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Location: Human world - Jura, France.
Fran’s always been an eccentric child. He’s curious, not very bright, and tends to find attachment to weird accessories. He spends most of his time up to whatever new hobby he’s found a chance to indulge in.
The orphanage has a really hard time supervising him, all ten years old of him.
“Fran! Put that frog down!” Miss Chloe, the orphanage assistant, yelps, rushing to the boy hunched over the stream, “And please don’t lay down there, there’s so much mud!”
Fran lets the frog jump from his arm to the lily pad, and he sighs, almost disappointed his friend has left him. “Miss, do you think fairies exist?” Fran asks. “Because if they do, I really think they’ll be here with the froggies and the flowers.”
“Fairies?” she dusts him off as he stands up, “that’s nice. Maybe if you look hard enough, you can find one.”
Fran nods. “They’re all around us. They just don’t show their face around here because there are icky things around.”
“Icky things? Like what?”
Fran wisely doesn’t vocalize the ‘I’m talking about you, miss’ in his mind. Actually nevermind. “Like adults.”
She laughs warmly. “Maybe!” she pats him on the head. “This icky adult is going inside now to cook. Keep yourself clean and come inside before dinner, understood? There’s been rumours of strange cyber monsters around as of late. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Cyber monsters? I will look for them,” Fran declares, eyes twinkling with excitement.
“Remember what I told you?”
“Keep myself clean! Come home before dinner!” he announces, punching the air.
“And make sure you don’t leave any of your stuff behind!” she reminds.
The orphanage has just two computer systems.
It’s the dead of the night when Fran wakes up and sneaks out of the communal dorm, excited to continue his search for cyber monsters. He ran all around the perimeters of the orphanage this evening and found nothing. That was weird.
More information would definitely be on the internet!
In this orphanage the most powerful things in the world were Grandpa’s arm strength for opening jars and the three computer systems that no one except the older kids were allowed to turn on.
But Fran is ten now. He’s a big boy now. He thinks.
So in a completely dark room at three AM, he turns on the computer and watches it beam ten rays of deathlight straight into his eyes. He screams in silent agony (because he doesn’t want to wake anyone up) and runs out.
He finds Miss Chloe’s hiking sunglasses (they’re for driving), and comes back.
“Okay, here me go,” he starts his investigations. A few odd clicks finds him in a browser, and a search for cyber monsters finds him at digital, and then—
[Want to open the door to the Digital World?]
The screen blacks out, along with the entire room.
Location: Digital world.
“ClavisAngemon! ClavisAngemon, look! It’s a human!”
“What’s it doing, collapsed out here? That’s not a good sign.”
“Don’t touch it carelessly.”
“It’s got a Digivice, so maybe it’s a Tamer? Huh, there’s no registration reaction. A new guy, then.”
Fran doesn’t open his eyes yet. He can feel the glare of the sun from beneath his eyelids and it will without a doubt eviscerate him like a vampire, so the sunglasses must have fallen off at some point.He has no idea where he is and how he got here, so natural instincts proclaimed that he must act dead.
“What do we do, bring it back to Tamer Union?”
“Or maybe to Lady Adrianna’s farm? She was quite angered when we brought the small human child to the union last time. Something about being too young?”
“Is this child too young?”
“I don’t know how to determine a human child’s age. Mamemon, do you know?”
“No idea.”
Fran bolts right up screaming, eyes still squeezed shut. “I’M GETTING KIDNAPPED!” eliciting terrified shrieks from everything in the vicinity. He pries an eye open to see they’ve all scrambled away, except the super tall one with armor and fancy wings.
He finds the sunglasses around his lap and puts them on. Finally, he can see. There’s a weird indigo console device thing around his neck but he dismisses it.
“When did it turn to daytime?” he wonders, standing up and dusting himself off.
Around him are some weird creatures. A large and tall, man-like white soldier angel thing; a yellow dinosaur; a big blue wolf; three blob-shaped embryo things; and a… bowling ball with… arms? And boxing gloves?
The device around his neck— a Digivice— flickers to life, and the data runs through it. When he lifts it to the weird bowling ball creature, it scans and reveals a name.
“...Mamemon, a Mutant Digimon. Contrary to its cute appearance, it conceals a terrifying destructive power,” he reads. “Very threatening. I must be dreaming, right? Okay that makes more sense! Me’s dreaming, definitely! Good night then.”
Saying so he sits back down on the ground, laying down and closing his eyes.
It’s about a full minute later that one of the voices around him confusedly pipes up, “so, Lady Adrianna’s Farm?”
“Oh, absolutely.”
“This is weird,” Fran says, earning a shocked squeak from everyone around him again as they realize he’s awake. It’s a little hard to tell through the sunglasses. “I’ve never been kidnapped in a dream before.”
This was, in fact, not a dream. It’s an alternate universe, as Lady Adrianna tells him.
Fran gets a rundown of the general situation. There are Digimon, this is the Digital World, he’s been signed up as a Tamer because why not, and what they basically do is live in harmony with these creatures because if not, humans would die immediately. Also, there are people who don’t like humans because they’re racist or something, so he has to be careful of that.
Yeah. He gets it. So basically it’s like the real world. But like, godzillas exist.
“Is Fran your real name? You should use a pseudonym here,” Lady Adrianna says. Her partner Digimon, a ToyAgumon, sets down a plate of strawberry waffles before him.
“It’s Francesca Grenouille,” he says.
“...I just said to use a pseudonym, my dear,” she says.
“Then, Fran.”
“That’s on the right track,” she sighs. “Alright then, as a special treat. Everyone here calls me Adrianna, but just for you, you can call me Aria.”
“Okay, Big Sis Aria.”
Fran can very easily just go home and forget any of this ever happened, but why would he, honestly? This place is so much more fun than the real world.
“Time here goes slowly, compared to outside,” Aria says. “Really slowly. And since we’re pieces of code, we don’t age, either.”
Essentially, by staying here, they’ve effectively gained pseudo-immortality.
Fran eats his strawberry waffles, entranced by the allure of the Digital World.
Apparently, kids get drawn in all the time— it’s just what the Digital World does, in search of new data to fill the fabric of its world. And most of them rarely ever go home, if ever. Some of them are happier here, and Fran could agree. He liked Miss Chloe back home, but there was really nothing else for him in the foster system— he’s already been returned twice, he’s not looking forward to going for another meaningless try.
Fran’s the youngest the Digital World has had in a while— ten. Usually they’re twelve, at least. So Aria, one of the older ones, decided he would be fit to stay in her Farm Island, building a home together at least while they’re here.
“Are there fairies?” Fran asks.
Aria smiles. “Of course.”
Meanwhile, a Tanemon steals a strawberry from his plate.
Being a Tamer is, in simple terms, being a gopher for the big hulking Digimon around.
“Can you get it back for me? It’s really important!” the Gabumon pleads, “the Speed Ring Alpha! If I lose it, I’ll be in big trouble!”
“Okay!” Tanemon agrees readily.
“Do I haaaave to,” Fran whines as Tanemon’s leaf curls around his wrist, pulling him further into the forest at his behest. “This Ogremon sounds scary. It’s got ogre in its name. It probably eats humans.”
“Yeah they probably do! But I’m a plant so I’m okay,” Tanemon sings, “sounds like fun! Let’s go ask him how human meat tastes.”
“Fraise, I am a human.”
“Oh,” Tanemon says. “Can you uh. Stop that?”
“...being human?”
“Yeah.”
Fran stares in bewilderment. “I’ll… try?”
“Great! We’ll practice on the way. Let’s go!” Tanemon cheers, continuing their little journey further into Data Forest.
Gabumon’s jaw is dropped, completely baffled by what he had just witnessed. Those two have some screw loose in their head, he speaks this affectionately, and he is very worried.
“You’re a Tamer! You’re one of those pathetic humans!” Ogremon accuses, “well, *BEEP* off! I’m not interested in getting chummy with humans!”
“No no, you’re misunderstanding,” Tanemon says. “Fran’s not a human. Fran’s a… uh, Puddingmon. A humanoid Digimon.”
“Oh for real? My bad then. But you’re still not allowed to take that, it’s in my territory, so it’s mine.”
“Awh, don’t be stingy. Can we rock paper scissors?”
“Oh fine.”
“I win! We got the Speed Ring Alpha!”
“Damn it! Fine, a deal’s a deal.”
Fran is still caught up on something else, “I’m sorry— did the world just… systematically Bleep over your curse? I know we’re literally in a game universe but like… did that noise come from the sky?”
“Yeah, the Digital World censorship standards. We got lots of impressionable kids in this world, after all,” Tanemon says. “I can say *BEEP* *BEEP BEEP* *BEEEEEP!!* and anyone in the vicinity that’s below Champion stage and below sixteen human years is just digitally barred from listening in. I can still say it, though. I just can’t hear it either.”
“Oh really?” Fran says, “*BEEP!* Okay, this is fun. Can we keep doing this? Ogre, wanna join?”
“Hm? Yeah sure.”
There was a lot of bleeping that day.
It’s been maybe half a year in the Digital World when Fran realized Aria doesn’t go home, either.
