"For the love of- LET ME GO!"

"No way! You're stuck with us until we arrive at the festival!"

"Ichita, my fellow parent hen, YOU BETTER HELP ME OUT HERE!"

The brown-haired Japanese gave a noncommittal shrug at my exasperated look. "Nah. You would be working all day if we didn't drag you out."

"What is THAT supposed to mean!?" I demanded as I flailed around from Benton's shoulder. "You Awesome Brawlers and Team Demigod people kidnapped me!!"

"They technically didn't," Dad chuckled. "It's more of you accidentally drank liquor for the first time while working on the planning and the repercussions slapped you hard. Lots of juicy footage too."

Yuga was cackling while sending it over to Mei, no doubt.

We were headed to a festival happening in the Bakugan world as a change; yet another attempt for diplomacy after the concert was a bit of a dud. It did help, at least, but this was a whole new level of insane.

I groaned. "For ****'s sake Dad, Gulus, you didn't stop me."

"That's not my issue," Gulus shrugged.

"Luno, my sweet child, that was your fault. You shouldn't have accepted anything from Mikado Yuga of all people."

"I'm no demon~ just a normal human~"

Jellymon, Ruri and Gammamon giggled as Solisamon, Lumosmon's Child form, rode on Gammamon's head.

I just groaned while slumping. "I give up. Let me down so I can walk on my own, Benton-san."

"Sure, but only if you promise not to run." Jinhyuk-san smirked.

"For the love of- what part of 'I give up' did you not get?! Even if I tried to run, anyone would have caught up to me!"

"Luno, I am proud you can read the room now," Denpamon sniffled while wiping a fake tear off his eye. "When we first met, you couldn't tell when to give up!"

"Denpa..." Semo-sensei gave him a look, and he shrugged. "Sorry, not sorry."

I rolled my eyes as I was finally let down, allowing me to dust my white shirt off while I pouted a bit. "A gender fluid can't get any break around you guys."

"I know the feeling," Seath solemnly said, patting my back before he stuffed his gloved hands into the pockets of his dark green parka. "And it is freezing here. Las Volmos isn't usually this cold."

"True, but we can still have fun, don't you think?" Dan grinned.

"That is true, but how Gammamon and Solisa managed to fit into those outfits is beyond me," Jiji remarked while looking at the yukata and kimono the two were wearing respectively.

"I worked hard." Was Hiro's blunt reply. "And adjusted hard."

"Roro, you sound so sad, so let me rectify that," Koutarou said as he kissed Hiro on the cheek, making the brunette blush a lot while Dan laughed. "Ah, makes me remember our love, right ChiChi?"

"Yeah," Ichita laughed in agreement. "What we thought interpersonal love had to be, right?"

"You sound like old men," Gami joked.

But I was curious now. Everyone else had called Dan and Ichita an old married couple, yet they called it a different kind of love. Could it be the kind of feelings I had for Uju?... "Hey, Dan, Ichita, what kind of love DO you have?"

The two stopped, and they turned to each other before Dan said, "If we knew how to express these feelings, we wouldn't have gone through so much trouble, Luno."

"... Right. Can I get someone who's NOT emotionally constipated and who also doesn't feel the same way as normal romances?"

"WH- HEY!" The AB bursting out into laughter made the two blush even harder. "GUYS!"

"I-It is what it is, Da-" Wynton struggled to keep a straight face before they all just collapsed on the spot, making the two glare at their friends while their partners snickered.

"But seriously, it's hard to describe it," Ichita turned to me as he answered. "If I were to put words to it ... it feels like you wanna stick with them through thick and thin. Not much passion. Just, deep feelings for each other and a desire to stick together."

"Huh..."

"Why the sudden interest?"

"I... don't really know," I said while absentmindedly patting Bakumon's head. "I know I feel something for Uju, but I can't pin it to normal attraction..."

"That's totally fine. It took Dan and I nearly dying multiple times, getting corrupted, and nearly losing our friends to finally realize how we felt for each other."

"... I wish I knew someone who wasn't emotionally constipated like us who also has that kind of relationship because, between the three of us, we ****ing suck at descriptions."

"True. What about Semo-san and Duri-san?"

"... Duri-san had one of the worst depressive cases and Semo-sensei-" I paused. Wait, Ichita had a point there. Semo-sensei wasn't as emotionally confused as we were as a whole. "That's a good point. I'll ask him later."

