**Route of Chill Circumstances** Ch. 3

**Presently** J

Hm? Is the pizza here? I feel like I just fell asleep, but I did schedule it far enough ahead to get in a couple REM cycles. If the pizza is here, the groceries should be arriving soon. I didn't want the pizza delivery-person to have to wade through my groceries to shove the pizza in the giant mail-slot. I suppose it's worth getting out of bed to eat some of it while it's hot. It's honestly large enough that it's going to be my meal for today, and all of tomorrow as well.

Mm, this style deep-dish is fantastic. I have to hand it to the companies for networking to promote each other when both are high quality. The pizza-joint advertises the apartments, and vice-versa. My gut rumbles as I'm scarfing down the slightly oily food, reminding me that I've barely eaten for a week, and that there was almost no fat or oils in the foods. Oog, that's going to trigger some digestive stuff later. Relax stomach, it's a one-time thing. We'll go back to cereal and pasta the day after tomorrow. Referring to myself in the third person again, oy vey. Anyway, I've got enough powdered milk now as backups until I can start safely keeping milk on hand again. I don't want to do that until I've tried my best to track down Vixi.

Alright, bottles of shelf-stable fruit juice and tomato juice for the pantry, boxes of pasta for the pantry, jars of pasta sauces, lots of cereal, a single pack of pop tarts as a bit of a treat. Cookies for a sugar boost when mine is low, parmesan cheese and spices for the massive pile of pasta, powdered milk, obvee. I know I probably shouldn't, but I lace all of the bags across my fingers and wrists, and carefully stand, lifting the dozens and dozens of pounds of groceries at once. Huh. This should feel heavier than it does, but I just counted, they didn't miss anything. I cautiously lift my arms into a curl. It's slightly difficult, but I'm able to do it. Now I'm curious. I nudge the bathroom door open with my foot, and drag the scale out with that same foot.

Setting down my dominant arm's armload of groceries on the scale yields a staggering forty seven pounds. For an art-nerd, that feels impressive. Let's see the non-dominant arm, there were more jars and bottles and stuff in that arm. Holy crap. Seventy one pounds in my weak arm!? Trying to determine if it's a fluke, I lift them into a curl again with my left arm, and do a set of eight reps. Other than the feeling of the obvious gravitational resistance, and the difficulty moving an unwieldy mass of groceries, I can do it without issue. Transferring it to my dominant arm yields the same results, perhaps slightly easier.

I scratch my forehead in confusion, still holding the groceries, thunking myself in the stomach with several heavy jars and bottles. Oof. I've been jogging for a long time, but I haven't done any upper body training since, well, way back. I'm fairly sure that I struggled with a crate of printer paper just a couple of weeks ago. Moving that around for a few minutes wouldn't have produced these results. I guess that hospital food really was extremely healthy. Huh. Maybe I should change up my diet to keep it like the hospital was feeding me. I mean, from struggling with fifty pounds with both arms, to a single arm lifting seventy pounds. That's like triple the strength. I need to look this up. That can't be normal unless they were putting like, roids in the food or something. But I don't have any new bulk, no newly visible muscles, nothing like an anabolic steroid would normally produce. Did getting my arse kicked power me up like some sort of anime protagonist with a monkey-tail?

I'm going to set my trawler and Pflopsie to look this all up. If anyone else experienced such a random drastic increase in strength, well, surely someone would post about it somewhere. I suppose the muscle density increase could explain my hunger, maybe. I just attributed it to being ravenous after being on an IV for a few days, then getting like two small hospital meals a day for the rest of the week. Ugh, speaking of being bedridden for a week, I haven't been able to shave. Alright, let's finish putting away the groceries and set Pflopsie to be ready for when the trawler presents data. There, done.

Another bite of pizza, and I'm going to wash up. After savoring this half-slice of pizza, I place the box high in the pantry's breadbox, it's insulated, so it might even stay warm until the morning. Alright, let's wash up and shave, and get some freakin' real sleep. My eyes droop and I yawn as I approach my mirrored restroom faucet. Washing up doesn't bring me to alertness as much as it should, and that's probably what causes my carelessness.