“You don’t have anything in the human world too?” he asks. Fraise had evolved into Raramon at this point, and Fran’s a Bronze-ranked Tamer.
Aria hums, her ToyAgumon in her lap as she reads a new issue of the Digital Gazette. “I have a Family, and I’m actually a Mafia Boss,” she says, without any reservations. She grins, “I’m really young and I’m only inheriting the title because my mom’s the previous head, so I don’t really do much.”
Fran thinks she’s joking.
“Being a boss sounds like fun.”
“It’s really not that cool,” she sighs, “there’s only a few people that actually respect me. The rest of them are pretending, so it’s just a guessing game of who’s actually planning to set my plants on fire once I turn around.”
Fran hums. “All adults are like that.”
“Indeed!” she smiles. “That’s why I like to stay here. Andante will never lie to me,” she hugs ToyAgumon to her chest, “and all the Digimon on the Farm— they’re nice, honest, and always sincere. As much as they can be in their nature, at least.”
Fran acknowledges that. Digimon were always honest. That includes the deceptive ones, because despite it all, they are honest in their wicked desires. They don’t tolerate for the sake of manipulation, they’re more often than not very willing to tell you how much they hate you to your face.
Fran liked that about Digimon, too.
“Plus, if I stay here, I don’t age, and I don’t…” she trails off in thought. Then, smiling, “here there’s no passage of time, since we’re all inconceivable data being created in real time. So I can’t see things I don’t want to.”
She turns away, in deep thought.
“I like living here, eternally young. I’m afraid of growing old, you know!”
Fran knows there’s more to what she’s saying. But he’s not really interested in digging deep into that mystery.
“You’re a big old grandma,” Fran says.
“Oh, you’re taunting me!” Aria says, dramatically gasping in feigned hurt. “What do I do? I was going to buy a new Farm for you, but I might just change my mind now.”
“What? No no, Fran wants the farm. Fran wants a farm!”
“Alright, alright,” Adrianna chuckles, “it’ll be uploaded just south of our Home Farm, so for now, why don’t you go around Steamy Jungle and collect Digiconversion data?”
“I will go now,” Fran leaps to his feet startling Raramon as it’s in the middle of stealing strawberries from the fridge. “Fraise, we’re going.”
“Stay safe, and don’t forget—”
Fran spins around to salute. “Keep myself clean! Come home before dinner!” he poses unnecessarily like a superhero with each command. “Fran will be back!”
Raramon does a chubby tree spirit version of the pose as well, declaring, “Fraise will also be back!”
“...okay sweeties, go have fun.”
“Hey. You look like you’ve got something good. Hand it over, brat.”
Kain and Tomomi look like the meanies of an old American TV show and they’re really out to prove it.
Fran picks up the Digi-Cake— it’s really more of a biscuit or a scone, and it grows on small trees in Training Peak, dusted by the natural sugars of cane and fruits. It looks (and tastes) delicious, Fran really understood why Calumon wanted one now. It makes no sense for a baked good to grow on trees but he’s not complaining.
“This?” Fran asks, through a mouthful of pastry. He licks his lips. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” Tomomi scowls, “are you deaf, kid?”
Fran shakes his head. “I’m Puddingmon,” he says, “I don't understand humans. Shoo shoo. Your makeup stinks.”
“Wha–?!” Tomomi balks, clearly offended.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, you cheeky brat!” Kain hisses, “you better listen to what we have to say!”
“But I found this first,” Fran says.
“Shut up!” Kain snaps, “all you have to do is listen to what I say! We’re older than you, have some respect!”
“Get your own.”
“Fine,” Kain sighs, reaching for his Digivice, clicking on a call button. “Since you’re being such a stubborn brat, I think we have to teach you a lesson. Don’t we, Tomomi?”
“Oh, we certainly do.”
A grotesque, blue, tentacle-covered chuthlu-like Digimon leaps out from the forest, landing right by his feet. Right beside it, a large, red stag beetle digimon charges out, stationing themselves before their Tamers.
Fran cringes, stepping back. His own Digimon are hiding around, but he signals for them to stay back. Maybe if he catches them by surprise he can— yeah no. Absolutely not. They have to run from this.
His Digivice wasn’t scanning either of them, so they must be Ultimates.
“You’re really going to gang up on poor widdle me?” he asks, asking cute by poking his own cheeks, his expressions blank as always. “Wow, Gold Rank Tamers are sooo cool,” he sings, hollow and sarcastic.
“Your *BEEP*ing attitude irritates me! Shut your mouth already!”
Fran reaches for his Digivice. “Actually since I’m the youngest right now I have one extra privilege of—” He pops the Digivice open to reveal a button labeled ‘PANIC’.
He presses it.
A sharp, ear-shattering screech rings right out from his Digivice, alerting every Digimon in the vicinity. Fran nearly drops his Digivice in shock, being the most shocked at how loud it was. He quickly switches it off.
“...a panic button,” Fran finishes his sentence.
Clearly Kain and Tomomi were not amused. “That’s it! Dragomon, Thousand Whips!”
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” This time, all of them jump in surprise at the sudden shout. From a cliff above is another Tamer, led by an armoured, humanoid, black dragon cyborg— a Cyberdramon. “Sai, Erase Claw!”
Fran has never seen one attack simultaneously defeat two Digimon before. It reduced those Ultimates right down to data, getting absorbed into the Digivices at the last second.
“Wha– Yuji!” Kain hisses, “don’t get in the way!”
“Get in the way of what, you attempting murder?!” the boy jumps down toward Cyberdramon, who catches him and sets him on the ground. “Tomomi! I thought better of you!”
Tomomi cringes at the scolding. “Well, the kid was being difficult…”
“Shame on you both!”
Kain curses, “oh for *BEEP*’s sake. We gotta go,” he hisses, grabbing Tomomi by the arm before bolting, “you’ll pay for this, Yuji!”
“Oh I will indeed! get back here!” Cyberdramon charges ahead, and Yuji turns toward Fran. “You’re not hurt, right?”
Fran shakes his head, hands interlacing like a damsel that’s just been saved, “my hero!” he says, dryly. Yuji spares an exasperated moment to laugh at that. “Your Digimon look super strong. You’re a Gold Tamer? Wo~w! That’s so cool,” he sings, voice and face flat but his emotions genuine.
“Oh… uh,” Yuji chuckles, bashful, “not to brag, but I’m Platinum,” he says, raising his Digivice. That explained why the other two didn’t try to fight him. “Those guys there are bad Tamers though, don’t follow their example. Where’s your Digimon partner?”
“Fraise is here,” it peeks out of the rocks, “was gathering more Digi-cake, getting ready to run run run.”
“Ah, a Raramon. Good idea,” Yuji says. He reaches over and pats Fran on the head. He checks his Digivice, which indicates where Cyberdramon’s gone off to. “You guys should go back to Union, then. See ya around.”
“See ya around, Mister Cool guy,” Fran waves, and Raramon echoes.
Fran throws hands with a BlackAgumon.
Yes, Fran, not his Digimon.
“You’re not even a Digimon! Stop sticking your hands into Digimon business!” BlackAgumon snarls. “You humans and your Tamer nonsense, only cowards band together with humans! Weak! Weakmon!”
Fran is grabbing at any part of the BlackAgumon to irritate it, including the eyes and fangs and tongue. BlackAgumon is grabbing at his hair and shirt in return.
Fran punches vainly at BlackAgumon’s head, “I don’t like bullies! Stop calling my friends Weakmon! They’re babies and you’re hurting their feelings!”
“WEAKMON!”
Raramon munches on a strawberry, a safe distance away.
“You can’t just leave them like that!” Terriermon chides, gesturing at them with its oversized ears. “Fraise, you’re irresponsible as a partner!”
“It’s okay, Fran’s good at it,” Raramon says. “You can relax too, Terriermon, you came along for the experience but when Fran gets mad there’s really nothing for us to do.”
“What is with you guys?!” it yells back. “Oh, forget it. Tell me when they’re done, I’m going to go fight some Tokomon.”
Terriermon comes back with a crying child with a black afro and cow prints.
“I found a crying Baby,” it says, holding the child’s hand with its equally stubby one, The child is sniffling. “I have never seen this Digimon before.”
Fran’s already done fighting BlackAgumon at this point. They’re crowded around their picnic basket sharing the sandwiches.
“Hmm, the Digivice isn’t reacting,” Fran raises it, but the scanner doesn’t try to identify it. “Maybe it’s above my rank recognition level?”
The child sniffles as Raramon leads it to the picnic mat, handing it a glass of milk and a grilled cheese. It eats very obediently.
“Are you lost?”
“Lambo-san is not lost,” it says, “Lambo-san just doesn’t know where he is.”
“That means you’re lost, Lambo-san-mon,” Raramon says. “Do you at least know where you’re from?”
“From home?”
“Ah,” Raramon gives up, “do you like strawberries?”
“No, Lambo-san likes grapes.”
“Okay, Lambo-san. You can be a Grapemon.”
