Chapter 2

Takuya sat down on the couch with the family laptop. This was it, Tri-Angel's first look at the upcoming tournament. Of course he'd already signed on for it, but this in-depth preview would show him what to expect. What were the "advanced forms" promised on the flyer, for instance. When would the first round start?

"Move over, big brother. I'm comin' in!"

Takuya yelped as his younger brother bounced over the arm of the couch and nearly into his lap.

"Shinya, can't you just sit on the couch like a normal person?"

"But I'm not Shinya. I'm Shinaymon!"

Of course Shinya loved Project Frontier. Even though it was embarrassing to see a nearly eight-year-old bouncing around in a cape pretending to be a Digimon. But the kid had at least a decent record in Project Frontier for someone his age, thanks in no small part to Takuya practicing with him those first few weeks.

"Okay, Shinyamon. Be quiet and let me watch this."

"Why should I? I couldn't sign up for that stupid tournament."

"That's because you aren't eight yet."

"So what? My birthday's next month, I'm practically eight already."

"No you aren't."

"I am too!"

"Whatever!" Takuya refreshed the page and saw the video was up. "Shut up, it's starting!"

Clicking the "play" button did nothing at first, but then the logo for Tri-Angel faded onto the screen, a trio of strange symbols in a triangular shape.

"Welcome to our first look at Tri-Angel's upcoming tournament," a male announcer said as the logo cut to him. "I'm Noboru Sato here with the founder of Tri-Angel, Miu Kaneko.

Kaneko was an oddly western-looking woman with thin strawberry blonde hair down almost to her hips.

"Miss Kaneko, could you tell us what's in store for your tournament?"

"Yes, Mr. Sato. The 'Beyond the Limit' tournament is a chance for everyone in Project Frontier to stretch their wings. We're growing, and so are the Digital Monitors. The tournament is designed to showcase the new 'Adult' forms for the Digimon, which are exclusive to the tournament, then afterwards will be released as a power-up in the game."

"I wanna be my Adult form now," Shinya whined. "Then I could enter the tournament."

"Shinya, shut up!" Takuya turned back to the video which now had a diagram of a Digimon, more specifically Kotemon, and its stats next to it.

"As you can see," Kaneko continued, "Kotemon is the basic form of a Digital Monitor. But his design, and all the Digimon currently available, are all around the size of their players. A 'Child' form of Digimon, if you will."

An arrow appeared next to the Kotemon, then a picture of what was presumably its Adult form.

"And this is Bahumon, Kotemon's Adult form. He's stronger, faster, more powerful."

The screen shifted into an image of the Baihumon in action. It was indeed faster than the Kotemon users that Takuya had seen, much faster.

"So the Adult form will be a whole new experience of battling for Project Frontier users, then?" Sato said.

"That's right. It's a way to not only give our cherished users a glimpse of what we have in store, but also to make sure everyone starts the tournament on the same level," Kaneko explained. "Now new users will have a chance to work with veterans, and will battle together on teams. The teams are based first on the region the users live, since it'll make it easier for the teams to physically meet up outside of the game or Frontiermail. Teams will also be based on the users' skill level, in order to create balance and give newer players a better chance to learn."

"And are all battles for single players or does the whole team fight?"

"The preliminary round is for team battles. The next round will rotate between best of five individual fights and team battles until the final round, which will be for teams."

"How do the players find each other?"

"We've hooked all players up to a team chat on Frontiermail, from there they can make arrangements to meet up for practicing both in person or online via Tri-Angel's online option..."

The rest of the interview seemed to be boring stuff, mostly dedicated to explaining what was an was not permitted in the tournament, requesting new teammates if a team didn't work out, and so on. Takuya quickly tuned it out, turning to fantasizing about Flamon's Adult form and the team he had yet to meet, but he knew they would see him as the leader. Fire was always the leader in these things, right? But what if there was another Fire user? Well, he'd probably get along with them.

"And finally, when does the tournament start?" The reporter asked. "Is there time for teams to prepare?"

"Actually, there is." Kaneko stared directly at the screen. "Players have until July 19th, a month from today, to meet up before the preliminary round starts."

"Wait," Shinya said in surprise and delight as the starting date was shown on the screen. "That's my birthday!"

"Shinya, shut up!"

"I'd advise players to start practicing as soon as possible to meet their team and to learn new strategies," Kaneko finished. "Good luck, everyone, and never stop pushing the limit!"

