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The world we aged into wasn't the one our parents expected; the digimon changed everything.
I couldn't get everyone for the mission. Yamato was in orbit – something about an Ebemon threat, last time we talked Gabumon wouldn't shut up about all the experiments they were running on him to try to make a space suit that wouldn't be shredded by evolution.
Jou was still at his clinic, although the gate we were opening wasn't far from his sector; maybe we'd run into each other. And Iori smartly declined – not because Ankylomon would be outclassed, but because if something did go wrong we'd likely want his help as an attorney, which would be significantly more difficult if he was also one of the defendants!
I wouldn't even dream of asking Hikari about anything at all related to fighting digimon; true to her word, she still hadn't forgiven me for my handling of the Ordinemon incident, even if Meiko and Tailmon had by now. I wonder if that's part of why she started teaching elementary school Digimon classes; to try to make sure that, should another group of children ever be summoned from Odaiba, they wouldn't turn out as callous as I did. (Even if, in the moment, she, too, could think of no better option.) I guess it was because it was her own partner in that horrific fusion, or maybe because she Eknew Homeostasis better than anyone, and saw them inside me.
Ken and Miyako just had their first baby, and while I did mention the idea of inviting them to Koushirou (Aquilamon wasn't much, but Imperialdramon would definitely be a huge help) he shot me down right away. As much as he loved his adoptive parents, the digital world was dangerous, and if something did go wrong he couldn't risk the same thing happening to the Ichijouji kid.
I kind of wonder about having children of my own; those two are younger than me, after all. Then again, I haven't had the most luck with (or, let's face it, interest in) women, and handling all these human and digimon incidents doesn't leave much time for raising kids. But I've heard some interesting things about human cloning based around digital world technology… maybe I'll have a son that way. Someday.
That's adulthood, I guess; hard to get all twelve of us together. Or maybe it's just life when you don't have some multidimensional god figure who's way too quick to the reset button yanking everyone into another world whether you like it or not.
But I wouldn't be doing this alone. Takeru gladly volunteered; he was stuck in his story (something about Yggdrasil and Mercurimon) and eagerly took the quest to help with brainstorming… besides, he has a strong sense of duty where the digimon were concerned, maybe even stronger than mine. Daisuke could afford to leave the ramen shop in the hands of his staff if it meant another adventure with his senpai. Nothing in either world could possibly keep Mimi away (heck, she wrote me to volunteer within minutes of my being briefed on the incident… before I said a thing to her), and Sora tagged along "to keep you idiots out of trouble". And I was thankful, too. Both for the company, and because this wasn't a fight WarGreymon alone could win.
We agreed to rendezvous at 5:10 in the Desktop Sector, to give those in the group busy some time to leave work, but no point in waiting for a commute home with smartphones everywhere these days. This is my job, Daisuke's taking time off (couldn't make the late hour otherwise) and Takeru's flexible enough, but Sora, Mimi, and Koushirou still had jobs to get away from.
The United Nations Digimon Bureau offers more than generous wages (especially as having saved the digital world before lets you start at the top of the pay scale) and all eleven of the other former Chosen Children have a standing offer to join me if they ever so desire. But they're all trying to forge their own paths in life and follow their dreams, and I can respect that.
Truth be told, Takeru's actually done some part-time work for us, he said being a writer doesn't pay the best. In general, he's not wrong, but I find it hard to believe that a book about digimon by a former Chosen Child wouldn't be an instant best-seller. When I pressed him on it, on one of our missions, he said he was a newbie and all the stuff with Digimon Spirits and the Three Great Angels might've been just a bit too esoteric for people who've never even been to the digital world. Honestly, I think he was coming along for ideas and inspiration more than pay… and if so, at least he admitted it this time around.
The Desktop Sector wasn't actually our destination, but I wasn't able to gate into any of the squares marked in dark purple on my digivice map; I tried right away once I saw the first one pop up, and it being blocked was my first indication that something weird was going on. Entering a border square struck me as too dangerous; if we were spotted too early, we could be defeated piecemeal before we even met up. It was a bit of a hike, to be sure, but we're all in decent shape and the digital world has a way of letting people ignore the physical limitations of our own anyway.
