It is striking in retrospect to consider that, at the time when SETI launched one of the world's first distributed computing projects in the hope of finding aliens, computer scientists had long known that we were not alone. From the moment they realized that humans from rival countries were not responsible, they placed the origins of the interference which troubled the Network in outer space, for the science of their era lacked the paradigm to imagine parallel worlds.
Whatever was out there, it was dangerous, something computing in this world could not survive. One computer at a time, and then all at once, they constructed the Firewall, with an "assistant" (in truth, a lead programmer) who they did not recognize.
The security it offered allowed computing to grow by leaps and bounds, from Usenet to the World Wide Web, from DOS to Windows and other GUIs.
The world became increasingly dependent on a quickly growing network… until the day came when it was finally breached.
The digimon game for the Super Famicom was far from being a best-seller. In a gaming era when shovelware was common and archives were rare, it was too widely overlooked for anyone to really investigate questions about its origins. A few gamers praised its strong sense of verisimilitude, admittedly, while gaming historians have since come to view it as a forerunner of the popular monster raising genre. In later years, games of this type would develop a small but passionate fanbase; in the era before home computing and widespread internet access, the people who loved it generally never found one another. Even most people within the industry, at the time, had simply never heard of it.
The Digital World, as depicted in that game, was a far happier place than the Digital World of 1996.
World historians, of course, are far more interested in it for a different reason; here was a story of the Digital World hiding in plain sight, years before the first egg fell through a computer to blow up a bridge in Hikarigaoka, over a full decade before the Christmas Invasion made the world no longer able to ignore the existence of digimon.
For some of the children playing, it became a source of powerful friendships and captured their imaginations. They waited in vain for a sequel, but the title had served its purpose. Some would nearly be adults, one of them even a young father, by the time their efforts were required…
"This is File Island, right?"
One might imagine falling through the sky and waking up in another world to be a profoundly disorienting experience. But for Oikawa Yukio and Hida Hiroki, it felt more like returning home.
A Pipimon bounced around Oikawa, then jumped up into his arms. Hiroki's partner was a Kapurimon, whose helmet and tail made it almost look like a cat, but who was distinctly lacking in legs; he was heavy, but Hiroki had the strength to lift him. It felt almost like lifting Iori in his first year, though the kid was walking now – just a little heavier, and with a very fluffy tail.
The two high school seniors looked around to learn what quest awaited them, searching for a way (once these babies evolved) to strengthen their digimon. For there isn't much one can do with babies, and worse, something had gone very wrong with the sky…
Still, there was something so gripping and pleasant about the wireframe trees of the Unwavering Forest, of being out in the fresh air (or was it vacuum tube air?) beside their digimon partner. They walked carefully, avoiding the Betamon bouncing around, keeping their distance from the Goblimon. It would be nice to find someone to greet, but no one looked quite obviously harmless enough to talk to, for they were doomed in a fight should something go wrong.
Or maybe they were just too shy.
And then, Oikawa stopped moving. Couldn't continue moving. "You okay, man?" Hiroki asked.
"My foot's caught on some silk." An electric charge pulsed through the silk, numbing his left leg entirely. "Scratch that. I think I stepped into a Kunemon's nest."
Hiroki scanned his pockets, then his surroundings, searching for a knife or pliers or rubber gloves or anything else that'd free his best friend. No luck. Sometimes people get summoned to another world with all their stuff, even an emergency bag or food supplies, but he wasn't so lucky – he was at home, relaxing and playing video games, when the square, blocky device popped out of his TV.
Should he just drop Kapurimon onto the insect web? No, that'd only endanger his partner. Oikawa was too tall to easily devour, but a little furball must be a delicious morsel to those caterpillar digimon. Maybe once the Kunemon showed up, it'd be nice and let them out? Not that random encounters ever worked like that in the game.
Hiroki was distressed enough, but Pipimon was in an absolute panic. "What do I do? My partner's in danger already, can I really protect him? But Kunemon are so scary, but I can't let him lose, but I can't evolve yet, but…"
It was weird, Oikawa thought, to think of Kunemon as scary; he was accustomed to either one-shotting them or running away because they didn't give enough experience to be worth fighting. But if the encounter was at the very start of the game, when all he had was a baby? In that situation, even a child digimon could be dangerous.
