Digimon: Mimi and Me and Me

"Interesting," Said Izumi 'Izzy' Koshiro.

The digital world -currently three fourths of it twisted into a Spiral Mountain by the three remaining Dark Masters- was home to many a wonder.

The eight digidestined were not tourists, but they could still appreciate the sights of the world they were saving.

"Interesting?" Parroted Yamato 'Matt' Ishida raising an eyebrow at what Izzy had just said.

"Well I would say 'strange' or 'unusual' but this being the digital world that is rather redundant."

The teddy bear sized yellow T-Rex Agumon waved an oversized claw. "Hey, it's the human world that's weird, not our world."

"Actually," The red bug Tentomon said, "As Izzy would say: strange is a subjective term so technically speaking-"

"So what's 'interesting' about it?" Interrupted Taichi 'Tai' Kamiya leaning closer. Of course putting himself between his little sister Hikari 'Kari' between the supposed 'unknown.'  

"Looks like just a big pond to me." Tomboy Sora Takenouchi injected.

Joe Kido groaned, "Don't jinx it. Every time one of us calls something 'just a' that's when the giant digimon jumps out of it and tries to eat us."

"Not all of them want to eat you Joe, some just want to destroy you." Gomamon just HAD to say.

"Gee, thanks for the reminding me." Joe lowered his head dejectedly almost losing his glasses.

"Besides who'd want to eat something as scrawny as you." Gomamon teased.

'How is HE supposed to be based on my personality?' Joe wondered.

"Cut to the chase already Izzy, what's the deal?" Yamato verbally pushed.

"Yeah what is it?" Taeru 'TK' Takaishi replayed his big brother.

"Well, just look at it." Izzy gestured.

"Don't, it'll hypnotize us." Joe mumbled.

"I'm serious!" Izzy implored, "The plants around this 'big pond' don't match any of the local flora, why all the bamboo? The rocks and soil don't match either. And the roots of the trees around it just cut off like someone cut out a piece of the forest and placed this here instead. This looks like it came from a mountain region.

Joe sighed. "All in favor of recognizing this as a trap ahead of time and saving ourselves a bunch of misery later, raise your hand."

"A trap has -bait- brainiac," Yamato said ever so harshly. "And we're seen plenty of lakes and rovers. You don't plant mouse traps with cheese in a cheese factory."

"I could go for some cheese." Said Agumon.

"I could go for some mice myself." The white cat Gatomon said.

"I could go for a hot fudge sunday, a cheese burger and fries, and a diet soda!" Mimi Tachikawa finished.  Everyone just looked at her.

"Well if it's from the mountains maybe it's mineral water!" The little green plant Palmon said.

Izzy felt bamboozled by the the digimon's leap in logic.

"Mineral water? That's so cool!" Mimi pushed the others out of the way and before anyone had mind to stop she took off her glove and stuck her finger in the small pool. Instead of a giant monster leaping out like they expected the water turned green.

"Hmmm?" Izzy rose his little red eyebrows.

"Whao. I wonder if me touching it would turn it orange!" Tai said back to his normal risk taking self with the current theory this was a trap dismissed for now. And before anyone was -able- to stop him, Tai stuck his hand int the now green water. The water did not turn orange. But it did have a reaction.

"I didn't know bubbling was a color." Said the little winged hamster Patamon.

"It's not! Run for it!" Yamato grabbed TK to turn and run, but before they had made it three steps a gusher errupted from the pool creating a miniature tidal wave that soaked every human and digimon present.

"MY DRESS~!" Mimi cried out in dismay.

"Kari are you okay?" Tai asked switching back to 'mother hen' mode with his sister.

"I think so Tai," Kari said wring the green water out of her clothes.

"Mimi, Tai, I swear," Yamato hissed fuming, "If this ends up turning us into digimon, slime monsters, statues, puppets, or trees, I am NEVER speaking to either of you again!"

"What if it turn us into superheroes?" TK asked.

"Then I just won't speak to them for a week." Yamato had thought for a moment before replying.

"Ha!" Puppetmon cheered miles away in his Housemon mansion. "They fell for my 'green water' trap! That'll show'em!"  The wooden dark master turned from the giant TV screen on loan from Piedmon. "That was one of my traps right?"

Puppetmon turned towards an attending RedVegiemon who slowly shook his head. "Um, no?"

"WHO AKED YOU-!" Puppetmon snapped deleting the minion on the spot with his big wooden hammer.

"That -was- my trap right?" Puppetmon asked darkly of his nearby surviving house servants. They all quickly nodded.

"Good! And on't forget it! Now, um, let's see what this trap of mine does."

"Maybe it turns them into MyLittlePonymon?" Asked his 'playmate' Floramon.

Puppetmon's mallet came within an inch of her skull but stopped short. Puppetmon put a wooden finger to his mouth. "Hmm, maybe."

