33) Enter Shuichon
Calumon found himself in a much more secure cage. This one, a heavy steel sphere that he couldn't possibly break out of, not like the bird cage Makuramon had him in the first time. He saw that he was being transported over a wide lake, towards a tall building and a red glow on the horizon.
"Culu?", he had no idea where he was going, or for what purpose. That made two distinctly unfriendly digimon who were after him, talking about something of which he had no knowledge or understanding.
The Material World
It was cleaning day, and Shuichon Lee was bored. She sat on the couch, watching a flock of pigeons fly past the window. She was doing what her mother told her: stay out of the way, but that was no fun at all. With Jen and Terriermon gone, her older brother and sister off to school, she had nothing to do. She slumped to the floor, face down, legs extended over the couch.
Her mother was dusting and polishing the floor: "Shuichon! What are you doing?", she asked, as she paused.
"I'm playing Terriermon".
"That's nice, but get up off the floor".
"Help me up".
"You can get up".
"No I can't, I'm Terriermon now. Mommy: help me up".
"I'm busy, honey. Why don't you go play outside?"
Fortunately for her, the phone rang, saving her from dealing with this childish nonsense.
"It's no fun without Jen and Terriermon", Shuichon told herself, as her mother had already left the room.
Janyu Lee arrived: "Shuichon, what's wrong?", he asked.
"Terriermon..."
"Huh?", he asked.
"I'm Terriermon now", she explained. She looked up, a look in her eye told him that said she was scheming: "Were you reading the newspaper in the shitter again? Mommy would scold you if she somehow found out about that". She next sprang her terms of blackmail: "Play with me?"
"Honey, I would appreciate it if you would say 'bathroom' instead of that word you just used..."
"Why, daddy? You and Jen say it..."
"I know. Jen shouldn't say it either, and neither should I. I suppose there's nothing we can really do about that, it will be said and you will hear it again, but it still doesn't sound nice. So would you please not say that again? For me?"
"OK, I won't", she promised.
This bit of childish blackmail worked. Janyu took his youngest to the park. There, she ran around the reflecting pool. She chased some pigeons. It was much better than sitting bored at home while her mother did the cleaning. It was also a blessed relief to her mother, now that she could concentrate on her work, undisturbed.
Shuichon was playing on a model of a blue whale, as Janyu watched her play. He was standing beside the reflecting pool.
A reflection caught his eye: "Yamaki! What brings you here?", Janyu asked.
"I'm sorry to be disturbing you on your day off. I called your home, and your wife said I might find you here", he apologized. "There's something I really need to ask you".
Shuichon noticed a blimp flying past, bearing some sort of advertisement to which she paid no attention, so fascinated she was by this rarely seen flying machine. She was looking in the direction of the mid-morning sun when she noticed something strange, the sunlight suddenly seemed to become much brighter for just an instant. Perhaps she'd ask her father later.
She was sitting between Yamaki and her father on one of the benches.
"From what I gather, Shibumi was something of a heretic, even among the Wild Bunch, wasn't he?"
"We were trying to develop artificial life, though of a form no one had ever attempted before. Our goal was artificial life that could develop itself through a process of evolution analogous with real life, though at a much faster rate. We were young, idealistic, and had way more enthusiasm than practical experience. It was never our intention to play God..."
"However Shibumi had different ideas, didn't he?"
"You know, I remember his saying that there was no meaningful difference between the Material World and the Digital World...".
"I'm gonna play over there", Shuichon announced.
"That's fine, honey, just don't go wandering off", Janyu told her as she headed for the bouncy animals mounted on coil springs.
"Was he right?", Yamaki asked.
"I'm not so sure... Given these latest occurrences, Shibumi may have gotten it right all along... One of my son's cards contained Shibumi's code"
Janyu happened to glance in Shuichon's direction. She'd just climbed to the top of the slide instead of sliding down. That's when he saw it, very faint, but unmistakable: a greenish light seemed to envelop Shuichon. There were ASCII symbols floating around her: "SHUUUUIIII-CHONNNNN!"
