WARNING: Set after Episode 50! If you haven't seen the end of Digimon Season 02, do not read!!

When the evil that was Malomyotismon was destroyed, the two worlds became intertwined like never before. Humans and digimon alike began to bond on a global scale. In the next twenty-five years, the number of digidestined would increase to the point where everyone in the world had a digimon partner.

Except, for one girl.

--- Center for Digiworld Studies ---

"What can we do, mister...?" asked Mrs. Yasushi, who was clutching her husbands arm progressively harder.

"Izumi, ma'am," the man answered. "And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what we can do. I've never heard of a case like this. I didn't know there were still people out there without a digimon partner."

"Please, you must do something!" pleaded Mr. Yasushi. "We don't want our daughter becoming an outcast because of this! Please, we'll do anything!" Mr. Izumi motioned for them to calm down, as their daughter was just outside. She was sitting at his desk and sadly playing solitaire with some real cards (something people rarely did anymore since it was on just about every computer). She didn't seem to hear what they were saying, thankfully.

In a whisper, Mr. Izumi continued. "Tell me, what have you done so far to remedy this? Nothing drastic, I hope."

Mrs. Yasushi shook her head. "No, nothing drastic, sir. We've taken her to the Digital World a number of times, but on every occasion no digimon has appeared for her. Other than that, we don't know what else we can do."

Koushiro nodded. "I see. So the Digital World is not responding to her presence." He walked to his computer and started punching away at the keys. "Interesting..."

"Have you found something?" asked Mr. Yasushi hopefully.

"Possibly. I'm going to have to talk to your daughter, alone, if that's alright."

Both parents immediately agreed. "Yes, yes of course Mr. Izumi. Whatever you say." They both scurried out of the room to relay the message to their daughter, while Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi thought of what this might mean.

It didn't take long for Naki to arrive. She looked like the average schoolgirl from Japan- she was short, had dark black hair that went down to her ears and deep brown eyes that lacked the spark of life that most youths had. She was dressed in the uniform of her school- a plaid skirt with knee-high socks and a brown button-up top. She was wearing thin-rimmed glasses that reminded the man of an old friend of his. When she was at Koushiro's desk, she bowed politely and waited for him to speak.

"Hello Naki, I'm Dr. Izumi, but you can call me Izzy," he said, hoping to relax her. She only nodded wordlessly. Apparently, she was relaxed more than enough.

"Please sit down," Izzy instructed. The girl complied. "Now, your parents tell me that you haven't found a digimon partner. Is that correct?"

"...Yes, sir," she replied softly. "It's because I'm a freak, isn't it?"

"No, of course not," replied Izzy. "Who told you that?"

"My brother," she replied meekly. "He and his friends say that I'm a freak because no digimon likes me enough to want to be with me."

"Your brother doesn't sound very nice. In any case, he's wrong. I'm sure there's a digimon out there just waiting to meet you."

Naki looked up at Koushiro for the first time since she arrived. "...Really, sir?"

He nodded. "Absolutely. If you help me, I may be able to find out why it hasn't arrived yet. I just need you to answer some questions for me."

Naki nodded nervously. "...Yes, sir."

Koushiro pulled out a notepad and pencil and held them in his lap. "Naki, how many times have you been to the Digital World?"

"...I don't know exactly."

"Just round it off. About how many times?"

She looked towards the ceiling and silently mouthed the number sequence as she quickly counted in her head. After a while, she answered, "About thirty times, sir."

"And of those times, how many times have you seen a digimon?"

"Every time, sir. I enjoy watching the digimon play."

"So you like digimon then?" Koushiro asked with a smile as he jotted some notes down.

Naki nodded several times. "I like digimon a lot! I like the wild ones the best though."

Koushiro's eyebrow arched. "Why's that, Naki?"

"All the kids I know just use the digimon to fight with each other. When I see how much the digimon get beat up, it makes me angry." She clenched her fists angrily. "Especially my brother. All he ever does is fight. I can't believe his Betamon has stayed with him for so long!"

"Not everybody uses their digimon to fight, Naki. Some people do, I admit, but most digimon just want to be friends with the humans and don't like to fight."

Naki jumped to her feet. "Then why do I always see people using their digimon to fight?! It's not just the kids. I've seen lots of people use them to fight for stupid reasons! They even hold tournaments for that stuff now! It makes me so mad to see them treat the digimon like mindless animals!"

