From the report of Andrey Rabinovich

April 4, 20XX

Oleg,

Several nights ago, Ryo woke us with a horrible scream… as if he had seen the devil himself. Even as I tried to rouse him the young man clawed at the air, eyes wide but unseeing. Come the morning, he insisted to recall nothing from the dream, but the fear in his gaze was unmistakable. I couldn't help but think of the winged figure that appears against the tent wall, night after night.

While I was working on our case logs today, I heard the Akiyamas in some heated argument. They spoke in Japanese so I couldn't understand, but Ryo seemed insistent on something that his father disagreed with. He waved around that little device he keeps with him and gesticulated northwards. We will be making our final push in the coming days, so I can only guess that their argument is related to the path across the glacier.

I did pick up a few words from the conversation, however, and tonight curiosity got the better of me. I browsed through the Japanese-Russian dictionary you gave me and was able to identify just one. The word is 'Okami'— Wolf.

The storm has ended and we will make the final trek tomorrow morning.

Sending you my warmest love,

Andrey

Ruki

In that moment, Ruki didn't know what she was feeling. Her stomach was leaping, her palms were sweaty, her eyes wide… who knew she could turn into a blubbering mess this easily. When Hirokazu appeared behind her, she didn't even blink.

"You got your eyes on a real beauty there, Ice Queen," Hirokazu smirked, wiping oil onto his jumpsuit. "Might have some competition, though. Guardromon's been eyeing her too."

"Did I hear my name?" Hirokazu's partner descended from the metal walkway above them and landed on the garage floor with a loud THUMP.

Hirokazu slapped Guardromon on the side. "Sure did! Ruki here is eyeing your girlfriend."

"The Yamaha F-545G? Alas, my attempts to court her have failed thus far…" Guardromon looked away sadly. "Perhaps you have a better shot than me, Ruki."

At this point, Ruki had made her way to the motorcycle and was inspecting it. It was really an incredible vehicle, with a sleek electric blue body, silver ruts, and rugged wheels clearly made for dirt. And that suspension…

"Oh, get a room already." Hirokazu knelt down. "Not that I don't understand or anything. We get a few motocross bikes coming through but this girl's definitely the nicest I've seen so far."

"Nicest…" Ruki trailed off, tracing a hand down the bike's frame.

Hirokazu frowned. "You do know this thing has an owner, right? Even if it didn't, these things are gonna run you at least a million yen."

After one last caress, Ruki tore her hand away. "Whatever. Bikes are stupid."

"Sure. You just keep telling yourself that, Ice Queen." Hirokazu picked up a wrench and headed back toward Guardromon. "Sato says your brake pads are fine but there's definitely some rust buildup. He also noticed discoloration in the engine coolant which means more rusting. When's the last time your grandma brought this thing in?"

"Beats me," Ruki said. The old Nissan minivan had been in the family as long as she could remember; it was only when the engine started smoking one day that Seiko begrudgingly allowed them to take it in. "Just do whatever you have to. Mom's paying for it."

—

From the instant Ruki woke up that morning, she knew it as going to be a hot day. By the time she got to school, it was sweltering. Even with the promise of the upcoming school festival, morale at Shinjuku Girl's Academy was at an all-time low.

By the time lunch rolled around, Ruki found herself appreciating their school uniform for the first time in her life. Sure, skirts were totally impractical compared to shorts and were an unneeded indicator of gender roles and sign of the patriarchy and yada yada yada but man was it nice to wear a skirt on a day like this.

Ruki was lucky enough to snatch the table in the cafeteria right underneath the fan, which meant the rest of the class was stuck sweating by the kitchen. Her single school friend, Akira, sighed in relief as they plopped down across from her. "Oh thank god. I knew you were running down here for some reason…"

"I can't tell if I'm more happy not dying under this fan or watching the others squirm," Ruki smirked.

Akira glanced behind them. "You're way too mean. What'd they do to hurt you?"

Ruki set down her chopsticks and laughed. "You're way too nice. You don't think they deserve a little discomfort for ganging up on the two weirdos of Shinjuku Academy?"

They ran a hand through their short-cropped hair. "Yeah, I guess. Whatever. I'll just keep on being me and you keep on saving the world or whatever and we'll be fine. High school isn't forever."

"Thank god," Ruki muttered, turning back to her food. One more year and one more school festival to go. Even with the end in sight, she couldn't help but dread the next few days. Hell, she could really go for some 'saving the world' right about now…

—

Jenrya

"Hey Juri, do you guys have a kiddie pool?"

