Japanese Title: The Fairy! Piccolomon
While walking and pondering on how to get the other Crests, the kids are attacked by another Kuwagamon. The others try to get Agumon to evolve to Greymon to beat Kuwagamon, but the memory of Agumon evolving into SkullGreymon makes both Taichi and Agumon hesitant to try digivolution again. Fortunately, the kids are saved just in time by an attack from another Digimon.
The Digimon turns out to be Piccolomonnote , a Pint-Sized Powerhouse who is much more dangerous than he looks. Fortunately, Piccolomon isn't hostile to the kids, although he's quick to insult them for being weak. Piccolomon declares that he's going to take the Chosen Children and their Digimon with him for some intense training. Since the kids' Digimon say that he has a good reputation (even if he's a bit strict) and that he doesn't seem to have a black gear or one of Etemon's cables attached to him, the group decides to go along.
Piccolomon leads them through a magical barrier to his hideout, where Etemon won't be able to find them. He then leads them up to his house after taking them through an absurd amount of stairs... and promptly tells them to start cleaning the floor before he'll give them any food. He then leads Taichi and Agumon aside, declaring them to have the "special menu". The other kids begrudgingly decide to do what they're told, with food as motivation and Takeru and Tokomon making the environment lighter by making it into a game.
Piccolomon leads Taichi and Agumon into a dark cave and shuts them in there, telling them to return once they've finished their training.
During the night, Yamato and Koushirou wonder where Taichi and Agumon are, but are quickly distracted when their Tags start glowing and they realize their Crests must be nearby. Leaving Gabumon and Tentomon to rest, they go to search for them themselves.
Taichi and Agumon find themselves in a boat on a mysterious lake, and see a mysterious shining light. The boat starts to drift away from it...
Piccolomon wakes the other kids and Digimon up at early morning, and Piccolomon tells them that Yamato and Koushirou went to look for their crests. Sora finds it quite suspicious that Taichi, Agumon, and now Yamato and Koushirou are missing, which makes Jou panic, but Gomamon insists that it'll be fine.
While looking for their Crests, Yamato asks Koushirou why he wants his Crest, and Koushirou responds that he's curious about what Tentomon will evolve further into. Yamato, in turn, says he wants his Crest to "improve himself", saying that he hopes that the experience will help him mature into a better person. They finally see a glowing well outside of Piccolomon's barrier, and quickly go out to get their Crests. After retrieving their Crests from the walls of the well, they're detected by Etemon's Dark Network, and Etemon sends a Tyrannomon on them.
While training the other kids, Piccolomon senses that his barrier has been broken and hurries towards it, telling them that Yamato and Koushirou are in danger. The others quickly follow, and quickly meet with the fleeing Yamato and Koushirou, but Etemon activates his power and the Digimon are drained of energy.
Taichi and Agumon drift in the mysterious river, while the situation feels more and more hopeless. They soon find themselves at a bridge, where Taichi sees someone very familiar: a younger version of himself, having just fallen off his bike.
The younger Taichi cries, saying that he'll never be able to ride a bike, but the older Taichi tells him not to give up, because one pitfall shouldn’t stop him. Taichi and Agumon help the younger Taichi back on the bike and successfully get him to ride back into the fog, and Taichi realizes that this is also what he himself needed to learn: that he shouldn't allow himself to be set back by one pitfall. With that, Taichi and Agumon get back on the boat and ride back to the cave entrance, where they hear the voices of the others. Agumon evolves to Greymon, and they make short work of Tyrannomon.
The kids thank Piccolomon for his help and depart, and Piccolomon tells them to treat everything in life as training and not to give up.
Tropes
- Hollywood Darkness: When Piximon leads Tai and Agumon into a cave, the two state that it's so dark that they can't see their hands in front of their faces. In practice, the lighting only dips slightly below the show's normal. Justified, in that a uniform pitch-black screen isn't terribly interesting to look at.
- Shout-Out: The dub title is a reference to The Iceman Cometh.
- Wax On, Wax Off: Piximon's training regimen for the Digidestined and their Digimon partners is to have them scrub every floor in his dojo.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Tyrannomon's fate after Greymon defeats it is left unclear — all that's seen in Greymon hauling it into the air to snap the black cables connected to it, before both fall back into the jungle and a cloud of shattered cable parts rises into the air. Tyrannomon vanishes from the story after this, and whether it died, fled or was freed from Etemon's control is neither stated nor hinted at.
