Chapter Ninety-Seven: Shirakawa Megumi

“Hello there, little Qin Fei, and little Lolo. I’m the partner assigned to you for this mission, so just call me Sister Hui.”

When Qin Fei arrived at the base of the DATS building, he saw a graceful woman with short, bright yellow hair waving at him.

He blinked in surprise. Wasn’t this woman a DATS operator? Why wasn’t she monitoring the movements of the local Digimon from behind a screen, but instead accompanying him into the field to deal with the Digimon problem in person? It was rather strange.

Still, Qin Fei nodded. Since this had been arranged by Captain Sama, there had to be a reason for it. For example... perhaps she was here to keep an eye on Lolo, the Digimon disguised as a human?

The three of them got into the car, and under Hui Shirakawa’s driving, which was positively tranquil compared with Yoshino’s, they headed for the eastern district.

Qin Fei cast a subtle glance at Shirakawa Hui’s profile. Yes, she looked relaxed and carefree, not at all like someone going to face a dangerous Digimon. She looked more as though she were going on a country outing.

“Um, Sister Hui, where are we going?” Qin Fei finally asked, unable to keep his curiosity in check. He knew that for his very first real mission, Sama would not assign him anything too difficult, but this woman seemed far too at ease.

“Just a small problem caused by a Digimon. Don’t worry, with me here, it won’t be anything too hard.”

At her soothing smile, Qin Fei stared back with his dead-fish eyes. Well then, it seemed he had become the one needing protection. Wasn’t this mission supposed to revolve around him?

While Qin Fei was still wondering just how simple this assignment really was, Shirakawa Hui’s car entered a rural stretch of land.

“Where is this?” he asked.

“Oh, this is Fengmu Township, one of the nearby towns in our jurisdiction, within the D46 area.”

As she spoke, Shirakawa Hui raised her brows with a cheerful grin and added, “The fruit here is famous, and it tastes great. After we finish the mission, I’ll buy some for you to try.”

So that was it. He had not expected this polished-looking big sister to be such a glutton. No wonder she had worn such a delighted expression the entire way here.

No one said anything else. Instead, they simply gazed through the windows at the heavy, golden expanse of the wheat fields.

At last, when they reached an orchard, Shirakawa Hui slowly brought the car to a stop and entered the estate beside it.

“You’re finally here.”

A weary-looking police officer came out to greet them from the manor, as though he had been driven to the end of his rope by some intractable trouble.

“It’s all right. Once we take over, it won’t take long to sort out,” Shirakawa Hui said with a formal nod to the officer, then beckoned Qin Fei and Lolo into the orchard. As for BlackDorugamon and Gatomon, Qin Fei had already stored them inside his Digivice.

“And who are they?”

Looking at Qin Fei and Lolo’s unusually youthful faces, the officer frowned, though he still asked cautiously.

“They’re DATS members here to handle the incident too. Rest assured.”

After Shirakawa Hui’s explanation, the officer’s expression improved somewhat, though he still looked at Qin Fei and Lolo with a lingering lack of confidence. After all, they were far too young.

Ignoring the officer’s doubtful stare, Qin Fei and Lolo crossed the security cordon and entered the orchard as well, eager to see exactly what the problem was.

“Be careful. Although the Digimon energy reading on the detector is very weak, don’t let your guard down. Even a rookie-stage Digimon can still be dangerous to ordinary people.”

Walking in front, Shirakawa Hui gave another reminder, then slowly advanced according to the signals from her Digimon tracker.

Qin Fei nodded and followed obediently behind her.

“Qin Fei, I can sense the aura of Digimon. There are quite a few... but they’re very weak.”

As they gradually went deeper into the orchard, Lolo’s voice came from beside him to warn him.

“Quite a few?”

Before Qin Fei could make sense of what Lolo had said, Shirakawa Hui suddenly cried out from ahead.

“Let’s go, see what happened!”

Qin Fei’s expression changed, and he ran toward the source of the cry.

“Pawnmon... materialize!”

Qin Fei’s steps halted, because Shirakawa Hui’s voice had come from above.

The next instant, a white Pawnmon dropped from the sky and landed right in front of him.

“What happened?”

As he asked, Qin Fei lifted his head.

He immediately saw that Shirakawa Hui, Digivice in hand, had been hung upside down from a tree by vines.

“I was careless. I didn’t expect it to be Palmon; I got tangled up in its trap.”

Meeting Qin Fei’s gaze from beneath the tree, Shirakawa Hui’s face flushed red. She had never expected to make a fool of herself in front of a junior on her very first meeting.

“Don’t just stand there, Pawnmon. Hurry up and get me down.”

Only after swaying helplessly for a moment did Shirakawa Hui call out, a little annoyed, to her partner Digimon.

Pawnmon had been guarding against another attack, but at the sound of its partner’s voice, it hurled the spear in its hand and severed the vine holding Shirakawa Hui.

“Aah!”

Yet when she saw the hard ground beneath her, Shirakawa Hui let out another cry and tightly clutched her face with both arms.

She did not want her face to meet the earth in such an intimate fashion. If she were disfigured, she would not even have anywhere to cry.

Just as she buried her face and prayed that the fall would not be too severe, she suddenly felt her descent slow. It was as though a pair of strong, if not especially broad, arms had caught her at once, sparing both her body and her face.

“This... this is? Ah, Qin Fei, little brother, thank you so much.”

When she stood up from Qin Fei’s arms and saw her body and face were completely unharmed, Shirakawa Hui was overcome with emotion. Before she knew it, she had thrown her arms tightly around him and burst into tears of joy.

“Hm?”

Lolo looked puzzled. Why was Qin Fei, who was nearly being crushed breathless by Shirakawa Hui’s chest, giving her a thumbs-up... and looking just as pleased?

Whoosh!

“Watch out!”

At that very moment, two vines suddenly shot out from beneath the shade of distant trees, their target clearly the now-unwary Qin Fei and Shirakawa Hui.

“Crimson Shatter!”

A red axe flashed through the air, instantly shredding the vines that came hurtling in.

Qin Fei and Shirakawa Hui both startled and quickly steadied themselves again.

Though Qin Fei was a little reluctant to let go of the soft warmth he had just felt, reason made him brace himself at once and keep watch over their surroundings.

“Over there!”

“Gatomon... materialize!”

Qin Fei took out his Digivice and released Gatomon. In a few nimble leaps, it sprang up into the treetops from which the attack had come.

“Eek!”

In the blink of an eye, a Digimon with a red flower on its head tumbled out of the canopy.

It was clearly Gatomon’s doing.

Just as Gatomon was about to finish it off and send it back into a Digiegg, a great many bubbles suddenly surged in from all directions, obstructing everyone’s vision.

Palmon took the chance to slip away from Gatomon’s grasp.

“As expected, it’s not just one.”

Shirakawa Hui was not especially surprised. When she had used the Digimon analyzer earlier, she had already detected multiple signals.

“Seedmon! And there are quite a few of them...”

Seeing the Seedmon escorting Palmon as it fled in the distance, Lolo was about to give chase.

But Qin Fei stopped her at once.

Then he released BlackDorugamon.

“You’re human now. BlackDorugamon is your partner.”

At Qin Fei’s reminder, Lolo clicked her tongue and stopped in her tracks, leaving Gatomon and BlackDorugamon to pursue them.