Ashes to Ashes[Mikemon]

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

That was the thought that was running through Mikemon's head as he made his way through this village, otherwise forgotten on a far corner of the Eastern Timberlands. He walked past those destroyed homes, the Doctor's eyes flicking over to see nothing but the ruined foundation of the Gazimon's home. Just weeks earlier, he stood on this dirt road, raising a fuss, cussing out the whole town before he tried to save it.

But now, the silence was deafening. Mikemon was used to the city, seeing data signals flow by at every moment. So quickly, this once-antique village turned into a ghost-town, a haunting window carrying a thin trail of smoke.

The foraging supplies he brought to examine the mushrooms, slung on a bag over his shoulder, seemed quite distant from his mind. Idly, he followed the same steps from the station, towards K's inn. It was an impossible hope, of course - surely she would have fled as well? Maybe she just ended up staying in Whitwater? That thought was put on halt, as he saw the mega: a CresGarurumon, armor shining gold as the sun breached through the canopy. Most might have fled at the sight, but Mikemon?

He recognized the signal instantly. "Oh my... K!" He called out, running down the hill towards the inn! The concern for the village was pushed to the side, as he finally found that familiar signal. Soon enough, he'd be standing right inside the foundation of the former inn, the Champion taking a moment to catch his breath.

"K... good to see... you're still standing..." Shaking out his fur, he took a quick look around the 'Renamon's' former residence. This place, where she was ready to live until her natural end, seemed to have evaporated away in an instant. First things first, though, Mikemon's instinct as a doctor kicked in: "Are you alright?"

The CresGarurumon's defensive posture didn't surprise the Mikemon. After all, out here in this desolate village, both of them would be tense at any sudden movement. Thankfully, the mega didn't try a preemptive strike, K able to at least relax in that form. As K brought it up, the Mikemon gave a nod: "Honestly I'm surprised to see you at such a level, but questions about that can wait. You have any idea what happened, here?"

Nope, she wasn't. It sounded like she just got back to the town, and already found it in that state. The Mikemon was at a loss for words, briefly avoiding her eye contact as she stared down at him. "I came back on an errand to collect soil samples out in the woods, just to get a gauge on how much the Whitecaps were spreading..."

It seemed so irrelevant now, and the emotion in K's shaken voice filled the room. Unlike her, the Mikemon had no personal ties here. For her, this was no less than devastating, and every little thing would get to her -

- ... A migraine? The Mikemon's ear perked up as she described her evolution to mega, and the cat's attention turned to focus on her data. "Evolving by a headache? K... are you saying you can't get down from that form?" The Mikemon's curious tone was laced with concern, the cat half-circling around to look at her front side. After a moment, the cat gave a sigh, and sat across from her. It was hard for the doctor to find the right words to say at a time like this! "Tch... if this happened in Whitewater, I... honestly don't know what I would do. I'd probably lose myself for a bit..."

Well, it sounded like K had been quite active for the last month or so. To travel around half of the Digital World and evolve from Rookie to Mega was quite the rare sight to see, and yet the Mikemon saw the results before his eyes. But as she described the deliberate nature of the fire, he gave a nod. "If this was caused by a mere accident, half the forest would be up in flames. We'd likely still be fighting the fire."

But if it was deliberate, who was the culprit? That wasn't something that could have been done by a feral Digimon. "... Based on who I know from the village, no local in their right mind would have done it. Addled by the spores, though..." Then again, could he really say the incidents were related? He shook his head, temporarily abandoning this line of thought. More importantly was K's present condition. The way she described it was honestly quite concerning: she could level down from mega, but couldn't go lower than that? Soon enough, the knight in golden armor took the shape of a purple-furred wolf.

To her explanation, the Mikemon nodded: "Headaches are common if Digimon spend too long outside of their 'preferred' state, but you were a Renamon for years before that, right?" If so, he would press on: "The headaches are what really concern me about it. If you'd let me, I'd like to get a better look at your data..."

But could she really focus on that, with the town like this? The Shutmon laid her emotions on the table, and seemed almost a touch annoyed with the feline, in both of his responses. He held out in responding, but to her last question, the Mikemon's response was sharp:

"I would."

It flowed naturally, without a moment of hesitation or uncertainty in his voice. Realizing the bold tone of that comment, he gave a cough, followed by a short breath out. "K, well... if you need a place to stay, my door's open. And if you need to talk, I'm here. Seeing something slip away after so long, well..."

The Mikemon looked down at his glove. "I'm not entirely unfamiliar with that."

Honestly, it was hard to figure out anything about this. Aside from the method of starting the fires internally inside each property, there was little else to go off of. Tracks would have been lost in the flame, and if the culprit was in the town, it was likely they'd take out their own property as well. Motive? Just what could drive someone to want to destroy such a wayward town?

Ultimately, it just seemed better on the mind to not get too caught up in that line of thought. "The reason always seems so obvious in hindsight. Still, from what I've seen - shattered glass and all - most of the town was likely able to evacuate." That was a relief at one point, and honestly, they were going to have to take these small victories.

After all, the Mikemon could honestly help K with her current condition. As the Shutmon further described her headaches, the feline gave a nod, his left hand disappearing into a dark portal. "Its about relief. Eventually, the Digimon will simply become that most 'comfortable' form. Whether its up or down is of little consequence." With that, he drew that ruby sphere into his left hand, idly spinning it around for a moment. K had more to say, after all.

More memories? "Maybe your past selves are having a say in it now?" There was no rush, and soon enough, the Mikemon felt that heavy pat on top of his head. His ears ran flat, the cat giving a small grin. "Heh, careful there. Hand's heavier than you think." And as for what they thought of the Renamon? "Probably the latter. I was surprised to find an inn out here at all. Now... just sit still for a second."

