The global proliferation of computers, smartphones, and digivices made it far easier than ever before to lead a double life. It had become almost commonplace for someone to claim to be at school or work – or even at home in their room with the door closed – but in reality to be exploring the digital world.

Yet a few people had been at this far longer than others. The shape of the boy's digivice alone was enough to mark him out as an ancient in digimon terms. As a child, he'd walked across File Island even before Yagami Taichi had landed there; he was an old enough digital world hand that Jijimon and Babamon considered him their friend.

Back then, he was a little boy who didn't like school, and he would grow into a teenage dropout and an unemployed adult. The real world had never interested him very much, and learning that there was an alternative was a revelation from which he could never return. Even today, there are many people who exceed him in isolation; at least this one was extremely active on the Chosen Children web forums, and had many online friends, whom he occasionally managed to meet up with in the digital world.

Most importantly of all, Mameo had his partner. Numemon.

Even in the best of times, the digital world had been a combative place. Data in computer networks, after all, rarely takes the form of friendly conversation; from flame wars to follower counts to multiplayer games, humans have long treated the internet as a place to compete with one another, and this is reflected in its shadow.

As for at its worst, one should never forget the time of Spiral Mountain, of Apocalymon's rage.

Numemon had fortunately avoided the worst of this strife; if nothing else, he was still alive, his spirit had not joined into Apocalymon. Yet he had spent so many years on the run, barely survived so many encounters, getting through them only because of his partner's supply of recovery and power up disks. A Monzaemon suit had let him win his final battle, but it had disappeared together with both his partner and their old enemy.

He had learned on their travels about the human world, and the thought of it fascinated him. And not only for the sewers that appealed to so many other Numemon. Traveling across islands and continents which dwarfed File's size, environments as strange and varied in the digital world, and all of it without getting challenged to a battle he couldn't win – it all sounded so appealing. He'd gladly wear a silly costume or pretend to be a stuffed animal if it gave him the chance to experience that.

But he never got the chance. The one time he did manage to wander around Tokyo for a few minutes, a human girl a little older than Mameo, with a D-3 model digivice and an Aquilamon, opened a gate back up and forced him to return home.

Another world. Neither the human nor the digital. Or perhaps many other worlds. A multiverse, a quantum sea.

When Numemon reunited with the boy – now a teenager, if not an adult – the two of them searched for the digital gate. They didn't care which of the nine cards they found; the intent was to open it at random, and hope that wherever they made their way to avoided the flaws of either world they knew. Gennai's warning had fallen on deaf ears.

But finding the cards – real ones, not fakes – was a massive quest in itself. And after so many decades of Moore's Law, what looked at first like another dimension entirely might in truth just be some out of the way corner of the digital world.

One might find it unusual that a Digi Mart is located at the bottom of the ocean, but this is only true, as Inoue Miyako learned to her chagrin, if one thinks like a human. Digimon expect stores, even convenience stores, to be destinations in their own right; if they need food or recovery disks on the road, that's what vending machines are for.

This fact, incidentally, explains much of the animosity which Numemon suffer in the digital world; it is not, as human travelers assume, truly a disgust reaction. Goods rarely last long in a vending machine that's become a Numemon's home. Worse, even if they have not been used up or contaminated beyond repair, these digimon are more likely to attack than to share their stash.

Embarrassingly enough, it was Daisuke who had told her this; his ramen empire was booming in both worlds, and had even managed to drive a certain black company of a restaurant chain, with its Digitamamon proprietors, entirely out of business.

Only one Digi Mart, that of the Metal Empire, is placed in a location which humans would consider remotely normal – for the downtowns of major cities on Earth, no matter how large or historic, typically have similar shops of their own. That of the Wind Guardians is located on a platform which floats within the clouds, while the front door of the Nature Spirits' Digi Mart is carved into a tree in the Misty Forest.

