Akeno stepped through the front door, another day of squandering her parents’ tuition money at the expensive private school they insisted she attend coming to an end as she dropped her bag to the floor carelessly. Taking off her shoes, she added them to the line-up of other footwear that occupied one side of the hall as she made a note of which other pairs were already present. The shoes her dad wore to work every day weren’t there, as expected, and her brother’s shoes were of course away at university along with him, meaning it was just Akeno and her mom in the house right now. [i]“I’m home.”[/i] [i]“Welcome back.”[/i] She called out a greeting in Japanese and heard a responding call from deeper within the house confirming her mother’s presence, something which provoked neither pleasure nor displeasure from her. The thought of being alone with her mother wasn’t exactly enticing, but it didn’t hold the same kind of dread that it once did a few years ago; without her father there to act as a mediator the two could sometimes get into some heated arguments, depending on how stubborn they both were feeling that day, but recently it had seemed like they weren’t butting heads as much as they used to. They hadn’t really had any big fights since the one back before she started high school and Akeno was starting to think that they had both just expended so much of their energy towards each other during that argument that they had now found some kind of equilibrium; one where her mother would just be subtly disapproving of her life instead of saying it out loud and Akeno would quietly judge her in return. Picking up her bag by the straps with one hand, Akeno walked towards the kitchen and poked her head around the doorway to make sure that her mom was there before retreating upstairs to her bedroom. As she entered the room she tossed her bag onto a chair in the corner before flopping back onto her bed to stare at the ceiling, allowing herself a few moments to relax and decompress before she started to think about everything she still needed to do today. Dinner probably wouldn’t be for another couple of hours yet, prepared for around the time her dad would be arriving home from work, so she had time to kill before then. Her next lesson at the dojo was tomorrow, not tonight, so there was no need to worry about getting her stuff ready. She still needed to work out today, but that could wait until she was feeling less lethargic. Then there was the ever present spectre of unfinished homework; turning her head to the side she could see the open textbook on her desk from last night, still open to the page with the math assignment that was due… tomorrow? The day after? Akeno stared in the direction of her desk for a few moments longer before coming to a decision about what to do. The temptation to just keep laying there was strong but she sat up before she could put things off any longer and stood from her bed. She stood on her toes and reached her hands above her head, stretching her body out like she was trying to touch the ceiling before letting the tension drop. Walking over to her desk she saw that things were still exactly as she had left them last night; her textbook still open to the same page and the paper she had torn from her notebook still half filled with equations she only half understood. Akeno let out a sigh as she took it all in before reaching over and grabbing her controller. She dropped into the seat in front of her desk and hit the buttons to turn on her console and monitor; as things began to start up she settled into her chair with one leg tucked under herself and made herself comfortable. A few matches online would pass the time and it had been some time before she had last played anyone seriously. Before she could open a lobby or start a match, her phone began to ring. Reaching into her pocket she retrieved the device and swiped a thumb across the screen to accept the call and pressed it against her ear without checking to see who was calling; only a few people had her number anyway and if it turned out to a scam caller she could just hang up. “Hello?” There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line as Akeno joined a match and was taken to the character selected screen. She moved the phone to her shoulder and tilted her head to pin it in place as she used both hands on the controller and let a few more seconds pass; when there was still no response she paused with her cursor hovering over a character before pulling the phone away from her ear to check the caller. Unknown. A jolt passed through her fingers and Akeno dropped the phone in shock as it suddenly started to spark and crackle with electricity; it continued to emit short sparkles of static as it hit the carpet and Akeno kicked it across the room to get it away from her. Standing from her chair, she placed the controller on her desk just before it too began to spark and the image on her monitor began to distort and warp and turn