After another short break, Novice looked a little thoughtful as he looked at a holographic screen.
"Is there something wrong?" Koshiro asked first.
"No. Not at all, just wondering if I should have you meet my Syakomon yet." Novice said in thought.
Gatomon scowled at this, "Is this Syakomon another one of the Demon Lords?"
"Yes, but he has been behaving so well that I was thinking about having him come out." Novice said with a shrug. Then a bling was heard out, "One moment." The Overseer opened another screen. Then he visibly brightened up, "Good news, Mimi. Swift liked the sea salt ice cream."
"Yes!" Mimi pumped her fist in victory.
"Is there any more of that?" Agumon then asked, rubbing his tummy.
"Agumon, too much salt isn't good for you." Taichi admonished his partner, not that he wasn't tempted to ask more too.
But Patamon focused on Syakomon, "You said Syakomon is well behaved, does that mean he's nice?"
Novice laughed at this, "Sorry, it's just... Demon Lord and nice aren't words you usually associate with each other. But to answer your question, I haven't actually interacted with him yet. All I know right now is that he carries the Code Crown of Envy."
"Envy?" Daisuke parroted, "You mean he's jealous of everyone?"
"Possibly." Novice shrugged in amusement, "Anyways, I think I'll leave him for now and focus on this." He then made the book float towards himself.
"You're reading again?" Miyako asked.
"Yeah. Figured I would deal with the 'boring' stuff." Novice said with a grin.
"Boring stuff?" Veemon parroted, "Is this a boring chapter then?"
"To whom it is. To whom it isn't." The Overseer said before opening the book from the appropriate page.
A silhouette of Agumon is seen before it lets out a roar
Everyone actually jumped a little at the screen letting out a roar that didn't fit Agumon.
"I don't sound like that!" Agumon complained.
Wanna be the biggest dreamer Zensokuryoku de mirai mo ima mo kake nukero
The scene fades out to reveal teams RWGBY and JNPPR standing together as the scene gradually reveals the group standing atop Beacon Tower, overlooking Vale, as their D-Crests shine brightly, while several points of light appear through the city below.
*Music*
The scene then changes to show shots of Takato, followed by shots of Sun, and finally shots of Penny. The scene then changes to show the title being formed from fragments of data. 'THOR Alter: Digital Story - Vale Adventures'
"Ahh! This is another opening theme." Hikari giggled.
"Did you do that on purpose?" Mimi asked in annoyance. The Chosen of Purity was surprised none of the girls, including her, so much as shrieked in surprise.
Novice looked up from the book with a small smile,"Yes, as a matter of fact, because your reactions were pretty much the same as mine when I first watched it." Novice then returned to the book.
The others were curious about Novice's wording, but decided to wait until after the opening theme.
Sou boku wa ki zuitan da zutto shukudai wasureteta
The scene changes to show the Chosen walking through the bustling streets of Vale, before they look ahead to several buildings with slight frowns as the shadows of several Digimon are seen against the buildings, the group and their Digimon standing at the ready.
"...I'm guessing from this scene that there may still be Digimon that aren't bonded in Vale." Ken guessed.
"Or something else." Koshiro theorized.
Sore wa hitotsu no nazo nazo nazo "Boku wa dare nan darou?"
The scene once again shows the streets of Vale, with Takato and Guilmon waving at the screen, followed by a shot of Sun and Coronamon sitting on a lamp post, and finally a shot of Penny and Monodramon watching the crowd from an alleyway. The last scene shows Azure and Wizardmon who look up into the sky as the scene pans away.
Everyone guessed that these three will become important at some point.
SLIDING shite surimuketa hiza itakutatte ne
The scene changes to show several hands holding up D-Cores, which glow before turning into D-Arks, the scene zooming out to show Takato, Sun, and Penny in front, with Summer, Keenan, and Azure behind them and many more figures holding D-Arks further behind them.
No one commented on this scene, but they did have their eyes glued on the screen. Each of them trying to decipher any meaning behind this opening.
Sugu tachiagaranakya CHANCE wa nigete yuku wakatteru sa
The scene then changes to show Guilmon slashing through the air as an image of Growlmon roaring appearing behind him, followed by an image of MegaloGrowlmon appearing behind Growlmon followed by a large shadowed form. The scene changes again to show Coronamon on fire as he punches forward, as an image of Firamon with his wings spread appears behind him, followed by an image of Flaremon with a fist on fire, and a shadowed figure in the back. The scene changes one more time to show Monodramon at the ready, an image of Strikedramon appearing behind him followed by an image of Cyberdramon, with a large shadowed figure in the background. The scene changes to show a tear in space as several eyes and fangs are seen from the void.
Aside from seeing these three's partners' evolution paths, with the shadowed one probably being their Ultimate, most of them were now guessing that there may be tears that lead from Digital World to Remnant.
Big and bigger, biggest dreamer! Yume miru koto ga
The scene changes to show the silhouette of Takato and Guilmon sitting on the ground, leaning against each other in the foreground, while in the background Guilmon is seen launching a Pyro Sphere, which clears and reveals Growlmon slashing at the screen, followed by a MegaloGrowlmon slashing the screen apart with his weapons before the scene reveals a quick shot of a knight-like figure.
The second generation remembered Novice's warning about them facing "Black Knight". Could this be it?
subete hajimari sore ga kotae daro
The scene changes to show a silhouette of Sun hanging upside down with his tail, Coronamon hanging off of him as the two swing, before he accidentally loses his grip and they both fall in a heap in the foreground, while in the background Coronamon is seen firing a blast of fire, followed by Firamon igniting with flames and charging at the screen, followed by Flaremon delivering a flaming punch to the screen, before the scene reveals a quick shot of an armored figure glowing brightly.
There were smiles about Sun's and Coronamon's dynamic, but they couldn't even begin to guess who the Ultimate Digimon was.
Dare yori tooku e tonde miseru yo subete no asu wo tsuranuite
The scene changes again to show a silhouette of Penny and Monodramon running together in circles as if having fun, before eventually looking like they'd made themselves dizzy in the foreground, while in the background Monodramon struck the screen, followed by Strikedramon igniting and ramming the screen, followed by Cyberdramon with his claws glowing ominously and cutting the screen apart, ending with a quick shot of an armored figure in a heroic pose.
For some reason, everyone looked forward to seeing Penny properly. And they were wondering what her partner would be like personality-wise.
Wanna be the biggest dreamer Zensokuryoku de mirai mo ima mo kake nukero
The scene changes to show shots of Azure, Summer, and Keenan, all looking at the screen with serious expressions as the scene zooms out to reveal them standing alongside their partners as large shadows appear behind them. The final scene shows the 10 Crests flying through the air before resting within the 10 D-Crests, which the Chosen raise to the sky, as beams of light shoot out and cut through the darkness above.
"This intro kind of gives me the impression that the Remnant Chosen aren't going to be the main focus." Taichi said with a thoughtful look.
"Good insight." Novice said with a small smile.
"Hey, you said earlier that you had watched this opening earlier, when was that?" Jo then pointed out.
"Oh, well... Not this opening. It was just similar to the opening of Digimon Tamers. Except in their start, it was Guilmon's silhouette that roared." Novice explained, "I remember flinching the first few episodes I watched that anime."
"I guess you're not so fearless then." Veemon said smugly.
"Huh? But we already knew that, " Palmon pointed out with a head tilt.
"That's right." Mimi giggled as they all remembered Impmon's didn't take long until others too remembered. It wasn't funny at the time, but now it was a little comical that their host got that frightened. So everyone let varying volumes of laughter. Although some of the more polite ones were trying to hold it in.
"...Moving on." Novice said before returning to the book with his cheeks tinged.
Dawn of Adventure
The title card showed a silhouette of Beacon with the Sun rising in the background.
Everyone's laughter died down, but they were still smiling. Although this time it was at the title card that was wholly appropriate, like all the previous ones.
The sound of an alarm filled the room, before a hand reached out and turned it off. Yawning a bit, Gyro got out of bed, and idly looked at the date on the calendar. "...hard to believe it's already been almost two weeks after we got back," he sighed as everyone else in the room was roused from their sleep.
"There hasn't been much going on so far, a few small Digimon coming through here and there that found partners with kids in Vale." Agumon added through a yawn as he got up from next to Gyro.
