Digital Demons II - Part 2
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary: Jade gets into the mind of another person,
literally. Meanwhile, Uncle and Calumon...chat.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. I'm just
too lazy to look up who they belong to.
"Yukino Hojo. Her name is Yukino Hojo."
"Are you sure, Mr. Yamaki?" Captain Black asked.
Yamaki handed him the photo printout taken from the
security camera tape monitoring Mrs. Ukiya's room.
He pulled out another photo from a folder with the
AEGIS logo and handed that to Black too. "See for
yourself," Yamaki told him.
Black compared the two pictures. In one was the now
familiar image of a girl in a white kimono standing
next to Mrs. Ukiya's bed. The other showed the same
girl in the same outfit standing in the middle of
an apparent snow storm.
"Okay, I believe you, Mr. Yamaki," Black said. "So
who's Yukino Hojo and how did she get inside
Section 13?"
"Yukino Hojo is a Gatekeeper," Yamaki explained.
"Place of Birth: Unknown. Date of Birth: Unknown.
Relatives: Unknown. Motivations: Unknown. Her
powers appear to revolve around snow and ice. She
can also teleport which explains how she got in and
out of here."
"A Gatekeeper?" Black frowned in thought. "Didn't
you say that no Gatekeeper had ever been found
since the Battle of Tokyo against the Invaders?"
"There haven't," Yamaki confirmed. "This..." He
tapped the Aegis photo, "was taken just prior to
the Battle of Tokyo."
"But...but she looks the same in both pictures,"
Black said. After all he had seen, Black was
surprised that he could still be surprised at all.
"What kind of threat are we looking at here?"
"Minimal, actually," Yamaki replied. "The old AEGIS
files report that she seems fairly benign. Although
Yukino never showed much inclination for fighting
Invaders, she'll occaisionally help out. She was
first encountered by Mrs. Ukiya and her late
husband at Mount Daesetsu in Japan and appears to
have formed an attachment to them."
"Huh. So why the concern if she's benign?" Black
asked.
"She's a complication," Yamaki said. "I don't like
complications. She comes and goes as she pleases.
The old AEGIS was never able to recruit her mostly
because she never stayed around long enough to be
asked. We're all going back to Japan tomorrow and I
don't want anything or anyone delaying us."
"I would think you'd want her intervention," Black
said. "With the remaining Demon Sorcerers after
Calumon, we need all the help we can get."
"Maybe," Yamaki hedged. He looked around "Speaking
of which, where's Calumon?"
"Isn't he with the Nonakas or their Digion?" Black
asked.
"I didn't see him when your consultant visited,"
Yamaki replied.
"Great, he's pulled a Jade on us," Black mumbled to
himself. He picked up the phone. "Get me Security."
***
"Hi! Whatcha doing?"
"What does it look like I am doing?" Uncle replied
irritably. "I am doing research. What..." Uncle
paused as it dawned on him that the voice had come
from in front of him. Uncle was in his library
poring through an ancient tome. The podium he was
using as a book stand was set against a bookcase on
an outside wall. There was no floorspace in front
of Uncle to stand on. Moreover, he didn't recognize
the speaker's voice.
Uncle looked up. Standing on a shelf was a small,
white humanoid with an oversized head and eyes to
match.
"Aya!" Uncle screamed, tumbling over backwards over
one of the ubiquitous pile of books that cluttered
his library. "Little white demon has come to steal
Uncle's soul! Go away! Shoo!"
"You're silly," the little white demon giggled.
"I'm not a demon! I'm Calumon!"
"You are too a demon," Uncle insisted as he picked
himself off the floor and wiped down his glasses.
"Uncle knows his demons."
"Am not," Calumon denied. "I'm a Digimon."
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Sensei?" Tohru said, appearing at the door. "Is
something wrong?"
"Yay! A new playmate," Calumon exclaimed. He jumped
from the shelf, extended his ears like wings, and
glided over to Tohru. Startled, Tohru automatically
extended his arms to catch Calumon. "Hi!" Calumon
greeted as he dropped into one of the big man's
open hands. The hand was large enough that he fit
snugly. "I'm Calumon. Wanna play?"
"Be careful, Tohru," Uncle warned. "Do not let
little demon steal your soul."
"I'm not a demon," Calumon said again. "I'm a
Digimon."
"You cannot be Digimon," Uncle disagreed. "Digimon
all go around saying own names. Digimon cannot talk
like humans except for cat Digimon."
