Chapter 48: Weregarurumon
A/N: Hello guys, here is today’s Chapter! Well, for those who want to know, Takuya is ready to go back to the Human World. However, I wrote a little mini-arc dedicated to Pumpkinmon. It’s one of the weirdest things I’ve written so far, so I believe you’ll either love it or hate it. After this, the MC will finally be heading back to the Human World.
The BlackTailmon wasn’t there anymore. In his place stood a 2.5-meter-tall BlackWereGarurumon. In the end, BlackTailmon had chosen this Evolution path, and to tell the truth, Takuya had been somewhat worried that he might evolve into LadyDevimon. Digimon had certain natures, after all, and he wasn’t entirely sure he could trust a LadyDevimon as an ally.
But now that he had evolved into a WereGarurumon instead, everything was fine. More than fine, actually. Even if this was the Black variant, as far as Takuya knew, the main difference between WereGarurumon and BlackWereGarurumon was their attribute. This one was a Virus-type WereGarurumon, but its loyalty and other virtues should still be there. Maybe he would be a little grumpier? Well, in that case, Takuya chose to trust his friend. And now, the truth was that this Digimon had a lot of Evolution options ahead of him.
"Finally, I’m a Perfect Digimon. I can’t believe it, " BlackWereGarurumon muttered. His voice had deepened considerably, and for some reason, there was a metallic undertone to it. The newly evolved Digimon threw several kicks into the air, testing his strength.
Each movement sent powerful gusts of wind outward, making it immediately clear that his raw power was on an entirely different level.
"Cool," Takuya muttered as he watched BlackWereGarurumon.
"I’ll be grateful forever for this. I’ve been trying to evolve to this level for... well, forever, and now I finally reached it. I don’t know how I managed to do it this fast, but seriously, thank you," BlackWereGarurumon said.
"No problem, friend," Takuya replied, giving him a thumbs-up.
At that, the wolf Digimon smiled faintly and repeated the word under his breath. "Friend, huh..." It was a nice thing to hear. Pretty nice, at least for him.
"Now we have to go after the rest of the Perfects. Things are going to be much easier now," Takuya said. And it was obvious that he was right. With a new ally this strong, things would become considerably easier. BlackWereGarurumon was powerful enough to face most of the remaining Perfects head-on, and with Takuya supporting him, their chances of surviving those encounters had increased dramatically. But for now, they needed to rest. All three of them, including the newly evolved Digimon, needed to recover. Otherwise, fighting the remaining Perfects would be impossible.
"I think we should visit the Valley of the Beginnings," Takuya suggested on a whim.
Pumpkinmon looked at him curiously. "Why?"
"Well, I don’t know the place. And now that BlackTailmon has evolved, I think we should take a little rest. It would also be nice to see the place." That was really all there was to it. The Valley could serve as a safe place to recover, and it was located to the north, so they shouldn’t have too many problems getting there. Takuya genuinely needed a break after so many consecutive fights.
"For me, it’s okay, but I don’t know if the Monzaemon there will be happy to receive us," BlackWereGarurumon said.
"There’s a Monzaemon there?" Takuya asked.
Both Pumpkinmon and BlackWereGarurumon nodded, neither of them looking particularly happy about it. "What’s the matter with him?"
"Well, that valley is the biggest one of them all, the central one, so it’s protected by this Digimon, and he’s quite jealous of the place," WereGarurumon explained.
"But is he unreasonable? Will he try to attack us?" askedTakuya.
"No. He’ll try to make us stay," Pumpkinmon answered, shuddering at the thought.
Seeing Pumpkinmon react like that only made Takuya more curious. Now he actually wanted to go there. He knew that Monzaemon wasn’t aggressive, or at least he assumed he wasn’t, so whatever it was about him that repulsed Pumpkinmon was probably something funny.
"You look scared," Takuya pointed out.
"Of course! He only talks about responsibility, and duty, and zero fun!" Pumpkinmon yelled back.
Ah.
There it was.
The reason Pumpkinmon didn’t like Monzaemon. He was the complete opposite of Pumpkinmon’s personality.
That only convinced Takuya even more. "Okay, let’s go. I want to see the place. The biggest Valley of Beginnings on the island? It sounds fun."
Now that Takuya thought about it, he wondered how much longer he was going to spend in the Digital World. He had already been there for more than two months, which meant he had been away from the real world for over a week. His Guild and his uncle were probably looking for him by now, and that was somewhat concerning. Still, this place was fun. In some ways, it was even more fun than the human world. He didn’t want to go back yet. He missed the people there, sure, but he didn’t particularly miss the place itself. Did that even make sense? Whatever. In any case, once he finished dealing with the remaining Perfects, he would think about it.
The three of them began moving north at a steady pace. Along the way, they ignored the Scorpiomon living in the river below them, since none of them were in any condition to fight another Perfect-level Digimon. In fact, BlackWereGarurumon eventually ended up carrying both of them. Takuya’s entire body still hurt, while Pumpkinmon simply wanted to be carried and had jumped onto his back without hesitation.
