Digimon World once more

Summer...

'I knew we'd go to the beach, but her mind is so one-track I swear I got a new son at home.' Nana sighed to Reborn, sipping her coconut juice.

'...I honestly don't know what she's doing. I contacted Iemitsu who contacted that buddy of his, her program is now 90% complete.' said Reborn. 'Makes me wonder what kind of program it is now that she's gotten Gokudera's help. Normally we'd discover what kind of program it is at such a state but the security she put in puts government sites in shame. Its that fortified.'

'My goodness!'

'We really need to know what happened years ago.' Reborn swore. 'What made her this way. She doesn't respond to anything that doesn't coincide with her goals. That program and keeping her body fit.'

'Sou ne...'

'I called in a favor some guy owed me to investigate too. He's figuring out by hacking her to copy her work but its been two months now...even he's having trouble, I can't believe it.'

'...'

'At any rate, until we figure out what that program is, she's clamped tighter than a live shellfish. That's the only way we can get her to talk.'

xxx

Gokudera and Yamamoto joined Ruri in her training but as they weren't as covered as she was, they were at risk of severe sunburn thus had to retreat and can only continue when the sun's away till sunset.

The thing was, its harder to run on sand where its soft, fluffy and you sink depending on your weight and how much force you put in.

'So, had fun at the beach kids?' Reborn asked.

'Its brutal!' Yamamoto gasped. 'Its this hard to run on sand?!'

'Training with nature is always the best.' said Reborn at the heavily-sweating teenagers. 'Most Olympic Athletes train in sand and the stronger ones do running in knee-deep water by the beach side as its the best stamina training but also the hardest...assuming they don't step on something that is.' he said. 'Ruri, what do you think? Harder than the Treadmill, no?' she nodded while sweating buckets. 'What do you think? I want to hear you talk.'

She tried but...

...no sound came out.

'!'

'N-nothing?!'

'...we need a doctor.' Reborn frowned as even the normally apathetic girl got worried.

xxx

Clinic in a small town by the beach...

'...you need a psychologist and a counselor.' said the ENT upon hearing how this came to be. 'Her throat's perfectly fine as well as her voice box even if she hasn't used it in years. Its more in her mind. Her trauma.' he told them. 'She needs to overcome what rendered her mute. It the only way out of this. Bullying alone cannot do this, this damage of such degree is caused by something bigger. Unless she tells you what it is through writing, you need to start from there.'

Was her verdict.

Ruri tried to wish a hole swallow her right there and right now because her mother, tutor and the boys looked at her.

Reborn originally thought she just chose to.

But the fact she REALLY lost her voice...

This, is bad.

If she's in trouble, she can't scream.

'Ruri...will you write something?' Nana pleaded. 'Please, what's wrong?'

Ruri knows full well what's wrong.

But for her, it hurt too much to even think about it that tears kept flowing. Her usual expression turned into utter grief.

'Ruri?!'

'Ruri-san?!'

She looked utterly inconsolable in her silent sobs however that got them all alarmed and frantic when something in her pouch she wore around her neck glowed...and something inside grew in size, stretched...and ripped. It was a small handheld device with a brown grip and buttons, and white center that got her to stop crying...as she held the device in wonder...and this time, crying in relief, cradling the device to her cheeks.

'...hunny?' Nana croaked out before Ruri gestured a request for writing materials.

'Doc, can we borrow your computer for its MSWord?' Reborn asked the doctor. 'She's faster typing than writing.'

She finally told them the truth.

She was once, a Chosen Child a couple months into her first year in Elementary.

The watch her father bought for her turned into a small gadget, and next thing she knows when she just wanted to do her homework, she was in another world where she discovered the existence of Digimons, and met her partner in its 'toddler form'. Digimons digivolve hence her Koromon became an Agumon, a three-feet tall orange dinosaur with belt accessories on its arms.

She traveled for days with a creature that became her first friend since she has no friends in school, singled out for being 'partial gaijin' and her clumsiness and being no-good in academics. She likes him as monsters were kinder to her than humans were!

