T.K. still stuffed Patamon into his backpack before heading out. Patamon protested, of course, but it made no difference.
As the saying goes, live by the mountain, eat from the mountain; live by the water, eat from the water—so with a supermarket right next door, Yolei lived by the supermarket and ate from the supermarket. Thanks to that convenience, she effortlessly handled everyone's Digimon meals and food supplies. Right now, she was stuffing all kinds of snacks from the shelves into plastic bags, getting ready to go have a picnic in the Digital World. At the same time, because she'd packed in way too much food, her Digimon Poromon was practically getting squashed flat by the overflowing pile.
At last, the kids gathered in the computer lab, but…
"Where's Kari?" Davis was the first to notice.
"…"
"Kari sent a message—ah!" Yolei held up her D-3 Digivice, read the message, and suddenly yelled, drawing everyone's attention. "I'll go to the Digital World from home. Tell me the meetup location."
"…" The kids just stared at each other, wide-eyed.
"Well…" Cody spoke up first. "So it's not just this computer that can open a door to the Digital World?"
"Yeah," T.K. said, habitually resting his chin on his hand. "Last time, Tai opened a door to the Digital World directly, and it wasn't even from the computer lab."
"Maybe Tai has his own way of opening the door to the Digital World." Davis grumbled. "Man, Kari's got it so easy—she doesn't even have to come out, and she can still go."
"Wait, T.K., you didn't know any of that about Tai?" Yolei asked curiously.
"I didn't," T.K. shook his head. "Back when we were DigiDestined last time, Tai was already really strong. The one who understands him best out of all of us is Kari… maybe Sora does too."
"Whatever, let's go to the Digital World first. The door to the Digital World—DigiDestined—" Yolei hadn't finished when the computer lab door suddenly slammed open with a bang, startling everyone. A girl with pink hair and a gold star decoration on her head poked her head inside and looked at the kids curiously.
They stared at each other.
"Mimi!" T.K. said in delighted surprise.
"What are you all doing here?" Mimi asked with curiosity—especially after noticing there were a bunch of Digimon here, too.
After they explained that Mimi had come back to Japan to attend her cousin's wedding, and that she was just passing by the school and wandering around when she happened to run into them, Mimi learned they were going to the Digital World for a picnic. She immediately said she wanted to go too—after all, it had been a long time since she'd been to the Digital World.
Coming back to the Digital World made Mimi visibly happy. Where the kids arrived was a jungle region. That alone made the kids—who spent their lives in a steel-and-concrete jungle—thrilled. Breathing in air laced with the fresh scent of green leaves and looking out at the endless jungle, they felt an instant rush of novelty and excitement.
Still, they checked the area for safety first. After all, this was the Digital World, where "monsters" roamed everywhere. They looked around for a long time and couldn't find the symbol of the Digimon Emperor's territory: a Control Spire. That made them even happier—because if they were coming here in a travel mood, getting dragged into a fight would really ruin the vibe.
"This really is the Digital World… I wonder where Palmon is," Mimi said.
"Hey everyone, sorry I'm late!" Just then, the TV behind them lit up again, and Kari appeared with Gatomon.
"Kari!"
"Mimi!"
On the way to find a good picnic spot, the kids told Mimi about their new enemy, the Digimon Emperor, and everything that had been happening.
They spread a tablecloth out in a clearing, laid out the food everyone had brought, and got ready to share. Both the kids and the Digimon enjoyed this hard-won, peaceful picnic to the fullest.
But when Armadillomon tossed some food to Hawkmon, it used a bit too much force and accidentally threw a piece of gourd sushi right out of the area. Yolei and Hawkmon hurried after it, but they didn't come back for a long time.
When everyone split up to look for them, Mimi accidentally stepped into a trap and fell straight down into the underground kingdom beneath the forest.
Even though it was daytime on the surface, down here the moon hung like a curved blade, and a black starry sky pressed down over a pitch-dark forest, making everything feel eerie and sinister. This was a fault layer in the Digital World—an unstable spatial fracture caused by the region covered by the Control Spires. It was clearly the same space, yet one world was above and one was below, and because of that, this place could never be touched by sunlight.
"Mimi… Mimi…" Half-conscious, Mimi heard someone calling her name. She forced her eyes open and saw the missing Yolei and Hawkmon.
"Ah, you're awake!" Yolei said happily.
"Yolei… Hawkmon…" Mimi sat up and looked around at the darkness shrouding everything. "Where are we…?"