I hadn't even noticed that I was nicking myself so hard with my razor in several spots. I. What. I rub my eyes as I stare into the mirror. Escaping from my cuts are glowing ones and zeroes, as well as little blue triangles. Despite trying to rub my eyes, and splash more water on my face, and clean the mirror, I truly appear to be bleeding digital remnants. Well, now I need to see a psychiatrist for anti-hallucinatory anti-psychotics. Great. Maybe I did imagine the whole Kabuterijerk thing. But then, how did I get to the clinic if it wasn't Vixi? How did my phone end up in the mountains if I was just hallucinating the attack? Ugh, I'd be committed if I tried to explain this to a psych. I slump against the wall, defeated, my forehead resting in my hand.

**Moments Ago** Rena

The Ogremon were right. Several of the Gazis have become Wendigomon, three in fact. Oddly, there only appear to be six total in the pack, usually they stick together in a dozen or more. There's a few things wrong with that though. They don't have contact with any partners, they're in the real world, and they shouldn't be able to drink from the data stream out here either. They would need some external energy to evolve. Also wrong is how the Wendigomon are treating their Gazi pack, almost like punching bags.

Wh-! Even more wrong is the Wendigomon destroying a Gazi, and absorbing its data! I virtually teleport to the midst of the current fracas, my back to the two remaining Gazimon as the other two Wendigomon approach, intent on consuming their data.

A glance back towards the remaining Gazis reveals their true nature as they try to offer me up to the Wendigomon as a distraction or offering in order to be spared, or escape. I furrow my brow and scowl at them. They lick their chops as they gaze upon my back, likely wanting to feast on my data to join their Wendigomon brethren in evolution. Despite their treachery and cowardice, I'll still save them.

As the pair of Wendigomon circle to flank me, they lunge in order to strike me down, but as soon as their muscles twitched, I'd already left my position, not needing to dodge at all. From above them, I flip into a somersault, and extend my dominant leg, bringing my heel crashing down atop the left Wendigomon's cranium. They don't want to risk scattering my data with their destruction-voice, so I have the advantage against their clumsy, clobbering fighting style. I pirouette in-between several flailing limbs as I'm also assailed by the ungrateful Gazis flinging snow and stones.

It's risky to let myself continue getting flanked, and the third Wendigomon will join the fray shortly after it finishes consuming the Gazi's data. I'll buy some time to take them on one on one. I leap into a series of spinning axe-kicks, each strike multiplies the force of the following blow as I connect with the universe. Calm at mind, calm at heart, furious at fist and paw. By the fifth blow I've sent the Wendigomon sailing down the slope. Not defeated, just inconvenienced.

The other Wendigomon reaches to grab me as I'm landing from my leap, but I return to the air immediately upon touching down, barely slipping through its grasp as it gazes at its hands in a confused stupor. I exhale slowly, carefully, maintaining my zen. Closing my eyes, I picture the battlefield below, the troublesome Gazis in the alcove of the plateau, the Wendigomon beneath me, and its abhorrent companion glutting on Gazi data to one side. I have to deal with the nearest threat.

Grinning, I whisperedly shout, "Kūchū Koyousetsu!" launching my attack in an aerial fashion, positioned above this Wendigomon's skullcap. My chi magic is not yet strong, I'm new to this form, and have not practiced it. It barely stuns the Wendigomon momentarily.

I whisper, "Touhakken," envisioning my data sending my chi swirling about my fists and feet, up and down my limbs, empowering my blows. I finally allow gravity to reclaim its hold on me, allowing it all the acceleration I'd accumulated by staying aloft for so many seconds. I aim downward with an elbow to the clavicle of my Wendigomon opponent. Crash!

Were my opponent a real-worlder, that blow would have snapped and shattered their collarbone. As is, the Wendigomon just rattles its head from a temporary daze. While I have the advantage, I press it. My assault is sixty four strikes in the span of moments, any gap in the chi or data of my foe I exploit. It recovers from my explosive elbow drop whilst I'm finishing my combination of attacks, and reacts surprisingly quickly, gripping me about the neck, its clobbersome fist bearing down on my face. I allow myself a sly grin, whispering, "Kitsune Hen Kyo."

As the Wendigomon's fist continues its trajectory, the rest of its body swaps places with mine. Its blow connects, pummeling itself in the face. I'm cloaked in a data illusion to appear as a Wendigomon, but it lasts only moments. I have not trained my chi for this. Despite having struck itself a devastating blow, the Wendigomon recovers far too quickly and strikes me dead center in the torso for the first time.

Koff. I'm incredibly grateful to the Ogremon for my last several days of toughness and vitality training. I may however need to eat, as I've been in the real world for some time, and am beginning to feel fatigue for the first time. An unusual phenomenon to be sure. Speaking of unusual, I sense the other one returning far too swiftly.