to static fuzz. “Dammit.” Was this some kind of power surge or maybe an electrical storm? Nothing like this had even happened before, not even when a hurricane hit, and Akeno didn’t know what to do. Even less so when a white fog seemed to rise up out of nowhere to obscure her vision and the last thing she saw before everything went blank was the static distortion on her monitor twist itself into a shape that looked strangely familiar. Spiky hair. Big head. Green eyes. ---- When the fog cleared, Akeno found herself in a… hut. It was the only word she could think of to describe the small, shoddy construction of wooden boards, nails and bits of rope that she found herself in. There were gaps in the walls that let the sunlight in, at least letting her know that it was daytime, and the ‘door’ was nothing more than a tarp hung from the top of the entryway for privacy. It was also cramped; the ceiling was barely taller than the top of her head and between the bed of roughly nailed wooden frames with a straw mattress, a few miscellaneous boxes and herself there was hardly any room to move. However, none of that was as important as [i]where[/i] she was or [i]why[/i] she was here in the first place. She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair. Okay. Okay, fine. The last thing she remembered was that weird electrical surge, her phone spitting sparks at her, her monitor turning to static and then… she passed out? Everything went white and the next thing she remembered was being here so… she passed out. And now she was either dreaming or she had been brought here. A tiny wooden hut with a sand floor and, she looked closer at a blackened patch on the wall next to the door, burn marks all over the place. Akeno collapsed onto the bed behind her, landing heavily on the wooden frame and threatening to collapse the whole thing. As she did so she felt her back hit something solid and heard what sounded like a pained gasp coming from underneath the pile of straw. She spun around, kneeling on the ground next to the bed as she quickly brushed aside the mound of straw to reveal something strange and yellow and furry that looked like an oversized plush toy of some kind. She stared at it and large green eyes stared back at her. They blinked. “Eh, hi?” Her back hit the wall of the hut as she sprang back from the creature, letting out a curse as her head hit the wooden boards before regaining her composure and reflexively falling into a basic karate stance. The… thing stood up within the bed, stray straw falling off of its frame as it raised its hands and held them up as if to placate her or ward her off. “Hey, hey, hey! Th-there’s no need for violence here or… whatever it is you’re planning on doing. We’re all friends here. I hope.” Akeno continued to stare as the thing reached up to brush as the back of its head in an embarrassed gesture. “A-and I wasn’t hiding under that straw, just so you know. I was just, urm… sleeping. Yeah! You caught me in the middle of my nap. Seeing as how this is where I live and all.” Slowly, Akeno let her arms drop to her sides and her body relax as it became evident that the thing in front of her wasn’t going to attack her. She stood up straight before slumping back against the wall behind her to lean against it. Her hand brushed through her hair again and she scratched at her scalp as she tried to process everything that had just in the last few seconds. “Where am I?” The creature, too, lowered its arms; apparently satisfied that Akeno wasn’t going to attack it either. It seemed to ponder her question for a few moments as it scratched it chin with one long claw before answering. “Where? Oh, err, well, this is KingWhamon’s village.” Right, that answer wasn’t very useful. Maybe she should have been more, or perhaps less, specific. “Okay… and where is that?” She received only a perplexed look in return, as if she was asking something as obvious as what colour the sky was. “On KingWhamon’s back?” Letting her head fall back against the boards, Akeno bit down on her frustration and tried a different approach. “What are you?” This question seemed to have been the one the plush toy was waiting for, as its face lit up with excitement and it answered eagerly. “I’m a Digimon.” The Digimon ignored the blank look on Akeno’s face and continued to speak with a fervour that seemed to have replaced its earlier hesitation. “You’re a human aren’t you? I’ve never seen one in person, at least I don’t think I have, but you have to be one because they said you’d be coming soon and you just appeared in the middle of my room like that so I figured you were one of them. I’m Pulsemon by the way; what’s your name? H-hey, where are you going?” Akeno pushed herself away from the wall and brushed aside the tarp as she stepped out of the hut and into the bright light beyond as Pulsemon scrambling over the bed frame to follow close on her heels. Somebody around here had to be able to explain things in a way that made sense.