After the encounter with the spider Digimon, Coronamon ended up badly hurt. Hanami suggested they take a break before continuing, but he insisted they find a place to hide first in case LadyDevimon decided to come back.
Once they had set out, Hanami spoke up, "I thought the baby Digimon were supposed to live in Format Village, how come you were all the way out here?" she asked Nyaromon, who had found a comfortable spot in her arms.
"Huh? What do you mean? I've been running away since I can remember. What's a Format Village?"
She looked at Coronamon, hoping he knew anything more, but he just shook his head and shrugged. I guess not everyone starts out the same way. She figured, patting Nyaromon.
They continued walking at a slow but steady pace for what seemed like hours, with Hanami insisting on taking a break every so often. Coronamon obliged, if nothing else, because he didn't want to upset her. Nyaromon refused to leave Hanami's arms at any point, except when they were taking a break, in which case she would hang around her.
"What was that spider Digimon?" Hanami asked Coronamon during one of their breaks. "Was that one of the Digimon that attacked Format Village as well?"
He shook his head. "No, I've never seen that one before. I don't know why it attacked us or why it decided to leave its Area."
"Oh yeah, Rafflesimon mentioned there being an Insect Area, is that close?"
"I couldn't tell you, I learned all I know from Jijimon while I was in Format Village. But he didn't tell me everything, probably because he didn't feel it was necessary."
"Oh, I'm sorry. It was rude of me to assume you would have the answers for everything."
"Oh no, not at all. Don't worry about it." Coronamon reassured her. "I probably would've asked him a lot more questions myself had I evolved into Child earlier, but it was all too fast."
Hearing about that, she got curious. "Wait, you were a Baby Digimon before?" She paused. "Wait, now that I say it out loud it sounds pretty obvious. Ugh, forget that."
Coronamon noticed her flushed cheeks and chuckled.
"A-Anyways—! Could you tell me how it happened!? How did you evolve!?" There was a pause, and she noticed his dumbfounded look and added "Um, sorry. You don't have to if you don't want to, ignore what I said."
Coronamon shook his head, "Nono, it's not that. I was just surprised, is all. I don't mind telling you, but it's probably not gonna be the fun story you're expecting."
That made her hesitate for a moment, but after two encounters with some aggressive Digimon, she realized getting back home wasn't gonna be a pleasant experience. If she couldn't handle a simple story, no matter how bad it got, how would she handle the rest of the world? Plus, she really wanted to learn more about Coronamon and the Digital World she was stuck in.
She nodded, and he proceeded to tell her the story of how he became Coronamon.
"What are you doing, Pagumon?" An orange Digimon shaped like a small sun floating midair, with fire coming out of its top, asked.
"Ah-" A purple Digimon with ears looking like some sort of wings jumped startled, turning around. "Tch, Sunmon"
"I hope you weren't trying to pick on the new guys." Sunmon said, noticing the group of Baby I Digimon in the direction Pagumon was looking.
"Hmph!" The purple Digimon bounced away elsewhere, muttering something under his breath.
Sunmon looked at the group, noticed Jijimon walking up to them and decided to join them.
"How is everyone today?" Jijimon asked. The Digimon was short in stature and looked old, with long gray hair covering his entire face. He carried around a staff of sorts.
The baby Digimon all bounced around him happily.
"Hey Jijimon." Sunmon said.
"Oh, Sunmon. Anything going on today?"
"Not much. I just stopped Pagumon from doing something mean again."
"Haha, is that so?" Jijimon said. "It seems you've adapted well to the village."
"Yep! Everyday is fun here." He grinned.
"That's go-"
Jijimon couldn't mutter another word as, out of nowhere, the grass and small huts nearby all caught fire and the cries of Baby Digimon started coming from every direction.
"Wha-?" Jijimon looked around, baffled.
"Jijimon?" Sunmon called out, grabbing Jijimon's attention again. "W-What's going on?"
Jijimon noticed all the Digimon looking up at him with the same expression.
"It's alright! Stay close to me, I'll open up a path."
The Digimon swung his staff towards the fire to temporarily open a way for everyone to get through. No sooner than they had left, the fire closed itself again. He didn't have time to let his guard down however, as he soon noticed they were under attack by hordes of Dark Digimon, which were capturing baby Digimon left and right.
"What? What is all this? Those are BlackGarurumons and Devimons." He looked up to the sky. "Even LadyDevimons? Where did they all come from?"
