…

…Hm? Where… am I? Where’s dad?

Dad?...

I open my eyes. No, eye. I can hear snoring. It’s dark, but part of this place is lit by a very small flame. That’s… Bukamon. Yeah. Right, I’m not… I’m not at home anymore.

It’s so dark. I try to heave my body off the sandy ground but I don’t have any arms, all I have is a pair of legs and everything feels so floaty, like I’m on the moon. My legs work but my feet are way too long—I have no choice but to stand on my tiptoes.

My gaze falls on the slit of light emerging from the exit. It isn’t bright, but something about the shine draws me towards it. I press myself towards the exit, squeezing myself into the little hole leading outside. The water is so black but high above I can see light gazing down at me from above the calm surface of the ocean.

The blue light draws me closer. It doesn’t look like the moon.

It’s more like the silhouette of a thin person’s upper body, but bright and shining, like they’re made out of moonlight. They’re so big it seems like they’re only peering into a little pond, not a massive ocean. But they are the only light I can see, and it’s a human. The first one I’ve seen since the accident. Slowly, I float towards it. It’s so bright. Blinding. Compared to all of the darkness, it is all there is.

I feel like crying. I need to see their face. Are they smiling at me?

But something bites onto my tail and the sharp pain makes the light fade and the darkness press itself closer and I whirl around, and there, biting only my tail, with his eyes squeezed close, I can see Bukamon, his little flame being the only other light here. I can see nothing but him.

“Don’t look at it,” he bites out with my tail still in his mouth. “Don’t look at the moon.”

I can’t move anymore. I can’t even feel anything. With me unable to resist, Bukamon starts pulling me back down into the darkness. Desperately, I kick my feet, but it’s no use. I look back up at the man in the moon, but its attention seems trained elsewhere. I watch in stunned silence as it lifts one long, endless arm and grips a hold of what seems to be a massive dragon-like thing. It doesn’t struggle, eyes fixed onto the glowing man. Then, it's eaten.

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My eye is wide as Bukamon pulls me back into the crevice, back into the cave. And then the thoughts and the feelings are gone.

I turn to look at him. He’s breathing heavily, finally able to open his eyes. There’s fear in there. “Never,” he says gravely, “look at the moon. Not that moon. It’ll suck you in, and eat you up.”

I can do nothing but stare at him, hoping my eyes convey the general question of ‘what the fuck.’ Luckily, it works.

Bukamon gulps. “Back before the digital world was saved, it wasn’t like this. Not exactly. Things have… changed. I don’t remember what digimon I was back then, but I remember that digimon didn’t die so often. Not like now. We still reform and all, but there’s been a lot of changes. Elecmon told me that the Village of Beginnings was actually destroyed, once. A long time ago. There was even a time when no new digimon could be born.” He tried to show me a brave front, but it was obviously not quite real. “B-, but now, everything is okay! Sort of. Most digimon are good digimon.” He smiles. “Us data types have to stick together, right?”

…Yeah, I guess. I have no idea what most of that meant, but I’ll take him on his word.

Data types… You know what? I’m way too tired to think about any of that. What just happened with the moon man… I can’t bother to feel afraid. I almost died, but that isn’t entirely new anymore. Gently, I collapse back into the sand. Bukamon watches me for a few seconds before doing the same on his little bed of seaweed.

And then, I sleep. I actually fell asleep before Bukamon did, which isn’t a very good survival tactic. Not that I care that much anymore. If Bukamon wanted me dead, I would already be gone. And so, I sleep. I don’t dream. Do digimon dream? Maybe they don’t.

When I wake up, it’s bright both outside and inside. Bukamon is swimming laps, and I realise that there’s a bit of seaweed draped over my form. I glance at Bukamon, but he won’t meet my eye, so I just shake it off. Not that I mind it or anything. It was… nice.

“Hey, wanna play a game?” Bukamon says the second I’m no longer laying down. “First one to eat and get to the big pillar gets to go hide and the other has to find them!”

Big pillar? What…

Before Bukamon moves the conversation or leaves, I’m able to express my confusion by tilting my head. It feels kind of like choosing the right option in a conversation prompt, because he quickly explains that there’s this one really big pillar of salt a few paces off, and by dragging me outside, he’s even able to point to it. Right, that one. Gotcha.

“You ready? Three, two, one… Go!”

And off he goes. Since his body is actually made to move and live underwater, he’s as fast as a dragonfly. Meanwhile, I saunter off towards the sand. Grub time. I tap down on the sand and begin digging around a little. After a while, I pull up a red-eyed little creature. “Pichi?”

I stare at it. It stares at me. For some reason, I can’t bring myself to squeeze my claws around it. It would be easy. Sure, it wouldn’t feed me for long, but it would be breakfast. Just a simple little squeeze and it’d be over.

It looks up at me with big, pleading eyes.

Technically speaking, it isn’t even a real animal. It isn’t sentient. Not like me and Bukamon.

…But, if it evolves, it becomes Bukamon. Would it gain sentience, or is it already sentient?