Digital Champions

Defenders of the Worlds

A Digimon Tale

What just happened...? This make no sense... I seem to have my phone still, so guess I'll record my narration of the experience onto it to try and make sense of what happened. So, I was back in Japan, visiting grandfather together with mother... I was helping him prune things in his garden, when a small meteorite impacted into the cherry tree. We went over to look at what happened, since we had not actually noticed the meteor coming. What lay in the remains of the cherry tree was a strange, metallic object. Even though it had just crashed through the atmosphere at high speed, there were no burn marks on it or the tree it had hit. Instead, there appeared to be frost on three and the object itself. I poked it with a stick out of curiosity and it began to shine a purple light and make a humming sound. Then, it cracked open... Well, maybe cracked is the wrong word. Maybe I should say it slit open? At any rate, it opened and shone it's purple light ever more intensely, blinding me. All of a sudden I felt like I was being pulled through a hole too small for me, and it was stretching me to make me fit. During that, I lost my consciousness. Hm...? I thought i saw something move in the grass just now...

Anyway. When I came to, I was here. Where ever 'here' is... Certainly not Japan. The trees look strange, not like any I have ever seen. They have these strange 'markings' for the lack of a better word on them, which look almost like compression artefacts on a digital image. Also, the trees are extremely tall. Close to 20 meters if I had to guess. They kind of remind me of palm trees, except that these are much thicker than any palm tree I have ever seen. They're almost two meters in diameter... And I thought I saw something move in the bushes just now. Where am I? Did I end up inside that metallic thing somehow? Can't be, right? I wouldn't fit inside it anyway... And how long was I unconscious for...? Huh!? There it was again, I saw something move quickly through the grass from the corner of my eye. I couldn't make out what it was, only that it was something blue.

"Heeey, can anybody hear me!?"

All of a sudden there came the shout of a girl from my left. I see no path to get towards her, so I guess I have to just wade through the tall grass. I quickly shouted back to her. "Stay where you are, I will try and get to you!"

And so I began to wade my way through the grass and tree roots towards the girl. It took me about five minutes to get to a clearing where I saw a blonde girl. She looked like she would be in eight or ninth grade and was wearing what looked like a school uniform, with her dark blue skirt that went to about her knees, a white shirt with some small frills around the sleeves mouths and a blue blazer, matching shade with her skirt, with a logo emblazoned on the left side. I noticed that she looked a bit odd, she had blonde hair and green eyes, but her face was more rounded, like that of a Japanese girl. Was she a delinquent who dyed her hair? Or was she a half-breed like myself...? Green eyes weren't that common in Japan after all.

"Are you hurt?" I asked her.

"I'm fine. Thank you for asking. I have to say, for a Japanese guy you're speaking German surprisingly well."

I must have stared at this girl with an incredulous look on my face, since she spoke again.

"Did I say something funny, Mister Japan?"

I stared at this girl for a moment, confused. She said I was talking in German, and well at that. But... I had spoken in Japanese, and so had she...

After a moment, I shook my head and said: "There's something strange going on here... I wasn't talking in German, but in Japanese. And so were you."

This time the girl stared at me for a moment before she spoke again.

"You're right, there's strangeness going on. You were speaking German again, but still you say you spoke in Japanese... And that I was speaking in it as well. I don't think I hit my head hard enough to confuse Japanese with German. And I doubt you'd know much German either."

Then, all of a sudden a young boy, maybe eleven or twelve years of age fell down from a nearby tree when a branch broke from underneath him. He was wearing dark green cargo-shorts that extended just over his knees, a light blue, slightly baggy or loose old-ish looking t-shirt, as if it were a size or two big for him. Maybe a hand-me-down from an older brother. From what I could see peeking from underneath his newsboy-style cap, he had a light brown hair. I rushed to him, talking in English this time, hoping he'd understand me, no matter where he was from.

"You okay there kid?" I asked the boy. I hoped that I didn't come off as too stilted.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm... I'm fine. Maybe a little bruised. I overheard you and Blondie talking there by the way. Something about strange things?"

"Yeah, we were talking about how strange things are 'here' since I was talking in Japanese and she in German, but she heard me talking in German and vice versa."

"You're right mister, it's strange because you both sounded like you were talking in English..."

Our conversation was cut short by a sudden scream from the girl.