The minions quickly began a betting pool not even shedding a tear for the deleted Redvegiemon.  Working for Puppetmon had the -worst- survival rating of the Dark Masters, even working for Machinedramon was digimon heaven compared to being at the whims of the psychotic mon-child. You either grew thick skin fast, or you were deleted fast.

+++++

The still green pool had quickly refilled and was no longer bubbling.

The heroes had chosen to make camp a very good distance from it.

The got as much of the green water off as they could which thankfully didn't stain. The last thing any of them needed was Mimi having a nervous break down about her one and only available dress being ruined.

The digimon of course slept in a circle around their partners. The siblings paired off for warmth as did the two other girls, which left the 'geeks' (Izzy and Joe) as the odd ones out. While wary, they had in general brushed off the entire incident as just part of the digital world's strangeness (like the incident with the nonsense speaking telephone booths).

Mimi dreamed she was Princess Mimi again, but instead of stringing along a bunch of frogs to keep her in a life of luxury she extended her rule until all the digital world was under her thumb and everyone worshipped the ground she walked on.

Sora dreamed that she agreed to it was best to run the flower shop with her mother and told her mom instead of becoming an athlete she wanted to be a fashion designers. Sora was just enough lucid enough in her dream to wonder if she had gone crazy.

Joe dreamed that his parents forced him to take ballet lessons. He signed at the audience of his classmates with Gomamon heads and mentally chalked this off as the third time he had this nightmare this month.

Izzy dreamed that were all worker bees in a hive with a queen bee that had Mimi's face. And Izzy being Izzy scientifically noted in his dream that this meant they were all girls. Except Joe who was a drone whom Mimi mated with and of course Joe then died instantly as was the fate of the drone after it mated.

Yamato dreamed his family was finally all back together, except they were all dolls being played with by Puppetmon and a five year old Mimi over a tea set.

TK dreamed they were all super heroes fighting against an army of Mecha Godzilla that was trying to destroy Tokyo (which strange had a LOT MORE trees). Joe and Yamato were apparently thunder twins, Sora's power was super strength while Tai's was laser breath. And Patamon was piloting one of the mecha godzillas against his will. And then things really got strange.

Tai dreamed he won the world football season (soccer to Americans) and Sora was queen of some country and giving him an Olympic trophy, and both were served hand and foot by people who dressed and acted exactly like Tai. Then Tai's mother got him a pink dress for his victory celebration.

Kari dreamed she was on a glowing white boat in an ocean of blackness under a gray cloudy sky with shadows creeping right in and out of the corner of her vision. It was the first of many times she'd have this nightmare over the years.

The eight digimon had a very weird -shared- dream where they played in a reverse strip poker tournament where they had to put on pink and lace for every round of cards they lost. The only one who didn't end up in pink and lace was Gomamon. Then he was presented with his prize for winning: a purple maid's uniform.

+++

In the dead of night hair grew and lengthened, waists slimmed and figures became more dainty and height was lost. Important things to over half the group was lost and replaced. Faces softened and hands and feet became more delicate. No one stirred from their sleep. All began breathing in the same beat and the same rhythm.

+++

Yamato woke up first. Blue eyes blinked open and saw the sky of the digital world. A human hand brush blond hair out of the way.  Yamato groggily concluded that this meant they hadn't turned into digimon and weren't trees. 'Maybe that pond really was just another 'phone booth' incident best left not thought about.' Yamato thought.

Yamato motioned to wake up TK and shook the sleeping shape along side the digidestined of friendship. "Hey TK, rise and shine." Yamato heard Mimi say. "What?" Yamato meant to say but heard Mimi say instead.

Snapped fully awake, Yamato looked down to see a little girl wearing TK's clothes with long blond hair that look familiar but not in any way the brother Yamato knew.

"What . . . is . . going on . . ." Yamato heard Mimi's voice say again and the little girl in front of Yamato began to stir.  She sat up, rubbed her eyes, shook her head, and looked right at Yamato with bright blue eyes. "Huh? Hello Mimi, did you dye your hair and eyes? -Huh?-" The little girl seemed very surprised at the tone and octave of her own voice. She covered her mouth and looked at her own hands not recognizing them.

Yamato finally stood up and looked at himself . . . that wasn't his . . . Yamato felt himself over . . . and realized his hair was longer, his body more lithe, and something important was missing, and something else had taken it's place. Yamato looked down at the little blond girl with Mimi's hairstyle but two or three years younger. Reality finally caught up with Yamato and she screamed the girliest scream a girl could scream!

Mimi wearing Tai's clothes and with darker shade of brown for hair and eye color woke up first. "Mimi! What happened? What's wrong? Break a nail-AAAGH!" And Tai beat Yamato's just set record by a mile.

"Mimi? Are you okay?" Asked another Mimi sitting up. This one at the age of eight, looked identical to the little eight year old blond Mimi next to the eleven year old blond one except she was wearing Kari's clothes and had brown hair and red eyes. She didn't scream, she just little a little -eep!- "EEP!"

