The kids don't need to fight everyday...

Day 17

It was only 6:00am, Akio had already woken up, despite only had sleep about four hours, he felt good enough that he need no more sleep. As he opened his eyes, the first thing to be seen was Reiko's face, eyes closed, her hair covered half her face, but the peaceful look could still be seen, and above all, her face was just centimeters away from Akio's.

And yes, she did sleep with Akio last night, as she had said 'Before spending countless night in mother nature, I would like to have one comfortable sleep, I have had enough with that sofa!' Before Akio could react, she had already occupied his bed, only left him two option, 'sleep with me, or at somewhere else.' Without even thinking, Akio picked the first one.

'You can really be lovely sometimes, just sometimes.' Akio murmured as he moved some of her hair aside to reveal her face, still pretty as usual. In all the romance Akio had read, in this kind of scene, the boy would usually lean forward to kiss the girl. Yet, that was not this case.

He didn't dare, or bother to move his sight.

In return, the girl smiled, as if she could hear what Akio had said.

Akio did thought of dating her properly, sometimes, he felt like they were old couples other than brothers.

Never mind,

With this last thought, Akio pushed the bed, rolled himself off it and, of course, hit the ground.

'Aw, that hurt!' he uttered. The pain had made him even more awake than before. 'Come on, Dobermon,' he paused, then corrected himself, ' I mean, Cerberumon, gotta go now.'

Cerberumon woke up and whispered, ' This early?' he sounded sleepy

'Yeah, I want to explore the west more before going to the digital world.' Akio responded while changing to his usual clothing.

'Alright then.' Said Cerberumon as he slowly stood up, though he had enough rest, the tiredness still shook him a bit, but he gained back balance soon enough.

'I thought you'd get use to your new legs.' Said Akio, slightly laughing as he saw Cerberumon's unnatural movement

'Apparently not!' Cerberumon nearly shouted, but thought of the sleeping Reiko, he did his best to lower the volume. 'How about she?' he asked

'She will be on time.' said Akio with a final glance at Reiko, then turned and walk out of his room, slowly walking toward his uncle's room. He stopped in front of the door, gently nodded it twice. He wanted to say one last goodbye before his long journey began. A few seconds later, the door opened, his uncle walked half way out of the dark room, still with half opened sleepy eyes.

Before he could say anything, Akio spoke, 'Just to tell you that I'm about to take off.'

'Okay.' His uncle replied, sounded indifferent, 'I thought your girl friend is coming with you.'

'She'll catch up later.' Said Akio, 'Goodbye.'

'Goodbye.' His uncle replied as he watch Akio walking toward the front door, then stopped and turn back.

'One more thing,' Akio added, 'If that girl is asleep at 7:30am, please wake her up.'

'Okay.' This time, Akio and Cerberumon finally stepped out of the house

'Why 7:30?' asked Cerberumon while they were taking the train to the west, 'we were told to meet at like 9:15, aren't we?'

'Yep,' Akio replied, 'If she does wake up at 7:30, there will be barely enough time for her to get prepared.' He continued, 'When she really wake up with conscious, the time will be around 7:35, then she will take a shower, finish at around 7:50, and then dress up and deal with her hair for roughly half an hour, by the time she finished, that should be around 8:20.'

'Fifteen minutes to the station and five or more minutes to wait.' Said Cerberumon, 'and ride the train for a time that a I don't know.'

Akio didn't reply with words, but the expression of being stunned.

'What? I did count!' said Cerberumon as if Akio had take him as a fool that don't notice what happened around him

'I really didn't think of that.' Said Akio, 'I totally forgot the waiting time!'

'You what?!' Cerberumon nearly shouted it out, but due to being in a train, he had to lower his volume as much as possible, yet still let Akio feel that the werewolf digimon was surprised. 'Then she might be late?' this time, almost whispered

'Yep.' Said Akio slowly, but no word by word, 'there's a great chance of it.' he paused, 'never mind, that's her own problem.' His voice returned to the usual relax, even slightly like he anticipated it to be true. The conversation stopped here, the duo just stared the views that they had never seen through the thick glass of the window.

