"But you have an idea of the direction, right?" Takuya asked as he picked up a rather large piece of wood and stuffed it under his arm.

"The map is quite small, Takuya. But yes, I have an inkling of which direction we need to head in," came Bokomon's tired response.

"Then we'll be fine!"

"Oh really. We had a difficult enough time just trying to make it to an island we could see. What makes you think it will be easy to make it to the Autumn Leaf Fair, young man? Hmmmm?"

"We'll make it, that's all. It's destiny!"

Bokomon rolled his eyes. Sometimes the lad's optimism was tiring, though he guessed it was a rather admirable quality. He had always considered himself as more of a realist, and dreamy optimists were more or less idiots. Takuya was definitely an idiot more often than not, but Bokomon did admire the strength it took for the boy to always look for the good in things.

Several paces away, Junpei had managed to pull Kouji away from gathering wood for their fire to discuss whether or not their raft would be able to make the distance to the Autumn Leaf Fair. Junpei sketched out possible additions to the raft in the sand with a thin twig.

"So you see, we'll really need a mass about this large and - "

"You've got to be joking," Kouji interjected.

"What? No! Look, we can do this if we just gather enough wood!"

"If you're drawing to scale, that thing is almost twenty feet tall. The raft isn't even half that size."

"Right! So we'll just have to extend it and - "

"How about a reality check. We make repairs to it, but seriously that's just ridiculous."

Kouji was definitely more of a realist like himself, Bokomon mused. Junpei was something of both the idealist and the realist. He listened to the two bicker back and forth about the likely hood of a twenty foot mass only for a second more before moving over to where Izumi and Tomoki set up stones in a circle for their fire.

"How are you feeling, Izumi?" Bokomon asked, sitting down at the half-made circle.

"Fine, I guess," she responded with a raised brow and a confused tone. "Why?"

"Well everyone else was utterly exhausted when they first beast spirit evolved. Junpei slept the whole time we were with Whamon! You don't even look worn out. I'm flabbergasted."

"Yeah, I guess... Maybe learning to control the spirit is what takes it out of everyone," she said with a shrug as she placed another stone.

"It was really cool how you controlled it like that, though," Tomoki chirped in an excited voice. "I hope I'm as cool as that!"

"Well you need to get your detector back for that to happen, young man," Bokomon reminded him. Tomoki's shoulders slumped.

"What if we can't catch them...?"

"Don't think like that, Tomoki. Of course we'll catch them," Izumi said gently. Tomoki was a realist too, Bokomon decided. And Izumi was the optimist. Three realists, two optimists, and one inbetween. Bokomon felt the group was quite balanced with himself and the humans. Neemon was neither a realist or an optimist. To be considered either, one had to pay attention to their surroundings. Neemon mostly just took naps.

Takuya walked over with an armful of wood and plopped them down next to the circle of stones. "That should be enough," he said confidently.

"We'll see," Izumi responded as she eyed the pile of wood. It was a healthy amount, but whether or not it would be enough for a fire was another question. At least it didn't need to last the whole night with how warm the island was. At least, she hoped it wouldn't need to. As she reached for a few sticks to start making the fire, she opened her mouth to ask about what they were going to eat. It was then that a large group of Gommamon appeared before them.

"To thank you for all your help, we decided to bring you dinner!" they said in unison, excited tones and happy smiles coming from each and every one of them. They held out fish and shellfish for the kids to take and cook.

"Oh, wow!" Takuya exclaimed, looking on at the feast they were being presented. "Man this will fill us up for a week! I was still full from the food the Toucanmon made us. But maaaaaaaan this'll be great!"

"Yeah, that's more than enough for everyone. Supremo!"

"Well bless my buttons!" Bokomon agreed.

"Wow is that all for us?" Junpei asked as he came over to see what the commotion was about, Kouji in tow.

"We can't eat all of that," Kouji speculated.

"Well we can try!"

Kouji rolled his eyes at Junpei's exclamation.

"Kouji's right, we can't. Why don't you guys have dinner with us?" Takuya offered. The smiles on the Gommamons' faces told the gang they accepted. It wasn't much later that everyone, human and digimon alike, were sitting about the fire, chowing down on seafood and just having a rather good time despite the circumstances. Bokomon ended up eating the most, claiming he had to eat twice as much since he was with egg. No one questioned it aloud.

Soon the sun began to set, and the talk of sleeping arrangements began.

