Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory- The Amasawa Files

by sithlorde1988

My attempt at writing up the events of Hacker's Memory in fanfic form, mainly told from Keisuke's POV. Better summary, details and relevant info in first chapter! Rated M for depictions of graphic content, strong language, some dark/mature subject matter, and more. Keisuke/Erika and possibly other pairings, more details in chapter 1.

1. Welcome (back) to EDEN! Intro Chapter

A/N: I know, I know. It's been awhile since I last posted anything. Let's just say that between having near-constant tech problems and constantly losing the muse to write (which has happened to me numerous times over this hiatus to be fair), I've had plenty of reasons to fall off the metaphoric 'radar' for awhile so to speak. But now I think I finally might have found the focus and inspiration to return to writing fanfiction, hopefully. That said, after looking through various categories of fanfiction in search of good fics to read (which I do more often than I thought I would), I noticed that though there were a handful of fanfiction stories dabbling in the events of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, there were only at most one (MAYBE TWO) fics that even remotely touched on the events of Hacker's Memory, the 'sidequel' (for lack of a better descriptive term) to Cyber Sleuth.

So I figured I could probably give it a go at doing a fic that touches on the events of said game. Granted, this might be a rough undertaking since while I have played through Hacker's Memory many times (**SPOILER ALERTS** though never quite to 100% on any singular playthrough as yet due in part to having a hard time with the post-game quests, specifically the 'boss' fight you fight to open up the Abyss Server after finishing the main story *END SPOILERS*), the game is very 'stingy' (again for lack of a better term) with specific details (such as Erika and Chitose's ages, among other things) so for some things I'll have to make educated guesses, and will probably take a couple minor liberties with other parts of the game to make the ending more original (*SPOILER ALERT* or at least more enjoyable for any fans of Erika and/or Wormmon since the actual ending is not a fun one to watch if you're a fan of those two or if you happen to ship KeisukexErika like I may or may not, soo yeah it is what it is there, but I digress. **END SPOILERS**) so if it seems like some parts are altered or possibly end up contradicting how they played in the game, that's me being creative with the plot.

That said, before I forget to do this, I do not own either Digimon, Digimon Story, either of the Cyber Sleuth games, or any games/shows/etc. referenced within the story. The credit/ownership of all named properties belongs to Bandai-Namco and all other companies associated with the Cyber Sleuth games. With all that out of the way, this fic will probably stay around a T rating, though will likelier than not end up being bumped up to M later on depending on if some of the plot elements in the late game segments require a ratings boost (which at least one of the sidequests, should I include most sidequests, which I'm undecided on, is a VERY dark sidequest that most everyone who's played Hacker's Memory should at least know of and will probably be at least part of the reason the rating goes up when it does).

Unlike most of my stories, this story will likely be much less romance-focused than most of my others since the Cyber Sleuth games, above all else, are predominantly focused on action (and to a lesser extent things like friendship, angst, and other various fanfiction genres), but there may or may not be a few pairings in the story, depending on if I can make some of them work within the plot. As it is, there's only one (MAYBE TWO) pairings that are likelier than not definite, but even then any romance that happens will likely be a subplot or minor plot point. If the pairings do happen, the ones that are more or less certain would be KeisukexErika, ChitoseXYuri (aka 'Part-Timer' as some characters refer to her) and possibly minor hints of onesided (possibly mutual) FeiXYuuko, though that last one is unlikely. Other, less certain pairings include RyujixDate, NokiaXArata (would be a minor pairing if it happens, and possibly onesided on Nokia's side), and the rest I can't get into without possibly giving spoilers. That said, enjoy this adaptation of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth- Hacker's Memory!

Chapter 1: Welcome (back) to EDEN! (Setting the Story)

(Directly taken from the opening scenes of Hacker's Memory, in an unknown location)

My memories. Important memories.

Happy times, sad times, regrettable times, fun times...

All these memories make me who I am.

It's not just me.

My parents, my brothers, my friends...

The people dear to me.

Everyone has memories, and those memories make the world what it is.

These memories are our stories...

