-Chapter 36-

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<Digital World Piximon's Pocket Dimension>

The Chosen Children quickly followed BlackGarurumon and Piximon into the interior of the house, said structure appeared to be splendidly cared for down to the smallest detail. Flowers of various colors bursting with vitality, the crystal clear water of a pond with koi fish inside, and a path made of rocks made the whole place have an air of tranquility and peace that the children had not felt in a long time.

BlackGarurumon separated from the group, leaving Piximon in charge of the Children to Sora's relief. It seemed that the wolf was upset with the children for some reason.

When Sora asked Piximon why, Piximon simply told her to be patient with him, as he was not very friendly with people he just met.

Finally, they all entered the beautiful traditional japanese house, looking in awe at the neatness of the interior. Joe couldn't help but admire how everything seemed to be perfectly clean and tidy to a ridiculous degree.

Piximon led the group into a large room that connected to the courtyard. Once inside the room, the children couldn't help but feel nostalgic. The walls gave off a pleasant and familiar smell of wood, while the floor was made of classic tatami.

Inside, the room was almost completely empty except for a few blue futons placed on the floor.

"Finally!" Mimi grabbed Palmon by the hand before throwing herself against her futon, the energetic girl let out an exaggerated satisfied sigh as she tossed back and forth along with her Digimon. "Thanks God!"

"It reminds me of my grandparents' house..." Matt murmured wistfully as he looked around the room carefully with a smile, Gabumon for his part, touched the futon curiously before lying down on it, enjoying the comfortable texture the mattress provided.

Piximon watched as all the children relaxed in the room with a mischievous smile, they seemed to suspect nothing of the surprise he had in store for them tomorrow. "They will stop the night here! Pi! If you need anything just shout my name! Pi!"

And with that announcement, the little fairy disappeared with a small flash of light.

Izzy wondered what more tricks the fairy had up his sleeve, the boy had completely forgotten to register Piximon in his Digivice, but he had serious doubts about Piximon's abilities, as he doubted that creating portals and disappearing were common for Digimons.

"What are you thinking, Izzy?" asked Tentomon with his head bowed, pulling the boy out of his head.

Izzy scratched his head sheepishly. "Oh, not much, just something I need to check tomorrow."

As Izzy and Tentomon spoke, Sora fixed her gaze on the normally cheerful and loud boy, who was unusually quiet, and she couldn't see that usual cheerfulness in his eyes.

Tai's eyes met Sora's and the two stared at each other for a second before the goggle boy frowned at her, turned away and wrapped his blanket around himself.

Sora opened her mouth only to close it again with a sigh, she wasn't good at comforting people, and she didn't want to hurt Tai even more than the words BlackGarurumon already had.

Although the group didn't want to admit it the usual antics between Tai and Agumon were missed. It was as if there was a void in the group that they all deliberately ignored but knew was there and that, as much as Tai wants to play hard to get, they would need to talk to him sooner or later.

...Death...Nail...

A shudder shook Sora at the thought of Tai's easily excitable Digimon now turned into that thing.

Turning her head, Sora looked at Matt who was preparing to sleep along with Gabumon. She wanted to talk to the blond boy about Tai, but she felt that if she directly brought up the subject Matt would simply go back to confronting Tai directly, and she didn't think that was the best solution right now.

To be honest, she herself didn't understand the friendship Matt and Tai had.

They were always fighting and arguing over the slightest slip up, but there were times when they would joke and help each other out like good friends.

She remembered how her mom once told her that the simplicity with which the boys made friends was complex in itself.

Shaking her head to get out of her head, Sora approached the blond. "Hey Matt, how are you? I wanted to talk about something..."

"BlackGarurumon doesn't give you a good feeling, does he?" Matt asked as he barely contained a yawn.

"Wha-? H-Huh... yeah, I guess so" Sora blinked twice before hesitantly speaking. This wasn't the topic of conversation he was hoping for, but now he was curious to know Matt's opinion of his hosts.

Especially when one of them said some nasty things right after they met.

With that in mind, Sora decided to play along with the blond. "It's hard to trust them, isn't it?"

Matt closed his eyes for a moment as he sat cross-legged. He seemed to be thinking deeply about something before opening his eyes. "I won't deny it, but I think we can trust them more than Gennai. I mean, BlackGarurumon basically said he hates us, and that was pretty sincere if you ask me."

