"Agumon, when you evolved—what did it feel like?"
Tai was lying with Agumon at the cliff's edge, resting. The other kids weren't far away, each talking with their partner Digimon to build their bond.
"When I heard what you said, Tai, I felt power fill my whole body, and then… then I just evolved." Agumon scratched his head with a claw, a little embarrassed.
Tai was at a loss for words. "So, right now—if you wanted to evolve, could you?"
"I'll try!" Agumon bunched up with all his might while Tai watched. As expected, after straining for a long while… nothing happened.
"Looks like you still can't control your evolution reliably."
Even though they'd driven Shellmon off, camping right on the beach felt unsafe. It was too close to the sea. In the human world, the ocean already held plenty of dangers; who knew what kinds of Digimon prowled these waters.
It was just after noon, but Tai and the others still had to think ahead and worry about where they'd sleep.
He glanced around—everyone else was already packed and waiting on him—so he stood with Agumon and set out with the group. Not far from where they stood came the sound of rock breaking.
In the middle of a scatter of shattered stones appeared a creature like a Cretaceous triceratops—but with only a single horn.
"What's that?" Izzy asked Tentomon beside him.
"Monochromon."
"Is it an enemy too?" After back-to-back ambushes, the kids were starting to lump anything fierce-looking into the "enemy" bucket by reflex.
"Don't worry—Monochromon are gentle Digimon."
Even so, the situation was—
"It's coming straight at us!"
It didn't look friendly. The Monochromon before them gaped its bloody maw right at the group.
"Run!"
"Bad news—there's another one behind us!"
"Climb!" Tai, Matt, and Joe scrambled up the rock wall and reached down to haul up the others whose stamina lagged behind.
Once everyone had reached a relatively safe perch, they watched the two Monochromon start attacking each other.
"Tentomon, didn't you say Monochromon were gentle?" Izzy asked his partner.
"They're probably fighting over territory."
"Territory, huh."
"Let's move."
The kids and their Digimon took off again. Nobody wanted to find out whether those two would turn on them next.
They walked until evening. "Ugh, I'm exhausted," Mimi, the most delicate of them, was first to complain.
"Mimi, hang in there a little longer."
Leaning on a tree, Mimi muttered, "If I keep walking, my legs are going to get thick."
Passing by, Agumon offered his opinion. "Thicker is good, Mimi. Then they can support you better—you'll stand more steadily."
Looking at Agumon's stubby dino build, Mimi huffed, "I don't want to look like you."
Palmon chimed in with her own leg aesthetics. "Right, a girl's legs should be slender like an egret's to look nice."
"That wouldn't look nice either." Palmon "wilted" at once.
Another hour passed.
If not for the way the plants kept changing, the group might have lost the will to keep going.
Another hour slipped by.
The clouds were already changing color. Thankfully, Tentomon found a lake that looked perfect for a campsite.
"This will be good for camping," Tai concluded.
"First time I've camped outdoors," Sora said.
"It'll be fun!" T.K., a second-grader, was buzzing with curiosity at a brand-new experience.
"No thanks. I want a soft bed. I'm not sleeping on the ground." The thought of being nose-to-ground made Mimi prickly again.
"The earth is my friend," Palmon said, stepping up beside Mimi.
"No way. I heard there are lots of bugs in dirt."
"That's not true. On File Island, besides Digimon and fish, there aren't any other animals."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You're not lying?"
"Absolutely not."
"Okay, Mimi, Palmon—enough arguing."
Then a light "ding-ding-ding" chimed.
"Listen—what's that?"
They all looked up and saw, on a little islet in the center of the lake, a bus.
A tidy causeway of flat stone slabs led from the shore to the islet, as if the bus had driven in along that path.
Even stranger, the bus's headlights flicked on.
"Why is there a bus here?" Matt asked.
"Come to think of it, those phone booths on the beach, and the signposts in the forest—those are things only humans would use," someone said.
"Are there really humans here?"
"Maybe."
"Let's go check it out."
"Yeah!"
They ran up to the bus, and its doors slid open by themselves.
"There's no one here," Tai said as he stepped in first.
"Then why did the door open?" Sora asked, right behind him.
"Automatic door, probably," Izzy said.
"This feels unreal," T.K. murmured as he followed Mimi into the aisle.
"The bus looks pretty new," Izzy observed.
"Whoa, these seats are so soft." Sinking into the plush cushions, Mimi let out a happy little sigh.
"We can sleep in here tonight," Sora suggested.
"Can we prep dinner first?" Tentomon brought up the most important point.
After getting off, Sora and Joe headed back into the woods to collect firewood. Mimi and Palmon went searching for edible mushrooms—Mimi knew nothing about that, but Palmon was a Plant-type Digimon; she didn't know much theory, but she was reliable in practice. Other Digimon gathered fruit. Izzy and T.K. used Mimi's fishing gear to catch fish.
When dinner was ready, the kids had a pleasant meal by the lake: fish from the water, snacks from the real world, all kinds of brightly colored, oddly shaped fruit the kids and Digimon had collected, mushrooms gathered by Mimi and Palmon, and rice Tai had brought.
After dinner, Tai chatted idly with Sora about Matt and T.K. while he scanned the lakeshore, looking for the leaf-shaped tail of a Seadramon he remembered—hoping to avoid trouble. But with rocks for cover, he couldn't spot it. He even thought of driving the bus, but in two lifetimes and over twenty years altogether, he had never once driven anything. If he tried, they'd probably be in the lake before a Seadramon even showed.
"Forget it," Tai gave up the search. "We'll just be careful." It wasn't that he didn't want to move, but he had just arrived here and had no idea where else would be better. At least here they had seat cushions instead of bare ground.
"Let's decide the watch order," Joe, the oldest, said.
"The girls don't have to stand watch," Tai suggested.
"T.K. doesn't need to, either," Matt added.
"Why? I can do it too," T.K. protested.
"T.K. is still little. This isn't something he can do." Matt overruled him and turned to Joe.
"In that case, I'll take first," Tai said.
"I'll take second," Matt said.
"Izzy, I'll be third—can you take the last watch?"
"Okay."
"It's late. Everyone, onto the bus," Sora said, leading the way as they began their first night in the Digital World.
They all slept on the bus. Mimi kept griping that she couldn't sleep without a blanket, but she still nodded off quickly. She was exhausted—and not just her; everyone was.
The night was quiet.
By the crackling campfire, only Tai and Agumon were still awake. In the stillness, they could hear the firewood pop and every breath drawn. It was the perfect setting for thinking things through.
"One day in the real world equals many years in the Digital World." None of the others knew this. It wasn't something they could verify, and Tai had no way to explain how he knew, so he wasn't planning to tell them—for now.
Powerful enemies lay ahead, one after another—he was the only one who knew that. Right now, the fear of not being able to get home was more than enough to scare them. If he added "your lives could be in danger anytime," things would get worse. He'd have to shoulder that on his own.
Devimon was too strong. Even Angemon had to use up everything and stake his life to bring him down. Devimon might be a Champion, but after absorbing a mass of Black Gears, his power rivaled an Ultimate.
They had beaten him in the original by a stroke of luck. But Tai needed a foolproof plan. Waiting for miracles wasn't his style—there were too many variables, especially with his own presence changing things.
The headache now was combat strength. Without the Crests, even with the Digivice's "cheat-like" evolution, they could at most reach Champion. Even if all seven Champions, Angemon included, fought together, he still couldn't say for sure they'd beat Devimon.
It was a real problem. Tai stared into the fire in silence. Agumon watched Tai's furrowed brow and shifting expression, not sure what to say.