A Mimi wearing Izzy's clothes (which were now very much too small for him and were feeling very restrictive) looked at everything, everyone and finally herself and said in a forced calm voice, "I will concede on all points, this IS weird!"

A blue haired Mimi wearing Joe's clothes madly scrambled for a pair of glasses via force of habit, found them and put them on. "Why is everything so blurry?" She took them off and could see clearly much to her confusion. She took off her glasses. She looked at everyone bug eyed and at her own loose fitting clothes. Her brain fidgeted between running around like a chicken with it's head cut off screaming her lungs out or fainting. Fainting proved the far simpler solution and she fell backwards back into sweet unconsciousness.

"THIS IS ALL JUST A BAD DREAM RIGHT?" Cried out a slightly older Mimi with red hair and reddish brown eyes wearing a blue flight cap.

The digimon were awake at the first scream, ready for battle against all three remaining Dark Master at once if need be . . . what they saw left them all staring dumbly in shock.

"Can't a girl get some beauty sleep?" A Mimi with light brown hair and light brown eyes asked looking around ten or eleven years old and wearing Mimi's cowgirl outfit. She sat up and looked seeing herself in gaudy clothes and eye and hair colors that didn't match her skin tone all that much and was rather garish in practice. A few looked to be a little older versions of her, while two looked like younger versions (from the age of eight when her father had gotten Mimi her second pony after the first one ran away because she tried to dye it pink). "Hey! Now what's going on around here!" Mimi shouted rather agitated, but no one was paying attention to her (something she had begrudgingly had to accept as often happening in the digital world).

"Mimi? Mimi?! Mimi-! Mimi~! Mi-mi!!" Plamon said in absolute and pure confusion and dismay.

"They ALL smell like Mimi!" Gomamon said rather perplexed.

The little blond Mimi looked like she was gonna start crying, and the big blond Mimi looked ready to murder the light brown and dark brown Mimis for that. The blue haired Mimi had awoken to faint again twice.  The little brown haired Mimi looked like she was in an invisible room full of bugs and was afraid to move an inch. The older red haired Mimi looked to be almost in a state of shock hugging herself. The slightly younger red haired Mimi was forces logical thought to the forefront as much as possible least she began screaming her own head off.  The ten or eleven year old Mimi with brown hair was fuming that everyone was acting crazy and looked rather strange she wasn't acting crazy.  The dark brown eyed and haired Mimi was breathing heavy and looked ready to rip her new long beautiful hair out before finally screaming (her throat was sure gonna be sore tomorrow),

"DIGIDESTINED ASSEMBLE!"

This magically managed to get most of everyone's attention, even waking up the blue haired Mimi again, this time looking more zomified than comatose.

"Everyone line up right now!" The Mimi wearing Tai's clothes shouted firmly and harshly. This reminded the blue haired Mimi enough of 'Princess Meanie' to snap her fully awake.

"Okay . . . assuming everyone but Mimi hasn't been secretly replaced by alien clones, everyone present your crest and say your name and symbol." The dark brown haired Mimi then took out her own orange crest, "Tai Kamiya. Courage." This Mimi was around eleven or twelve years old, her goggles and head band caused her long dark brown hair to go down her back more than the others.

"J-joe Kido, Reliability." Said the oldest one holding a white crest. It felt very weird to not have the weight of her glasses on her nose nor the protective layer of glass between her eyes and the rest of the world. This Mimi was clearly into puberty, having more of a figure than the others being twelve or thirteen years old. She had blue hair and dark eyes and Joe's outfit bad her budding breasts actually stick out more somehow. She had blue hair and black eyes.

"Sora Takenouchi . . . Love." This Mimi physically looked utterly identical the dark brown and big blond haired Mimi's but had hat hair and was still wearing Sora's blue hat. She also had light red hair and reddish brown eyes.

"Yamato Ishida. Friendship. . . " Said the blond Mimi with a blue crest. Her hair style now a blond clone of the ten or eleven year old Mimi. Tai didn't want to say it, but he felt it was an improvement.

"TK Takaishi, hope!" Said the little blond Mimi, her hat kept falling over her eyes. She was eight year old and had blue eyes.

"Kari Kamiya, light." Said the other eight year old Mimi, this one had faded brown hair and red eyes. She didn't want to say that she didn't remember the last time she felt this healthy. Her crest was pink.

"Izzy Koshiro. Knowledge." Said the other ten or eleven year old Mimi, with black eyes and darker red hair, she felt like blushing with how tight her shorts and shirt were making her feel.

"Mimi Tachikawa. Sincerity. And I -sincerely- want to know what's going on!" You can take a wild guess.

"I think we ALL want that Mimi." Said Sora, it felt so alien hearing Mimi's voice when she began to speak. Since girl's voice didn't change as quickly as boys, the difference in a year or two in age didn't really effect how the voice sounded.

"Well." Grinned Tai sheepishly, "We didn't turn into  digimon, slime monsters, statues, puppets, or trees, so I guess I'm off the hook right?"

