Author's Notes: This week is just full video game news for me. Apparently Atlus is doing a remake of Radiant Historia for the 3DS and well, that's just my absolute favorite game of all time. It won't be out until next year, but I hope it gets localized too.

Takumi noticed a crowd gathered around the station entrance in Shinjuku's underground area. He frowned as he tried to get a look at whatever it was that caught the people's attention. "What's happening on the other side of that crowd…?" he asked himself. He shook his head as he quickly hurried over. "Let's go!" As soon as Takumi got close enough, he noticed a massive pinkish purple distortion engulfing the station entrance. "Eh!?" He continued towards it but paused when a familiar voice chuckled behind him.

"Well, well… Aren't you something?"

Takumi turned around and blinked at who it was. "Arata!"

The taller boy nodded to him in greeting before looking at the station. "Do you have any idea what that is?"

"No," the Cyber Sleuth shook his head. "I plan on checking it out though."

"Yeah," Arata agreed. "This whole phenomenon's hard to wrap my head around. I've never seen anything like it. But still," he tilted his head to the side. "There's got to be a way for us to get inside it, wouldn't you think?"

"Would that be safe?" Takumi asked. Arata shrugged in response, but both boys prepared to enter anyways.

"Hey, you!" another familiar voice called out to them. "Stay right where you are!"

The teenagers turned around to see the female detective wearing cop clothes coming after them. "Ah… it's that lady again," Takumi blinked.

"One more step and I'll arrest the both of you!" the woman threatened them. She spotted the distortion behind them and frowned. "Huh!?"

"Tch," Arata crossed his arms. "This gal's the last thing we need right now."

"This is a crime scene," she explained to them, "and I won't have you messing with it!" She cracked her knuckles and glared at the boys. "The great Date Makiko isn't going to go easy on the punks responsible for this mess!"

"Maybe I should bail before this becomes a whole ordeal," Arata spoke mostly to himself.

"Hey, you!" Date yelled at the raven-haired boy. "I told you to freeze, didn't I!?" She paused though when she thought Arata seemed familiar. "Huh? I've seen you somewhere before. Yeah…" she scratched the back of her head as she tried to remember. "What was it? That one hacker team?"

"Zaxon?" Takumi frowned as he looked at his companion.

"Uh-oh!" Arata tensed up. He shook his head as he quickly started underground. "Come on! Let's bail!"

"Arata!?" Takumi watched the older boy take off past him. "Wait for me!"

"Hey!" Date frowned as they both headed towards the station entrance. "You stop right there!" She quickly went after them.

"Gotta find a way out of here," Arata looked around. He smirked as he eyed the flickering distortion. "Looks like this is the only way. Well, don't knock it 'til you've tried it, I guess…" he shrugged as he went inside without another thought.

"Arata!" Takumi tried to pull him back, but Date blew her whistle. The Cyber Sleuth shook his head as he decided to take the chance too. He frowned when he saw the older boy staring around the strange subway. "Don't just leave me behind like that!"

Arata shook his head at Takumi as he frowned at their surroundings. "Is this place real? Or digital?"

Takumi noticed it too and paused. He stared down at his body and sensed that the area's frequency matched well with his own. "Could it be… both?"

"What's going on?" the other boy asked. "This is too strange. It's like two worlds are intersecting." He nervously chuckled. "I can't make heads or tails of this."

"Intersecting?" Takumi knit his eyebrows together. Could it be the Digital World?

"I don't think there's anything wrong with my head," Arata noted as he brought his hand up to his forehead.

"No, I see it too," Takumi wryly smiled.

"At least the cops won't be after me here," Arata relaxed, putting his hands into his pockets.

Takumi closed his eyes and considered something. "I wonder what's back there."

"A demon or a snake," Arata smirked as he crossed his arms. "Let's think of a plan once we see it."

"Yeah," the redhead nodded. He paused though when he felt something coming at them. "Arata, look out!" he cried as he pushed the older boy out of the way. Takumi barely thought it and his team suddenly appeared to counter the wild Digimon that had ambushed them.

"Freeze Fang!" Garurumon (Black) growled as he tackled into the furry purple dinosaur dragon.

"Dum Dum Upper!" Galgomon tried to knock the other Digimon back, but the sturdy rock golem didn't seem too bothered by his uppercut.

