The tamer remained sitting on the ground for several minutes, heart still racing from the confrontation. His mind was trying to come to terms with the fact his digimon had almost attacked him.
Many of the crowd had walked off, as they realised the spectacle was finished.
He let out a shaky breath, trying to calm himself.
"Damnit, how did Ren turn into such an arrogant prick like Youkomon?"
Eventually, he looked back to the field. Gulusgammamon was still lying on the ground, although he had rolled over. He was clutching one injured arm with the other, and idly staring up at the sky.
The opposing tamer was having a temper tantrum about losing, and it seemed like nobody else had any inclination to assist the injured digimon.
Given Gulusgammamon had probably beaten up most of their digimon at some point, the tamer couldn't blame them.
He let out a long sigh as he realised he was going to have to be the one to help the injured digimon.
"Why do I have to be the mature one?"
He heaved himself up off the ground and walked over to Gulusgammamon. He noticed the wounds had at least stopped leaking bits of data.
The digimon's eyes shot over to the tamer as he approached.
"What do you want?"
The tamer found himself leaning away, afraid this digimon might lash out like his own had done.
"Hey, I'm just trying to help you, alright?"
"I don't need your help, stupid human."
Funnily enough, the insult helped him relax. He was fearful of violence, but rudeness he could handle.
"Ok, you prefer to keep lying in the dirt, or you want some help?"
The digimon didn't respond for a moment, but eventually relented to the tamer.
"Fine."
He crouched down and slung the digimon's arm around his neck, before heaving him to his feet.
"Ugh, you're kind of heavy."
The digimon responded without hesitation.
"And you're kind of weak."
"Why did I bother?"
He saw the kid tamer seemed to have calmed down, sulking amongst the remaining stragglers, so he called out.
"Hey kid, get over here and help your digimon."
The kid hesitated for a moment, watching his digimon being helped along, before he came stomping over.
Rather than help his digimon though, he stopped in front of the pair and unstrapped the digivice from his wrist.
"I thought you were strong, but you're just a weakling..."
The kid threw his digivice on the ground at his digimon's feet, screen cracking from the impact. A dull light emerged from the device, before quickly fading.
Gulusgammamon cringed, clutching his chest in pain.
"...I'm done with you."
The tamer stared in shock, appalled at the kids' behaviour.
"What?! Kid, you can't just abandon your digimon."
"Pfft. Who says? I can do what I want, loser."
The kid ran off, leaving the tamer with the digimon.
He turned to look at Gulusgammamon, but the digimon didn't react, just staring at the device at his feet.
He felt the digimon was supporting his own weight, so he bent down and picked up the digivice.
It was very different to his own digivice. It was much sleeker and looked almost like a smartwatch, with a large screen on the front and a few buttons on the side.
He tried each of the buttons, but the device gave no signs of life.
"Uh..."
Before he could say anything else, a loud voice carried over the field.
"Alright, who're the troublemakers starting fights?"
Two uniformed police officers stepped through the remaining bystanders and into the battle area.
The tamer rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Oh great, just my luck."
They quickly honed in on him and the injured digimon next to him.
"You two. What happened here?"
He spent the next few minutes explaining the battle to one officer. The other was asking some questions to Gulusgammamon.
"...so basically it was a fight?"
He was hesitant to admit it, since he knew the rules. Actual fights between tamed digimon were prohibited. Any contests were to be sparring matches only.
"It was supposed to be just a friendly match... but... yes, it ended up as a full on fight."
"You know the rules, right?"
He hesitated, before giving a reluctant acknowledgement.
"Yes."
"I'll need to take your digivice for now. Please hand it over."
He did as told, surrendering his own digivice.
The officer noticed the other device he was holding.
"What about that? Looks like a digivice too."
"This..."
He held out the smashed digivice.
"...this is... or was Gulusgammamon's digivice. But his tamer smashed it. Pretty sure his tamer disowned him."
"Hmm..."
The officer picked up the device and examined it briefly, confirming it didn't work.
"...alright, it doesn't seem to work. You can keep it."
"Uh... you don't need it to identify the other tamer?"
"No can do. Once it's destroyed, all the data is lost and the digimon is classified as wild again. It's useless now. Alrighty, since you've admitted it was a fight, you'll need to come to the station while we file a report and determine if any charges will be pressed."
"Oh, joy."
"Unfortunately, rules are rules. Gotta follow the process."
The other officer came over, with the digimon following behind.
"Done over here, sarge. This one's not much for talking but I don't think he's gonna be a troublemaker. Backup's arriving now to take witness statements."
"Alright, let's get back to the station. You two, follow me."
