A/N: Me again with another chapter of this story. Honestly I'm not exactly sure where it's going, I've only got a few plot points written but no endgame so to speak. Nevertheless I shall perservere, QDT didn't have an ending until roughly three quarters into it, maybe later than that actually if I think about it.

And PyroSolrac, yes the humans will be human. Don't you worry about that.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Reboot

Chapter 5 - Reality

Location: Shinjuku

Time: 15:15

The bell rang to signal the end to another day. Students filed out of the gates to head home for the weekend, one of which was Henry Wong. Like most students Henry was glad the weekend had arrived for him. Like most students he was planning on spending as little time as possible doing any homework. But unlike most students Henry was a nerd. Not the 'I know it all and am really smart' sort of nerd, Henry was a gamer.

He was the type who would rather spend his time playing his latest game to full completion to give himself the biggest challenge, setting himself up to fail yet prevailing against his own odds. His kicks came from overcoming the problems these games threw at him and progressing to the next milestone to solve.

But he also liked to unwind with more casual games, ones where there were no insurmountable opponents or unsolvable puzzles. And as he walked home with his school bag over his shoulder he looked forward to the latest title to add to his collection. He was picking it up from a store on the way since he preordered it, and with an entire weekend before him Henry could get some serious play time in.

Henry was an average sixteen year old like many others. Short blue hair framed his slightly unusual grey eyes, giving him a strange cold appearance if not for his tanned skin. A black t-shirt sat underneath his sleeveless orange zipped vest with brown plain pants complementing his look, yellow shoes adding the last hint of colour to his attire. He also wore white wristbands, although their purpose was only partly cosmetic. Being a gamer placed his naturally weak wrists under a fair amount of stress and Repetitive Strain Injury was a thing he suffered from in the past, the wristbands acted as supports in his day to day life.

Diverting to the store was for a second reason too. Henry planned on picking up some more of his trading cards for his set. Whilst he was a gamer with computers Henry was also a trading card gamer, namely the digimon franchise. In fact one of his casual games had a card reader that took the real trading cards and converted them into their digital effects in the game, so a real Speed Upgrade card would boost the speed of his chosen programmed digimon in game. It was a realism perk that Henry loved about it, if you didn't own the physical card then you couldn't use that ability in the game. Of course it was a game setting but he made sure to enable it straight away.

Henry approached the store with his smile present, one that he wore when he got something he wanted or was looking forward to getting, and pushed through the door. He spotted the trading cards instantly as he knew where they were from memory and picked up a couple of booster packs. He also received his preorder when he paid for them before he left for home. He planned to spend the weekend on the new game but the remainder of his day would be on a casual game, and since he just picked up some more cards he was feeling like sinking a few more hours into the digimon one.

He refrained from opening his boosters until he got home though, Henry wasn't the type to get excited about the packs like others sometimes did. He would compare what he got with his current collection and he only kept duplicates of what he considered utility cards, ones such as Recharge or Speed Upgrade were multi use if you had more than one.

Digimon trading cards were all unique, even amongst identical cards. Whilst all Defence Upgrade cards, for example, were visually the same and behaved the same, the individual strips that card readers interfaced with contained a unique serial number for every card. It meant that no card could be used more than once per use, whether that was a game battle or a tournament match, so to use the effect multiple times you required multiple cards. It was a feature that Henry also loved, as it introduced another level of complexity to the system, and gave him a reason to stock up on utility cards.

His trip home was uneventful as he reached the door to his house, entering with his usual greeting of "I'm home!"

A second later his mother appeared from the kitchen with her warm characteristic smile, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "Hey hunny, how was school?"

Henry gave his usual shrug when everything was pretty normal, a trait he had picked up a while back. "Got a little homework to do but it was okay." He kicked off his shoes as he spoke.

"That's good to hear. Suzi should be back soon too, I hope her day was as good as yours." Her smile remained just as warm as she gently ruffled his hair, a gesture she had never stopped doing ever since he was old enough to grow his own hair.

Henry's family was pretty average. His mother Mayumi was a 'stay at home' woman, someone who ran the house while his father - Janyu - worked six of the seven days of the week. What he did Henry didn't know, it was always secretive as Janyu never spoke about it. Other than that it was just his sister Suzi, three years younger than him at aged thirteen. Henry kept mostly to himself though as he preferred, just him and his games.

With a final nod to her Henry went to his room to set down his school stuff and his purchases, setting the game to one side for the weekend. He opened his boosters first, seeing some useful utility cards as well as a few others. Luckily only one was a duplicate, but another caught his eye.

