Digigamigakari

Written by Omnicrom

Standard Disclaimer: This work is a non-profit derivative work of fanfiction. I claim no ownership to Digimon or its characters.

Chaoskampf

Yamaki climbed the 188th step, walked through the Tori gates, and surveyed the little shrine on the hill enclosed by trees. After a moment he stepped up to the donation box, tossed in a folded bill, and pulled the faded rope. The bell overhead rattled and clanged and Yamaki clapped his hands together without much fervor.

There was a clatter from the adjacent building. "Thank you! Yes! I'm coming! Sorry, give me a moment I'm..." a shabbily dressed, bespectacled man barreled through the other building's door. He froze when he saw Yamaki.

"I am Yamaki Mitsuo, director of the Office of Network Administration and Security," he gave the man a curt nod. "You are Komatsu Takahito, PhD in anthropology from Tokyo University, and currently the kannushi priest in charge of this shrine."

Takahito nodded. It wasn't a question. He looked from the blonde haired man with his sunglasses in his sharply tailored suit to the two similarly dressed heavyset men flanking him. He looked down at his old maroon cardigan and sweatpants.

"I'm sorry…" he started, that was always safe to say. And it gave him time to try and find something else to say. "I knew, of course, that someone would be coming to talk with me, but if I had known that someone, someone of your… standing, if you were coming I would have… I'd have..." Takahito struggled to find some way to end that sentence.

"That's fine. I didn't come here for a social occasion."

"No, then, I mean what…?"

"No," Yamaki said coolly. "I came here to talk about your research."

"My research…" Takahito began, "oh yes! My work! Of course, I mean why else would you have…"

"Let's not get off track Professor Komatsu. Do you have a place where we can speak in private?"

"Well, I mean yes, I mean, we can use my office if you don't mind the mess, like I said if I had known that you were…"

"Your office will be fine Professor Komatsu," Yamaki said. Something about the way he talked shot right through Takahito and rattled him right down to his bones. It was enough to make him shiver under the summer sun. The sheer, collected confidence behind his words gave them a crushing weight. This man, Director Yamaki, shook Takahito every time he spoke. This man was The Government with all of its terrible power, and worse yet he knew it.

Takahito, wordlessly and nervously, led Yamaki into his residence through the little kitchen and dining room into his horribly messy study. As Yamaki turned to give instructions to the two men following him, Takahito tried to quickly relocate the small mountain of books and papers stacked on his faded blue overstuffed armchair. He failed, spilling another manuscript's worth of paper into the disorganized sea of pages scattered haphazardly on the floor. To his own surprise Director Yamaki dropped down on his hands and knees and began to gather up the mess.

"Oh, no, there's no need, you don't have to…" Yamaki ignored him and continued sorting. Takahito grimaced and hastily began to help gather the papers up.

"Good work of any stripe deserves respect," Yamaki said a minute later, handing over a thick sheaf of papers. Takahito grabbed them, turned to his old desk, turned back, bowed hastily to the important man. Then he began rifling through drawers to find an open spot for the stack of sheets. That done, Takahito fell back into his old leather office chair and sighed in relief. A moment later he froze, sat up very straight, and turned his chair towards the very important man sitting across from him.

"Can I… Like, should I offer you, I can get a kettle of tea going if you like…"

"No thank you, I'm fine," Yamaki said with that same scarily certain tone and wearing that same eerily composed expression. Yamaki pulled a briefcase Takahito hadn't noticed before on to his lap and pulled out a thermos. "I bring my own refreshments on visits like these. Security reasons."

"Right, of course, I should have..." Takahito flailed before coming to a stop. Yamaki said nothing. Takahito glanced around nervously. The blonde man was clearly in no hurry to begin. He cleared his throat and mustered his courage and tried again. "Well, like I said before, I am honored that someone of your importance would see fit to visit me personally, but I must admit, I'm still unsure why. If I may be so impolite as to ask directly, why did you want to speak with me?"

"Like I said before, Professor Komatsu, I was interested in your research. I read your article in the Japanese Journal of Anthropology and Mythology."

"And, like I said before, I'm flattered, but… Er, which one?" A little hint of eagerness trickled into Takahito's voice.

"I've read all four of your published submissions, and the additional four that were rejected or held in abeyance. Frankly, I believe your article on the comparative analysis of river Kami by region would have been the best publication of that quarter."

