Trouble Me
O'Hare Session Ten
"Nightmares and Digital Monsters"
The short, grey-clad business mogul slips into his therapist's office and sits on the couch. He looks like hasn't slept well.
"There's something I might like to talk about-it's probably nothing...but, I keep having nightmares about it."
"Oh?" Pennington looks over. "If you are having nightmares about it-about an event, then it is certainly worth talking about."
"You remember how I told you when I was 10 my dad, Mr. Yamaoka, and I went to a bunch of haikyo...well, we went to the spot where Gulliver's Kingdom sat. It's near the Aokigahara."
"What's that? The Aokigahara?"
"The Suicide Forest."
"Oh..."
"The guide didn't want to go in, but dad had to go in. He had to see the goddamned Suicide Forest...I saw it before he did..."
"What did you see, Mr. O'Hare?" Aloysius fidgets for a moment, a look of discomfort across his face.
"I don't know if I want to talk about this anymore..."
"Sir-"
"You know what I liked growing up?"
"Sir, please tell me what you saw." O'Hare ignores his therapist.
"Digimon. I fucking loved Digimon. I watched it in the original Japanese-used to watch it in 1999-2000 when I was at my obaa-san and ojii-san's house. Wanna know which one was my favorite?"
"Which one was your favorite, Mr. O'Hare, so we can get back to the matter at hand?"
"Shakkoumon. We'll talk about all that ol' bullshit later. Let's talk about Digimon, now. Something happy."
"Shakkoumon? Alright, Mr. O'Hare. We'll talk about Digimon. Which one was Shakkoumon?" O'Hare sits up.
"Shit man, what's the matter with you?" he shakes his head. "Before your time-Shakkoumon! From Adventure 02? The Jogress of Ankylomon and Angemon?" He fishes around in the inside pocket of his blazer. After a moment, he takes out a small plastic figurine of the Digital Monster in question. It is mostly white and gold with eyes thin-squinted. A cross sits atop its head. Angel's wings rest on its back. "This is Shakkoumon. Always confused me how an Angel and an Ankylosaurus made a Shakokidogu." He shrugs. "That's Digimon for you."
"Mr. O'Hare, why do you carry a plastic figurine of a fictional monster you loved as a child with you?"
"Shakkoumon's cool. Fuck you."
"I didn't say that he wasn't, Mr. O'Hare. I asked why you carry Shakkoumon with you. Do you feel like he is some sort of luck charm?"
"I don't know. I just like to have him here, in my pocket." The therapist looks at his patient.
'A transitional. All that confidence, and he carries a plastic toy as a transitional...I guess we know where his self-confidence comes from.' "Mr. O'Hare, do you always have Shakkoumon?"
"Yeah. I've carried him around most of my life, actually. Always in a pocket. Everyone always thought that Paildramon was the coolest of the Jogress digimon, and I'll admit he is really cool, but I like Shakkoumon the best."
"Mr. O'Hare, why do you like Shakkoumon the best?"
"I dunno," he shrugs. "He just looks really cool to me." Dr. Pennington slips the end of his pen in his mouth, studying the plastic toy Mr. O'Hare has sat upon the dark-coloured coffee table.
'He says the creature is a Shakokidogu, but it has Christian themes-the Cross, the Angel wings. Shakkoumon is him-at least on some level. Shakkoumon is his own feelings about being Japanese with a "white", Christian-especially Irish-Catholic for him-veneer.' Pennington thinks. Aloysius sits up, visibly excited.
"You know what would have been cool if they did but they never did?"
"What's that, Mr. O'Hare?"
"Had Omnimon and Imperialdramon Fighter-Mode Jogress! Yeah, I know that in either the movie or late in Adventure 02 Omnimon gave his power to Imperialdramon so he could go into Paladin Mode-but that's nowhere near as cool as a Jogress of the two of them."
"You'll have to forgive me, Sir, I never really got into Digimon. I don't really know what you're talking about."
"A Jogress is when two digimon combine into one much more powerful digimon. MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon Jogress into Omnimon-some say that isn't a real Jogress, but they can suck a cock. In Adventure 02, Koushiro says it was. In the manga, it is a Jogress, too. Anyway, Stingmon and XV-mon Jogress into Paildramon, Aquilamon and Tailmon Jogress into Silphymon, and Ankylomon and Angemon Jogress into Shakkoumon." His therapist looks confused. "Digimon was this series about these kids-ordinary kids that go into a world apart from our own, but made up of all our communications technology-the Digital World. They are partnered with Digimon-the creatures that live in that world. In Adventure 01-which I don't remember as well. I was still really young when it was still out in Japan, there were 8 kids: Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Jyou, Mimi, Takeru, and Hikari. Each of them had a Crest that represented their strongest quality. Taichi had Courage, Yamato had Friendship, Sora had Love, and Koushiro had Wisdom-though sometimes they called it Knowledge or Curiosity. Jyou had Sincerity-though they changed it to Reliability in the dub and Mimi got Sincerity. Mimi had Purity, Takeru had Hope, and Hikari had Light...Hikari is Japanese for light..."
