"Kari! Run!"
Tai grabbed his crying little sister and, having just dashed over, tried to pull her toward somewhere—anywhere—safe.
Whether it was Agumon in its current state, or the Parrotmon locked in a standoff with it, neither were threats two children could hope to face.
And after seeing the trail of destruction left behind by both Digimon, Tai understood this painfully well.
"Koromon!"
Yet just like every time before, Kari shook off Tai's hand, tears streaming down her face as she stubbornly called Agumon's name.
"Come on! Kari, it's dangerous here!"
Tai stepped forward to pull her away, but at that moment Agumon, still confronting Parrotmon, launched another attack on its own.
BANG!
A blazing fireball shot from above Tai's head, the heat so intense it warped the surrounding air. Instinctively, Tai shielded his head.
"Ow! Hot!"
But even more surprised was Parrotmon—because that fireball was clearly larger, stronger than anything Agumon had fired before.
Compressed to its utmost, that burning orange sphere carried a long‑forgotten hint of "threat."
Minuscule as that threat was compared to an Ultimate, it was real—and it came from Agumon.
Crackle… crackle…
This time, Parrotmon didn't allow Agumon's attacks to hit freely. Electricity surged around its form, condensing into a powerful electromagnetic barrier before it, perfectly neutralizing the orange fireball that was strong enough to actually threaten an Ultimate.
"Screee!"
A moment later, the concentrated electromagnetic field gathered at Parrotmon's brow burst into a violent arc of lightning.
—Mjölnir Lightning!
This was a devastating finishing move Parrotmon had developed after absorbing mythological data related to the "Hammer of the Thunder God."
Compared to the "Sonic Destroyer," which relied on breaking the sound barrier, this thunderstrike—born from countless converging electromagnetic fields—was more direct, more destructive.
Forget Agumon, a mere Rookie. Even another Ultimate could never withstand this attack head‑on.
Whoosh—BOOM!
A massive bolt tore open the air. The smell of ozone from split oxygen hadn't even spread when the fearsome lightning was already upon Tai and Agumon.
Life and death… existed only in that razor-thin instant.
"[KOHENKYO]!"
Right before impact, a cold, composed voice cut into the battlefield.
A lithe golden silhouette flashed into view—a graceful, beautiful fox spirit. Its almost humanlike face radiated unshakable confidence and arrogance.
Even if the opponent was an Ultimate.
Even if something called "God" stood behind it…
Renamon would not yield. On the contrary, such things only stoked her rebellion.
"Let me see the power of an ancient Ultimate."
—Renamon never admits defeat. Even if the opponent were a true deity, she would only drag it down with her.
...
A few minutes earlier—right when Tai had been trying to drag Kari away from Agumon.
"Are kids these days all this reckless?!"
Arriving at the scene a little before Tai, Chen Ze looked down at them and couldn't help but sigh toward the sky again.
Mimi, Kari…
How could all these children, who might one day become the Digital World's saviors, have nerves tougher than steel and personalities stubborn as stone?
"You plan on saving them?"
Seeing clearly how unusually fixated Chen Ze was on the two children below, Renamon walked ahead with elegant steps.
"Yes!"
Chen Ze didn't hesitate. Whether from his past-life love of Digimon, or his present moral code, he could never stand by and watch those two die at Parrotmon's hands.
After all, this wasn't the anime. Chen Ze only remembered Agumon evolving into Greymon in the end, then going down with Parrotmon.
But whether reality would follow the "story" he remembered… he wouldn't bet on it.
Reality always had surprises—especially with himself and Renamon thrown into the mix. Who knew if these future "absolute protagonists" of the Digital World might die here instead?
"Wait…"
Realizing something as that thought crossed his mind, Chen Ze sharply turned to look at the eager Renamon.
"What are you planning?"
Renamon didn't answer. She simply picked Chen Ze up and set him down on the nearby steps—her actions speaking clearly enough.
Vmm!
Leaping onto the overpass railing, Renamon sprang forward like a tiger released from its cage. Before Chen Ze could react, she was already gone, leaving only the vibrating rail humming in his ears.
"What the hell! Did you learn interpretation skills from Fujiwara Takumi?! Why drift like that?!"
The suddenness of it all made even usually well‑mannered Chen Ze burst into profanity—just what was going on in this Renamon's head?
Setting aside her usual indifference toward humans, which already made her choice to save them bizarre…
Purely in terms of power—was she even capable of fighting an Ultimate like Parrotmon?
To Chen Ze, the answer was no.
Judging from her earlier display, Renamon was at most around Agumon's level now.
Compared to that—the question of why she'd suddenly act so contrary to her nature was what troubled him most.
"She definitely knows something I don't!"
Grinding the words out between his teeth, Chen Ze jumped down after her.
Unlike Renamon, though, he wasn't reckless. In his current Fresh stage, he couldn't participate in the battle—surviving the shockwaves alone would already be difficult.
So before joining the fight, Chen Ze decided to take a gamble on a program he'd written that afternoon.
I hope my guess is right…
As the thought flashed by, his DigiCore began operating in that familiar, mysterious way.
It was the Digivolution Program he'd built by reverse‑decoding Agumon's residual data, merged with Mimi's Crest of Purity.
He didn't need to understand its principles—nor could he understand them.
Chen Ze merely used Agumon's remnant data as a template, letting that mysterious code—capable of pushing Digimon toward "Purity"—act as support.
In doing so, he could control his future evolutionary path to the greatest extent, cultivating a more perfect evolution by design.
KOROMON (VARIANT)—DIGIVOLVE...