EPISODE 08 - UNSAFELY SOUND
Ryan hadn’t slept well.
To be fair, he hadn’t slept well in general since coming to this strange world - his concept of time had been altogether thrown to the side as he was faced with monsters and walking and trying to stay alive. Not like he ever got a lot of sleep back home, but here it was different; here it was worse.
And the previous night had been the worst of all.
They hadn’t gotten to the bottom of the mountain. By the time they had started to realize they’d have to stop for the night, miles away from it, Ryan himself was half asleep, already exhausted from all of the bullshit he’d been subjected to.
Screw this world, screw these monsters, and definitely screw this destiny shit.
His being tired hadn’t made it any easier to actually fall asleep, and he had mostly just laid on the ground running his fingers through Dare’s fur while he cursed himself and everyone around him. This sucked! He didn’t sign up for this! He wanted to go home.
…That wasn’t going to happen for a while, though, and he knew it.
Whatever. Whatever! He’d make it work. He had Dare with him. It wouldn’t be that bad. But…
The night before had been rough, what with running halfway down the mountain from a giant skeleton dinosaur. And, you know, being rained on all night while he was trying to sleep.
But the worst part? The absolute fucking worst part of it all, which made his blood boil and his hands shake?
Castor had lied to them.
Alex and Ezra too, apparently, although they’d really only kept their mouths shut about the thing whereas Castor had lied through his teeth ever since they met him.
Even thinking about it now, as they walked down the mountain - with everyone giving lots of space to Alex, Ezra, and Castor - it made him so angry. Just remembering Castor’s face - Alex’s, too - as he had told them there was “something wrong” -
Rrrgh.
He positively hated it, no doubt about that.
He cast a glance over to the three of them, subtly enough where he could look away easily if they caught him staring, and saw that Ember was still walking next to Ezra. It turned out even he hadn’t known about it, while his partner had. And yet he was acting like everything was alright in the world and there was nothing going on. If I was in that situation -
He paused, halting in his tracks for a split second before shaking his head and moving on.
If I was in that situation, would I be angry at Dare?
Ryan looked down by his feet, where his partner was ambling along at his side. She perked her ears up and smiled at him, flapping her wings joyously. Ryan nodded at her and looked back up on the horizon.
…No. What a stupid question. How could I ever be angry at her?
He’d known her for, what, a week? Almost? And yet even just the prospect of her doing something as terrible as Castor made him sick to his stomach. But even if she’d lied about something…
No. He couldn’t be angry at her, never in a million years.
So why are you so angry at Ember for the same thing?
Shut up, he snapped back.
“With any luck,” he heard Castor say quietly, and he frowned as the group came to a stop. “We should reach there by… mid-afternoon, I’d say?”
“Oh, yippee,” Ryan cut in, his statement as flat as his facial expression.
Castor glared at him, but said nothing; Ryan had to admit he was a little surprised by this, but he said nothing about it, and neither did Alex, which he was also grateful for.
Azure pushed up to the front of the group with Ko in tow, not even stopping as they continued onward. “Come on. Let’s go.”
That was as much of a prompt for anyone to keep on going, and Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets as he followed them.
He hadn’t even noticed until now that they’d reached the base of the mountain. He looked up and over his shoulder, trying to see to the top, where - hm. Where everything had gone to shit seemed a little blunt, even for him, but it was the truth, wasn’t it? He shook his head and resisted a sigh as he thought back to SkullGreymon.
It was, unfortunately, still raining, which dampened (heh) everyone’s mood; even Harmony, who was always so chipper and optimistic, seemed to have a slight frown on her face as she tilted her face upward, wiping raindrops away from her eyes.
Time had passed slowly over the course of the morning; no one had been too keen to talk, especially not to Castor or Alex, and their walk had dragged on even longer than their walks usually did. Ryan, for his part, had managed to keep to himself the whole time, focusing on nothing except going forward and not looking back and trying not to think about everything that had happened the previous evening -
See? Even now he was too caught up in it.
Ryan closed his eyes, feeling around in his pocket and pulling out his phone. He switched it on, scrolling to the last page and taking yet another look at the weird Digimon app. To the surprise of no one, his had not yet finished downloading, which was to be expected. Still disappointing, though.
Dare hopped up onto his shoulders at this point, and he stumbled under the sudden weight, but straightened up quickly enough. He reached a hand up to stroke her face as she peeked over his shoulder down at his hands, where he was still holding his phone.
“You still caught up on that?”
Ryan looked around before nodding, not wanting anyone to be listening in. “Yeah. So what if I am?”
“Hey, I’m as confused as you are, buddy,” Dare said, spreading her paws as best as she could while trying to keep a grip on his back. “Just wanted to know what’s on your mind, is all. I think I’m allowed to be concerned for you.”
“I don’t know why you’re concerned for me, though,” he shot back, trying not to sound rude but accidentally coming across as so anyway. He sighed, pocketing his phone and crossing his arms.
Dare tapped her nose with a claw before continuing. “Well, you’re my partner,” she said. “Aren’t we supposed to be, like, friends to the end or something?”
“‘The end’ is going to come a lot sooner if you don’t stop prying into my personal matters,” he grumbled, but he scratched under her chin anyway. She purred and lifted her head higher into the air.
The rest of the morning passed by without much interruption; at one point, Harmony had tried to get everyone to do a singalong, but she was quickly shot down by her own partner as well as every other sane person in the group. They didn’t have much to talk about. Sure, sometimes Alex would occasionally ask something like “how much farther” and “when will we get there” and “where are we even going”, but aside from the occasional questioning of directions, everything was dead silent as they trekked over the bare, flat earth.
And of course Ryan was caught up with his own thoughts the whole time.
So there was… a virus. Something “wrong”, as Castor had said, with the Digital World. Wasn’t everything wrong, all the time, though? At least back home it was. Why should here be any different? They could just… ignore everything and go about their lives normally. That was what Ryan was used to doing. Hell, couldn’t they just go home already?
That was all they were going to do before all this shit about destiny and being heroes and saving the world had come up. But - even before that - they’d met their partners. They’d found out that they even had partners, and even if they were all still a little fuzzy on the topic, it still meant something.
Right?
Whatever it means, I don’t care, so long as we get to go home when this is all over.
“Knock knock,” Dare said, startling him out of his thoughts as she rapped on the side of his head with her knuckles. “You’re thinking.”
“Unfortunately, I’m always thinking,” Ryan sighed.
Ryan couldn’t see her face - she was still wrapped around his shoulders, and he felt no desire to crane his neck around to look at her - but her eye roll was practically tangible. “Yeah, no shit. What I mean is that this time you’re thinking thinking. I wanna know about what.”
“Oh, so that’s what we’re calling it now?” Ryan bumped a fist against her cheek. “Just - I dunno. This whole… disease thing going around.”
