A/N: A nanocube is a cube that has 10nm (or 10^-9m) dimensions. That's beyond the limits of the basic microscopes.

I didn't finish this chapter before reaching my target for camp nano, so I left it until the holidays to finish up. And since I didn't want to leave it on my harddrive for too long (particularly since I've already posted three chapters to this), you guys get an extra chapter…and a break from the mini-cliffie…by giving you another one? Maybe? Depends on how confident you are really…

Okay, I'll just leave you guys to enjoy the chapter.

Scroll of the Hearts
a new quest beyond the boundaries of dimension and form

Chapter 4
Songs That Play in Silence

There was the sound of something very soft singing without words. Kouichi opened his eyes, finding the strange yellow threads he'd seen before now stretched away from him like a web suspended in midair. His surroundings were still black, but this time it was only how the threads seemed to vanish into infinity that was frightening to him.

Still, they seemed to fill the space, so that was an added comfort, and for the moment he just stood there – or rather hung in zero gravity as it seemed. The soft sound was like something he rarely heard, when the world was travelling slowly enough that one could hear the slightest breath, the slightest whisper…and more besides. Thin air rushing through cracks in the order to rippling in a breeze docile enough to pass a speck of dust without turning it.

Some would call it the sound of silence. But those people had never heard true silence. The silence of silence of emptiness.

The silence of death.

He closed his eyes, then opened them. The dim light still remained, casting no shadows into the darkness and yet somehow blending in, so he couldn't make out the fine line that distinguished them.

It was when he tried to move that he realised the thin tendrils were in fact wrapped quite firmly around him, making it impossible to move without breaking them. Furthermore, they weren't nearly as fragile as they appeared, otherwise his original movement would have broken them.

Indeed, they seemed to have resisted him, although when he shifted back into his former relaxed position, the feeling of being held fell away. Naturally, with the newfound knowledge, there existed the remnant of tightness that came with the knowledge of restraint, but his physical body, at that moment, could feel nothing of the sort.

Still, that didn't change the fact that he was trapped. Either the tendrils bound him to his position to save him from falling, or becoming lost…or they imprisoned him. They weren't firm enough for the latter, and yet their formation was a little too eerie for the former. Spreading out, as if he was in the centre of a spider's web, like the fly caught and waiting until it would be devoured into the beast's belly…

Suddenly, he felt warm. Very warm.

It seemed the tendrils felt that, before they suddenly tightened around his wrists and pulled them forward. The ones around his stomach, legs and neck remained firm, so it was only his fingers stretching out to touch the further threads, where they wove together into several plait like structures, firmer, wider…and probably stronger.

They seemed innocent enough, but he'd had plenty of nightmares that had started with a pretty face. Like the one with the poppy garden.

He was suddenly cold. Enough so that he almost blacked out, but the bind around his neck choked him, forcing him to lean forward a little and cough for extra air. Between that and the trembling he hadn't noticed he had been doing, he managed to ward off the sudden chill well enough.

His head was starting to spin from all the thoughts and feelings. Then, a softer music started up. Flute music, but nothing like what any of them played in class. Their music was harsher, punctured. Especially the beginners playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". This music was far more gentle, like a lullaby.

The cords around his wrists tugged again, making him wonder if he had been falling asleep. Though the idea was rather insane; falling asleep in a dream, with odd yellow chords he had thought initially was electricity somehow having a mind of its own…

The cords swam in front of his vision suddenly, and tightened around him in urgency. Warning him, or maybe hurrying him.

He opened his mouth to ask aloud, but the sound was swallowed into nothing. As was whatever air he had been breathing, because he was suddenly freefalling again, several golden lassos reaching for him. Without thinking, he reached out – the left hand, not the right which was the more natural one – and grasped one, hoping it could hold his weight in freefall.

Instead, he sat up, disoriented and blinking into existence a cave shadowed with the pink-stricken sky of the fake dawn.

The world was silent, but not the silence which came with a realm lost in sleep. Rather, it was an eerie silence, the calm that came at the forewings of a long and terrible storm that would last until the first rays of dawn appeared on the horizon and brought the harsh light of reprieve and the picture of a desolate world.