"Hah! Yes! Thank you! I put a lot of work into that article and it was heartbreaking they passed on it for another tired examination of Do-…" Takahito blinked and pulled back in his chair "Wait, you read those? What? How?"

"Governmental subpoena as outlined in the State Defense Acts. The government has the right to request access to all scholarly work put to submission that may be relevant to national security," once again the blonde man spoke with a kind perfect, chilling confidence. His voice was a voice that said OF COURSE he had read Takahito's paper. It was a voice that said he knew everything about Takahito, everything he had said and done and thought and felt and wanted and believed. Yamaki's smooth voice was the voice of Big Brother, and it said Big Brother was watching, and Big Brother wondered if you even needed to ask.

"Er, well, I'm flattered, but, did I already say that?"

"You did," Yamaki said.

"Well then… Why?"

"Why what?

Takahito tugged nervously in his collar. He was sweating. Was he doomed? If he wasn't doomed then he shouldn't shouldn't say anything that might risk it… But actually, no, it was the other way around, wasn't it? If he really was doomed it didn't really matter what he said. And on the off chance he was getting out of this alive and the Man in Black actually did want to talk to him about his research that he could hardly object to answering a question.

"Why is...?" He faltered for a moment, looking at the black sunglasses on the director, but Takahito gathered his courage and continued. More than anything he wanted to know… "Why is the anthropological research of some priest out in the boonies important enough to the Japanese government that they'd send a warrant to a scientific journal to get some papers out of the reject bin? Why is the director of the government's Digimon department coming to see me in person? If you had said it was to ask me about… But you said it was my publications, specifically."

Yamaki didn't reply immediately. Instead he reached into his jacket. For a moment, Takahito flashed back to every gangster movie he had ever seen in college. For a few maddening seconds he was sure that the government man would pull out a revolver and execute him right then and there. He tensed when he saw the gleam of metal in Yamaki's hand, but instead of a handgun it was a battered old chrome silver lighter.. Takahito waited for a cigarette to come out, but it didn't. Instead Yamaki just flicked the lighter over and over again… Click, click, click…

"You ask a very fair question Professor Komatsu, and it deserves an answer. It's unfair of me to do this to you, but I'm afraid I have to respond to your question with another question. If you'll bear with me let me ask you this, why shouldn't I come to an anthropologist who specializes in mythology for my work?"

Takahito blinked. He glanced nervously around. Was this supposed to be some kind of trick? Some elaborate stunt? For what? It seems like a lot of trouble to go through if he was just being punked (god he felt old thinking THAT). He'd seen Director Yamaki on television, this was definitely the same man he'd seen not even a month ago talking about computer infrastructure and cybersecurity. "… Because when you appeared on television you seemed like a man of science, and comparative religion isn't usually what I would think a man like you deals with...?" Takahito trailed off at the end, his voice squeaking into the final question mark.

Yamaki nodded. "A couple of years ago you would have been right, but ever since I've become the head of the government's Digimon response team, things are no longer as clear-cut. When it comes to that part of my purview I've become willing to look outside the box for insight. Your two most recent articles talked about Digimon, even if only in passing," Yamaki raised a hand to stop Takahito from protesting. "And after reading your body of work I became interested enough to get input from your perspective."

"But still," Takahito protested. "I'm just an anthropologist, hard science and I have never been on speaking terms."

"Maybe so, but when it comes to Digimon, what you call hard science has limits. Scientists have studied the universe and codified their observations and measurements into what we call laws, ironclad pronouncements about how the world works, but Digimon casually violate those laws with their very existence. Digimon can generate matter and energy at will in gross violation of physics, they can reach shapes and sizes that modern biology deems impossible, and many of them can fly in complete defiance of gravity. Some Digimon treat metal as though it is indistinguishable from flesh, while others have powers that can only be described as magical. After seeing all of that first hand, why shouldn't I speak with an expert on myths? Isn't mythology precisely what I am dealing with when it comes to Digimon?"

"That's… Hmm…" Takahito tapped the rim of his glasses thoughtfully. "I guess when you put it that way it makes more sense. And I'll be happy to answer your questions, but are you sure you'll learn anything from me?"

Yamaki laughed, actually laughed. Takahito could only stare in bewilderment. After a moment the man in the suit regained his composure, but Takahito thought he could see for the first time the hint of a real smile on the lips of the menacing man. "I apologize for that, every member of my staff who heard about this trip asked me that exact question in those exact words. And to answer, no, I'm not sure I'll learn anything from you, Professor Komatsu, but I'm willing to try. One of the most important things for a scientist to do is to acknowledge his limits. Science is the fruit of mankind's wisdom, but mankind is not all knowing. Any of us could be wrong, and I had to learn that lesson the hard way two years ago during the Shinjuku Digimon incidents."

