While Komet and the others are celebrating their victory, Ogremon is near the carcass absorbing bits of data from the now destroyed Okuwamon. After being done, Ogremon approaches the group and quickly grabs and lifts Komet by her arms.
"You!" shouts Ogremon
"Huh?" exclaimed Komet in surprise
"What are you waiting for? Go get your part of the data!" she says while throwing Komet at the carcass. Komet falls on grass, rolls for a bit and sits while confused.
"Don't you dare do this to her again!" growls Sonne
"You don't tell me what to do, little puss. Do you want the loot or not?" yells Ogremon
"The loot? Wait, are you sharing it with us…? Awn" says Lua, flattered
"Just shut up and go, okay?" yells the green ogre, while pointing at the carcass
"Hmm… As a matter of fact, this data has no use to Komet. So we might as well take it for ourselves" says Sonne
"What are we waiting for, then?" Lua raises her arms and flies towards the floating data
Ogremon rolls her eyes and walks towards Komet. Sonne and Lua notice that and quickly go back to protect Komet from another of Ogremon's shenanigans. "So, I heard you are half useless, not-Digimon…" she says, while approaching Komet
Komet turns at Ogremon and takes a defensive stance
"...so, take this" Ogremon throws her club to Komet. "This will make you a bit less useless"
Komet grabs the club and glances at it, confused. "Wait, are you really giving me your prized weapon? But… Why?"
"Just take it, dammit! Before I change my mind and end your life!"
Lua and Sonne look at each other as confused as Komet, but they don't let their guards down
"But how are you-"
"Don't underestimate me, chick! I can get another of these easily. Or a better weapon even!" Ogremon turns around and waves "I will hit the road. You better have lots of food for the party tonight, or else…" she abruptly turns to Sonne and Lua and points at them menacingly "Don't leave this damn data to waste, or I'm gonna make you regret it!". She then runs off to the forest.
Komet is still confused, staring at the club in her hands. Lua and Sonne look at each other again, nod and go absorb the data left. Prof. Bokomon approaches the lass
"Oh, so she really gave you her weapon! Don't worry about that, this is just how Ogremon is" says Prof. Bokomon
"I… Still don't get it" says Komet
"In short, she acknowledges that she only beat Okuwamon because of you, so she gave away her weapon to challenge herself to get stronger and never need your or someone else's help ever again"
"Oh, it's a pride thing"
Prof. Bokomon nods with a smile on his face
"But Professor… We ended up letting her go, and she already said that she will come back for food later, which means this place is still not safe… She mentioned a party, but no one ever said anything about it! In the end…" Komet shakes her head in disappointment
"Ah, don't worry about that! She will be 'tame' for some time now, now that the big threat is gone!"
"How can you be so sure about that?"
"Well… I can say I have known her since she was a little baby. But that's a story for another day. Let's make sure that we are safe before we head to Anubismon's pyramid"
"Oh, so you care about her. I guess this is why part of you were adamant about the idea of fighting Ogremon, huh"
"Well, actually… I am happy that you taught her a lesson! She deserved it"
"Uuuh…" she raises an eyebrow and leaves it as that
Some time passes, and Prof. Bokomon makes sure everything is under control. He approaches Team Twilight, which is entertaining the baby Digimons.
"I'm ready to go!" says the Professor
The team says goodbyes to the babies. The babies don't look very happy about that, but they bid them their farewell. Then, Prof. Bokomon and the team start walking away from the Village. Komet follows the Professor while looking at nothing, as if her mind is somewhere else. She comes back to herself and turns at him. "Professor, back when we were fighting, you said something about 'Digimon stages', or levels, I don't remember. Adult, Child, Perfect… What are they exactly?"
"They are the evolutionary levels of a Digimon. It's how our growth and strength is defined! We are always born from a Digitama, an egg. Our first, well, two stages after hatching from the egg are Baby. Yes, we have two stages of babies! Your two friends, before evolving to their current forms, were Baby II levels"
Komet looks at Sonne and Lua, and then looks back to Prof. Bokomon. "Now they are at Child level, right?"
