands on the ground and Daisuke tucked against his belly and chest, head facing forwards and teeth surely bared underneath the golden helmet that hid his face. Tensed, hocks bent rather than resting flat upon the ground to mimic feet, tail ready at a moment's notice to swat away anything facing him, entire body in a protective stance. All for the human underneath him. All for Daisuke. He said no words but his body screamed his meaning. Hurt him and I'll hurt you. Don't touch him. Don't hurt him .  

The Bond between human and Digimon was strange, was it not? Lopmon and Terriermon were not supposed to know this information, they both thought, but they did. They had always been more one person with two minds and hearts and bodies than just two with their own unsynchronised thoughts. Perhaps it was because their egg was one which held the both of them in it. Lopmon didn't know, and Terriermon didn't care. 

Dragon verses rabbit. Rabbit backs down, surrenders, moves peacefully and allows the dragon to keep his hoard. 

Lopmon and Terriermon laid there, being both a blanket for Wallace and a heavy weight on top of him, relaxed and calm. They did not speak the complex draconic sub-language of chirps and news and trills and snarls and positioning of tail-ears-limbs-wings-eyes, but they chittered in their mammalian sub-language and hoped it would be enough.

Kiseki relaxed, tension draining, and settled down over top of Daisuke, the child being kept safe underneath the white and blue furred belly. For a while, Lopmon and Terriermon and Kiseki chittered to each other. Despite Kiseki being a dragon and Lopmon and Terriermon being rabbits, the three of them were all mammalian, and they shared a sub-language just as complex as the draconian one, though perhaps not as well-used. Chibimon were more mammalian dragons, and thus Kiseki was himself, having been a Chibimon at some point of his life. Lopmon and Terriermon, of course, were dog-rabbits. They couldn't be anything but mammalian.

Hawkmon woke up next, chirruping and thrilling. Kiseki replied using the avian portion of his draconian sub-language, and Lopmon and Terriermon let the two converse while they simply watched. Hawkmon had made himself a little nest out of Jun's jacket, and sat atop her belly, rising and falling with her chest at each breath. The little bird took great care not to scratch his Jun with his talons. He was a kind creature.

Eventually, one of the three humans woke up. Unsurprisingly, it was Jun, brown coffee eyes with a single ring of golden-amber around her pupils and tan-brown skin and auburn hair that looked like firelight in the dawn.  "Good morning." She said, in Wallace's tongue - English. 

"Good morning." Lopmon asked. "Did you sleep well?" Terriermon continued.

Jun shrugged. "I guess so. Had a weird dream involving pickles and a giant koi fish, but that was it." She looked at the two of them, Terriermon first, then Lopmon. "Is Wallace a comfy pillow?"

 "Yes." Lopmon and Terriermon said in tandem - their overlapping voices creating a sort of reverberating effect. 

Jun nodded. She sat up, Hawkmon and his nest sliding into her lap, and began petting the head feathers of her Hawkmon while she looked at Kiseki. "What about you, Ki-kun? Sleep well?"

 From his settled place on the ground, half-draped over Daisuke, the Magnamon nodded. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

"I see you moved in your sleep." Jun commented.

"I suppose so." Kiseki replied.

Jun didn’t say anything else to Kiseki or to Lopmon or Terriermon, so the four of them that were awake ended up just listening to the wildlife.  It was peaceful. It was nice.

Out of the two still asleep, Wallace was the next to wake up. He didn't make any noise, but Terriermon and Lopmon knew when he woke up. For a little while, Wallace didn't really move. It wasn't until after Terriermon poked the boy in the face (which was rude , Terriermon, he knew that) that Wallace attempted to get up. He leaned up and Lopmon and Terriermon slid down to sit on his lap as he looked around. 

"Good morning." Jun told him, in English. "Did you sleep good?"

 "Yeah." Said Wallace, hands rubbing at his eyes. Wallace, sweet Wallace, who they hoped that no harm would come to, imagined or not. Sweet little Wallace with his blonde hair and blue eyes and tiny fragile little body that did not get repaired if he got injured - the burn on Daisuke's leg was proof of that, proof of how humans did not heal as fast but got hurt so much more easily. 

"We'll start moving when Daisuke gets up." Jun decided, then and there. "We still need to find somewhere with less angels, and we aren't there yet, so we have to keep moving."

"Okay." Wallace said, and idly ran his fingers through the fur at the ends of Lopmon's ears. That felt nice, Lopmon decided, and Terriermon whined and stuck his ears underneath Wallace's hands, wanting the same treatment. Wallace giggled (good, he was happy) and did so, and then Lopmon and Terriermon both had fingers running through the fur of their ears.

It took a bit for Daisuke to wake up. Kiseki had been watching over his partner the whole time, even as Jun chatted with Hawkmon and Wallace petted Lopmon and Terriermon, his sunset eyes never straying from the peacefully sleeping child. Kiseki was a very protective person, but maybe it was because he was a dragon Digimon. Regardless, the blue-and-white knight-like dragon remained half-draped over Daisuke, being a weighted blanket.

Daisuke woke up with a yawn. Then he blinked his eyes, looking up at Kiseki. "Good morning, Ki-chan." 

"Good morning, Daisuke." Was the dragon's response, the Magnamon sitting up so that Daisuke could do the same.

"Morning, sleepyhead!" Jun called to him. "Ready to start walking?"

 Daisuke yawned and rubbed his eyes, and Terriermon and Lopmon were sure that Kiseki was thinking the same adoring thoughts for Daisuke that the two dog-rabbits had thought for Wallace. "Can Ki-chan carry me?"

 "Sure!" Jun told him. "As long as we're moving, and as long as he's okay with it." 

Kiseki's answer to the unspoken question was to lift up Daisuke, arms and tail once more keeping the boy in place. "Let's go while we have daylight."

 Everyone else nodded, and then they - as a group - got up and began walking. They didn't know where they were going, but it would probably be a long way, and it was always best not to waste daylight.  

"Do we have anywhere specific we're going?" Wallace wondered about halfway through the day, in between eating an apple - a regular one, not a meat-apple. 

"Not really." Jun admitted. "But the angels that were around the village Ki-kun, Daisuke, Hawkmon and I showed up at tried to kill Daisuke, and they'd probably try to kill us too, so we gotta get somewhere with less angels."

 "Couldn't we just have stayed with Yushisa and Tenkuu, then?" Wallace asked, confused. Lopmon and Terriermon, reaching almost dangerously on either of his shoulders, nodded.

"It would be warmer than out in the forests." Terriermon said. "And we'd have company." Lopmon added. 

Jun looked at them, and then at Kiseki. "Ki-kun, you're the oldest Digimon here. What say you?"

 "Well, do you want to go back to the cabin?" Kiseki asked her, Daisuke dozing against his chest. "I don't have any reason not to go back, but I don't want you to make a decision just based off of my decisions."

"No, you're fine!" Jun said, waving her arms about. "I just kind of agree with Wallace. Yushisa-san and Tenkuu-san's cabin is probably the safest place we know right now."

 Kiseki nodded. "So, back to the cabin?"

 "Back to the cabin." Jun agreed.

It didn't seem like they'd gone very far from the cabin, but as they all tried to backtrack, they found out that it was more difficult than it seemed. After the fourth time of Wallace stumbling over tree roots not seen, Kiseki had picked up Wallace as well, Lopmon and Terriermon sitting on the golden shoulder armor while Wallace and Daisuke both were held to his chest. Jun stubbornly continued to walk, almost tripping every few feet or so, but continuing nonetheless. Hawkmon flew alongside her, having to stop every while or so because his wings got tired, but otherwise keeping himself up in the air pretty well. 

The cabin did get closer, eventually. It wasn't hidden, so it wasn't as hard as it could have been to find. They arrived at the door. A silent Jun looked at each of them, before stepping forward and knocking on the door. Kiseki set Daisuke, Wallace, and Lopmon and Terriermon down while they waited.

Another couple of seconds, and someone answered the door. They were draconic in body shape, with dark grey skin and two sets of pupilless ruby eyes, long arms hanging above the wooden floor, clawed feet scuffing the floor ever so slightly, four wings with small holes in them folded mostly to their side as the digimon's tail swayed back and forth. "Hello." They greeted, in a voice that was deep and silky, like dark chocolate must have been. "You must be the other children that my boyfriend mentioned were here a couple days ago. Please, come in." He stepped aside, making room for them to enter.

"Thank you." Jun said. "Are you Tenkuu-san?"

 The Digimon nodded. "That is my name, yes."

 "Thank you for letting us come back." Wallace said. 

"Of course." Tenkuu said, dipping his head in a non threatening gesture. "You are lost children, yes? Yushisa and I care for any lost children who find their way to our cabin. It is part of why our cabin is found in so many pockets of the digital world at once, and why those looking for shelter can always find it." He followed the children as they walked inside, tail pulling the door closed. The demon-dragon was taller than Wallace by a large amount, and Lopmon and Terriermon tensed, even knowing that this was the Digimon who had raised them. They forced themselves to untense as soon as they could, because there truly was no danger.

"How big is your cabin anyways?" Jun asked, a trilling Hawkmon in her arms.

"Oh, very large." Tenkuu answered, moving slowly so as to not accidentally step on any of the children. "We have to have room for all the little ones, and Yushisa and I have a habit of adopting children that we find."

 "Like us!" Terriermon said, chest puffed up proudly, nearly falling off of Wallace a second later and needing Lopmon to pull him back onto their shared partner's shoulders.

Tenkuu chuckled, eyes curled in a smile as he did so. "Like the two of you. Congratulations on evolving, by the way."

 "Thank you, Tou-san." Lopmon said to him, and Terriermon echoed his twin.

Soon after, they entered the main, largest room. Like before there were still the benches with cushions that were covered in baby Digimon, an occasional child-level here and there. Yushisa was moving back and forth from one bench to another, checking up on his children. He looked up when Wallace, Lopmon and Terriermon, Jun, Hawkmon, Kiseki, Daisuke, and Tenkuu entered the room. "Oh, hi! The children are back, I see." While looking at them, he gently petted the head of a Gigimon, and set a Kunemon back onto their cushioned nest with their siblings with his tail.

"Hi, Yushisa-san." Jun said, bowing to him in greeting (they thought? Terriermon and Lopmon didn't know too much of the humans' culture still). "How have you been?"

 "I've been good!" The blue dragon wound his way through the many benches and babies until he was standing in front of the group.

"Hi, Tou-sama." Terriermon said. In response, Yushisa reached down and ruffled the head of both Terriermon and Lopmon, and then a second later did the same to Wallace.

"It's nice to see that all of you are unhurt." Yushisa said. "Especially after that other little one came through here with all those scratches and such."

"Wait, there's another kid here?" Jun asked, confused, and looking a little worried.

Yushisa nodded. "Yes. She only arrived here late last night, along with the Chibimon who'd left with you the two days before - the one with gold eyes? They both were injured, so Tenkuu and I patched them up as best we could. They should both be sleeping now."

 "Well, I guess we know who Chibimon was trying to find." Kiseki mumbled, close enough for Terriermon to hear.

"Can we see her?" Daisuke asked, head tilted. "To make sure she's okay?"

"Sure!" Yushisa said. "Follow me!" And he turned and started walking. Following him, the seven all looked at each other. Hopefully she's nice . Time would tell if the new girl would be friend or foe.

Chapter Text

Rina was used to distrust. She was the “creepy girl” who didn’t know when to stop talking, or when to sit still. She didn’t know when people wanted her around or when they wanted her gone. She was used to distrust - green hair and red eyes, always watching eyes, always watching. Never mind that her hair wasn’t nearly as unusual a color as the pink or blue that some people had, or that her eyes were natural, or that she’d never done anything wrong in her life, she just looked a little bit too out-of-the-ordinary. Rina had an aura of otherness that she couldn’t get rid of - she knew too much about things like computers when she should have been concerned with taking naps (because computers liked working for her when they did for no one else, because they were interesting and she wanted to learn ), she cared too much about imaginary creatures when no one else did (because they were cool and imaginary things couldn’t hurt you like people could). 

Rina was only seven, but that didn’t mean she didn’t notice. How they looked at her, thinly-veiled disgust in some eyes (why?), outright distrust and suspicion in others (why did they distrust her? She didn’t do anything). How none of the other children ever wanted to play with her, how at school her things would “accidentally” go missing, how Rina had to sit by herself and be by herself because no one would help her, and that was fine, she didn’t want them there anyways.

(She was still lonely. And kids were mean.)

Rina was the outlier. So she was to be feared, and distrusted, and to be alienated. Pretend that they aren’t getting to you. Don’t look sad, no one wants to see sad children. No one cares about a child that doesn’t fit in. Other kids especially don’t care about kids who don’t fit in. Best to be as normal as possible. Maybe they’ll only bother you a little bit this time. Maybe they won’t be mean to you for no reason this time. It won’t be as bad if you pretend that you have friends like everyone else. (She did have friends, really - just. They were Digimon. And they weren’t real. But that was okay).

Rina was used waking up in the middle of the night. She always had trouble staying asleep in the nighttime, despite falling asleep so easily in the daylight. A message on her V-Pet (only just bought, brand-new condition, and she hoped she could keep it for as long as possible without it being damaged or stolen by something or other) had appeared in the middle of the night, and she’d woken up in time to see it when it was only a few seconds old, in the clothes she’d worn the day before (because Rina had forgotten to put on her pajamas and it wasn’t like her parents were going to care much, they just wanted her safe and healthy,  and besides, her jacket was comfy, even if it was still much too big for her), and saw the message. Rina had tapped the little screen of the thing, where the message was displayed, because what else could she have done? She’d thought, maybe I can at least get to set up the V-Pet and give them a nickname .

Then the floor had given out under her, and some sort of staticky texture surrounding her on all sides, and she fell . It was too small, too off there wasn’t anyone there and she didn’t know where she was going nothing but static and her own screams and that static grew and grew and grew --

Rina landed onto something almost hard with a thump , and for a few seconds the seven-year-old just tried not to cry from the suddenness. A few seconds more and she got on her feet, shakily, trembling and shivering. She was still wearing the same thing she had been, so at least she had a jacket and shorts and socks. The socks would probably get ruined by the dirt she was walking on, though. Oh well.

It was dark around her, and she wondered if this was a prank, or if she’d just been unlucky enough to end up somewhere else. Maybe she did something wrong, and now she was here. Or maybe she was just unlucky.

Something moved in the darkness of the forest area that she was in. The trees loomed ominously and the tree branches and leaves rustled and Rina hoped that she wasn’t about to be eaten. She probably wasn’t , but you could never take that chance. Nonetheless, Rina had no idea where she was, and standing around in the middle of some kind of forest probably wasn’t going to get her very far. Maybe she could at least find somewhere slightly more safer to stay in for the night until it was light out?

Yeah. Yeah, that was what she would do. 

She couldn't see too well because of the darkness, so she only stepped with tiny steps and held her hands out just in case. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she'd just have to hope that she could find somewhere more safer. "It's an adventure, Rina-chan!" She told herself. "Just an adventure, you're gonna find your way to a fancy castle and meet some cool prince person like adventurers do! You’ll fight a dragon and then get fancy stuff like heroes do!"

For some reason, Rina felt like she should go in one specific direction. Trusting her gut, she did, slowly moving away from the place she'd fallen down to. The trees loomed with their dark bark and branches, and the forest floor muffled her footsteps. It made for an eerie setting - but Rina was an adventurer, and adventurers didn't give up. So she moved, slowly and carefully, towards whatever it was that her insides were telling her to find. 

She stumbled upon a sort of clearing, where the trees were more spaced apart for a little bit. The moonlight hit the forest floor in several small rays here and there, and Rina's breath caught. "Oh. . ." The shadows contrasted much more sharply with the moonlight than they had in the more densely-wooded part of the forest. "It's so pretty." And, truly, it was.

Something told her to keep going. A gentle nudge, a soft tug. So she went.

As she walked, she noticed some kind of thing on the ground. It was too far away to see well, but it looked small and curled up. Her insides told her to go to it. She did.

She found herself standing above the creature. She sat down on her knees, carefully lifting the thing off of the forest where they had been sleeping. They were kinda small, only about as big as her head. They were covered in a thin layer of fur, with a royal blue for most of their body, and a pale white-blue on their belly and face. They had two small arms and two slightly-less-small legs, and a little tail that was the same length as the ear-looking things they had on their head, which was probably the biggest part of their body. Rina thought that they were a Chibimon - those were usually the Digimon that evolved into V-mon, like on her V-pet, right? They looked a lot like Chibimon she'd seen.

They shivered in her hands, and seemed to wake up and uncurl from where they'd been sleeping. Rina held her arms still. After a moment they raised their head to look at Rina.

Molten gold eyes met crimson red. There was a sudden feeling of warmth in Rina's chest, a feeling of safety and comfort and belonging, and Rina was sure, for whatever reason, that the tiny little dragon creature felt it too.

She spoke first. 

"Hi." She said in a soft, quiet whisper. "I'm Rina. What's your name?"

The Chibimon looked at her with something like love and ease in their eyes. "I dunno." He said, tiny voice smooth and light and airy. "I don't have a name for myself. Why don't you give me one?" He looked at her, expectantly, love and trust shining in his eyes still.

"Are you sure?" Rina asked. The Chibimon nodded. "Okay. Lemme think about it." What defines a name? What made a name special? She didn't want to call him Chibimon for forever, and she didn't think he'd be too happy with that either. "Hmm. Well, you evolve into V-mon, right?"

 "I think so." He told her, with those molten gold eyes still searching her soul.

"Well," she said, "how about V.V. then?"

 "V.V.. . ." He tested the name, then nodded. "I like it. Call me V.V."

 Rina smiled. "I'm glad. Nice to meet you, V.V.."

V.V. just made a small chirruping sound. 

Huh. “Huh.” Rina said. “I didn’t know you could chirp.”

V.V looked at her, eyes as wide as her own, then shrugged his tiny little shoulders. “Did y’think I could roar?”

Rina shook her head, shifting V.V. in her arms so that he was a little bit more comfortable to hold. “No.” she told him. “But I dunno. I thought chirps were supposed to be bird noises.”

“Are they?” V.V. asked her, one tiny little stub of an arm held to his chin, his eyes looking up at something that wasn’t there. “Dunno why I c’n chirp, then. Just can.”

Well, that made as much sense as anything else there. Rina told V.V. this. 

The forest around them was still dark and eerie. Rina still was lost, now without that guiding pull . Still, she had V.V., with his little eyes looking up at her with undiluted love and trust and admiration, and that was okay, wasn’t it? She had V.V.. She’d be okay. 

V.V.’s fur was soft. It was thin, but soft. It reminded her of those sweaters that she sometimes found at stores, that weren’t meant for cold weather and were more soft than warm, and were too expensive to buy to just wear for a couple of days. V.V.’s fur was different from those sweaters though. His fur was more of a natural softness, and unlike the sweaters that were staticky his fur was smoother, easier to brush your fingers through if you could find a spot with long enough fur, like his cheeks. 

And V.V.’s fur was warm. Not hot, not like a fire, but - warm. Like when you sat on a heating vent in the middle of winter because the rest of your apartment was too cold. Like when you were snuggled under lots of blankets and they covered you completely. Like when you’d wake up in the morning, all comfortable, and not want to get out of bed. That kind of warm.

Rina hummed, feeling suddenly drowsy. V.V. in her arms was warm, and suddenly the dark forest didn’t seem so bad. She had woken up in the night, and it made sense for her to be a little scared, but it was okay. She had V.V., didn’t she? And the baby dragon was warm . Rina eventually slid to her knees, holding V.V. to her chest and curling up around him. It was warmer down here out of the wind. She’d just rest her eyes for a little bit. Yeah, that was it. V.V. said something, or chirruped in a worried tone, but Rina was tired , and her eyes were already sliding shut even as the tiny dragon shook her shoulders with all his might. 

Rina didn’t even notice the figure walking up in front of her before she was asleep.

~~

She woke up slowly, vision blurry and limbs feeling staticky. Her eyes were difficult to open, and it took a couple of seconds before she could really see. Her vision was still blurry and she still felt staticky, though. It was not a fun feeling. She tried to sit up, but her arms didn’t want to work. So instead Rina just settled for looking around wherever it was she was, not wanting to try and fight with her own arms. 

The room was really really empty. There wasn’t hardly anything in there, except the two small critters. One of them was really really small - kind of a gray-purple colored fur (more purple than gray), with white fur around their mouth, small ears that had a pinkish orange colored skin, and eyes that were a similar rose-gold color. They didn’t have any legs, looking more like a little ball than anything, and they were only about the size of one of Rina’s hands.

The other person was bigger than the first one. They were around the same size as Rina was, and they looked kind of like a dinosaur, with a tail that was the same length as their body. They were covered in yellow fur and black-and-purple plated armor of some kind, with three white claws on each hand and foot. They had a gold headband-looking thing on their head that had spikes that made it look like horns, and they had a red triangle with curved edges in the middle of their forehead. They had little black bracelets with gold edges over their wrists, and they had really pale green eyes. They also had red-orange hair in a ponytail.

The two creatures - Digimon, she was in a world with Digimon now, wasn’t she? Because she had met V.V. and V.V. was a Chibimon, which was a Digimon, so that probably meant there were Digimon? The two Digimon looked at her. Rina looked back. No one said anything. It was quiet, and Rina was stared at by the two Digimon, until the smaller one fell asleep. Rina’s body stopped feeling as staicky, which was good, and she could see better, so she decided to get in a staring contest with the bigger black-armored gold-furred dragon Digimon. She thought she was winning.

The door to the room - which she hadn’t noticed, she’d been paying too much attention to the Digimon - opened suddenly, and a figure walked in, holding something small and blue and wiggling in their hand. The white-clothed Digimon with six wings and a blue sash - that was an Angemon then, they were popular so Rina knew what they looked like - threw whatever it was that they’d been holding into the room, before slamming the door shut after turning away. Something in Rina’s chest tore at her towards the thing, and before she really knew what she was doing Rina had already dived to catch the thing to keep it from hitting the rough floor.

It squeaked as it hit Rina’s arms, and Rina, looking at the thing, came face-to-face with V.V.. “Rina!” he said, tiny voice sounding endlessly worried and relieved at the same time. “You’re here?”

“I guess so!” Rina answered him. “I got here when I was asleep I think, ‘cause I don’t remember how I got here, so I must’a been put here when I was asleep.” She sat up, brushing off her knees - which had gotten scraped in her instinctual leaping-to-catch-V.V., her poor socks were getting all torn up - and sitting back on her heels. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” V.V. told her, gold eyes and tiny little blue furred legs, tiny voice, a small bit of warmth in Rina’s hands. “Just a little tired. N’rvous about how the angels looked at me, though.” He shuffled closer to Rina’s chest. “Looked at my eyes a while. Think they know my eyes are a d’fferent color than normal.”

“Well, what’s bad about that?” Rina asked, scooting over to a wall so that she had something to lean against. “Who cares if your eyes are gold instead of red?”

“Angels care.” Said a voice that wasn’t V.V.’s, a voice that was kinda trembly and deeper than V.V.’s lighter voice. The only one it could be was the golden-furred dragon. “Angels care.” He said again. “Angels kill what doesn’t fit what they want. You’re not part of ‘order’, you’re dead.” 

“. . . oh.” Rina looked down at V.V., barely the size of her head, with his small little arms and legs and tail and big, beautiful eyes. “So they’d kill V.V. just ‘cause his eyes aren’t the color as all the other Chibimon?”

“Yes.” The dragon replied, emotionlessly. 

“. . . Oh.” Rina said again. “But, everyone’s always said that the angels were the good guys?”

The dragon snorted at this, and the action made the smaller purple digimon in his hands twitch a bit in their sleep. Once the smaller one had settled, the golden Digimon continued. “Angels lie. Pretend to be better. Kill when backs turned. Horrible, horrible things.” He shook his head from side to side for emphasis. “Made mistake of not moving fast enough. Think I’m not part of order because eyes are too pale. Took Dodomon too. ‘Too small’, they said. ‘Fur’s too bright’, they said. Tried to fight. Couldn’t win.”

“. . . I’m sorry.” Rina said. “Hey, what’s your name?” She asked. “If we’re gonna be in here until we die, or something.”

The furry dragon looked at her a few seconds, some odd emotion in his eyes. “Ryudamon.” He said after a few seconds. “You?”

“I’m Rina - Shinomiya Rina.” She told him. “And this is V.V..” V.V. waved a hand from in her lap.

Ryudamon hmphed. “Two names?”

