Mirai blinked blearily at Chika, trying to process what seemed different about her this fine Monday morning. A night of sleeping on the floor followed by a late night of rushing to finish her weekend homework made for a very sleepy goggle-head, even after her morning martial arts practice. She hadn't seen Taki yet, which was lucky, because her sleep-addled brain was currently blaming him for her exhaustion even as Chassy reminded her that it was a natural consequence of her own actions. Mirai tried to focus on Chika again, who by this time was looking a little uncomfortable with the staring.
"Oh! You're wearing the new hairpin!" Mirai said, her eyes lighting up with recognition. Chika laughed.
"I hope you like it," she said, shifting her head around to give Mirai a better view. "You picked it out, after all."
"I simply provided my opinion before rushing off like a jerk. I am sorry about leaving so abruptly, by the way."
"Don't worry about it. Things come up." Chika didn't sound angry. Mirai smiled with no small amount of relief. She had almost forgotten about it until she saw the hairclip. "Honestly, I'm more worried about you. I thought you were usually a morning person."
"Long story that boils down to 'Taki derailed my entire weekend and now I'm paying for it.'" She punctuated the explanation with a yawn.
"Hey Mirai, can I copy your-"
"Absolutely not," Mirai said, blocking Taki from grabbing her notebook out of her bag. She might have done more had Chika not been standing right there. "You made your bed, now lie in it. You said you were going to do your homework, anyway."
"Did I say that?" Taki asked, evasively, but he stopped playing dumb when he saw Mirai's glare. "Okay, okay, but seriously, that last story problem has me stumped. I did the rest of it, I swear."
Mirai shook her head. They were supposed to be competing, and besides, she had struggled on that one, too. Math was not her best subject by a long shot.
"Koeno?" Taki asked, puppy-dog eyes at full power.
Chika looked between Mirai and Taki, wanting to help the latter but not willing to offend the former. She shifted her attention to the clock, and, her lips pursed in a thin line, finally said,
"I think we have enough time that I can walk you through it."
Taki rejoiced, and internally, Mirai did the same. Although Chika was unable to finish her explanation by the time the teacher walked into the classroom, she did a good enough job that Mirai was able to find a mistake in her work while half-listening to the English lesson. She saw Taki scrambling to finish the problem during the break.
"Hey man, a new burger joint opened up downtown and Yuuta's getting a group together to go check it out this afternoon," one of their classmates said, tossing a flyer on Taki's desk. He picked it up, and even from across the classroom Mirai could see him drooling at the juicy-looking patties. "You wanna come?"
Taki shook with reluctance as he passed the flyer back to his friend.
"I would love to come, but alas, I already have plans," he said, voice strained. "But please, though you may mourn my absence, you must try it out on my behalf."
"Yeah, yeah, we'll tell you how it is. Hanging out with the princess again, right? Lucky dog."
"If you mean Chastity, then yeah, I am," Taki said, dramatics replaced with slight annoyance. "How many miles you willing to hike with me, her sister, and Jonah along for the ride?"
"Yeah, uh, I'll pass," he said as he scrambled away. Taki didn't watch him go, turning back to his homework instead. When he finally put his pencil down, Mirai scooted over and said,
"That was surprisingly smooth."
Taki slumped.
"The digital Powers-That-Be owe me a burger."
"You never said what became of your club application," Jonah said to Mirai that afternoon as they retrieved their Digimon from the storage shed. Mirai sighed.
"I got approval – and luckily our advisor isn't too interested in actually advising," she explained, "but there currently aren't any free club rooms so we'd have to negotiate with another club to share. Otherwise, I was told that since we're the Outdoors Club, it wasn't like we were going to be putting a room to use as anything but storage, so the school won't do anything besides set aside a spot in here for a box or two."
"That bites," Taki said. Haruki snickered a little bit from where he was cleaning up their partners' snacks. Jonah raised an eyebrow, as he failed to see anything humorous about the situation. Taki's eyes lit up at Haruki's reaction – a private joke, then – before he continued. "But they have a point, and we can't exactly tell them about the Digimon."
