Author's Note: This is just a prolouge to set things up. Future chapters will be much longer, I assure you.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


Taichi Yagami was nervous.

There had been Digidestined all over the world, of course. He knew that. He'd met the Digidestined of Thailand just last week to discuss the legality of crossing each others borders to help one another. He'd seen the leader of the Chinese Digidestined, Yuehon, on TV giving interviews about the sixty three Digidestined scattered throughout her country. One of them was blind, and Yuehon had to defend the boy's right to be a Digidestined. Taichi had exchanged emails with the South Korean Digidestined, who were apparently all cousins and therefore very close. The Poi Brothers in Hong Kong still sent Hikari emails. (Which she ignored, because it had gone from cute to excessive at this point.) Vietnam even had one - had, past tense, unfortunately, but still.

So it made sense that there were Digidestined in countries he hadn't thought there would be. With time pretty much every country was getting their own, although some were taking longer than others. Yuehon had been active for a year before the other Chinese Digidestined appeared. The Poi Brothers had been around for nearly four years. Some places only got their Chosen last week. All of this was not what scared him. All of this made sense. Actually, what was happening that freaked him out still made sense regardless. It just didn't make sense nobody had thought of this before. They should have known this would happen. After all, even African countries were getting Digidestined at this point. Everyone was.

Still, he'd asked Koushiro if he was sure. Really sure? Really, really sure? Okay, then. That meant the diplomatic trip of a lifetime. Time to put all his charm to good use and pray everything went off without a hitch. He'd have to take someone sensitive to foreign cultures, he realized. Charm wouldn't be enough for this one. Daisuke was right out, enthusiastic though he was. He was just too goofy sometimes. Hikari? No, no way he was taking his sister along somewhere dangerous. Yamato? Refused outright. Sora. Sora would be controlled enough to handle this delicate mission, since Yamato wasn't willing to go. (Not that Taichi blamed him.) Fumbling, Taichi dialed Sora's number from memory and tapped his foot as he waited for her to answer.

"Sora?" he said, voice a little shaky, "I need you to go on a diplomatic mission with me, to recruit a Digidestined in North Korea."

She was nodding on the other end right up until 'North Korea' came up. "What?"

"North Korea has a Digidestined. One. And if we don't invite him to join the Digidestined World Network, we could be in a lot of trouble politically. So… we're going." Taichi sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I need to take somebody with me who I can trust and your Korean's better than mine."

"This is too dangerous," she insisted. "Their government might take us hostage or something."

"We could escape into the Digital World and use that to get back to Japan," he assured her, "The South Korean Digidestined have already said they'd be willing to rescue us if they had to. But the North Korean government is the one requesting the meeting to begin with. If we don't go, we'll ruin the peace between them and Japan."

She paused for a long time, considering it. "I'll go. But only because I don't want you to get hurt."

A relieved smile bloomed across his face. "Thank you."

She made a 'mm-hm' sound before hanging up. Taichi immediately began walking home to go pack. His parents couldn't be told where he was going, he decided. They wouldn't let him go somewhere this dangerous. Even if it was to unite Digidestined everywhere, they wouldn't let him go to North Korea. Hikari wouldn't let him, either, if she knew what he was doing. He wouldn't even being doing this if he didn't have back up on hand.

Hyun-Seo, the leader of the South Korean Digidestined, had promised him that they would mount a rescue if they went twenty four hours without hearing from him. Her partner was Leomon, and her friends' Digimon included many tough, muscle bound partners who would be equally strong. They had an escape route open and waiting in the Digital World at all times, preplanned down to travel time and exact route. They had even prepared a hangout in the Digital World in case Taichi and Sora needed to lay low.

So nice to know they think this guy's trustworthy, he thought to himself, and he chuckled. Agumon gave him a look. Agumon was less than thrilled to be going. He didn't like the sound of this, and he thought it was suspicious that North Korea only had one Digidestined. That wasn't unheard of, of course – India only had one because so few Digimon attacks happened, and China started out with one at first. Still, something wasn't right. It was just so rare, it didn't make sense that it would conveniently happen in a dictatorship, where one person would so easy to control. This whole thing set off Agumon's sixth sense in a bad way. But he couldn't let Taichi go into this all alone, without backup. They had to stick together.

"Couldn't we send someone else?" Agumon asked, thinking out loud. "Or maybe take a bunch of people so we'd be safe?"

Taichi shook his head. "There is no 'safe' there, just relatively safer. It'll be better if we go, so nobody else is in danger. Besides," he added with a winning smile, "They won't mess with me, I'm too important."

His nervous laughter didn't fool either of them.