"No?" Juri took another bite of rice. "Why?"

Kenta glared at his phone. "Well you have a little brother and all so—"

"Hey! Masahiko is in junior high!"

Takato nodded. "He works at the bakery, remember?"

"Okay, okay, got it. Sheesh!"

"Why do you need it?" Jenrya asked. He'd been studying off to the side but this was getting too interesting to pass up.

"MarineAngemon doesn't do great in the heat, so I thought it'd be a nice treat. Plus the other digimon would probably enjoy it, too."

"I think we have one, actually." Jenrya closed his textbook. "My mom likes to keep some stuff around for when the cousins visit. I can ask Rinchei to bring it over; I think he's taking today off.

Kenta leaned back and fanned himself with a notebook. "Thank god. I can literally feel MarineAngemon sweating, do you know how awful that is?"

"If we're hot I can't even imagine what he's feeling," Juri sighed and gazed out at the school field. "Sure would be nice to be a lion right now…"

Kenta nodded gravely. "Or a raccoon. There are a lot of bushes to hide in."

"I bet you'd only have to go a couple hundred feet up to escape the heat," Takato said, staring wistfully at the sky. "I'm actually pretty tempted…"

"Oh sure, great idea Takato, I'm sure the rest of the school can't wait to see."

Takato stuck out his tongue at Jenrya. "Oh, whatever, you're just sour 'cause you'd do even worse in the heat as a bear."

He wasn't wrong; Jenrya had never wanted fur less. "Whatever. I'll take air conditioning over hiding in a bush any day."

By closing assembly, Jenrya had officially given up on air conditioning too. The auditorium was usually hot, even without an 'excessive heat warning', and today it was unbearable. Crammed shoulder to shoulder with a thousand other sweaty teenagers had never sounded particularly appealing before, but today Jenrya found himself wondering if he'd stumbled upon the newest circle of hell.

When the principle finally arrived, he looked about as worse for wear as the rest of them.

"Ehh hmm. Hello, students. Thank you for joining me today. Yes, I am also very uncomfortable right now. I had planned to cancel assembly today but I was informed we have a special guest from the Ministry of Education cultural exchange program. Please, no need to stand…"

No one was standing. The principle wiped his forehead. "Umm, yes. Well let's give a warm Shinjuku High welcome to, uhh—" he squinted at a notecard "—Mister Ra… Ra-bino.. Ra-bin-o-vitch. Mister Rabinovitch!"

After a round of applause that was lackluster at best, a young caucasian man with long dark hair tied in a ponytail plodded onto the stage. "HELLO!" he shouted— then again, when the principal handed over the mic: "Hello!"

The principal was clearly waiting for him to say more, but the white guy just stood there and smiled vacantly at the audience. Someone sneezed. "Umm, yes." The principal took back the mic with a frown. "Mister Ra-bin… Ra... Mister R is joining us from the University of Moscow and will be sitting in on your classes to observe cultural differences in our education systems."

Jenrya watched the stage with glazed eyes. Above, the fan was thumping far louder than seemed normal; he wondered, just for a moment, what it would happen if it fell.

"Jen!"

He blinked; someone was poking him through the back of his chair. "Juri?" he whispered back (after a nervous glance at the teacher patrolling down the aisle.) Behind him, Juri poked one last time and tossed a folded up slip of paper across the floor. Jen frowned and reached for it as discretely as possible— suddenly very thankful of his long arms.

As soon as his hand came into view, the world stopped. Hand wasn't really the right word— his fingers were half-fused together, bone structure distorted, skin on the palms thickening into heavy pads— all coated in a spattering of brown fur. Jen's eyes widened and he dropped his chest down to hide the hand-paw and muffle any accidental scream. The drone of the fan was pounding now, beating against his ear drums as the air threatened to suffocate him. To his horror, the brown fur was continuing to sprout up his wrist, his arm—oh god—

Deep breath in. Hold. Let it out slowly. Jen squeezed his eyes shut and tried to center himself. Allowed his heart rate to drop. The fan faded out and the chatter of students faded in. Assembly must have been over.

"You okay?" Someone rested a hand on his shoulder— Juri.

Jen blinked his eyes open, forced himself to uncover his— hand. Perfectly normal, perfectly human hand. He must have actually reached Juri's note, because the crumpled paper was grasped in his fist. It had a single word scribbled on it in highlighter: Fur.