Regardless, before the Wendigomon can withdraw its fist for another blow, as its other arm draws near to hammer me further, I slip aside ever so slightly, and guide its strike away as I grip its arm, rolling into a throw. The startled creature goes sailing into its companion cresting the plateau, just having rejoined us.

I leap towards the pair as they're falling, and begin a one hundred twenty eight point strike with my deadliest limbs. Finally, progress. Oof. The returning Wendigomon gripped my leg and swung me like a flail, sending me crashing into the stony surface of the plateau. I slip free and withdraw towards the Gazimon, silently cursing them for not having fled yet. I can sense their hungry eyes, their dark-digi souls insatiable, devoid of anything save the empty longing for data to be filled with. They are beyond saving, worse, they will leap to glut themselves upon the data of the loser of this combat, likely becoming Wendigomon in the process.

Sighing, I return my focus to the combat as I'm caught by a right hook across my jaw and snout, sending me hurtling rearward into the Gazis. The pair catch me, not to soften my fall, but to hold me in place as the Wendigomon pair approaches. I exhale between moments, speeding my thoughts serenely. I observe our combat in slow motion as more attacks are sailing towards me. It takes only a twist of my hip, and I thrust one Gazi to safety, beyond the Wendigomon, whilst dodging their attacks. When the other Gazi realizes that the Wendigomon pair don't care who they fight and eat, it cowers behind me as it's being reached for by its ex-friend.

I kick aside the coward, buying it some few moments of safety and reprieve as I leap back towards the edge of the plateau. The third Wendigomon is nearly done consuming the Gazimon's data, and I fear the worst. It's nearing another forced evolution. Gulping, and loathe to do it, I send myself launching forward into a fatal strike, thrusting my hand knife-edge through the Wendigomon I'd been fighting. Immediately the two Gazis and other Wendigomon leap towards the now-free data of their dying ex-friend. I won't be allowing that though.

Focusing, sensing between the moments once more, experiencing our battle in slow-motion, I draw the data to a center with my chi. I shouldn't be focusing on this at the moment, but I try to flip enough bits to prevent its reincarnation from being an empty-dark-digi. The Gazis and Wendigomon are enraged, furious at having been denied their data meal. I'm vulnerable for a moment, and they capitalize on it, tearing into and pulverizing me. Grunting in pain, I slide backwards from the fury of their combined assault. I haven't quite completed my task in securing the Wendigomon data, let alone ensuring it a less painful reincarnation. I cough from fatigue as I stand once more, swaying side to side in a snakelike stance with my wrists bent forward and palms face down.

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They're wary now. They know this heralds a fatal strike. Despite their wariness, my assault is pinpoint, acute, over in an instant, striking down one Gazimon, and the Wendigomon that had rejoined us from below. The other Gazimon eyes the free-data hungrily, and I know I must prevent it glutting on their dying lights. Though I know I must, I cannot. My free external chi is still working on the first Wendigomon's data, keeping it free of corruption, sending it back to the digital world. As the Gazi leaps towards me, intent on consuming the available data, I'm about to send it flying with a chop, when the third Wendigomon beats me to it, snagging the Gazi out of the air and ending its digital life in an instant.

I gulp as it begins consuming the Gazi, and as much of the free-floating data as it can glut itself upon near instantly. I hasten my external chi, doing a sloppy job of sending one soul along, and round up all the external data I can, simply ensnaring it in my chi, preventing any more from being eaten as I leap away with it. My flight is just in the nick of time, as the Wendigomon begins to undergo forced evolution, taking on the silhouette of a Were-Garurumon, likely the shadow variant. I'm no match for it in my current state, and likely no match for it even at my best. For the moment. Sighing exasperatedly, frustrated, I still my thoughts and calm my heart. I return to zen as I flee the cliff's surface, disappearing between moments, between light and shade, between peace and fury.

I draw the phone from my data core, and hug it lovingly to my chest. I will get stronger Jaku. I promise.

**Presently** J

Dinner was pizza, groceries were gotten, goodness was had all around. Other than the hallucination anyway. I'll leave the bot and Pflopsie working over night on a few things. Go go GPU-powered AI and neural networks. There isn't much I can imagine being able to do about my newfound sudden strength anyway. Perhaps it will be gone in the morning when I wake up. Snuggling in against a caseless body-pillow, I drift to sleep rather swiftly.