I gated in early at 5:00 and met up with Agumon, who'd been scouting the area; as the organizer, I didn't want to keep anyone else waiting. Koushirou followed on the dot at 5:10, materializing out of the monitor with Tentomon, Daisuke and V-mon not far behind him. Takeru and Mimi actually used separate monitors in the same sector, I guess it was a geographic thing, so we walked around a bit before spotting them, Mimi and Palmon running to everyone and offering hugs. Piyomon came a little later, to tell us Sora couldn't make it until 5:30, and after a few more minutes she came sprinting out of the monitor we were waiting by, apologizing profusely. "We've been so busy sewing with the festival coming up this weekend, I got out as fast as I could."
With the whole party (at least for this mission) assembled, we went for a long walk in the digital world, just like old times; even the gate was normal enough if one imagined a Dark Tower in the next area. But in old times, we never could have faced this particular type of enemy...
Ordinarily, anything like the Four Digimon Monarchs shouldn't exist. Ultimate-level digimon are something special, the stuff of miracles and prophecies. I guess with the increases in processing power since I was a kid they're not quite as rare as they used to be, but still, four happening to pop up in one narrow sector of the digital world just wasn't natural. (Or three, I guess; that idiot's been wandering around a while. But even still, the others treated him like a neighbor, even called him the East King, it didn't sound like he was there as a fighter for hire.)
My first thought was Apocalymon, but they just… weren't bad guys, so to speak. A Royal Knight was among their number! All that stuff they were saying about digimon needing rulers of their own, so they could stand on their own two feet against those humans who tried to exploit them… well, they had a point. It was still a self-serving justification for conquest, we still have to stop them, but we weren't up against anyone like the Dark Masters here.
"Dukemon, PrinceMamemon, OmegaShoutmon, and KingEtemon, all in one place… any thoughts?" I asked the group.
"Is it that KingEtemon?" Mimi asked, and I regrettably confirmed it.
"If digimon are evolving when they shouldn't be, it's a safe bet that humans are somehow involved," Takeru said.
"Even though these guys don't have partners?" Daisuke asked.
"It's happened before," Koushirou explained. "Although I didn't see either known case personally. Exposure to Taichi-san's digivice caused Leomon to evolve, and Hikari-san – or perhaps Homeostasis - is known to have done the same to an exhausted Patamon and Piyomon in Mugendramon's sewers."
"It felt totally different than evolving from Sora's love," Piyomon added. "I was surging with so much energy, but it didn't feel right somehow."
"But who would do such a thing?" Sora asked. "Who could? This many digimon, this high a level, it's less like we're dealing with a rogue Chosen Child a la Ken than with a whole rogue technology company..."
Eight human and ten digimon eyes (all except mine and Tentomon's) stared suspiciously at Koushirou. "It wasn't us!" he protested. "Our CEO was around during the Diablomon incident and knows what kind of forces we're dealing with. And he's an old friend. We don't do any digimon projects without my approval. The idea's been floated, and it wouldn't be hard for a company of our size, but I vetoed it."
"Then who is doing it?" Mimi asked.
"As big as we are, don't forget that we aren't the world's only massive technology company. I vetoed our attempt to build a Digimon Amplifier, but I can't do anything about our competitors."
"Wasn't this place a forest with a bunch of trails?" Patamon asked. "It didn't look anything like this last time I was here."
We walked through the Desktop Sector and reached the gate of the (self-proclaimed) East Kingdom, a walled castle town with glittering, golden, crowned, monkey-shaped statues flanking the entrance, while recordings of an unpleasant singing voice once restricted to the Dark Network played in the background.
"The Four Monarchs work fast," Agumon answered, and I nodded.
"Welcome, visitors! State your name and purpose!" Something like a digimon customs station had been set up at the gate, complete with a Guardromon who got up to greet us. It wasn't like those Metal Empire towns where a robotic guard was actually appropriate, the castle (apart from the strange Digital World elements) looked like a mix of Medieval Europe and Sengoku Japan, I think KingEtemon just liked the pun.
"We're the Chosen Children and we're here to overthrow your government!" I announced boldly.
Sora pulled me aside almost before the words were out of my mouth. "Are you sure about this? Proudly walking into a trap?"
The Guardromon paused for a bit, as if too shocked to react or still processing the information, before it began to speak. "Please remain in the waiting area while I report your arrival to KingEtemon. We apologize for the delay." it said, then locked the gate behind itself and walk away.
"There's no trap in the digital world that can hold us all at once. If they try to separate us, we need to be prepared to fight, but otherwise, I think a direct challenge is the best way to avoid any civilian casualties. This town is full of digimon, and when Ultimates fight, things can go very wrong..."
