The massive swarm of fish, resembling more of a solid cloud than a school of fish, moves into action. Now, I can’t say I’ve ever been attacked by a fish before, but I can imagine that a thousand of them, descending upon me in a concentrated stream, might work to do some harm. Especially so if they decide to focus on my already opened wound.

I draw back slightly, but my fate is already sealed.

The thousands of fish spread out around me, encapsulating me in a thick, blackening sheet, first blotting out the seal digimon, then the sea and the seafloor, and finally, everything else. The world becomes completely black. All I can hear is the sound of scales scraping together, and all I see is the darkness moving, shifting, alive.

It attacks.

I throw out my claws, feeling something turn to pixels in my grip, but then something else bites into my foot. It’s not a big bite, barely a nibble, but it's soon joined by another, and yet another. Across my form, from my claws to my legs to my tail to my body to my head, I’m being bitten. The only reaction I can possibly give is to press my eye closed, hoping it might protect it from the malevolent darkness that surrounds me.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

It would be one thing if the higher-levelled digimon killed me, but this isn’t even that. This is just fish. Thousands of thousands of useless, worthless, meaningless fodder. Am I not even worth being killed personally? When I die, will my data be shared between these pieces of programming like fish feed?

I don’t want to die. Not like this. Not like-,

“Stop!” a familiar voice cries out.

The darkness around me stills. B-, Bukamon?...

And then, bursting through the darkness, I see a little flame of light, the fish opening up at his speedy approach, the light of the blue sea surrounding Bukamon’s arrival like a halo of light. He grabs me in his soft little flippers and suddenly we’re out of the darkness, back in the light, back outside.

The seal digimon looks at us with barely-hidden contempt. No, me.

“Please, Gomamon, don’t hurt him!” Bukamon pleads from just above me. “He didn’t mean to hurt anyone!”

“He killed my friends!” the digimon I assume to be Gomamon says. Do all digimon’s names end in mon? “How can you say he didn’t mean to hurt anyone when he ate so many of my fish?” To be honest, they might not need to fight for much longer. I’m pretty much bleeding out by the second.

“But he didn't have a choice! He didn’t choose to be a virus-type, just like we didn’t choose to be data-types. How can we fault him for following his programming?”

“Because it hurts the ones I love!” Gomamon cries. “If it hurts the ones I love, then the programming is evil. If you just let me stop him, you can take the egg later.” Lifting his claws, Gomamon approaches.

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Bukamon draws back. His eyes are as fiery as the flame atop his head. He presses me closer to him, almost tight enough to crush me. “He’s my friend,” he whispers. “And if you hurt him, then you’re worse than he is.”

Gomamon freezes in place. “B-, but he’s evil!”

“He’s still my friend!” Bukamon roars. “And friends stick together, so if you want to kill him, you’ll have to kill me too!”

At this, Gomamon’s claws begin to tremble. His face darkens. “Are you saying you’re better friends with him than I am with my fish?...” Bukamon gives no response. Slowly, Gomamon’s claws return to his side. “Fine,” he hisses. The ocean seems to freeze around him. “But I can’t have him around here anymore. He’s clearly not a sea digimon like we are, so just… Take him to some other place, okay? Somewhere he won’t hurt anyone.”

For a few seconds, Bukamon says nothing, his face tight as he searches for a proper response. “Okay,” he says. “I will.”

Gomamon’s face softens. “I don’t want us to part as enemies. You’re both young, and… Just because you start out as a virus doesn’t mean you have to stay as one.” He turns to me. To be honest, I don’t really feel like I have much chance of survival, even if Gomamon lets me go. There probably isn’t a single part of my body that hasn’t been opened up. And still, he looks at me. “You are my enemy, but only inasmuch as your nature opposes mine. If you really are friends with Bukamon…” He gives a small, uncertain smile. “Then maybe you can change.”

Yeah, sure, alright. If I get a mouth in my next evolution, I’ll be sure to eat plenty of seaweed.

“He can change!” Bukamon states loudly, hurting my ears. “And he will change, because he already has.” And then he looks down at me. I know he’s only supposed to be a few weeks old, but he seems so much older than that. “I’ll be sure to get him to File…” He shakes his head. “No, I’ll get him to Cyber Cove.”

Gomamon nods. “Yeah, that sounds good. Just get going and-,” His eyes widen and I only just have time to notice the obvious, all-consuming terror that overtakes his gaze before it all happens.

Suddenly, I’m no longer being held by Bukamon.

Huh?

I’m floating freely, in the midst of the sea, surrounded by a spray of red pixels. I stare at them as though they were poisonous. A few of the pixels are purple, and as soon as I notice them, I feel a flash of pain course through me, originating from my right leg. Or, rather, my lack of a right leg. It’s gone. It’s just gone. Where did it go? Where’s Bukamon?

I turn towards Gomamon. But he isn’t alone. The fish seem to have exploded like a three-coloured can of spray paint, pixels and fish crowding in terror and panic around a hole in the formation that hadn’t been there just a second ago. In the distance, I see something long and massive, the size of three buses in length and girth, easily slicing through the waves of the sea.

“Innomon, run!” Gomamon cries and I would take his advice if I could have done it with Bukamon. But Bokamon isn’t here. I can’t see him at all. All I can see are these red pixels, floating around me like blood in the water. And they smell lovely.

Tentatively, I touch one of the floating pixels, using the only leg I have left. It goes inside. It’s a lot of energy, and I feel my body begin to reform, and at the same time, the rest of the pixels go inside as well, healing me, bringing my data not just back to its pristine state, but beyond it. My heart beats like a gong.

A pair of clawed flippers grab a hold of me and I look up to see Gomamon, clutching me tightly. “You have to get away, Innomon! Bukamon would’ve wanted you to live!”

…He would have? I blink at the digimon above me but my body feels weird and my head feels weird. Where did all of Gomamon’s fishy friends go? Where’s Bukamon? I can’t leave without Bukamon.

Gomamon grits his teeth but can’t say anything as something large and massive suddenly grabs a hold of his hind flippers. “Arghhh!” he cries out in pain, having no choice but to release me. Only now do I see the monster. It is a massive sea serpent, its head and face encased in a golden, metallic mask. It’s horrible. Its mouth is filled with fish and Gomamon.

I blink at the sight. It almost looks comical.

In a last-ditch effort, Gomamon stretches out his clawed flipper. “Marching Fishes!!”

The swarm of fish, previously so chaotic and disorganised, suddenly finds purpose. Almost all of them reform into a concentrated ball, capturing the massive serpent’s attention. But not all of them. A group of them, only barely more than I would usually eat in a day, separates from the larger mass, shooting towards me as though made by lighting. I want to scream, the memory of the darkness and the nibbles overtaking my fatigued mind, but I can’t.

The fish grab a hold of me with their mouths and begin swimming away with all of their might. The serpent and Gomamon and the fish are suddenly so far away, but I can see the serpent chew the little digimon’s form, and within only seconds, Gomamon explodes into pixelated static. The serpent slurps them down apathetically, not even caring to collect all of the pixels before moving onto the swarm of fish.

But by this point, I’m already far away. The fish carry me on their backs, but I can’t feel them anymore. I can’t feel anything. My mind is filled with empty white.

The white and the red embrace me, and in mind and body, I disappear.