"Aaaaah! Get away you freaky bug!" And this time it came in English. How very strange. When I turned to look at her, she was shooing away a blue bi-pedal bug. A giant one at that, the size of a toddler. Then, all of a sudden... The bug... It spoke.

"Ah'm not a freaky bug! Mah name's Tentomon! Ah heard a commotion coming from 'ere and came ta look. Then ya scream at meh and call meh freaky. Ye're one rude young lady."

"..."

"..."

"..."

For a moment, all three of us were stunned by this... this... revelation that there were giant talking bugs here. Then, in a sudden burst of unison all three of us said the same thing, if in different tones. The girl was freaked out, the boy was amazed and I was mystified...

"IT TALKS!?"

"Huh? Of course ah talk... What kind of a digimon would ah be if ah didn't?"

"What... what the... Digimon? What even..." The girl was clearly at a loss for words. I, however, was not...

"Digimon, short for Digital Monster. Creatures made of data, living in a digital world, a cyberspace of sorts... Or am I mistaken?"

The creature, this Tentomon, looked at me with what I can only describe as a mix of curiosity, respect and amazement.

"Y're absolutely right... How'd ya even know dat!? Y're the first human to know anything about Digimon..."

"This is going to a headache to explain, let alone wrap my head around..." I told the blue bug as I sat down on a fallen tree, just so I wouldn't fall on my rear when trying to understand our situation.

"You see, back in our world there is this franchise... a collection of animated shows, games of various kinds and naturally toys that are both based on the shows characters and serve as the basis for them... What I'm saying is, in our world Digimon is fiction. Or so I thought... Now, I don't know what to think. Did the creators know about the real DigiWorld but keep it a secret, but also make toys and such based on their knowledge? Were they unknowingly right about a digital world existing? Were they subconsciously pulling ideas from a place even they didn't know existed? And that's not even going into the fact that parts of the franchise are set in different universes and yet are somewhat connected and are a part of a larger multiverse."

"Are ya saying we're not real? 'Cause ah can assure ya, we're very much real!" The bug-creature asked, clearly agitated. Small sparks were flying off it's wings as it fluttered a few inches off the ground.

"I'm not saying you're fictional, not at all. What I am saying is that the three of us were flung into a world that was thought to only exist in fiction. But either this is real, and I have very little reason to not think it wouldn't be, or there's the miniscule chance of this being some kind of a dream I'm having as I lay unconscious. However, given the fact a strange metallic meteor landed in my grandfathers backyards and seemed to pull me inside, I don't think this is a dream... Even if I wish it were."

The girl came up to me, looking almost scared, her green eyes swelling, ready to burst into tears at a moments notice.

"Does that mean we're trapped here? What about our parents, your grandfather? Won't they be worried that we're missing?" She was almost sobbing at the end. Poor girl, it must be hard to be suddenly be pulled into a different world. It was also strange how calm I was, given the circumstances. I guess I was in shock over the situation, which kept me from freaking out. Or maybe it was my knowledge of how the Digital World usually operates in the Digimon franchise... Hard to say and there was no use in worrying about it now.

"Please calm down. Usually, if not always, time passes faster in the digital world than in the real world. Fine, OUR world." That last one was aimed at the Tentomon, who was looking at me with an annoyed look. "Which means that while a month passes here, only a few hours may have passed in our world. So, depending on if only our minds were sucked here, or if it was our whole bodies, they might not have much time to worry. Depending how quickly we can get back, since there's almost always a way back. King Yggdrasil probably would know..."

The Tentomon tilted it's head and looked at me curiously.

"There's an Yggdrasil, but it ain't no king. The Yggdrasil connects all de planes of da DigiWorld together, maybe even other places like your world. But nobody has ever fully mapped it. Ah don't know if it even ever can be, or if it's infinite or ever-changing. I've heard that it at least changes in response to some issues, isolating parts of the DigiWorld from others. Ah gots to assume that you knew 'bout the Yggdrasil 'cause of your knowledge 'bout this 'franchise' you kept mentioning. But, as ah said, it's not a king of anything. It's a tree of sorts... It's hard to explain, especially since ah haven't seen it for mahself. Ah don't even know how one would get to it. But ah bet that master HeraklesKabuterimon would. He's the, well, master of dis forest and while he doesn't command all de insect-digimon in de forest, he is respected and ah think he'd be willing to help ya fellers out. If ya want, ah could take you ta see 'im."

