'The Road Home.'
==Tokyo, Hypnos main labs
Yamaki looked over the photos that Reilly had taken several days ago. "Quite impressive what we can do with photographs these days." he said to no one in particular. He faced the technician that had brought him the enhanced photos. "Any IDs, aside from the Wong boy?"
The tech shook his head. "No sir. We couldn't get an accurate reconstruction of the other boy in the photo; there's just not enough information to get any sort of reliable identification."
Yamaki held up one of the photos. "What about her?" he asked, indicating the picture of a young girl.
The tech shook his head again. "That's the odd thing, sir. We've checked every database we can find, both in Japan and outside it. We even went through several missing persons' files, but it's like she doesn't exist. We have a few possibilities, but they're all extremely unlikely."
Yamaki thought for a few seconds. Could she be a digimon herself, he wondered. Passing herself off as a human would be the perfect disguise. "Have our agents keep an eye on Henry Wong, and keep an eye out for this girl as well. He may meet up with her." The tech nodded, and walked away.
Sitting at his desk, Yamaki reviewed what little he knew about the recent spate of digimon appearances. He recalled what Talli had said about those multiple signatures, and how some of them had displayed biological, and not digital, readings. And how they hadn't come from what was being called the 'digital world'.
Yamaki stood up, walked out the door. "I'm going for a walk. If I find anything, I'll call it in." he said to the supervisor, who nodded.
==Wong Home
"So, it's a deal then?"
Janyu Wong thought about it for a second. "I guess so, Ms..."
"Reilly, please. Alright, if that's everything, I guess we'll see you at work on Monday. Welcome aboard." Reilly shook Janyu's hand, smiling as she did so.
"Well, heaven knows we need the extra money. Schooling three kids is not cheap these days. Plus I like the description; 'Research into unusual applictions of digitally constructed artificial intelligence'. Sounds like a computer science fiction movie."
Reilly grinned. "It's pretty obscure, but you should be able to handle it."
"Where is this place, anyway?"
Reilly pointed to a part of the city skyline. "See those two towers there? That's it. Even the commute's not going to be bad. And there's this lovely little bakery on the way; I stop there all the time." The two exchanged pleasantries, then Reilly left.
As she left the apartment, Reilly's phone began to ring. "Hello?"
Yamaki's voice came over the small speaker. "Well?"
"He's agreed to work for Hypnos, sir."
"Excellent. Does he suspect anything?"
Reilly held back a sigh. "I don't know. If he knows his son has a digimon, he didn't let on. Of course, why would he tell it to a government organization?" As she spoke, she could almost hear Yamaki frowning.
"We'll have to keep him and the others isolated. They may be attached to their... creations."
Several counter arguments came to Reilly's mind, but she pushed them aside. The further their research went on digimon, the more obsessed Yamaki became with destroying them. "Understood."
==Downtown Tokyo, a few hours later.
Hitomi Motomiya walked back to Ms. Asaji's apartment, taking a slight detour to look at some of the places listed in the guidebook she had recieved for her birthday. "It's like walking through a history book." she said quietly.
Eevee, perched on her shoulder, nodded. "Yeah. Can't believe how much changed in only two decades. Of course, Tokyo Tower's still there."
"I wonder why things always happened there in those anime tapes Uncle Davis showed me. Or why the bad guys always picked on Tokyo."
Eevee shrugged. "Who knows?" The two walked around the shops and stores, looking a bit like tourists.
As they did, they failed to notice Yamaki. He had come onto the street a few minutes before, then stopped dead when he saw Hitomi. "It's her." he said, recognizing her from the photo. All the technology of Hypnos to try and identify the mystery girl, and it was his dumb luck to just walk into her on the street. Briefly, he considered calling in backup, having a team trail her to wherever she was hiding out and just bring her in. Just as quickly, he discarded the idea. This was his fight, and he was going to get the answers he needed. A part of him balked at trying to interrogate what looked like a perfectly normal 11 year old girl, but he ignored it, reminding himself what digimon were capable of, and that this girl might be the link he needed.