“Kinda?” Rina shrugged a little bit. “‘Shinomiya’ is the one me an’ my parents have, because it’s my family name. So all the people in my family are ‘Shinomiya’. And then ‘Rina’ is my given name, so I’m the only one named ‘Rina’.” 

Ryudamon squinted at her. “Not a Digimon.”

“Nope!” Rina said, a bit too cheerfully. “That’s why I’m here, probably. If the angels wanna get rid of you three just because your eyes or fur isn’t the right color, and I’m a human and not a digimon, then they have even more of a reason not to want me here.” And saying the words seemed to make the situation just a little bit more real - and a lot like how it was back at home. Rina sighed, staring at her scraped knees that she’d drawn up to her chest.

V.V. bumped his nose against her cheek, standing on the small part of her knee that wasn’t skinned. “It’ll be okay, Rina.”

“You think so?”

“Of course! You’re here, so things are gonna be okay, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, they will. Don’t you worry a bit, ‘kay V.V.? We’ll figure a way outta here.”

Ryudamon snorted again. “Good luck.” he said. “Save strength for when not separated. Gonna sleep now.” And with that, he turned and curled himself into a ball, with Dodomon, the smaller purple-furred Digimon, tucked between his two arms and against his chest.

Rina yawned then as well, and soon after so did V.V.. “Huh.” Rina said out loud, mostly to herself. “Dunno why I’m so sleepy when I just woke up from a nap.”

In her arms V.V. made a tiny shrugging motion. 

“Oh well.” She decided to herself. “Bed time it is.”

Yawning again, she settled down on the ground, once again pulling V.V. to her chest, knees pulled close to her chest as well, in a little ball, curled around her tiny blue dragon. She didn’t know when she was gonna fall asleep, but she was tired enough to try, right? V.V. purred quietly against her chest and bottom of her chin, and even if the stone floor was cold and rough, Rina still had V.V., the tiny spot of warm and softness. And Rina slept.

~~~

Something is dripping.

She can’t see it. But she knows . There’s a bottle and a knife and something is dripping.

What is it?

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Whatever it is, it’s dripping, and the not-knowing is killing her.

She can’t move her arms very well. That’s okay.

There is a tiny dragon on her lap. He is tiny and warm and soft and blue and little, and the tiny dragon is asleep and should stay asleep, right there in her lap.

Drip drip drip.

Her cheeks are wet, and so is ground near where her head was.

Oh. Tears were what was dripping. Drip drip drip, all the way down her face.

The bottle was over there in the corner, broken and not all the way whole, only dust and cobwebs in it. The knife is rusted and broken, and left over from some digimon that’s been long gone. Just a nightmare. That's all it was. Just a nightmare.

The tiny dragon still slept.

The other dragon, a few feet away and her size, who was gold and maybe not as warm, slept too. So did the little ball of purple that slept curled against the yellow dragon.

She was the only one awake. 

It was dark, and still, and quiet, and Rina decided she didn’t like the dark and still and quiet.

She was the only one awake, so there was no one to talk to to distract her mind.

The angels were the bad guys. That was what Ryudamon had said, wasn’t it? The angels. . . got rid of whoever they didn’t like. They. . . 

They killed them.

Rina didn’t know what kind of angels these angels were, but if they were angels angels, then she didn’t want any part of it. What kind of angel kills people who didn’t do anything? Rina hadn’t done anything, she’d just gotten there and was a human and not a digimon. V.V. hadn’t done anything, it was just that his eyes were gold, like how Ryudamon’s eyes were just a really pale green. Dodomon especially hadn’t done anything - they were just a baby, and they were only here because their fur was more saturated than normal.

Rina sniffed. She didn’t like it here. The angels were evil, and she’d only just got here and already she was stuck in a prison cell place. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to go home .

But , her mind asked her, gently, what is home?  

And that. . . was a good question.

What was home?

It wasn’t the apartment that was too empty too often, parents that would rather work and work their child with red eyes and green hair, who brought stares and whispers and bad luck with her everywhere, because they didn’t know how to stop bullies and tried to get her whatever she wanted with the money that they worked for as an apology.

It wasn’t the school, filled with halls of students who avoided her like she’d stab them all someday, nervous glances traded around and upperclassmen guiding underclassmen away, no one to guide or acknowledge the lonely little girl with red eyes of a demon and a body that could never sit still, because they didn't want bullies after them as well.

It certainly wasn’t Ueno, the attitudes of the citizens reflecting in Rina’s feelings for the place, the trees offering too many shadows that could hide attackers and the buildings cold no matter how much she turned up the heat, and lonely with no one to talk to.

So then, maybe. . . maybe home wasn’t home. Maybe Rina didn’t have a home.

The thought was terrifying, but at the same time, it. . . wasn’t. Some part of her looked back at her memories and the avoidance of others and the way that even the bed she slept in did not always feel hers and thought, when had she ever had a home? Right from the day her eyes and hair became each other’s colorful inverse, she was marked with back luck and whispers and rumors following like an army of dedicated wasps, refusing to leave her be, bullies everywhere and anywhere.

But. . . if she couldn’t go home, where could Rina go? Not here, in this small room with stone floors and walls and ceiling, barely enough room in it for the yellow dragon and purple ball to be on the opposite end of where Rina and her tiny blue dragon lay. Not here, where there was only just enough light to barely see by, where Rina could only wait and couldn’t do anything , could not even move or pace or scream -

Her tiny blue dragon squirmed around in her lap for a few seconds, and Rina looked down at him, for a moment just looking . His fur was ruffed the wrong way in a few places, and with no other outlet, Rina settled for smoothing the blue and white fur back down. Petting him behind his two large ears, just a bit, Rina had to admit that hearing his purring made her feel a little bit better.

He squirmed again, and Rina paused in her petting, and this time V.V. woke up. His eyes, golden and beautiful and surely bringing luck rather than misfortune, blinked open slowly. He yawned, a tiny, adorable yawn, and rubbed at his eyes for a couple seconds before looking back up at Rina.

“Rina?” he scooted a bit closer to her chest, using his arms to brace himself as he leaned towards her face. “What’s wrong? Rina? Why are you crying?”

Was she crying? Rina lifted a hand to her cheeks and - drip, drip, drip - the tears still fell in their slow rhythm. 

“Oh.” was her answer.

V.V. scooted even closer to her, all but shoving his face against hers. His eyes were worried. “Rina? Rina, what’s wrong? Why are you crying? Rina?”

“I. . .” her voice broke. Half a sob, half a word, caught in her throat. She cleared it, and Rina wondered if it was too soon to be having hard realizations about the world she’d thought she had lived in. Shaking her head, she pulled V.V. right against her chest, sitting up and leaning over him while her arms hugged him tightly.

“. . . Rina?” V.V. asked again, voice even tinier. “What’s wrong, Rina?”

“. . . I don’t think I have a home, V.V..” She told him, and the tears drip drip dripped all over her cheeks and her jacket and V.V..

V.V. made a wordless keening noise, and pressed himself against her chest, hugging her back with all the might that his tiny little arms could muster. “I’m sorry, Rina.”

“Don’t be.” She told her tiny dragon, the hand not left on her cheek still stroking him between the ears, slowly. “‘S not your fault. Just mine for being born unlucky, I guess.”

V.V. made a different noise, only this one sounded sadder. He lifted his head and stared her straight in the eyes. “. . .people can be homes, right?”

“I. . . think so.” Rina said, still sniffing and the tears still dripping.

The tiny blue dragon pushed himself upwards a bit so that his head was closer to Rina’s. “Then. . . then I’ll be your home!”

Rina looked at him, for a few seconds not having words. Then, she nodded. “Okay. Thanks- thanks for being my home, V.V.. You’ll be my home, and I’ll be yours.”

“Always.” V.V. told her, closing his eyes and leaning against her again, still drowsy.

And Rina was not as alone, and it was not as quiet with the small rumble of V.V.’s purrs in the air of the small space. But still - it was dark, and Rina shivered without meaning to, tears drying slowly.

V.V.’s purring stopped, and he looked up at her again. “Rina?”

Rina hesitated a few moments, hands trembling just a little bit. “I don’t like the dark.” She told him. “I don’t know why, but I don’t- I don’t like the dark.”

“I can help with that.” V.V. said, as if he knew some secret to the universe. He wiggled away from her, and in just a few seconds he was a lighter blue and glowing, and then he wasn’t glowing again. He was bigger now, with clawed hands and clawed feets, and only the part of his face around his mouth was white and he had little yellow teardrops by his eyes and a “v” on his forehead, and a tiny little horn on his nose. But his fur was still royal blue and off-white, and his eyes were still golden as they had been.

He was bigger now, Rina decided. Almost as big as she was. She told him that, and V.V. laughed just a little bit, quiet and soft.

“You see, Rina? Now I can hug you, and you won’t have to worry about the dark, because I’ll be here to protect you.” He gave her a happy little smile, and she gave him one back. They hugged each other again, and this time Rina buried her face into V.V.’s shoulder, and clung to him as she knew he was clinging to her. And Rina, in the arms of her home and her home in the arms of her, clinging to V.V. who had given her so much love in the short time she’d known him, felt. . .  comfort .

And feeling comfort, she yawned, gave V.V. one last goodnight, and fell asleep.

~~~

She woke up to something warm against her belly, something warm against her legs, and another something warm that was smaller sitting right on top of her feet. For a few minutes she just laid there on the ground, eyes kept closed and hoping that maybe she could stay in this warm, comfortable, inbetween space of nothing and everything. Just her, V.V., and the other two warm things. Just them, all together and calm and quiet and peaceful and comfy.

Then the door opened and the moment was ruined. Someone stepped through (Rina could hear their footsteps - they weren’t very heavy if the footsteps were any guide). Light footsteps stepped on the stone floor and Rina tried to pretend she was still asleep. If she was asleep they couldn’t do anything to her, right? Right? Right, they couldn’t do anything to her if she was asleep. So she’d just pretend to be asleep, and then she’d be fine. 

The footsteps came closer. They stopped for a moment, then someone spoke. “What do we do with this. . . thing?” 

Another, deeper voice answered. "We were told to take all the occupants of this holding cell to the Examination Chamber."

The first voice sucked in a breath, and sounded almost confused. "But - they'll all surely be killed in that case, won't they? They'll be examined and killed because they don't fit requirements?"

 "Correct." The second voice confirmed. Rina risked opening her eyes a little to see who it was. An Angemon - maybe the same one as before - stood in front of her and V.V. and Ryudamon and Dodomon. There was a Tailmon standing next to them. 

"But - but Angemon-san! Two of them are Childs, one of them is a Baby I! The other creature must be the same general age as them." Tailmon was saying. "They're younger than I am! We're expected to kill them?"

 "Yes." Angemon answered emotionlessly. Then his voice changed in tone. "But we're not going to."

 Tailmon gave Angemon a disbelieving look. "What?"

 "Take the Children. Get them out of here, to somewhere safe." He told her. "I'll explain to Ophanimon-san why you and they are all missing."

 Rina sat up now, eyes wide and holding onto V.V. still.

"You want me to defect?" Taimon asked. "But - this is all I've known!"

 "I know." Angemon told her. "But it's wrong, isn't it?"

 Salmon took in a breath, and nodded. "You're right." She looked at Rina, seeming unsuprised that the girl had been awake. "Can you help me carry the other three?"

 "Are you really going to get us out?" Rina asked, somewhat doubtful.

Tailmon nodded.

"Okay, then." Rina said. "What do I need to do?"

 "Well, the plan is. . ." Angemon began.

~~~

Looking back on it, Rina had no idea how they’d managed to make their pieced-together plan work without any major problems. She didn’t remember much about the actual escape from the prison-like area, probably because of all the adrenaline. Adenaline was a fun word. It sounded kinda weird and she wasn’t entirely sure what it meant but a lot of adults used sometimes when talking about stuff, so it probably had to do something with running. Adults used that word a lot when people were running.

The atmosphere of the forest, so visibly different from the stone and white and cold building (or was it two buildings that were connected??) was such an immediate change that Rina had to blink a couple of seconds to remind herself that it was all real. Kind of. She wasn’t sure if any of this was real, or if it was just one really weird dream, but it seemed real, so that’s what she’s going to go with.

V.V. was bigger now, and harder to hold in her arms, but she stubbornly did so anyways, because he was still important and he was her home and she wasn’t going to let her home slip away when she’d only just found him. After a few seconds he stopped complaining though, and only occasionally wiggled around, his tiny claws sometimes catching on the fabric of her shirt and jacket, and his tail sometimes getting squished, but mostly just staying in the same place. And he was still warm and soft and looked at her with those same molten eyes filled with love, so as far as Rina was concerned there wasn’t really much that had changed aside from his physical size.

Tailmon led their little group into the forest for a little bit, to somewhere that was farther away from the building. She didn’t say where she was going, but she seemed like she had a pretty good idea.

Ryudamon, who had Dodomon carried safely and firmly in his arms, frowned a bit. “Where headed?” He asked, casting Tailmon one of the many suspicious looks of the previous few minutes.

“Somewhere safe.” Tailmon answered vaguely.

“ Which is ?” Ryudamon pressed, raising an eyebrow. Well, if he had an eyebrow. Did he have eyebrows? Rina would have to ask later. 

Tailmon didn’t answer his question. “Just trust me for this one thing.”

“Trust for three hours, no more.” Ryudamon stated.

“I’ll take it.”

With that said, the group continued to head to wherever it was that they were going. Some of the trees and brush looked kinda familiar as they walked, but then everything looked kinda familiar to everything else, so Rina still had no idea where they were going or where they were. At least she had V.V. to cuddle against her arms and chest and the bottom of her chin to keep her warm. V.V. was warm , and the tiny dragon was soft, too.

V.V. wiggled in her arms again soon after that. “Rina, can you put me down?”

“Okay.” She told him, setting him on the ground as gently as she could. Which ended up being more like she dropped him and he landed on his feet, but her arms weren’t that strong yet - she’d just have to get stronger. She didn’t ask why he wanted down - it was probably for a good reason.

V.V. waddled - walked? It was kinda walking, kinda waddling, but she’d call it waddling because waddling sounded cuter and V.V. was really cute - over to Tailmon. “If you let me lead the way from here, I can take us safe.”

Tailmon squinted at him, ignoring Ryudamon and Dodomon and Rina, who’d walked up behind V.V. while he’d started talking to Tailmon. “Where is the safe place you’re gonna lead us to? Are you sure you know the way?”

“It’s the Dark Area.” he told her, molten eyes never blinking or backing down to her icy blue ones. “I know the way better than anyone here. I was born there, so I always know how to get back.”

Tailmon seemed to do a visual blue-screen (which Rina knew what that was, because she’d seen and heard people complain about them before lots of times). “The - the Dark Area ?! Are you insane?!”

“No.” V.V. told her, honestly. Rina agreed with him. How could he be insane? V.V. was perfect in every way, and there was no way that he wouldn’t be. Then again, even if he was, Rina would love him all the same. V.V. was still her V.V., was still her home, and she wasn’t leaving him by choice anytime soon. “It’ll be safe.”

“It’s where dead digimon go! It’s where the evil ones go!” Tailmon continued, gesturing wildly.

“If it helps, my dads are the ones who are in charge of it.” V.V. offered.

Tailmon laughed hysterically. “Fine! Fine. We’ll go to the Dark Area. Lead the way, oh tiny dragon of golden-eyed greatness.”

Rina felt like she wasn’t being very sincere with that last bit. Still, everyone started walking again, following V.V. this time, because Rina trusted V.V. if he said he knew where he was going, and she guessed that the others did too. Or maybe they just didn’t want to be left alone. Either works.

The air got colder the further they walked, and Rina shivered. V.V.’s head swiveled back around to look at her. “I’m f-fine!” she said, even though she very clearly was not fine and was, in fact, very cold, and wishing for a blanket or at least another jacket, because seven-year-olds generally were not very good at keeping themselves warm.

V.V. waddled back over to her and made a motion that meant “pick me up”. Rina did so, and immediately was glad, because V.V. was warm . “I’ll just give us directions and keep you warm.” He decided, and no one told him otherwise. So they walked some more, and it got colder, but Rina held V.V. closer so it wasn’t as bad.

Eventually they got to an ocean. It was a very dark ocean. V.V. directed them all to a boat, and they got in the boat, and they (they being none of them, because the boat rowed itself somehow) rowed the boat towards somewhere. It got kind of repetitive. Rina got sleepier. It wasn’t really her fault - V.V. was warm, and the boat was rocking like a rocking chair, and Rina was sleepy already. 

She probably dozed off, because between one blink and the next, they were at some shore. They all got out of the boat, and walked a little bit more. There was a cabin, and it looked like a very nice cabin. It was made out of wooden logs, and seemed lived in. Rina and V.V. and Ryudamon and Dodomon and Tailmon all walked up to one of the doors. Rina knocked, because she was the tallest, and knocking on people’s doors was the polite thing to do.

Another digimon answered the door. This one was an XV-mon, who blinked at them all in suprise. “You’re injured.” Was the first thing he said, looking at Rina specifically.

“Am I?” She asked to no one in particular. She checked. There were a couple of scrapes on her arms and legs, which explained why they’d hurt a little bit. “Oh. Can we come inside?” She asked the XV-mon.

They sighed, but nodded. “Come in. I don’t want any of you staying in the cold where you could get cold for very long.” 

They all trailed after him single-file, V.V. still in Rina’s arms. XV-mon nodded to some of the big, cushion-covered couches in one of the bigger rooms. “You can sleep on those, if you want. There are also smaller rooms if you’d prefer.” 

Tailmon made a beeline for one of the smaller rooms, while Ryudamon and Dodomon flopped on one of the couches. Rina just stood, a little awkwardly.

“Are you okay?” XV-mon asked, eyes furrowed worriedly.

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here? I’m not a digimon.” She pointed out, shuffling in place a little.

XV-mon snorted, but not very loud. “Of course you can be here. Tenkuu and I take in any child who needs somewhere to stay, and that includes you.”

“Oh.” Rina said. “Okay!” And with her mind made up, she went over to one of the smaller rooms, with its bed tucked against the wall that reminded her of her own bedroom, and she curled up under the blankets. V.V. snuggled up against her chest again, yawning for one last time before drifting off. And, warm, and wrapped up in blankets, and feeling a little bit more safe, and holding her V.V. with his golden eyes and airy voice and his love for her, so did Rina.

Chapter Text

You have not known Rina for very long.

You have not been alive for very long, either, only five weeks, and the look that your parents had given each other when you'd evolved to a Chibimon told you that that was not normal. You have not been alive for very long, so you can not have known Rina for very long, but you decide that you love her. Rina is big and warm and her eyes are kind and her skin is soft and her hair is kind of fluffy, and she’s nice. She smells like some kind of fruit, or maybe of something sweet. And she’s warm. 

Rina seems sad, though. She has a look in her eyes and you don’t like the look because it makes her eyes kinda less sparkly, and she gets more tired-looking when her eyes are like that. Rina is still nice, though, even if she is sad. So you try to make her not sad, because you love her, and she is nice and important and you don't know how to put the feelings you have into words, but you think that the closest thing was that if she were to do something really really evil and bad, you'd still love her, because she's Rina and she's your Rina, and she was what you are supposed to live for.

You love Rina, with all that your tiny, five-week-old heart can love her. She’s nice, too. She gave you a name. You'd been Chicomon, and then two weeks after that you'd been Chibimon, but Rina had found you and named you V.V. because you were gonna evolve into a V-mon in the future. And that was what you did, so Rina was right about it. Rina is very smart, and she knows a lot of stuff. You’re really glad that you met her. You like the name she gave you. You would like any name that she gives you, though, because it would be a name that Rina gave you, and that was the most important thing.

Rina is warm, too. You might have said that before, but she is warm, and you love her. She’d carried you for most of the way once you and she and the other bigger digimon had left the cold dark stone place, and you felt kind of bad that she had carried you and got tired because of it. But it must have meant that she loves you too, to carry you for so long, so you try not to worry too much and just snuggle closer to her as she sleeps.

You drift in and out of awareness as you doze, uncaring of the world around you, so long as you are tucked against Rina and that the both of you are comfortable. Your parents, Yushisa and Tenkuu, move in the background, shuffling around your siblings, both those who are older than you are and those who are younger and even more newborn than you, feeding and watching them. 

You doze more. Rina is comfy. Her jacket was big and soft and it is a dark grey with some orange-red color on one of the sleeves and part of the hood and there’s a white part on the back of it, and it is way way too big for her, but that’s okay because now it’s kind of a blanket, and you and Rina could both be wrapped up in it and all the other blankets that are on the little bed that was in the little room that you and Rina are in. There are lots of blankets, so you are warm, and you hope that Rina is warm too. 

Rina rolls over to one side, and you, in her arms, roll with her. Your head is still tucked against her chest, but now after she’d moved her arms, one of her arms is laying overtop of you, with the other arm holding you to her chest in the first place. She hugs you tighter, and you snuggle in closer to her as well, because Rina is warm, and safe, and comfy, and she is yours and you are hers and you know this without a doubt, despite not knowing how you know it yet. And so, snuggling close to his Rina one last time, you sleep, trusting in her safety and the surety that as long as she is here, you’ll both be okay.

~~~

You wake up at some point. You don’t know when, and you don’t know for sure what woke you up, but eventually you blink your gold eyes open, only to look into Rina’s red ones.

“Hey, dork.” She whispers to you.

“Hi, Rina.” You whisper back. “Why are we whispering?”

“There were some other kids who came here a little bit ago.” She tells you. “You slept through it so you didn’t get to meet them, but they seem nice. We’re whispering so that we don’t wake them up.”

“Oh. that makes sense.” You stretch, eyes narrowing so much they almost close as your limbs and tail shake for a small bit with the effort given to stretch them. Leaning towards Rina again when you’re done stretching, you try to put your head on her lap. She scoots away from you a bit, giggling, and picks you up instead. 

“Silly.” she tells you. “It’s not time to go to sleep yet. You gotta eat first, okay?”

“Okay.” you reply, simply. If Rina wants you to eat, then you’ll eat. You are a little bit hungry, so she probably guessed that you would be. Rina is smart like that. Rina is good at noticing stuff that’s bad and noticing stuff that’s good, because she’d gone around the scary angels and followed the not scary angels, and she’d found a scary-looking tunnel thingy that got them out of the scary cold box, which was good. And Rina had seen the tunnel and the cat-angel or the tall-angel hadn’t, so she must have been smarter. Or something.

“Are the other people nice?” you ask her as she carries you through a couple of rooms. “Where are we going?”

“I think they’re nice.” Rina answered. “They didn’t say anything mean to me and they haven’t tried to pull my hair or do other mean stuff yet, so I hope they’re nice.”

“Why would someone pull your hair?” you say. “That’s mean. Why would someone be mean?”

Rina’s eyes get a little less light, and get a little more dark. “Some people are just mean.” She says, in a quieter voice. “I dunno why people are mean. But!” she says, taking a breath and her voice returning to how it had been. “The other kids seem nice! We’re gonna go and find some food. I dunno where all the food is, so it’s an adventure! Yushisa and Tenkuu - that’s the XV-mon and Devidramon that live here, they’re nice, they have names like you do.”

You nodd. “Tou-sama and Tou-san are nice!”

“Oh, are they your dads?” Rina asks, scratching between your two ears a little bit. 

You purr and answer. “Yeah! I hatched here! They’re warm, like you are!”

“That’s good!” Rina says. “They look warm for sure. Anyways, they said that there would be food somewhere, so I’m gonna find some so that we can both eat. Maybe we’ll meet some of the other kids on the way, ‘cause I dunno where they are, but they have to be here somewhere.”

You both end up walking through a lot of rooms. At each room, some other smaller Digimon run up to Rina and ask to be carried. 

"Why do you all want me to carry you?" Rina had asked the first ones.

"You're carrying V-mon." Says one of them, a taller purple-furred Digimon with long ears and a tail and big sharp black claws on their paws. That was one of your siblings, who is a Gazimon, you think.

"His name is V.V. now." Rina says.

Gazimon looks at you. "Rina's right, I'm V.V. now." You repeat.

Gazimon nodds, then turned and said something real quick and fast to one of your other shared siblings, a tall, blue-furred Digimon with brown pants and a while mask and reddish hair and a tail and wood gloves and two wood swords. The Yaksamon listens to Gazimon's words, then races off somewhere else.

Turning back towards you and Rina, Gazimon asks to be picked up again, and Rina eventually gives in. The other digimon took this as an example, so by the time you all get to the room where your parents are, Rina is walking a lot more carefully and with a lot more trouble, with tons of baby-level Digimon of either kind, plus yourself and Gazimon and another child-level sibling of yours, Plotmon.