"Good luck, because I know it wasn't easy for D and me."

"I... thanks, Ichita."

"Hey, we owe ya a lot. Don't worry about it."

I smiled a bit and helped Seath up to his feet as we continued walking to the venue of the festival, which was already starting to fill up. Brawlers, Youkai, Buddyfighters... all these different worlds were coming together for this awesome festival! I saw Lightning, the dog member of the AB, waving at a stall while Dan made a beeline for a fast food one. Everyone seemed to be splitting up as well, so I decided to stick with Dad, but Seath stayed too as Athena, Magnus and Brakken ran off for something. I was assuming it was a gift to the Uriah-Weis, considering how Seath was left behind in a blink of an eye.

"What's going on?" I joked slightly. "This is pretty awkward, y'know."

"Oh, that I agree on," Semo-sensei agreed as he and Duri-san joined us. "Ismaya, you are lucky you don't have anyone to love, because Japan and Las Volmos are so weird for thinking that Christmas is a romantic holiday."

"I don't control the culture," he answered, unfazed by any of this. "But I do find it funny."

"You always find chaos funny," I reminded him while shaking my head. "Anyway, let's get moving. We don't want to take up space that could block others from coming in."

"Right, right. Let's get a move on."

So the five of us moved deeper into the festival. Bright lights of various shades colored the sky as the smell of amazing and fresh food being cooked filled the air. Bakumon was definitely taking pictures for Bokomon, which I helped him with while we walked. "I wish Hakase could see this!!"

I agreed with that. Bokomon loved learning new things so this one here could be right up his alley.

This only made me feel more guilty about him getting infected by the Codes, though, which was why I had made Bakumon my main partner until further notice, and even then... I had asked Blues for a feature that could sever the connection in an emergency. I worried he could be infected with the Codes as well, and if my emotions could trigger it, there was no way I was risking it. I had even given the Fruits and Eosmon's DIM card to Blues for safekeeping because I refused to taint others with the darkness I could instill into them. A secret feature for emergencies, although he had warned me that once I triggered it, I could no longer be partnered to anyone; in other words I could lose my spot as a DigiDestined.

I was willing to risk it for their sake. I had gotten them into this mess, so...

"Luno, you good?" Semo-sensei snapped me out of my trance with a frown. "You seem out of it."

"You always say that," I drily answered. "I'm fine, though. Don't worry."

"I'm just worried, Luno. You've been distancing yourself a lot from others, so..."

"I guess old habits die hard, but I'm working on it, I promise."

He smiled. "That's good. Don't worry, we can get through this issue together. God will guide us out of it."

"I sure hope so, Semo-sensei. I sure hope so."

Elico chuckled as he sat on Seath's shoulder. "Let's have a look around first, though. We should have fun, right?"

"That is true," Duri-san smiled.

"I'm in!" Dad grinned.

I gave a smile before we set off again to look around. The stalls soon became gift shops as we drew closer to the center of the festival, chatting about miscellaneous things here and there. It was pretty cool to hear Seath and Magnus were making their progress despite Magnus being a vigilante and all that.

This did prompt me to ask him something once it was just us when the adults went off to buy food. "Hey, Seath, can I... ask you a question?"

"Sure," he nodded.

"How... how did you know that you were gender fluid? How did you know it was the right one?"

"Huh? That's a weird question to ask."

"I know, but I... I really want to know. Please?"

"Hm... well, it was... just there, I guess. I knew my feelings shifted here and there. Even though I was pretty harsh on the others, I was also curious about this, so I looked it up. Once I acknowledged it, once I realized who I was through extensive research, I was pretty happy. Well, as happy as I could be under Gregorius Reed. I knew me, and that was pretty awesome!"

"I... see..."

"I did see this one term called pangender. You know how Shin Holy Sword is bigender with he or she pronouns, where they feel like both genders? Pangender is supposedly a similar concept with feelings from any gender, be it male, female, intersex and non-binary. Didn't really fit me, though."

"Pangender...?" That sounded... like something I should look deeper into. "I'll look into it, but thanks Seath, you're helping me out a lot."

"We're fellow Mystic Detectives, it's fine and I'll do it again in a heartbeat."

"Let's not do that-"

We both burst out laughing as we walked back, seeing so many smiles and happiness on the streets. These smiles... I, no, WE are going to protect these smiles from the Codes! That was a promise!

