Okay, so here we are with another episode. Thank you so much coolgamer for betareading this chapter! I love writing this story.


7. Preparing for a new journey

Izzy had brought his wife into the room with them, explaining the situation to her and watched her process everything. She knew about the digital world of course but had never been chosen as a DigiDestined herself.

"Are you sure about this Izzy?" Touko asked him, her face formed into a frown. "I don't like this but you know more about that world than I do. To me, that place is unknown after all."

Izzy nodded. "I have complete faith in Kei and I will continue to monitor. I've spoken to him already and given how much he is like me, I don't feel like he will want to remain behind. He asks more questions than I did at his age." He reached out, squeezing his wife's hand. "I understand that you're afraid, but I need you to trust in me that I will do my best to make sure to guide the children as best as I can from the real world and once they manage to find Tentomon and the others, I will physically go there to help the best I can."

Touko exhaled and looked at her son before resting her head on her husband's shoulder. "If I didn't have so much faith in you, there is no way I would ever let Kei go through with this, sending my little boy into an unknown world that you've told me is dangerous but I'm trusting you, love. If anything happens to Kei or the other children, I won't forgive you." Her voice choked up a little but she managed to keep her eyes from watering as she reached out to pull her eldest into a hug. Her 3-year-old, Noburu, hugged her legs but she didn't notice him right now. She was more concerned with her eldest son who would be going away from her, but she wouldn't cry. She had faith in her husband and she didn't want to scare Kei. Her son may not be scared easily but he did consider her a fairly strong woman and mother – she didn't want to shatter that illusion.

"Mom," Kei said confidently. "Please relax. I'll be fine and Dad and the others will provide us with necessary information to prepare us for this place. We're not alone in this after all. There's a whole group of us as well as our Digimon partners for whenever we do end up finding them. Mikemon says they were not strong enough to come to us right now though. I wonder how seriously injured they are anyway."

Touko nodded. "I trust in your father and your future Digimon partner. I've met Tentomon after all." She had seen how far he was willing to go for Izzy in the battles that had occurred in the real world. She had stayed out of the way of course not wanting him to get hurt because he was worried for her safety but even from a distance, she could analyse that there was something special about the bond between humans and their digimon partners.

"I'd love to meet Dad's partner," Kei said seriously. "I hope he is doing alright."

Izzy bit his lower lip. "I certainly hope so as well. But given the condition DemiDevimon and Mikemon were in, I'm not so sure about it. But don't worry, we're going to help them. I just want to give the others a few more moments with their families before I gather everyone together."

Touko nodded. "That might be best, yes." She hugged Kei closer to her again.


Sora bit her lower lip, glancing between her husband and her son, both of whom were quiet now that Tai had made the decision. She wasn't sure she entirely agreed with Tai's decision or liked it but unfortunately, he did have a point.

"Matt, Kaito," Sora said gently to both of them. "You two both need to stop. Kaito, sweetheart I know you're upset about us not telling you anything but we didn't know this would happen." She knelt down beside her son and reached to pull him into her arms and Kaito sighed, letting her.

"Fine, I get that," Kaito said softly. "But you both heard what Uncle Tai said too, the digital world will drag us in anyway and I want to go so I'd rather be prepared than not know what I'm up against."

"You're right," Sora said sighing and pulled her son into a sitting position and then glanced at Matt who nodded sitting on her other side.

"The digital world is exactly parallel to our own world," Matt began softly and Sora could tell he was thinking about Gabumon but didn't interrupt and let him continue. "Digital Monsters or Digimon are just like us, they live, breathe, hurt and feel like we do. They may be made of data so it's a bit complicated to understand but our partners become more than creatures we fight alongside. They become our friends, they're here for us in the darkest times and would never leave our sides no matter what happens."

"They sound pretty cool," Kaito admitted. "Really loyal too. Which is rare to find."

Sora laughed a little at that. "Not everyone is selfish, Kaito. And your Digimon partner certainly won't be even when you push them away. They'll stand by you through thick and thin even if no one else does. When we went back to face The Hollow though, everything was so different. Trust was breached of the Digimon with one another and sometimes even with us. Palmon and Gatomon didn't trust Mimi or Kari for a while because Gennai betrayed all of us."

Matt scowled at the reminder. "He nearly killed Patamon because he was afraid The Hollow was too strong to put up a resistance against and our partners, being the chosen Digimon were prime targets so handing them over to The Hollow was a sure way to stay alive and not end up into bits of digital data themselves. This made Gatomon believe she was alone. She's had a tough past and was alone for a long time so she felt relying on Kari or any of her friends was pointless and if she wanted anything done, she'd have to do it herself. She let the darkness take her and injured Gennai at the time, enough to cause him to retreat and not attack any further. Kari managed to bring Gatomon back to us and even though Gennai's seen the error of his ways since then, it still isn't easy for us, especially the Digimon, to forgive him."

