Hey, so the story behind me writing this is that I love digimon. I've always loved digimon, however I never wrote a fanfiction for it. Perhaps it's because it was my childhood obsession. Well anyway I got digimon cyber sleuth and it was wonderful, it's like one of my new favorite games.
I decided to see if I could update it and write it up in a novelized form, I of course am going to change events, do things like add personality and character arcs to the digimon (one of my main complaints of the game the digimon game should have had personality for the player's digimon) I'm going to do a bit of a character study on what the characters are feeling, and I'm going to have concrete relationships between the characters (I'm also going to change events and stuff like that)
I'm also going to merge both games, cyber sleuth and hacker's memory to better understand them going about on the same timeline. Keisuke and Ami will meet eventually and talk.
I hope you enjoy the fic, regardless of if you've played cyber sleuth or not.
Ami lived in an extremely technological world, and for that she was always thankful. Eden was the thing that helped society run, companies had private servers they logged into, friends met with each other despite not living close together being able to log into a world full of adventure with just a virtual headset.
You could go on adventures in a bright white world, with colorful robots and characters. You could modify things to be just to your liking. Anything could be achieved in Eden, it was a virtual world, and something that was just as necessary as cell phones and the internet. It was something that a lot of people didn't even remember how they lived without.
All you needed was a headset to log in. Most people logged in at home, which caused a lot of telecommuting in today's society but some people used their office space to log in to something work related, or they went to internet cafes.
Ami loved it all, eden was a beloved feature of today's society. So of course she embraced the way society had adapted to need Eden.
The only problem was that she herself didn't really use Eden. It was rare, she wondered if she was perhaps the only person in the world who had never logged in to Eden but she had a variety of reasons why she never logged in.
"It's too much work just to adventure in a virtual world." She would tell herself.
"I don't want to set up my avatar." She would repeat again.
"If I'm going to be online I don't want to actually talk to people. Online interactions usually relied on texting not speaking." She would tell herself again.
Even though you used a virtual body that looked like your's and it was supposed to be like walking around the real world, it still felt slightly artificial. You used an avatar of yourself but you talked to other people despite that.
Instead of using Eden to communicate with friends Ami instead preferred the Kamishiro company's easier to use systems, designed for casual use. Like chatrooms. Ami loved using her social time to browse chatrooms. All you had to do in chatrooms was type your response to people and have your cute little icon speak it out in a text box.
Ami had been using the Eden chatrooms for years now, texting with her cellphone to talk to her friends that she didn't ever meet up with in real life. Despite only really referring to them as their account names, Ami still found that they were important to her.
She logged into the chatroom as usual, she wasn't Ami anymore. She was AIOBA, who had one x for an eye and looked like a rainy day charm. She thought it was cute.
AIOBA was a lurker, a listener, not really a talker. Still she had a few good friends. There was Akkino, who resembled some sort of jellyfish and Blue Box, who looked a little more human like but always appeared to be wearing a dunce cap.
Akkino: Morning AIOBA! How ya doing?
Blue Box: Why do you never ask how I'm doing?
Akkino: Because AIOBA's cuter than you. Always so shy! As AIOBA'S Self-proclaimed best friend I gotta check up on them!
Ami tried to ignore it as Blue Box and Akkino started to argue. They always argued, but in a sort of joking friendly way. She sometimes seriously wondered what they got up to in real life. Did they hang out and meet each other ever? Did they log into eden together and go on adventures?
She didn't know but despite their arguments they always seemed to be good friends. But she would like to consider herself good friends with them too despite how she sometimes just read chat logs instead of talked.
Other people were in the chatroom today too. It wasn't a private chat for just them. It's just that the avatars barely talked, there was this weird duck thing, an old man icon something like that. Ami never really made an effort to meet them though.
Akkino: Oh well, shut up for a minute. I have something important to ask!
Ami realized that Akkino had stopped her yelling again to be the center of attention. She always had so much energy. She was constantly talking even if nobody else was.
Akkino: Has anyone ever heard of digimon? I was reading some online articles about them the other day and they sound so cool! But scary! But they are definitely 100% real.
Ami laughed to herself. Akkino was always finding things online and gossiping about them, despite the fact that most of the time they were always just rumors and were later proven false. She never brought up the fact that she was wrong though.
Blue Box: Why are you bringing them up all of a sudden?
Ami noted that Blue Box sounded bored. She sometimes liked to over analyze the text that her friends said. They don't sound like they haven't heard about digimon though. Ami realized. Was there some truth this time in what Akkino was talking about?
Akkino: I heard digimon are these nasty programs that hackers use to create viruses, break into firewalls and steal information for them. They're basically super dangerous! But there are some rumors that people program them to look cute, so that's cool I guess!
Old Man Fanta: Akkino those are a real thing they're dangerous…
Someone had been listening in that wasn't part of the everyday crowd finally spoke up. Ami didn't pay much attention to them. They'd be gone in a minute.
Akkino: I wasn't finished talking! I'm still talking! They're a super scary program despite their looks. I mean I'd hate it if my data got stolen. I mean my eden avatar looks exactly like I do online! All my memories, information...That's all in my eden account! How I talk and everything! If I got hacked…
Old Man Fanta: Hey slow down there Akkino, account thievery is a serious crime. Like it gets put on the news and everything. It's scary to think about but something that horrible would never happen to people like us.
Akkino: But it could! Those evil hackers could use those nasty digimon to steal my information!
Blue Box: I mean I don't think they'd steal YOUR information. I mean who cares about your stuff?
Ami noted that Blue Box was teasing Akkino again. It was kinda mean to dismiss her fears though.
Akkino: Hey! That's mean! And they could, I mean there's tons of hacker groups out there. They're like...super popular and big. They're scary. And Eden security can't seem to get rid of them. I mean there's Zaxable…?
AIOBA: Zaxon
Ami corrected Akkino about the name of the biggest hacker group. They didn't seem particularly scary though. Ami didn't know much about them but the only time they were in the news about illegal activity was when people were blaming them or hypothesizing that they had something to do with it. None of that had been confirmed
Blue Box: And there was Jude too.
Ami had never heard about a hacker group named Jude.
Alger: Jude's obsolete, stupid.
Some duck troll spoke up. Probably nobody important. Ami doubted she'd ever see them again.
