Life just got more interesting (Open)

Nervous was definitely one of the first words to describe the Kiwimon nearby, as the poor mute fellow had gotten lost, in the jungle of all places! How Horrible. His chibikiwimon didn’t help him find Alraumon directly either. The place was full of twisting plants, but that hardly concerned him much as just the general twin sickness of being removed from the one you shared a digicore with. The kiwimon had little trouble nervously making his way through the many plants, trees and bushes in the jungle area. His chibikiwimon were scouting the area and ensuring an eye was kept open in all directions.

Such so, that when one of his loyal little scouts encountered something, it made some incoherent peeping. Kiwimon noted at the peeping, and hoped it meant his sister was there! He rushed and took some large steps using his long kiwimon legs to reach to the location his little scout was peeping from. Instead of seeing the sister he hoped to see though, he saw a human, a Nyaromon and a somewhat smaller DemiDevimon. The kiwimon stared at them, suddenly having come from the bushes, blinking at the sight of the three. Two small chibikiwimon joined up, resulting in three chibikiwimon accompanying the kiwimon.

Kiwimon blinked and wasn’t sure what to make of the human and the two young digimon close to her. He cautiously stepped back to give them some space and showed no signs of attacking, but he didn’t exactly talk to make a peace offering or anything either… Not that anyone was around to help him tell people he physically couldn’t talk! Oh what a bother he had gotten himself into...

Kiwimon had no way to tell them what his predicament was and that he didn’t want to fight them. He must seem like a wild animal to them, something that did not surprise him. He blinked as she came closer and did not take an aggressive position. It was sort of… awkward, the way the human regarded him. He let it happen, letting her walk closer and remaining silent, he and Alraumon had already heard of humans and learned that they were just as strong as a rookie, if not less so. Only when prepared were they dangerous, and this one… did not seem prepared.

If anything, as she came closer, he let it happen more, however, as she regarded him as a child would something with wonder, he couldn’t help but strike a blank expression. She was his best chance to find Alraumon, probably, considering the peeping of the chibikiwimon wasn’t nearly as loud as either of these three, and their eyes would be helpful as well. Getting their help would be a task upon itself.

For now, the Kiwimon kept peaceful, although his expression kept a certain air of awkwardness to it. Despite it’s lack of speech, there was a certain intelligence to the Kiwimon. He didn’t seem like an uncivilized digimon. Infact, he even had a little pouch tied to the side of his body, which seemed to contain some kind of tools. Kiwimon could but hope that the pouch would make them realized he was just a civilised mute. He would also hope for them to be more friendly, but he didn’t know if he wanted this human to be more friendly with him than she already was being right now...

Kiwimon was happy to see she’d try to talk before coming closer. At first, she asked if he could speak, to which he shook his head fervently. His metal mask shook left and right to accentuate his movements, making it all too clear he was shaking his head. He couldn’t speak, it seemed. At least, he deeply hoped one of the three would gather as much. Kiwimon looked to the gaze of the two digimon that had accompanied the human. They were looking at her digivice.

They seemed to notice his tools! Hey, he might be able to use those to help explain the situation! He’d have to be smart with them, though. He looked to the woman as she showed her his digivice, to which he blinked. He nodded a bit. He had seen humans once before, he’s already been in the selling business for a bit, and humans by rosewood were very friendly. He softly tapped his metallic mask against the digivice, and then crouched to softly tap one of the two digimon buddies that were with her! He hoped she’d get what he meant with the taps, or at least gather something. He then stepped back. He went close to a tree, it seemed he wanted to communicate something. He looked to the small chibikiwimon and moved his head a bit, and they cheeped in what seemed to be understanding.

The kiwimon then started faking a smile, and the chibikiwimon starting cheeping in pretend happiness too. And then they walked around a tree, but when the kiwimon was on the other side, the chibikiwimon weren’t there! The kiwimon suddenly did a panicked expression, although it was clearly and act, and started looking left and right! He Hoped this conveyed the message somewhat. As he was busy acting, one of the chibikiwimon peeped and walked up to him, ruining the act. His expression went flat with slight irritation. It seemed even giving these fellows basic commands was hard.

