side Ken

I was four when I first went to the Digital World. Mama had her hands full taking care of my little brother, so Papa took me. I'd heard about how wonderful a place it had been before, but it was really an amazing thing for me to see for the first time. Papa took me to all of these places, and we'd just walk silently through the area appreciating the beauty around us.

We weren't attacked by anything, but at one point we ran into two Anomalocarimon having a fight, and when we were trying to back away Pururumon fled up a tree and wouldn't come down. I tried to climb up the tree to fetch her, but we both fell out of the tree and I skinned my knee pretty badly.

I was crying quite a bit, so Papa took me home right away and started treating the wound. I used to have this idea that somehow bandages alone were what healed wounds, so I asked him not to put the disinfectant because it stung.

But Papa told me, "It's not going to get better unless I put this on. I know it's going to sting a bit, so hang in there, okay?" And when he put the ointment on, it definitely stung, but he put it on very gently and smiled at me the whole time so that I'd feel better.

After that, Pururumon and I would always have this irrational fear of going back to that certain place in the Digital World, but eventually Papa decided to break this of me and took us back there. He had me, Pururumon, and Wormmon climb up that tree so that we could all sit together on the tree. It was a rather big tree, so we got a rather wonderful view of the area...and because of that, I went back to that tree with Pururumon several times afterwards, where we laughed our first incident off.

In any case, we began to form an arrangement where Mama would usually be the one to take my little brother around the Digital World, while Papa would take me. People have always told me I'm more like Papa while my brother is like Mama, so I guess I'm not surprised that this is how it turned out...

But I can tell Papa always really enjoyed showing me the Digital World, both out of personal love of the place and the desire to show me something like this.

One day, after we'd had a particularly long stay there, Papa and I sat at a cliffside and watched the sunset. I was far too tired to keep walking, but I knew we had to go home...but Papa immediately picked up on the fact I was tired and carried me on his back. I was starting to get to be the age where I was a little too heavy for him to carry, but he persisted all the way back home.

After we had dinner, Mama found the old pictures of her and Papa and all of their friends when they were younger, with all of their Digimon. My brother and I wanted to see, so she showed them to us. In all of the pictures they were in as a group, Mama and Papa always looked genuinely happy, even when Papa explained they were in the middle of saving some horrible crisis in the Digital World at the time. Mama yelled at him for making things sound so negative, but even she had to admit she and her friends always tried to be optimistic even in the face of adversity.

I want to protect the Digital World. This place is very important to me, and it's important to all of my friends too. You think you have the right to do what you're doing right now? That you can just wantonly do whatever you want to it at your leisure?

I'll admit it straight out; the first time I found out exactly what you were planning, the first time I saw that you were perfectly willing to kill as many Digimon as you wanted, I went home crying. I'm not afraid to admit it anymore. I went home crying, and Papa saw me as soon as he came back from work. He tucked me into bed that night, and as he pulled the covers onto me, he told me that I have a large burden to look forward to...but that I have to be strong and that he believes in me.

And I'm going to be strong. I'm going to be strong against someone as weak as you, who keeps sending minion after minion because you're too afraid that we'll come and fight you ourselves.

...Futile?

Our efforts are futile, you say?

Ha.

It's true. Papa and Mama had to struggle against enemies like you in order to protect this world. After all these years, there's only been relentless attempts by many others just like you to take over or destroy the Digital World. But just know: as many as there are of ones like you, there are children like us, ones who want to carry on the legacy of our parents or simply because we want to. There will always be more of us to keep the Digital World from falling into the hands of darkness. That's something Papa and Mama taught me.

I'm doing this because the Digital World is important to me, not because Mama or Papa want me to. You could say that I'm not doing it "because of" them, but that I'm doing it "for" them. I love Papa and I want to do amazing things like he did, but what I do for him is because of the memories he made with me personally.

You don't believe me?

Well, I was planning on just defeating you here and hoping you'd be smart enough to not come back. After all, my friends and I have successfully stopped all your plans so far, so there wasn't much of a need to get the authorities into this.

But now that you've destroyed that tree...