"Is that File City?"
Hand over his eyes, Tadashi was squinting in an attempt to make out what he was seeing. Chuckling at her brother's misfortune, Shizuka have him a pat on the back. She grabbed his hand and pulled it down away from his eyes. In retaliation, he scowled at her while pushing her away from him. Rolling her eyes, Renamon confirmed that it was the city as she glanced over her shoulder. Yoko giggled, skipping forward to walk beside the fox.
It was well into the day by then, time having slipped by as they walked. The sun, not far from the horizon, was on its way to setting. If they kept going, they were bound to make it before nighttime.
"That was a dumb question," Impmon said.
"It was," Mikami agreed, "but Tadashi doesn't have the best eyesight."
"Then why isn't he wearing glasses?"
The boy in question roughly cleared his throat. "I usually wear contacts, actually, but I lost them when we fell into the Digital World."
The imp smirked wryly. "Hey, man, that's your fault."
"Impmon," Leomon grunted, "do not antagonize him."
Sulking, Impmon folded his arms and puffed out his cheeks in defiance. Leomon groaned, rubbing at his eyes while shaking his head. Daiki elbowed Mikami in the side, but she shrugged, not knowing what to say.
Clearing his throat, Dorumon caught their attention. "Can we just hurry?"
"I happen to like walking leisurely through the canyon," Judai said. "After that fight, it's relaxing to—"
"Judai," Shizuka interrupted, "we are going to hurry up, get to the city, and get some rest. Okay?"
Judai frowned, looking at the glowering teenager. He sighed. "Yeah, okay. Hope we can find someplace to relax, then."
"Come on guys!" Yoko yelled. "We can get there soon if we run!"
"Yoko, no one wants to—" Before Mikami could finish her sentence, the redhead was dashing ahead of the group. "Wait! Oh, for Pete's sake…"
"Better catch up to her," Daiki said, looking at Mikami with a grin.
The brunette opened her mouth to object, only for Daiki to take off running after Yoko. Eyebrows narrowed, Mikami prepared to yell at him when she realized that Judai and Shizuka, along with their partners, were sprinting towards the city. She threw her hands up, letting out an exasperated sigh at the sight. Shizuka briefly looked back at her and Tadashi, putting her hand up with her fingers in the shape of a V.
Tadashi huffed, rubbing the back of his head.
"Well then," Mikami muttered.
"Somehow," Leomon said, "I am not surprised."
"Neither am I."
The first thing the group noticed as they closed in on the city was the massive arch above the entrance. A wall several feet high surrounded the entire city, but the childish decorations across it made it more welcoming. The wooden double doors were open, giving them a view of the buildings within. Having ran up the stairs, Yoko was the first to reach the open doors, hopping from one foot to the other. When Daiki and Shizuka made it to the top, Yoko dashed through the archway with an excited look on her face. The oldest of the group put his hands on his hips as he watched her wave to them.
"She looks ready to explore," Leomon commented.
"Agreed," Tadashi said. "She is unusually hyper."
"It has been a while since we've been in a place like this, though. I can't blame her," Mikami said.
"Yeah, well, it's annoying!" Impmon declared.
Raising an eyebrow, Mikami looked down at him. He looked back at her before rushing up the stairs to walk beside Renamon. The fox shook her head silently.
A surprised look appeared on Mikami's face as they walked through the archway. Though the city had looked quite large from the outside, it looked even bigger once they were inside. She glanced to Tadashi, who was looking around with interest. Leomon placed a hand on her shoulder as he walked past her, nodding towards the main walkway. Following him, she examined the various buildings surrounding them. Various types of shops lined the paths, along with bakeries and restaurants.
"This place is really big," Judai said. "Anyone know where we're going?"
Leomon motioned forward with his hand. "I am taking you to the inn. We will rest there for now. It would not be a wise choice to question the citizens when exhausted."
"Sounds good to me."
"Of course you like the idea," Shizuka said. "You love to sleep."
Judai looked offended. "What? No! I just think we all need some downtime. Are you saying I'm lazy?"