Professor nods. "When they get more experience, they will grow to Adult, the same level as Ogremon"
"Which is also the stage we were at before we rescued you!" remarked Lua
Komet looks at her for a few seconds. "Wait, so you two have to regress two stages in order to save me? That's-"
"Don't think too deep about it, Komet" says Sonne
"Okay, fine…" she sighs in dissatisfaction
"Anyway" continued Professor "In order to evolve, you need to consume data. said data can be obtained by just living long enough, training properly or defeating other Digimon and absorbing their data. By just living, there are very small chances you will evolve past Adult level. By absorbing data, you will get the fastest way to the top"
"Absorbing it? But how does Anubismon recycle and revive Digimon if the data is being absorbed by other Digimons?"
"Oh, about that? First, it's not exactly 'revive', since they will return as a new creature. The absorbed data is the experience data. The recycled data comes from the Digicore, which is a Digimon's heart and soul, you can say. I guess a good analogy is that you are eating the meat, but the soul is still around. So it's not like you are taking away their chance to live again! Although there are exceptions for that, but don't worry about it"
Komet nods and looks at Sonne and Lua again. "Uhh… You two didn't battle any Digimon while in my computer, did you?"
Sonne shakes his head. "We fed on the information data we gathered in the Network. Lua also managed to grow, even though her addiction was junk data"
"'Junk data'? You should learn the importance of diversifying your knowledge, little puss!" says Lua in anger
"If your idea of 'knowledge' is to know things that will change in absolutely nothing in your life aside from getting you distracted, then-"
Komet slowly turns back to the Professor while the two keep arguing. "Two stages of Baby, Child, Adult, and the next is Perfect. By the name, that's the last stage, right?"
Professor shakes his head. "No. There's another level beyond Perfect, it's called Ultimate. You see, the normal evolution course is from Baby to Adult, but if you really exceed in power, skill or knowledge, you can evolve even further, and these are the Perfect and Ultimate. Rarely, Digimons like Ogremon can outperform their stages, making them as strong as Digimon of the next evolution level. But usually, when a Digimon evolves to the next stage, their power grows by a lot, exponentially even!" Prof. Bokomon then jumps on Komet, grabs her hood and shakes it frenetically. "This is why you should be extremely careful when engaging in battles with higher leveled Digimon! You or your partners could have died! Twice even!"
"Professor, calm down" Komet uncomfortably grabs Prof. Bokomon and puts him back on the floor. "I won't go around challenging Digimon, this is not what I do, so don't worry about it". She looks at the sky reflexively while feeling guilty. "The power grows exponentially, huh…"
After some time, they arrive at their destination. They all see just some trees and bushes. Prof. Bokomon grabs his book, opens it and says words that Komet can't comprehend. Then, a triangular door opens from thin air. They all go inside and walk through the dark pyramid with golden hologram scripts moving through the wall. Prof. Bokomon takes a few turns and the team follows. They arrive at the room where Anpu can be seen doing something. The jackal is moving his hands, seemingly fragmenting something and shaping it to an egg.
"Mister Anpu!" called Komet
Anpu turns around holding the egg. "You are finally back"
"Anpu…? I wasn't aware you had an identification tag until now" says Professor
"She wished to call me that". Anpu approaches Prof. Bokomon and gives him the egg
"Ah! A new friend for the nursery!" Prof. Bokomon grabs the egg and puts it in his belly band, and the egg magically disappears, just like his book. "Sorry for taking so long. We had some trouble with an 'old friend' and then we were attacked by an Infected right after. For some reason, there was no one from the Angel Army to put that creature down, but miraculously our human buddy and her partners could defeat it!"
Anpu looks shocked. "No one from the Army, you say?" He squints his eyes, shakes his head and then sighs. "I wonder what happened… But all's well that ends well. Now, for the reason I summoned you here. I would like you to add some functions to this human's device"
Komet lifts her sleeve and shows her smartwatch. Professor analises it for a bit.
"Hmm…" Prof. Bokomon puts his hand on his chin and rubs it. "This is the first time I've seen this model of digital watch. Is this an improved model?"