"I'm getting worried leaving them in here all day," Chassy said as she motioned for them to leave. "Now that most club activities are in full swing the shed is seeing a lot more use."
"As the smallest and most agile, I've taken to being the lookout," Kudamon added as he settled on Taki's shoulders. He was the only Digimon not loaded. "I am quite grateful for the vent facing the field. It lets me give plenty of warning."
"Speaking of warning," Jonah said lowly, "I hear that mine was not heeded."
Taki looked like a deer caught in the headlights, even as he kept pace with everyone. Haruki looked at Taki quizzically, then at the rest of the group. Mirai, at the front of the pack, stared straight ahead, even as she felt the frustration rolling off of Jonah in waves. Kudamon tensed around Taki's neck, face buried in Taki's collar. Chassy looked apologetic, but in a "it's for your own good" kind of way. A lightbulb went off.
"Ah! Taki, did you sneak out again?"
"Shu- Haruki! Why'd you have to blurt that out?"
Jonah hissed, exhaling through his teeth. He ran his hand over his face, massaging the bridge of his nose as he went.
"I doubt another lecture would do any good, so good for you for at least taking Mirai along. And Mirai, thank you for telling your sister. At least someone knew where you two were if something had gone wrong."
"Um... was this not one of your usual escapades?" Haruki asked uncertainly. "Wait, did you two go to the Digital World? By yourselves?!"
Mirai suddenly understood why Chastity went into business-report mode when she dodged the date question. Oh, it was so much easier to brush awkwardness under the rug in business-report mode, and she stuck to it as they took turns relaying the weekend's events. They were still detailing the additional territory once they were in the Digital World, which meant that Dracomon and Floramon were contributing their own commentary, when Taki interrupted.
"Hey, d'ya smell that?" he asked, sniffing the air.
"Smells delicious!" Dracomon cheered after a sniff of his own. The other Digimon concurred, with Mirai agreeing moments later.
"I don't smell anything," Chastity complained. Jonah shrugged.
"No, wait," Haruki said, moving to the front of the group. "There! It smells like... soup? Maybe?"
"The digital Powers-That-Be heard my plea! Even if they're a little confused," Taki cheered, picking up the pace and leading the way with his nose. He led them to the outskirts of a small town, and specifically to a small cottage dwelling that, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a restaurant.
"Do you suppose it is run by a Digitamamon?" Chastity asked, grinning at her sister.
"That seems like a rather arbitrary assumption," Pandamon said.
"Something in the show?" Jonah asked. Chastity nodded.
"There was a restaurant run by a Digitamamon and a Vegimon. I don't expect that to necessarily hold true here, of course."
"Who cares who it's run by? I wanna eat," Taki said, about to go in, Mirai close on his heels. Jonah grabbed the two of them by their collars, halting their advance.
"Hold it. Do either of you even have a way to pay?"
"Yeah, my parents give me a small allowance for spending money," Taki complained. Mirai nodded, then scrunched her eyebrows as something started to occur to her. Jonah spoke before she could finish her thought.
"In what currency?"
"Yen, obviously!"
"Oh. This is the Digital World, huh?" Mirai said. "We can't be sure they take Japanese Yen. For all we know, they take American Dollars or Euros or something."
"Or even some Digital World only currency," Jonah sighed. "This is why I was hoping to have something to barter with."
"Why don't we just ask?" Haruki said, walking past them to the door. "Excuse me!"
A small pink and green bird-like Digimon emerged from the restaurant, looking at Haruki curiously. As Haruki explained the group's dilemma, Jonah muttered, "Wait, you can do that? That was an option?" Mirai glanced at him in concern as he let them go, but his face was already an impassive mask. She blinked. Having learned about his insecurities second-hand, she felt it best to keep her mouth shut about them.
"We don't take that Yin stuff, sor-ry folks," the Digimon, Pomumon, trilled, in a way that Mirai could not decide was rhythmic or just over pronounced. "Though I'm a-fraid it wouldn't matter much iff'in we did, as we are plum near out of ingredients. We normally go gath-er-ing in the jungle, but it has been much too dan-gerous."
