I stumbled into something so i had to work that one out before i can upload the next chapter.
Here you go! One more chapter in a bit!
A few hours passed in real world.
A few days passed in the digital world. Tsubasa and Honoka decided to train their Digimon in the wild. Even though Sebastian has turned into a Dark-Tyranomon, Honoka's Ichigo still remained an Agumon.
"Hngg… it's weird, how could you not have your Greymon yet? I swear the status looks alright, the weight looks fine too." Tsubasa said.
"Hnng… I don't know?" Honoka said with concern in her eyes.
"Hmm, maybe you're not happy? But what are you not happy about, Ichigo?" Tsubasa asked.
"Uh… maybe because I was not named 'Steak?'"
"No-no, that shouldn't be a problem. If you're happy, then you should not care about what your name is."
"Uh…. Then it's because… Honoka-chan rarely pats me on the head?" Ichigo asked.
"Nah, shouldn't be a problem too. Hmm… maybe you're not battling enough?" Tsubasa said.
"Battles! I love battles!" Ichigo said.
"Oohhh! So we need to stimulate his happiness with battles?" Honoka asked.
"Yep, but maybe, we need it to be an extremely tight battle?" Tsubasa said.
"Hooo! Sure! That sounds fun! I like tight battles too! Wild Battle is kind of a little too repetitive and boring after a while." Honoka said.
"We can try to duel, but it's not fair since you are a rookie and I have a champion Digimon." Tsubasa said.
"Hnn, that's no good?" Honoka asked.
"Nope. But anyway, we can try asking our favorite rival, Eli!" Tsubasa said.
"Ah, right! I wonder if her Renamon has evolved yet." Honoka said.
"Let me check, we should be able to peek at her status from here." Tsubasa operated her Digivice to search for Eli's profile. After a few minutes of search, Tsubasa seemed to be unamused.
"Dang—she is good. This isn't even a status for Champion Digimon…" she mumbled with a bitter smirk on her face.
"What's wrong, Tsubasa-chan?" Honoka asked.
"Ah, ahaha, never mind Eli, let's look for someone else." She said.
"Oh, ok!"
"Hmmm, what about, your close friends?"
"Kotori-chan and Umi-chan?" Honoka asked.
"Yeah, I haven't seen you contacting them for a while now." Tsubasa said.
Honoka remained silent for a moment, then she quickly took a glance at her Digivice. She knew that there has been a few emails piled up in her inbox, but she never got the chance to open them since she is with someone else for the past few day in the digital world.
"Hehe, maybe we can just meet with them in the city?" Honoka offered.
"Sure! I need to meet up with Erena and Anjuu too. They've been messaging me but I always ignored them."
"Ah, then, you need some time alone? I think we both can use some time to spend with them."
"Hehe, it's like you read through my mind, Honoka. I do need that. It's really hard for me to focus when you are around." She said boldly.
Honoka could only respond with a giggle, she wished to talk more but she knows that there's something else that's holding her back from speaking out her mind.
"Then, I'll see you later, ok?" Honoka replied enthusiastically.
"Sure, I'll be waiting for your answer too!" Tsubasa said before she took out an item. It looked like a miniature pilot.
"Answer…?" Honoka tried to remind herself of what she needed to answer.
"Bye-bye!" Tsubasa said cheerfully before she pressed a button on the mini-pilot like item. A circle of light appeared under her feet, then she disappeared like a data as the circle swiftly lifted her up.
"A-aa! W-Wait! Tsubasa-chan!" Honoka's shout is too late to stop her.
"Uh, she is gone…" she continued with sad tone.
"We can go too, Honoka-chan. Sebastian told me that he already put an Auto-Pilot in your bag." Ichigo said.
"E-Eh? He did?"
"Yep, I suppose you know how to use it, right?"
"Where will it take us though?"
"Back to the city, the auto-pilot is like the return button in the digivice."
"Aaah, I see. Hmm… what about the return button in digivice now? Where will it take us?"
"Uh, I don't know, I wouldn't want to take the risk though. This Digital World is unpredictable."
"Why?"
"Because, I heard that if you use that teleport function, it has chance of failing and you will end up missing a few parts of your cyber body. Then, if that happens, you won't be able to return into your real body."
"What's a cyber body?" Honoka asked.
"It's the body you are using now. You can't use digital world facility without a cyber body."
"Aah, ok, but where's our real body?"
"It's converted into cyber body, that's why you are affected by the Digital system. Also, I thought Kotori-chan already explained this to you."
"She did? When?"
"Uhh… Honoka-chan, why are you so forgetful." Ichigo the Agumon sighed
"Ehehe, sorry." The ginger girl giggled embarrassedly.
"Well, I suppose you are lucky that I can write in your Digivice memo. I'll start to write them down for you, ok?"
"Hehe, alright, thank you so much, Ichigo!"
"Now, we should go back and meet Kotori-chan and Umi-chan. They should be somewhere around the city."
"Ok!"
The Training Gym, File City;
Umi can't stop looking at her digivice's screen where the data of her Penguinmon is projected. Even though he is supposed to be in the age of evolution, he hasn't yet evolved into anything. She has been spending her time training him as hard as she could.