Snickering, Shizuka glanced at Daiki. The older boy attempted not to laugh at the annoyed look on Judai's face.
Whatever retort Judai had prepared was cut off once Yoko dashed up to him, grabbing his hand in the process. As she dragged him forward, she stuck her tongue out at Daiki.
"Alright, alright," Daiki said. "We'll quit."
Leomon ushered the friends towards the inn, hurrying them along the quiet streets. The building they approached was three stories tall, completely wooden, with a sign swinging back and forth that read "File City Inn" on it. Immediately upon opening the door, they were greeted by the sight of a counter to the far right and a bar to the left. A set of stairs beside the counter led to the second floor. Turning, Mikami looked at the bar and the tables scattered about. She hoped they only sold water and juice, or else Daiki would be having a field day. A handful of Digimon—five of them—sat at the tables. Shizuka paused beside her, looking at the dismal Digimon.
"Pretty quiet, huh?" she muttered.
"A little too quiet," Mikami grunted. "Wonder what's going on."
"A few rooms, if you would," Leomon said, approaching the Guardromon at the counter. "We wish to stay the night."
"Ah, Leomon. It is good to see you again. How many beds do you need?" Guardromon asked.
The lion looked back at the humans and their partners, hunching his shoulders. The robot Digimon did a quick count and grabbed several keys from under the counter. As Leomon turned back to look at Guardromon, the robot dropped the keys in front of him.
"Free of charge. Consider it my thanks for your help a few weeks back," Guardromon said.
Leomon smiled, picking up the keys. "Thank you." He looked at those waiting and nodded towards the stairs. "Let us get some rest."
They trudged up the stairs to where the rooms were. Once they were at the top of the stairs, Leomon handed them the keys. He left it up to them to decide who slept in which rooms as he took the farthest room. The twins were fine with sharing a room alongside their partners. Mikami ushered Daiki into a room as Impmon and Renamon took another. Judai and Yoko exchanged glances with their partners. Having been left with the remaining room, Yoko shoved her temporary roommates inside.
~0~
Daiki immediately took one of the two beds in the room, laying sprawled on it. Mikami sat down beside him, kicking off her shoes and putting her feet on the other bed. He looked up at her, grinning.
"You sure you wanna share a room with me?" he asked.
Mikami smirked. "Are you implying something?"
"I am offended, Mikami! I would never do a thing to you."
"Who said anything about that?"
Daiki laughed, sitting up and moving to settle in beside her. Letting out a heavy breath, he draping an arm around Mikami's shoulders.
"Missed this, ya know," he muttered. "Well, not this but—"
Chuckling, Mikami elbowed him in the side, causing him to grunt. "No need to explain. I catch your drift. Feels like home."
"Home minus the concerned, over-protective, sometimes suspicious parents," Daiki said.
"With a big, scary man like you, they have every right to be suspicious," she replied, shaking her hands while attempting to keep a straight face. "You might cuddle me to death!"
"Heh, shut up and lay down."
~0~
"We haven't shared a room since we were seven."
Tadashi paused. His hand rested on his Digivice, which he had put on the nightstand by his bed. Turning, he looked at his sister. The lilac haired girl eyed the two sets of bunk beds with a small smirk. She gripped the top of the rightmost bed and pulled herself up. Biyomon flitted up to sit beside the teenager, pulling her wings in close. Shizuka placed a hand on the bird to smooth out the feathers.
"Not liking your choice?" Tadashi wondered.
"Nope," Shizuka stated. "It gives me a chance to bother you while you try to sleep."
"Is that…a normal thing?" Gabumon asked, halfway up the ladder of the other bunk bed. "Keeping you from sleeping?"
Brushing a stray hair strand from his face, Tadashi nodded. "When it's not a school day."
"That's not nice," Biyomon said, looking at her partner.
"Oh, it's not that bad," Shizuka replied. "It's not like I keep you up any longer than half an hour."
Sighing, Tadashi sat down and leaned against the wall.