Semo-sensei got some earmuffs for some reason, though. He had joked that he might need it in the case of an emergency, so he was going to be safe about this.

We also regrouped with the others after an hour or so, which WAS nice as they brought back various things, so we just spent some time to just... kick back and relax. Looking at the stars, I couldn't help but marvel at the simplistic beauty they held, and...

"I-It means sky in Korean. I-I think it matches you well, e-especially with your irises when the sun goes down and all that, you get what I mean?"

Uju... and yesterday, Gangsan called me Haneul...

It was a pretty cool name, I admit. I didn't know what the future had in store for me, but if I had to choose a new name... well, Haneul wasn't a bad idea!

"Uju... I will stop you and Akira, I promise," I whispered with a small smile forming on my face.

Pangender, a deep desire to stick together, and a closeness... the evidence was starting to line up somehow. I still couldn't see the bigger picture but... I could understand that it would lead me somewhere. Where remained to be seen, but until the picture became clearer, I was content with letting it roll. Patience was important, after all.

"I am sooooo tired," Jane yawned as she lay on Anastasia's lap. "This is really nice. Getting to kick back and relax..."

"Just sleep," Anastasia advised with a gentle smile.

"True," she snuggled up closer before she closed her eyes and fell asleep right there, which made the other members of Team Demigod smile.

"She's been through a lot... With Gemini and then her dad," Yuga said while patting her head as Ranma covered her with a blanket. "Hopefully she can move forward someday. She deserves a break."

"That's true," I nodded. "I wish the best for her, really."

"Mom has always been honest, anyway, so I believe that 100%-"

"YOU! AND YOU!"

We all froze, and Hiro turned around just to have a microphone slap him on the face as a red dragon-like creature glared at us.

Bakumon stared. Duri-san paled. I could only gape in shock. No way...!

"King Shoutmon!" Bakumon gasped.

"It has been a while, Bakumon," was the Digimon King's grim reply. "Now, can someone explain to me why Bokomon has the Fragmented Codes and lost the D-Scanner? And why HE is here?"

+ SPIRITUAL DIGILEMMA +

"... So it was Cha Hana who made you do all that."

"I... am so sorry for that," Duri-san said while looking away. "I... know what I did will never be forgiven. But it's okay. I've come to peace with that."

If anything, King Shoutmon looked curious and exasperated at the same time as he sighed. "Kami, you remind me so much of Lily it scares me."

"I... I am so s-"

"Idiot, don't apologise continually," he chuckled a bit. "I will have to let it sizzle over, but I think you could be forgiven eventually. Especially seeing you so happy now. You were so miserable when I first met you."

He blushed at that while King Shoutmon trained his eyes on Hiro, who gulped. "YOU, on the other hand, are still a convict. And I am more than willing to destroy you. But we have more pressing issues right now. I heard of what's happened. Perfectio and all that."

I chose to step forward as I bowed. "I... I don't know what to say, Sir. I was Bokomon's partner, and yet I..."

"No, don't worry. Bokomon made his decision, and I'm sure he wouldn't regret it. He's a stubborn mon, that one," he said. "It's one of the reasons I chose him over Neemon to be the guardian."

"Now that I think about it, how hadn't the data been lost when Bokomon was killed by that Sealsdramon?" Ruri asked.

"It's... complicated. I'm assuming when his memories were somehow recovered, the data clung to those lost memories and returned as well. Of course, that means... that the evolution achieved with it is fragmented."

"Fragmented? What do you mean?" I paled.

"There... was a reason why we integrated it that way. The data that allows the evolution in the first place was saved in there in canisters, but... should it ever be taken out by force, the data would be pulled from its coding and be incomplete..."

"What?!" Kiyoshiro's eyes widened.

"That's really dangerous!" I paled.

Shiramon shuddered while Aliana gave her a hug. "T-That means that..."

"Most probably, the others have a similar situation," Ichita deduced quietly. "But because the D-Scanner was probably even more fragmented due to Bokomon's death..."

I felt my stomach drop to the ground. Oh ****... "Are you saying that... that the user of that code's situation is worse?"

King Shoutmon nodded. "Most probably. The Code will probably overwhelm said user at one point."

"... Hang on... The Fractal Code... If it's incomplete... Wouldn't it cause the Digimon to revert into a Digitama...? Then why-" I froze.