"Well, it's a smartwatch, not just a digital watch. It's like a computer met a watch and they had a kid. Very versatile by the way" says Komet
"That's alright, I'm sure I can figure it out pretty easily. It's one of my specialties after all"
"Where did you acquire such skill? Anubismon had told me that Bokomons are known for being great scholars, extremely knowledgeable in Digimon biology and history, but not in engineering at all" asks Sonne
"A friend taught me. It's a Nanomon who is pretty much an amazing researcher and inventor. He taught me a lot of things about devices! But then one day he was kicked out of our college for… Let's say, being too unethical with his research. Last time I saw him he said he would travel around the world and beyond to find someone that recognizes his talent and accepts him…"
"Sounds like a villain in the making…" says Lua
"That was long ago. Since then, I had heard of him only one more time, and it seems he's been using the title of 'doctor'. I don't know if the title is legit or not, but, hey, thanks to him, I can help with your journey now! If Anubismon trusts the human, then I'll do as he says!"
"She has a name, you know? It's not 'the' or 'a human'" says Lua, waving her hand in rage
Prof. Bokomon is too focused to pay attention to Lua's protest. He turns to Anpu and asks "So, what do I need to do with this device?"
"That depends on the answer of the human" Anpu turns to Komet and opens his hand towards her "Are you gonna help me gather the data of infected Digimon? You have already faced one of them even"
"Ahm…" Komet holds her own hand in front of her. She looks down for a bit, then looks at Ogremon's club, at Sonne and Lua, which are intensely looking at her. She looks back at Anpu. "Yes… Sure!"
"Aaaaay! I knew you wouldn't refuse that!" says Lua, while spinning in the air
Sonne nods with a smile
"But I would like to request for more things to be added. And ask you to take some precautions as well" says Komet
"Go on!" says Prof. Bokomon, while nodding
"First of all," Komet removes the smartwatch from her wrist. "I want you to know that this device is connected with Sonne and Lua, and I want it to keep that. So, when making modifications on it, be very careful to not sever the connection or hurt them during the process!"
The Professor looks at the smartwatch intrigued. "Interesting…!"
"For my, erm, requests, I would like two things. First, I would like your Digimon encyclopedia to be easily accessible for me, then I can be aware of the dangers I will be facing. Second, I would like a storage room for me, something like cloud storage, if you know what I mean"
"Give you… access… to the encyclopedia…?" he looks displeased at her
"You can grant her these wishes. Aside from that, my requests are that you also add the map of the Digital World and a connection line between her device and my place, including a pathway to communicate from here to the device" says Anpu
"Are you sure? This would grant too much information about our world to a human! You know, the same creatures that might be causing the virus?"
"I said-" before Lua says the rest, Sonne grabs her and covers her mouth. Lua keeps complaining, but with her voice being muffled
Komet sighs
"Ah!" Professor turns to Komet "Human, I'm sorry! It's just that-"
"It's fine, really…" says Komet
"Look, don't worry, I will do all these things Anubismon is allowing me to do, and everything will be fine, okay?" Prof. Bokomon rushes to a room full of tools.
Komet leans to a wall and slowly sits down. Sonne and Lua join her and sit on her legs
"Is it really fine?" asks Sonne
Komet shakes her head. "The Professor's reactions are fine, it's natural that he doesn't trust me yet… But that means I will be met with distrust everytime I see a Digimon, or they will just straight attack me for that reason"
"Don't worry about that," says Anpu "It's actually quite uncommon for an ordinary Digimon to know about humans. In fact, very few of them know what a human is and the 'truth' about the Infected. Most of the world only knows it as some kind of infectious disease caused by a powerful virus, with no vaccine for it yet"
"That's nice to hear"
"But you still need to proceed with caution"
Komet nods
"Now, I will assist Bokomon with the modifications" Anpu leaves and go to the same room as Prof. Bokomon
Komet looks at the floor in silence. After some minutes she shakes her head and sighs.
"Are you okay…?" asks Lua
Komet grumbles
"You don't look or sound okay…"
Komet shakes her head again. "I should have never done that…"
"'That' what, exactly?"