She looked around, confused as to what she was seeing: "Uhhhh...?", she asked herself.
"Janyu! Watch out!", Yamaki called out, as they ran to the slide. Janyu and Yamaki made the same mistake: trying to climb up the slide, following Shuichon, instead of going around to the ladder. Janyu slipped, and both he and Yamaki fell back to the ground. As they watched, Shuichon and the digital field disappeared together.
"Is it all my fault?", Janyu berated himself. "Is it because of what I had been working on?"
"You saw what I saw: that was deliberate", Yamaki tried to reassure. "Your daughter was invited to the Digital World for some reason. There's no chance that any harm will come to her, hell, may be your son needs her there?"
"My daughter: she's still... too young"
Yamaki reached out to put a hand on his friend's shoulder: "Maybe that's why she's needed".
"What have I done? Is it because of what I worked on?", Janyu challenged. "Wasn't Jen enough?" How would he explain this to his wife, Shuichon's mother?
The Digital World
Shuichon "materialized" in an unusual landscape. Unlike the Tamers, there was no long drop into the Digital World, although she did lose her footing, dropping on her butt.
"Where am I?", she asked no one in particular.
She looked around: the landscape seemed to be all one colour, varying shades of blue. The landscape was studded with sharp spires of rock of widely varying heights, but all shaped like basalt formations for as far as she could see. Some of these tall columns had fallen, breaking into rectangular blocks that stood by the stems sticking up from the ground. She looked up into a sky of an unnatural dark blue, the few thin clouds promising no rain. It was a desolation of sandy, rocky ground with not the slightest trace of vegetation to be seen anywhere. Did anyone even live here? She wondered.
"Is that the moon?", she asked herself of the Material World Sphere, even though it looked nothing like the Moon. "Pretty!", she decided, regardless of what it might be.
"TERRIERMON! ARE YOU OUT HERE?!", she called out. She figured that he must be here, somewhere, otherwise why was she brought here? Nothing else made sense, and she did want to see Terriermon again.
She noticed something run past her very fast: "Terriermon?", she called out. It wasn't, but she ran after it anyway, may be this was a new playmate? Maybe it knew something? It out distanced her, and she saw it dive beneath some rocks: "I missed it". She never got a good look at it, seeing only that it was brown and furry.
"Huh?", she asked as she'd spotted a very white little critter that seemed to glow jumping up and down on top of a fallen rock spire, chittering at her. Four others came into view from behind the rock. It was obvious they were trying to get her attention, that they wanted something. Perhaps they would tell her where Terriermon was?
"They fly!", she said as they took off, circled around her, then flew as a flock in the same direction.
"Hey! Wait for me!", she called to them as she ran after them, She ran until she was out of breath, and could run no farther: "What was the point of that?", she asked herself, as she paused to catch her breathe.
"Hot", she said as she took off the yellow jacket she was wearing. She hung it on a nearby outcropping of those broken crystals.
Something bird-like ran off, the jacket over its head. She gave chase, and watched as it shredded her jacket.
"Hey, Mr. Bird", she called after it, "why'd you do that to my coat?!"
The kiwimon just glared back at her, then fired something at her. It hit the ground, exploded, and the shock wave threw her off her feet.
"What do you think you're doing?!", she reprimanded. "You can't bully someone smaller than you!"
It turned and ran off.
"Terriermon", she said, "where are you?"
She decided to continue in the same direction she'd seen the "owls" flying. She figured this was the best choice, in case they knew something. The landscape remained as bleak as ever; there was no sign of Terriermon or Jen, no indication they'd ever been here. Luckily, no more hostile digimon either.
"What are those?", she asked as she spotted some dust packets rolling her way. "They're pretty". She reached out to touch one...
"It shocked me!", as she tried waving the tingle from her fingertips.
"Terriermon! Jen!", she screamed out in frustration.
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
"Huh? What was that?", Terriermon asked.
"What's up?", Jen asked.
