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Chapter 44

Breaking point

As setup goes, this was probably the quickest I'm ever going to see them get to bed. Which isn't really saying much. Oh well. Good night and sweet dreams, hero-

"Hmmph." Rantha muttered and unrolled his sleeping bag. Unlike some of the other sleeping bags we've seen, this one is absolutely plain. Though I will say, that green color does work with everything on you. "They didn't have any of those in my size."

Oh. In that case, what sort of sleeping bag would you have chosen then?

The artisan looked towards the sky and rolled his eyes. That isn't an answer. Right now, I need a proper answer. At least till I have proper confirmation that I'm not out of my job and need to somehow go look for a new one. I wonder if someone else would even want my servic- Oh. You're shaking that fist of yours towards the sky. I guess that means you're pissed at me?

"Calm down." he announced, going in for a slap. For the record, you're not even close to actually hitting me. But, I get the point of you doing that. I'm probably overreacting in regards to being out of this opportunity. Especially as it's now picking up momentum. You know, with the 'Digital Dungeons' and all. "Are they even paying you for this?"

Maybe? I haven't seen a payment. I would assume it would come at the end of the story or something. Probably wrong about that. If I'm lucky, my payment should be back at the academy. If it hasn't been destroyed in the process. Hopefully. It would kind of suck if that isn't the case.

"Fair enough." Melody announced, Lumosmon dimming himself for the moment. Uh… thanks for that? At least it might be easier to sleep for everyone? Which gives me a thought. By some chance, would it be possible to read Lumosmon's mind and see if you can glean any information? Maybe he has some kind of insight to what may have happened to this world.

The mystic looked up towards the sky, then over to her partner. A head shake followed, with some pretty lights thrown in for good measure. I'm going to guess you've tried that in the past?

"A couple times." Melody remarked, Lumosmon flashing wildly. Colors and shapes shift about, as if an image is trying to come through our strange lantern moth digimon but the person sending hasn't quite gotten it right. Didn't help that the light was being focused in an area where multiple people were standing in. More specifically, Blaze, Rantha and Yvonne. Thankfully, they were more than willing to move out to the way for the projection. Which is the perfect time to get a closer look. I can see… the water. The sea, maybe? Except, there's what looks to be a large light was circling about. I'm not quite certain what use that might have here.

"Maybe to warn people?" Phusitmon remarked, pointing towards the light. I can see that. But from what exactly? Sea monsters? Krakens and sirens have a tendency to be a pain when it comes to traveling across water. Maybe them.

"It's unlikely." Cinemon announced, taking a step towards the image. Bending his head down, the feline dog digimon took a sniff. I can't smell anything. "So much for that."

Okay, it would probably be impressive if he could do smells. Actually, let's not think about that for the moment. Probably be awful on the nose and maybe the ears as well. Or maybe not.

"Yeah." Yvonne added, what looked to be a blob of something stumbling back and falling over the edge. Ow. "Uh, is that the moment that this disaster occured?"

Lumosmon didn't answer, the blob landing in the water. No flailing, no part of their body moving about. It's… unsettling. I know that we've just exited an entire store where people decided their only option was to end it all in the hopes of passing it on. This is starting to become, almost normal. I never thought that I would have to say that. Ironic, considering the number of zombies my 'students' (can't really call them that) probably had to exorcise in holding the crypts below.

"So pretty much when the disaster occured." Yvonne continued and let out a deep breath. After, her gaze shifted to Kollmon of all people. Currently, the mole digimon had remained silent during this entire light show. Said light show now looping back around to show the beginning once more. Just in case you somehow missed it the first time around or wanted to get a closer look but couldn't for some reason. "Kollmon, can I ask you kind of a personal question?"

Kollmon looked away, muttering something under her breath. Didn't stop the gazes of our barbarian or Madame from coming right over. I can't really help you here, unlike earlier. You're going to need to work through this on your own.

"Fine…" she muttered, gaze returning to her partner and the one speaking to her. "What exactly do you want to ask?"

Yvonne took a deep breath. While the hope had been for Kollmon to be cooperative, that was looking to be the opposite now - uncooperative.

"How much of a headstart did you have before the 'freezing' happened?" the barbarian inquired, Kollmon freezing up. Gaze locked to the ground, eyes slide shut. But no tears fell to the ground. Sure, the mole digimon really wanted to let it all fall down. But after the events of what had occured at least an hour ago, she was spent and wanted to be done with this mess. Just stomp it to dust, dig a hole and push it in. Wouldn't bring her partner back to life, but it would maybe be a start to getting through the mess she had created. But not in this moment.