"You wish!" Growled Matt looking ready to maul him.

Sora and Mimi quickly used themselves as a blockage between the two standing back to back. "Come on you guys this isn't time for fighting." Said Sora sticking out her arms facing Tai as Mimi did the same facing Yamato.

Yamato huffed and crossed her arms.

"This is worse than any nightmare I've ever had in my life." Said Joe unable to keep it in.

"And what is THAT supposed to mean-?!" Mimi asked sounding none too happy, "Is there something -wrong- with how I look?"

"It's not that Mimi." Sora said, "It would be just as bad if we all ended up looking like Yamato."

"ICK! For me that would be worse!" Tai shudder making a pose and face.

"I guess I see your point . . ." Mimi had to concede.

Mimi quickly brought up how they all needed a change of clothes and some decent make overs, she wasn't having them go around in her body looking like that! Yamato told her to jump off a cliff. Mimi told her to go to Hades. Sora and Izzy then explain in calm, polite, rational voices that it wasn't like there was a salon or shopping mall nearby anyway so it wasn't like they could give themselves a once-over to begin with.

++++

Back at Puppetmon's lair: since girls were icky, Puppetmon was reluctant to resume his games with the destine until he figured a killing game you could play with girls.  Everyone else paid Housemon the betting pool's winnings for correctly guessing at the humans all turning into girls.

++++

Eventually the group had come to the inescapable conclusion that it was best to return to the pool to try and make things right. The group approached the still green pool like it was nuclear waste. After drawing straws Joe (naturally) ended up being the one to poke the water with a stick, and then her little finger to try and get a reaction from the water again, but there was nothing.  

Izzy tried scanning it with her computer, but it was no digimon.  

Tai and Joe tried various made up on the spot rituals but the digital world gods apparently weren't listening that day.

Mimi tried asking nicely to change everyone back but the pool wasn't listening either.

Kari just stood silently and observed.

Yamato dunked Tai's head in the water, several times, but nothing happened, but Yamato felt better.

Sora took some of the water in a bottle for safe keeping just in case they ran into Gennai so he could examine it to try and help them.

TK just kept his distance staying in the back of the group as far as possible.

As for the digimon . . .  They convinced Palmon not to try and drink any of the water. Gatomon was the only one brave enough to approach it (and told Agumon was more yellow than normal for the digimon of courage to chicken out) but again the pool gave no reaction than any other body of water would.

Gomamon said, "You couldn't PAY ME to swim in that water now!"

After the humans had gotten a safe distance away the digimon used their attacks to try and get the pool to do SOMETHING . . . but aside from some far more tame splash, there was nothing. Nada. Zilch.

With no real options left, the destined abandoned the pool and began a pathetic blind search for one of Gennai's holographic communication search and hoped that it still worked with the world twisted into a spiraling mess.

"It's funny Puppetmon hasn't tried to attack us yet." Izzy noted.

"I bet he set that trap up!" Tai swore slapping a fist together.

"To do what? Make you all pretty?" Mimi asked.

Yamato resisted the urge to strangle the life out of her.

Tai and Joe felt headaches that had nothing to do with cursed water.

The digimon stayed along side their human partners, but they felt strange uncomfortable except Palmon, and she felt confused, like her wires were crossed or something.

They found something alright, but it wasn't a way to speak with Gennai.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Declared Taichi out loud at the sight.

Mimi's was almost shedding tears of joy, after all this time, after what felt like years, it was like a gift from heaven.

"AN ABOVE GROUND SHOPPING MALL-!?" Sora gasped at the giant building.

"Don't tell me Puppetmon was trying to make us all shopping crazy for a giant mall trap!" Yamato just stared.

"Oh come on," Joe said. "He couldn't possibly be that stupid."

Mimi looked at the others with a gleam in her eye.

"I am not wearing anything pink." Tai swore taking a step back.

"Don't worry about it," Said Kari. "This is the digital world, I bet it's full of nothing but coat hanger sand fat free ice-cream."

None of the digimon said anything, but all of them except Palmon felt a confusing feel well up inside them at the sight of the giant building. It was related to the same sense of strange wrongness they felt towards their partners since this morning.  It was now afternoon but with a good hour of sunlight left before dark.

"SALES AND FASHION GALORE HERE I COME~!" Mimi made a mad sprint for the huge glass doors. An army of rampaging SkullGreymon wouldn't have been able to stop her.

The others reluctantly followed.

+++

Puppetmon watching this through his cameras was hopping mad. "WHO PUT THAT BIG STUPID BUILDING IN MY FOREST?!" His minions FLED their masters presence as Puppetmon threw a tantrum totally destroying most of his playroom in the process and accidentally breaking the TV (he'd have to request a new one from Piedmon).

+++

The above ground shopping mall was even larger on the inside than the outside. Mimi didn't seem to notice, shopping malls already being a bit magical to her anyway, and no one else felt it was worth mentioning.

The place was well lit, had a working fountain at the center (which NO ONE touched) and several open stores that were fully stocked but were all completely deserted.

