Warnings: Casual discussion of murder, fascism, poverty, and other things. Just 3k chapters, I said. It'll be fine, I said. Apparently not as we lean towards 4k again. Help me why did I do this to myself?

Chapter Four: There's a Place You Can Occupy

"Digital is a bit fascist, you know. Cutthroat, hoarding. We're also flat broke and run by convicts and thirty-something year olds. It's rather problematic by default. I was alive during the gang wars. Or what might as well have been gangs. Two of my friends were on opposing sides for a while, but then they were forced to coexist. They're gone now. They disappeared. A lot of people have disappeared over the years. More died. And yet, we all don't hate each other anymore. We don't even hate the world down below, I think we're just afraid. We've had too many years to ourselves. It's too much to hope that Earth has forgotten us."

Yagami Hikari took in her surroundings with no small amount of trepidation. People were looking at her and whispering for just long enough for Tailmon to glare at them and for her to squirm.

"Don't worry about them."

She glanced over at Taiki, who was looking out at the crowd, scanning in search of purple hair. That hadn't been her, right? That girl hadn't been that small girl from all those years ago who had looked half-starved and flinched at loud voices but still smiled like a dreamer? "Admittedly," he said, voice wry. "it's a bit difficult to ignore them. But you're pretty exciting. Two people from Earth in one day, and one a born Chosen to boot? You're going to be an interesting kind of celebrity for a while, sorry to say."

"That's really such a big deal here?" Even though Chosen were becoming more and more common at home as the years passed, even though Digimon were gaining partners more and more all the time (both a good and bad thing), her being up here carrying such a fuss didn't make much sense. Digimon were all over the place.

"The heroes of Earth have never been interfered with before." Taiki reached out and scratched his orange cat behind the ears as Vio lounged by his feet. He ignored the way Hikari eyed said cat with both curiosity and anxiety. He kind of understood. Meicoomon as a species were uncommon at best outside of Folder and some parts of Directory and, well… his was special anyway. "The common thread everyone's had is that the governments down there have you marked but they think you'll blow up every governmental organization they have."

Hikari couldn't contain the sound of her own amusement and fear now, letting out hoarse giggles that didn't sound forced enough to be fake but Taiki had made himself laugh before and he could easily recognize a bottled up sound. Then she wiped her eyes. Tailmon was climbing up to her shoulder again.

"Funny," she said when she had a modicum of voice. "That was exactly what they arrested me for, actually."

Taiki raised an eyebrow. "Did you actually do it?"

Hikari smiled at him, a gentle face that he knew from everyone here was the best lie in the business. "Almost. It was an accident though."

Taiki wanted to ask more, but he also wanted to preen a bit.

They had a chosen up here, an actual Chosen Child, and they were somewhere on the line between okay and screwed up too.

Watch the dirt ball fall… look where it's going. Right where the fires burnt, right where people died.

He didn't mean to feel so satisfied, but it felt to him like everything was coming back around.

Taiki snapped himself up and looked to see two distinct purple blurs in the crowd. "There they are. C'mon. We have to get you set up with a lodging space and citizenship and I don't know how good you are with computers, but believe me when I say it's a lot faster to do it online."

Hikari blinked at him. "… Why, exactly?"

Taiki smiled. "Over ninety-five percent of our work is done online, because it's cheaper. Looks like you'll need some help with that."

Hikari was torn between telling this strange young man that she knew how to use a computer and being exasperated at the implication that somebody wouldn't.

Then she saw someone pull up a hologram in front of their fingers and promptly changed her mind.

Tailmon with all the sentiments of a cat, imitated her. She hissed at it instead.

Hikari tried very hard not to sweat drop, especially at her current guardian's beaming smile "You know," she said after a few moments of recovering from this. "I, I think you might be right."

"Sayo's pretty good with computers." He watched her reaction and she let him, her face falling like snow. "You know her?" That was pretty darn impossible. Chosen avoided Folder like the Black Plague was there. (Joke's on them, the Blackening Phenomenon was long gone.)

Hikari shook her head a little. "I thought I did."

They spent the rest of the wait in thoughtful silence.

...

"Uncle?"

Uncle Shinta readjusted his grip on his daughter, as he walked who as always was squirming to be put down. Therefore, he took a few seconds to respond. "Mm?"