Digital world scholarship has not proven the existence of a Nightmare Soldiers Digi Mart; Wisemon holds that, had one existed in 1999, Devimon would have surely hidden the tags there and not under the ocean, and one would hardly treat Nightmare Soldiers as a growth market after the arrival of the Chosen Children. But perhaps Devimon could not touch the tags to begin with, and it was all he could do to place a black gear in the shop clerk. If so, there is likely a Digi Mart on some dark mountain or nightmarish forest, somewhere in the darkness of cyberspace, beyond the depths of the deep web, unknown to those digimon more comfortable in the light.

It is not widely appreciated by humans that, the DigiPolice operate with no legal authority whatsoever, at least within the borders of the digital world. Humans raised on Earth, however, are accustomed to obeying anyone with a badge and 'police' in their title, especially when they are also publicly upholding law and order; furthermore, many lower-level hackers rightly fear the consequences of battling someone with a Commandramon or a Cargodramon and the ability to call for backup.

Those DigiPolice officers with only a Numemon, as Tamahime Satsuki had learned the hard way early in her career, did not command the same level of respect. More than one hacker had underestimated her partner based on species – but most of them, when push came to shove, would be defeated.

Still, she was in the habit of bringing around a Commandramon as well, these days. Just in case. Too bad they were all busy right now.

Satsuki was in a bad mood today. She'd run into a dude with a bowl cut and an Armadimon who knew his rights and, worse, was exchanging contact info with the hackers she was trying to arrest; must have been a lawyer or something. Worse, when she did try to solve the problem by arresting him, the Armadimon evolved, and nothing she had on her could deal with Ankylomon armor.

She wanted to deal with something bigger than some Wall Slum hackers anyway. Patrols here were the DigiPolice's way of saying they didn't have any real problems for her. And then, a link popped up on her D-Terminal, along with an attached file:

SUSPECT FILE: ANALOG YOUTH

USERNAME: MAMEO

REAL NAME: ANONYMOUS. The name Hiro, observed in conversation, is almost certainly an alias; surveillance of every lead remotely associated with that first name has consistently failed to turn up anything of relevance

NOTES: Suspect is at this point in his late 20s or 30s, but the file name can not be changed to 'Analog Man', for reasons which should be obvious to any members of DigiPolice.

The edit log revealed a since-deleted addendum to the note: "despite his later misdeeds, the digital world remains grateful." The world 'digital', however, did not originally appear in the addendum.

More cautious officers would have suspected a trap, and would not have clicked the link right away. They probably would have spent so long running their antivirus that they'd fail to arrive in time.

A black background stretched as far as Mameo could see, the only light provided by the glowing green wires which divided the floor, walls, and sky (or was it a ceiling?) into roughly equal squares – except, of course, for the squares with mazes on them. Golemon – the wireframe kind, not the kind covered in rocks – bounded through the area, camouflaged by the terrain, while Devidramon and Evilmon flew overhead and through the floor.

Hours of walking made him hungry and thirsty, and although he brought meat for Numemon, he had nothing for himself. He didn't get hungry in the digital world, but was this still truly the digital world?

He didn't notice the sign at first. It was the same bright green color as the wires, and in a blocky font which made it hard to distinguish from the background. It was only when he saw the faint green outline of the building itself coming into view that it became clear that he should read the sign as digimoji, not as junk data or computer code, and that it said "Digi Mart."

NiseDrimogemon differ subtly from the true Drimogemon in coloration, with slightly different shades of purple and off-white on their fur, and purple instead of black drills. They do not, however, differ remotely in personality; if anything, NiseDrimogemon tend to be even more extreme in their shyness.

The particular NiseDrimogemon who ran the Nightmare Soldiers Digi Mart was not a hikkiNEET, he would point out with varying levels of annoyance; he was gainfully employed at a convenience store, which was open 24-7. The place was lucky to get a single customer a week, and the automatic doors at the entrance were for good reason linked to an alarm clock, so one could not easily consider this digimon a productive member of digital world society.

Still, the business was more than adequately funded, if only because an oversight from the earliest days of the internet that no one had ever noticed, let alone bothered to correct.