"Trust them more than Gennai?" Sora repeated raised a confused eyebrow. "What about Gennai?"

"This is something I've been thinking about since we met him..." Matt frowned as he shot a sidelong glance at Tai. "Don't you think it's strange that right after defeating Devimon he shows up announcing that our destiny is to save the world from darkness? I mean, why didn't he talk to us from the beginning? Did he think we wouldn't beat Devimon? Or did we just become relevant to him after we defeated Devimon?"

"I-I, uh, I'm sure he has a good reason for that... like hiding from Devimon or something" Sora spoke with clear doubt in her voice, she hadn't even thought about it, and the topic had taken her by surprise.

While she knew Matt didn't trust anyone easily, Sora felt this was a bit out of character.

"I don't think so since he said himself that he was on this Continent" Matt denied as he sneered. "Something doesn't add up about all this, and it's starting to bother me."

Sora was silent, unable to think of anything to contradict Matt with. As much as she wanted to question the distrustful boy, it seemed he was thinking deeply about Gennai and his motives.

Letting out a sigh, Matt looked at Sora with great intensity and determination. "Look, the only reason I agreed to come to this Continent is to look for TK. Once I know he's safe, I don't care about this prophecy thing or saving the world from darkness. My brother and I will figure out a way to go home."

With nothing more to say, Matt covered himself with his blanket, ignoring the sick expression on Sora's face. The latter could only sigh as she went to her own futon to sleep along with Piyomon.

The next morning, the girl would wake up to find that she could barely fall asleep as she tossed and turned at the blond's words...

***

<POV - Matt>

"Fuah..." I let out a tired yawn as I watched Joe and Sora take over cooking for the whole group. It was a bit embarrassing that only two people out of their whole group knew how to cook properly.

Th-That didn't mean I couldn't cook! It just meant that my cooking wasn't up to the level of those two!

Rubbing my eyes to shake off the sleepiness, I fixed my gaze on the group of Digimons who were huddled on top of each other as they took a nap. It seemed like ages ago that they had slept so comfortably, which had caused everyone to wake up much later than usual, and some wanted to get back to bed as soon as possible.

Mimi, Izzy, Tai and I looked like we were about to pass out on the table, even though we had slept like logs all night.

"Hurry up Joe! I want to get back to my dream realm quick-" Suddenly, Mimi froze in mid-sentence, making me look at her with a raised eyebrow wondering what was going on in her head.

The white-hatted girl stood up from her seat forcefully as every mark of tiredness disappeared from her face, being replaced with a furious expression.

"Piximon!" Mimi let out a loud shout, causing Tai to glare in annoyance.

With a flash, the fairy magically manifested in mid-air with a mischievous grin on her face. "Pi! That's me- Uegh?!"

To everyone's surprise, Mimi caught the fairy with a single hand before pulling it close to her face, which had a strangely intense look on it. "Where is Noah?!"

I paused for a moment before my sleepy brain processed Mimi's question with clear difficulty.

'Noah?.... Oh!'

By the time I was able to get my brain in gear, I was already rising from my seat to approach the fairy. It seemed that Tai and Izzy followed my lead, as we now surrounded the fairy with suspicious looks on our faces.

This might be a bit selfish of me, but I really wasn't worried about this 'Noah' guy. I didn't know him at all and everything I knew about him came mainly from Mimi, with some input from Izzy and Tai.

No, the reason I wanted to talk to Noah was in case he had any information on where TK was or if he himself was with TK.

I cursed myself internally for letting that slide yesterday, but in my defense, it was a very hectic and exhausting day for everyone.

With a flash, Piximon disappeared from Mimi's hand and appeared in mid-air with a less than amused look on his face as he glared at Mimi. "That was very rude of you! Pi! I let you stay in my house, I give you food, and this is how I get paid?! Pi?!"

Izzy blurted out a sheepish apology as he averted his gaze from the fairy. "I'm sorry for Mimi's behavior, but we urgently need to know where Noah is-"

"Noah isn't here" A painfully familiar voice made everyone in the room stop as I widened my eyes like saucers as I recognized that voice. "The-"

I turned my head so quickly toward the extremely familiar voice that I could have easily broken my neck. In less than a second, I had crossed the room and found myself hugging a small blond boy dressed in green...

...

A/N: I was thinking about making a Discord server, but I don't know.

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