That’s when Terriermon lifts a green Digivice in his hand, showing it to Fran to be inspected. “It also had this when I found it,” Terriermon says, “it’s unregistered, though. Weird.”
Fran and Raramon simultaneously choke on their sandwiches.
“Terriermon, that’s a human!”
“And it’s a newcomer!”
They bring him to Lady Adrianna’s Farm, of course.
“Big Sis Aria, someone broke my record,” Fran says.
“What record? The one about making as many bleeps as possible in the Drain Tunnel in a day, or the one about trying to get smothered to death by Poyomon?”
“Neither! The one about me being the youngest current Tamer!”
“That’s nice,” Aria takes a moment. “Wait, what?!”
Lambert Bovino fits right in with the Digimon. That’s a given, seeing as they’re about the same size. Initially Lambo goes home often, because he misses his Mom, but eventually he stops talking about her, and Fran and Aria wisely don’t mention it.
Lambo does still go home often, if only to eat the nicer food in his mansion and take lessons about Mafiosi fundamentals. Or something, Fran isn’t too sure.
He makes it a point to use the Digital World as a place to run to when he starts crying, so of course, every time he comes home, the world gets a lot noisier.
Fran and Aria quite enjoy that. It’s chaotic, but nice.
“Frankfurt wants this Touma guy’s autograph, so Lambo-san will take ‘im there!” he declares. Terriermon— it didn’t seem too happy with the nickname renaming at first, but it’s resigned to its fate at this point— nods, blushing slightly, hiding behind Lambo as they asked for permission to leave the farm.
“I’m a… big fan of that guy,” Terriermon admits.
“It’s just talking to a guy! Leave it to Lambo-san, he is cool and will do it for you! Because Lambo-san is a brave man!” he puffs up his chest. “Okay, let’s go!”
“Ah,” Aria snaps out of her stupor, “Lambo, stay in Tamer Union, alright? If you need to go out—”
“Frankfurt will be with me!” Lambo declares.
Terriermon punches the air with its ear. “I will protect Lambo-san!”
And just like that, Lambo continues to spend his time doing Favor Quests for all the Digimon around the farm. It makes him a very popular presence, and all Digimon in the area quickly grow to love him.
He is their youngest, and as instinct goes, they protect their young.
Fran is exhausted and frustrated.
To get promoted to Silver Rank, Ebonwumon, the world turtle-looking thing that’s his Observer apparently, told him to go check up on a guy called Phil.
Except Phil is apparently a hidden character locked behind a series of frustrating RPG side quests, the literal digital equivalent of a damn wild goose chase. Fran’s talked to ten people today and all he learns now is that Phil’s got a friend who knows he’s got a sister and his sister is missing too but her Digimon partner says she’s probably in Steamy Jungle because she was looking for— and yeah.
“Welcome home, Fran, you’re just in time for di– oHMY GOD.”
“We’re home, Big Sis Aria. We are not clean, but we made it for dinner!” Fran punches the air. Then, gesturing at the red-haired older girl meekly tucked behind him. “This is Ellie. She nearly got eaten by Arukenimon today but we punched it and ran so it’s okay.”
They’re both covered in injuries, and webs, clothes torn, mud and bruises covering some parts of their bodies. Ellie had a cut on her face, and was limping from a sprain. Fran’s hair was slightly cut, a healing cut from his temple that is clearly leaking data particles.
(Thank goodness people don’t bleed in this world. But treatment, treatment is still necessary who let these children go—)
“Wait, who?”
“Arukenimon.”
“The Arachne lord of Steamy Jungle?!”
“Yep! It was going to do unspeakable things to this poor pretty little girl! Like Snow White’s evil stepmother! So heroic, heroic Puddingmon Fran jumped in, and—”
“Oh my god, ” Aria facepalms, “you children came here because it’s closer than the Union, didn’t you? Good. That is good. Come in, you two. Please, you need to rest.”
“Ah– I,” Ellie stutters, “thank you, Miss Adrianna.”
“I still have to find Forbidden Land tomorrow to find Phil,” Fran says.
“Forbidden Land?”
“I don’t know. People want to be mysterious instead of telling me what it is. So now I have to go back to Training Peak and talk to BlackAgumon again.”
“Oh dear,” Aria says, “it’ll be a long journey and it can wait. Come on, go on in. Andante drew a bath for you both.”
Raramon cheers, charging into the building to get to the bathroom first. ToyAgumon sighs, holding a mop, frowning at the mud getting tracked in.
“Eh? Together?” Ellie asks.
“It’s okay, nothing in there you haven’t seen before, Ellie,” Aria assures. “Just relax, you can treat this place like your own home.”
“Huh? Oh uh,” Ellie bows, “then, I’ll take you up on the offer, Miss Adrianna.”
Ellie takes to Lambo instantly.
While recuperating from her injuries from Arukenimon, she hugs Lambo to her chest and goes on Favor quests with him. Lambo’s not allowed far from the Tamer Union, since he’s so young, but all the Favor Quests on his record is enough to get him on perspectives to be promoted to Bronze.
“This Masaru guy dropped his Digivice,” Lambo says, reiterating what Tsunomon told him. “Mutton picked it up, so we’re gonna go find him now. Bye Aria!”
“Bye Miss Adrianna!” Ellie echoes. “He’s probably still in the Union. We should hurry.”
“I’ll go with them,” Terriermon says, “Let’s go, Mutton.”
The Tsunomon sighs, hopping along as well.
Fran chews on his toast, Aria pouring him a glass of milk as they bid them a safe journey. It sure is nice, seeing the five and thirteen-year-old get along so well.
“...are we going to talk about him nicknaming the digimon after Meat Names?” Fran asks. Tsunomon is a wolf, not ‘Mutton’. Terriermon isn’t a dog, but at least Frankfurt’s better than Wiener. It’s still really weird.
“No, sweetie,” Aria says, “we are not.”
“Okay so basically, that BlackAgumon evolved into DarkTyrannomon. I fought him, and then I found out I had to go to Chrome Mine,” Fran says. “ That’s where Phil is.”
He looks waterlogged, exhausted, miserable.
Aria quietly sets a glass of apple juice in front of him.
“And then I need a Miracle Egg to get there. So I went to talk to Pandamon at Sheer Valley. But he’s being a *BEEP* so I had to fight him. And then when I finally got it I found out it’s a fake. So I had to go to Drain Tunnel to fight PlatinumSukamon who is a bigger pile of literal *BEEP* for swapping it out when he returned it last time. And after defeating him, I FINALLY got the address for Chrome Mine!”
It is currently sunset. This damn address took two working days to get. He did not sign up for this much overtime.
“By the time I find Phil he’s probably just bones,” Fran says, groaning lowly.
“Don’t say that sweetie, Ellie will cry if she hears you.”
Digimon data is manually recorded in Digivices and sent to farms, so new Digimon are always born from that data.
Digimon registered as party members or ‘teams’ are recorded differently, with a failsafe system to always absorb their data particles even if they’ve been destroyed, so they may be later revived in the farm with their memories intact.
That’s why, the first time Fran witnesses a Digimon truly dying and getting returned to the world of data as particles dissipating into the fabric of the world— it’s DarkTyrannomon, taken out onesidedly by Machinedramon.
There wasn’t even time to mourn.
Fran just had to stand firm, stand back, and Phil clutches him by the shoulder, holding him away from the Machinedramon.
“Leave him alone,” Phil says. “I’m the one you want— I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Huh,” Machinedramon scoffs. “Do as you promised, then.”
Fran didn’t quite understand. He’s devastated— even though he hated DarkTyrannomon. There’s just nothing redeemable about that big bully. He tried harder to get stronger just to continue calling his Digimon weak and making fun of them for it.
Digimon didn’t die. This is the world of digits, after all. Everyone, even humans, were just ones and zeros pretending to be human. But when they vanished— they vanished , into wisps of code, leaving nothing behind as their data is recycled.
And yet… and yet, there was no way to go home and just hope DarkTyrannomon would be back at the core of Training Peak ever again. Even if another Digimon replaced him, it would never be the same despicable rival.
(This is his first time truly realizing what it meant to lose someone he once knew.)
Raramon trembles in his arms.
Fran buries his face into the back of her head. “I don’t like you,” he says, to Machinedramon. “I hate bullies. I really, really, really hate bullies.”
Machinedramon takes his malice with a scoff.
Phil tricks the Digimon, de-digivolving him into his previous stage.
Raramon digivolves into Sunflowmon, and Fran goes all out. “I am going to turn you into data in my Digivice. And then I’m going to delete it immediately.”
“Congratulations, Fran. You’re now a Silver Rank Tamer.”
The next Observer is a large white tiger Digimon, Baihumon. And Fran swears, if he sends him on another eternal fetch quest, he is going to be annoyed .
“It… well, seems like it’s been a long day for you,” Baihumon says. “Go back to Lady Adrianna’s farm and rest. You’ll have your assignment on a new day.”
Fran throws his arms up into the air in celebration.
