August First
{0}
There is a vast desert. Expansive is its red sand and rocky cliffs. The earth below is dying. It is close to being no more. It hasn't rained here in years. No one knows how many. This desert that stretches across the land infecting the rest of this world is not natural. This place here used to be a rainforest with lush trees and grasses and creatures everywhere. Now there is sparsely any life, save for the bear and the wolf.
The bear is being chased. It- He- isn't a normal bear. Neither is the wolf. The bear is wearing a blue baseball cap turned backwards and a set of blue belts around his hands and a blue messenger bag draped across his shoulders. The wolf has two heads on his shoulders and black armor covering his body. The wolf also has improbably long claws.
"Emerald blaze!" the wolf shouts as green fire erupts from his mouth and the heads on his shoulders.
The bear jumps out of the way and is a lot more nimble and light on his feet than one would expect for a chubby little bear cub.
"Bear roll!" the bear cries, doing some kind of move where he turns himself into a rolling juggernaut. The wolf gets knocked over and the bear keeps rolling in the direction he was going originally. Eventually the bear stops rolling and resumes his original form.
"Please," he whispers to himself. "Let me get there in time."
{0}
My name is Taku Kibuishi, and today is my thirteenth birthday. It started off weird enough with that crazy dream with the bear, but that's to be expected when your birthday is one of the worst days in history. America has Pearl Harbor and September Eleventh. We have the Eight-one-ninetynine, the day that a computer virus took out all our systems.
A lot of people died.
In school they teach us that it was probably the work of some terrorist hacker trying to sabotage the government, but I don't really believe that since the next day the internet came back on. Good thing that school doesn't start for another month or I would have to not-argue with my teacher about this, she's very passionate about history I guess. Oh well.
My parents have already left for work, but I find a note on the table congratulating me on turning thirteen. I guess they don't want me to help out in the store today. Yay me. I would much rather be working today than celebrating, but knowing my mom and dad I'll be literally kicked out of the store if I try to come in today.
Part of me wishes that I hadn't done my summer homework so early since none of my friends are going to want to hang out today. A lot of them lost family members because of Eight-one-ninetynine. I turn on the news, and luckily find that the memorial services aren't the only things being talked about. Never have i been so happy to hear about foreign policy i don't understand or economic troubles that aren't completely affecting me yet. The weather report is on when the tv screen fizzles. I rub my eyes because it happened so quickly that I'm not exactly sure of what I saw. It does it again and then begins "puzzling" as I call it.
"Come on," I murmur at it. "Not now!"
My phone beeps. I go back to my room and check my text messages. There's one from a number I don't recognize, and I open it because I'm not living in a horror movie where doing something like that would get me killed.
The park 10:30 b there- G
I frown because the only person I know whose name starts with a G is Gen. I text back asking if he got a new number. Seconds later I get the reply.
The park 10:30 b there- G
I'm bored and the park isn't all that far so I text this mysterious G back.
Who r u?
The park 10:30 b there- G
Gen this isn't funny.
The park 10:30 b there- G
No. Who r u?
I don't get a reply for a while, and I think that maybe it was all a prank or something, but my phone beeps again.
Taku Kibuishi your destiny lies at the park. You can either keep asking questions or get moving. Time is running out. Tick tock- G
A logical person would throw their phoneunder their bed. A logical person would call the police and tell them that they were being solicited by some stranger. A logical person would do anything but what i decide to do. I grab my shoes at the door and a pair of sunglasses. The curiosity must be a side-effect of being a teenager, I guess.
When I get to the park my phone reads 10:29. I'm early and very alone. Great. I decide to hide out on the slide. That way I have a full view of every angle of the park. No one can come without me seeing them. I check my phone again when I get into my hiding spot. still 10:29. Then it suddenly changes to 10:30, and I get a text.
Brace yourself- G
"Huh?" I murmur when i feel snowflakes coming down from the sky. "What the hell?"
It's August first, and it is snowing. Hard. There's chilly winds blowing and I'm freezing because I'm dressed for the season it should be and the weather that comes with it. Just as suddenly the snow stops and my phone beeps again.
Look up- G
I do, and the northern lights are above me. The northern lights that don't normally appear in the middle of-
"Holy crap!" I shout when a ball of light comes flying from the sky for my head.
It doesn't hit me, but lands in front of me. Then it starts floating. I (stupidly) reach out and take it. It's an octagonal device that kind of looks like one of those old virtual pet things.
