Chapter Seventy-Nine: The First Battle in the Real World

A simple meal of four dishes and one soup moved Feng Xue to tears. Although the Digital World often contains inexplicably transported foods—like that refrigerator full of eggs in the first series, or the spoiled chocolate in the third—without seasoning, it’s hard to make proper meals. Besides, everything in the Digital World exists as data at its core, and Feng Xue dared not eat foods whose composition was unknown. As the Lion Digimon said in the third series, eating strange data could spell trouble: a virus-type Digimon consuming antivirus software, a data-type Digimon ingesting a computer virus, and so on.

Now, in the real world, Feng Xue could finally let go of all worries and eat heartily.

At that moment, Ruki Makino’s mother, Rumiko Makino, returned home. The three of them sat at the table, beginning a dinner served by the so-called “demon.”

“It’s delicious!” Rumiko Makino, a renowned model, had seen much of the world. Though unlikely to have faced the darker sides of her industry, she certainly attended many business dinners, frequented luxury hotels, and tasted all kinds of gourmet cuisine. Yet now, she realized none of those lavish dishes—whether French haute cuisine or exorbitant kaiseki—could compare to this simple meal. Even the sashimi, completely unseasoned, surpassed the finest sushi bars in Ginza.

“What is this…?” Rumiko gazed at her mother in confusion. Though her mother was a veteran homemaker, Rumiko had eaten her cooking since childhood, and never had she tasted food like this.

“Ruki says it’s made by the house’s fairy,” Ruki’s grandmother replied with a warm, meaningful smile, making Ruki feel rather awkward.

“A fairy, huh!” Rumiko smiled as well, saying nothing more. The three shared a harmonious dinner, the atmosphere especially cozy…

…

“Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me?” Ruki complained angrily upon returning to her room, her little face full of fury. Yet as a young girl, her anger was far from intimidating and somehow rather endearing.

“Minimum three years, maximum death penalty, minimum three years, maximum death penalty!” Feng Xue muttered as he popped a piece of sashimi into his mouth. There was no helping it: people in the ordinary world ate small portions, but Feng Xue, accustomed to the quantities from the world of Food Wars, could only finish off the excess himself. He didn’t mind it, though.

“Are you even listening to me?” Ruki stomped on Feng Xue’s foot in frustration and turned to her desk to study her cards, making Feng Xue chuckle silently.

Seeing Ruki absorbed in her own world, Feng Xue quickly finished his food, quietly returned the plates to the kitchen, and began familiarizing himself with this body.

Though he had evolved into Impmon nearly a thousand years ago and attained the current “Impmon: Holy Bow Form” several centuries back, this body felt especially unfamiliar. After all, the sensations of breathing and a heartbeat—absent for thousands of years—had returned.

With each breath, the ripple of energy he hadn’t summoned for ages gradually swept through him. As the body was refreshed by these long-lost vibrations, Feng Xue experienced a sensation akin to rebirth. The food he’d just eaten was rapidly absorbed by organs strengthened by the energy coursing through his blood, transformed into a potent vitality to further enhance his body.

Originally, Digimon could survive solely on data, but in the real world, food became a necessity—and along with that, numerous opportunities for self-strengthening arose. Unlike the Digital World, where only invention existed without discovery, here a Digimon could, if it wished, order weapons from a shop and equip itself, rather than relying on luck or begging a Digimon with forging abilities to craft something.

If a Whamon appeared in the real world and its Tamer happened to be the heir to an arms dealer, it could easily be outfitted as a Fortress Whamon.

Of course, none of this concerned Feng Xue, as Ruki’s family, though fairly well-off, was far from such extravagance.

As Feng Xue quietly meditated, Ruki’s D-Ark hung at her waist suddenly emitted a glow, prompting him to open his eyes immediately—

“Ruki, a Digimon has arrived!”

“Oh? Really?” Ruki’s face lit up with long-awaited excitement. She quickly attached her card pouch and D-Ark to her belt and slipped out of the Makino home.

Thanks to the house’s sprawling, traditional layout with an astonishing number of rooms, she didn’t have to worry about being caught sneaking out at night.

Ruki’s heart burned with anticipation—after so many card battles, was she finally going to confront a real Digimon?

Excitement, joy, curiosity, nervousness, and a faint trace of fear began to stir within her.

“Don’t be nervous,” Feng Xue noticed Ruki’s unease and dropped down from a nearby rooftop to her side. “Believe me, as the partner of the strongest Tamer, I am just as strong!”

“Of course!” Ruki smiled, continuing along the direction indicated by the D-Ark.

A pillar of light visible only to Tamers shot up into the sky, dense fog began to spread, and a massive figure appeared in the distance.

“A beast-type Digimon?” Although its form was still unclear, the four-legged stance made it obvious.

At that moment, the creature also seemed to notice Feng Xue and Ruki’s arrival, emitting a strange roar as a large, menacing silhouette emerged before them—

“Blade Dramon, Armor Form.” As soon as Feng Xue saw the giant beast, the D-Ark displayed its information. Oddly, the device was supposed to capture wild Digimon through the partner’s vision and provide detailed data, but it always seemed to provide information even faster than the Digimon’s own recognition.

“Is it because leaving the Digital World slows data recognition, or does the D-Ark connect to some database?” Two possibilities flashed through Feng Xue’s mind, but before he could ponder further, Blade Dramon’s tail swung toward them.

“Impmon, stop daydreaming! Show me what you can do!”

“As you wish!”