It took Takahito a while to collect his thoughts. Director Yamaki's explanation seemed to be on the level, and he seemed a little bit more human after he started talking, but still… He wished the man across from him but take off those damn sunglasses and look him in the eye; smile or no with those shades he had an invincible poker face. He couldn't tell that the government man was looking at him expectantly or impatiently or laughing at him with his eyes. After what felt like minutes of failing to read the man's expression, Takahito gave up.

"All right, so where would you like me to start? I assume you're here to talk about Digimon?"

"As a starting point, yes. Your article last autumn discussed commonalities in shamanic practices between those found in our country and others around the world. Your analysis included a short digression about Digimon and the Digimon Tamers. Tell me more about that, Professor Komatsu," Yamaki said.

"Well, without just reading the article to you, I just noted that there were some parallels between those kinds of spiritual practices and what seems to be happening with the children who have Digimon partners. Just for starters, the idea of certain people having an inherent connection to otherworldly beings and the power to draw them into our world and call on their power is nearly universal among human culture. Every society on earth that we know of has had some kind of priestly caste that made similar claims, many still do. And the fact that all of the Tamers have those little devices that they can use to communicate and perform rituals with is very similar to our concept of the shintai or the more general concept of the ritual tool, an object or charm or fetish with supernatural powers that can communicate with the spiritual world."

Click, click, click... Yamaki was flicking his lighter again. "So… You believe that when a Digimon and their respective Tamer are interacting it should be considered a spiritual or religious practice? A shintai is an object in which a Kami is said to be indwelling so it can be approached by humans. But a Digimon has a physical form, a human can interact with a Digimon in person without the need for such a thing."

Takahito laughed. "You sound like my editor now! And you're right, but as you said a shintai exists so that humans can interact with the Kami. We can trace the practice of worshiping substitutionary objects to the days before our ancestors began to personify the gods of Japan. They needed an intermediary in those days because, in those days, the Kami were disembodied, just manifestations of nature. Our ancestors couldn't enshrine forests or rivers or mountains, so they substituted trees and rocks and mirrors. But we kept those traditions even after we started to imagine them having human forms, we just changed the reasoning why. Even if the old gods started to appear in the flesh I imagine we would still hold their shintai in reverence."

"…A new age spirituality for a new age," Yamaki said slowly.

"Right! Instead of communicating with distant gods they live beside them, instead of paper charms and prayer beads they use trading cards, instead of communicating with an invisible yet ever present spiritual realm they commune with the Internet."

"Yet, even if it's comparable to religious practices the Digimon Tamers have no true organized body of rituals and nothing like a religious canon. We also don't have more than the vaguest possible idea of how children are chosen to become partners with Digimon to begin with. And you bring up the digivices and the trading cards as objects of power, but some of our most experienced Tamers have provided reports that suggest that those things may be less important than they first appear."

"But all that doesn't actually contradict my paper. It would actually be more surprising if or the other way around. If Digimon taming is a spiritual practice it's one in its earliest infancy. Digimon have only started coming to our world and forming partnerships within the last couple of years, but most surviving religious traditions have existed for thousands of years and it took all of them centuries to evolve into a form we would recognize from the modern day. Japan was still hashing out its own organized worship practices as late as the Meiji restoration, and we arguably never stopped. Meanwhile, the various branches of Christianity have NEVER agreed on the necessary rituals to be considered an observant believer, and the many branches of Hinduism and Buddhism are similarly divided in their beliefs. I could go on with some of the other parallels to the Digimon if you like, I had a lot more that didn't make it into the paper," Takahito said, all apprehension gone.

"Go ahead, then," Yamaki nodded.

"Well, Digimon seem to fall in line with mythology and folklore from across the globe about helper spirits. There is the Scottish brownie, the Roman Lares, the Christian guardian angel, the European and American concept of the witch's familiar, and many more. And of course there is the fact that Digimon can actually be those things, they can literally take the shape of spirits and dragons and angels and demons. The way they manifest as figures from our myths, well I think Joseph Campbell would have a field day with the existence of Digimon, so would Carl Jung, for that matter. And the origin of Digimon as well, coming from a computer program that grew out of control. It's a lot like the golem of Jewish folklore, a creature brought to life by words that grew beyond the control of its creator. Or, like the creature from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein…"

"You are very well read, Professor Komatsu," Yamaki said approvingly.