"Probably the same in the other kingdoms." Patamon said from Blake's lap.
"And of course, bigots who like to complain, can't forget those ones." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes.
"To be VERY fair to them though...their arguments aren't exactly without reason. Vale IS still in the middle of rebuilding after Myotismon, and then there's what happened to the other Kingdoms in one day," Tentomon admitted.
Taichi let out a sigh at this, "He's not wrong. Myotismon and the other rampaging Digimon didn't give a good first impression."
"Not fair, blaming us for their doings." Gomamon pouted.
Jo pat his partner's head, "Then let's hope that the positives to come outweigh all the negatives."
"That's right." Mimi agreed with a smile, "Surely all the children that had partners can show the example of how to live with Digimon."
Everyone agreed.
"Doesn't make them any less annoying though," Biyomon grumbled.
"Nothing we can do but do our best to show them they're wrong," Ruby said with a smile. "And we can do that by living normally...more or less."
"Normal REALLY doesn't exist for us anymore, does it?" Yang commented idly.
"It died the moment we saw our Digivices fall from the sky," Blake snorted.
"You can say that again." Sora chuckled.
"Normalcy never dies." Novice pointed out, "Just gets warped."
"You would know." Yamato didn't ask, but stated.
"Yup." The Overseer grinned, "Not that I'm complaining, all things considered."
"Not that any of us would have it any differently," Gyro chuckled. In the last two weeks since they'd returned, Remnant had gone through quite a few changes. First of all being of course the presence of Digimon. It seemed in even 24 hours, enough people had bonded with Digimon that there really was no point in trying to maintain any form of secrecy regarding them. However, that came with its own challenges. Due to the chaos that they'd ended up causing, the opinions of Remnant regarding the Digimon were...mixed. There were those who were open and even quite supportive of the idea of Digimon-Remnantian co-existence, these were mainly the people who were saved or fought alongside Digimon and bonded with some. Others...wanted the Digimon either out, or worse, with them being mainly those who were attacked by Digimon, or the more petty, those who simply lost some property or were inconvenienced by that one day. Then there were those who were neutral to the whole thing. Suffice to say...it was complicated.
"It would be strange if things weren't complicated." Koshiro commented.
Everyone agreed to that, some more agreeably than others.
Unsurprisingly, Team CRDL was among those who didn't want the Digimon around and just saw them as useless animals… let's just say Cardin ran around with a roasted behind the first time he tried to do something to Agumon, and they've been on those fours' shit list since then...not that they gave a damn about that that jackass thought.
Everyone laughed at what Gyro's Agumon did to the leader of the jerks.
"That's what you get for messing with me." Agumon puffed his chest in pride, despite it not being him doing that.
A knock at the door brought everyone out of their thoughts "It's open!" Ruby called out while Palmon was still half asleep against her.
The door opened softly, and Ilia and Kotemon poked their heads in "Hey… Azure just wanted me to pass along a message to you guys since he saw me first." the chameleon faunus said.
"And that message would be?" Gyro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Good morning class, welcome to the first class of Digimon Studies," Summer said as she wrote the name of the class on the board, Renamon standing by her side. Right now they were gathered in the auditorium that Glynda normally used for combat class, since Ozpin had yet to finish finalizing everything and giving Summer her own classroom.
Her request to become a teacher HAD been sudden after all… though she had taken some time to reconnect with her husband first. As it was though, Ozpin agreed that this class would be necessary, what with the growing number of Digimon, they hoped that educating people of the race would help to avoid actions done out of fear born of ignorance. With that in mind, everything was set up. "My name is Summer Rose, and I'll be your lecturer for this class. With me here is my partner, Renamon."
"Education is the best way for this." Jo commented on Digimon Studies being a thing.
"If people understand Digimon more, then they will be less afraid of them." Koshiro agreed.
"And then Digimon and humans and faunus will get along." Mimi agreed cheerfully.
"It's the first step at least." Yamato added in, although he had slight reservations on people's stupidity.
"I wonder what this class will teach." Daisuke said with slight eagerness.
"It's a pleasure to be here," Renamon said respectfully.
"So, if you didn't understand with the name of the class, here, I'll be teaching you everything you need to know about Digimon, since it's pretty obvious they are here to stay, I mean, we even have some in class with us." Summer explained, nodding towards the chosen at the end who all had their partners with them, and even Ilia was in the class, sitting next to Blake.
She figured she might as well sit in on it so she could learn more about the species of her partner.
All the digimon partners in the room appreciated Ilia's sentiment.
"Before we begin the lesson, are there any questions? Perhaps something you'd like to know before we begin with the basics?" Summer offered.
"Excuse me," came a familiar australian accented voice, the chosen turning to see team CFVY, with Velvet having a hand raised high, as this class had both first and second year students in it.
"Yes, miss…?" Summer started.
"Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina," the rabbit faunus said. "I was wondering… I guess, what exactly ARE Digimon? And WHERE exactly do they come from? We all saw them come out of nowhere a few weeks ago, a lot of them came from the sky even, but… we don't really know much."
"An excellent question," Summer nodded. "Before I answer though, I must admit the answer, while I guarantee is 100% true, will no doubt sound ridiculous to you. Trust me, I thought it was ridiculous the first time too…" Summer sighed a bit at the end. "Digimon, short for Digital Monsters, come from an alternate world that is connected to our own. They are life forms made of data, while still having their own wills, emotions, and pretty much everything else we have, and hail from the aptly named, Digital World," she said. "A name so on the nose, it's hard to believe, I know," she added with a light chuckle, earning a small smirk from Renamon and a few students.
"So… the Digital World… it's inside scrolls and computers and all that?" asked the leader of team CFVY, Coco Adel.
"Yes and no." Koshiro couldn't help answering Coco's question. "While Digital World is connected to our network, it doesn't exist inside of it."
Some of the Chosen rolled their eyes at what was essentially a recap to them, but decided not to comment.
"Yes and no," Renamon spoke up. "A friend of ours looked into it once, and while he theorized it would be possible to make a 'gate', our world is not literally inside the network of your world, even if its connected to it," she explained.
Koshiro felt his cheeks warm up a little at Renamon giving almost exact answer.
Fortunately no one thought it was funny. At least not enough to warrant laughs.
"If you want more info on that theory, go find Professor Azure Vermillion, the one who made that theory is his partner, Wizardmon." Summer said, and she could see some of the students planned on doing just that.
She then noticed what she assumed was another member of that team raise their hand, the dark skinned boy with orange hair and white eyes "Yes?"
"What exactly does a Partner mean in terms of Digimon?" the boy, Fox Alistair, asked.
"Digimon have a very unique trait. When they encounter a human or faunus, if the two are able to form a bond or connection with each other, they may become that person's Partner Digimon," Summer smiled. "When that happens, the person and Digimon become symbiotically linked to one another, with the Digimon gaining strength from their partner, while their partner gains a guardian, a friend, and for both, someone to help each other grow emotionally and as people," she said. "A key sign of a bond being formed is the appearance of a Digivice Core for the person. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about."
As if on cue, several students held out their D-Cores for all to see.
"There ARE other models of the Digivice though, thus why the basic model is known as a Core." Summer said, before going to Gyro and he got the message, lending her his Digivice, and she also borrowed Ilia's own, placing them on a table with her own Digivice, and using the screen of the auditorium to zoom in on the three so everyone could see them "As I just stated, the small, pager version is known as a Digivice Core, or D-Core for short. The variant I have is known as a Digivice Ark, D-Ark for short, Professor Vermillion and my disciple Keenan each have one as well. As you can see however, there is a third variant, one that I'm not quite sure how it comes to form, and I haven't found a name for it yet." she said, giving a blatant lie at the end just to make sure the word Crest didn't end up drifting all the way to Atlas, one never knew after all. "Any other questions?"
"Especially when we know there's at least one madman out there." Daisuke commented ,earning nods of agreement from that.
"But even if he found out about Crests, would that information even help him?" Miyako asked with a thoughtful look.
"...If the person is twisted enough, he might even reverse engineer something close to a Crest, but worse." Ken almost muttered, causing Novice to look surprised.
"I'm sure you're overthinking it." Takeru said with a small smile. "At least I hope you are." That last part was added in the Chosen of Hope's head.
