Determination's Got the Best of Me

In the summer of that year, strange events occurred all over earth...

In Southeast asia, the paddy fields dried up from drought...

Heavy rains flooded the Middle East…

and America suffered from freezing temperatures...

For two certain siblings whom had missed the bus to summer camp, little did they know that this signaled the beginning of an adventure in an unknown world.

Ryoko awoke with a startle, not because of her little sisters attempts to wake her up, but a loud noise which clearly came from their own backyard. With a flash of dark red/brown hair she suddenly jumped up from her bed fully dressed, which startled her little sister quite a bit widening her eyes in a mixture of slight surprise/annoyance since Miya had been under the impression that her older sister hadn’t been up earlier that morning.

“So you mean to tell me that you were awake this whole time?” Miya sort of scolded softly annoyance could be heard in her voice, but only by the few that knew her very well.

“Well… not the whole time, I just fell back asleep?”

Ryoko sweatdropped as her younger sister crossed her arms in disapproval, this hadn’t been the first time that her older sibling had pulled something like this off and today really wasn’t a good day to do something like this since they had now missed the bus to summer camp. Luckily their mother already figured that Ryoko wouldn’t wake up on time so she’d offered Miya to drive them once she’s got back from doing her groceries.

“Nevermind me being awake, why don’t we check out what that noise was?”

Before Miya had any say in it Ryoko dragged her by the arm to the backyard of their house. Both of them looked around, Ryoko more frantically than Miya but the younger sibling was sure to find out what the noise had been first as she stared at two small craters which had formed in the grass of their backyard

“Sis, could it have been a meteor shower causing that loud noise? Since it sure sounded that way and now there are these craters...”

As soon as Ryoko turned around to face her sister, for a second registering that her sister just mentioned meteorites, she came rushing over and further inspected the small craters while bending down on her knees.

“Meteorites? Aren't they usually a bit larger than this? Mom sure is going to get pissed off though, the lawn is ruined now"

Miya didn't have the chance to reply since she was interrupted as suddenly 2 rather small glowing objects floated out of the craters which they had concluded now weren’t really caused by meteorites afterall.

As the objects floated to the sky both siblings managed to catch them just in time, as both of them stared curiously at the small stopwatch like machines. They faced each other looking into each other’s brown eyes which looked so similar, as if questioning each other what to do next.

“And now what?”

“.... Why don’t we go inside first?” Miya suggested, but what else were they to do? It’s not as if they knew what the purpose of these devices was.

Ryoko let out a long sigh but nodded nonetheless while following her younger sibling inside, though for a moment she stopped staring at their father's computer in confusion. As she took a closer look she noticed that the screen was covered in digits, not taking her eyes of the screen she quickly questioned her brown haired sister.

"Miya, didn't dad turn his computer off this morning?"

However as Miya turned around to see why her sister questioned her about this, the screen started to light up in a shade of bright blue and before either one of them could even think everything went black.

______________________________________________________________________________

'What happened? Was it all a simple dream?'

The small brown haired girl opened her chocolate coloured eyes staring at the sky above, however when she recalled what happened before she sat up quite startled. She looked around her, not quite recognizing any of her surroundings.

"Ryoko, wake up! I've waited for you for such a long time!"

She faced the source of the voice that had obviously called out to her older sister, her eyes widening in the progress. She rubbed her eyes making sure she wasn't just imagining things, was there really a small blueish creature jumping up and down on her sister's chest? She pinched her arm, and it hurt. That meant she surely wasn't just dreaming about these weird events nor the blue creature that was hopping up and down on her sibling.

Where on earth did they land? How could that creature even talk? And most importantly how did it know Ryoko's name? Questions flooded her mind as she dusted herself off getting up with one swift movement and clearing her throat. When the creature turned to face her she wondered if she had said something wrong as it looked up at her with big sad eyes.

"Why won't she wake up? She didn't die did she?"