"Don't worry about a thing," one Gommamon replied when the gang mentioned sleeping in rounds. "We'll keep watch over you. You'll be safe! Everyone should get some rest." The group seemed skeptical considering the last group of digimon that seemed rather helpful robbed them blind, leaving the boys more or less useless. But they really didn't have anything left to steal, aside from Izumi's spirit. And that would be easy enough to protect. The group accepted the offer with happy faces.

Izumi was the first to lay down to sleep. Her evolution did take a bit out of her after all, and her eyelids felt heavier and heavier by the second. It wasn't long before soft snoring could be heard from where she laid.

"I was beginning to think she was a robot," Takuya joked, poking at the slowly dying fire. "Controls her beast spirit like it's nothing, and doesn't even get tired? Insane."

Kouji shrugged. "It's a good thing she did, though. We would have been toast if she couldn't control it." He was resting against a palm tree with his arms folded behind his neck. With his eyes closed, Takuya almost thought the other boy was falling asleep too, until he spoke.

"That's for sure," Junpei agreed. "Man, she was really amazing out there today." That earned him a look from everyone still awake. "What?"

"You almost jumped in after her," Kouji reminded him.

"Y-yeah? So what! She needed help!"

"No, she didn't."

Junpei stared at Kouji, the latter having now opened his eyes. "What are you getting at, huh?"

"I'm saying she was pretty impressive, and that she didn't need help."

Junpei just continued to stare at Kouji, still completely confused. Tomoki, who had been silent throughout all of this, kept looking between the two and trying to figure out what was going on. Takuya didn't seem to care and just kept poking at the fire.

"Just spit out what you mean already!"

"You don't need to worry about her. She can handle herself just fine, so don't throw yourself into danger for her sake."

"You're saying I shouldn't help her? I'm not heartless like you!" Junpei looked ready to either storm off or throw something at Kouji. Kouji didn't look even a little bit perturbed.

"I'm saying you should trust her more."

Junpei's anger dissipated at that sentence. He continued to stare at Kouji, waiting for him to finish what he was saying. But it appeared that Kouji was finished since he closed his eyes. Trust Izumi more? Junpei was about to argue that he did trust her completely, but part of him knew what Kouji was saying. Trust that she could take care of herself. It was true, Izumi was completely capable of doing that. Junpei found he couldn't argue, for once, and he just looked back at the fire. Several silent moments later, Junpei announced that he was going to sleep and moved away from the fire to find a decent spot to pass out. It wasn't until heavy snoring from Junpei came that someone spoke.

"You coulda just said he scared you," Takuya spoke up, eyeing Kouji with a grin.

"Who's scared? He's just going to get himself killed if he keeps jumping into danger just because he thinks Izumi can't handle herself."

"Yeah, and you almost lost your grip on him holding him back."

"Tch."

Tomoki looked between Takuya and Kouji this time, still remaining silent and trying to figure out what was going on. Sometimes he just didn't understand other people.

A moment later, Bokomon could be heard a little farther down the shore yelling at Neemon about keeping his dirty hands off of the egg. That was when Tomoki finally said something.

"Bokomon's sure going nuts over Seraphimon's egg, huh?"

"Nuts is one word for it," Takuya laughed. "Alright, I think it's time for some shut eye myself. What do you think, Tomoki?"

"Yeah, I can sleep."

The two rose from the campfire and found themselves a nice little place to call it a night, too, leaving Kouji the only one near the fire. He remained where he was, having found his place to sleep a long time ago. He was still awake when the fire finally died down. The stars were bright, the sky was clear, and the moons were full. It was altogether a very pleasant night. His eyes roamed over his friends' sleeping forms, partially wondering why he was always the last one awake, and also thinking about the day's events. Takuya was right on the money when he said Kouji was worried. Junpei almost jumped into a whirlpool after Izumi. Even if she hadn't come out of it alright, it wouldn't have been worth it to lose two friends instead of one. He really was glad Izumi was alright, though. The day had been taxing on everyone, and he just hoped the journey to the Autumn Leaf Fair would be a smooth one.

In the morning, they would have to repair the raft, gather provisions, and head out. Sleeping on the raft would be difficult, so this could very well be the last night in a few days that he could get some decent shut-eye. With a sigh, he snuggled into the sand as best he could and tried to sleep. It came to him soon enough, and the gang slept peacefully under the watchful eyes of the Gommamon, not too far away.

A/N: Sorry about the delay with this chapter. I was sick for almost a solid two weeks - no joke!