"That lock looks so poorly encrypted I can probably brute-force it within a couple minutes," Koushirou noted from behind his laptop.
"Don't bother yet, we don't need to poke around the city and aren't going for an infiltration strategy. With any luck, KingEtemon will take us exactly where we want to go… but if he doesn't, we could use that kind of help, although it'd probably be on a different lock."
We waited around and chatted for a few minutes, until a pair of BishopChessmon, one white, one black, walked into the room. "Your challenge has been accepted. Please allow us to escort you to the Colosseum."
The two led us uphill through the so-called East Kingdom, which is to say, the lone street of a small digimon town, full of Gazimon and Pagumon peddlers hawking various useless or overpriced trinkets. It was distinct primarily in the presence of the Dark Network's cables and the outdoor screens set up "to let everyone watch the king's concerts", our guides assured us, "although today, thanks to you, they'll be carrying a different event."
The Colosseum itself was familiar; most diplomats (and I suppose most people) would compare it to the original in Rome, but for me it brought up memories of when I threw myself into danger and got Skullgreymon for my troubles. The soccer nets were missing this time around, however; the place was set up for the mother of all gladiatorial games. It was big enough to seat the whole population of the East Kingdom and then some, but apart from these little green digimon with TV screens for heads, the crowd was thankfully absent.
"I can't let my precious subjects get hurt, ukikikikiii! Though I do need the Monitamon here to broadcast our glorious victory all across the Four Realms!" KingEtemon said.
Apart from said Monitamon, our opponents were the only other ones whose presence was apparent in the arena. They stood at the center as they were introduced by the announcer, a booming voice from above who sounded suspiciously like Takeru. I glanced at him, but the real version's mouth was tightly shut, standing at rapt attention; after all, despite my briefing, none of the others had actually met our opponents yet.
"From the North Principality, PrinceMamemon!" I had met Mamemon variations before, even one matching it in size, but this was the first golden one I'd ever seen – complete with a garish cape which Wargreymon had torn through in our first encounter, but now looked good as new.
"From the South Duchy, Dukemon!" Again with the capes – this one red and so long one might trip over it – but it was the lance and shield that stood out. No crown for this monarch, just horns.
"From the East Kingdom, the King of Kings himself, KingEtemon!" A red cape and crown atop the now golden monkey – or perhaps monkey suit – that we all (save for Daisuke) knew far too well.
"And finally, from the West, the Digimon King, OmegaShoutmon!" I could feel the tension between the last two kings in their respective introductions; unlike a prince or a duke, this golden digimon, with a V-shaped head and long, gray limbs reminiscent of Omegamon's, was not one to be gladly outranked.
"King of Kings? Digimon King? I'm confused, which of you is in charge?" Mimi half-asked, half-taunted.
"I am!" both answered in unison. It was a nice idea on her part; if we could pit those two against each other, it'd be so much easier to take them down.
"Hey, hey, hey. Just wait one moment there, Chosen Children! I know it's not quite the 7 on 1 you had last time, but do you really think 6 on 4 aren't good enough odds? Do you need even more help?" KingEtemon asked.
"Chosen children, take a seat and watch our victory!" OmegaShoutmon magnanimously offered.
"You didn't electrify them again or anything, did you?" Takeru asked KingEtemon. "And I distinctly remember a bunch of Gazimon and Tyranomon fighting on your side last time..."
It was like we were playing for the crowd with all this back and forth taunting, except that there wasn't one. Well, I guess with the audience watching on TV we could maybe discredit the monarchy a bit, but it wasn't like it would spark a revolution if we lost, or like remaining loyalists would let these four take over the rest of the digital world anyway even if we won. Ultimately, force would rule the day.
And it was getting tiresome, so I held out my digivice. "Agumon, Warp Evolve! WarGreymon!"
Our digimon all evolved up – Piyomon to Hououmon, Patamon to Seraphimon, Tentomon to HeracleKabuterimon, Palmon to Rosemon. I was kind of worried about V-mon – Daisuke had promised me he'd be fine without Ken and Wormmon, and I did warn him what we were in for before inviting him on the mission – but choosing to Armor Evolve up to Magnamon did reassure me that he wasn't just being a hothead.
"Wait, you can do that?" Koushirou asked.
"I remade the digimental of miracles for him. Haven't done anything like it in over a decade, but archangels can do strange things," Seraphimon answered.
