Yee-haw! A cowboy in Shibuya!

Shibuya. Early evening. What had started as a regular day was soon spiraling out of control for a man named Carlos.

After a so far uneventful day of pet sitting the neighbor’s cat to earn some extra money, the young man decided the best way to spend the remainder of the day was to simply watch a movie at the theater. Soon after he was quietly sitting on the theater, waiting for the screening to begin. As soon as the trailers began, he thought it would be a good moment to check his cell phone one last time before the movie started, just in case.

But, as his hand reached into the bag for the phone he felt…something. Something oddly soft and fluffy. Something that definitely wasn’t in his bag when he entered the cinema. Perhaps a stray cat had somehow wandered into the theater and snuck into his bag without anyone noticing? That sounded plausible enough. But as he peered into the open bag expecting a cat, nothing could have prepared him for what he actually saw.

A pair of reddish eyes stared back at him from the dark inside of his bag. Big eyes, eyes that obviously belonged to something with a head too big to be a cat. He quickly closed his bag, his heart racing as his mind was still trying to process what was going on. He nervously glanced around. Apparently nobody else in the theater had noticed. Nobody was aware that there was something else in the theater. He thought about calling the theater’s usher for help …but he didn’t want to make a scene.

Besides, who knew how dangerous this thing was? For all he knew, if it felt danger it could potentially lash out and maul someone. Running out of viable options, Carlos did the only somewhat sane option he had left.

Without even stopping to think about what he was doing he swiftly grabbed the bag and ran out of the theater into the street. That thing…whatever it was, could only bring trouble, Carlos just knew it. That’s how many of the movies he’d seen as a kid started: some poor idiot finds a weird creature, decides to take it home and invariably ends dead by the end, either by outside forces looking for the creature, or the creature itself. As such every survival instinct within told him to get rid of the bag, throw it on the river, or throw it in a dumpster on a dark alleyway somewhere.
Yet, something else kept him from doing any of that. Was it his conscience? Curiousity? No, somehow it felt deeper than that, as if a lot depended on him keeping whatever was in the bag inside.

So he did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Run. Run fast to the station to take a train and get back home…and hoping it woudn’t be the last thing he did. “Please let this be like E.T. and not like Pod People.” He thought to himself over and over while he ran down the crowded street.

As he ran through the sea of pedestrians miraculously not tripping over anyone, his luck would soon run out when, in a moment of distraction, he crashed into probably the only man standing in the middle of the street.
Barely grunting as he landed on the ground, he made sure his bag was still closed as he quickly got back up on his feet.
“Shit. Sorry man, didn’t saw you there.” He barely muttered out an apology to the other man, who was…dressing up as a cowboy, apparently. Poncho and everything. “Listen I’m real sorry ‘bout that, I wasn’t looking.”

(hope you don't mind me dropping in. Sorry if its a bit of a long post) 
professorredbud

For a moment, the young man almost felt fearful, worried this man would take offense to being bumped into like that. His glare was certainly making that point across. He relaxed however, when his expression softened into a smile and he offered him a hand to get back up on his feet.

“Hehe, yeah well, that’s city life for you, no time for standing around doing nothing.” He said as he took his hand and got up, dusting himself off all the while. Well, at least there wasn’t any harm done and the man seemed reasonable enough. One thing less to worry about.
That said, ironically what was most likely an attempt to lighten up the mood ended up having the opposite effect on Carlos. The mere mention the bag was enough to keep him on edge. No matter what happened, he had to keep this guy from looking inside the bag.
“This thing? It’s just a…special delivery, you know? For a friend…and it’s like, very fragile and stuff, so I was worried it might have broken by the fall.” He said with a chuckle that tried too hard to seem nonchalant about the whole thing.

He knew this lie wouldn’t be able to last for long, so he figured it was a good time to go along his merry way asap, before the cowboy actually got suspicious.
“Aaanyway I should keep going, have a nice da....” his voice trailed off immediately, when he noticed something was not right. His bag felt…lighter. Taking another quick glance, he noticed why: the thing was now wide open, apparently having been opened while he was distracted talking to the other man. Before he could wonder where the thing had gone to though, he immediately got his answer.

Down on the ground next to his feet, barely moving was a small limbless creature with long ears and the same reddish eyes he had seen on the theatre. Once again, just staring curiously at him. Right in front of everyone.

“…crap.” So much for subtlety.

Yeah, this was clearly not Carlos’ best day.