Blue Box: …. I think you might have some of your information wrong though, Akkino. I don't think anyone would use digimon to target you. I mean I think they're basically just like little monster pets. I mean some hackers use them as a program but the site you got your information off of is clearly wrong.
Akkino: ...Oh.
Akkino sounded disappointed about being wrong again.
Dark Night Satan: Yeah and I mean I don't even think these things really exist in the same way they've been talked about? I mean they move around on their own. This means that they're kinda like an avatar. Maybe some person just designed their avatar to look like a monster. ...What a furry.
Some person piped in with a logical response. Ami waited for Akkino to yell at them for going against her uncited information.
Akkino: Wait a minute…These things roam around on their own?
Akkino didn't seem to have known that. She seemed to be more surprised and happy to learn than anything else.
She's always so energetic. Ami smiled. Her friends had quite the personality despite their faces being basically a jellyfish and some blue headed kid with a dunce hat.
That was the great thing about chatroom, despite never seeing each other you could still develop real relationships.
Mr. Navit has logged in.
A message popped up on the screen for Ami. She felt her mind spin in confusion.
"Mr. Navit?" She said allowed in confusion.
Mr. Navit was the colorful mascot character that maintained the eden servers. Little robots in his design were spread around the world of eden, but he rarely showed his face in the chatrooms. Usually when he logged in it meant that Kamishiro enterprises wanted to send a message to their users or that there was an error on the server.
Ami watched the little robot avatar pop into the chatroom. She searched for if the log in name had an extra space or was spelled in a weird way which was usually a clue as to someone impersonating the important figure or a spam bot.
Mr. Navit: =) Hello! I hope you're having a good day.
Ami was confused by the smiley face. Maybe this is a bot, or someone impersonating Mr. Navit. They text like a young person not an auto-generated message by a company.
Blue Box: Crap, I thought I banned bots. I don't need any eden mascot coming here. I hope this isn't another product placement.
Akkino: I bet he's a hacker! We were just talking about hackers! I must have summoned him with my words!
Ami rolled her eyes. Akkino seemed to always have to bring things back to her.
Mr. Navit: That is correct! I am a hacker! I hacked this eden mascot just to see you all!
Ami's eyes widened. Wait...Akkino was right? She saw a flurry of exclamation marks be sent to her on the screen.
Mr. Navit: I have a present for everybody here. It's a wonderful present. So be sure to log into Eden tomorrow! If you don't, I'll be very mad...And then I'll hack you!
Mr. Navit's threat was in bright red letters, right on Ami's computer. His digital face turned to an angry one. And as quickly as he arrived, he just disappeared.
Nothing left was in the space that he used to be.
Alger: This must be a prank, this sounds so scary. I'm logging off…
The duck avatar, along with several other people immediately disappeared and logged off. Soon enough it was just Ami, Akkino and Blue Box.
Akkino: Despite hackers being scary, this sounds kinda fun! I mean we've gotta check it out now. I mean I'm just too curious! And who knows? Maybe I could take down the hacker and be on the news!
Blue Box: So you're going? You're going to log on to Eden tomorrow and see what that hacker wants?
Akkino: Yeah, I mean I'm not a coward after all. AIOBA will you join me? It would be fun to meet up online after all! Be the bff's we were always meant to be!
Ami sighed. So this is why she wanted to go. Akkino had been trying to meet up with her in eden for a while. And she liked Akkino, sure, but she didn't know if she wanted to make that leap from text buddies to online avatar buddies.
Sure Akkino and Blue Box were her best friends. She had been communicating with them for years now, but she would have preferred their first meeting to be a little less stressful than trying to locate a hacker.
Blue Box: I'll go if you're going. I mean I wouldn't want you to be left alone. This situation does sound dangerous after all.
So Blue Box is going too? I guess he really does care about Akkino's safety. I always knew they were friends deep down.
Akkino: Aww, are you hitting on me? I knew my cute charm came across in just text too! I mean seeing my gorgeous body helps too but-
Blue Box: Ew yuck. Not in your wildest dreams.
Akkino: Well you don't have to be rude about it. I didn't like you that much either. Don't worry.
Akkino did sound a little offended that she wasn't being hit on.
AIOBA: I'll go. I'll meet up with you.
Akkino: Yay! Me and AIOBA are going to be the cutest duo ever. And I guess you'll third wheel, Blue Box. Sucks to be you.
Ami finally spoke up, with her decision. She was putting off meeting her best friends for far too long. There was no reason to be afraid. And Akkino's energy might put her in danger, it's just like Blue Box said.
This didn't have to be a dramatic situation, this could just be uncovering a mystery. It could be turned into a fun and easy first meet up.
There was no reason for Ami to be nervous. And that's what she kept telling herself.
But if that was the case why was her heart beating faster? Why did she feel a degree of fear?
I never have this problem in school with friends, or talking to people in real life. Why does talking to people in Eden always worry me?
She didn't know. All she knew was that when she really closed her eyes tight she would always see a white face that looked like it was all pixelated. The only thing clear was the blobby and black hair.
"Eden would never have done this! This wasn't Eden's fault! He's alive! He really is! ...Eden couldn't have killed him!" The child's voice would echo in her head.
And she didn't know. She didn't ever know why this child haunted her. She had never met that black haired child in her life.
She had no clue who they were.
But tomorrow she had to go into Eden.
Ami laid down in her bed the next morning and put on her headset. She watched as the world warped around her and she entered the world of Eden.
"Welcome to the virtual garden known as Eden! Eden is a virtual world that provides the services you need to maintain life in a generation filled with digital content." The welcome message filled Ami's ears. Her previous body was no longer there.
"The future of technology is not behind a screen it is through virtual reality. I will be happy to walk you through more of our services and we thank you for using Eden- provided by Kamishiro Enterprises." The message ended.
She was completely unconnected to her real body, all that was left was this virtual world and this cyber body. It felt exactly like her real one, it looked exactly like her real one, and she could feel everything in this world as if it was the real world.
It was just like going outside, except her real body was lying on a bed as if it was browsing the internet on a cellphone.
Her self made avatar looked exactly like she did. Pink hair in a pigtail, a goggle like compact and yellow and black socks and shirt.
Of course it does. She reminded herself. After all designing your avatar to be something different breaches the terms of service. Sure weirdos did it, it was about as illegal as pirating but it was still wrong!
