Digi Souls

Max and Bakura still had questions for Noah. While the rest of their friends were resting, the two of them along with their partners went upstairs to Noah's workroom. Bakura was hesitant at first, but he gulped and knocked on the door. "Come in," Noah's voice permitted.

Bakura opened the door and he and Max and their Digimon invited themselves inside. "Sorry to disturb you," the boy apologized.

"Not at all," Noah assured them. "Is anything the matter, you guys?"

"No, everything's fine," Max answered. "There's just a few things we want to ask you." Then she saw Calumon connected to the digivices. "Noah, what are you doing?"

He followed her gaze. "In order for me to modify everyone's digivices, I need to borrow Calumon's power."

"His power?" Bakura echoed.

"Yes, Calumon is a very special Digimon. In fact, he's the only one of his kind." Noah places his finger close to Calumon's face and gently tickles it. He also faces Bakura and Max and tells them, "I assume you guys tried using your digivices to look up Calumon's information, but couldn't, am I right?" Seeing them nod, he explains to them, "Like I said, Calumon isn't like other Digimon. In fact, he's what can be considered the embodiment of the light of digivolution."

"You mean like a catalyst?" Bakura wondered.

"You could say that," Noah replied. "As you already know, digivolution is a difficult process and not all Digimon are capable of it. Many have sought the power, hoping to make themselves stronger and only ended up corrupting themselves. So the four Digimon sovereigns created Calumon to protect and preserve the power of digivolution."

Max understood it more and said, "Yeah, I get it. It was to prevent that power from getting out of control."

"So the power of digivolution itself lies with Calumon," Bakura asked, trying to make sense of the concept. "But then what's the purpose of having digivices?"

"A digivice is just a tool used to commence the process of digivolution," Noah was saying. "It doesn't necessarily tap into Calumon's power. It activates when the Digimon and its partner are connected. It reacts to the partner's feelings for the Digimon and the Digimon's resolve to stand and defend, and somehow, that combined together invokes the power of digivolution."

"So the digivice controls digivolution while Calumon protects and preserves its power," Bakura assumed.

"Even so, a Digimon still can't digivolve on its own," continued Noah, "not without sharing a bond with a partner. As established, put together a Digimon's resolve and the partners feelings and it calls upon the power of digivolution and the digivice activates to control the power. However, if a human partner should lose his way and allow himself to be overcome with anger and hate or become downright power-mad, then the Digimon's information can become corrupted."

Max knew Noah was right. She had witnessed such occurrences back from when she watched the television show back home and even played the games. She remembered how some tamers were driven with anger and rage and became forceful to their partners and the Digimon digivolved into evil creatures resembling the hate inside their human partners.

Finally, she spoke and said, "Noah, when we first arrived here in Digiworld, our Digimon already knew us and said they had been waiting."

He nods and says, "I suppose it had to do with your information being converted with the Digimon that they knew about you before they were born. Other than that, it actually also comes naturally."

"What do you mean by that?" Bakura asked.

He sighs and tells them, "Well, you guys, many Digimon are born knowing their destinies are linked to someone else's and that one day, they will meet the person fated to be their tamer and partner. From the time the Digimon is born, it spends each day of its life waiting for the human destined to be its partner. A Digimon will wait forever if it has to," he said with a hint of sadness in his tone.

Max and Bakura look at their partners and Renamon tells them, "It's true."

"We knew about you before we were even born," said Terriermon. "When we were still Digi-Eggs, we knew we were destined to be your Digimon. And by the time we hatched, we waited for days, then weeks, then months, and then you finally came."

"It didn't matter how much we knew about you back then," Renamon was saying. "We believe it's no accident that all of you personally are our partners. We weren't connected by information, but by our spirits." Max softly smiled and nodded in agreement.

"We're happy with you and there's no one else we'd rather have as our tamers," said Terriermon.

Tears filled Bakura's eyes. He picked up his partner and gently hugged him. "Thank you, Terriermon. I never knew you at the time, but I was keeping you waiting without even knowing it. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Bakura," the rabbit says, drying his eyes.

He clears his throat and recollects himself. "And I know we're just data in this world, but that doesn't mean our bond isn't real."

"That's right," Max said in agreement. "It's actually a big deal, too. Our world and the Digital World are connected, Bakura. That means anything that happens here can also have an impact on the world."

"That means the same goes for us," he replied. "Anything we do can influence us as though we were still back home. That means we have to be careful in the same way."

Noah was impressed with Max's intelligence and he also admired Bakura's kindness and curiosity. It almost made him think of himself and what he was like before he was digitized. It also made him a little sad. He was human like them, yet at the same time, he was human no more. That made him both an outsider and a resident to the Digital World because before he arrived, he was still data and pieces of information. He still came from the flesh, but not in the same way the heroes did.

Max still had her power to read other people's thoughts and she also heard Noah's just now and how he was thinking of himself. She kept quiet, though. She didn't want to alarm anyone.

Bakura changed the subject with another question. "Noah, if you don't mind my asking, I know you're not entirely human like you used to be and you don't know why you were reborn as you are, but there has to be something that separates you from all the Digimon, right?"

"That's a good question, actually," he replied. "My data should have been a little bit as complex as the Digimon's. You see, everything here in the Digital World, plants, buildings, and standard products and the Digimon themselves are all made up of missing or broken pieces of data that had been scattered and reconfigured."

"But still, if you're not human, what makes you different from all the Digimon?" Bakura asked again.

"At first, I thought it was because of my background history," Noah was saying, "then I came to realize I didn't have any attributes."

"Attributes," echoed Bakura. "Do you mean like the attacks and abilities Digimon have?"

"Yes, and the way a Digimon digivolves," he added. "Attributes can also determine a Digimon's classification as data, virus, and vaccine."

Max remembered that a lot of the Digimon that attacked her and her friends were virus-type Digimon, but they were also data-types being manipulated by Devimon. Other than that, the Digimon she and her friends were partners with were mostly data-types and vaccine-types.

"I'll be finished with modifying your digivices tonight," Noah promised. "I'll also make travel arrangements to get you guys to the continent. For now, you'd better get some rest." Max and Bakura nodded and dismissed themselves with their Digimon. Noah sighed with a hint of happiness as he continued his work. It had been too long since he last engaged in a friendly conversation with people and he enjoyed the time he spent with Max and Bakura just now.