Smith’s reaction upon seeing the small round creature was the expected one, immediately assuming the worst. Granted, it was mostly on Carlos for acting so jumpy, and he knew it., but that wasn't important anymore.
“Listen dude, I know this look bad but it’s not what it looks like.” He said, feeling defensive for being treated like a mere lowlife thief.


What was he supposed to do now? Would he really believe his story about that blob thing simply wandering into his bag? Not likely. Maybe his best option was to make a run for it, leave the scene and let those two to sort themselves out.


“You dummy, how could you let me fall?” Carlos immediately froze when he heard what sounded like the voice of a young kid crying out, the indignation in his tone almost palpable. Except the voice had come from the small, long eared thing that had just fallen out of the bag.


As if this day couldn’t get weirder. He looked down once again at the critter, and blinked once. Twice. “Y-you heard that too right?” The young man said, glancing at the cowboy for a moment, as if trying to make sure this was actually happened and he wasn’t just hallucinating.


The small blob however didn’t stay silent for long, chiming in once again. “Hey, I’m talking to you, you stupid white haired oaf! Stop ignoring me!”

Carlos couldn’t believe how his day just kept getting progressively weirder. What was this thing? How could it talk like a human? Why had he been silent up until now? The questions kept piling on and on, but as much as he wanted to question the creature he still had to deal with Yosemite Sam here.

“Owowow. Put me down this instant hooman!” The critter cried out indignant and Smith picked him up by the ears, trying to desperately to squirm out of his grasp.

“H-hey, careful with that, you could hurt him!” Carlos said, a bit taken aback by his own words. Why did he suddenly felt so concerned about that thing’s safety? Five minutes ago he had thought of how to get rid of it, now he was worried it might get hurt somehow.

The small creature however, wasn't nearly as worried for its safety, but it was certainly getting angrier. “I said…put. Me. Down!” The being ordered once again, each word punctuated by him trying to take a bite out of the cowboy’s poking finger, unsuccessfully.

“For the love of, I’m telling you I didn’t steal him!” Carlos replied, starting to get annoyed at the man’s attempts at making him confess a crime he didn’t even commit.

Instead of doing the easy solution of simply running away however, he decided to spill the beans about the whole thing, if only so the man would stop asking him. “I know you won’t believe me, but I swear this is what happened: a while ago I was watching a movie on the cinema, minding my own business and last thing I know this…thing just appeared inside my bag. Maybe he crawled inside it while I was distracted, I don’t know. But I swear I didn’t steal it. I don’t even know what it is!”

“Duh, I’m a Pagumon, you foolish cabbages!” The creature chimed in, sounding annoyed as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. “And for the record I didn’t crawl into your bag! I was just taking a nap under a tree and when I wake up I’m suddenly in a completely different place!”

“But…where did you even came from?” Carlos asked him, desperately wanting some answers.

The blob merely rolled his eyes letting out an exasperated huff, as if he was being asked what the color of the sky was. “Ugh, how slow are you two?! I’m from the Digital World, of course.”

Needless to say, that answer only raised more questions than anything for the already confused Carlos.

“I’ll admit, it sounds fishy, but I’m not lying.” Carlos said, knowing full well how unlikely his story was, which made the fact it was all true all the more frustrating.

Almost as if on cue however, along came Pagumon chiming in with something that, if true could possibly absolve Carlos of any guilt…or at least it would’ve if it wasn’t just as bizarre and unlikely as Carlos’ own story. “Duh, how dumb are you two? Clearly I fell into a portal while I was sleeping and ended up in the comfy bag place.”

Aaand now suddenly there were portals thrown into the equation. Of course, why wouldn’t there be? At this point Carlos was simply rolling with the each new revelation, probably due to his mind slowly getting numb from all this new info. So much so he had a hard time remembering the specifics the cowboy asked him such as the name of the theater and movie.

Or maybe it was simply the rush of fear starting to wear off. Either or.

“It was that new Guillermo Del Toro movie! The…”form of water” I think it was called. No idea about the main actor though, I ran out of there during the trailers. Honest.” He replied, sounding as sincere as possible, yet clearly just wanting to get out of this situation as soon as possible.

“Im a Pa-gu-mon, you dummy!” The blob meanwhile replied to the cowboy’s inquiries , clearly getting annoyed at the humans for asking so many questions. All he wanted was to be put on the backpack again so he could keep on sleeping, was that so much to ask? “And the digital world is…like, this very big place…a-and there aren’t as many humans and…” He stopped for a moment, clearly struggling to find more ways to describe his own world to the humans. “…and well it’s the place I come from, obviously!”