Chapter Text

Profiles Important to Chapter 1:

Joe crossed his arms and surveyed the room surrounding him. He nodded slowly as his eyes scanned the various potted plants and Ikebana arrangements set up in vases and trays of different sizes all around him. Gomamon, who crawled up onto a reception counter behind him, also crossed his arms and bobbed his head up and down approvingly, though he’d already made up his mind that he would agree with whatever Joe liked about the room.

Sora approached Joe and handed him a tiny greenish-blue succulent in the smallest flower pot he’d ever seen.

He glanced over at the open door to his office and sighed, his shoulders drooping.

Joe rubbed the back of his neck.

Gomamon smacked his flippers up and down on the reception desk.

Sora covered her mouth with her hand and chuckled.

The doctor turned to Sora and gave her a pleading look.

She smiled warmly at Joe and Gomamon.

Joe matched her smile and then turned to inspect a large vase in the corner of the waiting room. If Joe had to compare these flowers to something he was familiar with from his world, they looked like giant orchids, colored pink and white. Other than the large size, the biggest difference could be seen when you looked at them up close– both the petals and the leaves glittered faintly in the sun. Even the air around the flowers seemed to glow, giving off a visual effect not unlike bioluminescence.

Sora was grinning, indicating to Joe that she knew the jig was up.

Gomamon huffed indignantly and Joe ignored him. The red-haired woman followed him to the same corner and gently touched one of the branches.

The tall man rounded on his partner Digimon.

The Digimon rolled over onto his back and waved an arm back and forth.

Joe went back to inspecting the flowers.

Sora nodded next to him.

Piyomon, who up until a few minutes ago had been helping Joe hang up curtains, leaned her head against Sora’s leg.

Sora rubbed Piyomon’s head affectionately.

The two humans sat down across from each other in two cushioned waiting-room chairs. Piyomon jumped up onto the reception counter and sat on the edge, swinging her legs back and forth. Gomamon flipped back onto his stomach and rested his chin on his claws.

Joe touched one of the soft turquoise curtains on the window behind him. According to Sora, people found the color soothing. There was no way of knowing if Digimon also found the color turquoise soothing, but Joe was willing to give anything a try if it meant his patients didn’t attack him with tentacles and fireballs.

The doctor’s eyebrows rose. He pointed to the fabric in his hands.

Sora felt heat rise to her cheeks. She waved a hand back and forth in dismissal.

Sora shrugged.

Sora chuckled to herself at the memory of Taichi shaking her computer mouse until the rollerball fell out. Joe laughed along with her, the smile lighting up his face. Sora felt blessed to see such an openly happy expression on her friend’s face, especially given how stressed he used to be all the time. Finally finishing school was doing wonders for Joe.

Joe rolled his eyes at Gomamon.

The red-haired woman felt warmth spread across her chest.

Sora’s gaze fell on a long, white doctor’s coat hanging on a hook next to the sliding glass entrance.

Joe grinned bashfully and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Before he could thank her for her kind words, Gomamon butt in–

Gomamon pointed his clawed flipper at his partner.

Sora gave her friend a sympathetic smile. He shook his head and looked down at his shoes with a frown.

Sora hummed in thought. Joe tilted his head to the side and looked at her curiously.

Sora looked over at Gomamon, who was nodding his head vigorously in agreement.

He fiddled with his glasses again and looked Sora in the eyes.

Joe reached into his pocket and pulled out his Digivice. He ran a thumb over the screen to clear it of smudges.

Sora looked over at her own Digivice, attached to the strap of her bag.

Piyomon cleared her throat, and Sora gave her a sidelong glance.

She was relatively sure Piyomon wouldn’t say anything about this until they were alone, but just to be on the safe side, Sora kept the conversation about Joe.

Joe smiled at her and shook his head.

Gomamon slapped his flipper down on the counter again.

The doctor scrunched up his nose at Gomamon.

Joe groaned and threw up his hands.

Joe’s eyes bugged out.

Sora chuckled.

Joe looked like he could cry.

He stopped talking in the middle of his sentence, and his face fell.

Joe ran a hand through his hair, messing it up more than it had already been after spending all afternoon rearranging waiting room furniture.

He patted the arm of the chair he was sitting in.

Sora looked around at the flower vases and curtains. They’d had to make four trips back and forth through the computer in order to get it all into the Digital World.

Joe sighed.