"My training doesn't fit that well for you, huh?" Umi said a little sadly.
"Maybe it isn't like that. Maybe my age to evolve is not today." Yamato the Penguinmon said.
"Really? I hope you're not saying it just to comfort me." Umi said.
"It's true, I believe your training is the greatest training in this digital world. Even better than Sakuya's training." Yamato said.
"Sakuya's? You mean, Eli-senpai's Renamon?"
"Yes, I contacted her whenever we are on break time. She told me about her training, it sounded very rough and complicated."
"What does she do, exactly?" Umi asked.
"She has almost no break time, she has to meditate when she is not training her speed or learning the basics of battle. Her master also gives her only half of her usual bed-time each day. She only eats meat once a day while the rest of her food menu are vegetables."
"It's actually a healthy diet." Umi said.
"Huh, really? I think I might die from that." Yamato said.
Umi giggled to his remark.
"You're right, penguins don't like vegetables."
"Fish is our life. Meat is fine too." Yamato replied.
"I got it. No veggies for you." Umi replied with a gentle smile.
As soon as the two were close to running out of topics to discuss, Kotori and her Suzaku as Birdramon came by.
"Umi-chaaan!" She called her with her cute voice.
"Ah, Kotori." Umi and Yamato turned to her.
"Suzaku!" Yamato greeted her.
"Oh! You're still a Penguinmon. I thought you've gone to your next evolution." Kotori said sadly.
"I know… it's strange." Umi replied. The two remained silent for a while before Kotori finally decided to take action. She checked Umi's digivice which Umi placed on the small table nearby and read her Penguinmon's status.
"Hmmm… This is good enough to get a champion Digimon…" Kotori said.
"Is it?"
"Yep, maybe you just need to try to go out and fight."
"Eh? Fight? But with what? I've fought about three or four wild Digimon from time to time!"
"Uh, well, it's just to fish for a motivation to evolve." Kotori said.
"Motivation to evolve?" Umi and Yamato tilt their head slightly.
"Yamato-chan, are you scared to evolve?" Suzaku asked.
"S-Scared? Uh… maybe, a little bit." Yamato replied.
"There you go, that's the problem. If you are scared to evolve, you have no motivation to evolve and you will never evolve." Kotori said.
"I-I… I see." Yamato nods nervously.
"It's not that bad, you just take another form. I thought you experienced it before?" Suzaku said.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what makes me scared to evolve." Yamato said sadly.
"hehe, Anyway, Yamato-chan, Umi-chan, Honoka-chan just replied to me a few minutes ago. She said she is already back in the city, but she and Ichigo went to a restaurant to eat their lunch. After that, she would love to discuss something."
"What will it be about?" Umi asked.
"I'm not sure, but it might be related to Digimon this time."
"Ah, right, seriously, we need to get out of this digital world as soon as possible. I'm very worried about our world."
"I believe they'll be fine. They have lot of good tamers. Anjuu-chan also told me that they're currently working on a communication system while Eli-chan might be working on the whole system itself."
"What systems?"
"I'm not sure, Anjuu-chan told me that they both have to work together to be able to unleash us from Digital World Rules. It's like creating a new database for our digivice system."
"Why is that? Are the systems bad for us?" Umi asked.
"It's not that bad, but, if we want to be able to move freely around this Digital World, we need to create a new database. Another theory is related to our previous attack. Anjuu-chan said that we might be attacked by a corrupted back-up data from the city of memory officials. We need to somehow over-power those while we have the chance in here. For you, Honoka-chan and our juniors, we might be able to brush them off easily since you started a few days before it happened, but, for them, it was a troublesome fight since they've been playing Digimon Online for months."
"Ah, I see where this is going. So we just need to grow as far as we could here and return to the city of memory before we step into the real world?"
"That's a yes, but not really. We need to play further act later since we don't know when we can leave this place. It will take a lot of days in the digital world to be able to create this new system, unless we experience a miracle, then maybe we can go home sooner than we thought."
"Is that so? Then, what can I do to help other than practicing?" Umi asked.
"Hmmm… I'm not sure, I think Eli-chan and Nozomi-chan said that they're fine with working on the system on their own. Nozomi-chan also said that she travels around the island to conduct investigations on this digital world system, she said she is like Eli-chan's assistant. Then, Kayo-chan and Rin-chan are practicing on their own and, sometimes, they go to the city to travel and help Nozomi-chan's investigation. Niko-chan and Maki-chan, they just got back from a chaotic experience. They said they were chased by a mega digimon. I suspect they to wandered off to a sewer or something worse… they've got a horrible smell all over their body when they got home. "
"A horrible smell?"
"Yep, now they are taking their baths at home. Lucky that Erena-chan finished the unfinished part of our bathroom yesterday."
"It has an unfinished part?" Umi asked.
"Uh, yep, it appears to be Niko-chan's work. She must've forgotten about it since she was so occupied with the idea of returning her Cooking Guild's test."
"I see, she isn't a disciplined type after all."
"Hehe, but anyway, Umi-chan. My main reason for being here is to take you to the restaurant since you haven't visited the farm this morning."