==Park
Terriermon and Guilmon played just outside the small hut that Guilmon stayed in. As they did, Takato, Henry, and his father sat there and watched the two digimon. "I can't believe it." Janyu said quietly, watching the digimon play around. "I wish the other Monster Makers were here; we could get that thesis we wrote changed to an A+, I'm sure."
Takato blinked. "Monster Makers?"
Janyu smiled a bit, remembering happier days. "We were a group of computer programmers back when I was in college. We even did a thesis on artificial intelligence." His smile grew, realizing what he was about to say. "We even created virtual 'pets' on our computer, to demonstrate the project."
"Really?" Takato asked. "That sounds pretty neat. What did you call them?"
"Maybe you've heard of them. We called them digital monsters."
Henry, wide eyed, stared at his father. "Dad? Are you saying you...created digimon?"
"Indirectly. The project was shut down, we thought it was because the department couldn't afford to keep the computers we needed running for the project. Later, we found out that someone did recover the data and used it as the basis for digimon." Seeing his son's look, he added "We were a bit annoyed, but there wasn't a lot we could do about it. Besides, we helped create something kids all over the world are enjoying. And my new job pays well enough as it is."
Terriermon and Guilmon wandered over, listening to Janyu speaking. "So I guess that makes us your grand kids." Terriermon said.
"Terriermon!"
"It's all right Henry. In a way, I guess we are. You know, there was one man on the group who said that digimon would live on even after the project was ended. I wonder where he is now? Mizuno would get a kick out of seeing he was right."
"Mizuno?" Takato asked.
"He was responsible for building the evolution program for the digimon we created. He said that that piece of code went beyond simply adapting digimon to the virtual environment; it would lead them to become actual life forms in the future. I guess he was right." Janyu sighed. "But I've rambled enough. Henry told me how Terriermon came here, but he said Guilmon was different?"
Takato briefly described how Guilmon was created. "Interesting." Janyu said, thinking. "If he'd evolved from another digimon, I could understand, but it sounds like Guilmon was spontaneously created. Can I see your digivice?" Takato handed his D-arc to Henry's father. "It looks like the remote units we designed, but we never actually built them. We designed them so we could keep track of individual entities, loading them into the digivice and carrying them around. A bit like those virtual pets they sell at the toy store now. How did you get this...what did you call it?"
"D-arc." Henry said. "since we could use cards from the game to alter our digimon, I figured I'd get cute and use that for the name."
"Card...D-arc...you must get that sense of humour from your mom. I suppose if this was formed from a card reader...this is way beyond anything we were thinking of."
"Well, it gets worse." Takato said. "Jeri wants to be a tamer now, too."
"Any way we can steer her away?" Henry asked.
"I don't even know how I became a tamer." Takato replied. "With my luck, I'd be better off just giving her a digivice and one of the Dark Masters." Takato said nothing for a minute, just sat there watching Guilmon. "Would it really be that bad, though?"
"Are you serious?"
"Henry, she's one of the sweetest girls I know! She'd be a great tamer!"
"Growlmon." Henry said, stopping Takato. "Hey, I like Jeri too, but do you really think she'd be able to handle a digimon if it went out of control?" He saw Takato's expression fall. "Look, I'm sorry, but you know I'm right. We still don't know why digimon are showing up here. I don't think we should be looking for prospective tamers."
"That looks like fun, can I join?" a small voice asked
Takato spun around, looking for the source of the voice. "Who said that?"
"Not me." Henry replied.
"Down here!" The three humans looked down, and saw a small white creature with oversized ears. As they watched, the ears retracted. Beside the creature was an odd looking...thing. It had a round body with a single eye in the center, and a small 't' shape on the top of the circle.
Henry took out his D-arc, scanning the two creatures. "I'm not getting anything on them." he said. Beside him, Takato nodded, also trying to get a reading on the two creatures. "Are you digimon?"
Calumon nodded. "Yup! Well, I am, anyway." With that, Calumon flew by the boys and jumped on Guilmon's head. Unown floated over, watching his friend carefully.