“Virus,” Dare corrected, shifting around so she was sitting in a proper piggyback style on his back. “Yeah, I’m worried too.”
“I’m not worried about it, I’m annoyed by it.” He sighed, scratching his face. “I just wanna get home.”
“Thought you hated your home.”
“Yeah, well,” he mumbled, looking off to the side, “home’s a lot better than a strange world full of angry monsters.”
“Can’t argue with that,” she snickered. “Alright. Just let me know if you ever wanna talk, okay?”
Ryan nodded in response, but said nothing. Seemingly satisfied with his acknowledgement, she let it be after that, which he was grateful for.
He… wanted to talk to her, from now until the end of the world, just for as long as he could. The thing was, he didn’t know if he could. That had never been his strong suit; talking had never run in the family, and he was positive that it hadn’t started with him, either.
Talking about how everything was fucked and nothing was right in the world? Yeah, sure, he could do that. But talking about how he really felt, how he was doing, whether or not he was okay with all of this - the conversation would no doubt spiral out of control and he’d end up biting her head off, either figuratively or literally.
And he didn’t really want to do that.
…What had he been saying? Right. The virus shit, or, as he had aptly dubbed it last night, the “manic mode”. Which was, to both him and Dare, a wonderful nickname for it, because that was exactly what it was - a victim going into a manic state of mind. It was simple, to the point, and had helped to lighten the conversation. Well, at least for him.
Castor hadn’t found it funny. No surprise there.
Ryan sighed and placed his hands behind his head, careful to not disturb Dare.
It would be… a long day. And he was not looking forward to it.
Fortunately, the rain stopped around fifteen minutes later. This did nothing to cheer any of them up.
“Past the mainframe,” Castor was saying, gesturing with a claw out to the distance - and if Ryan looked really hard, he could swear he saw buildings in the distance - “is unfamiliar territory for me. I’ve never traveled past there, so after the city, we’re going in blind.”
“Eh, that’s alright,” Alex said, shading his eyes with his hand as he peeked closer. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. And, hey, at least you got us this far.”
“Did you say mainframe?” Dare jumped down from Ryan’s shoulders and he breathed a sigh of relief at the sudden lessening of pressure on his back. She, too, looked out on the horizon, cocking her head slightly.
Castor nodded. “Mesa Mainframe. The town we’re heading for - Mainframe City - is out there.”
“A town?” Harmony asked, stepping closer. “You mean, like… the Frimon village?”
Castor smiled and scratched his cheek. “Much bigger. With a lot more Digimon. And actual buildings, like you guys have back home.”
“Thank god,” Ezra groaned, stretching his arms above his head. “Here’s hoping we can sleep inside for once.”
“I’ll race you there,” Ember cried, dashing forward without a second of hesitation.
“Hey - no fair!” Ezra called after him, chasing after his partner. Alex laughed and jogged ahead to catch up with them, while the rest of them either sighed or shrugged and ran forward to join them.
The walk to the city (or rather, mesa) was rather relaxed after that; Azure had requested that they not run, due to their asthma, and Ember had reluctantly agreed, only giving in when Ezra admitted defeat in the race.
Ryan tried very hard not to get too angry about the previous night again, and somehow, for the most part, he was able to, although when the conversation did shift to it, he made a few jabs here and there. Nothing major; just some jokes about Castor and his lies and how he’d lied to them. And calling it manic mode.
“That’s not what we’re calling it,” Castor sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I told you. Aldamon calls - called it a virus. Just a virus. No special name.”
“And the zombies who do go manic?” Ryan prompted, practically ignoring him. “What are they called?”
Castor stared at him blankly. “Infected Digimon.”
“Right.”
Ryan didn’t have any more jokes, so he dropped the topic; if he couldn’t make fun of someone, it wasn’t worth saying anything about, and he quickly tuned the rest of them out. Dare, on the other hand, was more than happy to listen in to the others and provide commentary when she thought they needed it. She had jumped back up onto Ryan’s shoulders, and every so often she would perk up and drag her tail across his face subconsciously, causing him to sneeze and bat it away.
“Do you think they’re doing okay back at home” was a question brought up more than once, they referring to their families. They all had some thoughts; Ryan didn’t particularly care. Maybe his mom missed him. Maybe his brother had noticed he was gone. Maybe his dad, too, though whether or not he actually cared was anyone’s guess.
How funny it is that time seemed to pass by so much more quickly when they had an actual destination.
“Hey,” they heard a voice call out to them when they were maybe a hundred yards away from the mesa. They’d made decent time - Castor had been telling the truth when he’d said they’d reach the city by mid-afternoon.
So he didn’t lie about everything. Nice to know.
Alex stepped to the front of the group, Castor by his heels, and raised his hands. “We’re just - travelers.” He cast a glance over his shoulder at each of them and subtly beckoned for them to stay back.
Nah.
“And who are you?” Ryan asked, taking a few steps forward to get a better look at the speaker. It was a small gray bear cub, its fists wrapped in blue belts and the baseball cap on its head pointed backward. Next to it was a small boar-looking creature, with two tusks and a metal mask. It had no back legs, but rather a long tail that dissolved into smoke, and it seemed to hover just above the ground.
The bear cub eyed him, looking at its compatriot before snorting. “Bearmon. This is Bakumon.” It - he, probably - jerked a thumb at his friend, who dipped his own head in acknowledgment.
Introductions from the group went around quickly, but when it cycled around to Castor, Bearmon scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I know you. Aldamon’s pal, yeah?”
Castor paled, but nodded anyway. “Yes. We’re - heading west, but we thought we could stop here for the day.”
Ryan raised an eyebrow as Dare shifted. He hadn’t mentioned staying here. Although - maybe he had a point. Just maybe.
Bearmon and Bakumon shared one last look, before the former nodded and turned on his heel. “Follow me.”
The group looked around at each other before shrugging and following them.
“Any reason why you guys are out here acting as escorts?” Ryan asked, because he couldn’t hold back on taunting them. Bearmon snorted, but it was Bakumon who spoke, and he had a rather soothing voice compared to Bearmon’s rough tones.
“Just to make sure that anyone who wishes to enter the city doesn’t have an agenda,” he said coolly, saying agenda rather pointedly.
“Oh?” Dare prompted. “You run into people like that a lot?”
“Not necessarily,” Bakumon said. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry, no?”
Ryan nodded, scrunching his face up.
“And if you do?” Castor said. “Run into anyone with an agenda?”
“We deal with it,” Bearmon said, and Ryan couldn’t help but think back to their conversation on the hill overlooking the Frimon village.
“We deal with it” - that was what Castor had said. And now that Ryan knew the context for it - the virus - he finally understood the implications of that comment. “Dealing with it”, i.e. “killing the victims”. Wonderful damage control they had, there.
