Girl Power

Valentine's Day. The worst day of the year, in Rika's eyes. Ever since she was eight, she had to fight off the advances of at least six different boys. They were all acting foolish, buying into this stupid holiday. And now, Henry and Takato were joining in on the stupidity and had the utter audacity to try and give her a Valentine's Day card.

School could not end fast enough. As quick as she could, Rika left the school and returned home. She headed immediately to her room and tossed her schoolbag to the corner of the room.

"I don't want to talk about it!" she announced loudly and coldly into the air.

"I didn't say anything, yet." a low pitched woman's voice replied. A bipedal yellow fox, Renamon, appeared from the shadows. "Is it because you weren't involved in that strange ritual today?"

"No, it's because they were trying to get me involved!" Rika plopped down at her table on the floor. "Even Henry and Takato tried to give me a Valentine each."

"What is this Valentine?" Renamon asked.

"It's some stupid thing people do where you gift cards and candy to someone you like."

"And Henry and Takato tried to give you a Valentine each? That sounds kind and wholesome. It means they care about you. So what was the issue?"

"I don't care about that sort of thing!" Rika snapped. "I don't want Valentines from boys, and I definitely don't want one from either of those two!"

"It seems to me the nicer thing would have been to just accept them." Renamon said. "Besides, if you really didn't care, you wouldn't be so impassioned about it.

As loathe as she was to admit it right now, Renamon did have a point. The more sensible and prudent option would have been to just accept them and then toss them when nobody was watching. The fact that she wasn't being her more aloof and dismissive self about the whole thing implied there was something about it that actually bothered her, but she wasn't prepared to wonder at the reasons why at the moment.

After finishing her homework after dinner, Rika went to the bathroom to bathe. She returned to her room wrapped up in a towel. On her way back to her room, Rika passed by her mom's bedroom. It was empty at the moment; her mom was out on a date or something, so she wasn't home. What caught Rika's attention was a bright blue light emanating from the dark room.

"Dammit, mom, did you leave your computer on again?" Rika muttered to herself. She stepped into the room, tiptoeing her way around the furniture she couldn't see, up to the computer at her mom's desk.

The image on the screen was a sandy beach, with ocean waves lapping against the sand on one side and a luxurious and expensive-looking hotel on the other. It must have been one of those expensive resorts her mom got invited to in the past.

Rika hit a button on the keyboard, assuming it was a screensaver. The instant her finger pressed down on the key, the monitor suddenly flashed brightly. So brightly, Rika had to shield her eyes. The light enveloped the entire room; it was so bright, Rika had to shield her eyes.

The light faded, and Rika suddenly found herself standing on the sandy beach she saw on the monitor. To her right was the ocean, waves lapping at the edge of the beach, and to her left was the hotel. It was exactly the angle and perspective she saw on the monitor.

The humidity that lingered around Rika's body was suddenly gone, as was the feeling of her bathrobe. Rika looked down and yelped in surprise when she realized that she was no longer wearing her robe. Instead, she was wearing a teal bikini swimsuit. A rather small one at that. It barely covered her flat chest and crotch. It almost felt like she was naked.

"What kind of a sick joke is this?!" She exclaimed. "And how did I end up here?! Crap, I need to go get out of this damn outfit!"

Rika hurried along the hot sand towards the hotel at a hastened pace, jumping every few steps as the heat got overwhelming on her bare feet.

As she rounded a bend past a wall of trees that bordered the beach, she saw a figure milling about near the driveway leading up to the front lobby. Another human! Perhaps they could help shed some light on what the hell was happening!

As she approached, Rika was able to see that the person was a young girl, roughly the same age as herself, with long purple hair, glasses, and wearing only a one-piece swimsuit with a high cut that had black and white splotches like the hide of a cow.

"Hey, can you please tell me where I am and where I can change into something else?" She called out to the girl. She turned to see her and waved back.

"Hey there!" she replied as Rika approached her. "Sorry, but I'm just as confused as to how I got here as well."

"When did you show up?" Rika asked. She covered herself up with her hands. It was difficult to decide what to cover up when this swimsuit left almost nothing to the imagination to begin with.

"A couple of minutes ago. I wasn't… dressed like this, originally."

"Neither was I. Can we trade swimsuits? This one is horrible."

Rika knew even before the words completely left her mouth that the request was doomed to fail.

"I don't think our swimsuits will fit each other." The girl replied. Indeed, she was a few inches taller than Rika, and her frame was more shapely. "Besides, I have a swimsuit just like this one in real life and I love it. Why do you not like that one, anyways? You look really lovely in it!"

"Don't… say things like that." Rika said, holding herself even tighter. "This swimsuit is so mortifying. I feel like I'm wearing nothing."

"Then take it off."

"Hell no! That would be even worse!"

