Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Mirai no Mirai ❯ The New Kids ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

You KNOW you're bored when you start ANOTHER fic when you have SEVERAL more you need to finish... ^^; Anyway, the concept of Digimon is not mine, but the Neo-Digidestined belong to me, Meikari, Saiko, and Saiai no Baka. Hooray! And yes, there ARE original characters from IHC, SD, and the like. ;p


MIRAI * no * MIRAI
by PikaChan



Episode 1: The New Kids



*Ah... summer. The most sugoi time of the year. I swear, it took FOREVER for school to get over with... but, now that summer's here...

It SUCKS.

I didn't wait nine months to get stuck at summer camp with my good friends and a bunch of people I hardly know! Someone get me out of here!

Well... I've SORT OF gotten to know them. Not like I have any choice.

Oh... Xianji... he's smiling at me again. God, he has the greatest smile ever. It could probably make any girl melt. And he's pretty good looking too... wait, no. I don't think like that, not about HIM... Anyway. Li Xianji is one of my best friends. I'd say... since maybe about third grade. Yep, good ol' Xianji... he's always being nice to everyone and stuff. He's just that kind of guy.

Haha, poor Moira-chan... trying to calm the *pipsqueak* down. Yagami Moira is my best friend in the world. She used to live in Canada, before she moved here to Japan and Uncle Taichi and Auntie Sora adopted her. They're not really my uncle and auntie... but my okaachan was really good friends with them when they were young, so... heh. Anyway, Moira's really cool. She's super-smart and good at almost everything. Unlike me, I'm a ditz... I take after my mom, I guess.

Yume-gaki... ugh. Izumi Yume's the most annoying kid on the whole PLANET... Okay, maybe not as annoying as my otouto, Hayashi, but she's still pretty bad. She's a quiet little thing who likes to read a LOT. That's probably why she's so friggin' smart. Little brat's at the top of her class. Anyway, I usually have to babysit her while Auntie Kamira goes off to her photo shoots, and Uncle Koushiro does his uh... computer thing.

Oh great, Tsu-baka's flirting with Moira again. Motomiya Tsubasa is my cousin, and he's kinda annoying too. He would flirt with every girl on the planet if he could. He's SUCH an idiot. And he's an absolute sports freak... I honestly don't know how Auntie Akista and Uncle Daisuke put up with him. Man, what I wouldn't give to shove his face into an open fire... nah, I wouldn't. I'm mean, but I'm not CRUEL.

HAH! Dan-san dropped his books again! Poor sap... Kido Dan's always carrying around an assload of books, maybe 'cause the guy doesn't have any friends. He's kind of a dork, so some of us really don't want to go near him... and he's another smartie-pants. He's older than the rest of us, so I guess it makes sense.

... What is Kikai DOING? She's... she's flirting again. That makes sense, but... with DAN?! Okay, someone get me a camera! ...Ichijouji Kikai is the biggest flirt I have ever met. She's even worse than Tsu-baka! I swear, within ten minutes of everyone arriving, she's flirted with every guy here!

Except Kaiki, of course. Ichijouji Kaiki is her twin brother. Heh, there he goes, trying to pry her off of poor Dan... Anyway, I've gotten to talking a little with Kaiki, and he's pretty cool. He's a Goth, like his sister, but he's definitely not a ditz. He's pretty good-looking to boot, and... well, heh. Good thing he's not a FLIRT like Kikai is. Rather, he doesn't want to be flirted with...

... Good GOD, Kayari's hyper. She's like... on a permanent sugar rush. Anyway, Takaishi Kayari is also my cousin. She's always ALWAYS smiling, and she never seems to stop. She's like the Energizer Bunny! I guess she pretty much knows everyone here, because she's so good at making friends. She's even gotten Dan to socialize! Now THAT deserves an award or something...