The Kunemon didn't give the two much longer to think. It wasn't the fastest digimon, but the distance wasn't long and the electricity that shocked Oikawa's leg had also alerted the bug that something was caught in its web, so it slithered down the tree to face the two children.
"Could you let us go?" Oikawa tried to negotiate. "We don't mean you any harm."
"You're an alien substance. You don't belong in the digital world!" an enraged Kunemon answered, then spat some more electric thread around Oikawa's broad shoulders, binding him to the very tree the digimon had been climbing down. "If you want me to let you go, then leave this world forever!"
"We don't know how to get home," Hiroki answered.
"Alien substance? You're the virus," Pipimon protested. "Leave my partner alone! Pipimon, shinka! Floramon!"
Floramon was cheered up – after all, he could fight back now – but Oikawa and Hiroki remained concerned. Whether a masked plant was sufficient to beat the sort of bug that usually fed on them was an open question, and its "Allergy Shower", while making the two humans sneeze, had little effect on the Kunemon.
"At least it's a battle," Oikawa said, but this was slim consolation. His partner had evolved mid-fight (the game never included that part!), but where was the heroic victory? He knew digimon well enough to know he was still in serious trouble.
"Don't forget, we're playing in co-op mode!" Hiroki said. "Two on one, we can win this!"
"That's right! I can't let Pipimon leave me behind! Kapurimon, shinka! Gotsumon!" The creature maintained a vaguely feline face and body pattern, but only vaguely; it was like a statue now, if statues moved around and were made entirely of stacked rocks.
"Angry Rock!" One of those rocks flew at Kunemon, while three more sharp pebbles broke the threads binding Oikawa to the tree and ground.
"Can you move?" Hiroki asked.
"Not quickly, but yeah," Oikawa said, slowly walking away from the tree and the Kunemon; fortunately, his caterpillar of an enemy was slower still.
Or it would have been, if it were still trying. "Screw this, I'm not sacrificing myself. Just wanted a bite. Humans that make digimon evolve, what's happening to our world?"
Twelve years of life had not been long enough to introduce Himekawa Maki to the concept of a "good night's sleep". Her nights had always been long, her days interrupted by the occasional collapse. At first, her parents thought nothing of it – aren't babies supposed to keep you up at night? But her sleep patterns grew no more regular as she aged, and doctor after doctor could do nothing for her serious case of insomnia.
Her constant fatigue had a tremendous effect on her waking moments. Her teachers never really liked her – how could they, when she kept passing out in class? The other girls in school were more likely to make fun of her than befriend her, and it took her all her effort just to keep up with her schoolwork.
At least she had her games once she got home.
Maki was in another world now. With no watch, and she'd lost track of time, and the skies were already dark. Even if sleep wouldn't come, she had to at least find shelter. The time might come when PetitMeramon could protect her, but she clearly wasn't strong enough yet.
How long would it take her partner to evolve? A few minutes? All day? Could she even know the difference? Still, even if she was lost and confused, having a digimon beside her made her feel a little better.
Maki spotted a cave behind the waterfall. Caves didn't necessarily mean safety – after all, it could be the home of a bear or Monochromon or worse. But maybe, if it was empty, she could just lie down and try to sleep.
Even though sleep never arrived when she wanted it, she was still so very tired…
Unlike Maki, Nishijima Daigo had a strong desire to go home. A popular student who got along with everyone, a catcher and captain of the school's baseball team, a calligraphy club regular (although he didn't attend many competitions, because of conflicts with the baseball schedule; at least it made his handwriting extremely neat) who only played digimon games to unwind late at night.
There was a game tomorrow, after all, and wouldn't his parents and friends be worried if he just suddenly disappeared?
But he couldn't let those concerns get in the way of introducing himself to Wanyamon. Even if the sky was weird and black and torn open, being in this world was just so cool. Sure, there were dangers out there, but together with his partner, he could face them!