Repeat customers were common enough, but they were always digimon who lived in the area. Encountering one from over a decade ago was genuinely unusual. Yet he remembered the boy – now the man – for there was no mistaking either the hat or the Numemon, and NiseDrimogemon was less sensitive than actual humans to changes in human facial data.

Not that he was ever one to initiate conversation. Just a "have a nice day" as he rang up the snacks and the Monzaemon suit, and then he turned around, prepared to go back to sleep.

Except that somehow, the alarm rang again. There was another customer in the building. He had almost discovered a line – that strange feature he had heard about, commonplace in convenience stores in the human world – but the timing had been just a little off.

And weirder still, this customer was also a human. With a Numemon companion of her own, this one wearing a silly hat that matched its partner.

Numemon tamers tended to get along with one another, either out of shared appreciation for their unusual partners or commiseration over how their digimon happened to evolve. Satsuki and Mameo, however, were not such a pair; the trading of insults was soon backed up with threats to arrest him and retorts of "good luck, you'll need it."

NiseDrimogemon had to say something before they trashed the store. But, like any modern convenience store in either world, this one came equipped for these incidents. "It's 1,000 bits per fight to use the battle arena, and it's store policy to waive the fee if you allow us to livestream the match."

This was enough to make a 'line' develop – Satsuki wasn't done buying her coffee and donut yet. But Mameo insisted on his anonymity, even to the point of paying the whole fee.

Then again, although the NiseDrimogemon did not know this fact, 1,000 bits was well below arena fees elsewhere in the digital world. Moore's Law and inflation had their impact on the rest of the world, but no one in this store had ever updated prices.

Privately, NiseDrimogemon was relieved by the lack of a stream for this match; he was not at all cut out to perform an announcer role. Luckily, he didn't need to show them how to work it or anything; both tamers had battled plenty before, and apart from the location there was nothing remotely unusual about the store's arena system.

By mutual agreement, Mameo and Satsuki decided to finish their snacks before starting their fight. The two couldn't agree on much else, but no Numemon tamer would ever question this part; hungry or not, the smell would absolutely kill their appetite. They sat at opposite ends of the arena for one another, in no mood to chat; Satsuki was confident she'd have plenty of time to interrogate him later.

But this was convenience store food, so before long, they were ready.

"Numemon vs. Numemon. Let the battle begin!"

Only the police hat distinguished the two fighters; it wasn't a full fighting game palette swap (then again, if there had been one, the arena would flash 'Numemon vs. Geremon', instead) more like an accessory out of Super Smash Bros. At least the hat was big enough to see within the flood of pink poop and cries of "Poop Throw," but a Numemon's body shrugs off all but the most severe wounds, so it didn't look like much was happening.

Yet Satsuki had seen something she clearly didn't like. "I shouldn't need help to defeat another Numemon." she muttered under her breath. "Guess mine's not the strongest after all. But I'm not letting this hacker get away. Numemon!"

"Numemon, super evolve! BlackKingNumemon!"

A button press on Satsuki's bracelet, and her Numemon grew significantly larger. The face remained nearly identical in shape, adding only a mustache. The back was affected far more dramatically; a slug became a snail, with a crown for its shell studded with bright golden jewels. They were probably made of discarded candies, admittedly, but the visual effect was still striking.

And of course, the color changed, albeit to more of a dark gray than a black.

"So that's how you want to play it," Mameo retorted, looking more amused than disturbed – much to Satsuki's chagrin. "Why didn't you just say so from the start?"

He tossed a rolled up plush costume into the arena, which lost its ball shape in mid-air, leaving a giant, empty teddy bear costume to perform a back-flop onto his own digimon partner. The Numemon deftly grabbed the zipper with its tongue and crawled into the mascot suit, leaving a giant, yellow teddy bear – a Monzaemon – to face off against Satsuki's digimon.

While the two were evolving, NiseDrimogemon's attention was distracted by the appearance of a record third customer in a single hour. An otherwise fashionably dressed human woman, who wore a pink cowboy hat for old time's sake, accompanied by another woman in a striking red dress with black tights, but the red rose where a human would have eyes left no doubt that this was a digimon.