"To the restaurant? But—…"
"Save your digi-anchovies, Umi-chan, let's eat something decent. I don't want to lose to Honoka-chan!"
"Eh? Lose to Honoka?"
"Yep, she has been eating in the restaurant almost everyday even though she doesn't stay in the city for long. Tsubasa-chan paid for her too."
"Wow, someone needs to tell her to stop letting herself get spoiled."
"Don't do that, Umi-chan. It's fine… Tsubasa-chan isn't actually paying with her hard earned money anyway."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Umi asked.
"Ever wonder why our Digimon online use the real world currency? It's because bits are far too easy to hack. Tsubasa-chan and Eli-chan hacked them."
"W-what? How do you know?"
"Nozomi-chan told me about it. She just bought all the items in the shop last night."
"T-That's unfair!"
"She even said that if we happen to be staying longer than we thought, she will buy off the shop and run it until we can fix what we need to fix in this Digital World."
"What exactly do we need to fix again?"
"I'm not sure, honestly—But! Umi-chan! Stop asking me question and let's eat! I'm very hungry!" Kotori said before she pulled the warrior girl out of the gym.
"K-Kotori! P-Please be gentle!"
Suzaku and Yamato turned to each other, shrugged, and follow their tamers out of the gym.
Back at home;
Niko and Maki sat in the gazebo. They've finished with their baths and now they needed to clean the cards they brought one by one. The two were quiet until Niko decided to speak her mind.
"I can't believe this, we can't even use cards here? Lame!" the black haired girl sighed.
"It's your fault. You should've checked the facts before we did anything." Maki replied to her complaint.
"I thought it was because of my card engine! It was cheap and battery is low so, I thought your engine will work for us."
"Nozomi just gave me this engine and I haven't tested it myself. I don't even have any cards with me right now. How could you be so sure I can use my card engine?"
"Huh? Are you not smart enough to figure it out yourself?"
"It's not that, you moron, it means that I haven't even spared any time for it! Also, I should'nt have to clean this mess. It's entirely your fault!"
"Oh, Come on! You didn't even fight back there!"
"I don't want to touch the damn Digimon Waste! Even Polymnia felt as disgusted as I did!"
"But that brat was literally throwing shit at you! You had to fight back!"
"No way! I don't fight with that crap. If you want to fight with shit, you should go ask Rin or Honoka. I bet they would be fine even if it means that they have to roll in the mud."
"I don't want to roll in the mud, you idiot! I was saying that we should fight back with our power, not with shit! Either way though, Maki, help me get these cards clean so I can return it to Eli's workshop before anyone sees this."
Maki rolled her eyes and sighed heavily at her,
"Since I'm a kind person, then alright, I'll help you. Next time, I won't do that, ok?"
"Hah—don't worry. My luck isn't always this bad. Heck, if it's always this bad, people would've returned and witness this mess by now."
Maki was about to agree but, before a word escaped her lips, she could see Rin and Hanayo standing nearby and glaring at the mess on the table.
"Niko-chan, is that—…?" Hanayo paused as her finger pointed at the mess.
"D-Dirty gold cards everywhere-nya. What happened?" Rin asked with concern drawn on her face.
"O-Oooh! T-These? H-Haha, I found them on the ground!" Niko said nervously.
Rin and Hanayo turned to each other, wondering if they should believe that.
Maki sighed and decided to drop everything and walk to where Rin and Hanayo stood. Niko quietly looked at the red haired girl, wondering what she is about to do.
"Ah, Niko, you look busy, huh? Nice cards, but it would be better if you clean them up." Maki said without a single flaw in her act.
"Y-You…!" Niko stood up, trying to throw one of the cards at the red haired girl but, before she was able to do that, Kotori and Umi passed by.
"Ah! Everyone! That's a coincide—…" Kotori pauses when she saw the mess in front of Niko.
"We were looking for our digivice charger before—…." Umi paused too when she sees the same mess.
"I-I can explain this!" Niko said still with her nervous voice.
"Let me help you. Niko-chan stole Eli's cards and tried to go on an epic adventure, but epic fail is all she got." Maki said bluntly.
"O-oi! Maki! You traitor!" Niko complained.
"Aah, that sounds very unfortunate." Suddenly, Anjuu's voice is heard nearby. There's also Erena and Tsubasa staring at the mess in front of the black haired little girl.
"Here I thought I was about to deal with another shit, but it looks like this one has no shortcut." Tsubasa commented.
"This is bad, we shouldn't have seen this." Erena said.
"Y-yeah, right… can you all pretend that this never happened?" Niko said.
No one responded to her.
"A-Actually! Ahahaha, I'm so lucky, can each of you help me clean this mess before it's too late?" she said with the fakest begging cute voice she ever made.
"Ooohhh! Everyoneee!" A familiar voice is heard from nearby. Angel, who had evolved into a white cat-like digimon with green gloves and long slim tail came by. The girls turned to her.
"Did anyone see Eli-chan's card set? Nozomi-chan has been looking for it in Eli-chan's workshop but she can't find it." Angel said.
"Nope! No one saw that!" Niko said loudly.