"Thank you, it IS my job," for the first time Takahito was smiling.

"But there is a relevant spiritual practice you left out."

"I did?"

"Yes, you did, and it's one of the reasons why came all this way. I don't believe person as knowledgeable as you would have overlooked a possible comparisons, which led me to believe there was another reason. But let me ask you something else for now, what changed?"

Takahito froze. "I'm… I am not quite sure what you mean…"

"I read your most recent paper as well, Professor Komatsu," Yamaki was back to being icy. Or had he really stopped?

"Well, thank you, like I said before I'm very flattered, and still very confused," Takahito said. He was a little bit more sure of his ground with the director, if the man would just shut up and say what he wanted…

"Then allow me to cut across it, Professor Komatsu, I read that paper and my sense was that something had happened that had made you change your mind on the subject of Digimon, am I wrong?"

"No, that's... I'm not sure anymore," Takahito pressed in on his glasses over the bridge of his nose. He suddenly felt tired, and more than that frustrated. "This might sound strange to ask, and maybe I'm overstepping here, but could you explain what made you think that I had changed my mind?"

Yamaki raised an eyebrow but obligingly pulled up his briefcase and fetched an honest-to-god paper printout of his article, dogeared, highlighted, and festooned with sticky notes. The government man began to flip through the papers. "Your article from the most recent issue discusses the complicated relationships many spiritual practices have with their gods. You discussed how early animism saw spirits as both the source and answer to the challenges of nature. As an example you bring up the case of Taira no Masakado, a historical samurai general of mythic stature who is worshiped as guardian of Tokyo, but at the same time feared as a vengeful source of disaster. You mention how many forms of worship are closer to supplication than reverence; that historically gods and spirits have been feared before they have been loved."

"Yes, I admit that I said all that, but that has nothing to do with the Digimon."

"Not by itself," Yamaki agreed. "However it provides context for several comments you make about Digimon in passing when discussing worship as a method of transaction. Initially brought up in discussion of Masakado, you note that Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank keeps an account in that man's name as an attempt to bribe him to overlook one of their branch offices being constructed near his tomb. You make the statement that Digimon and their tamers may have a similar kind of coercive relationship, the human grants the Digimon the power to evolve and become strong and in return the Digimon fights on behalf of the human. You also bring up concepts like the European tale of the Faust who made a bargain with the devil, or stories of folklore in Arabia about the wiles of genies and the dangers of interacting with them. It is apparent that you are drawing parallels between wrathful gods, dangerous and unreliable spirits, demonic bargains, and Digimon. It was quite a difference from the previous publication where you brought up Digimon in a more generally positive light as examples of protective religious practices."

Takahito stared down at his lap. "You actually DID read my paper," he said finally.

"It was a part of my job, Professor Komatsu."

"Is that why you're here? Because of my concerns about them being in this world?"

"So you do have concerns about the presence of Digimon and their partners, then."

"I… I just," and there it was, Takahito had finally hit the landmine. The director's voice remained even, but now he felt undercurrent of warning behind the man's even words. Takahito swallowed. "I will state that I have certain, reservations, qualified reservations, about Digimon and the effects they may be having on the children they become attached to."

"I see," Yamaki said. It was neither positive or negative.

"Look, Mr. Yamaki, I'm sure you're here for a reason, and I even think I understand a little about why you would come to me, but can you just come right out and say it? I'm tired of jumping at shadows! What do you want me to say, what are you here to ask me?"

The words came out in a rush, surprising Takahito even as he said them. He was certain the very important man across from him would dress him down for his rudeness, but instead Yamaki just flicked at that damn lighter of his. Then, Takahito's disbelief, he smiled.

"I deserved that. All right, I'll approach the topic directly. What led you to change your mind about Digimon being on earth? What happened between those two articles?"

Once again Takahito pushed in at the bridge of his nose. He sighed. "This will probably take a while, do you have enough time to listen to the whole story, Mr. Yamaki?"

"Of course. Take as much time as you need. I'm not interested in anything less than your full account."

