Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

21) Continuation of Tension

Miyako had ultimately come to the decision that it would be best for her to handle the matter of paying back her parents for all of this food after everything had been taken care of regarding the Digimon attacks. Besides, she somehow doubted that they were going to be pestering her about something like that when they weren't even in Odaiba anymore. The rest of her family had evacuated with the rest of the city, and Miyako was glad for that. She didn't want them to get hurt in the process of the Chosen Children fighting off the invaders, after all. 

Ken was sitting on the floor in one of the aisles as he typed away on his laptop. He had run back to his apartment since it was relatively close to the store, and he grabbed the device since he decided that it would help them to have it at their disposal. Maki had left, after all, and that meant that they were going to have to use their own computer if they wanted to send the Digimon to the other side of the barrier. 

The Digimon were all happily eating anything that they could get their hands on. Meiko leaned against the ending stand of an aisle as she looked on at Minomon, Poromon, and Meicoomon. For all of her regular maturity, Meicoomon seemed to truly love the sweet drinks that were in the store. She slurped one of them up greedily, suddenly seeming much younger than she actually was. Poromon was shoving his face into his usual selection of chips while Minomon softly nibbled on a chocolate bar. 

"Bottomless voids just as ever," Miyako muttered under her breath with a shake of her head. It was hardly a surprise, but she still found it comforting to see that the Digimon were at least the same as ever in the face of unfortunate odds. It was a strange thing to take affection to, but Miyako wasn't about to stop it. After all, it gave her a temporary sense of peace, and she wasn't about to chase it off just because she was too greedy to accept it. 

Meiko pulled her Digivice up so that she was staring at it somberly, and her black hair fell to form a curtain around her face. Meiko let out a gasp a moment later and held up the Digivice for the others to see even though it was impossible for them to make out the details due to the distance between them. Meicoomon perked up, but the Baby Digimon didn't even bother glancing away from their food. 

Meiko didn't seem to mind in the slightest though, and she dashed towards the door of the store. When she arrived outside, she was immediately claimed by a strong gust of wind that sent her tresses flying in every direction. Both of her hands instinctively fell downwards to make sure that her shirt didn't start to stray from her torso, and a looming shadow came to settle beside her. 

Miyako perked up and started to walk out of the store as well, and she let out a gasp when she saw AtlurKabuterimon standing in the center of the street with Koushiro sliding off his back. "Hey! Koushiro!" Miyako declared, waving one hand above her head even though she knew that Koushiro had already detected her presence. He waved back anyways, ever the polite boy that Miyako had grown up knowing. 

"I'm glad that you're here," Koushiro confessed, offering the group a weak smile. "I was admittedly a bit worried about you all... When I saw that your signals were together, it was such a relief. I don't know for sure where the others are since I made a beeline for you as soon as I saw how close by you were."

"Beeline," Miyako snickered, taking this as a full chance to offer some levity to their dark and dreary situation. AtlurKabuterimon released a humored chuckle at her bug joke, though he didn't go any further than that. Miyako wasn't asking for anything more in the first place, so she allowed herself to take pride in the fact that she had managed to do something to at least make someone feel a bit better about what was happening around them. 

"We're letting the Digimon stock up their energy before we set out again," Meiko explained, her voice still wavering from the anxiety that the day had brought. She swallowed dryly before reaching up to pull her hair back into its regular place. AtlurKabuterimon's landing had severely ruffled her tresses, and Meiko found herself wishing that she had a brush to smooth out the newly-formed tangles.