"Oh, that's too bad! Eli-chan is currently trying to hack the card engine to work and she needs all of her cards to test it. She told us that she kept it inside her workshop!" Angel said.
"Actually, Angel, you can see it with your own eyes if you are sharp enough to notice." Maki said.
"O-oii! Maki!"
When the little girl protested, everyone synchronized their gesture to show what Angel needed to see.
"Ah… Are those—….?" Angel paused when her eyes saw the mess.
"Ooohh! Nozomi-chaaaaaan! I found the cards!" she shouted immediately.
"Wh-whoa! Angel!" Niko tried to stop her.
"Nozomi-chaaaan!" Angel ran off from them while the rest of the girls quickly used their items to teleport away, except for Maki who decided to stay.
"G-god damn it! Maki! Help me!" Niko said.
"Excuse me? Help you? You didn't help me when your Chibby took away my Polymnia."
"Huh? You should say that to Chibby, he is cleaning our stuff with your Polymnia somewhere inside the house!"
"Uh-huh, and again, she is stuck with your digimon. You need to do something about that." Maki said.
"G—gghhh! What do you want, huh?"
Maki smiled at her reaction.
"Well, all I wanted is: make him apologize to Polymnia for being rude."
"Fine! But get me off this mess!"
"Promise?"
"I promise, damn it!"
"Good." Maki smile wider.
"Damned princess…" Niko mumbled.
"What did you say?" The red haired girl turned with a frown on her face.
"N-Nothing!" Niko smirked awkwardly.
Maki squinted at the little girl. She was about to say something, but Nozomi and Angel arrived.
"Nikocchi, Maki-chan, did you two find Ericchi's cards?" the purplenette asked as she ran closer to the two girls.
"Ah, actually, we were the ones who borrowed it." Maki said.
"Oh? I didn't know. You should've told me earlier." Nozomi replied.
"Niko-chan is helping me understand about card effects and abilities. I hope you don't mind if we borrow it a bit longer."
"That's fine. Just take it to the Tournament hall when you're done, ok? Me and Ericchi will be waiting on the 50th floor.
"Alright, no problem." Maki nods.
"See you later!" Nozomi said before she used an item to teleport away. Angel stayed in her place and gazed at the two girls with her innocent eyes.
"Angel, you're not going with your tamer?" Maki asked.
"Lady can help her out. What about you two? Need help with cleaning?" Angel asked kindly.
Maki remained silent as she turned around and stared at the little girl to answer to the question just now.
The File City's farmland;
Hanayo, Rin, Kotori, and Umi walked to the farm. Yamato and Suzaku followed behind them as they chatted with each other.
"haah— and we were so close to witnessing chaos." Umi said.
"Hehe, I guess we can charge our Digivice's battery later, huh?" Kotori said.
"Or, you can use mine. I kept them in the farm." Hanayo said.
"Yeah-nya! Also, Leon and Mary should be there to serve our lunches!"
"Is it ok for us to take part in your lunch?" Umi asked politely.
"It's fine-nya. We were about to ask some people to have lunch with us. We got a lot of things to eat today-nya!"
"I see. Then, we all should eat together." Umi replied.
"Yeah-nya!" Rin cheerfully replied.
They finally got closer to the corner field. Leon and Mary awaited them with a lot of roasted meat served on the plates. Leon has already changed into a humanoid Lion-like Digimon while Mary into a Sunflower-like Digimon.
"Ah, Kayo-chan! I tried to roast them. Am I doing it right?" Mary said.
"Let me see." Hanayo said as she moved closer to the set of plates. She took the small knife next to it, sliced the roasted meat and peek into the middle.
"Yep, it's perfectly done. Good Job, Mary!"
"Ehehe, thank you!" Mary replied cheerfully.
"The rice is also done nicely, I tried it." Leon said.
"Really? That's great!" Hanayo said.
"Of course it will be done nicely! Kayo-chin is the one who made it-nya!" Rin said.
"There, Rin-chan! Don't appreciate me too much!"
"Hehe, but Kayo-chin is very skillful on cooking rice-nya!"
"Rin-chan!"
Rin giggled as a response, she can see the timid girl blush madly.
"You two are getting along so well, it's nice to see it." Umi said politely.
"Yeah, it makes me a little jealous." Kotori said.
"Why are you jealous-nya?" Rin asked
"Because one of my best friends started to prefer someone else." Kotori replied with a bitter smirk.
"Oh…right, Honoka-chan." Rin and Hanayo replied with concern.
Umi sighed at their remark.
"Even though we know that Honoka and Tsubasa are still trying to get along, it still made me uncomfortable when she didn't respond to my messages. It's like we're separated with a huge distance we don't want to have." She said.
"Yeah, exactly what she said. Also, Honoka-chan better have a champion Digimon by now. She wouldn't have any excuse like Umi-chan since she is personally guided by an S-Rank tamer." Kotori said.
"K-Kotori-chan, a-are you angry?" Hanayo asked
"Nope, I'm just stating my mind. It's like saying that she better be good enough after she neglected her best friend's messages." Kotori said.
"Oh… ok."