"It all starts with this town. I have to say that I wasn't totally surprised when a Digimon appeared here late last summer. I mean, it was still a little bit surprising, I'd always heard Digimon usually showed up in cities where there were a lot of people and a lot of electronics, but on the other hand Kawaten is a town with a long history of being a place of spiritual significance. As long as I've lived in this town its people have taken pride not just in being out in the countryside, but being apart from the world. Kawaten is an old town with a long history and we here like to imagine we're untouched by time. I think that's a big reason why the construction project last year became such a sore spot for the people around here. You must know about it, right? The research plant? Some big company comes and builds a big fancy new science facility in our backyard and suddenly we have an influx of new residents without roots in Kawaten who all know each other and all work up on the hill doing god knows what…"

"Research into synthetic protein production for medical grafts," Yamaki said. Takahito stared at him. Yamaki shrugged. "It's publicly available information. But I apologize for interrupting, please continue Professor Komatsu."

"Er, okay, right, so returning to the town, I would argue that most likely likely this sense of mystery comes from where we're located, surrounded by forests and mountains and rivers, all the same things that inspired our ancestors to imagine the 10 billion gods of Japan. If you go out there and open yourself up to it you really can feel the power and majesty of nature around here, it's there right down to the smell of the soil. You can understand the things that moved our forefathers to offer up their prayers to the earth. The whole town was considered sacred for centuries, and there are stories going back to before written history that say that the forest around the shrine is connected to another world, it's why there's a shrine here at all! And, well, I guess those stories were true last summer..."

"Were you present when Morikubo Taro met his Digimon partner last year?" Yamaki asked when Takahito trailed off.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you know about him, it's your job and all. But to your question, no, I wasn't. I didn't really know much about the boy, I mean, besides the stuff that was in the papers. I guess I still don't…"

"When you talk about knowing him from the newspapers you are referring to the kidnapping he was a victim of a decade ago," Yamaki said.

Takahito nodded. "I was at university when that happened. It was an absolutely dreadful story, bad enough that it made it all the way to the national news. He and his older sister were held captive, the kidnapper was discovered but died trying to escape the police without revealing where he was holding the children. By the time they discovered him in one of the old buildings out in the forest it... it was already too late for his sister. I heard it was a miracle Taro survived. But, I suppose you would know more about it than me, Mr. Yamaki," the priest's voice was rueful.

"Not in this instance, no," Yamaki said without hostility. He was still flicking his lighter idly. "As the newspapers reported, it was believed that the kidnapper had been hired with the intent to hold the children for ransom, and while I am aware of the police's suspicions as to who may be responsible they've never had evidence to act upon them. You said that Morikubo went out into the forest where he had been held captive a decade prior? Do you know why?"

"No idea. Closure? Maybe? All I know is that he and a couple friends from school went out into the forest without me knowing and when Taro came back he was a Digimon Tamer. Not my proudest moment in hindsight, especially because one of my jobs is to warn people off from going into the forest. It's not exactly 'trespassing' but the handful of buildings out there are condemned and dangerous, and besides that, I told you, it's a sacred place. Hah, though I guess that didn't stop me and my friends when I was a little older than they were. I suppose the "haunted woods" make for a good place to play a test of courage… But in the moment I wasn't thinking about that. For the first moment I was scared when that huge snake came out of the woods with them. I mean of course I was! When it reared up it was taller than my house! But Taro had a digivice like they showed on the news and the big thing was talking and asking questions about the shrine. And after the shock wore off I was tickled pink! Here I am, an anthropologist specializing in mythology and one day what comes slithering right into my shrine but none other than the legendary Yamata-no-Orochi!"

"An Orochimon, you mean," Yamaki corrected. "It's a Perfect-level Digimon, not a Kami."

"Certainly it was a Digimon, but I'm still not sure about that distinction. After all, even if it wasn't anywhere near as big as it was supposed to be in the legends it's still a talking snake with eight heads that likes sake. It even has a sword in its tail!"

"That would be its special attack, Ame-no-Murakumo."

"Yes, to put it prosaically," (Takahito inwardly rolled his eyes) "but my point is that whatever it is, Digimon or not, it is a living myth. I'd spent most of my life studying stories and doing research on the source materials for legends around the world, and now one of them had come to life before my eyes, it was inspiring!"

"And from that came the first article."

"Eventually. The very first thing I did was give the boys a dressing down and hold them for a ritual purification. I may be pretty lax about some things, but I take my job here seriously. Plus it gets me into the right frame of mind for understanding for the kind of devotion that drives religion around the world. And it seemed more important to get it right that day, after all an actual Kami had manifested in my shrine! I never felt more like a proper Kannushi than I did that day," Takahito smiled proudly.

