Act 1: Beating Heart

Segment 1: Come From Away

Chapter 1-5: Rest Awhile

Monodramon squinted. This place was hard, rough, and full of dumb animals. Where were the other Digimon? There had to be some around.

Right?

And the trees looked so promising but they had no fruit on them. They were all just leaves and grass and dirt and useless things. Why would the humans only have trees with no fruit?

"Ugh, that beeping noise is so loud… just let me sleep," it moaned. The beeping continued. It cracked a yellow eye open and looked around for the source. A big metallic thing moved around in the distance, near some of the tall structures. Was it a threat?

Monodramon stared. It was hiding in a bunch of bushes, but if it could see the humans walking around, then it could probably be seen too, even in the cover of night. It tried not to breathe too loudly as the humans talked and walked about. At least, Monodramon assumed they were humans. The Human World was just a rumour, and it didn't think it was real. Not until it ended up where it was now.

Large bundles of something emerged from the big metal box, being wheeled around by a few humans. What were they moving? And why?

And was it food? Monodramon groaned. It hadn't eaten since last night, when it was chased into some bright featureless tunnel. It was so genuinely terrified of the many SkullSatamon chasing it that it just kept running and running and ended up somewhere around here. And where were the others? There were a few Digimon with it too, but none of them seemed to be anywhere nearby now.

It sighed and rested its head on its paws. "All alone…" it groaned. If it had been just the one SkullSatamon it would have taken it on, but there were maybe tens, possibly a hundred, emerging from the jungle swamps. "So hungry…"

The humans got back into their big, loud machine. It slowly rolled away. At least there was no beeping this time. Finally, some quiet. It could finally rest after being chased by some tiny humans earlier today, too.

A grumble came from its gut. "Aaahhh!" it groaned, and rolled onto its back, staring at the sky. Why were there no stars? Was it just a cloudy night? The Human World didn't seem very nice. Monodramon's head perked up. A voice was approaching. If it just stayed quiet for a second, maybe it would walk by.

The voice grew louder and louder. "… guy's a bit odd, for sure. I mean, just earlier he was a brick wall and now he's chatting you up." There was a pause. "Next week? Yeah, why not. Couldn't hurt. Hey, maybe we can show him around the place we got the cards from." Monodramon squinted. Was the human walking toward it? Oh, no. If its stomach went off again…

"Takaharu, I don't think you were supposed to tell me that. That seems private." Another pause. The footsteps approached Monodramon. The human was a lot taller than those tiny terrors from earlier, but not quite as tall as some of the others tonight. Wait. Why was it stopping? Oh, please, just keep walking. "Takaharu, if he's telling you something about his family, you probably shouldn't go telling everyone that. You didn't say anything to Asuka, right? Good. Yeah, the photoshoot is still on next week. No, it's just buildings. My guy, there are no models, I swear." The human laughed, apparently amused by something. "Alright. Good night. I'll see you on Monday."

The talking ceased. Some glowing thing moved from the human's head down to its leg, and disappeared into a pocket. Was it done? Would it keep walking now?

The footsteps passed Monodramon and continued past it. Sweet relief.

Its stomach growled again. Monodramon gasped and shrank into the bushes, hoping it hadn't been spotted.

"What was that?!" the human exclaimed. Monodramon couldn't see what it was doing, but it was still close. Very close. The human breaths were tight and anxious. "Hello? Is something out there?"

Monodramon shook. What if the human was dangerous? It didn't seem dangerous, but still, even those little ones were ferocious and relentless. And the bigger ones with them seemed to only want to hurt it or chase it away.

The human stepped right up to the bushes where it was hiding. How was it this good at locating a sound? Monodramon squeezed its eyes shut. Hopefully the lights around it didn't reflect off its eyes, or it would have been spotted right then and there.

"Must have been my imagination."

Monodramon's stomach growled again.

"Aah!" the human yelled. Monodramon could smell it now as it leaned toward the bushes, blocking out the lights. "What on earth…?"

The bushes moved as the human peeked in. Monodramon figured this was its chance. Punch now and run. "Eat this fist!" it yelled, swinging at the human's legs. There was a cry of pain. Monodramon jumped out of the bush and tried to run, but not eating for a day after all the running before that was too much. It huffed and groaned and came to a stop not far away, next to some trees.

The human was still somewhere around, because Monodramon heard it mutter, "Geez, that was painful. What was that?" Monodramon hoped the darkness would hide it, but there were too many lights around. It was probably in full view now. For a while there was no answer to that question. The whirs of some distant machines was the only sound.