"Come on, Dashi. Hey. Hello-o?" Leaning off the side, Shizuka looked at her brother. He laid down on his side and turned his back to her.
"Zuka…"
"You're not mad at me, are you? Ugh, fine. I'll leave you alone."
~0~
If there is one thing I hate, Judai thought, it's not being able to sleep.
Sitting on the side of his bed, Judai stared out the window, a frown on his face. He briefly rubbed his eyes before sliding his hands down his face. It was dark out. He had been awake now for hours and he had no idea why. All he wanted to do was sleep. Luck was never on his side when it came to resting. Two or three hours of sleep was all he wanted, just a little bit of time to get rid of the bags under his eyes.
But no, I can never sleep when I haven't played video games.
He huffed.
Might as well go for a walk, he decided, carefully sliding out of bed. He didn't want to wake up Dorumon, who had insisted on lying next to him. Maybe it was a DigiDestined partner thing. Before he opened the door, he double-checked Yoko and Salamon. The two were sleeping deeply, cuddled together under the blankets. Nodding to himself, he quietly opened the door and slipped out of the room.
The hallway was strangely quiet. Fortunately for him, that meant no one would see him leaving. The last thing he needed was Mikami or Yoko freaking out. Or Shizuka getting on his case, for that matter. She would bury him if she found out he had left during the night.
Okay, just gonna stop thinking to myself about that, he thought. Don't need any images of my death by Shizuka's hands. Nope. Don't want any of that.
The steps creaked as he snuck down the stairs, causing him to wince. Stopping, he looked back to the way he came and then scanned the first floor. Satisfied, he continued his trek downwards. Once he was on the first floor, Judai sped up, glancing around. He paused when he reached the door, gripping the handle. As quickly as he could, he opened it and closed it behind him as soon as he was outside.
He squinted. Jeez, it's chilly. The one time I don't have a jacket.
Shaking his head, he headed off down the street. At least the air was calm and the wind wasn't blowing. Not only that, but the sky was littered in thousands of stars. He looked up at the moon, letting out a deep breath.
"Definitely needed this," he mumbled.
He paused once he reached an intersection, looking down the streets. The city seemed even emptier than it had when they first arrived. It wasn't very late at night, so he figured there would be a few Digimon out. Then again, he and his friends hadn't seen any Digimon during the day.
That was when he heard voices.
Narrowing his eyes, he turned left and began walking. The further he went, the louder the voices became. Eventually he could see the center of the city. Leomon had mentioned it briefly when they were on their way there, and his description was rather accurate. Several trees rose up into the sky, surrounding a fountain in the center. In a way, it looked like a miniature park.
He slowed his pace once he noticed that there were two shapes near the fountain. Silent, he moved up to one of the trees and peeked around the side.
A small, bat-like Digimon was hovering in the air. Just below the DemiDevimon was a Hagurumon. The Gear Digimon looked distressed as he stared at the Virus type, eyes wide. The DemiDevimon cackled, grinning evilly.
"You said they would be returned if I cooperated!" Hagurumon shouted.
"But you didn't, did you? Kekeke. The boss knows that you went behind his back to request help." The little devil looked pleased at the other Digimon's panicked expression. "None of the captives are gonna be given back. In fact, the boss has decided to delete them all!"
Judai couldn't stop his mouth from falling open as he listened. Cooperation? Captives? What exactly was going on?
"We'll be back tomorrow night," DemiDevimon said, "and we're taking the rest of the Digimon here. Hope you enjoy being the mayor of a ghost town!"
Glaring, Judai watched the bat fly off. It was settled; he was going to get the others and they were going to solve this problem. He didn't care how tired he was at that point. There was no way he could let this slide.
As much as I wish that we could have a whole day or two to ourselves.
Backtracking, he made his way to the inn. They wouldn't be happy about having their sleep interrupted, that much he knew. Opening the door, he sighed. When he looked up, however, he was met with an angry face and the lumbering form of a certain lion. Standing at Leomon's side was Shizuka.