Tenkuu looks up at you all, his black-furred tail lazily moving from side to side across the floor like so many of your siblings do. "Need help?" He asks Rina.

"Maybe a little." She says, knees locked and arms trembling from the effort she’s putting in. 

Tenkuu laughs, and picks up most of the Digimon on her gently with his mouth. He leaves you and a couple of Tokomon though. Setting them down into his lap, he turns towards the other people in the room. There are a lot of people in the room now that you’re looking. There is Tenkuu (Tou-san) and Yushisa (Tou-sama), and you and Rina, and a smaller boy with reddish-purple-brown hair who is being held by a Digimon that is tall and blue-furred and has gold armor on, and there is a girl who is bigger than Rina who holds a Hawkmon, and another boy who is the same size as the other one but has blonde hair, who has a Lopmon in his arms and a Terriermon on his head.

"Hi." You say, waving a little bit at all of them.

"Hi." Say most of them back. The taller girl nods, and so does the golden-armored Digimon.

"How come everyone is in this room?" Rina asks.

Yushisa shrugs. "I guess it kind of just ended up like that." He says. "It's a good chance to introduce V.V. to the rest of your friends though, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Rina looks down at you then. Then she begins pointing at the different people. "That's Daisuke," she points at the reddish-purple-brown haired boy, "-that's Kiseki, he's a Magnamon," the gold armored Digimon nods at them both, "-that's Jun," the taller girl with the lighter reddish-purple-brown hair, "-that's Hawkmon," which you knew the species but it’s nice of her to say, "-and that's Wallace and Lopmon and Terriermon," she finishes, pointing at the blonde boy and his two Digimon.

"Hi hi!" Says Daisuke, cheerily. "Rina-kun said your name was V.V.. She's really nice!"

 "Rina is nice!" You agree. "And warm."

 "I'll take your word on that one." Kiseki says, stretching his arms before sitting on the floor. 

Everyone else kind of follows him, because you all end up sitting down too really soon after.

"Is Dodomon and Ryudamon and Tailmon here?" You ask Rina once you’d all sat down.

"Yep! Well, I think so. Not in this room, but probably around somewhere." She tells you. As she says this, Tailmon and Ryudamon walk into the room, Dodomon sitting on Ryudamon's head, all three of them looking kinda lost. Rina looks at them, then looks back at you and shrugs. "Well, they're here now."

The room falls into a quiet then, but it’s the comfy kind of quiet, where everybody mostly just relaxes or dozes in the quiet and warmth. Even though it is cold outside, inside of the cabin is warm, and comfy, and safe. Like Rina is.

You’re dozing off, you think. You don't care though. You are leaning against Rina, who is leaning against you, and Rina is warm and comfy and a good pillow. You hope that you're being a good pillow for Rina. She deserves to have a good pillow. And you are warm and have soft fur, so you hope that you are a good pillow.

Someone clears their throat, and you yawn and open your eyes again, stretching some. Rina does the same thing. So do most of everyone else. You all look to  see who'd spoken. In the doorway of the wall next to the one you and Rina had walked through is Yaksamon.

"Hi nii-san!" You say sleepily, waving a hand at the demon-man.

"Hi, V.V.-chan." Yaksamon says in return. Then they look at Yushisa. "Swanmon-nee and XV-mon-chan and I made dinner."

Yushisa stands up then. "You shouldn't have had to do that!" He says. "I'm sorry, I should have made dinner-"

 "No, Tou-sama, it's fine, really-" Yaksamon tries to insist. "Swanmon-nee and XV-mon-chan and I all agreed that you and Tou-san have been working really hard to take care of all the little ones, so we wanted to help so that you two aren't working as hard."

Yushisa, realizing that Yaksamon isn't going to let him win, sighs and folds his wings to his back. "At least let me help give food to everyone?"

Yaksamon nods. "You do that anyways, and I think only Swanmon-nee could fight you on that one." They both nod, and together Yaksamon and Yushisa walk back through the doorway.

A few seconds of silence. "Should we follow them?" Jun asks.

Tenkuu shrugs. "It depends. They'll be in the kitchen, but they'll be in the main three rooms soon enough, distributing dinner like they said they would. If we wait here, they'll get to us all eventually. Or we could go into one of the three main rooms and you all can see more of Yushisa and I's many children. It's up to you."

 Rina looks at you. "I wanna see your older siblings!" She decides. "Are they nice?"

"Yeah!" You say. "Sometimes they're a little mean if somebody else annoys one of them but they're mostly all nice!"

Rina nods. "That settles it." She turns to go to where the rooms are. Then she pauses and looks at you. "Do you want me to carry you?"

You shake your head, ears flopping from side to side. "I can walk! You don't have to carry me!"

 Rina humms. "If you're sure. Come on then, let's go meet your siblings."

 "Mind if we join you?" You and Rina turn again. Kiseki has stood up, and he and Daisuke and Jun and Hawkmon and Wallace and Terriermon and Lopmon all stood up too. "We don't really have a plan of what to do." The golden-armored dragon continues.

Rina shrugs again. "As long as you're not mean to me or V.V., you can come!"

Kiseki nods, and with that, the group all heads to one of the three main rooms. You aren't sure which one it is, but it isn’t the one you and Rina had been in, and it wasn't the one near the rooms where you'd slept before, so it must have been the third one that you haven’t gone to yet.

This room is similar to all the other rooms of the cabin. Wood planked walls, polished wooden floors, small benches with cousins here and there in the room, with several skylights and hanging lanterns with candles lit in them, and hanging ribbons of some kind of fabric that were brightly colored to add more life to the room. 

Sure enough, Yushisa and Yaksamon are in the room, giving out plate-bowls of food, with forks given to those who could hold them, and setting down the plate-bowls of the same food for the smaller, younger digimon who can't hold forks. If either of the two notice your group of small humans and their partners entering, neither make any mention of it. They just keep handing out food, and when they get to the group, they give out food to everyone in it as well.

The food is some kind of noodles, with a creamy sauce on it. "It reminds me of some of those Italian foods you see on TV." Rina comments. 

"Are those tasty?" You ask her.

"Dunno." She answers, poking at the noodles with the fork she'd been given. "But I bet this is." With that said, she starts eating, and you do the same, the fork in your clawed little hands doing a good job of picking up the noodles.

"Y'know," Jun begins, using her fork to scoop the noodles up instead of stabbing them with it, "I bet I know why they gave us forks instead of chopsticks."

 "How come?" Daisuke asks, and Rina and you listen too.

"It's because lots of people don't know how to use chopsticks." She explains. "Little kids have trouble with chopsticks just like people who aren't from Japan do, so it's only really adults who use them." She looks kinda proud of herself.

"Maybe they didn't give chopsticks because there's only so much Japanese stuff here, and some other country stuff here too. Since chopsticks aren't used in a lot of countries." Wallace suggesta.

"Oh." Jun looks kinda sad then, but shakes herself out of it. "You're probably right."

He probably is. You decide not to pay attention to any more of the conversation, and focus on eating your noodles. Besides you, Rina does the same. Only, Rina ate a lot faster than you did. By the time you are halfway done, Rina has already eaten all her food, and is looking at her plate-bowl sadly.

"You can have some of mine if you're still hungry." You offer, pushing your plate-bowl towards her.

Rina shakes her head, her green hair bouncing about like how your ears do. "I'm okay." She tells you. "I don't want to eat your food. That would be mean, and I don't wanna be mean."

 "But." You look at her, gold to red. "I don't want you to be hungry, Rina."

"But if I eat your food, then you're gonna be hungry." Rina says, stubbornly.

A Swanmon walks up to you both, her white feathers gleaming a little bit in the gentle lantern-light. "We have extra." She says. "Hello by the way, V.V.-chan."

 "Hi nee-san!" You wave at her too.

She smiles at you, then looks at Rina again. "Whenever dinner is made there's always extra, in case more people are hungry later. So you can get more if you want."

 "Are you sure?" Rina asks. "I don't want to eat someone else's food."

 "Of course!" Swanmon says. "Like I said, there's always extra. I'll go get you some!" Saying that, she takes Rina's plate-bowl and walks off.

 "Okay. Thank you!" Rina calla, and then she settles back down into her seat, letting you lean on her more once you'd finished your food. 

"Was the food tasty?" She asks you.

You nod. "Yeah! It's always been tasty."

 She smiles. "Good!" Swanmon returns with a refilled plate-bowl, which Rina takes with a thanks. As she begins eating again, Rina looks at you. "So how old are you anyways? Yushisa-san and Tenkuu-san were saying that they were surprised that you'd evolved again so soon."

"I'm five weeks old!" You tell her. "I'm still little.”

"You are little!" She agrees. "You're littler than I thought." She hums, still eating, and looks at you a little bit funny. She pauses eating for a few seconds. "I've figured it out!"

 "What did you figure out?" You tilted your head.

“You’ll be my little brother!” She says to you. “And I’ll be your older sister. That’s what I’ve figured out!” She looks at you, grin on her face, joy in her eyes, and you love her too much to ever consider saying no.

“Okay!” You agree. “I’ll be your little brother.” You are the little brother of many, many other digimon than just Rina (though you’re not quite sure that Rina is a digimon - but she smells somewhat like one, even if she also smells somewhat not). So you are already used to being a little brother - one more older sibling is no issue. And it is Rina - and you love Rina, so why would you ever say no?

Rina finishes eating her food, and she sets the bowl down next to her legs while she pulls you onto her lap. “So does this mean you’re gonna call me ‘nee-san’?” She asks you, one hand having a finger pressed to the bottom of her chin, the other hand resting on your head between your ears.

“If you want me to.” You tell her, meaning every word. You would not mind calling her ‘nee-san’ - and she has already declared herself to be your older sister, so you don’t see why you shouldn’t .

“But do you want to?” Rina asks you, and she moves her hands so that they’re cupping your face. “I don’t wanna make you do anything you don’t wanna do.” She says, and her voice is softer now - the voice that she’s only used when she’s been serious and emotion-y.

You nod, but not too fast so that her hands don’t get hurt. “I wanna call you ‘nee-san’!” You say, and you look into her eyes with your own. Her eyes are red - not the kind of red of your other sibling’s eyes. Their eyes are more red of gemstones and a more purple-y red. Rina’s eyes are a more orange-red - just as pretty, but a different color. They remind you of some of the leaves you’d seen, when Swanmon had shown you some fallen ones that she’d carefully kept pressed and preserved. 

Your eyes aren’t red like lots of your sibling’s are. Your eyes are gold - like the color of Kiseki’s armor, only more orange-y than the yellow-gold armor. Yaksamon had told you once that your eyes were the color of Huanglongmon’s scales. He’d said that Huanglongmon was a great dragon, large and with scales that couldn’t be broken by anybody, who used to be friends with your dads back when they were all child-levels - but Huanglongmon had chosen to evolve in his life as he grew, and gathered four other digimon who were old enough to evolve to Ultimates, while your parents had chosen to stay in the forms they were. Yaksamon had said that, maybe the gold eyes meant something, or maybe you just were a little bit special.

Rina looks into your eyes, and she sighs a little bit, and she smiles, smaller and softer. “Okay.” she says. “If you wanna call me ‘nee-san’, then call me ‘nee-san’. Whatever makes you happy, ‘kay? ‘Cause I just want you to be happy.” She moves her hands again, so that one is back to petting between your ears, and the other is tucking you against her chest again. 

“Okay.” You say again, and you rest your head on her shoulder. “I’ll try my best to make you happy, too, Rina-nee-san!” With your head on her shoulder you can feel as she giggles, and the sound is almost like music. Her voice is a pretty voice, you’ve decided. High-pitched and energetic, but not too high-pitched, and not shrill, and whenever she giggles or laughs you think about how happy you are to hear it. You are a simple creature, really - if Rina is happy, then you are happy. Because why should you feel otherwise? Rina is everything to you, and you are content with enjoying her happiness and doing your best to make her happy and comfortable.

Rina is warm. She smells like something sweet, like fruit or the small candies that your siblings would sometimes share, and she is warm. Her hands are gentle, too - even as she’s petting between your ears, she’s being careful not to press down too hard. Rina is kind , and warm, and your older sister, and you love her. You purr, not entirely on choice, and she giggles.

“You’re like a tiny kitty.” she says, scratching behind your right ear for a couple of seconds before she goes back to petting you.

You humm and purr more. “Is that good?” you can’t see her eyes, with your head resting on her shoulder, but she giggles again, and you’re pretty sure that she’s smiling.

“Yep!” her voice is softer again - not quiet, but soft. She yawns, and you pull your head back from her shoulder to look at her again. She is smiling. “Kitties are cute.” She tells you, tapping the small horn on your nose. “And so are you.” She declares just as firmly as she’d declared herself your sister.

“I’m cute?” You ask, tilting your head a bit to the side. Rina nods, and you nod back at her. “Okay! If you say I’m cute, then I’m cute!” 

You yawn then, too, and Rina giggles, her eyes closing just a little bit. “We’re both pretty tired, huh, V.V.-chan?” Another, longer yawn, and you can feel her chest move underneath you as she does so, the slow rise and fall as the action progresses. You lay your head against her chest to feel her heartbeat. It is a steady, strong pulse, and the beat begins to lull you into a doze as you listen for longer and longer.

You think you hear Rina giggle again, but you’re not sure. You’re not sure of a lot of things right now, only that you’re warm and Rina is closeby and she’s warm and she smells like something sweet, like fruit.

Something moves you away from where you’d been, and you whine, being drawn out of your doze. Yaksamon is holding you, ears and head tilted in an apologetic way. “Sorry to wake you, little brother,” they say, “but your small human doesn’t look like she’ll be able to carry you, half-asleep as she is.”

They’re right, though part of you wishes they weren’t. Rina is yawning more, wavering and half-asleep, ready to fall to the floor and sleep at any second. Yaksamon makes a chirruping clicking sound that means protect-carry-keepsafe , and they scoop up Rina into their arms as well. 

Yaksamon isn’t the only one carrying little ones to places to sleep at, nor is Rina the only one staggering on her feet. But Yaksamon is one of the ones picking more of your siblings up, and they only have so much room in their arms, so you’re not surprised when they start putting the smaller ones into their belly pouch.

The Magnamon - Kiseki - spins around almost completely to look at your older sibling. “You have an abdominal pouch?” He asks, seemingly confused. You don’t know why he would be, though - the only evolution of V-mon that doesn’t have one is Depthmon, doesn’t he know that? Of course Yaksamon would have a belly pouch, so does he.

Yaksamon says as such, which only confuses Kiseki more. “ I have an abdominal pouch?” 

Yaksamon sighs, and, shifting the weight on their arms (yourself included), reaches out to just underneath of the golden metal armor, clawed fingers gently lowering until they find a piece of skin, pulling back to stretch out the skin of what was very much a belly pouch. Action done, your older sibling lets go of the furred skin and moves you and your other siblings back into a grip that doesn’t hurt their arms as much, with several other smaller siblings having already fallen asleep in Yaksamon’s own belly pouch.

Kiseki looks down at their chest, where the pouch had been stretched out. “Oh.” Is all he says.

“Did you really not know that you had an abdominal pouch?” Yaksamon asks, walking over to him and picking up babies of both levels along the way.

“No.” Kiseki says, a slight hysteric note in his voice. “I - I don’t know what to do with this information.”

Yaksamon hums. “Well, you could do what you’re supposed to do with them - carry the little ones, I mean. It’s what I do, and what my other siblings do. Those of us who evolved from V-mon, at least.” They add, not noticing or maybe ignoring Kiseki’s confused look. “The only evolution of V-mon that doesn’t have a pouch is Depthmon, and that’s because there’s not a point to having one underwater, really.”

Kiseki hesitates a moment, then looks down at Daisuke, who’d been dozing against his side. Which was what you were wanting to do, but everyone kept moving and being loud. Regardless, the armored dragon lifts the small child, and hesitantly places said child into the dragon’s belly pouch, as if Kiseki isn’t quite sure that the pouch was there in the first place. Daisuke doesn’t complain, only snuggling into what was doubtlessly softer fur on the inside of the pouch.

You squeak as loud as you can, then. You could have used words, but you are tired, and squeaks are good for getting attention. 

Yaksamon looks at you, and at Rina, both in their arms still. “Yes yes, little one,” they say, rubbing a hand gently over the top of your head. “I’ll find you somewhere to sleep soon. You’re right.” They turn to Kiseki, then make a half-bow in apology. “The little ones need to get to sleep, and while I would have been fine carrying the smallest ones, there are quite a lot of them. Feel free to find somewhere to rest yourself, though - Tou-san and Tou-sama have several little nooks and acloves with cushions for whenever one of us finds somewhere hidden to rest in out of curiosity.” That said, the dragon-man with paler blue fur and red-orange hair turns away from the dragon-man with royal blue fur and golden armor, the first dragon carrying you and Rina with them.

Rina squirms a bit in your sibling’s arms as they carry you both. “Why d’ya gotta carry me?” She whines, sleep slurring her words. “Me an’ V.V. were comfy.” Her eyes are half-opened and she squints at Yaksamon, the demon-dragon-man’s arms as big as her chest, and attempts to glare them into putting her down. It doesn’t work. 

You chirp and press your face into her hands, distracting her for the moment. Partly because you don’t want her to be mad at your sibling, but mostly because you just want to be petted. It worked. Being petted is nice , and your purr again, and even if it isn’t Rina’s warm that was the warm you have, you are still warm, and your sibling’s arms are soft even if they aren’t safe-safe-soft-safe like Rina’s, and you doze some, eyes closing once again.

Then you are dropped from the warmth onto something soft, and with an undignified squeal your eyes shoot open, arms scrambling to grab the warmth again. Off-balanced from being suddenly roused, you can’t get very far, instead tripping over your large feet that you have yet to really get used to, and tumble onto something that is still soft, but more firm. Rina giggles, and whatever you are on top of moves along with the noise. Oh, you’ve fallen onto Rina. Well, that is okay, then. Even if you’ve been warm and your sibling has been rude to just dump you there, you do get to settle back down and be near Rina again.

You yawn, and look around the room, just to make sure. You aren’t sure what you are making sure of, but you are making sure. The other humans and Digimon are all in the room with you and Rina, though most of them are a bit away. On one of the cushion-covered benches, Jun is curled onto her side with Hawkmon using her shoulders as a pillow, the rest of his body hidden under her arms, while Wallace’s head and chest are covered by Lopmon and Terriermon. Kiseki leans against a wall, his legs folded loosely to his chest while his arms sit on his knees, and since Daisuke’s head is poking out between the furred skin, the smallest human probably fell asleep inside of Kiseki’s belly pouch. Rina herself is on a different bench, laying on her back, with you on top of her belly, one of her hands between your ears again. 

You sneeze, and Rina giggles again. “You sneeze like a kitten.” She tells you. “And it’s very cute.”

“Is that good?” You ask her.

She nods - or you think she nods, at least, since your eyes have closed and you’re purring contently, your head resting on her chest. “Yeah. You’re really cute, and that’s good. You deserve to be cute.”

You squeak between your purrs, and press your face further into her chest. “Thanks, Rina-nee.” You tell her. You yawn, and open your eyes lazily to look at her face. “Your eyes are pretty.”

Her face softens. “You think so?”

“Yeah.”

Rina smiles and hums softly. “You look sleepy, V.V.”

“I am sleepy.” You tell her, yawning a third time.

“Then go to sleep, okay?” Rina cups your cheeks with both of her hands, and presses her nose against the horn on yours. “I’ll still be here when you wake up.”

“Promise?” You ask, a vulnerable note in your voice.

She is still a moment, then nods. “I promise.”

You yawn for the last time, and close your eyes. “Okay. Goodnight, Rina-nee.” You tell her.

“Goodnight, V.V.” You hear, and then you are asleep.

Chapter Text

Daisuke didn’t wake up. He didn’t not wake up either - but he didn’t wake up. He was in more of an inbetween kinda place, like when you were almost asleep but not yet, or like when you were getting close to the end of a dream but didn’t want to leave it yet.

The place he was in was kinda inbetween too. It was warm, and soft, and wherever he was he felt safe . Not the kind of safe that people thought came from having lots of money or lots of armor or being behind lotsa strong stuff. It was the safe that came from being with the people who you knew cared about you, that came from knowing you were loved and wanted and that whatever you were doing, someone would drop and leave behind everything they were doing to keep you from getting hurt or scared or sad.

It was a nice kind of safe.

And this safe place that he was in was warm, and soft. It reminded Daisuke of when he was younger, and Jun would wrap him up in blankets and carry him places, back when he was still small enough that it was easy for her. She joked that he’d be that little for forever because he was born early, and that he’d just be little and hold-able. Daisuke had giggled into the blanket, his arms and legs really too wrapped up to do anything, but it was okay because it was Jun, and she was his older sister, and she’d been so nice and safe and hug-able that he couldn’t be mad or even annoyed at her, even if he was three and a half and smart enough to figure out that lotsa other kids didn’t wanna be held as much as they wanted to run around. 

It was kind of like being held here he was, he thought. Even if it was less of a blanket wrapped around him with his head poking out than it was a blanket wrapped around him with his head in the blanket. It was still warm and comfy though. And soft. It was a very soft blanket. It made him think of what rabbits must feel like, or what cats did, or maybe just the belly fur that a cat or a rabbit had. Wasn’t the fur on the belly supposed to be the fluffiest and softest fur? Jun had said something about that a while ago, but he wasn’t awake enough to remember right.

It was okay, though. He didn’t need to be awake right now. He was warm, and soft, and safe.