Does the city know about the virus?
Is that what Bakumon meant about “agendas”?
He thought for a moment before shaking his head lightly. Even if they did, so what?
So what.
“There you go,” Bearmon said, jolting Ryan back into the present. They’d reached the mesa; it was a lot taller than Ryan had expected, but fortunately for them there was a flight of stairs leading up to the top. Bearmon and Bakumon hung back as the group approached the gates.
“Thanks,” Azure said, nodding at them. Bearmon shrugged and Bakumon pressed his front hooves together in a sort of “you’re welcome” gesture.
“S’just our job,” Bearmon said, before turning back around and walking back out to his post. Bakumon followed, but cast one last glance over his shoulder before leaving.
“They sure were cheerful,” Ezra muttered.
Harmony frowned. “I’m sure they have a lot on their minds. Give them a break.”
“Wasn’t angry at them,” Ezra said. “Just - y’know. Saying. They could’ve been a bit more welcoming.”
Ryan huffed a breath, tapping his foot impatiently and crossing his arms. “We gonna go?” Without another word, he turned and began to make his way up the stairs.
They passed a few different Digimon on the way up; one was a small orange dinosaur, looking suspiciously like Greymon, making its way down, another a little green caterpillar who raced past them with surprising speed on its ten pink claws. They got a few weird looks, but no one stopped them to question what they were doing.
“Thought humans in the Digital World wasn’t a normal thing,” Ryan whispered to Dare when a small white ferret eyed them curiously.
“They’re not,” she said. “But just because we don’t see them often doesn’t mean we’re gonna freak out when we do.”
When they reached the top, they were altogether entirely surprised at what lay before them.
They’d expected - what, a small town? A bit bigger than the Frimon village? Maybe the buildings would be larger, maybe they’d have some shops. But this - this was a full-on city.
“Actually, it’s just a large town,” Castor said when Ryan commented on this. “They just call it a city because it’s easier to say.”
…Regardless. It was big.
Digimon bustled around, going this way and that and waving at each other as they passed. Directly in front of them was a sort of market street, full of vendors selling their wares and shoppers ambling around, gawking at prices and trying to barter with shopkeepers. Farther down that street, in the distance, was a larger building - maybe a town hall - surrounded with what looked like residential buildings. To their right seemed to be a pathway leading to a small square, complete with a fountain and small garden, and their left led away to a more commercial district; Ryan thought he could see signs pointing to restaurants and bars and inns.
All around them, Digimon went about their lives, talking and laughing and completely unaware of the humans.
Mostly, at least. Ryan felt something bump against his foot and looked down into the eyes of a small purple-striped yellow cat head. It blinked, opening its mouth, and giggled before hopping away.
“Check it,” Dare said, patting his shoulder and pointing dead ahead. “We’re getting left behind.”
Indeed they were - while Ryan had been caught up in the sheer scale of the town, the rest of the group had moved on ahead, down the market street. Grumbling, Ryan jogged to catch up with them, narrowly avoiding running into a small black owl who was carrying a stack of papers.
“Any reason why we’re window shopping right now?” he muttered when he came to a stop next to Harmony.
Ignoring his comment, she turned around, smiling, holding a small ceramic figurine in her hands. “Look! It’s a Renamon! Colored weird, but still!”
Indeed, it did look like Ren - but while Ren had blue gloves, this one had purple. Ryan inspected it, reaching out a finger to touch it.
“Hey, put that back!” a voice snapped. “Unless you’re planning to buy it, don’t touch the merchandise!”
“Sorry!” Harmony squeaked, jumping slightly and hurriedly putting it back amongst the other figures. The vendor, a bipedal purple rabbit, scowled at them as it repositioned it to its liking.
Shaking his head, Ryan sighed and turned around, reaching a hand up to stroke Dare’s head. Further down the street, Alex, Ezra, and their partners were gathered around another stall, and Ko and Azure stood off to the side, chatting with a red and gray ladybug. Flip was dashing between stalls, never stopping for more than a few seconds before hurrying off to the next, while Miguel chased after him and tried to stop him from knocking too much over.
Ren, next to Harmony, lightly pulled on her arm and led her away from the stall. She obliged, gesturing for Ryan to come with her; he paused for a moment before following.
As they walked down the street, Harmony stopping every so often to look at what was for sale, vendors called out to them, encouraging them to buy something, anything, they were willing to barter, really they were.
“I still can’t get over that figurine,” Harmony sighed, her shoulders drooping as they continued.
Ryan shook his head at a purple penguin offering fresh seafood and turned to her. “The Renamon one?”
“It didn’t even look like me,” Ren muttered.
Harmony giggled. “You’re right. You’re much better looking.” Ren puffed her chest out a bit at this, and Harmony went on. “Just - I don’t know. I think it’s cute that Digimon do stuff like that.”
“What, art?” Dare asked, and Harmony nodded.
“Yeah. It’s just like - I dunno. All of this -” she gestured around her “- reminds me of when my dad used to take me to the farmer’s market.”
Ryan was barely listening to her - something had struck him. Realizing they were nearing Azure, he looked to Harmony. “Hey, uh - you go ahead with the rest. We’ll catch up.”
Harmony blinked, crossing her arms. “You sure?”
Ryan nodded. “We’ll be fine. I saw something back there that I want to check out.” Without another word, he turned around and walked back down the street.
“Be safe,” she called after him, and he felt his cheeks heat up.
“Dare,” he said once they were out of earshot. “How do you get money around here?”
Dare, still perched on his shoulders, laughed. “What, you gonna get something?”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Just - tell me how.”
“Well,” she said, pointing at a sign written in Digicode displayed in front of one of the stands, “there’s a chance.”
Ryan paused. “I can’t read that.”
“It says ‘help wanted’,” a soft, drawling voice said from behind them.
Ryan spun around to face a small white cat.
It stood on its hind legs, and wore two red-striped yellow gloves on its front paws. Its tail, which had purple stripes and a purple tuft on the tip, had a small golden band circling around it. Its ears stood straight up, and they, too, had purple tufts. Its eyes were a shocking blue, and Ryan couldn’t help but feel like his mind was being read.
“‘Cash reward’,” Dare continued, seemingly unbothered by the cat. “That’s cool. Is this some sort of bribe?”
“It’s not a bribe,” the cat said, putting a gloved paw on its hip. “It’s a job opportunity.”
“Could’ve just said ‘we’re hiring’,” Ryan said, somewhat sarcastically, but the tone went unnoticed - or maybe just ignored. “So that’s your sign?”
The cat nodded. “Yessir.”
Ryan inhaled, folding his arms. “What kinda help do you need?”
“Woah, woah woah,” Dare said, putting her paws up as the cat began to speak again. “Can we talk about this?”