An ethical person would never design themselves to look like a monster. Or...An animal thing. But did she trust all of Eden's users to be ethical?
Ami arrived in the eden entrance where most people met up. It looked mostly like it was some giant floating white boards, in a place where the sky was completely white like an open word document.
There were some benches around everywhere and some adult people walking around with devices probably calling others their co-workers to come, but besides that Ami didn't recognize anyone besides a few Mr. Navit's wandering around with items for sale and fake cyber drinks.
Blue Box and Akkino agreed to meet here, right? Ami realized for a second, panicking that she had not double checked the meeting location. Heck, I don't even know what their real names are!
She could definitely walk up to someone and call them Akkino. It sounded like a real name, but how could she walk up to someone, stare them in the eye and say 'hey blue box?'
God I'm so happy they don't have stupider names than what they chose. The bigger issue was that she didn't know what they looked like either. I'm sure Blue Box has blue hair because his avatar has blue hair but Akkino? A real life person can't look like a jellyfish.
Weird hair wasn't that weird after all. She had pink hair. Blue Box could definitely have blue hair since the most defining thing about him was that his name was Blue.
Ami quickly looked around the eden entrance for anyone who could resemble a jellyfish or a blue haired individual. But there was nothing.
"Where are my friends? This is why going into eden to meet new people is so hard. Because some people just forget to ask their online friends for names!" Ami sighed. She sat down on a bench wondering if she should ditch Eden entirely.
Then her digivice started ringing. Kind of clumsily Ami grabbed it off her head. She always liked to keep it in her goggle like hairband.
The digivice was the thing that helped people communicate in Eden. It was like a cellphone except it was always connected to your eden account. Ami was sure it was just a gimmick to sell more products since it was one of those things that you had to buy with the virtual reality headset. But she liked that it felt real and was in real life too.
"Hello?" Ami answered her digivice. An image appeared in front of her like it was a screen. Although she was sure only she could see the image that was visibly in front of her.
"You're running late!" A Mr. Navit with an incredibly angry expression was in front of her. His robotic face all red instead of the happy blue. "Be here in the Galacta Park in Kowloon to get your surprise!"
Ah. So this is the same hacked Mr. Navit as yesterday. So that's where we were supposed to receive our 'surprises'. Ami realized.
Before she could fumble a response the image disappeared. "Thanks for telling me where I'm supposed to go, I guess."
Kowloon if she remembered correctly reading in a magazine was a public place for hang outs. It usually was known as more dangerous than the better maintained servers like the eden entrance. A lot of hacker groups liked to hang around the area along with people who just liked to hang around in the parks.
Ami quickly stood on the circle pad that allowed her to change urls to go to different areas. I hope Blue Box and Akkino are waiting for me.
Blue box might be. He seemed to be smart. He would know where to go. Akkino? She wasn't too sure. She could be lost.
The world of kowloon looked weird. That was one way to describe it. It was nothing like anything Ami could imagine as she floated through the sky, as her particles were transmitted to the entrance.
It looked entirely digital for one thing, everything seemed to be made out of blocks and have tough edges. Sure there were colorful lights and amusement park rides like ferris wheels all over the place but something about it was weird. Perhaps it was the contrast of the deep blue colors everywhere verses the white of the rest of Eden. Maybe it was the fact that power lines were thrown about going to nowhere.
Ami landed near someone in a park, with pink hair like hers. The girl had a cute style to her hair in pink pigtails a pink jacket with a lot of buttons and a short blue dress covered by her pink jacket.
What was most surprising about the girl though was her pouting expression. "You have got to be joking!" She moaned, an odd brattiness in her voice. "I keep trying to shoo people away from here so I can meet up with my best friend! Now I gotta shoo another one away just so we can go on get some mystery gift?"
Ami looked sort of awkward. Well she doesn't look like a jellyfish, but she does talk like Akkino. "Umm...Are you Akkino?" She tried to ask.
The girl covered her mouth in surprise. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were AIOBA! I wouldn't have been so rude if I had known!"
Ami giggled a bit, "It's all right, I'm just happy to meet you-"
"And oh my gosh, you're so much cuter than I imagined! I mean I knew you were a girl in college and I knew you had pink hair-" Akkino clearly wasn't listening to her, too busy talking.
"Why did you think I had pink hair?" Ami tried to ask.
"You just struck me as that." Akkino said quickly brushing that subject away, "I just...I knew you were cute, but you really are cute! We're going to be the most beautiful girls in all of eden on this mission-"
Ami tuned out some of Akkino's compliments trying to gather her own words, "Umm...Hello...It's nice to see you, officially I mean. Meet you. I mean." She fumbled, "My real name's Ami. What's yours?"
Akkino giggled at Ami's fumbly introduction. "Is this like...Your first time logging into Eden? You don't seem to be too used to these online interactions. It's just like real life Ami! It's like one of those virtual reality animes." She giggled. "Nothing to worry about."
"I...I don't use eden much." Ami admitted.
"Well no wonder you never wanted to meet up before, you're not used to things! My name's Nokia Shiramine. It's great to finally meet you." Nokia grinned.
"It's good to meet you too, Nokia-" Ami was cut off again by Nokia's need to talk.
"Now where were you? I was left waiting here all alone in such a dangerous place! I bet if you were left alone in a place like this you'd be scared. Wouldn't you?" Nokia cried. "It was so hard, Ami. So hard. Why'd you leave me?"
"I um...got lost. I didn't know where to meet up." Ami defended. I know shouting is the way Nokia makes friends and teasing but it's a little too much in person. "But you weren't alone, right? Blue Box was here with you."
Nokia groaned. "Oh. Don't get me started on that guy. He showed up then he ran off on his own saying that he had seen a ghost and he left me all alone. Can you believe how rude that is?" Nokia shook her head. "I don't want to hear about that jerk."
"A ghost?" Ami asked. Could ghosts show up in Eden?
"Yeah, I linked to an article about it once, remember? The ghost in eden known as the pale boy. You guys never believed me when I talked about someone seeing it before, but I guess Blue Box thinks that he's a more credible source than me and is suddenly interested in it now." Nokia sighed. "He's so rude and full of himself! I don't know why he agreed to come along."