"Look over there." Yolei didn't answer. She just motioned for Mimi to look.
In the thick black smoke, like fog, a Control Spire stood out glaringly under the surrounding lights. Yolei explained to Mimi, "That's a Control Spire."
"So this is the Digimon Emperor's territory," Hawkmon added.
Just then, deep within the dark forest, pairs of red-glowing eyes lit up—more and more of them. Mimi and Yolei trembled all over from the terrifying atmosphere.
When the figures got closer, they realized it was a swarm of Gekomon and Otamamon—but they were wearing Dark Rings. The two girls and one Digimon were chased all over the forest by the pack.
While running down a slope, Mimi tripped and fell. Yolei spun around to run back and pull her up, but Mimi propped herself up with her right arm and called out, "Yolei, run!"
At that moment, a Digimon with a flower on its head rose from the grass. It snapped its hands forward and whipped out six vines, wrapping up the hesitating Yolei and Hawkmon and yanking them into the bushes—then it pulled Mimi in too.
"Palmon?!" Mimi blurted out.
The swarm of Gekomon and Otamamon kicked up dust as they ran past the patch of grass where they were hiding.
"Palmon…" Mimi's eyes filled with tears as she stared at her partner, overwhelmed.
"Mimi…" Palmon cried too, tears streaming down its face. The two of them clung to each other and burst into sobs.
They both excitedly poured out everything they'd been feeling, until Mimi accidentally admitted that she'd come to the Digital World for a picnic—not to rescue Palmon like Palmon had imagined. At that, Palmon really started crying for real.
Back up in the world above, Davis and the others were still searching for the missing Yolei, Mimi, and Hawkmon. The kids and Digimon practically turned the entire jungle upside down, but still couldn't find any trace of them.
"Where did Yolei and Mimi even go?" T.K. wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"No clue! We've checked everywhere!" Patamon flapped its wings, scanning left and right.
"Seriously… where did they go?" Davis kicked a pebble on the ground away in frustration.
Meanwhile, Mimi and Yolei were searching with their Digimon for "signal." Yes—signal. Even though the D-3 Digivice usually had pretty decent reception in the Digital World, now they were basically half outside the Digital World, so the signal was naturally terrible. So if they wanted their friends to find them, they had no choice but to keep moving around, looking for anywhere the D-3 Digivice signal was a little better.
Their effort paid off. They finally found a spot where the signal was at least somewhat usable. It still flickered on and off, but it was the only place they'd found with any reception at all.
"Come on… come on, please see it…" Yolei stared at the faint, wavering signal on her D-3 Digivice, anxious and frantic.
They hadn't tried in vain. Kari and the others had already spotted the signal Yolei sent out. Even though it was still faint and unstable, at least now they knew roughly where Yolei's group was.
"This is a distress signal from Yolei, right?" Davis said uncertainly.
"But it's so weak," T.K. said, worried.
"We should hurry over there. Who knows what kind of danger they ran into," Kari suggested.
"Yeah."
At the same time, the Digimon Emperor's attention was still fully on Tai City. After the city's manager, Andromon, joined the battle, the war had turned completely one-sided.
As a modified Digimon at the peak of the Ultimate level, Andromon possessed overwhelming power—especially its Spiral Sword and its super destructive cannon-like firepower. With each strike, there wasn't a single Digimon that could survive. Every time Andromon attacked, huge numbers of Digimon vanished into data. Little by little, the battlefield was pushed back from beneath the city walls into the desert. Wave after wave of Digimon poured in, only to be split apart by Andromon cutting straight through the middle. Any Digimon that dared rush Andromon was slaughtered without mercy.
"It worked!" the Digimon Emperor shouted with joy. From the very beginning, he had dispatched a unit carrying the components of a Control Spire, and while Andromon was drawn into battle, they infiltrated Tai City and assembled the Control Spire.
Andromon, in the middle of hacking and slashing, suddenly stopped. Its electronic eyes turned toward Tai City. "Intruders detected. All units, immediately attack and eliminate the intruders."
At Andromon's command, all the Guardromon stopped their pursuit and flew toward the location where the intruders were detected.
"Haha, too late." The Digimon Emperor laughed happily. The Control Spire had already been fully assembled. With a single order from the Digimon Emperor, countless Dark Rings flew out from the Control Spire. The Guardromon that had just reached the city, along with Andromon, were instantly fitted with Dark Rings. Their internal programs ran for a moment, then they fell silent—ready to carry out the Digimon Emperor's commands.
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