Chapter 46

The Human World

Sora was laid on her bed waiting for her bedside phone to ring. Matt had promised to call her after he'd finished trying to translate Izzy's email with his digivice but she'd been home for nearly two hours now and still hadn't heard from him. Surely he'd gotten home and taken a look at it by now? Why hadn't been in touch?

In her left-hand she held her own digivice, which had been defunct for months now, and wished so much that it still worked. Despite how happy she was to be home now and with how things had worked out for her the past few months she did miss the digital world, especially Biyomon.

The pink bird digimon was the best friend a girl like her could ever ask for. Wise and compassionate, Biyomon knew exactly how to make Sora feel better whenever she was upset or worried. Back during their adventure Sora had had several difficult moments, times when she questioned herself and her relationships with certain people. Biyomon was always there for there, providing support and advice whenever the red-head had needed it. Whenever Sora needed someone to put an arm around her shoulder(or a wing in Biyomon cases) or to alternatively give some straight-talk, the pink digimon could always be counted on.

She'd give anything to talk to Biyomon right about now; she was so confused over what to do and how to think. She was very worried about this email Izzy had shown to them, the way Matt had gotten so excited by it. What if it turned out to be nothing but junk mail? She knew how much it would crush her boyfriend.

But what if it turned out to be something digital after all? What would happen then? As much as she missed her digimon friends and TK, she really didn't want what had happened last summer to repeat itself. Everything was just getting back to normal, for digimon to suddenly start appearing in the human world again would cause nothing put a panic.

Trying to take her mind off of Matt and the digital world, Sora deciding to turn her TV on and find something to watch before bed. Grabbing her remote she turned it on and began absent-mindley switching through the channels for a few minutes before deciding to settle on the ten o'clock news.

She watched as the TV anchor reported the headlines. Nothing much had happened that day, the main story was that a prominent politician had been caught having an affair. Sora wasn't really interested in hearing about a man's complicated love life but anything was better than listening to reporters every other night talking about digimon. That's what the last few months had consisted of across every TV station. It had become very tiresome listening to these so called "experts" talk about something they clearly hadn't the faintest clue about.

Eventually Sora's eyes began to feel heavy and she decided to call it a night. But just as she began scrambling around to find where she'd dropped the TV remote so she could turn it off her mother knocked on the door.

"Sora dear, are you asleep yet?"

"No mom, come in."

Sora's mother opened the door and leaned her head in.

"Sora, there's a phone call for you."

Sora's eyes became wide again. Finally she thought, Matt had called like he promised he would. Why had he left it so late though?

"Who is it mom, is it Matt?" she asked, not expecting any other answer.

"No, it's a lady saying she's his mother. She sounds worried."

"Matt's mom," Sora thought to herself now. "Oh no, what's happened? It has to be that email, it must have something to do with the digital world after all."

Sora leapt up from her bed and walked past her mother into the hallway toward where the phone was. The receiver was off the hook and Sora picked it up and spoke to the person on the end.

"Hello, Ms Takaishi?"

"Oh Sora, hello yes this is me," was the reply. "I'm sorry to call you this late but do you know where Matt is? He's not here at our apartment and he's not supposed to be out this late."

"Er, no I'm sorry Ms Takaishi, he's not here. I last spoke to him a few hours ago when he met me after tennis practice. We went out for an ice cream and then called into our friend Izzy's apartment for a few minutes. Then he walked me back here and said he was heading home himself."

"Oh, well me and his father have just came home ourselves from the movies and he's not here. His supper is half-eaten so he must have been home at some point but he must have gone back out again, we thought he may be with you."

Matt's mother did indeed sound quite worried and that in turn troubled Sora.

"No ma'am, I haven't heard from him since earlier when we said goodbye."

"Oh dear, well now I'm worried," Nancy confirmed. "I know Matt can take care of himself but me and his father don't like him being out this late, it can be dangerous on the streets at night."

Trying to calm both herself and Matt's mom down, Sora tried to come up with a logical explanation.

"Have you called Tai Ms Takaishi, maybe Matt has gone to spend the night there."

"Yes," was Nancy's reply. "Matt's dad has already called Mr Kamiya who said that Tai says he hasn't spoken with Matt today."

"Well…. I…. I don't know then Ms Takaishi."

Meanwhile….. in the Digital World

Matt walked along the beach shoreline in search of the Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon, the digimon he was sure could point him in the right direction of finding TK. Elecmon had told him that the troublesome duo lived somewhere around here on the coast and Matt had gotten up at the crack of dawn to set out in search of them. His digivice told him it was now almost mid-day which meant he'd been walking for nearly six hours but still he hasn't found this beach house that Elecmon had described. Deciding to take a break, Matt sat himself down tried to gather his thoughts as he watched the tide drift in and out. He was unsure of where he was and had no idea of what digimon could possibly be around, friend or foe. He was also parched because of the heat (the sun was beaming down) and he had no water to drink having left Primary Village rather foolishly without any provisions.

With the heat getting to him, Matt lay back on the sand and was soon drifting off. He just wanted to rest his eyes for a second, then he'd get up and continue his search. A second however became a minute, a minute because five and five soon gave away to a deep sleep.

Not long after….

"Is he dead?"

"Of course not, he's just sleeping!"

"Then why don't you wake him up?"

"He'll wake up when he's ready."

"Why do you think he's here?"

"I don't know, why don't you ask him?"

"I would if you'd wake him up!"

Matt slowly awoke from his slumber to hear the sound of two voices he recognised but couldn't place. They're arguing was dragging him from his slumber and after a minute or so of listening to their back and forth jousting he opened his eyes to see whom the voices belonged too.

It was Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon.