"Gottsumon, Data Type," Takumi frowned. "So is the DORUmon," he shook his head. "Galgomon! Switch out with Guardromon! Growmon! Cover him!"

Growmon roared as he jumped into the air. "Dino Kick!" After stomping on Gottsumon, he whipped his tail at the enemy, sending it flying towards DORUmon.

Guardromon raised both his arms and finished them off. "Destruction Grenade!"

Arata stared at Takumi in amazement when the battle was over. After a while, he smirked as he asked the younger boy something. "Hey, which do you think a Digimon is more like? A demon or a snake?"

"Neither," Takumi shook his head. "But it is strange that they're showing up here."

The older boy nodded and crossed his arms, a serious frown on his face. "Since Digimon has turned up, this must be the Digital World, right? Yet this still feels very much like the Real World, right?"

"Yeah," the redhead brought his hand up to his mouth as he considered a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon.

"Well, we're not going to get anywhere by just thinking about it," Arata pointed out with a sigh. He looked further down the path and placed his hands in his pockets. "Regardless, these Digimon seem to be a bit on the wild and vicious side." He chuckled as he eyed Takumi's Digimon. "And so, knowing that's what they're like…" Takumi's eyes widened as Arata called out a Digimon of his own. "I made sure to get my hands on some slightly tougher Digimon. We never know when we might get attacked by something like that black one from the other day."

"But that wasn't a Digimon," Takumi reminded him. "The Digimon Capture program didn't react to it, remember?"

Arata shrugged. "Well, you've got your Digimon too, so the next time it crosses our path, we'll delete it for sure, yeah?"

Takumi placed his hands on his hips and closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath before wisely stating, "In battle, the careless lose first."

The raven-haired boy raised an eyebrow at him. "I'd thought this before, but you're strange. Sometimes I don't understand what you're saying."

"Eh…?" Takumi tilted his head to the side.

"Do you lack any sense of self-awareness or something?" Arata frowned. "Either way, I guess you're at least pretty fascinating," he chuckled.

"I just meant that we should be careful," the redhead stated. "You're just like Kyoko-san…" he paused as he was reminded of something. "Oh, before we go any further, let me try calling someone."

"Huh?" Arata crossed his arms and watched as Takumi opened up his Digivice menu. "What are you…?"

The blue-eyed boy sighed when his call failed to connect. He sighed but calmly closed his eyes. The area must be interfering with communication. Now that I think about it, the atmosphere here feels a bit… different… But I don't really know how to explain it.

"Are you okay?" Arata asked him. "You've been quiet for a while now."

"Oh, sorry," Takumi said as he opened his eyes. "I just needed to report to the agency, but there's no connection."

"What?" the older boy frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?" he asked with crossed arms. "What agency?"

The redhead placed his hands on his hips and smiled. "I'm working at a detective agency as a super cool Cyber Sleuth!"

"Super-cool?" Arata was a bit taken aback at that. "I mean, a Cyber Sleuth? A digital detective!?"

"Yup!" Takumi nodded. "It's a job only I can do!"

"Really? That's incredible," the raven-haired teen stared at the younger boy. "I don't quite get it, but it's incredible! You really are something, aren't you?"

"I guess…" the red-haired boy sheepishly looked away.

"No, that's…" Arata shook his head. "That wasn't a compliment."

"I'll take it as one anyways," Takumi chuckled. He paused though as he became serious. "But this is a real problem if I can't contact my boss. She was the one who told me to come here in the first place."

"Well, communication is out," the older boy frowned. "I've been trying for a while now too, and in here, there's no net connection at all. The Digital Wave must be unstable."

"Digital Wave?" Takumi knit his eyebrows together. "What's that?"

"No way," Arata raised an eyebrow at the younger boy. "You're gonna make me explain Digital Waves to you?"

"It'd be nice if you did," the blue-eyed boy crookedly smiled.

The taller teen shook his head. "Look it up later."

"You're as stingy with information as usual," Takumi chuckled. "But all right…"

"More importantly," Arata smirked, "Let's talk about this Cyber Sleuth thing. I want to hear more about that."