Uju had... inserted the Codes...

That meant that...

"They... they had been trying to SAVE Bokomon... even if it was through making me suffer..." I realised.

"Wait, what do you MEAN!?" Dad demanded.

"If Robinhoodmon hadn't inserted the Codes that time, Bokomon would have become a Digitama! But because the Codes were there, he could retain his form!"

"They were trying to keep Bokomon safe... Oh Kami, Oh my Kami, that means that..." Hiro gasped.

"That Uju was... trying to save me the turmoil of seeing my partner die again. But, if they were truly as bad as we thought, why would they do that? Even if it was the Codes, they... were trying to help... I had told him about how I had to see Pump die, they... took that into account..."

"That explains why only Bokomon managed to survive an encounter with them... The rest got turned into Digitamas..." King Shoutmon whispered.

"Hang on, how did they get their hands on Ruin Mode Evolution, though?" Dia asked. "QueenChessmon gave Reiji the Digivice iC, so she was the protector of the Burst Mode evolutions right?"

"Ruin Mode Evolution is a roaming code that disappears after the Digimon who experienced it becomes a Digitama," he answered. "Most probably they tracked it down and harnessed it somehow."

"Blues is gonna have a fit," I muttered under my breath. Harnessing THAT seemed insane already, but if he ever heard of THIS... Uju and Asagao-san had nowhere to run.

"So right now, they have the usual way of evolving for Asagao-san, Armour evolution, Jogress for Dantella, Biomerging for Amato, Spirit Evolving for Uju, Ruin Mode Evolution for Morinomiya, Xros for Tianheng, App-Gattai, and our usual way of evolving for Akira," Kagami recapped. "But doesn't that mean that Akira can access alternate evos as well?"

"That's... a good and worrying point. Because if he can access alternate evos..." I shuddered.

"... Hang on, who was holding onto the Xros Loader, though?" Dan spoke up.

The Digimon King flinched as he looked down. "I... I was. But... they didn't go after me, for some reason."

Dad blinked. "Why?"

"I don't know either, but... My guess is that they found something to use as a base-" His eyes then caught Dad's Digivice, and they widened. "Hang on, that's Akashi Tagiru's Digivice, with an Appli Drive Duo and... a D-Arc?"

"Oh, Blues made it for me so I could be partnered with Depia," he answered. "Why?"

"... It can't be... they can't have found..." He muttered as he looked away. "No, they can't have! How would they have...?"

"Sir, are you okay?" I asked him.

"I... Where did you find those Digivices?"

"Oh, Athena and Magnus found them in my hideaway. I hadn't thought much of it, though," he answered while rubbing the back of his neck.

"I..." His fists tightened. "I heard you were a serial killer for DigiDestined, right?"

Dad's face went white, but he nodded eventually. "... Y-Yeah..."

"Did you... take their Digivices too?" There was a barely contained rage in his tone.

"What?! No way! I had my limits even as a killer... I tried to preserve the secret as much as I coul-"

"Well too bad that you didn't, huh?" The bitterness in his tone was hard to miss.

Dad flinched. "I..."

"Where exactly do you think they could have gotten those Digivices from anyway?" Philomena brought up a good question. "Aside from the Guardians at least."

"... That Digivice... Did it have any leftover data?" He asked.

"I'll check with Blues," Hiro said while taking out his phone and texting him.

"Dad, are you okay?" I turned to him, worried about how he was faring. Dad was definitely still working on regulating his responses to his past being forced out into the open.

He took a shuddering breath in. "Yeah, yeah, I am. Just... caught off guard, really."

"Let me know if you need someone to talk to, Dad," I told him.

He couldn't help but give a dry chuckle. "Same to you, Luno. Same to you."

I didn't know how to feel about it, so I just nodded.

"He said he just checked and the data was gone!" Hiro suddenly gasped.

"That's why the Digivolutions seemed so different! They had very little to work with..." I realized.

Suddenly, what the others had said about wanting a bloodless siege made sense. "They didn't want to shed blood... They tried to keep it as bloodless as possible..."

"What changed, then...? The Codes?" Angoramon asked while hugging Shiramon.

"That... could be it," Gulus agreed. "The real issue is, how do we deal with all of this now that we know?"

"We've seen how Tianheng's evolution differed from the actual Xros evolution, so maybe we could compare?" Benton offered.

