Episode 8: Brandings; Birth; Break-In

Kurohi sat on his tiny wooden chair with his hands folded neatly in his lap. Across the desk from him, the woman who introduced herself as Erika Haugen of Digicorp.'s Illegal monitoring department, was rotating between typing on her computer and shuffling through the papers scattered disorganizedly around her. She stopped suddenly after continuing this pattern for about ten minutes, and turned her attention in his direction. "Oh, crap." She seemed a little startled. "I forgot you were here."

Her sentence hung in the air for a bit, ultimately concluding with Kurohi burying his face in his open palms. "If you don't need me, can I leave then?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I do need you." She started typing again. "I was just pulling up your information and got side-tracked by my work. Do you have any idea how difficult my job is?"

"No. No I don't."

"Well, it's very hard, let me tell you..."

"No, I'd rather you didn't."

She raised her hand and gave him the 'bring it on' gesture. "Keep talking so I don't forget you're here."

"Are you sure I shouldn't be speaking to someone else? Someone a little less..."

"Less of what?"

"Less of an airhead?"

"You sound just like my dad." She didn't even bother looking away from her computer screen, nor reacted in any way to his insult.

"Does he find you difficult to deal with, too?"

"No, you've got the same vocal pitch as him. It's actually kind of creepy."

Kurohi had no response. He didn't think he actually knew anyone who could come back from something like that. "Really?"

She ignored him. "Furijin Kurohi, age 18." She was reading off her computer screen. "Purchased a Super Ultimate Plan from us three years prior. Has won 37 regional Digimon tournaments and four national tournaments. Has placed as high as fourth in worlds. Has purchased a total of three DPs from Digicorps over a period of ten years. Last time your Digimon were registered were at a regional tournament in Akihabara that you won eight months ago, the Digimon in question being a Dukemon Crimson Mode and an Omegamon Zwart." She looked up from her monitor. "Is all that correct?"

"...Yes."

"There's also a customer service report from six months ago here. It says..."

"I know what it says." There was more than a little heat in Kurohi's voice.

Erika thought for a second before continuing. "Alright. The report doesn't go into much detail, anyways. I'd be much more interested in hearing your side of the story."

The one thing that wasn't written in her reports, that everyone and their parents knew about him, was that he didn't like to talk about Digimon before Linkmon. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to decline."

Erika let out a long sigh. "Kid, do you know what I'm supposed to do to Illegal Digimon?"

"You delete them."

"That's right. I delete them. It's not my job to research their owners or go out of my way to talk to them. It's just to delete them." She leaned over her desk and looked at him like a peasant. "So why are you sitting here now?"

Kurohi didn't have an answer. There wasn't one. At least, not one that his logic could reason out of him.

Linkmon observed the scene through the security camera in the office. As soon as the woman had announced herself to them on the street, he had uploaded himself to the network via the strongest wireless network he could find. And now he was in the main office of Digicorp. The last place any Illegal would want to be, unless they wanted a death sentence.

He watched as Kurohi struggled against the woman in front of him. She seemed to be able to outsmart (or at least out comeback) him at every turn, and it was obvious it was taking a toll on his rational. He could do nothing but watch as Kurohi fought this battle alone.

"So, will you tell me?" Erika leaned back in her office chair. "You can't tell me your curiosity isn't getting the better of you."

Kurohi stared at his feet, and gripped his knees tightly. She was right, he was curious. There was a reason, and she was holding it over his head, like an angler's lure. "Where do you want me to start?"

Her expression didn't change, but her shoulders seemed to lower. "You can start from the beginning. We have plenty of time."

Kurohi took in a deep breath and began. "My first partner was a Botamon. It was a big deal for someone who grew up with the first season of the show, like me, 'cause it meant there was a big chance I'd get an Agumon...and I did get an Agumon. I had him for about a year before I got my second Digimon. It ended up being a Punimon, which eventually evolved into a Gabumon. A few months after that, Tamers started, and I was instantly drawn in. When the new updated DP was released, I was waiting in line to get my next one. I got a Jyarimon, so my team's line-up at that point ended up being MetalGreymon, Garurumon, and Guilmon.

"I was really into the game. I put more work into raising my Digimon than I did my schoolwork. In fact the amount of time I spent with them was what ultimately led me to aim for a career in programming. We went to a bunch of local tournaments, and kept getting stronger and stronger. We stayed on the local circuit until they announced that they'd be giving away Grani programs as participation prizes at all regional tournaments during that year, and I jumped at the chance to increase the power of my, then, Growlmon. And that is how I got started entering larger tournaments and got the final form of one of my team, Dukemon Crimson Mode.

"Zwart was a little different. When they revealed that they were releasing a limited run program that would allow you to evolve a WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon into a more powerful, and in my opinion, cooler looking version of Omegamon, I did everything I could to get my hands on one. Since I didn't manage to get one in its initial run, I started going to more and more out-of-the way tournaments to try and find someone who had it. Ended up dishing out 20000 Yen to some fat guy I met while at one of them in Hokkaido.

