Chapter 3

Digital Dream

Allen Kirkley tentatively opened the door to his daughter's room. She was sitting in a beanbag chair playing with her keychain. The computer was on. It seemed to be loading something. "Hey Kim," he whispered. She glanced up at him for a millisecond, keeping her eyes on the tiny screen. Allen spoke again, louder, but still gently. "We… Need to talk, Kim." This time, Kim turned looked Allen full in the face; eyes wide, mouth open a crack. After a second, her keychain started beeping frantically.

Allen grimaced, mostly to himself. The kid looked like he'd enlisted her in the armed forces. "Don't look like that. You're not in any trouble."

Kim's eyes narrowed for a second, but she relaxed. Allen came into the room, shutting the door behind him. The mural in here had an odd effect on him; he just couldn't get over how well a kid Kim's age could paint. As he sat down next to her, she still didn't say anything, just watched him very carefully, as if he was here to trick her somehow. But where to start talking? Allen didn't know why this issue made him so nervous, either.

"Kim…" he started. "Yesterday I had a… talk with your teacher. It sounds like you're not getting along well with your classmates."

Kim smiled, leaning beck and looking at the ceiling. "Not for long, though. One day soon that'll all change." Allen was surprised.

"Well, that's what it's about. Apparently she thinks you're the one who should be doing the changing."

"Hah! Just because I'm the only one who's different doesn't mean I'm the only one who's wrong! I will continue to be true to myself, no matter what some old crony says, and I will be a better woman for it!" Kim punched fiercely at the sky. Allen laughed, and held his hands in front of him.

He started to leave. "All right. I just wanted to bring it up. She told me about a child therapist who she thought might be good for you-"

Kim leapt to her feet, and barked, "A therapist! Who does she think I am, crazy? I'll show her, I will!"

"-But I didn't think you'd agree to that sort of thing." Allen laughed again. Kim laughed, too, before flopping back onto the beanbag chair. Allen left and closed the door, but not before he'd placed the slip of address paper on Kim's desk, next to the computer. "Well, I just wanted to get my umbrella before heading back to work. They're having problems with the pipes. See ya."

Kim held her keychain in front of her, and looked at Nagainamon in her little room. She didn't seem to mind the interruption. Kim whispered, "Hah!"

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Just one hour ago, Gen had been certain he wasn't going to have anything to do with Kim. But he was now standing in front of her door, with her address in his hand- in a stroke of serendipity, it was within walking distance. It was curiosity. Ever since he could remember, Gen couldn't resist what he couldn't believe, or so he liked to put it. His mom always asked where he was going, if she let him out alone at all; he'd just told her he was going to check out the neighborhood. Gen didn't really want to tell his mother that he was going to visit her biggest fan.

Kim's house seemed to be part of a duplex, since there were two front doors, and a plank fence that ran through the middle of the yard. The right side of the building was painted dark orange; the left side was painted duck egg blue. The yard was, to Gen's understanding, fairly standard. All down the street there were similar duplexes. After first asking himself if he'd rather pass this house by, Gen knocked on the door.

Gen could hear a series of rapid, muffled thumps through the door. The last thump was particularly loud, and was followed by silence. A minute later, the lock clicked, and the door was opened by Kim. She brushed some dust off her sweater and adjusted her goggles, which were almost slipping off her head. "It's amazing how durable plastic is," she observed. Gen almost felt like turning around right then.

Kim waved him into the living room. "Sorry about that. I was so surprised I fell down the stairs. I really can't believe you came! Come on in!" She was talking quite quickly, giving Gen some trouble. He stepped tentatively through the doorframe. He realized he had been acting awfully timid lately. That wasn't like him; moving must have noticeably shaken him up.

The living room was dim and decorated in earthy tones. There was a television, and a table in the middle loaded with magazines. In between a brown sofa and a recliner, a basket of laundry was stowed, and a pair of boots languished beneath the table. Kim strode loudly into the next room, which was more brightly lit and tiled in brick red. "Would you like some couscous?" she hollered.