“And go back to the human world, if you would have the chance,” Baihumon says, which Fran freezes to. “I do not know how humans perceive time, but Lady Adrianna spoke long ago that it’s not appropriate for a human child to be away from home for… years without a word. Or was it millenia? Ah, no, I think it was told to me that humans live less than a century in the human world. With that perception of time, it makes sense that humans would think a year is a long time. Do go home, Fran.”
Fran pouts.
Aria didn’t have to tell them that.
“It’s fine,” he says. “Time goes slowly here compared to the human world. They won’t even notice I’m gone.”
“And if I make it a mission that you return home?”
“Then I won’t be back here for ages! Even one hour there is a month here! I don’t wanna go home,” he insists. “Nothing’s fun there. It’s not like Aria goes home either.”
Baihumon sighs at him, but Fran stubbornly refuses to listen to any more of his nagging.
“I suppose since the children are enjoying themselves, there’s not much we can do,” ClavisAngemon relents. “Lady Adrianna doesn’t mention any concerns, either.”
Most of the children in this world are addicted. They never want to go home.
They spend years in the Digital World, where they’re physically incapable of aging, and here they live in pseudo-eternity. The Digimon, who live in an eternal cycle of information, cannot fathom the mental effects this could have on a child that was never meant to survive this way.
Fran preferred that it stayed the way it was.
(But sometimes, he did wonder… why didn’t Aria go back to the human world? She speaks fondly of her family there, especially this overbearing man she’s charmed by, named Gamma, or something.)
“Fraise and Frankfurt,” Fran says, pointing at Sunflowmon, then at Terriermon. “Meet Pomme. As you can tell by the name he likes apples.”
The Otamamon, a newly-born Digimon in his little Aquan Farm, is a tadpole monster. And Fran’s quite endeared by it. He’s really in love with the Aquan and Plant digimon, they’re all so weird.
“Cool!” Fraise, Sunflowmon, says. “I like Strawberries. You cannot have one, though. All the ones in the field are all mine.”
“You cannot take the Pineapples either, they’re mine,!” Terriermon declares. “And the grapes belong to Lambo.”
“Okay…” Otamamon blinks blearily. “I just want to sleep. Do whatever you want.”
And then it plops down on the ground right there and snores, leaving everyone including Fran just staring, baffled by his easygoing nature.
“I see its nature is Lazy,” Sunflowmon claps its hands together, beaming. “Wonderful! We can work with that. Let’s make a bag! We can carry it around when we explore.”
“A bag? I know how to make a net,” Terriermon says. “My ears have been caught in a lot of them. They’re super comfortable. I hate nets. Ogremon makes hammocks in Data Forest a lot.”
“It’s okay, Ogremon doesn’t eat Otamamon,” Sunflowmon says, picking up Otamamon like a stack of clothes and walking toward the trees to find vines, “they’ll eat you, though.”
“It’s okay, if I get eaten, I’ll still be delicious. Lambo-san says that Frankfurts are yummy.”
“That’s good then.”
Fran stares at his Digimon and thinks grimly to himself, that he has no idea what on earth is wrong with them, personality wise. Who raised them to be utter sociopaths?
(Ah right. Me.)
“And don’t forget, Pomme!” Terriermon declares in the distance. “Keep yourselves clean! And come home before dinner!”
“And if we remember, we make sure we don’t leave Fran behind,” Sunflowmon adds.
There’s a brief silence before Otamamon asks, “... if we remember?”
Fran doesn’t know how long it’s been. People don’t have the habit of keeping track of time in the Digital world, and day-night cycles are but a shift in the digital ozone’s colour settings.
“You spent how long in Sheer Valley?” Yuji gapes, horrified.
Fran whines, curled into himself in the corner of a wall at Tamer Union. “I don’t knooow . I got lost. Was so stupid.”
Sunflowmon walks by with armfuls of chocolate. “Want one, Yuji? We kept opening chests and getting them. Been living on it for the past couple days.”
“That is not healthy!” Yuji yelps, “but yes, I would like to have some. Thank you.” He takes two, handing one to Gotsumon, a rock golem humanoid digimon beside him.
“Huh? You’re Sai, aren’t you? The Cyberdramon from last time? You look different,” Sunflowmon stares. “You’re super tiny. Got a reverse growth spurt?”
“No, dummy!” Gotsumon kicks Sunflowmon in the nonexistent weedy shin, “I degenerated! You should try it sometime!”
“Huh?”
“You haven’t learned about degeneration yet?” Yuji says, “you’ll need to do it sometime or you won’t get strong enough for further digivolutions— oh,” he pauses when he sees Fran has completely conked right out. “I guess there’s no point explaining if he’s not listening.”
Sunflowmon sighs. Otamamon is also asleep in Fran’s arms, and Terriermon had gone to raid some poor guy’s pineapple juice stall.
“This is what I’ve had to deal with,” Sunflowmon says. “The chocolate is the only reason I haven’t tried to whack my Tamer over the head yet.”
Yuji chuckles dryly. “Well rest assured!” he says, pointing his Digivice at Gotsumon, the light of digivolution engulfing him to reveal Minotarumon, a large and bulky minotaur digimon. “This is the Yuji-kun delivery service, and the next station on our schedule is Lady Adrianna's Farm Island. Anyone interested in the journey, hop on and let’s go!”
Sunflowmon cheers, throwing chocolate everywhere.
“You’re so used to this, Yuji,” Sunflowmon says, coaxing Terriermon out of the pot of pineapple soup and onto Minotarumon’s head.
Yuji’s currently hefting Fran up to his back. “Hm? Yeah,” he says. “I have an adopted younger sister in the human world… I guess.”
“You guess?” Sunflowmon asks. “What does ‘adopted’ mean?”
“It means we’re not from the same parents.”
“Parents?”
Yuji pauses. Digimon don’t have the concept of parents, or blood relations. They barely care if each other are in the same species.
“She and I are different ,” Yuji smiles, preparing a farce. “It’s complicated. Humans, and the human world… it’s better not to think about the situation out there when I’m here in the Digital World. I’ll just get myself unnecessarily stressed, you know?”
And he doesn’t speak of it again.
Sunflowmon picks up a sleeping Otamamon before climbing up Minotarumon’s arm, where they walk back to Lady Adrianna's Farm Island together in relative silence.
Lambo falls right in love with Minotarumon.
“It’s a BULL!” he screams, ecstatic. “You’re a cow! Cows are the COOLEST!”
Minotarumon had the gall to puff up his chest and declare, “yes, I am the coolest of the cool, only the epic manliest of men!” posing obnoxiously. “I am strong!”
“BEEEF!” Lambo yells. His Tsunomon, Mutton, is similarly filled with complete glee at the sight.
Yuji facepalms.
“They’ll take a while,” Aria says, “come on in, Yuji. Have dinner before you go. Stay over if you want. Phil and Ellie are around, too.”
“I’ll be imposing, then,” Yuji says.
They lay Fran in bed, gather around the dinner table, and it’s a fun, lively meal, a standard evening in the Digital World, as far as children sustaining themselves in a cybernetic world can manage.
“I’ve had a working theory in mind,” Phil says, “you know the bleeping system kind of proves our conversations are always recorded in databases and listened to by the automatic intelligence system at every moment?”
Yuji hums, “and with that one observation, you’ve given me enough unsettling thoughts to last a few sleepless nights. Now what?”
Phil stares in judgment.
Yuji shrugs.
Ellie giggles.
“My point ,” Phil says, “is that since everything’s getting filtered in real time… do you think that the reason we all speak coherently despite different languages is because our words are getting translated and communicated to each other in real time?”
That makes them think.
“Lambo and I are Italian, while Fran’s French,” Aria supplies.
“Ellie and I are Greek,” Phil says.
“I’m Japanese,” Yuji says, “but that’s strange. I can hear ‘Fraise’ perfectly fine. Or Mutton, or even Andante… all nicknames sound to me in the languages you’ve given to them.”
“I name my Digimon gibberish, so I think the system can’t find a language for it,” Ellie says, turning to her Biyomon, Pipiyo. “Maybe other nicknames go by that logic too.”
“Makes sense. What if it’s a phrase that doesn’t have a direct translation, like—”
“Psithurism!” Ellie chirps.
“What?”
“What?”
“Okay, so neither of you understood that,” Phil deems “Working theory, it has a very selective translation system. I wanna test the borders of this.”
“Oh dear,” Yuji sighs, “we’re not sleeping tonight.”
Aria has no idea why these literal 14-year-olds have launched into language system theorizing and worldbuilding mechanics around a dinner table, but she’s not complaining. It’s bonding.
“Okay,” says Gotsumon, “I guess we Digimon are going to go over there and talk about food or something.”
“I like meat!” Mutton the Tsunomon declares.
“I still don’t know what a Frankfurt is,” Terriermon says.
“This is a Falcomon. Its name is Teriyaki,” Lambo declares.
Aria smiles. She is at the point where she does now want to know how Lambo makes friends. She’s just glad Lambo is not getting eaten. “That’s great, honey. Never tell it what that name means, alright?”
“Okay!”
“I am Teriyaki,” the bird digimon says, dry and serious. It cradles the shorter Lambo under a wing like a father brooding. “I will protect this child with my life.”
