The next morning came, just as all of the others have. It almost began to feel mundane to Takato, as he got up out of his bed and headed towards the bathroom to get ready for yet another day of school.
Despite some of the nervous stares that Guilmon got from his parents (his mom even looked like she was scared that Guilmon was going to set her hair on fire accidentally), the new houseguest largely didn't really affect the day-to-day lifestyle of the family.
As Takato continued to walk towards the bathroom, he was only vaguely aware of what was going on around him thanks to being in his half-asleep state. However, just as he was about to turn into the room, his foot suddenly caught on something large.
Being half-asleep meant that he had pretty much no reaction time to save himself, so as he fell forwards, he quickly rolled to his side to avoid having his face take the brunt of the impending impact.
Thankfully, although his head did snap forward a bit from the momentum, Takato managed to land on his shoulder. Although it stung quite a bit, Takato was thankful that the fall wasn't worse.
After taking a few moments to recover, Takato rolled on to his back and lifted his head, trying to see what he tripped on, but to his surprise, he found that his feet were still on top of said object and not on the floor. Said object was also red and quite large, which clued Takato in to exactly what happened.
"Guilmon? Hey, Guilmon!"
Realizing that Guilmon was currently fast asleep, Takato lightly tapped the sleeping Digimon with one of his feet to hopefully wake him up. It ended up taking a few tries, but Guilmon eventually did wake up, standing up as Takato's feet fell limply to the floor.
"Takato? What's going on?"
"Never mind that, Guilmon? What are you doing out here? I thought you went to sleep by my bed like you usually do. Now I see you sleeping in front of my bathroom. Is there something you're not telling me?" asked Takato, more curious than annoyed at the state he was currently in.
It took Guilmon a few moments to collect his thoughts and remember what happened, but his expression eventually brightened as he remembered.
"Oh! I remember what happened. I was hungry last night."
"So…that doesn't really explain why you were sleeping in front of the bathroom."
"Umm…to be honest, I don't remember. I was really tired."
Takato paused, slightly disappointed at the lack of a clear answer, but he had an idea of what happened after taking a look at the area around him.
"Well, judging by the lack of food or crumbs, I'd say that you probably only made it out to the bathroom and fell asleep. Isn't that right?"
"I guess so." said Guilmon, shrugging.
"Okay. Just…warn me next time when you have to go somewhere during the night. I don't want to be tripping over you again."
"Okay, Takato!"
Despite the lack of width in the hallway, Guilmon somehow managed to turn himself around and lightly jog back towards Takato's room, which allowed Takato to pick himself up and begin getting ready for school. However, before he could get far, he suddenly heard a voice coming from downstairs.
"Hey, Takato? Is everything alright up there?"
"Yeah, mom, I'm fine! I just tripped on the carpet!"
Although that technically wasn't the truth, Takato didn't want to say anything to get Guilmon on his parent's bad side, especially with how close the virus Digimon was.
After waiting a few seconds to see if his mom would reply, Takato shrugged, thinking that the conversation was over.
"Finally. I'm already running low on time to get to school." he said to himself, slightly annoyed at the constant interruptions.
After finally getting ready and eating breakfast, Takato and Guilmon headed out the front door as they began heading towards the school.
As they continued to walk along the sidewalk ignoring the stares the two of them were getting thanks to Guilmon's presence, Guilmon couldn't help but voice a concern that was on his mind since the morning.
"So, Takato…what am I gonna be doing while you're in school?"
"Same thing as always, Guilmon. You're gonna be spending some time inside that little park near the school building. Did you want to go someplace different?"
"No, I like that park! I just…"
Guilmon looked around him, seemingly acting like he didn't want anyone else to hear before leaning forwards near Takato's ear.
"Someone confused me for a big doggy once. I think that lady wanted to take me home."
"What? Why didn't you tell me before?" asked Takato, surprised to hear this kind of confession.
"I'm sorry, Takato! I hid from the lady when she looked away, and she must have thought I left. I thought she wasn't going to come back, but she did, and I had to hide every time!"
Guilmon quickly hopped in front of Takato, grabbing him by the shoulders as he began pleading.
"Please help me, Takato! That lady's weird, and I don't like her!"
"Okay, Guilmon! Calm down! I'll find you a new place to hang out."
"You promise?"
"Of course! What kind of friend would I be if I don't?" asked Takato, giving him a warm smile as he gently pushed Guilmon's claws off of him.
Guilmon was immediately relieved once he heard Takato's promise, releasing his grip on his Tamer as he turned forwards once again.
As for Takato, this new revelation proved to be a bit of a problem for him. Considering the fact that he was already cutting it close with getting to school, there was pretty much no way he was going to find a new place for Guilmon and not be incredibly late for school, so he tried his best to formulate an emergency plan in his mind.
Unfortunately, with the lack of time he had, Takato's best plan turned out to be his first plan. After quickly finding an empty box, he stuck it over Guilmon's head as the Digimon looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but under a cardboard box.
"Aww, do I have to be under this box again, Takato?"
"Well, if you would have told me earlier, I would have been able to think of a better plan. But right now, this is all we got."
Ignoring the groan from Guilmon, Takato quickly checked his watch and freaked out when he found out exactly what time it was.
"I'm late! Come on, Guilmon, let's go!"