"Where were you?" Shizuka hissed.
He raised his hands in defense. "I'm sorry for going on a walk! I couldn't sleep. Don't kill me."
"And you didn't tell anyone why?" she demanded.
Shrugging, he raised his eyebrows and glanced up at Leomon. "I thought everyone was sleeping. I mean, you guys looked exhausted when we got here. Besides Yoko, and I knew she was asleep. How'd you figure out I wasn't in here anyways?"
"It is not difficult to distinguish your scents," Leomon stated. "When I awoke, I noticed that your scent led outside."
"O-kay," Judai muttered. "So, I might've overheard a couple of Digimon talking at the center of the city…and we may or may not have a slight problem on our hands. See, I heard something about someone not cooperating and captives being…deleted."
Groaning, Shizuka covered her eyes with her hand and turned around. She nodded to Leomon, then motioned to Judai. Swallowing past a lump in his throat, he followed her up the stairs. It wasn't hard to guess that she was mad at him, judging from the way she was walking. It wasn't his fault though. Okay, maybe it had been a tad bit. That still didn't mean she had to give him the death glare!
She knocked on the door to the room Mikami shared with Daiki, tapping her foot while she waited. Daiki was the one to open the door, scowling at the girl.
Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he mumbled, "What?"
"Just come on," Shizuka said. "Mikami, you awake?"
"Uh-huh. Give me a moment."
Shizuka proceeded to wake the others as Judai stood at the end of the hallway, wondering how well Mikami and Daiki would take his little expedition. Mikami had never been one to like any of their group being alone unless she was sure they were safe. And, well, they were in the Digital World and being hunted by some crazed Digimon. Man, she was going to be even angrier than Shizuka…
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice Dorumon run up to him. The purple-furred Digimon looked up at him, worried. As soon as everyone was in the hallway, Shizuka dragged him forward and looked at him expectantly.
"Hey, easy there," he muttered. "Okay, I went for a walk. I saw a DemiDevimon and Hagurumon talking, so I eavesdropped. Most of the Digimon in the city were taken captive by someone and now they're going to be deleted since the mayor didn't do what he was told. And the rest of the Digimon here will be taken. Something like that."
"What are we waiting for?" Mikami asked. "Come on."
She pushed past them, Impmon running after her while complaining. Everyone filtered past except for Yoko, leaving her and Judai there in the hallway. The redhead turned to him and hit his arm, causing him to grunt. While he rubbed the spot, she frowned at him.
"Next time," she said, "just wake me up so I know where you went. Okay? Because I woke up and freaked out when I didn't see you."
The boy blushed. "Oh. Um…sorry."
She headed down the stairs. Following after her, Judai and Dorumon hurried down the steps to where the others were waiting. Luckily, Dorumon had grabbed his Digivice for him. He let out a puff of air once he joined the others. They headed out of the inn.
"Hey!"
Mikami froze, turning towards the city entrance. A familiar, red dinosaur came barreling towards them, two rabbit Digimon passengers riding on his back and head. Guilmon skidded to a stop in front of the group, a wide grin on his face. Terriermon and Lopmon jumped down, waving to the friends.
"Where are you going?" Lopmon asked. "It's the middle of the night."
"We've got somewhere to be," Mikami said. "What are you doing here?"
Terriermon chuckled. "Oh, we thought about it for a little while and figured that you guys could use a bit of our help with things."
"We could have them keep an eye out here," Tadashi suggested, "and watch out for the other Digimon here."
"Three Rookies?" Shizuka grunted. "Not a good idea."
There was a sigh as Daiki shook his head. "She's got a point."
"I'm sure we could help out," Guilmon mumbled.
"Leomon," Mikami said, turning to the lion. "I want you to stay here. We'll be fine, but you'll need to help protect the rest of the Digimon. Do you know where the captives might've been taken?"
"Then I shall stay. North of here, there is a fortress in the Mountain Zone. It is between the two tallest mountains, on a plateau."
"Alright. Let's go."