The story I am about to share with you is absolutely true. I know this may seem hard to believe. Even now, a year after it all happened, I still am unsure that I believe it. I ask you to suspend your skepticism, just for now, just long enough to listen. My name is Shukumei Cheisu, and this is my tale.

Introduction: Where It All Began

No matter how old you are, you should remember the fads that came and went as you grew: those items and people who were unknown one day, hot the next, and then the day after that… were not.

My fad was Digimon. Even when I was six years old I was obsessed with it. I watched the television shows, I had to have the plush animals and electronic toys. I had a digimon-based backpack and a Digimon lunchbox. I collected the cards, and I mastered the game. For seven years, my life almost literally was Digimon! For a time, I even started to dream that Digimon not only might be real… but in fact was real!

Unfortunately, like all fads, Digimon's popularity soon faded. Like Tamagotchis, Pokemon, and other fads of that nature, people lost interest, and instead found interest in other things. As I grew up, I found people telling me how childish it was to entertain myself with such impossible concepts as computer monsters, fantastic battles, saving the world… and sadly, I found myself believing them.

So I drifted away. I threw away my cards, and I gave away my plush dolls. I turned off the television and began to focus on my studies. I sold off all of my Digimon toys… except one… and soon, even my dreams had faded. The last traces of that far-off Digital World left to me were the small, desperate cries of a single digimon… cries that, by the time I was sixteen, had gone silent. I moved on with life. I found and lost human friends. I went on dates and went to parties. I even took an interest in my school's computer club, and for a time, I forgot just how alone I felt. I thought my Digital adventures over for good… but destiny is a funny thing. It has a way of sneaking up when we least expect it… and what it had in store for me, I will never forget to the day I die.

Chapter One: How It All Began… Again

"Cheisu!" The cry echoed across the forest, scared and lonely. She ran. Her lungs burned. Her short legs ached, but she couldn't stop… not if she expected to evade the shadows pursuing her. Even now her pointed ears could hear the growling of her antagonists. She could feel the heat of their breath on her long, fluffy tail. She could imagine the snapping of their teeth, and through the trees she thought she could see them. Their shapes were obscured, but that made them no less frightening. She could easily make out the glowing red eyes, eyes that burned with anger, with hatred.

She veered to her left, but even then she was followed. The trees around her thinned, and now she thought she heard the sound of rushing water. A river perhaps? She rushed toward it. Soon, the trees had stopped growing altogether. Briefly she glanced up, staring into the clouded night sky. When she turned her attention back to her path, she found herself skidding to a halt. The stones and dirt below tore at her soft paws. By the time her momentum had stopped, she found herself looking into the river… over the edge of a sheer precipice. She gulped and turned around as the shadows emerged from the forest behind her. "End of the line for you, little pest," the leader snarled, "A pity… Such a nice tail you had too." She backed up, her rear paw dangerously close to the edge.

"Cheisu!"

"Cheisu, wake up!"

My eyes flashed open and I bolted upright. "Viximon!" I cried.

"Viximon? Who's that? Are you talking about that kids' game again?"

It was my best friend, Kiken. He was seventeen years old, and a junior at Odaiba Highschool just as I was. His had his long, dark hair slicked back, ending in messy waves that spiked out from behind his neck. His brown eyes sparkled with curious amusement. His lips were pursed together, and it looked like he was barely stifling a laugh. He leaned over my desk and stared into my eyes. "C'mon!" he said, "The bell rang five minutes ago. Everybody's gone home."

I closed my eyes again and rubbed my temples. Here I was, sitting in the middle of my classroom while my teacher, Mr. Kyoshi, worked at his desk, in the middle of a bright, warm autumn afternoon, and the only thing I could think about was that dark forest. The birds sang merrily outside the windows, but all I could hear were the cries of that little digimon… calling me.

Kiken tapped his foot impatiently. "C'mon already!" he demanded, "If we stick around here, Mr. Kyoshi's likely to give us even more homework than we've already got!"

