Himekawa Maki and Megadramon were able to avoid the worst of the wave. Being the only member of the group with a flying digimon had its perks, and Megadramon, still at some distance from MetalSeadramon, had lowered her tail when she saw the attack, so Maki had the chance to grab on.
This had not been enough to dodge the technique – not even close. The wave was so vast that no one in the entire Gecko Swamp could possibly have dodged it. Maki woke up soaked and potentially concussed, driven into the side of a mountain. But at least she was still alive. At least Bakumon was still by her side.
It was a strange role reversal to watch over her digimon as she slept. The battle had taken a lot out of Bakumon, while all she'd had to handle was a single mighty wave.
Maki nervously picked Bakumon up, having never carried her partner before. She never really understood how digimon biology worked, and the fact that the smoke came along with her partner's back legs, and soon shrouded her own knees, was a pleasant surprise; she had half expected it to be left on the ground.
The tapir digimon was surprisingly heavy, or perhaps Maki's upper body was still remarkably weak. She couldn't move far like this, and it would have been a bad idea even if she had the strength. There are many things which can happen to a lone human child in the digital world without a conscious digimon to protect her, but very few of them are good.
Fortunately, there was a somewhat sheltered cave on the mountain, not actually all that far from where they landed; a place to let Bakumon sleep. Maki was reminded of her first night in the digital world, but this cave was smaller. There was no river, either, which meant no surprise Gizamon attacks; she looked the place over, but found no digimon residents of any kind.
The main reason, Maki realized, was that this wasn't much of a cave; it would be fairer to describe it as a rock shelter. But her partner was definitely in need of shelter before she woke up, so she set Bakumon carefully on her back, piling the dirt to create something roughly approximating a pillow. She spent the next few hours watching over the tapir, staring at her sleeping face and trying to use it to calm her fears.
Was Daigo alive? Was anyone else? If everyone evolving to Perfect wasn't enough to stop even a single Dark Master, was there anything they could possibly do to save this world?
If Saberdramon had tried to take her home again at that time, she might very well have accepted the offer. Maki was terrified that night, convinced she would die in the digital world, and only Bakumon's adorable sleeping face, with her tiny white tusks, gave Maki an ounce of reassurance. She felt like she could fall asleep looking at her partner, but forced herself to stay awake. A nightmare in this situation would be worse than ever, and would mean no one left to stand guard.
No one to guarantee that she would ever wake up.
The sound of echolocation from above made it easier to stay awake, and after a while it was enough to make Bakumon roll over and return to its feet.
"I thought there weren't any digimon here," Maki said, looking into the cave – a tunnel had emerged where nothing of the sort had been before, perhaps opened by the digimon's soundwaves. A dark blue Pipismon hung upside-down from the roof, then took flight, its large ears almost equaling its giant red wings in size.
"What happened?" Bakumon asked. "Last thing I remember we were fighting MetalSeadramon…"
"We lost," Maki explained. "Landed on a mountain and I pulled you in here to recover. I thought it was safe, but I must not have noticed these digimon."
"Pipismon only come out at night," Bakumon said. "But don't worry. They're loud and hard to talk to, but they're harmless."
"What's night?" Maki asked.
"Does your world not have one?"
"No, it does, but we have a sun to tell us when it's changed."
"We used to have one too," Bakumon said. "Things have been rough without it, but Pipismon live in caves anyway, so I think they have a different internal clock."
The two walked deeper into what was now a proper cave, reasoning that they might as well explore in here as explore on the mountain outdoors. Maki wondered if Bakumon could truly protect her from anything dangerous they found, but clung tightly to her anyway; she had no one else she could trust in.
Was Daigo okay? Was that TonosamaGeckomon who asked them for help, and all the frog digimon in his palace? What of Infinity Mountain – could Buraimon keep all the baby digimon sheltering in there safe from harm?
There was something so terrifying about the thought that she could do nothing to save this world, that she had been summoned as nothing more than an attempt. It was like the part of a game where you lose, but don't have a 'game over', like when you save right before a boss battle you're too low level to win.
Maki wanted to think of this realization as even more dangerous than the cave, but the cave itself had a way of getting worse and worse the deeper she went.
"We should turn back," Bakumon suggested. Bakumon, not Maki, who walked forward no matter her surroundings. "Those are PicoDevimon, not Pipismon."
"They're weaker, aren't they?" Maki asked, without turning her head.
"But much more aggressive," Bakumon said, "and they fight dirty. Even if you beat one, the poison will do you in."