==Downtown Tokyo.
Hitomi felt Eevee, still perched on her shoulder, tense up. "Hitomi, we're being followed."
It was Hitomi's turn to tense. "By who?"
"Didn't get a good look. Tall guy, sunglasses, suit. Don't turn around, he might panic and rush us." Eevee took a breath, then spoke again, using calming tones trying to reassure Hitomi. "I might be wrong. Make a few turns, down the streets. Walk quickly, but stay in sight of as many people as possible." Hitomi nodded slightly, and headed away.
Yamaki saw Hitomi pick up her pace a bit, and started following her. Did she see me, he wondered.
After several minutes, Eevee spoke again. "He's still there. OK, listen, we have to lose this guy now. Turn here, and get ready to run as soon as I give the word, all right?" Hitomi nodded, trying not to panic. Her body was starting to tremble, the fear of being attacked, out of reach of her friends and family, almost overtaking her. "I'm here," Eevee continued, "and you can call Ms. Asaji when you get a chance. If worse comes to worse, I'll take care of that creep myself. I won't let anything happen to you, promise." Hitomi nodded, and kept walking. Then, as she turned a corner, she broke into a blind run. She didn't hear or see much, aside from Eevee's instruction to turn left, right, or wait at a crosswalk.
Yamaki turned a corner, and just made out the girl he had been following running away. "She must have spotted me." he snarled, starting to run after her.
The chase went on for several minutes, leading them into a residential area. "OK, we lost him for a moment." Eevee whispered. "Duck into that yard and hide behind the fence! He can't see through it and he can't climb over it. Go!" Hitomi grabbed the side of the fence, almost tripped, and hid behind some of the bushes, back against the fence. It wouldn't protect her if her pursuer came into the yard, but Eevee promised he would only need a few seconds.
Outside, Yamaki scowled, trying to locate Hitomi. If her movements were any indication, he reasoned, she must have been scared. She's probably hiding in one of these yards. I go in, calm her down, and get the information I need out of her...Yamaki advanced to one of the yards, approaching the entrance.
"May I help you?" a stern voice asked. Yamaki looked, and saw a lady, old but still attractive. She radiated disapproval.
"Forgive me, I was looking for a girl, about-" he was about to give a description, but the lady cut him off.
"Well you can keep on looking, mister. I don't know where perverts like you get off chasing young girls around, or why you think you can come here and invade my property. Now get going or I'll call the police." The lady hadn't raised her voice, but Yamaki could tell she was very, very angry right now.
"I assure you-"
"I assure YOU that I will call the police in five seconds." The lady took a cell phone out of her purse. "Five. Four. Three." At three, Yamaki backed off, and walked away from the entrance to the yard.
Sighing and shaking her head, Yuka put the cell phone back in her purse and walked in. She had seen the young girl run into her yard, and could tell that she was scared of the man coming after her. She looked around the yard, and quickly spotted the girl. Beside her, she saw something that vaguely looked like a pet badger crossed with a rabbit. "He's gone now. You can come out." she said in her calmest voice.
==
Across town, Gabumon looked up. Since coming to the Real World, he had done little more than chase blindly through the back alleys, looking for the Light. He was about ready to give up. He had come across some digimon, and had managed, barely, to defeat them, absorbing their data as they fell.
"I come all this way, and I still wind up fighting my own kin. I have to digivolve again, or I won't be strong enough to find the light of digivolution! If I only knew what form it had taken, or even how it would act." Also troubling him was the growing sense that there was something else he was looking for, something that had started when the digital field had faded, permitting him to move freely around the city. On instinct, he started heading towards the park he had gotten a glimpse of a few days ago. Even if his goal wasn't there, it would smell a lot nicer...
==
Once Calumon had introduced himself, he had had a wild time playing with Guilmon. Terriermon had backed off, letting the two digimon play around. "Hey, Takato, is he something you drew up too?"
"Why do you ask that?"
"Well, they both act like little kids."
"Yeah, I guess...HEY!"