"Are you curious?" the younger boy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't get me wrong!" his friend cried. "It's not 'cause I think it's interesting or 'cause I want to try it out. It's just plain intellectual curiosity. A piqued interest." Arata studied Takumi intently. "It must be weird, though, being a Cyber Sleuth. What's it like? I've only read about it in comics."

"Comics?" Takumi blinked at the seemingly mature older boy. "You read comics, Arata?"

The taller teen suddenly tensed up. "Nope, that's enough. I've lost interest already," he said, looking away from the deceptively sharp redhead. He started down the stairs with a frown. "Tch…"

Takumi wordlessly followed after him but it didn't take long for Arata's curiosity to explode. The redhead jumped back as the older boy let out a frustrated yell. "Arata…?"

"Okay, I want to know!" Arata firmly cried out as he grabbed the shorter boy by his shoulders.

"Eh!?"

"Tell me more about it," he shook the teen. "What's it like being a Cyber Sleuth? What cases have you solved so far? And what's your boss like? Tell me everything."

"Arata…! At least let—" Takumi gasped as something flashed before his eyes. He managed to make out five children and again, he couldn't make out the details of their faces. Still… they seem so familiar… he thought to himself. When the vision disappeared, he noticed Arata had let him go and was staring at him with wide eyes. "Arata?"

The older boy frowned and cast his gaze to the ground. "This is the same as the one from Cron the other day, right?"

"You saw it too?" Takumi asked. "What do you think—?" he paused as he noticed a ghostly boy resembling Yuugo behind Arata. "Ah!" Before he could point it out though, the boy walked away and disappeared.

Arata noticed the blue-eyed boy's gaze. "What is it? What happened?"

"I just saw the ghost boy behind you!" Takumi explained.

Curious, Arata turned around but saw nothing. "Hey, don't look at me!" he frowned at the younger teen. "This is no time to be fooling around."

"No, I really saw it," the Cyber Sleuth seriously stated. "It was that ghost boy from EDEN. I'm certain of it."

"What? There was a ghost?" Arata frowned as it didn't make sense. "The 'Ghost of the Pale Boy' that all of EDEN has been going on and on about?"

"I saw it that day in Cron too," Takumi added. "I had been trying to find you and it loaded something into me." The redhead frowned. "Ever since then… I've been seeing weird images…" Images that make me sad for some strange, inexplicable reason… "It all feels so familiar… but… I don't know why…"

"For real?" the older boy studied Takumi's face. "You're not trying to con me?" He paused as this was Takumi he was talking about. He shook his head and sighed. "You'd be the only one who wouldn't. Anyone could tell you're really soft-hearted. And you clearly saw something strange. You got a good look at it, yet saw nothing," he crossed his arms and frowned. "And it left something in your head. As if something were pushed into it."

"Y-yeah…" Takumi sighed.

"Whoa, that's freaky," Arata said with a sympathetic frown. "And frustrating. To be on the cusp of remembering and yet…" He shook his head. "What the hell is this? What does it mean?"

"There's no point dwelling on it now," Takumi shook his head.

"Yeah…" the raven-haired teen agreed. "Well, it's another lead to follow, perhaps." He braced himself to continue further into the station. "Come on. Let's go." They didn't get very far before Arata stopped again, crossing his arms. He slightly shifted his head back to look behind them. "Hey. You notice that?"

"Is something wrong?" Takumi frowned as the strange atmosphere was making it difficult for him to sense the area around them.

"Listen up, you, or should I say, 'sleuth'," Arata rolled his eyes. "Something's been following us for the last while."

"Eh!?" Takumi blinked at him before closing his eyes and concentrating. "Ah… Now that you mention it…" He opened his eyes and knitted his eyebrows together. "Do you think it's a Digimon?"

"I don't know exactly what or who it is," the older boy shook his head. "A Digimon, or a ghost, or maybe it's her," he frowned at the thought of it being the detective from before. Arata quickly whirled around and called out to the strange person hiding behind the wall. "Who's there!? Show yourself! Come on!"

The teen's watched as hunched man wearing a long black coat stepped out from his hiding place. "Oh my," he said in a shaky voice. "I've caught your attention!" He hobbled towards them and Takumi frowned as he sensed there was something not quite right about him. He wore a crooked smile as he greeted the two boys. "Oh dear, good day! Good day!" he greeted them as he best as he could. He noticed Takumi's suspicious glare so quickly raised up his hands. "Whoa, easy there. Let's not be hasty. I'm nothing to be scared of, I assure you!"