"Go on, Mr. O'Hare..."
"They were each paired to a digimon, too, like I said. Taichi had Agumon, Yamato had Gabumon, Sora had Piyomon, Koushiro had Tentomon, Jyou had Gomamon, Mimi had Palmon, Takeru had Patamon, and Hikari had Tailmon. Each of them could evolve into stronger forms-the Crests allowing them to reach Perfect, though Agumon and Gabumon could also Warp-evolve into Ultimate level digimon, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon."
"Was Perfect the strongest or...?"
"Nah, it went Baby I, Baby II, Child, Adult, Perfect, and Ultimate." he settles back, continuing his Digi-talk. "Anyway, these kids-seven at first, Hikari wasn't with them yet-are at this summer camp, and are taken into that other world. They fight plenty of evil digimon-ones that wanted to kill them. First, it was Devimon, then Etemon, then Vamdemon. Vamdemon is how they found out about the 8th Chosen Child. They had to go back to the real world and find the 8th kid before Vamdemon. Tailmon was one of Vamdemon's men, but turned out being the partner to the 8th child, Hikari-Taichi's little sister. Takeru and Yamato were brothers, too. They kill Vamdemon and he comes back as VenomVamdemon and about destroys the Tokyo Bay area. Agumon and Gabumon warp evolve for the first time, and the combined power of all the kids and their Crests destroys VenomVamdemon. They go back to the digital world and fight this group of Digimon called The Dark Masters-MetalSeadramon, Pinocchimon, Mugendramon, and Piemon. They defeat them, then they have the last battle, against a digimon called Apocalymon. Then, the kids defeat him and find that they have to leave the digital world and never see their partners again."
"What a sad way to end a children's show."
"Nah, it's alright. When Adventure 02 starts up-my favorite of the series, the kids are reunited with their partners and can come and go freely from the Digital World. Only Hikari and Takeru are part of the "main crew" in this season from the first. They are joined by three, and eventually one more, Chosen. A girl a little older than them named Miyako, a boy their age named Daisuke, and-this is what made me really love Adventure 02-a boy younger than them named Iori! Iori! My middle name! Hell, my name in Japan-obaa-san and ojii-san only ever called me Iori-kun. These three new kids don't have crests, but inherit the power of the crests of some of the earlier kids through Digimentals and have partners of their own. Daisuke was partnered to V-mon and inherited Courage and Friendship. Miyako was partnered to Hawkmon-the first time a girl had ever been paired to a boy digimon-and inherited Love and Purity. Iori was partnered to Armadimon and inherited Knowledge and Sincerity. Hikari and Takeru kept Light and Hope. They fight against this evil Chosen Child-Ken who called himself the Digimon Kaiser. They defeated the Kaiser, and he joined with them. Turns out, he had a crest, too. The Crest of Kindness. His partner was Wormmon." he looks up at his therapist who was trying to conceal his boredom. "You know what I think?" Startled, Dr. Pennington looks up, his eyes wide.
"What's that, sir?"
"I think Vamdemon knew about Ken all along. As the season progressed, we find out that Ken was being controlled by this sort of digital seed-a "Dark Spore" that made him very intelligent and also evil. He was a son of a bitch as the Kaiser. They find these two other digimon, Arachnemon and Mummymon. The two of them can shape-shift between Digimon and Human forms and Arachnemon can make artificial Digimon out of all these obelisks Ken built around the Digital World. They find out that the two of them are trying to weaken the barrier between the real world and the digital world and try to stop them, but they go back to the real world before they can. The kids find out that Arachnemon and Mummymon were made by this guy, Yukio Oikawa, who saw the digital world back in the 70s or something-when he was a kid-and wanted to go. He implanted Ken with the spore so he would build those things, make all that shit to weaken the barriers. Then, the barrier is weak enough, and Oikawa takes a bunch of these kids he implanted with the spores he took from Ken into this other world. It wasn't the digital world-it was some sort of other dimension-like the Dark Ocean, which they really should have done more with-and who should appear there but motherfucking Vamdemon. Turns out, when the kids in the first one killed him as VenomVamdemon, he found Oikawa watching the kids return to the digital world and promised him that if he let him live inside him like a parasite, he would take him to the digital world. Vamdemon comes out of Oikawa, nearly killing him. He's in this really weird new form-BelialVamdemon. I don't know how the hell that thing is supposed to read as Belial or as a Vampire-looks like a space-ship to me...sort of...if you squint. Point is, BelialVamdemon doesn't look right. He kills Arachnemon and Mummymon for shits and giggles, then starts in on the kids. He creates this illusion-making them see what they truly want-Miyako has a lot of brothers and sisters, so she sees herself as an only child. Hikari wishes everyone had a partner digimon, so that's what she sees-everyone with a digimon partner of their own. Takeru wishes his and Yamato's parents weren't divorced-that his family is whole again, so that's what he sees. Iori's dad's dead, so he sees his father alive. Not only that, but Iori's father, Hiroki, was Oikawa's friend and also caught a glimpse of the digital world. Iori sees himself showing his father the digital world. Ken wants to be forgiven, but sees himself bound to one of his spires, beaten to death by the digimon he'd tormented as The Kaiser. The only one who didn't fall for the illusion was Daisuke...because he was too stupid for it. All he could think about was winning, so nothing else mattered to him. He pulls the other five out of their illusions, all of their digimon evolve into all of their forms at once."
