Digimon Warriors
Chapter 1: End of (Summer) Days
Hiroshi groaned in disgust as he languished in his desk seat. The air conditioning at Aoyama High had been broken all day on the hottest day of the year, trapping everyone inside and cooking them like steamed vegetables. To compound matters further, Hiroshi was placed right next to the window, where a sick sort of wind floated into the room from time to time. It reeked of food spoiling in the sun. Hiroshi was so exhausted he stopped paying any attention to the teacher all together and merely sat back in his chair and fanned himself with an open hand.
"Oshi?"
A little voice in the back of Hiroshi's mind tried to tell him that the teacher was calling his name, but the boy paid no attention to it.
"Hiroshi Katakura?"
Still no reply.
The teacher did not call out a third time. Instead, he took a piece of chalk from the board and hurled it straight at Hiroshi's head. Unsuspecting, the boy made no move to dodge. With a sharp crack, the chalk made contact and Hiroshi was sent flying out of his chair.
"Mister Katakura!" roared the old teacher, Mr. A. "Will you sit up and pay attention? I realize it's hot, but that gives you no right to slack in my class!"
Hiroshi groaned as he picked himself up off the floor, "Yes, sir, sorry, sir, won't happen again, sir."
"See to it," grunted Mr. A.
As soon as the teacher's back was to the class, Hiroshi immediately began to lose attention in his education once more. Before he could drift into another heat-induced daze though, his friend Sawamura Kubo poked him in the leg with a folded piece of paper. Hiroshi took the paper from him and unfolded it, revealing the drawing inside.
Sawamura's doodle showed Hiroshi melting in an ice cream cone, with a cherry on top of his head. A word balloon next to the picture read, "I'm melting! I'm meeeeeelting!" At the sight of the sketch, Hiroshi began to snicker and chuckle under his breath.
Behind him sat the class president, Torakichi Sakuraba, who was another friend of Hiroshi's. The handsome boy tapped Hiroshi on the shoulder, gained his attention, and gestured for the picture. When his friend passed it back to him, Torakichi snorted with merriment quietly enough so Mr. A would not hear. All three boys were barely able to hold in their laughter until the bell rang, signifying the end of the day.
"All right," shouted Mr. A over the din of the students packing up, "that's everything until after summer break! Have a wonderful vacation, everyone, and I'll see you when you get back."
Hiroshi and his friends laughed the entire way out of the building, partly out of cabin fever and partly out of the joy of summer vacation.
"Does anyone else want a smoke?"
"No, thanks, Hiroshi."
"I've got my pocky, so I'm good."
Now that they were out of school, the first thing the boys did was find a nice shady tree in a nearby park and lay in the warm grass underneath their feet. An herbal cigarette dangled from Hiroshi's lips, the scented smoke dissipating in the air. Sawamura happily munched on a mango-flavored pocky stick, mowing through an entire box as he watched the children playing on the nearby swing set. Torakichi contented himself with staring at the schoolgirls that walked by, his shades covering his prying eyes. The three boys were in a state of bliss.
"Well, well, well," came a shrill voice, "if it isn't the Three Lame-brains!"
Hiroshi turned his groggy head to the left and saw two girls approaching the tree. Both girls were students at Aoyama High, but they were in a different class than the boys. Asuka Murakami, the girl who spoke, was the student council secretary, but she acted as if she were the president. The timid girl at her side, Kazumi Kikuchi, was Asuka's best friend despite being her polar opposite. Whereas Asuka was too assertive, Kazumi, or "Kiki" as Asuka called her, was too passive, and often times would be ignored by people.
With school done for a month and a half, the two girls had changed into summer clothes. Asuka being Asuka, she walked right up to the boys and put her fists on her slim hips, a smirk spread across her face. "I thought I might find you slackers here," she teased, "and, just as I thought, I was right!"
"You know us so well, sweetheart," said Torakichi. He lowered his shades down so that Asuka could see his stone-gray eyes. "And may I be so bold as to say that skirt looks ravishing on you."
"Quit staring at me, you perverted freak!" shouted Asuka, slapping the class president for his leering eyes.
Sawamura swallowed what was left of his snack and twisted his head back and forth, as if realizing that Asuka and Kazumi were already there. "Whoa, when did you girls get here? You want some pocky?" asked the dazed boy.
Kazumi smiled and accepted a stick but her friend snatched it from her hand. "Don't eat their food, Kiki; you'll catch their stupid," jeered Asuka.
Taking one last drag on his cigarette, Hiroshi flicked the cigarette away and glared at the new company. "What did we do to piss you off now, Asuka? Can't you see we're busy doing nothing?" he asked with a groan.
"Well, if you must know, Kiki and I are bored and we're looking for some people who can head downtown with us. Seeing as you three have nothing to do, I was hoping you would guide us around," said Asuka, though her suggestion came across more as a demand than anything else. She was not asking the boys to help out; she was telling them they would.
"No," Hiroshi bluntly replied. "No, no, a thousand times no. We've got important things that we have to do and they don't include you!"
"What my disrespectful friend means, girls, is that we were hoping to use this summertime break from school to do the things we couldn't do before. For example, summer break is the perfect time to watch lovely ladies walking around in clothes that show off their perfect physiques!" said Torakichi. He emphasized his actions with a grandiose sweep of his arms and clasping his hands at his heart.