"And what's this?" I murmur. My phone beeps again.
It is your destiny, if you choose to accept it- G
I don't really have much of a chance to fire off reply because suddenly, like how the TV was puzzling earlier, the world shifts. I'm not in the park anymore. I'm in a red desert. The one I dreamed about.
"Oh no," I mutter. "This isn't real..."
"Watch out!" another voice screams just as it crashes into me.
"You could watch where you're going," I grunt, pushing the person off me. I get off my
stomach and face them to see that it's, of course, the bear from my dream. The bear gets all starry eyed and takes my hand.
"We've gotta go!" the bear insists. "He's getting closer!"
"The wolf-thing?" I ask.
"Yeah, Cerberumon!" the bear nods.
"Well, you go on ahead," I say. "I'm going to close my eyes and try to wake up."
"But this isn't a dream,"
"Of course you'd say that, you're a part of it."
I stand still and click my heels together three times. I don't bother to chant there's no place like home since in a dream all you have to do is will yourself awake and it'll happen. Just when i think I'm back in my bed the bear speaks again. Screams really.
"Duck!"
I do just in time to not be burned alive by green fire. The wolf- Cerberumon- looks surprised to see me.
"So this is what he wanted you to retrieve?" Cerberumon chuckles. "A human? What can it do?"
"I'm sure he had his reasons, which means you had better back off!" the bear growls.
"Or what, baby bear?" Cerberumon laughs. "You and I both know you aren't strong enough to defeat me!"
My phone beeps.
Use the digivice- G
I raise the virtual pet thing at the bear and a holgram pops up from it. Bearmon, it reads, rookie level. Best attack:
"Karate fist!" Bearmon shouts jabbing Cerberumon in the stomach.
If Cerberumon feels any pain, he doesn't show it. Instead he laughs and uses on of his heads to bite Bearmon's arm and hold him down. The main head's mouth is full of green fire.
"Don't worry," he says. "I'll get to you next. Emerald bla-"
I don't let him get the name of the attack out by throwing a rock at him. Then I throw another and keep doing it until he lets Bearmon go and comes after me. I run, even though this is all a dream and this monster can't really hurt me.
"Bear roll!" Bearmon shouts from behind us.
The attack knocks Cerberumon down, but we're still backed up against a wall. Even though this is all a dream I'm scared. I hate dying in dreams. There's always a little bit of the pain from it that carries over into the real world. Or maybe it starts in the real world and ends in dreams, I don't know. Out of options and ideas, I press the digivice into Bearmon when he stands between me and Cerberumon.
"Gennai told me I needed to find and protect the human," Bearmon says to himself, holding onto his wounded arm. "I-I won't fail."
"We need a miracle," I whisper, to the digivice.
"Prepare to die," cackles Cerberumon. "Emerald Blaze."
In the split second between his cheesy line and his attack a light erupts from the digivice. a golden light and it wraps itself around Bearmon.
"Bearmon digivolve to..." he cries. "Grizzlymon!"
The new bear before me swiped the green flames away. He was purple and very big with red gauntlets and sharp claws. I can barely see Cerberumon around him. I point the digivice at him and it reads, Grizzlymon, champion level. Best attack: Crescent Dawn.
"You digivolved, so what?" Cerberumon says. "You still can't beat me."
Grizzlymon just stands up on his hind legs and strikes, "Kuma Trume!"
The attack knocks Cerberumon far away. I climb up on Grizzlymon's shoulders and point the digivice at Cerberumon, who is rushing at us. Cerberumon, ultimate level. Best attack: Emerald Blaze. Grizzlymon goes back on all fours and starts running for Cerberumon.
"Hold on tight," he bellows.
My phone beeps.
Tell the digivice to purify- G
"Digivice, purify," I whisper since G's messages have been mostly helpful. At the same time a crescent moon on Grizzlymon's head begins to glow.
"We used to be friends, Cerberumon!" Grizzlymon shouts. "But you let yourself be swallowed by darkness. Be purified by the light: Crescent Dawn!"
A laser beam from Grizzlymon's forehead shoots out and hits Cerberumon on the forehead. After it connects a white light shoots out of my digivice. Cerberumon wails in pain and falls to the ground as he begins to disintegrate.
"Welcome to the digital world," Grizzlymon says as he turns back into Bearmon.
Next time: Taku meets Gennai and learns why he has been summoned to the digital world, what it has to do with today and what it has to do with what happened thirteen years ago.