Sayo had not let go of the child this whole time, nor had they let go of her. In fact, each slight jostle made their tiny, thin fingers grip harder. Not hard enough to hurt, after those fights with grandiose monsters and her own mother, Sayo doubted conventional terrified children could really cause her any damage, but she still gently touched their fingers to make them loosen up. The least they would do is hurt themselves and all. "Why has Darja kept trying to lick me?"

Shinta grunted out a long suffering noise. "Danger."

"Oh." That would do it. Danger Floof, her uncle's childishly named Dorumon who was older than Digital CITY dirt, had an extreme obsession with cleaning. With his tongue. It only made sense that he would cause that problem. Thankfully, Darja was barely two, and therefore failed at covering distance. She kept trying though, licking the air like a toddler possessed. It was a pretty silly response. Though it seemed more directed at the child in her arms. They weren't reacting, but Darja was a youngling. She wouldn't be that easily deterred.

It was cute, in its way.

"He's quite proud of himself," her uncle said dryly.

"Too bad Doru didn't take after him," Sayo said softly before she could stop herself.

Shinta either ignored it or didn't know how to disagree, as he said. "You would have had to get used to drool on your comforter."

Her nose wrinkled. It was the only thing she didn't miss about raising baby Digimon as they grew, specifically overenthusiastic baby Digimon. "True…"

"Effort to get it out of the sheets."

The child squirmed a bit. Sayo reflexively loosened her grip, intent on dropping the child to let them escape if they so desired. However, they merely adjusted themselves, well enough that Sayo could see the scarlet red paint through the dirt on their neck. Her eyes went wide.

"Uncle?" When he looked at her, much more quickly this time, Sayo's eyes were slightly frightened. "This is a Wisteria child." The young one tensed even as Shinta let out a swear word that Sayo only understood from her own Talosian heritage. "It's okay," she tried to say as the squirming continued. "I won't give you away, I won't. That just makes things harder, it's okay."

"Harder is an understatement." Shinta grimaced, observing the child settling once more at her tone, if not her words. A child had traveled all the way from Wisteria, from the equivalent of what Earth called a red-light district, only cleaner and regulated. There was a prostitute's kid in his niece's arms. "Any signs of a yellow or blue bracelet? Do they have a required Tamer?" The only way Union Tamers were allowed to have children was if they raised and looked after one once they became trainees. Sayo… simply put, never had before now. Yuki had required all of her help beforehand, learning how to work around sudden blindness, sudden new traumas, sudden everything after the Chrono Core.

"There's none," Said Keiichi told her, having been floating by her head. Sayo nodded a negative to answer. Shinta sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I'll contact Julia when we get some food. Won't do us any good until then and if there's none, we may be able to argue it as your community service." He waited for Sayo's obedient nod and quickly smiled. "Have faith in me, Sayo."

"I do."

Shinta said nothing to this, but merely inclined his head. It was safer than arguing. "We're going shopping tomorrow after I get back from Mass. You already have furniture but I thought… well, you would want to decorate."

"… Oh." Sayo made to scan the many flashing signs, too bright for her eyes. "That will be nice."

Shinta decided he would have to take that. She sounded much too tired for many more words.

…

"We have nothing left these days, nothing that we didn't make ourselves. So it's the recyclables of never ending failure. Something will have to give eventually. As long as it's not all over for us, it should be fine, right? I'm so tired of wondering. I just want to be happy. I just want to not feel like this. But it's so easy to feel like this."

In another world, one with harsher gravity and a significant lack of monsters, the sight of Sayo with that small, filthy child in a dining establishment would bring nothing but contempt and disgust, possibly even a shooing out.

At this little pancake place in the middle of the Ares District of Digital, however, no one batted an eye. It wasn't like the child was spreading fleas. No, they were spreading strawberry syrup on any soft fluffy goodness they could reach and stuffing their thin, dirty cheeks.

Honestly, haven't you seen weirder?

Sayo herself was eating eggs at a slow, contemplative pace. Taiki sat facing the window, scanning the passerby. She watched him a little, but mostly she watched Yagami Hikari and her Digimon. To be fair, she had good reason: the young woman wouldn't stop looking at her.

And it wasn't for the reason most people looked at adult Talosians, which usually consisted of eventually crashing into various objects and tripping over themselves. There was something heavy and foreign in that gaze, and it was even a bit nostalgic too.