"I… don't know." Kollmon whispered, making a beeline for her sleeping bag. Snuggling right in, she pushed her thoughts out. Back outside of the sleeping bag though, it was taking everything in Madame's (and to some extent Ella's) power to not rip Yvonne apart. Yes, it was pretty obvious that this wasn't our barbarian's intention. She probably hadn't seen Kollmon run off.

"Hey." Yvonne whispered, already making her way over to the pair. "I get that this is my fault, but can this wait till tomorrow? We're all tired and a good ni-"

A slap brings an end to that inquiry. While rude, Yvonne does have a point. It's late and we're all in need of rest. We can resume this conversation come morning or some other day.

"Fine." Madame muttered, heading for their sleeping bag. But not without making sure that their partner was alright. For the moment, Kollmon was a ball of swirling emotions. And like any ball of emotions, that meant they were in need of space. A commodity that a good night's sleep was more than willing to give. Hopefully. If not, we'll think of something else to do here.

As for Ella and Cinemon, they were right behind. Though, there isn't much in the way of checking on their friend. Instead, it's just a look towards Madame as the pair headed over to their sleeping bag. Which is located quite close to

Yvonne heads that way. At least Lumosmon has stopped flashing his uh… 'flashback' (would that be the right word?) at everyone. I don't have a clue how long he had that in him. Probably quite a while. Maybe don't try to hold it in next time? This is crucial information.

Lumosmon nodded, following right behind Melody. For the moment, the mystic's sleeping bag was quite close to Yvonne's at the moment. Huh. I was kind of expecting it to be more towards Rantha's. Not that I have any problem with it, especially as Yvonne and Munbimon made their way over. While the barbarian looked 'content' with this current arrangement, this might need some adjusting. Real fast.

"Uh… my girlfriend wouldn't really appreciate me sleeping so close to you at the moment." Yvonne muttered, cheeks glowing pink for the moment. Sure, her heart was most definitely with Marulyn, the morals on the oth-

"Oh… My bad." Melody remarked and scooted her sleeping bag a couple feet away. "Better?"

Yvonne flashed a thumbs up, taking her armor for the first time in what seems like forever. Do make sure to grab it all when you head out again. I don't dare to imagine what kind of lecture Marulyn would give you should you somehow lose a piece.

"I know." Yvonne mumbled, just catching sight of Rantha slipping into his bag. Which is quite a distance away from everyone else's sleeping bags. I get that you wish to have some distance between the group and you, but this is just silly. I need to be able to at lea-

For the moment, Rantha made his way back over. But only by a couple feet. Is this really that difficult for you to do? Because I can think of a ton of things that would be. This isn't on there.

"No comment." the artisan muttered, taking the time to put his bag on top of his head of all things. Got it. You want me to leave you alone. I can do that, at least for the moment. But come morning… Never mind. I'm not that kind of person.

Nonetheless, Bubbles and Phusitmon made their way over to the Madame's sleeping bag and began setting up. I'm not exactly sure what he was even doing in the first place that prevented him from setting up his sleeping bag in the first place. Unless… he was probably admiring the way the princess on the front looked and lost track of time or something. He's a kid, so I wouldn't put that past him. Yet, our little dragon did find time to give hugs to both his moms and their partners. Well, except Kollmon. She got a little head pat on the spot that Bubbles thought was her head. A spot that I can't quite decide how close he actually was too.

Which just left Blaze and Balamon as the last people to head to their sleeping bag. Not that the pair really had that far to go. No, Blaze was trying his hardest to squeeze just a bit more practice in at the moment before getting some rest in. Don't really blame him for wanting that. But after a bit, he too eventually called it for the night.

"How well did I do?" the dancer called out, taking the time to slip back into his regular clothes and not say, the bunny costume. That would suck for the moment. Oh. To answer your question, I give it a seven out of ten. You're improving, but not by much. "Fair enough."

The next four or so hours for me are pretty boring. Mostly just me trying to get some form of sleep, failing and choosing instead to stare out over everything. I can't really go any further away from them, just in case someone decides to sneak up on them and tries to, you know, jump them. But I also need to give them some space. It's been quite a day for everyone and they need some time to get their thoughts in order ahead of reaching this tower. Who knows what awaits them in there. Outside of you know, Adarnamon. That's a given.

Whatever the heck I want. This isn't rocket science, American. I would think you of all people would have some inkling of understanding. But no, you're just as retarded as the rest of them. God. Why the fuck am I surrounded by the most idiotic of idiots? Oh right. You don't exist.