"Hey, hey, how about this," Taki piped up. "If we go gather ingredients for you, would that count as pre-payment for the meal?"
"Oh, well, let me see," Pomumon said, sounding flustered before darting back inside. They came back out with a scarecrow Digimon in tow. The crow on its hand squawked at them.
"Only if ya bring back more'n you plan ta eat!" it said, its voice grating on the children. "Do that and you've got yerselves a deal! And tell those Mushmon ta stop bein' cowards and come help out once'n a while!"
"Cool, sure thing!" Taki spun on his heel to head out, only to be grabbed once again by Jonah.
"What kind of ingredients do you need?" Haruki asked the two Digimon.
"Any-thing e-dible you want in soup, really," Pomumon explained. "We spe-cialize in hotpot, so any-thing goes as long as it won't take all day to cook."
"I can help with that!" Floramon said. "We may be a bit far from home, but I always helped gather food back at the village."
Reassured, Haruki also started moving towards the jungle, with a promise to be back soon. Reluctantly, Jonah released Taki, who immediately darted forward to join Haruki at the front. A few minutes into the walk back to the jungle, Chastity spoke up.
"Hot pot is an awful lot to eat for an after-school snack," she mused. She pulled out her Digivice and started typing. "I guess I should message Mom that we probably won't have much room left for dinner."
"Good point," Mirai sighed. After a moment, she added, "Wait, did we determine whether we can communicate with non-Digivice phones?"
"Well, it sent, so… I guess we'll find out? I really hope so, since we might not actually get to eat for a while."
"Don't worry so much, we'll be in and out," Taki said, throwing a smirk over his shoulder. "That scarecrow dude mentioned Mushmon, right? Then Mirai and I already dealt with the danger problem over the weekend."
"Assuming Ogremon and Fugamon were the only threats in the jungle," Kudamon pointed out.
The jungle turned out to only be a short walk from the restaurant. Compared to the dryness of the rocky terrain they had just departed, the jungle humidity hit the group like a wall of jelly. Only Floramon seemed to take to the change of scenery, happily skipping to and fro, examining various trees and shrubs for anything edible.
"What might we be looking for?" Jonah asked. "We haven't been shown much in the way of food in the Digital World."
"Oh, not much different from Earth, I should think," Floramon replied absently. She was looking a tree up and down. "Ah, here we go! These will be excellent!"
Using her vines, she pulled down some exceptionally pale apple-shaped fruit. She very neatly piled them so that Chassy or someone else could store them in their Digivice. There were probably enough for their party, so now she just had to find a few more choice pieces for the restaurant itself. She heard the distinctive squelchy crunch of one being bitten into, and a shiver went up her spine at the sound. Turning around, she saw Mirai with one in her hand, Chassy and Dracomon having apparently noticed what she was doing too late.
"Zese arr pwetty goo'," Mirai said. She swallowed, turning the fruit over in her hand. "Don't taste much like apples, though."
"That's because they're meat-apples!" Floramon exclaimed. "They taste like meat! And they need to be cooked like it, too! Don't just eat them raw!"
Looks of horror dawned on the rest of the group long before one settled over Mirai, who looked less disgusted and more nervous.
"Um…"
"Well, you do prefer your meat cooked rare," Chassy nervously laughed. "Just, uh, maybe have Dracomon cook it a bit for you before you keep eating. And don't try anything else until we're back at the restaurant."
"Honestly," Floramon huffed.
"Yeah, you get mad at me about a vending machine and then you go eating random fruit," Taki teased. "Which one of us is really lacking common sense?"
"Shut it, at least Floramon had set them aside to eat eventually," Mirai defended, setting her apple on the ground. Taki just smirked and kept walking. Dracomon send a wave of his Baby Breath at the apple. He gave Mirai a sympathetic look as she picked the apple back up, sniffing it.
