The sound of the buzzing aurora turned into a deafening roar.
Kazuya Kinoshita felt his knees tremble. The snow that had been falling on the summer camp a moment ago suddenly stopped in mid-air. Gravity seemed to cease to exist for a fraction of a second. Directly from the center of those colorful heavenly ribbons, a massive, gigantic mass of water erupted, resembling a waterfall rushing straight toward them.
"Run!" Taichi managed to shout, but his voice was immediately drowned out by the roar.
Kazuya wanted to move and grab the hand of Misa, who stood closest to him and was screaming desperately, or Nami, who was trying to cover her head with her notebook, but his legs felt as if they had grown into the ground. Then, the water hit them.
It was strange, like dense energy. Kazuya felt himself being pulled inside. He was losing his footing. The world around him blurred into a spiral of neon colors, zeros, and ones that made no sense. He was falling. Falling into an infinite, glowing void.
'I'm going to die. I'm twenty years old, I've never had a good girlfriend, and now I'm going to die in some colorful tornado in the middle of a forest!' flashed through his mind as he tossed helplessly in the air.
He tried to open his eyes. Somewhere in the distance, in that colorful storm, he caught a glimpse of Nami's silhouette. Her orange hair fluttered in the wind. 'She's... she's so beautiful even as we fall to our doom... If only I could catch her! If I saved her, maybe she'd fall in love with me!' he thought, reaching out a hand toward her.
But immediately after, Misa's silhouette appeared, her skirt fluttering in the wind, and for a fraction of a second, Kazuya forgot his fear of death and his mind was flooded with completely different, much more base thoughts. 'Both of them are so perfect! Gods, if I survive, I promise I'll pick up at least one of them!'
And then, darkness. Impact.
"Kazuya... Kazuya! Wake up!"
Something soft landed on his cheek. Then again. It was like being poked with a rubber ball.
Kazuya slowly opened his eyes, but immediately closed them again because a sharp, bright light blinded him. The air was incredibly warm, humid, and smelled sweet, as if it were full of blooming flowers.
He sat up with effort. His head was spinning. When his vision finally focused, he found he was sitting in tall, emerald-green grass. The trees around him were enormous—a hundred times larger than those at the summer camp. The leaves were the size of a dining table, and their veins glowed with a faint, pulsing light.
"Are we in heaven?" Kazuya croaked, rubbing his aching neck.
"Finally you're awake! I thought you were going to sleep forever!"
Kazuya jumped, nearly falling back into the grass. Directly in front of him, at eye level, sat something... something impossible. It was a round, blue creature. It had no arms, only two short legs and a large, round head with a long, pointed protrusion on its forehead and large, bright eyes.
"W-what are you?! A monkey? A frog? Slime?!" Kazuya screamed, instinctively backing away, crawling backward on his rear until his back hit a massive tree root.
"I'm not slime! I'm Chibimon! And I was very, very excited for you, Kazuya!" the creature protested, hopping into the air and landing directly on Kazuya's knees.
Kazuya froze. He stared at the blue, rubbery creature with his mouth half-open. "You... you talk. It talks. I've gone crazy. The heat and the snow made my brain snap, and now I'm having hallucinations. Okay, Kazuya, breathe. It's just a dream."
"It's not a dream, Kazuya! I've waited for you here for so long! We're going to be best friends!" Chibimon rubbed against him like an affectionate puppy.
Kazuya wanted to shake it off, to scream for help, but the creature, this Chibimon, was so spontaneous and harmless that his fear slowly turned into pure, unadulterated confusion. "W-where are we? Where are Nami and Misa? And the kids from the camp?"
"Your friends fell here with you! I saw them! Let's go find them!" Chibimon replied cheerfully.
Chibimon hopped off his knees and began to skip among the massive roots with a funny, hopping gait. Kazuya had no choice. He stood up, brushed off his trousers, and followed him on shaky legs. Everything here was too big. And the silence was different. Instead of cicadas, a strange, electronic beeping could be heard echoing from the treetops.
They had only walked a few dozen meters when Kazuya heard a familiar, angry voice.
"If you tell me one more time that you're my partner, I swear I'll throw you into that river!Nami!" Kazuya cried out and ran toward the voice. He pushed through giant ferns and found himself in a small clearing.
Nami was standing there. She was fine, dressed in the same shorts and yellow t-shirt, though a bit dirty from the soil. Her hands were on her hips, and she was scowling at a yellow, fox-like creature with large ears sitting on a stump in front of her. The creature didn't look intimidated at all.