The Rosemon stood off to the side and waited, while Tachikawa Mimi purchased a coke, then took a courtside seat near the center of the arena and beckoned NiseDrimogemon to join her. Which he, surprisingly, did – perhaps there was something irresistible about her friendly manner, or perhaps Rosemon was already using Forbidden Temptation without his knowledge.

Invisible walls protected both tamers and spectators from the digimon's attacks, so none of Monzaemon's hearts had the slightest effect on Satsuki's increasingly agitated mood – although it was hard to resist the sense that some of the attacks which missed BlackKingNumemon were actually targeting its tamer. BlackKingNumemon responded in kind, but laser blasts fired from its Dark Pupils offered no message of 'chill out'; at best, they balanced the intentional misses. If the walls were to somehow fail, a direct hit would surely knock Mameo unconscious.

But the walls were designed to contain digimon fights. So the two Numemon evolutions resumed their battle with one another, and the two tamers accepted that, to get each other, they'd have to go through their digimon first.

BlackKingNumemon's Poison Mucus was about as ineffective as one might reasonably expect against another Numemon in a bear suit; Mameo wondered if frustration had thrown Satsuki off her game, or if her digimon was acting on its own (and if so, did it have any smarts at all?). Monzaemon had other attacks as well, but Mameo was not kind enough to order them; trying to Boom Boom Punch or Silence Hug such an amorphous digimon was unlikely to do him any good, so he continued to spam its hearts from a distance.

It was not enough. Neither digimon was doing all that much damage, but BlackKingNumemon's Dark Pupils had better aim than Monzaemon's Lovely Attack. So when the timer inevitably reached zero, it was the puppet who fell, and his Numemon slithered out of its suit like the show was over, devolving to its preferred form – and looking awfully weak and fragile next to its king.

Mameo scanned the store for exits, but even if he fled, his Numemon would never make it in time. He'd just have to wait and take his chances. If nothing else, they were still a long way from the real world. And he was still holding onto plenty of items which would be considered 'cheating' in the confines of an arena, but which might, under different circumstances, still help him make his escape.

For now, all he could do was wait and hope he could reach them through the handcuffs.

"You're under arrest for hacking, illegal use of a digimon, and too many other cybercrimes to name," Satsuki said, walking across the arena to him, only for a thorn whip to block her path.

"I am the digital world's security program. Do not arrest this man. This matter is above the DigiPolice's jurisdiction," Rosemon said. "Consider yourself overruled."

Rosemon. Who was a level above anything her BlackKingNumemon had ever reached. To make matters worse, power discrepancy aside, her digimon was all but ignoring that she was attempting to make an arrest. "I won the Numemon Championship, and the prize even showed up, right? That means I get Mimi's hand in marriage!"

"No! You're my digimon, you're supposed to only have eyes for me!" One could argue plenty over whether having the romantic attentions of a digimon – especially one in the Numemon line – was a good thing to begin with, but to lose them to someone else was a serious insult to Tamahime Satsuki's pride.

Satsuki could pout and complain all she wanted, but what she couldn't do was arrest Mameo, let alone take on a legend like Tachikawa Mimi. "Screw this, I'm going home," she said, then took out a cellphone, opened up a gate, and disappeared into it, together with her BlackKingNumemon.

"Home?" It was Mameo's turn to be confused. The Digi Mart had looked so normal that he'd almost forgotten what he'd gone through to reach it, yet this cop had just left like she was just in a regular portion of the digital world. "Where are we?"

Mimi laughed. "I thought you of all people would've realized it by now."

Mameo glanced out the window. It shouldn't have been possible, right? He'd used the cards, he shouldn't be in the digital world anymore. But then again, even Gennai couldn't tell whether Agumon or Gomamon was fake, and perhaps some of the gate cards had accidentally been swapped in his bag with cards from his own deck.

"We're inside Infinity Mountain?" he asked. Rosemon confirmed it, so he decided to buy a booster pack as a memento of this misadventure (and, perhaps, to improve his digimon deck) before Mameo resumed his search for a better world – a place that he and Numemon would both enjoy.