"Well I think he was worried about you-" Ami was cut off again.
"Well I mean it's just us girls now, maybe that's better? I mean I always did want it to be just us girls. He's a third wheel after all. It's better that we take down the hacker on our own. We're powerful!" Nokia boasted. "So…? Where do you want to go first?"
"Third wheel, huh?" A deep voice teased. "I didn't know you felt that way about Aioba, Nokia."
Nokia jumped at the sound of someone having sneaked up behind her. As she spun around she saw someone dressed entirely in a blue tracksuit like thing with a hoodie. He had black wild looking hair.
"Arata! You spooked me a bit, I thought you were that ghost you went looking for." Nokia gasped, looking like she was having a heart attack.
The most disappointing thing about him. Ami thought to herself. Is that he doesn't have blue hair. Sure he wore a blue outfit, but black hair? She never would have guessed.
Blue Box did not have blue hair and was named Arata it seemed.
"Why'd you come hunting a hacker if you got scared by ghosts? Don't worry I'm here now so you don't have to pretend to be tough." Arata sighed.
"I'm not pretending! I am tough! And I'm not a coward! And I'm not afraid!" Nokia yelled in a retort.
They act just like they act in the chat. Ami realized. Always arguing.
"Anyway, I'm Arata Sanada. It's nice to meet you." Arata greeted Ami.
Ami shook his hand. "I'm Ami...It's really surprising you know that you don't have blue hair."
"Oh that's not all that's surprising." Nokia tried to step in and tease Arata some more. "He looks kind of slimey, you know? Got this creepy look in his eyes and everything and he acts totally egotistical. He wierds me out."
"Be quiet. My appearance isn't important." Arata scolded.
"Did you find that ghost you were looking for?" Ami tried to make conversation.
Arata quickly shook his head. "Nope. And I didn't find Mr. Navit either. In fact besides the people you shooed away Nokia and got to log out, there's no one else in Kowloon. Which is weird. This place is known for having people around."
"That's weird...I would assume if some big hacker was keeping this area unable to be accessed kamishiro would know about it, right?" Ami asked.
"Maybe it's some big practical joke." Nokia suggested. "Some online friends organized this or something so they could make fun of me."
Before Arata could tell her that was stupid, their digivice buzzed and Mr. Navit was on a screen in front of all of them.
"Hello! It's me, Mr. Navit. As promised I have a present for you good people who showed up today." The happy little robot told them.
It looked more like the real Mr. Navit than it had before.
There was static in front of Ami and she clutched her head. Arata, and Nokia clutched their heads too obviously also seeing the static. After a second it had finished.
"What happened?" Nokia asked, "That...That felt weird."
"We were hacked. Our digivices were hacked." Arata frowned. "Whoever that hacker is? They're good. I mean they even hacked me. And I have a lot stronger security than you two." He boasted. "Can I see your…?"
Ami handed Arata her digivice.
"A program was installed in our digivices called 'digimon capture' I think it helps with controlling the hacker program known as digimon." Arata shook his head. "Or well...Storing their data that is. You can't really use them without this program."
"Wait...You mean like the digimon I was talking about yesterday? The dangerous monster programs used by hackers!?" Nokia yelled, terrified. "If we can use them now does that mean...Oh no...They've forced us to become hackers! We fell right into their trap."
"Relax." Arata snickered a bit. "There's no digimon on the device. And you're not a hacker just because you have a program."
"Did this program get added to your device too, Arata?" Ami asked, seeing Arata fiddle with her digivice instead of his.
"...Yeah." Arata responded unconvincingly. Seeing that Ami was looking at him suspiciously he laughed again. "Nothing gets by you, huh, Miss Detective?" He sometimes liked to tease Ami and call her that, because she liked to analyze things. "I got hacked just like the rest of you, didn't I? So of course I have it too now." He handed Ami back her digivice.
She remained unconvinced.
"I want to delete this! I don't want any part in this hacker thing! I'm a good person! I only cheated on a test four times!" Nokia began to cry, "How do I get this thing off?"
"The program's protected, idiot. You can't delete it." Arata tried to tell her as she started shaking her digivice around.
Ami ignored their arguing as usual. However in the distance she saw a figure, but it quickly disappeared. "Arata…? Was that the hacker who controlled, Mr. Navit?"
Arata stopped arguing immediately. "Don't let that guy get away!" He charged after the direction Ami pointed in.
"Oh no way. I'm not going to chase after some scary hacker too." Nokia shook her head. "I'm going home before I get even more wrapped up in this illegal mess. I shouldn't have come here. Ami, you come too. It's probably safer elsewhere." She turned around to go to the log out pad.
However there was a giant wall in front of the log out pad. It was known as a firewall and was impossible to get through. And forced log outs were well known as dangerous.
"N-no...No way...Someone has to be joking...Have they trapped me in here? Does this mean I have to go to the hacker?" Nokia realized. "Ami...Ami! What do I do?" She whined.
"I think I read once that there's always multiple log out pads." Ami replied. "Maybe there's another further inside?"
Nokia wiped away some tears and nodded. "You're right. Wow, Ami, you're a lot tougher than I first thought. You're right, together we can make it through this place and escape without getting involved with hackers."
"..Shouldn't we try to help Arata though too?" Ami suggested.
"He can help himself. He's the one who ditched us and went chasing after an illusion." Nokia shrugged. "Come on, it's just you and me! We can get out of here."
Nokia offered her hand putting on a brave face. Ami didn't take it and instead walked forward heading deeper into kowloon.
I knew coming to Eden was a bad idea. But I don't think we're in any danger. I don't feel like a hacker would try to like...murder us or anything.
Ami knew enough about the eden server that killing someone online didn't mean they died in real life. Sure pain could be experienced, she was pretty sure (not like she had tested that) but death….? That didn't happen online.
So Ami kept walking.
Ami must have been walking faster than Nokia, or perhaps Nokia was too scared to continue deeper but eventually Ami didn't know where she was nor where either of friends were. She knew she was looking for Arata though.
In a clear area she saw an odd shiny figure, it looked like blue light but was pale white. The boy's form seemed turned away from her. Before Ami could shout out to them they disappeared.
Was that the ghost that people were talking about? Ami wondered. She did know that people complained about seeing a ghost of a pale boy. But it had just been the flicker of an image of a boy.