Sonne raises his head and looks at Komet too
"That plan at the Village of Beginning! What was I thinking, just acting by impulse like that?" Komet slowly puts her hand on her forehead
"Is this in your mind since our way back here?" asks Sonne
Komet nods
"Why are you spending your time thinking about that? We had zero casualties. The plan was a success" says Sonne
"It was, sure, but it could've been a total failure. It had a high chance of failure, even! We were facing a Digimon whose power is exponentially bigger than yours and Ogremon's! What if you didn't get to the tower in time? Or you didn't get Okuwamon's attention? Or what if Okuwamon just straight attacked the babies and the Professor, killing them all?"
"Komet-"
Komet raises her voice "The plan was extremely flawed! I shouldn't have allowed myself to do such an idiotic-"
"Komet, stop!" yells Sonne
Komet immediately stops in surprise. Lua looks at Sonne shocked.
Sonne sighs and lowers his head. "Apologies for my bad behavior. I accept any kind punishment for that," he lifts his head again "But I cannot allow you to beat yourself over something that was already done, successfully even"
Komet looks down in silence
"Allow me to use our friendship to ask questions that friends would ask, and get to know you even better! Why are you so obsessed over the idea of a perfect plan?" asks Lua
Komet flinches, and then shakes her head quickly. "I-I just want to guarantee the best outcome, that's all!"
"Is that the only reason?" asks Sonne
"Look, everyone wants to do their very best and get the best results they can! What's wrong about aiming for a flawless plan?"
"Nothing wrong about trying to surpass your expectations or reducing the errors to as minimum as possible, but the way you seek it is-"
Komet raises her voice and punches the floor. "There's nothing wrong with the way I do it!". She then quickly realizes that she crossed the line again and buries her face in her hands, and starts sobbing. "I-I'm sorry… I'm really sorry… I didn't mean…"
Lua floats and lands on Komet's head. She pats her on the head while looking worried.
Sonne keeps sitting on her legs. "Apologies for my second misconduct. I'm ready for the punishment"
Komet lifts her head a bit. "Huh? No… I am the one that overreacted… You didn't do anything wrong… It's just that…" she sighs. "My… our situation now… My feelings have been all over the place since all that happened yesterday… Drake… The monster… And now that I probably missed the big day… My brain and my heart were still unable to properly process all of that…"
"Yesterday…?" says Sonne. He looks at Lua, who looks concerned by that affirmation. She realizes that Sonne is looking at her and quickly turns her face away. Sonne sighs in frustration and looks back at Komet. "Hm… About that…"
"Hm?"
"These things didn't happen yesterday. In fact, it took two weeks for you to finally wake up"
"H-HUH?"
This piece of information shocks Komet to the point that she passes out right away.
After a few minutes, Komet regains her consciousness. She looks around, still a bit dizzy, and realizes that both Sonne and Lua are panicking.
"Komet!" says Sonne. He quickly goes behind her and helps her sit down
"You woke up! I-I'm so glad you are fine!" says Lua almost in tears
"We had no idea what was the issue since we can't feel your vitals" says Sonne, starting to calm down
"I was about to perform CPR on you, since I've read that this is what humans do in this kind of situation! But Sonne said that you were still breathing, so that was not needed"
Komet quickly lifts her sleeve to check her smartwatch, but then she remembers that Prof. Bokomon has it for the moment. "Ah, right… Don't worry, you two, I am fine". She hugs both, and they both hug her. "So, where were we…" she thinks for a bit. "Ah, that's right… You two said that I've been here for… Two… Weeks…?"
Sonne nods
"Please, don't just turn off again" says Lua, already looking worried
Komet swallows dry and stays silent for a while, while looking down. The two Digimons just look at her, worried. Then she breaks the silence. "My parents must be so desperate right now… Mr. Smith is probably worried sick… They probably reported to the police that I am missing at this point" She rubs her forehead. "That makes me wonder… What exactly attacked me? Was that a Digimon? That surely was related to the info I found, right?"