The school grounds were, much to Jenrya's dismay, just as sweltering as inside the auditorium. It was only once he'd retrieved Terriermon and they were slumped on the bus to the dojo that he let himself think about the "incident" during assembly. Probably nothing, he told himself; just a minor lapse, nothing to worry about, and it was so damn hot too… In the haze of heat and post-school sleepiness, it seemed like a topic better forgotten— though his stomach still churned with anxiety.

Near the end of the ride, Jenrya's phone buzzed with a text from Takato in the group chat: 'come 2 kentas 4 pool time!1"

Terriermon, hidden on the seat behind Jenrya's gym bag, peaked over. "Pool time!? Can we Jen, please? I think I'm about to melt."

Jenrya sighed. "I have practice, remember?"

"Oh please!? Can you at least evolve me to Rapidmon so I can go on my own? It's not fair that I have to suffer because you're making stupid choices."

They were supposed to keep their visibility as Tamers low but Jenrya did consider it; after all, if Terriermon was comfortable maybe some of it would pass along to him… but he'd also have no energy left for practice after evolving his partner. Luckily for both of them, his sensei had also decided it was too hot that day; when they arrived at the dojo it was locked up with a note that the owners were taking the afternoon off.

"Oh HELL yes!" Terriermon pumped his tiny paw in the air. "Pool time! Can we just fly, Jen? I don't want to wait for the bus."

Jenrya grinned, blue card already in hand. Being discrete was one thing, but then again… Rapidmon was fast.

Kenta's family lived in a traditional-style house towards the west of town; though not nearly as nice as the Makino home, it had more open space than Jenrya or Takato's homes as well as a fenced yard. In the two minutes it took Rapidmon to get there the wind managed to dry all of Jenrya's sweat; unfortunately this just left him feeling uncomfortably sticky.

Sure enough, the Lee family kiddie pool was very much in use. Juri and Culumon splashed in the water playing some sort of game involving a bucket. More surprisingly, however, was the Ultimate-level digimon sitting on the grass and chatting with Juri.

"Dukemon?" Jenrya jumped lightly onto the grass. Next to him, Terriermon appeared in a flash of light and skipped toward the kiddie pool.

The knight turned their head. "Jen! Don't you have practice?"

"It got canceled." Jenrya kicked off his shoes and followed his partner to the kiddie pool. "Any reason for the getup?"

This time Guilmon's voice spoke. "Takato said that since I don't care about the heat, maybe Dukemon wouldn't either!"

Terriermon flopped into the water pushed onto his back. "So Takato is preventing Guilmon from playing in the water just so he can be more comfortable? Seems a little selfish to me…"

Now, Takato's voice: "Hey! We're happy, right Guilmon?"

And then Guilmon: "But now Terriermon is here!"

In a flash of light Dukemon separated into a very excited Guilmon and an equally dazed Takato. Jenrya grinned and sat down next to the his friend. "I'm sure it was good while it lasted."

"Well I like you better this way." Juri leaned over and gave her boyfriend a peck on the cheek, making him blush furiously. Jenrya looked away, trying to push down the feelings of jealousy. Why couldn't he just be happy for his friends? Unfortunately, fate did not seem to be on his side as thirty seconds later, the gate creaked open and Ruki plopped down next to Juri. Suddenly aware of how sweaty (and potentially stinky) he was, Jenrya pulled at his tie.

Juri whispered something to Ruki who snorted loudly. "That has got to be the worst reason to biomerge, like, ever."

"Again, Guilmon was fine with it!" Tacit glanced at the pool where Guilmon was engaged in some sort of game that involved Culumon and a bucket. "Oh come on, we all know you and Renamon don't waltz around as Sakuyamon every month."

"Hey! The full moon is really pretty, okay?"

"Aww, Ruki likes pretty things too!" Juri squeezed the red-haired girl's cheeks together and she huffed furiously. If it had been anyone else, Jenrya would have seriously feared for their lives… but Juri did have her way with people.

Terriermon must have heard, because he flopped out of the pool and waddled towards them. "Why don't we do that more, huh Jen? Oh wait, I know, it's because you're lame." As if to punctuate the point, the little digimon slopped onto his partners chest, ears wrapping around his ribcage in a very wet hug.

Jenrya peeled him off, only for Terriermon to scramble onto his head. "How about this: if you find a place where it's not totally weird for an eighty-foot robot to appear out of nowhere, and you promise to go to school for me the day after, we'll give it a go."

"Oh my god, you guys still get that tired?" Ruki stood up and stretched.