"It's not like there's anyone else here anyways." The girl looked around them for confirmation, and her eyes locked onto something. "Or maybe not. Looks like there are others."

Rika turned around, and over a hundred feet away were four girls approaching them. They looked to be between the ages of seven and ten years old. There was a blonde, a redhead, and two brunettes. They were also all wearing swimwear, each moderately and inappropriately revealing, especially considering their ages.

“Hey, is that… what the hell?!” the purple-haired girl muttered.

“There are other humans here?” the redhead asked as they approached. She had a competition swimsuit on, which had a high cut and didn’t cover much of her butt. “And more unfamiliar faces.”

“Oh good. I don’t feel so left out all of a sudden.” the blonde said. She wore a red string bikini.

“What the hell do you mean by unfamiliar?! It’s me, Yolei!” the purple-haired girl exclaimed. “But why do you three look so much younger now?”

“What are you talking about? I’m only nine.” the older brunette said. She was wearing a pink bikini and was about as revealing as Rika’s. Not that she seemed to mind.

“How old am I supposed to be?” the youngest girl, the second brunette, asked. She had a skirted string bikini on, but it was much too revealing. The top didn’t cover up much past her nipples, and the skirt covered up just enough to hide the fact that the bottom was a thong and had a narrow front that was barely enough to cover even half of her labia. And by walking around, it looked like it was beginning to ride up into her slit.

“You’re supposed to be, like, eleven!” Yolei explained. “We hang out in the computer room after class!”

“I’m still in elementary school, and I’ve never seen you before in my life.” the young girl said.

“Okay, back up a bit.” Rika said, then pointed at the youngest girl. “You. What year is it?”

“1999? What kind of question is that?” she looked at Rika like she was an idiot.

“What?! But it’s 2003 for me!” Yolei said.

“And I’m from 2002!” the blonde girl said.

“2001 for me.” Rika replied.

“We’re both from 1999.” the redhead said, gesturing between herself and the older brunette. “We know each other in our time. Mutually so.” she added quickly, as Yolei went to protest again.

“Six people and four different answers. What gives?” the redhead asked.

“Umm… it’s a wild thought, but I think I have an explanation.” Yolei said. She began pacing back and forth. Rika saw her from behind as she stepped away, and how her swimsuit seemed to ride up her butt. Yolei apparently had the same feeling, too, and moved to adjust it before realizing that the swimsuit was designed to look that way, and gave up.

“So what’s your explanation?” the redhead asked.

“Well, it’s something I saw on a TV show once, about the concept of a place that exists outside of time.” Yolei explained. “That being said, I didn’t think that was even possible in the Digital World.”

“Wait, Digital World?” Rika asked. "You mean the place Digimon come from, right?"

“You know about Digimon?” The redhead asked.

“Of course she knows about Digimon, Sora.” Yolei said, addressing the redhead. “Their existence is common knowledge in 2003. Has been since the incident with Diaboromon in 2000.”

“That’s not true. Everyone thinks it’s just a children’s card game in 2001.” Rika said.

“Wait, a card game?!” the rest of the girls exclaimed.

“Okay, this is getting really confusing.” Yolei said, putting two fingers to her temple. “So not only are we dealing with different times, we’re also possibly dealing with different universes.”

“And that still doesn’t explain these horrible outfits!” Rika said exasperatedly.

“Or even what pulled us here to begin with.” Sora said.

“Though I am fairly certain that this is the Digital World.” Yolei said, looking up at the sky. “Yeah, definitely. See those weird lines that look like a computer board? They’re faint through the haze and the cloud cover, but I can just make them out.”

Rika looked up at the sky and squinted. She gasped when she saw the signs of the artificial world.

‘So I’m actually in the Digital World…’ she thought to herself.

“Is this your first time here?” Yolei asked.

“You say that like you come here regularly.” Rika said.

“Well, yeah.”

“Mimi and I got stuck in the Digital World for a long while earlier this year. For us, that is.” Sora said, gesturing to herself and the older brunette. “Kari joined us for the latter half of the adventure.” she nodded at the youngest girl.

“And I travelled through the Digital World for a long time as well.” the blonde said. “My name’s Zoe, by the way. I’m glad I’m not the only odd one out here.”

“Rika, and at this point, I just want to change out of this horrible thing and go home.” Rika moved to cover herself up again, but she noticed Kari did not make an effort to conceal herself, and her swimsuit was even more revealing. She reluctantly stopped to make herself seem more in control. “I just got out of the bath and was about to head to bed when I got sucked in here, and I’m sure Renamon is really curious as to where I went.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that, honestly.” Mimi said. “Time apparently moves one thousand four hundred and forty times faster out there than it does in here. If you stay in here for a whole day, only a few minutes will have passed in the real world.”

There was a pause as the other girls from her world stared at her in amazement. She looked around and blushed awkwardly.

“It was just… something Joe told me once.” she said sheepishly.