Yawning again, Daisuke rolled over some and snuggled down further into the soft fur-or-a-blanket, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.

~~~

He woke up, this time. He didn’t want to  - Daisuke clung to that in-between as long as he could, but it seemed that he was too far awake to be half-awake, and so was all the way awake. Still, he was soft, and warm, and safe.

Daisuke stretched, yawning, and one of the sides of his maybe-blanket maybe-fur little hiding hole moved as someone laughed quietly. Or maybe it was normally loud, and Daisuke just couldn’t hear it as well because he was all wrapped up. Furred hands - paws? - with the kind of toebeans that cats had on the fingers and palm and with blue-white claws reached down and lifted Daisuke up from under his armpits, and Daisuke thought that the hand-paws looked familiar but he wasn’t all the way sure. 

What he was sure of was that the hand-paws lifted him out of the mostly-dark of where he had been, and the sudden lots of light from outside of where he’d been made Daisuke whine and squeeze his eyes shut.

“Sorry.” Said a voice above him. “Sorry.”

Daisuke couldn’t see see with his eyes shut, but there was some kinda movement, and then there was less light against his eyelids. Hesitantly, Daisuke opened his eyes a little bit. There was blue fur in front of him, but the light wasn’t as bad, so he opened his eyes the rest of the way and blinked a couple of times to adjust them, before whatever the blue fur was attached to moved away. Was it a tail?

Now that he was all the way awake, it was a lot easier for Daisuke to figure stuff out. It was also made easier by looking around at whatever was closest to him. Like the fact that the person holding him had blue and blue-white fur, or gold armor, or that they spoke with Kiseki’s voice. So. It was Kiseki that was holding Daisuke. Probably.

Daisuke wiggled around until he was turned around in the arms that were holding him. He blinked, slow like the cats on TV did. Kiseki blinked back at him with that slow blink. His pupils were bigger, round and there was only a little bit of the sunset-red part that was visible. Daisuke thought that his pupils hadn’t been as wide before, back when he’d gotten the best look at them when Pegasmon had been right there and mad at them. Kiseki’s eyes had been more like the eyes that cats had when they were angry. Kiseki’s eyes were a lot like cat eyes, now that Daisuke thought about it, and he was pretty sure Jun had said how cat eyes got bigger when they were happy. So if Kiseki’s eyes were that big then that meant that he was happy, right?

Daisuke hoped that Kiseki was happy. He wanted to know for sure though, so he asked, tilting his head a little bit. “Hey, Ki-chan?”

“Hmm?” Kiseki replied, tilting his head to match Daisuke’s. His helmet wasn’t on, so Daisuke could see his face better. It wasn’t all the way lit up, because it was still kinda dark out and there were only a few lanterns every-so-often, but Kiseki’s face was lit up enough for Daisuke to get a good enough look at it for the first actual time. Kiseki’s fur was still the same color as it was, royal blue and bluish-white, and his eyes were still sunset-red with little brown flecks in them. He still had the yellow marks on his face that he had had when the Magnamon was a V-mon - the “v” on his forehead, the little triangles at the corner of his eyes, and the little white dots above his eyes that looked like eyebrows like how corgis and shiba inus had. The horn on his nose was smaller, or maybe it was just the same size and the rest of Kiseki had gotten bigger. It would make sense, Daisuke thought, because horns were pointy and didn’t grow like bones and arms and legs did. 

Daisuke couldn’t remember why he’d said Kiseki’s name. He thought it was something to do with Kiseki being - happy? Maybe? Daisuke didn’t know for sure, because he’d just stared at Kiseki’s face, because, well - it was Kiseki. And he had a fluffy face, fluffy cheeks and pretty eyes. It would be good to say something back to the dragon though. But words were hard and he was still sleepy, even if he was all the way awake. “Kiseki happy?” He settled for, after a few seconds of trying to make the things he wanted to say make sense.

Kiseki laughed, but quiet and soft, and he pressed his nose against Daisuke’s. “Yeah.” Kiseki said. “I’m happy.” 

“Good!” Daisuke said, with all the certainty of a child deciding that something was to be so, and he patted the sides of Kiseki’s face with his hands. Kiseki’s fur was soft, even if it wasn’t long. It was soft and fluffy, which was the best kind of anything.

A few seconds of content, before Kiseki asked his own question. “Are you happy, Daisuke?” 

The answer to that question was obvious. “Yeah! I’m happy. ‘Cause you’re here, and you’ll keep me safe and warm and comfy, like how Jun-nee-san does!” Daisuke yawned. “I’m glad we found Nee-san. . .” His eyelids were getting heavier. Hadn’t he been awake just a few seconds ago?

Kiseki giggled, and Daisuke looked up at him sleepily from where his head had fallen. “Sleepy?”

Daisuke yawned and nodded. Kiseki just giggled again, and, pressing the end of his nose against Daisuke’s one last time, lowered Daisuke back into the soft, dark, fluffy safety of the dragon’s belly pouch. And, curling up and yawning a last time, Daisuke once more pressed his face into the fur, and slept.

~~

He woke up for the last time when he felt hands pulling him out of the pouch. Daisuke whined, not wanting to get up, but whoever it was didn’t stop until he was out of the pouch all the way, legs and arms dangling in the air a few seconds. Then they set him down, somewhere a little bit soft but mostly kinda hard and not-quite-cool. Daisuke stubbornly kept his eyes shut, trying to settle into a comfy position so that he could go back to sleep, but somebody kept shaking his shoulder and wouldn’t let him. 

Eventually and unfortunately, Daisuke accepted that he was not going to be allowed to go back to sleep. He opened his eyes and looked up to where the person’s face probably was. Kiseki looked back at him through the metal helmet. Daisuke stuck his tongue out at kiseki.

The dragon laughed. “What was that for, hmm?” 

Daisuke mock-glared at him. “You wouldn’t let me go back to sleep and that’s mean , Ki-chan.” 

Kiseki only laughed again. “It’s not mean if I get you awake so that you can eat breakfast, is it?”

Well. Breakfast was okay. “Is there food? Can I have some?” 

Daisuke looked from Kiseki’s face to around the room. Kiseki was leaning back against a wall, and Daisuke was sitting against his lap, while Jun and Wallace and Rina were all mostly asleep on different benches. Jun was on her back and Hawkmon was using her belly as a pillow, while Wallace was face down with the two bunnies on his head and back. Rina had curled up into a little ball with V.V. held against her chest and mostly hidden, only the tips of his ears and tail being really visible. There were also lots of other digimon on other benches, or on the floors (though Daisuke thought that the floor wasn’t a comfy place to sleep). Most of everybody was asleep, though.

Daisuke did smell food, though. Or it smelled like something cooking, but that was probably food. In one of the doorways, a digimon with a white mask and red-orange hair and fur that was lighter than Kiseki’s but with ears that look the same poked their head through. “Any of y’all awake?” Their voice was kinda quiet, probably because they didn’t wanna wake up the babies. 

“Daisuke and I are.” Kiseki said to them, raising a hand a little bit. “Am I right in guessing that food will be ready soon?”

The other digimon nodded. “Yeah. That’s why I was comin’ to ask if any of y’all were awake yet.” They walked towards Kiseki, picking their way through the occasional piles of sleeping digimon on the floor. “It’s best to keep our voices down while we walk through here.” They said, standing before Kiseki and waiting for a few moments.

“To keep from waking the little ones, I’m guessing?” Kiseki said, standing and putting Daisuke into his belly pouch in the same motion. Daisuke wasn’t complaining. The pouch was fluffy and soft. Though maybe that was just because it was belly fur, and belly fur was just fluffy and soft in general. Either way, Daisuke didn’t mind it much.

Kiseki and the other digimon began walking. Probably towards wherever it was that there was food. Hopefully. But he wasn’t sure. 

“Oh! I haven’t introduced myself to y’all, have I?” The digimon said after a while, looking back at Kiseki and Daisuke, mask tilted. The horns on it looked pretty cool, but Daisuke wondered if maybe they might make it harder for the digimon to walk through doors? “I’m Yaksamon.”

Kiseki nodded to them (or Daisuke thought that he did, because he couldn’t see Kiseki’s head that good). “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Kiseki. This is Daisuke.”

Yaksamon nodded back. “It’s nice to know names. Always good to know what people are named rather th’n what others assume they’re named. Anyways,” they said, stepping through a final doorway amongst the others that the three of them (well, two of them, Daisuke was being carried) had gone through, “welcome to the kitchens.”

The kitchens was the right word for it, because the kitchens are actually two rooms that just had one really big doorway (with no door) in one of the walls connecting the two. There were various little pits in the floor with stone around the inside and fires on top of them, with different pots or pans of food on top of the different fire pits. There were also little plate-bowls near each of the pots or pans, and silverware nearby as well.

“Y’all can get whatever and how much of anything you want.” Yaksamon told them both. “Dinner usually gets handed out since we want to make sure everyone eats, but with breakfast it’s more of a serve yourself kinda thing, since not everyone wakes up at the same time. So, eat what you want.” with that said, they left Kiseki and Daisuke near the entrance to the kitchens and went off further into the two rooms.

“Do you want to walk around and see what there is?” Kiseki asked Daisuke. 

Daisuke thought a moment, then nodded. Kiseki picked him up and set him onto the ground (well, set his feet onto the ground), and the two went wandering off to find food. Here was to hoping for something tasty.

~~~

Ryou woke up to a sense of terror , bone-deep, aching and paralyzing and he couldn’t breathe -

Flashes of green and blue and yellow passed before his eyes in a sudden burst, and as the terror increased so did the colors-

And then the colors were gone. And the first thing he noticed was that he wasn’t in his room - he was in some stone and draped castle-like area, smooth walls and marble floors with veins of gold in the stone.

And the second thing he noticed was pain . Pain pain pain, even deeper than the terror and even more noticable. Pain all over his body, his arms and legs and hands and toes and even more pain in his head, and someone was crying and reaching for him and begging and begging and begging please, please come save us and we need you, Ryou and it hurts so much please make it stop and why do they keep hurting us and what did we do and Ryou, come find us please make it stop -

Inhale, exhale. In, out, don’t think about the pain or the voices, just focus on what’s beneath you. Cold cold marble with veins of gold running through it, plush carpets in the middle of the floor of the hallway. Eventually the pain faded, as did the two voices that were in his head. It didn’t go away entirely. But it faded - became much more dull. Ryou was able to focus more on his own body. He also realized that he was crying - tears dripping down his face, slowly, steadily. He blinked a couple times, took in another breath, wiped at his eyes and cheeks. Tried to pull himself together.

One breath. Another. Until the tears finally, finally stopped falling, until Ryou felt like he was composed enough to stand up from where he’d curled up on the floor, until Ryou felt like he could try and see what was in the place he had been dropped into without going back to tears. Then, with some effort, he stood, tiny arms and legs and self and all, and began walking. He didn’t know where. But he knew that there was somewhere he was supposed to be. Someone he was supposed to meet.

Through a doorway, through an archway, past marble and other pillars made of white stone, past carpets of different shades of gray. Through one elegantly decorated room to the next. The walls, floors, and just about everything of this odd castle place were very similar, and very, very repetitive.

Onwards he went. Onwards.

Something caught his eye in one of the doorways. Color. Pale pink wasn’t the brightest, but it stood out against the harsh whites and pale greys of the stone building. He followed the color.

The room he stepped into was some kind of - library? It had lots of little hollow areas with books stashed away everywhere. There was a fireplace somewhere, and Ryou could tell because the sound of fire burning wasn’t one that he heard often but was noticeable enough. 

What took up most of his attention, though, was what had led him to enter the room in the first place. They looked like a rabbit, if rabbits stood on two legs all the time and had long arms and pink fur. The big paws - hands? paws? - and long, upward-pointing ears and the short tail were familiarly rabbit-like, though. The rabbit also had a white frill around their neck and a thick gold band around the base of each ear. Their belly and a stripe on their face was white, with gold on the edges, which seemed like a pattern that a rabbit might have had, though. If the rest of the rabbit wasn’t pink. 

They were a very strange rabbit. The rabbit was also moving some of the books around, here and there. Ryou didn’t really say much, just watched for a few moments. The rabbit was interesting, at least, not something you’d see every day. But something told him that the rabbit wasn’t who he needed to find.

Ryou turned to leave the room, and resume wandering. As he did, however, the rabbit seemed to notice him. “Hmm? Ah!” turning around fully, the rabbit looked down at Ryou. Which they had to, because the rabbit was a lot taller than Ryou was. “Is there anything I can help you with, little one?”

Ryou needed to find the two someones. But. . . asking for help couldn’t hurt, right? The rabbit was a lot bigger than he was, but they seemed nice. He’d take a chance. “I’m looking for someone.” He said. “Two someones. Can you help me find them?”

The rabbit hummed for a few seconds. “Looking for someone, hmm?” She said. “Do you know anything about the two you’re looking for?”

Ryou. . . didn’t know. . . anything about them. Wait - he knew something . “I know that they’re both hurting.” He told the rabbit. “And I know that they’re waiting for me to help them.”

The rabbit winced. “That must be very hard to bear, knowing that someone is hurting and depending on you to get them out of that pain.”

Ryou didn’t talk. The rabbit looked like she might have been waiting for him to say something else, but he didn’t, so she continued.

“Do you want to make a deal?” She asks him, tilting her head to one side and one ear sticking further into the air than the other.

Ryou hesitated. His parents told him not to make deals with strangers, but. . . the rabbit seemed nice. And he knew that whoever the two someones were, they needed him. “What’s the deal?”

The rabbit didn’t change her position. “If I help you find the two someones, will you help my friends and I get rid of some bad people?”

“Bad people?”

The rabbit nodded. “Yes. They’re very bad - they do things like hurt our friends and they make this world less stable.”

“Less. . . stable?” Ryou was confused now.

“Ah.” The rabbit said. “What I mean is, bad things happen because they’re here. They make bad things happen.”

“Oh. And you want me to help you get rid of them because they’re bad and they’re hurting your friends?” He asked. It was always good to make sure you knew what someone wanted and was gonna give you. That’s what his parents said.

The rabbit nodded.

“And you’ll help me find the two someones if I help you?”

The rabbit nodded again.

“Okay.” Ryou said. “I’ll make the deal.” He bowed to the rabbit. “I’m Ryou.”

“I am Cherubimon.” She said. Cherubimon smiled and un-tilted her head. “The angels will be more than willing to help you find your friends.”

~~~

Wallace was not sure how he felt about this whole situation.

On one hand, he was in a place that was very warm, with lots of food, and lots of blankets, and lots of friendly people. Plus, he had his two rabbit-dogs, who were fluffy and good pillows.

But on the other, well. . . Wallace missed home. He missed his mama. He missed her hugs, he missed the way she cooked lamb and trout, he missed the way she made breakfast crepes in the way that he’d never heard anyone else being able to make. He missed the flower fields and the grass and the wide, open sky. Wallace missed home .

The cabin he was in was nice. It was warm, and they - the creatures who lived here, the digimon - let Wallace have as much food as he wanted. But it wasn’t home.

He sat with his back against one of the walls, plate-bowl in one hand and fork in the other, and hummed to himself. It was a nice cabin. Even if it wasn’t home. His two rabbit-dogs, Chocomon and Gummimon, were leaning against him, and they were warm. It was peaceful. Nice.

He still wanted to go home.

He hummed a tune that he made up as he went. He didn’t have a particular tune in mind. Just whatever sounds he thought of in the moment.

Someone sat down nearby, and he looked up. Next to him was Jun. “Hi.” She said a bit awkwardly, in English. “Can I sit here?”

Wallace nodded. 

A few moments. “You okay?” she asked. “You look sad.”

Wallace shrugged. “I’m kinda okay.” He would have spoken in Japanese - it was important to get in practice with a new language, that’s what Jun had said - but he was tired, and didn’t feel like trying to make the words work right.

“You sure?” Jun tilted her head a little bit.

“. . . no.” Wallace admitted. He put the plate-bowl on the floor and drew his knees to his chest. “I want to go home.” He said, and it was almost a whisper. He didn't look at Jun, looking at his knees instead. Chocomon and Gummimon both tried to crawl onto his lap. He kept them from doing that, because his lap wasn’t big enough.

“. . . I’m sorry.” Jun said. “It’s hard to be away from home for a while, isn’t it?”

Wallace nodded into his jeans. 

For a while they both just sat there, kinda just listening to the sounds of the digimon moving around and doing whatever it was they were doing. Probably sleeping. Or eating. Or just talking. Weren’t most of them that were in this cabin siblings? Except for the ones who had come in from outside, like Kiseki or Jun’s Hawkmon. But most of them were siblings, right? Like Chocomon and Gummimon and Rina - her name was Rina, he thought - her partner V.V., the V-mon, the little blue dragon. They were all siblings, right? 

Wallace stopped pressing his face against his knees to look at Chocomon and Gummimon. “You guys have a lot of brothers and sisters and siblings.”

Chocomon and Gummimon nodded at the same time. “Yeah,” began Chocomon, “we do!” Gummimon finished.

“Are all of the digimon in here your family?” Wallace asked, and he saw Jun pick her head up, seeming interested.

“Not everyone .” Gummimon said, putting a paw to his face. “Hawkmon-kun and Kiseki-kun aren’t our siblings.” Chocomon added. “And Tou-san and Tou-sama are our dads, not our siblings.” Gummimon finished.

“I guess that makes sense.” Wallace resumed humming again. 

“Do you have any siblings?” Chocomon asked, resting his chin on top of Wallace’s foot.

“No.” Wallace told his rabbit-dogs. “It’s just me and my mama.” And now he missed home again, because they all had their siblings and dads but his mama was all the way back home in Summer Memory, and wherever here was, it wasn’t there.

Jun scooted over until she was sitting all the way next to him. She didn’t say anything, but leaned over and hugged him. She was warm. And nice. And Wallace was homesick. 

He cried into her shoulder. She didn’t say anything. He still felt bad for getting her shirt wet from his tears.

“Sorry for getting your shirt wet.” Wallace sniffled, rubbing at his eyes. 

“Don’t be.” Jun told him, gently. “You miss home. And you’re little. You’re allowed to cry.” 

Wallace sniffed more, but nodded. He wasn’t supposed to feel bad for crying. Mama said that he was allowed to cry as much as he wanted, because he was little and little kids had lotsa stuff to cry about and it wasn’t fair to make them be happy all the time. So he sniffed some more, and hugged Jun again, and went to go talk to the other kids, because having some friends was better than having none.

~~~

Hawkmon knew three things.

One, he was young, and would grow, and had as much time as he needed to do so.

Two, Jun was his partner, his older sister, and so Daisuke was his little brother, because Daisuke was four and was little, and Hawkmon wasn’t that little.

And three - he would follow Jun anywhere, in any circumstances, because he loved her, and he trusted her, and if she made a decision then she’d have a good reason for it, and if she told him to do anything he would do it.

So when Jun told Hawkmon and Kiseki and Daisuke and Rina and V.V. and Wallace and Chocomon and Gummimon that they all were going to be leaving soon because they needed to go home, Hawkmon didn’t ask questions, and went to go stand next to Jun to be ready to go home. Even though he didn’t know what home looked like, because he’d never been to Jun’s home, and he was pretty sure that it wasn’t in the Digital World, but that would be okay because he could always visit her because she was his older sister and he’d follow her to the ends of the world.

They all didn’t actually start going anywhere until after everybody had eaten. But that was okay, because people needed to eat before they had energy to go anywhere. The food was yummy, too. It wasn’t the berries and fruits and occasional meat he’d used to find growing around before he’d met Jun, but the food was still good.

“So, where are we gonna go?” He asked, perched on Jun’s shoulder.

Jun shrugged, but didn’t shrug high enough to make him fall off. “I dunno. We’re just gonna pick a direction and walk.”

Hawkmon guessed that that made sense. No one knew how to get everyone back home, so they had to do their best. So, like Jun said they would do, they picked a direction and began walking. He wasn’t sure who had picked the direction they were going in, but he didn’t think that it really mattered anyways. The point was that they were walking. 

Walking was cold and kinda not-fun for the first bit, when they were all just outside of the cabin and they were in the deepest part of the Dark Area. The place in general was just not fun to be in, unless you were a dead digimon, or a dark type digimon, or an un dead digimon, or a digimon who had hatched there. But most of the digimon who had hatched in the Dark Area were the ones in the cabin. Except for Gummimon and Chocomon and V.V. (and within this week he’d met more digimon with names that weren’t their species name than within the rest of his life, but six wasn’t that many and it was really only four since Chocomon and Gummimon were named after their baby II forms).

Hawkmon’s musings didn’t matter too much, in the end. The further they walked the warmer it got, and so they probably got out of the Dark Area at some point. He wasn’t sure, but he was gonna guess, because at some point the Dark Area had to end, right?

They made it into a forest. It was a very nice forest. Lots of trees with nice green leaves. The trunks were more brown than the blue-green of jungle wood, but forests had always been different than jungles, and if the wood was the same color then how would you ever know that you were in a forest and not a jungle?

Hawkmon thought that he kept seeing shapes moving out of the corner of his eyes, but when he looked there was nothing there. It made him feel a bit uneasy, and judging by how Jun and Rina and Kiseki kept looking around as well, they also seemed to feel that way. He kept close to Jun. She was his big sister, so she’d be able to make sure none of them got hurt. Right? And if not her, then Kiseki, because he was older too and he was an armor level and the strongest one there.

Another shift of movement. White and red and blue against the browns and greens of the forest. Something was moving. Something was watching, and it scared him.

They walked for a minute more, a minute more of paranoia and uncertainty. Then the two who’d been following them stepped out into full view.

It was a Moosemon and a Harpymon. One with a tall, furred body with white and pale blue designs, darker, puffier blue fur around the hooves and neck, and large, reaching antlers that were as blue as the fur of the neck, red eyes glaring at them. The other wore chest armor and a helmet, white feathers on wings and legs, sharp talons gripping into the earthen ground.

Something told Hawkmon that these two weren’t friendly. Something told him that these two were really not friendly.

Moosemon stepped forwards first. “Sinners, those who betray the Light and hide in the Darkness instead.” They said. “Those who shelter They who are not belonging in this world.”

“Uh. . . do you mean us?” Hawkmon asked, nervously, shifting a bit closer to Jun. Harpymon in particular looked menacing, with their talons digging into the ground a little too much, but Moosemon was also intimidating, with their tall, tall body and sharp-ended antlers.

Harpymon made a hissing noise in the back of their throat. “ Yes ,” they said, tone dark. “The. . . creatures that you stand beside should not exist. Thus we have been sent to be sure that they leave.”

“Like Pegasmon?” Daisuke asked, poking his head up from out of Kiseki’s belly pouch, where he’d mostly napped since about twenty minutes ago. “Pegasmon was kinda mean and threw stars at me and hit my legs. He also said something about me not being supposed to be here, either.”

Somehow, Moosemon and Harpymon’s expressions got darker. “Yes,” Moosemon agreed, “we have been sent alike to Pegasmon.”

Kiseki tensed, and Hawkmon knew that things were going to get bad . He was almost hiding behind Jun’s legs now, claws at the ends of his wings holding onto her legs and head poking out.

He knew these things: Moosemon and Harpymon had been sent to get rid of the humans. Moosemon and Harpymon were armor evolutions of Hawkmon (the species in general), and it was possible that he would be able to take those forms should he stumble upon a Digimental of Light or of Hope. Moosemon and Harpymon wanted to attack him and Kiseki and Chocomon and Gummimon and V.V. all because they were near the humans, and all because they were attached to the humans.

Hawkmon knew these things: before he had met Jun, he had wandered alone. He had been scared. Had he found a Digimental, he would have armor-evolved without question to gain a little more power, a little more security. Had he not met Jun, he likely could have been looking at himself.

Hawkmon decided that he did not want to become a Moosemon or a Harpymon ever. 

He didn’t know when the fight began. All he knew was that one second, Moosemon and Harpymon stood in front of them, while Jun stood in front of Hawkmon and Kiseki stood to the side with Daisuke in his belly pouch and Wallace and Rina clinging to Chocomon and Gummimon and to V.V. each, and that the next second Kiseki was darting around while Harpymon was in the air screeching and throwing blades of air at him, Moosemon charging, pausing, charging again.

Hawkmon was scared.

Kiseki darted around, stopping on a tree or on the ground here and there, but mostly mostly moving. Stopping meant taking a hit. Stopping meant pain. And Hawkmon was mostly sure that Daisuke was still in Kiseki’s belly pouch, so taking a hit would not be a good idea at all .

“ Wind Seeker !” Harpymon screeched, and Kiseki rolled to the left to dodge the blade of wind.

“ Magnum Kick !” The dragon called out in response, sweeping a leg under Moosemon’s, who had gotten close enough to be a worry.

In response, Moosemon kicked at Kiseki with their own legs, bellowing “ Punisher !” as they did so.

Kiseki rolled again, but hissed as the hoof hit his chestplate. Ears pinned flat against his skull, he snarled and swiped at the moose’s knees.

Hawkmon cannot see much of the battle before Jun is pulling him away, pulling Wallace and Rina and their partners away, a chance to run from the moose and the harpy because if they do not leave, he knows, they will be hurt very, very badly. That is what the moose and the harpy are trying to do. That is why Kiseki is fighting them. Because if the humans do not run, then they will be harmed, and Hawkmon knows that he does not want any of them to get harmed, that Kiseki does not want any of them to get harmed, that no one wants anyone to be harmed. And yet the moose and harpy will harm, will break, will kill if given the chance. So they must not give the chance.

In the cleared part of the trees, a dragon with fur a royal blue and armor as golden as the blood that simmers under his skin fights with a moose that has fur as white and blue and icy as ice itself, against a harpy with feathers bleached white by the light too strong to see through and cloth underneath armor that is red as the blood that humans spill.

Through the trees hurries the humans, all but one. Auburn hair, blonde hair, green hair. Toffee eyes, clear-sky blue, ruby red. Three little humans and four little digimon, and the dragon fighting the moose and the harpy, the last human kept safe and hidden behind an armor of flesh and blood and off-white fur and whatever miracles the dragon can pull from within his own blood.

Jun ran and Hawkmon followed, and Wallace and Rina followed, and Chocomon and Gummimon and V.V. followed, and Kiseki stayed and fought with his flesh being the last barrier of safety for Daisuke. “Ki-kun will win.” Jun kept repeating. “Ki-kun will win.” Because if he didn’t, Daisuke was dead, Jun was dead, Hawkmon and Wallace and Rina and Chocomon and Gummimon and V.V. were all dead. So Kiseki would win. He had to.

A scream made all of their heads snap back towards the clearing.

Hawkmon knew three things.

One. Moosemon and Harpymon stood over Kiseki, golden ichor blood glinting off of Moosemon’s antlers and Harpymon’s talons.

Two. Kiseki laid on the ground, breathing heavily, a hand clutching at his shoulder where his blood, golden ichor blood that bled slowly but steadily from a gash in the flesh that parted fur and skin and muscle, deep enough that Hawkmon didn’t know how deep, several other smaller scratches and scrapes all over his body, part of his tail bent at an angle that wasn’t right .

Three. Kiseki shuddered, and Moosemon stomped onto his chest, cracking the armor that was the same shade as blood and it was getting harder to tell where armor became bleeding wounds, and Kiseki screamed before being cut off abruptly, going limp.

Three. Kiseki was unconscious. 

Three. Moosemon and Harpymon lifted their gazes to the others, standing the small distance away as they were.

Three. There was a slight movement from Kiseki’s abdomen. Daisuke was still in the belly pouch. Daisuke was very close to danger.

Three. Moosemon raised their antlers and got into a stance that said they were going to charge.

Hawkmon knew one thing for certain, in that moment.

Hawkmon was terrified.

