"Bye, Mommy, take care!"
It wasn't until she heard the door close firmly behind her mother that Mimi hastily tossed her empty dishes into the dishwasher.
She hadn't forgotten about that mysteriously vanished Digi-Egg. She was absolutely determined to prove to her daddy that she hadn't lied—there really was a giant egg that came popping out of his computer.
For this reason, Mimi even decided to temporarily give up watching her beloved TV shows to first play a game of hide-and-seek with the vanished Digi-Egg.
"Where could that thing have gone?"
Thinking about it, Mimi pressed the dishwasher's button without a second thought and hurried toward her room.
But just as she was about to open the door, Mimi suddenly stopped, murmuring softly to herself in a childishly serious voice.
"No, this definitely won't work. I'll never find the egg like this. It must have hidden itself."
With that thought, Mimi deliberately softened her footsteps, tiptoeing to the door and pressing her ear against it to listen for any possible movement inside.
Are kids nowadays always this cunning?
Curling himself tightly into a corner beneath the bed, Chen Ze cautiously kept himself perfectly silent.
He had to admit, although YukimiBotamon was certainly weak as a Fresh-level Digimon, the innate talents of being a Digimon were already clearly on display.
Forget everything else—just being able to clearly hear someone murmuring from several meters away through a closed door already far surpassed ordinary human hearing.
Not only had his auditory sensitivity increased significantly, but the range of sounds he could perceive was also much broader than during his time as a human.
As was commonly known, the human auditory range was approximately from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, with the effective range typically between 200 Hz and 8,000 Hz.
Sounds beyond this range were essentially inaudible to humans.
Yet the current Chen Ze was entirely different. Aside from regular human-perceptible sounds, he could even hear subtle noises such as dust settling on the floor and the tiny friction of movement.
Precisely because of this enhanced hearing, Chen Ze not only heard the conversations of the Tachikawa family but also learned that the little girl who'd found him was named Mimi.
Chen Ze wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but the pronunciation of that name sounded oddly familiar.
Hikari? Kari? Wait, no—clearly not. The pronunciation doesn't match, and the age doesn't line up either…
The first name that popped into Chen Ze's mind was naturally Yagami Hikari—the chosen child who had opened the door to the Digital World and facilitated the first-ever contact between the two worlds.
In every version of the story he knew, the godlike entity known as Homeostasis had chosen human children precisely because of witnessing Hikari raising a newly hatched Digi-Egg into a powerful Greymon—one capable of rivaling even Ultimate-level Digimon—within a mere single day.
That event had sparked a series of unprecedented developments afterward:
Children chosen from the human world journeying to the Digital World…
The rapid acceleration of the Digital World's evolution…
Various powerful Digimon emerging one after another, crossing between both worlds in pursuit of their beliefs and justice…
For Chen Ze, tonight's "Hikarigaoka Incident" represented precisely the original turning point and the true starting point for everything.
If the real world really develops like the anime storyline, then that powerful Greymon should've already appeared by now, right?
Having confirmed that he didn't personally recognize Mimi, the thing Chen Ze wanted to complain about most right now was just how carefree this family must be to leave a six-or-seven-year-old girl home alone.
Of course, Chen Ze had to admit, Mimi staying home alone had disrupted his plans significantly.
If the family of three had each gone their separate ways to work or school, he would have had ample time to find food, familiarize himself with all his new physical functions, and slip out unnoticed before their return.
Yet plans rarely survive reality intact. With the unexpected presence of this child at home, Chen Ze's carefully prepared steps instantly crumbled to dust.
Furthermore, he now had to stay extra careful to avoid detection by this curious little girl.
...
"No sound…"
From Chen Ze's current viewpoint, Mimi—after quietly listening for a while at the door—finally pushed it open carefully, dragging her bunny plush behind her as she entered.
"It really is hiding."
A pair of small feet paused briefly at the spot where the Digi-Egg had once been, then moved toward the window, as if searching for any traces of that mysterious egg.
Anywhere the egg might possibly hide was within Mimi's searching range.
Chen Ze could only pray now that the little girl wouldn't look under the bed—otherwise, he'd be completely exposed.
At moments like these, Chen Ze deeply regretted not having become a Botamon instead.
At least with Botamon's dark coloration, even if Mimi peeked beneath the bed, there was a good chance he could've stayed hidden.
But now, with YukimiBotamon's glaringly white, fluffy appearance, Chen Ze knew he'd be exposed instantly.
"Did it run away?"
Those little feet wandered aimlessly around the room, sometimes hesitating, sometimes pausing, keeping Chen Ze's heart in his throat the entire time.
"Maybe it really did escape?"
Clear disappointment filled her voice. Mimi obviously found this hard to accept.
The disappearance of the Digi-Egg meant her story lacked definitive proof. Without it, she couldn't convince her daddy that she hadn't lied.
Although Mimi outwardly didn't seem to mind her daddy's earlier made-up "excuse," deep inside, she really wanted to prove herself truthful to Mr. Tachikawa.
"I'm so pretty—why would you hide from me? What a bad 'egg'!"
Listening helplessly to Mimi's childish muttering, Chen Ze suddenly felt a strange sense of empathy toward Mrs. Tachikawa.
He genuinely wondered what was going through little girls' heads these days—was there some direct correlation between being pretty and hiding from bad eggs?
"Could it have run outside?"
Mimi continued muttering softly, disappointment obvious in her voice.
Yes, exactly! Hurry up and go look for me outside!
Watching those hesitant little feet slowly shuffle towards the door, Chen Ze finally let out the breath he'd been holding—this girl still hadn't discovered his hiding spot.
Yet just a split second after Chen Ze finally relaxed, a pair of sparkling black eyes suddenly appeared right in front of him, staring directly into his.
"Ha! Found you!"