Stories that exist on the boundary

between the real world and cyberspace.

(Meanwhile, elsewhere in cyberspace..., unknown POV for now)

As I logged on to the internet, I was greeted by a screen that said, "Enjoy Chat! Welcome to Enjoy Chat. Select a chat room." Needless to say I already knew which chatroom I wanted, so I quickly scrolled through the screen, which was at that moment showing several icons, among which were icons of a fork and spoon, a ladybug, a hamburger, a spy icon with the letters "BB" on it (which was locked off for whatever odd reason, but as it's not the chatroom I wanted, it doesn't matter) and various others, which would take a long time to list them all. After a bit of scrolling, I ended up clicking on the ladybug icon (why the chatroom I needed chose that icon I neither knew or cared), and after a bit of typing and effort, I managed to get into the chatroom in question, which showed a cracking screen before showing a black area with a purple door that opened to the words, "Welcome! Nice to see you!" before I went inside the chat room. As I headed through towards the area I wanted (oh yeah, probably should've mentioned this chatroom is a VR chatroom rather than just a messenger type chatroom so I literally was going inside of it), countless messages flashed onscreen as I went past, with just as many different statements for each one. Eventually I came to an area with several avatars in it, but it wasn't the one I needed, so I kept going, even as I could hear them discussing some event or other involving virtual reality, also passing a room with more avatars, before continuing further down, noticing as I did so that one of the avatars, a 'Dragon Book' (which funnily enough was a dragon avatar), followed me down, before I finally landed in a smaller area with two other avatars, one being a winged purple avatar with the name 'Ten Hundred' and the other being a literal butterfly who was yellow with blue and white wings and had the name 'bu773erfly' (not sure why they went with that spelling, but not really my place to ask I'd say). As I said before, my username is 'awa', so that's what was over my avatar (which I, in a fit of irony, made look like a 'derp' or 'whuh?' face ((not really that easy to describe better than that) in case anyone was curious)). While waiting for 'Dragon Book' to land, 'Ten Hundred' decided to speak up. (From here, no more quotations will be used around usernames unless it's their first time being mentioned. Also, any odd spellings of usernames from here on are intentional as people spell their names oddly in cyberspace sometimes)

"Why hack such a crappy chatroom for a meeting? The client's really going overboard. " Ten Hundred asked bu773erfly and I.

"Why not just do it in EDEN like usual?" I asked by way of response. (For the time being, the story shifts to third person for the sake of not having to type 'I' in every sentence and all characters are treated as 'they' while in chatrooms just because they really didn't give good gender distinguishing features in chatrooms in Hacker's Memory, though anyone who's played the game before SHOULD know which avatar belongs to who, but for those who haven't, the avatars will be explained in an A/N at the end of the chapter.)

"Maybe they like all the attention?" Ten Hundred guessed, not really sure themselves. Before Awa could respond, bu773rfly cut in.

"The security here's pretty high. It must've taken some skill to crack it." Bu773rfly replied in what Awa thought was a slightly bored tone (but they could be mistaken).

"Any hacker with a Digimon program could do it. Even a noob like you." Bu773rfly added, and Awa's reply could only be described as a 'derp' or 'whuh?' emoji face.

"Zaxon's a next-generation hacker team. That's just how they roll. As far as they're concerned, we're dinosaurs." Ten Hundred added in what they thought was a helpful tone.

"If you don't like it, we can cut our ties. Hackers can do whatever they want, right?" Awa replied uncertainly. Rather than reply, Ten Hundred walked over to Awa.

"It's my hackin' business!" Ten Hundred said with a very clear grin on his face, confusing Awa. Luckily, bu773rfly took pity on Awa and explained it to him.

"Like 'mind your own business.' It's Hudie's motto." bu773rfly said to Awa, giving them the distinct impression that bu773rfly found the explanation unneeded.

"I came up with it! Pretty cool, huh?" Ten Hundred said, very clearly laughing at their apparent wit. However, bu773rfly wasn't nearly so amused.

