Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

23) Strange Machinations

As soon as the process of transportation to the Digital World had drawn to a close, Taichi, Yamato, and Sora sat down on the grass, their partner Digimon in their laps. Taichi pressed his hands against the ground as he turned his face up in the direction of the sky, allowing the warmth of the sun to pass through his skin. It was warmer in the Digital World than it had been in Odaiba, and while the difference was small, it was still enough to catch his attention. 

"We should probably focus on finding some food first before we go to do anything else," Sora pointed out. "The Digimon have already been doing so much fighting today, and they aren't going to be able to defend us if we aren't able to feed them as soon as possible."

"Some sleep wouldn't hurt either," Yamato murmured as he glanced down at Tsunomon, who was on the verge of falling asleep with his cheek pressed against Yamato's hand. The blonde boy smiled gently and stroked affectionately at his partner's face with a shake of his head. "But I guess that's out of the question at this point, so we might as well go and see what it is that we can find."

"We're all going to need a break soon," Taichi declared, and the others in the area nodded their agreement. Koromon's eyes were drooping shut, and Taichi winced at the sight. "Maybe we can meet up with the rest of the group soon. That should make it easier for us to figure out what it is that we're supposed to be accomplishing."

Sora reached for her Digivice before she began to examine its radar. "It seems to me like everyone is in the Digital World now, but they're all kind of far away. It'll be a while before we're able to actually catch up to any of them, so we should probably go on and focus on getting food for these three," she suggested.

Taichi's stomach grumbled, and Pyocomon let out a weak laugh. "I guess that all of us need to eat, as a matter of fact," Taichi commented as he rose to his feet. Every part of his body seemed to protest the movement of his body, and he almost stumbled back down to the ground one he was on his feet once again. "Okay, let's go on and get this over with. We aren't going to be able to get anything done as long as we're sitting around here."

"Why did everything have to happen all at once?" Yamato muttered to himself. He pulled Tsunomon up into his grasp fully once again, and the small orange Digimon allowed himself to start dozing off again a moment later. Yamato let out a half-hearted laugh, though it was clear as could be that the sound was falsified, not that he made any attempts to convince the other members of the group of the concept that he wasn't lying about his own sense of enthusiasm. How could any of them truly put on a mask of confidence at this point? It felt like the world was falling apart around them, and all they could do was try their best to push through it in the face of such difficulties. 

"There has to be some food around here somewhere," Sora declared, clearly trying to keep herself busy so that she didn't fall prey to her own negative thoughts. All of their eyes were starting to droop as the adrenaline rush they had experienced in Odaiba began to wear off. The rest of the battle to come was bound to be difficult, but they had to be ready. That was part of their job, and they were hardly in the position to abandon it even if they wanted to. They just had to take it one step at a time for better or worse. 

~~~~~

Meiko felt hopeless, if she was being quite frank. 

Koushiro, Miyako, and Ken's partner Digimon had all reverted back to the Baby stage because of the energy that they had exerted during the previous battle, and that left Meicoomon as the most powerful of the Digimon among the group. The trio of Baby Digimon weren't going to be able to do anything to fight against any impending attackers until after they managed to get some food into their systems. Meiko was glad that Miyako had decided to grab as much food as possible from the store, but it would still be a while before the Digimon were prepared for what was bound to come next. There was no way of saying when the next attack was, and the brief period of time without any protection had Meiko on edge to the point that she felt as if she was on the verge of riding a knife's blade.