There are bipedal rabbit-like creatures on a snowy stone plateau, and my vision swiftly approaches the creatures when I notice one of the larger ones eating one of the gray smaller ones. That seems sad, and a tad horrid. My vision lands between the remaining smaller rabbits, and the larger, brutish looking ones. The two brutish ones circle and leap towards my position, but the point of view takes to the sky in an instant...

I yawn as I awaken. I'm intrigued to see what Pflopsie cooked up for me overnight, but I'll freshen up first. No sense in procrastinating on normal things just because I've come into a somewhat large sum of cash. I probably will take that banker lady up on that CD account to live off of the interest though. So many digits. I shake my head incredulously. It doesn't seem real. Heck, most parts of the last couple of weeks don't seem real. Alright, cleaned up, actually dressed for the first time in a week, and feeling pretty good. Show us whacha got Pflopsie.

Hm, first data set shows a big whole lotta nothing that's really credible. She conjectures on some less credible things, but I have to take those with a grain of salt obviously. She triggered the bot to try a few more times. She's getting better at that. It's incredibly eerie how efficient she is at understanding whether or not all the data on the issue is presented or accounted for. I mean, her full name is Petaflops Intellectual Endeavor, but that's a mouthful, no one who runs a local repo calls her that.

Hm, this data set looks promising. Her abstract jumps to a conclusion I wouldn't have expected from an AI at all, much less one trained on only non-fiction. She found commonalities between my experience, and a few others recently, in regions where, well, where she had found extra data for my previous search. It's a little sketchy, but she thinks some of the other survivors might be going through odd phenomenon as well.

A track coach caught breaking a record on camera, but denying it to the press is the most standout selection. I wonder why they would deny it, unless they, like me, were worried about their sudden increase in abilities being from an illegitimate, possibly supernatural source. Huh, she's about my age by the sound of it. She lives a fairly long ways away, and has probably dealt with enough people bugging her from her local paper's doxing already though. Still, maybe I can find an email at some point, she's faculty at a school, since she's also their track coach. She doesn't have to respond, and it's okay if my email gets filtered into the spam, or just ignored or deleted, no harm no foul.

I wonder though, should I ask about, hm, about her status as a possible survivor? Pflopsie thinks it's related somehow. Again, a pretty large leap in logic to make that kind of conclusion.

Whatever, I'll just introduce myself for now, say I had some weird things happen after an injury, with the specific example of the grocery weight, and just leave it at that. She's a health and physical education instructor, it can't be all that weird to be reached out to by someone on a topic she specializes in. I probably won't mention bleeding bits and bytes and polygons though. Yeah, her faculty email is right there on the school's webpage listing. I guess we'll see one way or another. My email is sent, so the ball is in her court. I wonder if she'd be annoyed at, or enjoy that accidental wordplay.

For now though, I just heard the courier drop off a package, which should be my new phone. I did a sort of dumb thing, and asked for a new number on a family line with unlimited data. I just, I thought maybe if Vixi is real, that somehow we can maybe find each other again some day if the broken phone she took can keep getting a signal somehow. Still, setup is pretty quick, they ported over a bunch of things from cloud sync already. Let's boot up the GPS app and go for a hike, I'll probably buy a winter jacket and hat on my way through town. Never thought I'd be heading up into those snowy peaks.

**Route of Lugubrious Lachrymosity Ch 3**

**Now** Jaxi/Viku

Despite being hounded by wraiths and shades, Piximon's aid proves lifesaving as they sail on ahead, firing sparks all around us. We abandon our own spent source of fire now that it's all but ash. Our small Ankylomon companion is slow, but we won't abandon them to a grisly fate, seemingly to the dismay of our savior. Piximon urges further haste, but while we are capable of greater speeds, it seems Ankylo is not.

Ahead, Piximon motions as if drawing back a curtain, and virtually seems to pull aside a translucent sheet. Beyond the split in the very fabric of Digi-reality appears to be a verdant pasture amongst the clouds, near some great cliff or other risen plateau. As a shade risks dashing its claws through Piximon's lit sparks to grip Ankylomon's innards, we pause, inches from apparent safety. All our selves fight our natural survival instincts that scream flight, and we spin about, throwing ourselves back into the fray to save our new companion.

Our physical attacks are ineffectual, but something surges within us. Our desire to be a protector, to grow, to save those around us. The wealth and myriad of emotions of our three selves, the human, the digi, and the us, all becomes a new source of data, one that fills us bursting to capacity and beyond. To even survive our currently energized state, we must reach new heights, and so we reach out, our aspirations, ambitions, desires translating to tangible progress in the digital realm. Our form elongates, our limbs take shape, and at the very least, two of the three of us don't recognize the form we've become.

