Staring down once more at the pool I so recently climbed out of, I can't help but think to myself that it somehow looks even tinier than I initially thought. While I know from experience that it's quite deep, in terms of width, you couldn't even fit three of me stacked head to toe in this. Honestly, it's more of a bath than a pool, or even just an oversized fish tank... which I suppose would really only be appropriate.
I scowl. Not only the prettiest belle at the ball, but also the prettiest fish in the bowl. Joy.
Granted, it's at least a nice bowl. It wasn't exactly my focus earlier, but the edge of the pool is ringed by a stylish design of engraved bubbles, which feels like a surprisingly nice touch given how utterly rough and unadorned everything else around here is. There's also a faucet on one side of the pool that's continually pouring new water in, and is shaped like the head of some scaled, vaguely-humanoid fish man, but that's less nice, and more just... weird.
Regardless.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I hop into the water feet-first. As I slip beneath the surface, that same strangely right feeling from when I first woke up here returns, the pressure of the surrounding water enveloping me like an all-encompassing hug.
...yet I still find myself unconsciously holding my breath.
Tensing against my will, I try to make myself breathe in, but some part of me stubbornly continues to resist. Specifically the logical part, which hasn't yet fully adjusted to this rather illogical situation. In theory, I'm fully aware that Ranamon should be capable of breathing underwater, but in practice, it's hard to make myself believe that I can simply take in water like air, especially since I'm not exactly seeing any gills on me. Attempting to override that very basic survival knowledge is like trying to assure myself that I could claw my own eyes out and still be able to see — it just doesn't really compute.
My chest begins to burn, my body growing increasingly desperate for oxygen, or whatever this world's equivalent of that might be. Can't wait much longer...
Desperately trying to assure myself that I would have just drowned in my sleep if I couldn't breathe down here — and my isn't that a cheery thought — I forcibly pry my jaw open and suck in a small gulp of water. It instantly rushes in past my teeth, my tongue, pouring down my throat so fast that for a moment I'm certain I was wrong-
Until my lungs abruptly stop burning.
Relieved more than I probably should be, I take another strange, heavy-feeling breath of liquid, letting myself adjust for a few moments longer before sighing in relief and opening my eyes.
"Phew..." I sigh- before realizing that my voice came out sounding perfectly clear, despite my being underwater at the moment. "...huh. Neat."
I look around. As before, the interior of Ranamon's pool both looks and feels startlingly peaceful for what it actually is. The water seems to almost dance around me, the sourceless light suffusing it creating a natural spectacle that could undoubtedly entrance me for ages if I let it. It's almost enough to make me forget that I'm essentially just floating in a giant hollow cylinder right now, empty aside from the water it contains.
...or is it?
Inverting my position, I begin kicking my feet, swimming down towards the bottom of the pool. At a glance, I'd guess it has to be at least fifty feet deep... and consequently, the water pressure begins rapidly rising around me as I go, first doubling, then tripling, then more than quadrupling before I lose the ability to accurately estimate it. Were I still human, my ears would undoubtedly be hurting like hell by now, and I'd likely be developing a pretty bad headache — but bizarrely, the extra pressure only seems to make me more comfortable now, rather than less.
At least this body comes with a few perks, I suppose.
Putting that out of mind for the moment, I keep my gaze on the pool's distant floor — but I don't even need to reach it before I can confirm that it isn't as featureless as I thought. Not completely at least, as a large, intricate, vaguely circuit-like symbol appears to have been carved into the exact center of the space, surrounded by three thin rings of unknown script. Promising...
Setting down above the floor proper, I lean over to inspect the odd symbol. Seeing no obvious way to interact with it, I slowly brush my fingers over the stone, searching for a hidden latch or the like-
The instant my fingertips meet the rune at the center of the carving, the entire thing lights up, as though empowered by my touch. As the crevices of the digital glyph flash with color, the portion of the floor it covers literally vanishes, revealing another water-filled chamber below.
...hah. Thank you, Duskmon.
Easily slipping through the newly-revealed trapdoor, I slowly sink down into a large, open, and surprisingly colorful nexus of underwater tunnels. Patches of technicolor sea grass decorate the sand-covered floor, while shattered seashell fragments and glistening pearls make the smooth stone walls seem to almost glitter. The tunnels stretch out in all different directions, their destinations a mystery — or would be, if not for the square metal plaques embedded in the wall over each one's entrance, inscribed with geographical designs that I'm heavily inclined to assume represent specific parts of the Digital World.