Kiwimon wasn’t sure how to respond to the apology. It was just a limitation of… being him? It was so normal, and so much Digimon didn’t mention much of it. Well, he understood it was some kind of… politeness amongst humans. He had had more human customers before, after all. When she mentioned that the Nyaromon and DemiDevimon were looking for her, Kiwimon nodded fervently. They must have been! This woman must be a fresh tamer!

He then put on his little charades, which didn’t really seem to give her the right impression.. She even mentioned him being the Chibikiwimon’s father, an idea he’d gladly discuss and elaborate on. If he could talk. Which he still couldn’t. She started asking him if he had gotten lost, to which he nodded fervently! Finally, she might’ve understood! Well, she understood enough, at least. At this point, she started writing on the ground using a stick, although it seemed unnecessary. He tilted his head and tried to read the text… Using his beak, he wrote his own text on the ground, saying ‘what?’. However, the text he put on the ground was not in Japanese lettering, like Beni’s. His was entirely in digicode. Perhaps that Digimon with her could translate it? Because he sure as hell couldn’t write in the strange language the human was writing...

Kiwimon looked as she said what. He wondered if she had understood what he had written, but she looked far too puzzled. He sighed, although it was dead silent, just the motion of a sigh without any sound or even the idea of air being exhaled. Well, he understood her, so they could at least communicate verbally. He was unsure why she even started writing. Still though, if the digimon could read it, he could communicate somewhat. As they said their names, he nodded. It seemed they belonged together, but the human was pretty new here.

The kiwimon smiled and nodded! He was supposed to introduce himself now, but that was kind of hard. He supposed he would do his darndest to try.

Kiwimon used his beak to continue writing in front of the human, making sure the two digimon could see it too. On the ground, he first wrote the word ‘Kiwimon’, pointing an arrow to himself. It seemed that was his name. He gave them a moment to read it and explain to Beni, before happily moving on to the next thing. As he concentrated on his drawing, his tongue casually lolled out of the side of his mouth. He carefully used the capable metallic beak he had to write the text ‘Sister’ before making a small portrait of the plantdigimon Palmon! Or Alraumon. It wasn’t like he could colour his drawing in the ground.

The word mandrake escaped Kiwimon. He had never heard of it. But at least she had understood his name was Kiwimon! That would help. The text did seem to help out, as Hikari explained to Benihime. He nodded at the notion that it was his sister, but his expression had soured visibly as Akari talked. Yes, he could indeed not speak, so it was impossible for him to retaliate to what the DemiDevimon had said so seriously. What a unpleasant fellow.

As Hikari spoke and suggested that’s why he approached them, he nodded furiously. He poked at the drawing of Alraumon’s face he had and then looked towards the jungle behind them, pointing at it furiously. The little chibikiwimon with him jumped and tried to point in the same direction, but their little bodies weren’t suited for gestures nearly as much as Kiwimon’s shape. They tried with all their heart though.

Kiwimon looked back to Benihime, his expression looking slightly sad and pitiful. It was the only way he could really ask for help, he was hoping the human or the digimon could recognize it and they’d be willing to help him. Kiwimon looked to the jungle where his sister was looking for him.

It looked closely packed, every single tree so close to hugging another tree, that one would guess there’s hardly any flat grass ground between the trees. Their foliage reached high into the sky, and interlocked to each other, creating a mass of shadows within the jungle. But more than that, it was much more colourful than something a human would encounter on earth. Trees had pieces of bark which were damaged, revealing beautiful blue lines of tiny digicode, or numbers like 1s and 0s. Other trees had machine parts directly inside them, as if a natural part of the tree. A mix of red flowers, yellow and orange tree bark, green leaves, blue-hued glows and shadows all laid itself bare to Benihime. They hadn’t even walked deeper into the jungle yet, and it was already an enchanting sight to see all this colour, nature and technology intermingling in the weirdest way. An oldschool phone and a security digital lock rested inside some of the trees, both of them being important as a cipher for data, and part of the reason of the name of the place they were.

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Life just got more interesting.

Kiwimon made a sort of nervous chuckle… at least, that is what his expression would imply, as there was still no sound whatsoever. It was almost unnerving, but then one would remember the Kiwimon’s cheeriness and friendliness. Kiwimon watched as she convinced one of her digimon to agree with the mission she had set herself out to doing, and Kiwimon felt happy that she was doing this for him! Humans had their place in the digital world, that was for sure, especially nice ones like these.