"Hey man, you're awake," said Pumpkinmon now who was standing to his right.

"Hey there," said Gotsumon from the left. "What are you doing here?"

"Gotsumon, Pumpkinmon…." gasped Matt who couldn't quite believe his luck. "I've been looking for you both."

"You have?" they both asked simultaneously.

Matt sat up but immediately began to cough, his throat now very dry.

"Pumpkinmon, get him a drink."

The orange-headed digimon went and poured Matt a glass of water which Matt gratefully gulped down upon receiving. When he'd finished he looked around the room to figure out where it was they were.

It looked like some sort of living room which was sparsely decorated with only a couch, a coffee table, some armchairs and a small bookcase. This had to be the house he'd been looking for but unable to find before passing out. Luckily they'd found him instead.

"I'm glad you guys found me," said Matt. "I actually came here to look for the two of you."

"How come Matt my boy?" asked Pumpkinmon now, offering their guest a seat.

Matt sat down and began to explain as quickly as he could how it had came to be that he was back here in the Digital World. When he'd finished with that, he wasted no time in turning in asking the questions he'd been dying to have answered.

"What about my brother? Where's TK? How's he been doing?"

Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon exchanged grave looks and by that Matt could tell that the answer he was about to get wouldn't be a good one.

"Well Matt buddy, you see the thing is, we ain't seen Trowa for months."

Pumpkinmon's sounded very sad as he said this.

"Yeah, it's been ages since we last saw or spoke to him, he doesn't keep in touch much", explained Gotsumon.

"Huh?" said Matt confused now. "He doesn't keep in touch? I thought you three were all really tight with one another."

"We were," answered Pumpkinmon. "Just things change over time. Age mellows people. Trowa got older and eventually decided to go off on his own."

Matt hadn't thought of that. Time passed differently here than it did in the Digital World. It had been months since the TK had left the human world, but how long had it been here?

"Well, how old is TK now then?" he asked, not sure if he truly wanted to hear the answer.

"In human years? Oh I don't know. Maybe about….. forty or something like that?

"FORTY!" gasped Matt. "He's forty now?! That's even older than our mom and dad are!"

"Yeah, he sure has grown up," said Gotsumon.

"Well, what's he like?" asked the blond teen now.

"What's he like? Well, I'd say he's a lot more mellow than he was when he was younger. And a lot smarter too."

"Still got a temper though if you the wrong buttons," added Pumpkinmon.

Matt smiled a little.

"Yeah, he seemed a hot-head the last time I saw him in the human world. He was always really emotional when he was little too."

"Well some things change with age and some things don't," said Pumpkin wisely.

"So you guys don't see him much at all anymore?"

"No, not really. Like Pumpkinmon said, eventually Trowa decided to head out into the big world by himself and find his own path in life. He didn't want us holding his hand forever."

"Yep that's right, after we got back from the human world we all moved back in here and he was sure was bummed for a long while afterwards. Having to leave you and your folks behind really hit him hard."

Matt just listened intently put part of him wanted to cry. The TK he knew truly was long-gone. When he'd last seen him, when TK was a teenager like him, he had still seen traces of the little boy he knew beneath the surface. Now though, those traces were surely gone. TK was an adult now, probably even older than both of their parents in human age (Hiroaki and Nancy were both 37 and 36 respectively). He wondered if TK would even remember many of the things from his childhood, it would have been so long ago for him.

"Anyways," continued Gotsumon with his story. "For a while we all went to Primary Village with Patamon and Elecmon to help raise the babies, we thought it would cheer Tro' up. From there we all formed a little band (Matt smiled) but that didn't last too long. After that, when Tro' was maybe 20-somethin' that's when he decided to strike out on his own. He went off to hunt treasure.

"To hunt treasure?"

"Yeah, from what we've heard that's mostly what Trowa spends his time doing now. He used to check in with us from time to time but he never stays long. And the last time we saw him was a when he came to ask if he could borrow our fishing boat. Said he needed it for his next expedition. The bastard never brought it back, we had to build a new one."

"And when was that exactly?"

"Months ago. We've heard nothing else since but he'll probably turn up again eventually. Just I wouldn't recommend waiting around for it though pal, you'll probably be as old as he is now by the time he decides to come."

Matt digested all this as he tried to think of more questions to ask.

"What about Patamon? Is he with TK any of the time?"

"No, I don't think so," said Pumpkinmon. "He might know more than us but that flying poof-ball stays with Elecmon in Primary Village most of the time. You should head there and ask him if he knows anything."

"I've just come from there, Elecmon said Patamon left a few days ago and didn't say where he was going."

"Well we have no clue either," said Pumpkinmon. "He might have gone to meet up with Tro' or may have gone to get donuts and gotten lost on the way home. What that flying suck-up does is nothing to do with us."

Matt could tell that these two and Patamon clearly didn't get along and he could take a good guess as towhy. Patamon was always pure and good-hearted, like TK had been as a boy. Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon were laid back and mischievous, something that had clearly rubbed off on TK when he'd reached his teens. He could just picture the three of them fighting one another for TK's ear after they'd all returned to the Digital World.

"Well, we've told you everything we know," said Gotsumon. "What do you want to do now?"

"How about lunch?" suggested Pumpkinmon. "We just got back from our fishing trip and we caught a great hall. You wanna eat with us?"

With no idea what his next move should be (and feeling quite hungry if truth be told) Matt nodded his head.

"Yeah, sure guys. That would be great."

"Cool," smiled Pumpkinmon. "Well then, let's get them fish cookin'."

I won't bother trying to explain my absence; it's been appalling I know. I'm back now though and ready to write again. Please review and subscribe.

BIG thank you to anyone still even remotely interested in this story haha. We'll finish one day, I promise.