“Hey, you’re the one who’s always so bent on playing the hero game,” Ryan snapped back. “And this time we’re gonna be getting something for our trouble.”
“Yeah, but,” Dare said, furrowing her brow, “don’t you think we should get the others in on the loop?”
Ryan considered this for all of two seconds before shaking his head. “I bet they’re already having the time of their lives wherever they are.” Turning to the cat again, he nodded at it. “What kind of help do you need?”
Its mouth twitched into a small smile as it beckoned him over. “Follow me.”
Ryan and Dare followed the cat out of the marketplace and into the industrial district. “My name’s Gatomon,” the cat said. “I run The Cat’s Meow inn with my partners.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “You?”
“Ryan,” he said. “This is my - friend, Dare.”
He felt Dare tense up on his shoulder, and he patted her paw reassuringly. He… didn’t think they needed to go yelling to the world about this whole partner nonsense. Not until they figured out what it was all about, at least.
“A Digimon with a nickname,” Gatomon mumbled, mostly to herself. “Strange.” She suddenly stopped, sitting back and pointing one gloved claw ahead at a building. “Here we are.”
Ryan recognized the sign hanging from its side as one of the inn-looking buildings he’d seen earlier. It was a few stories tall, its doorway on the bottom floor completely open to the street, and inside, Ryan could see empty tables, perhaps from a mini restaurant inside, as well as a counter currently occupied by another cat. This new cat perked its ears up as the three of them stepped inside, and smiled at Gatomon.
“Hi,” it said quietly, and its voice was considerably softer and higher-pitched than Gatomon’s. “Are they here to help?”
Gatomon nodded. “They’re in it for the cash.”
Ryan recoiled, clenching his fists. “That -”
He was cut off by Gatomon snickering and flashing him a cheeky grin. “I was kidding,” she purred, wiping her brow with a paw. “Mostly. Calm your whiskers.”
The cat behind the counter - now that Ryan was closer, he could see that it looked almost exactly like Gatomon, save for the fact it was black and had purple gloves - jumped down from its seat and walked over to Gatomon, facing Ryan and Dare with her hands clasped together.
Dare hopped down from Ryan’s shoulders to get a better look at the two cats. The black one cringed away, while Gatomon stood her ground, arms crossed and one eyebrow quirked.
“This is BlackGatomon,” she said, nodding to her friend. BlackGatomon raised a paw in greeting, and Ryan noticed she had no golden ring around her tail.
“Cool.” Ryan let loose a breath and looked around. The building was completely empty save for the four of them. He noticed a flight of stairs, tucked into the corner, leading up, blocked by a door at the top of said stairs. “What kinda help do you need?”
“Meicoomon is missing,” BlackGatomon blurted, clapping a paw over her mouth. Gatomon patted her shoulder, a sympathetic look on her face, before turning to Ryan and Dare.
“We should talk about this somewhere else,” she said, quickly glancing out the opening into the street. She led them through a door behind the counter, into what looked like a staff room full of only a table, some chairs, and a cabinet. Hopping up onto one of the chairs at the table, she beckoned for Ryan and Dare to do the same, and they all faced each other at the table.
“Our friend,” she started, drumming her claws on the tabletop. “Meicoomon. She disappeared a few days ago without any warning. She’s always been kind of quiet, liked to go out on her own, but she always told us where she was going and when she would be back.” Gatomon took a deep breath, her eyes narrowing.
“Before she left,” BlackGatomon continued, flinching when Ryan turned to look at her, “she was acting all weird. Talking about… some job she had to do? I don’t know,” she said, trailing off.
Gatomon shrugged. “She used to take odd jobs from people before she joined us, so it wasn’t that big of a concern for us at first. But there was something different about it this time.”
“We’re worried about her,” BlackGatomon said, wringing her paws out.
Ryan glanced over at Dare, who was looking at BlackGatomon with a strange expression; maybe sympathy? She caught him looking at her and she blinked twice.
Ryan groaned, resting his elbows on the table and putting his head in his hands. “And you want us to look for her?”
“Please,” BlackGatomon whispered.
Ryan considered his options.
We have to get to Asuramon, part of him was saying, as soon as possible. Finding out what’s going on and why we’re here and how we can get home is the most important thing.
And then there was that other part of him, that quiet voice in the back of his head, saying this is your chance to prove yourself - you have to do something to help - if you don’t then you’re no better than him -
That last thought sent him off the edge and solidified his decision.
Looking back up at Gatomon and BlackGatomon, he hesitated for a split second before nodding. Dare, next to him, said nothing, but smiled at the Gatomons as well.
“Thank you,” Gatomon said, dipping her head. “Last we heard, she was seen around the western end of town. Near the town hall, most likely.”
“Hang on,” Dare said, tapping her chin. “What if we can’t find her? Like, what if she’s not in the town?”
“Oh, she will be,” Gatomon assured. “Everyone who leaves town is noted down by Bearmon and Bakumon.”
Dare frowned, but it was Ryan who spoke next. “There’s no other way out?”
BlackGatomon shook her head. “Unless you want to try climbing on the roof of a house and jumping down from the mesa, no.”
“Good luck,” Gatomon said, jumping down from her seat and walking over to the door. She opened it, ushering Dare and Ryan out, waving at them as they stepped back out into the fresh air.
The two of them looked at each other for a minute.
“Sketchy as fuck,” Ryan said. Dare laughed and exhaled.
“Was gonna say the same thing. Eh.” She hopped up to lay around his neck, and he stumbled under the sudden weight. “Well, as long as they’re not lying about the money.”
“They didn’t even tell us what Meicoomon looks like,” Ryan grumbled, but he started on his way anyways.
They walked down the streets of the industrial district, passing shops larger than the stands in the marketplace, as well as restaurants offering all sorts of different foods. A large building, presumably a hotel, loomed over them as they turned down a side street.
Ryan had no idea where he was going, but the tall building in the distance had to be the town hall. Right? What else would it be? Trump Tower?
“Watch where you’re going!”
Ryan fumbled backward, flailing his arms around to keep his balance. At his feet was the small yellow cat head from earlier, cringing away from him with its tail wrapped around it protectively.
“Sorry!” Dare called out, flaring her wings and leaning forward over Ryan’s shoulder to look down at it. It turned big red eyes up to her, then looked at Ryan before sighing.
“It’s okay,” it said solemnly, turning and beginning to hop away, but Ryan stuck a foot out to halt it.
“What’s your name.”
It blinked again, flicking one of its ears. “Nyaromon.”
“Well, Nyaromon,” Ryan said, kneeling down near it. “Sorry that I almost trampled you twice.”
Nyaromon looked puzzled for a moment, before it lit up. “Oh! You were with the other humans earlier! I knew I recognized you.” It paused, wriggling its nose. “What are you doing out here?”