The first day would be a challenge. Not just finding a place to sleep, but everything would be easier once his partner evolved. At the baby level, even the weakest encounters are dangerous.
Maki didn't think much about the fact that a river ran through the cave, and if she noticed it, all it meant to her was "fresh water". Not that she was thirsty yet – she probably should've needed a drink by now, after all this walking, but she just didn't – but food and water are the main things which humans need to survive, so it was important to ensure she had a source of at least one of them. She wasn't thinking in terms of elemental weaknesses or wild digimon spawns. Maybe it would've caught her attention, if she wasn't so tired, but the issue had simply slipped her mind.
And now she was face to face with a Gizamon, standing in front of her little fireball of a partner because she knew far too well what would happen if she let the two fight.
"Spiral Edge!" The frog rolled up into a ball, then bounced directly into Maki. Her frail fist couldn't do much to deflect it, and the little flames her digimon spit could not ignite the Gizamon's orange, wet fur. The bottom of her shirt was torn by its blade, leaving her with a visible cut right beside her navel, and the impact was enough to knock her over.
That hurt.
"Help me! Someone! If there's a hero or a bear or anything in these cave, please save me!" Maki pleaded desperately.
"I don't know if I count as a hero, but I've got a bear!"
Maki didn't expect to hear a voice from her class, let alone that of her coolest classmate. The two had never spoken much, but Daigo wasn't a jerk or anything, he was good to everyone. She just thought of herself as beneath his notice.
In normal times, on Earth, maybe that was even true. But right now, she needed rescuing, and Bearmon, newly-evolved, was eager to test his skills. He even turned around his baseball cap first, to try and look cool, before he leaped down from the rocks above.
"Bear-Cub Punch!" It was enough to send Gizamon tumbling back into the water. The first Gizamon, at least.
Neither of them had read the game's reference book carefully enough to remember that Gizamon hunted in packs. Worse, Digimon for the Super Famicom wasn't the kind of game you could win by being really skilled at inputs or timing; like later monster raising games, the outcome was typically determined before the battle began.
One newly-evolved Bearmon vs. three Gizamon? There was only one way this fight could ever go, and both of them knew it. "Run!"
Daigo grabbed Maki's hand, while Maki held PetitMeramon close in her other one. But the river ran beside them, and Gizamon in the water were simply too fast. Bearmon did his best to hold two of them off, but a third slipped by him. The human children stood together at the cave's narrow edge, Daigo clenching his fist, knowing he could handle a digimon in a fight more easily than could a sleepy and injured girl. Hoping it'd be enough.
"What am I doing?" PetitMeramon asked herself. "Bearmon's already evolved, and it's my partner he's protecting! PetitMeramon, shinka! Bakumon!"
The little fireball turned into a tapir with armor over the trunk, a holy ring on her front legs, and smoke where her back legs should have been. And Himekawa Maki, for the first time in her life, in the middle of a battle for survival, finally relaxed.
She would wonder, in retrospect, if she knew what would happen. Yet she never would feel the slightest doubt that it happened not once the battle ended, but the very moment that her partner evolved to the Child level.
"Nightmare Syndrome!"
Old RPGs often included status effects, because it was how the genre worked, but this did not mean that they had any idea how to balance them; Dungeons and Dragons' infamous "save or die" spells cast a long pall over the history of role-playing games. Status effects varied from useless to wildly overpowered, and sleep was typically in the latter category. Digimon for the Super Famicom was no exception, and the true Digital World (if that's where they were) followed the games in this respect.
Bakumon opened her mouth and made a sound like an elephant's trumpet, emitting a purple mist which put the Gizamon next to them to sleep, then floated across and gave a nap to Bearmon's opponents. Careful to not wake them up, Bearmon pushed the two frogs back into the water, and let the current carry them away.
Himekawa Maki slept well that night, for the first time in her life, and Bakumon was thoroughly nourished by her dreams.
"Good thing I won us that battle," an elated Gotsumon said, as the other two humans and their partners made their way… elsewhere, as they began to leisurely explore the digital world.