"It's Shuichon. I'm sure of it: I sense her presence".
"Huh?!", asked Takato.
"That's impossible!", Jen insisted, "Shuichon is still back home, in the Material World".
"Not anymore. I'm sure she's here, and not that far off either", Terriermon insisted.
The vehicle banked sharply, nearly throwing Jen and Takato off balance.
"What's going on?", Takato asked. "Why are we changing course?"
"Maybe it responds to our desires?", Terriermon theorized. "It wouldn't be the first Digital World vehicle that did".
"Then it'll take us to Shuichon?", Jen asked.
"Likely, it will", Terriermon agreed. ...
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Shuichon Lee came to something vastly different. This was a huge plaza of some sort. It was covered in dark red tiles, each tile easily two, three meters on a side, all fitted without grout, level. It could not have possibly been natural. As she listened: "Water", she said. She ran across the red tile until she came to the source of the sound. It was an enormous waterfall coming from the opposite side of a vast expanse that made an artificial canyon.
"No guard rail?", she said, "I could have fallen!".
She looked down, but the depths of this artificial canyon was lost in the rising mist. Perplexed, she looked around, spotting the twin bows of a suspension bridge. It looked to be a couple of kilometers away, but the walk would be farther, as the canyon curved in a gentle arc. There was no other way across that she could see, and if she were to go any farther, that would have to be it.
An anthro rabbit stood in front of the bridge. Its body grossly disproportionate. Two thirds of the height was long legs. Even though it stood erect, its hands nearly reached its ankles. The fur was gray, except for the yellow fur bisecting its head, and the pink tips of the ears. It was wearing white body armour with a gold crest, lavender pants, baggy at the thighs, and that covered the feet as one piece.
"A big rabbit!", she proclaimed as she came to the entrance to the bridge. At first, the "rabbit" seemed not to notice, but then it looked down and glared at her. She smiled back. "Wow! This is great! I've never seen such a big rabbit before!". The critter was easily five times her height. "Hello!", she called out, "Can you hear me?", she asked.
The critter said nothing, but acknowledged her presence with a nod of its head.
"So you can hear me", she declared. "You can understand me?"
"You can go no further. You have to go back immediately!", he ordered.
"Back home? But how?", she asked. "Besides, what brought me here... I'm tired of talking with my head so far up, can you come a little closer?"
The critter did as requested, sitting back on its heels. Shuichon did the same: "Tell me, where am I?", she asked.
"You're in the domain of the four Holy Beasts". That meant nothing to her, but she decided to let it pass.
"And what's your name, Mr. Rabbit?"
"I am Antiramon. I guard the Holy Beasts", he explained.
"So your name has a 'mon', in it too? The same as Terriermon", she pointed out. "I'm Shuichon", she introduced herself. "Say, would you look for Terriermon with me?", she requested.
"I have my duty: I guard the Nondaimon Gate"
"Pleeeeeese?"
"I am on duty", he insisted. "I can not help you. You have to leave here".
Shuichon dropped onto her back, kicked her legs, and pounded the ground with her fists: "I wanna see Terriermon! I wanna see Terriermon!"
Antiramon looked on, as he didn't understand Outworlders, and had no idea what she was doing.
"Let's go?", she asked nicely. She faked a temper tantrum. This had Antiramon rather confused. He allowed her to climb onto the top of his head, as she used his ears as hand-holds.
"We're so high!", Shuichon proclaimed as he stood. A half-dozen digignomes looked on. He was surprised at her lack of fear.
"Maybe it's time you got down now?", he asked, but did not wait for an answer, as he flicked his head forward, tossing her off. He easily caught her. He studies the small figure he held in his hands. He poked her with an index finger.
"That was fun! Do it again! Do it again!", she insisted. This was definitely not working out as the rabbit Deva had planned. He put her back on his head, as he went off, all the while being attended by digignomes. Shuichon Lee was delighted the whole time. "This is fun!", she declared. He was hoping they would either find Terriermon, or that she would get bored. Hopefully, his being AWOL wouldn't be noticed. He really didn't understand why he just didn't run her off and be done with it.