Takuya closed out the video, feeling giddy. His team was set, the date was set. All he had to do was meet the other users and practice a few times. He went to the dashboard of his profile. Sure enough, besides his regular list of friends, there was a second list of names under the chat for "Beyond the Limit."

"Is that your team?" Shinya asked, leaning over the top of the couch.

"I think so." CrazyPunch, Keta, 123Touto, and Kizamizuki. None of the names looked familiar.

"Do you know any of these players?" Takuya asked.

"Nope."

"Hmm." Keta meant a numerical digit, and Takuya thought that Kizamizuki was related to some martial art or something. His best guess about Touto was that it was made by a younger brother. CrazyPunch was an English word, though. Maybe the user was foreign? Or just thought it sounded cool, because it sure did.

"Shinya!" Takuya's mother stuck her head in the room. "If you're finished watching that, you have homework."

"I'm not Shinya, I'm Shinyamon!"

"Whatever. I'll give you a hand." Yuriko turned back to her older son. "You too, Takuya, Get to work."

"I know! Just give me like ten minutes!"

Yuriko rolled her eyes. "Ten minutes. Then you do your homework or no soccer practice tomorrow."

Takuya made a face in disgust as his mother retreated, then a chime brought him back to the screen. A new message was in the chat.

CrazyPunch [ Is anyone here yet? ]

Takuya started typing.

ReddoRanger803 [ Hi! ]

At the same time another message appeared.

Keta [ I'm here, my name is Junpei ]

CrazyPunch [ I'm Izumi, nice to meet you. ]

Izumi? Isn't that a girl's name? Not that having a female player on his team bothered Takuya or anything, but he found it a bit unusual that she had such an awesome username rather than a girly one like the girls from his class.

I'm Takuya, he typed. Your username is pretty cool, Izumi

CrazyPunch [ Thank you. Are the others here? I only see you two. ]

Takuya glanced at the chat. Sure enough, it only had the three of them. No sign of Touto or Kizamizuki. His fingers started moving again.

ReddoRanger803 [ I don't see either of the others, but I'll send them a PM ]

CrazyPunch [ Thanks. Just so you know I can't stay here too long. I mostly just came to figure out a practicing schedule. I'm free any weekday after three, plus all day weekends. ]

Keta [ I can only make weekends, unless something comes up. What about you, Takuya? ]

I'm on PF most weekdays, Takuya typed in reply. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have soccer practice for an hour so I get on later, and I might have some games on weekends

CrazyPunch [ So three of us can make weekends, mostly. I wish I knew about the other two. ]

I'm PMing them now, Takuya wrote. As he clicked on Kizamizuki's name, he saw the chat chime again.

Keta [ We don't all have to practice at once. If there are two of us free, we can practice one on one ]

Takuya finished the mail to Kizamizuki asking them to join the chat, then started one for Touto.

CrazyPunch [ Oops, I gtg, have dinner coming up ]

Keta [ I should log out too. Good night, Izumi, Takuya! ]

The others logged out as Takuya sat back. Well, it wasn't perfect, but meeting two out of four wasn't that bad.

Now if only he could say the same of his homework...

...

Izumi turned off her computer. She could hear her parents walking around and talking as they prepared themselves for the very fancy banquet to be held in one of the most high-class restaurants in the city. And of course that required getting dressed up wearing the most uncomfortable clothes. The long dress she kept tripping over (but respectable girls never tripped) the itchy, itchy tights (but respectable girls never scratched), the intricately braided hairstyle, and the slippery shoes. All that work just to see people who smiled insincerely and acted like she was their best friend even before she knew them.

She sighed.

It was all such a mal di testa...

...

Junpei shut the laptop and pulled up his math books. He hadn't meant to go on the chat right after the Project Frontier program had aired, but the math could surely wait until he was finished. He looked down at the very elaborate problems on the page in front of him. No, of course real life couldn't wait. There were problems to solve, and there were problems to solve called parents.

And his parents were far more complicated than the math in front of him.

...

The next morning, Takuya quickly logged into Project Frontier's website. This time there were two messages waiting for him, one from each of the missing teammates. He clicked on the one from Kizamizuki.

[ I know I am on your team but I don't need to practice with you. I will see you at the tournament. ]

Okay, that wasn't very nice. Kizamizuki probably already had friends to practice with. Either that or they were an arrogant jerk that thought they were good at Project Frontier. Takuya clicked on the message from 123Touto and felt his jaw drop in surprise.