And there's Kagami, off in his own litle world again... Aiyamoto Kagami is friggin' SCARY! It seems like the only person he'll talk to is Kayari, but I guess that's because they've been friends for so bloody long. Man, that guy makes me nervous. I'm staying AWAY from him. He has this smile too... NOTHING like Xianji's. Kagami's smile is CREEPY. I mean... REALLY creepy.

Wow, I never thought Nukumi was so GENKI. Horisu Nukumi is kinda weird... Sure, she looks innocent, but I really don't think so. Trust me, I know. I've seen Yume-gaki. I'll bet five-thousand yen that the people who look the most innocent are the most... uninnocent. Anyway... Nukumi's a pacifist. She hates seeing people fight. Damn.

Well... enough about them. Now it's my turn. My name is Ishida Chirika. I like fire. And swords. And shiny things. And... uh, oops. Almost told you a secret, heheh. Anyway... I guess I'm probably the most insane out of all of us. After all, I'm sitting here ranting about these other kids, and... yeah.

So. This particular summer... well, I've got a weird feeling about it. Not a bad one... but not a good one either. I've just got this premonition that something REALLY weird is about to happen...*



"Oi, 'Rika-chan! You ever gonna come down from that tree?"

Ishida Chirika lazily looked down from the tall tree that she had been resting in. "Eh?"

Li Xianji looked back up at her, his amber-coloured eyes shining. "It's starting to cloud up, I think it might start storming."

Chirika looked up through the branches of the tree at the sky, which was gradually growing darker and darker with clouds. "'Kay." She slowly pulled herself into a crouch, holding onto the branch tightly, then carefully flipped over so that she was dangling by her hands. Now only about a foot from the ground, she let go of the branch.

Xianji smiled at his friend. "Nice."

The blue-eyed girl cracked her knuckles, grinning back. "I didn't take three years of gymnastics for nothing," she said as the two of them began walking back to the camp cabins.

A sudden rumble of thunder startled them, as raindrops began tearing through the air. "Woah, we'd better hurry."

"Good call!" They began running.

********************************************************* **********

"Yare yare! My hair's a mess!" Ichijouji Kikai squealed as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Indeed, her dark blue hair was quite messy.

"At least we got in here before the rain really started pouring... ne, Kikai-chan?" Yagami Moira said, smiling as she lightly rung out the hem of her dress.

Horisu Nukumi calmly took her shoes off, tossing them out to the front door of the cabin. "I find it kinda strange that it just started storming like this... and where's Chirika-san?" she asked.

"She was up in that tree when I last saw her," Takaishi Kayari said from the top bunk where she was laying. She rolled over, crossing her arms over the edge of the bunk. "I hope she's alright."

Izumi Yume remained silent as she sat in her bed, curled up in a blanket. She had a worried expression on her face.

"Oh, I'm just fine and dandy," a sarcastic voice said from the door. The five other girls turned to look at Chirika, who had just walked into the cabin. Irritated, she flopped down on her bed and pulled off her blue knee-high boots.

"Oh, Chiri! You're absolutely drenched!" Moira sighed, handing a towel to her. "Didn't you see the clouds?"

"No, I was just minding my own business until Xian-kun came up and got me," Chirika answered, rubbing the towel over her spiky brown-and-blonde hair.

"I think that storm came up pretty suddenly," Kayari said. "Wasn't it sunny this morning?"

"Yeah, it was!" Kikai replied, taking a brush to her damp hair. "Shimatta! I'm going to have split ends now!"

"A few split ends are better than getting hit by lightning, Kikai-sama," Yume mumbled from her bed, in a sage sort of way.

"She's right, 'Kai-chan," Nukumi said, pulling the goggles out of her tangled lavender hair. "You can always fix split ends..."

Moira looked out the foggy window at the cabin next to the girls'. "I wonder how the boys are doing?"

********************************************************** **********

"Sugoi. This is just sugoi," Ichijouji Kaiki muttered to himself, as he paced back-and-forth across the cabin. "Storm comes out of frickin' nowhere! This place is crazy, I tell ya!"