"Anyone else having flash backs to Devimon's mansion?" Tai asked ever so slightly quinsy.

"Who?" Kari asked innocent.

"We really need to fill you in what happened before you joined the group." Yamato said plainly. It was so weird hearing that matter-of-fact and staunch tone from Mimi's voice.

"I'll admit that's possible." Izzy observed, the analytical tone sounding even more wrong coming from Mimi's voice. "But that would be far too elaborate a ploy. Unless this mall was created this morning in response to our random change and the pond really was just dumb luck. But that feels too much even for he Dark Masters. If this was a trap in of itself it would have been sprung on us by now."

"I guess." Tai admitted conceding to Izzy.

"Hurry up guys," Sora said. "If we lose Mimi in here we'll never find her!"  Every fully and utterly agreed with that.

Mimi was like a free spirit of western legend, flirting from one store to the next, perfume here, make-up there, not taking or trying anything yet, simply basking in the delight of it all.

"I wonder if everything here is cursed." Joe said dejectedly.

"Only one real way to find out." Tai said.

"Oh not you're not!" Yamato swore but failed to tackle Tai and besides the group was just doing it's best to keep up with Mimi. Sora was left without words. When she and Mimi had been running together during Myotismon's occupation of Tokyo, the child of Sincerity had not had the best stamina. But under the power of the mall Mimi was practically super human!

The fact some of them were tripping over their own clothes due to their new body shapes wasn't helping matters.

Tai and Matt actually bumped heads trying to match her as Mimi was in her own fantasy world.

Taichi growled. "How is she doing this-?! We all have the same body right? And we have a year on her! This is nuts!"

"Could be she just has motivation." Izzy said as Joe did a dive tackle at Mimi but ended up eating mall floor.

"So, do, I. CHARGE!" Taichi made a series of relentless mad dashes at Mimi but kept missing. "Spread out! She can't be nowhere at once if we're everywhere once!"

'Why did that sound like 'let's split up gang?''  Joe wondered idly while the others tried to digest what Tai had said.  

"Maybe we should just wait until she wears herself out." Kari innocently suggested.

Yamato himself rather agitated at this point said, "We don't have centuries. So come on!"

So with no better plan immediately coming to mind, the destined tried to form a web to catch their mall-crazy teammate who seemed to be making up for lost time.

The results were very predictable.

"Hey guys, where'd Mimi go? Like, where'd you all go?"  Joe said looking around confused in a random department store as the group willingly and unwittingly scattered themselves like leaves in the wind.

Joe looked around, "This place sure has a lot of clothing stores. And jewelry, and perfume, and make-up, and geeze, it's like this mall was -made- for Mimi!"

Joe Kido looked around at the school uniforms, wishing she was back in school where she felt the most comfortable, schools had rules, the digital world, for supposedly being made of data, sure was lax on supposed 'rules.'  

"These uniforms, they all like, look so nice, so trendy, and  . . . and it feel so good to look at them . . . I wonder if they'd look good on me . . ." Joe looked down at herself, and at the dresses and down at herself again and said, "Blech. I look awful."  

The blue haired Mimi took a white and blue school uniform (white with blue trim) and went to one of the changing stalls, light brown haired Mimi could wait. Then the blue haired Mimi stopped. She looked at the underwear and shoes and stockings there as well. It didn't feel right to wear an incomplete collection. In fact, it felt downright -criminal-! She could't believe she had gone the entire day dressed like this, it was a total fashion disaster.

She went into the changing stall and stripped out of the gaudy outfit she was wearing, she didn't know what had come over her when she had chosen to wear it in the first place.

As if she had done so all her life she slipped on the panties and bra (she calmly noted how girls enter puberty sooner than boys).This was followed of course by the blouse and skirt. And was all completed by the white stockings, brown flattops.

The blue haired Mimi looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She looked so much better without those glasses, she should have worn contacts. She posed in the mirror a couple of times, enjoying the sight of herself, preferring demure poses.

Twirling once, the blue haired Mimi smiled at the mirror and said, "Okay Moe, let's find Mimi."

She thought of a bad dream she had where she was under the pressure of following the family tradition of becoming a doctor whether she wanted to or not and in spite of fainting at the sight of blood. But that was just a bad dream for Moe Tachikawa. Now where had her little sisters gotten to?

---

Taichi looked at all the sporting goods. All of them of course would be for ladies. "There is no way I'm wearing a dress, no way, no how." The dark brown haired Mimi said to herself. She didn't care her clothes were loose in places they shouldn't have been and were tight in places they should have been loose. She didn't care that it was making it impossible to catch the light brown haired Mimi. She didn't care if she looked like a fool running around like that.

Then the dark haired Mimi saw her salvation. She picked it up and smiled. She hugged it close to herself.   "This isn't a dress. It's a skirt."