"Oh my." The human seemed to be… in shock? Monodramon turned around. What was that on its face? It wasn't the first one it had seen, but seriously, what were those? Why did some humans wear them in front of their eyes?

The human stared back, still sitting on the ground, rubbing its leg. The two of them faced off with each other, gazing at each other, as though either one of them would suddenly become something large and threatening. Monodramon so wished right now that it could evolve into Cyberdramon. Then it could fly away from all this.

The human adjusted whatever was on its face. It seemed to reflect the surrounding lights as well. "A Monodramon?!" it exclaimed.

Monodramon flinched. How did the human know that?

"I must be seeing things. Agh," it groaned, "that stings, ow." It rubbed its leg again. Monodramon figured it left a pretty decent welt. "Seriously… a Monodramon? This can't be real."

The human got up to its feet. It had a bag on its back and was wearing a jacket and something around its neck that dangled and swayed. Monodramon didn't move. Maybe… maybe it was friendly after all?

The human knelt in front of Monodramon. "Hey, you're alive, right?" the human asked.

Monodramon made an unsure sound. "Please don't hurt me."

"Hurt you? I'd never. I'd never. Why would I ever do that?" The human seemed genuinely concerned. "I… what the hell, man, this is weird. There's no way… Monodramon?" Monodramon nodded. "I can't believe this. Holy shit. So Digimon are real…" the human seemed dazed and confused.

Monodramon's stomach growled again. "Ugh…"

"Hungry, huh? How long-"

"A day."

"A whole day?!" Monodramon nodded. "And you're far from home, huh… I mean, this is the Human World, after all. How did you get here? Ah, it can wait. Monodramon?"

"Huh?"

"Let's get you indoors. It gets cold at night. And you can eat whatever you want, as long as I have it. Just… let's stay quiet in there. I don't want my parents to know. Yeah?"

Food. Finally, food. What if this was a trap? Whatever. It didn't matter. Besides, this human seemed different from the others. "Yeah."

The two walked together silently for a while. Then Monodramon asked, "Hey, what's your name?"

"Ah, I forgot to tell you. Call me Kazuhiko." Kazuhiko beamed with curiosity and amazement.

"Uh… sorry about that, Kazuhiko. Does it hurt still?"

Kazuhiko blinked. "Oh, my leg. It'll probably bruise tomorrow, but I'll heal soon enough."

The two kept walking. How far was Kazuhiko's home? "Hey, what are those things on your face? I saw a bunch of other humans with them too."

"Oh, these are glasses. They help me see."

"Huh?" Monodramon was confused. "Why would you not be able to see without them?"

"Well, I can see without glasses, but everything is blurry." Kazuhiko sighed. "I kind of wish I didn't need them, but such is genetics."

Monodramon blinked. This was even more confusing. "What's a genetics?"

Kazuhiko replied, "Digimon don't have genes? Ah, right… they're not born from other Digimon, they just form when the Digital World lets them. I guess. Am I right? Digi-Eggs just… kind of form?"

Monodramon nodded. This was a smart human, at least. But how did it know about Digi-Eggs? How much did all of the humans know?

"I figured. Well, genetics is just how traits get passed from parent to child. Both of my parents have bad eyesight, so I have bad eyesight." Kazuhiko shrugged. "That's just how it is."

"But why would humans ever have bad eyesight? That seems annoying."

"Ah… genetics isn't about perfect. It's just about good enough."

"Hrrm. The Human World is bizarre."

Kazuhiko laughed. "I guess it is, for a Digimon. Hey, we're almost there. Stay quiet. I'll check if they're awake still. If we're lucky, they've already gone to bed." The two of them ascended flight after flight of stairs. Monodramon wasn't very awake, and by the end of that many stairs, it was about to fall asleep.

"Hey, little guy, stay awake for just a bit, yeah?" Monodramon felt Kazuhiko's hands keep it from tipping forward.

"Mmmh…"

"Yikes, so you truly haven't eaten in a long time. Maybe you should get some sugar in you first." Kazuhiko opened a door and helped Monodramon in the doorway. It was eerily quiet. Kazuhiko's voice lowered in volume. "I guess they are asleep. Nice!" He closed the door gently behind them. "This way." Kazuhiko led Monodramon to a small tiled area. It was small in here, but cozy. Kazuhiko opened a big machine's door and a blast of cold air greeted Monodramon. "You should drink something with sugar in it before you eat something, if you're that tired. I guess this apple juice works."