Countless minutes had passed till they arrived, Akio had a look on his watch, 7:45am. She should have woken up by now

The next hour was spent for exploring the street of the west, though they didn't went through the whole west, they decided to return to the station, see if anyone arrived. To Akio's pleasant, Katsumi and Chessmon were there, the girl leaned her back on a wall, arms folded, stared at the direction of the platform, apparently waiting for someone. Without a second of thought, Akio walked toward Katsumi, saying hallo on the way to get her attention. Cerberumon followed.

Katsumi turned to see Akio, seemed surprise to see his appearing, 'You're earlier than I expected.'

'Why would you even thought of that?' asked Akio, 'I'm not always late.'

'Reiko said you wake up late.' Said Katsumi

'She again?' Akio murmured

'Are you waiting for some one else?' asked Cerberumon, 'You seems to be surprised when we came.'

'Indeed,' answered Chessmon, she paused, looked over Akio's shoulder, then spoke again, 'there they are.'

'Who are..' before Akio could finish, something covered his eyes, it was from behind, feeling organic, should be a pair of hands. 'Reiko, is that you?'

There was no answer, that pair of hands lowered, rested on Akio's chest. Then, Akio could feel weight on his left shoulder, so heavy that he had to adjust his step to balance. 'Correct.' Reiko said, right next to his ear. By then, Akio could imagine how Reiko leaning herself on his back.

'Get off me!'

'No~'

Katsumi and Chessmon were watching Akio and Reiko's interaction, couldn't help giggling and laughing, while Cerberumon just sighed, 'They're like this, all the time.'

'They do?'

'Yeah, you'll get use to it.'

'Just get off me will you?' said Akio

'Alright, alright.' With that, Reiko let go of Akio and stood by herself

'I thought you would be late.'

'If I hadn't wake up earlier, I really would have been.' Said Reiko, '7:30, you really think that's a suitable time?'

'Yeah,' Akio replied, while trying not to look at Reiko, 'What're you doing here?'

Instead of answering Akio, Reiko turned to Katsumi, 'Sorry for keep you waiting.'

Katsumi simply shrugged her shoulder, said with a smile, 'I didn't wait for long.'

Akio looked at Katsumi, then turned to Reiko, and back to Katsumi again, 'so, "they" are..'

'Yeah,' said Katsumi, 'we were said to wait here.'

Yeah, why not though Akio

'Let's go, I'm starving.' Said Reiko as she turned and walked, Katsumi and their fellow digimons followed, 'we're gonna have breakfast together, wanna join us?'

'He is joining us,' said Reiko without turning to face the rest, 'and he's paying.'

'Oh, really?' Katsumi exclaimed, 'thanks!'

Just what the hell is going on? 'You know your way?'

'Just follow us, dude.'

Soon Akio realized that he should just walk away when he had the chance, before Reiko forced him to pay. Just by the fancy decoration of the restaurant's interior, he could tell by his instinct that his wallet was about to lose some weight, which can't be easily gain back. Of course he felt pain about it, but at least Katsumi and Chessmon's guilty expression had comforted him a bit, there were someone feeling sympathy for him!

'Are you sure it's a good idea?' asked Katsumi with her eyebrows lowered, 'to have Akio pay for us.'

'Don't worry,' said Reiko with a smile, which Akio could sense the evil hidden in it. 'He deservers that.'

'What?'

'I'll explain it later, why don't we take a seat first?'

As soon as the group settled down, Akio questioned, 'Alright, what's it all about?'

'You leered at me the whole night.' Said Reiko, 'could you come up a better "punishment"?'

'It was you who…' Akio was to object, but was cut off by Katsumi

'Actually, I don't understand a single word from you two.' She said, 'what happened last night?'

'Well,' Reiko began, 'I slept with him last night.'

'It was you who…' Akio defended, but was cut off again.

'You didn't get what I was implying, did you?' said Reiko

'If you didn't want to, you could just say it out!'

'See his attitude?' said Reiko, 'that's why he's paying.'

'Wow, you slept with a hot chick last night.' Said Katsumi, Akio immediately blushed after hearing

He surrendered, dig deeper in this conversation would just embarrass him more. 'Just quit it, hurry order something to eat, we're running out of time.'