The class seemed to think about it for a minute… before they quieted down, signifying they had no more questions.
"Alright then, as I explained, the Digimon come from the Digital World and are the dominant species of that world. Being born of data, they have a rather...different...life cycle than us," Summer started, before pulling up a picture on the board of a field of eggs. "These, are Digi-Eggs. All Digimon start their existence as these."
There was a long silence in the class, with the chosen and their partners trying not to laugh at the faces of the other students, with Blake snapping Ilia out of it and confirming Summer wasn't pulling their leg.
"Yes, I know, it sounds strange, but that's how it is. Trust me, if I could have brought a Digiegg that was close to hatching to prove it, I would have." Summer said with a light grin. Following that, she quickly changed the picture to show…
"...What does it say about me that I didn't even find that strange?" Taichi asked the rest of the gang.
"That you were accustomed to the weird before we were." Sora chuckled, "I did find that odd, but you get used to the idea very fast."
"It took me some time to do that." Jo admitted with an embarrassed look.
There was a definite sound of 'Awws' from most of the girls in the class, as well as a few boys who didn't care for the looks they got, as the picture was of various Fresh stage Digimon. The chorus continued when the picture was shifted to various Baby stage Digimon.
"These are the first two stages of a Digimon's life. Fresh and Baby respectively. In these forms, Digimon usually don't fight and are normally at their most docile," Summer explained.
"Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, so some Babies can show more aggressive behavior," Renamon added. "Of course those are quite rare...though if you DO find one, do watch out for when it evolves. Those usually yield more…violent...Digimon."
"Violent how?" asked a random student that she couldn't really find in the section their voice came from.
"Remember Myotismon from a few weeks back? Basically that." Summer answered, getting a few shivers of fear from the students.
"Yeah, you can't always tell when a Digimon will grow up violent." Gatomon commented.
"And sometimes bad Digimon turn over a new leaf." Mimi said with a smile.
"And sometimes the opposite." Novice said non-chalantly, earning a set of glares.
"What? Lilithmon is said to be Ophanimon who fell into darkness, and Demon was said said to be Seraphimon who fell into darkness." Novice defended himself.
"What?!" Takeru and Patamon asked in unison.
"Didn't I tell you that?" Novice asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"No this is the first time we hear about it." Takeru said, hugging Patamon a little.
"Relax, the probability of your Patamon becoming another Demon is less than 0%." Novice joked.
Fortunately it had the intended effect as several people chuckled.
"Moving on," Renamon quickly said. "The next stage of a Digimon's life cycle is the most common one. The Child level, which I myself am at," she said, changing the image to a number of larger but still relatively small Digimon.
"The Child level seems to be the most common level for a Partner Digimon, as you can see various examples in this class alone." Summer said as she gestured towards the Chosen's partners, and a few others including Kotemon.
"Though there is nothing stopping a higher level Digimon from forming a partnership with a human/faunus. Case in point, Professor Vermillion's partner, Wizardmon, is of the Adult level," Renamon added.
"And Gatomon." Hikari pointed out with a smile, causing her Gatomon to cross her paws with a proud look.
"Which brings us to said stage," Summer said as she switched the image, now showing more varied Digimon in terms of size, though many were quite large, and quite menacing at that in some cases. "This is the Adult stage, which is the most common final stage that a Digimon can reach by themselves."
"It's also that stage that most partner Digimon would reach without a proper catalyst for anything higher." Renamon added. "So don't expect that all of you will suddenly have a partner strong enough to crush a city."
There was a dejected 'Awww' that came from the class, along with some mutters of 'Damn it'.
Everyone had sweatdrops at hearing the responses.
"...Do they want to crush cities?" Daisuke was the first to ask the dreaded question.
"I hope it's just that having a partner like that sounds cool." Miyako said hopefully.
"Yeah, let's go with that." Hawkmon said, having his own reservations.
Summer and Renamon had huge sweat drops at that, a sentiment shared by the Chosen gathered, though eventually they just shook it off and chalked it up to the novelty of having a monster friend...and probably one too many monster cartoons and movies.
"Exactly that." Yamato commented, hoping that that was indeed the case.
"Moving on," Summer quickly said. "While it's not the strongest a Digimon can get, an Adult Level Digimon can vary in strength and abilities, from well...VERY weak…" she said, as the image of a Numemon came up, earning a few disgusted sounds from the the class at the rather dumb looking slug creature, "To obviously formidable," she continued, showing the picture of a Greymon, earning a few whistles from the male half of the class cause who didn't love a dinosaur, "To deceptively powerful," Summer continued, showing the image of a Gatomon, earning more sounds of 'Awww' from the girls at how cute it looked.
Gatomon turned her nose high as she basked in the praise given to her other.
"You know, they say that Pride is the original sin." Novice said with an evil smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Gatomon asked, getting suspicious.
"The Seven Deadly Sins, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Sloth and Pride. Each of these Sins are what send you to hell if you're too guilty of them. But Pride is special, because it leads to the other six." Novice explained.
Mimi looked thoughtful at hearing that, "I think... someone religious in America said somethign like that."
"And you plan to overcome all of them?" Palmon then asked Novice.
"Eventually," Novice said with a grin, "I got Lust and Gluttony down so far. But enough about me." The host then started reading again.
"In short though, unless it looks something like this," Renamon started, showing pictures of Numemon-family Digimon, and generally Digimon that looked like them. "Don't underestimate one no matter how cute or harmless it looks, as the average Adult is roughly as strong as a trained Huntsmen give or take."
Several students made a point of writing it down. They'd rather NOT have to some day admit they had their butts kicked by what looked like a stuffed animal.
None of the first generation partners wanted to remember the time Gatomon practically played with them all. They also felt that bringing it up will give the white feline an overdose of ego boost.
"In fact, why don't we make a demonstration of how strong an Adult level is?" Summer said with a smirk, before disappearing and reappearing 5 seconds later in a burst of white petals, though when she came back, she had a cage with her, and inside of it was an Ursa. And judging by how beat up the cage was, it had a LOT of fight still in it. Heck, if someone didn't do something soon, that cage looked like it was going to break. "Now then, who to choose?" Summer mused as she looked at the Digimon present in the classroom, before grinning "Ren, Wormmon, come on over here."
"Oh, my turn." Wormmon said eagerly.
Ren blinked, before nodding "Alright." he said as he stood up and Wormmon got off his own chair "So, are you going to explain Evolution to them first or after?"
"I think it's best to do so first," Summer nodded, before addressing the rest of the class. "Before we begin, I understand if there are a few misunderstandings in regards to 'Evolution'. For a Digimon, Evolution is a fast process where a Digimon goes from its current level to a higher one. It's actually akin to the evolution of a caterpillar into a butterfly," Summer explained.
"She's not wrong about that comparison." Koshiro agreed with Summer's comments, while others nodded, seeing how it made sense.
There were a few murmurs from the students, some looking in wonder, some in interest, and others...skeptical.
"I believe it would be best to just show you all. Ren?" Summer nodded to the boy.
"Right," Ren nodded, before grabbing his D-Crest, and holding it out, with Wormmon facing the cage right as it was opened, the Ursa bursting out, and at that moment, the Digivice gave out a bright light, which caused the Ursa to suddenly recoil. Ren's eyebrow quirked a little, but he quickly ignored the odd sight. "Let's go, Wormmon!"
Everyone took note of the Ursa recoiling from the light of Digivice. Perhaps this will become significant later.
"Right!" Wormmon nodded as the light glowed brightly and his body glowed. "Wormmon, Evolution! Stingmon!"
The dropped jaws of many students in the classroom where rather satisfying if Ren were to be completely honest, as evidently, none of them expected Wormmon's evolution to be so radical.
Summer chuckled slightly. "As you can see, a change from one stage to another can be quite massive," she said. "There is no EXACT rule as to what a Digimon's next evolution form will be, as while many do seem to keep some of their previous form's traits, there are also many who seemingly have no relation to their previous forms."
Everyone nodded in agreement, including the partners.
By then the Ursa had shaken off whatever made it recoil, and lunged forward...only to stop when Stingmon slammed his hand down on it, pinning it to the ground. He didn't even hesitate, knowing the nature of these creatures, and squeezed his hand in a way that yielded a sickening 'crack', the Grimm going limp from a snapped neck.