"I don't see this so-called 'Terriermon' anywhere", Antiramon said, "I have to go back"
"Nooooooo! C'mon! Can you run?", she asked.
Antiramon took off running at a tremendous pace. Again, Shuichon seemed more delighted than frightened. What ever he did, this unusual little Outworlder put her total trust in him. He was not expecting this, as it went against everything he'd been told of Outworlders.
"Stop!", Shuichon suddenly said, and he did. "You're really fast", she complimented. "Can you jump?", she asked. Without comment, he leaped. He leaped from the top of one spire to another. "Higher! Higher!", Shuichon encouraged.
Finally, they decided to take a break. Shuichon went off, saying that she was looking for something for them to eat, as she was feeling hungry. Antiramon took this as his opportunity to get back to his post. Hopefully, his absence would go unnoticed, he hoped.
He wasn't the only one who noticed. Makuramon was sulking among the rocky spires. He had failed to deliver the Light of Evolution. His worst fears realized, Catsuramon beat him to the prize, and took all the credit. All that hard work back in the Material World, the identification of the one who held the Light, his bringing it to the Digital World only for Catsuramon to capture it: he was denied any credit for anything he'd done. At best, he had avoided Indaramon's fate for having failed, so he figured it was his partial success that had saved him from deletion.
"Is that an Outworlder?", he asked himself as he spotted Shuichon. His prospects were suddenly looking much better. An Outworlder, especially one he'd caught in the realm of the Holy Beasts, had to be worth something when he made it a gift to his God.
He leaped from his perch, landing in front of Shuichon.
"Mr. Monkey...", Shuichon started.
"I want you to come with me now!", Makuramon made a grab for her.
"No! I don't want to go with you! HELLLLPPPP!", she called out as Makuramon slung her over his shoulder.
Antiramon heard. He turned back, running as fast as he could.
"This should appease my God", Makuramon was telling himself.
Antiramon suddenly landed in front of him: "Let the girl go!", he ordered.
"You can't ask me that!", Makuramon replied, completely misunderstanding the situation. Makuramon figured that Antiramon, like Catsuramon, was planning on robbing him of his justly won prize. "The Outworlder is coming with me. You should mind your own f'kin' business and guard the Nondaimon Gate!"
Shuichon finally wriggled free after biting the monkey Deva on the hand and ran towards Antiramon. He was perplexed by this, as he didn't figure that she would see a fellow Deva as a protector.
Takato, Jen and Terriermon discovered that surfacing in the water space also meant dropping from the sky and into the blue landscape. Perhaps due to the disorientation, and/or change of medium, the craft dropped at an alarming rate. It leveled off just in time to prevent auguring in, but the landing was still a rough one. The craft began breaking up, shedding data, as it carved a furrow in the sandy and rocky ground. Shuichon watched as it skidded past, coming to a stop as the last of its data disappeared about a hundred meters away.
"That could've been a helluvalot smoother", Jen commented.
"You know what they say", Takato replied, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one".
Makuramon made another leap to retrieve Shuichon, but Antiramon batted him away: "How dare you attack a fellow Deva?!", he challenged. He still hadn't figured it out, still convinced Antiramon's only purpose was to turn the Outworlder over to their God for whatever reward he might receive.
"Shuichon!", Terriermon exclaimed, pointing out the on-going drama.
"Terriermon!", Shuichon greeted. She started running towards Terriermon, when Makuramon appeared, trying, once again, to catch her. Again, Antiramon batted him away.
"You'll pay for that!", Makuramon threatened as he threw one of his Primal Orbs at Antiramon, scoring a hit right between the eyes, felling the larger anthrorabbit. Shuichon ran up to the fallen Deva.
"Are you alright?!", she asked. "Please be alright... It doesn't hurt... It doesn't hurt", she tried comforting.