The ones who survived that world day by day knew well of this, and by night they crept into holes and crevices that hid them from said world. The state was inescapable; they were too young, too small, to be able to travel far enough to the world where lush grass and blossoming flowers existed and they didn't have to hide from the pillaging night. But for them: young, defenceless and many, they had little choice save to conceal themselves.

And unable to hide many at once, nor hide in the earth as their neighbours did, they, with their soft pink bodies rounded with a shortly tender upbringing, were forced to climb as high as they dared into the mountain, split into groups.

There were few Agumon to help them; most had long since abandoned their birthplace but a few remained. These few protected their brethren, scraping away the rocks to create a safe path while sharpening artfully to protect from discovery. The eyes of the sky were sharp after all, but not as sharp as the land-dwellers, and none could out-compete a desert lizard in concealing a lair amidst a dry and arid environment.

The desert was too dry to raise the Koromon, so they stayed close where the grass was still in sight and reach – or once was. But the grass was too far to reach in their current state for most of them; while the Agumon(while not particular fans of the more moist scene) could climb up, it would take too long to help all the Koromonto those higher grounds, and the consequence was that someone was left behind in their haste as the sun began to dip. So the dream became distant as they saw the grass only by the light of the moon…with the shadows of their predators above it.

So far, their small havens for the night were safe, as discerning as it was to sleep with such shadows abreast. And yet that night, the first Koromon let out a scream that could only be stifled by doubt and an even greater fear en route.

'Hurry it up,' the Agumon at the bottom whispered.

'There are others here,' the Koromon sent back down, and the Agumon left his brethren below him and climbed up.

The Koromon were right, though they were unlike any other Digimonhe had ever seen. And asleep, looking at home and yet uncomfortable, invigorated yet exhausted. Almost as if they too had once lived in their very homes, or nearby.

But then they can't be…

'Go on up,' the Agumon said finally, hoping he was correct and not making the decision that could kill them all. 'They're humans.'

The whisper spread.

Humans. They're humans…

But they had no time to wonder, no time to question. The night was almost upon them; already the sky was darkening with streaks of pink and red.

And so they hurried, six Koromon and the Agumon that led them, hiding above the humans so as to not wake them, for even Agumon would not dare, unsure as he was.

He said nothing of his doubt however; he would simply frighten the others, and they needed some rest that night. As it was, there was nowhere else for them to hide, so it was either the ones who appeared to be humans but were perhaps the enemy in disguise, or the ones they knew to be their enemies and their executioners.

Still, he found it difficult to sleep that night, knowing below him were beings he knew nothing about. It was not an environment of trust after all, but they could have just been children, and because of that, he didn't have the heart to wake them…

Or attack them in their sleep.

The first thing Kouichi noticed was the yellow lizard in a little hole across from him, and he couldn't help but make a noise of exclamation. It was soft, but enough to cause a green eye to open and blink down at him.

His breath caught in his throat under the scrutiny, and moreso when a paw carefully manoeuvring its way out from under the belly and beckoned him.

Kouichi looked around quickly, finding similar holes around, some apparently freshly dug, but all containing Koromon the same. Below, like him, were his friends, curled up on the wall or spread across the floor, and still fast asleep. Carefully then, he crawled over Tomoki and came to the hole about halfway up the wall where the Agumon was.

'You're awfully trusting,' the Agumon whispered. 'This close, I could cover your mouth with one paw and slit your throat with the claws on the other.'

The human's eyes widened in the dim light at the cynical tone in which murder was suggested, but answered. 'Surely it would have been easier while we all…asleep.'

He hesitated on the last word; while he could see the threads of the fake dawn disappearing into the sky to give way for a little more darkness before the day, he did not recall falling asleep, or winding up in the cave in the Digital World.

In fact, he didn't recall even winding up in the Digital World, but it wouldn't be the first time he had been completely uprooted from his last recollections. His memory wasn't the best after his first trip to the Digital World after all; while he had no problem replicating things from books per say, he had a little more trouble remembering so accurately personal experiences. It may have been he had simply forgotten what had happen, in which case it would probably come back in due time.