"That would be ideal but..." I recalled how we had saved the others... "I think the main issue isn't the evolution, it's the human."

"Asagao already confirmed to us that the Codes only trigger if the human partner has it in th-" Dad suddenly froze as I stared at him.

"W-What do you mean it only triggers if... if the human partner has it in them? Dad, are you saying that..."

"It's possible... we need to check for sure, but there's a high probability that you do have the Codes in you..." he looked away.

"What?! But... how, where?..."

"Right now, it seems like the Codes don't affect Digimon that don't have it, so don't worry too much. It's only affected by the human partner," he reassured me.

"So Bakumon is safe, basically."

"Basically," he said. "We just need to be cautious and wary about things, but otherwise, we can't have you nearly freezing to death again."

"That was ONE TIME!"

And that made the others all give me blank looks.

"Ma'am just sit down. You may not be a TM but you're becoming one," Aoi drily said.

"Wha- I despise that!"

But the longer we stared at one another, the more we...

"Pft, this is ridiculous!" King Shoutmon roared in laughter while we fell apart and rolled around. My stomach was starting to hurt on the sides from laughing too much, but it wasn't too bad. It was... actually pretty nice!

"Wanna join up with us then, Shoutmon-san?" Shun offered. "We're planning on looking around and having fun before we go back to Cho-Taiyo!"

His eyes widened, but soon he smiled. "If you would have me. It's been a while since I've been in the human realm, even if it's not my own."

"Let's go then!" Dan urged. "There are so many things we can do here! If there's one thing Las Volmos is known for, it's definitely for its festivities!"

"Let's go go go!" Trisan grinned.

"I wish Matrix could be here, but... let's have fun for him, guys," Jane agreed.

Her voice made Shin Tasuku trip and fall onto Shin Gao, Shin Ayumi and Shin Tamamo, making them end up in a pile, much to our amusement as we snickered.

"When did you get up, Jane-nee?" Amano asked her as the 5th grader stretched.

She smiled. "Around when you guys started talking about the Codes. I... I may not have Matrix or Gemini anymore, but I sure as heck can live for them!"

"Jane..." My eyes widened. That was amazing, how she could move forward after her dad was corrupted by Haavik, after losing both her kids and her Buddy...

Could I ever reach that height? I didn't know, but if I could, I would... I would like that a lot.

"It's a Christmas festival, so let's have some fun!" Shin Tamamo cheered.

"Yeah!!" We all chorused.

And have fun we did. Turned out Yuga was horrible at carnival games, but Koutarou excelled at them. (The huge pile of plushies he got for Hiro, Gammamon and Solisamon testified to that.) They ended up having a competition with Gulus to see who could get the most too! (Spoiler alert; Koutarou won.)

Still, as I walked around the festival, I noticed a stall that was selling nutcrackers. I wanted to buy something for Boko and Pump at least, so I walked over and asked the vendor, "Excuse me, how much is one of these?"

"Oh, they're 30 Dollars! Not much, eh?" He grinned. "I'll even get you something on the house!"

"On the house?" I blinked while paying for one of them.

"It's a pretty big and old hat, but I don't need it anymore! Something my grandfather passed down to me. I have a feeling you would need it more than I do." He winked as he handed me a hat similar to a nutcracker's and one of the nutcrackers. "Have a merry Spiritmas, and happy new year!"

Spiritmas? And hang on, this hat was...!

"Sir-"

The stall wasn't there. It had been pretty out of the way in the first place, but now it was just... gone. Outright gone.

What in the...

I sighed. Perhaps some mysteries weren't meant to be solved... Oh well, this hat seemed pretty nice too.

"Luno?" Bakumon floated over to me, looking curious about the hat I had in my hands.

"N-Nothing!" I smiled while placing the hat the best I could on Bakumon, and it balanced perfectly once I adjusted the straps. "Woah, that looks pretty awesome, Baku!"

"T-Thanks!" He smiled back. "I wonder if Hakase would like it!"

"We should take a picture for you to show him and Neemon!" I suggested.

"I like the sounds of that!" He grinned.

And so, as we posed for a selfie, I swore I saw a silhouette of... something, but when I blinked it was gone.

Weird... Oh well, at least the selfie came out looking nice!

venusaura's OCs include Alicia McCoy (from the last day), Solisamon, Lily Lupus, Trisan, and Matrix.