The logical part of her wanted to say it was an error made by eden or a practical joke by the eden staff. Everything was cyber after all, it could have just been programmed.
The image appeared again in front of her in the distance but would flicker away like a light. Suddenly Ami had a massive headache and everything seemed blurry and static. There were just black outs of the image of kowloon and the boy would get closer and closer.
Ami collapsed and in her hazy image she could see that the boy was next to her, his hand inching towards her face.
For some reason she didn't feel scared though, for once she felt at peace. He opened his mouth to say something to her.
His words never came, instead she blacked out, lying on the ground on kowloon. Was he a hallucination? A memory? A prank? She didn't know.
But she felt like he was real.
"Are you okay, Miss?" Ami heard a calm voice near her and opened her eyes to see the legs of the hallucination boy in front of her.
Arata? She wanted to ask, but when her vision came too she saw someone who was clearly not Arata.
It was the image of a pale boy. Except it looked more real. It looked exactly like the ghost she had seen earlier, long thin legs, white fluffy jacket, except his hair seemed to be pale white perhaps further concreting the 'ghost' look.
The person had white hair and could only be described as looking like a ghost.
"Yeah...I just...Collapsed. I must have been confused when I saw you." Ami decided. This boy looked exactly like the one she had seen then.
The person put his hand by his side and stared her down with cold eyes. "Ah yes. Don't worry about it. A lot of people confuse me for a ghost. I think it's my white hair." He sounded thoughtful. "Or it could be the rumors about me. People call me the wraith of eden."
Ami tried to get up. The person offered her a hand. His touch was gentle and he tried to give a kind of calm smile.
"You don't have to be so scared you collapse from the sight of me though. I assure you I'm very real and no ghost." The boy assured.
"Sorry...I'm not...I don't collapse usually. I'm in great health in real life. Maybe I just don't mesh well with eden." Ami apologized.
"Is this your first time?" The person asked curiously. "Most people usually spend quite a great amount of time on Eden. I mean I'm surprised to meet anyone actually who's not used to Eden." Despite his surprise, his expression seemed kind of plastic.
Ami nodded. "I...I don't know why but Eden's just kinda….Worried me? That's probably silly to say." She tried to smile. "You probably think I'm weird.
The person shook his head but didn't say anything in response. He looked gently at her, and patient with her story. "I understand."
He was quiet for a moment until his eyes glinted as he saw her digivice. "I see you have the program for digimon capture installed. Despite not being here long you've been chosen as a hacker, I see." He noted.
Ami put her digivice behind her, unsure of how he was able to see that so quickly. Who is this guy? She wondered and wanted to ask. He didn't have a nickname that she could refer to him as. Maybe he was just 'the ghost boy.'
"Ah, I see you're a little confused." The person smiled, "I am a person who exists to guide people who are lost, like yourself. It seems you are lost as to what your purpose is."
"I'm actually lost in like...general. Not in a philosophical way." Ami corrected.
"But...Do you know your purpose? Do you know why you were chosen as a hacker or what hackers even do?" The ghostly boy asked.
"I...I'm just a college student. I don't really want to like...steal data I think?" She questioned as to what these people called hackers actually did.
The ghost boy shook his head. "It's true some hackers do steal data, but a lot of hackers do other things like find errors and report them, band together to become a chivalrous team, or try to protect eden in their own way. Others fight with their digimon just to prove their skill. But….You don't look like you'll be one of those who steal." He decided.
"Why do you say that?" Ami asked.
"Perhaps it's wishful thinking of wanting more good hackers in this world. Perhaps I just don't think a fledgling hacker can so quickly sink to evil." The boy shook his head. "But my guesses mean nothing. What do you want to be?"
"I don't know." Ami responded honestly, her feet twitched. She didn't know where she was or where her friends were. All she was was lost.
"You truly are just an egg, unhatched." The boy shook his head. "But in reality you don't even have to be a hacker if you don't want to. You could be anything. That's the great thing about Eden, it gives you limitless possibilities."
He paused and Ami realized he was giving her the chance to speak, something Nokia rarely did. She was at a loss for words though. "I...I don't really know. I don't know anything."
The person nodded. "Let me help then. You came to this area because you were interested in hackers were you not? The rumors that a hacker would be here?"
Ami finally nodded. She had come to help Nokia find a hacker. And...Hackers do interest me a little. I have heard a lot about Zaxon on the news. They sound...Nice.
"And now you have a digimon capture program because of that." The person concluded. "So why don't you give it a try? Experiment with it and then you'll know more and be able to make an educated decision."
"But I haven't even seen any of these digital monster things roaming around." Ami replied. "I'm not sure how to use a capture device, and I don't know if I even want to capture something that roams around on it's own."
The person nodded. "They're a bit like pets for some people, and tools for others. But your device will just give you the ability to care for them. You don't have to capture any against your will." He paused again. "I actually have three digimon right now, I'll give you one to be your partner and it will help you better understand Eden and experience it."
Ami's eyes widened. He'll give me one? Were they like...Little friendly robot things that could help lead someone through eden?
The person whistled and three creatures ran towards them. They didn't look anything like Ami had imaged.
They looked like friendly little monsters, they looked real...They didn't look like programs at all.
"I have three. But I would love for you to choose the one who fits with you best." The person instructed.
Ami looked amazed at the three obedient creatures. One looked like some sort of plant creature another was made out of gears and another looked like some floppy white and green rabbit.
"Hello! We're digimon. Will you be the hacker we partner up with?" The plant asked.
"We were watching from some of the bricks. You passed out didn't you? You poor thing." The rabbit had a slightly feminine voice but had big large and cute eyes.
They can talk? Ami wondered. They didn't look like just programs.
"I think the programmer who made them gave them each a personality. I'm not sure why." The person rubbed his head. "Have you decided on your partner?"
"That one." Ami pointed, there was something friendly about the white and green rabbit. Perhaps it was the big floppy ears and eager eyes. Also the curiosity in its eyes were also filled with worry.
"I knew she'd choose me, what did I say?" The rabbit boasted.
"It's called a Terriermon." The person smiled, "And it looks like it fits you."
Terriermon raised it's arms to let Ami pick it up. Ami picked up the rabbit creature. It was soft, but not as fluffy as she imagined.
What does a hacker do with these things? Ami found herself asking.