In any case, it probably didn't surprise him as much as it should have, or perhaps it was because of the Agumon's conversation starter.

'Indeed it would,' the Agumon said gravely, yet disapproving. 'Yet those of us with good hearts find it very difficult to resort to such cowardly actions, despite how they are used against us.'

'Used against you?'Kouichi repeated, going a little pale as he turned the sentence over in his head. 'You mean someone is slaughtering your –' He broke off, realising he was about to say "people", a label somewhat inappropriate for Digimon groups.

'My children,' the Agumon completed. 'If you which to call them that. Indeed, they are my brethren.' He waved his free paw at the Koromon that continued to sleep. 'And you must either be humans from the human world, or very good actors to feign ignorance.' He still sounded somewhat distrustful, but a little placate. At least, he was in a good position for a counterattack if something happened.

Kouichi really had no idea what to say to that. 'You're hiding here,' he hedged finally. 'From what?'

He received an odd look in return. 'Your ignorance knows no bounds,' he commented, and the other blushed. Interested, a paw came up to touch the cheek. 'You feel warm,' he noted. 'Digimon skin is very different, despite how one changes its outward appearance. It is always cold.'

And indeed, Kouichi could feel the slight chill from Agumon's paw.

'So you are human,' the other noted. 'And ignorant of the state of this world. Funny, the things we forget when surrounded by others…'

'I thought the Digital World knew about humans,' Kouichi said slowly. The way the Agumon spoke, it seemed very little was known of them. 'And our world.'

'We do,' the Agumon replied. 'Perhaps too much, for that knowledge is of little help to us. But if you are humans and you are here, then you must be the Chosen who will save this world again, like the warriors did in the legend.'

Warriors? Kouichi thought. The Ten Legendary Warriors?But he said nothing out loud; it wasn't necessarily a good idea, particularly since it sounded as though quite a long time had passed in the Digital World since their last visit. After all, who would believe they were those same warriors, who had once defended the world against Lucemon.

At least it wasn't a matter of trust, unless this Agumon was simply trying to milk them for information. He didn't think so though; the Koromon looked frightened even in their sleep, but it was near impossible to wear masks in such a state. The alternative was naturally that they weren't asleep and simply biding their time, but for none of them to awaken they were either trustworthy or their time away from the Digital World had sorely dulled their reflexes.

Still, it wasn't a cause of concern, so there was no reason not to give them the benefit of the doubt. Especially as he couldn't picture Child Digimon as agents of evil…regardless of whatever was plaguing their world.

'Well, the Agumon asked. 'Are you?'

Kouichi wished he could simply answer up front, but he couldn't. He didn't know what the problem was. He didn't know the solution. He didn't even know how or when they had wound up in the Digital World, or in what state, or even where their spirits were.

It suddenly occurred to him that, without their spirits, they were incredibly vulnerable. And it was just lucky – if indeed they were safe and not caught in a spider's web – that they had been found by friends and not foes.

The thought of webs brought back his odd dream, and he moved back almost involuntarily, remembering the support that held him vanishing and sending him lurching through a bottomless pitch of darkness. Still, they were far away enough from the entrance that only Tomoki sitting up unexpectedly was likely to cause any excitement.

'It's not safe to go out till the sun rises,' Agumon said unexpectedly, eyeing him curiously.

'I'll – I'll keep that in mind.'

Even more surprisingly, the lizard smiled, sharp teeth gleaming slightly in the shadows and what dim light came from the wide expanse of sky.

'The Koromon will be up by then too,' he explained. 'They tend to be quite wild wakers nowadays.'

The evening had snuck up so quickly on them that they had been forced to scale the cliff (with Junpei and Kouji once again manoeuvring the elder twin) up to the small cave in the wall. The silence was somewhat frightening, as the last time they had gone to the Digital World it had been bustling with a hurried activity wherever they went. That included the Dark Contininent on its own secluded piece of land, with the Pipsimon fluttering about after providing that initial scare.

