“Come on Innomon, catch up!” Bukamon calls, and I honestly didn't even notice him starting to swim away. I’ve always had a penchant for slipping into my own thoughts, so I quickly shake my head and begin swimming towards him. He doesn’t seem completely happy about how slowly I’m catching up, but he doesn’t complain, simply waiting for me to catch up.

By the time we’ve arrived ‘home,’ it’s actually gotten dark and I’m frankly starting to get very, very tired. I’ve been running around all day. The idea of taking a well-deserved break is actually very tempting.

The home in question is, predictably enough, a small cave. If it can even be called that. In truth, the ‘cave’ itself is really just a tiny, open crevice beneath an angled cliffside. Looking at the size of it, it seems dubious whether even one of us can fit inside, but Bukamon doesn’t seem too worried as he speeds on inside, waving for me to follow.

It’s not easy to squeeze myself under the rock, my rock brace kind of makes it a step more difficult, but Bukamon helps me out by digging away a bit of the sand beneath, finally letting me enter. The inside is small and it would probably be dark if it wasn’t for the little flame on top of Bukamon’s head illuminating it. I still have no idea how that works.

The space is slightly larger than I had expected, so we do both have enough place to fit. One part of the floor of the cave is covered in a thin bed of seaweed.

Bukamon scratches the back of his head with his fin. “Oh, that’s my bed! It’s made of dataweed, so if I ever wake up hungry, I can just grab a bite without having to go out into the dark. Neat, huh?” I look at him. He looks back. Then he turns flustered. “Oh! Um, sorry I don’t have another bed, you’re my first friend, so…” He smiles childishly. “B-, but you can take my bed. I’ll just sleep over here on the sand. Sand is nice.”

I shake my head, moving into the area he indicated and lying down.

“You’re sure? I mean, I don’t mind sleeping on the ground, and you seem pretty tired, so…” I shake my head again. Look, if I’m gonna be the guest here, assuming we consider this to be some sort of sleepover or whatever, then I’m sure as hell not stealing his bed. This guy is a kid. I’m an adult. I’ve gotta act like it. “Well, um, okay then!” He swims over to his bed and rolls over on it so he’s on his back. If he’d had feet, I’m sure he would be kicking them. And then—I kid you not—he giggles. His eyes roll to me. There’s a mischievous glimpse in them. “Wanna hear a spooky story?”

For the sake of my own sanity, I don’t respond.

He rolls onto his stomach, grinning as he lays his head on his flippers. “Okay, okay, so, um… Once upon a time, there was an evil digimon called Devimon. It was a crooked virus-type digimon who wanted to cast all of the digital world into shadow! He sent out blackness to corrupt the hearts of digimon, making them as wicked as he was. But then, a group of humans appeared from the real world, and together with their digimon partners, they were able to save not just the digital world from the cruelty of Devimon, but the real world, too!”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I stare at him. If I’d had a jaw, it would be dropping right about now.

Bukamon’s smile only grows wider, in direct defiance of the fact that lizards shouldn’t be able to smile. “Isn’t that awesome, huh? The real world… I kind of want to go there one day, just to see if everyone is as cool as the digidestined.” He giggles again, in that way only children can. “But it would also be really scary, so maybe I’ll just stay here instead. How about you?”

I can feel my tail whip back and forth, kicking up a bit of sand and dust.

“You’d stay here too, right? Then we can keep being friends!”

I don’t even know how to react anymore. Bukamon is now rolling around atop his bed, making the seaweed twist around him. For a few seconds, I think he might be getting himself all tangled, but he doesn’t seem very bothered by it. In the end, once he settles down, he’s all wrapped up like a burrito, but he seems happy about it. A blanket, then…

I turn my attention to the grains of sand below me. My mind is whirling.

What the hell did he just say to me?...

Real world, digital world, digimon, humans… It could just be a story. A bedtime story Elecmon told him to make him fall asleep. Wouldn’t be strange with how energetic he is. If I was Elecmon, I would’ve told him just about anything to make him fall asleep.

But the way Bukamon reacted to it… He didn’t seem like he saw it as a story at all. Or maybe it was and I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. Oh, god, I don’t know!

This is all just… And, even worse, I can’t even ask him about it. It’s too late to tilt my head at him, and for that matter, he’s already asleep. The moment passed. That leaves me with nothing but my own thoughts and the creeping darkness approaching. Yeah, apparently, Bukamon’s flame gets dimmer as he falls asleep. Interesting.

But not as interesting as the implication that I am, somehow, someway, not in the ‘real world’ anymore. Going by what Bukamon said, I am in the digital world. The digital world… As in, the internet?

Horrible thoughts pass through my head. Oh god. Oh, my god. B-, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be true, right? Maybe a few parts, or… No. You know what? If this was the ‘digital world,’ then it would actually make a lot of sense. It would explain how these monsters exist, and why the water barely feels like water, and why these monsters explode into pixels when they die.

Because they aren’t real.

I glance over at Bukamon. Maybe… maybe some of these monsters are real. At least in their conscience. My mind wanders to that phrase, ‘if a person perceives a situation as real, it is real in its consequences,’ said by some guy whose name I always forget. Bukamon’s sentience is real if I consider it so. But is that any different from the real world? I can only prove my own existence concretely, but if I believe that other people are also real, then they will be, if only in my interpretation.

Alright then. Nighttime philosophy: complete. How much exp do I get for completing that quest?

…Nothing? Alright. Maybe this place isn’t so gamelike as to have quests.

But this would mean that I’m not the first human to have arrived here. Bukamon never said so outright, but he didn’t make it seem as though the humans who arrived here stayed here until they died or anything. Instead, they seem to have gone back to Earth. This is a good thing. This means that there is a chance, a way, a possibility, that I, too, can return to the real world.

I can go back. Somehow.

But the how and where can wait, can’t it? I’m starting to feel really tired, and Bukamon’s snores are lulling me to sleep, so I think, maybe, it’s about time I did something similar. Because, after all… I’ve had… quite… the day…

…