"It's cause Jen hasn't let us biomerge in, like, a year!"

"Well at least Rapidmon can devolve, remember the time with those Devimon?" Takato sighed. "Do you have any idea how much bread Growlmon can eat?"

"Maybe if you'd stopped feeding him bread he would have actually devolved." Behind them, Hirokazu emerged from the house's sliding door. At his feet was a little metal digimon, insect-like with horns resembling the head of a taser: Kokuwamon, Guardromon's Child form. "Or he could just do it to impress a lady. Like my partner!"

"Alas, Miss Suburu was not interested. And she was such a lovely silver color…"

"Don't worry bud, you'll get there." Hirokazu yawned loudly and unzipped his jumpsuit, stepping onto the grass. Then, proceeded to take off the jumpsuit. And his shoes. And the shirt underneath. And his shorts. And his—

"Oh, come ON Kazu," Ruki snarled, just as the other Tamer started to shift. Juri was blushing and looking away, Takato staring in shock. Jenrya just grimaced. "At least warn us!"

/Whatever. Not my fault the world is full of prudes./ The newly-formed stag snorted and tossed its head. With Kokuwamon in tow, Hirokazu picked his way towards a shaded corner of the yard on dainty hooves, leaving a wide berth between them and the water. Jenrya flinched as Kokuwamon's head flickered with electricity. /Careful, buddy./

After Juri thoroughly dried him off, Culumon bounced over to Hirokazu and hopped into his antlers. "Wow wow WOW! Can I have one? Huh? Huh? Please?"

/Wha— wait, no way! I'm not gonna give you my antlers!/

It was, Jenrya realized, actually a good question. "Deer shed their antlers annually. In theory, you will too."

Hirokazu pawed at the ground. /Oh, eww! But I've got such a nice rack!/

"Kazu, PLEASE consider your choice of words," Ruki choked. "Dear god."

"It's a good question, though!" Juri trotted over to Hirokazu, careful to dry off her hands before she got too close. "Can I check out your antlers?" The deer grunted and Juri leaned in close to examine. "They're still velvety."

/Yeah, so what!?/

"It means they're in an early growth stage," Jenrya explained, curiosity spiking. "Have they grown at all? I mean, since this all started?"

"They were definitely kind of nubby at the beginning," Kenta appeared in the doorway, carrying a tray of lemonade and MarineAngemon swaddled in what appeared to be ice packs.

/Hey! I resent that!/

The group (sans Hirokazu) made their way to the porch. Jenrya tried his hardest to not chug the lemonade and only partially succeeded. As much as he didn't want to think about Hirokazu's physiological processes, the whole antler thing brought up much larger questions. It punctuated the biological questions he'd been ignoring since the beginning— questions that he didn't want to ask. Didn't want to face. Because there was a part of him that was screaming to understand, gnawing away at his insides every night when he tried to sleep. And yet he pushed it down, just like he pushed away his father's experiments and his sister's furious internet research. Ignored his mom's late nights in the lab.

Because Jenrya knew that if he indulged his curiosity like the rest of his family had, there was no going back. Pandora's box would open. There would be some answers, and more questions, and once again his understanding of reality would have to shift: just like it had when he was twelve.

Try as he might, Jenrya wanted nothing more than to open the box. So he smiled and pushed it back down, nailed it shut, buried it under concrete. On the edge of the porch, Guilmon tripped over his bowl of lemonade. Everyone laughed. Everything was normal.

Everything was fine.

—

Mayumi

Nothing was fine. Nothing had been fine for a long time, not since a green and white rabbit fell out of her son's computer screen six years ago. Mayumi watched, quietly, as her husband's past came to light and consumed her family. She watched Jenrya and Shiuchon— only eight at the time— fight back the sublime horror of the D-Reaper.

And when it was all over, she watched Janyuu make the Faustian deal he had to make. She held her children as they cried, panicked, broke down— because their partners were a part of them and they had been torn away. When Jenrya and Shiuchon started getting sick, the leftover data in their bodies degrading from the same algorithm that defeated the D-Reaper and sent back their partners, it was Mayumi who devised the serum that kept them alive. She kept the children alive long enough for her husband and his colleagues to fix the algorithm. Fix the damage that they'd done.

Mayumi loved her family more than anything. But she was done watching. She didn't work her ass off to complete her PhD, and her post-doctorate, and her assistant professorship just to watch. She didn't fight tooth and nail for her tenure, defending her work in a room full of old male biophysicists to be the department's second female professor in the history of the university— didn't do all of that just to watch. And so, on that surreal morning when her family woke up in the bodies of bears, Mayumi Yanase-Lee decided it was time to suit up and get shit done.