“That’s very assuring, Teriyaki,” Aria says. “Remember the rules of the house— keep yourselves clean, and come home before dinner. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am, I will obey those rules at the cost of my life.”
“You don’t need to go that far, but your dedication is appreciated,” Aria says. “Also, make sure to check that you don’t leave anything behind.”
It is Aria that finds a stray Pagumon in her farm, having lost its memories of its life before reforming into an Egg. But it is aware that it was once evil.
“So do you want to come with me?” she asks.
Apparently, Baihumon had entrusted this Digimon with one of the other Tamers, Tomomi, but she had given up on the rebellious child, leading it to run from home.
ToyAgumon pats the Pagumon on the head, earning an offended shriek. ToyAgumon tries again, earning another frantic screech. It doesn’t stop ToyAgumon from trying a third time.
“You were planning on giving it to Fran and see if he’ll do a better job of raising it?” Aria asks. “Baihumon, Pagumon has just been Digiconverted and it is still confused about the world. I will be angry if you continue to treat it like a trial.”
Baihumon, on the other end of the Digivice, falls silent.
“...I deeply apologize.”
Aria nods. “Pagumon will be under my care. If you must witness Fran’s raising record, I’d suggest you look at Pomme, his Otamamon, instead. Please do not bother Pagumon again.”
“...yes, ma’am.”
And then she hangs up, leaving ToyAgumon and Pagumon staring at her, slack-jawed in horror.
“Did you just… lecture one of the Four Holy Beasts?” Pagumon asks, mortified.
“Four Holy Beasts are still just oversized Digimon that have gone through too many Digivolutions for their own good,” Aria insists. “They know nothing about chlidcare. They need a knock over the head, sometimes, I swear!”
“Fran! Bring Lambo-san to Packet Swamp now!”
Fran stares at him with all the energy of a man that does not want to do this, “why?”
And why is Terriermon holding Pagumon with its ears? It’s like, double-eared inception. And they’re all looking at him.
“Pagumon ate Ellie’s Star Piece so she’s sad,” Lambo says, “so we’re going to get her a bigger, prettier one to cheer her up! And we have to go to Packet Swamp to get it.”
That’s like, the last place you would expect something pretty to be in.
“Can’t you go somewhere less… gross-sounding?” Fran says, “like, Chrome Mine or something. There are jewels there.”
“No, it has to be a Star Piece from Gotsumon village! And It’s Sai that told us where to find it.”
“Also, Chrome Mine is creepy,” Terriermon adds, “have you already forgotten that it’s called the Forbidden Land for a reason?”
Oh, right. It is called the Forbidden Land. Fran genuinely has no idea why it’s called that anymore, sure there are ghosts, but it’s just a dangerous ore mine.
“I don’t wanna,” he says. “Packet Swamp is dangerous. And gross. And I’m not allowed to bring you there, that place is exclusive to Silver Ranks and above for a reason.”
Immediately every creature before him bursts into loud wails.
“Bring us there! Ellie’s so upset she’s not talking to us!”
“Let Pagumon apologize! He’s being such a good boy and wanting to own up to his mistakes! You’re not being a good boy now, Fran!”
“Bring us there, you meanie! Or at least bring Pagumon!”
“Fran, I hate you!”
“*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* you, Fran!”
Fran trudges angrily back to Adrianna’s Farm Island at three in the morning, Pagumon on his head and covered head to toe in mud and algae.
“Aria, I am not clean and I didn’t come back in time for dinner and I also left Pomme behind before I came home. Am I getting disowned?”
Aria whirls around from the table, where she had been furiously discussing search party stratagems with some other Platinum Tamers. They all stare at him, flabbergasted.
“Fran!” she calls, “where have you been?!”
Fran’s clothing is shredded in places. There weren’t real injuries, Digital World as it was, but some part of his skin was translucent and scarred, the data in them pulled apart too many times to be safe.
“ShogunGekomon stole all the Star Pieces so I had to fight him and his squad to get it back. I kept losing. Also Pomme Digivolved twice, so he’s the new ShogunGekomon leader now and he’s gonna stay there from now on,” Fran says, holding up a really shiny shard of crystal gemstone before handing it to Pagumon on his head and putting him down on the ground. “But we got this really pretty Star Piece to give to Ellie tomorrow, so it works out.”
And then Fran raises his arms just in time for Raramon to pick up the hose and fountain him down like a car, getting rid of the mud.
“...okay I’m clean now,” Fran says as Falcomon starts blowdrying him, “also just now this big ugly armor-looking guy called Alphamon tried to bully me I think but I was too tired to listen so I threw a mud ball at him and ran away. If he comes finding me please tell him I’m meeting with the fairies.”
“Ellie got kidnapped by Devimon.”
Fran wakes up and he wants to go right back to sleep. It’s barely been three hours since he left her and somehow she got kidnapped in broad digi-daylight.
“Murder,” Fran decides, getting up and putting on his shoes.
“I haven’t even told you where she is yet,” Phil says, waiting in the living room. “And you don’t need to. Aria’s on it.”
“Okay. Where are they?” Fran picks up his sunglasses and puts them on his head before working his Digivice to digivolve Sunflowmon into Lilamon. “And when’d they go?”
“They just went,” Phil says. “To Drain Tunnel— and woah! You’re at the point where you can get Fraise to Ultimate Level, huh…”
“Alright!” Fran says, picking up Lambo. “I can bring Lambomon with me.”
“Yes! Lambomon is going!” declares the child, holding onto Pagumon and— when did Tsunomon evolve into Dracmon? Well, whatever— “Staccato and Mutton’s coming too!”
“Alright, let’s go commit murder!” Fran declares, and the group hop up onto Lilamon’s side, riding on her leafy shoulders. “Devimon dies today!”
“Dies today!” echoes Lambo.
“Stop!” Phil yells, flustered as they make their way out the building like that’s the common route to go. “We’re supposed to be on standby! And Fran, you need to recover! Your particles aren’t fully rendered yet!”
“We refuse!” Lambo says.
“Wanna come too, Phil?” Fran asks. “Ah, but Ananas, Frankfurt and Teriyaki have to watch the house.”
The resounding digimon whine in protest.
“No, it’s reckless,” Phil reasons. “Get down from there before I call Yuji.”
The children pout. “Calling Yuji is unfair!”
“Actually, Yuji is already here,” says Yuji, who had apparently been sitting by the fence this whole time watching the scene. He earns shocked yelps from everyone as he calmly steps up and raises a hand to offer his opinion. “And I’m on the side of the children. Devimon has committed the cardinal sin of kidnapping Ellie. He must die.”
The crowd cheers.
“Yuji, do not enable the children!” Phil yells. “*BEEP*! I’m coming too!”
All’s well it ends well, except, it really doesn’t.
They saved Ellie, gotten a counseling session about not raiding a sewer to practice genocide, and finally, Aria sits them all down to discuss what’s going to happen next.
Whoever this Unknown-D is that’s causing all this trouble, they don’t want any of the less experienced Tamers wandering alone now.
“So now we’re going to help Staccato find out more about his past,” Aria says, patting Pagumon on the head. “Mangrove Woods, Ancient Canyon, and Chrome Mine.”
“I wanna go to the Forbidden Lands!” Lambo announces.
“No,” Phil says. “Chrome Mine is dangerous.”
“Then the both of us can go with him?” Ellie suggests. “You just need a Silver Rank above with you to go there. Phil’s Gold so Phil can bring us there. Lambo’ll behave, right?”
“Lambo will be a good boy!” he declares.
“I said no,” Phil emphasizes, going completely unheard.
“Then I’m going to…” Fran frowns, “Mangrove Woods? There are Aquan types there, right? I can get data for my farm.”
“Oh come on,” Yuji sighs, “I’m going to have to go alone into Ancient Canyon? I’ve never been there before but just look at the name, it sounds like a cesspool for a horror movie scenario…”
“You’re the strongest, so you’ll be fine,” Fran says, “if you’re not, it’s okay. I, Puddingmon, will do my best to retrieve your data and we’ll revive you in the Digi-Farm.”
Yuji sighs, “unfortunately, I, the Yujimon, does not work that way…”
“If you’ve gotten yourselves sorted out, then good luck!” Aria says, brightly, “and the rules are?”
“Keep ourselves clean, come back before dinner, and don't leave anything behind,” chorused the children, before they all parted ways toward the Transfer Gate.
And that brings mean girl Tomomi crying to their doorstep.
“Kain is such a *BEEP*head!” she wails, “he just threw me to GranKuwagamon as bait and ran off! He didn’t come back to the dorms either, so no one knows where he went!”
“Oh dear,” Aria says, setting down a mug of warm milk for everyone, “and the gates didn’t record his next movements? It’s so dangerous for him to be outside without supervision…”
She nods, sniffling as Ellie pats her on her back in comfort, “the forced Digivolution was unstable, so GranKuwagamon shattered and returned to data, which returned to his Farm Island. So now Kain doesn’t even have his partner with him, what is he doing?”
“It’s okay, he’s a buttface!” Lambo declares.