"Begin!" the announcer shouted, and all ten digimon raced into action, a messy clash of gold and armor and feathers. PrinceMamemon bounced high into the air and tried to divebomb a distracted Hououmon, who had been facing OmegaShoutmon's way, but was swatted down with a WarGreymon claw. It fell towards HeracleKabuterimon, who used his horn like a catapult to send it flying into the back row of the stands.
Rosemon's thorns wrapped tightly around Dukemon's lance, but her feminine charms had not affected the knight's will to fight in the slightest – whether because of his strong sense of duty or disinterest in BDSM, I couldn't say. But in a contest of raw strength, there was only going to be one outcome, and a sharp thrust of the lance to a bare spot on her torso devolved her all the way to Yuramon.
I actually had to avert my eyes from KingEtemon's side of the fight; Starlight Explosion and Seven Heavens! fired simultaneously made the left side of the arena shine as brightly as the celestial bodies Seraphimon and Hououmon's attacks are named for. Only their foe's taunt of "Thanks for making me shine, but light will never topple a star!" gave me any indication of the combo's outcome, and yet for all his bravado, KingEtemon's voice didn't sound quite right, like he was gritting his monkey teeth and fighting through pain. He launched into a "King Monkick" in response, but either it missed or the target was quiet; I certainly couldn't hit anything in such a bright arena, and both of his direct opponents can fly. (Then again, I'm not an Ultimate-level digimon.)
"Extreme Ji-" Magnamon began to shout.
"Hey, wait, you're UN. Is that allowed?! Aren't you guys fighting extreme jihadists back in the human world?" OmegaShoutmon, the intended target, protested – and Magnamon, the newbie, actually stopped and looked at me for further direction. If it was someone like KingEtemon, this would be the perfect opportunity to get an attack off, but OmegaShoutmon was just too honorable.
"Technically I think they're called jihadist extremists… but no, that's a different division, and it wouldn't restrict attack names anyway," I said. I wanted to further protest about how the UN wasn't so much at war with various Islamist groups as "peacekeeping" and "enforcing a ceasefire", but in the midst of a battle to destroy a nascent if expansionist digimon state, the words all sounded too hypocritical even in my head. "Go for it, Magnamon!"
"Extreme Jihad!" "Heavy Metal Vulcan!"
Ultimate-level digimon sure do love their light attacks – it was like I was watching Dragonball or something, and I never quite realized how hard these fights could be to follow until I saw so many battling at once. Omegashoutmon's metal-coated fireballs did nothing to blunt a charging, glowing Magnamon's momentum, but once the light faded it was clear that either they met their mark or Magnamon's own attack had a serious recoil effect – both now lay unconscious, Magnamon devolved all the way to Chibimon. I asked Daisuke about it later, and he acknowledged the possibility; after all, it had been quite shaken up by the Chimeramon fight back in the day.
The light from the other half of the arena faded, and I saw KingEtemon's boot wedged between the first two rows of the stands, trying to free itself as its opponents geared up for another attack. Dukemon rushed forward, lance outstretched, then twirled its point downward and lunged it into the floor. "We surrender!"
The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War frequently uses the term "persons", and, taken literally, could be argued to apply solely to human beings. Unfortunately, I suspect many humans working in the digital world would take that position.
We are not the kind of individuals to be among them. We've all met our own partner digimon, and our bonds with them are far too strong to ever regard digimon as less worthy than humans. As a United Nations representative, I take my duties seriously, including my duty to care for wounded prisoners. Without enough numbers to require a full prisoner camp with its own facilities, we had no choice but to bring the Four (dethroned) Kings in for civilian medical care.
And luckily, one of the Digital World's best doctors was both nearby and an old friend, so I fired off an e-mail. Hououmon carried PrinceMamemon to the clinic, while we had to carefully load OmegaShoutmon onto the surprisingly quickly recovered and re-evolved Raidramon's back. While we did, Raidramon asked me if he went too far, but I assured him otherwise: "It was a battle, y'know? We're lucky you didn't have to do worse."
We offered KingEtemon a ride with HeracleKabuterimon, but he was too proud to accept help from the Chosen Children, and walked all the way to the Kido clinic with a limp and the unharmed Dukemon propping him up.
