Tai was finally losing his patience. The children had been standing in the Yokomon Village for what seemed like hours as they were bombarded with questions from all sides. Normally he would have enjoyed being the center of attention, but they needed to keep moving so they could... do whatever it was that they were supposed to be doing. Finding other people? He didn't even know anymore.
"What are those things on your head?" one of the Yokomon asked him. This was the twentieth Yokomon to do that, but Tai just sighed and gave his stock answer.
"They're called goggles. I can put them on my face to keep my eyes safe from sand and stuff."
"Wow! Do the other humons have those too, or is this like that clothing stuff Biyomon told us about?"
No matter how many times the kids had corrected them, the Yokomon didn't seem to be able to pronounce the word "humans". "I guess it's a kind of clothing, yeah. None of the others wear them, though," he answered. At least this one hadn't asked him if they were extra eyes, and she seemed to know a little more than the others had. Good. He was tired of explaining things that even Agumon hadn't felt the need to ask him.
"Oh, okay. Thanks!" The Yokomon hopped away to join the ever-growing crowd around Biyomon, and by extension Sora. Sora definitely didn't look very comfortable with being asked a bunch of random questions, but compared to Joe (who was constantly fielding questions about his glasses) she looked like one of those celebrities Tai saw on TV sometimes. Tai tried to make eye contact with one of the others, in the hope that maybe someone knew a way to get them out of here without blowing off the Yokomon. No such luck. Everyone was either too busy or having too much fun to notice him. Even Izzy, who had found a way to be completely alone with Tentomon and his laptop, wasn't paying attention.
Another Yokomon decided to ask him a question that Tai had also been answering way too often that evening. "Where do baby humons come from?"
This question in particular annoyed Tai because he had no idea, so he had to make something up. Up to that point he'd just said that they came from hospitals, because that's what his mom told him and where she went before they got Kari. But he wasn't sure that was right. Either way, he had nothing else to go with. So that's the answer he gave to the Yokomon. She seemed to be happy with it, but then the second question came. "What's a hospital?"
"It's a place people go when they're sick or hurt or something," Tai answered. "And I guess they make the babies there too."
"What happens when humons get sick?"
He froze, knowing the answer to that one all too well. Poor Kari... no, he didn't have time for a flashback! Maybe later, when they left, he could talk to Agumon about it. Agumon... he hadn't seen Agumon for a while. He could look for him after he answered the question. "Well, that kinda depends... sometimes we start coughing or turn funny colors or puke or get fevers or alla those things at once. If y'wanna know more, ask Joe. He's the expert." Tai had overheard Joe telling Gomamon that his dad was a doctor or something, so hopefully that would get the Yokomon off his case long enough for him to find Agumon. It worked. She hopped over to Joe (Tai didn't even know if the Yokomon knew their names or not, but apparently someone had told her).
Now he was free to focus on finding Agumon. It didn't take too long; Agumon was standing right behind him. "Tai, are we gonna stay here tonight?" Agumon asked. "Everyone's so friendly!"
Tai's eye twitched. "Um, uh... I wouldn't wanna take advantage of them or anything. We'll go somewhere else." He hoped. If nobody paid attention to him, they'd be stuck here forever! "Hey, guys!" No one turned to look. "Guys." Still nothing. "GUYS!" he bellowed loud enough that every single one of the Yokomon stared at him. "Uh... thanks for giving us food and stuff, but we have to go now, right, everyone?" Nobody except Joe outright agreed with him. "I said, right, everyone? And stop muttering, it's rude!" Izzy and Matt closed their mouths. "Thank you. Now, say goodbye, everyone."
"Goodbye!" Sora, Mimi, TK, and most of the Digimon chorused. They were echoed by the Yokomon.
"Finally!" Matt said once the group was a safe distance away from the village. "That was probably the w- uh, best. Yeah, best night of my life," he finished, smiling nervously as Sora glared at him.
"I wish we could've stayed longer," Mimi whined.
Tai didn't even look back. "Well, we couldn't. We hafta find out how to get home."
"The counselors have probably called our parents by now to tell them we're missing," Izzy put in. "If we're truly still on earth and not on some extraterrestrial shadow world, they'll find us eventually." Tai didn't understand most of that, but it was probably right. Maybe. Izzy kept going, but it was so hard to tell what he was saying that Tai just kinda tuned him out. He just wanted to hurry up and get on with randomly walking around.
Author's Note: Because this was one episode where Tai barely did anything (a rarity, I know) he got this chapter. Almost done with the early episodes now, just... two more of my personal least favorites to go. Darn Adventure, not having many (obvious) plotholes... wait, that's a good thing. So, yay?