Sonne puts his hands on his chin. "Hmm… I cannot recall the event properly… It was in fact a monster present in the Network, but it didn't feel very… Digimon. Apologies, I can't say for sure…"
"I hate to admit it, but if Sonne can't tell, then neither do I!" grumps Lua
"In that case…" She looks at the bone club "We should all get ready for when we go back to the Surface. We never know if that monster will be waiting for us or something"
Both Digimons nod
"There's also another problem… Since I am now a missing person, they will probably investigate my stuff at home. I'll be in big trouble with the police and with Diamlock Tech if they find out about my nightly activities, especially after Mr. Smith gave me-"
Komet feels a little bit of pain in her head and puts the hand on her forehead. Then she realizes that someone is approaching, so she shuts herself up.
"Oh! Oh! There you are! I went the wrong way, I didn't realize you were on this side of the pyramid!" says Prof. Bokomon while looking embarrassed
"Hi Professor! How are the modifications going?" says Komet while waving
"It's going well, I hope! But it will take hours to be finalized. I need your partners to come with me!"
"Oh? For what reason?" asks Sonne
"Some things that I need to add involve interactions with you two. I promise it's going to be a positive surprise! It might be a good idea for you to wait here, human, since… Maybe what you see might scare you"
"What are you gonna do with us?" asks Lua, already displeased
"Don't worry, he won't put a malware or something like that on you" says Anpu, which just appeared from the shadows
"Anpu!" says Sonne and Lua. They look happy to see his presence
"Oh? So you two will call me that too now, huh". He looks at Komet. "Since your device is already connected with Sonne and Lua, we have decided that we could integrate that to more functionalities as well, to further help with your journey"
"If Anpu is saying that, then he can be trusted!" says Lua
Komet looks at them for some time. Then she directs her question to Anpu. "You promise that you won't add anything that will be spying on me or something? Because, you know… I like having some privacy…"
"You sure are full of demands, human. What are your real intentions?" says Prof. Bokomon
"Bokomon?" says Anpu, surprised with Prof. Bokomon's tone
"A-ah, sorry, I didn't mean anything ill, I promise! I-it's just… Precautions!"
"We can identify it if this becomes the case, so don't worry" says Sonne to Komet
Komet feels a bit down after hearing that. "Sorry, it's just the force of habit," She scratches her head "I just always had to be very careful with stuff I do in my life, you know?" she says while giving a forced smile
Prof. Bokomon looks at Anpu. Anpu nods.
"Come, follow me, you two!" says Prof. Bokomon
"See you later!" says Lua while waving at Komet. Sonne gives a smile at Komet and waves too
Prof. Bokomon leaves with Sonne and Lua. Anpu follows after them.
"Anpu! Wait!"
He turns around. "Yes?"
"I just want to ask some questions. May I?"
"You sure can"
"First, I want to confirm once more… Most Digimons here aren't aware of humans, much less things that happen in my world, right…?"
"That's correct. Only certain groups of Digimons are aware of the existence of your world, but we don't know anything about what happens there, hence the reason I sent Sonne and Lua to your world. In fact, the discovery of the Human World is quite recent, it's not been a decade yet. This information is kept only by the highest tier of Digimon to prevent fear in our world or attempts of careless contact with the unknown, which can result in catastrophe"
"But if that's the case… How come Ogremon quickly noticed I am not a Digimon? Also, Professor knew I am a human at sight"
"Being noticed as a non-Digimon is different from being noticed as a human. After all, there are non-Digimon creatures living in this world. Just like how not all creatures in the Human World are humans. Also, only highly skilled Digimons notice the difference. Bokomon is one of the few people that knows the difference. He is not only a highly skilled scholar, but also my friend. Naturally, I told him about that, so he could help me with the virus problem"
Komet nods, but she still doesn't feel 100% convinced about that. Anpu notices her skeptical look. "Is something the matter?" he asks
Komet looks surprised. "A-ah, no, no!" as she quickly waves her arms. She sighs. "Really, sorry… Some things are just… Complicated…" She then hugs her legs and rests her head on them.