"Terriermon!" Henry gave his partner a light rap on the head. "So, the digimon's name is Calumon?" Terriermon nodded, rubbing the back of his skull. "And what about the other one?"
"You mean the floating squiggle?" Guilmon asked, overhearing Henry. "Calumon says his name's Unown."
"How'd you know that?" Takato asked.
"I asked, silly."
Henry looked at Guilmon, suddenly concerned. "Guilmon, are you sure he didn't say 'Unownmon' or something like that?"
Calumon answered. "No, his name's Unown. Not that he doesn't know his name, that's just what his name is."
Takato saw where Henry was going. "Calumon, is Unown...a pokemon?"
==
Yuka escorted Hitomi and Eevee inside the house, and gave them some tea to calm them down. "You just rest there. I don't know if that pervert is still hanging around, so I'll wait until my daughter and granddaughter get home, and see about having someone escort you to a safe place." Hitomi nodded. Yuka walked out, leaving Hitomi to rest.
When she had left, Eevee whispered to Hitomi. "You'd better call Ms. Asaji and let her know where you are. She's probably worried sick." Nodding, Hitomi pulled out her poke gear and dialed.
"Hitomi, is that you?" was the first thing Hitomi heard. Eevee was right, Ms. Asaji sounded worried.
"I'm fine now, Ms. Asaji." Hitomi took a breath, then told the teacher what happened, and where she was now.
"My god...Stay there, I'll be right over!" There was a click, indicating the teacher had hung up.
A few minutes later, Yuka walked back in. "My daughter just called, she should be in soon, and she can take you where you need to go."
"Actually, I just talked to the person I'm staying with, and she said she'd come here to pick me up. Did you want me to call her back and tell her to meet me somewhere else?"
"Oh no, of course not! It's probably for the best anyway." Yuka chuckled. "I'm sorry, I've been rude. My name is Yuka. Nonaka Yuka."
"Motomiya Hitomi. And this is my...pet, Eevee." Eevee fought the urge to snap back, but Yuka did notice the creature bristle a bit.
Smiling, Yuka scratched the pokemon between the ears. "Well hello there, Eevee. Nice to meet you too."
"Mom?" a voice called, "I'm home!" Another woman walked into the kitchen, smiling. The first thing Hitomi noticed was how beautiful the woman was. She must be a fashion model, she guessed. She was dressed very nicely, too. "Oh," she said, "we have a guest? Did my daughter finally start making friends?"
"Now, Rumiko," Yuka said, "the poor girl has been through a nasty shock."
"What? Oh, you poor dear." Rumiko said to Hitomi. "You know, you look a bit like my own daughter. She should be here in a few minutes, you know how she likes to walk home alone all the time."
"Mom? Grandma? I'm-" The latest arrival stopped speaking, stopped moving as she stuck her head in the kitchen. Eevee hopped off the table, stood beside Hitomi, ready to start fighting if needed.
Rika Nonaka and Hitomi Motomiya stared at each other, unable to speak.
"Oh," Rumiko said, "do you know each other?"
==
Henry got back to where Calumon and Unown were playing with Guilmon. "No answer." he said.
"Ms. Asaji's not home? Talk about a bad time to be out. Hey, what about Hitomi's poke gear?"
"We don't have the number; I forgot to ask her for it last time I saw her." Henry kicked a pebble, frustrated. "If Unown really is another pokemon, we should tell her. For all we know, that thing might be the key to her getting home!" At the mention of Hitomi's name, Unown stopped moving, and looked at Henry intently. "Did I say something?"
Janyu looked at Henry. "What's a pokemon?"
"It's a long story, but I'd rather Hitomi told you; you wouldn't believe it coming from me."
Calumon looked at Unown, making some odd noises that Henry and Takato guessed to be its way of speaking. "I don't think Unown wants to meet Hitomi. She scares him."
"Hitomi? Why?"
Calumon looked at Henry oddly. "Unown says it's 'cause she'll make him go home, and he doesn't want to yet."
"What's so bad about going home?" Terriermon asked.
Unown made some more noises, which Calumon translated. "Unown says he likes it here. There aren't any voices trying to tell him what to do."
