Digimon World
Heroes of Terminal Island pt. 1
It wasn't like he had raised it on purpose.
The young man could not shake this feeling as he paced down the hallway of the apartment complex-thunder roared in the distance, and lightning flashed through the openings that the balcony presented. Doors lined the wall to his left, while the balcony faced out to the parking lot and the city beyond to his right-he was getting closer, even now, to the door that belonged to his family.
He paused a moment at the large door, gritting his teeth, as he gave the knob a twist and entered. "I'm home." he called, stepping through the doorway and kicking off his shoes at the lanoleum threshold. He took a few steps, bare socks sinking into the lush carpet of the living room. "Mom? Dad?" he called out, with no response.
He made his way through the living room-beyond the couch, the recliner that belonged to his Father, positioned so that it faced the flatscreen television fastened to the wall directly. "Anyone home?" he called out once more, as he bypassed the small table in the center of the room that the small family normally dined at.
The kitchen bore lanoleum tiles, much like the threshold-when one entered, the first thing that caught their eye was the island counter, made of sturdy wood with white tiles composing the countertop. A few barstools were arranged haphazardly around it, though people rarely sat in them-though, one side of the island counter bore the dish-washing machine, so no stools stood in the path of it's opening.
Against the far wall was the refridgerator, and against the wall to its right was the stove and oven, various cabinets lining the wall to accent it. On the countertop was the explanation for the absense of his parents-
"Kazuya,
Ordered Take-Out.
Went to pick it up.
Be back soon.
-Dad."
"Take-out, huh?" Kazuya nodded, sighing a bit with relief. At the very least, eating might take his mind off of the day's events.
He reached down into his pockets, placing their contents on the countertop alongside the note-an old flip-phone, his wallet, and a set of house keys... last but not least, he came upon the very source of his most recent troubles-an orange Digimon Mini.
He nearly slammed it onto the countertop, walking towards the fridge, searching it over for something to drink. The orange V-Pet beeped a few times, but the boy simply ignored it-an odd sprite appeared on the LCD display, moving around every now and again, waltzing off screen.
A bug. A glitch. That was what they had called it. "You can't enter the tournament with a Cheat Digimon, Tsurugi." a taunting voice echoed in the back of his head. "Just because your Dad works for a programming company doesn't mean you can have him program a new Digimon into the game, Kazuya!" another howled with laughter. He clenched his fist, snatching a chilled bottle of water from the fridge.
He had tried three times to raise a Digimon on this V-Pet... and each time, upon reaching the Rookie Stage, this Digimon would appear. No matter what Kazuya had been raising. No matter how many care mistakes he made. His friends had called it a "Trash" Digimon, given that there was no evidence of it actually existing. The only explanation was that Kazuya had received a dud-Digimon Mini.
He moved away from the fridge, letting the door shut behind him as he did. Reaching up above the stove, he drew out a small canister of toothpicks from the cabinet. In the center of the spiral of toothpicks was a small paperclip, the end of the swirling bit of aluminum a bit bent, as if someone had unbound it and then tried to fold it back up.
Carefully, he bent the clip so that one of it's ends jutted out, and moved towards the Mini on the countertop. He picked it up in his hands, and slid the clip's end into the small hole that contained the device's "Reset" button. How well he knew this process-with a simple press, the Mini would reset. The "Trashmon" would be gone, and Kazuya could start the raising process all over again.
To... end up with Trashmon yet again when it reached Rookie Stage. He grumbled in frustation, pulling the pin out of the hole. The saying was "Third time's the charm," not "Fourth." He placed the clip on the countertop. There wasn't anything that could be done... it would always end up a "Trashmon," again and again, he imagined. Why go through the trouble of raising it over and over again just to get the same result.
He was sure that he could talk his Dad into buying him a new one, anyway-the Xros Wars Mini series was about to hit shelves in a few months-all he had to do is wait it out. And he had plenty of other Digimon V-Pets to mess around with to tide him over. He layed the device down next to the paper clip, turning back towards the fridge in order to deposit his water back in.
The Mini beeped again. He had to remember to activate the "Mute Function" if he was going to keep it like this. However, the beeping continued, growing faster and louder with each passing moment. Slowly, Kazuya turned, facing towards the device, to see that it's screen had started to glow, albeit dimly. "What's going-?" he began, as the beeping ceased.
The glowing screen continued to grow brighter, however, until finally, in a briilliant flash, everything melted into blinding white.
Forest surrounded Kazuya when he awoke. The sky was dark-darker than it had walked home just a few minutes ago. How did he get into the forest? The only region he knew of that had forested areas like this was the Nature Trail that ran through the park downtown... it was nearly thirty minutes away from his home! How on earth did he get out here so quickly? And what was with that white light?
All sorts of questions buzzed around in the boy's head, as he sat up. It was then that he realized it-this was no nature trail that he had ever been on.
For one, there was no path-from what he could tell by the light of the campfire burning a few feet away, at least. The trees that surrounded him were large, imposing and unlike anything he had ever seen in Japan.
He tried to stand, but found that his legs were weak-as if he had walked thousands of miles. Falling back to the ground, he looked back up at the sky. The stars that shined down from above weren't familliar to him either... and as he continued to stare, he noticed out of the corner of his eye the pale, greenish-yellow glow that the moon casted down from the heavens.
His eyes widened. "Just... where am I?" he demanded, not really expecting an answer from anyone.
However, from around the campfire, a voice called out to him-a nasally voice, like a child. "The Digital World." the voice called, as Kazuya glanced in it's direction-before the campfire stood a small, yellowish-orange creature, reptile-like in appearance, with a large, box-shaped snout. It was clad in a white, tattered robe, like one a scientist might wear, and atop his head was a Graduation Cap. One of his three-digit claws clasped a retractable rod, with a rounded end, a smiley face printed onto it.