Despite their knowledge of Grimm being soulless, the Children still winced at the monster's neck being snapped.
Once again, a stunned silence descended on the class, none of them expecting the fight to be more of an execution, as the Grimm's corpse faded away into darkness.
"As you can see, against a single Grimm like this, the average Adult Stage has no problems whatsoever in fighting them," Summer said. "Furthermore, some are stronger or weaker than others. Are there any questions so far?"
There were DEFINETLY a few questions, as nearly every student started talking over one another while Stingmon turned back into Wormmon, with Ren grabbing the Digivices Summer borrowed earlier and handing them back to their holders as he sat back down with his partner.
The next few moments was Summer answering as many questions as she could. Eventually, she managed to quiet down the class after answering their questions, and the lesson could continue.
"The next stage following the Adult stage, is known as the Perfect stage," Renamon started. "Any stage beyond Adult is rather difficult to reach, partner or no partner," she said.
Once again, various sounds of agreement came from the Children who have gained Perfect forms for their partners.
"Perfect stage Digimon include the ones that were interviewed back before Myotismon properly struck." Summer said, reminding everyone of Lisa's interview. "This stage is often named that because it takes what made the Adult level powerful...and refined that further. An army of Grimm could fight one of these and still lose completely," she said to emphasize the point.
There were several impressed sounds at that, clearly that got everyone's attention.
"As I said earlier though, don't expect to achieve this so easily, Perfect requires a catalyst, which changes from person to person, and Digivice to Digivice as far as we know, and D-Core users can't reach Perfect." Renamon said, though privately added in her mind 'At least not without a Crest.'
That earned a few disappointed groans. "What if we borrowed another Digivice?" a student asked.
"That would not work," Summer shook her head. "A Digivice is a physical representation of the bond between a specific Digimon and Human. It won't work for any other human/faunus or Digimon."
"I would know." Ken said as he briefly remembered how the Digivice that he gained didn't respond to Osamu.
"And that is about it for the main stages of a Digimon's life," Renamon said...before someone raised their hand. "Yes?"
"But what about those three that were fighting in Vale?" one student asked, and Summer and Renamon sighed knowing what they were talking about.
"Those three...are a level we call 'Ultimate'. Its a level that goes beyond Perfect," Summer explained with a sigh. "However, it's so rare a level that in normal circumstances, it's VERY unlikely you'll encounter a Digimon that high on the power scale. In fact, only a handful have ever been known to exist among the billions of Digimon that exist in the Digital World."
"But how powerful would they be?" a student asked in wonder.
"Tch! They can't be THAT tough," came the arrogant voice of Cardin, who to anyone who noticed, seemed to be getting increasingly agitated since the start of the class, even going so far as to deliberately sit away from anyone with a Digimon Partner.
"What?!" Was the universal reaction to Cardin's comment.
"How can he say that? After what happened to Vale?" Iori let out in shock.
"Is he seriously blind or stupid?" Mimi added in.
"Both." Novice said, earning everyone's attention. "There is a phrase called, 'Too stupid to live'. I've checked a couple worlds where a certain mad prince wanted to crush a nation that he had no hope of defeating. All because he refused to believe that the opposing nation was superior to them in every possible way. He didn't believe anyone about their superiority, not his relatives, not his advisors, not even his own eyes."
"But... how could someone be that stupid?" Daisuke asked.
"Someone who refuses to believe that there's something wrong within themselves." Ken sighed.
"Exactly!" Novice pointed to Ken with a smile. "Similarly, for Cardin to acknowledge someone or something to be stronger than him would mean that he himself would have to acknowledge his own flaws. And that is something he can't do."
"What an idiot." Armadimon commented, earning small chuckles.
Novice took this as his cue to continue reading.
"You're kidding, right?" Gyro couldn't help but deadpan at his comment. Seriously, he knew Cardin had a massive ego, and didn't care much for the Digimon...but this was just stupid to the max.
"No! I mean, what's so great about those animals?!" he said… and just had time to blink before he had a fist in front of his face that was struggling to move forward, making him fall backwards.
"Say that again you bastard, I fucking dare you." Gyro growled darkly as Ruby was holding him back with some considerable effort.
As much as everyone thought Cardin deserved that hit, those that didn't have the earplugs winced at Gyro's language despite it getting censored.
Although personally, Mimi would've liked to see Cardin getting punched by Togemon.
"Why do you care? It's just some stupid pet people like you have following them around," Cardin snorted.
At this point even Ruby was glaring, before she looked at her boyfriend...and let go.
Gyro managed to land one solid punch on Cardin at least, before Renamon came in and grabbed his fist "One is all you get." she said simply.
"No fair!" Agumon crossed his arms and pouted.
"Let him have it!" Gomamon added in.
"Gomamon." Jo chided his partner lightly.
None of the girls wanted to admit aloud that they also would've loved to see Cardin getting beaten.
Gyro continued to glare at Cardin, but nodded as he returned to his seat.
Or he would have if Cardin didn't growl angrily and look ready to lunge for him...only for Renamon to stop him too. "That's quite enough," she said sternly, pushing him back into his seat.
"Why should I?" Cardin growled in what he probably thought was a threatening matter.
"Because you deliberately caused him to attack you, so you don't get to attack him back." Renamon said, as if explaining it to a child. "As for an answer to your question," she continued, before Summer played a scene of the three Ultimates fighting, the destruction that followed, and a live feed of the current rebuilding attempts. "Be very VERY glad Ultimates are as rare as they are. They are NOT something either side wants running around too often," Renamon said, giving the boy a sharp glare, before she was soon by her partner's side again.
"...He's a stupid jerk." Miyako said, "There's no other way to say it."
"I agree." Hawkmon added in, "Who's willing to bet that seeing that scene of Ultimates fighting does nothing to him?"
"Hard pass." Was the universal answer.
The class went by...relatively well after that, and before long it was time for lunch, so the students were now gathered in the cafeteria.
"Hard to believe Mom is suddenly a teacher here, huh?" Yang couldn't help but say.
"But it makes sense to do this," Pyrrha mused. "If people understand more about Digimon, then they'll be able to know how better to work with the situation."
"And of course we can help to make the relations between the people of Remnant and Digimon better. I dunno about you guys, but I don't think we could handle it if the Digimon ended up our enemies," Jaune said nervously.
Novice looked up from the text to see the Children's reactions to this line of questioning.
"Is something wrong?" Hikari was the first to answer.
"Nothing, just surprised none of you have anything to say right now.
All of the readers looked at Novice a little confused.
"What's there to say?" Taichi said first, "Jaune is right. I don't think Remnant can handle the Digital World if the Digimon saw them as enemies."
"Up to Adult they might be able to handle Digimon, but Perfects and Ultimates are too much." Jo said with a small sigh, "And if that mad scientist we saw in the previous chapter is any indication, that might actually happen."
"I'm sure the Remnant Chosen can stop that from happening." Patamon said confidently.
"Well, you'd have us on your side at least." Gomamon reassured him with a grin.
"Oh that we're not worried," Ren reassured. "...we're more worried about the part where humans do something stupid that makes the majority of the Digimon think we're a threat and well…"
"Between the Grimm and Digimon, Remnant is toast," Pierce sighed. "Cause seriously, human stupidity is one of the infinite things in the universe. No way idiots like Cardin would even realize how big the bite they're taking before they're choking on it."
That last comment made everyone give apprehensive looks to Novice.
"What?" The Overseer asked.
"...Does that include you?" Veemon Tentomon was the first one to answer.
Novice looked offended, "If by stupid you mean not thinking what could go wrong with my affairs, then I'm 96% sure that at bare minimum my sense of self-preservation trumps my stupidity."
"Why 96%?" Iori asked with a suspicious look.
"No one is perfect, least of all me." Novice said like that explained everything.
Everyone agreed with that assessment. Especially Ken, who still remembers considering himself perfect.
"Well… let's hope your Semblance is feeling generous then." Veemon said a bit nervously.
"Among other things," Blake sighed. "Neanderthals at 12 o'clock," she deadpanned. The group turned, and true enough, the Four Stooges of Beacon were headed their way with the head stooge looking less than pleased.