"I hear voices in my head sometimes, when I'm asleep." Guilmon said. "I think Takatomon said they're called dreams."
They can dream?, Janyu almost said. That removed any doubt as to digimon being sentient beings.
"Knowing your dreams, they probably involve eating." Terriermon said quietly, earning another rap on his head. Looking up, he saw Henry's 'this is serious' face, and quieted down.
==Nonaka household.
Rumiko ushered Hitomi to Rika's room, assuming that, since the two were obviously friends, they probably had a lot to catch up on. As Rika was about to enter, she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Grandma?"
"I don't know everything that you've been up to, Rika, but please be nice to her, just for today?" Seeing Rika's confused look, Yuka went on. "Some pervert was chasing her around town, and she was very frightened when I found her. She said the person she's staying with is coming to pick her up, so please keep her entertained for a while, OK?"
Rika sighed. "OK, grandma." Rika entered her room, where Hitomi was. The two stayed seated for a few minutes, not saying anything.
Renamon appeared, causing Hitomi to jump. "Rika, I'm-" Eevee jumped in front of Renamon, ready to attack. "I see we have guests." Renamon said, also getting into a fighting pose.
"Wait." Renamon looked at Rika, and backed off. Hitomi pulled Eevee back, telling the pokemon to calm down. "My grandma told me you were being chased by some freak job, so don't worry about a fight today."
Unable to speak, Hitomi nodded.
"Look," Rika went on, "I know all about where you came from, and how you got here. And I know about pokemon, and that I can't get any data from them, so If it's that big a deal to you, I'll just leave you alone."
Rika's tone got Hitomi's temper up. "You shouldn't be 'loading data' at all. You're just destroying digimon to get stronger. That's...stupid!"
"Stupid? Digimon fight, that's it. Besides, would you want that Tankmon running around town right now? I don't know how they do things where you come from, but here, it's the strongest that survive."
Eevee looked at Renamon. "And your opinion?"
"Her opinion is mine; I want to be the strongest digimon, she wants to be the best Tamer."
"That's dumb, you're already strong enough." Eevee replied. Renamon blinked at the unexpected compliment. "I'm surprised you haven't digivolved already."
"Like goggle head and dino-boy?" Rika snorted. "When Renamon digivolves, she'll be strong and in control of herself. And Renamon saw everything that happened, that's how I know all about Growlmon's little hissy fit."
==
Outside, Nami Asaji ran into the front yard of the Nonaka home. "Hitomi? Where are you?" Behind her, Noctowl landed on one of the fence posts.
Rumiko walked out. "Are you Ms. Asaji? Hitomi's...Nami?"
Nami stopped, looking at the woman. "Rumiko?"
"Oh, Nami, it's been years since we saw each other last! How have you been?"
Yuka walked out. "Rumiko, what's all the...Nami! It's been a while. I thought you had moved to America after you had graduated!"
Nami bowed. "It's good to see you again, Ms. Nonaka."
"Please, you can call me Yuka now. Did Hitomi call you?"
"Yes. Is she here?"
"Yes," Rumiko replied. "She's with my daughter in her room right now. I had no idea they knew each other. She's such a darling," Rumiko went on, "you must be so proud of her."
"Actually, she's just staying with me, she's visiting Japan for the year."
"Oh." Rumiko said, impressed. "She's that young, and she's here on her own? She must get awfully homesick. Listen, tell her she can come over any time she wants to. I'll just go get her now." Rumiko exited the room.
"She hasn't changed." Nami remarked.
Yuka smiled. "In some ways, maybe. You look like you've done well for yourself, Nami."
"Stress and long hours aside, I guess. If I knew what teaching was going to be like, I might have followed Rumiko."
"It's not all smiles and camera angles." Yuka replied. "You really care about Hitomi, don't you."
Nami nodded. "I'll miss her when she goes home." She heard Rumiko coming back, and fought back the emotion she was feeling. "Hitomi, are you...?" She stopped, recognizing Rika. Rika acted about the same way. Hitomi shook her head slightly. "Oh, I'm glad you're all right. Did you want to go home now?"
