A drawer was roughly opened and closed again. Then another one was opened and a child silently cursed under his breath.

"Damnit, where are they?"

Demidevimon gave up on returning to sleep and slowly opened one eye. Once he got used to the brightness pure chaos met his sight. Clothes were littered all over the ground with some toys and comic books scattered in between them. Old tales said that vampires love order so much, that a little bit of spilled rice can lead to an existential crisis and those traits were definitely inherited by him. It took him almost a solid minute to shake of his shock.

The culprit himself had just crawled under his bed, shoving out even more comic books and his secret candy stack.

Demidevimon cleared his throat loudly to get the child's attention. Hinata immediately wriggled his way out and greeted his partner.

"Morning, are you awake?"

Demidevimon huffed slightly.

"Of course I am, I'd be talking in my sleep otherwise." Then the bat gestured at the littered floor. "Care to elaborate the reason behind the state of your room?"

Hinata rolled his eyes before standing up to clean his legs off the dust that had previously been under his bed.

"I can't find my swimming trunks and I just can't go to my grandparents without them. They'll live just one block away from the beach and we always go swimming there."

Demidevimon considered giving a lengthy lecture about the topic of priorities and general organisation but decided to tone it down to a small one after checking the clock.

"Shouldn't you be worrying about packing your normal wardrobe first before wasting your time searching for something as specific as sport clothes? Just look at their state, you have to fold them again now."

Before Hinata could answer, his father called him for breakfast. The boy quickly picked up his partner and dashed towards the kitchen.

The boy's father gave a disapproving look towards Demidevimon who rested still in Hinata's arms.

"You are way too old to walk around with a ragged toy like this. Put it back into your room instantly."

"Err...Father, he is not a toy, he is a ventriloquist puppet. For a school project."

After one chosen child with a Tapirmon had to deal with an awkward call from an animal rescue centre, it was decided that ventriloquist puppet was the best excuse to conceal a digimon's true nature. Also, nobody questioned a talking puppet the way they questioned a dog loudly complaining about a sandwich having eggs in it.

Mr. Sato threw yet another disapproving look towards the stitched bat but seemed to buy the story.

"This puppet sure has been in use for a while. Hopefully, you don't break it any further."

"Yes, father."

Demidevimon was fuming for their entire morning. His pride had taken a huge dent after his encounter with Hinata's father. Him, the great king of darkness had been referred to as a broken puppet. Puppets, he loathed them as much as he disliked monkeys due to a certain digimon that had been as chaotic and loud as that self proclaimed rock star. The boy's constant reassuring that his father didn't mean it in a bad way didn't help.

Only the thought of never having to deal with the puppet and the monkey ever again eased the mind of the former Myotismon.

Hinata occasionally threw a few glances at his partner while quietly packed his suitcase. He didn't like seeing his friend in such a sour mood. Granted, Demidevimon wasn't a ray of sunshine to begin with but most of the time he was in a neutral mood, never displaying many emotions.

Once he had packed his basic garments, Hinata turned towards the digimon.

"Does the digi-world have a weather forecast?"

"No, the climate zones usually stay the same but the weather itself is unpredictable. Where does your sudden interest in meteorology come from?"

"Grandfather has a computer with an internet connection."

A comfy anorak and a warm scarf were placed inside the suitcase, luckily none of those were in a gaudy shade of yellow. Then Hinata cleaned up the mess he made earlier, thanks to Demidevimon's advice whispered in a low voice, his room was even more organized than earlier. Sadly, Mr. Sato didn't seem to notice any difference when I came in to remind his son to hurry up. Instead he pointed out that there was still dust all over the room.

"I don't get his problem", the boy told his partner once his father left. "I'll be gone for three weeks, so the room will be back to dusty anyway."

Mr. Sato watched with a certain disbelief how his youngest son carefully put a seat belt over the doll.

"Hinata, you outgrew that phase years ago. Behave according to your age."

"But father", said boy proceeded. "I just want to make sure he stays safe during the drive. I don't want to-"

"Break it any further, fine. It's a loaned item after all."

For a split second, while he fixed the inside mirror, Mr. Sato could have sworn that the doll shot daggers at him.

Despite the rocky start, the drive itself was uneventful. The car had sunshades, a welcome addition during a hot and sunny summer day. After a while Demidevimon drifted to sleep, even though the overly cheery songs played by the radio made it difficult. Secretly he promised himself to spent Christmas in the digi-world, three years in a row of living through this period in the human world had left his mark on the dark king. If he had known a laboratory from all work places would blast upbeat Christmas tunes to lift the employees' spirits up, he would have reconsidered possessing Oikawa.

At least that man hadn't try to hum alongside the tune. On the other hand, the boy sounded better than the Bakemon's musical attempts.

Granted, they hadn't set the bar very high.

The sun was setting when they arrived, turning the sky glow into a bright shade of pink. Demidevimon was woken up a second time today, this time it was by a strong wind blowing through the car. It brought the smell of the nearby sea and the sound of waves with it.

The two car windows on the front side were open, allowing fresh air to stream in. Hinata quickly noticed that his partner has woken up.

