Chapter 33: Can We Go Back to the Past?
Mizuki let out a long, satisfied breath, the faint hum of Digi-Soul settling beneath his skin. He had just finished committing the last string of environmental code to memory, and the resulting surge of raw power was intoxicating. Beside him, LadyDevimon stirred, breaking her own concentration. But unlike Mizuki's triumphant finish, her session had come to an abrupt, forced halt.
"Mizu..." she murmured, her crimson eyes lowering in frustration. "I am sorry. I couldn't hold onto all of it at once." She rubbed her temples, the dark leather of her gloves creaking softly. "My body... it feels like I have hit some kind of wall. A threshold."
"Is that so..." Mizuki rubbed his chin, falling into deep contemplation.
It made a strange sort of sense. While Mizuki's human body acted as a sturdy, physical vessel that merely channeled the data, a Digimon was entirely composed of it. They possessed a terrifying, inherent talent for manipulating code, but that same nature made them far more vulnerable to data overload. It was basic hardware logic—force too much information through a processor at once, and the system would inevitably crash.
Seeing the genuine disappointment etched across her pale features, Mizuki offered a warm, reassuring smile. "Hey, this is not your fault, LadyDevimon," he said, his voice softening. "We are not in a race. We can take our time with this."
He stretched his arms over his head, popping a stiff joint in his shoulder. "More, we have been grinding at this all day. Let's call it quits and get some proper rest."
"Mhm." LadyDevimon's expression brightened a fraction. She tilted her head, a familiar, eager gleam returning to her eyes. "Then... shall I carry Mizu back?"
"Please do." Mizuki chuckled, offering zero resistance.
Without a moment's hesitation, LadyDevimon scooped him up into her arms. The sheer ease with which she lifted him was a stark reminder of her Ultimate-level strength, yet her hold was incredibly gentle. For her, closing the physical distance and holding Mizuki close seemed to be the ultimate reward, a quiet bliss that smoothed away the day's exhaustion.
But just as their grueling day was supposed to fade into a peaceful night, an unexpected standoff derailed their evening.
Mizuki sat on the edge of the mattress, rubbing the back of his neck. He stared helplessly at LadyDevimon, who was currently perched on the opposite side of the bed. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her pale face was twisted into a deeply wronged, almost pouty expression that looked entirely out of place on a terrifying Dark Digimon.
The root cause of this sudden tension? Sleeping arrangements.
Back when she was just a tiny Nyaromon, constantly slipping into dormant states to preserve her fragile data, Mizuki had made it a point to sleep right beside her. He had kept her warm, monitored her breathing, and anchored her with his presence. That habit had carried over flawlessly when she evolved into the sleek, feline form of BlackGatomon. Curled up at his side or resting on his chest, it had been a natural, comforting routine.
But the moment BlackGatomon stabilized her data and achieved her Ultimate form as LadyDevimon, Mizuki had abruptly drawn a line. He had stopped sharing a bed with her entirely.
To Mizuki, the reasoning was blindingly obvious. To the relatively simple-minded LadyDevimon, however, this sudden physical distance translated into one devastating conclusion: she was being rejected.
She had tried to endure it at first, burying the hurt beneath her usual devotion. But day by day, the feeling of isolation had festered. And tonight, fresh off the sting of failing to process the environmental code, those bottled-up insecurities finally shattered the dam.
"Mizu... do you think I am stupid?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.
Mizuki blinked, utterly blindsided. "How could you even think that? LadyDevimon, in my eyes, you have always been the absolute best partner I could ask for."
"If that is true..." She lowered her head, the silver chains adorning her dark leather outfit clinking softly as her shoulders slumped. "If that is true, why haven't you slept beside me since I evolved to the Ultimate level?"
Before Mizuki could formulate a safe response, she pressed on, her tone turning pitiful. "It is not just that. You do not treat me the same way in other areas either. You keep your distance. You hesitate."
She gripped the bedsheets, her long, clawed fingers digging into the fabric. "If... if you really do not dislike me, Mizu!"
Her voice pitched higher, fueled by a sudden, desperate courage. LadyDevimon snapped her head up, her piercing crimson eyes locking onto the young man. She leaned forward, delivering her demands word by heavy word.
"Then treat me exactly like you did before!"
"Mizu, please hug me gently like you used to, and stroke my head when I do a good job."