Ambivalent about the whole matter, Sawamura simply shrugged his shoulders. "I was just going to rot my brain out with video games."
Asuka smirked. As she had suspected, the boys wouldn't be doing anything important. "Sounds like you guys have a really busy schedule. Are you sure you couldn't make some time for the two of us?" she asked seductively. To add to the effect, she brushed a lock of her brown hair behind her ear and bent over so the boys could see her bra.
Embarrassed by her friend's actions, Kazumi blushed and meekly added, "It…it would really mean a lot if you could come out with us."
"Hmm? What's that?" asked Hiroshi. Kazumi never spoke much in class, so whenever she did, Hiroshi was always amazed that her vocal chords worked. "Did you say something, Kazumi?"
"Oh, I-I j-j-just thought that maybe…it would be nice…if we hung out," the quiet girl mumbled. "Y-Y-You don't have to come along i-i-if you don't want to."
Hiroshi drummed his fingers along his chin, a sign that he was thinking, before replying, "Ah, what the heck. We don't really have anything going on right now. Guys, c'mon; we're leaving."
"Right behind you!" said Torakichi.
"Where we going, Hiroshi?" asked Sawamura.
"Let's head over to the Go-Mart and pick up some snacks; I'm starving! Kazumi, you want anything?"
"I could use a bottle of water," suggested Kazumi.
"Hey, what about me?" demanded Asuka.
"Oh, I thought you were just going to feed off our misery," laughed Hiroshi. He lit another cigarette, this one smelling like lemons. "That should satisfy you, right?"
"Why, you dirty ingrate!" growled the secretary. "I don't know why I even let Kiki talk me into hanging out with you guys; you're just a bunch of degenerates. And hands where I can see them, Torakichi!"
"Sorry, won't happen again," the class president chuckled. He stuck his hands in his pockets and strode along behind the group, admiring the way the two girls ahead of him walked.
Sawamura, oblivious to all the tension, simply munched on his candy as he followed Hiroshi to the convenience store. "Mmmmm," he though in his mind, "good pocky…"
In another part of the city, not too far from the park, two middle school students were walking along the sidewalk reading manga. The two boys, Kenta Narita and Yuu Tanaka, were glad to be done with their school day and free to do nothing but read comics all day long. Both boys were thick as thieves and had been friends since before they could remember. What brought them together was the fact that they each had something the other lacked: where Yuu was too negative, Kenta was too optimistic; where Kenta was too vapid, Yuu was too grounded. Whenever one drifted to one extreme, the other would be there to bring them back. Together, they were indomitable.
"Hey, did you see that Tanto is going to end? Man, this sucks!" groaned Kenta as he finished the latest chapter of his favorite series.
"About time," said Yuu. "That was probably Jump's worst manga. Now Detective Trap, that was a story!" He fiddled with his glasses, adjusting them so he could keep reading.
"You lie!" shouted Kenta, his spiky hair jumping up with him. "Tanto was just misunderstood, that's all!"
"Yeah, right," his friend scoffed, "it was nothing but pure genius. Please, I could come up with better gags in a heartbeat!"
"How?"
"By doing this."
Yuu shot out his leg and stuck it in Kenta's path, tripping the boy and causing him to face-plant onto the ground. "Argh! Yuu," grumbled the injured boy, "I am going to kill you!"
"Not likely!" hollered Yuu as he started running away from Kenta, who was in hot pursuit. The two boys were laughing their heads off as they ran through the crowded streets, dodging around people on the sidewalks and bicycles and generally causing mayhem, until they finally ran out of breath and had to stop. Worn out from their run, Yuu and Kenta sat down on the sidewalk and tried to catch their breath.
Kenta glanced over at Yuu, raised his hand, and gave him a tired swat on the head. "There," he panted, "now we're even."
"Whatever, that didn't even hurt," replied Yuu. In truth, the whap to the head hurt a bit more than he cared to admit, but that was because Kenta was stronger than he realized. "You want to get something to drink?"
"Absolutely," said Kenta.
Once they composed themselves, the two boys made their way across the busy street and into a nearby Go-Mart, where a heated confrontation was in full blast.
"No smoking in here, kid!" the store manager shouted at Hiroshi. Not two seconds had passed since the motley group had wandered into the Go-Mart than Hiroshi had lit up another cigarette. When he refused to put it out at the cashier's behest, the manager was called out and began an argument with the high school student.
"Look, I'm putting out the cigarette, okay? Geez!"
"And if I catch a single whiff of smoke, I'm banning you from this store!"
"I heard you the first time, old man!"
Disgruntled, Hiroshi rejoined his group, where Asuka berated him and Sawamura patted him on the back. "Stand up for your rights, Hiroshi," the spaced-out boy said, "'cause you never know when they might come in handy!"
"You got that right, Sawamura," Torakichi chuckled.
"Come on, let's get our stuff and get out before Smokey here," Asuka gestured towards Hiroshi, "decides it's a good idea to light up again."
"For once, I'm in agreement with you," said Hiroshi. "Okay, Kazumi, water for you, green tea for Tora, mango juice for Sawamura, and a soda for me." He rifled through the drinks in the store and pulled out all their purchases, with the purposeful exception of Asuka.