"Man, this really sucks! I can't play basketball now!" Motomiya Tsubasa complained, resting his head in his hands. A basketball lay clenched between his feet.

"You can't do anything when it's raining, Tsubasa-san."

"K-K-Kaiki-san? You... you're making me nervous with that pacing," Kido Dan said, briefly looking up from his laptop. His face was etched with an expression of worry.

"Dan, everything makes you nervous," Aiyamoto Kagami said coldly. He casually flipped his black-and-red ponytail over his shoulder, then crossed his arms.

Just then, Xianji came bounding into the cabin, kicking his shoes off. "Hey guys!" he said cheerfully, in spite of the sudden downpour.

"Geez Xianji, d'you enjoy standing out in the rain?" Kaiki asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Xianji rubbed the back of his neck. "No, I just had to get 'Rika-chan out of that tree before it started storming. It would have been bad if lightning had hit that tree with her in it."

"Psh. It would have been one less girl to worry about," Kagami said, looking out the window as heavy rain graced the outside of it.

"Hey now, that's not very nice!" Tsubasa said, standing up and placing his hands on his hips. "You should treat girls nicer, Kagami-san."

Dan suddenly let out a cry of despair. "Iyaaaa!" Four surprised boys turned to look at him. "My laptop's shorted out!" he wailed, slamming it shut.

"Hahah! Poor Dan! Now he can't go looking up hentai anymore!" Kaiki laughed. Tsubasa and Xianji joined him. Kagami meerly smirked. He wouldn't let a crude joke break him.

"I-I-I don't look at hentai!" Dan blurted, his face turning bright red. "I, unlike some of you, have morals! And *decency*!"

"Suuuure, Dan. We believe you," Tsubasa teased, holding his side.

Xianji wiped a tear from his eye, then looked out the window. "Hey, I think the storm's died down..."

Sure enough, it had stopped raining, just as suddenly as it had started. The five boys, curious, filed out the door of the cabin, and into the moist air.

"Minna, it's stopped raining!" Kikai's voice excitedly shouted from the girls' cabin.

Before long, the six girls had joined them.

"Whoah... what IS that?!" Kayari queried, looking up at the sky, which was now filled with brilliant colours.

"Is it a rainbow?" Yume asked, clutching a stuffed bear in her hands.

Dan pushed his glasses up on his nose. "It appears to be akin to the aurora borealis," he said. "But it's much too large and bright. Also, we're a little far south for it to be an actual aurora."

"Airashii..." Kayari mumbled, her eyes fixed on the multicoloured sky.

"Wow, weird..." Kaiki said, scratching his chin. "First it rains out of nowhere, then the sky goes all retro?"

"Something weird's going on..." Chirika mumbled. As if on cue, eleven tiny points of light appeared in the center of the supernatural mass.

"Nani?" Moira muttered, looking at them. "They're getting bigger... almost as if they were coming right for us..."

Sure enough, the points of light were getting bigger... and were streaming toward the eleven kids at a very high speed!

"Look out!" Nukumi shouted, diving to the ground. The others followed suit as the points of light rained down on the area, like tiny meteors.

When all appeared safe, Chirika looked up from her position on the ground. In front of her was a small crater, in which lay a steaming object. It was somewhat pear-shaped, and had a small window in it. The small buttons adorning it made it look a bit like a calculator or a stopwatch.

"Nan da yo?" She reached into the crater, picking up the object. Surprisingly, it wasn't hot. It was red in colour, with black trimming. "What are these things?"

"These look like those virtual pets that you raise like a real pet..." Xianji said, looking at the yellow-and-black device in his hand.

"What do they do, though?" Kagami asked, flipping his aqua-and-black object over, and examining the back of it.

"Perhaps it could be used as a tracking device," Dan said. He pointed at the screen on his blue one. "This screen appears to have some sort of radar on it. See? Right now, it's showing eleven dots on it, all different-coloured. Each dot represents one of you, and we can tell who's who by the colour of the dots, and the colour of the devices. Mine's blue, therefore the dot representing me is blue."

