As the DigiDestined who knew of their purpose left to return to the Digital World, the Analog World initially went by without noticing.
However, things could not stay hidden forever, and eventually the two worlds became imposed on each other's skies.
This, naturally, had an effect on many people... some of them moreso than others.
Far away from where the other experienced DigiDestined lived, a small boy played in a field with his two partners when the world lit up. The three of them paused, turning to see the sky emblazoned with many colors.
"Willis...?" The pink Digimon started, staring upwards with wide eyes. "What's that?"
"I- I don't know...." His hand slipped into his pocket, fingers closing tightly around an odd device, which he'd carried for the past four years, ever since that day in March when an egg had appeared from the family computer.
...Or, that was what his mother had told him had happened. At the time, he'd been too young to really remember. All that he knew was that Gummymon and Kokomon had been his constant companions ever since.
"It feels... familiar," Gummymon almost whispered.
Kokomon nodded. "Yeah. It's like... we've been there before."
"But... you hatched here." It was the one thing they could all agree on. The two Digimon had no idea where they came from, or why they'd originally been in the shapes of Zerimon and Conomon, or even why they were called Digimon, but they definitely knew that this was the place where they were meant to be. Not that they remembered anywhere else.
But there was this sky, and they were calling it familiar.
"Maybe we'd find out more if we went there!" Gummymon suggested.
Kokomon gave his brother a look. "A-are you sure? That place looks dangerous..."
"I dunno how we'd even get up there," Willis agreed. Sometimes, staticky shapes would come down, but... "We can't just... fly, or anything. Unless you have wings?" The twin blobs shook their heads.
On their way back home, the three of them were attacked by some living statues that faded from existence as quickly as they appeared, but not before Willis' friends took on new shapes in order to fight them.
Somehow, this just brought up even more questions.
A bit closer to the place where everything could have conceivably been said to be happening, there were people who were just as confused.
Today, Luche had said that she wanted to play in the park with her friend Ken, and Shoma hadn't seen that much reason to say no. Not that he'd ever been able to say no to her. Someone needed to be nice to her, with how the teachers at her school were. It wasn't her fault that her father was missing, presumed dead.
He was carrying Viximon like a stuffed toy today, and Kapurimon, as far as he could tell, had not left his usual spot inside Luche's bag. They'd been able to keep the existence of the Digimon a complete secret for four years, now, ever since the April when Uncle Sakuya had gone missing without a trace, and they weren't about to let that streak break now.
Sure, it could be hard to keep them fed, sometimes, but... they were managing.
Ken's brother had made some bubble mix for the kids to play with, so they were blowing bubbles, while Viximon's eyes darted after them, a look on her face that said quite clearly that she wanted to chase the pretty, fragile things, despite being in the presence of someone who wasn't Shoma or Luche.
The bubbles floated into the sky, and when one of them popped, suddenly another world appeared above their own.
"W-what's happening?" Shoma asked, looking up.
Luche glanced up as well, unable to take her gaze off of the sky. "It's... have we been there before?"
"I... don't think so." They'd never left Tamachi, had they? Luche's existence was one of those things that was really awkward to explain... especially when one of her parents had vanished long ago, and the other, as far as he could tell, might never have existed. "We've always been here."
"...Oh."
"I think it's familiar, too!" Kapurimon spoke up, leaping out of Luche's bag.
Shoma froze. Ken was right there. There was no way that this could possibly end well...
Ken looked at the little Digimon. "You can talk?"
He nodded, a grin on his face. "I'm Kapurimon! It's nice to finally meet you properly!" He offered his tail to Ken, who hesitantly shook it.
"It's... nice to meet you, too..." He just sounded really confused by the whole thing, and it was hard to blame him.
"Kapurimon..." Viximon groaned. "You know we're not supposed to talk to people."
"But Viximon..."
Shoma wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. The end of the world, maybe, if someone were to find out about the Digimon. The last thing Uncle Sakuya had ever told him was that it was important to keep the contents of the eggs they'd been given a secret.
But... the two of them were talking to Ken. And the world hadn't ended, the Digimon hadn't disappeared... if something bad was happening- and it probably was- it was going on completely independent of them.
Seeing the odd lines of land displayed across the sky, forests, seas, cities and mountains... he wondered if Uncle Sakuya had ever known about this.
And if he had... then why had he never said anything?