Gen didn't like to eat much before supper- both his parents were good cooks; they took turns making meals- but he was curious about couscous. It'd be a good idea to get to know the local foods. "Yes, please. I'd like a small couscous."

In the next room, which appeared to be the kitchen, Kim was stirring a steaming pot on the stove. "Ever since dad started looking for a new girlfriend, he doesn't want to do any cooking. He thinks a lady wouldn't want a man who cooks, 'cause it isn't manly. So I make all our dinners now," she explained. She ladled a scoop of yellow-brown mash into a bowl she held in her left hand, and passed it to Gen. "Here's your couscous, hot off the griddle. Spoons are on the rack."

Gen didn't know what a griddle was, but decided it didn't matter for now. "My dad cooks. Mom says that's why she married him," he said instead, surprising himself.

Kim laughed. "Hah! I'll tell that to dad. Come on, my room's upstairs." Kim entered a stairwell to the side of the kitchen. Gen followed. The top floor seemed slightly claustrophobic, as all the doors but one were shut. The second to last door was askew, and light streamed from it onto the gray carpet. Gen nudged the door open a bit wider.

The room startled him a bit. It had been turned into a surprisingly realistic desert. There was a window, but the blind was shut and painted as well. There was a shelf and two chests around the edges of the room, but painted sheets had been thrown over them. The sky looked like it had been done with a sponge. A black beanbag chair looked like a rock, and the bed was surrounded by rather silly looking inflatable palm trees. Kim sat in the corner on a stool, facing her computer.

"I'm not quite sure where to look," she admitted. "You wouldn't find the Digital World in any place you'd look casually on a computer, though. Otherwise people would find it all the time."

Gen sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "I don't know why I came here. I think what you want to do is very… very…" He started again. "Digimon is a fantasy! It isn't real!"

Kim looked downcast. "I… thought you'd changed your mind. You can't know until you try. Someone had to look for these things or people will go on thinking that."

"There is no possible way for it to be true. Computers are parts and electricity and programs. There is no room for a 'world' in them. I know computers too well to believe in things like that."

With a mournful expression, Kim got up. She strode across the room to her shelf, and rolled up the sheet. The shelf was mainly taken up by a collection of figurines, cards, and novelty replica Digivices. But there were also stacks of paper. Kim took one of the stacks down and began sifting through it, while talking. "I never even told dad this, but two years ago, I had a dream. Unlike most dreams, I still remember it today as if I had dreamed it last night."

Gen set his couscous down and took a sheet of paper off the top of one of the piles. It was a drawing of a two headed, winged centaur in half plate armor, flying above a leafy forest. The picture looked almost professional. It was labeled Pumeyumon. He placed it gently back on top of the stack. Kim continued talking. "I was in some sort of labyrinth. It wasn't frightening. Grass grew on the walls and floor, and I could see the sky."

Gen scanned the lines of figurines. His gaze fell on one toy that didn't seem to have anything to do with Digimon. It was red and light brown, and made up of three parts. The main part was brown, and a pinched teardrop shape; three buttons ran down the thin end, above a round glassy bubble in the wide end. Two smaller bubbles touched the first, symmetrically. Two short red bars extended from the thick end of the teardrop, touching the small bubbles. It looked like some sort of cheap handheld game. He interrupted Kim, holding it. "What's this?"

Kim looked up sharply. "Oh, that's another Digivice," she said after a second.

"It doesn't look like any Digivice I've ever seen. You're obsessed!" Gen countered.

Kim just smiled cheerfully. "I'm impressed that you know so many words. No, I know it's a Digivice, because the guy who gave it to me said it was. See, there was this boy I met somewhere. He said he was sick of Digimon, and didn't want to own anything to do with it. I don't think he'd lie about something like that. So of course I happily took it. That thing showed up in my dream, too, except it was blue. The odd thing was, the dream came a year before I got it. But I'm getting ahead of myself." She started shuffling papers again. Gen looked at the alleged Digivice. Suddenly, he realized he had a lot to think about.