Despite the restriction on Guilmon's movements thanks to the box on top of him, Guilmon was still able to keep up with Takato as the two of them rushed towards the school building.
When Takato finally managed to make it into his classroom after leaving Guilmon inside a janitor's closet on the same floor, he was surprised to find out that Ms. Asaji was not in class today (according to the substitute teacher, she wasn't feeling well), so somehow Takato managed to luck out and avoid getting in trouble for being late.
Takato was slightly distracted due to the fact that he hoped that the janitor wouldn't need to get into the closet while he was in class, but thankfully he didn't hear any loud yells coming from outside the classroom, so he took it to mean that no one managed to find him.
After class, Takato quickly rushed out of the room, failing to hear Kazu, Kenta and Jeri calling after him. However, the three of them were undeterred, though, as they managed to catch up to Takato just as he entered the janitor's closet, blocking his path.
"Takato? What are you doing inside the janitor's closet?" asked Kazu, looking unimpressed as he took in the sight of Takato dragging a large box.
"Um…nothing. What are you guys doing?" said Takato, whirling around to face the three of them as he quickly stood in front of the box, holding down the lid with his foot.
"Hey, don't send our questions back to us! We just want to know why you're running away so fast instead of walking with us like you usually do." said Kenta.
Takato quickly tried to think of an excuse, but before he could think for too long, Jeri spoke up.
"Hey Takato, what's inside that box you're carrying around?"
"Nothing! Nothing's in there, so you really don't have to worry about checking under there." said Takato, desperately trying to throw them off of the trail and get them to leave so that he could take Guilmon outside.
However, Kazu and Kenta weren't so easily fooled. Walking forwards, they dodged Takato's attempts to block their path and looked around the other end of the box, immediately noticing a large red tail poking out of the bottom.
"Wait a minute, I recognize that tail." said Kenta, quietly whispering to Kazu as the two of them studied said tail.
"Hey Guilmon, is that you?" asked Kazu, lightly nudging the box with his foot.
"Yeah, it's me. I'm under a box!"
Sighing in defeat, Takato pulled the box off of Guilmon temporarily, allowing the virus Digimon to stretch his legs out. Jeri quickly jogged over to the door, closing it and flipping the light switch so that the five of them could get some privacy.
"So Takato, would you mind explaining to me why Guilmon's hiding under a box in here?" asked Kazu.
"Well, um…it's kind of a long story."
"Don't worry. We can wait."
"OK, uh, did one of the others tell you about me bringing Guilmon to live at my house recently?"
"Well, no, to be honest. Kazu and I only saw Rika and Renamon recently, and I don't think Jeri's heard anything about it. Right?" said Kenta.
"Right. To be honest, I thought you would have told us earlier, Takato." said Jeri.
"Sorry, I guess I must have forgot. Anyway, Guilmon's been spending time at that small park nearby while I've been in school, but according to him, there was this lady who thought he was a dog and wanted to take him home."
"So…that doesn't really explain why you decided to bring him all the way in here." said Kazu.
"I didn't have time to find a new place, and I really didn't want to make a scene."
"Really. And dragging a huge box around the school with a six-foot tall lizard inside wasn't causing a scene?"
"Look, it was the best I could come up with on short notice, okay? I don't see you guys coming up with places he could go."
"Actually, there is a place he could go!" said Kenta.
"Really?"
"Yeah. MarineAngemon and Guardromon have been spending time at the main park while the two of us were here. Maybe Guilmon can join them!"
"That sounds great! How about you, boy? You wanna spend some time with them?"
"Yeah, that sounds amazing!"
"Great! How about starting tomorrow we all meet up at the park every day before school by Guilmon's old house?"
Both Takato and Guilmon nodded in affirmation, setting their new arrangement in stone.
"Now, how about we get you out of here? I'm sure someone outside noticed how long we've been here." said Takato towards Guilmon.
Guilmon groaned once again, unenthusiastic about the prospect of getting back under the box, but he didn't really get to argue much before everything around him went dark.
"Hey, you guys want to give me a hand sneaking him out of here?" asked Takato.
Rather than reply, Kazu, Kenta and Jeri took the three remaining sides of the box. With Takato leading the way, the four of them began leading Guilmon out of the closet and into the hallway.
Outside of some close calls with nearly running into a few teachers, the four Tamers were able to successfully get Guilmon out of the building without any real issues.
Once they were a safe distance away, Takato immediately pulled the box off of Guilmon as the virus Digimon spread his arms out wide.
"Ahh…fresh air!"
Takato lightly shook his head in amusement before he began following Kazu, Kenta and Jeri towards the park so that they could rejoin their Digimon. However, before they could get far, Takato suddenly noticed a figure heading towards them at a very quick pace.
"Wait, who's that over there?"
Takato shielded his eyes, squinting as he attempted to determine who was rushing towards them. By the time he did so, though, they were already close enough to the point that Takato could easily see who it was.
"Is that Rika? And Renamon?"
It looked to Takato like Rika was searching for something. When she spotted the five of them standing there, she quickly rushed over to meet them.
"Whoa, Rika, what's the rush? You look like someone's chasing after you!" said Kazu.
"Never mind that! I need your help. We've got a huge problem."
"What kind of problem?" asked Takato, confused.
"My grandmother's missing!"