Apple juice? Monodramon looked at the bottle. The fluid was a pale yellow. Kazuhiko twisted the cap off and dropped the cap in a bin. Monodramon sniffed the fluid. It was sweet. Monodramon tipped the open bottle into its mouth as best it could and gulped. Monodramon's eyes widened. It was intensely sweet. It made a noise of happiness and downed the rest of the liquid. "Ahh, that's so good!"

"You should eat something too. Actually, if you liked that, I brought back an apple galette with me from the café, but you should have it." Kazuhiko lowered his bag to the floor and unzipped it and produced a paper bag. "I'm going to go shower. Stay quiet, okay?" Kazuhiko pointed to an open doorway. "That's my room. Feel free to go inside, just don't make any noise. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Monodramon accepted the paper bag and nodded. Kazuhiko seemed like a decent human. Monodramon opened the paper bag and sniffed. It was all sorts of smells; sweet, nutty, bready even. There were little slices of some kind of cooked fruit on this rectangle of flaky bread. It had never seen such flaky bread before, but it tasted incredible. The galette disappeared in just a few bites. Too bad it was so small. Monodramon looked around. Maybe there was something else in the cold machine? It opened it up and was greeted again by a blast of cold air. How did the humans manage to make a machine like this?

There were more red and yellow round things that looked like fruit. Were these apples? Monodramon pulled the drawer open and grabbed a few, and then closed the cold machine. They looked like apples. It bit into one, and sweet juice went dribbling all over its snout and paws. They were refreshingly cool and sweet, just like the juice bottle. Monodramon made a noise of excitement and munched through the two apples, core and all, and then went back for more. There were so many apples, but it managed to eat all of them anyway.

Kazuhiko returned from his quick shower to apple juice all over the kitchen floor. "Monodramon – how many did you eat?"

"All of them."

"I-" Kazuhiko sighed.

"I was hungry."

"Yeah, I know. How am I going to explain this one? Ah, forget it, I'll worry about that later." Kazuhiko grabbed a white sheet and soaked it with water from a pipe, and wiped the tiled floor.

"Ah… sorry about the mess."

Kazuhiko smiled. "It's fine. It's just a bit of juice."

Monodramon yawned. After that, it needed to sleep.

Kazuhiko tossed the crumpled and wet sheets into a bin and said, "You should stay in my room for now, and rest awhile. We can figure out what to next tomorrow, okay?"

Monodramon nodded, too tired to respond with words. Maybe the Human World wasn't so bad after all.

"Makoto, what do we do?"

Makoto shook his head. "Last thing we can do is send Gabumon away. Look, we don't know how it got here, and I'm sure getting from the Digital to Human World or back again isn't that easy."

Satsuki sighed. It wasn't going to be easy hiding a pelt-wearing bipedal reptile with a horn. And besides, Gabumon was already growing on her. It blinked at her with its big red eyes. "Gabumon…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember how you got here?"

Gabumon shook its head. "I just remember running into a dead end, in between some cliffs, and when I backed into the walls, I went through them. And then there was this flash of light, and before I knew it, I was in the Human World."

"I see. What was happening? Bad Digimon?"

"Dark Digimon were invading the Digital World."

Makoto raised his eyebrows. "How can Dark Digimon invade the Digital World? They don't come from the Digital World but they're still Digimon?"

"Most of them come from the Dark Area. It's supposed to be a prison of sorts, where the worst Digimon go to dissolve away, but some of them survive and live there. Though rarely, evolution can go horribly, and…" Gabumon shivered. "I've seen it go wrong before."

"How…?" Satsuki asked.

Gabumon whined. "Despair, hate, negative emotions. They can overwhelm us and then… ah…"

Satsuki looked down. "Sorry for bringing up bad memories."

"It's okay. It's … it's how the Digital World is sometimes."

Makoto was still not satisfied. "But if it's supposed to be a prison, who would jailbreak it?"

Gabumon shrugged. "They say there's seven Great Demon Lords locked up in there. Maybe they would. But we never saw them. They're legendary for many of us."

Satsuki and Makoto looked at each other with concern. What was going on over there? "Whatever's happening over there, I hope it doesn't bleed over this way," Satsuki said, her brows furrowed and raised with worry.

"I hope it stays over there too," Gabumon responded. "But I have to say, this place is… this city is confusing. What did you say it was called? And why are the buildings so tall?"

"Uh, our city is called Tokyo. And the buildings are tall because there's a lot of people who live in Tokyo, and not enough land."

"Then why not just get more land?" Gabumon was confused. It seemed a natural idea.

"Ah… we already use a lot of land."

Gabumon blinked. "Then how many humans are there in Tokyo?"

Makoto and Satsuki looked at each other. Neither of them remembered the exact number, but it was definitely a lot. "At least ten million," Makoto said.