"I was against it." they said, looking mostly at Ten Hundred when they said it. Ten Hundred, much to Awa's surprise, was largely unfazed by bu773rfly's reaction.

"Let's not go over all that again. Didn't our leader say 'okay' in the end?" Ten Hundred pointed out, speaking more to bu773rfly than to Awa, who both Ten Hundred and bu773rfly had at least partly forgotten was there if the fact they mostly spoke to each other was any clue, but Awa being quiet during all this made it easy to forget he was there.

"Our leader didn't say anything." bu773rfly reminded Ten Hundred, making Awa even more certain they were annoyed with Ten Hundred.

"Silence implies consent! Everyone knows that!" Ten Hundred said by way of reply, making both Awa and bu773rfly slightly uncomfortable, even though it was hard to tell given the lack of expressiveness on their avatars, though bu773rfly's reply of "..." gave Awa a pretty clear idea she wasn't in agreement with Ten Hundred's last statement. However, before things could escalate any further between Ten Hundred and bu773rfly, Dragon Book chose that moment to finally land with the other three avatars, their mostly green with a silvery-grey underside avatar being pretty distinctive to everyone present, even if Awa had only seen it the one other time previously.

"It's finished." Dragon Book said, giving the impression of being an avatar of few words. Ten Hundred, Awa and bu773rfly all rushed over to Dragon Book as they spoke.

"Good work. Is that a new job from the client?" Ten Hundred asked Dragon Book by way of greeting.

"Deal with the hackers involved in account raiding." Dragon Book replied as they nodded their head to Ten Hundred's question.

"Great! We're the defenders of justice, after all!" Ten Hundred said, either not noticing or ignoring the lack of immediate response from the others. Luckily for Ten Hundred, bu773rfly broke the tension by fluttering up to Dragon Book (since their avatar is a butterfly).

"What's the matter, Ryuji, ...I mean, 'Leader'?" bu773rfly asked Dragon Book, or Ryuji as they accidentally name dropped what was likely Dragon Book's real name. (Though they'll still go by their chatroom names while in the chatroom) Luckily for bu773rfly, both Ten Hundred and Awa either chose to ignore their slip-up or didn't hear it, but either way Dragon Book kept speaking as if they hadn't heard bu773rfly's question.

"The new guy can handle this job." Dragon Book said while looking mostly at Awa. This remark wound up causing a shocked reaction in Awa, Ten Hundred AND bu773rfly (all of whom, or at least Awa and bu773rfly, managed to miss Dragon Book referring to Awa as a guy in their surprise), as none of them apparently expected Dragon Book to say that. Such a reaction was made evident by the trio of "!"s that appeared over all three of their avatars, followed by a freaked out-emoji from Awa. Ten Hundred was the first to recover from Dragon Book's surprise comment.

"...Indeed. We need to know he's got what it takes to be in Hudie." Ten Hundred said, making it apparent that they at least hadn't missed Dragon Book referring to Awa as a guy.

"This will be like a little test." Ten Hundred added, as bu773rfly fluttered back and forth before speaking.

"A little test? It's pretty dangerous. He's not ready yet. Nowhere near ready." bu773rfly said, showing they also had caught on to Dragon Book indicating that Awa was a guy. Speaking of Awa, he was still frozen in place slightly, the freaked-out emoji from before still over his head. However, Dragon Book spoke up again before Awa could respond.

"Of course, there's a risk. But the same applies to us. If you choose to be a hacker, you have to accept it." Dragon Book said.

"I guess you're right." Ten Hundred said after a few seconds of relative silence, other than bu773rfly having a "..." over their head, presumably thinking over Dragon Book's words. Dragon book then flew over to Awa, who chose that moment to recover from his earlier shock.

"I'll provide support. You decide if you want to do it." Dragon Book said to Awa, making it sound like they were giving Awa a choice, but Awa knew there wasn't really a choice, not if he wanted to prove he had what it takes to be in Hudie. After a few seconds (during which several emojis popped over Awa's head, including a thinking face), Awa spoke up.

"I'll do it!" Awa said, an unidentifiable but likely determined emoji popping up over his avatar. With that, the meeting ended with the abrupt sound of a screen shutting off...