As Makuramon moved in yet again, Antiramon sprang to life, shielding Shuichon. Makuramon threw another Primal Orb, this one a fire ball, Antiramon dodged, but saw that the fireball was tracking him, as it turned around and came back at him. He transformed his hands into axes, and sliced Makuramon's fireball apart. Makuramon understood he was no match for Antiramon.
"I shall report your treason to our God!", he threatened as he ran off.
"You're strong", Shuichon complimented. "Thank you for rescuing me from that nasty little monkey".
Jen's digivice could not pull up a profile. That meant one thing: Deva.
"Stay away from him! It's dangerous! He might hurt you!", Jen called out to his sister, as he ran towards her.
"Huh?", she answered her brother, not knowing why he would say such a thing.
Jen and Takato were brought up by the sight of something they figured they'd never see: a shining orb formed, and was dropping into Shuichon's hands. As she received it, the glowing orb burst, revealing a digivice.
"Noway!", Takato called out. "Shuichon's a... Tamer?"
"Of a... Deva?!", Jen couldn't believe it. From what he knew of the Deva, they didn't have partners, they didn't want partners, considered partnering with a human beneath their contempt. That's what Juri had told them of her encounter with the rat Deva: Kunbhirimon. As if that weren't contradictory enough, Shuichon was seven.
"A digivice?", Shuichon asked. She recognized it right off, as it was identical to Jen's, save for the different colour scheme. His had green trim, hers pink.
A red projectile flew over the horizon. A bright red light enveloped Antiramon. As they watched, the big bunny transformed into a little bunny. Jen brought up the profile:
Lopmon:
Animal digimon, Rookie.
Data type.
His attack is Blazing Ice
"It looks like I've been demoted", Lopmon said.
Lopmon and Terriermon compared: "He has the same type of ears", Terriermon said. "The face looks the same too". Indeed, Lopmon and Terriermon were the same size, the same shape. The only thing that differentiated the two was the color scheme: light green markings over a lighter green background for Terriermon; dark brown with pink markings for Lopmon. "He does have me beat for horns", as Terriermon had just one whereas Lopmon had three.
"Lopmon!", Shuichon gave him a big, smothering, hug: "We're gonna be good friends!", she declared.
"Big ears, big ears", Shuichon was now irritating both Terriermon and Lopmon by pulling on their ears. It was something Terriermon had accepted a long time ago. "I wonder who has the longest ears?"
"What are Shibumi's digignomes up to anyway?", Jen asked himself. "Why did they bring Shuichon here? Mom and Dad are bound to be worried: did they even know what happened to Shuichon? He also didn't need this distraction, having to look after his little sister in situations likely to be very dangerous.
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Calumon found himself dropping down a deep well. The cage he was in burst apart, as he dropped into what looked like a Florentine flask. It wasn't made of glass, but rather some sort of force field.
"Where am I, culu?", he asked himself, as he examined his surroundings. He still had no idea where he was, as he knew nothing about the Digital World. He still had gotten no explanation as to who took him, or for what purpose. He tried flying out, only to run into an impenetrable barrier.
He noticed something: a red tetrahedron that seemed to either be hovering just outside the walls of whatever imprisoned him, or maybe it was an image that existed inside the translucent wall itself. He could see nothing else in the surrounding darkness. He could not be sure. He went to take a closer look. The object or image was slowly rotating, apex down. He found it compelling for some reason.
"Culu?", he asked himself. "I was here a long time ago, culu?", as he had a vague recollection of a memory he didn't realize he had. So far as he knew, he had always been in the Material World. Now he doubted this, and with that doubt came a larger doubt as to who and what he was. This frightened him.
"No! I am digimon, culu?! And I have attacks to get out of here, culu, like every other digimon, culu?! I am very, very strong, culu?!" He tried to get out again, but nothing had changed. He still couldn't jump out.
"Calumon Strong Beam!", he produced no energy beam to shatter his prison.
"More or Less Powerful Attack!", nothing happened.
The clear barrier remained as intact, and as impenetrable, as always.
"Oh, culu? Culu?", as he looked up into the blackness whence he'd fallen.