"You know, I heard even donkeys are smart enough to NOT hit the same wall. What does that say about you?" Gyro deadpanned when Cardin came up to them. "Look Winchester, I am NOT in the mood to deal with you and your racist crap, and I ESPECIALLY am not in the mood to listen to another idiot who seems dead set on giving humans AND faunus a SECOND enemy other than the Grimm. And UNLIKE the Grimm, we wouldn't be able to win if they got high enough on the power scale."
"So do us all a favor and make like a banana." Yang added, and grinned a bit when Nora high fived her.
Daisuke, Veemon and some of the other digimon laughed at Yang's quip.
Cardin was, quite obviously, steaming, almost literally if how red his face was looking was a good indication.
However when he raised a hand to, probably in his mind, clobber Gyro… he wasn't fast enough.
All Cardin knew was darkness as Gyro delivered a perfect hit to his head which crumpled the taller boy to the floor… and everybody turned to Pierce when they heard a loud and echoing voice say "KO!" from his scroll.
Now everyone laughed a to varying degrees.
"Cardin! You're gonna pay for that!" his teammates growled… before the Digimon got between them.
"Don't you jerks have anything BETTER to do than bother us?" Salamon growled.
"Yeah! We have enough jerks like you back in the Digital World!" Gabumon agreed.
"He said it." Gabumon agreed with his other.
"And like with them we're not gonna take you bothering us or our partners lying down!" Biyomon added.
"That's right." Biyomon agreed with her other.
"So why don't you walk away before someone gets hurt," Agumon finished, flames licking the side of his mouth.
Agumon looked pleased with how his other was handling this.
Apparently the show of unity was a bit too frightening for the idiots, especially since Agumon wasn't the only one prepping an attack, as they picked up Cardin and ran away.
"Wow… you guys almost make this an art form." Ilia said with a blink.
"It's very impressive." Kotemon agreed with a nod.
"After the things we survived through, those guys don't even register on the 'threat' list," Weiss said dryly.
"She's not wrong." Hikari agreed with Weiss.
"That both impresses and scares me," Ilia sighed. "So...what do you all have next?"
"Well...there's that field trip in a week," Ruby said. "The one to Forever Falls."
"Other than that, it seems they're gonna be reworking the time tables to fit in the new class," Blake said. "Other than that, we'll have History with Oobleck and that's it for the day."
"Remember to call him Doctor, or he'll interrupt you… a lot." Gyro said with a chuckle.
Jo quickly consulted the guidebook. "That's true actually. Oobleck takes his doctorate very seriously."
"We'll keep that in mind," Ren chuckled.
"Prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, human kind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing the Faunus population in Menagerie," Doctor Oobleck said in his usual rapid pace, before taking a sip from his coffee mug, then zipping to in front of his desk. "Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!"
"Like how people will want to make sure we remember the battle in Vale a few weeks ago?" Weiss asked knowingly.
"Precisely Miss Schnee." Oobleck said with a nod, before he started on again "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" he asked, and a few students raised their hands, as well as Velvet, Blake, and Ilia, who once again was sitting in (because if she didn't occupy herself, she'd probably be trying to think of ways to skin Fennec and Corsac) "Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!" another sip, because of course "I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang!" zipping to another spot again.
"Too bad people don't get the hint earlier," Blake grumbled a little.
"That's just terrible." Mimi said with a frown, "And that's considering Earth only has humans and we still find reasons to hate each other."
"Japan is better than that." Daisuke said encouragingly.
But Novice laughed at this. "No, these things just aren't talked about in Japan." Novice said with a shake of his head, "Some Japanese have White Fang levels of hate to Koreans."
"What?!" The Chosen let out in unison.
"But... why?" Sora couldn't comprehend this.
"I'm no expert, so I won't go into much detail, but according to some sources it's a symptom caused by flaws of Japan's society." Novice recited, "But then again, all nations on any world have their problems."
"Including yours." Koshiro stated.
"Yes." Novice admitted easily, "But let's not dwell on that too much." Novice said before returning to the book.
Still, the Chosen did seem a little... shaken by the revelation.
"Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorist believe to be the turning point of the third year of the war?" Oobleck asked, to which Weiss raised her arm. "Yes?"
"The Battle at Fort Castle!" she answered without hesitation.
"Precisely!" Oobleck nodded. "And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's Forces?"
And Cardin chose that moment to be a dick of course, as he flicked a piece of paper at Jaune in the hopes of getting SOMEONE in trouble, and sadly Gyro was too focused on sharing his notes with Ruby to stop it with his semblance.
"Ow." Jaune said as he felt something hit him in the back of the head.
"Mr. Arc!" and Oobleck was suddenly in front of him, startling the blonde "You have the answer?"
"Uh…" Jaune was caught flat footed for a moment, glancing down to Gomamon who shrugged helplessly, before looking back to Oobleck "No Doctor, I don't."
Oobleck rose an eyebrow "Then why did you speak up?"
"I felt something sting me in the back of the head." Jaune answered simply.
"Ah… very well then, my mistake." Oobleck said with a nod of apology, mostly for putting Jaune on the spot, before turning back to the class at large "Does anybody have the answer then?"
Everyone felt some relief at Cardin not getting his way this time.
Cardin grumbled at how that didn't go as he planned...before yelping when he felt something sharp poke him in the rear.
"Mr. Winchester! Do you have an answer for us?" Oobleck asked, to which Cardin looked surprised, so much so he nor his teammates could turn and look to see who or what did that, and as such, never noticed the small white form sneaking away.
"Well…" Cardin started before smirking and leaning back. "Well...I'm sure it's easier to train an animal than a soldier," he said.
Everyone scowled at Cardin for that kind of comment.
"It's actually the opposite." Iori commented with an annoyed look, earning everyone's attention. "Animals like dogs need to be trained with patience and good balance of punishment and reward. Soldiers are people who can think and therefore learn with instructions, unlike normal animals."
"Iori's right." Koshiro agreed with a small smile, "Animals have more limited intelligence compared to humans."
"That doesn't mean you should underestimate dangerous predators." Novice pointed out.
All humans nodded in agreement, although Digimon are much more dangerous.
"This guy redefines the meaning of jackass," Tentomon grumbled from where he was sitting next to Weiss. He sure as heck knew that was wrong. With that in mind… "You REALLY don't even bother to think of your own words do you?" he said out loud as he jumped onto the table in front of him.
"Oh? And I suppose you know the answer, bug?" Cardin shot back.
"It's easy when you bother to read!" Tentomon snorted.
"That's right!" Tentomon agreed with his other.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tentomon…" Jaune muttered under his breath.
Jo chuckled at this, "I know Jaune in canon cheated his way in, but it's a little sad that this Jaune didn't seem to study either."
"Oh? So what was the big trick?" Cardin challenged.
"Its night vision you dope! Faunus have better night vision than humans, something anyone with half a mind for tactics would research if they were gonna fight a faunus! General Lagune clearly didn't bother, no doubt cause he had the same bigoted thoughts as you and figured he knew everything he needed to know. Well, the end result is for everyone to see in the books!" Tentomon shouted, finally losing his patience.
There was a bit of silence in the class as several people stared with wide eyes at the Digimon who was panting after his rant, while Weiss came over and picked him up to bring him back to her seat.
"Well… anger side, Tentomon is indeed correct, the Faunus won that battle due to night vision. General Lagune, ignorant of that fact, attempted to attack them at night, and as a result was captured," Oobleck said, a bit more slowly than his usual tone, before turning to Cardin "Mr. Winchester? You can stay to see me after class, I think we need to have a chat."
"Wait a second, don't Faunus sleep during the night like humans do?" Taichi then questioned.
Jo consulted the guidebook. The book didn't offer details on that, but it was safe to assume that that was the case. With that in mind, "Yes, but I think in that situation they would have had look outs. And with night vision, they would have seen the human army coming long before they saw the Faunus."
"Which would have given Faunus ample time to launch a counter attack." Yamato continued.
"And catch Lagune by surprise if they did it quietly." Gabumon added in.
Novice nodded in approval of everyone's deductions.
"Nice one," Gomamon said, sticking his head up from under the desk...suddenly next to Tentomon.
"Where did he come from?" Gomamon was the first to ask.
"You don't know?!" Hawkmon was the first to voice the question.
"How do you not know that?" Jo asked, finding it hard to believe his partner had no clue.