"Don't feel bad, Mirai, I prefer my meat-apples nearly raw, too," Dracomon said. Mirai smiled at him, but his words did little to make her feel better. If anything, they made her nervousness bubble up again, and she cast a careful eye across the group. She watched Haruki in particular for a reaction, but he was paying close attention to the leafy plants Cutemon was trying to harvest. She sighed with relief.
She pulled her notebook out and joined Haruki. Mirai was impressed by the thoughtfulness of his questions and made sure to note down the answers to all of them. Once his questions drifted to specifics of nutrition, their partners got flustered, and Mirai had to remind him that the restaurant owners might know more. Taki looked over at them from his spot nearby under a rather tall tree.
"Quit worrying so much, Haruki. We're not about to get scurvy," he said with a grin. A moment later, a large spiny fruit dropped from the tree onto his head. Dracomon caught it as it bounced off, while Cutemon rushed over the evaluate the damage.
"Are you alright, Taki?" Kudamon called from high in the tree. Despite his moan and hand protecting his crown from further harm, he bravely gave a thumbs-up.
"And you need to pay more attention," Haruki said, exasperated. He did not look too concerned, however, as Cutemon was already soothing the bump that was starting to form. Taki pouted at him, sticking out his lower lip to beg for a bit of pity. He dropped the act when he caught Jonah saying something about purple things sticking up in the underbrush.
"Jonah, wait-"
"Poison S-mush!"
"Firecracker!"
Floramon used her vines to pull Jonah away from the ensuing smoke cloud, warning everyone to stay away until the dust settled. The group waited apprehensively, ready to Digivolve at a moment's notice. Three mushroom-shaped silhouettes emerged from the smoke.
"Who're you?" the Mushmon on the left asked. His friend, in the center, added, "You aren't Ogremon or Fugamon."
"Glad you noticed. We were gathering soup ingredients," Jonah said.
"And those ugly mugs shouldn't be a problem anymore," Taki added. "We purified 'em two nights ago!"
"Purified? What do they mean?" the Mushmon asked amongst themselves. The one in the center, apparently their de facto leader, said, "But then why-"
"There Mushmon are!" shouted a familiar voice. Ogremon rounded the corner, followed quickly by Fugamon. There was a beat of silence as the ogres and kids took each other in. Fugamon broke the silence, pointing his club at Mirai in particular.
"Is you punks!"
"Time for payback!"
The Mushmon, seizing the opportunity, scattered, leaving the ogres and the DigiDestined to face each other uninterrupted.
"Great," Mirai muttered. She dropped into a fighting stance, Digivice still in one hand.
"What the hell? I thought we got rid of the virus!" Taki said, angling himself in front of Haruki.
"Virus or not, it seems bullies will be bullies," Kudamon said, having scampered down to the lower branches of his tree. Mirai and Taki wasted no more time in Digivolving their partners, nor in engaging their opponents. Chastity sighed.
"Is anyone going to go after the Mushmon?" she asked no one in particular. She was ignored. "We were supposed to deliver a message? Hello? Fine, you muscle-heads have fun. Floramon!"
Floramon Digivolved into Darcmon, and Chastity announced one last time that she was going after the Mushmon. Mirai managed to flash a thumbs-up at her, with only Jonah giving proper verbal acknowledgement of her plan. She had expected better of Haruki, but to her surprise he was watching the fight even more closely than Jonah. Boys.
Darcmon's luminous presence had the unfortunate effect of attracting the attention of someone else deeper in the jungle, because everyone soon found themselves entrapped in thorny vines as a voice boomed out, "Who dares to challenge my beauty?"
A yellow face emerged from the jungle gloom, its mouth spread open in a jagged grin. Chastity struggled against her restraints but couldn't get them to budge. A quick survey of her team revealed everyone else to be in much the same situation. Given how thick some of the vines were, she was unsurprised to see even the likes of Coredramon and Ogremon having difficulty. She turned back to the leering plant monster before her.
"No one is challenging your beauty," she said. She gasped as the vines squeezed, forcing the air from her lungs. She wheezed. "We were just... passing through..."
"I don't know, Chassy, I would rather not be compared with that ugly mug."
"Darcmon... Not the... time...!"