She picked some white sneakers with orange sparkles, and matching socks. She picked out orange and blue tube top and a sports bra. She also found some cute panties with a dinosaur on them. The blue  skirt with orange trim completed the outfit. Looked at herself in the mirror and struck some confident 'large and in charge' poses grinning ear to ear at herself.

"Aren't you the cutest thing ever Michi? Oh yes you are!" She reluctantly put on a pair of skin tight matching shorts under the skirt, she didn't want to give any of those wild digimon a free peep show.  Feeling much better about herself Michi skipped out with a spring in her step. The shadow of a little sister who almost died due to her immature selfishness still hung over her . . . but there was no way Michi's mother would hit her . . . no, that was just a bad dream.

---

"Since when, -puff-, is that -huff-, light brown Mimi, faster than me?" Sora huffed. Feeling surprisingly worn out the light red head Mimi looked around hoping to stop a glimpse of her quarry. Instead she saw a flower shop that made her shudder. Her mother and the red haired Mimi might have worked out some of their differences after Myotismon's war, but the light red head Mimi still didn't want to live her life simply to follow in her mother's footsteps.

She saw next to it an entire store FULL of kimonos to supply a hundred festivals. "Talk about overkill .  . . then again, you really do need something for every occasion right?"

The red haired Mimi wandered into the storefront full of kimonos, it was like a forest of them. She idly wondered if Mimi had gone this way and had gotten lost. But maybe that wasn't nice to think, the store was offering such a wide selection, it wasn't polite to think such bad things of it for that.

The light red haired Mimi glanced in a mirror. And felt disgusted with herself. "I look like a boy." She thought like it was an insult. As if she had ever been a boy. That was silly. There was no way she could have ever been a boy. Yes. She had been a female her entire life. There was no way her memories could lie to her could they? Of course not. So therefore she was, and had always been a girl.

She looked at all the pretty kimono around just waiting for her to try them on. And she did, several dozen. Too bad she had lost track of Biyomon, or she could have her carry some boxes with her. She finally settled on a bright pink and red kimono with a bird pattern. It was a little short in the skirt, but if it wasn't, it would just get dirty anyway when touching the ground outside. You think a computer world would be more neat and tidy, how inconsiderate.

She looked in the mirror and smiled at herself and curtsied as best she could in the kimono. Sora Tachikawa walked out of the kimono store and spotted a flower shop and went inside to look at the pretty flowers. She remembered a bad dream she once had where her mother kept wanting her to be something she wasn't, but that was all just a bad dream, nothing more, nothing less.

---

Yamato had INSISTED she and TK stick together, even as Taichi tried to do the same with HIS younger sibling and failed through some trick of the light.  So when the small blond Mimi was distracted by a video arcade, the big blond followed, knowing the light haired Mimi wouldn't be inside but didn't want to lose track of her little sister.

"Look big-sister, er, big brother! Look! Have you ever seen a video game like this before-?!"

The big blond Mimi read the title of the weird looking machine as 'Dance Dance Revolution.' She remembered seeing a preview for it in a magazine maybe, but weren't they not supposed to be released for a year still? How could this machine exist?

"Look little sister, er, little brother, we really need to get going, besides, I don't think we have any yen. And they wouldn't accept it here in the digital world anyway."

"But look big sister! Everything's on free play!" The little blond Mimi pointed at everything.

"That just makes me more nervous."

The little blond Mimi read the simple instructions for the game (match your foot steps on the grind in front of the machine with the arrows on the screen in time with the music). "I bet I can beat ya at it!"

"Huh? Now hold on!"

The little blond Mimi started up the game, selected two players, and randomly selected a song. It was titled 'Butterfly.'

"Here we go!" The little blond Mimi declared.

Realizing she had to at least try to humor her little sister she climb on the platform. The screen lit up in a non-hypnotic pattern as the music began to play. The older and younger iterations of Mimi began to dance to the beat. They kicked off their shoes, shocks, short, shirt, and pants as the song went on. Both were lost in the rhythm and beat of the music letting themselves just flow along with it. It felt so good. So right. And wiped away any uncertainty or confusion either Mimi was feeling at that moment.

Finally the song ended, (they didn't bother to look at their score), and looked at each other and yelped out loud, realizing both were down to their underwear.

"HOW IMPROPER!"

"I'M SORRY BIG SISTER!"

"Come on! Forget these ugly things, let's get something NICE to wear on!" Completely discarding their clothes and only bothering to retrieve their crests and digivices the pair walked into yet another convenient clothing store. After trying on outfits for half an hour the two finally came out.

Yatsumi Tachikawa was wearing a light and dark blue dress with a wolf head pendant along with her crest. She also had on a large number of friendship bracelets that her youngest sister was wearing the matching set of. Both dresses had no sleeves and were held up by a pair of straps that crossed behind.  Tamiko Tachikawa was wearing a smaller version of the same outfit with matching bracelets with the colors on the dress inverted so dark was light and light was dark.

