Chapter Text
“Now can anyone here tell me why the Ranger Institute was created?” A voice rang out across a lecture hall full of several young adults, belonging to an older woman with tied back dark brown hair who was likely in her mid thirties. At her side stood a Gumdramon, who seemed more occupied with a small fidget toy he had gotten his claws on rather than his human partner’s lecture. The woman looked out towards the crowd, patiently waiting for someone to answer.
“To help humans and Digimon coexist peacefully after the Great Split sixty years ago Ranger Isago!” Another voice called out, this one belonging to a male in the crowd.
“That’s correct!” Ranger Isago said while softly applauding the random voice, “The Institute was formed to not only do that, but protect humanity from hostile digimon who might also attack New San Tokyo or anywhere else!”. The Gumdramon looked up from what he had been playing with and clapped in a way similar to his partner, but he didn’t really quite know why they were clapping in the first place.
Eventually the woman continued on with her speech about the history of the organization as well as the various duties they performed, and the longer she went on, the more restless a pixie cut donning blonde grew.
Why did she even have to go to this lecture anyways? It’s not like she had spent a good chunk of her life studying for this job and had already studied about the history of the institute anyways. This was just the same old shit she had heard over and over in history class back in school!
As the brunette ranger finally finished the lecture and dismissed the new recruits, the blonde girl stayed a bit longer. There was gonna be too many people in the nursery if she left now, so she was gonna wait a few minutes. She idly checked some news articles until she had felt she had waited long enough, quickly gathering her bag and pulling up a map of the institute on her phone. She noticed Ranger Isago give her a small wave goodbye out of the corner of her eye, but didn’t respond, pretending she hadn’t noticed if only not to hurt the woman’s feelings.
After finally getting out of the lecture room, the blonde rookie made her way down one of the halls, listening to the chatter of other new recruits who had already gone and received the eggs that would eventually hatch into their partners. They had been selected specifically for each ranger based on how they had responded to a test they had taken a few days ago after initial training with the Ring Digivices. Only rangers were supposed to have them, as they allowed one to have multiple partners compared to the one or very rarely two civilians had. If put in the wrong hands, then who knows how badly things could go… But she wouldn’t focus on that right now. She just wanted to go get her ringvice and digitama, maybe go hang out in the commons area if there weren’t many people there.
She eventually snapped back to attention once she reached the Nursery, the caretaker in there already occupied with a couple other recruits and a couple other rangers temporarily helping out with distribution. The young woman slunk into the nursery, doing her best not to have too much attention on herself.
“‘Scuse me miss! Did you come to get your egg?” One of the rangers asked once they spotted the blonde, mainly because a six foot tall teenage girl in a bright orange uniform is kinda hard to ignore. At the ranger’s side stood another woman with dark black hair and a white gown, who donned a mouse-like veil. If one squinted enough, the dark haired one had some sort of scabbard with what looked like a blade inside.
The teenager tensed up a bit before nodding, avoiding eye contact with the duo.
“Well alrighty!” The other ranger laughed, “Can I get your name and age then? Once we confirm your identity, my digimon buddy here can get you your partner’s digitama and ringvice from Yuki!”
“Yurika Orin. Age eighteen.” The girl answered, her tone somewhat cold.
The older ranger went to check their tablet, nodding as they found her records.
“You must have really wanted to be a ranger, didn’t ya? Joined a little over a month after turning the youngest age we take recruits!” They asked, their tone shifting into one that seemed to almost pity the girl, “I bet the institute loves having young people be so interested in the job, but I will warn ya. You will see some messed up stuff out there sometimes. It’s a dangerous world out there, and I would feel awful seeing ya get messed up at the age you’re at now. Just be real careful now, ya hear?”
The girl seemed indifferent, but appreciated the concern. Not like she was gonna let them know that though.
“Well, we don’t wanna keep you waiting any longer Miss Orin. Hoshiko? You mind going to grab her things?”
The digimon, apparently named Hoshiko, gave her partner a nod before running off to go talk with the pink haired caretaker. It didn’t take her long to get the things she needed, passing the young woman a Ringvice and a digitama with a red, orange, and brown shell.
“Well! Good luck with your partner then Miss Orin!” The ranger said before quickly passing the girl a small slip of paper, “Here’s my number if ya need any help, ya hear?”
The girl mumbled something under her breath before taking the slip and stuffing it in her uniform pocket. She was probably never gonna talk to this person again, but she didn’t want to be an asshole. She could probably just throw it away once she got to her dorm anyways.