They sat silently in their chairs for a while, looking out the glass front door at the trees blowing in the wind. The clinic was situated in an old, abandoned port town on File Island. Trees, wild shrubs, and tall grass had reclaimed the land, but Digimon had long since moved on to other nearby villages. In spite of how empty it was, the old town was pretty centrally located, with an industrial city maybe 20 miles away and a few other villages scattered in between. And if you stood out in the vast, open savanna just outside of town, Infinity Mountain was visible in the distance, with the Primary Village at its base.

Joe had been wary of the place at first, assuming that at any given time, Digimon could come back and claim the town as theirs. But after Taichi set up his embassy in one of the other empty buildings, Joe felt better about establishing his clinic here. He figured it was best for the first humans living in the Digital World to inhabit the same area– they were less disruptive that way.

Sora’s current life didn’t allow for many trips to the Digital World, so getting to be a part of the setup of Joe’s clinic had been an appealing adventure. She’d helped with Taichi’s embassy too, six months ago, helping him pick out furniture for his office, lobby and conference room.

Suddenly, an idea came to her.

Her friend nodded, rubbing his chin.

Joe stood up and went over to the instant hot water machine in the corner of the room. Sora pulled out her phone and texted Joe the contact information for Hiroaki Ishida, so he could inquire about the van. Just as she was about to close her messages app, a text came in from her own father.

She read the text from her father:

She looked up at Joe, who was rummaging around a cabinet for some mugs and tea.

Sora gave him a confused look.

He dropped a coffee mug– luckily it was made of plastic. Gomamon leapt off the counter and picked it up.

Sora shrugged and shook her head.

Sora slapped her forehead.

He rubbed the back of his neck.

Sora looked away from him and began picking at the sleeve of her sweater. She sucked in a deep breath and sighed through her nose.

Gomamon tapped Joe on the leg, and he looked down to see his Digimon partner holding up a mug of tea between his clawed flippers. Joe bent over to pick it up, then crossed the room and held it out to Sora.

The red-haired woman looked up and locked eyes with her friend. She accepted the mug of tea and smiled warmly.

The sound of the automatic doors sliding open startled all four of them, though thankfully Sora kept a firm grip on her tea. No sooner had the doors parted when a Phantomon swooped in, followed by half a dozen Bakemon. The group of Bakemon seemed to be carrying one of their own, who was laying down and moaning ghoulishly.

Joe started to back away, but then he swallowed the lump in his throat, took a deep breath, and slowly moved toward the group of ghost Digimon. Piyomon jumped off the counter to join Gomamon, and they both took a protective stance in front of Joe.

The doctor shook his head and held out his hand to halt the two partner Digimon.

He approached the Phantomon.

His voice quivered, and Sora didn’t blame him. Of all the Digimon to appear at this very moment, it just had to be some of the most frightening ones.

Joe glanced over at the Bakemon being held up. It was writhing in pain and rolling back and forth. Every time it howled particularly loudly, the other 5 Bakemon shuffled underneath it, causing the hurt Bakemon to almost fall several times.

He moved past the Phantomon to get a better look at the hurt Digimon in question.

Phantomon circled around the group of Bakemon and came to a stop in front of Joe. The doctor leapt backwards to put some distance between himself and the floating ghost with a giant scythe.

The phantom Digimon’s deep, echoey voice bounced off the walls of the waiting room, making it seem like it was surrounding them on all sides. Its tone was threatening, and Sora noticed Piyomon inching toward her.

Shaking slightly, Joe waved his hands back and forth.

He swallowed.

Joe took another deep breath and steeled himself. He balled his fists, his nails digging into the palms of his hands.

Startled by the human talking back to it, Phantomon surprisingly moved back around to the other side of the group of Bakemon, giving Joe an unimpeded view of the patient.

The Bakemon turned its head to look at Joe and moaned, sending a shiver down Sora’s spine.

The Bakemon opened its mouth and Joe craned his neck to get a closer look at it. Sure enough, instead of the usual eight sharp teeth, this Bakemon only had seven. One of the other Bakemon tentatively handed what must have been the detached tooth Gomamon, who crawled up onto the doctor’s shoulder to hand it to him.

Phantomon swooped over to Joe and Gomamon and growled:

Joe grimaced at the closeness of the Phantomon, and Gomamon looked ready to send a wave of fish barreling into the phantom Digimon.

Joe asked the other five Bakemon to move the injured one into one of the exam rooms. As he passed his doctor’s coat on the rack, he grabbed it and put it on. Joe and Gomamon followed the Bakemon into the room, with Phantomon at their heels.

As soon as she was alone with Piyomon, Sora moved to a chair closer to the room everybody had entered. She leaned her head in close to the door until she could make out Joe’s discussion with the patient.

Joe sighed.