"Then what happened?"

Takahito shrugged. "The Orochimon asked me questions about the ritual and what I was doing and why, then it went home with Taro. I have no idea what happened when Taro got home with his Digimon companion, but I guess it worked out because it's still here after nearly a year. I'm actually a little bit surprised how quickly it became an everyday sight, the people here don't bat an eye anymore when they see it slithering down the road or lying out in the field behind Taro's house when he's at school. Sometimes you can see the family washing it with a hose. And speaking of the family I suppose it is mythically appropriate that the new generation Orochi would end up partnered the son of a sake brewer. It's been a real boon for their business as well I hear, Morikubo brewery was always a local specialty but now they're marketing "serpent killer sake" with a picture of Orochimon on it and saying every bottle has its seal of approval. It may not be THE Yamato-no-Orochi, but the family is consciously calling back to that legend. That, that is the conflating this new kind of digital creature with ancient myth, is what led to my first article."

Yamaki nodded. "In light of all of that your writings make more sense. In your shoes I think I would have drawn the exact same sort of conclusions and written a very similar article."

Takahito laughed. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment then, Mister Yamaki."

"I had also heard of that line of product from Morikubo's family, and I'm not especially surprised either. I know of a bakery in Shinjuku that's been marketing marketing products based on their child's Digimon, even making red bean buns in the shape of his head," Yamaki said.

"Are they any good?"

"My wife enjoys them, but I've never liked red bean paste. What happened after that Professor Komatsu?" Yamaki asked, before Takahito could react to that admission.

"Well, once or twice they went off and fought a wild Digimon when it showed up somewhere around here, but besides that? I know they did a whole lot, but I can't really tell you about any of it. And I don't mean to be flippant and I'm not purposefully being vague, I mean that I'm not really sure what Taro and his friends were doing for most of the rest of the year. Anyone around he can tell you those kids were up to something, or maybe they were looking for something but I have no idea what… It would be one thing if Taro was out there with his friends playing at being junior detectives trying to solve his kidnapping, but that didn't seem to be it at all."

"How do you know what Morikubo Taro was or wasn't doing during this period of time?"

"Why, it was the snake of course! Taro rode that Digimon all over town after they became partners, and of course people noticed it when he and his friends went somewhere on the back of a giant eight-headed serpent the size of a bus. I said people got used to it being around, not that they ignored it. We're a small town, people gossip, news travels fast, and so on. That means that when Taro went out to the old hospital, or up the mountain, or all the way out to the hydroelectric dam the next town over, well, people paid attention! One day he went out to the floodplains, another day he went to our little City Hall and apparently looked at old building records, and then one time he and his friends and his snake hung out at the lot where the old convenience store used to be."

"And you have no idea why he went to those places?" Yamaki raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the convenience store was where the man who kidnapped him died, and they say his ghost still haunts that vacant lot, that it's why they tore it down the first place, so maybe that's the reason he went there... But as for why Taro went to all those other places?" Takahito shrugged helplessly. "Your guess is as good as mine Mr. Yamaki. I remember hearing that one time Taro and his friends spent hours afterschool looking up some extinct animal in his school's library. I got that one through the grapevine, apparently Taro's Digimon was talking with them the entire time looking in through the window on the second story. It gave Old Mrs. Nikaido quite a fright when she drove around back of the school. And I remember one time he came here because he wanted to know about some obscure god from the Kojiki, Hitokotonushi-no-Okami."

"Why?"

"You can search me, I don't know. I told him about the stories that particular being is attested in, but I have no idea if it helped him. I'm honestly not sure how he heard the name of such an obscure Kami."

"Did Morikubo Taro come here to see you on other occasions?"

"A number of times, actually. Taro and one or more of his friends would sit right where you are now and ask me something about Shintoism. Or something about spiritualism, or beliefs about ghosts and reincarnation, or astral projection. And it wasn't always related to my field of research, sometimes he just wanted to know more about the town's history or to ask about some of the people who moved away. Again, no idea how he heard about these people or what he was looking for, but I tried my best to answer his questions. No, I'll say it differently, I was happy to talk with him and his friends, it was exciting to meet young people who were interested in my field and in our town. I may not know what they were looking for, but I hope I was able to help them with whatever it was."