"Um, Sensei, that's Pokemon," Tohru corrected. At
Uncle's hard stare, he embarassingly added, "I've
watched...ah, I mean I've watched Jade watching
them on TV."
"Fine! If Jade is expert, let Jade handle little
demon," Uncle said sourly.
"Digimon!" Calumon repeated.
"Jade!" Uncle called, ignoring Calumon. He exited
the library. "Come here, Jade! Uncle has job for
you." A quick search of the shop revealed that Jade
was nowhere on the premises. "Now where is that
girl?" Uncle muttered.
***
Entering Rika's grandmother's ward room, Jade saw
Rika asleep by her Grandma's side. Her mother was
nowhere in sight. Good. That would make things
easier.
"Mary had a little lamb," Jade recited softly as
she walked around to the far side of the bed from
Rika, "its fleece was white as snow." She sat down
crosslegged on the floor, out of Rika's immediate
line of sight. "And everywhere that Mary went,"
Jade pulled the Sheep Talisman out of her pocket,
"her lamb was sure to go. Or in this case: Sheep."
"What are you doing?" Rika's Digimon asked, seeming
to appear out of thin air.
"That's a neat trick," Jade commented without even
blinking. She had known Renamon would be around
somewhere. "Could you teach me that?"
"What are you doing?" Renamon asked again, refusing
to be distracted.
"Okay, see, Rika's Grandma is in a coma and it's my
fault," Jade began.
"I thought it was an accident," Renamon said.
"Your partner doesn't think so," Jade replied.
"Heck, I don't think so either. Anyway, I am going
to use this" Jade held up the Talisman, "to fix the
problem I caused."
"I thought the Talismans didn't work," Renamon said
doubtfully.
"Yeah, but see, they tried using the Horse and the
Dog Talismans," Jade explained. "Those are healing
and immortality respectively. But they only work on
the body. Uncle said that it's her soul that's
broken like a jigsaw puzzle and I'm good with
puzzles."
"How will the Sheep Talisman work?" Renamon asked.
"Oh, by Astral Projection." At Renamon's blank
stare, Jade added. "I step out of my body and go
into hers." Jade indicated the comatose form on the
bed.
"Is this dangerous?"
"I don't think Rika's grandmother can get much
worse," Jade said dryly.
"I meant for you," Renamon clarified.
Truthfully, Jade hadn't the slightest clue. "Nah,"
Jade lied reassuringly. "Just don't let anyone take
the Talisman while I'm out or I won't be able to
get back into my body."
"Alright," Renamon said, fading from sight. "I'll
be watching."
Left to herself, Jade went into a meditative
trance. Meditation had been part of the martial
arts her Uncle Jackie had taught Jade. Normally,
Jade had little use for meditation. But she found
it had one immediate use. For the Sheep Talisman to
be used, the user had to be unconscious. Jade had
figured out early on that a meditative trance
worked just as well. And it worked faster than
trying to go to sleep.
Floating out of her body, Jade did a quick check to
make sure there were no other spirits around who
would take advantage of her vacant body. There were
no other spirits present, but Jade was surprised to
spot Renamon.. The Digimon stared back, surprised
as well.
With a wink and wave to the Digimon, Jade turned
and dived into Rika's grandmother.
***
The twittering of her cell phone woke Rika up.
Mumbling dark thoughts aloud, Rika pulled out her
cell phone and answered it. "Can't you guys call
when I'm awake for a change?" Rika said iritably.
There couldn't be much doubt who was calling her.
It could only be the gang back in Japan. The only
other people who would call Rika on her cell phone
were her mom and...Grandma.
"Uh, hi Rika," a familiar voice said.
"Henry?"
"Yeah, uh..."
"Tell her!" another voice said, slightly muffled by
not being on the phone.
Rika recognized this voice, too. "Hey, is that Terriermon?" Rika asked.
"Um, yeah," Henry said nervously. "I just got him
back."
"Good for you," Rika yawned. "Bye, now."
"Rika, wait!" Henry exclaimed.
"What?"
"Well, I wanted to be the one to tell you about
Ryo," Henry began. "I know you two were dating and
all..."
"We weren't dating," Rika snapped. "We just...um,
kept running into each other. By coincidence. Um,
yeah, coincidence. We are not dating. Why won't you
guys believe me?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
"Henry?" Rika said finally.
"Huh? What?"
"What were you going to say about Ryo?"
"Oh, him, heh heh." Henry sounded nervous again.
