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Digimon Tamers Crimson Episode 10: The first Zodiac

The next day after school Henry and Terriermon ended up receiving a signal from Henry's Digivice and decided to confront the threat themselves. However, even with the evolved Gargomon they were having a hard time with this newcomer. Gargomon was holding back it's blade as Henry was checking his Digivice for information on the new Digimon. "Musyamon, Champion Level. Attacks are Shogun Sword and Ninja Blade." Henry said reading his Digivice. When Gargomon was starting to wear down Henry got out his cell phone and dialed Simon's number.

Meanwhile, Simon was walking Nia home from school and his phone vibrated. "Hmm?" Simon said checking his phone just as they were nearing Nia's house. "What happened Henry?" Simon was talking to Henry and Nia knew that he wouldn't call unless it was an emergency. Simon was listening to Henry's words and he responded "Right, I'll be there shortly." Simon hung up his phone and said "Sorry Nia, it looks like Henry needs my help again. All I need to do is get Guilmon over here." Nia then said "Just be careful okay? I don't want to hear that you got hurt again alright?" Simon responded "Of course, after all I am your dutiful bodyguard/boyfriend. I'll make sure to come back safe and sound." Simon gave Nia a hug and started walking while dialing his home number.

"Guilmon? I need you to bring me my equipment got it?" Simon said over the phone and Guilmon then got to the case with all of the Shadow Tamer gear inside and ran as quickly as possible to Simon's location. After Simon and Guilmon met up Simon got dressed in his Shadow Tamer outfit and headed towards Henry's location with sword in hand. "So Simon, why do you have your sword out?" Guilmon asked keeping up with his Tamer. "It's because I'm going to see how much my training paid off. Hopefully I can best a champion level Digimon." Guilmon somewhat understood what Simon was saying and they continued toward the fight.

Meanwhile back with Henry, Gargomon was out of ammunition and it would seem he was out of power. "It's a shame your Digimon had to fall cowardly Human! Oh Well! I will give it a quick death before taking his data." Musyamon said raising his sword about to strike Gargomon and render him nothing but data. "No stop! GARGOMON!" Henry yelled as Musyamon lowered his sword about to hit Gargomon until... Another sword blocked Musyamon's blade and stopped it. "Boy, you must be pretty arrogant to consider a Tamer a coward." Musyamon turned and saw that the person possessing the blade was none other than Simon Ackerman, the Shadow Tamer. "I see, so you're the Shadow Tamer." Musyamon said with an prideful smile donned on his face. "Simon! What are doing!? Let Guilmon handle this fight!" Guilmon raises one claw to stop Henry and says "No! He wants to take him down Henry. So I'll let him fight until it seems like he's losing."

Henry reluctant accepts Guilmon's words and lets Simon take on Musyamon. Simon got Gargomon out of the way so that the two can fight one on one. They both circled one another staring into each other's eyes. "I expected you to be somewhat older and taller from what I've heard." Musyamon said regarding Simon's appearance. "To be honest, I was expecting you to be a little tougher from what Henry told me." Musyamon laughed at Simon's comment and responded "Considering that you are but a mere human I'll just simply let you have the first attack." Simon somewhat angered at Musyamon's comment reached inside his glove and removed what appears to be a wrist band. Holding onto the wrist band in his left hand he removes another band in his right hand. Musyamon confused asked "What are you doing Human?" Simon responded "Just losing a couple pounds of weight." As Simon says this he removes the leg bands he had.

Guilmon realizing what Simon is about to do thinks "What's Simon up to? He doesn't need to remove those for this fight." Gargomon just as confused as his Tamer asks "Okay, what the hell is he doing? Henry, what do you think?" Henry looking closely at what Simon was doing responds "It looks like he's removing some weighted bands. But I'm not sure what difference that's going to make." They both look at Guilmon with a somewhat confident look in his eyes. Simon finished with removing his leg bands holds up the wrist bands and says "Observe." He drops the wrist bands and surprisingly they dropped like heavy rocks. Terriermon's jaw drops and Henry's eyes widen at this sight, especially when the leg bands dropped. "Now then, I think it's time to show you what I'm truly capable of." Musyamon not amused by this tactic charges in and says "Hah!You think you can boast about your strength just from removing mere weights!? Truly you've nothing to show! SHOGUN SWORD!" before attempting to strike.

As Musyamon charged Simon simply made one strike of his sword and it seemed to hit Musyamon while not being nearby him. Musyamon barely blocked the attack but it noticeably cut his armor. Simon then made more swift strikes which, when Musyamon kept deflecting the attacks it kept hitting his armor which continued to take large amounts of damage despite Simon not being close to him. "HOW!? How is a human able to out-speed me so easily!?" Musyamon thought before getting behind Simon to hit him where would be his blind spot however, Simon stuck his blade behind him and blocked the attack. "What? I thought you wanted a good fight? Isn't that why you came to this world?" Simon then kicked Musyamon so hard that he went flying. "Did removing those weights really make that much of a difference!?" Musyamon thought. "Sometimes I can't rely on Guilmon to fight my battles. I've been training harder than you can possibly imagine you arrogant bastard!"

