A/N: Hi there! This is my first fanfic ever and I'm so excited to finally be posting it! If you enjoy this story (and even if you don't) PLEASE consider leaving a review! Special thanks to my beta reader Paresh!
Disclaimer: Digimon is copyright property of Akiyoshi Hongo, Bandai Namco, and Toei Animation. Please support the official release. The human characters in this story were created by me.
Chapter 1: Year 2046
It was possibly the best weather Japan had seen in the last ten years. The summer air, completely devoid of humidity, wrapped around Osaka and seemed to warm the heart of a city that had been made cold and indifferent by years of technological advancement, which had come at the expense of nearly everything else. Every animal seemed to emerge from a long hibernation, and many of the younger children had never seen the sun shine so brightly in all their lives. Even their parents, who had grown accustomed to instantaneous transportation, chose to take their children for walks through town instead. In many ways, it was the most perfect day a human being could ask for. But Jinzaburo Koyama didn't know or care about this. He was inside, playing video games.
Jinza leaned back with satisfaction as a little victory tone played from his computer. "Well, that was…underwhelming," he said as he took special joy in the frustration on his opponent's face. "I'm pretty sure this means our record is 2-2, right?" His opponent, Tony, looked up at him, now with a smirk on his face.
"By my count," Tony said, "our record is 3-2, in my favor!" Tami, the younger girl sitting with them, piped up at Tony's response.
"Well, your count is trash Tony. Digimon only counts one-on-one matches, so its 2-2. How do you expect to beat Jinza at Digimon if you can't even count properly?"
Jinza sighed, letting his eyes wander around the net café they were in, as his two friends began to bicker back and forth. As much as he enjoyed their company, the fact that they could barely tolerate each other got frustrating at times.
"You little brat," muttered Tony, "Why do you have to pester us anyway? Shouldn't you be gossiping at the park with other first-year girls?" It was true that a 14 year old girl spending this much time with two 16 year old upperclassmen was unusual. But rather than giving Tony the animated response he usually aimed for, Tami settled for rolling her eyes at him.
"Girls my age are total airheads. Since you two seem to actually have brains, I'd much rather hang out with you guys." Giving Tony a snide look, she added, "Even if you don't seem interested in using yours." As the argument continued, Jinza turned his attention to the small creature on his game screen. Outside of battles, the Digimon game let players interact with their pets in a v-pet type minigame. Jinza's Digimon, a fuzzy red frog-like creature with long ears, responded happily to Jinza's attention. Tami peered over at Jinza's screen. "So that's your little champion, huh? What's he called?" Jinza beamed up at her.
"This is Elecmon! I hatched him last year when I first got the game. He is definitely my favorite." Truth be told, Jinza often felt as though Elecmon was his real pet, rather than a collection of pixels on his computer. It looked up at him with a sense of endearment and admiration not dissimilar to the look Tami was giving him now.
"You sure care a lot about this game, don't you Jinza?" Jinza scratched his head sheepishly.
"Well to be honest, I've spent so much time playing this game that it's basically the only thing I'm good at!" Remembering that he was talking to an impressionable teen, he quickly corrected himself, "Uh, aside from school, or course! Wouldn't want to fail the graduation exam, right Tony?" Rather than offering agreement, Tony was still focused on Digimon.
"Yeah? Well in my opinion, if you're gonna play Digimon so much, you should spend that time on a real monster!" He proudly turned his computer towards Tami, displaying a red and black dinosaur-like creature. "Say hello to Guilmon! The single most epic Digimon to ever grace a computer!" Tami and Jinza glanced at his screen. Despite being in an out-of-battle minigame, Guilmon seemed to stand battle ready, and it brandished its sharp teeth and claws in what almost looked like a smile. Even Tami seemed impressed.
"I hate to admit it, but it definitely looks...well…epic," Tami conceded. "It's actually kinda cute, in a tough-guy kinda way." Jinza nodded in agreement with her.
"Guilmon is pretty tough. Even though I've basically maxed out Elecmon's stats, it's no surprise that Guilmon has managed to beat him twice." Tony grinned and packed up his computer, satisfied with his friends' judgment of his partner.
"Well, this was fun but I've gotta head home. See you two at school tomorrow?" Jinza and Tami nodded in confirmation. Tony threw on his signature red hoodie, which he even wore in warm weather, and then turned dramatically to the rest of the café. "And I must bid all of you adieu, my beloved supporters. I promise I shall claim victory next time!" Jinza snickered at his best friend's pretentiousness. His speech might have gotten some laughs - if the café hadn't been otherwise empty due the weather. His smirk quickly fell away when Tony approached the DataJump kiosk in order to return home. Tony, anticipating Jinza's discomfort, turned to him quickly before he left. His cocky demeanor had quickly been replaced with genuine concern for his friend.
"Hey Jinza…you gonna use the DataJump to go home today?" Tony asked. Jinza drummed his fingers on the table nervously for a few seconds before responding.
"Yeah! Yeah…I've been feeling better about it, so I'll give it another shot today." Tony grinned at him.
"Great! Meeting up with you becomes a pain when you decide to walk everywhere like a caveman! Catch you later!" With that, he stepped pushed the button to open the door and stepped inside. Even with the door closed, Tony's fire-red hair stuck above the DataJump's light-shield, not due to Tony's height, but rather his inability to keep his hair from sticking in every direction. There was a flash, and Jinza knew that the loud, digitized beep that followed meant his friend had been successfully teleported home. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder as Tami got ready to leave as well.