(In the real world, unknown location)

This world abounds with tales of aspiring heroes. These heroes face down all sorts of events,

joining forces with allies to take on powerful foes and save the world from danger.

And yet, there are also those who play minor roles in these accounts,

or perhaps fail to appear altogether. Once I'd reached a certain age,

I started to realize I'm not the hero type.

I'm just a background character in this world,

and I appear in none of its' stories.

Still, someday I dream of the day

I can become a hero. This is me, and this is my story...

("Ama"s POV, which his real name should be revealed by the end of the chapter but again anyone who's played the game already knows it. For the sake of confusion, this fic will have Awa's real name be the default player name from the game. See the A/N at the end of the chapter for further details)

As I sat down in a small booth and logged in to the computer, I pulled a large goggle-like device over my eyes, presumably having it serve as my goggles for the virtual world I was about to sign into. My first 'mission', which would prove whether or not I had what it takes to be in Huidie, was about to begin as I logged into EDEN, not sure what to expect but prepared for anything. I then logged into EDEN, traveling through the air, much like when I logged into the chatroom from before. As I landed in EDEN (or more specifically Kowloon), I looked around at my surroundings, which were mostly various spinning Ferris wheel like rides and lots of blue tile everywhere with a few other avatars in the immediate area, I hit the ground gently, looking up as I saw text onscreen which read 'Welcome to Kowloon, an abandoned part of EDEN...and the stomping ground of hackers!', which I only vaguely acknowledged. However, before I could really process the text, my Digivice chose that moment to have its' talk function receive a call. Having a pretty good guess of who it was, I answered it, only to be surprised when I couldn't recognize the figure that popped up on the chatscreen in front of me, apart from noting it was very clearly masculine from the broad shoulders and muscular arms that I could just make out on the figure.

"Looks like you made it. Can you hear me?" The figure asked me. As much I was tempted to make a smart-aleck response to the tune of 'Ahem, testing...testing the mic, one, two, one, two.', I knew this wasn't the time or place for being a smart-aleck and thus refrained myself from it just barely, instead choosing a more serious response.

"Loud and clear!" I replied, figuring this wasn't the time for being a smart-aleck.

"Good." The figure replied, and something in the tone made me fairly sure I knew who it was, though what the figure said next made it easier to guess.

"Yo 'Chitose', how's it going on your end?" The figure asked what was presumably someone else in the room with him on his side of the call. Sure enough, a second figure popped up to the left of the first, also pretty clearly a guy though not quite as masculine as the first.

"Huh, the graphics files are a bit scrambled. Yo, 'Ryuji', can you see my face?" The second figure, who I'd guessed was Chitose based on the fact that the first figure, who I now knew for certain was Ryuji, thanks to Chitose naming him since the graphics made it hard to see who I was talking to, asked the first figure, or Ryuji.

"Everything's looking good for me. What about you, 'Erika'?" Ryuji said, addressing what was likely the other member of Hudie, Erika, who was presumably also in the room with Ryuji and Chitose. Sure enough, a third, more feminine figure popped up on the callscreen between Chitose and Ryuji, still jumbled like the others, but very clearly feminine from her hairstyle and the fact that Ryuji had said the name Erika prior to her appearance, which Erika was usually a female name.

"I can see you, Brother. It seems the only noise is on the EDEN transmission line with Keisuke." Erika replied to Ryuji, ignoring Awa for the moment while also revealing in the process two things: 1)She and Ryuji are likely siblings hence her calling him 'Brother', and 2)Awa's real name is in fact Keisuke.

"...Must be a problem with the Digital Wave. The sound's coming through just fine." Erika added, seemingly ignoring me for the moment and focusing on Ryuji.

"Won't get in the way of the work then." Ryuji remarked, mostly to Erika. Erika's face wasn't really visible, but I had a gut feeling at that moment that I would be hard-pressed to explain that Erika was probably either unamused or annoyed, but frowning either way, at Ryuji's response, seemingly having some reservations, but choosing not to voice them.

