angry_friendship_wolf | The Seal Man, and Other Tales, with Barry and Cisco

Along the way Barry snaps photos on his phone, of the buildings they pass and the water as they cross over the bridge. He pauses at the construction site for a moment, taking in the work and the damage that's being repaired, before continuing on with the others.

Throwing up a smile and giving a wave, Barry greets the pair on the bench. "Hey, you guys."

Cisco acts the tourist as they walk along, taking pictures of everything along the way and crowding up to Yamato, Taichi and Barry to grab selfies with them every now and again.

When he spots Jyou and his not!scarf Cisco also grabs a picture of him.

"What's up? You guys have an awesome city here," he says.

Taichi is appropriate enthused about every selfie, grinning and striking a pose for each, while Yamato barely acknowledges there's any selfie-taking going on (but at least doesn't try to move out of frame).

"It's not bad. Kind of a tourist trap. Kind of riddled with yakuza. And Yamato keeps trying to convince the fish vendors to give him fugu," Jyou says, adjusting his glasses as they catch the sunlight. "But we're pretty fond of it all the same."

"Still?" Barry asks in surprise, giving Yamato a Look. "Do you want tetrodotoxin poisoning, because that's how you get it."

"Surprisingly we haven't really tangled with any organized crime yet," Cisco says thoughtfully. "Well, unless you count the Mist, but he kicked off his murder spree by killing off his old crime bosses so, I guess he technically resigned and wasn't a mafia guy by the time we went up against him."

"I'm going to get it some day, aniki, just try and stop me," Yamato fires back. "Gonna prepare so much fugu."

A whole mountain of the stuff.

"Give it time, eventually there'll be some mafioso meta," Taichi says to Cisco.

"We run up against bandits all the time, and that's pretty much the Digital World equivalent," Jyou adds.

"You know what, dude, if that's your dream I'm not going to stop you," Barry says, amused. "You do you, fugu-man. Just don't die. Or kill anyone else with it."

"A meta kingpin, that sounds like a boss battle for sure," Cisco says. "I'm sure it's bound to happen."

"Just need to find a way to get it. Without just stealing it, I mean," Yamato says thoughtfully.

"Bound to," Jyou says somberly, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Okay, let's see ..."

As Gomamon drops off his shoulders and rolls into the water, vanishing under the surface, Jyou turns towards the bay, lifting his hands. There's a flicker of grey light off him, as the air turns humid and the waters around their spot of the island go from humid to tumultuous, crashing up against the shore.

Then Ikkakumon erupts out of the water, horn first, rising up until he's sitting sedately above it. He's a lot larger than Garurumon, a building sized bulk of thick white fur and blubber, with two walrus-like tusks and a metal horn the size of a man.

Barry and Cisco's heads both tilt up and their eyes widen as they watch Ikkakumon rise up out of the waters above them.

Jaws dropping, the pair both exclaim in unison, "Whooooaaaaa."

A grin splits Cisco's features and he snaps out of his stunned daze to shout out, "I call shotgun!"

"Garurumon's still cooler," Yamato mutters.

Jyou clambers up Ikkakumon's fur, settling just behind his head, and nods at Barry and Cisco. "You'll want to find a comfortable spot where there's plenty of fur to hold on to. He doesn't move fast, but you still don't want to end up slipping off and into the water."

Cisco steps forward and then hesitates, looking over the setup.

He looks down at the water, then up at Jyou and Ikkakumon and asks, "Any chance of a boarding ramp?"

Barry claps a hand on Yamato's shoulder and gives it a squeeze, leaning in to say, "You know you and your partner are always our favorite."

Giving Yamato's back a clap, Barry steps forward to contemplate the mass of fur before him and Cisco.

"I got this," he says to Cisco, the only warning Cisco gets before Barry steps in and uses a short burst of speed to give Cisco a boost/shove up onto Ikkakumon's back.

Yamato cracks a quick smile, leaning in to shove his head against Barry's.

Neither he nor Taichi seem to realise what Barry's planning to do, so when Cisco gets a superspeed boost up, they both look appropriately sympathetic, grimacing a little.

"There you go," Jyou says cheerfully, adjusting his glasses. "Easy."

"Uhp!" Cisco lands with a thud and scrambles to grab onto handfuls of fur.

"BARRY!" he barks, clinging for a moment before becoming satisfied he isn't going to fall off.

It takes another few moments for Cisco to sort himself out and get comfortable, but eventually Cisco gets settled.

"Okay. I'm good," he announces.

"What?" Barry says, all innocence as he joins Cisco and Jyou on top of Ikkakumon.

Barry throws a smile at Jyou, returning that cheer.

"We'll meet you back here when you're done," Taichi says, throwing a quick, two-fingered salute. "Ikkakumon's big, but carrying five people might be too much for him."

With that, Ikkakumon slides away from the island, heading out into the bay. He doesn't really swim like a seal or a walrus would, instead gliding across the top of the water in a manner more like a duck or swan.

Jyou navigates up to near Ikkakumon's horn, getting an arm around it so that he can see ahead.

Barry returns the salute and gives Ikkakumon a pat as they start off.

"Thank you guys for taking us out," Barry says to Jyou, but also to Ikkakumon. "Definitely not something we'd get to do in Central City."

Cisco stays put at first, holding tight and waiting to see how bumpy the ride is going to be.

It doesn't seem like it's going to be too choppy at all and Cisco relaxes enough to start taking a look around.

The first thing he wants to see is how they're moving so smoothly, so he leans out a bit, trying to get a look at Ikkakumon in the water.

"Dude, you're smoother than a cruise ship," Cisco says.

"Is Central City coastal?" Jyou asks. "It sounds like if it's central, it'd be inland."

Under the water, Ikkakumon seems to propel himself partly by pushing water out of the way with his paws, and partly by the water just moving on its own around him, as if repelled by telekinesis.

"Thanks!" Ikkakumon chirps. "It'd be bad if I was too rough and Jyou fell off. He can't swim, after all."

"Nope, we're in the Mid-West, middle of the country," Barry replies. "We've got a pretty big river running along the city, but the nearest actual coast is pretty far away."

"Dude, you can't swim?" Cisco asks in surprise, looking over at Jyou.

"Man, having a Digi-Walrus is so much cooler than water wings or a vest. Lucky."

"I never learned. The irony of being host to a sea god and not being able to swim isn't completely lost on me, though," Jyou says. "I was, er, usually studying instead of learning to swim? That, and -- when I get stressed, any water nearby gets churned up into huge waves anyway, and swimming lessons can get pretty stressful."

"Damn, that does sound like it'd make it hard," Cisco replies. "I feel you, though. I had way better stuff to do than learning how to swim, too. They only reason I did is because my older brother repeatedly tried to murder me by throwing me into bodies of water when we were growing up."

Sure it's a handy skill to have now, but Cisco still hates Dante for it.

"Hydrokinesis though, that's pretty sick."

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