"Okay, but... what are they for?" Kikai asked. Hers was all black. "Mine's boring! Does anyone have a pink or purple one?"

"Mine's purple," Yume answered. "But I think that these were given to us for a reason..."

"What kind of reason?" Nukumi asked, putting the indigo device into the leather bag that was slung over her shoulder.

Nobody knew. The eleven of them just looked at each other, with confused expressions on their faces.

"Maybe they're from the camp..." Tsubasa guessed, squinting his eyes as he examined his orange one.

"Tsu-kun, if they were from the camp, then they wouldn't have fallen out of the sky," Kayari said, looking at her cousin with a puzzled expression on her face. She stuffed the pink object in the pocket of her shorts.

"Yeah, baka." Kaiki held up his white one. "These are obviously some sort of um... THING to help us out in some big upcoming adventure!"

Moira laughed, fingering her green one. "Kaiki-san... you act as if there's going to be some big quest for us to destroy some sort of insane evil..."

As if answering Moira's words, the ground began to shake.

"Hey! What's going on?!" Xianji yelled.

"Great! Now an earthquake!" Chirika gasped, exasperated. "I can tell that this is going to be one weird summeeerrrrrrrr!" Her voice trailed off as she fell into the small canyon that had been formed in the ground.

"Chirika!" the others yelled in unison, as they too were pulled into the gaping crack. As soon as they disappeared into it, the earth stopped shaking, and everything seemed to return to normal...

******************************************************** ************

*Odaiba, Japan...*


"Itai!"

Ishida Heza winced as a volleyball bounced off the top of her head.

"Ah! Gomen nasai, Heza-sensei!"

Heza turned to look at the young lady who had hit her with the ball, who was now bowing repeatedly. "It's alright, Hidaka-san," she said, smiling. "It doesn't hurt."

That wasn't what was bothering Heza. Just before she had gotten hit, she had felt a shock at the back of her neck. This shock alerted her that something, somewhere, was very wrong. She had to get home, and FAST.

"I tell you what, minna... let's call it a day, okay?" she said to the twelve members of the Odaiba Junior High volleyball team. They occasionally met during the summer, so that they would still be in shape by the time volleyball season started.

"But Heza-sensei... it's only been two hours!" one of the other girls said.

"It's okay, we can make up for it tomorrow. I'll see you all later!" Heza quickly bowed to all of them, then she began stuffing all of her things in her duffel bag. Without even going to the locker rooms to shower or at least change, she hopped in her car and began driving home.

As soon as she got there, she jumped out of the car and ran up to the front door. It was unlocked.

"Konnichiwa, Kei-san!" she said to the sitter she had hired, to take care of her younger children, Yoshie and Hayashi, while their older sister was at camp.

Heza didn't even wait for a reply, as she dashed up the stairs to the bedroom that she and her husband shared. She knelt down in front of her dresser drawers, and began rummaging through the bottom one.

Finally, she pulled out a small object wrapped in cloth. She unfolded it, to reveal the old Digivice that she had used when she was a Digidestined over thirty years ago. It was glowing with a bright magenta colour. "My Digivice..."

Immediately, she knew what had happened.

Chirika was at summer camp...

Yamato had told her what had happened the last time that he had gone to camp. Everyone had been transported to a strange world, much like the way that she had.

*It can't be... There's no way!...*

Still clutching the Digivice, she walked over to her side of the large bed and sat down on it. She reached for the phone.

...But it rang before she got to it. Startled, she picked up the reciever. "M-moshi moshi?" she stuttered.

"Heza-chan!"

Heza breathed a sigh of relief. "Aki-chan." It was Motomiya Akista, her best friend and sister-in-law. "What's up?"

"Heza-chan, do you still have your Digivice? Is it glowing really brightly? I think that maybe-"

"Slow down, Aki-chan... yes, I still have it, and yes, it's glowing. Do you think-"

"Hai, I think so! I think that... I think that Tsubasa's been transported to the Digital World! And all of the other kids, too!"

