"Pukamon?" Shinsuke repeats slowly and Luke nods at him.

"Yes, there's a village mostly of them not far from where that alert on the digivice is." He points it out with a careful finger. "There are a couple of higher level digimon there for protection and the like, but no, it's mostly just vulnerable baby digimon."

"I see," Shinsuke murmurs, already having a bad feeling about this. Creatures who target baby villages are never easy to fight, their evil fueling them far into death. He sighs and eases his digivice back into the pocket of his gear. "We will go, see."

"Thank you," Luke says with a weak smile, patting his arm. "I'll be waiting for your report."

Shinsuke inclines his head and turns briskly, walking off to confer with the others. The digiport opens easily for them, as always, and he exhales as the group of them walk towards the rapidly flashing dot. Miz and Morrison are whispering back and forth behind him, and AJ is staring distractedly ahead. It's a typical outing. Until it's not.

He can't move, frozen in place as he stares at the village before him. They're too late, the place is razed to the ground, even the gates not left unharmed as they creak and groan at a sharp angle. Data drifts thickly through the early afternoon sky and Shinsuke swallows roughly as he thinks about all of those young, vulnerable digimon getting wiped out in such a short amount of time. He grips his digiegg tighter, wondering why it's taking Coronamon so long to hatch but relieved that at least it means his partner can't see this. Won't be haunted by the destroyed village before him. "I am sorry," he breathes against the digiegg. "We were too slow getting here."

Even John and Mike are somber and quiet behind Shinsuke and when he walks forward, they follow, at a distance, watching as he trails through the rubble and warped metal of the old village. He kneels down next to a small house and rests his hand on a pile of data, still hovering there. He frowns down at it, unsure what to do. "What is it?" he whispers, and then he hears it- a soft crying sound. His eyes widen. "I think there are still digimon alive here!" he calls out to the others, beginning to dig desperately through collapsed walls and shattered cement to try to unearth the cause of that noise.

The others arrive and all of them begin to dig, even Mike getting his hands dirty as the rubble thins considerably and Shinsuke gets his arm under one, last slab of wall that hadn't shattered as much as the others when it'd fell. He hoists it up and John and AJ get their hands under it, helping him to push it away. It does shatter into litle pieces, sending up a choking cloud of dust when it lands, but they only wait briefly before the air clears enough for them to see.

There's a group of Pukamon huddled together in a small crater caused by all of the destruction, tears pouring down their faces as they look up at the others. Shinsuke's breath stutters deep in his lungs and he hands his digiegg over to AJ before leaning in and scooping them out, holding them close. "Hello," he greets the traumatized creatures. "We have you. You're going to be ok."

When the baby digimon start sobbing anew, Shinsuke thinks it's less horror and more relief this time as they press their faces into his clothes and wails.

They search the rest of the village rubble, but find nothing. Shinsuke keeps a tight grip on the baby digimon as they take the digiport back to Luke's, and he inclines his head as the man takes the babies from him, promising them a nice wash, some warm food, and a soft bed just waiting to fulfill their needs.

Later that night, everything as squared away as it ever could be in the digiworld, Shinsuke finds himself back on earth, stroking his digiegg and staring idly up at the stars. "I miss you," he confesses to Coronamon. "I understand why you might feel the need to take some extra time in there. But... yes, it is quite lonely without you."

His mind wanders, starts dwelling on those baby digimon once more. When he starts crying, he's not entirely certain, but the stars start blurring before his eyes and he sighs heavily, reaching up to brush them away impatiently. Instead, this seems to just make them trail down his face faster, more desperate as he trembles and shakes, thinking about all of those lives lost today.

His tears drip down upon the digiegg and Shinsuke sniffs, moving to wipe them away, when the digiegg gives a violent shiver, almost trembling itself straight out of his arms. He gapes and tries to hold on tighter, not wanting it to roll out and shatter upon the ground, but he's still crying and shaking too, and the digiegg continues to thrum and glow in his arms, until... he hears a crack. And another. And another. And the digiegg begins to light up the immediate area, before suddenly it disappears entirely, and a small creature that seems made of little more than smoke forms in his hands, bright golden eyes peering back at him as a flame flickers over its head.

Shinsuke's jaw drops at his stares at his partner. "Mokumon!" he cries out, tears dripping down even faster as he hugs his partner. "You're... you... you're here," he breathes out, shaking his head until his tears slow, a little. "You're really, really here."

Mokumon stares up at him, rubbing against his arm as Shinsuke hugs him tight and continues to cry out everything he's been holding in for the last few weeks.