"Aha! Found it!" Kim raised a piece of paper above her head. She passed it to Gen. In contrast to the centaur, it was crudely drawn. But it was recognizable as a small, blue dragon with large yellow eyes. It was mostly sky blue, but an uneven stripe of dark blue ran down its back. It wore something like a necklace, or a harness, with an ornament shaped like a lightning bolt hung on it. Around the shoulders, the harness was thick, with a pair of bat wings attached. The whole apparatus was bone white, and affixed to the back of the baby dragon's head by a thin cord. There was writing beneath it, but it was so sloppy that Gen couldn't read it. "She appeared in front of me in the dream. She walked beside me in the maze, not saying anything, until that thing fell from the sky, and she grew, and I rode her out of the maze. …It's… It sounds kind of silly now that I tell someone about it. You wouldn't even know it had anything to do with Digimon, without that certainty you get in dreams. But it had been so vivid; I thought it was a premonition. So when I woke up, I drew this. And that's what started all this for me. Every time I think I'm being stupid, I think about the dream, and keep on wishing. In my darker moments, I think I've driven myself crazy. So I need to find out if the dream was true. To do that, I need to see everything there is to see in a computer. And to do that, I need your expertise."

Gen handed the drawing back to Kim. She looked up at him from her sitting position with a baleful expression. He hadn't meant to get her so worked up… And now look, he thought. My curiosity is getting the better of me again. The dream, the device… It was the least Gen could do to help the poor girl out. He took the bowl of couscous and sat down at the computer, smiling gamely. "I can't refuse when you say it like that. … How about we start looking at what we can see, and move toward the code itself?"

Kim grinned.

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For about two hours, they explored the workings of Kim's old computer, with her struggling to keep up. Then, Gen realized he would be late for supper. To Kim's disappointment, though Gen wasn't surprised, there was nothing at all out of the ordinary. She sighed, staring at the carpet. She couldn't bear to look at her sky of dreams.

Gen saw her pitiful look, and patted her on the back. "You shouldn't give up yet. There are still many places we haven't looked."

Kim hesitated. But he had a point. "Hah! I said myself it wouldn't be easy, didn't I!"

Gen stood up, and stopped at the door. "You… can expect me to come tomorrow," he promised. Kim, too, jumped to her feet.

"Wait!" She held up a hand like a crossing guard, and with the other took the red and brown Digivice from the shelf. She pressed it into Gen's hand. "I want you to have this. It's to say thank you for everything. Kim beamed.

Gen smiled back; suddenly, he ran back to the desk and snatched a torn bit of paper. "I almost forgot your address."

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Kim washed the dishes and did her homework, but her mind was on other things. Allen came home, complaining about the trouble with the heating system at work, and ate three helpings of couscous and broccoli.

When she fell asleep, Kim was full of doubt, the feeling she disliked most of all.

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Gen looked at the toy in his hand as he jogged home. His mother had sent the original story of the Digimon series to the studio by mail, and continued to send and receive updates; she played a big part in the franchise- though, uncharacteristically, she preferred to be kept anonymous. Gen had carefully avoided showing any interest whatsoever in it, afraid of how she would react. He was sure that if what Kim had given him was really a Digivice, his mom would recognize it. So he couldn't let his mom see it.

Gen looked up and saw he was by the river. The family had passed it several times while looking for their neighborhood. He looked around, trying to figure out how he could have gotten so lost. Then he stood at the edge of the river. It wasn't very deep or wide, and simply cut through the middle of the city. In his first day of school here, he had heard that it was once a proper river and flooded often, but a dam had been built upstream, and the river had dwindled. Concrete steps led down to the bank, which was considerably lower than street level. A sewer dumped into it.

I could always… drop it in the river… But no, that would be rude. It is a gift, after all. I can't keep it, though. Gen looked over his shoulder at a dumpster. I could hide it in… under, the dumpster for someone to find.

Gen climbed down the steep bank, since he was here, and put a finger in the water. He watched the light reflect off the ripples, and realized that the sky had gotten rather dark. Perhaps it was going to rain soon.

