Unascended? More like... Unexistent [Katrina]

At the same time, two others were venturing out through the plains with Terminus City as their destination. But as the human and her digimon had stepped out of the forest earlier, the human girl, Katrina, took note of something that was different about the area - noticeably different. Barriers; barricades were beginning to form - be built - around the massive crater that she and her mullet sheep digimon, Lammon, had traversed a number of times. And more to Katrina's surprise, there were humans in the area aside from her. Normally, to Katrina, humans were scarce to the point where she wondered how few other humans there really were in this digital world. Now she sees several, and they were working with other digimon as well.

"They must have gotten here earlier in the day...." Katrina continued to walk as she watched them work.

Lammon did as well, but also glanced at Katrina, more or less understanding what was on the redhead's mind. "Why don't you talk to them? You've been wanting to talk to the humans in this world, right?" she asked.

The side-ponytailed redhead considered talking to them, as she hadn't had the chance to actually talk with her own kind in this world.
"Mmmnnngh...," tilting her head and contorting her face, "I would..., but they look really busy...; I don't wanna to get in the way of work, y'know? ...Maybe afterwards or something."

"Huh~...." Lammon and her blood-orange mullet couldn't wholly follow the logic presented there. What kind of big disturbance would it be to just talk to them a little bit?
She didn't bother to outright question the orange-haired teen about that, but it wasn't long before someone else caught Lammon's purplish eyes. "! Hm? ...." Meanwhile, Katrina was still watching construction. "Hey, Rina!"

"! Yeah?" She turned her head to the 4-foot digimon who pointed off into the distance. There, they could see three individuals walking about, seemingly talking with each other - a human and two digimon. "! More people? Wow...!"

"They don't look like they're doing anything important. What about them?"

Katrina watched the trio from afar and saw this as a good opportunity to talk to another human being - who wasn't working - and, from a distance, was clearly a girl like her.
With a nod, "Perfect. Let's go," she jogged on over, with the cutely chubby Lammon, who still didn't understand this person's logic, right behind her.

Not wanting to unduly scare the trio, Katrina called out to the group as she closed the distance between them.
"Heeey!" She waved as well, as if yelling wasn't enough to get their attention. Can't hurt to be thorough, I guess.

The closer they got, the more Katrina slowed down her jogging. At this point, Rina could tell that the other girl was shorter than her to some degree - but of course, Rina was taller than most other girls in her age group, so she couldn't exactly tell how old or how young the other girl was; she just assumed the girl was younger.

Provided that they're able - or permitted - to get close enough, Katrina would slow to a stop to catch her breath before jumping into things, just glad she caught up to them before they would seemingly leave.

"Hi-hi...!" still a little winded.... "...Can I... ask you a question?"

Allowing herself a moment to breathe easier, Katrina soon stood upright to address the refined greenish(?) digimon who spoke - but more so, addressing all of them as a whole - even though the question was originally intended for the shorter redhead that stood opposite to her.

"Well, I was just kinda wondering.... Like..., I've been here a while and I almost never saw other humans around, and when I did, I never really had the chance to talk with them about this place. Now," thumbing back towards the humans building the barricades, "seeing all these people gathered here all of a sudden, I'm like," with a hand over her forehead, "'how many other people got sent here?' y'know? I feel like I need to ask them about it. ...But they're all busy, so I don't wanna bother them."

The bluish-eyed teen turned her attention to the young woman, visually indicating that the question was specifically for her. "And with that said, I came to ask you 'cause you looked free. ...I don't know if this is your first time here or not, but..., how did you find yourself in this digital world? ---Like, the first time you came, I mean; how did you get here?"

Fairly forward, Katrina asked with very little hesitation, curious about the subject matter. It was mostly thanks to the plant-like fairy digimon. Because she spoke to the taller redhead in English, seemingly, Katrina assumed everyone in that group could do so, not thinking twice about it.

When the human girl crouched and whispered with the reddish plant-like digimon who looked a lot like the green one, Katrina tilted her head, wondering what they could be whispering about.

"...?" leaning down to the side where Lammon stood, she asked her lamb companion, ".... Did I say something weird...?"

Lammon, with very little motion, glanced up at her, folding her arms, and said, "Beats me." Their eyes went back to the whispering ones. "Didn't sound like it, though...."

Then suddenly the greenish, more-fairy-like plant digimon of the two was called upon it seemed.

"Aya...?" Katrina muttered to herself after hearing the other human say it. "So... 'Ayamon'?"
She remembered that every digimon she meet up until this point had 'mon' at the end of their name. ...But this one didn't? Katrina assumed that they probably just shortened it.

"...." Lammon took note of what 'Aya' was saying to the girl with reddish-brown hair while Katrina was busy thinking about the digimon's name. The bipedal sheep digimon didn't understand why 'Aya' was telling the girl what Katrina said; was the human just not listening; did she have bad hearing? Lammon wasn't sure if she should feel insulted about this by association or not.