[ Im sorry I dont want to do this please pick another teammmate ]

Takuya stared at the words on the screen. What was going on? He could understand if his new teammate was too busy, but to quit the tournament before it even started? What would happen to the team if one of them quit? No, there were provisions for that; he recalled that program last night saying something about reselection if something went wrong, but something about the phrasing of the mail made him question the resignation. He quickly started writing another PM before he had to go to school.

[ Why don't you want to do this? Are you too busy? Is there a way we could talk about it in person? ]

After Takuya's school and soccer practice, he logged on at his stadium's computer to see a PM from Touto.

[ Okay if you want to talk Ill bee at the Shibuya station by the Hatchikou statue around 6 ]

Shibuya? Takuya frowned. That meant getting a train...

A half-hour later, Takuya leaned on the statue of Hatchikou as he waited for Touto. Or rather, whoever "Touto" turned out to be. He scanned the passing people hoping for a clue. Mostly adults or teenagers. Going by the spelling errors in the PMs he'd got, he suspected that the other player was young, maybe his age at most. Not that it would be a surprise, of course. Project Frontier had players as young as six, although eight had been the cutoff age for the tournament...

"Are you 'ReddoRanger?'"

The soft voice which sounded on the verge of tears came from behind him. He turned to see a young boy about the same age as Shinya. Light brown hair was hidden under a mushroom-like orange hat, shaking hands tried but failed to wipe the tears away from wide green eyes.

"Um, I'm guessing you're 'Touto?'"

The boy sniffled. "Yeah. And...I don't want to play! Here!" He pressed a white Digivice with green highlights into Takuya's hand. Takuya looked down at it before looking back up at him.

"You don't have to play. We have an option to pick a new teammate, but..." Takuya paused. "Look, what's your name?"

"To-Tomoki."

"Tomoki. I'm not asking you to do the tournament, I just want to know why you don't want to."

"Because I never signed up for Project Frontier. My big brother signed me up without even asking me. And he signed me up for the tournament, too."

Oh. That explained how he'd wound up with a username that meant "little brother." But that brought up further questions.

"So you've never played Project Frontier?"

"...No."

"Maybe you could give it a try? Why did your brother sign you up in the first place? Does he play?"

"He doesn't play, he's too busy. H-he said he signed me up because he wanted me to be more independent. But he never asked me and now he wants me to do this tournament."

"Yeah, that wasn't very nice," Takuya agreed. He held up Tomoki's Digivice "Listen, I understand if you don't want to play, but could you at least try it out? You might like it."

"You sound just like my brother, you know that? Always saying that I'll like it."

Takuya winced. "Okay I'm not your brother, but I play Project Frontier. And I have a brother who's about your age who plays it too. Do you want to know what Project Frontier is like?"

"I'm not interested."

"Well..." Takuya tried to think. "Do you like video games?"

"I do! I'm pretty good at shooting games, but I really like UFO catchers. Y'know, those games where you use the claw to pull up a prize? I'm really good at those."

"Oh, so you like games like that? Have you tried Kuru Kuru Kururin?"

"Yeah, it took me a while but I beat it."

"Huh. I couldn't get very far into it without using easy mode." Takuya glanced across the street where he could see a nearby arcade. "Can you show me how you play video games? There's an arcade over there."

Tomoki looked up and grinned.

Over the next half-hour, Takuya went from being mildly impressed by the younger boy's skill at the video gaming to completely floored. Tomoki didn't get a prize or through a boss in one piece every time, but his patience and careful joystick maneuvering worked more often than not.

"Wow." Takuya dangled a half-dozen brand new keychains. "You're amazing at this, Tomoki."

"Thanks." Tomoki squeezed a small Doraemon plushie he'd just won. "But I'm still not playing Project Frontier."

"I know. Listen, like I said I you don't have to play it, but I think you'd do very well at it. Especially with those UFO catching skills."

Tomoki paused a bit reluctantly.

"You're saying I'd be good? Like I could beat someone up in it?"

"Yeah." Something clicked in Takuya's head. "Is there someone you don't like that plays it?"

"Sort of. So if I encounter this guy in the game, I can beat them?"

"You could, if you practice enough. The game will only let you battle people who have played the same amount of time as you until you've played for fifty hours. And you don't have to do the tournament. You'd have two weeks to make your decision before the replacement deadline comes. Just try it out and see if you have fun."

This time Tomoki's silence lasted even longer.

"Okay, I'm in. For now."