I looked at the other two, the girl nodded with a serious look on her face, while the boy gave a small thumbs-up along with a slight smile.

"Looks like we're in agreement. My name is Joonas Takuya Karhula-Hiroshi. I know, it's a bit strange, but that's what you get when your Japanese mother marries a Finnish man. Mom wanted to keep her maiden-name in addition to taking on my fathers name. You can call me either of those names, or you can drop the second o from Joonas and call me Jonas. And the girl here is called..." I suddenly blanked, realizing we never introduced ourselves to each other. First my and the girls discussion was interrupted by the boy falling from the tree, and then the conversation with him was interrupted by the appearance of Tentomon. The girls just smiled at me, then turned to Tentomon.

"My name is Kimiko. Kimiko Richter. I too am half-Japanese, though my father is German. Sorry about screaming at you earlier, you caught me by surprise, and i've never seen anything like you. I think i've heard of Digimon as a kid, but I never knew much about it other than the name and it featuring creatures that could change shape with the help of humans or something. I'm afraid the boy will have to introduce himself, as it seems Jonas didn't get the chance to ask the boy for it..."

At this, the boy took a few nervous steps forward as he spoke.

"Yo. I'm Edi..." At this point he seemed to cough a little, or at least pretended to cough, it wasn't all that natural looking or sounding. "Right, so I'm Edward. Edward Hill. Got the name from my grandm- grandpa. I'm from the US, a small town in Texas to be specific. Uh, nice to meet ya, I guess?"

The Tentomon seemed satisfied with this, as it nodded and told us to follow.

"Ah'll take y'all to see master HerakleKabuterimon, ah'm sure he'll be glad to help ya out. Some folks say he's not a good leader, but ah say that he's doin' de best he can. Now, watch your feet, dere might be sum undergrowth or roots and you don't want to trip."

"I just have one more question for you Tentomon, if you don't mind answering... But, I thought Tentomon were red and not blue? At least, back in my world i never saw a blue Tentomon in any of the iterations of the Digimon franchise."

"Ah, dat. Y're right again, the other Tentomon are red, but ah'm not. I dunno why ah'm blue, but den do ya know why ya have black hair or green eyes or such? Nah? Same with mah color. Sure i got shunned at first by the other Tentomon, but after a while dey learned i was no different than dem, apart from mah color."

"Right, I see. Well, with that i guess we should get going. No offence, but I would like to get home as quickly as possible, and I'm sure the other two are the same."

And so we began to make our way further into the forest, to see this master of insects. I just hope Kimiko doesn't scream at him? Her? It. Like she did with the Tentomon. That probably wouldn't make for a good first impression, especially if HerkuleKabuterimo is as big as it's name suggest. And what was with Edward and his odd nervousness when he introduced himself, especially that fake cough and almost talking about his grandmother...? I had an inkling as to why, but I wasn't sure, so I'm not going to bring it up just yet...

CHAPTER ONE COMPLETE

Authors Notes

First and foremost, this is my first published story and first really "serious" story, so any constructive criticism is welcome, but shouting me down is not.

I know I used a lot of ellipsis (...) in Joonas's dialogue, but I used to them to show him trailing off and not being so sure of things etc.

The reason for everyone understanding each other despite speaking different languages will be elaborated upon in upcoming chapters.

Also, yes I made a blue Tentomon variant, what of it? :P There's a pseudo in-universe reason for it other than me wanting to be cool or different.

There probably will be other variants, both new and pre-existing in future chapters.

Also, there will be at least three other human characters introduced in a few chapters time, but I wanted to focus on the first trio in the beginning.

Also, yes, Tentomon is supposed to have something of a southern US accent as he oft has in anime and games (or Kansai accent in Japanese).

If I got it "wrong" then I'm sorry, but it's the best I could do, living in Finland and being Finnish, so I have very limited experience with Southern US accents. And it's supposed to be a kinda generic one at that.

Also, ten point and a cookie for anyone who guesses the reason for Edwards odd behavior during his introduction.

We'll see if I reveal the reason for it in the next chapter or later.

Anyway, enough rambling from me.

JVB over and out.

P.S.

If you found this story on /r/Digimon on Reddit posted by Holyrapid, that's me. I made that account years before I made any account using the JVB variants I use nowadays.