I smile. Seems I've found my exit... not that it makes any physical sense that this little secret hub can exist, since I already saw that there's nothing underneath this towering "treehouse" other than giant roots, but again, Digital World. No real sense in questioning these things.
Now I just need to figure out which of these will get me closest to that island with the Toucanmon...
Deciding to try and make use of one of my few available resources, I pull myself back up through the trapdoor, idly noting it revert to its original state as soon as I'm all the way out, and swim upward until I've breached the surface of the pool again. The switch back to regular, non-liquid "air" feels a bit strange, but only takes me a brief moment to readjust to as I paddle over to Ranamon's computer, shaking my hands off as best I can before setting my fingers on the keys.
Conveniently, the moment I do so the monitor lights up, and I find myself presented with exactly what I was hoping to find — a literal map of the Digital World. Somewhat less conveniently, the map in question appears to have had large swathes of itself cut out for some reason, which on a physical map I could maybe understand, but on a digital one seems utterly nonsensical. What kind of glitch-
My expression thins as I realize the answer before I've even finished formulating the question. Right, probably not a glitch, or even incorrect — those areas likely just literally don't exist anymore, thanks to Cherubimon.
...well. At least I know where I want to go should still be intact.
It takes me a couple of minutes to figure out how to work the computer's basic functions, as it isn't exactly a normal one. Lacking a mouse, the squid-shaped cursor is instead controlled by a quartet of keys, which in a show of flagrant disrespect for common sense aren't even situated next to each other on the keyboard — though, that admittedly may be due to Ranamon's gauntlets making a closer spacing slightly awkward for her fingers. Further experimentation leads me to discover another pair of keys used to zoom in and out, one that serves as the replacement for left click, several more that type mysterious red O, X, and Δ symbols into the top left of the screen, and one that brings up innumerable semi-transparent colored ovals to overlay parts of the map.
My discovery of the latter function causes me to squint, a long-buried memory slowly dragging itself out of storage — I think Ranamon used this to mark the parts of the planet she had already searched for her beast spirit? In fact, I think that might be the entire point of this map, and possibly the computer in general. Which... wow, nearly every single landmass is covered; no kidding Ranamon has been looking for a while. I'm not entirely certain the spirit didn't ultimately turn out to be in an area she'd already searched though, so...
I turn the function back off and go back to scanning the map for my intended destination. The planet appears to be divided into ten continents and "areas" named after this world's ten elements, which is simple enough. Less simple are their extremely vague boundaries, which lack any concrete delineations, and the far more esoterically-named towns, cities, and presumed landmarks sprinkled about within them. Thankfully, I'm currently looking for an island completely separate from any of the larger land masses — which, after a little searching and a lot of zooming in, I'm eventually I'm able to find.
...I can't imagine the vaguely fish-shaped land mass in the middle-left corner of the map labeled "Toucan Paradise" to be anything else, at least.
I do my best to quickly commit the portions of the map near the island in question to memory. I don't really know how long or hard this trip is going to be, and I really would prefer I not make it longer by getting lost along the way. That would be just what I- ow!
Hurriedly opening my mouth, I prod my tongue against the spot where I unconsciously bit down on the inside of my lip. It's a nervous habit that I've never quite broken, but...
I draw my tongue back and carefully run it over the rest of my mouth. Yep, no real choice but to break it now — Ranamon's teeth don't feel too different from a human's on the whole, but her canines are quite sharp, to the point I'd bet they look almost shark-like when she smiles. Feeling them now, I'm surprised that they don't seem to inhibit my speech, or that I didn't notice them before I cut the inside of my mouth with one.
...although... for as deep as it feels like I just bit into myself, I don't seem to be tasting any blood...?
My eyes drift down to my fingers again — my smooth, completely nail-less fingers — as I process the ramifications of that. I haven't really thought about it much yet, but... what exactly does my now being "digital" imply? Other than the fact that my essence can be absorbed by another Digimon if I'm injured badly enough, what does this actually mean for me? Ranamon may be humanoid, but I have no idea how accurately her body reflects the needs and functions of a physical one. I don't bleed, yet I need to breathe? Why? I probably don't even have internal organs anymore; am likely just raw code beneath my surface appearance, so what's the point? Do I still need to eat? How about sleep? I'd assume those are still necessary, as I think they are for most Digimon, but Ranamon is also a normally-inanimate spirit made manifest, so how can I be sure? I guess the fact that I "woke up" like this does imply the latter is still at least possible, but-
I squeeze my eyes shut and clap my hands to my cheeks a few time, feeling the lure on the end of my swim cap bounce up and down a bit with the motion. No- stop, I'm getting distracted. I can worry about all this stuff later, once I'm hopefully in at least slightly less danger.