I stood up and grabbed the black leather backpack from behind my chair. "Sorry Kiken," I groaned, "I must have drifted off. I had this really weird dream though." As Kiken and I walked from the classroom into the near-abandoned halls, I began to describe my dream to him. "I haven't had a dream like that in more than a year," I told him when I was through, "I know it probably sounds crazy, but that Viximon… there was something familiar about her, like I'd met her before somewhere."

Kiken laughed and rolled his eyes. As we reached our black-painted lockers, Kiken looked over at me. "What I think is that it's been too long since you've had a girl," he commented, "How long as it been anyway, buddy?"

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. Kiken was a jock in every sense of the word. He was a star athlete, the idol of just about every girl in school. Any sport you could name he played, and he played it well. Of course, whatever brainpower he had, he tended to focus on just one thing: how to get all the hottest girls to sleep with him before the year was up.

"For your information, Keirei and I only broke up a month ago," I said, "That's not it at all. Ugh… Forget it." I turned and headed down the hall. "I'll just go home and get a nap."

"If you see Viximon again while you're in Dreamland, tell her I said 'Hi!" Kiken jeered.

-I-

Twenty minutes later, I arrived at the apartment building I called home. I entered the ten-story building and rushed through the lobby, ignoring all the decadent trappings. I didn't need to see them anyway. I had passed them so many times I could recite all their details purely from memory. On either side of the twin glass doors that served as the entry to the building stood a pair of brass vases around a meter and a half high. I knew they were authentic brass because I had tried to lift one once, and nearly strained my back in doing so. They were heavy! The plants they contained could vary depending on our landlord's tastes, and since we tended to get a new one every couple of months, the plants were always changing. Today they contained some sort of exotic fern with a variety of red-blooming flowers thrown in. The carpeting on the floor was woven of red fibers, as were the waiting chairs at the center. Nestled against the left wall was the door that led into the office, with a pair of large glass windows to either side of that. The blinds were drawn shut. Obviously, the staff was conducting some kind of "private" business inside. A pair of exotic trees stood to each side of the elevator, watching over the lobby like some kind of permanent sentinel.

I pressed the button for the fifth floor and waited. Soon enough the doors opened and I stepped into the elevator. Once I had reached my floor, I hurried down the hallway to my apartment, still not bothering to look up. I paused as I reached my door and looked up at the nameplate on it: Shukumei. It meant "destiny," and for that reason alone, I could not help but laugh. Destiny was a joke as far as I was concerned. My parents were business people. My grandfather had been a fisherman. As far back as I could recall there really wasn't anything special about my family. Yet always the men of my family had maintained that we were intended for great things. I doubted that.

I opened the door and went into my apartment. Almost immediately, I found myself shivering. Someone had left our air conditioning system on for too long. I found the thermostat and shut it off.

The apartment was empty. My parents were still working- as they always were when I returned home from school- and I was their only child, so I didn't have any siblings to join me. That was just fine. It meant I got the whole of our rather large apartment to myself.

The family room was spacious, large enough for a whole entertainment center against the northern wall, complete with a stereo system, a big-screen television, a video game console (although I'd hardly used this since I was thirteen), and a number of other, smaller pieces of electronic equipment.

The southern wall contained a large family portrait containing my mother, father, and me. My father was a two-meter tall man of average build. He wasn't what anyone might define as "buff," but he'd certainly kept himself fit by training in the martial arts. His straight hair was jet black, while his eyes were an icy shade of blue. His mouth was perpetually curled into a thin smile. My mother was a few decimeters shorter than he was, with strawberry blonde curls that ended at her shoulders, and a pair of sparkling brown eyes. Like my father, her lips always seemed curled into a smile.

The eastern wall held sliding glass doors that opened to our family's terrace. There was nothing my parents enjoyed more than to eat breakfast while watching the sunrise. The western wall was virtually non-existent, with only a bar marking the boundary between this and the kitchen/dining room. Beyond those, a single hallway led to the two bedrooms, a linen closet, and a bathroom.