The neglected girl snarled, "Oy, don't I get anything?"
"I'm sorry, Asuka," Hiroshi lazily replied, "but they don't have the blood of newborn infants available!"
"I oughta kill you twice, you jerk! What gives you the right to talk to me that way, huh?"
"Excuse me," asked a small, middle school-aged boy, "But could you possibly keep it down? Or is shouting the only thing high school students know how to do?"
"What? I should kill you for that, you little punk!" screamed Asuka. She lifted the boy up by his collar, but another boy, this one with spiky hair, rushed in to save him.
"Hey, put him down! What'd he do to you?" the boy hotly remarked.
"You want some too, creep?" Asuka shouted.
"Ah-Asuka! You're causing a scene!" Kazumi whispered into her friend's ear. Every person in the store had their eyes on the students, and many were casting glares upon the out of control girl.
Asuka, disgusted by all the glares, shouted, "What're you all looking at, huh? Get back to shopping!" When everyone in the store did so, she turned her attention back to the boys who were confronting her. She set the one in her grip down on the ground with as much force as she could muster.
"I think you should apologize, Asuka," Kazumi suggested. "You are at fault here, y'know."
"I'm not saying anything, Kiki! That little creep was the one disrespecting me!"
Hiroshi rolled his eyes at Asuka's comments and offered a helping hand to the boy on the ground. "Sorry about her," he told the boy. "I'd tell you that she's not always like this, but I'd be lying to you."
"It's all right, I suppose," the boy grunted in reply. "Any time I don't get beaten up is a good time."
"That's the spirit!" Torakichi remarked. "Hey, I like these kids; let's hang out some time, huh?"
"Thanks but no thanks," the boy's friend joked. "We wouldn't want to get killed by that crazy woman over there."
"Who are you calling crazy!"
"I-Inside voice, Asuka!" said Kazumi.
"You guys are in middle school, huh? Got any names?" asked Hiroshi.
"He's Yuu, and I'm Kenta," said the boy with spiky hair.
Sawamura stuck his hand out in a friendly gesture and said, "I'm Sawamura, pleasure to meet you! The guy that smells like smoke is Hiroshi, the guy with the sunglasses is Torakichi, the girl in the hoodie is Kazumi, and the crazy girl is Asuka."
"Stop calling me crazy!"
"Well, if the shoe fits," Yuu sneered.
Asuka nearly grabbed Yuu by the throat and strangled him when the ground started shaking violently. The tremor knocked everything on the shelves onto the floor; everyone standing went straight to the ground. All conversation in the group turned into erratic shouting and howling in fear. While the earth was shaking, there seemed to be a strange howling sound that followed it. It was like a massive gale blowing through the town, shaking the windows and rattling the doors with its force.
"What's going on?" Sawamura shouted above the din.
"I don't know!" Hiroshi responded, his voice barely heard in all the chaos.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the quaking ceased and everything stopped at once. The store was in a state of absolute disarray: food, drinks, and magazines were everywhere; people were lying on the floor, some in pain; most of the store windows had shattered. Outside, alarms and sirens could be heard ringing throughout the air, shattering the summer air. And the students inside the store, albeit shaken and scared, were mostly okay.
"What the heck was that?" asked Torakichi.
"Must've been an earthquake," answered Kenta, who took his hands off his head.
"Yeah, but what was with that howling?" pondered Yuu. "That was unreal, like some kind of giant monster made it."
"That's impossible," muttered Sawamura. "Giant monsters don't exist, right?"
"Of course," said Asuka, "don't be so stupid! Something like Godzilla or King Ghidorah couldn't possibly exist in reality!"
Noticing that Hiroshi was no longer with their group, Kazumi searched the store for him until she spied her classmate standing near the windows. His eyes were fixed on something outside, high up in the air; whatever it was terrified him, for his eyes were wide and his skin had turned pale. Kazumi shuffled over to the boy, making sure not to step in the broken glass, and asked, "Wh-What's wrong, Hiroshi? You look p-p-pale."
"Look," he replied. The words came out like a croak, like he forced the words out. Hiroshi pointed a finger up at the window, and Kazumi followed it till she saw what had scared him. What she saw chilled her to the bone and filled her with dread and fascination.
Back in the direction of the park, where they had been not ten minutes ago, was a giant pillar of light, higher than even the clouds in the sky. Its base was blocked by the buildings, but Hiroshi and Kazumi could see that it shot straight up into the air and vanished into the heavens. The light was a mix of every color at once, with smaller beams of red, yellow, blue and green spiraling off and around the pillar. Their ears picked up the same howling noise from earlier, and the students guessed that this light was the source of the noise.
"What are you guys looking at? You look like you're seeing a ghost" asked Sawamura. He hopped over to the window and followed the direction of their gaze until he saw the light as well and went silent. The others followed suit and spied on the beam of light in the distance. It filled them with dread of the unknown at first, but then that feeling passed and they sought to learn what it was.
"What do you suppose it is?" asked Kenta.
"It's like nothing I've ever seen before, like something out of a video game," muttered Yuu under his breath. "I don't like it."
"We should go find out what it is," suggested Torakichi.
