Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

41) Distortion of Justice

Sora and Mimi had been sitting in their small space of the Dark Ocean for quite a few minutes. They woke up lucky enough to be next to one another, and they ultimately decided that they wanted to stay where they were for at least a short while longer. They needed to try and decompress and restore their energy after the attack that Dagomon had led. Sora personally wanted the chance to allow her muscles to recover. She was glad that she had landed on the sand to prevent the damage from being any worse than it could have been otherwise, but there was still a general creakiness to her body that she wished would go away as soon as possible. 

Sora unzipped her bag and pulled out a small handful of snacks to distribute around the other members of the group. She was glad that all of them had decided to bring their own snacks for the sake of looking after themselves. If only one member of the group had been in charge of food, then they would have been in trouble. She knew that the Digimon needed food before they were going to be able to evolve and fight back again. Beyond that though, she and the other humans were going to need to eat as well. 

Sora didn't realize just how hungry she was until the food had been taken out of the bag to be passed around the group. Her stomach seemed to ache with its desire for something fulfilling. She hadn't eaten anything since before the group came to the Dark Ocean, as a matter of fact. She had forgotten about that much due to being distracted by the constant onslaught of danger, but it was true. The group had been focusing on helping the Digimon replenish their energy rather than looking after themselves. Sora hadn't even been all that hungry up to that point; she was too nervous and concentrated on defeating Daemon to even think of picking up food. 

Of course, that had all changed, and she was more than happy to peel a banana and take a bite from it. Mimi opted for sharing a small pack of gummy snacks with Tanemon while Pycomon indulged in a bag of chips. They were all quiet as could be, almost afraid of what could happen if they were too loud in the foreign world. Sora wanted to say something to speak up, but she wasn't sure where she was even supposed to start. 

Sora forced herself to speak when she was halfway finished with her banana, and she looked up at Mimi with a nervous and muted smile. "How are you doing?" she asked carefully. She would have been a fool to not see the way that Mimi had changed over the past few weeks. Everything about her previous emerald vibrance had fallen away, replaced by something shadowed that didn't fit Mimi's regular personality in the slightest. Sora wasn't going to sit back and let all of this happen, and she was desperate to see Mimi smile once again. 

Mimi glanced up at Sora with hesitation written all over her face before she sighed. Mimi seemed to realize that she wasn't going to be able to hide her true thoughts or feelings no matter how hard she tried, so she didn't bother attempting to mask the truth. Instead, she passed Tanemon another small snack as she spoke again. "Does it ever bother you?" Mimi questioned softly. "When you take a step back, it... It really does show how apathetic we are to our own suffering. It's like we don't even notice what's happening to us isn't normal."

Sora's eyes went wide with surprise before she replied. "We're fighting for the sake of the worlds. It's not what most others do at this age," she said halfheartedly even though she knew that this was far from being what Mimi was talking about. 

"It's not that," Mimi told her with a shake of her head. "I have to ask... Do you ever think about how much this has impacted us? We've been hurt by the Digital World in the same ways that it's helped us. Think about it. Do you still have nightmares about what happened when we first came here to the Digital World?"

Sora's mouth opened before she pressed her lips together again a beat later. Pyocomon refused to look up to meet Mimi's eyes, instead moving a bit closer to her partner's arm. Sora knew that it was because Mimi was right; she did have the occasional unfortunate dream about what had happened when the Digital World first entered their lives. Countless Digimon had laid down their lives in the original war against the Dark Masters. Sora would be lying if she said that she didn't still think about Whamon disappearing into dust on the wind or Wizarmon taking a hit aimed at Hikari and Tailmon. Sora had never understood true grief until those moments, and they still seemed to be written in her heart years later.