Yurika slipped the ringvice onto her right arm as she cradled the digitama in her left, leaving the nursery once she had it on securely. She seemed to almost hug the digitama as she made her way down to the commons area, trying to figure out what could possibly be inside… Yurika then took a seat in the commons, the area being surprisingly empty. Maybe they were all in their dorms or in the nursery by now? Honestly, this was nice. Just her, the digitama, and some peace and quie-
“What exactly are we doing here, Toriya?” A deep voice asked as a duo seemed to enter the area.
Oh great. That silence didn’t last long.
“Oh please, what do you mean ‘what are we doing here’? We’re here to greet the rookies! Can’t let them go without a warm welcome, doesn’t feel right to me, ya know?” Another voice responded, presumably Toriya.
One of the voices finally entered and scanned the room with a hand to his forehead as if looking for something. He then spotted the blonde and seemed to almost chuckle to himself.
“A bit more dead in here than I expected, but we got one rookie!” The man said as he approached Yurika, the girl tensing up slightly as he neared.
“Howdy there, Rookie! Don’t think I’ve seen you here before, is everything going well for you so far?” The man greeted as the other half of the duo arrived, a well built man with bright red hair and a visor of some sort covering his eyes.
She gave one glance at the newcomers, and then to her egg before finally responding.
“It’s fine I guess.” Yurika shrugged, “Just been here with my egg.” As if the egg was confirming her statement, it wobbled somewhat. Didn’t seem ready to hatch just yet though.
“Also I have a name sir. Yurika Orin. And no calling me Eureka, cause I’ve heard that joke nickname over and over and I’m kinda sick of it.” She told the man with a straight expression.
“Well it’s nice to meet ya then Miss Yurika! My name's Toriya Masayoshi, and I’m the leader of the Digital Geography and Field Research team! How bout we stick it out?" He held a hand out for a handshake, “And as for the name thing, no need to have anyone getting upset, so how about we stick with Yu?”
The redhead by his side sighed as he looked at the duo.
"Apologies for him, but my name is Gankoomon. I'm his partner." The Gankoomon explained before giving the young woman a polite nod, “I hope you’re settling in alright.”
Yurika simply stared at the man’s hand before carefully shaking it. Didn’t want to be rude to one of her higher ups after all, especially on her first day. The egg resting in her other arm gave a few more wobbles, quickly increasing in intensity.
Once the handshake had ended, Toriya eyed her egg.
“Well, I haven't seen an egg like that one!” The man said as he laughed at the wobbling egg, “But I suppose we’ll be finding out what’s inside since it seems pretty close to hatching!”
Yu looked mildly concerned as she held out the digitama, allowing Toriya to observe it a bit. “Is it really that weird looking? I thought it looked pretty normal….”
“I meant the more so the colors on it. Never seen a digitama with those colors, so it’s new to me.” Toriya clarified as he leaned in to get a closer look at the digitama. It seemed to be quickly starting to crack by now. Suddenly, one of the cracks in the eggshell got poked out by whatever was inside and sent some directly towards Toriya’s face fairly quickly, causing the poor man to stumble backwards while letting out a surprised yelp. The rest of the egg eventually fell apart, revealing the culprit to be a little brown chick Digimon. The little bird gave the girl an almost curious look for a moment before immediately leaping down and running around the commons, climbing up furniture, the walls, and its claws somehow letting it cling to the ceiling.
Yurika stood there for a moment, looking over to Toriya before watching the chick digimon for a moment. “You got any idea on what that thing is now?”
The man seemed to think for a moment while covering his nose, which had started to bleed a little from how hard the shell had hit him. “Uh, I think I’ve seen those at Metalfoe Factory? Make nests among the scrap metal and use electricity, uh.”
“Pinamon.” Gankoomon spoke up after being surprisingly quiet during this whole mess.
The blonde quietly muttered something along the lines of “More like Fastlittlefuckermon” as she attempted to chase after the Pinamon, the little bird easily evading the woman for at least a few minutes. Eventually, the little menace was caught and contained in Yurika’s arms, letting out a small peep. She went to go check on the man, who had recovered somewhat during the chase.
“Well Miss Yu, I’ll leave you to it on taking care of that little fella there. Little guy seems to have too much energy for his own good!” The man laughed as he began to walk out, “Good luck, I gotta go get this nose of mine treated now!”
“So an eggshell to the face makes you go to the medic faster than a fight with a Digimon? Any kind of consistency with your life choices would be great.” Gankoomon shook his head and sighed as he followed his partner out.
Now that she was alone again, Yurika stared down at the bird in her arms, who just seemed to be staring right back at her. So this was her partner, huh? Hopefully he wouldn’t cause too much trouble after that mess…
She then made her way to her dorm, ready to call it a night. Well, she hoped she could get some sleep with this little rascal around.
…
Probably not.