Simon kept on slashing at Musyamon now in close proximity and was about to end it but he noticed Musyamon's sword glow with blue flames. "NINJA BLADE!" Simon decided to humor his attack by using one slash to end it. After the two swordsman struck there was a noticeable silence in the air until, Musyamon burst into data. "That's what happens when you underestimate us humans." Simon said before walking towards Guilmon and co. After Simon reached them he grabbed his weighted bands and Henry asked "How long have you been training with those?" Simon responded "Since the start of my training. And each time I would get used to one set I'd be given a heavier set until I got to the maximum weight of these things." Terriermon then asked Guilmon "So, how much do each of those weight?" Guilmon pondered the question and responded "For the wrists, 50kg and for the legs 70kg" Terriermon fainted upon hearing those words.

Simon and Henry then decided to walk home after the fight. But Henry wanted to know something and it was bothering him. "Simon?" Henry asked as they were walking. "What's up?" Simon responded. "I know you taught me quite a bit of moves when I came to you for pointers but, how on earth do you walk around normally with 50kg weights on your arms and 70kg on your legs?" Henry then elaborated and Simon responded "It takes a while to get used to but at the very least it's not straining on my physical being." Henry raised an eyebrow at Simon's response and then said "So why don't you remove them for your regular duties as the Shadow Tamer?" Simon looked at Henry and said "If I don't hold back, I might kill a person. And I don't like killing people. The Digimon on the other hand depend on what their goal is. Do they want peace and to find their Tamer, or do they just want to use a Human to evolve and kill others? Even worse are Yggdrasil's servants."

Henry a bit confused asks "I know you've mentioned Yggdrasil before as well as Guilmon but, what exactly makes it right to just end them?" Simon stops for a moment as well as Gulimon and responds "Yggdrasil's influence is like a terrible disease that could infect, corrupt or even kill a Digimon should they lack any use to him. The least we can do is give them the mercy of death. So far, we haven't come across a servant he hasn't gotten fully under his control." Henry shocked by Simon's reasoning asks "So death really is the only way to release them from his influence?" Simon nods in response and says "If you don't want to follow me anymore that's fine. I won't blame you, after all you were a pacifist by nature and probably still are." Henry shakes his head and says "I understand. I may not like this mercy killing but, If it means saving many more I'm with you. I'm not just going to abandon one of my best friends, you're like an older brother to me."

Simon smiles at Henry's statement and responds "Well, this older brother isn't all that wise. And he's probably going to make mistakes in the end. But even then, you'll still follow me?" Henry nods and says "Of course! You've taught me quite a lot about taming and fighting to protect. So I'll follow you wherever this journey may take us." Simon pats Henry on the back and they continue the trek back home.

Guilmon was sitting on Guilmon's head throughout the whole conversation and Terriermon says "Wow, even if my Tamer's super smart he'll still be an idiot." Guilmon looks up at Terriermon and says "Well, sometimes even geniuses make dumb decisions as Simon's told me." Terriermon then ponders the reasoning for Simon's expert advise and asks Guilmon "So Guilmon, how come Simon isn't like all the other brutes of his strength?" Guilmon shyly responds "That's up to him to tell, it's not in my place to say anything about it." Terriermon then thinks "What could possibly be so thought provoking about gaining quite a lot of intelligence despite his physique?" Terriermon shrugs it off just as they reach the apartment building.

Meanwhile at Rika's place, she and Renamon were sitting nearby each other in her room somewhat meditating. "Renamon, do you remember when we first met?" Rika asked out of the blue. "Why yes Rika, but any reason you asked?" Rika looked downwards before responding "Well, I did a lot of thinking then and I don't blame Simon for anything that's happened to me. He saw the potential within me and at least he proves that he's no coward." Renamon nods in response and says "I agree in that regard considering how he's willing not only to travel with his Digimon to fight bio-emergences. But also, him willing to fight these criminals and give hope to a world that appears to have none." Rika looked back at her partner and said "I wonder, what my dad would have thought of him. Even now I still miss him."

Renamon knew of Rika's father through her talking about him. But she has never met him due to his untimely death. "It weighs heavily on Simon as he's told me. He even blames himself and thinks you hate him for not saving both of you." Rika's eyes widen and she responded "Really? I never really thought about that. I just thought that he was concerned about how it affected him. Now I see that he's not as selfish as people say that he is huh?"

Seiko was eavesdropping on Rika and Renamon's conversation out of concern for her. "If only he could be here to listen to all of this. Maybe he wouldn't feel too bad about everything that's happened. I wonder if Rumiko is aware that her daughter is currently doing these dangerous things with her friends."

Meanwhile in the Digital world, Vamdemon was busy preparing the first of the Devas to enter the Human world. "You'll be a first of many, the first to weaken the barrier between two worlds Mihiramon!" Mihiramon the Tiger Deva was a large winged Tiger with armor but, like all the Devas besides Antylamon and the recently killed Catsuramon he was controlled by Vamdemon's overwhelming power. "Now go! To the human world and test their worth!" Mihiramon obeyed without question and flew straight up towards the blue sphere in the sky.

Back in the human world Simon was busy drawing up ideas for Guilmon on his sketchpad. "Let's see, how powerful should the armor be?" Simon said pondering the thought and then he said "I guess I could have it resist attack levels that are one level above his. That'll work." As Simon was about to finish drawing it, he received a call on the phone. "Yamaki, how important is this bio-emergeance?" Simon asked and Yamaki over the phone responded "Not only is it bigger than average but, it's also over the Metropolitan building." Simon's eyes widened at the revelation and got together his Shadow Tamer gear to confront the oncoming threat. "Guilmon! Looks like we've got a big one this time!" Guilmon came to Simon and said "How big?" Simon responded "Ultimate level." Guilmon's shades that only appear during battle materialized prepared for combat.

つづく (If you can guess what this means then you get points without Google Translate.)