But in her travels, she met another boy her age. A boy named Ichijouji Ken. They got to know each other since unlike kids in her school, Ken was shy, timid and insecure like herself and he has a partner called Wormmon, appropriate as he was a green caterpillar! He's no mean kid that she felt safe around him. When they played 20 questions...something was wrong.

'What's wrong Ruri-chan?' Yamamoto asked her.

The years are all wrong. They're both seven years old and yet the year they were in are three years apart making him younger than her yet they could be in the same world despite different 'time'. They had no idea what to make out of it. They're young and don't know much...but months later, they were in bad trouble even though their Digimon digivolved to Champion Form...they were near goners when a new boy saved them with his Cyberdramon and a band of digimon allies. He is Akiyama Ryo, older than them by four years...he sort of became their big brother figure. He had been investigating how he ended up to be there.

Eventually, they got to know each other more. And TMI in Ken's case because he was the way he was as a result of being 'the unfavorite', only remembering he existed when its meal times and paying for school fees. Both he and his brother are academically-pressured, both have high grades in school but his older brother has his near-perfect scores while his own grades were on Yuu-Levels he wondered if he'll be loved if he has Shuu-level grades. There were times he wished he had different parents, parents who actually gave a damn about him regardless of how he did in school that he was jealous of kids who had it better. But he was doomed to being ignored for his inferior Report Card scores compared to his perfect older brother.

His tale horrified his fellow kids who took to taking care of him as unlike him, they were loved by their parents and had healthy home lives so Ryo gave him the paternal love and Ruri gave him the maternal love he craved for and Ken flourished...and wished he had been born to them instead!

After joining Ryo in investigating, time started getting screwy...after much hardship that got their digimon digivolving to Ultimate Forms, they soon learned about the source of their troubles. The same monster Ryo defeated once yet appeared on their side of the world and this time, worked together to defeat him for good...but with a cost.

Only her partner has the ability to kill him with a cost. Digivolving to his Mega Form and the only one able to, he has an ability of great power at the expense of his own life...and die they did.

It then shot out black spores of some sort that Ryo protected her from as she was still in shock with her partner's death and Ken pushed both of them away, thus he got shot and was ill...until Ryo was pulled away before she too, was taken...back to the real world where not a minute passed by on the day she was taken yet she spent nearly a year in Digimon World...and gained immense knowledge in computers that she studied to make sense of what she gained in her head...while quitting school and signed up for online lessons as she hated the bullies and apathetic adults in school. She lost a chunk of herself on her partner's death and just didn't care about the world anymore and worrying about Ken's fate since he was ill with an unknown disease left behind by the enemy.

But three years later...the Digimon World manifested on the sky...and while things happened too fast in a matter of minutes, to her who was a former chosen saw everything play clearly. There were eight children compared to her era's three, putting up with five mega-level evil digimon who nearly caused two worlds to spill onto each other for mutual destruction. They would all have died if it wasn't for the next generation defeating their true enemy.

A week after that, she got mail asking for her help as people worldwide began poking their noses where it doesn't belong...so she worked to stonewall them while those who contacted her deleted their research data about the Digimon World.

'But why ask you for help? Why won't they do it on their own?' Reborn asked her.

Ruri typed, 'Its my duty as a Digi-Destined Child. With or without a partner, I must protect the other side. But since my Digivice came to life after years of being dead and it changed form even...my partner's reborn again and I'm needed again. I just hope my partner, the idiot won't die for the world again. I'm the last of my era now since Ken and Ryo's fates are unknown. I'll probably...fight on my own this time.'

'Ruri-san no!' Gokudera sputtered, 'Fighting all alone in some foreign world...'

'I'll get called whether you like it or not...just like how a computer swallowed me in my parents' room when I borrowed it from daddy to print my homework.'

As if mocking Gokudera, light shone from the computer...and Ruri was gone!

'RURI!' Nana squeaked as the MSWord screen became a yellow-screen with a black brick-like form shaped like a tamagotchi and a screen playing events, showing where Ruri was...

Inside a frigging computer.

Not only that, her clothes changed too.