"Are you crazy?" Asuka grimly asked. "That could be radioactive for all we know!"
"Or it might not be real," remarked Hiroshi. "Look at everyone outside; no one's looking up at the sky."
True to his word, there wasn't any person in the street who stared up at the pillar of light. Everyone was too busy running around, trying to fix everything the earthquake had damaged, but not even the people doing nothing were staring at the light. It was as if no one but them saw it.
"How is this happening? A giant laser in the middle of the city and no one sees it?" asked Torakichi. "That doesn't even seem possible!"
"It isn't possible," mumbled Yuu, "not even a little bit."
"What do you think it means?" questioned Kenta. In his mind, he saw the light as a beacon, and he needed to know if anyone else saw it that way.
Hiroshi backed away from the window, saying, "I'm not sure what it is or what it means, but I'm going to find out." He ran out of the shop and towards the light as fast as he could, leaving the others behind.
"Wait up, Hiroshi!" Sawamura yelled. The gangly boy looked over to Torakichi and when the two nodded in agreement, they began chasing after their friend.
"Should we go, Yuu?" asked Kenta. "I really want to figure this out."
"Fine, but if we die because of your curiosity, I'm going to beat you straight to Hell," conceded the bespectacled boy. The two boys ran out of the shop in hot pursuit of Hiroshi and his friends, leaving behind the two girls.
Asuka shook her head in disbelief, chuckling at the brashness of the boys. "Can you believe them, Kiki? They see some big laser, they all decide to run after it. Never mind it could kill them, oh no, they need to go on an adventure! Well, I, for one, am not going anywhere near that thing!" declared Asuka.
"I…I think we should go after them, Asuka," said Kazumi.
"What? Why?"
"Because I, well…I have this feeling…like we should go there."
"Did the earthquake hurt your head?" probed Asuka. She knocked her fist against Kazumi's head. "Did you get brain damage like Smokey and his moronic friends?"
"No! It's just," Kazumi stopped herself and suddenly changed her appearance. She went from being slightly hunched over and timid to standing taller and confident. "I'm sorry, but it's something I feel like I need to do." With that, she left Asuka alone in the store as she ran after Hiroshi and his friends. She was determined to solve this mystery.
"Kiki? Kazumi? Hey, this is no time to grow a spine!" Asuka hollered at her friend as she started running as well. "Who knows what's going to happen?"
By the time Asuka reached the park, where she figured the light to be emanating from, she was nearly out of energy. She was deathly afraid of the light and what it represented; its ever-growing howl sounded like a savage animal in her mind. The only thing that kept her going was the need to see her friend to safety. She didn't need to worry though; as soon as she saw the park gates, she saw Kazumi leaning on one of the fence rails, gasping for air.
"There you are," Asuka grimaced as she ran up to Kazumi. "I thought I lost you back there for a minute. I keep forgetting how fast you get when you want something."
In between breaths of air, Kazumi replied, "I h-h-had to find out wh-what that light is, Asuka. I need to know."
"Yeah, but you know how weak your heart is! You're lucky you stopped when you did; any further and I would have had to call an ambulance for you," said Asuka.
"I'm sorry," Kazumi apologized, "for making you worry."
"It's all right," Asuka replied. "Now give me your hand and I'll help you get there, okay?"
Kazumi did just that. Asuka took her weak friend's hand and hoisted her up, then took her arm across her shoulder and helped her walk the rest of the way to the light. They followed the pillar all the way to a secluded pond, where the girls found that the light was bursting out of the water and the roar was nearly deafening. The boys were already there and were staring intensely at the pillar, each one seeming to study the bizarre structure.
"Hey!" shouted Asuka above the noise of the pillar. "Have you geniuses found anything yet?"
"No, nothing!" Torakichi responded. "Other than no one in the park seeing this thing, we haven't learned anything else about it!"
"I think I see something!" Hiroshi called out over the din.
In the center of the pulsating pillar were seven balls of light: one of green, one of blue, one of orange, one of gold, one of brown, one of yellow, and one that was nearly as white as the pillar itself. These spheres hovered in the air for a moment or two before they were jettisoned from the light, propelled by an unseen force, and crashed into each of the teenagers. Most were caught off their guards and hurled back by the force of the impact.
Once they recovered, they all looked down and found strange little machines resting in the palms of their hands. This machine, which almost resembled a stopwatch, was no longer or bigger than the average cellphone and was just as thick. The top and bottom parts of the devices were round, while the middle of it was wide and curved into a rectangle. There was a blank, black screen in the middle of the device with a number of buttons surrounding the screen. At the bottom of each one was a hole, where a white string had been run through.
"Is anyone else officially freaked out by this light show now?" asked Asuka, who fumbled with the yellow device in her hands.
"I'm not sure what just happened, but I can say that I'm really terrified," said Yuu. He gingerly touched the golden machine with his fingers. It was barely warm.
"What are these things? What do they do?" questioned Sawamura. He dangled his brown device by its string and eyeballed it like a piece of jewelry.
"I'd be lying if I said I knew," muttered Torakichi. The blue tool that he held felt so familiar, yet alien at the same time.
"Could be some kind of toy, I guess," Kenta supposed. He tried pressing a button or two on his pale device, but nothing worked.