"Sure... Still, we can't guarantee the same in the deeper layers, like the areas with special protection frames. Maybe we should call the whole thing off?" Erika said, seemingly concerned for me, something I found both surprising and slightly perplexing, since it left me unsure why Erika would be so worried when it's not her, but myself, who's the one taking the risky assignment. As a result, neither Erika, myself or Ryuji (mostly Erika and myself) were expecting what Chitose said next.

"Well, ain't you just the sweetest thing! Don't tell me you're worried about the newbie?" Chitose said to Erika, with what I guessed was a likely teasing tone, though with the jumbled graphics it was hard to be sure if Chitose was in fact teasing with his question. Similarly, I had no way to realize that Erika would have a very surprising reaction to the question. But, if I had to guess, I would say that Erika wasn't thrilled with Chitose's teasing. Her next response more or less confirmed that my gut instinct was spot on, something I was relieved for though I made sure I kept a neutral expression as I kept listening to the chat.

"...That's not it, and you know it." Erika shot back to Chitose, and while I couldn't be sure, I had the feeling Erika was a mix of embarrassed and annoyed at Chitose's antics. Before Chitose could reply, Ryuji cut in, effectively cutting off whatever Chitose would've said.

"You'd better be prepared for the risks. I'm sure I've said as much. Anyway...time to get to work. I take it you all know the target?" Ryuji spoke up, addressing both Chitose and Erika who were in the call with him, as well as myself who was watching the other three from the viewscreen of my Digivice.

"Sure, sure, like the back of my hand! The target is Youji Shiga. A lone wolf hacker who's been making a killing on account raids the last couple of months...right?" Chitose replied, though it was obvious by his tone that Chitose already knew he was right and was more phrasing it as a question for my benefit. Rather than say if Chitose was correct or not, even though he likely was, Ryuji continued speaking.

"The clients won't permit hackers who cause trouble for EDEN... They want us to 'sanction' Shiga." Ryuji said, not really noticing my confused expression at his use of the word sanction, due to not being sure what he meant by it. However, Chitose noticed my confusion, because he then spoke up.

"In other words, find him, beat him to a pulp, and wreck his account! We gotta make sure he can't log into EDEN ever again with that account. Talk about being expelled from paradise... Time to bring the hammer of justice down on nasty hackers, 'Hudie' style! Heh heh... Can't wait to get started!" Chitose explained, with what sounded like an excited tone in his voice, presumably at the thought of the coming mission, but Erika knew otherwise.

"...We're only here for support." Erika said pointedly, mostly to Chitose, but also slightly to myself and Ryuji. Chitose didn't really respond at first, but I got the sense from his next words he wasn't bothered by Erika seemingly taking the wind out of his sails, so to speak.

"All right already, sheesh! I'm just getting psyched up, that's all!" Chitose said, mostly to Erika.

"First things first. Let's gather information on Shiga from the hackers in Kowloon. ...Chitose." Ryuji said, mostly addressing myself and Chitose, but also Erika to an extent.

"Yeah, here you go!" Chitose said, as I heard the sound of a notification going off on my Digivice before the words 'HUMMINGBIRD downloaded.' popped up on my side of the screen. I looked at Chitose, hoping for an explanation for what had just happened. As if he could see my confusion (which to be fair he probably could given Erika's earlier comment about the graphics issues mostly being present on my end of the chatscreen), Chitose spoke up again.

"Ta-daaaaaaah! Say hello to my little friend, the custom malware Hummingbird! Check it, this malware can temporarily hack the target Digivice just by getting close to it! If you happen across anyone shady while scrounging up dirt, give it a shot! Here or in the real world, information collection's my specialty. Since you've just joined the team, I'll teach you whatever you need to know!" Chitose said to me, giving me the impression that he said it in a slightly condescending but upbeat tone, though it was probably just in his usual teasing tone (it seemed to me like Chitose like to tease people sometimes).