"And that's how I got my team. When I started college, WarGreymon would have been six if I hadn't fused him. And Omega was really smart. Sometimes I thought that he was probably smarter than I was. It makes sense, too. He had the combined years of both WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon under his belt. Eleven years of experience. And Duke wasn't a slacker either.

"They were both..." Kurohi was having trouble continuing. His voice was starting to catch in his throat. "They were both my best friends."

"Furijin." Erika's face had softened. She actually looked a little worried. "What happened?"

Kurohi held back the tears that were welling up behind his eyes and continued. "I had a test. I left them at home. And...that was it." He couldn't stop the flow anymore; tears slowly started to leak down his cheeks. "When I got home...they were both...dead...torn to...shreds..."

Erika got up out of her chair, and made her way around the desk. She went around behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders, massaging them gently. "It's alright."

"No one...under...stood...To them they...were just...data...They weren't...real..."

"I understand. You had them for six years. They were like family right?" She then crouched down next to him, and placed one of her hands on his. "Now, tell me about your new partner."

"I...thought I could...fix them...y'know?" The tears had begun to slow, as Kurohi shifted his mind to the one good thing that came out of all the pain. "I'd been studying programming off and on...for years. But there was data missing. Neither one of them could be completely restored...so..."

"So?"

"...I put them together." He paused for a moment, more to put his thoughts in order than anything else. "I collected all their remaining data, and tried finding some way of melding their data together. I combed through as much of Zwart's data as I could to get the jist of how Jogressing worked, and used that as a basis."

"And so that's how you ended up with Linkmon?" Erika had pulled her chair around and was no sitting unobstructed in front of him.

"No, not at first. Both Duke and Zwart were knight Digimon, so their combined form was the same. It was crude and ugly, but it was alive...sort of.

"It couldn't move or speak, which wasn't surprising, looking back on it. I had basically just sewn limbs together and hoped the nerves lined up correctly. I was out of my mind at the time, too. I'd been working on it for days, I hadn't gotten much sleep, and the remains of my two best friends were basically an living, unmoving corpse...Then a miracle happened."

"A miracle?" She raised an eyebrow with a little shock. "That's not a very scientific explanation."

"Trust me, if I had a better word to use, I would, but that's the best way I can put it. It sounds better than 'I got extremely lucky and he devolved on his own into a more workable template', anyways. Which is exactly what happened. He went down to Child level, which was a lot easier to touch up, being less complex than two frankenstiened Super Ultimates. It didn't take long after that for me to fix him up to the caliber of a normal Digimon. All I needed to do was sand down a few rough edges, install a few beneficial programs, and add a name."

"And that was Linkmon, right?"

Having come to the end of his story, Kurohi responded with a nod. "Yea. That was him."

Erika stood up and gave a little clap. "All right." She took a quick peek at her watch. "We've been here for a while, so why don't we stretch our legs for a bit? I was thinking of getting some coffee, would you like some?"

"Wait, aren't you going to tell me why you brought me here?"

She dismissed his aggravations with a wave of her hand. "Of course I am, but we've been here for a while, and I'm thirsty. We'll reconvene in 30 minutes. You should look around or something." She walked to the door, turning back as she was exiting. "Is that a 'no' on the coffee?"

"I'm not big on coffee."

She shrugged before leaving, her office door open and inviting escape. Kurohi waited a minute for her to get some distance before peering outside to survey his surroundings; which were tons of cubicles. Considering Erika's position, he guessed he was in a section of the company where they dealt with cheaters or customer service or something. To his left was an elevator.

He could leave, but there was something poking at the back of his brain. As Digicorp. Japan was the original office that started production of Digimon, it also had the largest R&D team. If he was here, he might try and absorb a little inspiration, but as he stood before the large silver sliding doors, he found a slight hiccup in his plan. He didn't know what floor it was on. He looked around at all the employees, but didn't think it was a good idea to ask any of them. To them, he was probably just some random kid. They'd more likely escort him to the exit than anywhere else in the building.

As the doors opened in front of him, he decided that if he didn't know where it was, he might as well take a little unguided tour.

He pressed 2.

The doors revealed another set of cubicles. There were several potted plants poking out the tops of them, and some had tiny figures balanced on the edges. Everyone was also wearing suits. He guessed this was general management or something.

Next, he pressed 3.

There weren't many people on this floor. There were a lot of long tables and what looked like the entrance to the kitchen. This was apparently the cafeteria, but Kurohi had no idea what it was doing on the third floor.

Since he came from the fourth floor, he skipped that and hit 5.

This floor was a mess. There were pieces of paper everywhere, even more decorations than the second floor, and shelves stacked with Digimon merchandise lining the walls. There was also a large sigh taped to the front of the nearest cubicles reading 'WILD BUNCH' in big English letters.

This was the floor he had been looking for.