On that odd day, the answers came quickly and then not at all. Once Jenrya and Shiuchon were safely human and off to school and Rinchei was in his room doing whatever the hell he did in there (hopefully something involving job applications), Mayumi made a beeline for the lab. Shinjuku University was moderately sized and well-funded in the biological sciences; even if the grant money always went towards certain subjects of interest to the government and donors, she never felt under resourced. With no meetings until the afternoon, the sample was easy enough to prep and run. There were probably better ways to collect blood than slicing your finger into a test tube under your desk, but this was a test better kept discrete.

Two advisee meetings, four coffees, one tension headache, and a thirty page journal article later, Mayumi went back for the results. Upon reaching the machine, an antiquated sequencer on the far west side of the basement lab, she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. The screen flashed its "done" notification, the sample still loaded into the machine's compartment. The micropipette was in the exact same place she'd left it that morning. No one used the old sequencer any more, and she had no reason to assume someone would see the results... But then again she'd also had no reason to assume she'd wake up transformed into a bear, and here she was.

The results weren't unexpected. Not necessarily. What the old sequencer saw as a contamination error was the foreign DNA that floated alongside hers. A quick run against a very specific database (Genetic Identifiers, Order Carnivora: A-C) revealed the result. It wasn't a perfect match, but there was DNA very similar to that of Ursus arctos in her blood. Brown bear.

By the time she got home that evening it was past eight. An expert at compartmentalization, Mayumi had gone about her day much better than was reasonable. She knew what had happened that morning, and she knew their was bear DNA in her blood, but they were just facts. It wasn't until she kicked off her shoes and stepped into the living room that it really hit her.

"Oh hold still, won't you?" Janyu said. He was surrounded by wires, stooped in front of what was very clearly a full-sized brown bear. The buzz of an electric clipper started up and the bear squirmed.

/Dad, come on… Oh, hey Mom./

The bear was looking at her now. She blinked. "Rinchei?"

"Oh, Mayumi!" Janyu scrambled towards her, clipper grasped in one hand. Behind him, bear-Rinchei pawed at the fresh bald patch on the back of his head. Her husband gave her a quick hug before turning back to their son. Cub? Maybe cub. "You're just in time. I modified an old algorithm to track the delta of neurological activity when we change shape. Rinchei here was just playing video games in his room so I recruited him!"

/Hey, I was looking at job postings earlier…/

"You'd better have been." Janyu kneeled down and swabbed the bald patch with alcohol before meticulously placing down three conductive patches with wires that connected to a small device. Mayumi frowned but joined him anyway; her husband had been on a neurology kick for the last year or so and had gained a degree of unwarranted confidence. Oh, the joys of being married to another scientist.

Janyu fiddled with a few dials, checked something on his laptop screen, then gave Rinchei a thumbs up. /Now? Okay, umm…/ The bear squeezed its eyes shut and shivered. Then kept on shivering, violent shivering, his limbs shoved into new formations with painful sounding cracks, his flesh undulating and molding, fur slurping back up— it was all quite horrible to watch but somehow Mayumi knew it was painless. And then, thirty seconds later, the bear had been fully replaced by her eldest son, naked as the day he was born… and the back of his head completely shaved.

"Oh my god—DAD!" Rinchei patted at his head in horror, shouted an expletive, and raced down the hallway to his room. Janyu barely noticed the door slam shut; instead, he gazed at the readings on his laptop screen. He fiddled with the device, then checked out the wires, then went back to the screen with a look of total dejection. "It short circuited…"

Mayumi smirked and stepped over the mess, moving towards the kitchen. "And this is why you leave the biology to me, hun."

—

The parent group text exploded the following morning. Even if the various families of the Tamers had felt no need to share their new circumstances, their kids were clearly another story. It was Takehiro Matsuda who set it off; his 5:30 am photo of a large hawk with one claw on a bag of Matsuda Bakery bread was captioned with a timeless epithet: "Off for my morning deliveries!"

It wasn't a great joke, but Janyu thought it was just hilarious and promptly forwarded the photo to the Lee family chat. While only Jaarin responded with a curt "haha", the parents' text seemed to be buzzing every second. Her husband was more of the social butterfly than her so Mayumi didn't give it too much attention, scanning for interesting bits of information throughout the day but otherwise keeping her phone on silent. Janyu would fill her in on everything that night, no doubt.