Arata frowned and placed his hands in his pockets. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"My name is Suedou Akemi," the man introduced himself. "I'm a researcher for Kamishiro Enterprise." This quickly caught Takumi's attention. "I am currently studying this strange phenomenon."

"You're alone?" Arata asked.

"Yes, I am alone," the man nodded. "I'm very much the only specialist capable of making these breakthroughs," he scratched his head, "though I'd still very much appreciate it if they gave me an assistant," he stated, staring at Takumi.

The redhead gulped. Does he know… about me?

"I tell you," Suedou shrugged, "it's a terrible company."

"Why were you following us?" Arata wanted to know.

"Oh, I hadn't thought there were humans who'd made it farther in that I had," the dark grey-haired man replied. "I wanted to observe things for a bit. Did I happen to unsettle you?" he apologetically asked. "There's no excuse for that," he shook his head. "I apologize."

"Well, I guess it's no big deal," Arata relaxed his guard. "But if you're in the mood to apologize, tell us what this is. We want to know."

Unlike his friend, Takumi remained on edge but he knew the two of them needed information from the Kamishiro scientist. "Please," Takumi nodded as he continued to study the strange man. "It would help if you could explain to us everything you know."

"Oh dear," Suedou looked away from them out of embarrassment. "When you put it that way, I can hardly refuse." He seriously looked at them and frowned. "I trust you won't go around blabbing about this to anyone?"

"Sure thing," Arata smirked. "Right, Takumi?"

The redhead shrugged as he had every intention of relaying this to Kyoko later. "Who other than us would be interested in such a strange event anyway?" he rhetorically asked.

"Very well, then," Suedou gave them a satisfied smile. "I shall tell you! But my tale comes out of my work process and is, at best, the result of inductive reasoning. I caution you that it is not a final conclusion."

"That's fine," Takumi nodded.

"To begin," the man waved his arm at the area around them. "Let's discuss the space we are in. This space exists within a certain phenomenon. We're in the whirlpool of a special Digital Wave. You know what I'm referring to?" he quizzed the boys. "A Digital Wave?"

"It's a flow of energy that carries digital information," Arata answered. "Correct?"

Ah… so that's it… Takumi thought to himself.

"Brilliant!" the man fondly smiled at the raven-haired hacker. "Straight from the textbooks." He nodded as he continued his explanation. "This may still be the real world, but it's still a world made up of digital information. To put it in the very simplest of terms… The real world has transformed into cyberspace. As a result, everything here has become data. Even human thought," he smirked at Takumi again.

"I… see…" the redhead said, keeping his face as blank as possible. So in other words, this place is like me…

"That's quite the leap of logic, isn't it?" Arata shook his head.

The man giggled at his skepticism. "I won't deny that. My colleagues often deemed my ideas rather… heretical." Suedou put on a crooked smirk. "Some even compared me to Nikola Tesla. Well, that's more than well and good, but I do try not to let the praise go to my head."

"Uh…" Takumi frowned at how slimy the man seemed.

"But enough of that," the man shook his head. "Have a look at this. The irregularities of this internal structure should indicate right away that we're dealing with digitized data made from human memories. They merged with reality, giving rise to this bizarre and complex space. That's my theory, in essence." Takumi tilted his head to the side and Arata closed his eyes before crossing his arms. Both boys took a moment to let the theory sink in. After giving them a few seconds, Suedou nodded to them as it was their turn to give him information. "Now, allow me to ask you a question. Have you encountered an Eater yet?"

"Eater?" Arata frowned. "What is that?"

"That's the term I've coined for these entities that devour and eat away at things," Suedou answered with a smile. Takumi noticed the man's eyes flicker towards him again.

"Do you mean that thing that looks like a black and white nautilus shell?" Arata asked in surprise. "That freaky program?"

"Precisely!" Suedou exclaimed with a nod.

Takumi frowned at the man. "Why are you looking into that? We met one once in Cron and… it was pretty scary…" The boy didn't dare let anything slip to the suspicious man. "I didn't think we'd make it…"

"To have escaped an encounter with an Eater unscathed…" Suedou's eyes widened as he stared at both teens. "You don't know how lucky you are! When an Eater preys upon something, all its comprising data is eroded away and becomes glitched."

