The trek to the customer's house was surprisingly uneventful for Takato and Guilmon, although Takato did have to fend Guilmon off a few times as the Digimon tried to snatch a loaf while he wasn't looking.
When it almost got to the point where Takato was beginning to regret taking Guilmon along with them, though, they finally reached the house in question.
Takato quickly knocked on the door, only to nearly jump when he realized that he nearly forgot about Guilmon's presence.
As the owner of the house made his way towards the door, Takato quickly turned towards Guilmon.
"Quick Guilmon, hide!"
Guilmon just looked at Takato in confusion, which forced Takato to resort to drastic measures considering the limited time they had.
Ignoring Guilmon's protests, Takato began pushing him towards some nearby bushes, nervously glancing towards the door every so often to make sure that the customer wasn't already at the door.
"Stay here, okay?" said Takato quietly once Guilmon was sufficiently hidden.
"Aww…why?"
"Because the guy in the house is probably going to freak out if he sees a giant lizard at his doorstep, and my parents really need the money."
Guilmon looked pretty disappointed at not being able to participate in the delivery, but he willingly remained quiet.
Satisfied, Takato left Guilmon to his devices and returned to the front door, only to start when he realized that the owner, a stocky looking man with a short beard, was already at the front door, about ready to close the door when Takato arrived.
"Heh, sorry about that. I had some quick business to take care of." said Takato, nervously scratching at the back of his neck.
"Can I help you with something, or should I call the police in for disorderly conduct?" said the man, looking none too happy.
"Oh no, you don't have to do that! I've just got your order from the Matsuki Family Bakery." said Takato, holding his hands up in front of him to placate the unhappy man.
"Oh, well why didn't you say so?" said the man, his expression doing a complete one-eighty once he found out why Takato was there.
Without waiting for a reply from Takato, the man quickly ran back into his house, returning with a check payment.
Although Takato was admittedly unsure as to whether his parents accepted checks, considering he never really saw them do so, he willingly handed the basket of bread over to the man, sticking the check in his pocket as he figured he would see what his mom wanted to do with it.
Just as Takato was about to say his goodbyes and head back to retrieve Guilmon, the man's expression faltered as the quiet around them allowed him to hear something very interesting.
"Hey, do you hear…growling?"
Confused, Takato looked at the man, thinking that an animal must have managed to get out into the city somewhere, but then his eyes widened when he realized that there was only one thing that could have made that kind of noise at this time at night.
"Sorry, sir, I've got to go." he said, bowing before quickly rushing off.
"Wait! Why are you heading towards the growling?" yelled the man, staring at Takato's retreating form for a few seconds before reluctantly heading back into his house and closing the door, his fears for his own safety overriding his worry about what Takato was getting himself into.
As for Takato himself, he quickly made his way back over to the bushes, only to find that it was in fact Guilmon who was the one growling.
Worried, Takato slowly made his way through the bushes, knowing from experience exactly why Guilmon was growling, but wanting to make sure that he wasn't just hearing things.
"Something wrong, boy?"
All the signs were pointing towards exactly what Takato was thinking of, as Guilmon's eyes turned into slits, and he was almost looking like he was feral. Takato knew better, but it was still an unnerving sight.
Takato was completely expecting Guilmon to mention the fact that he was smelling a Digimon around, but to the young Tamer's surprise, Guilmon remained silent, instead shooting out of the bushes as he sniffed at the air.
"Woah! Guilmon, wait!" said Takato, forced to rush out of the bushes to keep up with him, earning a few scratches from the branches which he ignored.
Both Takato and Guilmon rushed through the city, Guilmon looking like he was on a mission, while Takato could only follow behind him, wanting nothing more than for it to be a false alarm.
"Man, my parents are going to kill me."
Unfortunately, it wasn't a false alarm, as Takato and Guilmon found themselves in front of yet another Digital Field, the fog enveloping a large portion of the street.
"And here I was getting used to not having to fight Digimon." commented Takato as he looked at the field.
Sighing, he turned towards Guilmon, thankful that this time he remembered to bring his deck with him.
"You ready to go, boy?"
Guilmon nodded, grunting out an affirmative before rushing into the fog. Takato, meanwhile, pulled his goggles down over his eyes, taking a few more seconds to take in the scene in front of him before heading into the fog himself.
Once Takato passed through the fog and removed his goggles, he quickly pulled out his D-Power, wanting to get this battle over with quickly considering he was already late for dinner.
"Come on…come on…" he said to himself as he scanned the area around him, Guilmon's information popping up for a second when he passed over his partner.
Eventually, Takato finally managed to get a hit, and the Digimon's information popped up on his screen.
However, before he could actually get to reading through said data, he was suddenly interrupted by Guilmon barreling into him, knocking him to the side.
"Pyro Sphere!"
Takato barely managed to register a scream of pain coming from an unfamiliar voice as he picked himself up off of the ground.
"Thanks, buddy." he said to Guilmon, despite only having a general idea of what just happened.
Guilmon nodded once more before returning to focusing on the Digimon in front of him, who to Takato's surprise began talking.
"Oww! Why did you shoot me out of the air?"
