I don't own digimon.

Story 42

Frozen Over

IceDevimon looked over the sculptures in her cave one more time. She liked to think her skills as an ice sculptor had improved, there was still some way to go. Hopefully her partner would approve… wherever they might be. Definitely not in the digital world. Beyond that strange guy and his agumon, sightings of proper human digimon had dropped significantly. Definitely for the better. The last thing the ice devil digimon or any other digimon for that matter needed was a stray human wandering about and causing trouble for the denizens. But that wasn't something she needed to be thinking about right now. No, the portal would likely arrive any moment now. All the preparations were done, all that was left to do was for IceDevimon to wait. By no means the worst thing in the world, it was still not something that the ice devil digimon liked doing. No, she much rather have something to do. But it wasn't her call to make. That was up to the higher powers of this world to decide.

"I'm ready! Come and get me back!" IceDevimon announced and sat on the floor. Staring in the direction of the exit, she honestly expected that to be the way that to be how the portal came in to get her. Though, there was nothing to say that it was required to actually follow the rules of collision and come in nice and quietly. Did the portal that sent her here follow that rule? It had been so long, she couldn't say with much certainty. Hard to believe that so much time had passed. If she was lucky, her partner had at least grown big and tall. Strong would be nice as well, but IceDevimon liked to think she wasn't a betting digimon. Regardless of the state she found them in, the ice devil digimon would still love them to the best of her abilities. Simple as that. "I'm waiting!"

Almost as if to mock her, that was when the portal decided to make itself known. Lowering down upon her, IceDevimon felt her body get pulled upwards through it. Not even trying to fight it, she instead let a smile form on her face.

.

On the other side, she found herself tumbling through the sky. Darkness blanketed the area, vertigo and motion sickness threatening to set in at any moment.

"I guess this is what my big mouth gets me." IceDevimon thought and did a front flip to right her body. Waiting a moment for her wings to kick in, she took a moment to let her body's internal organs not puke her guts out. Remaining within her body, IceDevimon gazed towards the ground. A blanket of white covered everything below, snowflakes already at work to cover everything even more. She always loved this time of year. No need to worry about her works melting away, she could create ice sculptures to her heart's content. With her partner's approval, of course. Don't want a repeat of what happened midway though her first time here. May Mrs Rotterdam finally forgive her for what happened to Snuggles. It was an accident, brought about by tripping and throwing her aim off. Simple as that. No harm was intended for the little dog. But that was all in the past. Right now, her focus had to be on getting out of the sky. After that, figure out where she was. Once she had those two things, finding her partner should be a cinch. At least, IceDevimon hoped it would be. The last thing she needed was some kind of wild goose chase in weather like this. Good as her vision was, that didn't extend to snowstorms. Which was odd, considering her powerset.

"Daddy, is that Santa Claus?" a voice down below announced and IceDevimon scanned the area. Eventually, her gaze came upon a small child pointing up in her general direction. A taller person stood behind, likely the titular 'daddy' in this situation. Didn't explain if there was another parent in this situation. On the other hand, it was a shame that she didn't have anything red on. Even if she had, the comparison probably still wouldn't work. Didn't stop her from letting out a chuckle. Especially as the ground below rapidly approached.

Slowing herself down, IceDevimon took the time to look in the pair's direction. Giving a wave, she waited a moment for her boots to touch the snow. Once they had, she slowly made her way over.

"Not quite. I'm IceDevimon." the ice devil digimon announced and bent down to meet the small child. All wrapped up in jackets and snow equipment, it made for quite a challenge to just find their face. But IceDevimon eventually did.

"IceDevimon?" the child repeated back and was met with a nod. Spinning around, they looked to their father. Getting a nod, his focus turned to IceDevimon.

"Wait. Aren't you the one who Mrs Rotterdam tried to beat up with a rolled-up newspaper?" the father announced and IceDevimon looked away. Why was that the first thing that came to mind for people? Had to be far more memorable things that happened in this town that outrank that weird incident.

"Yeah." IceDevimon answered and let out a sigh. Standing up, she focused on him over the child. The least she could do while trying to remember if she knew this person. Not out of the question, that would still make it a challenge here. "How is she doing at least?"

The father looked away. Mumbling something in the direction of the wind, his gaze eventually turned back too the ice devil digimon.

"She's doing better. Though, I'm guessing that you're looking for Becky right now?" he announced and IceDevimon nodded. As leads went, she had struck possible gold. If not, some information was better than nothing. Even if it didn't lead her anywhere.

"Yeah. Is she still in town?" IceDevimon answered and was met with a nod. Afterwards, the father brought a finger to his chin.

"I talked to her earlier today. She's in good spirits, but you're in for a surprise." the father explained and IceDevimon froze. What could he mean by that? After everything that happened in the digital world, there was little that could faze her. Though, that also depended on if this was a good or a bad surprise. Tempted as she was to continue asking questions to discern the surprise, the ice devil digimon suspected it would be far easier to just head off and discover it for herself. That, and it was likely that the father-child duo had more important things to be doing right now.

"Thank you for the information." IceDevimon answered and took a moment to wipe away the snow on her head and shoulders. Nice as it was to have it come down, getting frozen chunks of it off after using an attack or just sculpting were not particularly fun. Once she was satisfied with the results, the ice devil digimon headed off. Tasting the snowflakes as she went, there was sadly no flavored flakes. Part of her hoped that would happen, but every time brought with it the same result. Closing her mouth, she gazed about the street. Snowmen seemed to line the street on both sides, decorated with a variety of scarves and hats. Though, a couple of them looked to have either lost their noses by way of vandals or by complete accident. Perhaps even a mix of both. Whatever the case, it didn't stop IceDevimon from making a couple noses out of ice and putting them in place of the lost body part.