“He’s *BEEP* *BEEP*!” Tomomi whines.
“*BEEP*,” Lambo repeats.
“How on earth are you repeating that,” Phil says, “how are you even hearing it? Is the bleep function working?”
“*BEEP* ,” Ellie says, to Phil’s abject horror, “Kain’s a *BEEP*, a total not gentleman, *BEEP* head, rude as *BEEP*, right?”
“*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*,” Tomomi wails.
“Stop it!” Phil yells.
“No no, let them get it out of their system,” Aria says, “in the meantime, Andante and I will be making dinner. Phil, make sure to get Tomomi settled into the room.”
At this point, Tomomi is full on bawling, cradling Pagumon to her lap and sobbing out apologies for all her past transgressions, “I’m sorry I threw you away last time, Pagumon! I was such a terrible Tamer! I only cared about strength and raw power like some kind of cruel being! I’m a despicable person and—”
Phil is going to lose his mind.
“When is Yuji coming home? I can’t deal with this on my own!”
“...what happened to you?” Aria asks, almost afraid of the answer.
Fran comes home with Fraise degenerated into a Raramon and covered head to toe in plumage and sand, looking more frazzled than a wet chicken. His eyes are blown wide like the terminator at full alert, and he’s looking around with arms at the ready, like he’s looking for the nearest enemy to strangle.
“I fought,” he says, unhinged, “so many BIRDS.”
“Uhm… that’s great. I hope the biodiversity in Mangrove Woods is alright,” Aria says. “Anything to tell Staccato?”
Pagumon is by her feet, curiously looking for any signs of his lost memories.
To which Fran says dryly, “massacre is justified.”
And says nothing else, picking up Raramon before marching into the house, kicking off his shoes and making a beeline for the bathroom.
Everyone stares, flabbergasted.
Yuji comes home a day later to find Fran indoctrinating the baby Digimon of the farm with the knowledge of how to destroy mean people financially and socially.
“Welcome home, how was your trip!” Lambo greets him, asking to be picked up.
Yuji holds him like a cat, an arm’s length away from him. Then, finally, the big tough Platinum-ranked Tamer pulls Lambo to his chest desperately and bursts into tears, like a soldier finally attaining solace after a war.
“I got adopted by Jijimon and Babamon and barely escaped with my life,” he cries, “I never want to go out alone again, please stay with me forever, Lambo-san!”
“Oh? Oh, okay!” Lambo says, “Lambo-san will make you his underling, Lambo takes good care of his underlings!”
“That’s fine! Don’t leave me alone ever again!” Yuji pleads.
“Jijimon and Babamon did what ,” Aria comes out the door, “I told them to stop abducting children to become their grandchildren…”
“They’re repeat offenders?!” Yuji yells, hysterical at this point, “this is why I didn’t want to go there! Ancient Digimon scare me!”
“I’m sorry I didn’t warn you!” Aria says, flustered. She’s dealt with everyone else crying before, but Yuji’s the oldest in this group and he’s always been the most composed of them all, so this is a first. “Uhm… I’ll make you hot chocolate?”
“So basically, Pagumon is BlackAgumon’s reincarnation?”
Fran is very surprised to hear that. He comes home from a quest only to find the entire house walking on eggshells around him, all very unsure of how to break the news to him.
Pagumon, Staccato, who’s all and a fixture of this household at this point, turned out to be the rival Fran thought he’d lost.
Fran still remembers that day in Chrome Mine, when MachineDramon reduced DarkTyrannomon to particles in such an instant, Fran thought there was no way to ever retrieve that data. To ever retrieve that friend.
And yet.
“...I- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have looked down on you! You’re not Weakmon!” he says, stuttering nervously, “I promise I’ll change my ways. Please don’t kick me out. I have nowhere to go and— I know I was really bad before.”
Fran picks up Pagumon and lifts him into the sky.
“Let’s go play,” he decides. “With my babies in the farm.”
“What?!” Pagumon yipes, “I don’t want to be a babysitter!”
Fran is excited. It doesn’t show on his face, just like any other expression, but he’s genuinely thrilled. He throws the little POkemon into the air and catches him. He races him through the Aquan farm and plays with the training tools.
By the end of the day, Pagumon’s evolved into Lopmon via stress alone, and Aria pats him on the head as a compliment.
All’s good that things are well.
“Is it just me that thinks it’s weird how Lopmon and Terriermon are just opposing colour palettes even though you’re completely different evolution lines?” Ellie wonders, patting them both on the head.
“There are a lot of Digimon like that,” Phil says. “Get used to it.”
Location: Human world - Jura, France.
It was a rather rambunctious household they had, all living on Lady Adrianna’s Farm Island with Digimon, nearly full time. It was hard to remember sometimes that they ever lived another life outside of this place.
By the time Fran was forced to go back to the human world— there was a virus running through the system of the Digital World, and with the gates collapsing, the Platinum Tamers decided it was wiser to send every lower-ranked Tamer back home to wait it out.
He doesn’t know how long he’s been in the Digital World, but when he left it for the Human World, it was nearly daylight. He’s right where he last was, in the orphanage’s computer room, sunglasses in his hand and a computer shutting down before him.
He looks out the window and he doesn’t even remember his routine anymore.
Oh, right, he lives in an orphanage.
So he’s utterly confused, very confused, until a lady comes in, yelping in surprise at the sight of him.
“Fran!” she says, hushed but clearly furious, “what are you doing in here, you know better! If the Matron catches you—”
“...so, are you the navigation pixie AI?” he wonders. He has a feeling he’s supposed to know her name. “I think so. Hmm,” he mimes a deeply considering motion, then he punches the air in resolve. “Okay! I don’t want to listen. Bye!”
And he tucks the sunglasses back on the top of his head, spinning around and leaping outside through the window, landing in a roll. Orphanages are restrictive. They won’t let him be free.
(First, he’s got to find out the lay of the land and how to survive in it. He doesn’t have Fraise or Pomme with him, so he’ll have to figure it out along the way.)
And then he goes hustling into the treeline.
Miss Chloe stares out the window, completely mortified.
“F- Fran? What’s wrong— Where are you going?!”
Fran realizes he’s reported missing when there’s a search party out for him.
His Digivice still beams red, it’s still not safe to go back. It’s been a couple hours since daylight, so maybe a year or so in the Digital World, he’s not sure. About that much.
But the humans are overreacting so much.
“Fran. I know you’re confused but please… come back. Don’t stand there, it’s dangerous.”
Fran doesn’t understand. This waterfall is really pretty.
“I know how to take care of myself,” he says.
He doesn’t know why, but they don’t look like they believe him at all. That’s dumb, are all adults this ridiculous? Fran’s only interacted with Aria, but Aria was hardly this unreasonable.
“I’m trying to look for fairies, and they don’t show up when icky adults are around,” Fran says. “Bye bye.”
And then he leaps, straight into the waterfall.
Apparently, children here shouldn’t be out of sight for long periods of time. Good to know.
Also apparently, when his consciousness is in the Digital World, his real body actually disappears, converted into data and sent through the cybernet. He only re-emerges when he comes back again.
Usually, due to the time differences, he isn’t gone long enough to actually be gone in the eyes of the humans, though, so that’s fine. As long as he’s in the Digital World, he’ll be fine to frolic in the woods and go wherever he wants for as long as he wants.
(A day in the digital world is a minute in the human world, and all that.)
Unfortunately for him though, the human world doesn’t trust him with autonomy anymore.
He gets put in custody of an eccentric grandmother in the corner of the village, cited as the village troublemaker, and people are unfortunately legally obliged to make sure he doesn’t die on their watch.
Well, that works out. Grandma’s very hands-off about his care, since she’s old.
Apparently, everyone thinks he’s got amnesia. That’s dumb, he remembers mostly everything that happened in the Digital World, it’s just been so long since he was ever in the Human World. It’s reasonable to forget unnecessary things, right?
Also, this world doesn’t have fairies, that sucks.
“What are you making, Granny?” Fran asks.
“Well, my eyes are bad, you see, Francesca dear,” Grandma says. “So I wanted to make you a hat. A big, noticeable hat. So I can always find you in a crowd. Would you like that, my dear?”
Fran is mildly surprised.
She’s making a very huge hat. It’s big enough to be a mascot head, and the material she’s using— it’s gone from fabrics to plaster for structure now— really sells the idea that her idea of a hat is very different from Fran’s.
Fran misses his Digimon.
The red light on his Digivice just isn’t giving him any all clears to go back yet. He wonders how Pomme, his Otamamon turned Gekomon turned ShogunGekomon is doing. He left that little one in the swamps to live their own life, promising to come back every once in a while, but alas, here he is.
“Granny, can you make my hat look like an apple?”
Location: Digital world.
Fran finally returns to the Digital World and it seems a year has passed inside.
It’s not a big amount of time to the people inside it, apparently. It’s barely any amount of time for them to have dealt with a series of Virus infections that affected and destroyed a whole continent of field data. Apparently, the Four Holy Beasts were also corrupted in the process, and the Platinum Tamers went through much effort to save them and bring them back to Central.