As I moved down the hall toward my room, I passed by the guest bathroom. I paused a moment and stared through the doorway into the huge mirror mounted over the cream-colored vanity. Everything about me seemed normal. I stood just under two meters tall, clothed in a school uniform that consisted of a deep blue jacket with a white t-shirt, a midnight-colored tie, and a pair of black slacks. My short, jet-black hair sat atop my head in unkempt tangles. My dark brown eyes seemed lackluster and tired, with dark circles forming beneath their lids. Staring at myself, I sighed deeply before continuing on.

Soon, I had come to my room: the second door on the left. It was a typical teens' room. The walls were lined with posters, most of which I'd gotten from going to concerts with Kiken or Keirei. A single wooden desk held my computer, which I only used for school or computer club activities. A laundry bag sat against the far wall, and I reminded myself that I would have to empty that today. My bed was a wooden frame lined with dark blue covers.

I promptly tossed my bag on the floor and flopped onto it. I stared up at my cream-colored ceiling and sighed. Kiken wouldn't understand. He couldn't. As strange as it sounded, I was sure the cries, the calls I heard from Viximon were real. They had to be! I closed my eyes, hoping that sleep would bring some peace of mind, or at least give me a chance to figure things out. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to get my wish.

"Cheisu…" The voice was small, like a barely-recognizable whisper.

"Cheisu…" I opened my eyes, hoping that I was dreaming.

"Cheisu…"

No! Not this! I didn't want this ever again! I'd heard the voice a long time ago, back when I'd still thought Digimon was a real thing. When I'd grown up and stopped dreaming, the voice had faded. I didn't want to hear it ever again, but apparently, it didn't matter. The voice came again. "Cheisu, you must… Your digivice… Digidestined…"

I sat up and rubbed my temples. The voice was trying to tell me something, but the words I could make out didn't make any sense. Digivice? Digidestined? "No, it's fake!" I yelled into the air, "It's all fiction! Do you hear me?!" My anger met with only silence, as if the voice didn't believe me. "Fine," I growled, "I'll prove it!" I slid off my bed and pulled up the edge of my comforter from the floor. Reaching underneath I grabbed a shoebox.

Like many kids, I kept mementos as I grew up, things that would later remind me of important times in my life. There were a few pictures, a scrap of paper with my first girlfriend's telephone number scrawled on it, a pencil from my first day of school… little things like that. However, there was one other thing: a toy digivice.

It was one of several I had owned, based on the digivices from the second season of the kids' show. Its curved design reminded me of a sweet potato, painted white with green edges. A black circle, in the center of which sat a small liquid crystal display screen, dominated the top half of the device. The left side of the circle was cut away and replaced by a pair of green buttons that looked like rounded arrows, one pointing upward and the other down. Just below the circle was a large white, circular button about half the black circle's size. A pair of arrows etched into it pointed to the left and to the right. It looked the same as it had when I was twelve: a toy.

Laughing to myself, I reached into the box to pick it up. I immediately wished that I hadn't. As soon as I touched the device, a brilliant golden light shot from it. I dropped the shoebox and covered my eyes, crying out. When the light had faded and I managed to open them again, I looked down… only to see that the toy I'd played with as a child was gone.

In its place was something very different. Cautiously I reached down and grabbed the

device. When nothing happened, I picked it up and began to examine it. The new device was rectangular, but the bottom edge was rounded. The top edge seemed to have some kind of silver button on it, while the front had completely changed. Where once the toy had contained a small LCD screen, a large, square shaped screen now dominated the top half. The bottom half contained three buttons that emerged from a circle, like the claws of some beast. The curved edge appeared slotted like an old card reader. "No way," I whispered, "This isn't possible.

"Cheisu…" There was that voice again, and now the device in my hand reacted. The screen began to glow brightly, and my previously shut-down computer turned itself on. Rather than booting into the operating system, however, the screen just glowed. I looked at the device in my hand, and at the computer, then back again.

"What have I got to lose?" I mused. Kiken already thought I was crazy, so it wasn't as if I had a reputation to lose. If this was all fake as I hoped, I wasn't even risking my life. I stood up and moved toward the computer, holding up my digivice. "Well, here goes nothing."