Although Duskmon's arrival had quietened things for a while, but it was odd and rather discerning to find the surrounds so thoroughly abandoned. Even more so since they'd seen so sign of what had called them. Kouichi's D-scanner seemed to have disappeared, and there seemed to be no food for miles around.

In the end, they called it a very early night, thinking it would be easier to go down into the rocky valley in the morning, fit and rested, to search for the Gotsumon. And since there was no food to be found, although almost everybody had brought something with them to Kouichi's apartment, they had little else to do but sit back and close their eyes.

None of them expected to be awoken at dawn by several over-excited pink blobs.

'Oi! You fools! What if they stuck around!' a voice suddenly thundered – quietly. Or as quietly as one could thunder in any case.

'We're alive! We're alive!' the pink blobs cheered, bouncing around too fast to be seen. The noise had woken Tomoki, almost crashing into Kouichi who realised too late he should have probably gone back to his original spot. One pink blob bounced merrily on Izumi's stomach, causing her to shriek and kick out, accidentally catching Junpei in the shins. Another seemed to be squishing Takuya's face, or rather a Koromon was hugging him happily, as the other five discovered after things quietened down a little.

Kouji awoke with the noise as well, though with a scowl on his face. He said something, but whatever it was was lost in the clutter. The Agumon climbed down to the middle, bowing his head at Tomoki and Junpei whom he very nearly trod upon in the process, and stood with his arms folded. He daren't try a warning Baby Flame in the small confined space, and yelling was simply of no use at times like these. Although they had terribly long ears, it seemed as though they lost their capacity of hearing.

'Good thing the wind always blows in,' he muttered.

By some miracle, Junpei, almost getting bawled over by two Koromon, heard him. He still had Kouichi's school flute, having picked it up after having stepped on it multiple times (he didn't fancy telling the boy he had broken one of the few things that had survived the earthquake), and while he wasn't a musician, it couldn't be too hard to produce a nice strong whistle.

It wasn't; in fact, it was almost too easy. He managed before even trying, however it worked well enough and the Koromon meekly settled down.

One opened his mouth for a question, but the Agumon quickly ordered them back down, climbing out first. The Koromon followed one by one, helped down, until the humans only remained in their cave.

The first thing Kouji did was check on his brother, and then round on him.

'What was that about?' he exclaimed.

'The Koromon?' Kouichi asked, bemused. 'Not sure, but there seems to be some sort of danger through the night.'

'No, not the Koromon.' At that point, it seemed as though Kouji couldn't care less about the over-excited bundles of energy. 'Your D-scanner, and all that yellow…' He floundered around for a moment, looking for a word. 'Stuff,' he said finally.

'Not much better than thingy,' Takuya commented, before clapping the elder twin on the back, as best he could in the defined space. 'But you did give us a scare buddy?'

'I did?' Kouichi honestly couldn't remember doing anything that would scare anyone, unless… 'Did I pass out?'

Tomoki bobbed his head.

The elder twin groaned inwardly, rubbing his temples. 'That explains it; I've got no idea what happened after all those pieces began spitting electricity until I woke up a little while ago and talked to the Agumon a bit.' Except for his dream, naturally, but he had enough crazy dreams without burdening others with them.

'In a nutshell, your D-scanner mended itself, began spitting out more of that yellow stuff – which can't be electricity by the way because we all got zapped by it but only felt tingles – and woke up here some time in the afternoon,' Junpei explained, before amending: 'well, more like the grassy area above the over Cliffside, but we came down to the village and found it abandoned and then stuck ourselves in the cave before waking up to find these Koromon jumping around like anything.'

'They hide here every night,' Kouichi replied, thankful he was a little well informed in that area at least. 'But whatever comes by night must be very quiet, because I was awake before dawn and didn't hear a thing.'

'Well, we'll just have to find out what it is then,' Takuya said, while the others mulled the little tidbit of information in their heads.

'Are you daft,' Izumi snapped. 'And what could we do? Outrun them?'