There was absolutely no effort involved for BlackWereGarurumon. He could move at full speed while carrying both of them without any real issue. This was a Digimon that could probably require several A-Rank Hunters to take down, and even then, defeating him wouldn’t be easy. Not even ordinary missiles would be enough to kill him. A WereGarurumon could simply jump and ride them. That was how ridiculous the power scaling could start to become from this point onward.
Eventually, Takuya fell asleep for about six hours, his body finally recovering enough for him to wake up feeling considerably better. When he opened his eyes, they were already camping, with fish cooking over a central fire while Pumpkinmon and BlackWereGarurumon were already eating.
"How long was I out?" Takuya asked.
"Like six hours. We’re already halfway to the Valley of the Beginnings," BlackWereGarurumon replied.
"Oh." They had advanced quite a lot while he slept. He had simply slept through the entire journey. That was good, Takuya thought. His body felt much better now. Almost none of the pain remained, aside from a slight soreness. He stretched his body experimentally, then walked over to the fire, took a piece of fish, and began eating. It was quite good. The three of them spent some time together chatting as they ate, and Takuya couldn’t help but notice that, with BlackWereGarurumon now evolved, he was technically the weakest among them. He looked at Pumpkinmon for a moment and immediately discarded that thought. Okay, maybe not.
After eating, the three of them continued north at a steady pace. It took another eight hours before they finally reached the Valley of Beginnings. Along the way, they had to pass beside an enormous volcano that reminded Takuya of Mount Fuji. And indeed, it was massive. He could even dare to say it was larger than Mount Fuji itself.
Farther beyond it, they finally reached the place. The Valley wasn’t properly represented on the map, and Takuya quickly understood why. The moment they entered the area, the texture of the ground itself changed. The earth became... fluffy. The ground and grass were incredibly soft, almost like enormous cushions. As the three of them walked forward, they began seeing trees. There were plenty of them, but all of them were miniature versions, small trees scattered throughout the landscape. Yet there were no Baby Digimon in sight.
They continued forward, finding nothing but the soft ground and miniature trees. Then, after reaching a certain point, they finally saw something resembling an artificial structure in the distance. It was a wall made of blocks, large cubes that looked less like metal and more like the soft blocks babies used to play with or sleep on.
The trio jumped over the wall, which turned out to be surprisingly high, at least thirty meters. They descended on the other side, where the ground was even softer. All three bounced slightly the moment their feet touched the surface. Pumpkinmon was the first to take advantage of it, immediately jumping around and laughing.
A moment later, Takuya joined him. The entire place was incredibly funny, producing a strange bouncing sound every time they landed on the ground. BlackWereGarurumon looked like he didn’t want to join them, but after a long sigh, he finally gave in and started bouncing around with them. At that moment, Takuya couldn’t help but wonder if this was what Luffy felt like whenever he fought in Gear 5. If that was the case, then it was pretty damn funny.
"Look! This is the Nika dance!" Takuya yelled as he began moving like Nika, dancing across the bouncing field with one leg forward and the other behind him.
Pumpkinmon immediately followed, and even BlackWereGarurumon eventually joined in. From among the nearby trees, a couple of Baby Digimon watched them cautiously. However, after realizing that the three larger Digimon were simply playing, the babies quickly lost their fear. One by one, they recklessly joined the strange dance. Takuya and the others watched as more and more Baby Digimon came running toward them.
Of course, Takuya and the others did nothing bad to the Baby Digimon. On the contrary, they simply allowed them to join in. After a while of fooling around, the group ventured deeper into the area, now followed by an entire army of Baby Digimon.
What they found next was even more mind-blowing. There were trees everywhere, but these weren’t ordinary trees. Their leaves were made of cotton candy. The grass was sweet as well, something Pumpkinmon was the first to discover, and the trunks of the trees were made of chocolate.
The three of them and the little Digimon spent quite some time eating. Takuya genuinely felt as if he had walked into Wonderland. The little ones had food wherever they looked. Even the rocks were edible, made of mochi or some other kind of sweet. It was honestly impressive.
First Luffy, and now Willy Wonka. What a wonderful place to be.
However, in the distance, the three of them suddenly noticed a tall yellow figure approaching them.
It was Monzaemon.
"Oh, looks like he detected us," Takuya said, casually continuing to eat the chocolate tree beside him.
"Looks like it. However, even if he tries to attack, he doesn’t have much of a chance against us," BlackWereGarurumon replied.
"We aren’t here to fight, you know. We don’t have any problem with him. Besides, there’s no reason to hurt the protector of these little creatures," Takuya said, pointing toward a Botamon sitting on top of his head.
BlackWereGarurumon nodded in agreement.
Halloween, however, wasn’t there.
Wait.
Takuya looked around.
"Where’s Halloween?"