Oh. Hi DM. Is there anything that I can help you with at the moment? Outside of apologizing for your awful, racist behavior?

No response. Of course the possibly crazed entity decides to throw a hissy fit and just be a total diva even at a time like. Have you thought about getting some rest? You would totally benefit from that.

I'm a machine! I don't need to sleep. Even if for some reason I would ever want too, I could continue my work. Heck, I could probably get even more done than I would if I actually needed to focus on any of you. There. I said it. You morons take so little processing powers that I could easily focus on things not related to you and still get my job done.

That's… uh, good to know. I still think that it might be a good idea to get some rest in so that we can all be our best selves come this morning. We're going to need some space though. We've had qui-

I really don't give a damn. And don't say 'I thought you were going to try to be nicer to all of us'. Well, I tried that! And guess what? That did jack shit in regards to your adventure. Name one time that it somehow 'helped'. I dare you!

Except you only gave it one try today, at best. Said try involved you threatening to turn Yvonne's girlfriend into a kid. The complete opposite of nice. For this relationship to work, you need to give it more than one shot to really see the results. You can't get any better if you let this one failure what was already a fixable problem. Except you were so insistent on making this anything but. Or am I wrong?

I really don't care. That's not an answer. The very least that you could is actually answer my question. Not evade in the hopes of somehow proving your right in that regard. Because you're not. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

It's an explanation. Big difference in your case. If you don't get why we're so mad with you, then just ask for more clarification. Sure, we might give you a lot of information on what you're doing wrong. But you need to be wil-

A large hunk of metal crashed down, somehow managing to miss everyone and instead hit the roof of the store instead. Shit. This was not how I was expecting to spend my night at all. Oh well. I am more than willing to retaliate should you throw another one of those metal hunks in our direction. And I don't think you would actually want that.

I really don't give a flying fuck. You do realize how fucking lonely it is? My only companions are a dry-humping fuckboi and a girl that thinks the solution is to sing and feed her 'girlfriend' peanut butter. I've been alone for who know's how fucking long with no one really caring about my existence. But then you people came around and just had to dash my hopes.

We weren't what you wanted? If I at least knew what exactly what exactly you wan-

Another hunk of metal comes crashing down. This one is far too close for comfort. They're actually going through with that. Shit. I really don't like this. Hm… Let's see, more lightning for you, DM. You're really making this difficult for me at the moment.

No shit, sherlock. It just had to be the one group of people that my creators warned me about. The sort that would refuse to comply with all instructions in the face of a perfect. Not digidestined, not those chosen by Luminere or one of her many incarnations. No, a group of adventurers who believe they are the only hope for this world. With careless glee, they would tear this world apart. Americans. Sure, you may have put a fucker on the moon and that's great or something. But all you've ever done was fight and shit over yourself. What fucking good is that?

But none of us are Americans. Like we've told you on countless occasions, most of them come from a place called Aldia. As for Melody, I'm not entirely sure where exactly she came from. While I can only imagine what these 'nasty' Americans have done to you and your friends, that's in the past. Wouldn't it be better to let bygones be bygones and try to trust us? We might surprise you in the end. But on-

You aren't listening to a word I said. What is so hard about shutting your stupid goddamn fucking mo-

DM stopped talking, what sounds like sparks of all things echoing through my head. While that weird look the previous night only confused me more, I get the feeling that someone had made an executive decision. Or perhaps they overexerted something and broke themself. While my knowledge when it comes to machines is limited, it's one possibility. Though there was that other person there. What was his name? Dave or something. Maybe they decided enough was enough and were going to do something about DM.

I'm still here, asshole. No need to speculadsad af a fe sf afa rffa fdss ui fauh lkhaf ihfailaueh ahil anshialkhf siakhsfdri hailu hauhl uhfilaf

DM, are you alright? This is not what I meant when I said for you to listen more to us. If anything this is the opposite.

Unless, this isn't normal behavior. Which in that case, is there anything that I or any of our heroes could do for you? At this point, anything has to be better than this.

Still no response. As odd as this may be to say, I do hope DM is alright. Yes. We're all probably absolute fools in thinking that DM is good. But, we've only known them for a couple of days. Of which we only started pushing yesterday. Expecting it to just happen under a drop of a hat is absolutely absurd. But maybe, just maybe a miracle can occu-

Listen.

Notes:

So yeah, I'm stuck at home right at the end of the winter quarter. Oh well.

.

Next Time: A story stretching back to the start of the digital world itself. Just sit down... and listen.