"We're almost there", he stated in matter of fact voice. Then he added: "Grandma will sure hug me as usual."

Demidevimon shuddered a little at the thought of being caught by a hugging grandmother. All he associated with this word was Babamon and her hugs even made the likes of Metalgreymon shudder in fear. The likes of Myotismon carefully avoided crossing paths with her for strategic reasons.

Hinata giggled a little, his partners reaction hadn't escaped him. Only then Demidevimon realized that the boy had mentioned his grandmother's habits for a specific reason. He had wanted to check to what degree Demidevimon could tolerate hugs.

Maybe he was a faster learner than it seemed on the first glance.

The car became slower and turned into a side street, then the car windows went back up. The vehicle finally stopped in the front yard of a two story house.

Hinata burst out of as soon as his father took out the keys, not even closing the car door behind him. He ran straight towards an elderly woman who proceeded to give him a strong hug.

"My dear boy, you've grown so much", she told him in a sweet voice. Obviously, she was the previously mentioned grandmother, judging from the strong resemblance with Hinata she was from his maternal side.

A matching elderly man arrived next at the front porch and had some standard small talk with Hinata's father about holiday traffic getting worse every year, fiscal politics and his neighbours' prized tomato plants. Then they had a hushed discussion, standing close to each other and Demidevimon couldn't understand a single word. The fiscal politics had actually caught his interest.

Finally, the obligatory greeting ritual was over and the luggage was moved into the house. That word also included Demidevimon by extension and he was the last moved in.

The boy did not rush inside the house, to the surprise of Demidevimon. Instead, he walked slowly and tightened his grip around his digimon partner. He stopped inside the doorframe of the living room, not before knocking twice against the wood.

Hinata's mother didn't turn around, her back was turn towards the door and she was fussing over another boy. The other kid, Devidevimon now suddenly remembered him from the photographs he had discovered, however did notice the new visitor. The older brother was smaller than the digimon thought, being three years older after all.

"Evening, Hinata", he said while standing up and making his way towards his younger brother.

"Hello, Akio", Hinata answered, almost robotic.

"Ah, you're here", his mother now finally noticed him. She sounded tired.

"That's some interesting doll you've got there, may I?", Akio asked and tried to grab Demidevimon.

"No!", Hinata almost yelled sharply. Everybody in the room was taken a back, including the boy himself. Demidevimon could even feel the outburst through their mental link. The outburst was a mix of the fear of being caught and disappointment of being ignored.

"Hinata, be nice towards your brother!", his mother scolded him immediately. "You haven't seen each other in months."

"Sorry, it's just", the younger boy started fidgeting. "His claws are really sharp even though they look dull."

"Fine, I'll pay attention", his older brother stated, not having moved his eyes from Demidevimon's even once. Carefully he picked the digimon up and turned him around for a while. Then he put him back into his brother's arms.

Akio knew, Demidevimon was certain.

The older boy knew he was living being even before he touched him and could feel him breathing under his hands. After all, no one would look deep into the eyes of a toy. The eyes are the mirror of the soul and for a second, Demidevimon wondered what people saw in his eyes.

In Akio's eyes, he had seen a similar sorrow as in Hinata's eyes. He had seen that the older boy was sick in the rest of his body.

Demidevimon spend the next few hours in Hinata's guest room. The boy's grandfather unfortunately had chosen to place his computer in the living room, meaning they had to wait until everybody was asleep in order to use it.

Around 11 pm, Demidevimon woke his partner up by poking him with his claws. After a short hushed argument, Hinata agreed to change back into his day clothes and they sneaked towards the computer. At least Hinata sneaked, Demidevimon just flew behind him.

"That's your surprise? ", the boy whispered as the picture of the castle appeared on the screen. "It looks awesome."

"Wait until you see my realm in person."

With that, Hinata pointed his digivice towards the gate, shaking with excitement.

"This is magnificent!"

Hinata shouted from the tops of his lungs, having managed to keep his balance for once. The castle has turned out to be at least twice as big as he estimated.

"Magnificent? Now, that's an expression I can agree with", Demidevimon said after changing into his champion form. He offered his partner his claw so he could climb on him before soaring up into the night sky.

"We're currently on the Server Continent, there's a vast desert behind the forest", Devidramon explained the view. The more he described, the happier the boy grew. "Usually this castle is rather secluded but lately I had few digimon visiting."

"Other digimon are living here?"

"Indeed, in fact I have a flock of Bakemon serving me. I shall introduce them to you."

Devidramon landed in the courtyard, almost blowing away a sleepy Bakemon on guard duty. At least the spear and the helmet were properly polished for once, proofing that Bakemon were sometimes capable of learning if they wanted.

"Gather, my servants. There is a certain person I want you to meet", he howled over the courtyard and within a minute, every Bakemon had arrived. He realised Hinata from his claw and gently pushed him towards the ghosts as the boy was too busy staring at them bewildered to move on his own.

"This is my human partner. You will serve him as you serve me."

Suddenly Hinata bowed in front of the Bakemon.

"My name is Hinata Sato and I am pleased to make your acquaintance."