"You said you were interested in studying Orochimon as an anthropologist. Did you? Were you able to draw any conclusions?" Yamaki asked. Takahito blinked. He had to hold back a scowl. The Digimon expert was back to asking him weird questions about things the man probably already knew better than him.

"Well it was always around when Taro came up here, it was obviously too big to get inside so it just looked in through the office window, right behind you. And if you're asking if I paid attention to its behavior, yes, obviously. I mean, it was always there, and it seemed just as interested in whatever weird question Taro came here to ask. Heck, sometimes it would ask questions too."

"Did you observe anything beyond that, Professor Komatsu?"

"Beyond that? You're asking me?" Takahito's brow furrowed.

"I'm asking you. Like I said, I'm interested in your perspective," and damn him, he sounded like he meant it.

"Well, I'm sure you've heard this, and I'm sure it's an obvious cliché for you at this point, but Digimon are different from humans."

"Digimon 'move in mysterious ways' then, Professor Komatsu? To trade a cliché for a cliché," Yamaki's voice sounded almost playful.

"Not quite that, Mr. Yamaki," he knew that one, of course. It was religion and that made it HIS territory, and that meant Takahito could face the annoying man head-on. "That line is used as a way to justify belief by giving an answer for such impossible questions as the problem of evil. Digimon are nowhere near as removed or as inexplicable in character as the gods that quote refers to. I think Digimon can, largely, be understood by humans and we can be understood by them. At the same time, they aren't human. For instance, one of my observations is that I think Digimon don't have to learn everything they know like humans do. Humans begin life as tabula rasa, blank slates with only the most basic instincts. Digimon, meanwhile, seem to inherently possess certain types of knowledge. When I first met that Digimon it knew this was a shrine and recognized all the buildings and features of it despite having only just arrived in our world, but it knew almost nothing about the actual act of worship. Like I said, I had to explain what I was doing with the purification ceremony and what all the prayers and ritual actions represented. When Taro came back about a week later to ask something I found out that it had never heard of the myth of Susano-o slaying the Orochi, despite BEING that Orochi, or at least being based off of that Orochi. It was somewhat surreal to see the Orochi eagerly listening to the legend of its own demise. Another observation is that Digimon have physical forms and capabilities completely unlike humans, and that these traits inform their behavior. This is obvious, but it really came into focus another time Taro and his Digimon came to the shrine. That was... Yeesh."

"What happened, Professor Komatsu?"

"That Digimon, it got… Well it got stuck in the shrine gates at the top of the stairs. You saw that the last couple of torii are close to each other and the thing is so big it's a tight fit at the best of times, one time while it was slithering up the stairs one of Orochimon's heads got stuck between two of them right at the top. It started to thrash about, but it stopped and said it didn't want to break the gates because it would be inauspicious so it… It just," Takahito winced.

"It's, that Digimon... I had just come outside when I heard Taro coming up the stairs and I heard all the yelling. When I got out there Taro was next to it pulling on the head, but, of course, his Digimon is at least a dozen times larger than him. I told it that it could just pull the archway loose and put it back, it was big enough wasn't it? Really, it wasn't a problem. But Orochimon said it shouldn't and then it said it was lucky that a dummy head had gotten stuck and then that tail… The other heads drew back and it slid it's tail out, for a moment I thought it was going to try and wrap the tail around its neck and pull like that, but instead I could see all of its eyes narrow, and then it... It just flicked its tail and the head went flying off. Just like that, the Digimon just decapitated itself. I just stared, it took me a moment to even realize what it had done, and by the time I caught up it was done and the head was gone. And then that Digimon just climbed up the stairs like it was nothing, like it had just clipped it's nails or something. There wasn't even any blood or a corpse, it just disintegrated thank god.

Taro, though, Taro was furious. He was wincing and holding his arm, I think it must've reminded him of when he'd broken his arm a month earlier. And he yelled at Orochimon, told it not to do that ever again, that it shouldn't treat its life like that because it was worth more than that. I think Orochimon was surprised by that, the Digimon just said it was a dummy head and would regrow in about a day so it didn't matter, but Taro told it that it still hurt itself and he knew cutting that head off hurt Orochimon and there's no reason to do something like that. It was the first time I'd ever seen those two at odds with each other, Taro always seemed to get along so well with that Digimon. He always seemed to relax whenever it was nearby. I remember he made that Digimon swear it would take care of itself and be there for him, I think he was crying. And then they hugged. And then a few minutes later he turned and came up to me and asked his question, something about whether or not animals have ghosts or an afterlife."