"Kari's one of the kindest people I've ever known and she has a hard time forgiving and forgetting," Sora added softly watching her son process everything. Her son didn't say much but simply nodded and she knew he was thinking through everything. She smiled, no wonder he did so well in school given how much he concentrated on what he was listening to and processing it. She glanced over at her husband who was also silent and was glad the tension between Matt and Kaito had died down somewhat because she didn't like seeing them this cold towards one another.

Those two are so alike sometimes. I hope Kaito can learn to work with the others since Hana's not as great as Tai was in that respect either.

"Do you have any questions?" Sora asked him gently.

Kaito shook his head. "Not really at the moment. I'm just glad you both told me a bit about Digimon although you probably wouldn't know much about what the condition of the digital world is right now would you?"

Sora and Matt exchanged a glance before both of them shook their heads.

"No, but I think Izzy is going to monitor you in the digital world and guide you the best he can," Matt said softly. "Once Gabumon and the others are found, we'll come to help as well to try and set things in the digital world right."

"At least Gennai's on our side this time," Sora added, trying to think positive in an otherwise gloomy situation.

Matt scoffed and Kaito let out an amused sound at his father's scoff causing Sora to roll her eyes at both father and son. Honestly…she knew Gennai's actions were unforgivable but there was nothing they could do about that right now. What good would it do to dwell on the past after all?

"Right," Matt finally said. "I'm not sure what else we can tell you right now so should we go and see what Izzy is up to?"

Sora glanced at her husband as Kaito nodded. She knew Katsuya was a touchy topic and he probably wouldn't find a way into the digital world again but still, Kaito should know. Her eyes locked with Matt's and he shook his head at her subtly so she backed down. I really hope you know what you're doing, Matt. She followed her family to where Izzy, Touko, Kei and Nobu were, turning to watch Izzy work on the computer.


Yuki watched her parents interact with Uncle Ken and Aunt Yolei as Mikemon slept beside her. Her Digimon partner was exhausted clearly from whatever she had been through in the digital world and even though she had told her parents that she wanted to help Mikemon, truth be told, she was a little nervous. Being a pacifist her whole life, she didn't know how to fight and from what her Mom and Dad had told her, that would be necessary.

Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn't seen Dai come beside her, so she jumped a little startled when she felt his arm wrap around her shoulders.

"Yuki, you're thinking too much," Dai said rolling his eyes. "Don't worry about it ok? You're a natural when it comes to helping others and all."

Yuki blushed a bit. "I'm not thinking too much. I want to help Mikemon, Dai but…what if I'm not strong enough? What if the digital world made a mistake choosing me? I'm not strong like Mom and Dad."

"That's a bunch of crap," Dai said bluntly as he always did. "You weren't just chosen cause of Mom and Dad, Yuki. I know that for sure. You were chosen because you're probably the strongest out of all of us. You always want to help people. You see the best in everyone even when they don't see the best in themselves and all." He paused for a moment then added, "And you can handle Kaito and Kei being total grouches and not knowing how to smile." He grinned at that causing Yuki to swat his shoulder.

"Dai," Yuki chided a little shyly due to his earlier words, surprised slightly at her brother's compliments. "They're not so bad."

Dai huffed, not quite agreeing with his sister's thoughts. "Well, they were wrong about Sam, weren't they? He's still alive and all! Think he remembers us?"

Yuki shook her head, not sure what to think about their friend that they had long thought gone. "Maybe not but we'll help him to. Mom and Dad say you two were best friends when we were all little."

Dai nodded, smile ever present even at the grim events that were before them. "Yeah, we'll definitely bring him back. He's still my friend even if he doesn't remember! Hey what do you think my partner is like?"

"Probably talks too much like you," Yuki teased and smiled. She adored her brother, she really did but teasing him was a lot of fun. Playful bantering between the two was a good way to help her calm down, it meant something was at least relatively normal.

Dai tousled Yuki's hair causing her to swat at his hand, a grin firmly on his face as his eyes glanced at Mikemon. "Which means he'll be fun. Mikemon has your passion."

Yuki flushed in embarrassment then pouted as Dai began to laugh at the expression on her face. "Not funny, Dai!"

Dai continued chuckling, glad to see his sister cheer up at least a little bit. "It's hilarious seeing you look like a tomato though and it's not even that hard."

Yuki cuffed his head this time, playful smirk on her face as she got back at him for earlier. "I need to not let you and Tay hang out all the time. You're a bad influence on each other."

Dai chuckled, pulling Yuki in for a hug. "Tay's loads of fun although you're probably going to have to hold us both back in the digital world."

Yuki groaned, dreading the moment when she would have to handle the both. "At least you listen to me. Tay's hard to calm down when he gets excited." She loved her cousin, but he was more impulsive than her brother and he didn't tend to listen to anyone except Kaisa and Kaito either…well at least Kaito would be there. Hopefully that would be enough. She rested her head against her brother's shoulder. "I just hope Kaito can calm him down even if we can't."

Dai snorted at the idea, though he knew it was true. "He probably will despite those two bickering more than Kaito and I do. Those two are weird."

Yuki giggled, she watched her brother carefully before teasing him some more. "Not more than you."

Dai rolled his eyes although was grinning cheekily. "Thanks sis love you too."