And it was interesting, if not frustrating. One chosen animal per family, an unexplained ability to change form through some process that the parents generally agreed felt "instinctual". Telepathic ability available in all non-human shapes, the range and capacity of which were unknown. Conservation of mass entirely non-applicable; biological mechanisms entirely unknown. It was all quite the puzzle. She spent her lunch hour that day in the library, scouring through the stacks for books on bear biology, phylogeny, and genomic databases.

That first weekend after "The Incident" (as they'd taken to calling it) happened to coincide with the parents' bi-monthly tea at the Makino house. It was Seiko who first suggested it, back when the kids' partners finally returned. "A time for us to relax. To get to know each other," she'd said. "We're in this for the long haul, after all."

When Mayumi and Janyu pulled up to the Makinos' long private driveway, there were several cars already there. To the left, Tadashi Katou was locking the door of an old pickup truck; when she smiled at him, he just scowled. Despite a standing invitation, the Katous rarely joined— Tadashi even less so than his wife, Shizue.

Once they reached the Makino's beautiful backyard, Mayumi could have mistaken it for any other, totally normal gathering. Rumiko Makino was chatting excitedly about her trip to Hokkaido to Nami Shioda and Ayu Kitagawa; Janyu ran off to find Takehiro and Seiko next to the succulent garden; Renamon and Yoshie Matsuda caught her eye from the food table and gestured for her to join. If she ignored the medicinal kit slung over her shoulder, Mayumi really could convince herself there was no elephant in the room. Unless the Shiodas' were elephants? She couldn't remember.

When Seiko tapped her glass, the group came to attention in an instant. The elephant was in everyone's minds, of course, no matter how well they hid it. Seiko smiled widely. "Thank you for coming, everyone. Matsudas, Shiodas, Kitagawas…" She nodded at each of them, one by one— ever the gracious host. "And the Katous! Tadashi, Shizue, wonderful to see you today." Tadashi grunted from his spot leaning against the house and Shizue waved nervously.

Seiko's eyes fell on Janyu, then Mayumi. "And the Lees, welcome welcome. Mayumi, you had a question you wanted to ask the group?"

Mayumi nodded, smiled awkwardly. Took a step forward, one hand gripping the strap of the medicine kit. She'd discussed with Seiko and Janyu in advance, of course, but they all thought it better to just ask the question in person rather than through the group chat. "Umm, hello everyone." She coughed. "Quite the zoo we have here, eh?" Someone laughed nervously from the back. Mayumi coughed again. "Tough crowd, am I right? Haha. Ha. So. Umm… can I have your blood?"

Two hours later, Mayumi drove home with ten vials of blood and yet another memory she dearly wanted to forget.

—

As always, more answers yielded more questions. The other parents' blood samples revealed strands of animal DNA, just as Mayumi's had. Shizue Katou was the odd one out, which struck her as, well, odd. And then there was Seiko, the cat DNA in her blood running contrary to the patterns the other families showed. Parents, children, no one else. And yet the trait ran across three generations of the Makinos, and seemed to have skipped Ruki's long-absent father. This implied that somehow the trait was impacting households, not genetic lines… but then why was Shizue not effected? Why was Jaarin, over in Hong Kong for college, very much effected?

And then, of course, there was the baseline truth: whatever the reason, whatever the biological mechanism (and there had to be one), this trait was expressed in the immediate families of seven children who were partnered with digimon. And there were more than seven children out there who were partnered with digimon.

"I think we need to tell Yamaki," she said one night. Janyu froze, glasses half off. Sweat beaded his brow— the day had been exceptionally hot. "Don't give me that look! We both know it's time."

Her husband frowned, then reluctantly set the glasses down on his night stand. "Even if it is time, that doesn't make it a good idea."

"Look, he rejected my request again. Didn't leave any room for question. There is no way I'm getting access to the Akiyama OR the Teruda samples. Won't even give me an address." Mayumi propped herself up and tried to catch Janyu's eye; with her own glasses off, it was somewhat difficult. "The Incident is not something we want to get out— god knows there are people out there who'd die to have a sample of our blood. And if the pattern is actually a pattern, that means there are two more families out there who can do this. Don't you realize what a risk that is!?"

"But Yamaki—"

"Yamaki can protect us. He's an asshole but he cares about our kids. You saw what happened when the digimon left and the Tamers got sick: that man will do anything for them. He will fight tooth and nail to protect our kids. Our kids. Who cares if it's a guilt complex?"