“Unfortunately, it’s far from over,” ClavisAngemon informs them as they gather in the main hall. “Tamers are getting brainwashed to Unknown D’s side.”
And somehow, they thought it was a good idea to call more Tamers here?
“...I understand your concerns, but that is why we’ve only permitted access for Gold Tamers and above for now,” ClavisAngemon says. “The Platinum Tamers have been taken down, and we need all the backup we can get.”
Fran frowns at that.
“Wait… what do you mean, the Platinum Tamers have been taken down?”
Phil’s very confused. Tomomi is similarly befuddled. All three of them signed into the system last night only to find the farm was empty and Aria and Yuji were absent. It couldn’t be… right?
“That’s the concern,” ClavisAngemon says. “Aria and Yuji are currently missing in action. We have a lead on where they are, but unfortunately, we are fairly sure they’ve been compromised.”
The three could only stare back blankly at that revelation.
“They’re compromised… meaning they’re probably brainwashed… right?” Tomomi whispers to the other two.
“Most likely…” Phil says, “this Unknown-D character seems really intent on destroying the reputation of humans, so, of course they’ll use humans against us.”
“If they’re our enemies now…” Fran folds his arms to his chest, “that means we have to fight Aria and Yuji?”
Silence.
Then, “not me,” Tomomi declares. “Absolutely not!”
“Nuh-uh,” Phil says, “I’m a researcher, not a fighter.”
Which left Fran holding onto his Digivice, to make the call on their next movements. Their Digimon stood around, looking upon them with an array of apprehension.
“I have a very important question,” Fran says. “Has anyone ever seen Aria digivolve Andante before?”
Aria’s partner, ToyAgumon, was always by their side, helping around the house. It was quite literally their house nanny. Aria doesn’t do Tamer things often, usually devoting herself to Farmwork, so it was hard to imagine her having the experience and expertise of a Tamer half a step away from the ranks of a King.
Neither Phil nor Tomomi have seen it before.
“Okay, next question,” Fran says, sounding even more miserable than before, “does anyone know what level Yuji’s raised Sai to?”
Again, neither Phil nor Tomomi had an appropriate response to that. They could only pale just a little further, holding back the urge to utterly die inside at the increasing thought of needing to face them.
“Right,” Fran huffs. He picks up his Raramon and evolves her up to Sunflowmon, checking his Digivice. “For now, I’m going to raise Fraise up to Lotusmon. Then I’ll probably go find Pomme… What about you guys?”
Tomomi grimaces, but obediently, she turns around and crouches down to her Betamon. “Okay… I’ll try to get Betty to GigaSeadramon… I’ll need to grind the rest of my team up to Mega, or Ultimate at least… that’s the only way we’ll possibly stand a chance.”
Phil sighs. “We all need a training montage or we’ll get eviscerated into data particles the second we fight,” he says, devastated. “Everyone meet us back here in three days. Come with war paint on your cheeks.”
And thus, the world’s most demotivated cheer of resolve was shared, before the three parted ways.
“Ah hold on,” ClavisAngemon calls toward them, “if you will be training, you may want to enlist the aid of Lambo as well. He hasn’t gone home this whole time, and has been living with Jijimon and Babamon in Ancient Canyon to pursue training.”
There is horrified silence among the trio.
“He is WHERE?!”
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?!?”
So Frankfurt, cute little Terriermon, is now a terrifying cannon-wielding mech. Rapidmon is pretty terrifying in its own right, but nothing could have prepared Fran for the sight that was Matadormon.
“...Mutton digivolved, too?” Fran stares at the humanoid Digimon, flappy red fabric shrouding its confusing figure, briefly revealing lines of deadly javelins that made up its upper limbs. “The Digivice says it's a noble, blood-sucking martial artist. I am afraid,” Fran says, face completely emotionless and voice utterly dry.
“Mutton wanted to be scary!” Lambo says, like that explains everything.
“So, where’s Teriyaki?” Fran sighs. Looks like Lambo’ll be an essential asset to this upcoming battle. What an unexpected ally, and he’s like, five.
(How long exactly has Lambo been five years old again? Well, whatever. Fran doesn’t really know how long he’s been ten years old either. They really should leave the digital world more often…)
“He likes being really high up in the sky, so I don’t know,,” Lambo says, and then leads them outside to point at the sky. “He’s Vadadidodudaruruu— ru? —mon now.”
“A what.”
“Va-da-di-da, da-di-daaaa,” Lambo pulls the last note out really long, “I don’t remember. Teriyaki’s easier to remember.”
“A Varodurumon,” Rapidmon corrects.
Fran’s jaw drops.
[Varodurumon is an Ancient, Holy Bird Digimon with six wings that glow with celestial light. It inhabits the stratosphere, and is mythically known as a guardian of the sky.]
(What on earth has Lambo been doing this whole time to become the legendary main character of this universe? Did this five-year-old seriously raise a deity? And he named it Teriyaki?)
”...Lambo-san,” Fran crouches down, “please take me in as your underling.”
Lambo’s eyes glimmer with excitement.
“Yeah, of course! Follow this great Lambo!” Lambo declares, brightly, “Lambo-san is going to go find Yuji now. My underling got in trouble when I wasn’t around! What a weakling! But that’s okay, Lambo-san is strong. Let’s go save him!”
Let it be known that humans, barely preteens and teenagers, are uncomfortably tiny around Mega-level Digimon. Lambo is but a speck amongst the shoulders of Rapidmon, and it was very alarming to see Tomomi lay comfortably across a GigaSeadramon’s fin as if it was a bed.
Fran had no idea how to feel about Lotusmon. She’s huge, and gorgeous, and everything of the fairy he’d dreamed to meet. It’s hard to call her ‘Fraise’ and childishly feed her strawberries when she looks like she’s dressed up for the red carpets.
“Want to ride on my shoulders?” Lotusmon offers. “The Core Field will be the toughest field we’ve ever had to traverse.”
The better language skills were also quite trippy.
“You’re excited,” Fran says.
Lotusmon smiles, even when her eyes aren’t visible.
“You’re not, Fran?” Lotusmon asks, picking up Fran and placing him on her shoulders. “That’s okay! Let’s go up and fight Unknown-D! It’s okay, because if we get wiped out, Ellie can regenerate our data again in the farm, and we can do it all over again.”
Fran pouts, holding onto her head. “Humans don’t reconvert, you know… and if you get reborn, you’ll lose your memories.”
Lotusmon beams, “but I’ll always love strawberries!”
Fran whines, “you love strawberries more than me? This fairy is a glutton!”
“No! I’m Fraise!”
They step into the Transfer Gate together, and from there, it’s time to traverse the most arduous field of the entirety of the Digital World— the central processing unit, the land of raw data and fibreware— Core Field.
Tomomi stays back to take care of the first Tamer they come across. Phil ends up facing Yuji in battle.
(Or, actually, Fran and Lambo kind of shove him into the line of fire and run as fast as they can, because Yuji is terrifying when he’s staring at you like garbage.)
“What the— Sai! Listen to me! Stop attacking me!” Phil yelps, dodging an attack from the Cyberdramon. “And– wait, Yuji, do not! Don’t you dare! I can see the Digivice! Do not!”
Yuji digivolves Cyberdramon into Justimon.
“*BEEP* YOU YUJI!”
“Actually, wait, leave it to me!” Tomomi declares, having defeated her own opponent and came as backup, “Yuji! If you keep being this difficult, I’m going to tell your little sister about you being mean to me!”
Yuji pauses.
“...that actually worked,” Phil says.
“I went around town when I was in the human world the past day,” Tomomi says, “I knew I’d seen him around before, turns out we live in the same neighbourhood. And hear this, his little sister’s my bestie!”
“What?” Phil gawks.
“Yeah!” Tomomi turns back on Yuji, who’s startlingly quiet, his eyes faded and dull from the mind-control still plaguing him. “So I’m gonna tell on you to Haru! You don’t want her to hate you, right?”
Yuji raises his hand, Digivice held toward Justimon.
And then he digivolves Sai once more, into Fujinmon, the Ancient Wind God Digimon.
Yuji raises his hand toward his opponents once more, but Phil and Tomomi don’t stay to watch the show. Paling sheet white, they immediately scream, spinning around to start running with all of their strength.
“RIGHT!” Tomomi yells, “now that I think about it, I think his relationship with his little sister is like super strained or something! Daddy issues! I’m sorry! I forgot!”
“DON’T FORGET!” Phil yells back. “We’re going to die!”
“YUJI!” Tomomi wails, crying at this point, pleading desperately as they run, “stop! I’m seriously going to tell Haru! And then my big brother too! And you’ll remember this! I promise! My big bro’s the vice leader of the head honcho of town so you won’t like it if I tell him! You’ll get chased out of Namimori if I say so!”
“Your big brother’s a gangster?!” Phil realizes, gathering the grains of her incoherent rambling, “that explains SO much!”
“Rude!” Tomomi snaps.
Yuji chases.
In the distance, Fran and Lambo silently pray for their wellbeing.
“Don’t be relieved,” Fran says, “we’re going to fight Aria. We’re also going to die.”