Both vaguely thought of a nightmare the two had shared the night before of their parents being divorced and in spite of being full brothers their last names being different. They were both very glad that was nothing more than a nightmare. They couldn't bear the idea of being that apart from each other or any of their sisters.

---

'At least Izumi is a unisex name.' Izzy thought to herself looking in a store front window. If this problem persisted for a prolonged period of time, at least she wouldn't have to explain it to every single person they met.

Her entire outfit feel tight and restrictive since waking up, the dark red headed Mimi realized it was best to find something else to wear for the time being until she wore off. She could feel some tears in her outfit already from when she had at any point sat down and it was getting embarrassing.

So putting the snip (er, light brown Mimi) hunt aside for the moment, the dark red headed Mimi walked into one of the stores at random.

'I need something comfortable and practical . . . but at the same time . . . it should be nice looking, how you look is the first thing other people see and the first impression you give them. Therefore how you look is important. Yes, that's logical.'

The dark red haired Mimi looked at herself holding up various outfits in front of her thinking how they'd look on her. Everything felt so small now, or had everything just been bigger before? At least everything was the right size now.

The backpack simply had to go, it was simply too gaudy. And her selection of colors, how garish. What had she been thinking? HAD she been thinking? Not very likely with this selection, how unlike her.

She finally settled with very dark purple shorts with a line down the side underneath a magenta skirt. She topped it with arm length blouse that was a medium shade of purple with a dark magenta pattern. Yes. This looked much better. Izumi Tachikawa looked at herself in the mirror and thought how good she had it. She had seven sisters who all loved her, and that dream where she was adopted was just a dream.

She walked out of the store her head held high looking for her sisters. And she stopped. Feeling like she had forgotten something important. It struck her like lightning as reality came crashing down. She held her hands to her mouth and gasped, "Oh my! How could I have forgotten!"

She immediately ran back into the store, and walked out carrying a purse that contained her pineapple top. She wished she had thought to put more fashion images on it. Oh well.  "Now where are Michi and the others anyway?"

---

Kari stood in one of the department stores' walk in mirrors. She was surrounded by reflections of herself on all sides. If someone else looked at her, they'd swear the way the light reflected off all the mirrors made it seem like Kari was surrounded like fluttering glowing white butterflies.

"You know this is going to cause a lot more harm than good." Kari said to herself.

Kari stood silent for several minutes before reply, "Well that's all nice, but the fact we're all different is what gives our crests strength and lets our digimon become stronger as we get stronger on the inside."

The 'butterflies' fluttered around her.

"So there is no real way to fix this? . . . I understand. But please try to keep a little bit of us each special okay? I don't think even Mimi could stand to have just herself for company."

If an onlooker was to see now, it would look like as the smaller eight year old light brown haired Mimi held out her hand, one of the tricks of the light that looked like a butterfly landed in her hand. The eight year old Mimi giggled. "Alright. But please. . . .  " She was silent for a minute again thinking. "Our families . . . they don't deserve to lose us. If you can, at least try."

The hypothetical onlooker would have noticed that trick of the light somehow stopped.

Kari Tachikawa looked herself in the mirror, decided her vacation short and yellow shirt were good enough after all, and walked out of the store in search of her sisters. She knew the nightmare she had of having a defective body, but she brushed it off as a nightmare. And she had seven sisters to help her brave the nightmares of the black ocean that wanted to eat her.

---

Finally having worn herself out, Mimi was on the top floor of the shopping mall, surrounded on all sides of the circular room by glass windows and bright lights above her. "It's all so pretty." Mimi thought to herself.

The dresses were fit for royalty, along with the jewels and make up and other treasures. It felt more like the dressing room for a queen then a department store.

The light brown haired Mimi then spotted what she didn't think she'd ever see again. "My princess dress? But how did it get here?" The light brown haired Mimi didn't like to think about how she had been so deaf and insensitive to her friends during her rein as Princess of the Gekomon. Or how she had shamelessly strung along a horde of digimon into being her servants when they had asked for her help. "Then again, given how nasty that leader of theirs turned out to be, I'm betting they wouldn't have minded keeping me as leader after being given a taste of him."

But, they had a world to save.  . . . and Chumon and Piximon and Whalemon and others had all been deleted just for them, just for her, just so she and the others would still be alive to do the job none of those who died could. She couldn't afford to play princess anymore, and not with her parents waiting for her back home to boot. She had wanted to stay Princess Mimi because she considered the chances of them getting home as being the real fantasy. That had since changed.

"Still . . . it's just so pretty, maybe I can try it on again, just once . . ."

A few minutes later the light brown haired Mimi looked at herself in the mirror. She was once again the picture of royalty. Complete with (a copy of?) her crown and fan. She had given found a pair of pink leather pants with matching accessories, just like the kind she ordered during her time as Princess but Taichi . . . Michi and her other sisters had arrived before they could be finished and delivered. She figured wearing them under the dress was okay. She knew Izzy would say she didn't look practical out in the forest like this (and likely be hot to boot). But she could enjoy herself for just a little bit right?