Anpu squats down in front of her and puts his hand on her shoulder. "Life is a long and arduous journey sometimes. You may be afraid, but don't let fear hinder your true potential and stop your heart from reaching your ultimate goal. Use every bit of experience to evolve not only your friends, but yourself too. Understood?"
Komet looks a bit puzzled, but she nods. Anpu gets up, waves and leaves.
Some hours pass, and Komet falls asleep. Minutes, or maybe hours, pass. She wakes up and notices that Sonne and Lua are sleeping on her, so she just stays on the floor doing nothing, but with her mind full. "Don't worry. My next plans will be flawless. This is not going to happen again" she says to herself. She doesn't notice it, but Sonne listens to her loud thoughts. He just closes his eyes back, pretending he didn't wake up. A few hours later, she opens her eyes again, and notices Anpu and Prof. Bokomon around. Prof. Bokomon notices that she is awake and walks in her direction.
"You are finally awake! Nice! I finished the modifications on your device! If you don't mind, I'd like to explain how things work right now!" says Prof. Bokomon super excited
Komet rubs her eyes and turns her head to see if the two Digimons are still sleeping
"Ugh… You can be so loud…" complained Lua while opening her eyes
Sonne opens his eyes in an instant and gets up immediately. With her partners off her, Komet sits down and looks at Prof. Bokomon.
"Behold! The great improvement of your device!" Prof. Bokomon places the smartwatch on her hands.
Komet grabs the smartwatch and puts it in her wrist.
"First, the main functionality that Anubismon requested: the map!"
Komet opens the menu of her device and sees the map button. She presses it, and a big hologram of the map is projected in front of her, startling her.
"You can adjust the size and the scale of it with a few gestures," says Prof. Bokomon while showing the gestures. "Keep in mind that this is a simplified overview of the area, but at least you get to know if you are walking into a mountainous area or other biomes! You can fill the map with information you deem important, like towns, terrains, food places…"
"I assume the red dot is my final destination" says Komet
"Yes! This is the Central Network Palace. You can also pin different places on it. Now, to the next functionality: the storage"
Komet goes back to the main menu and goes to the icon where she assumes it's the storage. After she presses it, an icon with a brown box appears, with arrows at the sides.
"Don't worry, this is something that I put there to test it and as a gift for your journey! Put your hand over the icon and swipe up"
She does as he says. At that moment, bits of data and 0s and 1s flow out of the icon and spin around an area, which materializes into a 4m^2 garden bed.
"Huh? What is that?" asks Komet
"Like I said, it's my gift for your journey! This is where you can grow your food while you are journeying around. I have some seeds for you already. It's the specialty from Village of Beginning, Ogremon's favorite! If you raise them properly, it will help with your growth as well, and you can get more seeds from it, making it renewable indefinitely- That is, if you always grow them properly. Ah, there's already one that's fully grown!" He walks towards the white thing that is sticking out of the soil, grabs it and removes it from the soil. What Komet sees shocks her: it's… Meat on the bone. It looks smoked, but it doesn't change the fact that it was buried in the ground.
"I-is this… The food you grew?" asks her while pointing at the meat in disbelief
"Oh wow! That looks so tasty! Can I try? Please? Pleaaaase?" asks Lua
Sonne facepalms. "Where are your manners?" he turns to Prof. Bokomon. "If it's not rude on our part to ask, could we take a share of this?"
"Aha! You are craving it too, you are just using different words to sound nicer!"
"This is what 'manners' are," Sonne turns at Komet "It's a good idea if you have a bite too, after all, you haven't eaten all day"
"O-oh, I'm fine, so I'll pass…" At this moment, her stomach grumbles, and she quickly puts her arms around her belly, while a bit embarrassed.
"Haha, your belly snitched on you!" says Lua
Prof. Bokomon gives the meat to Sonne. "Bon appetit!"
Sonne gives the first bite. He munches it and then gets a surprised expression. He nods and takes another bite and passes it to Lua. "It's really good!"
Lua grabs it and she is quick in giving a very big bite. Then she opens a big smile. "That's delicious!" She then bites it one more time and gives it to Komet.