"Reppamon, can you get out?" Taki asked quietly. At first it seemed like Reppamon would get free, but for each vine his tail sliced, two more would grow up in its place. The tangle of vines around Reppamon suddenly pulled taut, flipping him upside-down.
"...sorry, Taki," Reppamon grunted.
"You think you can escape Blossomon so easily?" the Digimon laughed, the now familiar virus cloud oozing from her mouth. Puffs of it floated along the vines, and Chastity was hit with the sudden realization that they had yet to see an infection take place. She watched the puffs of virus closely, lest they get too close to anyone. Not that there would be anything she could do, trapped as she was.
Out of the corner of her eye, Chassy saw a flash of pink drop to the ground. Cutemon was free! She watched him duck along the underbrush, in the direction she herself had been about to go just before they were grappled. She sucked as much air into her lungs as she dared and locked eyes with Blossomon.
"Now that I get a good look at you, Darcmon and I don't need to challenge your beauty," she said, forcing every ounce of bravado she had into her words. Chassy wasn't scared, she was not scared, even as she could feel the vines slowly tightening around her chest and throat. "We already won, wouldn't you agree, everyone?"
"Chassy, what are you doing?" Mirai hissed at her. Chassy shifted her attention to her sister long enough to silently beg her to trust her. Darcmon, on Chassy's other side, looked at her partner in confusion for a moment, then turned to Blossomon herself.
"I try not to brag, but my partner is right," Darcmon said. "Our beauty outclasses yours any day!"
"Yeah, compared to them you might as well be triplets with these bozos!" Taki said, catching on and nodding towards the ogre Digimon.
"Yeah, you ugly like—hey!" Fugamon shouted, trying to throw his club at Taki but only managing to drop it on the ground. Taki snickered.
"Insolent brats! You will rue the day you insulted my countenance! I will lose no contest of beauty!" Blossomon pulled Chastity closer, until they were nearly face-to-face.
"You don't stand a chance, Chastity is the most beautiful girl I've ever met," Jonah said, with a surprising amount of earnest gusto. Flames burst out across Chassy's face as she processed the statement.
"Wait, WHAT-"
"Poison S-mush!"
A cluster of small mushroom-shaped bombs exploded in Blossomon's face, and within moments her coughs devolved into uncontrollable laughter. The vines all around them began to shake and wave, and the DigiDestined wiggled their way free. Wiggle. That was a funny word. Wiggle, wiggle. Huh, Chassy thought it would be easier to breathe without all those silly, wiggly vines choking her.
Chastity hadn't even realized she had been laughing until she could suddenly breathe normally again. Cutemon was next to her, his hands aglow as he looked at her with concern. Looking around, she seemed to have been pulled away from the center of battle. One of the Mushmon from before stood above her.
"Terribly sorry about that, Miss," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Didn't mean to get you with our attack, too. Luckily, it just caused a bad case of the giggles."
"How do you feel?" Cutemon asked.
Chastity had to take another deep breath, not fully trusting herself to not start shaking, whether from exhaustion or laughter, she couldn't be sure. Once re-centered, she answered,
"Just a little shaken, is all. Thank you."
"No, thank you for covering for me," Cutemon said. "I was able to get the Mushmon's help because of you."
She turned around to get a proper look at the fretting Mushmon. She nodded at him and was about to thank him for his help when the sounds of battle caught her attention.
"Baptême d'Amour!"
"Oh, wait, I need to..." Chastity trailed off as a series of purifying lights all hit Blossomon simultaneously. "Or not."
"Chassy!" Jonah called. Chastity saw him clambering over the rapidly retreating vines. Mushmon must have noticed something she did not, as he dismissed himself with nervous haste. She stood up slowly, brushing herself off as she did so, hoping to show that she was fine. "Chassy, are you alright?"
"Yes, thanks to Cutemon," she said, giving Jonah a small smile. Jonah gave a small acknowledgement to Cutemon, who blushed a bit and scampered off, presumably to return to Haruki's side. Chassy often had a hard time reading Jonah, but this time it was clear he was relieved. She then remembered his earlier declaration, and heat climbed up her neck as she suddenly found it very difficult to maintain eye contact. "Um... did you really mean it? What you said just...?"