"We, um, I mean I lost him."
"You lost him?" Rika repeated, suddenly concerned.
"What do you mean you 'lost him'?"
***
"You better let me go," Ryo told them. "or else
we'll kick your butts!"
"Ah, empty threats from helpless mortals. Music to
my...well, I don't have ears," GaleXiaoFungMon said
amused as he examined the struggling human in his
hand. "And if we did let you and your partner go,
little Tamer, what would you do then? 'Kick our
butts' as you so eloquently put it?"
"You know it!"
"You're certainly not short on mindless bravado,"
GaleXiaoFungMon commented, amazed at Ryo's
audacity. Or was it stupidity?
"Alright, you asked for it!" Ryo said as he worked
a hand free. Raising a now free arm up high, he
revealed a Digivice in his hand. "Monodramon!
BIOMERGE!"
"About time!" Monodramon cheered as he and Ryo
were enveloped in a brilliant white light.
GaleXiaoFungMon felt a stong tug as the Tamer
tried to merge with his partner. He held on to the
human refusing to let go. He actually grunted from
the effort. Po Kong did the same with the Digimon
in her grasp.
The light faded. Nothing had changed. Ryo was still
a human and Monodramon was still Monodramon.
"I believe that only works when you are both
physically free to merge together," GaleXiaoFungMon
said dryly.
"Can we eat them now, Xiao Fung?" Po Kong whined,
drooling over Monodramon. "I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry, MassPoKongMon," pointed out
GaleXiaoFungMon. "Oh very well, eat your little
Digimon."
"No!" Ryo protested. He was ignored.
"I will keep this one when we pursue the Catalyst,"
GaleXiaoFungMon said. "This human may be useful as
a hostage when we face the Chans."
Po Kong was about to pop Monodramon down her
gullet when she paused. "The Chans?" she murmured,
lowering Monodramon without swallowing him. She
looked down at the little Digimon. "Brother," Po
Kong said slowly. "I've just had a wicked idea."
GaleXiaoFungMon blinked. "You had an idea?" he said
in amazement. Normally, all the obese Digimon
thought about was her appetite.
"Yes," Po Kong replied, holding Monodramon up to
GaleXiaoFungMon's eye level. "I believe it's about
time I repaid Jade Chan back in kind."
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary: Jade gets into the mind of another person,
literally. Meanwhile, Uncle and Calumon...chat.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. I'm just
too lazy to look up who they belong to.
"Yukino Hojo. Her name is Yukino Hojo."
"Are you sure, Mr. Yamaki?" Captain Black asked.
Yamaki handed him the photo printout taken from the
security camera tape monitoring Mrs. Ukiya's room.
He pulled out another photo from a folder with the
AEGIS logo and handed that to Black too. "See for
yourself," Yamaki told him.
Black compared the two pictures. In one was the now
familiar image of a girl in a white kimono standing
next to Mrs. Ukiya's bed. The other showed the same
girl in the same outfit standing in the middle of
an apparent snow storm.
"Okay, I believe you, Mr. Yamaki," Black said. "So
who's Yukino Hojo and how did she get inside
Section 13?"
"Yukino Hojo is a Gatekeeper," Yamaki explained.
"Place of Birth: Unknown. Date of Birth: Unknown.
Relatives: Unknown. Motivations: Unknown. Her
powers appear to revolve around snow and ice. She
can also teleport which explains how she got in and
out of here."
"A Gatekeeper?" Black frowned in thought. "Didn't
you say that no Gatekeeper had ever been found
since the Battle of Tokyo against the Invaders?"
"There haven't," Yamaki confirmed. "This..." He
tapped the Aegis photo, "was taken just prior to
the Battle of Tokyo."
"But...but she looks the same in both pictures,"
Black said. After all he had seen, Black was
surprised that he could still be surprised at all.
"What kind of threat are we looking at here?"
"Minimal, actually," Yamaki replied. "The old AEGIS
files report that she seems fairly benign. Although
Yukino never showed much inclination for fighting
Invaders, she'll occaisionally help out. She was
first encountered by Mrs. Ukiya and her late
husband at Mount Daesetsu in Japan and appears to
have formed an attachment to them."
"Huh. So why the concern if she's benign?" Black
asked.
"She's a complication," Yamaki said. "I don't like
complications. She comes and goes as she pleases.
The old AEGIS was never able to recruit her mostly
because she never stayed around long enough to be
asked. We're all going back to Japan tomorrow and I
don't want anything or anyone delaying us."