Maki came to a sudden stop. It wasn't that she had a death wish, and if she did, she at least wanted to die at the hands of a real enemy and not a glorified random encounter. But instead of turning back, she veered sharply to the left – away from the PicoDevimon cave, yes, but it was still asking far too much to expect her to turn around.
Bakumon followed on, her warnings unheeded, Maki still too lost in her own thoughts and fears to turn back. Could she snap her out of it? Would her words even reach her?
The left turn did not lead her into an empty room. A Pillowmon slumbered there, spewing bubbles that filled the room (it was a room, which was to say, not much of a cavern)with its open mouth. Maki walked forward automatically, failing to distinguish between the lullaby and nightmare bubbles, rubbing her eyes to stay awake. The idea of placing her head on this fluffy, pink sheep digimon and closing her eyes had an undeniable appeal, one she struggled to resist, but she had to keep going.
Maki was technically awake – indeed, could not actually collapse, no matter how many bubbles she wandered through – and yet Bakumon began to eat. Although Maki had passed through about an equal number of both the white lullaby bubbles and the black nightmare ones, Bakumon was strongly of the opinion that what Maki was experiencing tasted like a nightmare.
"Where am I?" Maki turned around, finally acknowledging her digimon.
"The cave got deeper and deeper, and you started exploring," Bakumon said. It was something less than a complete explanation – where was this cave on a map of the digital world? What mountain were they inside? But it was enough to satisfy her partner.
"Is it safe to sleep here?" She was, admittedly, tired. "That digimon is so fluffy, but…"
"Not if you want to wake up any time before it evolves," Bakumon warned.
"It figures." The two had backed up a little, avoiding the bubbles instead of walking through them; Maki was tired, but this was nothing new in her life. "Guess I should turn around."
Before Maki could turn, however, the far wall of Pillowmon's bedroom outright vanished, as if someone had simply pressed the delete button. "Or we could go this way."
It did not take long on the new pathway before Maki ran into an Elecmon she recognized. The small, many-tailed digimon led her through the tunnel, into a cavern whose entrance was marked by enormous, colorful blocks with the texture of pillows.
"Are we… are we inside Infinity Mountain?"
Digitamas and baby digimon abounded in cradles, while some of the larger ones – the baby-2 level, creatures like Koromon and Tsunomon – bounced along the floor.
"Well, that's where you let us relocate, isn't it? Welcome to the Village of Beginnings!"
The concept of digimon infants, in truth, did not have the same interest for Maki as it would for many girls her age. But anywhere in this dangerous world where even babies could safely survive was surely somewhere she could also sleep.
When she woke up, the baby digimon surrounded her out of curiosity, and Elecmon, despite his greater age and duties, was no less fascinated by her presence. But while the babies were content to place their hopes and dreams in Maki, and curious about human bodies in general (no attributes, even though they're not babies anymore? No attacks? How do hands work?), Elecmon, who was old enough to have attended the Investiture Ceremony, had plenty of more significant questions.
"What's going on outside the mountain? Where are your companions? Have you defeated any Dark Masters?"
But Maki did not have the kind of answers Elecmon wanted; she explained what had happened, but all it brought the village head was disappointment.
"Still, I think if any of the others survived…" Maki got choked up as she said the word 'survived' – was Daigo really dead? Was that even possible? It pained her to realize how much she had come to rely on him, how much she missed him. And the others were good kids; they weren't as easy to get along with, but everyone was trying their best and they didn't deserve to die here. "They'll eventually make their way back to Infinity Mountain. This adventure, this world, isn't over."
Was she right about this, or was it just an excuse to stay safe while everyone else was out exploring? If she had left, if she had started to travel around again and search for the others, would the outcome have been different?
It was a question that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Word quickly spread of Maki's arrival, but the Village of Beginnings, having been built for baby digimon, was not nearly big enough to accommodate everyone who wanted to talk to her.
Buraimon was the most nervous digimon here to approach her: was he going to be fired? Maki was happy with his performance – everyone was safe, she hadn't heard a complaint yet – but there was always a certain awkwardness associated with the fact that she outranked him. In truth, however, she didn't want the responsibility.
Maki returned to her old bedroom in the fortress – the one she'd compared to that of a princess. None of the digimon there had touched the furnishings, let alone repurposed them, but (being inside what was in truth a mountain and not a building) she did have to wash everything and change the bedsheets. She had not actually adopted a hikikomori lifestyle, despite the claim made in some digimon legends from the far future.