'That's your forte,' Takuya shot back, sounding invigorated with adventure over the horizon.

'Don't be an idiot Takuya,' Kouji interrupted, before Izumi could take offense to the jibe against her competitive running. 'We'd need our spirits to survive in the Digital World; you know that.'

'Well, we should look for those first then,' Takuya stubbornly replied. 'Either they're at the castles with the Angels or they're back where they were first hidden. Can't be too hard to find.'

They could be, Kouji thought. And quite frankly I don't want an adventure right now. But he didn't say that out loud.

'How about we just go down,' Junpei suggested. 'See what that Agumon and those Koromon have to say. Can't hurt to get more information.'

Everyone agreed and slowly made their way down.

Kouji hung back, watching to make sure his brother didn't slip down. He didn't, helping Tomoki down instead and then waiting for Junpei. Izumi, naturally still in a skirt (which she was cursing at now), went down first, with Takuya right above her. The climb was easier for the humans as their longer bodies made the distance seem shorter, but harder because the notches in the wall were too small to be of help. Still, they pretty much just jumped down; climbing up had been a little more difficult, but they boosted each other and made it possible.

Kouji stopped his brother before he could go down.

'Wait a sec.'

Kouichi turned around, having a feeling what his brother wanted. 'I'm fine,' he said. 'Really; I've got no idea why I passed out, but I'm feeling perfectly okay now.'

'Are you sure?'

The elder twin sighed and just looked at his brother.

'Fine.' Kouji sighed too. 'But I wish I knew what happened.'

'You get by not knowing how the world works,' Kouichi pointed out, relatively unfazed. He went through quite a bit of life not knowing what was happening, so passing out for no reason seemed like a minor issue. 'But –' He suddenly stopped, patting his pockets. 'Where's my D-scanner?'

Kouji stared blankly at him. 'You were holding it before,' he said, before realising he hadn't actually seen it since they entered the Digital World. 'At your place you were,' he amended. 'You don't think it's still back in our world?'

It might have been, seeing as none of their D-scanners had reformed on the trip.

'It might be,' Kouichi agreed, though its absence did make him feel rather uncomfortable, particularly since he had almost lost it now.

Kouji looked as his brother, before blurting out (with as much dignity as he could manage): 'Why didn't you mention it?'

There were times where Kouichi really didn't like his brother's questions, and this was one of them. 'Let's go down,' he said instead. 'The others are probably wondering what's taking us so long, and I'm getting cramped.'

Seeing as neither of them could sit straight, it was probably a fair excuse. Still, the attempt to avoid the topic was widely transparent, but before Kouji could call his brother out on it, the other had managed to manoeuvre himself to the hole and squeeze out.

Kouji was still eyeing his brother when Junpei spoke up. 'Sorry?' he asked. 'I wasn't listening.'

'I asked where exactly you found your beast spirit,' Junpei repeated, looking away from the stone he had been examining. 'It was in one of those status, right?'

He pointed at the face of the cliff, though some of the "statues" he meant were actually deformities in the wall with little meaning, judging from how they had looked in their last visit.

Second last visit really, because the last time, there had been a lot of damage from Rhodoknightmon's henchmen in trying to find the digi-code.

'Yeah, it was.' The younger twin shook his head, trying to get himself back to the subject at hand. 'You think it's still there?'

The others shrugged, and Kouji rolled his eyes at them. 'Some help you lot are,' he muttered, before taking a few steps forward for a closer look. 'I guess I'll have to climb all the way up there and see.'

'Need a boost?' Takuya looked entirely too happy with the whole situation. 'See if you can find the Gotsumon while you're at it.'

'Yeah, yeah.' Kouji wasn't about to deny the boost, despite his semblance of pride wanting to. He had after all flown halfway up after getting pummelled by the beast-warrior of earth, so the boost would be a welcome change.

