Chapter 1 - Home
I stood with TK, Davis, Yolie, Ken, and Cody watching Azulongmon talk with that boy. They seemed to be arguing a little, because at one point the boy yelled out 'NO!' before quieting down. Finally, they walked back over to us. Well, the boy did, Azulongmon just floated. I frowned. Azulongmon had told us not to let the boy say too much to us because he was from another quadrant, and things worked differently there. And also that he would be going home after they spoke.
"I thought you were sending him home Azulongmon?"
"This is Takato Matsuki. He's convinced me to let him stay here. And he's right. His world would be a fairly hostile place for him right now. And before you ask, no, we can't tell you why. That's just how it's going to be. He's going to assist me in some… special… projects that he is uniquely suited for. Also, don't be too surprised if he knows more about you than he should. You're somewhat… legendary… in the southern quadrant."
He glanced down at the boy before continuing.
"But, he'll need somewhere to stay in the real world for now. I'll have a Datamon transfer his records between quadrants. He'll be a transfer student from… somewhere far off. We'll decide that later. The point is that someone needs to take him in."
I glanced around.
"Not me, my house is kind of full as is."
"My apartment is very small, we could not support another."
"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like living with Jun. I know I don't."
"I've got the same problem as Cody, we just can't support anyone else."
"I've got too many siblings. Adding another person might collapse the floors."
TK, Davis, and I all spoke at once.
"Yoooolie!!"
Azulongmon cleared his throat, interrupting us.
"Actually, I had someone in mind. Ken? You were aware that your parents signed up to host an exchange student weren't you?"
Ken sighed.
"Well you're right about that. At least it's someone we don't have to hide from."
Takato was blushing heavily by now.
"Sorry to be such a bother…"
Ken smiled.
"I'm sure we'll get along just fine, Takato."
Then Azulongmon cleared his throat again. Takato blushed a little deeper.
"Oh, right."
He took a round black ball out of his hood and dropped it towards the ground. He aimed an odd looking digivice at it. It looked like our original ones, but was black trimmed in red. A red light shot out, and hit the ball, which I then realized was a digimon.
Flash
Digivolution_
BlackJyarimon Flash Digivolve to… BlackGuilmon!
What appeared before us was a large black dinosaur with red markings and bands on it, with the exception of its white belly, which had a strange black marking on it.
It looked big.
It looked mean.
It looked hungry.
Then it turned and looked at its partner with dopey look on its face. And at the sound of its voice all other thoughts about it went out the window, as it was immediately the cutest thing in the world.
"Takatomon, can we eat now?"
The boy sweatdropped.
"No, not yet boy. We have to introduce ourselves first."
"Ooooh."
Then it was running for us. It stopped in front of me and lifted up on its hind legs, so that it was face to face with me.
"HIIII!"
He waved as he spoke. I giggled, I couldn't help it.
He might look mean at first, but he's definitely nice.
"Hi, I'm Kari. And you are…?"
"I'm BlackGuilmon! Takatomon, can I have bread now?"
"What did I just say?"
"But I did introduce myself Takatomon."
He blushed, and then sighed.
"I'll get around to feeding you in a minute boy."
He then turned to address the rest of us.
"Hi, incase you didn't catch that, my name's Takato Matsuki. This is my partner, BlackGuilmon."
There was a chorus of 'Hi's and 'Hello's at that point, and BlackGuilmon went around sniffing all our digimon.
"Um… why's he doing that?"
Takato blinked.
"Huh? Oh, you mean the sniffing thing. BlackGuilmon can 'smell' a digimon at a couple of miles, though it's really just an extra sense. He's doing that so he doesn't get alarmed when he senses them in the real world."
"He's hard to take by surprise then."
"In the real world, yes it's pretty hard. But in the digital world, there are just too many signals for him to rely on it effectively. Doesn't work too well at close range either."
I smiled at him, and he smiled back. He seemed a little nervous. TK smiled too and began to speak.
"Well, I'm just glad we were able to get to you before Demon did."
He suddenly looked a little more nervous, as if the name frightened him a little.
"Heh, heh, yeah… lucky me…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ken, are you sure that you're okay with this? I mean Azulongmon did drop this out of the blue on us."
"I'm sure Wormmon. My parents did sign up for this, after all. It would have happened eventually. He seems like a nice enough guy."
"I guess. It's just a little weird though. How did he get in the Dark Ocean anyways?"
"While I do wonder Wormmon, the important thing is not to ask questions about it. Azulongmon said not to after all."
"Yes, but it doesn't stop me from wondering about it."
"I know, Wormmon, I know."
I opened the door to the somewhat large apartment I lived in with my parents.
