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Takuto knew time was almost up once WereGarurumon started wheezing that morning. Their head hanged low as they strained to keep up with Takuto’s pace throughout the Floatila. His second digimon, Lillymon, had followed suit only an hour later. That dreaded wheezing that signified their time was nearly up.
It wasn’t the first time, or even the second. As Takuto learned how to become a competent tamer, he had definitely made some mistakes on this journey. But it wasn’t like they stayed dead for long, reborn as an egg even stronger than they were last time. In retrospect, it could have almost been considered a good thing they were being reborn. A fresh chance to become more powerful, and with his new tamer skills and experience, live even longer than before.
Could. All those supposed benefits never really softened the blow of his partners suddenly becoming a lifeless corpse. Jijimon’s words helped somewhat, but it still stung nonetheless. If they were in any kind of pain, they certainly didn’t tell him either.
“Are you sure...this is alright?” WereGarurumon whispered between coughs as their head laid on Takuto’s lap. The tamer absentmindedly petting their surprisingly soft fur, as Lillymon leaned on his shoulder. The trio sat underneath a tree overlooking the Nigh Plain’s river. It was always a nice, quiet place to bring them for their last moments.
Takuto knew what they meant, with the spread of the BH program tons of digimon could be in potential danger. It was also more time that Takuto and his human friends could have spent getting back to the real world. Yet…
“Taomon and the other’s are working on the antivirus program anyways. We have time.” Takuto reassured his partner. With them struggling to keep up, it was going to be much harder to recruit digimon as it was. He still remembered the first time they died, suddenly dropping dead as they tried to explore through the area of Mod Cape. It even took a minute for him to fully realized what had even happened.
Instead of pushing them, he used his surprisingly good culinary skills to provide a feast of their favorite types of food before they went to their spot in the Nigh Plains. The least he could do for his partners was provide them some sort of comfort before it was time to become a Digi-egg again. Just because they were data doesn’t mean they weren’t still living beings after all.
“I see...thank you.” WereGarurumon responded before closing their eyes. Takuto wasn’t keeping track of the time, but before long the uneven rising and falling of the digimon's chest stopped completely. It took a few minutes before WereGarurumon body started falling apart, ending up as a small packet of data for him to carry back to Jijimon to be reborn.
Only one more hour to go. The sky had turned a beautiful tint of orange as the sun slowly crept it’s way across.
“Hey, Takuto,” Lillymon finally spoke up after resting, “Do humans...you know?”
“Yeah we do, we grow old and eventually stop breathing just like Digimon. Unlike you however, we don’t come back.” A silence overtook the two as Lillymon thought on the information.
“I see,” Lillymon reached over and took Takuto’s hand into their own and giving it a squeeze, “Thank you for spending what little time you humans have to do something like this.”
Takuto let out a small chuckle, “Humans live a bit longer than you’d think, but of course.”
Lillymon closed their eyes for the final time, their labored breathing stopping a few minutes later. Takuto didn’t let go of their hand until itself also fell apart into data. Letting out a small sigh, he collected the data packet and got up from his spot. Taking one last look at the descending sun, he begun his trek back to Floatia.
It was time to start again.