"But how? I thought that the Digital Gate closed after we defeated Armageddomon!" Heza was now to the point of tears. "They don't know what's out there... even with everything we've told them... Aki-chan, I'm worried..."

"Shh, Heza. Don't worry... I know that the Digital World was very dangerous, but... that was when we were there, and that was over thirty years ago! It's bound to have changed a lot, if not completely. Daijoubu, everything will be okay..." Akista had calmed down since her rush of questions when Heza had answered the phone.

Heza sniffled a little. "I hope so, Aki-chan. I hope so..."

"I tell you what, Heza-chan. I'll call everybody else and tell them what's going on, and you go have a rest. You've got to be tired after your volleyball practice, ne?"

"Y-yes... arigatou, Aki-chan." Heza smiled, in spite of her worry.

"I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay. Ja ne." She hung up, then sat the still-glowing Digivice on the nightstand, resting her head in her hands.

"'Kaasan?" a quiet voice asked from the door of the room.

Heza looked up to see her youngest daughter, Yoshie, standing in the doorway. Shw was holding her stuffed rabbit, the same one that Heza had had when she was younger. "Yoshie-chan..."

"What's wrong, 'kaasan?" Yoshie asked as she climbed up on the bed next to Heza.

"N-nothing, sweetie. I'm just a little tired, that's all..."

"You were talking about Chiri-'neesan, weren't you? Where is she?"

Heza looked away for a second, then pulled Yoshie into her lap. "Yoshie-chan..." She debated with herself for a moment, about whether to tell the tiny girl what had really happened or not. "She's... Chirika's at summer camp, chibi." She didn't feel very comfortable about not telling the whole truth to her youngest child, but there really wasn't a choice at the time.

"Oh. Okay." Yoshie smiled at her.

The purity and innocence of the small child made Heza's heart melt. As she held Yoshie in her lap, something assured her that everything would be alright.

********************************************************* ***********

"Hey! Hey, you! Hey, hey, hey you!"

As Chirika regained consciousness, she felt her head beginning to hurt. The squeaky voice yelling at her didn't seem to help. "Ugh... just gimme five minutes..."

"Hey! You! Wake up! Hey, hey you!"

She then felt something on her stomach. It felt like it was jumping up-and-down. She struggled to open her eyes, finally revealing a blurred mass of white. She lifted her head slightly, focusing on... a red ball?

Chirika's mind became VERY alert. "NANI?!" She sat up and scrambled backward, getting a better look at the... thing.

It was nothing more than a red ball, with wide black eyes. It had small catlike ears, which appeared to be on fire, and a long tail poking out of the back of it. "Konnichiwa!" This was what the squeaky voice was coming from. "Watashi wa Akaimon!"

"A... kai... mon? Man, I've GOT to be dreaming..." Chirika had backed herself up against a tree.

"There's no reason to be scared of me, person! I wanna be your friend!" Akaimon said cheerfully. "But if we're gonna be friends, then you hafta tell me your name, okay?"

Chirika hesitated for a second. She wondered if she could really trust the red ball. "I... Ishida Chirika."

"Great! We can be friends now!" Akaimon began hopping in circles.

Chirika's mind was reeling. *This thing... this is crazy! What the heck is this thing? And where are we? This doesn't look like the camp! I... I'm getting a migraine.* She scooted away from the tree a little, sitting down in front of the hopping Akaimon. "Hey... just what exactly are you?"

Akaimon stopped hopping and looked at Chirika with her beady black eyes. "Me? Why, I'm a Digimon, of course!"

These words hit Chirika hard. "A Digimon?!" She began to think back...


[Flashback]

"You see, Yoshie... a long time ago, when your okaachan and I were younger -- about your age, Hayashi -- there was this mysterious place called the Digital World." Yamato said to the small girl sitting on his knee. She was listening to him very intently. "It was a very strange place. There were all sorts of monsters there."