Ryan heaved a sigh and stood back up, stretching his arms above his head. “Looking for someone. You know someone named Meicoomon?”
Nyaromon nodded furiously, bouncing up and down. “Yep! I saw her the other day!”
Ryan and Dare shared a look, before Dare hopped down from Ryan’s back. “Where was she?”
Nyaromon thought for a second, puffing one of her cheeks out in thought. “Near the town hall, I think.”
Ryan gestured to the tall building in the distance. “That’s it, I assume?”
Nyaromon nodded again. “I can take you there if you want.”
“Ah, that’s okay,” Ryan said, nudging Dare with his foot. “It’s kinda… a personal thing. I don’t wanna bother you.”
Nyaromon shrugged the best she could without shoulders. “No problem. Glad to be of help.” With one last nod and a flick of her tail, she was bouncing off in the direction she had been headed.
Ryan breathed out, putting his hands on his hips and furrowing his brow. Without another word, he started forward down the street, not even stopping to wait for Dare to scramble after him.
They continued their journey in silence, save for when they had to ask for directions, which gave Ryan more time to think. About the town, and why he had signed up for this, and what he was getting himself (and Dare) into.
And about Meicoomon’s “job”, and how unperturbed the Gatomons had been - was there really no chance she wasn’t outside the town? Why couldn’t they have looked for her on their own? If it was really so important that they were willing to pay for it, why hadn’t they been more distraught? Or Gatomon, at least; BlackGatomon had seemed genuine.
But then again, with Digimon, it was hard to tell.
Ryan was snapped out of his reverie by a hissing noise issuing forth from a shadowy alleyway.
Stopping dead in his tracks, he glanced around; Dare stopped next to him, and it seemed she had heard it too. She tilted her head and stepped forward into the alleyway, just a bit -
And then she disappeared.
No sound, no cry for help, nothing - Ryan had to do a double-take to make sure it wasn’t just the light of the setting sun playing tricks on his vision. He leaned forward an inch, trying to get a better look, and then he, too, was pulled into the darkness.
He landed with a thud and an “oof” on solid concrete, right next to his partner, who was lashing her tail back and forth defensively. Dare looked around their surroundings wildly, her ears pinned back and her mouth slightly open in case she needed to attack.
“Relax,” a soothing voice said. “I’m not going to hurt you right now.”
Somehow, this did not make either of them relax.
From further down the alleyway, out of the darkness stepped an orange cat, around the same size as Dare - maybe a little bigger. She had black stripes all over, making her look a bit like a tiger. Around her neck was a thick bundle of cream-colored fur, sticking out every which way like a lion’s mane. Two feelers extended from her shoulders, tipped with a sort of double-helix shape matching her tail. Each of her paws ended in three long claws, undoubtedly wicked sharp from how they reflected the dim lighting.
Her green eyes shone brightly, even in the shadows, and her x-shaped pupils did little to ease the discomfort they caused.
“Heard you’re looking for someone,” she drawled, tapping her claws together and raising her eyebrows. “Meicoomon. Right?”
Ryan cast a glance at Dare before nodding. “Yeah. You know her?”
The Digimon grinned, raising a paw to its mouth to stifle giggles. “You could say that.” Suddenly she leaned in very closely, peering at Ryan with those weird green eyes. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
Ryan got the very intense feeling that he should not trust this Digimon.
But… what was he to say? He obviously wasn’t a Digimon. And if Digimon generally knew what humans were, then this one probably did too.
“No,” he said simply, lifting his chin as he shifted around. “Just passing through. With my friend,” he added, gesturing to Dare. She nodded in confirmation. “We saw a sign about help wanted, and we figured, why not help out.”
“Is that so,” the new Digimon said, crossing her arms. “You here with anyone else?”
Ryan paused, considering what to say, before shaking his head. “Just us.”
The Digimon nodded slowly, her gaze flickering from Ryan to Dare and then back to Ryan again. “I see.”
“Any reason you pulled us in here?” Dare mumbled. “Unless you plan on murdering us?”
The Digimon smiled. “I was going to offer to help you look for Meicoomon, but…” She trailed off, looking down at the ground and frowning. “Wait right here. I’ll be back.”
She stepped out into the main street, looking over her shoulder for a brief moment. “If you leave, I will find you.”
And with that, she was gone.
“Awesome,” Ryan grumbled, pulling himself up into a proper sitting position.
“Threatened by a talking cat is not how I thought my day would go,” Dare sighed, “but here we are.”
“We still don’t even know what Meicoomon looks like,” Ryan pointed out. “So if she’s telling the truth, she’s all we have.”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit weird, though?” she shot back, turning away and tucking her tail around her paws.
Ryan huffed and crossed his arms. “All I’m saying is that she may be our only guide.”
“If you really want that reward -”
“Oh, shut up about that,” he snapped, clenching his fists. “I try to do one nice thing and then you go all weird on me.”
“Yeah, ‘cause you’re only doing it for the money,” she growled, flattening her ears against her skull. Her back was still turned to him, so he couldn’t see her face, but her scowl was obvious.
“Would you prefer if I was always a jerk?” he said quietly. “Caring about no one but myself?”
“I didn’t say that,” Dare hissed. “But you can’t trust everyone you come across.”
“Obviously I know that,” he said, and Dare rolled her eyes. “You think I don’t know that? Me? Of everyone in the group, you think I trust others too quickly?”
“I’m just trying to protect you!” she cried, turning around and flaring her wings out. Ryan leaned back, but Dare wasn’t done. “Maybe this isn’t a trap, maybe she really does want to help us, but we don’t know that for certain! And until we do, I have to look out for you! For us! Because if something happens to you that’s my fault!”
Ryan bit back the words rising into his throat, forcing himself to remain silent and watch Dare as she breathed out and sat down again. He clenched his hands into fists, then relaxed them, letting his fingers roll over the pavement.
He didn’t know why Dare was so insistent on this. There was a lot about her that he didn’t know, that she had never told him, and he didn’t know if he’d ever find out. But whatever was going on here, whatever was so frightening to her, all that mattered to her about it was protecting him. And that made his stomach feel all kinds of weird, but he didn’t have time to think about that.
Because she was right. They didn’t know if this was a trap or not. And it couldn’t hurt to be a bit more careful.
Ryan closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Sorry,” he muttered.
Dare said nothing for a few seconds, her ears drooping, then sighed. “Me too. I’m just… trying to look out for us. You’re all I have.”
“How sweet,” a familiar voice said. “Gag me.”
Ryan and Dare turned to look at the Digimon standing in the entrance to the alleyway.
She had changed.
She was larger, which Ryan noticed first, perhaps a foot or two taller than Dare now, and a darker color. Her feelers and tail had grown longer, as had her claws. The ruff of fur around her neck had somehow gotten even bulkier and fluffier, almost obscuring her entire face.