"How did that work? What does that mean?"
"Like, instead of say, Patamon becoming only HolyAngemon and there being only one of him there, he'd appear as Pegasusmon, Angemon, HolyAngemon, and Shakkoumon. They beat the shit out of BelialVamdemon-knocking him into the Digital World, inadvertently. Then, they all combine powers, and all the partner digimon that belong to all the other kids in the world-all the other chosen, there are a lot-more than they ever imagined, break him down to his core-to where he is just this shadow. Then, the light from every digivice in the world is used to kill him completely. Oikawa is still alive, and Iori is trying to get him into the digital world, as it was all he ever wanted. He manages to get just in and meet his partner digimon-then dies. His body scatters into butterflies and heals the Digital World of the darkness that had swept over it. I think it is really nice that he turns into the butterflies-the theme song for the first season is called "Butterfly"...it's like it is from Oikawa-like it made the series come full-circle. I actually felt bad for him a lot as a kid."
"How does that prove to you that this Vamdemon character knew about Ken?"
"Don't you see? Vamdemon knew about the ninth child! The Child of Kindness, but never went after him when he went to the real world! He only went after Hikari. He had other plans for Ken-used him as an "ace in the hole", a corrupted Chosen Child to gain entry into the digital world to tear it apart from the inside while he regained power inside Oikawa." The therapist sits up, determined to get his patient to stop his digi-ranting. He knew what O'Hare was doing-trying to run the hour out.
"I think we've talked enough about Digimon, Mr. O'Hare. I would really like to talk about the Aokigahara incident." He fidgets.
"Please? Do I have to? I...I don't want to...I was trying to run the hour out..."
"I knew you were. Mr. O'Hare, if you don't talk about the Aokigahara incident, the nightmares won't stop." He leans in a bit. "What did you see first?" O'Hare bites his lower lip, his fingers laced tightly. He eyes the door, thinking of running, but thinks better of it.
"I was just 10, okay?!" he shouts. "It was a dead body. A dead fucking body hanging from the fucking tree, okay!?"
"Calm down." He takes in large gulps of air, his eyes wide.
"God, it was still fresh...the eyes were bugged out...the face...God...Why the hell did dad take me in there!? It's called the fucking "Suicide Forest", not "Super Happy Fun-Time Forest". Son of a whore, he should have known better."
"When did your father or Mr. Yamaoka notice?"
"Dad noticed when I wasn't following him anymore. He turned around. He said that I was standing stalk-still, staring off into the trees, wide-eyed. He walked over to me, got down to my level and tried to see it. He still didn't see it. Mr. Yamaoka had to point it out to him, but the guide's English wasn't very good at all. Corpse in tree. Son is looking at dead person in tree. He pointed it out to him, and dad finally saw it."
"What happened then?"
"They had these people, right, that check up on the forest-call in the bodies, try to keep people from killing themselves. We called one of them in...they cut the person down and took them away to the morgue." He shudders. "It was a woman, about 30 and dressed in business attire. She wore these red shoes-one missing. They didn't go with her green suit-dress-thing at all...I started having nightmares not long after that..."
"Tell me about the nightmares, Mr. O'Hare."
"I'm always a boy again in the nightmares. I'm in the Aokigahara, but I'm alone. It's dark, and I am very afraid. I end up running through it and run into the body. She reaches down to me and strangles me...I always wake up there...sometimes, she doesn't reach down. Sometimes, vines coil around my neck like a noose and drag me up to her, hanging me."