"I would think you'd want her intervention," Black
said. "With the remaining Demon Sorcerers after
Calumon, we need all the help we can get."
"Maybe," Yamaki hedged. He looked around "Speaking
of which, where's Calumon?"
"Isn't he with the Nonakas or their Digion?" Black
asked.
"I didn't see him when your consultant visited,"
Yamaki replied.
"Great, he's pulled a Jade on us," Black mumbled to
himself. He picked up the phone. "Get me Security."
***
"Hi! Whatcha doing?"
"What does it look like I am doing?" Uncle replied
irritably. "I am doing research. What..." Uncle
paused as it dawned on him that the voice had come
from in front of him. Uncle was in his library
poring through an ancient tome. The podium he was
using as a book stand was set against a bookcase on
an outside wall. There was no floorspace in front
of Uncle to stand on. Moreover, he didn't recognize
the speaker's voice.
Uncle looked up. Standing on a shelf was a small,
white humanoid with an oversized head and eyes to
match.
"Aya!" Uncle screamed, tumbling over backwards over
one of the ubiquitous pile of books that cluttered
his library. "Little white demon has come to steal
Uncle's soul! Go away! Shoo!"
"You're silly," the little white demon giggled.
"I'm not a demon! I'm Calumon!"
"You are too a demon," Uncle insisted as he picked
himself off the floor and wiped down his glasses.
"Uncle knows his demons."
"Am not," Calumon denied. "I'm a Digimon."
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Sensei?" Tohru said, appearing at the door. "Is
something wrong?"
"Yay! A new playmate," Calumon exclaimed. He jumped
from the shelf, extended his ears like wings, and
glided over to Tohru. Startled, Tohru automatically
extended his arms to catch Calumon. "Hi!" Calumon
greeted as he dropped into one of the big man's
open hands. The hand was large enough that he fit
snugly. "I'm Calumon. Wanna play?"
"Be careful, Tohru," Uncle warned. "Do not let
little demon steal your soul."
"I'm not a demon," Calumon said again. "I'm a
Digimon."
"You cannot be Digimon," Uncle disagreed. "Digimon
all go around saying own names. Digimon cannot talk
like humans except for cat Digimon."
"Um, Sensei, that's Pokemon," Tohru corrected. At
Uncle's hard stare, he embarassingly added, "I've
watched...ah, I mean I've watched Jade watching
them on TV."
"Fine! If Jade is expert, let Jade handle little
demon," Uncle said sourly.
"Digimon!" Calumon repeated.
"Jade!" Uncle called, ignoring Calumon. He exited
the library. "Come here, Jade! Uncle has job for
you." A quick search of the shop revealed that Jade
was nowhere on the premises. "Now where is that
girl?" Uncle muttered.
***
Entering Rika's grandmother's ward room, Jade saw
Rika asleep by her Grandma's side. Her mother was
nowhere in sight. Good. That would make things
easier.
"Mary had a little lamb," Jade recited softly as
she walked around to the far side of the bed from
Rika, "its fleece was white as snow." She sat down
crosslegged on the floor, out of Rika's immediate
line of sight. "And everywhere that Mary went,"
Jade pulled the Sheep Talisman out of her pocket,
"her lamb was sure to go. Or in this case: Sheep."
"What are you doing?" Rika's Digimon asked, seeming
to appear out of thin air.
"That's a neat trick," Jade commented without even
blinking. She had known Renamon would be around
somewhere. "Could you teach me that?"
"What are you doing?" Renamon asked again, refusing
to be distracted.
"Okay, see, Rika's Grandma is in a coma and it's my
fault," Jade began.
"I thought it was an accident," Renamon said.
"Your partner doesn't think so," Jade replied.
"Heck, I don't think so either. Anyway, I am going
to use this" Jade held up the Talisman, "to fix the
problem I caused."
"I thought the Talismans didn't work," Renamon said
doubtfully.
"Yeah, but see, they tried using the Horse and the
Dog Talismans," Jade explained. "Those are healing
and immortality respectively. But they only work on
the body. Uncle said that it's her soul that's
broken like a jigsaw puzzle and I'm good with
puzzles."
"How will the Sheep Talisman work?" Renamon asked.
"Oh, by Astral Projection." At Renamon's blank
stare, Jade added. "I step out of my body and go
into hers." Jade indicated the comatose form on the
bed.
"Is this dangerous?"
"I don't think Rika's grandmother can get much
worse," Jade said dryly.