"How would I know?" Gomamon countered.
Everyone gave the seal a blanched look before shaking their heads and choosing not to question further.
"Where'd you come from?" Weiss blinked.
"Who do you think made that jerk yelp?" Gomamon snickered under his breath, before sliding back down… and popping back up next to Jaune.
Weiss and Tentomon both blinked at the seal Digimon, before figuring it was best they didn't question how he just got there so fast.
The Chosen and their partners decided to follow that example.
"Well...that went a lot better for Jaune than it did in 'canon'," Gyro commented after they'd all left class.
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel all that better," Jaune deadpanned.
"Jo." Palmon said, getting curious about how it went in canon.
Jo consulted the guidebook again, "In canon, Jaune was put on the spot and didn't know the answer. He got to spend time getting scolded by Oobleck with Cardin."
"Well, at least he got to avoid that." Biyomon commented.
"Well...doesn't matter," Gomamon shrugged. "So classes are over today? What do you guys want to do?"
"Well...it's not too late, and since the ships are running again...want to go for a quick trip into Vale?" Blake asked.
"Reason is?" Pierce asked knowingly.
Blake rolled her eyes "What? I can't just want to hang out?"
Everyone gave her a look at that "Blake… you don't just do things, you do them for a reason." Patamon answered.
"Okay, a new book I was interested in came in, and a store where I happen to know the owner, former member of you know what, said he'd try to hold on to one for me," Blake admitted.
Everyone chuckled a little at Blake getting interrogated.
"You're talking about Tukson right?" Gyro asked with a raised eyebrow.
Blake nodded, glancing at Ilia who looked a bit confused at Gyro knowing a former Fang member, so she decided to ask a bit more discreetly so they could explain it to her girlfriend when she wasn't asking a million questions "I assume he appears in the thing?"
Jo immediately consulted the guidebook. "...He was killed by Mercury in canon." Jo informed everyone.
"But they can stop it now." Sora said hopefully.
"Let's hope so." Mimi agreed.
Gyro blinked, before raising an amused eyebrow "Yeah, he does."
"Quick warning, we might want to get him to run away sooner than later, or Mercury might get the chance to off him," Pierce frowned.
"Who's Mercury?" Ilia asked in confusion.
"Some jerk who's an assassin, enemy of ours, he doesn't know we're aware of him, and his boss has the Fang under her thumb because Adam is an ass, so he's gonna probably try to kill Tukson since he's a former Fang member." Pierce explained.
"...right," Blake sighed. "I'll be sure to visit more often. Maybe if I can't convince him to get to safety sooner, then maybe I can be there to stop them."
"I'll help," Patamon added.
Everyone smiled at the Remnant crew's plan.
"We'll all do what we can," Ruby said. They couldn't just let someone die after all. Not when they could do something about it.
Several nods were shared among Chosen and their partners.
"Welp, guess we're going into Vale." Nora said with a laugh before they all went to the docks to catch a ride down into town.
"It really helps put things into perspective when you see the rebuilding efforts from up close." Pyrrha said once they reached town and observed a street and the buildings on it in the middle of being rebuilt.
"More reason to make sure the shit that's about to go down during the Vytal Festival doesn't go as bad as it would if nothing is done. Though hopefully we can try to keep damage to a minimum," Gyro sighed.
"Well...we know who to look out for, so that'd help," Agumon encouraged.
"Yeah, last time they didn't know who the enemy was. Now we do," Veemon agreed.
"I really shouldn't say this, but this almost feels unfair to the villains." Wormmon commented.
"It's not like villains play fair." Mimi countered, "So I think this is divine punishment."
No one could disagree with that.
"Blake… what are they talking about?" Ilia asked in confusion.
Blake sighed, before turning to her girlfriend "Alright, it's like this…"
"Wait… so… a third world… really?" Ilia asked in shock.
"How did you think we felt when we found out the Digital World was a thing?" Yang asked with a snort.
"Suffice to say though, we're FULLY intending on fixing things. At the very least so the world doesn't go bleak in the span of a few days," Pierce sighed.
"I can see why." Ilia said with a sigh, she'd never thought she'd be told about a third world where Remnant existed as a show.
"...I still find it hard to believe that there's an Earth where we existed as a show." Ken muttered.
"...If what Novice said was true, then there must be an infinite amount of parallel worlds where we made different choices from the ones we made." Koshiro added with a thoughtful look.
"But if there's a me that made a different choice than I did, then what's the point of me deciding anything?" Veemon then asked.
Novice chuckled at this, "Maybe there isn't. But does that matter? The choices that you made in the reality you live in are the ones you made. No one else."
"You've put some thought into this." Yamato commented on Novice's convictions.
"What can I say, seeing multiple realities puts things into perspective." Novice shrugged, "But I recommend you don't put too much thought into this. It will give you a headache."
"I'll take your word for it." Hikari said, already feeling like she would overthink things if she dwelled on this subject.
"Honestly, after everything that's happened so far, this feels downright sane," Jaune deadpanned. Really, sanity and normality was dead as dead could be for them.
"...so, where's Tukson's shop?" Ren asked, wanting to change the uncomfortable subject.
"Right. It's this way," Blake nodded, leading them to it.
It wasn't long before they reached their destination, a quaint little book shop called Tukson's Book Trade. However…
"Huh...is it just me or does it feel...bigger...than in the show?" Pierce mused.
"It's not just you. It DOES feel bigger than I remember," Gyro mused. "Then again...it's not like we saw details of the shop much…"
"Well… I don't know how it was in the show… but Tukson told me a while back he had a wife and son… maybe that's what it is?" Blake suggested.
Jo immediately consulted the guidebook again, "Tukson isn't known to have family."
"Maybe that's why the shop is bigger." Iori concluded.
"Makes sense to me." Armadimon agreed.
"That… that would do it yeah…" Gyro said with a blink "Huh… didn't see that coming."
"Just like you didn't see us being a thing." Palmon said in amusement.
"Yeah, I guess we didn't." Pierce said with a laugh. Once the mirth died down they soon went inside. The shop certainly was well stocked with a large variety of books.
"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade. Home to every book under the sun," came the voice of a rather large man with dark hair.
"That's false advertising and you know it Tukson." Blake called out to the man with a smirk.
"I don't need that from you too, my wife tells me every morning." Tukson shot back dryly, before laughing "Good to see you again Blake, how've you been?"
"Been doing well enough. I've made a few new friends too," she smiled, gesturing to all her new friends.
"I see," Tukson smiled a bit, especially when he noticed Blake had her ears fully exposed. Though when he passed Weiss he did a double take.
"I know I know, a Schnee being friends with a faunus, really strange, and I honestly don't care," Weiss chuckled dryly. It had been long enough that the novelty of the stares were starting to wear off.
Everyone let out chuckles at Weiss sounding so done with things.
"Well, I'm honestly glad to know that," Tukson admitted with a nod. "At any rate, I already know what Blake wants, but is there anything in particular all of you would like?"
"Mind if we browse?" Jaune asked politely, earning a small smile and nod from the larger man. With that, the group went around the shop, looking for anything interesting...save for Nora and several of the Digimon...who seemed attracted to the back of the shop.
"Something smells good," Agumon said.
"That would be my wife's bakery, since we set up shops back to back, we just attached the two buildings together into one, so if I go out the back of my store, I end up in the back of her own." Tukson explained with a fond smile. However, when he looked at the clock, he frowned a little.
For once Jo didn't feel like consulting the guidebook since it was highly likely that Tukson's shop set up the way it is probably doesn't exist in canon. Everyone else felt so too.
"Something wrong?" Salamon asked.
"No, just wondering where my son is. He's a bit late," Tukson frowned. "He's a responsible kid, so I know he's not doing something he isn't supposed to, but that new friend of his…" he sighed.
"Any chance it's of the monstrous variety?" Pyrrha asked knowingly.
"Got it in one." Tukson sighed "Honestly, that thing is kind of like a big, curious baby… with claws and sharp fangs… and it can breathe fire too."
"Wow...sounds like a troublesome partner," Gomamon mused.
"Yeah… he likes my wife's bread though, so at least he's not too hard to handle when their inside." Tukson admitted with a shrug. "Stops us from wasting any unsold bread too."