Every day, whenever she got bored, she went flying around the mountain on Megadramon. She hoped to spot one of the other Chosen Children, but she also checked carefully for any signs of the approach of any of the Dark Masters and their associated armies. It was too informal a hobby to describe the two of them as officially the sentries of Infinity Mountain, as Buraimon had begun to, but the concept was not wrong.
Eventually, she would spot them. But first, we must move to their own tales.
Nishijima Daigo awakened in the Gear Savannah near the very western edge of File Island. He had landed on a short, soft mound of dirt, and stood in the center of a vast, brown diamond that had been marked out in what still passed for grass in this increasingly blighted territory.
And the diamond looked to be about 27.4 meters on each side.
"No way…" he blinked in disbelief.
Bearmon had fallen with him. He was less shocked than Daigo, but far more awed as he stepped off the pitcher's mound.
The last digimon to wear a Bears cap here was Tsuchidarumon, the ace of the Bears' pitching staff, when he struck out Hudiemon to win the Digital World Championship. Bearmon had actually attended that game, watching from the bleachers, although he was still a Wanyamon at the time. The digital world's population in this era was significantly lower than Earth's, and baseball less popular, so it was not particularly difficult to get tickets. Even to big games.
Unfortunately, the bleachers, far in the distance, had been toppled. Daigo could not resist the urge to run behind the plate, and even went into a crouch, but (although Bearmon mimed a throwing motion) they lacked a baseball to play catch with. And Daigo had not brought a helmet, shin guards, chest protector, or even a mitt with him from the human world.
The noise, however, was enough to send someone through the home clubhouse and up the dugout steps. A dark blue bear approached with spiked gloves on both his forelimbs, although he had taken the left one off to play, back in the old days. Daigo shrank back in fear, but Bearmon was if anything excited. "Grizzmon!"
"How did a fan get in here?" was the Bears player's first thought; it wouldn't be the first time one had sneaked into the stadium. Except, of course, that this was no longer a functional baseball stadium. The league couldn't function with viruses everywhere, and the security digimon were long gone. There were loose patches of grass and stray gears in the outfield and the grandstand had collapsed. Even if everything magically went back to normal tomorrow, they'd need weeks of repair work to get the place into any state to host a proper ballgame.
"Welcome to Bear Park!" Grizzmon gave his best impression of a PA Announcer, although he could never echo Musimon's voice or flair.
"What happened here?" the human boy, who was squatting behind home plate like he wanted to play catcher, asked.
"Same thing that's been happening everywhere else," a disappointed Grizzmon said. "I'm still living here, 'cause this is my hometown team, and Tsuchidarumon lives in the visitor's clubhouse. But with no more games to play, everyone else left. We thought about converting the place into a digimon fortress, but a lot of the walls are in bad condition and the other Gear Savannah digimon like open spaces too much. We were gonna have to renovate after the season regardless."
"Have any spare balls and gloves?" Bearmon asked.
The question was a welcome antidote to a professional athlete's many complaints, however justified they happened to be. Indeed, Grizzmon came out with not only a full bin worth of baseballs, but official catching equipment in Bears colors for Daigo, and invited Tsuchidarumon up from the steps of the other dugout to join them.
Four, of course, is nowhere near enough for anything like a real game of baseball, and the vast disparity of skill would have made any competition between them impossible. Yet the two remaining Bears were happy to play catch and hit fungoes with them, and at least for a brief time, they thought of only their love of the game.
"I'm surprised by the level of skill in the Digimon League," Daigo said. Tsuchidarumon's fastball had not only hit his mitt exactly on target, it did so with enough force to push him back a few inches, and only the spikes he'd changed into prevented him from being knocked over entirely.
"How good are human players?" It was a valid question.
"I'm just in Little League, there's way better out there," Daigo said. It was a difficult question – would someone from NPB or the Major Leagues be able to smash that pitch for a home run, or could human bodies simply not measure up to the speed and power of a literal bear? "It's basically for the Child level. You're way better than me, but I don't know how you'd do against the best of the best."
That was something to imagine. Maybe the Bears could get together and tour Japan someday, playing games in Koshien and the Tokyo Dome, or even going to America and give the Yankees a try. Or maybe it would be the other way around, and a full team of athletes from Earth could follow their footsteps into the digital world.