"Yeah, well, who sends a toy through some giant laser?" inquired Hiroshi. The long-haired boy was busy fiddling with a knob he found at the top of the machine.
Kazumi gazed at the orange device intently, wanting to know its origin, when suddenly the screen began to light up. "Guys, s-s-s-something's happening to mine!" she shouted in surprise. Soon everyone's device was blinking and glowing, and they even began to shake a little bit.
"What, is this thing set on vibrate or something?" asked Hiroshi.
"Do you hear that?" interrupted Yuu.
The roaring was receding, lessening in volume for just a few moments, until it came back with ferocious intensity that threatened to tear the ground apart. All the little devices were glowing and shaking violently now, and the wind began to pick up and whip up the dust around the kids.
"What now?" screamed Asuka.
Her answer came in the form of a shining light. Specifically, the pillar fell from the sky and collapsed onto the students. They had no time to run or even move before it was upon them and, like a flood, swept them away. Everyone was dragged kicking and screaming into the light. It felt like being bathed in hot water, right down to the sensation of being wet, when the world around them began to grow dark. Hiroshi lost contact with his friends as the light faded away and he was left in the comfort of the darkness.
The last thought that ran through his head was, "This summer vacation sucks."
When the light faded, Hiroshi found himself lying on his back and staring up at a bright blue sky. The harsh light of the sun hurt his eyes, so he closed them shut and slowly adjusted to the glare. For some reason, this minute task took some effort. Hiroshi tried to push himself off the ground, but that proved even harder to do; his muscles felt like they had turned into jelly. The strain was incredible, but he managed to sit up after far several tries.
After his eyes adjusted to the light of the sun, the boy took in his surroundings. He wasn't in the park anymore; that was for sure. Instead, he was lying in a field of golden grass, with a large forest nearby. A soft wind picked up and blew strange and unfamiliar scents towards Hiroshi. When he gripped the grass beneath him, it felt like nothing he had ever touched in his life. Everything about the place was alien to him.
"Wharami…" Hiroshi muttered, his tongue not quite working. He wracked his brain, trying to remember what had happened after the wave of light hit him, but all he drew was a blank. After he lost sight of everyone, the lights went out and Hiroshi felt like he was in a dream.
"Sawamura! Torakichi!" the boy croaked. His senses, along with his voice, were slowly returning to him. For the first time since waking up, Hiroshi realized he was all alone. No Sawamura, no Torakichi, no Kazumi, not even Asuka and those middle school students. They were all gone. All he had was that strange device and the clothes on his back.
Hiroshi noticed something odd as he rose from the ground. The clothes he was wearing were not the same clothes he had on earlier. His school uniform was gone, replaced with a long sleeved, dark green shirt, an orange vest, blue jeans, and white sneakers. A quick search of the pants pockets revealed his lighter, a package of scented cigarettes, and the green device from earlier.
After taking a few tentative steps in the grass, Hiroshi began to call out for his friends again. "Sawamura, Torakichi! Where are you guys? Kazumi, where are you? Asuka, come on out! Is there anybody out there?"
He shouted with all his might and until he was hoarse, but no response ever came. After trying to find someone in the field of grass, Hiroshi collapsed to the ground. He was all alone, and he didn't like it at all. Even being around Asuka would be better than being stuck with no one else.
A sudden pinging alerted him to the device in his pocket. The lost boy could feel it shake like a cell phone in his pocket, a bright light emanating from its screen. Hiroshi pulled the device out and scratched his head, wondering how the strange thing worked.
"Okay, what?" he asked the device. "What do you want from me? I don't know how you work!"
He pressed random buttons on the machine until the shaking stopped. The screen changed, showing a circle with an arrow around it. The arrow spun around until it became fixed in a new position. For some reason unknown to Hiroshi, the device had become a compass.
"Well, I guess that'll do," said Hiroshi, brushing a lock of black hair away from his eyes.
With nothing else he could follow, Hiroshi was forced to follow where the arrow pointed. The grass tickled his feet as he walked through the field and towards the shady forest ahead. As the boy drew closer to the woods, the arrow slowly changed to red, as if indicating that he was drawing closer to something.
"How does this thing know where to go?" the smoker asked aloud. "And where am I even going? Can it show me where everyone else is?"
More button pressing proved fruitless, so Hiroshi decided that the only thing he could do was go into the forest. Summoning up all the bravado he could muster, Hiroshi lit a cigarette and stormed into the gloomy woods, hopefully ready to face whatever was inside.
Unlike the meadow, the forest was dark and foreboding. The trees grew thick and leathery leaves that blocked out the sun, their roots bursting from the ground like sickly veins. Alien noises came from every shadow, every inch of woods that surrounded Hiroshi. And the stench of the decrepit place was unbearable: it was like so much rotten food gathered together in one spot and left to decay. Not a drop of pleasantness could be found, and there was no one to guide him in the darkness.
For some time, Hiroshi stumbled through the woods in the direction the arrow pointed until he could take the foreign sounds no longer.
"If anything out there wants to kill me, just do it right now and get it over with! Come on, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity: free, easy to kill target over here!" the boy shouted all around him.