Princess Mimi noticed a salon chair with a hair washing sink with a grove for her neck and took off her crown and laid down. She imagined she was getting a wash by invisible hands. She imagined they did a very good job. She imagined they asked if she'd like her hair dyed. She giggled and on a whim declared 'pink hair all the way! Like in anime!' She imagined they complied. She imagined they did a very good job that would make any princess jealous.

Princess Mimi sat up and put her crown back up and looked at herself in the mirror. She knew what her sisters would say but she wanted it, and she got it.

With a royal gait in her step she left the tallest level of the shopping mall. She found her seven sisters all waiting for her down below. She looked at each of them. The three older fraternal triplets, Michi, Yatsumi and Sora. Her eldest sibling Moe. Her own fraternal twin Izumi. And the younger fraternal twins Kari and Tamiko. "You guys . .. you guys . .. you guys all look great!"

The eight all hugged each other.

Their digimon finally caught up with them. The digimon as a whole stopped in their tracks. They shuddered and stared in the eyes of their partners. All the wrongness and confusion that they had all been feeling since that morning was swept away in one broad stroke and was done away with. Their minds and hearts perfectly clear again their hugged their partners like they were back at File Island meeting them for the first time.

The eight digimon and eight humans left the shopping mall behind. Sora found a jar of green water in her bag and wondered what it was.

"HEY! HUMANS! DIGIMON! GUESS WHAT? IT'S HAMMER TIME! AND YER ALL THE NAILS!" Puppetmon leapt out of the forest, hammer ready. Someone had been putting stuff in and messing around with his forest! And he didn't like that! He had come just to smash the stupid mall to bits! But if he had the dumb humans here too, why not have some fun-?! "I'm gonna squash you all one by one like bugs!"

Sora screamed and threw the water at Puppetmon's face which shattered on impact and the liquid was quickly absorbed by Puppetmon's wooden body. He shuddered, "Wha . . . what was . . .what was that . . .you dang humans .  .  I'm gonna . .. I'm gonna . . .I . . . I . . .. I FEEL SO PRETTY!" Puppetmon shouted out as his forest suddenly burst into Sakura trees and various other flowers on the spot. A pink flower appeared on Puppetmon's nose and the nasty face on his hat became a smilie face.

+++

Puppetmon's minions were more or less overjoyed at their master no longer wanting to kill them on a whim that switching sides wasn't that big a deal, in fact it almost felt like a relief.

With the water FlowerPuppetmon directed them to, they were able to recruit or convert a very large army very quickly. It turned out however that MachineDramon and his machine digimon were resistant to the water's effects. PeaceGreymon and SakuraGurumon however were still able to put him down and without their master to scare them into cooperation Machinedramon's army scattered.

GuardianAngemon was able to save them all after Piedmon had enough and single handedly began turning them all into keychains sealing Piedmon in the Gate of Destiny.

Then Apocalymon appeared and deleted and absorbed Puppetmon. This proved to be a mistake as it left the digimon born of countless failed digivolutions with conflicting feelings he had never experienced before. However this made him only more angry and blood thirsty now that he had something to contrast with and half their digimon were deleted by the time the battle was over.  However, it was a relief they would be reborn in Primary Village even if they wouldn't have time to say goodbye to them.

There would be the War Games and the count down to destruction barely adverted. The advent of the digimon emperor would be. And Cody, Yolei, and Davis would be recruited as heroes when the Dark Digivice made typical digivolution impossible and the new Armor Digivolution was needed to bypass this.

Davis was a sullen kid, with no positive male role model in his life and a big sister who verbally abused him and Kari being just about his -only- friend. Tamiko however thought he was cute and was able to help him come out of his shell and help him express true courage rather than the cynical fatalism the lad had expressed up to that point.

And Kari explaining the difference between loving someone and being IN LOVE with someone. Allowing Davis to express friendship as much as courage.

Davis and Cody also formed a relative strong bond being the only two boys in the ground until Davis did for Ken what Tamiko did for Davis and help the former Digimon Emperor that endlessly punishing himself wasn't going to help matters.

Their biggest battles were to come with Dragomon the Dark Undersea Master, a unknown twisted force that had taken the shape of a digimon and recruited every evil digimon the destined had sent to the Dark Ocean as a alternative to deleting them. That had come back to bite them in the rear but they reconciled with what had to be done and fought the battle of their lives.

But they didn't have time to celebrate when in the shadow of all this Myotismon's shade had reared it's ugly head.

Everyone was shocked when it was DAVIS of all people, the stubborn unrealistic one who had broken through his illusion ON HIS OWN to rescues the others from theirs. He was very surprised by Kari's illusion though. Seeing her sisters from different families and most of them now being boys. Kari promised she'd explain it at a later time and Davis accepted that. But for now they had to save both worlds. After all they were Digidestined. And no matter what, no matter what changed, no matter what was altered about themselves or the world around them, that mantle of responsibility remained. And they weren't about to cower from it.

~Fin