"Eek!" Yoshie clutched her stuffed rabbit closer to her.

The ten-year-old Hayashi looked up from his video game. "Monsters? Cool! What kind of monsters?"

Heza joined in on the story. "All kinds of monsters... they were called Digimon. Some of them were very cute and friendly... but some of them were REALLY scary-looking, and were evil. Ah, I remember it well..."

"'Kaachan, you actually went to this place?" Yoshie asked, crawling into Heza's lap.

"Both of us did, Yoshie-chan," Yamato said, reaching over and ruffling the tiny girl's blonde hair.

Chirika walked out of the kitchen, chugging a soda. "Psh... yeah right."

"We really did, Chiri!" Heza said, eyeing her oldest daughter.

"That's a load of bull. Okaasan, you shouldn't be putting these ideas into Yoshie's head. She might grow up weird, ya know." Chirika took another long gulp of soda. "And Hayashi, you're ten years old! Don't tell me you believe this stuff!"

Hayashi looked skeptical. "I dunno, Chiri-'neesan..."

"Eh, whatever. Believe what you want to. But I think that this stuff about 'Digimon' is just a load of bull. Everyone knows there's no such thing as monsters," she said, walking out of the room.

[/Flashback]


*I think this stuff about 'Digimon' is just a load of bull.*

"N... no way..." Chirika had backed up against the tree again. "Now I KNOW I'm dreaming..."

"Dream? What's a dream?" Akaimon asked, knitting her brow.

"Chiri? Is that you?" a sudden voice asked from behind a bush.

"Moira?" Chirika blinked as Moira came through the bush.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" She pulled Chirika to her feet, then leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Chiri... this... THING's been following me around... and it says it's a... Digimon, was it?"

A small green ball, with rabbit ears and large feet hobbled out of the same bush that Moira came out of. "Konnichiwa! My name's Gurimon!"

"You too? I've got this little red thing following me. It says its name is Akaimon..." Chirika looked at Akaimon, who was hopping up and down again. Gurimon looked at her, then began doing the same thing.

"Chiri, I'm scared... I don't know where we are, and where are the others?" Moira clasped her hands together in worry.

"We're right here," two voices said together. It was Kikai and Kaiki. Both of them had snakelike creatures draped across their shoulders.

"Hello. I am Kuromon," said the snake on Kikai's shoulders. It was black, and had a multicoloured crest adorning its head.

The one on Kaiki's shoulders appeared to be Kuromon's exact opposite. It was white, with another multicoloure crest, except the colours appeared to be inverted. "Hi! Boku wa Shiromon!"

Chirika and Moira nodded at both of them. "Ano, Kikai-san... you don't seem to be scared of these things..." Moira said, looking at Kikai, confused.

"Oh, no! I love snakes!" Kikai said, scratching the underside of Kuromon's chin.

"Say... you guys have these things too?" Kaiki asked the other two girls, who were now holding the hypractive Akaimon and Gurimon in their hands.

"Uh... I guesso..."

Without warning, a small purple critter with a fluffy tail bounced out from another bush, followed by a laughing Yume. "Hey! Come back!" Yume said cheerfully, following it.

"Wee!" the purple ball said, jumping into Yume's outstretched arms, andrubbing her face with its tail. It then turned to the others. "I'm Muramon!"

Chirika bent down so that she was almost eye-level with Yume. "Oi, Yume-gaki... have you seen the others?"

"Don't think so, Chiri-sama. But I think I heard Kayari-sama and Kagami-sama somewhere that way..." She shifted Muramon to her right arm, and pointed behind her with the other one.

Sure enough, Kagami and Kayari were walking towards the group. Kayari had a pink ball-like creature with red feet sitting on her head (think Kirby ^_^), and Kagami had what appeared to be a grey ball with a raccoonlike tail, and a shining steel plate over its ears and eyes. It was sitting on his shoulder.

"Hey, minna!" Kayari said cheerfully. Kagami simply stared ahead of him.