Of course there would be no answer, but Hiroshi could tell that something heard him, for he heard some shuffling in the undergrowth. He instantly regretted his outcry and backed his way up towards a tree. All the shouting, bravado, and false confidence were replaced with mumbling and paralyzing fear.
"I was just kidding, you know. It was just a joke, a bet I made, that's all! Please don't eat me, please don't eat me, please don't eat me."
From the corner of his eye, Hiroshi saw something rustling about in the branches of a nearby tree. He quickly turned around to catch a glimpse at the thing, but it ducked back into the shadows. His fingers twitched in anxiousness as he tried to find where this thing was, but a disembodied voice disturbed his search.
"Relax," the voice told the dark-haired boy, "I'm not going to eat you."
Suddenly, a monkey burst out from behind its leafy cover and landed in front of Hiroshi, who fell over and shouted in terror. If any of his friends were around, he probably would have put on a brave façade and tried to attack the creature, but, seeing as he was all alone in the dark, the smoker was like a scared child.
"Get away from me! I'm not on the menu!" he howled embarrassingly.
"I know you're not," the monkey answered in a childish voice. "Even if I weren't an herbivore, we Digimon are forbidden from harming humans."
The monkey was talking. Not only was it speaking a human language, it sounded like Japanese. This revelation both unnerved and eased Hiroshi at the same time: on the one hand, an animal was talking with him as if it were normal; on the other hand, it felt comforting to hear his native tongue in this alien place.
"Y-You speak Japanese? What are you?" Hiroshi asked the creature.
"Like I said, I'm a Digimon, a Koemon, to be exact," the monkey answered. "I'm a digital monster created by packets of information from your world."
Hiroshi stared at the monkey and could not believe what he was looking at. Firstly, the monkey had green fur that nearly covered its entire body; the only parts of it that weren't green were off-white. It had big, round eyes and red marks on its cheeks, like the ink on an athlete's face. Around its waist was what appeared to be a loincloth, and tucked in the loincloth was a sack of rocks and a crude slingshot. The monkey's hands were wrapped in leathery gloves that bore a striking resemblance to boxing gloves. It was surreal, like something plucked from a manga.
"Like what you see? I'm sort of a digital mutt, really: I've made of bits from a digital image of a monkey, a video game, and some book about kids trapped on an island. Not the most purebred of all Digimon, but I could be worse. Wait till you see some of the ugly things running around this world; you would not believe what went into making them," Koemon laughed, oblivious to Hiroshi's discomfort.
There was a moment of hesitation before Hiroshi asked the monkey, "What are you talking about? Digimon, digital mutt—what does any of that even mean?"
"Do you not know where you are?" the Digimon replied, cocking its head to one side.
"No, I don't. The last thing I remember was the white light sucking everyone up and—wait, have you seen anyone else like me? Maybe some guys or girls my age?" queried Hiroshi.
Koemon scratched the tuft of fur on its head and mumbled, "Don't think I've seen anyone else come through here, sorry. Tell me something though: when you woke up, did you meet an old man in a big, white robe?"
"No, I was all alone in a field."
"Are you sure about that? Maybe you aren't remembering everything properly."
"I'm pretty sure I'd remember seeing an old man in a bathrobe."
"Oh dear, this isn't right at all, not one bit!"
Koemon began to fret and pace about for some unknown reason, prompting Hiroshi to ask it, "Why's it so important that I see some old guy anyway? Was he supposed to explain everything to me, like where I am and I'm talking with a monkey?"
"Exactly," the Digimon grumbled, "and if he didn't show up when you arrived, that must mean that something has happened to him."
"So who is this guy? He sounds important."
"His name is Gennai," Koemon began to explain, "and he is the Gatekeeper, the one who monitors the connection between the Digital World and Earth, the "real" world. Whenever something crosses over, he's always there right away to make sure that everything is okay. But if you and other humans like you have come over and he's not there, I can't imagine what could have happened to him."
The human and the Digimon sat in the dark of the forest for some time, Hiroshi coming to grips with everything happening to him and Koemon worrying about the absent Gennai. Hiroshi wondered if there was anything he could possibly do to make the situation any better, but before he could make a suggestion, Koemon shoved him into some nearby bushes. When Hiroshi began to shout at the Digimon, it clamped a gloved paw over his mouth and held a finger to its lips.
Not a few seconds passed before there came the sound of several things marching through the part of the woods. Koemon made a small opening in the bush leaves so that Hiroshi could see what they were hiding from.
The creatures that walked before him were nothing like Koemon at all. These things had orange and yellow fur covering their bodies, yet they somehow had fins for feet. Each of the creatures walked on all fours, moving something like a lizard would, but they all snarled like an angry cat. There was a row of black horns that ran down their backs and led to a furry tail. The worst thing was that they smelled like they had crawled out of a swamp.
One of the creatures near the front of the pack, presumably the leader, growled at the rest of the creatures, "Keep moving! A human landed near here, and Boogiemon's offering a reward for anyone that brings it to him," and all the other amphibian-mammals yelped in agreement and trudged through the forest at a quicker pace, presumably heading towards the fields where Hiroshi was last.
When the last one passed by, Koemon led Hiroshi out from the bush. The human boy asked, "Were those things Digimon too?"