Sayo, being herself, didn't ask. She simply went back to poking her food and occasionally eating it.

Shinta busied himself with his Digivice phone, one eye on her and it would have been infuriating if she wasn't just so done with it all. And if it wasn't her uncle.

Finally he looked away from it and smiled up at Sayo. "Success. They're all yours."

Sayo glanced at the dutifully eating child and nodded. "Catch?"

"They'll need a babysitter and you'll be taking remedial tutoring and job training." Shinta was quick to smile. "But the usual supplies, once their profile's been taken with their blood, should be at our door in the morning."

Sayo nodded a little. Then she turned to the little child. "You're coming home with us, if you want." The child looked at her and nodded, squinting slightly. Could they see? She would have to check. "We need a syringe."

"Julia will take care of it."

Sayo's expression twisted a little. "That's still weird, uncle. Hope you know."

"As everyone has told me, yes." Shinta wiped Darja's face for what seemed like the fifth time. "That or I'm hardcore. She's a woman, a wonderful woman, but honestly, she's not an idol."

"I bet you worshipped her like one," Taiki muttered before he could stop himself.

Shinta stared at him in absolute offense. Then Sayo, to everyone's surprise, burst into giggles, dropping her silverware and rushing for a napkin. Taiki's cheeks flushed and he looked away, causing Shinta himself to let out a chuckle of his own. Hikari laughed before she could stop herself, hiding her mouth with her hand to contain herself. The child fidgeted, then kept on eating.

"Today is absolutely nuts," Sayo finally murmured, getting her giggles under control. She was glad Roni wasn't here; the child didn't need big rabbit-dog eyes all over their food.

Taiki mumbled an apology, ears a dark tint.

Eventually, the little one did get full, letting Shinta go and pay for their bill. Sayo sat and watched the outside, losing interest in Hikari. She watched the people mingle outside, eyes thoughtful and solemn.

What was she going to do now? Could she really just live on her commander and uncle's good graces? Be a shameless bum? No, if you weren't useful then you were better off being out of the way. At least, that was as far as she could tell.

She looked down at the child as they picked at the napkin and built a tower with the cream cups. She smiled a little. Yuki had done that the last time, the last time their father had taken them here. How long ago had that been?

Trying to remember only causes a headache. So she stopped and looked at the little thing beside her. "Do you have a name?" The kid should, there was only a superstition to not name your child if they were born with a cough or a sickness in the bones, and even then, they were named. To not name a child was to curse them to have no records, to be a part of the mass pyre without a record.

There was a quiet silence as the child took a sip of water.

"M' name's Frisk," he finally said. "'m good with m' fingers."

I'm a little thief.

"You need glasses, Frisk." Sayo said it without much importance. "We'll go to the mass clinic and they'll tell you. Just you wait."

Another pause. "Hate doctors. Smell funny."

"Hate 'em too," Sayo agreed. "But we need things we hate. I love my dad too. He's a nurse."

"Why?"

"I dunno how to get rid of fleas."

The child was staring at her, she could feel it. "Mm?"

Frisk didn't respond. Sayo let it go at the sound of a key being placed on a table. Shinta smiled at her and she scooted out. He knelt down to Frisk's eye level. "I'm gonna take you to get a pre-examination and some basics, if that's all right."

"You said tomorrow," Sayo interjected because she couldn't help herself and because Frisk's nose turned up like they wanted to swallow a lemon.

Shinta only smirked. "You're tomorrow. This one only has the rags and let's face it, Helen will be much more friendly with you at home."

Sayo's face shuttered closed. Well, he wasn't wrong. Just because Anya -Annie, she had asked her to keep calling her Annie- had been responsible for her case until last year, didn't mean Helen offered any kindness. And she wouldn't. Fear ran deep. Besides, she hated the sheer amount of grime Frisk was likely going to track in. Better for her uncle to deal with that.

"Right..."

Taiki, thankfully, came to her rescue on the unspoken question. "I'll take you there. Shinta-san has already asked for set-up so Yagami-chan can stay here temporarily."

Hikari looked up in surprise, cheeks flushing pink. "Oh-oh no, I couldn't. I..."

"It's easier if you do." Shinta smiled wearily. "I doubt you have much money, or Bit, rather, and you don't want to be in debt within a week of being here. It's just not worthwhile."

Hikari shifted. "Bit?"