Komet grabs the bone and stares at the meat skeptically. She sees Sonne and Lua looking at her with high expectations. She looks at the meat again. Then she realizes that Prof. Bokomon and even Anpu are looking at her with high expectations. It's now her brain rejecting the idea of eating meat from the ground versus Digimons with high expectations and her grumbling stomach. So she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, bites the meat and munches it. She feels the texture of the meat and the pleasing flavor spreading in her mouth, which surprises her. "Oh wow, that's actually pretty tasty!" she says while taking more bites
"Heeeey! Don't forget to leave some more for me!" says Lua
The meat is eaten up by the three. Prof. Bokomon gives the seeds to Komet, teaches her how to plant it and how to harvest new seeds from the leftover bone. Then he resumes with the explanation. "Now, to put something in the storage, you press the blank screen and touch what you want to store!"
Komet approaches the garden bed, She presses the button and touches the garden bed. The thing turns into bits of data and 0s and 1s and flows back to her smartwatch. "So, if I want to store more things…" She swipes to the side and sees the blank screen again. She presses it and focuses on the club that she is holding. Then, the same thing happens to the club and flows to her device, and an icon of a club appears on the screen. "That's very nice and handy!"
"The bigger the item you intend to store, the longer it takes. If there's some interference in the connection, you might have problems accessing the storage. Also, you cannot store Digimons" says Prof. Bokomon
Komet nods
"Alright then, onto the last thing: the encyclopedia! Well, I didn't put the encyclopedia per se, but it's more like an identifier. You request one of your buddies to focus on a Digimon, then this will retrieve information regarding that Digimon to your device! Your partners can also read it for you. Now, try it!"
"You can do the honors, Sonne!"
Sonne nods. He then focuses on Prof. Bokomon. At that moment, the smartwatch opens a hologram image of a Bokomon, showing information in glyphs that Komet can't understand. Then these glyphs quickly turn into the latin alphabet, making it readable for her.
"Bokomon. Level: Child. A knowledgeable scholar that's recognizable by its pink band around its belly. It's always carrying the Book of Knowledge. Since it's very poor at fighting, when it feels it can't win it will use its spec-" says Sonne until his mouth is held shut by Prof. Bokomon
"S-see? It works veeeeery well" says Prof. Bokomon while sweating in embarrassment
"Child level? Really?" says Komet in surprise
"Don't judge a book by its level!"
"O-oh, I didn't mean that, it's just that you are so smart that I thought… You know"
"I-in this moment, you can just ignore the stage" Prof. Bokomon then tries hiding his face with the pink band
Lua giggles. Sonne blinks, a bit confused. Komet returns her attention to her improved smartwatch. She opens the map again and observes it for some time. "I wonder how long it will take until we get back to the Surface… I hope things are not a hot mess when I get back…". She then looks at Prof. Bokomon and Anpu. "Thank you very much for all-"
"Wait!" interrupted Prof. Bokomon "I forgot to tell you about another functionality! It's the direct line with Anubismon, where you can send the data of Infected directly to Anubismon. With that direct line, you can even call him and he can call you. Because of that, another problem was solved: now you can get answers from your buddies from your device, like a telephone!"
"That's amazing!" Komet bows "Anpu, Professor. Thank you very much! I hope I can help you as much as you helped me!"
Sonne bows too. Lua gives a thumbs up
"We'll get going now. Is that okay?" asks Komet to Anpu
"Very well. Follow me" says Anpu
"Oh, I should get going as well!" says Prof. Bokomon
They all follow Anpu. He opens the triangular door to them, and they leave the pyramid. "Safe journey" he says. He waves goodbyes. They all wave back. Then, the door disappears, revealing just the forest again, as if nothing was ever there.