"Glitched?" Arata knit his eyebrows together. "What does that mean?"

"All structure and algorithms become disordered data," the man explained. "Glitched, completely defective. And once that data becomes glitched, it cannot be restored."

"It can't…?" Takumi frowned. No… that's wrong… My mental data isn't glitched. I'm still here after all… Unless… the glitching resulted in me becoming like this…

"Oh dear, how frightful that is!" Suedou nodded. "How truly frightful indeed, indeed!"

"So you end up being eaten," Arata concluded as he crossed his arms.

"That's the common theory, at any rate," Suedou shrugged as he smiled at Takumi. "I do not happen to agree, however."

"What?" Arata blinked at him.

"Why not?" Takumi tilted his head to the side curiously.

"There must always be a way to restore data," Suedou declared. "It is illogical to assume otherwise. Not in the metaphysical sense, mind. I'm talking about actual digital phenomena! And in THAT case, bugs are a thing we are all aware of! Therefore, I am pressing on with my Eater research!" he exclaimed.

"Hey, mister, calm down!" Arata shook his head. He took a deep breath as he considered something else. "Let me get this straight. Kamishiro knows about these Eaters? That doesn't sound good."

"That goes without saying," Suedou relaxed. "That's why I'm pursuing this research."

"Tch!" Arata frowned as he placed his hands in his pockets. "So they DID know about them! Those admin creeps have been stonewalling me."

"Well, they are a business providing a service," Suedou pointed out. "There's lots that needs to be kept confidential. I told you it's a terrible company, didn't I?

Takumi had his hands on his hips. "There's no helping it since it's such a big company," he frowned.

"There's more I want to ask on that front," Arata sternly stated.

"Yes, I see," Suedou nodded. "If I can provide an answer, I shall. Ask away!" He paused for a moment before eying both boys seriously. "But before that… You appear to be hackers, am I correct? You possess the Digimon Capture program," he smiled at the Digimon following the boys. "And you have marvelous Digimon programs as well."

"What about it?" Takumi asked.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Arata frowned.

"Frankly put, I want to fight off the Eater that is likely roaming around here somewhere," the man stated.

"What? An Eater is here too?" Arata exclaimed in surprise.

"Did you not see a strange apparition before? Perhaps you know it as the 'Ghost of the Pale Boy'?"

"Is that related to the Eaters somehow!?" Takumi asked.

The man nodded to him. "That is indicative of an Eater's presence. A harbinger, I suppose you could say. An Eater's existence both impacts the Digital Wave and serves to induce it. That's my thoughts on the matter, at any rate. That the Digital Wave itself might be impacted by these Eaters. If so," he continued, "if we cut off the head, the body should wither away! To back up this theory," he nodded, "I'd like to ask for you assistance, if I may."

Arata frowned at him. "You're a researcher, aren't you? You should have secret weapons at your disposal, right? A camera watch that can detect hidden objects or a ball we can stuff captured creatures into?"

"Those are some oddly specific examples there," Suedou smirked at him.

"Never mind that," Takumi shook his head. "The Digimon are made of data, right? Won't they be glitched by the Eaters too?" he asked in worry.

"It turns out that, at present, our best weapon against the Eaters are Digimon programs," Suedou nodded. "Those programs are particularly bug-resistant. They can resist erosion with little difficulty."

The redhead looked at his team with a bit of uncertainty on his face. His Digimon only nodded to him. The teen sighed, not really confident in the man's theory now that he knew what exactly an Eater was. "I see… If they're the only ones capable…"

"Yeah, but…" Arata shook his head. "Suedou-san, it's not that I don't believe you… But you want us to wipe that thing out, right? Well, that just happens to be our goal as well."

"Oh, excellent!" Suedou nodded. "Best of luck to you, then!"

Arata smirked as he turned to his companion. "Well, then. We're off for revenge."

"Revenge?" Takumi blinked at him.

"Yeah," the taller boy nodded. "And let's find our way back to the regular world. The longer we're here, the weirder my head gets."

"Well, there's nothing else for us to do," Takumi managed to smile.

"I shall await you here," Suedou told them. "If you have any questions, come and seek me out."

"Alright," Takumi nodded as he and Arata prepared themselves to go further into the station.