Chapter Text

Hawkmon knew these things.

He knew that Kiseki was injured, shoulder bleeding and tail broken and a million other smaller cuts and scrapes on his body.

He knew that Moosemon and Harpymon were looking at Jun, looking at the other younger, smaller children and digimon.

He knew that someone was going to die if nothing was done.

He knew that he wanted to protect them.

He knew that Moosemon and Harpymon wanted to kill Jun, his sister, his partner, his other half. And he knew that he refused to let that happen.

He knew that he was going to protect them.

Moosemon raised their head, and stared Hawkmon directly in his eyes. Harpymon, head tilted, stepped towards Hawkmon as well.

Hawkmon was not afraid. 

Moosemon charged, and Hawkmon stood his ground. He did not waver. 

A glow surrounded him, danced on his feathers and talons. Power sang in his veins, power sung in his skin and in his feathers, and as he braced himself he soared . A white-blue glow and power power power, and seconds later and he was different, and yet the power still sang. 

“ Hawkmon evolve! ”

The power sang and sang and sang, swelling in a symphony of wishes and feelings and hopes and desperate prayers and pleading please, please, not them .

“ Aquilamon! ”

He was taller now, heavy keratin horns weighing on his head and larger talons that could dig deeper into the dirt, and russet and off-white feathers and white on the underside of his wings. The power sang. His prayers and pleaded words still sang. He breathed, much larger chest expanding and shrinking as any chest did when breath was drawn in and out.

He stepped forwards. Moosemon and Harpymon stepped back.

“What are you!?” Harpymon screeched, feathers fluffed up at mush as they could, the fear in them visible.

He tilted his head. “Did you not hear? I am an Aquilamon.”

Moosemon, who had been oh so willing to charge less than a moment ago, hesitated, and backed away as well. If he looked closer, Aquilamon thought he might have been trembling. “What the fuck is this.” The moose said. “What the fuck”.

Jun gasped from behind Aquilamon. “ Language! ” She snapped at the moose. “There are little kids here!”

Moosemon ignored her. “What the fuck .” They repeated.”What the fuck is this. I didn’t sign up for this shit.”

Jun continued to squawk (not literally, because she was not a ‘bird’ like Aquilamon was, but the sounds she made were close enough for comparison) at the moose digimon.

Still. There were still things Aquilamon knew.

He knew that Kiseki still laid on the forest floor, bleeding and unconscious and with a wound that could become infected quite easily if left alone. He knew that he was bigger now, and an adult-level (and weren’t those rare?). He knew that Harpymon and Moosemon were afraid of him, or unsure of what to do about him at least.

The next step was easy to take. Quite literally. He stepped forwards, bigger bones and skin and feathers making it more difficult to keep his balance but he managed. Moosemon and Harpymon stepped back. Aquilamon kept going forwards, and Moosemon and Harpymon kept going backwards, until he stood over Kiseki. 

The wound did not look very good. It looked not bad , but not good either. It was pretty deep, because there was a pool of golden blood that grew by the second, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been because the blood was flowing but not really spurting out of the wound. More like water being poured out of a cup than a waterfall. So it probably hadn’t hit a major artery or something. That was what happened, right? Blood sprayed out faster if an artery was hit?

Anyways. Moosemon and Harpymon were a fair distance away now, but Aquilamon wasn’t really sure how to move Kiseki without making his shoulder bleed more. Which. Needed to be done, but again. Without making the wound worse, because that would make Kiseki bleed out faster and Aquilamon didn’t want Kiseki dead. Daisuke would be sad if Kiseki would be dead, and Jun would be sad if Daisuke was sad, and Aquilamon would be sad if Jun was sad.

And Aquilamon would be sad if Kiseki was dead, too. Definitely. 

Aquilamon turned his head to look at Jun, and Wallace and Rina and Terriermon-Lopmon (were they one person or two) and V.V. (what kind of name was V.V. anyways? How do you spell it?). “Uhm.” he said. “Does anyone know how to move Kiseki-kun without making him bleed out?”

“Uh. Aquilamon?” Jun said, looking kinda nervous.

“Yeah?”

“Next time could you turn your body so that you don’t turn your head all the way around? It’s kinda scary-looking.” She asked, looking more at the ground than up at him.

Aquilamon blinked. “Oh. Sorry.” He let his head swivel and return to its normal position, before turning it again (but turning his body too, so that it was a “normal” amount of head-turn-ing). “I still don’t know how to move him.” He said.

Jun walked up to stand next to him, and Wallace and Rina and V.V. and Chocomon and Gummimon followed. “We could all try to pick him up?” She suggested.

“But wouldn’t that move and make it bleed more?” Rina asked, her head poking around from behind Jun. Was she scared? Of who? Of him? Aquilamon didn’t want her to be afraid of him. Or any of them to be afraid of him.

Instead of worrying about it more, he answered her instead. “Maybe?” 

Rina narrowed her eyes, then walked out from behind Jun and stuck her hands into Kiseki’s belly pouch. She seemed to ignore (or maybe she just didn’t notice) Aquilamon and the others’ squawks of surprise, instead pulling Daisuke out of the pouch. He looked at all of them with wide eyes. He turned like he was going to look at Kiseki, but Jun walked forwards as well and scooped him up into her arms before he could do that.

“Nee-san?” Daisuke asked. “Who’s the bird?”

“It’s me.” Aquilamon told the boy, voice softer, trying to be soothing and not intimidating. “It’s Hawkmon. I’m bigger now, but still me.”

“Oh.” Daisuke said. He tightened his grip on Jun a little bit. “Ki-chan is hurt, isn’t he?”

Jun’s back was turned to Aquilamon, but she tensed, and Aquilamon was pretty sure that her expression had changed. “. . . yeah.” She said. “We gotta get back to the cabin. They can help there.”

Wallace spoke up from behind them all. “If we put Kiseki on Hawkmon’s back, maybe he can fly Kiseki back to the cabin and the rest of us can walk or run or something?” his words were in english, but Aquilamon was proud of himself for having learned enough to understand the sentence, in the week or so that he had been learning.

“That makes sense.” Jun agreed, also in English. 

With that plan in mind, the four humans and four digimon (not counting Kiseki, who was still unconscious) went about trying to actually do the thing they had said they were going to do. It took several minutes. Aquilamon was not going to talk about those minutes. Their struggles to arrange Kiseki in a way that wouldn’t make him fall off did not need to be mentioned.

Still, they did eventually get the dragon arranged somewhat comfortably on Aquilamon’s back. Once that was done, it actually wasn’t hard to get into the air. Well, it was , but the hardest part was taking off. After that it was mostly instinct. 

Rina insisted that she and V.V. ride on Aquilamon’s back so that they could direct him back to the cabin in the Dark Area, and also keep Kiseki from falling off. Jun and Wallace and Chocomon and Gummimon clung to Aquilamon’s talons as he carried them as well, because not everyone could fit on his back without falling off. Aquilamon was flying for the first time, after all.

Flying was an amazing feeling. Aquilamon thought to himself, as he flew himself and the others back to the cabin where they’d been staying, that he’d like to try flying with just himself sometime, just to feel the wind between his feathers and horns. 

Eventually, the forest grew colder, and gave way to wood that was pale and washed of any color, grass and ground appearing in paler desaturated shades of green and brown. The wooden cabin built in the middle of a clearing, blue-green wood and soft light from what was probably a good few candles making it stand out much more against the other colors of the area.

Landing was. . . something. Aquilamon changed his mind. Landing was the hardest part of flying. He would not mention the near-disaster of landing.

Still, after everyone got off of his back or out of his talons, Aquilamon dropped onto the ground and walked forwards onto the porch with everyone else. Just. . .  slowly. Because he didn’t want to trip over his talons. That wouldn’t be fun.

Wallace was the one to knock on the door, because Jun was holding Daisuke and trying to help calm him down because he’d been upset seeing Kiseki hurt, and Rina and V.V. and Aquilamon were all kinda holding Kiseki. Though mostly Aquilamon’s part was having most of Kiseki’s weight lean against Aquilamon’s head, but he didn’t mind if it meant the dragon didn’t lose more blood than he had.

Tenkuu the Devidramon was the one to open the door, when Wallace knocked. He took one look at the sight in front of him, then immediately turned around and yelled for others to come, before ushering the whole group inside and picking up Kiseki and carrying the blue-furred dragon himself.

Aquilamon mostly got a little swept up in all the resulting chaos that came afterwards. There was a lot that happened that he didn’t notice or remember. But that was okay. Kiseki was set down somewhere, and everyone kinda followed Tenkuu who had been holding Kiseki. A Kunemon and Lekismon had a blanket to lay him on at the ready, and a Coronamon came running up with bandages, which the two smaller digimon began wrapping around Kiseki’s shoulder, after they’d wiped off any excess blood that they could. The bandages stained gold, but they kept reapplying bandages until eventually there was much less blood staining through.

Somewhere between this, Rina and V.V. and Wallace and Gummimon and Chocomon wandered off with some other Child-level digimon. They’d be fine, though.

After the three digimon had left Kiseki to rest for the time being, and Tenkuu had wandered off to do something else, Jun set Daisuke down. The toddler immediately ran over to Kiseki’s side, sitting down next to the dragon’s head and taking the helmet off, resting Kiseki’s head on a pillow. “Ki-chan’s head will hurt if it’s pressing against the helmet all the time.” Was all he said.

Jun made a noise. “Didn’t your leg get burned?”

Daisuke looked down at the leg in question. He rolled up his pants leg, and poked at the scar from the burn (earning another worried noise from Jun). “It doesn’t hurt anymore, Jun-nee-san!”

Jun relaxed a little bit. “Well. you should still be careful, okay?”

Daisuke nodded. 

Jun signed, and sat down as well. “So.” She said, looking at Aquilamon, who was now sitting on the floor, legs folded underneath his very fluffy feathers, having sat there when Jun and Daisuke were talking. 

He tilted his head to one side and made a questioning chirrup.

Jun continued, though she did wait a few seconds after his chirrup to see if he had anything else to say. Which was very polite of her. Jun was a polite nice and good person. “Your name is Aquilamon now, right?”

He nodded. “Yep! I evolved from Hawkmon, so now I’m Aquilamon, because that’s what the name of this form is.”

Jun nodded. “Makes sense. Most digimon are named whatever kind of digimon they are.”

A pause in between that. Or, well. He thought it was a pause. It felt like Jun had more to say, but she didn’t say anything for a bit. Behind them, off a little ways, Rina was running around in what was probably a game of tag, V.V. and Chocomon-Gummimon (and again, were they one person or two? Zerimon and Cocomon hatched from the same egg sometimes, but did that make them one digimon or just two digimon that had shared an egg?) running behind them along with maybe five other miscellaneous digimon. Wallace watched from a little bit away, sitting cross-legged. Jun said that sitting cross-legged was kinda rude, but Wallace had said that it was what tons of people did and that it wasn’t rude, and Wallace and Jun were from different places, so maybe it was a culture thing.

“You’re an Adult-level now, right?” Ah, there was the next part.

Aquilamon nodded, ruffling his feathers for a moment and getting a bit more comfortable. Adrenaline was a good help, because now that it had worn off his head was kind of heavy with the horns adding a bunch of weight, and his much bigger size being hard to adjust too. His center of gravity was all off and it was awful . He shuffled over to Jun some, until she was sitting next to him and was kinda leaning into his feathers. He hoped she didn’t lean all the way into his feathers, because they were very fluffy and she could get swallowed up in them until you couldn’t really tell that she was there because of all the feathers covering her.

“So.” Jun started again. 

“So.” Aquilamon echoed, snuggling down a bit more into the ground because his legs hurt, and he still wasn’t used to being so much bigger, and it was always better when you were closer to the ground because that made it harder for people to force you to get up.

Jun moved so that she was kinda leaning against him but also not really, more pressing his feathers down against his chest than sinking into them. “You’re fine with sticking with the name of the kinda digimon that you are, huh?” She said, running her fingers through some of Aquilamon’s feathers, but not quite paying attention.

Aquilamon chirped. “I guess?” He shuffled in place a little bit. “I do think it would be cool to have my own name, but I haven’t really found one yet. So I’ll just stick with the kind of digimon that I am for my name until I find the right name.”

Jun nodded. “That makes sense.” She sighed and leaned even further backwards. “Do you have any idea what kinda name you want, though?”

Aquilamon shook his head. “No, not yet. But I’ll find the right name someday. I can’t go forever without a name, right?”

“Right.” Jun agreed. “And I’m sure whatever name you get will fit.” She yawned then, stretching her arms and legs, before leaning against Aquilamon even further. “I’m gonna take a nap now.”

“Okay.” Aquilamon said. “Sleep well, Jun-nee-san.” She yawned, and he did too (though quieter). “Now you’re making me yawn.”

Jun giggled, though it was quiet. “Sorry.” She yawned again, then finally relaxed all the way. A few seconds later, and her breaths were even and slow. Asleep, then. Good. She needed the rest.

Thinking about it, Aquilamon could use rest too. He was newly evolved, and had flown everyone back however far from the cabin. He deserved to rest too, he thought. With that thought in mind, Aquilamon yawned a final time, closed his eyes, settled down into the floor more, and went to sleep.

~~~

Rina was not tired. Just. Just bored that was all. That was why her eyes were closing. Because she was bored and didn’t have anything to look at. That was it.

V.V. leaned into her side, half-way asleep himself. His yawns were tiny and cute. V.V. as a whole was tiny and cute. 

Rina wasn't tired though. Definitely not. She was just gonna rest her eyes for a little bit. That was it. That was all. If she yawned, the it didn't mean anything. She let her eyes slip closed, just for a few seconds. She realized only a few seconds too late that she was falling asleep. Oh well, then. Not much she could do about it now.

~~~

Rina woke up somewhere warm and soft. It was kinda like a blanket, but softer than some of the blankets Rona had used at home. Also, blankets usually didn't have a bunch of tiny babies in them, unless they were wrapped around a bunch of tiny babies and Rina (which would need a big blanket). 

She squirmed around a bit, which was harder than she thought to do because there were a lot of Baby I and Baby II Digimon in the - she was gonna call it a blanket for now. There were a lot of them, anyways. And soft and warm as they were, there was a lot of them. And they were heavy. 

In her struggling to get out from under the many babies, Rina spotted a V-mon inside of the not-a-blanket. Huh. Maybe there were some of the smaller Child Digimon in the not-a-blanket too? Then the V-mon opened their eyes and, oh, it was V.V..

He seemed to be just as confused as Rina was, about being in the not-a-blanket. Still, he half-crawled, half-swam over and through the many Babys. Once he'd reached Rina, V.V. tucked himself against her chest, hugging her like she'd been gone for a week. Rina patted his head and petted him between the ears. It seemed to calm him down.

It was both hard and easy to get to a place where the twos of them could poke their heads out (assuming there was such a place). Hard because V.V. was kinda heavy (though Rina was sure it wasn't his fault) and because the not-a-blanket was kinda tall (she didn't think that was the word but she didn't know other words), and because she was still half-asleep and kinda tired. But also easy because the fur of the not-a-blanket was easy enough to hold and once she got climbing Rina realized that it wasn't that the not-a-blanket was tall , just that it stretched . Which was kinda weird but hey, Rina was still only half awake.

Eventually she managed to poke her head out from between a gap between two 'walls' of the not-a-blanket (though one side was more firm than the other, more muscle-y in general). Poking her head out led to bright light, though, and Rina drew her head back into the dark and hissed, blinking a couple of times. V.V., from his sort of perch, chirruped in concern, but she just told him "it's fine, I'm fine" and left it at that.

Poking her head out more slowly this time, Rina blinked an extra few times just to be sure and looked around. Most of what was in front of her was just the cabin. She looked down to see white and blue fur and strong-muscled legs and clawed feet, and looked up to see white and gray and blue fur and strong arms and wings and the underside of a jaw. 

Rina decided that she was probably in Yushisa's belly pouch, then. Which, while she was kinda confused why she was there, was warm and comfy, and Rina decided that Yushisa probably cared enough to put her and V.V. in the pouch, which. . . Was really nice to think about, actually. That someone cared enough to give her an extra show of affection.

V.V. chirruped again, and Yushisa looked down.

"Hi." Rina said.

"Hello." Said Yushisa. "Sleep well?"

 Rina nodded, and V.V., who'd moved from clinging to her chest to kinda hugging her arm, nodded as well. "The belly pouch is warm." Rina gave as an explanation.

Yushisa hummed. "I'm glad. You're still young an' very small, after all, like th' Babys, an' young tiny things like you two need ta be kept warm an' somewhere safe 'til you're old enough ta sleep somewhere else." He paused a moment, then added, "which is also like the Babys."

Rina hummed. "'M still sleepy." She said, yawning and not trying to hide it this time. Besides her, V.V. yawned again a few seconds after.

"That's fine." The XV-mon told Rina. "You're little still. Ya need rest. So please, rest as much as y'need."

 "We can stay in your belly pouch? To sleep in?" Rina asked, trying to look suspecting even though she wasn't doing a good job of it.

"I promise." Yushisa said. "Stay in my pouch much as you'd like. Leave only when ya wanna."

 Rina yawned again. "Hmmm. . . Okay. Goodnight, Yushisa-san."

"Goodnight." V.V. echoed from besides her. 