Lambo nods, spending the moment just taking in the miseries of life.
Honestly, why are children in charge of saving the universe again? Ah right, because the Digimon are focusing on trying not to kill the adult humans who were mind-controlled. Thank god, there’s an actual reason.
“Ah- Aria!” Fran calls out, from afar, “we come in peace!”
Aria, her eyes glazed over with a startling amount of cold animosity, turns to stare at her apparent enemies. They both hold their breaths as Aria tried to determine if they were a threat to their cause.
Lambo squeaks at the sight before them.
ToyAgumon, Andante’s, final form is a Craniamon. A large, Holy Knight Digimon that wields a shield on one arm and a double-sided lance in the other.
Beside that is Antylamon, which is what became of Staccato the Pagumon. On a normal occasion Fran would want to fight him, but not now. Not when Aria’s actively being the current strongest Platinum-ranked Tamer that she is.
They would get decimated immediately, it wouldn’t even be a fight.
“Impossible,” Fran says, meekly, ducking behind the sim-card shaped obstacle despite knowing that Aria’s already seen them both. “This is impossible.”
“Impossible, impossible,” Lambo says. “Lambo’s gonna cry. I gotta tolerate it. I can tolerate it. Lambo’s not gonna cry.”
Fran feels like crying, too.
They trained their Digimon up, and Lambo has the power of a biblically-accurate angel at his beck and call, but a mere instance of Aria glowering at them has sent the fear of Jesus straight into their wires.
Yeah, no. Not doing this today, Digidestined or not.
“Do you think Aria will… you know, just, not fight us if we cry?” Fran wonders, desperate for any excuse to let his emotion burst at the seams of his sanity, “Aria loves kids. We are kids. The solution to that is to be kids. Right?”
Lambo stares at him, trying to understand the train of thought.
“...so, Lambo can cry?” Lambo asks.
Fran takes a deep breath. He nods.
And then they start crying as loud and ugly as they can both manage.
Unknown-D is Alphamon. Surprise.
And Alphamon’s methods were maybe, perhaps, very wrong. You know maybe mind-controlling all the children and adults was not the right way to go about achieving an understanding.
That is what Alphamon realizes as Aria marches up to him, two kids bawling into her shoulders as she carries them with all the love of a mother and all the fury of Satan in her eyes.
And she stops right before Alphamon.
“Kain,” she calls.
The mind-controlled human behind Alphamon instantly snaps out of it, staggering back with weakness. “Wha— what was I— wait, no… I… huh?”
“Come here, I’m not mad at you,” Aria chides gently.
And Kain’s face scrunches up with emotion, his eyes tearing up with desperation as he winds clumsily around Alphamon, before shoving himself behind the older lady.
“I— I’m sorry I…”
“Go down through that Transfer Gate,” she says. “Yuji, Phil, and Tomomi are down there, so you can give the rest of your explanation to them. Can you do that for me, Kain?”
“Y- Yes, Lady Adrianna. I’ll do that.” And he leaves, making himself scarce.
Alphamon stands strong. He cannot fear. He cannot fear a mere mortal human creature like this one! It is just a weak human, and he does not need their existence in the Digital World! That’s right, Aria is just a—
“Alphamon,” Aria’s voice is cold enough to freeze the fires of hell over, “you have three minutes to plead your case.”
And Alphamon crumbles immediately.
“I- I’m very sorry,” he drops to his knees, “I just wanted to awaken Chronomon. You know, the Legendary Digimon… because I didn’t like humans. And I wanted to prove that we didn’t need the help of humans to be superior in every way to them and— eep.”
Aria sighs, deeply disappointed.
“You know what,” she says, walking over to her Craniamon and Antylamon before passing the children in her arms to them, “Andante, Staccato, sit over here and take care of Lambo and Fran.”
And then she turns back to Alphamon, cracking her knuckles.
“Alphamon, you and me are going to fight right now,” she declares, reaching to her head to tie her hair up, before plucking an orange pacifier from under her shirt to the front of it.
“What?” Alphamon says, conflicted, “I do not believe that is wise. While I acknowledge, humans may have a factor in aiding Digivolution, but Tamers such as yourselves realistically do not have the ability to stand up to us in combat—”
He falls silent when Aria takes out a gun.
The gun lights up with orange fire, and Aria’s eyes gleam with murderous intent.
“Alright,” she says, as Alphamon scrambles to his feet, reaching for his sword, “anytime you’re ready. You can come at me.”
It was honestly anticlimactic, how it all ended. Aria defeats Alphamon with a gun, of all things, but Chronomon gets corrupted anyways and awakens in Dark Mode, so a fight is required either way.
The Digital World is nearly torn apart in the wake of that battle, but they win. They needed the help of the Four Holy Beasts, wild Digimon, and every Tamer in the world at the moment, but they scraped by, and Chronomon blissfully goes back to sleep to heal, to be awoken someday in the future, hopeful in Holy Mode this time.
And then, everyone goes home. Alphamon is sentenced to service time, the Digital World slowly builds its way back to normal.
Lady Adrianna's Farm Island is full of children and Digimon again today.
“So Aria is the Tamer King now? Do we have to call her your majesty?”
Fran cuddles with Fraise, a Raramon once again. Dinner was a large party, a campfire banquet in the farmlands, and yet, it still felt like home.
“No Fran, please don’t call me that,” Aria says. “Though, I wonder what I should do with my new authority. Perhaps I should order you lot to go back to the human world and spend some time with your real families. Give me a break, for once.”
“But Aria, I just got disowned,” Fran says, ignoring Aria’s question of ‘what’ to add that, “also the human world doesn’t have fairies, so…”
“I’m sure you’ll find one someday, Fran,” Aria says, “now can you repeat the part about you getting disowned? Elaborate on that, please?”
Fran does not.
“I don’t want to go home,” Yuji says, sulking. “There’s no point anyways. Dad’s probably out on a case with Haru anyways. His detective work is more important than family.”
“Then, wanna come to my place?” Tomomi says, pointing at herself. “I’ve got games!”
“This is a game,” Yuji gestures around them. “Also your brother scares me. I am not coming anywhere near the Kusakabe house, no offense, Tomomi.”
“Then I’ll come to your house? I know where the Miura house is” Tomomi suggests, “actually, why does Haru get to be with your dad on cases, anyways? Isn’t his detective work dangerous for people that are untrained? Is she allowed on crime scenes?”
“Hmm? Ah,” Yuji says, “she's trained. Do you know what Secret Dobermen are?”
“No?”
“Oh, I do,” Kain mutters. “I live in France— home of the Secret Dobermen.”
Yuji sighs deeply. “Do all of them have the ability to predict your future actions via the rhythm of your footsteps or is that just my weird dog sister?”
“Yuji. Yuji, my kindred,” Kain says, “wait till you meet the ones that can learn everything you did for the past twenty-four hours by the remnant smell of coffee on your clothes.”
“Dude, do you live in hell?”
“Wait, no fair! I wanna meet up with you guys in real life too!” Ellie says, cutting into the chat circle with a stick of toasted marshmallow, “Tomomi, can I go to your house too?”
“Don’t you two live on opposite sides of the world?” Kain mutters. “I mean, me too, but…”
“If you’re in France, you can go find Fran,” Phil says.
Kain grimaces viscerally. “I don’t think Fran wants me to find him.”
Fran nods. “I don’t think Fran wants to be found either.”
“Oh! Lambo knows!” the child beams, “I can go to Aria’s house to play! Lambo and Aria are both in Italy!”
“No, Lambo dear,” Aria says, “I don't think I’ll be home for a while longer. You know I don’t like being in the human world.”
“Ehhh?! No fair, Aria! If you’re going to chase us into the human world for a bit, you gotta come with us too!” come the collective whines from every child in the vicinity.
Aria chuckles at the sight, warm in her heart.
“I really spoil you guys, don’t I?” she says. “Alright, let’s all stay in this world a little longer. How about we make a schedule, so everyone has to go home eventually for a healthy amount of time? Any suggestions?”
“Yes! We keep tabs on each other who live in the same area,” Tomomi says.
“And we make a group chat!”
They’re a bunch of children, living in another world to escape reality. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe it’s not. Maybe their desire to stay in this world forever is harmful, maybe it’s an addiction that should be fixed.
They were losing things in reality by staying here too long. Experiences, credibility, love, family— but here, they also gained the same things. Was it immaterial, to cling to a relationship that only exists in the cybernetic world? Was it ridiculous, to hold such importance to people who they’ve never met in real life?
Perhaps. But that doesn’t matter.
They thrived here. Here, Aria could live longer than the numbered days in her calendar. Here, Fran thrived, living his dreams, frolicking freely in the woods where no one judged and no one leashed him. Here, Lambo is dearly beloved, treasured, and his charisma is admirable. Here, they had family, they had love, and they had adventure.
Their lives revolved around this plane of existence called the Digital World, and maybe, just a little longer, it was alright to stay. No one’s stopping them, and no one has the heart to. They’ll live here, longer than they should, and grow up, slower than they should.
This place was Neverland.
And here, the lost children are free.