"What in the?!" Joe yelled from the entrance.
"What's wrong, Joe-senpai?" Koushirou asked, while standing hurriedly to reach Joe. Yamato, who was behind Joe, had the same slack jawed expression as him.
"What's wrong?" Taichi, curious what made them like that, followed their sight. "Eeeeeh…"
"What is it? Is it the snow?" Takeru asked.
"Well, that's not it…" Koushirou began after looking outside. He looked confused as he explained, "There's no snow at all…"
"Eh, impossible! I saw it myself from the window, there's blizzard outside!" Mimi denied confidently.
"The temperature drop also indicate a blizzard, and the sound too, but it's true, there's not a single flake of snow right now outside. In fact…" Koushirou turned pensive.
"This, doesn't look like out camp ground, does it?" Yamato finished for him.
"What? Move aside, I want to see it myself!" Mimi went outside.
"Mimi-chan, wait!" Sora hurriedly followed her, and Airi trailing behind her. Mimi pushed her way outside, sidestepping the confused boys at the entrance until she saw by herself what was going on.
The grass below her had purplish hue on their green base, with no more moisture than usual. The trees around them looked gnarled and gloomy. The sky though, the sky is blue, cloudless, like the previous blizzard they just experienced was just their imagination.
It was just like they had just stepped on to different dimension.
"What on earth…" Airi was speechless.
"Where is this?" Sora asked nobody in particular.
"It seems that Yamato-san is right, this doesn't look like our camp ground at all." Koushirou concluded, when all of them had followed Mimi outside.
"But it's impossible, right? We didn't go anywhere, just hiding in this shrine." Taichi looked around the shrine. "And it looks the same too!"
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"Now, what to do, how to get back to the camp ground?"
That inquiry snapped Joe out of his shock. He straightened his shoulder, determined. "Yes, the first thing we're going to do is going back to the camp! Let's find the way, the adults must have been worried about us!"
"Okay, how can we know the way then?" Sora asked.
"Why don't we scatter around to find the road first? There are many road signs before, right? We just needed to find one and we can follow it down to the camp." Taichi suggested.
"Isn't it dangerous to be alone?" Sora countered with a worried face. Joe nodded, "I agree it will be faster if we scatter. Why don't we look around the shrine first, and don't go too far away by yourself! If you find anything, we will gather at the shrine again and go as a group."
They all nodded, and started to go their own way. Airi, clutching her backpack strap, went to the forest with a bad feeling.
The air around her felt different and unfamiliar, making her uneasy. She walked around slowly, looking left and right to find mountain track or some road sign, but didn't dare to go far from the shrine. Airi occasionally looked back to the shrine behind her, shadowed by the foliages around it.
"The trees are different, and there's no more flower fields like before." Airi mused out loud. "There isn't even a single insect flying around here…" no butterflies, no bees, nothing at all.
Suddenly, there was a rustling sound that came from Airi's right. She jumped away and step back, looking for the source of the sound.
*rustle rustle
"It's from this bush?" Airi said to herself uncertainly. Afraid to approach it, she just waited where she was with trepidation.
*RUSTLE RUSTLE
The rustling became more prominent, and Airi had started to turn back, preparing to run to the shrine.
*SWOOSH
The bush parted. From its center, an enormous yellow bee came out, shooking it's body. Slowly, it locked its gaze with Airi. It smiled as if it had been waiting for Airi to come.
"Airi, I finally meet you." The bee said with a childlike voice.
Huh, the bee SAID???
Not trusting her ears, she looks around to see if anyone else was here, and how did they know her name?
The bee, noticing that Airi had looked around like looking for something, tilted its head and asked, "What's wrong, Airi?"
"Ano, it's really you who just talked to me?" Airi, gave up on her denials, asked for confirmation.
"En, it's just me and Airi here." The bee said simply.
"Ah…"
What to do in situation like this?
"How do you know my name?" Airi asked after a moment. The bee only tilted its head again, like not understanding.
"Because Airi is Airi." It said, then elaborate when Airi's face was still confused. "Because Airi is my partner."
"Partner?" Airi just became more and more confused. "And who are you?"
The bee hovered nearer Airi. Airi was cautious, but the bee didn't seem ready to attack her, so she didn't step back.
"I'm Puroromon."
Suddenly, there's a scream not far from Airi, startling both of them.
"It's Sora's voice. I'm going to go to her." Airi stated, then started to go towards where Sora's voice was heard.
"En, I will be with Airi." Puroromon followed her, hovering.
Sora was not far from Airi, and when she arrived, Sora was on the forest floor, looking like she just fell down. Airi, worried, asked quickly while checking on her. "What's wrong, Sora?"
Thankfully, Sora shook her head. "It's nothing, sorry. I was just surprised, is all." She said while standing up with Airi's help.
"What happened?"
"There's something that's been clinging to my pants and I was really surprised…"
"Hey, Sora! I'm not something, I'm Pyocomon." Something under them uttered indignantly. Airi looked down.
Latching on Sora's pants, is a pink bulb-like creature with blue flower on its head. It's rubbing its head onto Sora's pants with happy expression.
"Sora, Sora, Sora~"
A very clingy bulb.
Sora just sighed, resigned. She talked to Airi, ignoring Pyocomon's call for now. "It just sprang onto me out of nowhere and began clinging to me, that's why I'm surprised."
"That's because I've been waiting for you for a looong time, Sora!"
Huh, it was the same as what Puroromon said. Airi looked at Puroromon, who was watching them. "Are both of you the same?" Puroromon nodded.
"Eh, Airi had one too?" Sora asked.
"Yes, I just found it not far from here, Sora."
"Eeeh, then what are both of you, really?"
"We are digital monster, in short, Digimon." Puroromon explained.
"He's right, we are Digimon!" Pyocomon agreed cheerfully.