Chapter Ninety-One: The Perils of Digital Beasts

“Mm, so you’re the child who just joined DATS. Very young, aren’t you?”

Just as Qin Fei had put on the uniform Captain Sama had prepared for him and was about to head downstairs, a bald old man wearing a bucket hat had somehow appeared at the command room door, smiling as he looked at Qin Fei.

If he had not spoken just then, Qin Fei would have almost ignored him completely.

Unremarkable, yes—that was the bald old man’s defining feature. So unremarkable that one seemed able to forget his existence in a blink.

“Hello, sir. Are you a member of DATS too?”

Qin Fei suddenly smiled, with the harmless innocence of a ten-year-old child. From the familiar traits of the bald old man before him, he guessed that this was the man who had given the hero Daisuke Motomiya his Digivice.

“I used to be, but it was too tiring. A leisurely life of fishing and running a small stall suits me better.”

The bald old man tipped off his hat and rubbed at his shiny scalp.

“Sir, didn’t you say you were taking me to Daisuke Motomiya? Hurry up, don’t dawdle!”

As the two were speaking, a familiar voice came from the old man in front of him—the voice of Daisuke Motomiya’s Agumon.

Qin Fei’s eyes flickered as he seemed to understand. The old man with the balding crown was delivering the Digivice containing Agumon to Daisuke Motomiya.

“Sir, would you like Sister Shino to give you a ride? Maybe we’re headed the same way.”

Qin Fei still smiled shyly, but the old man froze for a moment, as though he had seen through his intentions.

“No need. You should hurry along. If you don’t go down soon, the one waiting for you will get angry.”

Shaking his head, the balding old man seemed to be refusing Qin Fei, and at the same time shaking off the strange thought in his mind.

“Then goodbye, sir!”

Qin Fei did not linger. He waved at the balding old man and ran downstairs.

The instant Qin Fei left, he thought he caught a glimpse of a turtle wearing a blue helmet behind the old man, also waving at him.

“A turtle Digimon? So it really is him…”

“…”

“…”

“Too slow!”

The moment Qin Fei reached the bottom of the stairs, a slender yet powerful arm suddenly seized him and Loretta, dragging Qin Fei out the door without room for refusal.

All the while, Shino muttered as she went, “What on earth is Captain Sama thinking, handing this incident over to two rookies who just joined DATS? I’m not some nanny for children…”

Qin Fei knew he was in the wrong, so he only smiled and said nothing in response to Shino’s complaints. Instead, he called for the Black Guilmon and the other Digimon behind him to follow.

“Get in. This isn’t the time to take it easy. We don’t even know yet whether anyone’s been injured, so move faster!”

Seizing the driver’s seat first, Shino shouted at Qin Fei and Loretta in a fluster, then added anxiously, “And who knows where Daisuke Motomiya has run off to? Honestly… Agumon too, his temper is just like a child’s.”

Qin Fei and Loretta exchanged glances and smiled helplessly. For an eighteen-year-old girl, Shino could be rather childish in some ways too.

A Digimon that looked like a seed doll floated over and perched on Shino’s shoulder.

“Hello, I’m Shino’s partner, Lalamon.”

“Hello, I’m Qin Fei. This is my partner, Gatomon.”

Qin Fei patted the Digimon nestled in his arms.

Not paying attention to the conversation between Qin Fei and Lalamon, Shino started the car without hesitation and sped off, her driving as smooth as a professional racer’s.

“…”

“Oh, right. Little girl in the back seat, what’s your name? I don’t think I’ve seen you before. If Captain Sama hadn’t told me suddenly, I wouldn’t even have known DATS had gained another child member…”

While speeding along, Shino glanced at the rearview mirror, seeming to study Loretta, who had already taken on human form.

After all, Loretta was wearing a DATS uniform just like Qin Fei, looking exactly like a cute human girl.

“I’m Lolo. Just like Qin Fei, I was specially recruited.”

Loretta smiled stiffly, pinching the pointed ear of Black Guilmon beside her. “This is my Digimon partner, Black Guilmon.”

Seated in the passenger seat, Qin Fei gave a satisfied little nod. Lolo had said exactly as planned; she had handled it very well.

Shino did not probe further, but she did glance at Qin Fei again. She felt the two little ones looked quite well matched, both in age and appearance.

“Young people really are wonderful. Childhood sweethearts, innocent first love…”

Hearing Shino speak with such old-fashioned sentiment, Qin Fei smiled. She really did think of herself as an elder. “Sister Shino is young too, and very beautiful.”

“Hahaha, what a smooth-talking little brat. Maybe Little Lolo was won over by your sweet words too.”

Though Shino took Qin Fei’s praise as the innocent chatter of a child, she still felt quite pleased.

“They’re only flattering you, Shino.”

Upon hearing Qin Fei praise Shino, Lalamon said something most untimely.

“Ow… ow!”

Before long, however, Shino had pinched Lalamon’s cheek, pulling it hard and stretching its face long as if on the verge of tears.

“By the way, Sister Shino, where are Daisuke Motomiya and Thomas H. Norstein?”

According to the original events, when they could not contact Daisuke Motomiya, Shino and Thomas were supposed to be sent over.

But now only Shino was here; Thomas was nowhere to be seen.

“Thomas already went ahead. I was waiting until now just to pick you up…”

Shino explained, pressing the accelerator harder. If Qin Fei had not trusted her driving skills, he would have already demanded to get out.

“We’re almost there!”

Looking at the smoking intersection not far ahead, Shino’s expression became unusually grave.

Qin Fei’s gaze gradually grew solemn as well. Watching the chaos outside, he gained a deeper understanding of the harm Digimon could bring to the human world.

Thick smoke and flames, the alternating red and blue lights of ambulances, police, and firefighters, cordons that had been set up at some point, the backs of firefighters, police officers, and doctors, along with the cries and clamor of the crowd… it was clearly a major disaster.

No wonder the humans in this world took the Digimon issue so seriously.

Just one Rookie-level Elecmon had caused such severe damage to this area.

Qin Fei began to understand why Sama kept such close watch over Loretta and the others.

Unlike the more glossed-over treatment in the first Digimon story, the relationship between the Digital World and the human world here was a profoundly serious issue.

“Shino, the Digimon species has been confirmed: Elecmon. A mammalian Digimon in its Rookie stage, capable of disrupting communications with electrical currents… The target has moved from the C4 area to the D6 area…”

“Understood! I’m heading there now.”

Hearing the instructions from the logistics staff in her earpiece, Shino suddenly turned the steering wheel and sped off in another direction.

Along the way, as they watched the scene of flames soaring into the sky, Qin Fei and Lolo fell silent. Even Gatomon’s hatred toward humans slowly weakened.

There were no victors in the mutual encroachment between the human world and the Digital World.

“The target has stopped moving. Location: E Area substation!”

The report in Shino’s earpiece was heavy with urgency. Clearly, Elecmon had already reached a place that was extremely bad for them.

“A substation? Not good.”

Grinding her teeth, Shino pressed the accelerator even harder.