As the boys tended to their Digimon, Suedou crossed his arms and frowned at Arata's last comment. "The regular world, you say? And where exactly might that be, I wonder?"

Takumi frowned as he heard the man muttering to himself. He finished rearranging his team and approached the scientist. "Hey, Suedou. Is there anything more you can explain to me about the Digital Waves? How do they actually work?"

"As I've explained, a 'Digital Wave' is energy used for transmitting digital information… We call it a wave, though in truth it is unknown whether waves or particles are transmitted. There is no way to confirm it visually, after all."

"I see…" Takumi crossed his arms. But lately… I think I've been able to get a better feel for them. It's probably my body becoming more sensitive to them…

"If we really could see a Digital Wave, I wonder what it would look like…" Suedou chuckled as he studied Takumi's pensive expression.

"Eh?" the blue-eyed boy blinked at that before quickly dismissing that comment. There was no point in him getting riled up over it and he definitely didn't want the man discovering anything about his half-cyber body. "Okay, but back to the ghost and the Eaters… How confident are you in that they're related to each other?"

"There is a clear correlation between the white boy and the Eaters. Perhaps we should even consider the boy a 'harbinger' of the Eaters. The full implications of this are unclear, but what cannot be questioned is that they are both digital entities. Data programmed using zeroes and ones," Suedou nodded. "And if so… a breakthrough shouldn't be far off. All we need is to analyze the data."

"In other words, we need to finish collecting data from the experiment first," Takumi nodded.

Satisfied the teen was quick to understand and had nothing more to ask, Suedou flashed him a crooked smirk. "There is a strong digital reaction on the train platform…" he told the boy.

"Alright, we'll head over there now," the Cyber Sleuth stated. He caught up to Arata as soon as the older boy was ready to depart. Takumi frowned to himself as he collected his thoughts. Even if the Eaters and the boy are connected, that still doesn't explain those images. It might have been coincidence that I was dragged into this, but… somewhere deep inside of me… I doubt that… Is this the work of what Mirei-san called my "fate"?

"Ah…!" Takumi slowed down when he saw a glowing figure at the end of the platform. "That's…!"

"Whoa!" Arata's eyes widened. "Is this the ghost you were talking about?"

"Yeah," the redhead nodded. "I wonder what he's doing here…"

"It's looking at us!" the raven-haired boy stated.

The ghostly figure began speaking to them in a garbled language. "Boku wo hayaku mitsukete…"

Takumi's blue eyes widened as he noticed he understood the strange language. "Hurry and find…?" He flinched when the other boy disappeared in a flash of static.

"It went and disappeared on us," Arata frowned, lowering his arms. He crossed them and shook his head before turning towards Takumi. "Do you know who that was? Do you even have a clue who it might be?"

"He looks like someone I know…" Takumi frowned but he shook his head. "But… I know he isn't…" Why does he look so much like Yuugo? And why do I want to cry so badly…?

Arata nodded as he understood a bit of what the Cyber Sleuth was trying to convey. "I'm imagining things, that's all. Yeah…"

"Maybe—" Takumi paused when he felt a strange digital presence nearby. He looked up towards where the ghost used to be and spotted the same monster they encountered before. "An Eater!"

"Damn, here it is!" Arata braced himself. "If that man's theory is correct, taking the Eater down will also collapse this strange phenomenon. Right?" He paused as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "And if that happens, what happens to us, who are inside of that phenomenon?"

"We have to do this anyways!" Takumi stated without hesitation.

The older boy chuckled at his friend's conviction. "Thanks for saying what I was thinking," he smirked as he sent his Keramon forward.

"Crazy Giggle!" the psychotic-looking Digimon laughed as he spat out bullets of light.

"Let's go everyone!" Takumi nodded to his team.

"Gatling Arm!" Galgomon quickly joined in.

"Needle Spray!" Togemon jumped into the air and fired thorns from her body.

"Destruction Grenade!" Guardromon launched his missiles.

The Eater flinched back under the attacks and Takumi smiled, knowing his Digimon were much stronger than before. If all went well, this battle wouldn't be a repeat of what happened last time. His blue eyes flashed as he noticed the Eater was tensing up. "It's preparing an attack! Be careful!"