Rina let herself slip back inside of the pouch again, shuffling a bit until she found a comfy position among all the Babys, and she cuddled V.V. to her chest again. Then, again, she closed her eyes, and thought of nothing in particular, and went to sleep.

~~~

Rina woke up again, with all of the warm bodies of her many siblings ( siblings , she had so many of them now, because they were V.V.'s siblings were her siblings, they were so tiny -) pressing against her, below and on top of and beside her. V.V. was tucked against her belly. It was cute.

Rina once again made the struggle of sorts to get to the opening of the belly pouch. V.V. climbed with her, though she wasn't sure when he'd woken up. Still, she climbed, and made sure to not open her eyes as quickly as she had the last time she had been awake.

Yushisa had moved to one of the bigger rooms, with smaller but still older Digimon sleeping in it. Rina noticed that Tenkuu was asleep nearby, curled around some of them, and that Yushisa himself seemed to be asleep too. Rina didn't think that Jun or Daisuke or Wallace or their partners were in the room.

She did see Dodomon and Ryudamon and Tailmon, though. Wriggling a bit more, Rina eventually managed to get most of herself out of the belly pouch before she fell. Luckily Yushisa was soft, and kinda squishy. Unluckily, it was still kinda a long fall, and Rina ended up with hips that ached a little bit from the impact. Just a little.

V.V. peered at her from above. "Nee-san?" He asked, quietly.

"I'm okay!" Rina whispered back to him. "Jump down here, I'll catch you!"

 "Ya sure?" He asked, still somewhat bleary and sleepy. The sleepiness made his accent more thick than it had been the last time she'd heard him speak. It sounded like the way people from Osaka would talk on TV - maybe he had an Osakan accent then? There wasn't an Osaka in the digital world though, so maybe his accent just sounded like it.

Still. "I promise to catch you!" She reassured, holding her arms up for emphasis. "I wouldn't break a promise, would I?"

V.V. paused a moment. "I don't think so." He apparently made up his mind, because he wiggled until he was almost out of the pouch, like Rina had, then jumped and landed in her arms. He was kinda heavy, but it was more the momentum that made Rina stumble a bit.

"I'm okay." She said.

"Ya sure?"

 "Yeah." Rina paused a moment, just looking around. Then she looked at V.V.. "Hey," she said, "did you know that you sound like the people from Osaka do?"

 "I do?" 

"Yeah! You have that same accent."

 "Is that bad?"

 "No!" She shook her head a couple times and made it fast to make it mean more. "It's just kinda cool!"

"Oh." He said. "Okay." And that was the end of that conversation.

They sat for a while, leaning against Yushisa's legs and belly (which were warm and soft still, because he was a dragon with fur and was cuddly). Then Rina got bored and decided she wanted to do something. "Hey V.V.." She started. "You wanna do something?"

 "Depends on what you wanna do." He replied. 

Rina nodded. "That makes sense!" She crawled over that small remaining distance between them (and crawled, because it would be rude to walk on someone's legs and such). "Do you wanna know what I wanna do?"

 V.V. nodded, ears flopping a bit (which reminded Rina of those bunnies who had long ears that kinda draped on the ground). "I wanna know!"

"Okay!" Rina said. "What I wanna know iiiisss. . ." She mimicked the noise of a drum roll, ". . . go talk to Dodomon-chan and Ryudamon-chan and Tailmon-chan!"

"That seems fun! They're nice." V.V. said. "But how come ya made that 'ddrrrrrr' sound in-between?"

 "Oh." Rina wasn't really sure why she did it. Just that it made sense in the moment. "Well - on TVs and stuff, when they have some announcement they always get somebody to do some quick little drumming. Okaa-san said it was called a 'drum roll'. But, they always did that when there was an announcement, so I thought I should do it because I was doing an announcement. . .?" She trailed off at the end, nervous. She didn't want to be weird here , too. She was already the dragon-looking girl who thought too much and couldn't stay on the same topic for more than ten seconds. She didn't want to be weird here, too.

Thankfully, though, V.V. just nodded. "That makes a lotta of sense! You're smart, Rina-nee-san." He pressed his face against her belly for a few seconds, before the two of them started actually walking to where Dodomon and Ryudamon and Tailmon were. It was kinda neat that the three were in the same place, though. Made it easier to get to them.

She tapped on Tailmon's wrist first. The cat woke up with a start, looking really scary and determined for a second before she let the tension fall away and relaxed and got a lot more soft and sleepy-looking. "Any reason for waking me up?"

 "Just wanted ta see ya." V.V. answered. "You're nice, and we wanted ta talk. I think." He looked at Rina. She nodded. V.V. turned back to Tailmon and repeated that.

Tailmon sighed. "Well, I'm awake now, so no use trying to go back to sleep I suppose. Do you two want to wake up Dodomon and Ryudamon as well?"

 "Yeah." Rina said. 

Tailmon's ear flicked. "Well then, by all means go ahead." She told the two of them. "Don't let me stop you."

 "Okay." Rina said. "We won't." And went about doing just that. 

Ryudamon just opened an eye, and raised his eyebrow. Dodomon squeaked, on the other hand, and hopped about until he was in Ryudamon's lap. Rina thought it was pretty cute. 

"What wanted?" Ryudamon said. Short and to-the-point, like always.

That. Made Rina pause. "I. . . Don't know." She admitted. "I just wanted to talk to you guys I guess."

 "We wanted to know how y'all have been!" V.V. chimed in. He was more awake now, but after Rina had noticed his accent she couldn't un notice it.

Ryudamon hummed. "Slept. Ate. Lived good. Is safe here. Comfy. Good to sleep in."

 "That makes sense!" Rina agreed. "It's like that for us two."

 "It's home!" V.V. offered.

"Yeah!" Rina beamed at him. "Home. Like you."

 V.V. squeaked happily.

Tailmon made a squeal kind of noise. "That. . .Was very cute." Was all she said to explain. " Anyway . I have been fine as well. I admit that it is certainly more. . . home-y that I initially believed." She flicked her tail, so that the end sat in her lap. "It is. . . nice. Safe, as Ryudamon-san said." Rina waited a bit, but apparently that was all she had to say.

They all looked at Dodomon. Dodomon only squeaked, and bounced a bit in Ryudamon's lap.

"Is too small to talk." Ryudamon explained. "Would talk, but too small. Says cabin is good also."

"Okay!" Rina nodded. "As long as everyone likes it."

They all fell silent after that. It was - kinda bad, but not really bad ? It felt more like they were all waiting for something.

Tailmon was the first to break the silence. "Weren't there more humans?" She asked, ear flicking again.

"Yeah." Rina said. "But they're in another room." Which they were. They were asleep someone in another room. Unless they were awake, and then they'd be awake somewhere in another room.

"Hmm. Do you not group together, being the only humans in this place?" The cat asked.

Rina thought a moment. "Kinda? But V.V. and me fell asleep and got carried in Yushisa-san's belly pouch so I guess we moved to here when he did 'cause we were asleep and moved when he did."

Tailmon seemed to accept this answer.

Ryudamon stretched beside her, and stood, Dodomon resting on his head. "Should look for other children." He said. "Keep together. Less chance of death when together."

 "Uh." Tailmon seemed taken aback by his sudden statement.

Rina just shrugged and got up too, going along with it. It would be nice to see Jun and the others anyways. She looked at V.V. "Want me to carry you?"

He shook his head. "I can walk."

"If you say so!" Rina said. 

And so they walked. It wasn't really that bad, just a bit confusing. The rooms weren't too too big, but there were a lot of them. There were the three main one that Rina knew (and that V.V. had said about) but the problem was that no one knew where each room really was . Eventually they did stumble into the room that had Jun and Daisuke and Wallace and Aquilamon and Kiseki and Chocomon and Gummimon in it. Out of all of them, Tailmon seemed the most glad to finally be able to stop walking.

The only one who was awake was Chocomon and Gummimon. Which was kinda weird that they were named 'Chocomon' and 'Gummimon' when they were a Lopmon and a Terriermon (that's what V.V. and Yaksamon said they were), but Rina wasn't sure what the rules for names were, and maybe they just liked those names. Still. The two rabbit-dogs just kinda looked at all of them. 

"Hi." Rina said. "Did you guys sleep well?" It was a polite question, because you were supposed to be polite, and Rina did actually want to know. If they hadn't slept well then it would probably be better to let everyone else sleep, so that they could sleep well.

The rabbit-dogs answered. "We slept okay," said one, "but the others seem to be sleeping in a lot." The other finished. 

"So wake them or not?" Ryudamon asked, irritation in his voice. "Don't want to cause problems."

The rabbit-dogs looked at each other a couple seconds. Then they nodded, and looked back at all of them. "Wake them." The two said, in unison.

Ryudamon nodded, satisfied with the answer. Somehow Dodomon didn't fall off his head. Maybe it was a thing Baby Digimon could do, just stick to places they wanted to stick to? Dodomon was fluffy and kinds covered in fur though, so Rina wasn't sure how Dodomon would stick to things with that fur.

Tailmon was the one who actually went and woke people up. Maybe it was because she was used to the scary angels and so wasn't afraid of as much stuff? Either way. She woke up Jun first, shaking her shoulder. 

Jun just yawned, grumbled, and tried to sink back down into Aquilamon's feathers to go back to sleep. Tailmon picked her up (impressive for a cat that was, well, cat-sized) and put her in the ground, far enough away where Jun had to actually walk to get back to Aquilamon. "What was that for?" She complained.

"It's time to be awake." Tailmon said, simply, and moved on to the next person. Who was Aquilamon.

For his credit, he seemed to be awake as soon as she woke him up. Other than a small yawn and ruffling his feathers some, he didn't do much. He didn't seem to be near falling back asleep again though, which was probably why Tailmon left him.

Rina couldn't really see Daisuke or Kiseki, buried under the many Baby and Child Digimon, but Tailmon went about gently moving the Babys and Childs so that the two didn't have anyone laying on them. Daisuke got woken up first, probably because he was closer, and he whined when Tailmon moved him away from Kiseki, but went and sat next to Jun anyways.

Tailmon went to wake up Wallace next. Rina figured that it made sense. Kiseki was hurt and healing, so it would be better to let him sleep the most. Wallace took three times of Tailmon trying to wake him up. Eventually Tailmon had to pick him up and share him before tossing him onto Aquilamon before the American boy woke up. 

"Whhyyyyyy. . ." He whined.

"It's time to be awake." Tailmon repeated from earlier. 

"Nooooo. . ." He whined again. Chocomon and Gummimon went over to him and sat next to him, after he'd moved from laying on top of Aquilamon. Probably to make him feel a little better.

And then, it was time to wake up Kiseki. Rina looked at the bandages a bit closer while Tailmon went about waking him up. The bandages had a little bit of gold on then, but only a tiny bit, and only a few spots. So it was probably okay. It still probably hurt. Rina hoped he'd be okay. 

Tailmon was much more gentle when she woke up Kiseki. As she should be. Tailmon just shook his shoulder - the left one, the one that hadn't been hurt - lightly. When that didn't work, she tried again, before taking his face, right below his eyes. That did wake him up. The only noise he made was a quieter whine. Rina felt bad for him. His shoulder probably hurt a lot.

"Sorry." Tailmon apologized. "But it's time to be awake now."

 "'S fine." Kiseki said. "I c'n only sleep for so long. Ya ain't doin' anything bad." 

"You have the same accent as V.V. does." Rina noted aloud. "Only it's thicker now."

 "Hmm." Kiseki tried to lean up, then hissed and fell back down, an arm pressed to his shoulder. "Bad idea." He sighed heavily, then spoke again. "It's probably 'cause I'm real tired and hurting a lot right now. Stuff like that tends ta make accents slip out more." He pointed out.

"Makes sense." Rina agreed.

It went back to being quiet, just all of them sitting around. Rina felt like someone should talk. But for a while it was just quiet again.

Jun was the first one to talk. She did that a lot, actually. "So." She said. "We have two options here, for what we're gonna do."

They all looked at her.

"Anyone wanna offer any guesses?" Jun asked.

"Do we get in trouble if we guess wrong?" Rina asked.

"No."

"Well then. . ." Rina thought a moment. "We could - dddrrrrr - go and look for a way home?" 

"Ya mimicked the drum again." V.V. noticed.

Rina shrugged. "I thought it would fit. 'Cause I was announcing what I thought a choice was."

"That's fair." Jun said. "Anyways, you're right, that's one of the options."

"Really?" Rina asked, surprised. "I was right?"

Jun nodded. Rina tried not to look too much like she was going to cry from being right at guessing for one of the first times since forever.

"Anyways." Jun continued. "There's still another option."

 "We could stay here and wait until we know for sure of a method to get all of you humans back to your homes?" Tailmon suggested. "It would be safer to stay in a location that you know is somewhere you won't be at risk of injury."

 Jun nodded. "I wasn't gonna say it in that many words, but yeah, that's the other option."

"So. . ." Wallace starts. "We know what we can do, but what are we gonna do?" The second half of the sentence was in English. Rina didn't think he'd noticed.

Jun looked at all of them - Daisuke and Wallace and Rina, and Aquilamon and Kiseki and Chocomon and Gummimon and V.V., and Tailmon and Ryudamon and Dodomon. "Well." She said. "We should all talk about what we think the better option is, right? That way we all know for sure which one we wanna do."

"That's so smart, nee-san!" Daisuke said. "But I don't really care which one we do. I just wanna make sure Ki-chan is okay."

Rina nodded. "Yeah, I don't really care which one we do either. I like it here. Home is with V.V. for me, so as long as he's with me I'll be okay."

 "I wanna go home." Wallace said, in English still, "and I wanna go home soon, so I think we should try and find a way home and not wait."

 Jun nodded, and she looked like she was concentrating on remembering which choice everyone made. 

"As I said," Tailmon began, offering her own option, "if we stay here we will be able to rest and will have more assured safety. So I vote for staying here."

 "Are you really gonna be with us though?" Jun asked. "You're not needing to go home like we are."

 Tailmon shrugged. "I  have already defected. I may as well do my best to assure that you all remain alive."

 "Dodomon wants to see world." Ryudamon spoke up, suddenly. "We vote travel."

 Jun nodded again. "Aquilamon-chan? Kiseki-kun? V.V.-chan?" 

"I wanna go with Rina-nee!" V.V. said. "Seein'  the world might could be fun though." He added. "I wanna explore and look for things!"

 "Exploring would be fun." Aquilamon agreed. "I could get better at flying."

 Everyone looked at Kiseki. "What?" He said. "Most everyone said they want ta leave and look for stuff. So I can't really disagree." He shrugged. "Besides. Like the others said, exploring could be fun."

"Well. . . I guess that's that." Jun said. "We'll go out and look for a way to get home after we rest today. That sound good?" Everyone nodded. "Cool! Let's try to all get back here again by the end of today, and we'll leave tomorrow." And with that, she finished her bit, and Rina reckoned they could all do whatever they wished for the rest of the day.

Chapter Text

Monodramon does not like the angel in green and gold armor. She is mean , and she is very good at hurting them when they do nothing but evolve. She doesn’t like when they evolve, for some reason, and they don’t know why . Monodramon - the other Monodramon, their twin of a sort - says that he thinks that she’s just evil. Monodramon - them this time, and it is hard to tell the difference between the two of them but maybe there isn’t a point - says that they think that she just expects too much from them.

Neither of the two Monodramon like the angel in green armor, though. Only three times of hatching from their eggs, and they and he have been killed twice already. She deems them not fitting some criteria that they don’t know, and they hate it, the not-knowing what it is that they fail to do - though he disagrees and says that if he knew why she killed them, then he won’t be able to hate her as much. Still, it doesn’t matter.

Monodramon and Monodramon both sat in the arguably luxurious room of theirs, with its marble walls and gold veins in the stone and plush beds and thick carpets. Monodramon, the first one, thinks that it is a gilded cage - meant to keep themself and their partner happy for who knows how long. They don’t think that the angel - Ofanimon is her name - knows that they remember their previous two hatchings. The way she talks and acts speaks such to them. 

Still. They were resting, and he was resting too, the other Monodramon. They and he had to wait until the both of them evolved, to see if either or both of them will meet that unknown, invisible criteria that Ofanimon has set.

She is watching in the corner of the room. She tries to be motherly, for a given definition of motherly, to Monodramon and Monodramon. This, Monodramon thinks, is their main piece of evidence for why they think that she doesn’t know that they remember. Their twin bites her hands whenever she tries to reach out to him, while they don’t and try to take advantage of what kindness she will show them before they most likely inevitably fail to meet her standards.

Right now is a time of waiting, though. They eat, and he eats too, and she watches, making sure that none of them choke on their food (probably). But still. They wait, and he waits, and she waits, and they all wait for now, for until Monodramon and Monodramon both evolve into whatever forms they will. 

Monodramon was a Strikedramon in their first life, and a Strikedramon in their second, while Monodramon was a Strikedramon in his life but a Devidramon in his second. They hope that they do not evolve into a Strikedramon in their next life, but that Monodramon evolves into Devidramon again - Ofanimon had said that she’d only had to kill him because she needed both Monodramon to evolve into “the right form”. So they hope that they will evolve into something else this time, so that their brother will not have to die with them.

Still. Now is a time to eat, and to rest, and to wait. And now is a time to wait, and to rest, and to eat.

Monodramon and Monodramon wait, and Ofanimon watches them, and Monodramon and Monodramon both feel like they are missing someone, and will wait until they can find whoever their missing someone is.

~~~

Sleipmon had settled into the Royal Knights well enough. Two more had joined the ranks in the time he had been a member. Dynasmon, a purple-feathered dragon with white and gold armor, was friendly enough and got along relatively well with everyone. Dukemon, meanwhile, was the more odd of the two. He had to have been as old as Alphamon and the others, yet he held a strange belief in how their world worked - he listened to the voice of a different sort of god, one who wasn't Yggdrasil. Craniummon had a theory that Dukemon was Megidramon of the Four Great Dragons, simply in a different shape. Crusadermon said Craniummon shouldn't make rumors about others, and said that it shouldn't matter what his past was, only that Dukemon was their equal now.

Sleipmon had, for the most part, been training. Mostly in the case of any battle he would have to fight - there had been several small skirmishes against the Seven Demon Lords between then and now, but extra training didn't hurt anyone. Craniummon certainly agreed. Regardless, Sleipmon had been training, testing his sight and speed and accuracy, shooting at targets farther and farther away.

An odd person appeared in front of him then, non-existent one second and there the next. There was an air about them that radiated power and pain and age , like that of a digimon who had lived as long as Slayerdramon might have, only tenfold. In a single second, they tilted their head at Sleipmon, before snapping their fingers. A portal opened, to some odd place he did not know, underneath of Sleipmon before that second was even over, and as he fell the most distinct thing he remembered of that person was their hair, purple-pink at the roots and fading into an icy blue, and their eyes, gold fading to green with a single ring of bright blue fading into a lime green in the place of pupils.

Then he was falling, falling, falling, and as he fell he felt his form shrink and diminish, and he felt himself weaken. He felt his core change , some outside force worming its way into his data and making whatever alterations it liked. He feels hot, and cold, and static and felt and an almost pain, all through his body, sudden and quick and gone as soon as it had came. He feels some unspeakable, indescribably shift in his thoughts. He does not know what is different, but he knows that something is.

When he is able to collect his thoughts again, he finds that he has reverted back to his child-level form of Kudamon, long and with pale white and purple fur, wrapped around his holy cartridge as he had been those decades ago.

He also had fallen onto some other creature. The creature was somewhat similar to a Lilithmon - if Lilithmon had flatter chests and shorter hair, and wore looser, baggier clothes, and were shorter. Perhaps something inbetween a Lilithmon and an Angemon, but short. The person-without-a-name was as tall as Kudamon’s Reppamon form was at the shoulders, with short, purple-black hair and purple eyes, and wore what were probably glasses. 

They looked at Kudamon. Kudamon looked at them. Neither of the two spoke. But they seemed. . . familiar , in a way he had no words for, even if he had never met them. They felt important , almost like belonging .

Then -

“What are you?” Asked a smaller person from behind the one Kudamon had fallen onto, with the same hair and eyes, only shorter than the first person.

Kudamon was instantly offended by that smaller creature. What are you - what a rude question, not to mention an idiotic one! “I’m a Kudamon!” He barked at the very rude smaller person. “Surely you know that !”

“What’s a Kudamon?” Asked the first person. Kudamon thought he was asking the question legitimately, which only made it worse . How were there such idiots that didn’t even know a species of digimon? His type of Kudamon, the ones who wrapped themselves around a cartridge, were more rare than those with the cartridges at the ends of their tails, but Kudamon were not such a rare species as to not be recognized.

“ I’m a Kudamon!” He snapped, more and more irritated by the second. He could hear Craniummon telling him “ you should calm down before you scare the younger ones ” and “ it’s our duty as Royal Knights to protect those who are smaller and weaker, even if we don’t particularly like them ” which was only making his mood worse , and why did he have to run into that wretched creature that would pull him from his duties and his life that he was enjoying . And having these people in front of him that he didn’t know - one of them being familiar when he (and Kudamon did not know how but he knew, suddenly, with clarity, that the one he had fallen onto was a he) should not have been, among with whatever else this strange world had done to alter and rearrange his core.

So no, the being formerly known as Sleipmon of the Royal Knights was not having a good day.

But. Unfortunately he still had morals, and he’d rather act on them than have to sit through one of Magnamon’s disappointed lectures when ( when , not if) he got back to the Castle of Hyperion, so he had to calm himself (he had never had such a temper, but he had never had much of anything in that old castle - just loneliness).

“A Kudamon is a kind of digimon.” He explained, forced calm in his voice betrayed only by the slight tremble of his body, indignation trying to seep out. “You do know what digimon are?”

The two people shook their heads. Lovely . He had his work cut out for him. Sighing, Kudamon settled himself around the neck of the one-who-should-not-be-familiar and began talking. This was going to take a while.

~~~

After a long (well, maybe not that long) conversation, Kudamon was left knowing several more things than he had when first in this world, as well as having explained a lot more things. He learned that the two people were named Osamu and Ken, that they were brothers, that they were humans, and that they had no idea how they had gotten to here. Which sounded somewhat like his own case, that last one, though it was less not knowing how (portals were hard to mistake for anything else, usually) and more why and when . He did not recognize any of this place.

Said place was an aged castle - marble marble marble, floors and walls and everywhere. Off-white carpets and rugs and tapestries with only gold and pale blue being the small splashes of color. This castle he was in was a sort of mirror of the one he had lived in in his youth, though a corrupted reflection rather than an accurate one, light and white rather than darker and gray, carefully kept and organized rather than falling apart and chaotic.

Kudamon decided that he did not like this castle, simply for how wrong it was. It may not have been wrong to they who built the castle, true, but the castle Kudamon knew was nothing like this castle (aside from being a similar structure), and so this castle that Kudamon was in was wrong . Osamu looked at him weirdly when he voiced his opinion, and said that he (Osamu) would rather be in a clean castle than a falling-apart one. Hmph . Humans were odd, preferring sterility over organized chaos. Perhaps it wasn’t so bad, but they were both still odd .

They were walking (Kudamon was still wrapped around Osamu’s neck, of course, like a scarf) around the castle still. No particular destination in mind. Osamu and Ken chatted about inane things, things that did not concern Kudamon, so he allowed himself to doze and hope that, for a few seconds, he was back at the Castle of Hyperion, near the end of a realistic but odd dream, and that soon he would wake up to the sounds of many digimon going on about their day and Magnamon’s calling for all of the Knights to be up in time for breakfast and then training.

Then Osamu asked him a question and ruined his musing.

“Hey, do you have a name?” 

Kudamon opened an eyelid to show he was paying attention, but didn’t look at Osamu. “I am a Kudamon. Is that not enough?”

“But that’s what you are . Don’t you have a name name?” the boy said. Answering Kudamon’s answer of a question with another question - interesting. Perhaps he was that curious, or maybe it was a human thing, or maybe Kudamon was just overthinking and sulking over his lost daydream.

“Most digimon use the name of their species as their personal name. I already told you this, are you really with that bad of a memory that you would forget so soon?” He tried to keep his irritation out of his voice. Really, he tried. He swore such, would swear to Magnamon and to Craniummon and to even the god-emperor Examon (though Examon was more an emperor than a god as they refused to acknowledge the small but growing group of those who worshipped the scarlet dragon). It was not his fault, then, if some irritation did slip out, and his words came out as a bit sharper than intended. Spending much of your life in an old, decaying castle did little to help one’s socializing skills.

Osamu took it in stride. “You still need a name though.” He insisted.

“ Hmph . If I were to go by a different name, what would it even be? Kudagitsune?”

“‘Noodle’ would fit you.” Osamu suggested, sounding like he had had the name in mind for some while.

What.

“ What .” 

“Noodle fits you!” Osamu repeated. “Right, Ken?”

Ken, peeking shyly from behind Osamu, nodded. “Yeah!”

“You want. To name me noodle .” Kudamon repeated, in disbelief. 

Osamu nodded. “It fits because you’re all long and skinny, like a noodle.”

Kudamon changed his mind. He was in hell .

~~~

They were wandering. And wandering. And wandering. None of them really knew where they were going, but that was okay, right? Osamu had Ken, and Noodle the Kudamon (which was still weird, thinking that they weren’t in their same world. Ken didn’t entirely understand, but Osamu had always been really really smart, so he understood a little better. He’d heard people talking about other worlds, sometimes, on TV).

So they were wandering, and not knowing where they were going. But that was okay. Osamu had let Ken decide where they would go, because Ken was little and their parents let Osamu decide everything since he was older, so it was fair to let Ken decide something. And Osamu got the feeling that Ken had a digimon of his own waiting for him, like Osamu had done with Noodle. Noodle didn’t say anything about it, but Osamu could tell that they were connected to each other, somehow. He didn’t know enough words to say how but he knew , like how you know if you’re hungry or not. Noodle had fallen onto Osamu, and Osamu had thought ‘ oh, so that’s mine ’. 

They weren’t going anywhere in particular, but Osamu was pretty sure that Ken was leading them all to his own digimon, even if the four-year-old didn’t know it. Which Osamu would guess that ken didn’t know, because he was only four, and the doctors and their parents said that Osamu was a genius and that was why he was so much smarter, and since Ken wasn’t a genius then he’d only understand things the normal amount. Osamu didn’t know why the doctors seemed kind of disappointed that Ken would only be normal, because sometimes his thoughts were too fast and he got confused and tried to talk and do too much at once, which wasn’t fun, so he kind of thought that being normal would have been better. Ken was lucky like that. He had Osamu to help him with the hard stuff, but would still get to have more happy thoughts and not think too much like Osamu did. Osamu could be the one doing all of the overthinking. Like he was doing now. 

They entered a new hallway, which looked a lot like all the other hallways, except this one had a tall. . . dragon . . .  person in it. 

They were tall - taller than Osamu at least, tall enough to scrape the ceiling, with blue fur (it was probably some kind of royal blue or prussian blue but Osamu wasn’t certain of the exact shade), with a blueish-white fur on their belly and front of their neck, like Osamu had seen some cats have, and a long muscular tail. They wore a darker green - armor? - on their chest and hips and legs, with the armor of their legs being a darker greyish shade and two stripes of red on the thigh portion, while the portion of the armor of the legs that was from their calves downwards was the same darker green. Their feet had two curved - claws? Toes? - which were an off-white, as were the claws on both of their three-fingered hands. They had a green helmet, with orange-red eyes, and a yellow “v” shape on the helmet, while they also had two longer blue-furred ears and a wild mane of orange hair sticking out from under the helmet. Around their neck was a collar of some sort, with spikes all around, and they had four long insect-like wings, with a smaller set of the same blueish-white wings that were more batlike down lower towards their hips. Lastly, they also had a set of the darker greyish gauntlets, with sharp, long claws attached to them like fingers, and a sort of stinger extending from the middle of the back of the gauntlets. It didn’t look like the owner of the gauntlets could move them, attached in the strange way that they were to the armor around their hips, so maybe the gauntlets were more of a way to discourage fights than anything. 

“Hi.” Osamu said. “Are you looking for Ken?”

The person - digimon - looked at Osamu, and then at Ken, who was halfway hiding behind Osamu. Ken poked his head out a bit more. “Hi.” He said, in a quieter voice. “I’m Ken.”

The digimon - were they a dragon or an insect of some kind? Osamu couldn’t tell - slowly moved forwards and crouched down to be closer to Ken’s eye level. “Hi, Ken.” They said in a voice that had a slight buzz, that sounded like two people talking at once and saying the same words at the same time with the same tone and speed. “I’m Dinobeemon.” Osamu didn’t know someone could speak that softly until Dinobeemon did, but they spoke softly, and slowly, and moved slowly and carefully. They probably didn’t want to scare Ken. 

“A Dinobeemon? Interesting.” Remarked Noodle from around Osamu’s neck.

Ken and Dinobeemon both looked at Noodle (Osamu would have too, but it was kinda hard to look at someone who was on your neck). “What?” The Kudamon defended himself. “You don’t see many Dinobeemon around fancy castles. Most I’ve met are either fussing over children and newborn creatures or are in the thick of a fight.”

“Most Dinobeemon you’ve met.” Dinobeemon shot back at Noodle. “Dinobeemon aren’t too common here, whoever it is that you are.” As he said this, Ken walked forwards and hugged Dinobeemon; with seemingly little attention given to it, Dinobeemon picked up Ken so that he was held against Dinobeemon’s belly, which didn’t have any armor on it and meant that Ken was pressed mostly against the soft fur.

“You shouldn’t use ‘ kisama ’.” Osamu pointed out, somewhat idly. “It’s rude to use that one. Use ‘ kimi ’ or ‘ anata ’ instead, those are more polite.”

“He was being rude to me first.” Dinobeemon replied. “And besides, ‘ kisama ’ kind of is polite, if you use it in its original context.”

“It’s still rude now.” And Osamu left it at that, as did Dinobeemon.

They were still standing in the middle of the hallway, which was kind of rude because they were taking up a bunch of space in the hallway, so they all kinda went to one side of the hallway and began walking again.

“Where are we going?” Dinobeemon asked, ducking every so often so that they didn’t hit their head on any of the lower archways of the hallways of the castle-place they were in.

“We dunno!” Osamu said, cheerfully. “We’re just gonna end up where we’re gonna end up.”

Noodle, once again from around Osamu’s neck where he hadn’t left since he’d curled up around there, sighed heavily, and wiggled a little to probably get into a better position. “We have been wandering around for at least half an hour.” The white-furred creature growled. “And you are all children . Find somewhere to rest , and soon , before I make you.” Despite being smaller than everyone there, Noodle’s words held weight to them, and Osamu definitely did not want to know what Noodle would do to try and get them to rest.

The group of four found a bigger sort of intersection between a couple of hallways - the room was kind of octagon-shaped, with several tables and chairs, and a few little nooks along some of the walls inbetween where the room opened into the different hallways, with cushions on the bottom of the nooks. 

Ken was the first one to sit down, grabbing a chair and dragging it to one of the nooks closest to where they’d entered the room. Osamu joined him, sitting on the other end of the nook that Ken had dragged the chair to. Meanwhile, Dinobeemon sat nearby, legs tucked against their chest and tail wrapped around their body, elbows resting on their knees. Noodle slipped down off of Osamu’s neck, and onto the boy’s lap, curling tighter around that golden cartridge that he had held loosely in his - tail? body? - earlier. 