It was a card of a digimon called Terriermon, a dog rabbit hybrid digimon despite the pure canine sounding name. A small bipedal form with large ears which seemed to have finger like formations at their ends, with a single stubby horn on the forehead. White creamy fur covered its body with green markings around the ends of its limbs - including the ears, and around its neck. Two green stripes sat on the top side of each of the ears and black claws and pads detailed the paws. Two black beady eyes gave it a cute and innocent appearance, as did the short stature. Overall Henry got the feeling this digimon looked like the epiphany of an underdog type digimon, one who looked weak and cute but possessed a hidden ability to overcome all odds - much like himself with his gaming habits.

He looked down to the abilities, seeing two labelled as Bunny Blast and Terrier Tornado. Again it highlighted the dog rabbit hybrid theme. Bunny Blast seemed to be a more common ability with a lower energy cost whereas Terrier Tornado could be used to deal more damage at the higher cost of energy.

For a reason he couldn't identify Henry felt a connection with the Terriermon card. It resembled his habits more than he thought any digimon could, so much so that he decided to play his digimon game using Terriermon instead of his usual save profile he had on the game.

He set up the system and accessed the menu, selecting a new game. He was prompted to pick a digimon so he swiped the Terriermon card through the reader, it appeared as his choice a moment later. Then it asked for his character choice, letting him design his 'Tamer' as the game called it to his specifications. Henry liked this as it gave him so many options that he could recreate himself with almost near perfection, only his vest wasn't in the game and his face structure was impossible to copy across fully.

Once his Tamer avatar was finished he picked a name, being his real one for a reason he didn't fully realise, Henry and Terriermon began their journey through what the game called the Digital World - a vast realm created from the technology networks of humans that digimon inhabited as their home. The concept was always fascinating for Henry as he plunged once again into the world of digimon, Terriermon by his virtual side.

He was unsure of how long he spent on his game but by the time Henry looked up it was dark. He glanced at a clock to see it was very late, twelve twenty-six to be exact. He quickly hit the pause button and straightened himself out before heading downstairs quietly.

It wasn't uncommon for him to be up late playing when he didn't have school the next day, but it was uncommon for him to miss dinner. He usually ate either earlier or later than his parents due to his habits but he always ate regardless, his stomach reminding him with soft noises that he had forgotten his hunger.

His dinner - like always when he ate after his parents - was set aside, so he heated it up and ate whilst trying to keep noise to a minimum. His parents would be asleep and his father worked Saturdays so waking them up wouldn't go well for Henry. He cleared up afterwards too to not anger his mother either. They didn't mind as long as he didn't disrupt them or leave mess around, so he didn't want to push his luck.

As he ate Henry cast his mind to why he felt so connected with the Terriermon in his game. Every little thing the small digimon did reminded him of himself, from the underdog style behaviour that won the battles to the fierce determination shown to overcome the opponents. It was as if Terriermon was Henry in digimon form, and as impossible as that sounded he still wondered on that minuscule possibility.

Hunger sated he returned to his room and decided to play a little more before sleeping, after all he didn't feel tired and he was in the middle of a battle between his Terriermon and a formidable Gorillamon - a white primeape digimon of considerable proportions and abilities.

Throughout his few hours of the game Henry felt his strange connection with the Terriermon growing ever stronger, almost as if the digimon was real. Whenever Terriermon got hurt Henry felt a pang of guilt, and when he won a fight he celebrated with the little animation of his digimon. They were an unstoppable duo, Terriermon had become a friend in his heart even though he wasn't real.

They had fought several digimon and emerged victorious every time. A few battles had been more difficult and had used a few cards to overcome the challenges, but Terriermon's little victory dance occurred after each fight. It filled him with a sense of pride for the little digimon that was slowly stealing his heart, real or not.

The feeling was amplified by the fight which wasn't going well for Terriermon. The Gorillamon was beating him at every turn, and each hit his partner took made Henry wince. He tried every move, used all his cards but everything he did the Gorillamon just beat it and landed another heavy blow on the dog bunny. Henry could do nothing but watch on in dismay as Terriermon took yet another attack from the white primeape and collapsed unconscious on the ground.

Tears left his eyes from his unexplained emotions at his unreal friend, barely registering the words 'Game Over' that appeared on the screen. Henry just reached out as if to scoop the little digimon up as he wept. Before he knew it the night claimed him with his tears.