"Let me remind you this is a test. You'd better show us your resolve." Ryuji told me, and this time I could hear the seriousness of his tone as he spoke. Fortunately for me, I was already excited to prove myself, so rather than a spoken response, I chose to reply to Ryuji by way of punching my fist into my other palm in what I hoped was a determined manner, knowing that Ryuji, Erika and Chitose could see me just fine on their end even if they were jumbled on my end.

"Ho ho, looks like you're raring to go!" Chitose said, clearly sounding impressed by my little display. However, I couldn't really tell what Erika's reaction to said display was.

"...Show us what you got." Erika said, before the chatscreen abruptly closed itself, effectively ending the meeting before I could reply. However I was more focused on processing what I'd been asked to do than on pondering the abrupt end of the conversation between myself and the other members of Hudie. So if I understood what Ryuji and Chitose said right, I need to gather information about Shiga from the hackers in Under Kowloon, then install malware on them when I find the suspicious person.

This is my first job as a hacker. Needless to say, I've never done anything like this before, but I'll just get it done step by step. I then proceeded through the first area, talking to all the hackers and picking up lots of useful tips about navigating around EDEN. In addition, one of the hackers mentioned something about not knowing Shiga, and another spoke of hackers raiding accounts like crazy recently.

That same hacker went on to mention that it appeared to be the work of an unknown team that worke masks, presumably a newer team. After I was done, I realized that I'd asked all the hackers in the area, but haven't learned anything. My instinct told me the next move was to then go further in to look for more people to ask about Shiga.

In the next area, I stopped briefly to pick up a shiny object I'd spotted on the ground, looking at it to realize it was a Digimon medal, which were mostly useful if you collected them, which I really didn't. I pocketed the medal without looking at which one it was even though it said Mokumon on the medal, indicating that was likely which Digimon was being shown on the medal. I kept moving ahead, hoping to find information on Shiga. Before I kept moving, I stopped to talk to a hacker who spoke of an 'eagle-eyed hacker' who had information on Shiga further ahead, though he was apparently tough to get information out of according to the hacker I spoke to. I kept going after nodding and thanking the hacker for his information.

As I proceeded, I also learned various tidbits about being a hacker and about Digivices (mainly the different types of Digivices) as well as finding members of a few different hacker teams, which I didn't know the names of being as I'm still a relatively new hacker. I also heard a rumor about a 'white ghost of a girl' in Kowloon, which according to the person who told me of the rumor was definitely a girl. I stopped again once I spotted a glowing rainbow-colored box, which I opened to get some items called HP Capsule Cs, presumably a low level item of some sort, probably a healing item if the fact it has HP Capsule in the name is any indication. Eventually I came to a hacker who had a cap on, mostly covering her face (I could tell the hacker was most likely a girl given her seemingly feminine avatar) and asked her if she'd seen a hacker named Shiga around.

"Shiga? Hmm, I don't know him, but there's a hacker who knows all about stuff like that. He should be around here somewhere." The female hacker replied pointing towards an area behind me I hadn't yet noticed. As a result, I turned around and after squinting a bit since I had to look upward to see where the female hacker had pointed, just barely spotted another hacker kneeled down behind what looked to be an elevator, presumably the knowledgable man the female hacker spoke of. I headed towards where I'd seen him, stopping only to open another item box which had an Escape Gate inside. Figuring it could be handy if I ever needed to make a quick getaway, I kept it and walked up to the mysterious male hacker, asking if he knew anyone named Shiga.

"You want to know about Shiga? ...I don't know anything about him. Now go away." The mysterious male hacker said, and as I walked off, I opened up my Digivice to see the following prompt on screen: "Install Hummingbird? Yes/No," which I of course clicked "Yes" to install it, moving a ways away before doing so in order to not be seen installing the malware. At that moment I knew I'd installed the malware, and now all that was left was to wait for the target to make a move.

Unfortunately, the mysterious male hacker was not only knowledgeable, but he was very quick on the uptake, since the next thing I knew, I turned around while walking away to see the mysterious male seemingly activate a headset in his ear, seemingly speaking into it, presumably making contact with someone else, though I wasn't prepared to be able to hear the conversation, presumably as a result of Hummingbird's installation.