Kiwimon made a happy little nodding motion and turned towards the vast jungle before them. The Chibikiwimon did the actual hopping and chirping for him, expressing their happiness. They were less his sons or siblings, and more extensions of himself… dumb, little, cute and somewhat impractical extensions of himself. They did convey his happiness and chipperness well though! Kiwimon smiled with a new confidence when Benihime reminded him that they’ll find his sister.

Kiwimon would indeed lead the way to the supermassive jungle, the moment they entered inside, trees would encroach around every part of them, blocking out the light from above, only to show all the data in the direct environment. The trees twisted in ways one would not see in the natural world, and the ground below them was filled with cables of which thin shining lights streaked over, like the visual imagery of a cable transfering data in pulses of blue light. Every time Benihime took a step, she found her feet landing on uneven ground, the thicket between the trees having her step on small plants, little boxes with Pincode buttons on them and bundles of cables of which the entire ground consisted of. As they headed deeper, from between the trees in the distance, small glows of raw digital information could be seen streaming from the trees, lighting up the locations in the distance.

The sources of light were usually blue in nature, but revealed the green glow of the leaves above them, glowering softly with what little light made it from the outside world into this jungle they waded through, the light lighting up hints of orange and brown coming from the barks of the trees, giving the place a positively vibrant colouration, which was only all the more visible when the light actually shined within the area.

As they walked, a little blue line would zip right infront of Kiwimon, like a tiny fairy flying by at ridiculously high speed. In truth, it was a stream of data, but for someone who only knew the human world, the Cipher Jungle was some kind of weird fusion between an office, a jungle and a fairy forest with all the little glowing phenomena. And it looks like the quest of exploration wouldn’t end anytime soon.

Walking through the jungle was hardly a straight journey through the thicket thought. Throughout touching the trees, feeling the strange fuzzy sensation of your finger running through pure information, Benihime, the twins and kiwimon slowly continued deeper into the jungle. It’s there that eventually, Benihime would see a thin blanket of blue streams hanging from between the trees, serving as a sort of curtains to another area, where a teal glow dominated above all else. Kiwimon walked through the strings of data, and they looked like glowy but harmless jellyfish tentacles to Benihime. As Kiwimon moved through one, a bit tore off and flew to Kiwimon’s side, into a pool of water they had just happened upon in the forest. The pool of water was the source of the teal light, lighting up this empty grove.

The stream of data that Kiwimon accidentally knocked off the string fell into the water, and the water rippled in response, however, the Ripples almost seemed to be so much more than just ripples. It was like a pattern of small ripples and large ripples. Any knowing figure would know that this was morse code, to be exact, the morse code represented 1s and 0s, and was spelling out the binary code of the data that had fallen into the lake and become part of it. The lake was crystal clear, and through it, one could see small lights of numbers against the bottom of the lake, as if there was a working screen under all that water. The numbers kept switching as they spelled out a gigantic cipher, each continually changing to ensure the information would not be decoded easily. The entire lake had constant ripples of morse code as data flowed all around it.

Looking up from the water, Benihime would see the teal light reflect on Kiwimon’s leaves and his metallic beak, the entirety lighting up with the teal glow while his brown fuzz remained on the darker side. But what caught the most of the light was a gigantic tree in the middle of the lake, standing tall as the only object ascending from the water, a large willow with streams of blue glowing leaves like thin threads hanging from it’s branches into the water, shaking slowly and reflecting the beautiful teal light the water created. The trunk of the tree was made of hundreds of small, spinning disks, a codex to create a cipher, a master cipher that the entirety of the lake used to hide it’s precious data, whatever that data may be.

Kiwimon stepped forward, and his clawed foot would never land into the water, rather, it would step upon an invisible surface which shimmered for a slight moment, reflecting white light as Kiwimon touched it, indicating it was there. Kiwimon’s foot was positively glowing with all the teal light coming from the lake, and he took another step onto a sort of invisible path that worked as a walkway over the glowing lake, Kiwimon walking on it and letting his underside illuminate, turning around and smiling at Benihime, waiting for her to follow him. The little chibikiwimon would jump onto the invisible walkway situated above the lake as well, excitedly walking to Kiwimon’s side and by his feet, jumping and glowing due to all the light from below, making them look like glowing little balls of happy energy.