Terriermon reached up like it had it's own mind and swished a falling piece of hair out of her face. "I'm your partner. You don't have to worry about collapsing anymore. I'll protect you."
"I don't faint usually. That was rare." Ami tried to reassure, still feeling bizarre for talking to a monster. This entire day had been like some fever dream.
"I promise." Terriermon's big eyes were wide and it shushed her. It's hands papping her cheeks felt gentle. It was almost motherly in it's affectionate.
Ami hadn't seen her mother for a long time. She was working over seas. But there was something sweet about this creature.
"It looks like you're bonding already." The ghost boy said in front of her looking relieved, "You seem quiet kind towards your digimon. I don't talk to my digimon quite as much." He admitted. "I...I believe that you'll be a kind hacker."
He watched Ami and Terriermon play for a moment
"I need to tell you though that the stronger you get as a hacker the stronger your digital monster will become. If you choose to, you could train and immense power would be yours." He said rather cryptically. "Just remember to be responsible if you ever get that power. Hackers need to remember to be responsible, and never succumb to the throws of chaos."
Ami looked at him oddly. "I'm not after power." She replied honestly, "I was just curious as you said. I wanted to know about this digimon device. Thank you for showing me." Terriermon climbed onto her shoulder.
"You're welcome. I wanted to help someone confused." The ghostly boy responded. "And I wanted to show you that hacker programs aren't scary. Hackers have been with Eden since it's creation. And the first duty of a hacker is to protect Eden, not harm."
Ami thought for a moment. "Are you a hacker?" With the way the ghostly boy was talking he sure did have a lot of good things to say about hackers. She covered her mouth. "Sorry that was abrupt! I didn't mean to ask you something so blunt."
The ghostly boy smiled for a moment and raised his arm. "You are very kind and thoughtful. I think you will be an irregularity among our kind." With the raising his arm he summoned his digimon.
It looked like a giant metal dinosaur with giant claws and blasters. It was huge. "Machinedramon." The boy spoke, "Is my partner. And yes, I am a hacker." He had a spark in his eyes. "I'm glad I could make your acquaintance..."
"Ami." Ami replied.
"Oh your name is Ami, huh?" Terriermon asked. "Pretty name. Don't you think so too?"
The ghostly boy didn't answer. "It's nice to meet you. I hope your digimon helps lead you through kowloon and helps you not be so lost." He turned around with his digimon.
"Wait! Before you go..." Ami tried to stop him, "Have you seen my friend? I think he went in this direction. He was wearing a large coat..."
"Ah yes. The other weird one." The ghostly boy nodded. "I offered him one of these three digimon but he did not take it nor want it. I really did think he would take the one made out of gears." He pointed across some platforms, "He went to the area over there. There's a logout zone there so if you want to leave I would suggest following the path as well."
"Thank you!" Ami nodded. The ghost boy started to walk away but then turned around.
"I didn't tell you my name, did I?" The boy asked. "I'm Yuugo. Yuugo from Team Zaxon."
"Zaxon?" Ami asked. The biggest hacking group? The one always blamed on the news?
Yuugo smiled, "I see you've heard of us. I would advise you to join us if you want to become the best that there is. We're incredibly strong." He boasted a little bit.
Before Ami could reject his offer he checked his watch. "Ah, I got to go." He turned around to walk away. "But remember Ami, our doors are always open to you. I'm sure you could make a great hacker. Zaxon needs kind people like you."
And with that he bid her farewell and left. Ami watched him go.
He seemed kind. Ami thought to herself. I mean he was a hacker but does that matter? He helped give me support when I was lost. And she sure did like the Terriermon looking at her.
Something about him was so mysterious, but it drew her curiosity. Perhaps it was how gentle he was, she always did trust gentle people.
She tried to shake Yuugo out of her head and follow his advice to where Arata was.
Nokia walked into an open area with several arches. Her legs were wobbling and she was scared.
"Where did those two go? AMI! This isn't fun! Where are you? Let's go!" She pouted. If this was a prank it was a bad one.
First Arata had barreled off to look around and next her bff Ami.
She heard some noise in the distance. "Augh! What if those are the hackers that got Ami! What if hackers kidnapped Ami?" She covered her mouth scared.
There was someone running. She clamped her mouth shut and tried to listen.
"Quickly!" A high-pitch voice said.
"You're going to fast." Another deeper voice responded. Like a flash of lightning it looked like little monsters had ran past Nokia.
Nokia peered towards the end of what looked like a hall. And then two heads bobbed forward and peered towards her.
"Quiet." The cute orange dinosaur looking one said. And then a striped blue reptilian thing was above it staring down at Nokia.
Kowloon was weird. She never should have come here.
"AHH!"
Ami heard a girl scream. She chased after the sound and quickly found Nokia, surrounded by two digimon running around her.
"AHH! AHH!" Nokia screamed. "What are these things?" She looked like she was frozen in terror as the two ran around her, looking like they were playing.
"Who are you?" The orange dinosaur asked, ignoring Nokia's question.
"Wait, you can talk?" Nokia was still completely terrified but now she was a little more confused. "Wait are you those digimon I keep hearing about! God you are pretty cute so you must be digimon."
"Nokia, are you all right?" Ami asked.
"I think the poor thing's frightened to death." Terriermon didn't sound like it had much sympathy. It was snickering a bit in fact.
Nokia barely looked at the digimon on Ami's shoulder. "Y-yeah! No thanks to you! Ditcher!" She teased. "M-my name's Nokia! What's your's?" She stuttered out to the digimon.
"I'm Agumon!" Agumon responded.
"And...I'm Gabumon." The striped one was more quiet.
Nokia stopped raising her arms in fear and smiled. "You've got some weird names." She giggled a bit. "You're not so scary. Are these digimon what everybody's making the fuss about?"
"Weird? But...You've got the weird name. You're not a Nokiamon. Where's your mon?" Agumon asked confused.
Gabumon nodded in agreement.
"I'm not weird!" Nokia smiled and complained. "My name is cute."
Agumon and Gabumon stopped talking and stared at her.
"What?" Nokia asked. "Aww, am I so beautiful I left you speechless?" She teased.
"No..You smell familiar." Agumon sniffed. "I don't get it."
"Yeah...She does smell familiar. And reassuring." Gabumon agreed. "Like something from our past?"