"Hehe, she already responded to my message, so I'm fine for now." Kotori replied with a little forced smile.
"Alright. We should invite her too." The timid girl suggested.
"She told me that she will be here soon. We planned to dine in the restaurant before but without charging our digivice's battery, we might not be able to pay the fee once we are done with the menu browsing. That's why I directed Honoka-chan to go here instead of the restaurant." The Ash brunette girl replied again as she showed how close to zero her digivice's battery registered.
"A-ah, that looks horrible. Either way though! We better charge it soon! We might need it for something else." Hanayo said.
"Yep! We surely do! Everything in the Digital world needs a digivice!" Kotori replied cheerfully.
Soon after her response, a very loud shout is heard from a distance.
"Ooooiii! Kotori-chan! Umi-chaan!" a ginger girl running toward them.
"There she is." Umi said.
"Hehe, sweet. We can have our food soon-nya!" Rin commented.
The energetic girl stopped with her Ichigo catching up to her.
"Haa—we're not too late for the main course, right?" Ichigo asked.
"We haven't started." Umi said.
"Oh, you haven't? That's great!" Honoka replied.
"Yeah, but you better report some good news about your training, Honoka-chan." Kotori said.
"E-Ehh? Wh-what report?" Honoka recoiled.
"Your Ichigo, why hasn't he become a champion yet?" Kotori frowned at her.
"E-Erhh… I… I don't know?" The ginger girl averted her eyes in embarrassment.
"Ho-no-ka-chan!" Kotori spelled her name with unfriendly emphasis.
"I'm sorry! I really don't know why he hasn't evolved! Tsubasa-chan also said that she feels strange about it!" Honoka clapped her hands together.
Kotori and Umi turned to each other before they sighed heavily.
"Well, Honoka-chan is Honoka-chan. I guess I shouldn't be surprised if you are slacking here and there." Kotori said.
"But I wasn't slacking!" Honoka said.
"Really, though, I haven't got my Penguinmon evolved too. I wonder if it's really our fault?" Umi asked.
"Hmm… Like I said, Umi-chan, you didn't get any S-Ranked player to guide you. Eli-chan doesn't seem to be helpful since she stayed in the Tournament Hall for like… forever." Kotori replied.
"Do you think Eli-chan got to evolve her Renamon? I think Tsubasa-chan said that it will be hard for someone like her to evolve a Digimon if she isn't bound to their heart." Honoka asked.
"Do you truly think that Eli-chan isn't bound to her Sakuya? She is a high-ranked player after all, you never know about how much progress she made until now." the Ash Brunette replied.
"Yes, I agree. Some people doesn't express their feelings through sweet words, they might be harsh outside but quietly passionate about what they do." Hanayo commented.
"Eh? Quietly passionate?" Honoka tilted her head slightly.
"Yep, Kayo-chan and I tried to visit the Tournament hall for a while now. It was supposed to be a delivery to Nozomi-chan." Kotori said.
"How was her training?" Honoka asked.
"Hehe, I have no idea but it seems Sakuya really enjoyed her time being disciplined and trained harshly." Hanayo replied.
"M-Masochist?!" Honoka smirked.
"Of course that's not it, Honoka!" Umi hits her friend's head gently.
"E-Eh?!"
"Being trained harshly has its own charm. The feeling of working hard and being specially seen are very relieving. It makes some people feel like they have all the time in the world to progress further." The ocean blue haired girl replied gently.
"Hehe, Umi-chan loves working hard after all. She is really nothing like you." Kotori replied.
"But, I love working hard too!" Honoka replied as she puffed her cheek.
"When is this 'working hard' Honoka-chan? You need to prove it." Kotori said.
"Hnnggh… Well, maybe we should duel, just like what Tsubasa-chan suggested."
"Duel? Then, I assume you need to challenge Umi-chan? She is still in the same rank as you after all." Kotori said.
"That's fine by me!" Honoka replied.
"Alright, fine by me too. But let's eat and take a few minutes of break before we fight." Umi said.
"Sure! That sounds good!" Honoka nodded cheerfully.
The Tournament Hall;
Eli and Nozomi stood near the training gym on the highest floor of the tournament hall. It is said to be the VIP Gym, which isn't used by anyone but the topmost ranked Masterless Digimon.
"This gym looks perfect already. I guess we can open this to the public?" Eli said.
"Well, Tourney Greymon said that he doesn't need it to be open to the public and that he keeps it as the special room for the winner. Also for his special maintenance worker I guess?" Nozomi replied teasingly.
"Sakuya has made plenty of progress, hasn't she?" The blonde said as she turned to the resting nine-tailed fox-like Digimon alongside with black cat-like Digimon. There's a sense of satisfaction drawn on her face as she crossed her arms proudly.
"I would say so, but I guess you need to go outside sometime. I sacrificed my outdoor time for you so you should sacrifice your indoor time for me too." The purplenette said as she raised two digivices.
Eli giggled at her remark.
"Alright, take me out, honey. Also, I think I'd love to hold my own digivice this time." She continued.
Nozomi remained silent, her gaze reveals how worried she is.
"What's with those judging eyes?" Eli pouts at her.