Ken yawned, and Osamu followed his little brother soon after in the action. Dinobeemon looked to be dozing a bit, too, breathing evenly and their eyes seeming a little less focused. Noodle, when Osamu looked down at him, only looked at Osamu with his gold eyes. Osamu wondered what the little weasel-fox was thinking. Another yawn from Ken, and Osamu decided that it probably would be a good idea to take a nap. They had been in the big castle for a while, and had walked a lot and were tired. Naps were good. Osamu would take a nap.

~~~

Kudamon would admit that he had still been hoping to have been dreaming, and that by going to sleep in the dream, he would wake up in reality. By this point he knew it was a bit of a stretch, but he still managed to be disappointed when he woke up and was still a Kudamon, and still in the lap of the human boy who insisted on calling him ‘Noodle’. He refused to let his name be Noodle. The human could call him what he wanted, but Kudamon was not going by that name. He had too much pride for that.

He’d only slept for a short while, it seemed. Dinobeemon, Ken, and Osamu were all still asleep. Or, perhaps he had slept for a longer time, and his three companions simply slept longer. More tired than Kudamon was, perhaps, and Osamu and Ken were children besides. He didn’t know how quickly humans aged compared to digimon, but they had to be less than a thousand years old - they didn’t display that level of maturity like Adult level digimon did, who had grown. Oh, sure, the children probably thought they were mature, and in some ways they were, not complaining despite the long walk and tiredness they surely had to have experienced, but they were still not quite as mature as they thought. Somewhere between five hundred and seven hundred years, most likely, was where their age lied. Osamu was the older of the two siblings, so for now Kudamon would assume him to be around seven hundred, and Ken to be around five hundred years old. 

Kudamon looked from Osamu’s face to his surroundings, and blinked. There were several Angel digimon in the room that they were in, now, all just. . . staring at Osamu and Ken and Dinobeemon and Kudamon. It was a bit unnerving, but Kudamon supposed that Angels were really the only ones dedicated to keeping a place like this so well-kept and clean and polished.

There was also another human staring at the four of them. He was about as tall as Osamu, only his skin was a bit darker, and his hair was a sort of spiky dark brown rather than Osamu’s mostly smooth dark bluish-shade. The human blinked at Kudamon. Kudamon blinked back.

“Hi.” The human (boy?) said to Kudamon eventually. “How come you guys are here?”

His voice sounded very. . . tired. And like he was suppressing some kind of pain. Why was a child speaking in a voice like that? Children should not be burdened with such things.

“I’m not entirely sure.” Kudamon told the boy, truthfully. “I fell onto Osamu, and Osamu, Ken and I stumbled into Dinobeemon, but I can’t say that I know how or why Osamu and Ken were brought to this place.” 

“I guess that’s fair.” The boy agreed. “I’m not really sure how I got here either.”

At that point, Osamu woke up, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes a bit, picking up his glasses from where he’d set them and placing them back onto his face. He looked at the boy, then at Kudamon, then at the boy again. Osamu did not seem to notice the various Angel digimon that were surrounding them. “How’d you get here?” Osamu asked.

“I kinda fell through a portal when I was half asleep.” The boy said. “I’m Ryou.”

“Me and Ken had the same thing happen to us.” Osamu said. “I’m Osamu, and this is Ken.” He pointed at Ken. Then, Osamu pointed a Kudamon. “And this is Noodle.”

“My name is not Noodle.” Kudamon snapped immediately. “My name is Kudamon .”

“It’s Noodle.” Osamu said again.

“No, it is not !”

“It definitely is Noodle.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, my name is Kudamon?!”

“And I already told you , Noodle fits you as a name.”

“ It does not !”

By this point, Kudamon had clawed his way up onto Osamu’s chest, staring the boy in the eyes with his fur puffed up. 

Osamu paused a moment. Then he grabbed Kudamon by the back of his neck with one hand, before Osamu grinned at the pipe fox. “Your name is definitely Noodle.”

Kudamon hissed at Osamu. He didn’t think Osamu noticed, though. Dammit.

“Does that happen often?” Ryou asked, and Kudamon and Osamu both looked at him again, standing there kind of awkwardly.

“I don’t think so.” Came Dinobeemon’s response, as the dragonfly digimon stretched their limbs and wings as much as they could in the (small compared to them) room. “As far as I know, they’ve only known each other for today.”

“I don’t need more than a day to decide if I like a name given to me or not.” Kudamon scowled and turned his attention away from Osamu and the others to look around the room more. 

“Maybe that’s true.” Osamu said. “But it’s still gonna be your name.”

“I heavily doubt that.” Kudamon said, deadpan.

“Why are there angels all around us?” Asked Ken, and  - when had he woken up? Kudamon must have been more absorbed in his argument with Osamu than he realized.

“The angels are nice!” Ryou said, as many of the said Angels shifted a bit awkwardly. “Also they live here in this castle.” The brown-haired boy said, as a bit of an afterthought. “One of their leader people - her name is Cherubimon, she’s nice - she’s gonna help me find some friends of mine and then go home! If you want I can take you to her, and see if she’ll help you guys go home!”

“Home is nice.” Osamu said, absently. “Home is stressful though. But home is nice.” He looked at Ken, as did Kudamon (and, from the corner of his eyes, so did Dinobeemon). “Do you wanna go home?”

“. . . yeah.” Ken said, after a few moments. “I wanna go home.”

“Well, we’ll follow you to meet Cherubimon-san.” Osamu decided, nodding at Ryou.

“We gotta give Dinobeemon-chan a name first though.” Ken interjected. “‘Cause Noodle-kun has a name, but Dinobeemon-chan doesn’t have a name, and they should get a name.”

Dinobeemon shifted a bit (or, as much as they could in a room that was made for smaller creatures). “Well - Angels don’t really have individual names.” They said. “It really would be easier to continue to call me ‘Dinobeemon’.”

“That’s silly! You need a name!” Ken insisted. He crossed his arms and pouted a little.

Dinobeemon’s ears drooped down a little, as did his wings. “Well. . . okay, I suppose. But only if you give me one.”

Ken’s expression brightened suddenly, and Kudamon guessed that the pouting was most likely to get Dinobeemon to agree. Ken and Osamu were very willing to work (for a given definition of work) to get what they wanted. Ken, the tiny probably-four-hundred-year-old-child that he was, looked at Osamu. “Osamu-nii-chan!” He said. “What are all the angel names you know?!”

Osamu began rattling off a list of names that belonged to or had something to do with angels. Ken listened attentively for a few moments, before he decided on one.

"I like Raphael!" He said, excitedly and bouncing in place a little. He turned to Dinobeemon. "Your name should be Raphael!"

The newly-named Raphael dipped their head in agreement. "That is a lovely name, Ken-kun. Thank you."

 "Of course, Raphael-chan!" The tiny boy had a large smile on his face. Kudamon wondered when the last time he'd seen a smile like that was.

Kudamon turned to Ryou, ignoring the other Angels. "Shall we follow you now, then?"

"Oh!" Ryou straightened up a bit. "Yeah! Follow me!"

 As Osamu and Ken stood up from where they'd been on the little nook, Kudamon once again wrapped himself around Osamu's neck, and Raphael stood as well, hunched over though they were. Then, they began following Ryou as the boy walked through one of the hallways. To Cherubimon, then - to see what the castle full of Angels held.

Chapter Text

Rina sat on one of the benches, swinging her legs back and forth. V.V. was in her lap, asleep, so she didn’t wanna get up and wake him up. He was only little, still.

Everyone else had kind of all gone to do whatever it was they were gonna do before they set out to go look for some way to go back to the human world. Rina wasn’t gonna call it home, because she’d already decided that home was with V.V., but it was home for Jun and Wallace and Daisuke, so they wanted to go home, and Rina would just kinda tag along with them, she thought. It was better than nothing.

Rina mostly was sitting near Kiseki and Jun and Daisuke and Aquilamon. She didn’t know where Wallace or Chocomon or Gummimon were, but probably in one of the nearby rooms, or maybe in one of the corners, and there just were digimon that blocked her view of the three of them.

Kiseki had napped a bit after the conversation of "what are we gonna do" was over, but Rina guessed that he didn't nap for long because when she looked at him again he was awake. Just kinda lookin' at the ceiling. Rina looked up, but she didn't see anything that was really worth staring at. Maybe his brain was still tired, Rina got like that sometimes when she took naps.

Daisuke was looking at Kiseki. Then he looked at Jun. "Jun-nee-san," he asked, "can I cuddle Ki-chan?"

"No." Was Jun's reply.

Kinda quick . Rina thought. But he did kinda just get hurt .

"Why not?" Daisuke asked, with a little bit of a whine.

"He's still hurt." Jun told him.

"Yeah, 'cause if you cuddle him while he's still hurt you could make the hurt worse." Rina added, still sitting and slowly swinging her legs back and forth. "I think so anyways."

Daisuke pouted. Rina felt kinda bad, and she bet that Kiseki also probably felt kinda bad, but Jun didn't budge. Maybe it was because she was Daisuke's older sister. Did Jun get secret superpowers from that? Being able to resist tiny pouting kids? That would be a cool superpower, if a weird one , Rina reasoned. I could be the best babysitter ever . 

"What do you think Wallace and Gummimon and Chocomon are doing?" Rina asked.

"Probably just relaxing or something." Kiseki offered. "They're as little as Daisuke is, so they shouldn't be doing too much. If they were, someone would be saying something about it."

 "That makes sense." Jun agreed.

"Do you guys like almonds?" Rina wondered. 

"Where did that come from?" Jun was looking at Rina now.

Rina just shrugged. "I dunno. I'm bored."

 "Hmm." Jun leaned back against Aquilamon. "I don't think I ever really had almonds. Daisuke either. I don't think either of us have eaten almonds."

 "I like almonds."

They all looked at Kiseki - Jun and Aquilamon and Daisuke and Rina. (Not V.V. though, he was still asleep.) 

"You do?" Daisuke tilted his head, walking closer to Kiseki even though Jun had said Daisuke couldn't cuddle the dragon.

"Yeah." Kiseki sat up - he grabbed his shoulder, the one with bandages on it, and hissed, but he still sat up. "I. . . don't really remember anything from before I met you," he admitted, looking at Daisuke, "but I know that I like almonds. They taste good."

 "Aren't almonds supposed to be bitter?" Rina asked. That's what everyone said , was that almonds were bitter.

"No? They still taste good, almonds are sweet?." Kiseki said, tilting his head. “That’s what I remember anyways.” He shrugged a bit. “I could be wrong.”

“If you say so.” Rina stoped swinging her legs and leaned forwards a bit. “How come you have five fingers, but Yushisa-san has three? ‘Cause, do you have five fingers because you’re not an Adult-level?” It had been bothering her for a little bit, once she’d noticed. Rina didn’t want to be rude (because people were mean to you if you were rude, and she didn’t want anymore people being mean to her than there already was), but it was kinda weird that some of the digimon who had been V-mon had different numbers of fingers than each other. A thought occurred to her. “Don’t Magnamon have three fingers? In the art for the V-pets and all they have three fingers.”

Kiseki looked like he wanted to say something, but he just kinda. . . didn’t. For a couple seconds, Rina meant. Then he did say something. “I. . . am supposed to have three fingers and not five, yes.” He looked down at his hands (or Rina was gonna guess that was where he was looking. She couldn’t see his eyes too good from where she sat). “I have no idea why I have five fingers.” 

“Isn’t there a word for that?” Jun asked, doing that head-tilt thing that Daisuke did sometimes.

“I think so!” Rina said, beginning to rock forwards and backwards some. Just enough to be moving lots, but not enough to wake up V.V. yet. “I wonder what the word is?”

“Polydactyly.” Kiseki answered, still looking at his hands. “And I think. . . I think I have extra toes too.”

“Maybe!” Rina paused in her motion enough to be leaning forwards close to the dragon again. “But if you did wouldn’t your feet hurt ‘cause you have too many toes?”

“Yeah, if you had more than three toes then your toes would be smooshed.” Daisuke said, still creeping closer to Kiseki. Rina would pretend that she hadn’t noticed, because if he wanted to cuddle Kiseki then Rina couldn’t see why he shouldn’t ; even if Kiseki was hurt on the one shoulder, Daisuke could just cuddle up to the other one, so Jun didn’t need to worry so much?

“Well, about that. . .” Kiseki began.

“Please don’t tell me you’ve been walking around with boots that don’t fit and make your feet hurt. That’s one of the quickest ways to ruin your feet and injure yourself.” Said Jun. “Everybody says.”

Kiseki winced. “Well. About that.” 

“Ki-kun.” Jun looked at Kiseki. Kiseki looked at Jun. Daisuke was still inching closer and closer to the armored dragon (towards the left shoulder, the one that hadn’t been hurt), and Rina was still pretending not to see, because she was bored and wanted to know what was gonna happen, and as long as Daisuke didn’t sit on Kiseki’s right shoulder or his tail which was still broken Kiseki should be mostly fine right?

“Ki-kun please tell me you haven’t been walking around with boots that don’t fit.” Jun pleaded with Kiseki. (Rina thought that she talked kinda the same way that the older kids did, where they knew more fancy words and how to say stuff that sounded more like adults talked. Rina wasn’t sure if that was good or not yet.)

Kiseki pointedly didn’t answer Jun, and instead pulled off the boots off of both of his feet, wincing with each action as the various parts of him moved and all of the tiny little cuts decided that they wanted to bleed again. Which, Rina could tell ‘cause all of a sudden lots of little spots of gold showed up on the bandages, and Kiseki winced again and made a quiet little hiss that was probably in pain, because people hissed in pain. His toes did look smooshed, too - he had four toes on both of his feet, the toes being shorter than his fingers (like how toes were) but still having the longer claws kinda growing out like they were attached to the bones of his toes instead of just growing on top of them like how fingernails and stuff did. Maybe his claws were attached to the bones. Rina’s cousin had said that his cat Himawari had claws like that which was why she (Himawari) could make the claws go out but not have the claws out all the time. Rina didn’t think Kiseki’s claws were like that but maybe they were still attached to the bones.

Lots of things happened at once, because the cabin had lots of people (well, Digimon) in it and lots of them had stuff that they reacted to, because Rina’s siblings (and they were all her siblings ) cared a lot about people and wanted to make sure nobody was hurt. So, lots of things happened at once. Which mostly just meant that everybody who was nearby and was an Armor-level or an Adult-level was rushing to Kiseki really quick to put more bandages on because Kiseki had started bleeding again, and all of the Child-levels were trying to fuss at him to get him to lay back down on his belly instead of on his back like he had been, and all of the Baby I- and Baby II-levels were mewling or chirruping or whatever else because everyone else was rushing around. 

At least it wasn’t boring. 

After the chaos had calmed down again (and Kiseki was laid on his belly and Daisuke and all the Babys guilted the blue-furred dragon into not getting up again), Rina noticed Jun looking at her. Jun looked like she wanted to ask a question, but didn’t for a while. Rina didn’t say anything either, because - she didn’t want to be rude. Being rude made people be even more mean.

“Do you wanna be my little sister?” Jun finally asked.

“Huh?” Was Rina’s eloquent response. “I thought you already had Daisuke?”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t be my sister.” Jun said. “I already made Aquilamon and Ki-kun my little brothers. Why can’t I make you my little sister?”

“I can’t think of any reasons.” Rina admitted. “But if I’m your sister, then isn’t V.V. and-” only halfway thinking, Rina made the drum-roll sound again, “- all of our other siblings your siblings too then?”

Jun shrugged. “Why can’t they be?”

“I dunno.” Rina said. V.V. stretched, but didn’t wake up yet. “So. . . I’m your sister now, and all of me and V.V.’s siblings are your siblings too?”

“Yeah.” Jun said.

“Doesn’t that make Wallace and Chocomon and Gummimon your little brothers too then?” Rina asked, tilting her head just a little bit, like how Daisuke did.

“That sounds fun!” 

Jun and Rina both looked at Wallace, who had showed up in between them talking. Rina looked at Jun. Jun shrugged. “Well, I guess me and Daisuke have a lot of siblings now.” Jun said. “Siblings are good, right?”

“I think so.” Rina replied. Siblings were good, right? Siblings were nice to you and helped you out and wanted to make you feel better when you were upset, and would probably cuddle you if you were cold. Siblings were good, Rina decided.

V.V. still hadn’t woken up yet, but he’d stretched a couple times. Rina didn’t blame him. He was little, and even Rina knew that little kids needed to sleep lots. Daisuke had fallen asleep too, with Kiseki having tucked the toddler underneath the dragon’s belly as soon as Daisuke had gotten close enough (everyone had wanted to fuss at him, but Kiseki seemed to be a little more relaxed and less tense once he’d tucked Daisuke under his belly. Rina wondered if the fur there was soft like it had been in Yushisa’s belly pouch), and Kiseki himself was dozing. Rina hoped Daisuke wasn’t crushed or anything. Kiseki was kinda big - not big big, not big-dragon digimon big, but grown-up person big. Bigger than Daisuke. Kiseki had his armor off though, all of it set to the side, just the bandages on him, so maybe Kiseki wasn’t have heavy or something.

“Hey, so.”

Rina looked back at Jun, a bit startled by Jun talking again. “Yeah?”

“Do you wanna learn English with me and Daisuke and Aquilamon and Ki-kun?” Jun asked. “I mean - Wallace is from America so me and Daisuke have been helping him with Japanese, and he’s teaching us English too. So since we’re all siblings now, do you wanna learn too?” 

“Hmm.” Rina thought a second. People didn’t learn other languages ‘cause it was hard, right? But. . . if Wallace was from America, then he’d be able to teach her better than the people in school because he was from America, right? Right. “Okay!” She said, sitting up again after she’d been slouching a bit. 

Jun startled this time, probably not expecting Rina to pop up so suddenly. She needed to work on that, if she kept scaring people then they’d not like her. Oops, bad decision Rina. “Just okay?” Jun shuffled a little bit where she was sitting. 

Oh, right. Rina didn’t answer the question. “Yes, I want to learn English!” She said. “Wallace, Jun, can I? Can I? It sounds fun and you guys will know better than the teachers will right?”

“Yeah!” Wallace said, bouncing a little bit even though he was sitting. “Jun helps me speak Japanese, so I can help you speak English!” 

Rina was bouncing too, just a little bit. “Yeah yeah! I-i-it’s - ddrrrrrr - a trade!”

“Yeah!” Wallace nodded again, little fists bouncing excitedly, even though his two rabbit-dogs were napping in his lap, taking up most of that space.

Rina was gonna say more, but she noticed something. “Hey, Jun?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know why Aquilamon-kun is being all sleepy-looking?”

The bird in question did look really sleepy. His eyelids kept slipping closed and he was settled on the ground pretty firmly, like he was gonna fall asleep there. He hadn’t talked the whole time either. “‘M fine.” He said, making a little bird-yawn. “Just tired.”

Swanmon poked her head through the nearest doorway, which probably everybody saw because she was the only Swanmon, and she was everybody’s big sister, so they noticed when she was there. “It’s getting late.” She said when everyone looked at her (or, most people looked at her). “Everybody should go to sleep.”

“But we were gonna try and go to find a portal to get us back home?” Wallace said. “I thought that was what we were gonna do.” He looked at Jun as he said that last bit.

Jun looked kinda guilty. “I was gonna have us get out and start walking, but I didn’t get to it. And now it’s bedtime. . .”

“You can go in the morning.” Sawnmon promised, waddling with her bird legs over to where Wallace and Rina and Jun and everybody else was. “But right now it’s bedtime, so you should go to sleep.”

“Aww. . .” Despite his visible disappointment, Wallace didn’t say anything else. He just picked up his two rabbit-dogs and carried them a little bit away to one of the piles of pillows and laid down on it, Chocomon and Gummimon snuggling up to him.

Rina yawned, and then Jun and Aquilamon did too. Sleep sounded good right then. Sleep sounded very good. Rina went and sat next to Jun (who was next to Aquilamon). “Can I sleep next to you? You seem warm.”

“Sure.” Jun agreed near-instantly, and Aquilamon shuffled a bit but didn’t say no.

“Wait are we cuddling?” Wallace asked, sitting up half way. “I want cuddles!”

“Come over here then.” Jun told him. So he did.

Then it was all of them except for Kiseki and Daisuke sitting there, all of them leaning against and into Aquilamon’s feathers except for Kiseki and Daisuke and Aquilamon himself.

Rina must have dozed off, just a little, because she was suddenly more awake again when she felt Kiseki settling himself into place leaning against Aquilamon, next to her and Jun, still holding Daisuke against his belly as Daisuke slept. “Don’t mind me.” He said, quietly. “I just. . . figured I might as well join in.”

Jun yawned, and that made Rina yawn, which made everybody else yawn. “It’s okay.” Jun told him. “You’re not uncomfy right? You’re not hurting your tail?”

Kiseki shook his head. 

“Okay.” Jun said. “Goodnight then, everybody.”

They all said “goodnight” (everybody who was awake still) and went quiet again, with just the occasional shuffling of someone or other. Rina yawned again, leaning backwards more, with V.V. still curled up in her lap. It was nice here. Comfy. And warm.

Rina fell asleep with her new family all around her.

Chapter Text

He ached. 

He ached all over . Numerous small cuts and scrapes caused stinging annoyances, for a start. Bruised arms and legs and chest, bruised back, tired limbs and a broken tail, halfway down the length of the limb. A gash cutting into his right shoulder, the bandaged heavier there. All of these hurt , but, well. It was partially his own fault - not for the cause of the injuries originally, but for moving and reopening them. That part was his fault.

He’d woken up slowly, quietly. Part of him had been hoping that he would wake up in the hut of the village near the jungle again, hoping that he had been having a dream. It wasn’t that Kiseki didn’t like the cabin in the Dark Area, or Rina, or Wallace or Jun, or any of the other Digimon he had met. It was just. . . well, in the hut he had at least known the area to some extent, having wandered around for some time before finding Daisuke, but in this cabin - they were in the heart of the Dark Area, after all. It was warm, and inviting, and seemed safe, yes, but leaving brought an immediate chill and sense of unease and wrongness . Kiseki did not trust this cabin. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but he’d rather be paranoid than dead.

He wasn’t sure if anyone else had awoken yet. He knew that of the immediate group around himself - Jun, Aquilamon, Wallace, Lopmon and Terriermon, Rina, V.V. (and an odd name for a dragon, repetitive as it was), and Daisuke - had not awoken. The room of the cabin that they were in, big, spacious and with scattered piles of pillows here and there, was nearly empty, save the few digimon sleeping on the opposite side of the room, a Gazimon and a Lekismon. Kiseki wasn’t sure if there were supposed to be more Digimon in the room or not. His memory said that there had at least been an additional XV-mon and Kunemon, but perhaps they had moved during the night, or had woken before the dragon did. At the very least, there had been at least six Chibimon in the room, and the Chibimon in question were no longer in the room. Perhaps Yushisa was holding them in his abdominal pouch.

Which, on the topic of abdominal pouches. . . Kiseki still wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed that he’d had one in the week or so it had been before he had come to this cabin with the others and met Yushisa. In hindsight, he should have noticed the pouch - he really should have - but he’d just assumed it was due to his belly having more fluffed fur and his abdomen happening to have more muscles than he was expecting, not that he’d have an abdominal pouch at all. Or that he could close the pouch by tensing the right muscles, though he supposed that did explain why he had those particular muscles at all. He vaguely remembered something about keeping pouches closed with smaller hatchlings or other young ones in them when there was danger, so that one could be assured that the hatchlings would be safe in the pouch and not running around afoot everywhere, or . . . something. 

Kiseki couldn’t quite remember where he got that bit of information from , but, well - did it really matter? It wasn’t hurting him, the lack of knowing, and really, he was fine not knowing. He didn’t know most of his past from before he’d wandered into the woods and met Daisuke, only that he had a vague acquaintance with Sagittarimon and the other digimon of the village, but that was fine, wasn’t it? Everyone lost memories as they got older. And it didn’t matter anyways - he had Daisuke now. Daisuke was more important, wasn’t he? Daisuke was Kiseki’s partner, and little brother - and his core said he is me and he is mine and i am his and who was Kiseki to disagree?

Something moved. Kiseki’s fur rose on end, and he tensed, barely thinking about it at he shifted fluidly so that he was crouching over Daisuke, tail pressed against the ground for balance and ears flat against his skull and teeth bared in a silent hiss - all of this happening in barely three seconds.

Looking at him, startled and almost afraid, was Jun.

Kiseki slumped as all of the tension fell and as he sat, slowly this time, repositioning Daisuke so that the sleeping toddler was in Kiseki’s lap, with Kiseki’s belly fur serving as a pillow as the toddler leaned against the dragon. It was just Jun. Not some enemy - just Jun. Daisuke’s older sister. She wouldn’t hurt Daisuke, or Kiseki, or any of them. It was just Jun. Stop being so paranoid , Kiseki admonished to himself (though perhaps not as strongly as he could have - something told him that being on guard for the things that shouldn’t be defended from was better than not being on guard for the things that should be defended from). “Sorry.” Was all he said.

“It’s fine.” Jun replied, settling back down against the feathers of Aquilamon, who was still asleep. “I’m the one who scared you.”

Kiseki hummed. “Still.” Daisuke moved a bit, and Kiseki glanced at the toddler for a second or two, before turning his attention back to Jun (even if one of his hands was still resting on Daisuke’s head). “Where are you planning on us going, later today?”

Jun blinked. “You’re asking me?”

“You are the oldest.” Kiseki pointed out.

“Yeah, that’s true. . .” Jun glanced down at her hands before looking back up at Kiseki. “I. .  .don’t really know. I don’t know where a way home would be , and not where to go to get there.” She sounded. . . vulnerable. She was young, though, Kiseki knew that. Not as young as Daisuke, or Wallace, or Rina, but young.

“We could always go back to the village near the edge of the rainforest.” Kiseki suggested, adjusting his sitting position while absent-mindedly wrapping his tail loosely around Daisuke. “It’s where you and Daisuke first appeared in the Digital World, so there should at least be some evidence of a transfer between worlds there, right?”

Jun nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense!” One of the other digimon in the room, the Gazimon, shifted, and Jun and Kiseki both quieted. After a few moments, Jun resumed speaking, though in a lower, quieter voice than before. “It’ll be good to visit Sagittarimon-san and the other digimon in the village too. Let’s let everybody wake up on their own? We’re probably not gonna be able to sleep in super comfy places once we get going.”

Kiseki chirruped in agreement. “That sounds like a good plan.” 

It took some while, not more than two hours but more than thirty minutes, but eventually everyone else woke up. They ate a breakfast, cooked by Yashaii and Tenkuu and some of the older digimon, and were bid good luck on their travels. Then, the group was off - first to the village by the rainforest, and then to wherever else.

Tailmon, Ryuudamon, and Dodomon went with them, along with the expected group of Kiseki, Daisuke, Jun, Aquilamon, Wallace, Chocomon and Gummimon, Rina, and V.V.. Kiseki wasn’t entirely sure how they had ended up with the additional three members of their little exploration party, but he supposed that they might as well come along. Rina and V.V., at least, seemed glad to have the three there. (Kiseki was trying very hard to ignore the sudden instincts that were yelling at him to pick up Dodomon and put the Baby in his abdominal pouch. Dodomon was a Baby I digimon, yes, but Dodomon was not his baby, and it would be rude to carry the child without asking. Even if it would have been nice to carry the Baby, what with having to let Daisuke walk due to the toddler being a bit too heavily for Kiseki to carry without straining himself.)

The actual trip to the village was not very noteworthy; aside from having to remind himself not to pick up Dodomon every few minutes, Kiseki mostly was able to walk through the shaded woods of the Dark Area with the others, which transitioned into a more deciduous forest that lost much of the chill. He wore his armor again, all of the golden chrome digizoid metal - mostly because it would be easier than carrying the armor, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to lose the armor, even if his toes were somewhat cramped again - but the bandages that had been put upon him a few days earlier still remained. Kiseki counted himself lucky that the bandages didn’t impede his movement much, and that the many smaller cuts were healing quickly. Bleeding all over from a thousand tiny cuts was annoying .

They arrived at the village a few hours before noon, if the sun was any judgement. As they’d walked through the forest, they’d avoided most of the heat, but once they were walking towards the village proper the full force of the sun’s rays began to hit them. If his memory served, back when he had still been a V-mon, Kiseki had been told that the village was meant to have been built in the forest itself, but was moved to the small plains area between the forest and the jungle for the sake of having more opportunity for room and gardening area - or, something to that affect.

Holsmon was one of the first to spot them - well, presumably they spotted Kiseki and Aquilamon and Daisuke and Jun, and put two and two together. Kiseki knew that Wallace, Rina, Chocomon and Gummimon, and V.V. were yet unknown to the village (well, as best as he knew - even he wasn’t certain about everything), but Kiseki himself, as well as Daisuke and Jun, were known to the village, and they would likely be able to recognize Aquilamon as that same Hawkmon that had been with Jun - though, as Holsmon got closer to the group, bounding on their four legs, Kiseki remembered that Jun and Aquilamon had only really spent a day in the village, if that, compared to the week that Daisuke and Kiseki had spent in the village, so perhaps not.

Regardless, Holsmon came bounding up to them, the two smaller clawed feathered arms positioned just above their throat clasping the claws of each other. “Ah, you’re back! Welcome back.”

Kiseki nodded to them, too tired from healing and carrying around the metal armor and from the sun to say much of anything. Rina and Wallace both waved, Rina more shyly than Wallace, and the collective partners of the two all kind of waved as well. Daisuke and Jun both looked like they wanted to say something, but they both noticed that the other was going to talk, which led to the both of them sort of having a staring contest as the two siblings tried to figure out who would say their piece first. Tailmon, Ryuudamon, and Dodomon just kind of stood there, like they didn’t know what to do.

In the end, it was Aquilamon that was the one to respond. “Hello again.” He said, in that voice of his, all sing-song the way birds’ voices often were. “I’m afraid that we’ve been walking in the hot sun for some while. Would you happen to have somewhere we may rest?”

Holsmon looked at Aquilamon and blinked for a second, before they had their answer. “Of course - Sagittarimon will be happy to help you find a hut or two you may stay in. The lodgings of our village are humble, but they do their job well. Congratulations on evolving, by the way” - they called over their shoulder, as they turned around and began leading the whole group to where Sagittarimon assumedly was - “most don’t do so very quickly. I suppose it is your human partner that allowed such, yes?”

“You know how human partnerships work?” Kiseki asked, before Aquilamon could answer. “I thought that there were only few humans in the digital world.”

“Oh, most definitely.” Holsmon agreed. “Your group is the most amount of humans that has been seen in several millennia. Renamon-san finds it important that we know our history, though” - they weaved through foot traffic on the streets and roads, and the group followed them as best they could without bumping into anyone - “and so it’s mostly common knowledge here that having a human partner allows a digimon to evolve much more quickly than they would naturally. Shopkeeper they may be, but Renamon-san is rather helpful for our remembering these things.”

Finally, they arrived at where Kiseki would assume was the center of the village; it looked similar to the place Kiseki and Daisuke had first met Sagittarimon. The digimon looked up at them, away from where he’d seemingly finished a conversation with a Honeybeemon. “Ah, so you return.” He nodded at the party of travelers who had come from the Dark Area. To Holsmon, he said “thank you for bringing them here. Would you help the Honeybeemon move their honey to a different hut? It seems the one that they have now isn’t quite big enough.”

Holsmon gave only a quick nod before racing off, leaving Sagittarimon to give his full attention to Kiseki’s group. “Now then!” He said. “Let’s get all of you somewhere to stay before we do anything else, yes?”

