Under False Pretenses (Hunt)

"Are you comfortable in there?" Submarimon was talking to his human General Tadayoshi, and he was referring to the fact that for the first time the young man had squeezed himself into the cockpit. The honest answer was that, no, Tadayoshi did not feel comfortable. He was learning there and then that he suffered from mild but genuine claustrophobia. It was the fact that Tadayoshi couldn't stand in the cockpit that bugged him. At most, he found he was able to rise as high as all fours before the back of his head met the glass of the cockpit.

Clunk! "Ow!" Tadayoshi bounced off the window and touched his chin back to the metal below him, managing to squeeze his hand between his head and the glass in order to nurse his poor, concussed head. "Well... there's some good news. It looks like the glass can withstand an impact. Then again..." He knocked on the glass as he observed his surroundings: a sandy beach, not beneath the waves. "These are meant to withstand huge amounts of pressure. I wonder how we might test their integrity safely." He knocked on the glass a couple of times with one knuckle.

"You're avoiding my question," the submarine digimon pointed out.

"I will not." The submersible digimon began to shuffle forward with his fins until he began to float freely over the sand. From there, his rear thruster took over the work. It needed three seconds or so to spin up, but when it did it propelled the ship and passenger out to sea.

Tadayoshi took a beat. "Of course. I trust you." Tadayoshi smiled a bit. "Y'know what? I've actually always wanted to say this." The boy cleared his throat, adjusted his collar, and yelled, "Dive! Dive! Dive!"

Submarimon chuckled and acknowledged, "Yes, sir."

One hundred feet down? That depth was absolutely trivial for a submersible like Submarimon. Tadayoshi was still unsure enough to take one big, deep breath as his tiny glass box began to sink. He was calm because, after all, there was no real reason why this shouldn't work, but caution beat carelessness every time. Naturally, there was indeed nothing to fear, for as the tip of the cockpit became completely submerged, Tadayoshi was as dry as a bone inside his watertight shelter. He was breathing normally, too. He searched the very bottom, which was where water would most likely enter first, but he couldn't find an insecure crack.

"Water pressure gauge, nominal. Oxygen supply system..." Tadayoshi held one hand over a little grate ahead of him. It was pushing air into his cage while a second one, which he also checked, sucked air out. "...nominal. Air filtration reads nominal, but I'll ask you to watch me yourself in case carbon dioxide poisoning starts to make me delirious. Weapon systems-" Tadayoshi accidentally brushed his elbow over a button, and he knew he screwed up soon as he did. On trigger, a pair of oxygen torpedos launched from below and collided with a rock ahead. "...oops."

"I calmly agree." One flip of a switch managed that. "Alright. Now, I guess we find the client and do our job. Should be a quick one, right?"

Tempted as Yoshi was to see an underwater circus, the great tent pinned to the ocean floor with weights wasn't putting on a show at the moment, and it probably wouldn't any time soon the way the client explained it. He was there to meet Submarimon and Yoshi to talk turkey, luckily. "Hiya! I'm Rashi!" A Rukamon greeted the arrivals with a big grin and happy waves of his flippers. "You're gonna make the mean nasties go away?"

"We, uh..." This was certainly not what Tadayoshi had expected. Digimon ages might be hard to tell sometimes, but Rashi was by all estimates a child. Something in his attitude, his diction, the very sound of his voice, all sounded very young. "I'm sorry. You hired us?"

"Yeah, I did! Wanted a couple o' heroes to beat back the nasties, and you came, you came, you came!" The dolphin made Tadayoshi a little dizzy the way he swam around hyper-actively.

"Boss!" Rashi swam up to an Ikakumon, "Boss, these guys are gonna save the circus!"

"Do what now?" The Ikakumon regarded Submarimon and Tadayoshi warily. "Yerrr... investors?"

"Extortion-? Rashi. What did you do?" The Ikakumon sounded old and tired before, but this news made him sound ancient and exhausted. While the Rukamon looked down in shame, Ikakumon explained that the "extortioners" were completely lawful, if occasionally unpleasant, debt collectors with whose payments Ikakumon was having more and more trouble keeping up. The circus was definitely going down, and a certain Rukamon who grew up with it couldn't handle that fact. "I can't apologize enough for this. I'm so embarrassed."

"But you can't just leave!" The Rukamon swam behind Submarimon, attempting to block his path. "This is my home! This is my life! I got nowhere to go without this place! Please!" It was truly pathetic. Naturally an aquatic digimon didn't make tears, but Rashi wasn't even trying to hide that he was sobbing.

Tadayoshi thought of the Missimon who, while cheerier, did sign on to Silence for similar reasons. Heck, Hagurumon didn't get much choice when they lost their home. Renamon was reluctant about it but knew her old purpose was done, too. Even for the General himself, Silence was a higher calling when he didn't have one besides getting into a good university. So for him it was hardly worth thinking about when he responded, "...I have a proposition for you."

Word Count: 1,083

Acquired: Xros Partner Rashi