"Is your arm fine with it?" her girlfriend replied with face full of concern.
"I'll endure it." The blonde girl replied confidently.
It took a while for the purplenette to decide before the light blue digivice was finally handed to her girlfriend. However, before Eli was able to hold it for more than a second, a bright light sparked and lit up her hand with its strange power.
"Ericchi!" Nozomi called her name right at the same time the digivice fell down to the floor. It woke up the black cat-like Digimon and the fox-like Digimon.
Both tamers stared at the circuit-track-like light that appeared on Eli's arm while the Digimon appear to be surprised to see what happened.
"Ericchi…" her girl called her concernedly. The blonde didn't respond as she still trying to endure her pain while the two Digimon stayed in their place in silence.
"I'm sorry. I know you already told me that you want to retire. Yet I pushed you into this again." Nozomi whispered as she held the blonde's arm.
"It's fine. You were right, Sakuya was neglected enough and I was too stubborn to move on." Eli whispered back to her.
"Yeah, but, you need to pay attention to your own safety. This looks worse. Maybe you should be in the real world soon."
"I'm fine, Nozomi. Everyone tried to push me into this and you want me to do this too, right?"
"I do, but, for real, Ericchi, I'd change my mind if it really hurts you."
"It does, but I still want to do this. I don't want Sakuya to feel neglected again. It's for you and for everyone else who think the same way with you."
"Sheesh, Ericchi, don't overdo it. Why do you always overdo everything?"
"Because I want to do my best for the best girl."
The purplenette blushed slightly to her tease and it worsened as the blonde winked at her flirtatiously.
"T-There! But anyway, Ericchi, it seems like you can't hold your digivice yet, so, I'll hold it for you, ok?" Nozomi said as she picked up the digivice and hung it on her belt.
"Thank you, Nozomi." She replied gratefully.
"By the way, I wonder how your arm could react to the digivice but it doesn't affect you when you work on these engines? You seem to be fine when you're working on your laptop too." Her girlfriend asked as she gazed at the number of devices around the room.
"I don't understand too. Maybe there's something special about this digivice and the other devices in the City of Memory?"
"Maybe, but what makes it special?" The purplenette asked again.
"I don't know. All we know is that it's the data. We have no idea what kind of data that I react to."
"Such a mystery, we need to figure this out soon before something worse happen to you, Ericchi."
Meanwhile, in the µ's house.
Maki, Niko, Angel, Chibby and Polymnia took a lot of time cleaning up all the mess they. As promised, Polymnia received a lot of apologies from Chibby and they are now playing around with each other. They stayed around the gazebo, with Maki who seems to be satisfied with the knowledge she received about cards and its uses from her senior.
"So these cards are used for that, huh? Sounds great. Maybe I'll purchase some for myself later."
"For real…? Then, would you like to buy from me?" Niko asked with a hopeful gaze.
"Nah— I'm not that interested in common cards." Maki replied.
"G-gh! Don't underestimate these common cards! I mean, it's true that it's a common card but some of them are actually better than the rare cards!"
"Really? Then, why do Eli and Nozomi never keep the common cards?"
"Huh? Because you can't keep common cards! They are meant to be used and wasted! Also, it cost more energy to use silvers and above, you need a really decent card engine to be able to use it effectively."
"Meant to be used and wasted, huh? I don't believe that. If it's really true, then tamers like Nozomi and Eli should have plenty of common cards stocked somewhere."
"They must be carrying them around!"
"For real, you are trying so hard to convince me to purchase from you, huh, after you tried to scam me once…"
"It wasn't a scam! Nozomi bought it and you have seen it yourself."
"Well, alright, but I believe it was because you were trying to do something bad to me and karma struck you."
"Trust me now. Buy a pack from me and I can guarantee that you will get decent cards. Money back if it didn't contain a single decent card."
"I feel stupid doing this but since you are persistent, then… I guess it won't hurt to spend a few yen to make you happy."
"Yes, Good. You should do that." Niko smiled mischievously as she quickly searched in her bag.
Maki rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Here, take it." Niko handed a card pack to her.
"How much?" Maki took out her digivice.
"1000 yen. Cheap, huh?"
"heh, I still feel like you are charging me too much for a 'guaranteed to be decent' common card pack. But alright, I'll take it."
The two continued to process their transaction. Angel who had been quiet was curiously waiting for them to finish their trade.
"Done. Now give me the pack." Maki said.
"Surely! Thanks for purchasing!" Niko replied cheerfully as she handed the pack to the red haired girl, but before it touched her finger tip, Angel quickly snatched it.
"H-hey! Angel!" Maki protested.
She would have said something else but, when she saw what Angel was trying to do, she decided to remain in silent. Angel unlocked the pack for her then handed it back.
"Oh, thanks." Maki said as she accepted it.
"Tee-hee, I always had the urge to try unlocking it!" Angel said.
Maki smiled at her and this time it's her turn to open the pack and show everyone around her what she got from the pack.
"Oh!" the rich girl raises her eyebrow.
"These are…!" she took out the set of common cards with a gold and some silver cards included in it.