"Yes, though not the best kind in the world. They're Gizamon, nasty little frogs that are absolutely tenacious, and they're almost always hungry. If they get a whiff of something edible, they'll be on it like a Flymon on a honey comb," answered Koemon.
"They said something taking me to a Boogiemon; who's that?"
"Someone I hope we never meet. Imagine the nastiest bully you've ever known in your life, and then give him chaotic powers and an army of evil monsters; that's Boogiemon in a nutshell."
"Sounds absolutely miserable."
"He's that and more, I'm afraid."
Koemon stopped and sniffed at the air for a moment before telling Hiroshi, "We need to get moving. The Gizamon are likely to turn around and come this way once they finally catch your scent, so we need to be out of here before that happens."
"Do you have any place in mind?" asked Hiroshi.
"Follow me," the monkey Digimon whispered, "and I'll take you to a secret hiding place."
The two ran as quickly as they could through the dark forest, Hiroshi keeping a sharp eye on Koemon so that they didn't get separated. Unfortunately, years of smoking cigarettes had wreaked havoc on the lost boy's lungs, and he was panting and gasping for air after sprinting as hard as he could. The growling and hissing of the approaching Gizamon could be heard throughout the woods, but there wasn't a thing Hiroshi could do about it.
"Can't…move…anymore," coughed Hiroshi as he slumped against a tree. "Can't…breathe…at…all."
"You have to keep moving, human, or the Gizamon will tear you to shreds!" urged Koemon, who was hopping up and down in anticipation.
"I can't keep running, man! My legs are going numb, I can barely see, and I'm about to pass out. I can't run anymore," the smoker shouted.
"You won't have to worry about that anymore, then."
The Gizamon pack was closing in fast on the duo, bounding through the forest with their spring-like legs. Koemon's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates and it began to shake Hiroshi by the shoulders.
"Get moving! They're going to kill us!" the monkey Digimon screeched in terror.
Those words rang in Hiroshi's ears, and it was like the last straw snapped. He was tired of running, tired of being scared of this place, and tired of listening to a monkey. It wasn't in his nature to run like a squirrel when danger came about. No, he did something about it. All he wanted was to find his friends and get back home; getting eaten by frog-dogs wasn't part of the plan.
"No they won't," Hiroshi grimaced as he stood up. He steadied himself, which was difficult in his oxygen-deprived state. "I've wrestled with bigger dogs than this."
"You think this is anything like your world? They will rip you to shreds in seconds! You can't fight them!"
"I bet you I win."
"Are you crazy?"
"Ish."
In an instant, the first of the Gizamon charged at the two. Koemon covered its head with its paws, but Hiroshi curled his fingers into a fist and punched the monster across the face. It crashed into the ground and wobbled as it stood back up. Hiroshi had no time to celebrate though, as the other Gizamon began to swarm him.
"Why aren't you doing anything? Fight them!" Hiroshi shouted in anger.
"I've never fought anyone before!" Koemon cried as a Gizamon bit it on the arm.
The monkey Digimon was having a hard time fighting against just one of the savage monsters. When it wasn't trying to block the Gizamon's attacks, it was flailing about in a vain effort to strike its opponent. None of his punches landed on the enemy, who nimbly hopped around Koemon and scratched at the monkey with its razor-sharp claws.
Hiroshi wasn't faring much better. Although he started out strong, all guns blazing, he was running out of steam fast. His punches and kicks were becoming slower, and he was having a hard time focusing on the numerous Gizamon around him. To make matters worse, the enemy Digimon refused to stay down for long; they got back up as soon as they hit the ground.
Finally, his body could stand no more. Hiroshi collapsed to his knees and struggled to get back up, but the Gizamon leader stamped its foot down on the boy's back. The other enemies had Koemon pinned to the ground as well, despite the monkey Digimon's attempts to fight back.
"What should we do with this one, boss?" asked one of the Gizamon atop Koemon.
"Boogiemon only wants the human; delete him if you want," the leader maliciously chuckled.
In a raspy voice, Hiroshi weakly pleaded, "Stop it," but his murmuring went unheard. He could only watch as the innocent Koemon was hauled off the ground and slammed against a tree.
He tried a second time, saying a little louder, "Stop it," but the Gizamon continued to beat the monkey to an inch of his life.
Finally, he could take no more. Hiroshi gathered all the air in his lungs and howled in a furious bellow, "Stop it!"
His shouting seemed to do nothing at first: he was still pinned, and the Gizamon still attacked Koemon, but something had changed. The device in his pocket began to hum with life and energy, surging with awakened power. Its screen glowed in an orange light that shot out and struck Koemon's battered body. When the monkey opened its bludgeoned eyes, they were emitting the same orange light.
Instead of crying in pain, Koemon shouted something akin to a war cry and launched himself at the Gizamon, fists flailing all around. This time though, his body began to spin like a top, and suddenly his mindless swinging transformed into a deadly whirlwind of fists.
"Wild Punch!" he screeched as his attack hit the two Gizamon square in the jaw. The frog monsters flew through the air and crashed into the ground, where their hideous bodies burst into dust.
Koemon stopped spinning and stared down the other Gizamon that charged in to attack. This time, he pulled some rocks from the pouch at his waist and violently launched them with his slingshot. Each rock connected with each enemy's head, and they to burst into dust.