"...I am Shiga. The one you've been looking for. Contact me when you hear this message." The mysterious male hacker, who I now knew was none other than Youji Shiga himself said to me before walking off. I found myself wide-eyed with surprise after Shiga's message, not expecting to actually find Shiga (or possibly one of his contacts), much less make contact with him. Knowing Ryuji and the others would want to be informed of this development, I quickly used my Digivice to start another video chat with Ryuji. Soon enough, the figure from before that I'd figured out to be Ryuji popped up on my Digivice's chatscreen.

"Did you learn anything?" Ryuji asked me, not bothering with a hello. I shook off the lack of polite greetings, knowing this wasn't the time for politeness.

"Yes, I did. I made contact with a suspicious hacker who is either Shiga himself, or at least connected to him. He sent a message saying I should contact him once I hear his message, which of course I made sure to update you guys first before doing so just in case you wanted to be here in person when I made contact." I explained to Ryuji, only being slightly surprised when Ryuji corrected me and confirmed my second guess that the guy was just connected to Shiga, and that I'd had a message from Shiga forwarded to me through the mysterious male hacker's Digivice via Hummingbird. I didn't show any reaction to the correction, but it made sense. Before I could reply to Ryuji, Chitose joined the video chat, taking his spot from before to the left of Ryuji, with a gap between them, presumably for Erika to fill when she joined the chat.

"It'll be a pain if he's on the lookout. What should we do?" Chitose said, mostly speaking to Ryuji.

"We need to know where he is right away. ...Erika." Ryuji said, presumably speaking to Erika, who was likely also in the room with Ryuji and Chitose. Sure enough, Erika joined the chat right after Ryuji had finished speaking, taking her previous spot between Chitose and Ryuji on my chatscreen.

"Give me 30 seconds." Erika said to Ryuji, seemingly ignoring the presence of me and Chitose for the moment. Rather than react to this, I turned to Chitose with a confused expression, hoping he'd explain it to me, which he indeed did.

"That Hummingbird you installed tracks the location information of the person the victim is communicating with...Shiga, in this case. If you do a trace from the transmission log and find the info..." Chitose said, traling off as Erika spoke up.

"...There. He's in that area, way deep inside." Erika spoke up, both finishing Chitose's statement and providing the apparent location of Shiga, surprising me with how fast she'd finished her analysis. Chitose must've seen the surprise on my face, because he grinned (or I'd guess he grinned, since again the other three's images are still jumbled) before speaking to me.

"...There you have it! Quick, right? No one beats this little lady when it comes to analytical processing." Chitose said to me, making me wonder how often Erika did this sort of thing. But I kept that thought to myself, knowing I had to stay focused on the task at hand. Ryuji spoke up then before I could reply further to Chitose.

"He's close. Let's meet back up and track him down." Ryuji said to me, giving the impression that he wasn't really looking at Erika so much as myself and Chitose as he spoke. Chitose then spoke up.

"Should I come too?" Chitose asked, looking what I would guess was either concerned for me and Ryuji, or hopeful he could get a piece of the action himself.

"No, the two of us are enough." Ryuji said to Chitose, easily denying the request for assistance before I had a chance to reply.

"Roger! Me and the little lady will watch from the sidelines! Give 'im hell!" Chitose said, acknowledging Ryuji's response and showing that he was unfazed by it.

"Wait there. I'll be right over." Ryuji told me before both his and Chitose's figures disappeared from the chatscreen, though oddly enough Erika remained on the chat after the other two had left. She didn't say anything to me right away, despite me giving her a confused look at her decision to stay behind, in addition to my mentally cursing the Digital Wave for jumbling the signal so I couldn't see her face to be able to gauge her expression at that moment. Before I could say or do anything, she finally spoke up.

"Don't get careless because my brother's with you. It's not like I'm worried or anything, just stay sharp. Also, listen to what my brother tells you." Erika said, shocking me with the sheer amount of concern I guessed might be in her words. Maybe she did care after all? Before I could really reply to her or give her words too much thought, Erika kept speaking.