"I see what you mean now, professor. Did anything else happen?"

"Not really, I told Taro what I knew and shared a couple of myths, but he was still rubbing his arm like it was sore," Takahito said. Once again he stared at Yamaki, trying feebly to size him up. He was starting to think that the man was deliberately giving mixed messages just to keep him off balance. His expression had tightened when Takahito had spoken of the snake cutting off its own head, he was so sure he had seen the man flinch, but then Yamaki suddenly seemed almost pleased to hear what Taro did. Or maybe not pleased, maybe something more like "vindicated".

Yamaki leaned back in his chair. His thumb was back on his lighter, click, click, click. The midafternoon sun lazily filtering through the window was falling and a man who seemed less and less scary the longer Takahito spoke. Yamaki's face was as icy and impassive as ever, his reactions were strange, his eyes unreadable through the sunglasses, but there had been no accusations, no threats, and no veiled warnings. Against all odds the government man seemed to be exactly who he had said he had been, a man who just wanted to talk. Takahito was finally about to relax when the sword fell.

"Did Morikubo Taro become acquainted with your daughter during the course of these visits, Professor Komatsu?"

Takahito choked. Of course he would. Damn him, damn him to hell. Sucking in air and working hard to keep his voice steady Takahito said "Yes, though, Kyoko mentioned she had met him once before, before the Digimon stuff started…"

"I see," and that seemed to be that from the director. For now. Though of course, the man would go rooting around to dig it up. The man was inquisitive, or maybe an inquisitor for this New Age spirituality of Digimon. Fine, it was Takahito's turn. Yamaki couldn't complain now.

"This may be an odd question to ask, Mister Yamaki, but you believe that Digimon are contagious?"

To his own small satisfaction, he'd finally read the man correctly; the director didn't seem to bat an eye at the question. "That's been hypothesized several times, but as of now it's still up for debate. At the present we simply don't know enough about how humans and Digimon become partners. We do know that partnerships cluster, a statistically significant number of children and others who become Digimon Tamers personally knew other Digimon Tamers, but we still don't know what this correlation means. We may have a chicken-or-egg dilemma where the traits that make a person a Digimon Tamer cause them to be predisposed to become friends with existing tamers, rather than the friendship itself resulting in meeting a Digimon partner. There is also the third possibility that becoming friends with an existing tamer encourages a person to grow in such a way to make themselves more likely to become a tamer. Children are still growing and they develop very rapidly, as I'm sure you already know Professor Komatsu, so it's foolish to draw any sort of hasty conclusion about them. They will surprise you."

"So you have no idea, Mister Yamaki?"

"I suspect it's a result of multiple factors. I may not be a child psychologist, but I'm familiar with statistics and when it comes to them it's rarely as simple as two plus two equaling four."

"I suppose that would make it too easy, wouldn't it," Takahito said. He grimaced.

"But sometimes we can determine the root cause of something, even if there are multiple of them. Given that, let me ask you this question directly, was the change in your perspective between your two articles a result, in part or in whole, from the events of the flood Kawaten experienced last January?"

His words were still, calm, and carefully measured, and they still hit like a hammer blow to the gut. Takahito shut his eyes and kneaded his forehead. There was no more use stalling, then? Dammit, dammit, dammit. He had known it was coming, he'd been praying to as many gods as he could remember that the spooky man would give up and go home early, but he'd known, absolutely known, it was going to come to this. Mister Yamaki was a government dog, and a dog always loves to dig... There was no getting around it after all. He sighed, being so twitchy around the man had made him weary, it was almost a relief the man was going to drag it all out to the surface…

"You're right, of course. But it's simpler than you're making it out to be. That night… When I saw the thing they became, tall as a skyscraper, black as tar, glowing red and orange all over it… I had the fear of God put in me..."

This story is basically a dumping ground to play with a lot of the concepts that I've always wanted to see get more exploration in fanfiction, especially fanfiction in and around Digimon Tamers. There've been a couple of pieces of Digimon media that have had some interesting, quasi-mystical material to them, and I wanted to try and play around with that a little bit. I also really like stories with unusual perspectives, and ones that do things a little bit askew from what you would see in the original work, so that explains some of the junk in the story I hope.

One thing I've slowly realized over time is that, on a certain level, I'm probably the only person who can make some of the fanfiction that does all the things I wanted to do. Maybe it'll do something for you, and if so let me know. I'd love to hear from anyone who read this.

Next - Malice Striker