The officers led the pair to a police van, locking the tamer and digimon in the secure rear compartment.
The tamer found it funny that they bothered to cuff Gulusgammamon. Everyone knew that even a rookie digimon could break through cuffs with raw strength alone.
'Just following process', the officer had said.
Nonetheless, the digimon was a good sport about it, allowing them to cuff him without incident.
Locked in the back of the van, the two had some time to talk. Unfortunately though, it seemed Gulusgammamon was not a conversationalist. He sat there in silence, simply staring out the bars of the van's rear window.
Once again, the tamer's dislike for awkward silences got the better of him. He tried getting the digimon's attention.
"Hey, uh..."
He thought back, remembering how the kid had called his digimon 'Gulus'.
"Maybe that was his nickname."
"...hey... Gulus."
The digimon turned and gave the tamer a ghastly stare. If he thought Ren's stare had been piercing, then this one was positively deadly.
"...uh..."
He hesitated, wondering if he should continue.
The digimon continued staring, expecting the tamer to speak.
"What, human? Lost your voice?"
"No, I just... uh, sorry for what Youkomon did to you."
The digimon just scowled at him. He decided not to dwell on it and changed subjects.
"...um, did they... did those cops look after your wounds at least?"
For a moment, the digimon gave no response, but eventually he shook his head.
"What? They didn't bandage you up or something?"
The digimon gave a smirk. He was limited by the cuffs, but rolled his shoulders to flip back his cape, revealing his arms.
The tamer stared with a confused look. There was no evidence of the bites from Youkomon.
"No need."
"Healed already?!"
"Yeah, but it's touching how concerned you were pretending to be."
The tamer gave the digimon a dirty look.
"I wasn't pretending, but I'm starting to wish I was."
"Aww, poor human. Digimon making fun of you? Ah ha ha ha ha."
The digimon let out a cackle, another thing the tamer had never heard him do before.
"Damn, he's kind of scary when he laughs."
Luckily, it seemed Gulus wasn't interested in teasing further, going back to the tamer's earlier question.
"You don't know much, human. Digimon use data to heal. It's too slow to help in battle, but I had plenty left over. That was just a warmup."
"Uh... what?"
"The battle. I was holding back... couldn't you tell?"
"No, I thought that was full-on."
"Poor, naive tamer. Thought your pup got the upper hand. Not so easy."
"But Youkomon had you pinned on the ground. And you could barely stand afterward."
"I was fine, it just stung a little. I just wanted to see how strong your digimon was. Rare to see a dark digivolution like that."
"Damn. If he's actually telling the truth... Youkomon might've been in trouble if the fight continued. And what's a dark digivolution?"
"What do you mean by that? I've never heard of a dark digivolution."
"You're not ready to learn about it. But you got me curious. Seeing you try to stop a digimon fight, that was pretty stupid for a human. But... I guess it was also brave... braver than the rest of them, at least."
"I just... didn't like to see my partner behaving like that. Behaving like a monster. And then... coming after me like that..."
"So easily upset over a digimon doing what they're made for. You know, the brat told me something you said before."
"Uhhh... what?"
"You said I was a monster too. That true?"
The tamer felt another spike of fear.
"Uh... well... I just..."
"You upset I beat up other digimon?"
"No... well, sort of... more the way you did it. You and Youkomon. These fights are just meant to be friendly contests. You don't need to take it so far."
"Digimon fight. It's what we do. Sounds like you're not ready for battles if this bothers you, human."
"Oh, gimme a break. I've been a tamer for like a week."
The digimon stared at him for a moment.
"Interesting."
"What's interesting?"
"Your Renamon evolving for you so soon after partnering. Definitely must have something dark inside."
"Ok, can you just tell me what that means?"
"Ask your digimon."
"Yeah, I'm a little busy being stuck in the back of a van right now. And I don't think Youkomon is likely to open up to me seeing how he behaved today. I don't know if I even want to talk to him. Probably end up getting my face eaten."
"Youkomon won't attack you."
"Are you kidding me? Did you see how he lunged at me earlier? Oh, sorry... you were too busy having your face buried in the dirt."
Gulus' eyes narrowed at the tamer's comment.
"Hrmm... indeed. Tell me, human... would your Renamon attack you?"
"No, of course not. Ren and I treat each other with respect."
"You sure?"
"Yes, why would he? He's not some violent monster."
"Debatable. But if you're confident, then you can be confident Youkomon won't either."
"That... I find that kinda hard to believe."
"Maybe on the surface he seems like a different digimon. But somewhere deep down, your Renamon is still in there. If your Renamon wouldn't attack you, then Youkomon won't either. You should talk about it with him."