"Also, don't tell my brother or Chitose I told you all this. It's... kind of embarrassing." Erika said to me, and despite my likely unreadable expression, Erika again ended up surprising me. This was largely due to the fact I realized she was genuinely concerned about me. Maybe there was a chance we'd get to know each other yet. Before I could reply to her or further ponder my sudden thought about wanting to get to know Erika better (which was not at all necessary OR needed at that moment), Chitose chose that moment to pop back into the chat, revealing that he had never actually left the chat.

"...Uh, sis, we're all still on the line." Chitose chided Erika, clearly surprised by her being so social to me. Whether it was because of her concern for me or for how much she said to me, I was unsure. Before I could say anything (or ponder on why Chitose was also calling Erika 'sis' since I don't think he's related to either Erika or Ryuji), Erika gave a visible start, clearly not realizing that Chitose (and presumably Ryuji) were still on the chat the whole time. Before she could say anything else, Ryuji popped back onto the chatscreen and spoke to Erika.

"...Don't talk so much, stupid." Ryuji chided Erika, not fazed by her apparent/possible embarrassment, if her lack of coherent response was any indication. Eventually she recovered enough to reply to Ryuji.

"I-I-I knew you were there the whole time!" Erika said, quickly leaving the chat without another word, leaving just Ryuji and Chitose's figures on the chatscreen. I looked at both Ryuji and Chitose, surprised by Erika's rare sociable moment and by her being caught off guard by Ryuji and Chitose as I had a feeling it wasn't a common occurrence for her. Before I could say anything, Chitose spoke up again.

"Hehe... it's rare to see the little lady goof like that. Things are sure to get interesting with you on the team. I'm expecting great things from you, future newbie." Chitose said to me, also leaving the chat without a word to Ryuji, leaving just Ryuji on the chatscreen, and me to wonder if possibly Chitose had found Erika's embarrassment enjoyable or if he was amused by her 'goof' as he'd described it. Ryuji then spoke to me before I could ponder my thoughts too long.

"Wait there." Ryuji instructed me, before also leaving the chatscreen, ending the chat. I was left to ponder the conversation that had just happened, from the back-and-forth between Chitose and Erika to Erika's rare sociable moment, to Ryuji and Chitose quickly chastising Erika before expressing their amusement at her antics to me before ending the chat, but not before Ryuji gave me instructions to stay where I was and wait for him. As I did so, I realized something. We'd finally tracked down Shiga. I'll definitely catch him, and hopefully get my account back! Or so I hoped. Only time would tell if I actually succeeded at doing so or not, though I had a feeling it wouldn't be quite so simple as I'd made it sound. Little did I know how right I would be...

A/N: And end the first chapter! Yeah, I know I could've picked a better point to end it at, but this seemed like a good stopping point to me given what the next scenes get into in the game. So next chapter, we'll see how things play out for Keisuke, and also see who his first Digimon will be. That said, for those wondering about all the notes during the early parts of the chapter set in the chatroom, I went with the chatnames at first to try and minimize spoilers for those who somehow haven't played either of the Cyber Sleuth games or even seen playthroughs of Hacker's Memory. I myself have seen several of them and most of them are well done. Hopefully as the chapters progress, the story will get more interesting and less copied from the game.

As to the matter of explaining each of the characters' avatars (since with the exception of Ryuji/Dragon Book, the others aren't explained that much aside from Keisuke, but he's the main protagonist so of course his is explained to some extent), Ryuji is Dragon Book, Erika is bu773rfly (ironic name choice in my opinion given her avator in the chatroom is a literal butterfly), Chitose is Ten Hundred, and lastly Keisuke is awa/Awa (which the reasoning for that name will make sense later on).

As for why I used the default name for the main character, this is meant to be an adaptation of the game's story, not an OC-led rewrite like some other Hacker's Memory stories that exist (out of the few such fics that I could find) so going with Keisuke or the default name makes sense. But that's just my opinion. Feel free to leave a review or PM me with your feedback on the story as well! Hopefully the next chapter will be done soon! Until next time, sithlorde1988 out!

-sithlorde1988