As time ticked on, Lammon was getting closer to being ticked off.
But soon enough, the green fairy returned to mediate between the parties.
She relayed the shorter redhead's response about her digiworld arrival to the taller redhead - to which, Katrina widened her eyes slightly, noticing a similarity.

"The digivice and Shibuya's train station...? ...---So can anyone come to the digital world, then...?" She thought aloud to herself again. Accessing the Trailmon was a pretty easy thing for the orange-haired teen to do, and riding up the elevator to the station was equally easy. She really did wonder if every human in the digital world was here because they found this supernatural gateway. And also: "...Wonder how come I haven't seen a lot more people, then...."

But Rina recalled that her own initial entry into this world was much different. A computer virus and her wristwatch reacting to it essentially got her here - and her wristwatch later became her digivice. She glanced at the wrist-mounted device on her left arm and wondered why her experience was much more volatile than this girl's.

Once Rina quieted down, Aya informed them that their human girl needed Rina to be clearer on the how-many-humans question. She also introduced themselves - oddly enough to Rina, sticking with actual names: Mana, the human, and Aya and Suzuran the green and red twin digimon. ...So Ayamon and Suzuranmon? Suzuramon? Suzermon? The thought bounced back and forth in the back of Katrina's mind as she acknowledged the introductions.

"! Oh. H'right. Guess I should've done that from the start, huh...."

She thumbed to herself with her left hand: "Well I'm Katrina - but you can call me Rina."
She thumbed to her 'mon using her right hand: "This is my friend, Lammon," who nodded calmly. "Hi."

Rina then put up both hands and waved softly yet disowningly.
"Now, as far as that 'how-many-humans' thing goes: I didn't mean it that way. Like, that wasn't an actual question from me to you, y'know? It was.... ...." After a moment, she made outward circular motions with her hands, illustrating herself trying to get the words out of her mouth.
"When I said it, I was thinking out loud about a thought from the past. .... ...?" With a cringing face and a tilt of the head, even Katrina wasn't sure if her wording made proper sense, so she tried to re-iterate. "...Like... mmmnnngh.... Like, just... I was thinking to myself about how many people were here, but I wasn't actually asking about it, y'know what I mean? .... ...Sorry 'bout that...!" scratching her head sheepishly.

Katrina clarified, "Well it's not that I haven't seen other people, it just wasn't often when I did. And most of those times, I had stuff I needed to do or had things on my mind, so chatting wasn't really a thing I wanted or had time for, y'know?" she claimed.

"As for where I've been, well, ...most of the time, ...I'm out here," waving her hands towards the ground, indicating that she was referring to the plains (and the nearby forest). "Other than that, I've been to Terminus City on occasion..., but that's pretty much it. That's where I've seen the people I've seen, but there were way more digimon than humans, though. Out here, I never ran into any at all 'til today."

Lammon then chimed in, noticing that Rina forgot a detail. "You forgot the ones that saved us that other day."

There was an earlier incident where an Ogremon had captured Lammon, Rina, a Gotsumon, and a Floramon. They were brought to a slave auction in a cave, but were saved by two humans and their digimon allies. As they and some of the former captives fought those who were either organizing the auction or planning to purchase the slaves, Rina and company booked it out of there.

"...---! Oh yeah! Okay, technically, I ran into two! .... I guess if we had stuck around back then, we could've talked to them, but I think running away was the best option, right Lammon? There were too many creepy digimon there."

Lammon wasn't sure if that was the best option, but it felt like the right move to make at the time.



After introductions, Aya asked Rina an interesting question. A proper name for Lammon? The tall teen found the notion interesting. And it was that point that made the orange-haired girl realize that maybe... just maybe... 'Aya' wasn't short for 'Ayamon'.

"I... guess that makes sense.... We never even thought about it."

She and Lammon looked at each other; Lammon looked very hesitant - very clearly so.
The sheep digimon averted eye contact as she said, "I don't need one; I'm fine...." Having never had another name before, she wasn't up for the notion of being named by a human she had only recently met and became friends with.

Meanwhile, those thoughts had never crossed Katrina's mind at all: Lammon having another name, and the scenario of running into a group of digimon that looked like her. But Lammon said she didn't need one, though, so Rina wasn't going to push it on her - at least, for right now.

".... ---Well, let's put that aside for a bit, then...."

Rina faced Aya, folding her arms. "I've got more questions now after what you've said, ...but there's something I've been wondering for a while, now...."

She glanced at Mana for a split second before speaking to Aya.
"...So Mana:" said to Aya, "did I say something wrong..., or is she just shy or something...? ...She's just been...," glancing over again, "she hasn't talked to me at all...."

Hearing that Mana didn't speak to her because of a lack of proficiency in 'human dialect' left Katrina confused as she didn't understand what that was supposed to mean.
"? ? ?"
She closed her eyes, scrunched her face, and tilted her head to illustrate her confusion as the digimon continued speaking. Rina wasn't a hundred percent sure of what a dialect was at her age, but she believed, in comparison to her own voice, those of stereotypical Texans or cowboys would be a different dialect, or other British or Irish people with heavier accents, perhaps. Katrina had more of a standard American tone with hints of British undertones in it, but to her, she sounded like any ol' American.
With that train of thought in mind, she really wondered what 'human' dialect was supposed to imply.