Caught off guard, it took Takato a few seconds to realize that, while the Digimon did look pretty angry, he wasn't actually attacking, which was strange.
"Wait…aren't you trying to get out of this digital field and start rampaging through our world?" he asked, confused.
"Our world? What are you talking about?" said the Digimon, who now that things have calmed down stood up, looking a little charred but none the worse for wear.
His brain still trying to register exactly what was going on, Takato raised his D-Power, which thankfully still had the data from his original scan still on the screen. The only thing that actually stuck in his mind, however, was the Digimon's name.
"Gaomon? Huh, that's weird. Don't think I've ever seen a Gaomon before."
"Well, maybe you should have looked a little harder, then." said the Gaomon, looking none too happy at the state he was in.
The conversation between Takato and the Gaomon stopped for a few seconds as Gaomon took the time to look at the area around him, which allowed Takato to see exactly what the Digimon looked like.
Takato only really had time to register the boxing gloves on the Digimon's hands and the red bandana before he heard growling coming from behind him.
To Takato's surprise, Guilmon still looked like he was ready to pounce, so Takato was quickly forced to take action. Placing himself in front of the angry dinosaur, Takato placed his hands on Guilmon's shoulders, making eye contact with him as he spoke.
"Guilmon, calm down! He may be a bit hotheaded, but I don't think he's hostile."
"Hey! Who are you calling hotheaded?"
Despite Gaomon proving Takato's first description from what he just said, Guilmon managed to noticeably calm down, his eyes returning to their normal shape, although Guilmon was still pretty wary.
Even though the Gaomon still looked pretty pissed at being called hotheaded, the Digimon still remained where he was, allowing Takato to ask him a few questions.
"So…if you're not here to cause a ruckus, then what are you doing here in my world?"
"I'm only going to answer your question if you tell me exactly what the heck you're talking about when you say 'my world' or 'our world'. You're not making any sense."
Slightly taken aback by getting his question thrown right back at him, it took Takato a few seconds to formulate an answer.
"Well, um…we, meaning Guilmon and I, refer to this as the Real World." he said, gesturing towards himself and Guilmon as he spoke. "As for you, your world is what we call the Digital World."
Unfortunately, the way Takato referred to his world ended up hitting a nerve with Gaomon with how it implied that the Digital World wasn't real, but Takato continued on speaking in an attempt to explain himself a little better.
"Okay, so Real World probably isn't the best way to describe our world. What I meant to say was 'Human World'. That sound better?"
"Humans? What are humans?" asked the Gaomon, confused.
"People like me." said Takato, gesturing towards himself.
The Gaomon didn't exactly look thrilled with Takato's vague explanation, but he managed to get the hint.
"As for your question, no, I'm not here to cause any trouble. In fact, I'm only here by accident."
"Accident? How?" asked Takato, not expecting the kind of answer he got.
"I'm stuck here, you idiot!" said Gaomon, indignant that Takato didn't already have a general idea as to why he was here.
"Okay! You don't have to be so mean about it. What I'm asking is how did you even get here in the first place?"
The Gaomon paused for a few moments, glancing away from Takato and Guilmon before answering.
"I got thrown into this weird world when I got caught in a data stream. I had no idea where I even was, so I just kept walking. I found this weird hole after a while, and then I woke up here. It's as simple as that."
Both Takato and Guilmon glanced at each other, having a pretty good idea of what this weird world was.
"I think you might have been thrown into the space between our worlds, but that doesn't explain exactly why a data stream would be throwing you all the way out there."
"Well, I do remember seeing this giant hole before I actually woke up inside that world. Does that help?"
"Yeah, I think it does." said Takato, putting two and two together and realizing that it was very possible that the breach was growing larger.
"Anyway, all I want to do is to go back to the Digital World. I got separated from my friends, for Pete's sake!"
Takato felt a twinge of sympathy for Gaomon, having a general idea of what Gaomon must be going through.
"I'd love to take you back, Gaomon, but unfortunately we don't have any way to get to the Digital World right now."
"You're not hiding anything from me, are you? Because I've got a Rolling Upper with your name on it if you cross me." said Gaomon, a menacing glare on the Digimon's face as he held one of his boxing gloves up towards Takato.
"N-no, of course not! I would never do something like that." said Takato nervously.
"Good."
As Takato watched the Gaomon return his fist to his side, Guilmon suddenly spoke up, catching Takato slightly off guard as he forgot he was even there.
"Takato, what are we going to do about Gaomon until then? I don't think your parents are going to let you bring in another one of us."
Realizing that Guilmon was right, Takato was forced to think for a few moments as the Digital Field mysteriously dissipated.
"Henry and Jeri are out. They're already taking care of two Digimon. I'm not crazy enough to let Kazu or Kenta look after him, so I guess that leaves one person."
Takato looked noticeably apprehensive as he spoke, which clued Guilmon in to who exactly he was talking about. Before Guilmon could comment, though, Takato pulled out his phone, sighing heavily as he dialed the phone number he was looking for.
"Hey, Rika?" he asked once he heard the sleepy voice of Rika on the other end. "I doubt you're going to like this, but I have a huge favor to ask of you."