"I'm gonna head out as well Jinza. Are you sure you'll be fine?" Jinza noted the concern that almost sounded like fear in her question. He quickly brushed his dark hair out of his eyes and stood up.
"Yeah, I'll be fine!" He playfully yanked one of Tami's brunette pigtails before leaning back to avoid the punch he knew would follow, which was easy enough since Tami was about a head shorter than him and Tony. The two laughed it off quickly and headed to the DataJump.
"Message me and Tony when you get home! So we know you're ok." With that, Tami quickly jumped into the kiosk and DataJumped home. Jinza stared at the elevator-like contraption for what felt like an eternity. Finally, he took a deep breath, typed in his address, and stepped in. Just as with Tony, there was a flash of light, and Jinza was home.
Stepping out of his home DataJump, Jinza rubbed his eyes and looked around. He immediately heard his mother call him from the kitchen.
"Jinzaburo! Is that you honey? Come on in, dinner's ready!" Jinza hated that his mother used his full name, but he was willing to tolerate it, since she was actually a fantastic mother. He quickly went to the kitchen and sat down at the table. His mother rushed over with a steaming pot of food, looking like a crazed character out of a comedy. Jinza noted that she had once again donned an apron over her suit, most likely due to coming home late from work. He would find it funny, if he didn't know how hard his mom was working. His mother worked for the Konoe Zaibatsu, the company that basically ruled the world. Every technological advancement of the last half-century could be attributed to them, including the DataJump. It was no wonder their employees hardly had any days off.
"Thanks for the food Mom. You know, you can have me grab us something the next time you run late." Jinza would never admit it out loud, but he hated seeing his mother so tired. Worse, he hated not being able to do anything. His mother gave him a sympathetic look.
"Honey, I appreciate it, but it's fine. Really." Jinza winced internally. He wished his mom would let him do something adult-like for once.
"At least then I'd feel like one," Jinza thought to himself bitterly. The two finished their meal in silence, and then Jinza excused himself to his room. Once he shut his door, Jinza released a huge sigh, as though he had been holding his breath all day. And in a way, he felt like he had. To Jinza, the whole world just seemed to have too much noise in it. His room was quiet. It let him think clearly, and it let him relax. He plugged his computer into its dock, and walked over to the window while it booted up. Osaka seemed to be trapped between two eras. The stark gray and blue skyscrapers of today seemed to tower over the towns and houses of yesterday. Even from his window on the fourth floor, Jinza could pick out people navigating the streets as they went about their lives. These people, who couldn't afford DataJumps, or any other Konoe tech, seemed to live a few years in the past compared to the rest of the city. Jinza recalled Tony's parting words, about walking like a caveman. He was supposedly living better than these people, yet they knew the streets of his city better than he ever would. Maybe that was why Osaka never felt like home to Jinza. The total unfamiliarity of everything. Jinza was awakened from his thoughts by the sound of his computer starting up. After changing from his cumbersome school uniform to his preferred jeans and t-shirt, he sat down and typed in his login. A robotic female voice spoke, "Welcome back to your SekaiSaba profile! What would you like to do today?" Jinza scrolled lazily through his profile, skimming the news reports, IMs from school acquaintances, and coupon offers, until he found his group-chat with Tony and Tami.
"Hey guys. Made it back in once piece." Sent. A few seconds later, Tami responded.
"Hey! Glad you're feeling alright!" Before Jinza could respond to Tami, Tony's response came through.
"Glad you survived :p I might have to start a fight with Konoe if their tech kidnaps you lol" Jinza drummed his fingers on the table. He knew Tony was joking, but the possibility of such a thing still paralyzed him. "Well it's not like I handle anything else better," Jinza silently criticized himself. He took a deep breath, and once he'd composed himself, typed a quick reply.
"Lol careful, they might see this." Tony responded quickly.
"HA! They see everyone's EVERYTHING! You think my messages are more interesting than the president's?" Jinza had to laugh at that. It was true that every country and industry used the SekaiSaba Mainframe, for everything from data storage to communication, but the odds of them using such info maliciously seemed rather low. At least, it did in the case of three rather unordinary teens. Jinza noticed that Tony had instigated another argument with Tami, so he left them to it and tabbed over to his Digimon App. When Elecmon appeared on his screen, it greeted him with an enthusiastic screech and waved at him. Jinza smiled and almost waved back. Even Tami wasn't that enthusiastic to see him most days. His smile faded. Jinza thought back to dinner, and wished that his mom, or anyone, could need him as much as Elecmon seemed to. He dragged a piece of food from the side of the screen and fed it to Elecmon, and was rewarded with a smiley face notification.
"You did great in that match today. Tomorrow I'll run another training exercise for you…" Jinza trailed off. This wasn't the first time he had started speaking to his virtual pet, nor was it the first time he found himself profoundly wishing Elecmon was real. Jinza mused on how alone he felt, and almost cursed himself for feeling that way despite his mom being right downstairs. Or at least, she had been. Most likely, she had already gone back to work. Jinza yawned. He hadn't noticed that he was tired, but given how late it was, he figured he should just go to bed. He tabbed over to the group chat and sent a good night message to his friends and mom, and jumped into bed. Jinza Koyama drifted to sleep while staring at Elecmon running around on his screen, wishing for anything to happen the next day…