He had no idea how or why they had all gotten there, but he couldn't afford to stop and think about it now. Everyone was relying on him to get out of this ordeal. Without hesitation, he decided his first move should be to get the Baby Digimon out of the village as soon as possible, saving as many of them as he could in the process.
"Let's go!"
Everyone followed him as they walked through countless enemies, which Jijimon dispatched with his Hang on Death attack that turned anyone hit by it into a DigiEgg. For every Digimon he failed to save he grew more and more worried, as he realized it would be impossible to save them all.
"Jijimon!"
He quickly turned around to see a small group of Baby Digimon hiding nearby, which promptly jumped off their hiding spot and ran up to the group.
"Everyone is– everyone is–" A Kapurimon called out.
"I know."
Even though his face was covered, Sunmon could easily hear the sadness in his voice.
"You did a good job taking care of them." Jijimon told him, referring to the Pafumon, Petitmon and Paomon behind him. "Come, I'll get you out of here." He added, after the Digimon started crying louder.
He continued guiding the group through the village, fighting off increasing numbers of Dark Digimon throughout.
"This is not good, there's too many." Sunmon heard him mutter under his breath.
He was right, the Digimon were surrounding them, and he could tell Jijimon was having a hard time escorting them.
"Jijimon–"
Sunmon's worry was written on his face.
"It's gonna be alright, I'll get you all out of here." Jijimon smiled.
He took a step forward, staff in hand, and prepared to fight the many Digimon coming their way.
With just a swing of his staff, the Digimon were falling one after another, turning back into DigiEggs. However, the sheer number of them was so overwhelming that he couldn't afford to be distracted even for a second.
Meanwhile, Sunmon and the group were terrified as a LadyDevimon had spotted them and had launched an attack their way. He looked to Jijimon for help, but his hands were full.
"I have to do something. I have to protect them!"
Suddenly, his body started shining and zeros and ones started appearing all over his body. Jijimon could only spare but a second to notice the sudden light was coming from Sunmon, but another BlackGarurumon quickly jumping at him got back his attention.
Sunmon's body grew and transformed into Coronamon, who proceeded to get the Digimon out of the attack's way before his body was even done shining. Once they were safe and the light was gone, everyone was left in awe at the newly evolved Coronamon.
"Everyone alright?"
"Sunmon? You digivolved!" Kapurimon asked.
He smirked. "That's right."
"Sunmon!" Coronamon turned to face Jijimon, who was running their way, staff on the ready. "Duck!"
Realizing what he meant, he looked up to see a LadyDevimon charging towards them and quickly threw himself to the ground, covering the baby Digimon as much as he could.
"Hang on Death!"
LadyDevimon stopped in its tracks and dodged his attack, but that gave the group enough time to recover and cover behind Jijimon.
"Sunmon, you evolved." He said, in a bittersweet tone.
"Yeah, I'm Coronamon now."
"I see." He paused. "Coronamon, listen to me." His tone suddenly became more serious. "There are too many Digimon, I won't last like this."
The attacks from the Digimon didn't cease, he had to fight them off as he spoke.
"Jijimon, what-?"
"You need to take the baby Digimon and go. Go to the Forest Area, ask for Rafflesimon. She'll–"
Another attack came his way, a fireball he blew away with the swing of his staff.
"–she'll help you find a safe place." He continued.
"Then come with us! I can't protect them by myself." Coronamon's eyes teared up.
"I'm sorry, I can't. I need to stay here to make sure they don't go after you."
Two BlackGarurumon came running up at them, which he quickly dispatched and returned to DigiEggs.
"It's okay, you can do it. You evolved just to protect them, that is not something anyone can do."
Coronamon couldn't hold back his tears. "Jijimon. I- I-"
"Go now, before more Digimon come."
The newly evolved Digimon took a deep breath, wiped his tears and nodded. "Okay!" He replied, determined.
"I'm proud I got to raise such strong Digimon." Jijimon said, giving one last glance to everyone. "Now go! I'll hold them back."
"Right." He turned to the baby Digimon, which were all crying, but he had to be strong for them. "Let's go guys!"
A lot of the Digimon followed him, even if they couldn't bring themselves to stop crying entirely. Coronamon had to carry a few of the Digimon, who were unable to move from the shock, but the rest managed to pull themselves together enough to follow him. With a smile on his face, he looked back to Jijimon one last time. He was right, he had raised some strong Digimon.
"I will NOT let a single one of you past this point. Not as long as I'm breathing!"
