…
The wind blew past me as I jumped from side to side.
It had been a long time since Wizardmon and I had crossed the portal to search for Vamdemon. And in those hours, I could only say that the Human World was strange, surprisingly orderly, but strange. Every building looked almost the same, and there were hundreds of humans living in them. And I would be lying if I said that the hundreds of smells and sounds didn't disorient me for a moment.
Knowing that we were in an unfamiliar place, I quickly took charge and came up with a plan.
The first thing to do if you found yourself in unfamiliar territory was, logically, to establish a perimeter and explore carefully. This was quite simple for me and Wizardmon, mainly because I was quite fast, even by Adult Digimon standards, and because Wizardmon could give himself clairvoyance to observe a certain amount of terrain around him.
It was during this exploration that I saw them.
A dark-skinned boy carrying a Pusurimon and a boy with strange glasses carrying a Koromon.
The Chosen Children had returned to their world.
That complicated things a bit, but for now, they didn't seem aware of my presence here. Much less that I could hear them from great distances. After hesitating for a moment, I decided to follow them. It was better to know where the Chosen Children were hiding than to have that become a problem later.
I had the thought of attacking them quickly and trying to get rid of them, but I knew for sure that I had the ability to skip the Stages of Evolution somehow. And, no matter how strong and fast I was, I hesitated to face the Children. Sure, I was sure I could beat them both in simultaneous combat, but if they called the others, it would become an uphill battle where I would eventually die.
No, the best option was to get as much information as possible.
Or at least that's what I thought at the time.
As I jumped from building to building, my mind returned to that rooftop.
The human's soft voice echoed in my head.
It was as if the human's voice flowed like the Data inside me. Words as soft as silk, sticky as honey, as vivid as plants, and as full of meaning as the sun.
I could go on and on about this, giving it much more thought than I probably should. The truth was, I couldn't even describe what I was feeling right now. And that scared me. It terrified me more than anything.
What did that girl have that tempted me so much to be by her side?
Why did her voice resonate with every bit of my being?
That... couldn't be natural.
...Not even he had been able to make me feel this way...
I couldn't understand myself, and that irritated me.
The sound of the wind, along with the cold sensation it brought with it, made me shiver slightly as my ears moved toward the source of the noise. The smell of cheap alcohol and junk food was the first thing I detected, even before everything else.
"Yo!" My best friend and constant headache, Wizardmon, greeted me casually. Behind him, I could see five bags with different kinds of things inside them. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was in the bags. "I brought food and drink, some blankets, some cards, and also something called an inflatable mattress... although I have no idea how to use it. Oh, and also a map, just like you asked."
I purred softly as I approached to inspect each bag carefully. I frowned when I saw a bag with the words "cat food" marked on the front. For some reason, I thought I heard a little laugh at my side, but I decided to ignore it.
I frowned as I looked at the dozens of bottles of alcohol inside the bag with disgust. "Are you serious?"
I turned to Wizardmon with a mixture of disbelief and anger. "You know I don't drink this crap, right?"
"I didn't say the drink was for you," he replied casually as he leaned in to take a bottle and open it. The cheap magician sniffed the liquid inside before drinking a quarter of the bottle in one gulp. A burp followed by a cheerful laugh came out of Wizardmon's mouth, not necessarily in that order. "Ohhhh, fuck, this... this is incredibly good!"
"You're impossible..." I sighed with resignation as I moved away from the drunkard and approached the other bags. "Any news about—"
"You don't have to act like that, you know?" Wizardmon interrupted me as he shook the bottle, watching intently as the liquid inside swayed from side to side. "There's no army to command here or anything like that, no ultra-powerful leader, no monkey with delusions of grandeur."
"I'm still a Commander," I replied through clenched teeth, feeling my patience quickly running out, and the smell of his breath didn't help either. "And you shouldn't take this so lightly! There are a lot of humans here! Who knows if there are more Chosen Children!"
"Relax, I know what I'm doing," Wizardmon said mockingly as he made his staff disappear in an instant. He wasn't the Commander of Reconnaissance for nothing, you know?