Gabumon stumbled backwards. "Ten… million?" How could there possibly be this many humans in one city? Digimon cities were maybe no more than several tens of thousands, and even those were the big ones.

"Yeah. Makoto, what's the world's population again?"

"Uh…" Makoto scratched his head. "I think it's eight billion now? Or close to it."

"What's a billion?" Gabumon asked.

"A million with three more zeros."

"What?" Gabumon exclaimed. It blinked and looked up at the ceiling. "What… what does a billion even look like?"

Makoto laughed. "I have to admit, even for us a billion is hard to imagine. Gee, what does a billion look like?"

"What about a billion yen?" suggested Satsuki.

Makoto sucked on the inside of his cheek. "Still not easy to imagine. A billion divided by ten thousand… is a hundred thousand ten-thousand yen notes."

Satsuki sighed. "I have no idea what that would look like."

"Yeah… not easy to imagine at all."

The three of them sat silently at the dining table. Satsuki and Makoto wanted to know more about the Digital World, but they didn't want to bring up any more hard memories for Gabumon. Then Gabumon asked, "Hey, remember what you said yesterday?"

"Uh, what did I say? I don't recall."

"You'd figure out what to do next today."

Satsuki blinked. "Oh, I did say that." Satsuki leaned back and played with her hair. "To be honest, I'm not sure."

Makoto snorted. "I thought you said when you were little you wanted to be a Tamer. Already trying to act like an adult? Going to be a while, you know."

Satsuki moved with such pace that she managed to slap Makoto's hand on the table before he could react. "You little-"

Makoto pulled his hand back. "Gah, that was fast!"

Satsuki folded her arms proudly. "Fourteen blocks."

"I should have done basketball in high school. Ow." He rubbed his stinging hand against his torso to try to get the pain out.

Gabumon asked, "What's a Tamer? What do they do?"

Satsuki replied, "So you know how we said yesterday that humans have stories about Digimon?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, in one of them, a few humans stumble across some Digimon and decide to live with them for a while, and they were called Tamers, and ever since then it's stuck around as a label for anyone living with a Digimon."

Gabumon blinked. "Would that make both of you Tamers then?"

Makoto sighed. "See, I'd like to, Gabumon, but one, Satsuki did find you first."

"We can both be Tamers of one Digimon, you know," she replied.

"I know, but two, I'm busy. Like, incredibly busy." Makoto shook his head. "I really want to, but…" he puffed a breath and readjusted his glasses, "I just can't. Besides, Satsuki, I think Gabumon's taken to you more."

Satsuki shrugged. "Well, don't tell me in a month from now that you regret it."

"Oh, I will." He smirked.

"Then-"

"University's hard, girl. I don't even have time to date, let alone have a Digimon walking around with me."

Gabumon remarked, "You were complaining about this university thing yesterday, too. Why not just stop going there?"

Makoto laughed. "Ah, but I have to. I have to get a degree and then after that I'll have to use to show people that I have the skills they want, so I can work and get money."

Gabumon fiddled with a metal spoon. "Oh, so that's what that's called. I never attended that level of school, but I know someone who did."

"Wait, wait, whoa." Makoto seemed surprised. "So the Digital World does have currency." Gabumon nodded. Makoto leaned forward. "Do… do you have any on you?"

"Uh, I don't know if it works in the Human World, though."

"What do you mean?"

"We would always just store it away in a digital account that follows us around, and then we can make bits appear when we need to physically move them around. But I don't think I can do that here." Makoto was relentless, though, so Gabumon strained, as if concentrating hard. But nothing happened. "Nope. I don't even know if I have an account anymore. It might have been lost when I came here."

Satsuki sighed. "That's unfortunate. I hope you didn't lose much."

Gabumon shrugged. "I can always make it back, if that ever happens."

"If?"

Gabumon stared at Satsuki. "I'm starting to like it here, you know? It's … peaceful. Yeah, it's busy, but at least there don't seem to be any big Digimon walking around."

Satsuki smiled. "I'm glad you want to stay."

"Though, I heard your parents leave this morning. Why can't they see me?"

"Uh, I just… I'm a little afraid of how they'd react. They don't want animals in the apartment."

"I'm not an animal though, I'm a Digimon."

Makoto commented, "I don't think they'd understand the difference, honestly." He took a sip of his water. "But at least we do. By the way," he added, "they'll be back in ten minutes or so. They just texted us."

Satsuki sighed. "I wish there were a way of showing you around Tokyo without you having to be out in the open."

Gabumon nodded. "Me too."