Only after Mirage Beast left did Zheng Fan's tense muscles finally relax. Without making any deliberate effort to control himself, he dropped straight out of the air toward the ground.
"Ah! Kyubimon!" Ruki hurriedly called out. At her command, Kyubimon flashed into motion, leaving an afterimage behind and appearing beneath Zheng Fan.
"Stop," Zheng Fan said. At the same time, true qi surged through his body, keeping him afloat less than a meter above Kyubimon.
"Are you all right?" Takato asked.
"I'm fine. Sorry for worrying you." Zheng Fan smiled.
"What is wrong with you? Don't you know how dangerous that was? Everyone was worried about you!" Ruki looked like a haughty peacock.
"Heh, no matter how dangerous it was, I knew I could handle it. Unlike a pair of kids who foolishly took two Rookie Digimon into battle against an Ultimate." Zheng Fan glanced at the two children, sounding somewhat annoyed.
"You know about Digimon?" Now that Zheng Fan had brought them up, Takato remembered that this was supposed to be his secret.
"Are you a human or a Digimon?" Ruki asked as well.
"My name is Zheng Fan. I'm human, and I have a long-standing cooperative relationship with the Digimon World," Zheng Fan replied irritably.
"Cooperative? Is that because of Guilmon and the others, or for Digimon like Mirage Beast?" Takato asked.
"That's something we'll have to investigate before deciding. Guilmon is your battle partner, right? If you want to protect this world, all of you will have to work together." Zheng Fan himself had no idea why he was saying this. After all, this world still seemed peaceful on the surface.
"Of course! I'm Guilmon's tamer. We'll always be together." Takato's face lit up with happiness at the subject.
"Tamer?" Zheng Fan repeated the word to himself