I rolled my eyes. "Well, you suck at it."
"I love you too," the wizard replied, winking at me.
"I meant it," I said, crossing my arms as my tail swished from side to side. "Did you know that the Chosen Children managed to come back here? To their world?"
We stared at each other in an awkward silence as Wizardmon's eyes froze on mine for a moment before twisting in place with an embarrassed expression.
I wanted to ask him why he didn't set any traps for the portal, but considering the moment, he either forgot, or possibly there was some nonsense with the magic and the portal that prevented him from doing so.
Wizardmon was lazy, slothful, a joker, a procrastinator, and had a terrible sense of humor.
But he wasn't stupid.
"I may be a little rusty..." the wizard said timidly as he hid his blushing face behind a long drink.
Or maybe he was after all.
"You're impossible" I sighed, this time with a smile tugging at my lips.
***
The moonlight dazzled high in the clear night sky, countless stars shining like tiny sparkles in the darkness, filling the dark canvas that was space.
Standing on top of a huge white and red tower, I watched in fascination as the city of Tokyo sparkled with the same or greater intensity than the sparkles in the sky. Hundreds of buildings with lights shone as far as the eye could see, lights of all colors flickering and moving from side to side.
"Impressive..." I muttered to myself as my eyes wandered from side to side. Never in my entire life had I seen anything like this. Perhaps the closest thing to it was the Metal Empire that MugenDramon ruled when he was alive. And even then, it couldn't compare to this city.
But that wasn't what impressed me. I had seen several Digimon civilizations rise and fall over the decades I had lived. Sure, none had reached the technological level or organization of the Metal Empire, but that was mainly because all the Digimon who had the misfortune of living there were MugenDramon's slaves more than anything else.
What made me stop and observe this civilization closely was that—
"Everything is so... peaceful"
I could see hundreds and hundreds of humans walking through the streets, chatting quietly, joking with each other, even showing affection to one another on a whim. I could see human children holding the hands of adult children, I could see humans cooking and eating in harmony on almost every corner. I could see a human trying to steal something only to be stopped in the act by another human dressed in blue, I could see them exchanging small pieces of paper and coins for various strange objects.
Every time I fixed my gaze on something, it was always a new story. Each one with a different protagonist, a different context, a different atmosphere.
Humans... were truly free creatures.
I felt a flutter in my chest.
I hummed to myself, savoring the old feeling that I thought I had gotten rid of long ago. "How I envy you humans. To truly be able to choose what to do or not to do, not to be bound by any rules, not to live trapped under the invisible strings that guide our actions."
The envy I felt watching those who possessed the gift of free will and did not appreciate it made my blood boil. I felt my chest burn at the difference between them and us.
Finally, I allowed myself to breathe deeply, extinguishing the flames of sin and expelling them all in a simple sigh.
"I wonder if this was what my Lord dreamed of for us," I reflected with slumped shoulders. "A peaceful world where every Digimon can stand side by side without the need to eat each other."
I allowed my mind to imagine a true Digimon society, one where they cared for each other and lived together in peace. No fighting, no wars, no mass extinctions.
"I guess at the end of the day, we're nothing more than beasts."
I remained silent for what seemed like hours, simply observing the lives of our flesh-and-blood cousins, before my gaze lifted from the city to fix on the beautiful moon flashing above my head.
Without saying a word, I raised both hands upward, and a significant amount of blood-red energy began to form above me.
As the fog spread in all directions, I looked down, feeling as if a huge weight had finally been lifted from my chest. I savored the emotion for a moment and couldn't help but laugh out loud when I realized what it was.
"Who would have thought that someone as long-lived as me would be afraid of failure?" I muttered with self-deprecating sarcasm, even with a smile on my face. "Humans have fascinated me. They have shown me that our—no, that my dream is truly possible."
And with those words, I became one with the darkness and disappeared.
Throughout the night, the fog continued to spread until it covered Tokyo in its entirety.
No one could enter, no one could leave.
No one could see what was outside.
No one could see what was inside.
...
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