-1

After Miyako and Hawkmon agreed to help Daisuke, they spend the rest of the day enjoying the castle's hospitality.

"Oniichaaaan," Hikari sing-songed through the halls. "Come see what we did to the Bishamonten screens!"

Before he answered his sister's calls, Daisuke stopped him. "Taichi, you don't look very good. Did something happen?"

"Nothing new, Daisuke," he responded flatly.

The young lord grew a wide smile. "Sora 'accidently' dumped one of her vases on you again, didn't she?"

"Knock it off, Daisuke!"

"Hang on, Taichi. You know that new digimon we heard about, and his partner?"

Taichi turned back around to face him, with a curious expression. "Yes?"

Daisuke returned his glance confidently. "It turns out, they are strong. And they're going to help us get the computer back."

Matters were to be settled on in the morning, so the young lord's new accomplices slept soundly in one of the cozy guest rooms. Elsewhere outside the castle, though, the night was cold, and not everyone could afford to sleep indoors.

Takeru and Iori were curled up in their cart, cuddled up to their digimon for warmth. The blanket covering the top of the cart flapped a little in the wind, and sometimes would blow enough for the moon to shine through.

The quick flashes of light were enough for Takeru to look over and notice his young friend was still awake. "What are you thinking about?" he whispered.

"Do you think we can just leave her by herself?"

"She's not by herself. She has Hawkmon," he offered, trying to hide that he was thinking the same thing. "Besides, Patamon and Armadimon aren't strong enough to help fight."

"She still doesn't know what she's getting herself into," Iori continued. "Besides, they'll be attacked by people, not digimon."

"You're right," the blonde boy's heart sank. They both knew how heartless people could be, and how peaceful their digimon were in comparison.

"I'm getting better and better," the younger boy said, almost as if to change the subject. "But I'm only able to do so much with a wooden stick."

Takeru chuckled. "Sorry about that. Kimonos really tend to take away from the katana fund, huh?" Secretly, he was glad that Miyako's purchase had set further away from buying a sword for Iori. As much as he wanted justice, Takeru didn't want to see his hands stained with blood yet.

"Don't worry about it," Iori turned on his side facing away from him. "Good night, Takeru."

"G' night, Iori."

"Good morning!" rang through Miyako's ears as someone pulled the thick blanket off her back. She shrieked as the cold air send a shiver down her spine, and light flooded the room.

"Knock it off, Sis!" she turned over, only to realize that this wasn't her own bed.

"Did you hear that, Tailmon? She wants to be sisters," Hikari joked to her digimon. Miyako looked over at them sleepily as Hawkmon ruffled his feathers in an effort to wake up.

"What are you doing in here so early?" she yawned.

"Daisuke thought it would be too weird to wake you up himself, so we came instead," she said.

"My… how thoughtful of you," Hawkmon moaned.

"That, and Taichi told us to," Tailmon added. "He wants to see you pronto."

"What did we do now?"

Taichi tapped his foot and waited behind Daisuke, a little anxious about trusting the national treasure to these strangers. "So, you must be Miyako and Hawkmon?"

"Hi, Taichi," she waved. He seemed a little more aggressive than usual, so she felt nervous.

"Don't act like you know me or something," he folded his arms.

"Someone's a little cranky this morning," Hawkmon whispered.

"He really wanted to go with you guys and get in on the action," Hikari whispered to them. "But Daisuke told him to stay here."

"So how much do you know about this mission?" the cranky advisor asked. "Do you even know what it is you're looking for? There's nothing in the world like our computer."

"That's sounds awfully pompous from someone who'se never been to the digital world," Miyako wagged her finger. "I'm very, very familiar with computers. Where I come from, they're everywhere."

"Then why didn't you just go there?"

"Forget that! I also know that's it been taken by the Yamaki yakuza clan- who you guys don't really know much about, it seems- and they're notorious for causing trouble."

"Yes," said Taichi. "Especially when it has something to do with digimon."

"Not a problem, not a problem," she half-ignored him. "So basically, we have to find them, get the computer back, and then we use it to return to the digital world. What else do we have to know?"

"You seem awfully eager to go," the older boy tilted his head. "Really, that's about all the information we can give you. But you're getting away without some advice, too."

"Bring out the prune juice and give it to me."

"What? Prune juice?"

"Never mind, it's and inside joke. What's the advice?"

Before Taichi spoke, he looked around Miyako at Hikari, who was listening intently. "Hikari, would you please go get the sack I packed for them in my room?"

"Why can't Daisuke do it?" she pouted, being very curious about what this advice was. Instinctively, Daisuke already started heading towards Taichi's room to do it, but his advisor reached out his hand to plant his head in one place.

"Because Daisuke's the feudal lord. He needs to stand here and look important. Now hurry and get that." Her shoulders slumped down as she and Tailmon left, and once he was sure they were out of ear-shot, Taichi turned his focus back to Miyako and Hawkmon.

"People around here are familiar with V-mon and his status, so they don't mess with him. But Hawkmon's going to attract trouble."

"I can handle trouble," said the digimon firmly. "But I'll also do my best to avoid it."

"That might work to our advantage anyway," Miyako added. "If the Yamaki cause trouble related to digimon, naturally they'll be curious about him and start showing themselves."