And her eyes?
Well, if they’d been discomforting before, they were even worse now, because instead of those sickly green irises with the cross-shaped pupils was just a sea of empty whiteness.
“You’re infected,” Ryan said flatly.
The Digimon seemed to consider this - she raised a claw to her mouth and frowned slightly.
Then her expression changed into a pleased one. “Infected?” she laughed. “No. Just… hm. Let’s put it this way: I have a job to do, and I’m not going to let you -” she pointed at Dare with one of her claws “- get in the way.”
It hit Ryan like a runaway train. “Meicoomon.”
The feline grinned widely, displaying an array of needle-like teeth. “Finally figured it out. Honestly, I’m impressed. From what I know of you, I thought your partner would need to figure it out for you.”
The way she spat out that word, as if it were acid in her mouth, was all Ryan needed to hear. He pushed himself off the ground, dusted himself off, and punched Meicoomon straight in the face.
She went flying backward into the open street, nearly crashing into a pink bird Digimon who hopped away just in time. Growling - real growling, not like a housecat would growl - she picked herself up, turning to Ryan with a sort of deranged look on her face, expressionless as she was without pupils.
“Get fucked,” he said, because even though he was quickly starting to realize what an awful idea that had been, he still needed to rub it in.
“You are definitely going to die,” Dare said from behind him, trying to lighten the mood but failing miserably.
Meicoomon hissed and rushed forward, stretching an arm out as it began to glow with glitchy black energy. “
With a crash, Dare was sent tumbling backward further into the alleyway, only stopping when she hit the brick wall at the end. Instantly she was back up on her feet, opening her mouth and forming a cannonball in her throat. “
“
“She’s cornering you!” Ryan called out to her, because that was all he could do at the moment. Oh, if only he could fight…! “Get out of the alleyway!”
“And then what?” Dare shouted back. “Do we just wreck the city?
Meicoomon grinned as she jumped up into the air over Dare’s metal shot. “That would be ideal, yes.
Ryan didn’t have time to contemplate the implications of that comment, because Meicoomon was already slashing both her claws outwards, sending a wave of staticky black energy flying right at Dare.
Dare gritted her teeth, taking it head-on and only barely managing to hold her ground. “Town hall,” she said, looking at Ryan, and he nodded.
He turned on his heel and took off like a shot, darting down the streets and not caring how many Digimon he knocked over or ran into. They shouted their warnings for him to watch out, but when they looked behind him and saw Meicoomon chasing Dare who was chasing Ryan to the town hall, they quickly forgot about everything in that moment as they scrambled to get out of the way.
“
“
“Get back here!” Meicoomon hissed, and Ryan slammed on his metaphorical brakes - not because of her demand, but because they were at the town hall.
Indeed, in front of the ginormous building was a square of grass, perhaps half the size of a soccer field, bordered on all sides by concrete ground. There was a fountain smack in the middle, surrounded by benches currently occupied by numerous different kinds of Digimon.
Those Digimon got the hell out of there when Meicoomon and Dare crashed into the fountain.
“
“Dare!” Ryan cupped his hands around his mouth, calling out to her from where he currently stood on top of one of the benches. “Use your - Hyper Dash thing!”
“Right!” Taking a deep breath, Dare clenched her paws and flared her wings out. “Hyper Dash Cannon!”
Nothing happened.
“That’s weird,” she mumbled, and Meicoomon smirked.
“Hilarious!” she cackled, jumping into the air. “
Dare rolled to the side, causing the attack to once again hit the fountain. “Hyper Dash Cannon!” she yelled again.
Still nothing.
“Hyper Dash… Cannon…?” she tried for the third time.
Ryan grimaced as Dare was thrown backward by Meicoomon, seizing the opportunity to tackle her.
“Shit!” Dare managed to cough out before leaping back from another Shut Claw. “It’s not working!”
Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sound of several different feet running over concrete. Twisting around, he saw Alex and Harmony rapidly approaching, with their partners in the lead - and primed to attack.
“
“More!” Meicoomon giggled, dodging both attacks with ease. “It’s my lucky day! Now I won’t have to hunt you all down after I kill him!”
Ryan got the distinct feeling that she was talking about him.
“Fuck,” Alex panted from beside him. “What the hell happened?”
“Miss Pussycat over there went all psycho and tried to kill me,” he replied, jerking a thumb out at Meicoomon, who was - if not struggling, then at least not dealing with the two extra opponents as well as she had when it was just Dare.
“Nice nickname,” Harmony said from down on the ground on his other side, smiling wryly. Ryan snorted.
“Check out her eyes,” Alex said flatly, crossing his arms. “That’s the reason.”
“Yeah, ya think?” Ryan growled, rolling his eyes. “Where’s the others?”
“
“
“Welcome to the party!” Alex said, reaching out to grab Ezra as the ginger boy stumbled into his arms. “Hope you brought some popcorn.”
“Somehow,” Azure said in between gulps of air, looking up at Ryan, “I get the feeling this is your fault.”
Ryan jerked backward, placing a hand on his sternum in mock offensiveness. “How so?”
“Because she just fucking said she was going to kill you,” Azure said, and as if to accentuate their point, Dare came tumbling toward them, followed by Meicoomon’s laughter from across the clearing.
Ryan jumped down from the bench to pick Dare up. She coughed, struggling against his hold and only relaxing when he set her down again. “I’m alright. Let me at her.”
“Cas,” Ryan said, turning to the Digimon in question, who had returned to Alex’s side to catch his breath. “Can you evolve?”
Castor shook his head. “I don’t… think so. It doesn’t feel the same as it did yesterday.”
“Great,” Ryan said sarcastically, rubbing his forehead. “We’re fucked and we’re all gonna die.”
“Not gonna happen,” Dare coughed, wiping her face with a paw. “I’ve got this.
She rushed at Meicoomon again, trying to spit another metal ball at her, but Meicoomon practically ricocheted off of it, seeming to hover in midair for a split second as she fired another X Scratch. It hit Dare, Ren, and Ember square on, and Flip and Ko had to hurry out of the way to avoid being hit.
“Wait,” Meicoomon suddenly muttered, landing on the ground with a thud and stopping in her tracks. “I don’t need to fight you.” She gestured around at the Digimon, all in various states of injury, before addressing the humans. “You’re all here now. Or -” She trailed off, recoiling and pinning her ears back. “Where is -?”
Shaking herself out, she looked at each of them in turn. “Well. No matter. I’ll find them eventually. As for right now - let’s start with you.” She pointed a claw at Ryan, grinning widely. “You’ve been the biggest pain to deal with, so I think you’ll be the most satisfying to kill.”
“Azure,” Ryan said quickly, aware that he was running out of time. “What did it feel like getting stabbed by Snimon?”