"I meant for you," Renamon clarified.
Truthfully, Jade hadn't the slightest clue. "Nah,"
Jade lied reassuringly. "Just don't let anyone take
the Talisman while I'm out or I won't be able to
get back into my body."
"Alright," Renamon said, fading from sight. "I'll
be watching."
Left to herself, Jade went into a meditative
trance. Meditation had been part of the martial
arts her Uncle Jackie had taught Jade. Normally,
Jade had little use for meditation. But she found
it had one immediate use. For the Sheep Talisman to
be used, the user had to be unconscious. Jade had
figured out early on that a meditative trance
worked just as well. And it worked faster than
trying to go to sleep.
Floating out of her body, Jade did a quick check to
make sure there were no other spirits around who
would take advantage of her vacant body. There were
no other spirits present, but Jade was surprised to
spot Renamon.. The Digimon stared back, surprised
as well.
With a wink and wave to the Digimon, Jade turned
and dived into Rika's grandmother.
***
The twittering of her cell phone woke Rika up.
Mumbling dark thoughts aloud, Rika pulled out her
cell phone and answered it. "Can't you guys call
when I'm awake for a change?" Rika said iritably.
There couldn't be much doubt who was calling her.
It could only be the gang back in Japan. The only
other people who would call Rika on her cell phone
were her mom and...Grandma.
"Uh, hi Rika," a familiar voice said.
"Henry?"
"Yeah, uh..."
"Tell her!" another voice said, slightly muffled by
not being on the phone.
Rika recognized this voice, too. "Hey, is that Terriermon?" Rika asked.
"Um, yeah," Henry said nervously. "I just got him
back."
"Good for you," Rika yawned. "Bye, now."
"Rika, wait!" Henry exclaimed.
"What?"
"Well, I wanted to be the one to tell you about
Ryo," Henry began. "I know you two were dating and
all..."
"We weren't dating," Rika snapped. "We just...um,
kept running into each other. By coincidence. Um,
yeah, coincidence. We are not dating. Why won't you
guys believe me?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
"Henry?" Rika said finally.
"Huh? What?"
"What were you going to say about Ryo?"
"Oh, him, heh heh." Henry sounded nervous again.
"We, um, I mean I lost him."
"You lost him?" Rika repeated, suddenly concerned.
"What do you mean you 'lost him'?"
***
"You better let me go," Ryo told them. "or else
we'll kick your butts!"
"Ah, empty threats from helpless mortals. Music to
my...well, I don't have ears," GaleXiaoFungMon said
amused as he examined the struggling human in his
hand. "And if we did let you and your partner go,
little Tamer, what would you do then? 'Kick our
butts' as you so eloquently put it?"
"You know it!"
"You're certainly not short on mindless bravado,"
GaleXiaoFungMon commented, amazed at Ryo's
audacity. Or was it stupidity?
"Alright, you asked for it!" Ryo said as he worked
a hand free. Raising a now free arm up high, he
revealed a Digivice in his hand. "Monodramon!
BIOMERGE!"
"About time!" Monodramon cheered as he and Ryo
were enveloped in a brilliant white light.
GaleXiaoFungMon felt a stong tug as the Tamer
tried to merge with his partner. He held on to the
human refusing to let go. He actually grunted from
the effort. Po Kong did the same with the Digimon
in her grasp.
The light faded. Nothing had changed. Ryo was still
a human and Monodramon was still Monodramon.
"I believe that only works when you are both
physically free to merge together," GaleXiaoFungMon
said dryly.
"Can we eat them now, Xiao Fung?" Po Kong whined,
drooling over Monodramon. "I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry, MassPoKongMon," pointed out
GaleXiaoFungMon. "Oh very well, eat your little
Digimon."
"No!" Ryo protested. He was ignored.
"I will keep this one when we pursue the Catalyst,"
GaleXiaoFungMon said. "This human may be useful as
a hostage when we face the Chans."
Po Kong was about to pop Monodramon down her
gullet when she paused. "The Chans?" she murmured,
lowering Monodramon without swallowing him. She
looked down at the little Digimon. "Brother," Po
Kong said slowly. "I've just had a wicked idea."
GaleXiaoFungMon blinked. "You had an idea?" he said
in amazement. Normally, all the obese Digimon
thought about was her appetite.
"Yes," Po Kong replied, holding Monodramon up to
GaleXiaoFungMon's eye level. "I believe it's about
time I repaid Jade Chan back in kind."