Could Eating Your Fill Let You Digivolve?

Surely he wouldn't have to face Apocalymon himself when the time came? If possible, Zhou Zhu planned to find somewhere to slack off once the Dark Four Dark Masters were defeated. The battle against Apocalymon was far too dangerous, with far too many unknowns. He was better off not gambling with his life...

"Only driven back? Looks like Etemon's pretty strong after all."

Looking at Wisemon before him, Matt turned to Tai behind him.

"Who cares? Tai's already found his Crest anyway. Once Agumon digivolves to Perfect, it'll be two against one!"

Catching Matt's implication, Joe waved a hand cheerfully as he spoke.

"But Tai's Agumon doesn't seem like he's going to digivolve at all," T.K. said from the side, pouring cold water on their enthusiasm as he held the DemiDevimon he had finally gotten back.

"Uh... he'll digivolve eventually. We just haven't figured out how yet."

Joe's expression stiffened at T.K.'s remark, but he remained optimistic.

The next day, somewhere in Area G7 of Etemon's territory...

"Agumon, eat some more. Maybe you'll be able to digivolve once you're full." Looking at the already stuffed Agumon, Tai showed no intention of stopping the feeding.

"Tai, I really can't eat another bite..."

Agumon painfully struggled to swallow the food in his mouth, but before he could catch his breath, Tai offered him more.

"Tai, you're going to overfeed Agumon like this..."

Seeing this, Izzy wanted to step in and stop him.

"Izzy, weren't you the one who said digivolving uses up energy? Besides, with Agumon's appetite, he shouldn't get overstuffed, right?" Tai stubbornly argued back.

"Izzy, you've got that wrong. Agumon isn't going to get overstuffed-he already is. If you keep feeding him like this, he'll probably become the first Digimon in the Digital World to eat himself to death."

Savoring the Digital World's fruit, Zhou Zhu sat to one side and watched the ridiculous scene unfold. Since it wasn't his business, he wasn't really in a position to interfere between Tai and Agumon. At most, he could offer a warning like this.

After all, he didn't have many friends in this group to begin with. Even Mimi, whom he'd taken a bit of a liking to before, was now just an ordinary companion, much like Izzy. Well, that was mostly because Mimi was so thoughtless.

So, to keep that old geezer Gennai from getting any ideas about eliminating him as an unforeseen variable, he had to stick close to the main cast.

If he ended up alone and Gennai arranged for an Ultimate to eliminate him, that would be one hell of a loss.

Until Wisemon digivolved to Ultimate, he had absolutely no chance of resisting Gennai or Homeostasis. Only by remaining with the main cast could he potentially keep Gennai's hands tied.

Well, provided he didn't go too far, such as drastically changing the children's paths and choices, or outright killing one of them...

As long as the overall course of events remained unchanged, Gennai naturally couldn't suddenly interfere with the fact that he was already part of the main cast.

After all, Gennai couldn't just show up out of nowhere and kill him, could he?

If that happened, the children's mental state would probably collapse completely. They'd be too busy crying for their mothers and trying to get home-forget saving the damn world.

"No way. Agumon can eat loads." Despite Izzy and Zhou Zhu's attempts to talk him out of it, Tai kept stubbornly doing things his way. After all, a Perfect Digimon's fighting strength was far too important, both to him and to the group.

Judging by the outcome of the daytime battle, Wisemon was powerful, but clearly couldn't win decisively against Etemon. If Wisemon wasn't around one day and Etemon launched a surprise attack, wouldn't they all be...

"All the food's going to Agumon, but we're hungry too..." Watching Agumon wolf down food with a pained expression, Joe felt envious, even as his stomach grumbled in protest.

Shimmer... shimmer... shimmer...

Just as Joe lowered his head dejectedly, the Tag beneath his shirt began flashing with light.

"Huh? The Tag's reacting!"

With Tai's experience as a precedent, everyone immediately understood what was happening.

"If the Tag's flashing, does that mean there might be a Crest nearby?" Matt looked at the Tag still flashing against Joe's chest, unable to stop a pang of jealousy from rising in his heart. Why this guy, who barely even stands out? When will my Gabumon get to digivolve to Perfect?

"A Crest? Where?"

Hearing the commotion, Tai came over too.

Looking at the flashing light on Joe's chest, Tai felt happy for him and began scanning their surroundings with his Monocular.

"There seems to be a building up ahead, and it's huge!" Seeing the towering structure in the distance, which looked remarkably like the Roman Colosseum, Tai immediately perked up.

"There must be a Crest over there!"

At Tai's description, Joe instantly grew excited too. Without even waiting for Tai to finish, he ran off alone in the direction Tai had been looking.

His eager expression was exactly like Tai's earlier look when he'd been hoping Agumon would digivolve right away.

"Wait! Don't run so fast!" Seeing how impatient his partner Joe was, Gomamon could only hurry after him. Unfortunately, his limbs were only suited to crawling, so he couldn't possibly keep up with Joe...

"Aaaah!"

Just then, as Joe ran ahead, he tripped over a black cable that Etemon's forces had buried in the desert.

"Huh? What's a cable doing here?" Following behind him, Gomamon stared at the length of cable exposed in the sand, his mind full of questions.

Meanwhile...

Elsewhere, Etemon had returned to his base when he suddenly noticed a signal on the control screen!

"Hm? Those chosen brats?"

With the pain in his face still lingering, Etemon looked at the signal on the screen and hesitated.

That Wisemon with those brats was far too difficult to deal with. At his current strength, he was simply no match for him.

Maybe... I should ask Nanomon for help?

Although Nanomon wasn't as strong as he was, there was no reason he should lose in a two-on-one fight.

The only problem now was...

How do I make sure I'm not the one getting double-teamed...?

After all, his relationship with Nanomon wasn't exactly good. Given an opportunity like this, Nanomon would probably team up with Wisemon to beat him up instead, wouldn't he?

Maybe I should contact Myotismon...

While Etemon wavered, the children had already entered the arena...