Janyu grumbled something and turned over.

"What's that?"

"I said okay, okay? You're right. God, why are you always right?"

She grinned slyly and wrapped an arm around him. "But isn't that why you love me?"

"That's why I love you." Janyu sighed and turned back to face her, took her hands in his. "We'll figure this out."

Laying there in the dark, fingers interlaced with her husband's, Mayumi chose to believe him.

—

Ruki

They all stayed at Kenta's house far longer than was reasonable for a school night. It had to be the heat, humid and persistent; or maybe the sound of crickets that faded in as the sun faded out, their sound reminiscent of long summer days.

"It almost feels sad," Takato said. "Like the summer's ending." It was just the three of them now, plus Terriermon and Guilmon. The latter had become quite good at staying hidden over the years, dashing from shadow to shadow as they headed down the street.

"Well let's not try to jinx it…"

"Come on Ruki, don't pretend you don't feel it too!" Takato caught her eye. "Something big is gonna happen. Hell, it's already happening! You can turn into a cat!"

"Or maybe it's not!" Ruki snapped, probably sharper than she intended. She knew Takato was right, but she wasn't ready to admit it. Not yet. "Maybe it just is. Maybe some digignome was floating around and granted a wish we didn't know we had. Maybe, I don't know, we're actually mutants and tomorrow the X-Men are gonna knock on our doors!"

"X-Men!" Guilmon grinned from the bushes. "Ruki, you can be Phoenix!"

"Yeah, cause she's crazy!" Terriermon giggled, only to be met with Guilmon's blank stare. "Oh, you guys didn't get there yet?"

Choosing to ignore them, Ruki turned to Jenrya. "I mean, your parents haven't found anything yet, right?"

The taller boy barely looked at her; she could almost see the gears turning in his head. "Not really. Kind of." He stopped walking, gazed up at the night sky. The thought crossed her mind, just briefly, that he was really quite cute… Which was just the perfect prelude for his next comment: "Neither of you guys have heard from Ryo, right?"

Ruki sure hadn't. After the D-Reaper Ryo's father took him back to Hiroshima; he stopped by from time to time and the group tried to stay in contact, but Ryo was elusive. Different. Hell, he was her first kiss and she still knew nothing about him. He was older than them, out of school for over two years now. Last she heard he was studying (Archaeology? Geology?) somewhere in Europe, following in his dad's footsteps. She'd thought about reaching out to him plenty of times over the years, but each time something stopped her. He was the one who abandoned her, after all. Why should she be the one to reach out?

"Isn't Ryo in Mangolia?"

Takato coughed loudly. "Wait, Mongolia?"

"Yeah, like the fruit." Guilmon cocked his head, eyes glowing in the darkness. "Mangolia."

Jenrya frowned and squatted down to Guilmon's level. "Why do you think Ryo's in Mon—err, Mangolia?"

"Ryo said so. On his MeBook."

"Oh my god, Takato, you let Guilmon use MeBook!?"

"Yeah, I let him play on my phone sometimes—"

"Guilmon," Jenrya cut in, his voice deadly serious. "What did Ryo say?"

"Oh, umm…" Guilmon glanced up at his partner nervously. "He was in Mangolia with his dad and they were going north, so he wouldn't have any cell service. Lots and lots of ladies 'liked' his post. A lot of them were in swimsuits— can you swim in Mangolia?"

Ruki didn't even realize she was snarling until Terriermon giggled from atop his partner's head: "Aww, someone's jeeaalous!"

"SHUT IT!" For whatever reason, Ruki just had to take that moment to glance down at Jenrya who just had to blush and turn away. Perfect time to change the subject. "Why do you care so much about Ryo suddenly?"

Jenrya climbed to his feet, sighed. "My mom keeps on asking. She thinks he probably has the "shifting gene" too."

"Well, obviously. Cause he's a Tamer." Takato scratched Guilmon behind the ear absently. "It took your mom that long to figure it out?"

Ruki crossed her arms, letting it sink in. She didn't have any reason to doubt Ryo was a shifter too, but she also didn't think about it. Didn't want to think about it. It was much easier to just accept he was gone- from Shinjuku, from Hypnos, from their lives. Her life. But hell—she was done ignoring reality. "If Ryo's a shifter, it means he's a liability."

Jenrya looked up in surprise. "Shit. Yeah."