Well, now I have to give them the news…
"Ken dear! We've got a huge surprise! We got a call. We're getting an exchange student! Isn't it wonderful?"
"Yeah, he seems like a nice guy. I met him earlier, he'll come home from school with me tomorrow."
My father blinked.
"Ken, how did you know?"
"He's from another digital quadrant, and he apparently has nowhere to go back there, so Azulongmon pulled some strings to get him to stay here."
My mother looked a little spooked, as she did with all things digital except Wormmon.
"Oh. Well, in any case, you have to get your room ready for tomorrow."
"All right, then. I'll see you at dinner."
The arrangement of my room took very little time, clean as it always was. One concern I had was BlackGuilmon. He was just too big for the room.
Wait. He probably won't be able to support his rookie outside the digital world anyway. So he should be smaller.
I lay back on my bed and slept until dinner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mom and Dad were both out when I got home. And Kari had said something about Azulongmon wanting the younger Digidestined to take care of something for him, something last minute. I left a note and went out to get some food.
Agumon trailed in the shadows behind me, being too old for stuffed animals left me with little choice. While people knew about digimon now, they weren't entirely comfortable with them. So he was back there so as not to scare people.
"Tai, when will we get there? I'm hungry!"
"Soon Agumon, soon."
We were passing the park next to the TV station where Mr. Ishida works when I saw something. Or rather heard it. A low growl.
"GRRRRRRRRRRR!"
What I saw next spooked me a little. What looked like a miniature DarkTyrannomon stepped out of the bushes growling. He walked around me, straight for Agumon.
"Agumon!"
"PEPPER BREATH!"
The small dinosaur digimon leaped aside and fired its own attack.
"FIREBALL!"
Agumon ducked, and was preparing to strike again, when something else happened.
"BlackGuilmon! Stop!"
The thing immediately lost the feral look in its eye and turned to face the newcomer.
"Takatomon, I smelled a digimon."
The boy smacked his forehead.
"BlackGuilmon! I told you! There are lots of friendly digimon here! You can't just attack them like we used to back home!"
He turned to me.
"I really hope that BlackGuilmon hasn't caused you too much trou…"
His face went dead white.
What? Do I have something on my face?
"Hey Tai! I got your note; I figured you'd be here."
I turned and Kari was coming towards us. She looked a little confused for a second, while the boy in front of me seemed to recover from his heart attack.
"Oh, Hi Takato! What are you doing here?"
Takato gestured at his partner as he spoke.
"I was chasing BlackGuilmon here. He mistook Agumon for a wild digimon, and started running."
I arched an eyebrow.
"Wild digimon a problem for some reason?"
He sighed.
"They are in the southern quadrant."
"WHAT!?"
He smiled a little sheepishly.
"Didn't Azulongmon tell you?"
Kari answered for me.
"All Azulongmon told us was that he wanted the younger Digidestined to report and go find you in the Dark Ocean."
"Oh. Well, I'm Takato Matsuki. I'm from the southern quadrant, and this is my sometimes hard to control digimon BlackGuilmon."
I smiled and held out my hand.
"Tai Kamiya."
He looked more than a little nervous, but shook hands with me anyways.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, but we've got to go. BlackGuilmon, come on. We've go to go get something to eat."
Kari looked at me, silent question in her eyes. I nodded, then looked at the boy. He was about Kari's age with brown hair, and red eyes. He was wearing a blue shirt and gray shorts.
"You can come with us if you like, that's where we're going."
He looked a little overwhelmed, but smiled nervously anyway.
"S-Sure."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can't believe that I just had dinner with the greatest hero ever to grace Saturday morning cartoons.
It was a bit later, and I was wandering the streets of Odaiba, trying to get a good mental map down. I had brought BlackGuilmon out a doggy bag, and now BlackJyarimon was tucked safely in my hood, snoring a little as he slept.
As I walked the unfamiliar streets I felt my homesickness well up in me. I walked through town and saw people having fun with friends, and lovers on dates, I saw a child getting ice cream with his parents. I sniffed a little thinking of what I'd left behind. What wouldn't be there even if I did go back.
No. West Shinjuku was behind me now. Now Odaiba was home. I would live with it. I would have new friends. I would have a new family. New people to worry about. But I also knew that there was one thing that could not be replaced here.
My heart. That lay in the southern quadrant. Not attached to a place, but attached to a person.
I stopped on a bridge and looked up into the full moon. I touched the picture of Rika that hung at my throat and watched for a time. Then I pulled out the picture and looked at it there under the moonlight. As I looked at it, I could almost hear her voice.
~Good luck, Goggles.~
My heart was in good hands.
I put the picture away, smiled and started whistling as I walked down the road again. I needed to find a secluded place to gate to the digital world for some sleep. I had a long day tomorrow.