"Ah! Nice! Congratulations!" Angel said.
"W-wh-what the heck?" Niko smirks at what her eyes see.
"Thank you, Niko-chan! You are truly the best! I need to go meet Nozomi to upgrade my card engine!" Maki said cheerfully before she quickly walked away from them. Polymnia, who noticed her tamer walk away, decided to follow her as well.
"Hehe, you are truly a magical merchant, Niko-chan." Angel appreciated.
"T-t-thanks." Niko still smirking at the event that unfolded.
"Maybe I should open one for myself." She continued as she took out the last card pack in her bag.
"Let me help you!" Angel said cheerfully. Niko nodded and handed her the card pack. Soon after it was unlocked, Angel returned it to the black haired girl.
She opened it up and is surprised with what she sees.
"W-whoaaah! I'm really lucky!" She said as she sees a single gold card among the common cards.
"Wait!" she squinted.
When she read the name of the card, it says: Vaccine Power Up Plus-Plus!
"God-damn it! I can't even use this card! Heck! This is the most common of the most common gold-cards! It won't sell more than a rare silver!" she ranted as she threw the cards to the floor.
The File City's farm;
Honoka, Umi, Kotori, Hanayo and Rin are finally finished with their meal. Their Digimon seem to have finished their meals long before they did and they we're all hanging out around the farm-land helping Hanayo's Mary plant more meat. Rin and Hanayo joined the Digimon a few minutes after they finished their meal while the second years decided to lounge around the seats.
"Aaah, that was a nice meal." Honoka said.
"Hehe, I miss this kind of feeling. Honoka-chan, you spent too much time with Tsubasa." Kotori said.
"E-eh? Was it bad?" Honoka asked.
"Not really, it's just that it annoys me when you decided to ignore all my text for many Digital World days." Kotori said.
"She is right, even though you are with someone you like, you should be still paying attention to us too." Umi said.
"Yep, it makes me so worried so you better reply to me later, ok?" the ash brunette added.
"Hehe, I'm sorry. But speaking of that…" Honoka seemed to be a little down.
"What's wrong, Honoka-chan? Did something hurt you?" Kotori asked, full of concern.
"N-No, it's just that, I…" She pauses.
Kotori and Umi patiently waited for her to continue.
"I need to confirm my feelings towards Tsubasa-chan!"
"What do you need to confirm?" Umi asked with her polite tone.
"Yes, what else do you need to confirm, Honoka-chan?" Kotori asked curiously.
"U-uh… you two are saying it like I don't need to confirm anything."
"Hehe, well, Honoka-chan, It's obvious that you really love her." Kotori said.
"But, what kind of love do I have for her? I mean like, do I want it to be like Nozomi-chan and Eli-chan?"
"Hmmm, you mean like, a couple of true lovers?" Umi tried to confirm.
"Yes! That! Do I really love her that way?"
"Honestly, I have never felt that kind of love too. So it's hard for me to tell." Umi said.
"Eh? Really, Umi-chan? I think you are extremely romantic, I thought you know a lot about love." Kotori said disappointedly.
"Uhm, Kotori, if you are thinking that I have a lot of knowledge about love through poetry, then no, I have never really researched for love poetry nor experienced that kind of love at first hand." Umi said.
"Hehe, that makes me feel glad. Rivalries are always a bit too bloody for me." Kotori said.
"E-Excuse me Kotori? What does that—…"
"Honoka-chan! You should try to ask for advice from Nozomi-chan." Kotori cuts in.
"You think Nozomi-chan will know?"
"Maybe. She is Eli-chan's girlfriend after all, right? She has the experience you need to know about."
"Hehe, alright then!" Honoka replied cheerfully.
"Kotori, please answer my—…!"
"Oh—by the way! You two should duel each other soon. We can't waste too much time for unnecessary details!" Kotori once again interrupted Umi's question.
"Aaah! Right! We need to duel, Umi-chan!" Honoka said.
"Y-yes, that's true, but–!"
"Alright, what are we waiting for? Let's go to an open space and begin!" Kotori said energetically.
"Ayeee! Let's goooo, Umi-chan!" Honoka cheerfully pulled her friend away from their seats.
Back in the µ's house;
Inside the Guest room, Erena and Anjuu sat with their digivices' screens expanded around them. They seem to be looking at the result of a specific research. Anjuu's Lalamon has turned into a sunflower-like Digimon called Sunflowmon and Erena's Ryuudamon has evolved into a bigger dragon-like Digimon called Ginryumon. They were sitting down, holding their own notes when Tsubasa walked in to the room, along with Sebastian who was barely able to enter the room.
"How is it going?" She asked.
"We both found a way to return to the real world without going through the City of Memory, but…" Erena pauses as she sighs.
"…it may only work for us." She continued.
"What do you mean?" Tsubasa asked.
"The way for us to return to the real world is to use the new system that Ayase and Toujou developed and our power and popularity are enough to fuel us back to the real world." Erena said.
"Wait-wait, can you explain this 'power' and 'popularity' you are talking about?" Tsubasa asked.