"I think I'd better." Hitomi replied. Eevee, perched on her shoulder, yipped in agreement.
"Perhaps Rika should go with you." Yuka suggested.
"It's OK, Ms. Nonaka," Hitomi protested, "I'm sure we can-"
"Oh, nonsense," Rumiko replied, cutting Hitomi off, "Rika knows all the quick ways to get around town. She'll have you home in no time!"
==
Rika led Ms. Asaji, Hitomi, and Eevee down the road. Noctowl flew above them, landing on lampposts whenever he got too far ahead. It was an awkward silence; no one really knew what to say. It was Henry, digivice out, that broke the silence. "Hitomi," he panted, "I've been looking for you all over. We have to get to the park now."
"The park? Why?"
Henry took another breath to calm himself down, then answered. "We found a pokemon there." Hitomi's eyes went wide, and she looked at Eevee and Noctowl.
Rika looked at Hitomi, not understanding her reaction. "Isn't it yours?" Rika asked, causing Hitomi to blink.
"Who? Eevee and Noctowl are the only Pokemon with me."
"Not the Unown?"
Hitomi just stared at Rika. "U...Unown?"
==
The group ran into the park, Hitomi having a slight lead over them. Beside her, Eevee and Noctowl did their best to keep up with the trainer. "Could it really be an Unown?"
"It must be," Eevee replied between breaths, "they're pretty hard to mistake. Up ahead, there's Takato and Henry's dad!"
"Hitomi!" Takato said. "You gotta see this. Henry thinks it's a pokemon!"
Hitomi looked where Takato was pointing. PLaying with GUilmon, was a small black creature, bizarrely shaped. "It's..."
"That's the Unown we saw at Alph." Eevee whispered. "Could it...could that be why we got pulled here?"
Calumon flew over. "Hi! Did you want to play with us?" The digimon looked closer at Hitomi. "Hey, are you Hitomi?" His expression fell. "Are you going to make him go home now?" Behind him, Unown seemed to panic, edging away from Calumon and Hitomi. "I hope not, because he says he really likes being here with me."
"But..." Hitomi stammered.
Rika ran up to the group. "Yeah, that's him." SHe said, indicating Unown. "That's the one that told me about Hitomi."
Janyu was barely able to follow any of this. "What about Hitomi? Henry, what's going on here?"
All of this was lost to Hitomi, thoughts of being able to go home pushing everything else aside. Reflexively, she pulled out an empty pokeball. "Eevee, Noctowl, get ready!" The two pokemon stood by her side.
"What are you doing?" Henry asked. "Calumon said Unown didn't want to go home?"
"I....I..." Hitomi tried to calm down. "I do. Pokeball-"
"Don't do it!" Calumon said, flying in front of Unown. Unconciously, he tried to throw up a barrier to stop Hitomi's expected attack. As he did, Unown used his own power.
"What's happening?" Guilmon looked around, feeling a surge of energy suddenly appear.
Terriermon looked around, seeing the familiar mist appear. "Is it a Digital Field?"
"No," Renamon answered, concerned, "this feels different! Rika, look-" There was a huge flash of light and a dull roar, blotting everything in the park out.
==
"Sir! There's a huge digital rift forming in the park!" Talli yelled.
Yamaki scowled. "How big?"
"It's...it's of the scale..."
==
As he neared the park, Gabumon felt the energy. "It must be the light. It must be in trouble!" Gabumon ran towrds the park, certain his destiny was near.
Unnoticed, Impmon was following the digimon, wondering what he was up to. "Must be something big happening over there." he observed. "Well, if it is, I can take it before that walking throw rug knows what hit him!"
Next Episode:
Thinking that Unown might be the key to getting home, Hitomi tries to catch
the pokemon, in spite of Unown's and Calumon's protests. The misunderstanding
escalates into a battle, and Rika is forced to learn a hard lesson about who is
really responsible for a digimon's digivolution. Next time on Digimon:
Digicross:
'Bewitching Beast Kyuubimon.'