For a second she was speechless, this creature was obviously very worried about Ryoko. She walked over to both of them, listening to her sisters heartbeat. After a small pause, thinking what exactly she was supposed to answer she finally replied a small reassuring smile forming on her lips when she did so.

"No she's still breathing, she's usually really bad at getting up though so don't worry"

As if on cue Ryoko woke up eyeing the creature on top of her with curiosity showing in her brown eyes. It obviously sensed Ryoko's awakening as it faced her with a big smile and eyes full of happiness.

"Ryoko, you're awake! I'm so happy! I've been waiting for such a long time and was afraid that you might've died while arriving here, especially since you didn't move."

"Where is here exactly? And who are you?" Ryoko questioned while sitting up as the creature jumped off of her.

"We're on the Server continent and I'm called Dorimon!"

Both siblings sweatdropped, this really didn't get them any further. Server continent, where was that supposed to be? Ryoko dusted herself off and got up deciding that sitting around wasn't going to get them anywhere either.

"Well I guess we should check this place out and think of a way to get home. Are we even still in Japan? Since it doesn't really look like it..."

Miya quickly took hold of her sister's shirt before she could walk off to explore their current residence.

"Say Dorimon, are there any humans around here?" She questioned the furry blueish animal as it's face clearly showed that it was puzzled.

"What are humans? Something like you? I haven't ever seen any around here. But I could take you to the village if you'd like"

"Village? That probably means that there are humans right?" Miya was quite content with Dorimon's answer even though it said it hadn't seen any humans around the area, a village could surely atleast get them somewhere instead of wandering around aimlessly and maybe even getting lost in the process.

"I'm not sure afterall I didn’t see any the last time I visited, but maybe the Koromon in that village can help us out, they’re usually really friendly"

The siblings followed the blueish creature cautiously while taking in their surroundings, neither of them recognized any of the seemingly subtropical trees since they surely didn't look anything like the trees back at home. However they soon reached the village, considering they could already notice the small hut-like houses through the forest trees which they had been walking through for about an hour or two now.

"Is that the village over there? Come on Miya, let's hurry up and find out if there are other humans there!"

The 8 year old again didn't have any time to react, her sister just dragged her along as she ran in the direction of the village. It didn’t take long however to put Ryoko to a sudden stop making her little sister crash straight into her back and making her fall back on her butt.

“Ouch, you could’ve warned me before stopping so abruptly…”

Ryoko didn’t really reply to her sister nor did she take notice of the small pout that had formed on her face as she herself was too busy staring at the light pink creatures that inhabited the little village.

“Oh look we have visitors!” one of the creatures spoke up while many turned to face the two girls and their Dorimon.

“Dorimon we didn’t expect you to return so soon?” another questioned as Dorimon’s face fell.

“So I suppose you still haven’t seen Moonmon anywhere have you?”

The Koromon shook their head while slight sadness washed over them suddenly.

“Anyway let me introduce you to Ryoko and-”

Dorimon faced Miya quickly recalling that it hadn’t even asked her name when she arrived. Of course it knew Ryoko’s name after all this was it’s partner but the smaller human? It blushed slightly in embarrassment turning it’s head away from her.

“My name is Miya I’m Ryoko’s little sister~”

The pigtailed girl finished the sentence as she’d noticed that Dorimon didn’t know her name either, a polite smile playing on her lips.

“It’s nice to meet Dorimon’s friends~! We welcome you to our village”

Soon after the said sentence Ryoko’s stomach grumbled loudly, she blushed a bit scratching the back of her head with one hand and holding her stomach with the other.

“Don’t mind me I just didn’t have breakfast nor lunch yet”

“We have loads of food if you’d like some? Dorimon’s friends are our friends too~”

These Koromon sure were a friendly bunch making Miya wonder slightly if all the creatures in this strange world behaved like this. They followed the bunch of Koromon into one of the larger huts were they noticed all kinds of fruits stashed onto a large table. The Koromon insisted them all to sit down and eat, thus so they did. Of course Ryoko as per usual eating like she hadn’t ate something for years while her little sister ate the food slowly, savouring the taste that was quite different than she was used to.

