A Lost Factor

Chapter 11-Inspections

When Jasmine and Alimon got back to the tower, they both went straight to sleep, exhausted from the day's travels. It was almost noon the next day before they woke. It was a while before they said anything, both reflecting on the things they saw and learned the day before.

"Alimon," Jasmine finally said, straightening out her dress. "I think I need to go back into the city and find out more information, get a better understanding of what's happened here. There had barely been anything new in my world when the dimensions were fused, but your real and digital worlds were fused a lot longer, I need to see what's happened."

"Go us then let" Alimon said, walking over to Jasmine.

"No, I think you should stay here," Jasmine said. "Part of what I don't know about the world is how they feel about digimon. From just talking to Alysha, it seems clear that there have been weird things here, and I don't want you to get in trouble because of the unknowns. It seems clear that humans are decently safe, so I should be fine. I'll bring you next time."

"Safe not it does seem. Brandy if what find you?" Alimon asked.

Jasmine paused for a moment, mentally translating. "I have to take that risk. We can't try to help out unless we know what we're getting ourselves into, and the normal Brandy wouldn't want me putting you in danger anyway."

"True, but like this don't I still," Alimon said.

"I don't either, but I have to go." Jasmine said, then quickly left. While going past the trees, she grabbed a leafy branch, to try to sweep the darkness from the beach on the main land. It didn't work, so she gave up and just tried to find a path around the dark area. It took twice as long, but as long as she didn't have to see the clear proof that the world was wrong, Jasmine was fine with it.

Once back in 'proper' Acamina, she noticed that it didn't seem much different from the Acamina of the past. Most of the same places were there, and there were some digimon around. Not as many as she'd seen in the digital world before, but they were noticeable. Most of the people just avoided them, sometimes kids would talk to the cuter and safer digimon. There weren't any digimon with real human partners though.

She considered going to the college, but after getting a new bus book, found that the route was currently unavailable. Random attacks and different things were causing them to send the bus down Nee Way, but that took at least twice as long, taking way too many unnecessary turns when there had been a straight path before. She decided to wait on looking into the school and just go back to where the apartments where her and several of the others had lived.

It took about half an hour to arrive at the apartments. They seemed normal, just like before. Even the door to her and Wazumi's apartment seemed just like it had been a year before, but somehow she felt it wasn't really. She got out her keys, and tried it in the lock. Surprisingly, it opened. She walked in cautiously. Inside, it looked the same: same basic furniture, same table and chairs, same messy kitchen. Wazumi's room was strangely neater, but perhaps due to the lack of Brian being over all the time messing things up. But someone, most likely Wazumi, had been through all her things, mainly her desk. All her papers, books, and notebooks had been gone through. After further searching, she noticed most of her dimensional research was missing.

She sat down at the computer and started looking at her records of the papers that she had saved, when she heard noise outside. She quietly ran to the door and locked it, then peeked out the window. It was two girls, both with bright orange hair and pretty green eyes, wearing typical school uniforms. The older one was almost a teenager, and seemed a lot more serious than the younger, more curious one. They both had a sad expression, and Jasmine knew why. They were Brian's sisters.

She unlocked and opened the door slowly. The two girls jumped back, and the older one got a 2' long polished pole out of her backpack. "What're you doing here?" the girl demanded.

"I live here, or I used to. I'm Jasmine Steele."

"Cake's cousin!" the younger girl said. "Do you remember us? Anna and Rita Treyer, and our silly brother Brian?"

"Of course," Jasmine nodded. "After all the time he spent here, and Wazumi at your house, it'd be impossible to forget him or you two. How are you?"

"Why would you care?" Rita, the older sister, asked. "You disappeared at the same time he did, and our friend Pirelli. Why would you care that we lost another brother?"

"They were my friends," Jasmine said sadly. "I'm going to find them, that's why I'm back. But why're you here?" She knew not to confuse the girls with exactly how Brian was gone, but was curious about the other brother they must have lost. Brian had never mentioned having a brother.

"We're leaving rocks for him." Anna said. Jasmine looked down to see a small pile of pebbles along the doorway. Swept further down the path were hundreds more.

"When we used to move a lot, the boys said to leave rocks at places when someone was lost, so if they came back to that place they would know we were looking for them." Rita added. "It didn't help when we moved before they found them though, but I guess it wouldn't have mattered."

"But I think Brian will come back to his friends' house instead of come home." Anna said.

Jasmine nodded at their story, trying to figure out what the story behind it might be. She also wondered why someone, most likely Wazumi, would sweep the rocks away. "Hey, can I ask you to do me a favor?" she asked.

"Depends, I suppose." Rita said.

"Like I said, I'm going to look for him, but if you find him first, can you give him a note?"

"Sure," Anna said. "If we didn't have school we'd be looking for him, but our parents would freak out if they lost us too."

Jasmine smiled, and went inside and quickly wrote a letter to Brian, explaining what happened, and how she was trying to help out, and to go to Lulu Tower when they came back. She put it in an envelope and gave it to the girls.

"You better find him before we do, or else our parents will never let him our of the house!" Anna said as they left. Jasmine stayed there a bit more, looking at the old memories, once again living right in them. She grabbed more supplies and some money, and left, locking the door behind her.