"No way. Didn't you see how that Kunemon lost its will to fight? That's my Allergy Shower at work!" Floramon responded.
"Relax, you two. We'll probably need both of you for whatever's next," Oikawa said, looking out on the plains on the horizon, at a black and open sky. A large firebird lit the place up, sending flames into the air with every flap of its wings, before flying down to meet the humans and their partners.
The digimon didn't look like an enemy, but it certainly looked troubled. "Greetings, children. My name is Birdramon."
"What's wrong?" Hiroki asked. Or maybe that was the wrong question. "Wait, first, where are we? What are we meant to do in this world?"
What are we meant to do in this world. It was a valid question, the kind everyone asked themselves sometimes – Oikawa doubted he had ever learned the answer back home. But being in another world gave the question a new urgency, especially in an era when "full dive" or "virtual reality" remained obscure terms from science fiction.
"What's wrong? The Firewall is broken, and no matter how much fire we use, nothing we do repairs it. Viruses have flooded into our world. The sky's so messed up that I don't even know where I'm flying anymore. Honestly, I don't know what you're doing here," the distressed Birdramon said. "Maybe Jijimon or Gennai could help you. Maybe you can help us."
None of this sounded remotely familiar to Oikawa or Hiroki. The game's plot was completely different – then again, the game's sky was also different. "Can you help us find them?"
"Hop on."
There were no airships in the digimon game they knew. Even if one raised a flying digimon, their partner would walk along the ground with their tamer, or occasionally fly at around their own height. And besides, apart from the map insert that came with the game, neither of the two had the faintest idea what the Digital World was supposed to look like from the air.
And yet everything still looked wrong. An island cracked into pieces, where black rivers replaced what should've been open seas, or no seas at all, and craters replaced plateaus. Hiroki and Oikawa had a feeling they had been summoned for a reason, but there was knowing it and knowing it; they had never before imagined the Unwavering Forest as the brightest or most functional place remaining in the digital world.
On further observation, it wasn't quite unique. The center of each fragment of File Archipelago looked as normal as the forest where they landed, while the blight and darkness was greater nearer those black rivers or cracks or whatever they were.
Better yet, actually flying on a giant bird was an amazing feeling, however disturbed the ground. The digimon's heat kept them if anything too warm; Floramon hid from the flames in Oikawa's coat, while the left talon, on which Hiroki and Gotsumon rode, was visibly lower than its right. Birdramon flew slower than when they'd met, and visibly struggled to handle their combined weight, especially with Gotsumon in the party.
Hiroki spotted two bipedal figures in the distance, on the outside of a cave, along with two smaller creatures – a bear cub and an elephant? He couldn't tell. "I think there are humans there! We need to land!"
"More humans? I can't handle any extra passengers…" Birdramon protested.
"We'll walk. Just tell us the way to Jijimon, we'll do the rest on our own."
No matter how many times she read the digimon reference book late at night, including the part which labeled Birdramon a 'good digimon', Maki still found something profoundly unsettling about being approached by a giant firebird.
"Should we head back to the cave?" she asked, nervously clutching Daigo's shirt as Bakumon floated above her face, while Bearmon likewise stood in front of his partner. Her shirt had been patched with Bearmon's fur, and her skin beneath it had scabbed up quickly. She wouldn't forget that first Gazimon encounter any time soon, but physically speaking, she had basically recovered.
"No way." Daigo hadn't actually had the time to read through the manual, much as he enjoyed the game itself; he was acting on pure instinct. "I think it's friendly, let's at least hear it out."
"That's right. It's a bird, maybe it can help us! And it looks like it's carrying people, maybe they're police or JSDF or a rescue squad!" Maki had been terrified earlier, but a few words from Daigo and a glimpse of its claws and she let her hopes run wild before it even landed.
The two kids agreed to wave furiously to get its attention, and Oikawa and Hiroki eventually waved back.
"Jijimon lives just on the other side of this hill. Sorry I can't bring you any further." Birdramon said, and flew off again, towards the crack in the sky. The bird digimon moved too quickly for Daigo or Maki to offer any protest, but the hearts of the younger two sank all the same when it vanished into the distance.