Shoving my assorted smaller concerns to the back of my mind for the moment, I plunge back down into the pool, vanishing the trap door with another touch and reentering the nexus below. Even after looking over the map in detail, some of the plaques look unfamiliar — but I do recognize one that shows what appears to be a finger-shaped peninsula, which I'm pretty sure is just to the east of Toucan Paradise. It's not in the island's immediate vicinity, but it's probably as good as I'm going to get.
Hoping I'm right about where this leads, I enter the tunnel in question and begin slowly making my way down its length. The passage isn't completely straight, twisting and turning several times along the way, sometimes even straight up or down, and the walls don't remain smooth for very long, becoming rough, gouged-out rock after only the first hundred feet or so. It's actually rather eerie, as even with the sourceless light of the water itself remaining constant, I can't help but keep in mind that I'm basically in an underground shaft right now, with no way out that isn't forward or back.
If this tunnel happened to collapse right now, with me inside of it, no one would ever know...
I wince, the thought speeding me forward until I finally come to an actual feature — namely, a dead end. Before I can be too crushed about that though, I notice another circuit-like symbol carved into the ceiling just above the end of the hall, identical to the one from my pool, save for being a bit smaller. Swimming upwards, I brush my fingers over it-
The ceiling around the glyph shines with light, then disappears just like the first one did, revealing open water above.
I smile thinly, then brace myself. Here goes...
Pushing my way out of the tunnel, I find myself rising up out of the center of a massive coral reef, perched upon the zenith of an underwater hill. Draped in scintillating rays of sunlight and all but exploding with vibrant color, the sight of it all briefly stuns me — especially when combined with all the other Digimon I suddenly find myself surrounded by. A small pod of Bukamon passes me by even as I watch, a number of wary Betamon following in their wake like some sort of amphibious protection detail. A massive school of small, sharp-toothed fish Digimon I don't personally recognize dances along the currents, several shadows cast upon them by the manta rays elegantly "flying" not far above. There's even a bunch of coral-like Digimon scattered about the area, having obviously made their habitat along the reef itself.
...a portion of which appears to be composed of the either abandoned or unmoving homes of some rather large Shellmon, now that I look.
Slightly unnerved by that last one given how aggressive the one I remember from the first season was, I manage to pull myself away from the sight, swimming upwards until I finally can poke my head back above the water. Just as hoped, the evil warriors' lair is no longer anywhere in sight, the tunnel having seemingly dumped me out smack dab into the middle of the ocean. The only thing that is in sight is a large chunk of land a ways in the distance that I'm pretty sure is the northern edge of the peninsula, a tiny island slightly less in the distance that I think I recognize from the map, and...
Well. Nothing.
Literally.
I can't help but stare, despite the quite non-figurative lack of anything to stare at. Beyond a certain point not far behind me, the water simply... ends, hovering on the edge of a desolate canyon that seems almost to stretch on for eternity. The walls of earth in the distance, presumably belonging to the next continent over, are only visible due to being of a size beyond imagination, so massive that I can scarcely even comprehend the scale of their existence. Every layer of the planet is fully exposed and visible, like the end of a freshly amputated limb, while a thick black fog boils up from the abyss below — a thin, obscuring curtain over a wound bored straight to the planet's heart.
The edge of the Digital World's destruction, as things stand.
I nervously paddle back a bit, despite being nowhere near it. I really shouldn't be so shocked, I suppose. I already knew that a good amount of this world had already been destroyed, the data that composed it forcibly torn away by beings that were once its heroes... but I don't think the sheer scope of that destruction fully sunk in until just now, seeing it in person. This void probably goes on for dozens, if not hundreds of miles, and it's only one of many...
Not wanting to linger any longer on the sight, I turn away, trying to look on the bright side — at least the water having a literal edge should help me navigate. However reduced it may be, there's no road signs out here in the ocean, and I couldn't exactly bring Ranamon's computer along with me. While the island I'm trying to get to isn't yet in sight, I know at least roughly which way it has to be.
...though, if I can't even see it yet...
I sigh.
Better get swimming.