'Man, I've never saw you this.. embarrassed.' Said Katsumi with a sigh

The rest of the breakfast was a bur, Akio was just glad that they could finally go to the digital world, though it would be dangerous, at least battling could keep Reiko from talking, or doing anything weird.

Following Katsumi's lead, they arrived the terminal, where Kin, Jun, Darkdramon and Triceramon were already there.

'I hope we're not too late.' Said Akio

'Indeed, you are.' Said Darkdramon with a smirk

'It's all her fault.' Akio turned to look at Reiko, who in return, glared him back

'Can you two just stop it?' said Jun, still in her usual soft voice

'Where're we going, actually?' asked Cerberumon, 'I know we're going to the digital world, but where is the exact spot?'

'The north spot of the main continent,' said Kin, 'we'll have to cross the whole continent.'

'When we arrived, we will be in the city of the south, if anyone forgot to bring anything, we will get thing in stock there, then we'll leave the city and cross the desert in the middle of the continent. When we leave the city, we will have crossed one-third of the continent, but there's still a long way to go.' Jun added, 'any more question?'

'Um, no, we'll just do what you say.' Said Katsumi

The place was familiar, Akio, as well as everyone, had been in here at least once, that was how they got to this city from human world. To Akio, the day he moved to this city was just like yesterday. Despite he had already spent more than a year living here, he felt like he'd just lived here for half a month, those dark days at school, he preferred not to mention it, just let those memories be banished from his brain.

The place was like an airport, but instead of aborting on plane, people walked through the gate, a gigantic glowing purple vortex hanging on the wall.

After a bunch of clumsy procedure, the team finally passed through the gate. The other side of the gate was, more or less, the exact same as the interior of that in Bifrost, just symmetrical.

Following Jun's lead, the team left the terminal, the only thing they saw were a several bus stops, both routes leads to one big bridge, the other side of the bridge was wide, except the one the linked with the bridge, no boundaries of land could be seen. There were buildings, too, most were not so high, but a few towered above the others.

'Welcome to the City.' Said Triceramon

'It doesn't have a name?' Katsumi was the only one to ask, but the others had this question in their head as well.

'It's the only city in digital world,' said Jun, 'so they don't need to name it.'

'Let's get going, shall we?' Reiko suggested, she sounded so cold and serious, the old Reiko that Akio used to know

'Yeah, let's go.' Jun answered, she leaded them team to get on the bus. To do so, most of the humanoid digimoms' size were reduced to the same size as an ordinary man, Terceramon, the only 'beast-shaped' digimon, was turned to the size of a doll as usual, held by Jun. Luckily, Cerberumon wasn't a very big werewolf, or he'll be in great trouble, Akio lost his digivice, he couldn't change Cerberumon's size, thank Yggrdrasill that he was just enough to fit in the bus.

The view Akio saw on the bus was rather disappointing, he could only see the sea when the bus was crossing the bridge, the day's weather was good, too good that the sea was calm, only blueness to be seen. After it crossed the bridge, all he saw was the same city view that so similar to his own town's, just buildings after buildings. Just what's the difference between the two worlds, thought it would be less developed. Seeing Akio's reaction, Kin causally joked, 'welcome to 21's century.'

After about an hour of riding, they finally arrived at the train station.

'Before we get on the train,' Jun started, 'please be sure that you've packed all you need, plenty of water and food are necessary, there's no turning back once you stepped into the desert.'

The group checked their backpacks, not once, but twice, and insisted that they had got their backpacks full loaded, yet Jun was still worrying they might be starved to death during the on coming journey, it was Triceramon that finally convinced her.

They spent the rest of the day on the train, not until the next day could they reach the boundary of the City. After all, the City occupied one-third land of the continent.

That night, Jun and Triceramon was the only pair that couldn't sleep, they were still busy discussing the upcoming plan.

'I don't think Blastmon would let us pass through the desert easily.' Jun stated her concern

'We can use some help from Dorugoramon and his fellow Gaossmon.'

'Yeah, you're right. They're the best tribe.'