Árbol que nace torcido... [Kath/Miyu/Sasha]

By this moment, there was no doubt Nei had been able to put them on the right path to find the information they needed. They just had to go through the forest (both metaphorically and literally, kind of) that was Bloom’s brain to find it.

On his side of the exchange, Arthur did blink a couple of times and tilted his head when Sasha seemed to forget her current form. Then? He blushed a little when she pointed out a more than necessary correction. Of course Mrs. Swordswoman liked to be called a woman instead of a girl!

So… who was the strongest digimon in the world? “Pfft. What? Bloom?” Eisen pointed with his thumb to the Lillymon, laughing a little bit. “Listen, she’s strong and all. Don’t let her fool you with that humble attitude but… She’s certainly not the strongest digimon in the world!” Who was that, then? Was the Banchomamemon going to offer an explanation at any given time? Probably. Not right now, though. He had talked a little too much, as usual, in front of Miyu… excuse me, Miyuki, and the rest. This, obviously, put him on the receiving end of a placekicker kick by Bloom, who sent him across the clear they were occupying and straight against a tree. Although it was clear that it didn’t mean to hurt the Mamemon, said kick would be an interesting showing of the strength of the creatures they were dealing with now.

“That was… a bit scary.” Katherine muttered, her eyes fixed on the events developing through Nei’s purple smokescreen.

“At all times, we must remember they’re now dealing with ultimate-level digimon. In the case of the Banchos, some of them go even… beyond that.” Bastian explained. Although he was a rather unexpressive digimon, he seemed to be enjoying this look at the Banchos a lot, a chance for gathering all of the information he could about such an enigmatic team.

“That means… the D-Brigade must be really strong. If they managed to cause trouble to such… powerful digimon.” To be fair, everyone could probably agree Jazz’s deduction couldn’t be too far from reality.

Arthur, meanwhile, nodded when hearing Miyu whispering. Then, he proceeded to show the most innocent, weak, and helpless expression he could muster. He was in a lot of trouble!

“Misu is… appealing to the Bancho’s pure sense of duty to get them to take her to the tree.” Bastian started studying the current scenario. “She’s now making two basic principles of the group go into conflict. They must keep the tree as a secret at all costs, but they must also aid any digimon who needs it at any moment.”

“Miyu is a nonoroku genius!” Arianna bounced from excitement.

“Both her and Bloom have always been very resourceful.” A smirk was drawn on Katherine’s face as she folded her arms. Flashbacks of what had transpired at alley number 2, back at Whitewater Hills, came to her. That had been the first time she had seen both Miyu and Bloom’s abilities. From then? She knew these two were simply amazing.

Eisen walked back to the group, coming from the tree Bloom had made him split in half with that kick. “Goddamnit Bloom why did you do that!?” He raised a fist angrily, complaining. Then, his attention quickly turned towards Arthur, who was still trying to look as helpless as he could! “That is right, you wimp! We are Banchos and we’ll ALWAYS protect the weak no matter what!” Apparently excited by having someone highlight their sense of duty, Eisen folded his arms and laughed with a smug expression. Effectively, the bait had been laid and a Banchomamemon had been hooked.

“Although… we certainly shouldn’t let anyone find out where the tree is located.” The Mamemon quickly recoiled, tapping again one digit against his mouth, thinking. Arthur coughed a little. He was totally sick, of course. “You even know the name of the tree…”

“Ugh…” Eisen sighed, his eyes shifting towards Bloom. “Okay, listen. When he sent us to look for the tree, he said it does not occupy a physical space in our world, right? You need the key to open a portal and then you can reach it.” The Mamemon explained. “If we keep the key once we find it, it doesn’t matter if they know how to get to the tree, since they won’t have the key to do it. That… kind of counts as if they didn’t know it exists, right?”

Oh my. A loophole! Would that be enough for Bloom?

Arthur’s eyes widened a little bit as if he was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! Had the Bancho’s agreed to take them to the tree? Furthermore, they had discovered a very important piece of info, hadn’t they?

“So… the tree is not actually in our world?” Jazz glanced at Bastian, looking for an answer, if the robot had any. “That may explain why it’s been so hard to find for everyone.”

“A parallel dimension, maybe?” The robot muttered.

Katherine’s arms remained folded. Her green eyes shifted towards her friend. “You don’t think… the tree may be in the Human World, right?”

“Unlikely.” He shook his head. “I’d assume a tree with said properties couldn’t go undetected in your world, Misu. But right now… it’s very hard to tell. We will have to wait and see.”

Whether Bloom agreed with Eisen or not, the Mamemon would take a moment to look at their surroundings. “That reminds me, Bloom… Have you tried to focus to see if you can feel the key? He did mention you should try now and then to see if you could feel even a faint signal.”

“Feel… the key?” Arthur wondered, tilting his head while still being held by Miyu. He coughed a little more there too, just to be sure. “What do you mean?”

“The digimon who sent us gave us some of these…” Eisen opened his hand to materialize, as if taking it out of an Infini-store, a small leaf that glowed with a faint blue color. “Apparently, this is a fragment of the Jinsei key, which we can assume is some type of plant too. The digimon who asked us to look for the tree said he had found these through his contacts, but… he knows nothing else. Luckily…” A smirk appeared on Eisen’s face. “… we have Bloom.” With what was clearly his signature gesture by now, the BanchoMamemon pointed at her partner with his thumb. “She has the skill to feel the presence of any type of plant if she has a sample of it, just like the one we have.”

Eisen looked at Bloom waiting for her to try to use the sample to feel the key again, in case it was relatively nearby.

So much valuable information! So Bloom was not only a Bancho, she was the only Bancho who could help them find the key with her skills. Where could the key be located? Where could these samples of the Jinsei Key be today?

Answers and questions came out simultaneously. That meant they were certainly moving forward.