“Like I was stabbed by a human,” they responded. “Except, you know, it was a giant bug. Why?”
“Great, ‘cause, uh,” he said, starting forward, “I think I might be joining you in the ‘severely injured club’ real soon.”
Before anyone could ask what he meant, he was running forward and taking yet another swing at Meicoomon.
It had about the same effect as last time - that is to say, not a whole lot. Meicoomon was again sent flying, hissing all the way, and she crashed into the side of the fountain before slipping down into the water, but it didn’t seem to do any real damage.
“So that’s how you want to play,” she said in a low voice, standing back up and wiping her mouth with a paw. “I see. That’s fine! I’d do the same thing in your position.”
She pulled herself out of the fountain, shaking herself off and barely glancing over at Dare, who was still struggling to get to her feet. “Doesn’t mean I’m not going to kill you, though.”
In a flash, she was on top of Ryan, pinning him to the ground and raising a paw above his head. He felt his heart skip a beat as he stared into those soulless eyes.
Meicoomon grinned. “This’ll be fun. Oh, he’ll be sooooo pleased.”
He? Who the hell was “he”?
…Probably not anyone with the group’s wellbeing in mind.
Call it a hunch.
“Say goodbye, Ryan,” Meicoomon said, a hint of - was that sympathy? pity? - in her voice, and he sucked a breath in to prepare for the worst.
What he was expecting was a quick flash of pain and then either numbness or darkness.
What he did not get was exactly that.
What he did get was a wave of silence rushing over the clearing, quieting Meicoomon, his breathing, his heartbeat - or, no, he definitely heard a heartbeat (was it really his, though?). Everything was just dead, in an instant - except for a veeeery familiar beeping noise coming from his phone, tucked safely into his back pocket. He felt the phone vibrate as well, and as he opened his eyes he saw everything around him consumed in a bright purple light.
Including Dare, or maybe it was emanating from Dare - regardless, a form that looked vaguely like hers was visible through the light.
“Evolution engaged,” came a calming voice. “Please do not turn off the digivice while evolution is in progress.”
Okay, sure, he could do that. Hell, he probably couldn’t have turned it off even if he wanted to, seeing as how he was still pinned to the ground and his phone - digivice? - was in his pocket, stuck in between him and the grass underneath.
Then everything erupted back into sound, so much louder than it had been a minute ago, though that may have just been his ears readjusting to hearing anything except the constant thump of some vague entity’s heartbeat.
He cast a glance over at Dare, wondering if she’d heard it too, but his eyes fell upon something that was definitely not his partner.
At least, not his partner as he knew her.
Where a small, fluffy purple dragon had once stood was now a much larger, much fluffier, and much darker purple dragon. It - she, pardon - stretched her wings out, which were now in proportion to her body size and definitely capable of carrying her in flight. She lashed her tail and roared, pinning her ears back against the thick white fur that circled her neck - like a lion’s mane, he thought, thinking back to how Meicoomon had looked at first.
Although she was obviously not the same thing she had been a minute ago, she was obviously still Dare - if not from the look in her eyes, then from the way she glanced over at Ryan and grinned.
“
And, indeed, his phone - still in his back pocket, but undeterred by that fact - announced it as well.
“Dorugamon. Champion level beast dragon Digimon. Although it exhibits the ferocity of a wild beast when it comes to battles, it has the intelligence of a dragon, and is usually very docile.”
“Not right now, I’m not!” she crowed; her voice was much deeper in this form, and carried more across the square, but it had the same energetic tone that smaller-Dare had.
Meicoomon, who had watched this all with a confused look, now hurried off of Ryan, letting him free from her grasp. “No,” she hissed, looking between Dare and Ryan and the others still standing by the bench. “No! This wasn’t supposed to happen!”
“I dunno, man,” Dare said, flexing her wings, “this feels pretty right to me.” With a grin and a wink aimed at Ryan, she opened her jaws wide, turning to face Meicoomon. “
If her Dash Metal attack had been strange (after all, most animals don’t shoot metal out of their mouths), then this one was just as strange. An aura of purple energy surrounded the metal sphere, now twice as large as before, as it sailed toward Meicoomon and knocked her out of the way, giving Ryan enough time to jump up and out of the way to avoid being nearly killed again.
“Okay, you learned some new tricks, big deal,” the feline spat, even though she’d just made a big deal out of it. “I can still beat you.
“Maybe if you stop talking,” Dare shot back, stretching her wings out and leaping into the sky to avoid the attack. “
Once situated above Meicoomon’s head, she tucked her wings in and dove downward, aiming straight at her. Meicoomon didn’t get out of the way in time, and was blown backward by the gust of wind created when Dare suddenly threw her wings out only a couple feet above the ground to stop herself from falling.
“Was that an attack name or just you having fun?” Ryan asked, more to himself, but Dare heard him and laughed.
“
Meicoomon hissed, trying to stand her ground, but eventually she ducked out of the way. “Screw it,” she growled, barely audible. “I’ll come back when you aren’t like this.”
With that, Meicoomon got to her feet, dusted herself off, scowled at Ryan, and turned away, running off deeper into the city. “I’ll be back!” she called over her shoulder, before she was gone.
Dare started forward, but Ryan reached an arm out to stop her. “It’s fine.”
“She’s going to hurt other people,” Dare argued, tilting her head.
“She only seemed to care about us,” Ryan said, folding his arms across his chest. “So long as we keep an eye out for her, she shouldn’t be too much of a bother.”
Dare hesitated, almost as if she was going to run after her anyway, but she nodded, dipping her head near Ryan’s eye level. “So? What do you think?”
Ryan grinned, reaching a hand up to scratch her behind the ear. “Fucking awesome.”
The two of them stood there, looking around while the rest of the group checked with their partners. Everyone was a little worse for wear after that.
But Dare evolved! She had done it! And no doubt his app had finished downloading.
Although…
He paused, his hand halfway to his phone as he finally fully took in all the damage that had been done. Half of the benches were destroyed, the lawn was nearly torn to shreds, the fountain was practically falling apart in the middle, and the few Digimon that had stuck around to watch the fight - which he only noticed now - were obviously shaken.
Everything was in shambles, and it was all because they had been there.
If they hadn’t come to the city - if they’d just continued past it, making a beeline straight for Asuramon - Meicoomon wouldn’t have found them, the fight wouldn’t have happened, the citizens wouldn’t have been disturbed and everything would be fine.
But that’s not what happened, the voice in his head told him. The past is in the past. You made your choices.
(What if they were the wrong ones?)
Shaking his head, Ryan leaned against Dare, bundling tufts of her neck fur in his trembling fingers.
“There’s no way we’re going to get home safely, is there?”
Around him, the group heard him. They said nothing. There was nothing to be said.
Because he was right, and he knew it, and so did everyone else.
It would be a long way home.