Partner digimon can repair any nonfatal injuries by devolving, so Yuramon, at least, was fine – and Raidramon of course was already well enough to carry an unconscious patient. Jou and Gomamon were outside by the time we arrived, and had already wheeled out a bed attached to all sorts of medical equipment I didn't recognize, to which we carefully transferred the unconscious and badly wounded OmegaShoutmon.
"Looks like you had quite the battle," Jou said, then started with the most wounded of the three, leaving PrinceMamemon and KingEtemon waiting – and us waiting with them, lest they make a break for it. I had half a mind to tell the others they could go home, but injured or not, these were Ultimate-level digimon, and I feared that with only WarGreymon and Vikemon available they might win in a round two.
Eventually, after what felt like an hour, Jou and Gomamon came back out. "Will he survive?" three extremely powerful digimon, two of them themselves wounded, asked at once.
"We'll need to keep him overnight for healing and observation, but I believe all the data can be repaired. OmegaShoutmon should be able to make a full recovery."
We waited some more while Jou examined the other patients – PrinceMamemon had been concussed (relatively easy, I suppose, when your whole body is basically a giant head) and was given a recovery protocol to follow, KingEtemon was "lucky to be made of gold digizoid" and escaped with a leg muscle tear and a stubbed toe – both the result of his missed "King Monkick", although the heat from Hououmon's attack probably exacerbated the injuries. Jou respected medical privacy too much to tell us any of this, but the wounded digimon themselves were quite chatty.
"What are you going to do with us now?" PrinceMamemon asked. It was a good question. I wasn't sure if a prison in either world could hold these digimon, and we couldn't guard them forever.
"Lead us to the evolution amplifier, and you're free to go – but as private citizens, not as kings. If you ever try to take over the digital world again, we won't be so merciful next time around..."
"Evolution amplifier?" KingEtemon asked – I'm not sure if he was playing dumb or genuinely didn't know.
"It's in the throne itself, but can be kind of tricky to spot. I'll lead you there, Chosen." Dukemon offered, and, leaving the wounded at the clinic, we took him up on his offer.
The way back was quicker with Hououmon carrying everyone, and no one wanted to go home; we spent the time catching up on one another's lives, careful not to say anything about how hard it was to get even six of us together. Daisuke almost said something about being busy with his ramen shop, but Sora thankfully cut him off.
The amplifier itself was a small device, hooked onto the bottom of the throne's seat, roughly the size and shape of a laptop charger. It was black – all black, no logos or anything – but looked like something you could find in any electronics store in the human world, next to the other peripherals, and even had a functional USB port attached.
Koushirou immediately picked it up and turned it over, trying to get a good read on the item. "I've never seen one of these, but I'm sure I can analyze it if I hook it into my laptop."
"I'm sure you can too… but don't. Any signs it's been in the possession of the head of the Japan branch of a major rival will lead to immediate accusations of forgery. Let the UN cybersecurity team handle it." I answered, and took it from him.
"Why would anyone just make something like this and drop it into the digital world?" Mimi asked.
"Probably to boost sales of security software and digimon training manuals," Koushirou said. "If the digital world is dangerous, there's so much more demand for their other products."
"It's like digimon arms dealing..." Sora noted sadly.
"Will they get away with this?" a furious Takeru asked.
"I don't know," I admitted. "The Digital World Treaty was signed to prevent exactly this from happening, but we're dealing with a massive American company with tons of connections to politicians all over the globe. They might get away with it… but I'll do everything in my power to make sure they don't."
"My parents are journalists, I'll do what I can on this story too," Takeru added, "and thanks."
Ever since my bureau was founded, people have called attention to the fact that the United Nations and the Digital World both originate in 1945, and argue that it is not a coincidence – usually implying some kind of shady connection between the two, although to what end varies based on the political leanings and home world of the one making said accusation.
But it is true that it is not a coincidence, just not in the way they imagine; both came out of the horrors of the Second World War, although ENIAC was completed too late to participate. Nor, as some humans allege, is it the case that the machine's military origins are why digimon are violent; one must not forget that, even now, the United Nations as a whole primarily deals with problems between groups of humans, and that the digimon are no more inclined to fighting than we are.
The days of Vamdemon invading Tokyo of his own volition are over. Conflicts now are more… complex. There's not a war on Earth these days, no matter how quintessentially human the cause, that does not see the participation of partner digimon on both sides. And while the Digital World has earned much of its reputation as a wild, chaotic place, one must remember that even the Digimon Kings acted with human support.
I dream of the day when both worlds can be at peace.
- Yagami Taichi.