~~~

Kiseki had to admit, looking around at the interior, that he had missed that hut that had been he and Daisuke’s little home for the week. Small, yes, simple, yes, but a home. Not a permanent home, but a home. There was still even that same wooden basket by the window, a few scuffs on the hay-and-dried-grasses floor. 

“It’s like we never left.” Daisuke said, walking over to the window and peering through it, on his tiptoes. 

“Yes, it really is. . .” Kiseki walked up next to Daisuke, breathing in and out a sigh. “How long have we been gone from here, do you think? It can’t have been more than a week?”

Daisuke looked at Kiseki, and Kiseki looked at Daisuke. Daiske just shrugged his tiny shoulders. “I dunno.” was the answer from the tiny hatchling of a child, burgundy hair and mocha eyes all moving with the rest of his body - not that he had much, being as young and small as he was. “Time kinda works weird here. The days feel like they should be shorter than they are.”

“Yeah!” Rina added then. At some point she’d walked up next to the dragon and other toddler. She must have been quiet, if Kiseki hadn’t noticed her until just then. “The sun stays in the sky a lot longer than it does at home, I think. The stars stay in the sky for even longer, too.”

“Did you even see the stars?” Wallace asked her, from the other side of the single room of the hut. Kiseki turned, and, with no real reason not to do so, sat on the floor. The others soon followed suit.

“Yeah!” Rina said, though now her voice took a defensive tone. “I was outside at night time!”

“When were you outside at nighttime?” Jun interjected.

(In the background, Aquilamon had settled down with his legs underneath of him, as birds did, and Chocomon and Gummimon took turns hopping back and forth from Aquilamon’s horns. V.V., meanwhile, had noticed that Rina wasn’t next to him anymore, and dropped to all fours to run across the hut and plop into her lap.)

“I was outside when me an’ V.V. and Tailmon and Ryuudamon and Dodomon all got outta the place where the angels were!” Rina almost leaned forwards, maybe to get closer to Jun or Wallace or both for emphasis, but she sat back down when V.V. chirruped. Probably so that she didn’t force him out of her lap.

“You were where ?” Ah. Jun was. . . worried, but also upset? Not angry , but something close.

“I think we need to have a conversation and make sure we all know who was doing what when.” Tailmon spoke into the silence that had followed Jun’s words. She sort of shooed Ryuudamon (and thus Dodomon) over to one side of the wall, between Rina and Wallace, while she took a place between Jun and Daisuke (which left Aquilamon and Chocomon and Gummimon between Wallace and Jun, and Kiseki between Rina and Daisuke, so they were all sitting around in a ciracle). “Kiseki-san” - she looked at him - “I believe you should go first? You’re the oldest of us all who’ve been here the longest, from what I know.”

“I suppose so.” Kiseki agreed, and, taking off his helmet, he began speaking.

~~~

“- and then we got to here!” Daisuke, now that he had finished his recounting (and thus the final version of Events).

It was silent for about half a second before Rina started laughing. Everyone looked at her strangely, but she just kept laughing and laughing and laughing. “I’m sorry - I - I’m sorry -”  - she said, between the laughs - “but it’s just funny that - that we all just - got here out of nowhere - and we’re just sitting here? In the middle of thus hut - and - and-” She just collapse into more laughter before she could continue. Kiseki wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or not.

So, seeing as Jun was making her way over to the green-haired girl, and V.V. chirruping and chittering in her lap still, Kiseki felt he might as well take a headcount. Just to be sure everyone was still there. 

Kiseki himself - there of course. Daisuke was next to him, leaning into the blue-white fur of Kiseki’s belly that could be seen through the bandages (and Kiseki wasn’t entirely sure if it was because Daisuke was wanting to sit in Kiseki’s belly pouch, or if he just wanted more cuddles). Wallace was nearer to the window now, his two rabbit-dogs having moved to taking turns poking each other as they sat on the boy’s laps. Aquilamon was somewhere to the left, having shuffled over to be closer to the rest of them without actually getting up. Tailmon and Ryuudamon and Dodomon had all ended up sort of becoming a little pile closer to the middle of the room but still not as far away from Kiseki and Daisuke as they’d all originally been. Rina was still next to Kiseki, and Jun had made her way over to the girl and V.V. was still next to her, though the V-mon had slid out of her lap and onto the floor.

Rina’s laughter suddenly turned to sobbing, and without a thought Kiseki leapt up from where he’d been sitting to get over those few centimeters to where she was, scooping her up into his lap and tucking her under his chin and purring and chittering in that same way that he had done with Daisuke. 

If anything, the action made her sob harder, pressing her face into the un-bandaged fur of Kiseki’s neck and grabbing in the general direction of V.V., yanking him upwards to be sandwiched between Kiseki’s chest and her own. Even as his instincts screamed at him to calm down the hatchling calm the hatchling calm her down calm her down comfort her she’s scared hatchlings shouldn’t be scared pull her close comfort her comfort her comfort her she’s not yours but comfort her still , Kiseki tried to loosen his grip, for the sake of avoiding any crushing of V.V. who was smaller and almost as fragile as Rina herself. Despite this, Rina pressed herself harder into Kiseki, against the armor and fur, and V.V. himself made no action that would suggest he was uncomfortable, only pressing himself against Rina the same way Rina was pressing herself against Kiseki.

Kiseki wasn’t sure how long he sat there for, with Rina against his chest and under his chin and V.V. sandwiched between the two of them, but eventually, slowly, her tears petered out. Then it was just Rina and V.V. held close, Rina trembling and V.V. mewling and purring in broken intervals and Kiseki purring and chittering and rubbing Rina’s back for some semblance of comfort. 

The others had gathered around them - not close enough to be a distraction, or to be claustrophobic, but still there. “Is. . . is she okay?” Jun asked, hesitantly. Everyone else was silent, still.

Kiseki’s chittering stopped, though his purring only quieted, as he pulled back for the second time to look at her. Her eyes were a different shade than his - red, but more crimson, darker than his own eyes “sunset red” as Daisuke had said. They still shimmered from tears that hadn’t fallen yet, but Rina did seem. . . a bit better. V.V. pulled back the same way, though his own gold-silver eyes never left Rina’s, even as Kiseki glanced quickly around to gauge the emotions of everyone else. That done, he turned back to Rina. “ Are you okay?”

“I -” Her voice broke a moment, and she paused. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. I just - you guys are so nice and don’t call me mean things. You guys let me laugh and don’t make fun of me for having a tail and you’re nice . The people at school aren’t nice, the other kids are nice. You guys are nice .”

“Of course we are.” Kiseki agreed, softly, putting aside the mention of Rina ‘having a tail’ for a later discussion. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

Rina sniffed. “I dunno. . . the other kids were always mean so I guess I thought that you guys would be too.” She rubbed at her face with the sleeve of her jacket - not her hands, because those were covered by the sleeves of the jacket which was way too big for the girl - and let go of Kiseki entirely, crawling over to sit next to him rather than clinging to her chest. V.V. slid back down into her lap.

“Well, we’re not the other kids.” Jun spoke up. “We’re nice, even if you thought we wouldn’t be.” The others soon added their agreement, and Rina looked like she was going to cry again.

“Thanks.” Is all she said.

They all chose to remain where they were, rather than moving back. It had gotten dark by this time, so they couldn’t really go anywhere outside either.

“So,” Kiseki began, after some moments, choosing his words carefully, “what do you mean by saying that the other kids ‘made fun of you for having a tail’?”

Rina blinked at him. “You haven’t seen my tail?”

“You have a tail?” Wallace added his piece into the conversation. 

Rina opened her mouth, then closed it, before speaking again. “I guess I just got really good at hiding it because everybody was mean to me about it.”

“Also your jacket is really big and long.” Tailmon pointed out.

“That too.” Rina picked up V.V. and set him down next to her, before she wormed her way out of the jacket, long sleeves and all. Kiseki realized then that he’d never seen her not wearing the jacket, and that without the jacket on Rina looked even smaller. She wore a dark teal t-shirt and a sort of desaturated green pair of shorts. Then she turned around, and true to her word, there was a tail - it was around 16 centimeters, and any hair on the tail was just as fine as the rest of Rina’s body hair. 

“Huh.” was all Kiseki said. “So you do have a tail.”

Rina twisted her hands around a bit, clearly nervous. 

“I didn’t know people could have tails.” Jun said. “That’s cool!”

Rina seemed to be relieved by that, and she let her hands drop to her sides. “Really? You think so?” another round of agreements and encouragements, and she seemed to relax again, sitting back down. “You guys are nice.” She said again.

“I didn’t know people could have tails.” Jun said again, yawning in between. “How come you have one?”

“It’s in the family, I think!” Rina answered. “Me and Otou-san and Oji-san and my cousin have one. It’s gen-et-ic, they said! It’s not everybody in my family, but me and my cousin both have one!”

“That makes sense.” Tailmon spoke up. “I’d assume that it’s a recessive gene carried through your bloodline, then?”

All of the human children looked at her. 

“What?” the cat said, defensively, tail flicking in irritation.

“Tailmon-san, we don’t know all those big words.” Jun explained. “Daisuke and Wallace don’t, at least. They’re only four, and Wallace wasn’t even born in Japan. You have to use smaller words so they can know what you want to say.”

Tailmon blinked. “Oh. My bad.” she sighed. “How to reword this. . .?” She cleared her throat and looked at Rina gain. “Your family has blood that lets you have a tail because it’s a part of your blood, and most people don’t have that part of their blood that lets them have a tail because that part of your blood is rare.”

“That sentance was longer, Tailmon-san.” Jun protested.

“The words are smaller, though.” Tailmon replied. “I did what you asked me to.”

“She does have a point.” Kiseki agreed. “It’s late though” - he said, pointing at the window with which moonlight was streaming into the hut - “so we should go to sleep now. Or soon at least.”

It seemed that once he’d pointed it out, everyone got tired all of a sudden. They ended up using Kiseki and Aquilamon as pillows, but Kiseki didn’t mind so much. Most of the smaller wounds were mostly healed, and all of the children and smaller digimon took care to avoid leaning too heavily against the deeper cut in his shoulder or on the broken part of his tail, so it was fine.

~~~

The next morning, they all went to visit the shopkeeper Renamon. The shop itself was in the middle of the marketplace section of the village, but was easily found, partially by the fact that that the shop itself still had that purple cloth over the entrance, either silk or some other sheer fabric, partially by the fact that Renamon was still standing in front of their shop, and partially by the fact that they were the only Renamon in the marketplace.

“Oh? Come to visit my wares again, human children?” their tail swished behind them. 

“I suppose so.” “I guess so!” Kiseki and Daisuke both answered at the same time. 

“We have things that could be traded, now.” Kiseki added. “So we might be able to exchange some of our items for some of your wares.”

Renamon bowed their head. “Always pleasing news, that of wares being bought. Feel free to look again at whatever you wish, Kaninoko-san.” 

“Pardon? ‘God child’?” Kiseki asked them, but they’d already turned their attention to Rina and V.V.. 

“Ah, a child of a different reality. How kind of you to come all this way. Please, do enjoy what I have to offer.” And again, without allowing Rina or V.V. to reply to that, Renamon turned and went deeper into their store.

“Uh. . . do you guys know what they meant?” Rina asked, pulling her jacket closer around herself.

Daisuke shrugged from where he was standing next to Kiseki. “I dunno, but they have lots of cool stuff in the shop!”

And so into the shop they went, once again. While Kiseki and Daisuke had already seen several of the items, as well as the interior of the shop with all of its purple fabric and stands with cloth underneath of whatever items were there, Rina, Wallace, Jun, and all of the other digimon had not done so, all of them looking around the shop with various expressions of awe or surprise or amazement on their faces.

“So”  - Renamon’s voice came from further ahead, and they reappeared in front of Kiseki, holding several Tags - “what’s caught your eye? Are there any wares of mine you can’t live without?”

Rina picked up an object. “What’s this?”

The object in question looked like - was that a knife ?

Once again Kiseki found himself vaulting over several tables and stands because why was the seven-year-old holding a knife -

Let it be said that Kiseki had rather strong older brother instincts. Parental instincts. Brother instincts? Whatever . Regardless, let it be said that he had strong instincts of some kind that told him that a seven-year-old child holding a knife was generally a bad idea .

The knife in question was rather simple in design, a single blade with one edge being flat and the other being sharpened, and made of what was probably copper if the color was an indication. The only bit of intricacy was a singular kanji on the hilt, reading “ryuu”.

“Rina-chan, you should be careful with knives.” Kiseki told her, gently. 

“Oh. Okay.” She said, and she set the knife back down from where she’d got it.

“If you wish, you may have that for free.” Renamon said, appearing before them. “It is always a good idea for younger ones to be able to defend themselves.”

“But” - Kiseki looked back and forth between Rina and Renamon - “she’s seven !”

“All the more reason for her to be able to defend herself, yes?”

Kiseki bit back a reply. Renamon. . . was right, even if he didn’t want to admit it. “The knife has a sheath, at least?”

“Yeah, there’s one with the knife!” Rina said, looking at where she’d picked up the item from. “It’s pretty.”

Kiseki sighed internally, but tried to move on. Rina would just. .  .have a knife. That would be okay. She hopefully wouldn’t use it, so as long as it was still in the sheath it should be fine. Hopefully.

They did find several other items in Renamon’s shop, which Renamon would let Kiseki trade items for. Jun had found a circlet that was a bit big, made of gold with small diamonds and amethysts embedded in the metal. Wallace had gotten two rabbit charms made of a gray metal, one with small green gems where the eyes would be and another that was identical aside from small brown gems instead of green. Rina additionally got a pendant as well, one that was a rectangle with rounded corners made of gold and having a singular round blue gem inlaid in the middle of the gem. Daisuke found a pendant of his own, one made of white gold with a symbol carved into the medal - the symbol was identical to that same symbol that had been on top of the Digimental of Miracles Daisuke and Kiseki had found those weeks ago, was identical to the same symbol that was on Kiseki’s armor. The symbol of Miracles. Kiseki couldn’t help but think it was a bit fitting.

For payment, Renamon took several pieces of the blue and gold and chrome digizoid that Kiseki had found in the caves. “I can use this material should I find the urge to create trinkets of my own for the shop.” They said. Then, they bowed to Kiseki and the human children and other partnered digimon. “Thank you for your purchase. May we meet again, Chosen ones. Do take care, Kaminoko-san.” They added, looking at Kiseki. Once again, Kiseki thought the choice of calling him “god child” was a bit strange, but Renamon seemed to simply be that kind of person, so he supposed he would just leave them to their idiosyncrasies. 

From there, the group would need to head home (or at least, to the hut) to put anything they didn’t need on them at the moment into the hut (which would mostly be Rina’s knife), and then they would go to a different part of the market in search of food. Kiseki hoped that the other shops would take digizoid ore as payment - though, given the nature of the village, perhaps they would find someone who would give them food for free. They’d just have to see what happened when they got there.

Chapter Text

The children are proceeding towards accomplishing their goal at the anticipated rate.

Good. It would be inefficient should they take too long.

And if they were to accomplish their goal sooner than planned?

It would be more effective, yes.

Understood.

Elaborate, Balancing God.

Yes, oh Binary God?

What are the exact modifications preformed to the data of the humans and digimon that were selected for this goal?

The Chosen Children and Chosen Partners, do you mean?

If that is the correct term to refer to those that have been curated.

We would not use “curated” specifically. Unlike the other eight, these Chosen Children have appeared in the Digital World> Server: Avalon that we govern entirely by a twist of luck and fate.

Elaborate.

The six children of our corresponding human world, for lack of a more elegant term, stumbled into our Digital World> Server: Avalon through several inter-dimensional portals that connected the human world with our Digital World: Avalon.

Is this so?

Yes.

A continuation on the status of the inter-dimensional portals is requested.

Of course. We have closed off access to our Digital World> Server: Avalon through the inter-dimensional portals. Should any human attempt to enter the Digital World Server Avalon through them, they will be unsuccessful.

Good. As for the seventh human child of the foreign dimension, and the accompanying digimon that arrived to the Digital World> Server: Avalon alongside her?

The seventh child and her digimon partner are an even greater show of fate and small percentages in terms of likelihood to arrive. She happened to access her device at the same time that we sent out a query to draw in a final child. The message being sent to a foreign dimension was unintentional, but has not thus far been proven to be disadvantageous.

Understood. Repeated query: what are the exact modifications you have preformed on the Chosen Children and their digimon Partners?

Is this information necessary?

Yes.

Understood. The modifications preformed on the Chosen Children and their Partners consists of: increased awareness of the corresponding partner, a physical need to be near the corresponding partner, and the ability to transfer small amounts of energy to the corresponding partner.

These are the only changes?

These are the only changes intentionally done. There may, however, be several. . . mutations or sudden developments that we will be unable to predict. How the data adapts to its new configuration is not something that we have the processing power to predict given the several trillions of possibilities.

Understood. You will monitor and report any new developments of the modifications on Chosen Children and their respective digimon Partners?

Yes.

Current goal of the Chosen Children?

The current goal is to intervene in and, ideally, end the current war between the faction allied with the Seven Demon lords and the faction allied with the Three Celestials. You know this already.

Is the goal proceeding at the anticipated rate?

Yes, like we said. While it could be sped up some, they are progressing towards completing the goal at the calculated rate. Why are you repeating yourself?

Cost effectiveness of an interference to smooth and accelerate the progress of the Chosen Children is high.

Are you suggesting that we send an Agent, or multiple, to assist the Chosen Children?

Positive. Rasielmon is effective at dealing with angelic-type digimon. Rasielmon is effective at freeing Raguelmon from any previous errors or confinements. Rasielmon and Raguelmon are more effective working together than separated.

Ah, so that’s what you want to do. We will send Jesmon, then. He is our creation, and the first Agent. A mission of such vital importance could be given to none but him.

Understood. Proceed with observations?

We think we shall. We shall see what the Chosen Children are up to, correct?

Correct. Preparations for future interferences are being setup.

Ah, time to see how this stage play is going to turn out. Best of luck to the children.

Indeed. May statistical calculations be favorable to them.