Sora didn’t consider herself a scaredy-cat by any means, but she was definitely wary of ghosts. Bakemon in particular was one of Sora’s least favorite Digimon. As she listened in to Joe’s conversation, she was reminded of their past experiences with Bakemon: being held captive in the church, and the mind-over-matter chant that helped weaken them; being held prisoner at the convention center; watching as her mom and Piyomon disguised themselves in order to save her…

She heard some commotion coming from the exam room.

The red-haired woman giggled.

Sora’s phone chimed with a reminder that she needed to get back home for a call with her mother at 5:30. If she wanted to have time to visit Taichi while she was here, she’d better leave soon.

She stood up and carefully approached the open exam room doorway. Joe had a curtain pulled around himself and Bakemon, but she could still see Phantomon pacing back and forth across the room, with the five other Bakemon following in a line behind it.

Joe pulled the curtain back a little and peeked around it. His hair was a mess and his glasses askew, but Joe’s expression seemed confident.

Sora smiled warmly and excused herself from the room.

After Sora and Piyomon left through the front door, Joe banished Phantomon and his five other Bakemon henchmen to the waiting room. Gomamon followed them to make sure they didn’t get into any trouble.

And of course, no sooner had the ghost Digimon filed into the waiting room, when one of the Bakemon knocked into the tiny succulent pot sitting on the counter. Gomamon slid across the floor and caught it in his claws just before it hit the ground.

Thankfully, the plant and the dirt inside the pot seemed fine. When Gomamon held the pot over his head to inspect it for damages, he noticed a tiny post-it note stuck to the bottom.

Gomamon quickly brought the succulent into Joe’s messy office to save it from any more Bakemon attacks. He pushed some stacks of paper aside to make room for it, then set the plant down in a place of honor in the center of Joe’s desk.

On the edge of town just a quarter-mile from Taichi’s embassy, was a vast, sun-baked savanna. Local Digimon had once called it the “Gear Savanna”, which was only a partially accurate name now, as the gear designs etched in the dirt had disappeared when Devimon was destroyed. The dozens of unconnected utility poles were also long gone. Sora wondered if they had disappeared during one of the many resets of the Digital World, or if those too had been related to the first evil Digimon they fought..

If you stood in just the right spot, Mount Miharashi was visible in the distance, with Infinity Mountain towering over it at the very center of File Island. Sora had been coming to the Digital World for 15 years, and it still amazed her how drastically the climate could change from area to area. On File Island, one could theoretically have one foot in a savanna and one foot in a lush forest, with only a day’s walk to a tropical beach or an industrial city.

She could tell herself she wanted to visit Mount Miharashi, but Sora had a sinking feeling in the pit of her heart telling her that this was something she would never get around to. Trekking around the Digital World was an 11-year-old Sora kind of thing, and connecting herself to this place as an adult was difficult . She wasn’t like Taichi or Joe– she had too many strings tying her to the human world.

Not too far from where Sora and Piyomon were standing, she noticed a large field of grass– the well taken care of kind you would see in a park or suburban neighborhood. A healthy, bright green patch of grass in a savanna was odd, but the entire Digital World was strange to begin with.

Maybe this grassy field was here for a reason– so many destinations in the Digital World were. Maybe it appeared because Sora had appeared, and there was some sort of meaning to it that was yet to be revealed.

Sora smiled down at the paper gift bag she held in her hands.

Piyomon wrapped her wing around Sora’s leg, and she felt a sharp pang of guilt in her heart.

She smiled sadly down at her partner, who was staring up at Sora with concern in her wide, blue eyes.

Sora tilted her head in confusion.

Piyomon squeezed Sora’s leg.

The red-haired woman set down her bags and bent down to pick up her Digimon partner. She pulled Piyomon close to her chest.

Taichi’s heart sank. He hadn’t seen Sora in months . Not since she’d helped him decorate the embassy lobby.

Reasons to visit his friends in the human world were few and far between– they were the ones who always ended up visiting him. That was the aspect of living in the Digital World that made Taichi feel the most isolated.

The brown-haired man glared at Agumon and poked his partner in the stomach.

Taichi picked up the gift bag and looked inside. A layer of tissue paper hid its contents, but Taichi noticed a small, folded note tucked into the corner. He pulled the note out of the bag and unfolded it. The first line was written in blue, and read:

Underneath, in black ink, was an addendum:

Taichi reached back into the gift bag and removed the tissue paper, revealing quite an unexpected gift.

He set the bag aside and grinned down at the soccer ball in his hands. Then Taichi began dribbling it on his knees. The cut of his suit pants made movement a little difficult, but the instant feeling of relief was worth the discomfort.