"I'm kind of jealous of this Digimon living there." Agumon muttered in annoyance. "He gets to eat all day long."
"I don't think that's it, you glutton." Taichi said teasingly while patting his partner's head.
"Yeah, sounds like one glutton of a mon," Biyomon laughed.
"Like Agumon." Biyomon commented, earning small laughs out of most.
"Hey!" Agumon protested.
"Well, to be fair, Veemon isn't much better." Gatomon decided to cut some slack for the yellow reptile.
"Hey!" Now it was Veemon's turn to be offended.
"You know she's right." Daisuke said with a smile, "Besides, if my parents had a bakery, you would've eaten them out of business a long time ago."
Veemon crossed his arms and pouted. Agumon did the same.
Their respective partners did plan to ask Novice to give them some snacks as an apology. But that was for until after the reading.
"But...you sure you don't maybe want us to go look for him?" Patamon asked.
"No, its fine. If there's one thing good about what happened recently, crime's been on hiatus thanks to not only much of Vale still needing rebuilding, but let's just say some found out the hard way that picking a fight with Digimon isn't a good idea," Tukson chuckled at the last one.
"Unless those people were huntsmen then I can't imagine that going very well." Ken shook his head.
"It's strange that people were still willing to do that after what happened with Myotismon." Iori commented.
"It might actually be because of it." Miyako chimed in, "But it's still stupid for normal people to pick a fight with Digimon. Especially if they're strong."
"Says the girl who smacked LadyDevimon with a skateboard." Novice pointed out with a smirk.
Miyako's cheeks turned red at hearing that.
"You actually did that?" Ken asked in surprise.
"...I couldn't stand what she was doing." Miyako said, looking ashamed of herself.
"But that made her release her hostage, so no harm done." Hikari pointed out, causing Miyako to look slightly less ashamed.
"Well, in that case, we'll see you around Tukson." Gyro said as those who had chosen books paid for them before leaving the store.
"So… what now?" Kotemon asked as they left the store.
"I guess we could look around and see how things are doing in town." Jaune suggested.
"We might as well." Ruby agreed.
"Vale's rebuilding steadily...and I'm happy to see there's good reason for it," Wormmon commented as they happened to walk by the places rebuilding...and saw several workers with Digimon partners helping to attach things, weld things, and generally make the rebuilding process faster.
The Chosen smiled at another example of Digimon and Remnantians co-existing in peace being beneficial.
Then they came by a park, and noticed children coming to the end of a game...but they weren't just children there.
"This really gives you hope for the future." Gyro said with a smile as he watched the kids that had been playing with their Digimon partners.
"It always starts with the children they say," Ren mused. "Maybe the Digimon like Myotismon didn't leave a good impression…"
"But with this, people can see that there's more to them than just what Myotismon showed the world," Jaune agreed.
Everyone agreed with the assessments given.
"...I wonder if it's possible for our worlds to live like this." Mimi said thoughtfully.
"I'm afraid it won't be as simple as we would like." Takeru sighed. "But I do think it's possible."
"If both sides put in the effort then most likely." Yamato agreed with his brother.
Eventually the kids finished their game and were preparing to leave...save for one…
"That kid…" Ilia mused.
"Do you know him?" Blake asked.
"Isn't that the kid with that red Digimon from the mall?" Kotemon asked, before taking a closer look at said Digimon, seeing it had a red, raptor like body with small bat like wings on its head, a white belly, several black markings on its body, with the most prominent being… "Oh… that's… oh dear…" Kotemon started muttering, somehow managing to be visibly pale even underneath the armor.
Kotemon going pale did not sit well with the Chosen or their partners.
"Something wrong?" Ilia asked in worry.
"He… he has a Digital Hazard." Kotemon managed after a moment, and all the other Digimon visibly tensed.
"I'm guessing that's a bad thing," Yang frowned.
"Well...not necessarily, but Digimon who have that tend to be more...violent…" Biyomon said.
"More violent...how?" Sora was the first to ask in worry.
"It can't be worse than any of the evil Digimon we have faced." Mimi said hopefully.
"Not saying ALL Digimon who have that are violent. It's just they can have more violent tendencies," Tentomon added.
"You're forgetting how those that go full rage become literal global risks and can cause a meltdown of the Digital World." Gabumon added with a frown.
"...I hate to be wrong." Mimi muttered.
"I haven't heard of Digital Hazard." Gatomon said with narrowed eyes.
Novice shrugged at this, "Maybe it doesn't exist in your world."
"I still find it hard to believe that Digimon can cause something that sounds so ominous." Jo commented on the fact that from what little they have seen of this Digimon it doesn't have the will to cause that kind of destruction.
"So they're a walking nuclear reactor...and his partner is a kid who seems to be having a hard time keeping him in line normally at that…" Gyro said.
"...we're doomed…" Salamon moaned.
"I hate to agree with my other, but it looks that way to me." Gatomon sighed.
"Well… if it helps, I was looking that one up on the Analyzer, it's called Guilmon." Weiss said as she flipped her scroll around to the others.
Digimon Analyzer: Guilmon
Guilmon. Virus Type. A Child Level Reptile Digimon. A Digimon bearing the Digital Hazard on his body, one of the most dangerous hosts of it due to a potential Dark Evolution it can take under the worst possible conditions. His saving grace is that he has the personality of a curious child, and very much tends to act like a simple dog. His special attack is Pyro Sphere, shooting a blazing red orb of fire from his mouth.
"Maybe he's not that threatening with a human partner like that." Takeru commented.
"But if he happens to Dark Evolve..." Palmon said in worry.
"I wish I could say that wouldn't happen, but I made that mistake." Taichi said, "I wanted Agumon to Super Evolve, but because of not fulfilling proper conditions of my Crest he Dark Evolved instead."
Agumon looked a little down at hearing that, "I'm sorry Taichi."
Taichi gave his partner a confused look, "What are you sorry about? It was my fault that you became SkullGreymon, not yours. I'm the one who should say sorry."
"Taichi, none of us knew how to use our Crests at the time." Koshiro pointed out, "I think we should simply be happy that nothing worse happened back then."
"Koshiro is right." Yamato said with a small smile, "Any one of us could have made that mistake if we got our Crests before Taichi did."
"But since he doesn't have a Crest then there shouldn't be a risk of him misusing it, right?" Miyako then asked.
"But Chuumon became Phelesmon because of strong dark emotions." Jo also reminded everyone. "Maybe something like that might happen with Guilmon."
"But what kind of dark emotions would... oh." Hikari was about to ask when something popped into her mind, "What if Takato gets badly hurt?"
"...That could work," Hawkmon said while looking to Miyako. "If Miyako was hurt badly... I wouldn't know what I would do." Miyako responded by giving her partner a comforting hug.
Biyomon also hugged Sora, "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let Sora be hurt."
Sora hugged her partner back, "Biyomon... even if something like that happened, I want you to promise me to never go so bad as to Dark Evolve."
"Novice, what is Guilmon's Dark Evolution?" Palmon then asked.
"One moment." Novice said before making a holographic headset appear around his head and waiting for a moment. "It's me... The Children asked about Guilmon's Dark Evolution... Really? Okay, I'll tell them." Novice then dismissed the headset before making a holographic screen large enough for everyone to see, "Say hello to Megidramon. One of the Four Great Dragons." The screen showed an evil looking serpentine red dragon with the Digital Hazard mark on its white torso and on its arm plates.
"Four Great Dragons?" Iori asked as they all came to the conclusion that this dragon definitely looked evil.
"The Four Great Dragons consist of four powerful dragon Digimon. The members being, Goddramon, Holydramon, Qinglongmon and Megidramon." Novice explained, earning several surprised looks at the mention of Qinglongmon. Not to mention that Holydramon was one of Gatomon's possible Ultimates. "Three of them are benevolent, but Megidramon is the evil one."
"How dangerous is it?" Taichi asked dreading the answer.
"Well, in Digimon Tamers Megidramon was able to give Beelzemon a run for his money." Novice said, earning worried looks. The Beelzemon that was Novice's Impmon was able to fight off WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, and even after they became Omegamon and Imperialdramon joined the fight, they still couldn't hit him. Besides, that was without his full power which injured Novice himself.
"That's terrifying." Mimi said in worry.