Carefully, the Mikemon held up that orb, in front of K. His eyes focused, straining through the glass like it was a crystal ball, straight through a lens. This wasn't a fortune-teller's trick: right now, he was peering deep, deep into K's data. More than anything, she wanted to check the stability of the form. Was she draining energy, or was it stable? Did anything seem off? Was the core 'off tilt'? It might take a while, but he peered for answers...

The Mikemon was confident enough that K wasn't the only survivor of this fire, so he simply nodded at K's concern. Besides, his primary focus was on K's supposed condition - her current symptoms were already concerning, and if there was something actually wrong, it could be a ticking time bomb just waiting underneath the surface of her data.

The Doctor had to be sure. Mikemon's ear twitched as K explained that she still didn't feel quite comfortable with her current form. "Hm... its possible that you have another path to evolve along, then. Its rare to see a Renamon move through a Virus route, after all." Maybe her natural form was the 'ultimate' on another line? What was more interesting was her comment about her memories, that she remembered everything like they were her own thoughts.

One pat on the head later, and the Mikemon would start his examination. K wouldn't notice much about the orb other than a faint glow. What she would notice was the particular trance that the Mikemon fell into: his pupils refined themselves to narrow slits, as if he was looking at an intense light. He peered through, pushing through layer after layer, for any sign of disturbance. However...

... She seemed stable. The Shutmon form itself, at least, wasn't needlessly draining K's stamina. More impressive, however, was the 'dust' that K's data held, holding small quirks due to the age. Normally, data fell apart and was reprocessed, refreshing itself intermittently. Still, despite its age, everything seemed to be in good-enough shape.

Good enough shape, except for that last troubling layer. "One moment..." And with that, he'd peer through, attempting to make whatever sense he could of that jumbled layer.

Right now, the Mikemon was pressing into K's oldest files.

On the surface, it made sense that this inner shell was quite old. After all, the last few layers were already showing signs of data age and decay - quite normal, if perhaps uncomfortable to stare at. But as he pressed through that last layer, the 'landscape' of K's data seemed to change.

He was viewing a part of her data that K was probably unaware even existed, and honestly, the Mikemon was curious. Data cores this old were quite rare to view, after all. Still, he was able to make sense of what was going on: K had a Vaccine-type core, as well as two smaller cores, blue and red. It seems this 'unaware' part of herself had taken in two other Digimon, though any further detail would be impossible to tell at a glance. Simply peering through, the Mikemon figured he was close to done with his observation...

... But there was something else watching from within. If K was attentive, he'd notice a twitch in the Mikemon's paw, as that eye blinked in-and-out, staring right at the Mikemon from within. The emotion, even from so deep, could be felt by the feline. Slowly, the data started to scramble, his view growing frazzled.

And immediately after, the Mikemon gave a blink, shaking his head. "Ugh... its been a while since I've dug that deep..." The feline swore under his breath, holding up a paw to ask for a moment as he rubbed his sinuses. With a groan, he'd proceed to his diagnosis:

"Where to start... ugh. There's no risk for you staying as a Shutmon. Your data's remarkably stable, actually - and, if you don't mind me saying, its quite 'antique'."

Yes, K's data set was old. It was as if she was never reborn anew. But it was clear, by the Mikemon's tone, that there was more to it: "At some point, you absorbed another Digimon's data as your own. Two, in fact. And whatever it was, well, it was strong enough to keep its presence." Mikemon was not the type to hide important information from a patient: his current tone was level and calm, enough to express that it was quite important for K to listen. "And whatever those Digimon were, well, they were strong enough to keep some form of sentience in that form. They..." The cat shuddered. "Were watching me. And even trying to hide from my eye..."

Well, it was certainly an ordeal. Once the Mikemon finally managed to collect himself, he gave a sigh, dropping that ash-covered ruby orb back into the dark portal. "Well, I rarely even have a chance to look that deep. Overall, though, its a routine thing for me to do."

But of course, there would be questions as he explained his diagnosis, the first asking about that word: 'Antique'. "Simply put, old. I couldn't find any evidence that you've ever digitized in your existence. No 'seams', no 'patches', just a pure data core." It didn't really mean anything one way or the other, by itself, but it was certainly a bizarre sight to see.

This would easily flow into his next explanation: those two strange cores that were embedded so deep in her data. As for how deep? "I would say about a fourth of a layer from the central core, though it was hard to tell. And as for what species, I wouldn't have a clue with what I'm able to do out here."

None of that compared to the Mikemon's last point, though. On him being watched, K seemed quite nervous, her own tone suggesting that she was quite scared of what was inside of her core. To that note, the Mikemon gave a sigh outwards. "More than likely, the presence of those two cores stirred your change in 'neutral state'. Whenever you first Digivolved, you must have drawn power from one of those long-forgotten cores. The shift in data would cause headaches, dizziness, and a change in your 'type'."

Actually, something clicked! "In fact, I would guess that you're most comfortable as a Shutmon not because you're at an Ultimate level, but because its a Virus attribute. You still feel off-balance because you're at too high a level, but your data has decided that its better to be a 'Virus at the wrong level' than a 'Vaccine at the right level'."

Right now, that made the most sense to him, but K was still unsure. Why would she even do something like that? "Well, your data is older than those laws, but I wouldn't know if you don't. At any rate, I do want to get a better look at your data. Just..."

He looked back around, at the ashen, destroyed town. "... Maybe back in Whitewater. In your case, I would like to be more precise in my diagnosis. But if you want, we can go there straight away."