Koushiro couldn't disagree there. Lately, it had become popular to use the digimon to compete in various competitions for their human friends. One league in particular used the digimon to fight each other for the sake of an annual money prize. At first it was reserved for the younger children, but eventually the craze caught on with the older people as well. Most of the digimon enjoyed a good fight, but lately it was getting out of hand. In one case, a digimon actually was destroyed during a particularly brutal battle between the reigning champion and the number one competitor. The digimon came back, of course, but it was still a grisly thing to behold. Now, various world superpowers were starting to get ideas about using digimon as soldiers against terrorist countries in the third world. They reasoned that if digimon were immortal, they would have nothing to fear from war. Koushiro thought it was sickening, but there was little he could do. Even if the Digital World had become opened to all, the world was still the same as it always was- filled with greedy, dangerous people.

"Naki, I realize that you don't enjoy the way some people use their digimon, but you don't have to be that way."

"But if I have a digimon, people will expect me to use it that way! My father and mother want me to be like my brother, the star Digimon Battler, but I don't want to! I'd rather not have a digimon if that's what they want me to do with it!"

Finally, Koushiro understood. The reason why she didn't have a digimon was simple- she didn't want one. She cared too much about the digimon to want it by her side. Well, she did want it by her side, but she didn't want it to fight. She just wanted a friendly digimon like everyone else.

"Naki, I know how you feel," Koushiro said finally.

"Huh? You do?"

He nodded. "Yes. A long time ago, I knew a girl who was just like you. She didn't want to fight at all, and she hated the way others fought. She would have preferred if everybody got along."

Naki smiled. "Really? What did she do?"

"At the time, there were a lot of evil monsters trying to destroy the worlds, so we had to fight. We didn't want to, but we had no choice. It took her a while, but she learned that fighting was okay, if you were fighting for what's right. She chose to fight to save her friends, and to save the Digital World. Afterwards, she and her digimon partner were just fine, and never regretted a single moment of their fight for what was right."

Naki's face turned sad once again. "But... what do I have to fight for? The Digital World isn't in trouble, and I don't have any friends in need of help. I have nothing to fight for."

Koushiro put a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find something worth fighting for. Just give it time. Until then, you and your future digimon partner should just do what you want to do, and don't worry about what everyone else wants you to do. If you don't want to fight, don't fight. It's as simple as that."

The girl smiled and bowed respectfully. "Thank you very much, Mr. Izumi. I won't forget what you said."

"No problem," he replied, bowing as well. "If you need anything else, tell your parents to call me." He handed her a simple card with his name and phone number on it. "I'm sure you'll be just fine."

She smiled again and waved goodbye as she walked off. As she left, Izzy's memories drifted back to the time (and the girl) he spoke of. For the next few minutes, nostalgia took over, and there was nothing he could do but smile.

****

Friday nights were always pizza night, so everybody made sure they were home on time when the clock struck seven. Mom's homemade pizza was better than anything the fast food places could cook was, and everybody in the Yasushi family agreed on this. Tonight they were having pepperoni- Naki's favorite. Of course, that meant her brother hated it.

"Why do we have to have pepperoni tonight!" complained Tohru, Naki's brother. He was only a year younger than she was, but he acted as if he were five years younger. When he wanted to be, he could be a spoiled brat, but usually he did things on his own just to prove he could. He didn't do well in school, but the power that he and his Betamon friend had was enough to make him extremely popular. Last year, Betamon reached the top four for the local Digimon Battling tournament, and it was only his first try. This year, Tohru and Betamon were the heavy favorites to win.

"You know the rules, son," said his father warningly. "Last week you chose the pizza, this week Naki chooses. Fair is fair."

Tohru glared at his sister, who was calmly eating her slice. "Can't you pick anything new? If I eat one more pepperoni I'll spew!" Naki didn't dignify that with an answer.

"Tohru, don't say that at the table," said his mother. "Eat your supper. You have to be well rested for the tournament tomorrow."

"I know, mom," said the boy angrily. Tohru started to munch on his pizza, ever so slowly, while Naki talked with the two digimon already at the table- her father's digimon, Tokomon, and her mother's digimon, Nyaromon.

"So how was your day, Nyaromon? Did you do anything fun?"

"I learned how to bake cookies with your mom," she answered. "If I ever get real hands, maybe I'll make some." Naki giggled.

"I hope you never do," said Tokomon jokingly. "The day you bake cookies is the day I stop eating."

"Just you wait!" said Nyaromon as Tokomon and Naki laughed. "I'll make cookies so good that you'll be begging me for a taste, but you won't be allowed to have any! Only Naki and I will!"

"I'll get some too, right?" said Mr. Yasushi.

"Traitor!" said Tokomon. Again everyone laughed.