Gen turned his head as something tapped against the bottom step. A conch shell? He took it out of the water, turned it upside down. Water poured out of it. Where could it have come from? There were some primitive-looking symbols scratched on the shell's smooth inside. Gen shrugged, and put it down beside him. Who knew what you got in rivers around here?

A foghorn- there's no lighthouse here! - blew, startling Gen. In the middle of the river, a light seemed to shine from underwater. He jumped up, accidentally kicking the Digivice into the river.

A second after the sound bellowed, a shape exploded from the circle of light, landing on the shore, and making the ground shake. Gen couldn't see it. When he looked up, all that was visible over the bank was a tail. He heard a loud sniffing, and a crunch as a large pair of feet shifted their weight.

A few grams of plastic, an amazingly durable material when it's made properly, floated slowly to the river bottom. Instead of settling into the mud, though, a current pulled it towards the middle, into the circle of light. Time seemed to slow, or perhaps perception sped up. The Digivice glowed, and the screen flickered to life. The glowing surface of the water bulged; a ripple flew through space, and faded.

The ripple hit Gen. It tingled. He looked down; the Digivice was back in his hand. The giant creature above him looked down also. Its head was reminiscent of a tyrannosaur's, with leathery green skin. A disproportionate horn protruded over the large nostrils that were pointed at Gen. Oddly, though it was right in his face, he couldn't feel its breath.

The Digivice projected a hologram of a similar green dinosaur, with red stripes and huge claws. Two red and black horns the size of its head curved from its muscular shoulders, which sported a skull tattoo. "Tuskmon," it said briskly. "This champion dinosaur destroys anything in its path! Its attacks include Horn Buster and Bayonet Lancer." What the…!

The snout's giant mouth opened, baring sharp teeth and a pointed red tongue. It spoke- or rather, sent words crackling through the air. What did it say?

"Bayonet Lancer!"

Gen jumped out of the way before the attack hit. He heard cement cracking. Thankfully, he landed in the river. Tuskmon's eyes followed him with mild interest. Gen swayed to his feet. The water only came up to his knees, not counting the mud. How could an entire dinosaur fit under this?

The Digivice started to beep. " What now? " Gen moaned. Could it actually, against every odd and law of physics, be real? What did that Kimberly girl get me into! Its screen was now a light yellow, and read: Summoning Digimon. Press Top Button To Confirm. Gen snapped at it. " No way! One Digimon is bad enough! "

Tuskmon charged down the bank, leaving footprints in the concrete. It opened its mouth again. "Slamming Tusk!" Its giant horns glowed. Gen turned and ran, as the clumsy Digimon rocketed past behind him. A thunderousbash indicated that it had crashed into the opposite bank. Gen thought again. Maybe, if I summon another Digimon, they'll destroy one another. He pressed the button on the Digivice, and it immediately started to glow, and grow very hot. He dropped it- it hovered. There was a succession of loud splashes behind him; Tuskmon was coming around again.

Space seemed to bubble around the Digivice for a second. A pale yellow silhouette flashed beneath it, which in turn solidified. When the Digivice stopped glowing, Gen grabbed it and read. The hologram this time was of a small, fuzzy dog with red-brown fur and a cream colored underbelly. Its otherwise featureless ears each had three green triangles on their front, and its tail ended in a closed pink flower. Its cute, playful eyes were vaguely diamond shaped. It was… "Uchimon (rookie), the gatekeeper's dog! It's still a puppy, but the flower on its tail packs a powerful Petal Pistol attack!"

Uchimon materialized fully, just in time for Tuskmon to crash into both Gen and it. Gen ducked underwater as an attack snapped overhead. When he resurfaced, Uchimon was looking at him expectantly. "Aren't you going to do something?" Gen asked it.

The puppy winked, and replied in Japanese. " Let's teach this lizard who's boss! You ready, partner? "

"Eh?" Even when you speak the same language, some things take awhile to sink in.

" You are Gen Maeda, the new Digidestined who summoned me, yes? I said, are you ready? "

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