"Perfect." the ice devil digimon thought and turned her attention ahead. Even in this weather, she had a pretty good idea of her location. But that was going off of the idea that her partner still lived in the same place from her first time being here. It was entirely possible that she was going to the wrong place and had no way of knowing until far later. But IceDevimon pushed that negative thought away. If it did turn out she had barked up the wrong tree, she could just ask someone. They were likely to have a pretty good idea of where she was meant to go. Or at least, IceDevimon hoped they would. Suck if that didn't turn out to be the case.

Turning her focus forward, the ice devil digimon was treated to the blinding lights of a massive Christmas tree. Faux gifts had been placed underneath, while large balls and other ornaments had been hung with the branches. "Quite a pretty display. A shame that I can't stay and savor it. Unless…"

Letting out a sigh, IceDevimon did a lap around the tree. As much as she wanted to do it one more time for good measure, she decided against it. Time may not be the essence here, but it sometimes felt like it was.

"Now, where are you, Yuki?" IceDevimon announced and landed on the ground. Lowering her hand to the ground, a stream of ice magic shot out. Doing her best to slide forward, it was a challenge to maintain the ice rink she created for herself. A shame no one had any ice skates she could borrow here. That would make this far easier on her feet, but the odds of getting her hands on a pair big enough were well out of the question. She would just need to work with what she had. "Yuki, your partner is here to see you!"

Sadly, those words failed to reach her partner. If anything, they didn't reach a soul. Not that anyone should even be out in this weather. The father and their kid were strange exceptions to the rule in her book. Perhaps they had somewhere to go and she had just caught them off guard. Yeah, that mostly made sense. Pushing those thoughts away for now, IceDevimon's focus returned to looking ahead. Continuing her makeshift skating session, it was tempting to look into the windows to see if there was something she had missed. Not that the ice devil digimon was likely to see anything from here. Beyond layers of snow and fog, of course. Nor did she think any of the occupants would be too keen upon seeing someone attempting to look into their windows. But if that wasn't a valid option, how was she supposed to know when she reached her destination? Coming to a stop, IceDevimon took a moment to think it over. How exactly was Yuki's home usually decorated? Her parents had never been the kind to actually put anything up for this time of the year. Which wasn't to say that they weren't festive. Far from it, in fact. Instead, they would go out for a special dinner that involved fried chicken and something called 'Christmas Cake'. Even if all the times she had tried it the flavor didn't come anywhere close to resembling Christmas. Or perhaps her idea of what 'Christmas' would taste like in the first place was out of whack. Something to ask Yuki about whenever she found her. Perhaps after getting up to speed on everything that had happened. With the couple years she had spent in the digital world, tons of stuff had likely happened. At least, IceDevimon hoped that was the case. Would suck if the whole reason that she and a bunch of digimon were sent back was because the balance was off or something dumb. Though, that did sound like the kind of thing Homeostasis would justify their actions with. But she was going off of secondhand information from digimon who were likely no doubt bitter about the whole thing.

"I have to be getting close." IceDevimon told herself as she slowed down her skating. Last thing the ice devil digimon needed was to overshoot her destination and have to double back. Wouldn't put it past herself here. Just the thought of getting to see her partner after so long filled her with a variety of emotions. Some of which bubbling to the surface after many years. Could she really do this? Or would the ice devil digimon fall apart like the blithering mess she felt at this moment. Only one way to find out. First, she would need to find a house with fried chicken. If not that, then maybe a family coming in with a carton of the stuff. Once she found that, then it would be a cinch to locate Yuki. Or at least, IceDevimon hoped that would be the case as she scanned for any signs of fried chicken. While the object she was looking for was relatively small, that wouldn't stop her from at least giving it a shot. The number of houses alone put the odds in her favor, but that wasn't accounting for the number of variables at play here. "Yuki, it's me! IceDevimon! By any chance do you think you can let me have a piece or two? I'm kind of hungry."

Waiting a moment for her words to reverberate up and down the neighborhood, IceDevimon did her best to calm the nerves threatening to leap forth within her body. This plan had to work. If it somehow didn't, the ice devil digimon honestly wasn't sure what she would do. Probably find a place to work on her ice sculpting and hope that Yuki would somehow see it. But that was a last resort, one only used if all felt hopeless and things just weren't working out. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally trespass on someone else's property as a result of a failed search for her human partner. That, and IceDevimon had a feeling that a good chunk of the people didn't really want to deal with having to clean up a broken ice sculpture if she accidentally made a mistake or tapped it a touch too ha-

Before IceDevimon could finish that thought, the scent of fried chicken filled the air. Bouncing about the fronts of all the houses, her gaze eventually came upon one with an open door. That had to be the one. But at the same time, something felt off about this. Try as the ice devil digimon might to put one of her claws on why that might be the case, she found herself coming up empty in that regard.

Making her approach, IceDevimon took the time to brush off any additional snow that might have gotten onto her while searching for Yuki's home. The last thing her partner needed was a mess as she made her entrance. Even if that was leaving out the fact that she still needed to get through the doorway. IceDevimon slowly bent down and did her best to gauge the height of the doorway. Staring in, she was met with a japanese woman. Dressed in a glacial blue puffy coat and what the ice devil digimon assumed to be snow pants, she was reminded of a skier.

"Yuki, is that you?" IceDevimon called out and was met with a nod. Carefully pulling her partner in, the pitter patter of paws approached from further within the house. Right out of the corner of her eye was a scruffy-looking puppy. Turning back to Yuki, a sigh escaped her lips. "Don't tell me that isn't a puppy from Ms Rotterdram."

Yuki let out a nervous chuckle and squeezed IceDevimon tighter. Perhaps the second time was the charm. Or at least, the chosen hoped.

Notes:

The last story of 2021 (most likely). To a glorious 2022, I guess.