She was wearing her full bodysuit earlier, now its a white, loose, formless off-shoulder shirt held in place by two straps with a tribal pattern at the hem in yellow and red, a dark orange bandanna on her head with her hair clearly tucked in, black biker shorts and a pair of white, red and black high-top sneakers that made her feet look unnecessarily bigger than it should with white loose knitted socks.

Reborn supposed the other world is NOT up to date in fashion, making the poor girl wear a style that's so out of date.

'...does going to another world warrant a dress code?' Yamamoto choked out. 'She was in swimwear earlier!'

'Hush! We should watch what's going on!' Gokudera hissed as they watched...

xxx

Digimon World...

Ruri found herself in what looks like toyland.

"Toyland? Never been here before." she blinked as she looked around. 'I put up with many towns and terrains but never a toyland!"

In the real world, her thoughts were appearing on the chatbox on the computer screen and her actions written as if a novel was being written before their eyes..

As she got out of the stuffed building blocks the size of buildings, trees with toys and stuffed animals hanging from their branches, and large, soft, spongy, hills.

But in these bouncy fields were endless earthen cribs, containing several small round creatures and some were eggs of different patterns the size of a small ball. All looking different.

"Oh my! Baby digimon!" she gasped out, marveling at how cute and sweet they looked. "One of them could be Agumon's baby form! I have to find him! It makes sense I ended up here after all!" she ran excitedly towards the cribs. "He's back! But where?!"

'Ruri!' she paused mid-run upon hearing a squeaky voice. 'Ruri! Over here!' she turned to the source of the voice. 2 o'clock away from her about ten cribs away, the eleventh crib has a bouncing black fluffy ball with three fluffy lumps on its head with glowing yellow eyes.

"Agumon?!" Ruri ran to that particular baby and picked it up, gently hugging it because its a baby.

'I'm back, Ruri...sorry I took so long.' said the baby. 'I was messed up real good. But...why won't you say anything?' it asked worriedly.

Ruri merely tapped her throat with a finger before shaking her head.

'You can't talk?!'

Ruri nodded.

'Oh crap, you're sick yet you still came here...I need to digivolve to protect you! You can't scream for help as you are now!' the baby cried worriedly. 'I'll stay by your side to protect you but I can't do it as a baby.' Ruri raised her digivice...and evolved her partner twice.

In the real world, the screen showed the digivolution transformation. From Botamon to Koromon...and Koromon to Agumon.

'That's Agumon?!' Nana, Gokudera and Yamamoto gawked out. Reborn knew he had one hell of a report to make...but it would be a highly-absurd report.

The two clearly have a happy reunion going on and maybe Ruri can recover from trauma. Agumon died in his mega form and lost her first two friends and their partners to 'time' itself as all three of them came from different times yet ended up in the same world.

There goes her first two potential Guardians dammit. He thinks that losing her first two bonds might have contributed as well, not just her partner dying on her...

Back in there...

'Oh, a newcomer!' Elecmon, a small digimon commented as he was carrying a lot of fish. 'What're you doing here?'

'Ruri came back for me.' said Agumon. 'I was a Botamon a few minutes ago.'

'Ahh, you're one of 'them'!' Elecmon said with a knowing smile. 'As long as you're not bad guys, you're welcome here!'

'He's the caretaker of Primary Village, Elecmon.' said Agumon, introducing the newcomer. 'He takes care of all babies in this place.'

'Well, been doing it for as long as I remember.' said Elecmon. 'I'm not much for fighting like most digimon anyway...I take care of them all until they're ready to digivolve to Child-Level and leave home to start their own lives. But so many deaths happened lately because of the Digimon Emperor...not long ago so many eggs by the hundreds rained in here I got my work cut out for me!' he whined before perking up. 'But I'm used to it. You guys should see what's going on.' he advised. 'Go mainland to Server Continent, you won't find information on this island.'

'Island?'

'We're in File Island.' said Elecmon. 'Not much happens here, its safe and perfect for new life to be born. If there's trouble I can always count on Leomon and Andromon.'

Ruri looked thoughtful before using her Digivice on Agumon.

