Abel and Kain
35.
Pagumon had knocked her over. The one-eared Pagumon she'd abandoned in a fight because it was so useless. Had saved her. She couldn't believe it.
Even if Grandpa Kogorou had been smart enough to programme a "save all humans" feature into all the digimon, shouldn't it have been one of Aki's three Ultimates? Or one of the Champion digimon that had been creeping up, before they fled. Surely all of them were faster than Pagumon. But it had been Pagumon who saved her.
Pagumon who'd complained to Aki about her. Who'd begged for a chance to digivolve.
Who, maybe, had only wanted some love for her.
But how could bits of data feel such complex things? How had Grandpa Kogorou made them so real? It just couldn't be…
The mega-level bug screamed again. She covered her ears and curled. She hadn't brought a single digimon. Kain had only brought the MegaKabuterimon. 'Kain!' she screamed. 'Do something to that insect of yours!'
Kain didn't answer her. Kain wasn't even there. But Aki was there and Aki's three digimon were there, one protecting Tomomi and Pagumon, and Aki too when she ran to crouch with them. And the other two took the forerunner's position. Shooting attacks. Defending from attacks that knocked them back.
And then it vanished. Just like she'd watched Pagumon and countless other in-training digimon do. Just like Yuji and his Cyberdramon had done to her Dagomon and Kain's other red MegaKabuterimon.
'Where did it go?' Aki asked.
'It's dead,' Tomomi said flatly, though she was shaking. 'Its data will go back into the digital world, and become a wild digimon. Eventually, it'll feed into the scan data for a new digimon...or become a new digimon.'
Pagumon looked exactly like that first one. It hadn't just become a part of the scan data. It was the whole thing.