"My name is Pokomon. And it is illogical for you to be angry with me. I am here to protect you, Nami," the yellow creature said in a calm, steady voice that contrasted sharply with Nami's hysteria.
"I don't need protection from a plush toy! I need a map, a compass, and an immediate explanation of who is responsible for this kidnapping!" Nami yelled.
"N-Nami! Are you okay?! Leave her alone, you... you fox!" Kazuya ran to her, acting as heroically as he could (which meant he was still shaking a bit).
Nami glared at him. Then her gaze shifted to Chibimon, who was hopping at Kazuya's feet. "I see you found an annoying stuffed toy too."
"I'm not a stuffed toy! I'm Chibimon!" the little blue creature protested.
Kazuya wanted to say something smart, to impress Nami by showing he had the situation under control, but before he could open his mouth, a high-pitched squeal followed by a cry of joy erupted from the bushes.
"Kyaaaaa! That is the cutest thing I've ever seen!"
Misa tumbled out of the thick brush. She looked like someone who had been dragged through a hedge (which probably happened), her crop top had a few tears, but her face shone with absolute enthusiasm. In her arms, she squeezed a brown-and-white creature that had three horns on its head and was clearly trying to gasp for breath under her crushing hug.
"Misa! You're okay too!" Kazuya immediately shifted targets and ran over to her.
'Her clothes are torn... god, she looks so vulnerable and yet so attractive!'
"Kazuya-kun! Look at this little sweetheart! His name is Kokomon! He told me he's my Digimon! Isn't it just like a dream? He's a hundred times better than that nasty plushie my last manager bought me!" Misa shoved the creature directly into his face.
"M-Misa... you're choking me..." the brown creature in her arms croaked, but Misa ignored it and continued squeezing it like a pillow.
"This makes no sense. Winter in July, flying water from the sky, and now animals that talk. We must have hit something toxic. Maybe it's a hallucinogenic gas," Nami assessed, rubbing her temples.
"I say we aren't on Earth," a cold voice spoke.
Killua jumped down from the crown of a giant tree above them. He landed absolutely silently. Beside him dropped a black, round creature with yellow eyes and a mischievous smile.
"I agree with my partner. My name is Yaamon. And you humans are even funnier than I thought," the black creature chuckled.
Killua put his hands in his pockets. He looked at Nami, Misa, and Kazuya.
"Physics is different here. I feel lighter. The air has a different composition. And these animals..." he pointed to Yaamon, "are created from something that resembles data, but they have a physical form."
Kazuya swallowed. Killua was a child, but he spoke of things Kazuya barely understood, and what was worse, he was absolutely calm while doing so. Kazuya felt like the stupidest person in the room again. 'I have to pull myself together! If I don't keep a cool head, Nami will only look at Killua or Jin-Woo... wait, where is Jin-Woo?'
As if reading his thoughts, the brush on the other side of the clearing parted, and Jin-Woo stepped out of the forest. He wasn't just carrying pieces of dry wood for a fire on his shoulder; a purple-furred creature with a small horn on its nose was walking beside him.
"Dorimon, there is water. About a kilometer north. And I found my allies too," Jin-Woo introduced the creature without anyone asking. He placed the wood on the ground. His face was like stone. There was no shock, no panic.
As soon as he finished speaking, the noisy group of children from the camp burst out of the forest. Taichi ran first, with a large pink head with tentacles sitting on his head.
"Hey! Everyone's here! Look at my Koromon! He's awesome!" Taichi shouted with a grin from ear to ear. He didn't look at all bothered that a tornado had kidnapped him.
Yamato followed him with a round creature with a long horn named Tsunomon. Then Sora with the pink, floral Yokomon, Koushiro with the pink, slimy Motimon and his beloved but currently dead laptop. They were followed by a crying Mimi with the green Tanemon, Joe, who was nervously biting his nails while accompanied by the gray Bukamon, and finally, little Takeru with the white Tokomon.
Suddenly, twelve humans and twelve bizarre monsters were in the small clearing.
"This is a disaster! A disaster! We were supposed to go back to camp! We have to find the police! Or at least a phone booth! These... these mutated creatures might carry rabies!" Joe wailed, clutching his head.
"We don't carry rabies! We are Digimon! Digital Monsters!" Bukamon protested, annoyed.
"Digital... what? Do you mean to say you are forms of artificial life in cybernetic space?" Koushiro immediately stopped fiddling with his laptop and looked at Motimon with genuine scientific interest.
"That sounds too complicated. The important thing is that they're our buddies!" Taichi laughed.