Not having time to dwell on the startlement, we access our chi immediately, and ignite a will o' wisp about each limb as we flail them viciously into the shades. Our blows finally connect, the ethereal nature of the wisp coating our limbs allows us to press the attack, reaching into the realm the shadows hail from, whilst we maintain our natural form here. Now we stand a fighting chance against a small number of shades, but there is a veritable army closing in around us, and our Ankylomon friend is laying on his side, fritzing, glitching.

We sigh, despite our desire to fight, and grow stronger, the reason we achieved this form was for their benefit, not our own. We wish to save them, so we allow the will o' wisp to dissipate as we reach down to scoop our new friend into our arms. Dashing through the tear in space, Piximon swiftly follows, closing it behind us.

We find ourselves in a meadow amidst the clouds, and it becomes apparent that this is no mountaintop plateau. This is a land floating in the sky, much like Laputa. Unreachable by all but the strongest fliers, and those with access to the hidden space that bridges the realm between realms such as Piximon.

Our Ankylomon friend is still fritzing, glitching, and losing data, life force by the moment, but our chalice is still overfilled. We gift them the excess data from our emotions, cupping their otherwise invisible wounds, ushering data back inwards. Despite our best efforts, they'd been struck too many times, gouged for far too long by the shades. Ankylomon would derez and die. We can prevent this though. We condense their data, packing it tightly, changing their resolution, de-digivolving them. They may have spawned as an Ankylomon, maybe, maybe not, but the stages are always linked. Our ally glows and shrinks, becoming Armadillomon.

Yet even this compression is not enough to defragment and save our ally, so we set our sights on a further level of compression, and Armadillomon's form becomes similar to the one we had inhabited such a short time ago. They adopt Nyaromon form, so very similar to Viximon. We have saved them. Thankfully. We pant, huffing for breath despite not truly having lungs, strained from the efforts.

We have a moment now to gaze down at our unfamiliar form. Something about existing as a being that is the sum of two others has thrown our natural line into disarray. We're not all that dissimilar to what we expected, but there are striking differences, despite some similarities. Our two original essences have their attention drawn by our Piximon benefactor, our savior who guided us to this sanctuary.

Piximon begins, "It's worse than I thought, Baba and Jiji are watching from the human realm, and noticed a strange uptick in corruption, fragmentation, and unmatched hashes. You, you smell like the real world, you've been to the other side. What did you do while there? What did you see?"

We struggle to find a single voice, "I, no I, us, no we. We, those that make us us, one was attacked by a corrupted Kabuterimon, they were dying. They were, are, our, my partner. I tried to drive off Kabuterimon, but I wasn't strong enough. I tried to return to the digital world, to bring the corrupted digi with me, instead my partner came along somehow. That's me. I died during the fall. Vixi, I, we, saved us. Sort of. I shared my code, just a tiny copy and paste from the regeneration module's main subroutine in our primary file."

Piximon nods along while scrutinizing us. He glances over at Nyaromon who has rolled onto their side to begin snoozing, recovering from the ordeal. We worry that Piximon suspects us of bringing such a calamity down upon the digital world as can be seen awash across the lands below the clouds. That couldn't all be from trying to save our partner, could it?

Piximon, as if answering our unspoken question, states, "Obviously this isn't your fault, I was just hoping you'd been in touch with Jiji and Baba on the other side, since you landed close to their location. Still, what you are is almost unprecedented, almost. It's like a DNA digivolution in some regards. I'm sorry to hear that there's a Kabuterimon running amok. Hopefully Jijimon and Babamon will be able to take care of it before the entire human realm is up in arms."

We nod in response. We feel bad to have failed, having left such a foe to terrorize others in the real world, but we're still so far from our highest evolution, the possible heights of our power. I'm almost surprised to hear there are a Jijimon and Babamon on the other side. It sounds like they've been there for quite some time, possibly as long as the net has been around.

Still, peering over the edge, down through the cloudscape, the torrent that pulses through this memory region of the Digiscape, the vast quantity of shadow-beings spilling forth, is a frightening sight. Even if we now have the power to fend off several, their number below is beyond imagining. Any attempt we made would be akin to using a toy sand-bucket to hold back a tsunami. Our three selves want to do more, we want to be spending time getting stronger, not sitting here in silence and confusion and relative safety while the rest of our world suffers.