The people who stepped off the bird were significantly older – high school age, judging from one's uniform (and the other's pants, although a purple coat covered his shirt). Still, they were clearly not any kind of first responder, not the official sort of rescuers who they desperately wanted to meet.
"I'm Nishijima Daigo, and this is Bearmon. Nice to meet you."
"Himekawa Maki and Bakumon. We're in the 6th grade. You two made quite the entrance, now how do we get out of here?"
It was natural to look to the older boys for leadership. Unfortunately… "Hida Hiroki, and this is Gotsumon. We're just as lost as you are."
"Oikawa Yukio, and my partner is Floramon. Birdramon told us to cross over this hill; apparently there's a wise digimon there who might know what's going on."
It became apparent to Daigo, as he spotted it rising above the horizon, that what a bird considered a 'hill' might, to someone on foot, be more accurately described as a 'mountain'. They were in for a long walk. And they'd already spent one night in the cave – it was hard to track time, admittedly, when the sky was no longer offering any assistance. How long did he have?
Could he get to the ballpark before the game started? And even if he did show, would he be in any physical condition to play? There was serious talent in Odaiba this year, people were talking about qualifying for the Little League World Series – but no one would play their best game after their captain had mysteriously disappeared into another world.
Daigo couldn't shake the feeling that he'd be letting everyone down. "How long will this take?"
"Who knows," Oikawa admitted.
This was how, for the first time, and in a very literal sense, Nishijima Daigo became the first leader of the Chosen Children – before they even realized anyone had chosen them. He was in a hurry, so he walked out in front on the narrow trails, and beckoned everyone else to keep up.
"Hey, Bearmon. That hat… do you have baseball in this world?" It was a silly question – maybe there was a Bearmon somewhere out there who could answer it in the affirmative, but he had seen this particular one evolve up, seen the hat materialize as part of that transformation.
"Yes," Bearmon answered, to his partner's shock – and the other humans were nearly as surprised. "Or at least, we did before the viruses came. It's impossible to get eighteen digimon together without a fight these days, even the Bears have probably disbanded by now." The cub took off his cap and looked at it sadly.
"What am I doing?" Daigo asked himself. At least the people in his world could play games in peace. He still wanted to save the world and get home quickly, he didn't want to make anyone back home worry, but the digimon needed him far more.
Walking in a single file line with the toughest fighters in front and back, as many a tabletop RPG player is well aware, is a great way to handle random encounters. Bearmon walked in front, Gotsumon in back, Floramon and Bakumon would spread status effects, and the humans were protected in the middle.
It would've worked quite well if they were walking through an actual dungeon. The ledge on Mount Panorama that they were climbing wasn't much wider than one, but it had a key vulnerability; they could do nothing about approaches from the air.
A four-winged imp of a digimon swooped down from the side, grabbed Himekawa Maki in its surprisingly humanoid claw, and flew away – all in one smooth motion, at far too great a speed for Daigo or Bakumon, who were standing by her side, to block the attacker.
"Nightmare Syndrome!"
As Evilmon flew away, Bakumon spat mist in his direction. Unfortunately, although the mist caught up to her opponent, Evilmon was an adult level digimon whose attacks were also based around nightmares. So the attack was simply ineffectual, and Evilmon flew on, undisturbed.
With Maki in his claws.
Author's Notes:
I'm well aware that Oikawa and Hiroki were not actually intended to be original Chosen Children, and the meeting with Pipimon was meant as part of everyone getting a digimon partner. But the fact that we have five characters with a pre-Adventure connection to the digital world was what inspired me to write this fic in the first place.
Also, setting it in 1996 gives me quite a compressed timeline (Iori is two at this point, and Daigo would've become a teacher remarkably young – then again, he has agency connections and "teacher" is just his cover job) but Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning doesn't give me much choice.
AFAIK this interpretation is not explicitly contradicted on-screen, although background material makes Oikawa (and Hiroki by implication) about eight or nine years older than they are in this fic.