"Let's just hope that nothing that would make Guilmon Dark Evolve happens." Takeru said, not wanting to dwell on this.
The group slowly looked over… seeing as now the boy was trying to nudge Guilmon awake, but before he could, the Digimon's eyes suddenly opened and his head shot up, almost knocking his partner over.
"Ouch…" the boy groaned, before noticing the expression on his partner who was sniffing the air. "Guilmon? What's wrong boy?" he asked.
"I smell Digimon! And they're not friendly!" Guilmon growled as his eyes gained a more feral look to them.
The air felt tense in the immediate area, before a spot near the trees sparked, and reality suddenly tore itself open, a hole in the air remaining as data leaked from it, with what appeared to be a forest being visible beyond… though the trees were moving.
What followed was what appeared to be a walking tree only without any leaves, coming out of the tear. "So this is the other world. Come on boys, this place looks like a great place to take root!" one of the Digimon said as a few more Digimon like it came out as well.
"Woodmon!" All the partners let out in unison.
"What are Woodmon doing here?" Nora asked with a frown as they all tensed a little.
"I'd like to hope they're friendly, but I think we all heard what Guilmon said," Palmon frowned.
True enough…
"Okay, this place is gonna be our new home, so first order of business, let's clear it up," the lead Woodmon said. However…
"Hey! You can't do that!" the boy in blue said, catching their attention, Guilmon by his side.
"Takato's right! This park is for everyone, you can't just do that!" one of the kids said.
"Oh really? And who's gonna stop us?" the Woodmon challenged.
"We will!" The boy in blue, Takato said defiantly, the kids soon joining in as well as the Digimon which aside from Guilmon included a Hagurumon, Bakumon, Candmon, ToyAgumon, Elecmon (not the same one from File Island), Goburimon, Kunemon, Liollmon, Mushmon, and a Penguinmon.
"Will they be enough?" Sora wondered in worry.
"Don't worry Guilmon is strong for a Child level Digimon." Novice said with a small smile.
"Even I could probably fend off Woodmon." Agumon boasted.
"That's because you have a fire attack." Patamon pointed out.
"I think we could probably fight them off together." Gabumon added in, also having a fire attack.
The half a dozen Woodmon stood their ground. "Well, in that case you're gonna learn not to mess with us!" the lead one said, before the two sides charged at each other.
"Shouldn't we help?" Ruby asked.
"We will if we need to. Until then, let the kids protect the park," Gyro smiled. "We've learned by now when people and Digimon work together, there's a LOT they can accomplish."
True enough, the kids and Digimon were holding their own quite well against the Woodmon. Attacking in tandem, working to hold some down, and the kids helped distract the attacking Digimon too. Overall the kids were slowly pushing the Woodmon back. The biggest help was definitely Guilmon who could overpower a Woodmon by himself, and launched it into another one with his Pyro Sphere.
"Novice wasn't joking Guilmon is strong." Jo commented with some relief that the Woodmon were being fought off.
The Woodmon fought back, but even when they managed to knock some of the mon back, their friends helped them up and they resumed the assault. Eventually…
"Retreat! Retreat!" the lead Woodmon shouted as the six soon crammed through the portal and before long they were gone, the portal closing behind them.
With the threat gone, the kids were cheering along with the Digimon, glad that they'd managed to beat the invaders back. Eventually though it was time to go home and the group went their separate ways.
"Come on Guilmon, if you're fast enough maybe mom will have saved you some of the better scraps of bread." Takato said as he tugged his partner along.
Guilmon's ears perked up at that, his stomach starting to grumble loudly out of nowhere as he drooled at the thought of eating more bread.
"Wait a second, is Takato Tukson's son?" Daisuke then guessed, earning surprised looks.
"Now that you mention it... Tukson did say that his son's Digimon ate all the unsold bread." Mimi said in thought.
"Let's wait for the story to confirm." Koshiro said not wanting to jump to conclusions.
As the two walked a bit, Takato noticed the chosen...particularly Ilia. "Huh? Hey, aren't you that nice girl from the mall 2 weeks ago?" Takato said when he recognized her and Kotemon.
"I'm surprised you remembered me." Ilia said, blinking in surprise as he walked up to her.
"Well, kind of hard to forget seeing someone running after Digimon while being super angry about something." Takato said with an awkward laugh.
Ilia slumped down at that "Not my proudest moment."
"So uh...I never got your name. My name is Takato. Takato Ecarlate," he introduced himself with a smile. "And this is Guilmon."
"Hi!" Guilmon said cheerfully.
"Ilia Amitola, and this is Kotemon." Ilia introduced herself and her partner.
"Wait, Ecarlate? You're Tukson's son?" Blake asked as she looked at him in surprise.
Takato blinked a few times "You know my dad?"
"And there it is." Takeru said what everyone else was thinking.
Blake nodded "I go to his store a lot, and I knew him back before he opened it, you weren't even born yet."
"So, you're a Faunus then? What kind of trait do you have?" Ruby asked curiously, looking him up and down.
Takato chuckled "Same as dad." he said as he lifted his hands up and puma claws came out of his fingertips.
"Well that's gotta be practical if someone tries to fight you." Nora grinned a bit.
"I guess yeah." Takato chuckled "Anyway, thanks again for helping so much during that invasion miss Ilia. I should get going now, before mom and dad start to worry. See ya!" he said as he turned and started to walk away with Guilmon.
"Bye bye new friends!" Guilmon added with a big smile.
"...Is it just me or does it feel like we panicked over nothing now." Miyako asked after seeing Guilmon smile.
"Maybe a little." Ken admitted.
It wasn't just those two, everyone felt some relief as it looked like their previous fears seemed unfounded after this interaction with the red dinosaur that really acted like a big baby.
The group waved goodbye at them in various states of amusement "He's a good kid." Weiss said with a smile.
"Yeah, and Guilmon really is like a big dog I guess… much less worrying regarding the Digital Hazard now… unless Takato ends up really hurt of course, then we're probably screwed." Gyro finished with a sigh.
"Did he have to say that?" Mimi complained.
"He's not wrong." Koshiro said.
"Koshiro we didn't need to hear that." Mimi said with an annoyed look.
"I'm sorry." Koshiro backed down.
"Let's… not think about that," Jaune sighed. "Let's think about something happier. Like the field trip," he suggested.
"You mean the one where Cardin will try to sick rapier wasps on us?" Gomamon pointed out.
"...think about when we turn the tables on them," Jaune amended.
"Oh yeah…" the brothers had a rather...happy look. No doubt they planned something nasty for the neanderthal.
Novice then shut the book in his hands. "You guys need a break or shall we get right on the next one?"
"Just a bathroom break should be enough, right guys?" Taichi said before looking to everyone else.
But then Daisuke had a thoughtful look, "Hey Novice, would UlforceVeedramon be faster than Omegamon and Imperialdramon?"
"Of course, why do you ask?" Novice replied easily.
Daisuke then turned to Veemon, "Hey Veemon, wanna try fighting Beelzemon?"
"Really?" Veemon actually looked excited, before remembering how strong and fast he was, "But... how am I going to win?"
"Remember, UlforceVeedramon is super fast, he can't avoid you like he did when you fought as Imperialdramon." Daisuke pointed out.
"Oh right! He can't avoid me like that." Veemon struck his fist against his palm in realization.
The two then gave Novice an expectant look. The Overseer sighed, "Alright, but prepare to face his full power if it gets too tough for him."
"What?!" The two let out in unison.
"But you didn't let him go all out against Omegamon or Imperialdramon." Yamato cut in.
"That was before I got him under complete control." Novice pointed out, "Now I can freely let him go full power without too much worry."
"Too much?!" Mimi and Sora let out in indignation.
"There are always risks, but I'm very confident that I've thought of everything that could go wrong so far." Novice said reassuringly.
Unfortunately his wording did not inspire confidence.
Impmon: *Making faces at Black* Does the kitty need milk? Maybe head scratches? Or simply cuddles, bwahhahahaaa *hugs himself while laughing.
Black: *veins ready to pop in her head* When I get out of here I will rip you to shreds. You hear me!
Impmon: Whaat? Can't hear you over all your yowling!
Black: *rams against the cat carrier, but only manages to jerk it forward*
Impmon: Wah! *Jumps back in fright*