Takato seemed to be getting it too. "Jen, you said there's animal DNA in our blood, right? And we know that, which means we can avoid getting blood drawn or whatever… but Ryo doesn't know that. Hell, he's not even in the country!"

"No protection from the government, from Hypnos…" Jenrya muttered. "There are those kids too, Impmon's Tamers— but they're still in Japan at least! And that's if they have the gene. But if they did, Hypnos doesn't even know!" He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes hard enough to make Ruki wince. "And we're— what— hanging out, going to school as if everything is normal. But it's not. I feel like we're standing on a house of cards."

Takato pressed Guilmon against his leg, gazing up at the starless sky. "Like I said. Summer is ending."

—

Jenrya

The first thing Jenrya did when he got home was take a cold shower. He was hot, sticky, smelly, and so god damn muddled. Pandora's box was rattling, pressure was building— the screws he'd put in so tightly were coming undone. Jenrya's curiosity rammed against the corners of his skull: curiosity and anxiety and the horrible, creeping knowledge that he was losing control. So he took a very, very, very cold shower.

The water shocked his system just like it was supposed to (because it's very hard to think when you're shivering) and, somehow, he made it through the rituals he had to. Soap, check. Shampoo, check. His facial hair was really starting to come in now and he even considered shaving, but ultimately determined that was a bad idea— far too easy to cut yourself when your hands are numb. Ritual was good for Jenrya; it grounded him in a way that only become more important over time. 'The Lee's fly high and crash hard," his grandfather had said once. It was an almost laughably pessimistic proverb for their family, but he wasn't going to pretend it wasn't true.

Unfortunately, Jenrya's rituals had been breaking more and more recently and this evening was no exception. He dried off quickly after the shower, driven by the promise of a warm bed and mindless sleep, and was in the doorway of his bedroom when the dizzy rush hit. This happened sometimes, fueled by some combination of lower-than-average blood pressure and exhaustion… even adrenaline from the freezing cold water could cause it. He immediately squatted low against the ground, squeezed his eyes shut, waited for it to pass… but it didn't. The rush got stronger, his limbs tingling, muscles numb, blotches in his vision— heart thumping, losing his grip on the carpet—

-stumbled forward, why couldn't he catch his breath—

—too much air, not enough air, all pressing in, open, closed—

—blood in his mouth, he couldn't BREATH—

"Jen!"

—dark, light, fear, FEAR, FEAR—

"JEN!"

... deep breaths. In. Out. Partner. Friend. Warmth.

"Jen, MOUMENTAI!"

/…Terriermon?/

Something moved across his shoulder. "I'm here, Jen."

He was in his room, but it looked different. The bookshelf was knocked over. Feathers everywhere… torn up pillow. He felt different— but of course he did, because he was a god damn bear, wasn't he— and when did that happen?

"You okay in there?" Shiuchon peeked her head through the cracked door and Jenrya could literally smell her confusion.

"We're good, we're good." Terriermon trotted over to the door, starting to push it shut with an ear. "Jenrya's just clumsy, you know how it is, tripping… tearing open pillows… destroying things… and such." The door clicked. "Stupid sisters, why do they have to care so much?"

Jenrya felt like an empty battery- his limbs so heavy, as if gravity had increased ten fold. Terriermon lied down next to his head, put his little paws on the bear's giant muzzle. The digimon's eyes were wet. "Jen…"

/Terriermon… why're you crying?/

"Because you are, Jen."

/I'm not…/ But then he shivered, and again— the fur shivered off his body, the carpet became rough against his skin. Sounds, smells, sight became muted. Tears spilled from his eyes and there was nothing stopping them. "T-t-terriermon," he gasped in between sobs. "I'm s-scared."

"I know." Terriermon grabbed his wrist and tugged towards the bed. Jenrya crawled in without complaint, trying to ignore the torn up pillow and bedsheet. It was too hot for them, anyway. "I think I'm losing it, Jen."

He curled up on his side, tried to get comfortable. His eyes hurt. "Hey, at least you didn't just destroy your room."

"Jen…" Terriermon flopped onto his back, ears splayed out to the sides. "Something's happening to us. Both of us. I dream about running through the forest on four paws. My body feels different— like my data is changing."

Jenrya took Terriermon's soft ears in his hands, and just for a moment it was like his own ears were being touched. "Hell. At least we're losing it together."

The digimon smiled, eyes drooping closed. "So it's settled then. We'll do what we always do."

His eyes were heavy too, and he matched his partner's grin. "Bottle it up…"

"…and moumentai."