I stood with TK, Davis, Yolie, Ken, and Cody watching Azulongmon talk with that boy. They seemed to be arguing a little, because at one point the boy yelled out 'NO!' before quieting down. Finally, they walked back over to us. Well, the boy did, Azulongmon just floated. I frowned. Azulongmon had told us not to let the boy say too much to us because he was from another quadrant, and things worked differently there. And also that he would be going home after they spoke.
"I thought you were sending him home Azulongmon?"
"This is Takato Matsuki. He's convinced me to let him stay here. And he's right. His world would be a fairly hostile place for him right now. And before you ask, no, we can't tell you why. That's just how it's going to be. He's going to assist me in some… special… projects that he is uniquely suited for. Also, don't be too surprised if he knows more about you than he should. You're somewhat… legendary… in the southern quadrant."
He glanced down at the boy before continuing.
"But, he'll need somewhere to stay in the real world for now. I'll have a Datamon transfer his records between quadrants. He'll be a transfer student from… somewhere far off. We'll decide that later. The point is that someone needs to take him in."
I glanced around.
"Not me, my house is kind of full as is."
"My apartment is very small, we could not support another."
"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like living with Jun. I know I don't."
"I've got the same problem as Cody, we just can't support anyone else."
"I've got too many siblings. Adding another person might collapse the floors."
TK, Davis, and I all spoke at once.
"Yoooolie!!"
Azulongmon cleared his throat, interrupting us.
"Actually, I had someone in mind. Ken? You were aware that your parents signed up to host an exchange student weren't you?"
Ken sighed.
"Well you're right about that. At least it's someone we don't have to hide from."
Takato was blushing heavily by now.
"Sorry to be such a bother…"
Ken smiled.
"I'm sure we'll get along just fine, Takato."
Then Azulongmon cleared his throat again. Takato blushed a little deeper.
"Oh, right."
He took a round black ball out of his hood and dropped it towards the ground. He aimed an odd looking digivice at it. It looked like our original ones, but was black trimmed in red. A red light shot out, and hit the ball, which I then realized was a digimon.
Flash
Digivolution_
BlackJyarimon Flash Digivolve to… BlackGuilmon!
What appeared before us was a large black dinosaur with red markings and bands on it, with the exception of its white belly, which had a strange black marking on it.
It looked big.
It looked mean.
It looked hungry.
Then it turned and looked at its partner with dopey look on its face. And at the sound of its voice all other thoughts about it went out the window, as it was immediately the cutest thing in the world.
"Takatomon, can we eat now?"
The boy sweatdropped.
"No, not yet boy. We have to introduce ourselves first."
"Ooooh."
Then it was running for us. It stopped in front of me and lifted up on its hind legs, so that it was face to face with me.
"HIIII!"
He waved as he spoke. I giggled, I couldn't help it.
He might look mean at first, but he's definitely nice.
"Hi, I'm Kari. And you are…?"
"I'm BlackGuilmon! Takatomon, can I have bread now?"
"What did I just say?"
"But I did introduce myself Takatomon."
He blushed, and then sighed.
"I'll get around to feeding you in a minute boy."
He then turned to address the rest of us.
"Hi, incase you didn't catch that, my name's Takato Matsuki. This is my partner, BlackGuilmon."
There was a chorus of 'Hi's and 'Hello's at that point, and BlackGuilmon went around sniffing all our digimon.
"Um… why's he doing that?"
Takato blinked.
"Huh? Oh, you mean the sniffing thing. BlackGuilmon can 'smell' a digimon at a couple of miles, though it's really just an extra sense. He's doing that so he doesn't get alarmed when he senses them in the real world."
"He's hard to take by surprise then."
"In the real world, yes it's pretty hard. But in the digital world, there are just too many signals for him to rely on it effectively. Doesn't work too well at close range either."
I smiled at him, and he smiled back. He seemed a little nervous. TK smiled too and began to speak.
"Well, I'm just glad we were able to get to you before Demon did."
He suddenly looked a little more nervous, as if the name frightened him a little.
"Heh, heh, yeah… lucky me…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ken, are you sure that you're okay with this? I mean Azulongmon did drop this out of the blue on us."
"I'm sure Wormmon. My parents did sign up for this, after all. It would have happened eventually. He seems like a nice enough guy."
"I guess. It's just a little weird though. How did he get in the Dark Ocean anyways?"
"While I do wonder Wormmon, the important thing is not to ask questions about it. Azulongmon said not to after all."
"Yes, but it doesn't stop me from wondering about it."
"I know, Wormmon, I know."
I opened the door to the somewhat large apartment I lived in with my parents.
Well, now I have to give them the news…
"Ken dear! We've got a huge surprise! We got a call. We're getting an exchange student! Isn't it wonderful?"
