Seth doesn't hear a lot about Shinsuke after the rescue. Asuka claims he's recovering well, but without seeing it with his own two eyes, Seth isn't sure how well he believes that. Even after getting him safely out of the Darkness Ocean and to Luke's cave, the man had seemed shaky on his feet, more distant than Seth could ever remember him. Unfortunately, Seth has his own issues to focus on, like his own team, and their first mission back since everything had gone down.
Standing before the digiport, he examines the people before him. Zack Ryder, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, and Asuka, all waiting with their digivices in hand. "Ok, guys," he says, momentarily pausing as he grimaces. His voice is rough, raspy and grating even to his own ears today, and he wishes he had a more soothing sort of tone. "Before we go, I just wanna make sure everyone's alright with this. I know we've all been through a lot the last few weeks, so if there's anything wrong, please speak up now and we'll figure something else out." He waits for a few moments, and no one leaps to speak. "Everyone ready to go? Feeling alright?"
Asuka is shifting from foot to foot, clearly ready to go, and the others are just standing there, murmuring amongst themselves. "I can't speak for everyone, bro, but yeah. I'm good," Zack offers after a moment. "I mean, yeah, everything we went through sucked big time, but it kind of... makes me more determined to go to the digital world and help out? Right? I mean, we all went through so much to find and save Shinsuke, but imagine how many digimon are in danger like that with little to no help right now." He casts a glance over at the others and shrugs. "What else can we do, really?"
Seth's impressed, though Zack's always been more levelheaded and thoughtful than people give him credit for, just because of his Long Island shtick. "Alright." He casts an eye on the others. "That right for the rest of you?"
"Yep," Kevin says, AJ nodding next to him.
"Huh." Seth lifts his shoulders, holding his breath for a few moments, before letting it slowly out, his shoulders sinking back down to normal heights. "Well, then. Let's get this show on the road."
Despite whatever residual fear may have lingered following everything from before, the Digiworld looks beautiful when they arrive- crystal blue skies, gently swaying grass as wind whispers quietly through it. They take a moment to take it all in before making their way over to where Luke is waiting for them. "Hello," he greets them, inclining his head. "It's good to see you all again. How is everyone?" A chorus of "Fine" and "Good" greets him and he smiles at them all. "Glad to hear it. Now today will be a little different than most missions. I have an acquaintance who needs a little bit of a favor and I think it'll be a good start back for you all. Do you mind? Once you're done, you can patrol whatever parts of the digiworld you wish, but just to get your feet wet again, this should be alright."
The group exchange glances, then shrug. "What's the favor?" Seth wonders.
Luke just smiles as motions them to follow him.
"... I cannot believe," AJ grumbles ten minutes later, pausing to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, "that Luke tricked us into this!" He's sweeping cherry blossom petals off of a walkpath, Seth nearby collecting various fruits. Asuka and Zack are working together to make the bushes surrounding Luke's cave look orderly, while Kevin checks the orchards for various baby digimon that apparently love to hide out there, even though they have been warned not to.
Seth pauses for a moment, dropping another strange berry he's never seen before into the nearby basket, and lets out one of his infamous cackling laughs. "Ah, it's not that bad, AJ. We'll be doing normal things in a couple minutes. I don't mind the breather, to be honest."
AJ pauses, brushing some of his hair out of his eyes, and looks like he's about to yell at Seth, but something gives him pause. Asuka is singing in Japanese and dancing around Zack, who is laughing warmly at her antics, while Kevin is cooing to a cat-type Digimon, and even Seth looks more at peace than he's seen him in months. "Huh," he mumbles, looking down at the cherry blossoms still fluttering at his feet. He exhales and shrugs, finally deciding to let it go and just enjoy the moment.
For now.