"To put it simply, because we are popular, we have enough people searching for information about us digitally. Our information are fully secure in plenty of media which will serve as our 'save points' while our cyber bodies travel through the data fibers." Anjuu answered.
"Then about the power, our Digimon will move us all through the data fibers. Even though they are only champion right now, they already have their data saved in those save points and we will be able to load it with ease. We may be able to use the way you and Ayase re-created your Digimons' physical body through history and use their power, but then, some of them are not even decent tamers before they came into the Digital world." Erena added.
"The evolutions through using cards are not strong enough to move them from this place because, apparently…" Anjuu pauses as she stood up from her spot with her Digivice. She approached Tsubasa and showed her a specific map.
"This is the depth of the Digital World. We went through those rough places in seconds with Mastemon's power." Anjuu continued.
"Then.. can we just make Toujou raise her Mastemon?"
"No, sadly. Her Mastemon received a lot of buff from being in the City of Memory and their status as a couple also drastically raised their power but, in here, those systems aren't working and the new system will require a lot of power source to apply that." Erena explained.
"That's hard, huh? I guess this is where we need them to work on being idols while raising their Digimon." Tsubasa said.
"Yes, even though they might not be able to have enough power, they can at least have more save points for themselves. Then, at the peak of their popularity, we should be able to go off to the real world. After that, we need to find a way to apply our new system to the entire world. Next, we invade the city of memory and reveal the corruption to end their reign." Erena replied.
"I see… is there anything else they need to know?" Tsubasa asked.
"I assume Eli-chan and Nozomi-chan already know about this. They might be less supportive about the idea of popularity though. Knowing Eli-chan, she will probably push them to raise their Digimon instead of focusing on gaining a lot of save points. Other than that, they will require a lot of training and supplies." Anjuu said.
"Yes, also, popularity can be spread through Digimon but, even with all the Digimon in this city, it will not be enough to support them to reach the real world. They need a pull from the real world itself and the only thing we can send from here is data." Erena added.
"So they have to make music videos and send them to the real world, huh?" Tsubasa tried to confirm.
"Yes… and the only account that can spread information at lightning speed is Ayase's account. She has got a lot of followers in her social media through her high-rank player title and other decent records, then, Toujou might be popular as a merchant as well." Erena said.
"Don't forget about Nishikino Maki. She is pretty popular among musicians. She has a little bit of the stalker group's attention too." Anjuu added.
"Basically, just spread through any account they have, right?" Tsubasa said.
"Yes. Then, about the phenomenon you were asking before, Tsubasa…" Erena pauses as she browses through her tabs in her digivice's expanded screen.
"About why Honoka's Ichigo can't evolve, it was because there's a strange data that corrupted his evolution line. She needs to somehow break through it by triggering a burst evolution. There's a small risk, but, it will be worth it as she should be able to evolve normally in the future."
"Burst evolution, huh? Then I suppose she is on the right track already." Tsubasa smiled proudly.
"Just don't let her overdo it. We don't know what this strange data will do if it breaks." Erena said.
"More like, don't let her do it more than once in a short interval. The data reaction is still unpredictable." Anjuu said.
"Well, what can a data do anyway? If there's a massive digimon that appear, we can always drag it to the Tournament hall and fight it. I have recorded each of your Digimon data too." Tsubasa said.
Erena and Anjuu turn to each other for a moment and sighed.
"I appreciate that, Tsubasa, but, truly, if the massive one is the volume instead of the size, then we will screw up everything. It will be better for us to prematurely use our new system and dispatch to the real world to escape." Erena said.
"And Premature system is always bad. Bugs will probably interrupt us all." Anjuu said.
"It also means that we are ruining the digital world by opening a huge crack in it. We wouldn't want to do that to the Digimon, do we?" Erena said.
"Hmm… you are right. This is indeed a lot more complicated than I thought." Tsubasa placed her thumb under her chin. Suddenly, Sebastian who stood outside the room turned around as if he sensed something strange. Ginryumon and Sunflowmon also felt the presence and they are reacting furiously.
"This feeling…" Sunflowmon said.
"What's wrong, Neisha?" Anjuu asked.
"Neisha? Is that the nickname you got for her?" Tsubasa asked.
"Shush, Focus, Tsubasa. It's not the right time to chit-chat." Erena said.
Neisha the Sunflowmon seemed unresponsive as she focused on detecting the presence.
"Neisha? Are you ok?" Anjuu asked with concern.
"Anjuu, there's a spy in this house. Our activities are being read." Neisha replied.
"Tatsuya, what about you?" Erena asked her Ginryumon.
"This might be too late, but, we need to drop our activities now and do something else." He replied.
"Haha, what with that, we shouldn't worry that much. It's probably only Nozomi or Eli's doing. They built this house after all." Tsubasa said.
"No, Tsubasa. This presence is a lot stronger than them." Sebastian said.
Tsubasa was surprised to hear her Digimon say it. It truly means that it's a very serious problem.
"Who else is allowed to enter this house other than them?" Anjuu frowned.
"More like, who else is capable of breaking through the barrier around this house? Even the most capable hacker wouldn't be able to do that without sounding the alarm." Erena said.
And suddenly—…
Working on the final check for the next chapter!