Prof. Bokomon turns to Komet. "We are going separate paths now. Good luck, human, and sorry for all the skepticism. I can't say I 100% trust you yet, but I-"
"It's fine, don't worry about it. You worked on things to help my journey! I am not mad or anything, I promise!" says Komet
Behind Komet, Lua just gestures threats at Prof. Bokomon. He flinches and quickly looks away. "A-ah, I mean, Komet is your name, right?" he says
Lua looks satisfied by that
"Not my actual given name, but yes, call me Komet! We will get going now. Thanks for everything, Professor!" The team waves at him and starts leaving. He does the same and takes his way back to the Village of Beginning.
Inside the pyramid, Anpu returns to his main room.
"Are you really allowing a human to roam in our world like that? Especially after the results the scale gave you? Are you insane?" says a feminine creature
Anpu looks at the direction of the voice and sees a cat shaped silhouette transforming into something bigger. "No one is allowed to access my domain as they please, and that includes your kin, Rasielmon" growls Anpu
"Awn, poor me, but since I'm here already, we are gonna talk, whether you like it or not"
The feminine creature comes out of the dark place, and reveals to be a humanoid woman-looking Digimon wearing full gold. She has baggy pants and big gauntlets with big pink gemstone claws. She has a pair of golden wings, something like a white fur scarf around her neck and a cat mask with two pairs of cat ears.
"Do you want to talk? Okay then. Start explaining why you left Village of Beginning unguarded" says Anpu
"I am the one questioning here, Anubismon! Or should I also start calling you 'Aaaaaanpuuuuu'? You better tell me why you let the human go, unless you don't mind me telling the upper echelon of the Angel Army about that. I'm sure you are not ready for a divine punishment" says Rasielmon with a smirk on her face
"And why is that human involved in all that? Ah, right, because a certain high ranked angel asked me for help to spoil their own kin's plan, and look at how it's going. I'm pretty sure Angel Army will appreciate this info" he winks at her
Rasielmon growls
"So, what about you answer my question first, since you are in my domain, I have more control than you" says Anpu
"Hmph, what a horrible way to treat your ally. Fine! Our plan was to investigate the Human World, not to have a human here. You don't even know if their mere presence can be a threat to our world. You should have left her to die carry on with the investigation with the two Digimons"
Anpu crosses his arms. "Answer my question"
"You want your human to do some data hunting for you, right? So I devolved to hide my angelic aura, so that the Infected would be their problem to solve"
"So you were aware of its presence there, and still just left it to endanger and destroy the Village of Beginning?"
"Don't be silly, if things got out of control, I would intervene, of course. But I guess your human and our spy duo solved the problem by themselves"
Anpu shakes his head in disapproval
"Now, you tell me your reasoning. I saw it, her heart was heavier than the feather. She should've been sent to the Dark Area!" yells Rasielmon
"Yes and no. Somehow, her heart was heavier and lighter than the feather. She is not deserving of eternal suffering in the Dark Area, but there's something troubling her heart to the point of making it heavy and darkened…"
"But that is not your problem. I expected that you wouldn't care less, since it's not a Digimon"
"I didn't at first. But I couldn't refuse it after those two implored for help. You were spying on me, so you pretty much saw that too, am I correct?"
Rasielmon closes her eyes and starts recalling the scene. Sonne and Lua, in their Adult forms, pleading for help, while Anpu refused to help. That is, until the two Digimon, in some way, started to release their data in an attempt to save Komet themselves. That's when Anpu felt compassion and decided to help them, even though he wasn't sure if it would work. He gave them one condition: the heart has to be lighter than the feather, or he would just destroy her. They agreed instantly, because they believed she was actually a good person. Rasielmon opens her eyes back and sighs unamused. "That wasn't the plan. They weren't supposed to get attached to a human. I hope you don't regret your choice. Actually… The new plan might work better than expected! With a human involved in our matters, we can get more direct intel to solve once for all this Corrosion Virus matter!" she smiles, as if she had the best idea in the world
"Took you long enough to get to this conclusion"
"But if she dies, oh well" she shrugs. "I will turn a blind eye to all of your choices here and avoid as much as possible crossing paths with them. But I hope you are already aware that the Angel Army will put an end to her as soon as they bat an eye on her, and I will do nothing to stop them. By the way, I'm glad you refrained from sharing some crucial information. You really are a man of your word!"