"I guess you could look at it that way," Taichi scratched the back of his neck. "But try not to get too friendly with anyone around here. Most of the people will be nervous around a digimon, and you don't know who you can trust."

"We know that first hand," she responded. "Anything else?"

"Yes, there's someone you should definitely avoid," his tone became very deep. "A wanderer with fair hair named--"

"Yamato?" Miyako smiled.

Taichi blinked, and then grew stern again. "So you've already met him?"

"No, no, it was just a lucky guess," she laughed.

"That guy is really slick. He also tends to poke his nose around wherever the Yamaki are involved."

"So you think he's one of their hitmen or something?"

"I can't say for sure. All I know is that you should avoid him, and if you do run into him, watch yourself."

"I understand," she nodded.

"If that's all, we should get going," Hawkmon invited himself back into the conversation.

"Wait! You need this!" Hikari ran back in with a small sack, and placed it in Miyako's hands. "Because Taichi can't go, you'll need to take this for him."

"Gee, thanks!" she smiled, and put it in the larger sack Mimi had given her the day before. "Well, we'll come back soon with a computer, guys! Oh, wait, Dai-- Lord Daisuke, I forgot to ask, what do you want us to do about your sister?"

"Leave her."

"Daisuke!" Taichi and Hikari both scolded him.

"Fine! Fine, she can help you carry things home," he whined. "Now get going."

Hawkmon donned his little samurai coat again and tied the white sash around his head again to put himself back in the samurai mindset. Look out, Edo.

Mimi, elsewhere, was serving for her customers as usual. She heard gossip from a couple of gruff men that XV-mon had brought the new digimon and his partner to the castle, and giggled to herself silently, congratulating Miyako in her head. Everyone in the restaurant looked towards the door, though, when two boys speaking a completely foreign language walked in, arguing about something to each other. Both of them had bright blonde hair, and were dressed like those few Westerners who would sometimes sail over to Japan in an attempt to trade, despite the ban of foreign goods that was in effect. The less than warm welcome didn't stop them, though.

This was Mimi's first time seeing them, but bit her lip and told herself to be friendly to them anyway. They were customers, after all.

"We got completely turned around, Captain!" the younger one said. "We should have stopped and asked for directions."

The captain replied in an annoyed tone. "You're the interpreter. That's your job, not mine."

"You didn't give me a chance to!"

"Of course I didn't, Wallace! We were too busy hitch hiking, like you suggested!"

"What else could we do? Our boat is totaled!"

"What does that have to do with how we get around on land?"

"Ummm, excuse me? Could I ask you to keep your voices down?" Mimi asked nervously.

"Oh," the captain said as he saw her. "A geisha!"

"No, no, no, no, no, Captain! This is a waitress!" the interpreter yelled.

Hearing the commotion, Mimi's mother peaked out from the kitchen where she and her husband were working. "Oh, look, Dear! Foreigners!"

"Hmm, you're right, Sweetie. How interesting!"

Mimi still wasn't entirely sure what to make of the situation as the younger Westerner continued shouting at his confused Captain. The Captain finally started to plug his ears and pretend not to listen anymore.

"You'll have to forgive my foolish Captain Michael," the interpreter hung his head and forced his companion to do the same. "I would like just a small serving of dango. Don't trouble yourself getting anything for this man."

Obviously not understanding what he said to her in Japanese, the Captain smiled and added, "Pretty please?"

The waitress laughed nervously and thanked her lucky stars that Miyako and Hawkmon, despite being from the digital world, spoke her language the entire time.

Those two, meanwhile, had only gone a short distance from the castle before sitting down to see just what was in the pouch Taichi gave them.

"Do you think we'll find a tag and crest or something? Or maybe some extra cash! Cash would be great, considering we don't have any…"

"Why don't you just open it and find out, Miyako?"

She dug her fingers through through the opening to push the sides apart and peer inside. "It's food."

"Food?"

"Dry, bland food."

"Well," Hawkmon shifted. "Beggars can't be choosers."

"We didn't beg for it, Hawkmon," she groaned.

"In that case, don't look a gift-horse in the mouth."

"Would you please knock off the adages?" her glasses slid down her nose. As she pushed them back up, however, she noticed something else in the bag. "What do you suppose this is?"

Hawkmon peered at the clay emblem she had in her hands. All it appeared to be was an slate with the crest of courage engraved in it, and a small loop of ribbon at the top. "I don't know how that's going to be useful to us, Miyako. But you better hang onto it, just in case."

"It'd be useful if it were cash," she moped and slid it over her wrist and sighed. "So what do we do now?"

"That's a good question," the digimon mused. "Taichi said not to draw attention to ourselves, but to scope out these yakuza, it looks like we may have to…"

"Right. We don't really know this place very well, so we don't have the first idea where to look. Maybe we should go find someone we know to help us."

"We might know them," Hawkmon chuckled. "But they won't know us!"

"Yeah, you're right about that," she sweated. "And from what we understand, some of our old friends might have changed for the worse here."

"Let's not worry about that right now, Miyako," he held her hand, able to tell that what they heard about a couple people bothered her. "We'll make it right."