“So how do we get back?” Rika asked impatiently.

“Not sure. There’s an easy way to do it in 2003, but I don’t even know how I got here in the first place.” Yolei said. “Best chance we got is to just, I don’t know, wait it out and hope someone finds us.”

“I agree.” Zoe said. “I don’t wanna go travelling again, especially not wearing these things.” she adjusted her bikini top. She had a developing chest, but it wasn’t nearly enough to be noticeable from a distance.

“Still, we got plenty of beach all to ourselves. You could even ditch the swimsuit if you want!” To illustrate, Mimi did not hesitate pulling at the strings tying the bikini around her body and tossing the swimsuit to the ground. Rika stood there in absolute shock at the sight of her standing there, proudly naked. Did she have no shame?! What kind of immodest universe did she come from?!

“I think I’ll take mine off as well.” Kari said, removing her swimsuit.

“Aww, but you look so cute in it!” Yolei protested with a sweet tone.

“I guess, but it’s also very uncomfortable. Like the wedgies my brother warns me about.”

Rika blushed heavily and looked away. She didn’t want to be rude and stare too long at the naked girls. Or any of the girls. Yet there was something about their bodies that made it easier to look at them. Almost like she… wanted to?

“Hey, I see a volleyball court over there!” Sora said, pointing out at the beach. “What do you say? You all want to play?”

“Sure! We can do skins vs. swimsuits!” Zoe said.

"I won't lose to you!" Kari said as the four ran off to the volleyball court.

"Do what you want. I'm not interested in playing such a stupid game." Rika said. "I'm going to go sit in the shade and wait for whoever it is that is supposed to come and save us."

Close to the treeline, there were a line of beach chairs situated underneath some large umbrellas. Rika went over and sat down on one. It was hard to believe that not even fifteen minutes ago, she was in the bath in her house. Now it felt like she was on the third day of a long vacation.

Yolei came over and sat down in a beach chair next to her.

"You're not gonna go play with them?" Rika asked.

"Nah, sports aren't exactly my scene." She replied. "I'm more about computers, though I sure don't mind watching some sports, though. But only women's sports."

'Great, one of those kinds of girls.' Rika thought, assuming Yolei to be a man-hating feminist.

"So Digimon is a card game as well, in the world you come from?" Yolei asked as she watched the girls play.

"Uh huh, though there aren't so many Tamers. Just me and two others." Rika explained.

"Tamers?" Yolei asked. "Here we call them Digidestined."

"Pheh, that's a dumb name. I prefer being called a Tamer. We also have Digivices that can also scan the cards to power up our Digimon, evolve them, give them weapons…"

"Really? That sounds incredible. We can Digivolve them as well; regular Digivolutions, Armor Eggs, DNA Digivolutions, where you combine Digimon to create a much stronger form…"

"You mean fusing your Digimon with that of another Digid-Tamers?" Rika asked, then shuddered. "Ugh, that sounds horrible. I would never let Renamon fuse with Takato or Henry's Digimon."

"You really mean that, don't you?" Yolei asked in a suddenly serious tone. “Listen, Rika, I don’t know what things are like back in your world, but in mine, we look after those around us. I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have all those friends beside me, watching my back as I watched theirs.”

“I’m not interested in having friends.” Rika insisted.

“Pfeh, suit yourself, but I’m pretty certain... Takato and Henry, was it? I’m sure they don’t feel the same way. I’m sure they’d come and save you if you were ever in a bind, no question.”

Rika thought back to the Valentines that the boys tried to give her. Were they just trying to send a message that they cared about her? It was such a condescending idea. She honestly didn’t know if that was worse than if they were trying to profess some sort of unrequited love to her. She didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She turned away from Yolei to convey this message. Yolei shook her head and returned to watching the girls play volleyball.

• * *

Nearly an hour later, after the girls had finished playing volleyball, Mimi went to the shower stalls nearby to wash off. It felt really nice and invigorating to play nude on the beach and have this shower outside, all without worrying about the prying eyes of boys. That’s really why she stripped down in the first place. She didn’t know if she’d ever have another chance to engage in casual nudity outdoors, so she leapt at the opportunity when it presented itself.

Sora suddenly appeared at the entrance to the shower stall. She had removed her swimsuit, so she was naked just like Mimi.

“Hey there. Room for one more?” she asked, but she let herself in before Mimi could even answer.

“You played really well out there.” Mimi said, shifting to the side to give Sora some room under the shower head.

“When that other girl said skins vs. swimsuits, I was worried you and Kari would get floored. You both held up well, though.”

“Thanks. It’s thanks to all that travelling we did last time we were here.”

“The other girl was surprisingly fast, though. She must have gone through a similar ordeal.”

“I’ve already made a mental note to put her to the test later, but for now…” Sora pushed Mimi up against the wall.