The mollusk-like creature suddenly launched its tentacles towards both boys for its Erode Device attack. Arata flinched but Takumi quickly pulled him backwards as their Digimon intercepted the attack.

"Crazy Turn!" Keramon extended his arms and spun around before ramming into the Eater.

"Mach Jab!" Togemon rapidly threw a punch.

The Eater reeled back and swung its tentacle at them, attempting to eat the fighting Digimon. Arata frowned as he noticed it was trying to repair itself with its newly obtained data. "We have to take it out before it completely bugs our Digimon and recovers."

"Right!" Takumi nodded as he applied a recovery patch on his Digimon. "Everyone! Xros Combo!"

Galgomon charged forward with a smirk. "Dum Dum Upper!"

"Coconuts Punch!" Togemon punched the Eater, knocking it back, before slamming her fists downward on the monster.

"Homing Laser!" The cylinders on Guardromon's shoulders lit up as he launched two beams from them.

"Crazy Giggle!" Keramon laughed as he finished the Eater off.

Takumi watched as the black and white mollusk writhe around before it seemed to eat itself from inside out. Its data faded into nothing and the redhead frowned. "Did we do it?"

"What's happening?" Arata asked as he looked around. Both boys flinched as a flash of purple light enveloped the entire area and them along with it. When they opened their eyes, they found themselves right outside the station entrance. Arata slowly relaxed his guard as he made certain that they were both in the real world. "This is… Shinjuku!? What do you know! The old man's theory was right!" he exclaimed in slight disbelief. He hid his mouth behind the collar of his jacket before chuckling to himself. Takumi frowned at him curiously before the older boy began laughing. "The Eaters and the Ghost of the Pale Boy? This is a riot! It's spectacular! And to top it all off, there's you!" Arata crossed his arms and brightly smirked at his friend.

"What about me…?" Takumi asked.

"A 'Cyber Sleuth'!" Arata continued to laugh. "Oh, this is all way too funny! Reality is some pretty dull stuff. No doubt about it," he said with a nod. "But this? This is something else." The older boy shook his head and sighed before becoming serious again. "But getting back to business… I'm going to dig into these Eaters a little more. Maybe help out with Suedou's research. There was something interesting about him."

"You think so?" the redhead dubious asked, crossing his arms. "I don't really trust him…"

The raven-haired hacker shrugged as the Cyber Sleuth had a point. But even so, he was curious. "Speaking of which, where is he?" he asked, searching for the strange man. "Is he here?"

"Probably not," Takumi answered as he looked too. He sighed as a familiar whistle sounded from nearby. "Ah… she's back…"

Arata sighed too as he crossed his arms. "In a sense, she's more of a pain than that Eater." He shook his head and smirked at the younger boy. "Well, I'm off. And you, don't let yourself get eaten, okay?" He quickly turned towards the crosswalk and noticed the pedestrian light was green. "See you later," he said before taking off.

Takumi stepped out of the way as Date rushed past him as she chased after Arata. "You're under arrest, punk!" She clenched her teeth as it was too late for her to go after the older boy. She turned around to face Takumi and blinked at the redhead.

Takumi stared back before tensing up. "Arata…! No fair!" Date flashed the younger teen a bright smile, prompting him to smile back. He let out a nervous laugh before quickly booking it out of there.

"What!?" the detective quickly chased after him. "You're not getting away from me!"

Takumi let out a sigh of relief after he finished explaining to Kyoko the entire incident. "So after I lost Detective Date in Shinjuku, I came back here."

"I see," Kyoko pensively brought her hand up to her mouth. "So that's what the mess was. Yet, at the same time, it's very fortuitous."

"What is?" her assistant asked with a tilt of his head.

"Information that is normally hard to come by in a normal investigation was right there in front of us," she explained with a small satisfied smile. "Even sleuths need to get lucky sometimes." She looked over at the new folder Takumi prepared for her and stared at the blank label. "What to call this case? For now, let's refer to it as the Shinjuku Labyrinth case."

"Why 'labyrinth'?" the boy frowned.

"A 'labyrinth' is part of the underworld folklore, otherwise known as a 'Mayohiga'," she explained to him. "The spirit world, the netherworld, the land of the dead… It's a world beyond the borders of our own, out of phase, if you will."