After a false start, he was scrambling slowly and carefully up, speed sacrificed by way of caution. The stone was solid enough, but the outermost surface was brittle and falling away under his fingertips to give way to a darker finish, and while it seemed sturdy he would rather not go slipping down on the sharp edges. The wind whistled in his ears, nudging the exposed skin on his face, hands and neck with playful pricks. It reminded him of his stepmother's roses when pruning them towards the end of Autumn. The breezes they got made the thorns graze any hand that tried to cut them down to size, but leaving their roses to wilt was a waste and detrimental to the bush's health. The end result was stubble to grow back in spring, but the bloom of colours towards summer was enough to make it all worthwhile for a garden lover or a passerby.

Kouji was neither really, but he liked his peace as much as the next guy, and was content enough. So long as he didn't need bandaids for the cuts.

He climbed higher, stopping only when he reached the third eye of the statue…or the place it should have been. The socket was noticeable close up, but empty. The symbol for the spirits of light had disappeared too, worn away into the stone.

There was only a little bed of moss growing. Not the moss from the Dark Continent, but rather one reminiscent of their own world. A sign of nature overpowering the man-made. Or maybe it was just abandonment and neglect.

He turned carefully, looking out into the horizon. He found the cliff they had slid down easily enough, although there was nothing remarkable about its appearance. He spotted a canyon too, seeming relatively unchanged but with no sign of a Gostumon to be found. He wasn't surprised though; they had the ability to merge with rocky surroundings after all. Gotsumon had protected him like that once after all.

Still, he looked carefully, searching for any sign of life. He saw nothing. No glint of light from a scope or a jewel or an eye. No scrap of food or cloth left to mark a presense.

He could see the Koromon and Agumon, now looking far more in number and chatting anxiously. Occasionally, an orange paw pointed themselves in the general direction of the six children, and Kouji surmised that they were being talked about. The Koromon on the other hand were a little more on the wild side, bounding around and being continuously scolded, until one Agumon broke away from the rest and pointed to a flat stretch of stone.

The sound of some sort of story reached his ears and he half-smiled. Imagine children being able to settle down so early in the morning with a bedtime story.

Then he shook his head and began the slow climb down. He had really only learnt one thing; that his beast spirit wasn't at its original resting place.

Junpei was getting somewhat ansty, watching the Agumon from their cave (or the cave they had all temporarily shared) continuously point at them. Takuya seemed a little bored, standing around in the sun, and Izumi was pacing. Cramps were the excuse, but Junpei imagined she was a little nervous too. If the Agumon attacked, they could have some trouble. While Child attacks were generally not fatal, they were, unlike Fresh and Baby attacks, damaging and possibly permanently so. It was, overall, reckless for Kouji to leave himself so exposed as he had in his climb, but none of them had considered that while one Agumon accepted their presence, the rest of the clan might not.

Tomoki had taken his hat off and was now looking between it and the group of Koromon. It might have been amusing to see if the others weren't so anxious. Kouichi looked as though he wanted to fiddle with something, simply lacking the something to fiddle around with.

Which reminded Junpei…

He quickly pulled out the music flute from his pocket. 'Here,' he said, offering it to the elder twin.

Kouichi stared at it blankly.

'I think it's yours,' the eldest of the brunets said. 'I kind of stepped on it back at your place, and somehow it followed us to the Digital World.'

'Arigato.' Kouichi took it, still with some surprise, before turning it over in his hands. It did look like his, every mark from when it would always slip from his fingers and land awkwardly when he was first learning to play.

'I hope I didn't break it,' Junpei said, looking somewhat ashamed. While he had lost quite a bit of weight since his first trip to the Digital World, he was still known for having quite a firm grip and step and had accidentally broken many a thing as a result.

'I don't think so.' But he wouldn't know until he played it, and so Kouichi raised it to his lips, blowing gently. A tune came easily enough; he had been practising not long before (as far as his consciousness went) after all, and the notes tumbled smoothly off his lips and fingers.

The Agumon, having finally finished their discussion – or argument – and stopped on their way over at the sound of the song. It was quieter than the storyteller, who paused in the middle of his own story as he noticed the Koromon's attention drawn away. One drifted away from the pack to come nearer, and then another. Soon, a third came along and their huddle became skewered.