"You've probably heard it as Digidollars," Sayo mumbled, giving up and drawing on the table with a single finger. "That converts to BIT, otherwise known as bytes. Memory bytes. Usually it's in the form of money, but memory in a data based area can be considered a rare and valuable resource. It's why Tamers obtain data." At Hikari's clearly baffled (and now slightly uncomfortable) frown, Sayo exhaled and looked at Taiki. "You didn't tell her anything?"

"You seem raring to go," Taiki offered, leaving the tip.

Shinta continued to coax an uncomfortable Frisk forward, but eventually the dark fingers latched onto his pristine priestly robes to be put on the ground. He didn't seem inclined to stop them, rather only cocked his head in agreement. Sayo made a noise of discomfort. She was not Ms. Exposition, not about what was essentially Digimon cannibalism. It was the best way to make money. Bytes were what converted money to being transferred in the first place. Who actually kept money the traditional way anymore? They had accounts and things.

Darja, seeing an opening as all two year olds do, proceeded to totter over to her legs and clinging hard.

"Trade you." Shinta didn't even hesitate to grin now.

Sayo wanted to grimace. The child would not stop licking once she got her opening. Well… her face softened and she picked up the tot, enjoying the brief squeals of innocent glee. Frisk's head tilted to the right. Then they shifted off the seat and over to Sayo's uncle. Sayo nodded a bit, letting Darja do what she wanted. Though, being two, she quickly got tired.

"I have no choice now," she said as the girl squirmed to get comfortable. "Oh well."

"Oh well," Shinta agreed. "You kids have fun."

Taiki just stared at him.

Sayo shrugged. She had no idea where to start with that one.

As her uncle and apparently new ward departed, Sayo turned to Hikari and sighed. "So… Bit?"

Hikari coughed, looking to hide her face in Tailmon's head. "I guess that would be a good place to start?"

Sayo gave Taiki a scowl, who lifted his hands in immediate defense. "I'll help I promise."

Sayo glared at him for a moment more. Then she relented. "Right. So. Bit, bytes, data, comes from the death of Digimon..."

"It what?!"

Taiki winced in sympathy. Oh was this going to be a long walk.

Sayo's eye twitched. "Yes. When Digimon die, their main data becomes an egg. But there's always extra data, or data that's lost in general. It tends to be scanned, that's how lots of tamers up here get a start. They make an egg. The rest becomes Bit, used for monetary purposes. Since it's data, it can be converted to Earth currency."

She is immensely grateful that Hikari doesn't ask, but why would you kill Digimon at all? Because ask a stupid question, get a snide answer.

What she does ask is "How did you guys find that out?"

"Trial and error," Taiki replied. "It was an unlucky accident."

Hikari looked about, Tailmon hopping to her head to do the same. "Everything here is data?! All of it?"

"Mostly." Sayo ignored someone who went to take a look at her neckline, leaving Taiki to give them some sort of look that struck terror in the hearts of men. "We're still somewhat organic, or you wouldn't have any blood." She took the pin from her hair (why did she have that when she had a hat? Reasons.) and pricked her finger. A single drop of blood rolled down her pinkie. "You can bleed in the Digital World too, but that's because it's not an entire world of inorganic data. Anyway, we're data enough that most things can be teleported."

"And now we can grow Digital World plants, finally." Taiki shuddered. "No more flying in cows."

"They stopped doing that five years ago." Sayo watched Hikari turn pale. "Yeah we have a food shortage. You're going to need a garden permit. And to learn how to barter. Hope you like fish."

"I do!" Tailmon sounded a little too enthusiastic. Hikari managed to nod.

"Good. You're learning how to fish." Taiki sounded a little too gleeful at what he was going to do for this poor girl.

Sayo shot her a sympathetic twitch of the mouth, adjusting Darja in her arms. At least the child wasn't heavy-

Thud.

That was the normal sound people made when they crashed into a Talosian. Thud and ow. The guy did the first one, but went right past without the second one. Instead, something clanged to the ground, a tiny sack that was probably used for a bag of Scrabble tiles. It sounded like one too. Sayo picked it up and turned-

"Hey… you dropped-!"

There was no one there.

She looked back at the other two. "You… you saw that right?"

Hikari nodded. Taiki did the same.

Sayo picked up the small pouch and frowned at its weight. Darja whined at all the movement. "Well..." she managed to say. "I guess I'm not imagining things, at least."