"Yeah, well, like I said... that's not gonna happen. Maybe Ren would, but that's not an option."
"Youkomon will de-digivolve eventually."
"Really? How do you know?"
"That was a forced evolution. Your Renamon's desperation created a temporary surge of power. Once that runs out, Youkomon will return to Renamon."
The possibility of getting Ren back made the tamer smile to himself.
...until Gulus ruined his moment.
"So giddy about a digimon. What a strange human."
"Hey, I'd much prefer Ren to that bastard Youkomon. What's wrong with that?"
"You look forward to seeing your digimon?"
"Sure, why wouldn't I?"
"Humans don't care about digimon. We're just your playthings."
"That's not true. I'd like to think I treated Ren with respect and tried to look after him. Just because you got stuck with a shit tamer doesn't mean every tamer is like that."
Again, Gulus' eyes narrowed at the tamer, but he didn't say anything further.
—
The tamer spent the next three hours sitting in an interrogation room at the local police station. Occasionally, an officer would come in and ask a few questions, before leaving him alone again.
The officer returned for the umpteenth time, carrying a handful of papers.
"Alright, we've verified your story with the witnesses. Normally you'd be up for a fine, but given you've only recently become a tamer, and because you tried to stop your digimon, you're getting off with a warning."
The officer handed an official warning notice to the tamer.
"Ok, that's... good?"
"But... your digimon is gonna be put on the watchlist. There will be much less leniency for any future incidents. Understood?"
"Yeah, I got it."
"Alright. Also, you may want to take this."
The officer handed him another form. He took it and read the title to himself.
"Uh... 'Statutory Declaration - Unsafe Digimon'. What's this for?"
"Based on witness reports, we believe your digimon may pose a threat to your safety. Normally we don't get involved with tamers and their digimon. However, if you believe your life is in danger, you can make a declaration and we can make arrangements to separate you from your digimon."
"What, like... break the connection?"
"Yes. As your partner, that digimon will always find you eventually. You won't be able to hide if it decides to... become aggressive with you. The only way for you to be safe in that case would be to break the connection and separate from your digimon."
The thought of an angry blue fox chasing him around did not give him any comfort.
"That wouldn't be necessary. A digimon wouldn't actually hurt their tamer... right?"
"Hmm... it's rare, but it has happened."
"Uh... ok. What about Gulusgammamon?"
"That digimon? It's a wild one. We can't prove it wasn't wild before the fight so we can't go after the supposed tamer."
"Of course the little brat gets off scot-free."
"But Gulus is free to go?"
"Yeah. By all accounts, that digimon was the victim. Anyway, come on. You're free to go too."
The officer led the tamer out to the front reception.
"Hey, do I get my digivice back?"
"We're decrypting it to make a record of your digimon's identity for the watchlist. You can pick it up tomorrow."
"Right..."
He headed out the front door.
Gulusgammamon was standing there with arms folded, as if waiting.
"Hey, Gulus."
"Yo, human."
"My name's Miles. You could try using it."
"Oh, so pleased to meet you, Miles."
The digimon's words were dripping with sarcasm as he gave the tamer a frightening grin full of sharp teeth.
"...happy now?"
"Uh... yeahhh... don't worry about that."
He pulled out the broken device in his pocket.
"...so, they let me keep this. I thought maybe... you'd want it."
He held out the dead digivice to the digimon.
Gulus stared at it for several moments, before taking it.
Without hesitation, the digimon clenched his fist, completely smashing the device.
"...WAIT! What are you doing? We could've tried to fix-"
"Desdemona."
Before the tamer could finish, the digimon's fist was engulfed in dark flames. What remained of the digivice quickly vaporised.
"You... you disintegrated it."
"So observant, human."
"But... why?"
"I don't need it."
"You didn't want to try to fix it?"
"Why? I'd had enough of that child."
"Um... I get that he was kind of a brat, but he was still your tamer. You didn't want to at least have something to remember your partnership with?"
Gulus turned his back on the tamer.
"I don't need to remember being a child's plaything."
The tamer took a moment to think.
"Maybe the kid really was a rotten little brat."
"...I'm sorry."
Gulus looked back over his shoulder at the tamer.
"What?"
"I'm sorry your tamer treated you like that."
"Sure you are."
"Believe what you want."
The digimon scrutinised him with a glare, as if searching for proof of the lie.
"Such a strange human."
"Yeah, I get that sometimes. Anyway, I gotta go see what Bitey McBiteface is up to before he gets me into more trouble."
Gulus let out a snort at the tamer's nickname for Youkomon.
"...you gonna be ok, Gulus?"
"Of course. I'm free to make my own fun now."
"I don't even want to know."