“Say are there any humans around here other than us?” After the smaller sibling finished her own meal while Ryoko wasn’t quite finished stuffing her face yet she questioned one of the light pink creatures.

“What is a human?” it replied to the question with another question.

“Hmm how is the best way to explain this… something that looks like me or my sister actually”

“I don’t recall seeing humans anywhere around…. I feel bad though seems like we can’t be any help to Dorimon or his friends afteral” Sadness again was shown in Koromon’s face while answering.

Miya looked down disappointment showing in her eyes, but that disappointment soon got replaced by surprise as she heard talking outside of the hut they were residing in.

“Did you expect more visitors?” Ryoko questioned, while she still had food in her mouth which made it hard to make out what she was trying to ask.

Dorimon’s fur slightly furrowed as it glared towards the entrance of the hut, anger was clearly shown in it’s eyes meaning it must’ve known what was coming next. It ran outside in a rush on it’s own while Miya and Ryoko followed the blue creature outside wondering what was going on. They looked around as they noticed a hurdle of blue creatures with red eyes coming closer to the hut and boy they didn’t look really happy.

“Miya, get the Koromon to safety! I’ll handle this~!”

Ryoko ordered her sister as she’d noticed that Dorimon was trying to protect the Koromon all on it’s own. She sure admired the fact that Dorimon wasn't afraid to do it on it's own but there were too many of them for one to handle all by yourself. Miya didn’t take a second glance before leaving them by themselves and managing to get the Koromon out of the hut atleast and moving them to the smaller huts. She entrusted her older sister to know what she was doing, after all she did know what to do at home with any bullies as well and this didn't seem to different.

“You don’t have to do this alone anymore buddy” Ryoko smiled at Dorimon while taking a nearby stick that she’d found on the ground getting into a fighting stance. She wasn't afraid to hit these creatures if it meant protecting the village, after all she owed them.

“Ryoko… I’m not sure if we’ll be able to defeat those Pagumon, there are a lot more than there usually where..” Worry could be heard as it replied to it’s partner. But Ryoko was determined to help out as a sort of thank you to the Koromon for their hospitality.

Both of them together managed to defend the village quite well until the Pagumon had the smart idea to attack as a group rather than one by one like they did before. Ryoko had fallen down in the process of their attack as they surrounded them quickly. In that same moment Miya came back trying to get the Pagumon away from her sister in worry but there were just too many of them.

“We can’t give up now, we must protect the village”

Ryoko grabbed the stick once again, not willing to give up she started defending herself again while Dorimon looked at her in admirement. The device she had picked up at home soon started glowing up and so did Dorimon, it didn’t even take a blink of an eye and where Dorimon stood before there was a slightly larger in fur covered beast in the same colour scheme as Dorimon was.

“Dorimon, is that you?” Ryoko questioned as the creature shook it’s head with a slight smirk forming on it's face “I’m called Dorumon now”

Dorumon soon moved in front of its partner making sure the Pagumon couldn’t get through it as it started attacking with what seemed like iron spheres that fired from its mouth.

“It’s too strong, even with so many we don’t stand a chance” One of the pagumon mentioned as they soon made a retreat leaving the village alone and the Koromon surrounded them clearly grateful for their attempt to protect them.

“Whoa, you digivolved~”

“That’s so amazing Dorumon, how did you do that?”

“Thank you so much for saving us~”

Dorumon blushed a bit in embarrassment as it scratched the back of it’s head with a grin on it’s face. “I’m not sure how I did it, but I think it has something to do with Ryoko… She made me able to”

“Eh? Me? I didn’t even do anything” Ryoko wondered outloud and her sibling nodded in agreement to her older sister. “She’s right, what did she do then to make you…. how you call it ‘Digivolve’?”

“Her determination to not give up just inspired me….” Dorumon nodded approving of its own answer though it wasn’t sure if that was really the reason. It just happened and that’s what’s most important right?

To be continued….