"I'm done," said Tohru. After taking his third and final bite of his only slice of pizza, Tohru took the plate into the kitchen and put the contents into the fridge. It'd make a good snack for Betamon later.

"Betamon's not eating?" asked Naki.

"He had a big lunch," said Tohru as he walked past the table. "He and I have to go to sleep early so that we'll be fully rested for tomorrow's trial runs. Good night Mom. Good night Dad."

"Night, son," his father replied. His mother said good night as well.

"Good night, weirdo," the boy said to his sister just before sticking his tongue out. She gave him an angry stare, which made him chuckle. He ran off before she could retaliate with an insult of her own.

For the rest of the meal, she ate in silence. Tokomon and Nyaromon looked at each other sadly, because unlike her parents they both knew how much that comment hurt her.

****

When Naki wanted to go to the Digital World, she always had to go with someone else. Usually she didn't want to go, for the reasons she told Mr. Izumi. However, today she felt like heading to the other world for the whole day. With the Digimon Battling tournament taking place, just about everybody was at the stadium where the competitions were held. When Naki asked her father to take her to the Digital World, he had to say no.

"Please?!" she pleaded.

"Don't you want to watch the games with your mother and I?"

She most definitely didn't, especially since they would spend most of their time cheering for Tohru. "...No, I'd rather go some place quiet. Could you just drop me off or something?"

"I don't think so. There's some dangerous digimon out there, and if you were alone..."

Tokomon pulled on Mr. Yasushi's pant leg. "I could go with her. I don't mind." Naki smiled when she saw this. Tokomon was always so nice to her. He was like a sweet old uncle, even though he wasn't that old- only twenty or so.

"Are you sure you don't mind, Tokomon?" Naki's father asked again.

Tokomon nodded. "Of course. No problem. I don't like all this loud noise anyway."

"Me neither," said Nyaromon as she and Mrs. Yasushi walked over. "Can I come too?"

Naki smiled. "Can the three of us go, father? Pleeease?" she said in her most innocent voice. Nyaromon and Tokomon did the same.

The softhearted father couldn't resist much longer. "Weeell. Alright."

Naki and the digimon cheered and ferociously hugged the man, who laughed at all the attention he was getting all of a sudden. His wife laughed as well, and helped free him from the three rambunctious ones.

"There's a phone terminal over here," he said. "We can use it to open the gate." The three dashed over to where the terminal was, while Mr. and Mrs. Yasushi followed at a more sedate pace. When they finally arrived, Mr. Yasushi pulled out his digivice (or "D3" as this model was often called) and pointed it at the computerized phone terminal.

"Digiport open!" As usual, the gate between the digital world and the real world opened up, waiting to be used by whomever needed it. People walked by without giving it a second thought, since everybody with a digimon had a digivice. Only those who are too young or who are mentally handicapped don't have digimon or digivices because they can't "think" the right way. This made most people assume that Naki was handicapped in some way, but her near-perfect schoolwork proved otherwise.

"Now be back at the gate at five o' clock sharp," said Naki's mother. "In fact, be there ten minutes earlier just to be safe. And don't get hurt or lost. Nyaromon, make sure she keeps her jacket on at all times, and-"

"Whoa, slow down Rina!" said Nyaromon, using the mother's first name like she used to when they were still young. Mrs. Yasushi smiled when she did this, and Nyaromon did the same. Rarely did she go by Rina anymore; usually it was just Mrs. Yasushi or "mother".

"Relax," said Tokomon. "Everything will be just fine. We promise."

Naki's father smiled. "Okay. Just be careful, and don't forget. Five o' clock."

"Yes, sir!" said Tokomon mockingly. He leapt into the open digital gate and disappeared in a flash of light.

"Come on Naki," said a smiling Nyaromon, and she leapt into the digiport as well.

"See you at five!" said Naki just before leaping into the digiport. When she did, the gate closed behind her, and the terminal returned to normal.

"Let's get going," said Mr. Yasushi. "The games start pretty soon." He headed towards the stadium, but he noticed his wife not following. She remained fixed on the terminal that had served as the gate moments before. The father walked back and looked at his wife in worry. "Honey, what's wrong?"

It took a while, but she eventually answered him. "...I don't know. I have a bad feeling. I think something bad's going to happen."

"That's just because you're a mother," he replied. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. She'll be all right. Tokomon and Nyaromon will make sure she's okay. They'll be rookies again once they are in the Digital World."

Slowly, Mrs. Yasushi nodded. "...I guess you're right." She looked at him and smiled lightly. "Okay, let's go cheer for our son." With that, the two headed to the stadium, only mildly worried about their daughter, and blissfully unaware of what the future held for their child.