"Of course I meant it," Jonah said. He was looking right at her. The least she could do was meet his eyes. There was the slightest dusting of color on his otherwise pale face, and it brought out the red of his eyes. It was so cute, she hoped her pounding heart wouldn't burst. "I've always thought you were-"
"We still here!" Fugamon shouted, club raised to attack them. Chastity snapped.
"DON'T..."
Despite being nearly half Fugamon's size, she somehow managed to lock him in a hold and lift him off the ground. In the blink of an eye, Fugamon had been thrown through the air and slammed into the ground, skull first.
"...INTERRUPT!"
After a few ragged breaths from the exertion, she turned back to Jonah, all smiles.
"You were saying?"
"Um..."
Jonah was at a loss for words, whatever he had planned to say completely forgotten as he stared at Fugamon's crumpled form. Chassy worried she may have just ruined things. It's not like Jonah didn't know she could fight, or how strong she was, but she'd never been that openly violent... probably ever. She was shocked at herself, honestly. To her surprise, Jonah smiled at her and offered his hand.
"Will you go out with me?"
She couldn't help the giggle that escaped her as all the tension evaporated from her body. She took his hand, marveling at its sweet, even warmth.
"Happily!"
"I'm so glad our texts were able to get through," Mirai said, dunking a thin slice of meat-apple into the boiling broth at the center of the table. "This hot pot is delicious!"
Digimon and humans filled the hot pot restaurant in an early dinner rush, having made it a group effort to deliver ingredients. The three Mushmon and Blossomon sat at one table, with the DigiDestined and their partners spread across two tables.
Chastity's display of strength, combined with the threat posed by three Adults and one Perfect, had chased off Ogremon and Fugamon, presumably for good. Chastity apologized profusely to Blossomon once she had woken up, which the flower Digimon took with embarrassed grace, apologizing herself for letting her vanity get the best of her. All the while, Jonah never let go of her hand.
"No kidding, Digital World food is great," Taki agreed, snagging one of the apple slices Mirai had missed. She scowled but let it go, instead nudging Dracomon to keep him from eating any of the ingredients raw.
"Your broth is excellent," Haruki said, leaning back to address Pomumon and Nohemon.
"Glad ya like it!" Nohemon squawked. "And li'l Floramon sure has got a dis'arning eye. Wanna work for us, li'l lady?"
"Sorry, sir, I've got a job already!" Floramon waved. Next to her, Pandamon eyed Chastity's plate.
"Chastity, do you not want your mushrooms?"
She glanced over at the next table, and, seeing the Mushmon otherwise engaged, quickly passed her plate over to Pandamon. The mushrooms were the only things remaining, after all.
"I think I'll have to pass. I've had my fill of mushrooms for the day, I think."
"Pomumon, can we get a refill on our water?" Cutemon called out as Taki drained the table's pitcher.
"Cripes, Taki, that's what, your third glass in 20 minutes?" Mirai asked, looking at the pitcher in mild horror. "These glasses aren't small!"
"Is being thirsty a crime now?" Taki shot back.
"Just... make sure to go before we leave, okay?"
Pomumon replaced their pitcher, then lingered, a frown pulling at their lips.
"All this vi-rus stuff sure is wo-rry-ing, though."
"Does explain the human we saw last week, tho', gotta say," Nohemon piped up.
"There was another human!?" Mirai asked, nearly choking on her food. "What'd they look like?"
"Kinda li' this fella," -Nohemon indicated Jonah- "but smaller and with long'r hair. Didn' say much, the Kotemon with 'em did tha orderin'."
"I can't think of anyone that matches that description," Mirai sighed, dejected. Everyone else shook their heads. "Well, I guess we'll just have to meet them when we meet them."
A/N: Sorry for the delay! My beta was held up by real world stuff. The good news is that in that time I was able to get quite a bit written, so hopefully we won't be looking at months-long delays again for a little while.