Kikai grinned at the two of them. "Hiiiii!~"

When the other two reached the rest of the group, the pink critter jumped into Kayari's arms. "I'm Momomon!" It waved a stubby arm at them.

The thing sitting on Kagami's shoulder smiled shyly at the others, much unlike Kagami. "Hello. Boku wa... Kapurimon."

Chirika rubbed the back of her neck. "Um, is that everyone? This seems like a good place to get lost in..."

Moira quickly did a head count. "There were eleven of us before... and I'm only counting seven now."

"Make that nine," a voice said from behind. Chirika and Moira turned around to see Xianji and Tsubasa coming up behind them. Xianji was holding a small yellow orb that had two long, pointy ears; almost resembling a fox's. Tsubasa was carrying an orange one with a small yellow beak and tiny wings on its sides.

Tsubasa grinned. "Heeey, Chiri-san," he teased, winking at his older cousin.

Chirika glared at him, then made sort of a motion to Kikai.

The blue-haired girl giggled and strutted up to Tsubasa. "Heeeey Tsu, lookit the pretty snakey thing!~" As if on cue, Kuromon slithered down her outstretched arm.

Tsubasa shuddered, quickly taking refuge behind Moira. "Eeeee!" Tsubasa was terrified of snakes, and everyone knew it.

The small round birdlike creature hopped up on Moira's shoulder, squeaking. "Hiya, I'm Oremon. My partner seems to be a bit... creeped out, ne?"

Xianji cast a sideways glance at his shivering friend, chuckling. "Heheh... anyway, this little guy is Gosamon." He looked down at the yellow ball in his hands, which blushed somewhat timidly.

"Hi..." it said.

"Well, that's nine of us now..." Kaiki said, Shiromon curling around his arm. "Who else is left?"

"Nukumi-sama isn't here..." Yume said, picking up Muramon.

"And neither is Dan," Kayari pointed out.

"Do you think we should go and look for them?" Moira asked. It was typical of her to be concerned about her friends.

"Oh, they'll turn up eventually..." Kagami mumbled. He was still loud enough to be heard.

"Or at least when the author decides to write them in..." Tsubasa said, grinning. With that, a chunk of the fourth wall came crumbling down.

"Tsubasa wa tawainai!" Nukumi's voice said from nearby. Nobody had noticed her coming up. She stood there with her arms crossed, and an amused grin played across her face. At her feet sat a dark bluish-purple ball, that had rather large cat ears. "Well, I can see you all have found these little guys... anyway, this is Kururumon."

The little ball hopped around to back behind Nukumi's right leg, as if it were shy.

"Heh. Okay, so I guess the only one left is Dan... where the heck is he?" Chirika looked around. He was nowhere to be seen.

"... Gee. I hope he's alright," Xianji said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Everyone was silent for a moment, until they heard a distant sound in the background.

"Aaaaaaaiiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!"

"... That sounds like Dan-sama!" Yume said, looking in the direction of the scream.

Sure enough, several yards away, Dan ran toward the group, a blue slug-like creature sitting on his shoulder. "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!! Get it awaaaaay!"

As Dan neared the group, Tsubasa burst out laughing. "Oh come on, Dan! It's just a harmless little..." It was then that he saw exactly what he was running from. "...digimon?"

It was a large blue-and-white dinosaur of sorts, which had faces on the end of its arms. On one arm was a skull-type face, and the other one was more android-like.

"Nani?! What the hell is that?!" Chirika exclaimed.

"Yare yare!!~" Kikai shouted, panicking. This was typical.

Dan finally caught up with the rest of the group, and he put his hands on his knees, panting.

The sluglike critter on his shoulder spoke up. "Nyuu! That's Deltamon, a powerful Champion-level Digimon. He uses a strong attack called Triple Forces, and he isn't meant to be messed with! ...I'm Aokimon, by the way."

"Thanks for the info, but just how are we supposed to beat this thing?" Kagami snapped.

Akaimon spoke. "That's simple! We digivolve!"