Surprisingly, neither Gatomon knew about Meicoomon’s “condition”, as the group elected to describe it; they didn’t feel it would be a good idea to tell them about the whole virus thing.
So what did they say?
Well, they said that she had been very intent on killing them, and they didn’t know why. Which was true. They didn’t say anything about her eyes; the Gatomons hadn’t seen them, and there was no way to explain them without diving into the virus thing.
“We’re very sorry she attacked you,” BlackGatomon mumbled for the fifth time that night, bowing deeply again. “Really, we’re sorry. If we’d known she would act like that…”
“It’s fine,” Ryan said, stopping her before she could spill the beans about what this was really about. BlackGatomon sighed and rested her head in her paws, her elbows propped up on the table they were all currently sat at.
Fortunately for the group, they’d been offered free rooms at the inn for their trouble, and they were relieved to be able to sleep on actual beds for the first night since they’d left the mansion. Dinner had come along with it, and they actually had - surprise - menus with different food options. None of which were familiar, but Ryan’s pasta dish was surprisingly good, considering the fact that he didn’t know what it was made out of, which was usually a turn off for him when it came to food.
“Honestly, I’m just surprised that she evolved,” Gatomon said, nodding at Dare. “She seems quite young. It typically takes a lot of practice, experience, and power to be able to evolve at will.”
The little Digimon had regressed to her tinier form shortly after the Gatomons had arrived on the scene, having heard the sound of battle from all the way across town. Ryan was glad, because it was nice to know that her evolution wasn’t permanent, but Dare had been disappointed; she’d liked being big, she’d said.
“She’s a little special,” Ryan said in response, half-smiling. He cast a quick glance around at the other Digimon as well. “They all are.”
“Well,” Gatomon said, sounding satisfied enough with his answer. “I’m glad you’re all safe. We’ll leave you alone for the night.” She nodded at BlackGatomon, and the two of them hopped down from their chairs, but motioned for Ryan and Dare to follow them before they left the room.
Once they were safely out of earshot in the room behind the front desk, Ryan knelt down next to the two of them, a little confused. BlackGatomon rustled around behind the counter and reappeared with a stack of dollar bills - or something similar, at least. Ryan blinked as she handed them to him with a smile.
“Your payment,” Gatomon said.
Ryan jerked backward, raising a hand to shoo her away. “You already gave us the rooms -”
“That was as thanks for your hard work. This is for you agreeing to do it in the first place.” She fixed him with a hard stare. “You very well could have walked away, made it someone else’s problem. But you stayed and helped.” She reached out and placed a paw on his chest gently. “You’re a good person, Ryan. And your friend Dare is too.”
That wasn’t it, he wanted to say. She tried to kill me. I didn’t do it for anyone else.
But… he could have run away. Hell, he might have if the others hadn’t shown up. But he didn’t, and that was what counted.
Or something like that, anyway.
“Thank you,” he said instead, taking the money from Gatomon. She winked at him and teasingly shooed him away and out of the room; he obliged, dragging Dare with him.
He snuck a quick look over at the table, where everyone was still seated, enjoying their meals and laughing together. Harmony caught his eye and smiled at him, and he raised a hand in acknowledgement with an apologetic look as he stepped out the front door.
“Going somewhere?” Dare asked, following shortly behind.
Ryan said nothing, simply stared at the ground as he walked through the streets, ignoring the strange looks he got from the few Digimon who were still out and about. News had traveled fast, and there probably wasn’t a soul in the city who didn’t know that he’d been in the center of the fight.
He reached the market street and quickly flagged down the rabbit Digimon from earlier - the one selling the figurines. After a bit of bartering and some nagging from Dare, he walked back to the inn, twenty dollars poorer and one gift richer.
He didn’t know what his plan was; he wasn’t sure when he’d give it to her or how he’d even bring it up. As far as she knew, it was as good as gone, probably just a fond memory she’d look back on and get wistful over.
Turns out he didn’t need a plan - he ran into her right outside her door.
“Oh,” Harmony said quietly, brushing her hair back behind her ear. “You’re back?”
Ryan nodded, feeling around in his pockets - should he do it now, or -?
“Where’d you even go?”
“Here,” he said, deciding that he had nothing left to lose. He pulled it out of his pocket gently and extended his hand, palm-up, with the treasure balanced carefully within. “For you.”
Harmony’s mouth opened slightly as she took it with shaking fingers. “You -” She looked it over, turning it around in her hands as if she couldn’t believe it was real. “How did you even get this?”
“I had money,” Ryan said flatly, rubbing his shoulder. Dare, on the ground next to him, brushed her tail against his back lightly.
“It’s lovely,” she whispered, smiling wider than he’d ever seen before. “It’s even blue.” She wrapped her fingers around it, bringing it close to her chest and closing her eyes. Looking back up at Ryan, she flashed him a grin, dimples appearing in the corners of her mouth.
“I love it. Thank you.”
Ohhhhh, no, he said to himself. Noooooo no no no.
Fuck! Shit.
Hm. Maybe he shouldn’t have done that.
It was… nice to see her happy! Especially at something he’d done! But that stupid fuzzy feeling he got down in his stomach at seeing her smile, that made him feel like he was about to throw up?
Yeah, he knew what that feeling was; he’d felt it once before. It was not one of his favorite emotions.
Perhaps it was his least favorite. He’d only had it once, but it hadn’t ended well, and it had all been his -
“Yeah,” he said, running a hand backward through his hair and trying to hide his face. “It’s whatever.”
“Seriously, though,” she said, still smiling but her voice becoming more serious, “how did you get this? I wouldn’t expect Digimon to take American dollars.”
“They don’t,” he said. “But I had some help.”
“Perhaps you should teach me next time,” she said jokingly, placing one hand on her hip while the other continued to hold her gift. “I would love to return the favor.”
With a quiet goodbye, she turned on her heel and walked back into her room, looking down at the little Renamon figurine all the way.
In his own room, Ryan cursed himself.
She’d seemed happy. That was nice. And, hey, it wasn’t for him, anyway; it was a gift for her, so he shouldn’t care how it made him feel.
…It still wasn’t pleasant.
“You’re making a big deal out of it,” Dare said quietly from her position curled up at the foot of the bed.
Ryan, under the covers and almost in a proper sleeping position, groaned and smashed a pillow over his head. “I know.”
“Granted,” she continued, perking one ear up, “I don’t know much about human stuff, so I’m not sure if you’re, like, seriously sick or something, but it sounds like it’ll be fine. You’ll get over it.”
“I’ll be fine,” he repeated, more to comfort Dare than himself. It seemed to work, as she nodded and closed her eyes to get some sleep.
He knew that he should sleep too. It had been a long day, and he was tired. But maybe it wasn’t even worth it. The outcome would be the same no matter what.
After all, he never slept well.