"Eh…?" Takumi's blue eyes widened in interest. "Taken in this context though, it's more digital than supernatural…"

Kyoko nodded to him. "That's what the spatial phenomenon that appeared in Shinjuku must be. Maybe 'labyrinth' isn't quite the right word, but it's close enough. The reference comes from a collection of folklore tales by Yanagida Kunio., if you're ever interested in looking deeper into it."

"Yanagida Kunio…" the boy repeated to himself. "Right… I got it," he nodded.

"The important point though is that, much as in these folktales about labyrinths, the phenomena recur over and over," she continued. "In a way, I'm jealous you got experience it first hand," she smirked at her lucky assistant. "Parallel worlds really DO exist."

"You mean like the Digital World," Takumi said, bringing his hand up to his mouth.

Kyoko stared at him in surprise and quickly crossed her arms. "Digital World? Where did you hear that name?"

"Well, Mirei-san mentioned it before. And when I was helping Nokia before, those two Digimon I found said they came from the Digital World." The boy smirked as he pointed at the other folder he just filled out. "I already gave the details of it in my report."

She quickly opened up the folder to quickly read his summary. "I see. So after taking on Shiramine Nokia's case, you headed straight to Shinjuku. I missed that. And you claim Digimon are not programs created by humans, but intelligent life forms from a parallel world."

"I know it's hard to believe, but it's true," Takumi seriously nodded.

"Of course I believe you," she stated as she brought her hand up to her mouth to mull things over. "I only know a tiny bit about the Digital World." She closed her eyes and hid her small smirk.

Takumi slightly frowned as he sensed she knew more than she was willing to tell him. "Kyoko-san…?"

She opened her eyes and shook her head at him. "Let's put aside the Digital World question for the moment. It's not a riddle we can solve right now. Let's go back and talk about the Shinjuku Labyrinth. Right before I took you on as an assistant, there were some unsolved cases in Shinjuku."

"Ah… so you really were looking for something when you happened to come across me that day," Takumi chuckled to himself.

She raised an eyebrow at him for even doubting her but she shrugged it off. "And then you uncovered the Shinjuku case, not to mention the labyrinth case on top of that. My theory is that this all stems from irregularities with Digital Waves, regardless. These Digital Waves are growing unstable at key locations throughout Tokyo, not just Shinjuku. Since it's not at a level that impacts our daily lives, we ignore it as being within the range of error."

"Ah… about that…" Takumi seriously looked at the detective. "I've noticed lately that my body has been growing more sensitive to these Digital Waves. I don't know if it has to do with the waves themselves or my body… But should we focusing on a way to stop the waves from becoming more instable? What if another Labyrinth appears?"

"The issue is not the state of growing instability," she shook her head, "but rather what's causing it. Why now? Is it natural or is it human interference? Is it an alien or paranormal phenomenon?"

"Ah… I see…" the redhead nodded. "If we focus on the cause, it'll help with us with preventing and stopping it…"

"This is an interesting case. We should press on with our investigation," she smiled.

"Of course!" Takumi nodded in agreement.

"By the way…" she smirked at the boy.

Her catlike grin sent a shiver down Takumi's spine. "W-what is it…?"

"While you and I were out of contact, I decided to make the best of my time and so I whipped up a special new coffee blend," she told him. "I was certain you'd be back with results. That was an elementary deduction. You've really been giving it your all. Your work has been excellent," she said, pointing to his remarkable reports. "And now, as a reward, I've got a treat for you!" she chuckled. "I put a lot of effort into this!"

"Eh…!?" Takumi blinked as she poured out a cup of coffee for him. His eyes widened at the swirling green and white sludge in the dark drink. "Kyoko-san…!" He brought it up to his lips.

"Isn't it incredible?" she asked with a satisfied smile on her face as he began to drink it. "The miraculous harmony of coffee, yogurt, and seaweed boiled in soy." She blinked a few times though as Takumi began sputtering.

Final Notes: And so we learn more about Arata. I really thought Arata kind of gave off a Shinjiro Aragaki vibe when I first met him, but that's actually very inaccurate. I mean, they're both the tough, older brother figures but what separates Arata and Shinji is that Arata is kind of a poser while Shinji genuinely does not care about other people's opinions on him. Still, they both always mean well... They both also have hobbies they're semi-embarrassed about.