"Kiss my cheek when I am feeling down, and... and personally wash my body after I have worked hard in battle."
"And finally, when night falls, hold me in your arms, gently say goodnight, and sleep together with me until dawn!"
Silence slammed into the room.
Mizuki sat frozen. He stared at LadyDevimon, whose pale cheeks were now dusted with a heavy, uncharacteristic flush after blurting out that rapid-fire string of intimate demands. He slowly inhaled a very deep, very necessary breath.
"Uh... LadyDevimon..." Mizuki started, his usual silver-tongued confidence entirely evaporating. "You know it is not that I do not want to, but..."
"But what?"
As she spoke, LadyDevimon leaned in. The sheer, overwhelming presence of her mature, voluptuous figure closed the gap between them in an instant. Noticing the dangerous proximity of the plunging neckline of her dark leather suit, a literal abyss of soft darkness threatening to engulf his entire field of vision, Mizuki panicked.
He shot his hands out, grabbing her shoulders to physically halt her advance before his face ended up buried in places that would severely compromise his sanity.
"In short! LadyDevimon, I swear I am not rejecting you!" Mizuki blurted out, his face burning. "It is just... well... it comes down to human customs! And matters of moral ethics! Boundaries!"
LadyDevimon blinked, her head tilting to the side in genuine confusion. She looked at the flustered, rambling young man. "But I am not human. I am a Digimon."
"That may be true on a technical level," Mizuki groaned, rubbing his temples, "but your current appearance is very much that of a fully grown, incredibly attractive human woman!"
"Is that so..." LadyDevimon murmured, the gears visibly turning in her head as she fell into deep contemplation.
After a long, agonizing minute of silence, she looked back up. "So, Mizu, you do not dislike me at all. It is just that because of my current appearance, your human rules say you cannot do those things with me. Right?"
Mizuki let out a weary sigh. "Although the exact direction of your understanding is a little skewed... overall, yes. You could interpret it exactly like that."
Given LadyDevimon's straightforward, logic-driven personality, Mizuki couldn't immediately think of a way to explain the nuances of human modesty and hormonal panic without making things worse. Tacit agreement was his safest exit strategy.
"If that is the case..."
As soon as the words left her lips, a deep shift rippled through the room. LadyDevimon closed her eyes, quickly mobilizing the vast reserves of data within her core. A brilliant, digital light enveloped her tall, imposing figure. Deeply buried code from her past was dragged to the surface, reactivating and overwriting her current state.
The dark leather, the silver chains, the mature curves, all of it dissolved into a cascade of glowing binary. When the light faded, the beautiful, terrifying Ultimate Digimon was gone.
In her place sat a tiny, round, chubby yellow creature with a swishing tail and oversized ears.
Nyaromon.
"In that case, there shouldn't be a problem anymore, right?" Nyaromon chirped, her voice sweet, high-pitched, and impossibly cute as she looked up at Mizuki.
Mizuki stared at the In-Training Digimon. He looked into those clear, pure, oversized eyes, completely devoid of the intense, mature weight of LadyDevimon's gaze. A long silence stretched between them.
With a heavy exhale, Mizuki forcibly locked away the lingering, flustered memories of the dark woman from just moments ago. He reached out and gently scooped Nyaromon's soft, spherical body into his hands, pulling her against his chest.
The moment she was back in his embrace, nestled exactly where she belonged, Nyaromon's face melted into an expression of absolute, unadulterated happiness.
"Huu..." she purred, nuzzling deep into his shirt. She took a long, contented breath, anchoring herself in the familiar scent and warmth of her partner. Her soft, adorable voice dropped to a sleepy whisper.
"Mizu... please do not ever dislike me, okay?"
"We have to be together forever..."
"...Yeah," Mizuki murmured softly.
He looked down at the tiny Digimon in his arms, watching as her breathing evened out, slowly drifting into a peaceful sleep. A quiet realization washed over him. He had been so stubbornly tangled up in human moral ethics, so rigidly bound by the rules of his past life, that he had completely ignored the simple, pure feelings of his partner.
In this digital world, surviving against impossible odds, those trivial human boundaries felt suddenly insignificant. What truly mattered, the only thing that mattered, was the bond he shared with the companion by his side.
A gentle, genuine smile touched Mizuki's lips. He shifted his weight, getting comfortable on the bed, and began to softly stroke Nyaromon's head, just as he had always done in the past.
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