She continued to think about it with her scrunched face until she suddenly heard a girl's voice that was distinctly speaking Japanese.
"!" Rina's eyes shot open to take sight of the one speaking it; it was indeed Mana.
That was definitely a surprise to the taller teen. Rina straightened her head and slowly left her mouth agape as she suddenly realized what Ayaka meant.
"...Aaaah."
"So that's what she meant...: Mana only speaks Japanese...!" she thought to herself.
Rina could only take away a few basic words from what Mana said, understanding 'hi,' 'sorry,' 'Aya,' 'nice to meet you,' and 'friends.' Understanding only those words alone, Rina was now grateful to have Aya translating, not realizing until now why Aya was reiterating her words to Mana all the time.

Hearing everything in English from Aya, Katrina wondered how she should respond. "Should I say it in English and have Aya translate it..., ...or should I try Japanese...?" She smiled. "...I wonder how that'd turn out...."

"Hmmm...." Rina looked upward while tapping her chin - to show that she was thinking about something. After a moment, the blue-eyed girl nodded to herself. She then faced Mana... and spoke.

---Using as much Japanese as she could manage.

"[Friends]? Mm! [Yes]," with a nod.
That was the best she could do.

She outstretched her hand for a handshake.

"[Nice to meet you] back at'cha!" Rina grinned eagerly. With a nod to Ayaka, she continued in English. "I'm not very good with Japanese, myself..., but maybe, just talking to each other, ...maybe we can learn from each other, bit by bit."

To her, it was an interesting idea to try out. A proper teacher would make more sense, but the taller redhead wondered how far they could go with this. How much Japanese could Rina learn from Mana; how much English could Mana learn from Rina? The girl's curiosity bloomed.

As her extended hand was bypassed, Rina's eyes widened slightly in surprise. ...Then Mana backed away and expressed herself with the English she knew.

Hearing it, Rina smiled and nodded acceptingly, bringing her ignored hand to her hip. "Mm! Me, too!"

Mana had more to say - though in Japanese; Aya translated those words for Rina.
The girl did have questions for them, but getting caught up in the language differences..., "Mmmnnngh, I had questions.... Hmmmgh.... ...But I forgot what they were...! Gimme a minute..., mmmnnngh...." The American teen had angled her face towards the sky with her eyes closed, trying to remember the questions on her mind from earlier. In the meantime, Suzuran's apathy had drawn Lammon's attention. The mullet sheep eyed the 'mon - simply observing.

After almost a literal minute of deep thought, Rina managed to remember something.

"! Oh, right right!" returning her focus to Aya and then to Mana not long after. "You were talking about me giving Lammon a name: ...you said stuff about... 'humans naming their partners,' right? ...but what did you mean by that 'partners' part? I mean, Lammon and I are just friends, but now you've got me kinda curious about it. Are you guys all partners?" She assumed as much, since Aya and Suzuran were likely not 'Ayamon' and 'Suzuranmon,' respectively after 'putting two and two together,' but she wanted to be sure.

"I've never even heard of that before," Lammon chimed in with 'hands' on her 'hips'. Though, she was not referring to the word 'partner' itself; she was referring to the concept of a human and digimon partnership. "What do human and digimon partners do, anyway?"

When Mana showed Rina her digivice, Rina wondered what it was and why it was being shown to her - until Aya translated. Asked if she had a digivice, Rina nodded, but eyed Mana's digivice. It seemed those digivices were the proof of bonds between a human and a digimon, and that relationship between them was what would make that pair 'partners,' bound to each other. Prior to showing it off, Mana had described digivices - or at least, her kind of digivce - as a 'kind of machine you've never seen before in your life and that sometimes reacts weirdly to digimon.'

Katrina's digivice was definitely a foreign machine to her - and one that even Wisemon claimed to be a 'digivice.' Rina's hadn't reacted in any way since they got it, though - aside from it pulling her back into the digital world, once. ...Aside from that, her digivice still seemed completely different from Mana's: not just in color, where Rina's has a white base, orange grip-like edges, and a black circular border around the screen, but in its shape, too, with it being more elongated and thinner than Mana's. If that wasn't enough, Rina's was a wrist device, as well. So it was fair to say that the taller redhead had some doubts about whether her own digivice matched both the description and the visual that were given.

"Hey, Rina! Your arm!" But Lammon figured a digivice was a digivice, no matter how it looked.

Still, Rina wasn't quite as convinced.
"Yeah, but...." The redhead glanced at her left arm, "...It's different, though...." Shortly after, Rina raised her left forearm vertically into view for Mana and the others to see what they were talking about. "This is the one I have." A device, cradled within a silver wristband, was attached to her wrist.

...It was still a digivice in the most technical of senses.

"...Does it count?"