"Yeah, he seems like a nice guy. I met him earlier, he'll come home from school with me tomorrow."
My father blinked.
"Ken, how did you know?"
"He's from another digital quadrant, and he apparently has nowhere to go back there, so Azulongmon pulled some strings to get him to stay here."
My mother looked a little spooked, as she did with all things digital except Wormmon.
"Oh. Well, in any case, you have to get your room ready for tomorrow."
"All right, then. I'll see you at dinner."
The arrangement of my room took very little time, clean as it always was. One concern I had was BlackGuilmon. He was just too big for the room.
Wait. He probably won't be able to support his rookie outside the digital world anyway. So he should be smaller.
I lay back on my bed and slept until dinner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mom and Dad were both out when I got home. And Kari had said something about Azulongmon wanting the younger Digidestined to take care of something for him, something last minute. I left a note and went out to get some food.
Agumon trailed in the shadows behind me, being too old for stuffed animals left me with little choice. While people knew about digimon now, they weren't entirely comfortable with them. So he was back there so as not to scare people.
"Tai, when will we get there? I'm hungry!"
"Soon Agumon, soon."
We were passing the park next to the TV station where Mr. Ishida works when I saw something. Or rather heard it. A low growl.
"GRRRRRRRRRRR!"
What I saw next spooked me a little. What looked like a miniature DarkTyrannomon stepped out of the bushes growling. He walked around me, straight for Agumon.
"Agumon!"
"PEPPER BREATH!"
The small dinosaur digimon leaped aside and fired its own attack.
"FIREBALL!"
Agumon ducked, and was preparing to strike again, when something else happened.
"BlackGuilmon! Stop!"
The thing immediately lost the feral look in its eye and turned to face the newcomer.
"Takatomon, I smelled a digimon."
The boy smacked his forehead.
"BlackGuilmon! I told you! There are lots of friendly digimon here! You can't just attack them like we used to back home!"
He turned to me.
"I really hope that BlackGuilmon hasn't caused you too much trou…"
His face went dead white.
What? Do I have something on my face?
"Hey Tai! I got your note; I figured you'd be here."
I turned and Kari was coming towards us. She looked a little confused for a second, while the boy in front of me seemed to recover from his heart attack.
"Oh, Hi Takato! What are you doing here?"
Takato gestured at his partner as he spoke.
"I was chasing BlackGuilmon here. He mistook Agumon for a wild digimon, and started running."
I arched an eyebrow.
"Wild digimon a problem for some reason?"
He sighed.
"They are in the southern quadrant."
"WHAT!?"
He smiled a little sheepishly.
"Didn't Azulongmon tell you?"
Kari answered for me.
"All Azulongmon told us was that he wanted the younger Digidestined to report and go find you in the Dark Ocean."
"Oh. Well, I'm Takato Matsuki. I'm from the southern quadrant, and this is my sometimes hard to control digimon BlackGuilmon."
I smiled and held out my hand.
"Tai Kamiya."
He looked more than a little nervous, but shook hands with me anyways.
"Well, it was nice meeting you, but we've got to go. BlackGuilmon, come on. We've go to go get something to eat."
Kari looked at me, silent question in her eyes. I nodded, then looked at the boy. He was about Kari's age with brown hair, and red eyes. He was wearing a blue shirt and gray shorts.
"You can come with us if you like, that's where we're going."
He looked a little overwhelmed, but smiled nervously anyway.
"S-Sure."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can't believe that I just had dinner with the greatest hero ever to grace Saturday morning cartoons.
It was a bit later, and I was wandering the streets of Odaiba, trying to get a good mental map down. I had brought BlackGuilmon out a doggy bag, and now BlackJyarimon was tucked safely in my hood, snoring a little as he slept.
As I walked the unfamiliar streets I felt my homesickness well up in me. I walked through town and saw people having fun with friends, and lovers on dates, I saw a child getting ice cream with his parents. I sniffed a little thinking of what I'd left behind. What wouldn't be there even if I did go back.
No. West Shinjuku was behind me now. Now Odaiba was home. I would live with it. I would have new friends. I would have a new family. New people to worry about. But I also knew that there was one thing that could not be replaced here.
My heart. That lay in the southern quadrant. Not attached to a place, but attached to a person.
I stopped on a bridge and looked up into the full moon. I touched the picture of Rika that hung at my throat and watched for a time. Then I pulled out the picture and looked at it there under the moonlight. As I looked at it, I could almost hear her voice.
~Good luck, Goggles.~
My heart was in good hands.
I put the picture away, smiled and started whistling as I walked down the road again. I needed to find a secluded place to gate to the digital world for some sleep. I had a long day tomorrow.