The only one left was the leader, who looked on Koemon with fury and amazement in its eyes. "You'll pay for that, you little snot!" the furious Gizamon snarled as it launched itself at Koemon.
Swiftly, the monkey dodged to one side, but the Gizamon was quick to rebound, as it immediately jumped off the forest floor and curled itself into a ball. It spun through the air and struck at Koemon with its horns, shouting, "Spiral Saw!"
Gizamon's attack had wounded Koemon even more, and the monkey Digimon was having trouble standing. Noticing his companion's weakened state, Hiroshio tried to drag himself over to Koemon, but it was no good. His body was healing, due to the rejuvenating energy of the mysterious device, but it wasn't enough to heal him completely.
Then an idea came to him. Maybe if the device gave Koemon more of that energy, he would have enough to fight off the Gizamon. It was the only option left to him, so that's what he decided to do. He whipped the device out from his pocket and stabbed each of the buttons in the hopes that at least one could help.
"I really hope this works," Hiroshi wheezed as he pressed a button near the top of the device.
Just like before, a beam of orange energy sprang forth from the device's screen and struck Koemon in the back. The light in his eyes sparked with a new intensity, and the monkey let out another battle cry. All the pain in his body was replaced by a rush of adrenaline.
"Like I'll let you hit me," the Gizamon taunted as it curled itself into a ball and rolled towards Koemon at a high speed.
The green monkey was ready for the attack though, as he jumped out of the way and slung a rock right at the Gizamon's side as it passed by. Striking it caused the enemy to fly through the air, uncurl, and collapse on the ground. Once it managed to stand back up, it was greeted by a flurry of fists.
"Wild Swing!" shouted Koemon as he pummeled the Gizamon with all his might.
After countless blows at a whirlwind speed, the Gizamon's body could take no more, and it disintegrated into dust like its comrades. Koemon stopped spinning eventually and fell to the ground, gasping for air. The orange light in his eyes faded away just as quickly as it had appeared.
Hiroshi gawked at what he had just seen. Five, maybe six frog monsters were just turned into dust by a green monkey fueled by orange light that came from a cellphone. Were this not real, he might have been laughing at the scenario. As it was, he could do little more than open and close his mouth without saying a single word.
"How—what just happened?" the boy finally asked.
"Wuh-Well, I can only muh-make a guess," Koemon stammered, "but I would assume that it was because of you that I managed to win."
"But how? I didn't do anything!"
"I believe you helped me by giving me digital energy from a Digivice. Would you happen to have something like that?"
"You mean this?"
The dark-haired boy reached a hand into his pocket and pulled the mysterious device out for Koemon to see. Cautiously, almost reverently, Koemon reached a paw out and grasped the small machine. His eyes were wide with curiosity and wonder.
"So this is what one of them looks like. Gennai was telling us what they could do, but he never did show us what they looked like. But just holding onto this, I can almost feel just why it's so important," Koemon said with a smile.
"What's it do?" asked a curious Hiroshi.
"Well, for starters, the Digivice allows the transfer of digital energy from itself to a Digimon when the holder of the Digivice so wishes it. The Digivice will respond to the holder's emotions and will transmit power to the Digimon, rejuvenating them and giving them a significant boost in strength. And if the strength and resolution of the pair is powerful enough, then the Digimon will achieve Digivolution, a state where the Digimon evolves into a new and more powerful form.
"But that's only one aspect of the machine. The Digivice can track other Digivices, meaning any humans that are separated can find each other if they follow the guidance system in the device. It keeps track of date and time, kind of like a fancy watch. There's a function that records data on Digimon, storing information on it like an encyclopedia. I'm sure there're some other programs in it, but I don't think Gennai explained everything."
Hiroshi pondered over the information Koemon was giving him, but he could barely understand it. Not a single thing made any sense in this world he had landed in.
"Okay, I'll guess I can only take things as they come," Hiroshi groaned in defeat, having grown tired of trying to comprehend everything.
"I'm sure it will make sense once you see it all for yourself," Koemon sighed. He supposed it was to be expected that the human, especially one that had not been prepped by Gennai, would not understand what he was saying.
When Koemon passed the Digivice back to Hiroshi, the boy gripped it in the palm of his hand. His fingers graced over the buttons until he found the one that made the compass earlier. The red arrow appeared on the screen, just as before, and it spun around and around until it pointed northwest of his current location.
"Everyone else had one of these things when we left the park, so I think I can find them with this," Hiroshi told his companion. He pushed himself off the ground and offered a hand to Koemon.
"Let's get to that hideout of yours and we'll call it a day. Gonna need some food and a little break before I start looking for my friends."
"Right this way, um—I'm sorry, but in all this confusion, I completely forgot to ask for your name," Koemon chuckled in embarrassment.
"It's Hiroshi," the boy smiled. "Call me Hiroshi."
"All right, Hiroshi. Let's get you to the safest place in the Digital World!"
Koemon walked past Hiroshi and beckoned him with a flip of his hands. The human boy smiled and began to follow after the Digimon, a spring finding its way into his step. His fears of the strange, new world were already beginning to fade as he lit a new cigarette and deeply inhaled the smoke. He would find the others and they would all find a way to get back home, he hoped.