Agumon changed to GeoGreymon and into RizeGreymon, a bigger, but slimmer and more bipedal, armed version with one of his arms a nozzle.

Ruri flexibly jumped onto him to get onto his back and secured a hold on him.

'Hang on tight Ruri! We're gonna go!' and RizeGreymon flew around the island to look for others like them as Elecmon hinted that there's more Chosen Children since their days. That would mean more allies this time as he hated the idea of fighting alone. Who'll protect Ruri while he fights?

His partner who can't call for help when she needs it most because she's ill?

They eventually found some kids helping in rebuilding a village. 'Ruri! I found some kids! But kinda younger! I'm gonna approach them!' and he dove down below, and the gust of wind from his jets alerted them to his presence.

There were three boys and two girls, younger than Ruri.

'What the?!'

'An enemy?!'

The kids braced themselves, ready for a fight.

'Ahhh no, I'm not an enemy! I came here for help.' said RizeGreymon as he de-digivolved back to being an Agumon, and his partner, an older girl landed gracefully on the ground.

'Help?'

'Well, its been years since our time to fight yet my partner is called over again.' said Agumon. 'Is there trouble we haven't heard of about?'

'Oh, you're from an older generation.' the glasses girl mused. 'Probably older than Taichi-san and the others but you're kinda younger than them...'

'Well, she started her time when she was seven years old.' said Agumon. 'For now I'll do the talking. My partner lost her voice.'

'What?!'

'Oh dear, what can cause that?' the other girl gasped out.

'No idea but for now, its safe to stick around with you because she can't call for help as she is.' said Agumon anxiously and the look on their faces says it all as they'd hate to be in the senpai's situation as indeed, she can't call for help if trouble comes...and it'd be hard to rescue her. 'We'll do our fair share of the work in return for helping me keep her safe...and we need information. I was just recently reborn in Primary Village and Ruri was called back...what's going on?'

Well, they were told about the Digimon Emperor and his doings...and how they found out his identity, defeated him and made him see sense that what he did is NOT a game, and how he affected REAL LIVES he was horrified...and what truly changed him was the death of his partner Wormmon.

'That can't be!' Agumon cried in denial. 'I just hope its a different guy with the same name...' he stammered out as Ruri looked just as horrified.

'What do you mean?' the youngest boy asked him.

Agumon told him their long tale about his era and who was in it...and they have a damn good reason to be in denial, considering the parenting they had to do.

In the real world, they got more than what Ruri gave them. She was holding back A LOT!

Well, its because what was the point when they won't understand and not believe her?

'I see...so its just you three alone in your time...that's got to suck!' the boy with goggle griped at the cringey idea as its hard enough with five of them as is and they fought with just three of them?!

'But we have to know if its the same guy.' said the blonde. 'We must confirm it first. If its different, their memory of their teammate is OK but if its the same...what changed him from the boy they knew to the jerk we know now?'

'We'll know soon if he shows up.' said goggles boy. 'Oh yeah, we should introduce ourselves! I'm Motomiya Daisuke, Ruri-senpai!' he greeted jovially.

'I'm Takaishi Takeru.' said blondie.

'Inoue Miyako, nice to meet you senpai!' said glasses girl.

'Hida Iori.' said the youngest.

'And I'm Yagami Hikari,' said the girl in pink.

'Sawada Ruri's her full name.' said Agumon as Ruri smiled at them. 'Shall we get back to work? Tell us what to do.'

'Well, we're rebuilding villages and towns so the digimon can move back in again.' said Daisuke. 'Its no easy job but more hands the better!' he said cheerfully.

So they spent the whole afternoon fixing buildings...how they got skilled in carpentry, was a mystery to those watching outside.

'Well, this is it for today, let's go back home.' said Miyako but Ruri tapped her shoulder to shrug. 'Ah, how to go home?' Ruri nodded. 'Well where did you come from? There should be a Gate there back to where you came from.'

'She came to Primary Village.' said Agumon. 'There could be a Gate back to Namimori over there?'

'Yup! We used a different Gate linking to Odaiba.' said Hikari. 'She can go home through there but we have to teach her how to use the Gates...'