There was something truly relaxing and enjoyable about throwing a ball around in here, something that let everyone forget their troubles and play until they ran out of energy. When Daigo finally made his way out of the stadium, he could not help but look at everything on the walls, at all the banners and statues and newspaper clippings of a league he had never known existed. Bearmon was so busy explaining everything to him that the two did not notice that they had strolled through the red torii by the exit – or maybe they wouldn't cared even if they had.
Bear Park had originally been called Baihu Park, and the first team to play there was the Tigers, before they had moved away. The part on the other side of the torii was filled with paraphernalia for that team – the colors were blue and white in that portion, and a banner flew for the one year they won it all. As a Bears fan, much of this was as new to Bearmon as to Daigo; he only vaguely remembered the history of the league's other teams, and this was truly an ancient era.
Yet he could certainly, and very easily, identify the winged yellow tiger with purple stripes and armor that appeared before them, slowly descending from the sky. "Mihiramon!"
"Welcome, Chosen Child." Its voice echoed throughout the halls, although it was difficult to determine if it was the acoustics of the shrine within the stadium or the roar of its own vocal chords that was responsible.
"Bearmon, shinka! Leomon! Leomon, shinka! LoaderLeomon!"
"I thought you were with the Bears," Mihiramon said. "Am I playing the Lions today?"
"I'm just a Bears fan," LoaderLeomon retorted, "never actually joined the team."
The park opened to a long, narrow back room which reminded Daigo of a batting cage. But despite the presence of ball and bat, the lion and tiger would not face off in a baseball game, not even some kind of 1-on-1 contest.
"I suppose I should properly introduce myself, if only to this human child. My name is Mihiramon, one of the Twelve Devas. I am a servant of the Holy Beast Baihumon, and am here, in the Baihu Shrine, to determine if your partner is capable of assuming that role."
"Of assuming that role? Is he supposed to evolve into a god?" Daigo asked.
"You need a god or four to save the world," Mihiramon said. "Prove to me you can become one of them! Bao Bang!"
"If you want to fight tail to tail, I think I can win this. Loader Morning Star!"
The two golden big cats faced off, and tail clashed with tail, but the heavier, more weaponized tail was not the victor. Mihiramon's smaller, flat tail hit it like a baseball bat, and the tail recoiled, smashing LoaderLeomon on its own, weakly armored back.
"Are you stupid?" Mihiramon was wholly unimpressed, while Daigo was deep in thought – what had they forgotten?
"Maybe I should go for the head, then? Boring Storm!"
"Boring indeed!" LoaderLeomon's rotating drill mane could not connect with Mihiramon, who flew above the attack, swiping at his mane with its claw from above. The tiger's claw was not sharp enough to pierce LoaderLeomon's chrome digizolt armor, and it missed the small crack it was aiming for.
"The protection of a candidate. Huanglong armor…" Mihiramon thought aloud. "Looks like Homeostasis doesn't want you to fail too quickly."
"We're not gonna fail!" It was Daigo, not his partner, who shouted those words; LoaderLeomon had tried both his attacks and was at a loss what to do next. Yet all the same, more than the prospect of dooming the digital world, LoaderLeomon just didn't want to let down his partner's belief in him.
"Loader Morning Star!" Maybe if he swung right for the tiger's head, instead of clashing tail to tail, the attack would have a different result. But Daigo's digimon had underestimated Mihiramon's pure speed. Again, a Bao Bang connected with the morning star, but instead of recoiling on his own back, the tail swing around wildly, in the direction of his own partner, while LoaderLeomon tried in vain to pull back in horror.
Nishijima Daigo, in a proper catcher's crouch, caught the spiked weapon with his mitt and returned it to its normal position over LoaderLeomon's back with a gentle toss. And then, once it was back in position, standing on a side opposite Mihiramon (who could not see his signal), he held up two fingers.
The third "Loader Morning Star!" curved in midair, taking a long, sweeping angle that ducked under Mihiramon's own tail. It connected not with armor, but with the flesh of the digimon's hind legs, between the shields, and toppled the wiry tiger.
"You win. Well done, my lord." Mihiramon said. A semi-transparent, yellow sphere fell out of Mihiramon's wound and rolled over to LoaderLeomon's feet, as a worried Daigo used a recovery floppy to patch up the wound; this place was still enough of a functioning baseball stadium to ensure it had first aid around in case of injury.
Although the battle was over, LoaderLeomon did not return to Bearmon; the opposite happened upon contact with the digicore. "LoaderLeomon, kyuukyoku shinka! Baihumon!"