He strode out of the elevator very purposefully, as to not draw questions to him being there. It wasn't really needed, as few people seemed to lack the decency to look up from their work. He took a lap around the room, catching quick glimpses of what some of them were working on. There were people drawing new Digimon, a few of them playing the game online, some staring at code. It was all really fascinating. Kurohi couldn't help thinking, even thou he was an Illegal Tamer, that he'd love to be able to work with these people.

As he was nearing the end of his trot around the room, something caught his eye. Something he wasn't expecting. There was a little name plate next to the entrance of one of the cubicles. "Chiaki...Shibumi..."

Even thou he only said it as a whisper, the man at the desk looked up at the mention of his name. He adjusted his glasses to get a better view of the man intruding on his personal space. "Hey kid. Do you need something?"

"Uh...sorry." Kurohi felt like a mouse in a kennel of cats. These guys make Digimon for a living, and here he was, a cheater, standing in their presence. Well, crap. "The name's just familiar."

The chubby man gave a little chuckle. "Oh, fan of the show, huh?"

"Fan of the game. Of course I watched the show."

"Ha, yea. The director thought it'd be cool to give a little credit to us old guys. For all our hard work, and all." He took a swig of coffee from his 'I'm a Mokumon' mug. "So, get lost from the tour, or something?"

"Nah, I've just been talking to someone here, and she said to look around while she went to get coffee." Kurohi wasn't necessarily lying, but he felt guilty all the same.

"Letting some kid free roam of the place? Some of the higher-ups might not be too happy to hear that. Not that I care. So, who's the wonderful lady leaving you hanging?"

"Erika Haugen?"

Shibumi stopped half-way through another sip of tea. A few of the other members of the Wild Bunch who had been listening in, poked their heads out from behind their paper-plastered walls to get a look at him. "Erika? You mean you've been personally brought here by the head of the IMD?" His jovial mood was fading fast.

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. This was bad. "Is that bad?"

"It depends on what you did to be brought here. What'd you do? Must've been pretty big if you're actually standing in the building."

Unfortunately, Kurohi didn't really know why he had been brought there. Thinking back to their conversation, all they really did was talk about Linkmon, so it probably has something to do with him. "I think it has something to do with my Digimon."

Shibumi's expression didn't shift. "You expect me to believe that? You or someone else hacking a Digimon is not big enough for you..." He pointed at Kurohi. "...to be here..." He pointed at the floor. "...talking to the head of the IMD." He swirled his fingers around his ears.

"Well...what if I made a class 3 Illegal Digimon? Would that make more sense? Because I honestly don't know why I'm here either."

"Really?" He perked up a bit at hearing this. "You made a class 3?"

"Um...yes?"

Shibumi gave him a short round of applause and patted him on the arm. "Hey, congrats, man. That's pretty cool."

"It is?"

"Yea, yea. We always like seeing the stuff the community creates, ain't that right Iruka?"

The man to Kurohi's right (Shibumi's left), Iruka, who had been listening in on their conversation, spoke up. "I agree. Seeing that there are kids out there who're creative enough to take our jobs when we're old and grey, warms my heart."

Shibumi laughed. "I don't know about you, but I plan on keeping this job even after I turn old and grey."

Shibumi and Iruka both returned to their computers, leaving Kurohi with nothing but his feeling of deja vu.

Shibumi held up and hand and waved it around a bit. "Don't worry, I'm not ignoring you, it's just us grown-ups have to work."

"Um...Shibumi-san? I have a question."

"Shoot, kid."

"The Shibumi in the show...What exactly do you work on?"

"Hm?" He scratched his chin a bit. "Well, we all do a bit of everything, but if you're asking for a specialty or something I guess mine would be...the Digimon's evolutionary process, I guess. I probably know more about it than anyone."

Jackpot. "Then, would you happen to have a copy of the program that receives the data from evolution programs and transmits corresponding level data for first instances of a particular evolution?"

Shibumi stopped tying, and turned to face him. He wasn't the only one, either. Iruka and the other three programers in the nearest cubicles all stopped working. "That's an oddly specific program to ask for. It's also useless. Any copies we have have to be incomplete so they don't interfere with the one in use." He adjusted his glasses. "You're not going to evolve an Illegal to Perfect even if you have it. It's impossible. The program was specifically written to so that it would deny any requests of Perfect or Ultimate variant evolutions from Digimon who have had their data altered."

"That's not what I intend to do with it."

Shibumi stood up from his chair, and stared Kurohi eye-to-eye. "Well then, kid, what would you do with the program if I did give it to you?"

Kurohi didn't need to think of an answer. Since the moment he realized it, he knew exactly what would happen if he was right. If he could make his wild dream a reality. It would...

"Change the world."

Kurohi felt a pair of hands slam down on his shoulders, destabilizing him and forcing him backwards onto a pair of tiny cushions. "You're not changing the world just yet, Furijin. I'm still not finished with you." It was Erika. "Coffee break's over. It's back to the office with you." She steered him back to the elevator and hit 4.

Just as the doors were closing, Shibumi called out to him. "I'll think about it, kid."