Digi-Doppelgangers [Akemi]

Oh, geez. That wasn’t another person up ahead, was it? The threat of losing Cheeto was bad enough, but how on Earth was Jen going to explain this to someone?

At least she wouldn’t have to worry about catching Cheeto anymore, because he practically skidded to a halt right in front of this person. Upon seeing that, Jen started to slow down herself. And she noticed there was a Digimon poking their head out of the girl’s bag. They looked exactly the same as Cheeto, only in purple. Oh, thank god. Another tamer.

Jen came to a stop as she approached them. “Sorry...about that,” she managed to say between pants. “I really need to look after him more. Come on, Cheeto. I’m ready to go.”

But Cheeto didn’t even hear her. He was staring up at the handbag, absorbed in the Digimon inside it. “It’s me,” he said in an awed whisper-shout. “But purple!”

Jen froze, processing what the girl had said. “You have a point,” she admitted. It wasn’t like she or Cheeto had really done anything. Besides interrupt them, and they didn’t seem to be that busy. “I guess it just seemed like the right thing to say.” She smiled and looked down at Cheeto. “Heh. Guinea pig.” She supposed she could see the resemblance.

When the other Digimon pointed at Cheeto, he mirrored the action with a laugh. But his smile fell as he processed her words. “Really?” He looked back at Jen. “Which is it?”

“Um…” That was a weird question. “It depends on your perspective. You saw yourself first, so you see a purple Cheeto. But since they saw themself first--”

Cheeto’s eyes widened. “Purple Cheeto sees Orange Purple Cheeto!”

“Yeah!” Good thing he understood; she wasn’t ready to get even more philosophical. “But please don’t call them Purple Cheeto. That’s rude.”

“Okay!” Cheeto turned back to his look-alike. “What’s your name?”

Cheeto only smiled at the Digimon’s comment, not fazed at all. “That’s right! I am!”

Jen was surprised at how quickly Anzu’s mood changed. But hey, at least that meant things wouldn’t escalate. “I’m Jeanette Milani, but just Jen is fine.” She gave them a pleasant smile. “Nice to meet you, too!”

“Anzu. Okay!” Cheeto nodded vigorously. “Yep! I’m Cheetooooo!”

“Yeah, he...picked that name himself. I said he looked like a cheeto, and he really liked the word, so that’s his name now.” She shrugged. “Anyway, it’s nice to see another tamer around! I’m still new to this whole Digimon thing, so...good to know I’m not alone.” Technically, she already knew she wasn’t alone, but still. It was good for Cheeto to meet other Digimon.

Speaking of which, Cheeto was now flapping his wings and kicking off the ground. “Can you fly, too, Anzu?”

“That’s good to hear!” Jen said. “Of course, it probably isn’t wise to just go up to someone and ask ‘Hey, do you have a Digimon?’, but I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

Ah. So Anzu was also called a Tsukaimon. It reminded Jen of how Cheeto had said he was also called a Patamon. Who knew just how many species--or...sub-species?--of Digimon there were?

“Tsu...kai...mon…” Cheeto repeated. Flapping his wings, he glided over to the edge of the river...which was less of a river and more of a long, windy dumpster. “So does that mean you can do everything else I can do, too? Like Boom Bubble!” He puffed himself up like a blowfish and spewed an air shot right onto the garbage. The blow was strong enough to send an empty soup can sailing towards Jen’s foot.

“Be careful, Cheeto!” Jen kicked the can to send it back into the trench. It rolled to a stop on the edge, so she had to run up to it and kick it again. “I don’t think you should be flying so close to the river.”

Akemi had a point. The thought was pretty funny, someone going “Digi-man? Is that one of those smartphone apple-cations?”

But right now Jen was focused on Cheeto, hoping something wouldn’t happen. “You can do that?” he said to Anzu’s comment. “I wanna try!”

Luckily, Akemi started to speak before he could continue. And he started his descent, landing about a foot from the edge of the river. Jen was now free to pay attention to what Akemi and Anzu were saying.

Anzu hadn’t been kidding about the insults. “You know each other well, I s—”

“Is that a germ?”

Jen’s head snapped up to look at Cheeto, still standing by the river and pointing—as well as his little hand could point, anyway—at the river.

“No. See, germs are so small, you can’t see them.” Despite not having to look to answer the question, Jen walked over. She was curious what he was pointing at.

It appeared to be an empty chip bag, floating there in the murky brown water. Normally that would have been the end of it, and Jen would go back, but there was something else. The water around the bag formed a sort of whirlpool, carrying the bag around in circles, even though the rest of the water was stagnant.

“...That’s weird.”

Cheeto nodded at what Anzu said. He didn’t want to make anyone mad.

One word in particular had caught Jen’s attention. “Portal?” She turned to Anzu, then Akemi. “What do you mean? Or…did I hear that wrong?” She looked back down at the whirlpool. A portal in the river? That had certainly come out of nowhere. But if something like Digimon could exist in this world, she supposed anything was possible.

Cheeto seemed confused, too. “Por...tal?” His face snapped into a big grin smile. “Like the pretty light I went through?”

“What pretty light?”

“The pretty light that took me from the Digimon to the hu-mon!” He looked back into the river. “But that doesn’t look very glowy.”

“Wait, so...” Jen closed her eyes to think. “Does that mean...?” She closed her to collect her thoughts. “So there’s some kind of otherworldly business going on?”