Nokia giggled. "See? Saying a girl's familiar and sweet is how you treat someone when you first meet. Not ditching them." She teased Ami. "Well...Don't smell me I guess. That's kind of weird." She noticed the digimon on Ami's shoulder. "You found one too?"
"I'm Ami's partner. Who are you?" Terriermon sort of bristled defensively.
"This is my friend, Nokia." Ami introduced. She nodded. "When I was looking for Arata and a way out this nice boy gave me one."
Nokia frowned at that comment. "So you ditched me to pick up boys?" She teased.
Ami shook her head. "I think we just ran into each other."
"Ah so it was a meet cute? You know I can do a meet cute too. I'm pretty cute myself..." Nokia was being a little bashful but Ami wasn't really paying attention to her. Instead she was looking at the digimon who were inching away.
"It's a scary person and digimon!" Gabumon complained.
Terriermon stuck out it's tongue. "Get lost, wimps."
"Hey, that's not nice!" Nokia frowned at Ami's digimon, "And you don't have to be scared. Ami's my friend guys."
"She's scary!" Agumon agreed, and with that Gabumon and Agumon both ran away quickly.
"Wait!" Nokia sighed. It was too late, they were gone. "I guess it's okay. Those little guys had places to be after all. They seemed busy." She sighed again. She liked them though. "I guess digimon aren't as scary as I thought. Who knows maybe this digimon capture device could be useful? Agumon and Gabumon seemed cool after all."
"Not all digimon aren't scary. Some can be." Terriermon tried to tease.
"Are there more little guys around this area, Ami?" Nokia asked. "What if Arata's in trouble himself if digimon are scary? We need to find him." She decided.
"There's a logout area over there." Ami pointed. "I heard someone say they saw Arata go that way too."
Nokia nodded. "Well then since you've got the digimon I'll follow your lead."
"Do...You ever feel deju vu, Ami?" Nokia asked, "Or well...A feeling of unexplained nostalgia or that you've met someone or done something before?"
"You mean do I feel lost?" Ami asked, "Yeah I can't tell any of this scenery apart." She just wanted to find Arata and hopefully leave Eden.
"No, I mean...Is there any sort of feelings you can't really explain? Like...When I met those digimon they felt nostalgic. Like I've met them before or something." Nokia explained her feeling. Do you ever feel like that?
"Eden didn't kill him. Eden couldn't have." Ami heard the child's voice in her head. The unexplained mystery of who that was or why she had a fear of Eden.
She just shook her head. "I've...Never felt like that. Like an unexplained feeling like that."
"Oh. Well sometimes I feel like important things have happened in my childhood. Adventures like this." Nokia replied. "Like everyone else is forgetting something important except for me. You know?"
Ami was quiet but shook her head again. She covered her ears to silence the child.
"...You don't feel like we've...ever met before?" Nokia asked carefully, nibbling a bit on her lip. "Like in person, not in chat."
Ami looked confused. I'm not sure what she's getting at but maybe to let her know that I should hear her I should respond like she would in this situation? "Are you hitting on me?" Ami smiled and teased trying to be more like Nokia.
Nokia was silent. "Maybe it's just me...Maybe I'm just making things up….Or maybe I'm the only one who remembers." She sighed.
Ami felt static rip through her head. She covered her eye trying to will out the image. But she saw it anyway in black and white.
There was this reoccurring image in her mind like some memory she had never lived of five children, she tried to never focus on them in her memories. They were just black, white and gray blotches.
She didn't want to see those ghost children. Who were they? She didn't want to think about them?
Nokia looked concerned but said nothing. "We...We should get going." She decided knowing this conversation topic was hurting Ami.
"Y-yeah." Ami agreed.
"Are you okay?" Terriermon asked
"Yeah." Ami lied. It was just a reoccurring weird thing.
"If...If something's wrong...Talking to your digimon can help. I can't share your memories but I do feel your feelings." Terriermon confessed. "I can help. That's why you chose me. To help."
Ami said nothing and just continued walking. She didn't notice the flickering image of a ghost behind her.
Ami finally saw Arata standing next to the logout panel.
"Who was he? I know I saw a flicker of some image...But it can't really be a ghost can it? It's gotta be some hacker's prank." Arata was talking to himself. "Ugh why can't I stop thinking about it?"
"Arata-!" Ami tried to wave, but Nokia interrupted her as usual.
"Thanks for ditching me, jerk! You're part of a group right now! And you can't just think about yourself." She scolded placing her hands on her hips and yelling.
As Nokia yelled at Arata like usual Ami felt the flicker of static again go across her vision. I wonder if something is wrong with my eden headset. She realized.
But then she saw Nokia and Arata look up to. They had seen it that time?
A bright light appeared in the sky along with a golden circle surrounding it. The light seemed to open up like a hole in time.
And then Ami could only describe it as a nightmare, crawled out. A strange white creature that resembled an octopus covered in barcodes squirmed out of the hole and dropped down in front of them. It had a giant red core that looked like it should be an eye and it lit up and stared at them.
"Ami. Ami. Get your friends out of here. That thing...That thing is dangerous." Terriermon whispered jumping down in front of Ami.
Ami could feel her blood run cold.
"W-what...What is that?" Nokia asked shivering.
"Must be a digimon." Arata decided. "What else could it be? Or maybe it's that rumored black and white monster of Eden you linked us to. You know...The one that devours peoples data? Like a garbage disposal?" He teased.
Nokia wasn't in a teasing mood for once she was completely silent.
Arata stopped teasing realizing whatever that giant monster was was serious. And for some reason he felt his hands get clammy too. "Ami, Nokia, listen to me...Run. Log out."
Ami moved immediately towards the log out panel, but Nokia didn't. She was paralyzed by fear.
"Nokia, come on! You need to move!" Arata yelled, as the tentacle thing moved closer to Nokia. "Nokia!" There was no longer any teasing or scolding words, he sounded really worried.
"Umm..." Nokia just stood there in utter terror unable to move.
Before the thing reached Nokia, the two digimon who had befriended Nokia before ran over, pushing her out of the way. Their claws were out, ready to fight.
"Hey, it's you!" Nokia seemed to snap out of it.
"We'll protect you!" Agumon declared.