That was the last thing Coronamon heard him say, as he and the rest of the Digimon ran through the path he had cleared for them earlier.
"After that we left the village and walked for a while until we met you, and you know the rest." Coronamon finished.
"Oh wow." Hanami was shocked. "I'm so sorry you had to go through all that."
He shook his head. "I'm glad we managed to make it out safely… I just wish I knew what happened to Jijimon after that."
"He sounds like a great Digimon." Hanami said, trying to cheer him up.
"He is."
Heh, he sounds like he's talking about his dad. Hanami smiled to herself. I hope dad's doing ok… I've been gone for over a day at this point.
"Hey hey, Coronamon!"
Nyaromon's sudden call surprised them both.
"What's up?"
"How do I Digivolve?"
"Huh? That was sudden. Why do you want to digivolve?" He asked.
"I just want to be stronger so I can beat anyone who wants to eat me!"
Ah, she must be talking about that spider Digimon that was chasing her.
"Hmm…" Coronamon thought for a second. "Well, I'm not entirely sure. Everything just happened so fast for me. I remember wishing really strongly to protect the baby Digimon and next thing I know, there I was, all evolved."
"You wanted to protect them? I see–" Nyaromon looked at Hanami, who smiled back. She then jumped into her arms. "In that case, I'll protect Hanami and become stronger!"
She was taken aback, but muttered a 'thank you' before patting Nyaromon, prompting her to grin.
After they were walking for so long that the sun started to set on the horizon, Hanami figured that if LadyDevimon would've decided to come back, they'd have probably seen her by now. She told that to Coronamon, who had no choice but to agree with her.
With that out of the way, they decided to call it a day and sleep until the morning. Coronamon reasoned it would be dangerous to move through the rough terrain at night with all the baby Digimon in tow.
He said he'd stand guard through the night while everyone else was sleeping, since they hadn't found any safe place to sleep, and another Digimon like LadyDevimon or the spider one could come at any time. Hanami completely shutdown the idea however, as he needed to recover from the fight he had. Coronamon eventually agreed, but not until she promised to wake him up if something happened.
"Alright everyone, let's call it a night", Coronamon said to the baby Digimon, "We'll continue the trip in the morning"
Everyone followed him, except Nyaromon, who stayed with Hanami.
"Go on, you can sleep with everyone." Hanami told her.
But Nyaromon shook her head. "I wanna stay with you!"
Hanami figured something like that would happen. She wanted Nyaromon to get along with the other baby Digimon more, but had no reason to refuse her request, and truth be told she was kind of glad to not have to spend the night alone.
I know I told Coronamon I would keep watch, Hanami thought to herself, but what exactly will I do if something does happen? Not to mention, I don't even know if I'll last the entire night.
"Hanami?"
Nyaromon's voice broke her train of thought. "What's up?"
"You're not a Digimon, are you?"
The question caught her by surprise. Oh, right. I guess we never really mentioned it, huh?
"Nope, I'm not", she smiled.
She took the chance to explain to Nyaromon that she was a human, as well as how she ended up in the Digital World. After noticing the Digimon was listening to her story eagerly, Hanami decided to tell her more about her world. Nyaromon was happy to listen to all the stories she had to share.
They spent the rest of the night talking about every little thing about Earth, with Nyaromon asking questions every now and then about anything that caught her attention.
Their conversation continued until, to Hanami's surprise, the first rays of sun hit and the light slowly started to come back to the world.
Huh? It's dawn already? That can't be right, I'm not even sleepy.
"Oh, the sun's out!" Nyaromon pointed out.
Hanami took some time to enjoy the view of the sunrise, something she didn't get to do much of back on Earth.
"How did it go?" A voice called out to her.
"Oh Coronamon, you're already awake? How are you feeling?"
"Better" he stood up, wincing slightly "Still hurts a bit, but I'll live"
He walked up to them, letting the baby Digimon sleep a bit more.
"How was it? Did anything happen while I was asleep?"
Hanami shook her head "No, we were just up all night talking. Right, Nyaromon?" she patted her head.
"Yup! She told me a lot of cool things!" in a whisper, she added "Did you know she's not a Digimon?"
Coronamon laughed, amused "Yes, I did"
Author's Notes
Hey everyone! Sorry this took a while to come out. I was actually trying to get some beta readers for this chapter, but that wasn't getting anywhere. I only managed to have someone beta read about half of the chapter.
Thank you for reading, and see you all next chapter!