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

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Jyou's located a short walk away -- a little way south-east, over a bridge to another one of the islands that make up Odaiba, past a construction site repairing some light damage from a Digimon battle, and to the southernmost tip of one of the islands.

But he's there, sat on a bench with a textbook in hand and a white, orange-mohawked sea lion slumped around his shoulders like a scarf.

"Hope we didn't keep you waiting," Yamato says, as Jyou looks up at them and flicks down his glasses.

Comments

[makes_the_toys]

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

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"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."

[makes_the_toys]

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?"

[run_barry]

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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

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."

[makes_the_toys]

"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.

[run_barry]

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

Barry throws a smile at Jyou, returning that cheer.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"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.

[run_barry]

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."

[makes_the_toys]

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.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"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."

[run_barry]

"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."

[makes_the_toys]

"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."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"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."

[makes_the_toys]

"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."

[run_barry]

"It's never too late to learn," Barry says encouragingly. "Of course, definitely want to do it in a good setting."

To make it easier and safer for everyone involved. 'Sink or swim' with Jyou would be a bad time all around for sure.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"... I'm not sure that's normal brotherly behaviour," Jyou says to Cisco, casually. "I've got two older brothers, and they almost never tried to drown me."

Unless they tried when he was very young and he just forgot. It's possible.

"Yamato's offered to teach me, but his preferred swimming environment is the sea, and the waters here are cold."

[run_barry]

"Learning to swim in the sea doesn't quite seem like quite the best," Barry agrees, eying the water a little which does look like it would be cold.

"Maybe you could just try it out at a community center or something first."

[makes_the_toys]

"Yeah, no, my brother's a dick," Cisco replies easily.

"So what kinds of powers do you guys have?" he asks Jyou and Ikkakumon.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Maybe I'll try once I move away. Tokyo Med has a sports centre after all," Jyou says thoughtfully.

Ikkakumon drifts around a curve of the island, pulling away from it slightly to head out a little further into the open water of the bay.

"Ikkakumon can fire torpedoes from his horn," Jyou says brightly. "And his evolutions, Zudomon and Vikemon, have heavy Chrondigizoit weapons for smashing things, and electrical and ice powers. I have the same grab-bag of powers as the other terrestrial Crestbearers, just customised for water, but I'm not as powerful as Taichi, Yamato, and Hikari, who all have celestial Crests. That's, er, that's not a bad thing, though. If I cut loose and start bleeding off energy, the worst that'll happen is a few geysers and some waves. If Taichi goes all out, he starts slowly baking the planet."

[run_barry]

"The exercise would be good for you," Barry points out.

He cants his head and repeats with a curios tone, "Chrondigizoit?"

[makes_the_toys]

"Coooool," Cisco says, listening to Jyou list what he and Ikkakumon can do.

"It's awesome that you can do that stuff, but yeah, being able to roast the world or putting it on deep freeze is definitely too much. Good thing those guys have a handle on their powers like they do."

[angry_friendship_wolf]

"Oh, er, Chrondigizoit, it's the hardest metal in the Digital World. Sometimes Digimon incorporate it into their armour, so Zudomon and Vikemon's Chrondigizoit weapons are a good way to break through them," Jyou explains. "None of the other partner 'mons have Chrondigizoit weapons, so the two of us get deployed against anything armoured with it."

He gives a quick chuckle. "The three of them do a good job keeping their powers under control -- Hikari especially, she's never had any trouble with it, she doesn't even bleed off energy when she's evolving her partner."

[run_barry]

"Gotcha, that makes sense," Barry replies. From both a tactical and metallurgic standpoint.

[makes_the_toys]

"You don't say?" Cisco says, intrigued hearing about Chrondigizoit. "How does it compare to Garurumon's pelt?"