"Log out like your friend said. This thing is dangerous." Gabumon instructed.
Arata stood by the panel waiting for Nokia to join him. "I'll distract it, you go to the log out zone. Now!" He volunteered, staring at the tentacle monster.
For some reason Arata's words sounded so stern, so serious. And for some reason despite their calmness they scared Ami more than anything.
"I'll distract it." A child's voice was in her head. Ami didn't know who's. But she couldn't let Arata be the same as the child.
"No!" Ami screamed running forward to fight with Gabumon and Agumon. Her fear, her emotions running wild. Arata let her push him out of the way to fight.
A bright light surrounded Terriermon in honor of Ami's emotions. In front of Ami stood a much larger digimon about her size with giant machine guns on it's hands.
Gargomon.
"I'll protect you. That's what I swore as your partner." Gargomon vowed shooting at the monster as Agumon and Gabumon sprayed it with something that resembled fire.
None of the bullets seemed to do anything to the giant monster. The monster didn't even notice the fire, it just kept slithering forward, creeping closer and closer to Ami and her friends.
"Why am I so weak?" Agumon cried. "We have to help them...But we're not doing anything at all to it!"
"Nokia, log out! Now!" Arata ordered, trying to make sure his friends were safe first.
"But...But what about the digimon?" Nokia asked worriedly.
"They'll be fine! You being here and in danger is holding them back. They can't use this whole field to fight because we're here!" Arata yelled, "So you've gotta leave and be safe!"
Nokia nodded and since Arata had told her she could go, she immediately ran into the log out zone, beaming up and away.
Arata smiled, glad that at least one of them was out of there. He glanced at Ami. "I'll go next!" He decided seeing that the monster was closest to Ami since she had rushed forward to distract it. "You follow after me!" He ordered.
"Okay-" She couldn't finish because Arata had taken the opportunity to leave. He had acted tough despite his fears of that big giant thing.
They're both safe. Now I can go too. Ami realized. She ran towards the log out zone as gargomon ran next to her, trying to protect her. I'm almost there….
The monster followed after her swiping for her feet, she stumbled as she ran, but kept on running as it kept swiping.
Just as her hand reached the logout panel the monster got her. She could feel it's spikey tentacle on her leg as she grabbed her.
"Force log out!" She cried the moment it touched her. She saw Gargomon turn blue and staticy. It almost looked like the digimon was getting smaller.
But everything blacked out before she could focus on it. She only heard and saw static as she disappeared.
"Warning, an unexpected error occurred during the logout process for Ami Aiba. The logout process can not continue.
The logout process can not continue.
The logout process can not continue."
Ami didn't hear the words in her head, she saw them float by. She didn't hear much of anything right now.
An error occurred? She wondered. What...What happened then?
"Logout successful! Thank you for using Eden!" The words suddenly flashed by her head.
Ami imagined that she smiled in relief.
She was safe then!
Then why don't I feel safe? She wondered.
Slowly though she started hearing things again, she could hear bustling streets and people walking by.
I logged into Eden in my room though. The light bothered her eyes.
"What's that? It looks gross." Someone said.
"How did they get their body like that?" Another asked.
"It must be a publicity stunt." Another laughed.
Ami slowly realized what she was. She was in the middle of a crowded street, but her body wasn't the same. Her entire body was made out of digital data and sparkling. She could see that she had a silhouette in her hands, but she couldn't see her. She didn't have skin. She just had little digitalized parts of her.
She was just blue patched pieces.
She wanted to scream but she didn't have a mouth.
"God that's gross! Get out of the street or I'm going to arrest you!" A police officer yelled. She barely noticed the rude police officer.
What...What...What happened to my body? Ami felt terrified. What was she? All she could hear was the chanting of people calling her a monster.
She couldn't cry because she didn't have eyes.
A car drove by and skidded right next to Ami before the police officer could arrest her. The car seemed to drive between Ami and the police officer.
Then the passenger door flung open, with a woman inside. The woman didn't seem to have a proper shirt on, just leaving a white t shirt hanging hugely open and looked like she was in her mid 30's. She had long blonde hair and pink sunglasses. Despite her weird looking shirt she looked trendy. Perhaps she was a model.
She tapped the seat next to her and smiled, "Get in." She offered. "You have a very interesting condition and I'd like to help you." She explained.
Ami couldn't ask her why, she didn't have a mouth and she didn't have time. So she cautiously got into the woman's car.
The car drove away from the police and onlookers immediately with Ami inside.
"You can't talk right now, can you? I mean you don't have a mouth." The woman realized. "Don't worry though, I'm used to the very strange. It doesn't bother me."
The woman thought for a moment. "I realize now that I don't know if you can hear me. If you don't have a mouth that means there's a chance you don't have ears. Can you hear me?"
Ami nodded, desperate for someone, anyone to help her.
"Oh good. I mean I knew you used to be human but I didn't know what I would do if you couldn't understand me." The woman sighed. "You must be very confused. Do you know why this happened to you?"
Ami shook her head. That was all she could do in her condition after all.
"I unfortunately don't know why this happened either. But I'm a detective so I can fashion some guesses as to what's going on." The woman paused. "Your body is in an extreme digital state which I wasn't sure was possible on this plane. It's as if your body is an avatar in eden yet somehow managed to logout into this world. It's very interesting."
The woman thought for a moment. "This is a solely unique phenomenon I've never heard of this happening before. I think you're the only one who gets to be this lucky."
I'd call it unlucky. Ami wanted to frown. If it was only her who had a digital body that meant that Arata and Nokia probably logged out safely though.
"Oh don't worry about anything right now. I can't see your face but I can read nervous body movements." The woman reassured. "Just worry about yourself. You seem to be in dire situations."
She thought again. "You're in Shinjuku by the way. I was out doing work when I found you." The woman smiled, an oddly friendly smile. "I'm going back to my office in Nakano where I can help you probably."
Ami didn't say anything she couldn't.
"Oh I've forgotten to say who I am. I'm..." The woman paused. "Kyoko Kuremi." She spoke abruptly. "And I'm a detective."
And with that Kyoko continued driving her car. And Ami was left to her own thoughts and horror at the state of her body.
If you haven't played cyber sleuth please tell me in a review if I need more or less details to make things make sense. My goal is for this story to be able to be understood by people who haven't played the game.