Kouji's eyes flickered down from above to find the cause of the music, and then he continued carefully down. Izumi stopped pacing, looking curiously at the elder twin instead. Junpei's eyes flickered towards the Koromons' increasing proximity and the Agumon carefully watching them. They seemed at peace though, and Kouichi really was good at his music. Especially since he was playing from memory.

All notes from memory tested, Kouichi stopped playing and took a deep breath, before eyes jumping open at the sound of groans of disappointment.

'More?' the Koromon pleaded. 'Please?'

Tomoki giggled; Kouichi looked, embarrassed at the large audience, between the Koromon and their Guardians.

One Agumon, the oldest and the tallest of them all, smiled at him. White teeth peeked out, but not in a menacing way. 'Please,' it – or rather she from the female voice, said. 'A novelty is always pleasing to the Koromon, and they don't get many treats in this day and age. And we're safe enough.'

'Meaning?' Kouji had joined them on the ground again, one hand on his brother's to stop the other from raising his flute…not that he had made a move to do so.

'Danger comes by night,' the female Agumon explained. 'By day were are relatively safe, but if we leave a mark of our presence the night's danger will not stop until it finds the source. Sound is one thing that the wind protects by the sun, but no minstrels come this way any more.' She paused, looking at the children. 'But you want to know the full story, yes?'

At a few nods, she folded her arms. 'I would have no problem in helping the Legendary Warriors,' she said finally. 'But disturbing rumours have reached us, saying that they are not the only humans to be able to enter our world and remain. Whispers of humans in the mountain near here, in the lake on the other side…and no information at all as to who they are or what they are doing. And their appearances coincided with our recently acquired hunter.'

'Hold on,' Kouichi said suddenly, and the others looked at him in surprise. 'None of us mentioned being the Legendary Warriors.'

'That is correct.' This time, the female Agumon sounded amused. 'I believe you yourself dodged the unasked question, but that is immaterial.' She beckoned to another Agumon, who brought forth a familiar piece of machinery.

Another gesture, and the other Agumon began his tale. 'You see, I saw your arrival, and we hid in case you were all digimon ready to attack…or victims of an attack, for the trouble would have no doubt come to us next in that case.' He pointed at the Cliffside, and five nods confirmed it. 'I also saw this device fall from the cliff-side as soon as you landed. It definitely wasn't in the sky when you fell, which meant one of you must have been holding it. Later, when I passed by the area to cover all the tracks, I picked it up again and recognised it. At that point, I realised you were humans and not Digimon, but the fast approaching dusk prevented me from mentioning it to the Elder, and my brethren was most surprised to discover you all in his usual hiding place.'

The female Agumon, now identified as the elder, continued. 'We know that only a Chosen Child can use a Digivice,' she said. 'It is one of the oldest laws of nature in our world. So you see, whether one of you is a Legendary Warrior or not is very easy to check. Whoever owns this simply has to use it and prove it functional in your hands.'

'And if none of you are capable, or you try and trick or attack us,' another Agumon growled, 'we are confident in our ability to handle six measly humans.'

'Measly?' Takuya exclaimed, before frowning. 'Hang on, by handle, do you mean -?' He gulped as the Agumon extended their claws. 'Oh.'

'Way to go,' Izumi hissed under her breath, but the Agumon didn't look any more or less hostile than before.

'You did prove yourselves to not be of evil will,' the female Agumon attempted to placate. 'After all, one of you woke before us, and it could have been a simple matter of disposing of our children, and I'm afraid to say that with our numbers so stretched, one Agumon cramped in a cave is nowhere near equal to several in a clearing like this. Before that, we took a risk…and it payed off, for much would have been sacrificed if it had not.'

Kouichi blinked, but said nothing, simply looking at his D-scanner. It was, as the others had said, looking as though it were brand new, screen currently dormant but smooth and whole. The others were a little confused as well, but all wisely kept their silence. Their name would be proven soon enough. None of them considered the possibility that the D-scanner no longer worked, for it had brought them to the Digital World, and surely that was proof enough.