Koromon's village

I, Palmon, might not be all that strong, but can't you see a whole Rookie Digimon standing right here? A bunch of lousy little In-Training puffballs actually dared to snatch someone right in front of me? And my person, at that?

Was there no justice anymore?

Was there no law anymore?

"Mimi!"

Tai and the others arrived soon afterward and noticed what had happened. They hurried after Palmon and began searching for Mimi.

But wherever they looked, all they saw were clusters of Bukamon. Mimi was nowhere in sight.

"Aaaah!"

Just as everyone was wondering which direction to search in, Mimi's scream suddenly rang out from a nearby house.

"Mimi!"

Now that they had a destination, the children hurriedly dashed into the house.

They still couldn't see Mimi, but they spotted the hat she had left behind on the stairs.

"It's Mimi's hat!" Sora walked over and picked it up as the others headed upstairs.

Since Mimi's hat was here, perhaps Mimi herself was upstairs.

"It's Mimi's bag!"

They had only gone a few steps before making another discovery.

A bag lay quietly before them, with Mimi's Digivice clipped to it.

As they continued searching farther inside, they found Mimi's clothes on a shelf in a room off to the side.

"It's Mimi's clothes!"

The single-minded Tai didn't stop to think. Seeing movement behind a curtain, he was about to charge straight in.

Pat!

"Huh? Zhou Zhu, why are you holding me back? Mimi could be in danger!" Tai looked anxiously at Zhou Zhu, who had grabbed him.

But no matter how hard Tai struggled, he couldn't break free.

"Use your head. Don't get so worked up. If Mimi's clothes are here, that probably means she's not exactly ready to see anyone right now. And it also suggests she isn't in any danger. After all, wouldn't she run away first if she encountered an enemy? How would she have time to take her clothes off? She's almost certainly fine. She's probably taking a bath in there. She's been going on about it this whole time, after all."

Knowing the original story well, Zhou Zhu naturally wasn't about to let Tai act so recklessly again.

"Uh, you've got a point. Sora, sorry for the trouble, but could you go in and check? We shouldn't go any farther."

After hearing Zhou Zhu lay it all out, Tai realized that an enemy really wouldn't give Mimi time to take her clothes off.

No, even if she had that time, Mimi should have used it to escape. Taking her clothes off... it looked like she really was bathing in there.

"All right. Zhou Zhu's reasoning makes sense, and I thought the same thing when I saw Mimi's clothes. But... since it's coming from that jerk, I'd better be careful anyway."

Although Sora agreed to Tai's suggestion, she still held a grudge against Zhou Zhu over what had happened earlier.

Tap, tap, tap.

As Sora entered the bathroom, a shapely leg slowly rose out of the bath through the drifting steam.

"Ah, this feels so good..."

At the same time, Mimi's contented murmur came from the bath.

"Uh, good thing that jerk Zhou Zhu stopped him. Mimi, aren't you being a little careless?" Sora complained as she watched Mimi relaxing with her eyes closed, though she also wanted to get in and enjoy a hot bath herself.

"Hmm? Sora? What brings you here? Come soak with me!"

Hearing movement behind her, Mimi was startled at first. Only after realizing it was Sora did she relax.

"Hmph, all you care about is enjoying yourself. We were worried sick out there! If Zhou Zhu hadn't stopped him, it would've been Tai and the others coming in instead of me."

Despite saying that, Sora didn't simply step into the bath to join Mimi.

It wasn't that she didn't want to. Tai and the others were still outside waiting for her.

If she stayed away too long and they charged in out of worry while she was halfway through her bath, that would be a problem.

"Huh? Tai and the others are here too? Good thing they didn't come in. Sora, are you really not going to join me? It feels amazing!" Mimi didn't pay much attention to what Sora had said. With such a lovely bath to enjoy, who had time to care about anything else?

"I'll come back in a bit. Tai and the others are still waiting outside for news."

With that, Sora hurried outside. Mimi wasn't the only one who was fed up with not being able to have a proper bath all this time.

"Sora, how is she? Mimi isn't in any danger, is she?" Seeing how calm Sora was, the others already had an inkling of the answer, but they still asked her to confirm it.

"She's fine. She's doing wonderfully, actually, enjoying a nice, comfortable bath while we've been worrying ourselves sick over her safety." Sora's face filled with resentment as she spoke.

"Huh? Zhou Zhu really got it right?"

Good thing I didn't charge in. That would've been awkward.

"All right, I'm going in for a soak too. Biyomon, do you want to come?" Paying no attention to Tai's expression, Sora was already getting impatient.

"Yay! I want a bath too!"

Before Biyomon could answer, Tentomon piped up from the side, eager to join in.

"No!"

"No!"

Sora and Izzy stopped Tentomon in perfect unison.

"Why not? Biyomon gets to take a bath."

Faced with their firm refusal, Tentomon displayed the same thirst for knowledge as Izzy.

"No means no. If you want a bath, wait until Mimi and I come out." Although Digimon didn't seem to have obvious sexes, Sora could still tell the difference from their behavior and voices.

Her Biyomon and Mimi's Palmon were clearly more feminine in both voice and behavior.

The masculine traits of the others' Digimon partners weren't particularly obvious, but after spending so much time together, she could still sense them.

After all, who would believe that a Greymon that ferocious was female?

And with those gruff voices, Ikkakumon and Kabuterimon could have claimed to be the same age as her father without sounding out of place.

"Tentomon, although you don't have any clear physical sexual characteristics, your behavior is obviously different from Biyomon's and Palmon's. You'd better not join them."

Looking embarrassed, Izzy pulled Tentomon back while Tentomon continued asking why.

"Izzy isn't entirely right about that. You should still be able to tell male and female Digimon apart by their appearance. It just isn't obvious at the Rookie level. Take the Leomon we met earlier, for example. With that bare chest, there's no way he could be a female Digimon. As for what female Digimon look like... we haven't encountered any yet, but they should still exist."

At that moment, Zhou Zhu also stepped forward to help talk Tentomon out of it.