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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Jul 6, 2018 22:54:39 GMT
Leith was hanging around Miyashita Park just because it was one of those very rare days so beautiful that the young man didn't feel like spending it in doors. Besides, the Tamer was quickly becoming more active than he'd ever been in his life since meeting Veemon and even a few other freaks like himself with the strange machines and still stranger partnership. But you know what? It's growin' on me, Leith contemplated as he stared at a park bench a little across the way from the tree he was leaning back on. I'll never forget that thing, I bet. The bench that captured Leith's attention was the same one underneath which he'd found the black and blue digivice he now wore on his wrist... and the digimon that apparently came with it.
Of course, an ordinary park bench couldn't distract the young man for long, at least not while his guitar was in hand. The young man had learned it was quite the pleasure to play in public. Sometimes he'd attract company or, on the best days, a small audience. He never did see any one ever again, but that wasn't really the point.
"'A tous le monde,
A tous les amis, Je vous aime, Je dois partir,' These are the last words, I'll ever speak,
And they'll set me free,"
Unfortunately, Leith's session was then interrupted by his phone vibrating, so he paused to look at it. Veemon, from within the digivice, asked him, "Why'd you stop? I liked it!"
"Sorry. It's just an email. Nothing you've never seen before." The email was listed as being from one Niko Sasanishi, which was not a name Leith recognized. He would have just deleted the message, were it not for the preview text.
You're the guy with the Veemon, right? If you are, head to the Shibuya Train Terminal. I'm a friend, and I want to meet you.
Leith opened the email, but it seemed there was nothing else to it but that. "Hey, Veemon? Read this and tell me if you smell bullshit as strongly as I do." After saying that, Leith held the phone over his left wrist, which perhaps looked a little odd but was the only way he could let Veemon read the email. While he waited for Veemon to go through the short message, though, the young man identified his own anxiety symptoms: tight throat, heavier breathing, and a small, silent burp. Someone knows about me and Veemon, but clearly they couldn't be bothered to reveal anything about themselves, he observed. I don't like this. I feel like I did when the neighbors in NC got robbed, waiting for my house to be next!
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jul 7, 2018 0:35:35 GMT
It was days like this that Colin rather liked. School was out for the time being, and here he was, spending time off from his normally hectic times in the digital world and instead strolling around Miyashita Park with his best friends Luke and Bellamy.
To the ordinary person, the three of them looked like a trio of senior high school first year boys - Colin being the tallest, with jet black hair and red-ish eyes; Luke being the shortest, with red hair and kind blue eyes, and Bellamy in between, with messy purple hair and mischievous green eyes. However, of the three, only one was really human. The other two were digimon that were wearing special devices called 'holosuits' that would cast a localized digital illusion over them that disguised them as humans. Well... it only worked on other humans anyway. Other digimon would be able to tell what they were.
"Oh yeah, Colin, we got any popcorn at home?" the purple haired digimon suddenly struck up conversation as the thought came to him. "Was thinkin' we could catch a movie or somethin' tonight"
"I... don't think we do, we'll get some on the way home" Colin said. All a very ordinary conversation, but, to the American-born boy, it still made him happy. Luke and Bellamy had really become his best friends since he had met them nearly two years ago, and he was glad that they could be with him. Since leaving the states 4 years ago, he had been a little lonely in his new life in Japan, but, with them around, it was pretty good.
Luke meanwhile steered them toward a guy who seemed to be playing music. The Elecmon had an appreciation for that kind of thing, being quite good at the guitar himself. Colin and Bellamy followed along, neither of them minding much. The weather and situation was already perfect, everything seemed to be at peace - people playing with their pets on the grass in the distance, some children nearby were playing soccer. A far cry from the tension that was happening in the digital world at the moment.
"Aw, he stopped" Luke mentioned as the young man ceased playing his guitar before they could approach to listen properly.
"Eh, can't have everythin' our way I guess" Bellamy shrugged. "Maybe you could play here next time, Luke-"
His line of conversation was interrupted by the soccer ball suddenly flying in his direction. Bellamy wasn't fast enough to avoid it, and it struck him smack dang on his head. Ow that hurt!
"HEY! Watch it ya little brats!" Bellamy snapped, rubbing his head as the soccer ball bounced off. The children simply stared at him in response. "What the heck are ya gawkin at?" he snapped further, them not apologizing was starting to get downright rude.
"Um... Bellamy..." Colin said, carefully. "Your holosuit, uh, kinda shorted out..."
Bellamy then realized with a start that the kids weren't staring at a teenage boy with lavender hair and ordinary clothes one would expect one to wear when walking around a park, but were in fact staring at a short, skinny creature with purple fur all over with white on his face and belly, having claws and a tail, and was wearing nothing but a red scarf and red gloves on his four-fingered paws.
"Uh..." the Impmon said, briefly looking down at his revealed form, then back up again. Welp, better play it cool. "Okay, okay, ya got me people!" he said loudly, assuming a cool pose, as more faces turned. "Before, ya thought you were dealin' with your average school-age anime boy, but when in fact you were dealin' with none other than the Impster himself! Hey, don't all mob me at once, form a line and I'll sign ya autographs", despite being a digimon, Bellamy was quite active on social media and assumed that having his identity revealed would garner attention.
Nobody was in fact approaching. Luke rolled his eyes and decided to put a stop to it before his brother embarrassed himself any further. "Yes, 'Impster', let me just push through this admiring crowd..." the holosuited Elecmon mimed doing so with invisible people. "Let's take a look at this thing..." he took Bellamy's holosuit emitter from its place on his ear. "Lessee... damn, it's cracked. We'll have to take it to the digital world for repairs".
"Really? Aw nuts!" Bellamy complained. For now he was stuck in this form for the moment. He shot another foul look at the kids that had caused this.
"It'll be okay, Bells, you still look kinda human-ish..." Colin said, hesitantly. "Let's just... get out of the open and we can figure out what to do from there".
With that, Colin would scurry Bellamy off to a more secluded area of the park, Luke following. Quite an eventful few moments indeed.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Jul 7, 2018 1:07:58 GMT
It wasn't until after the pair had already left that Veemon finally stopped reading and piped up, "Leith! I sense a digimon! Two of them!" with great urgency.
"Yeah, Veemon, you're a little late there." Leith had witnessed that entire exchange while he let Veemon scrutinize the email. The boy watched from the corner of his eyes, though, and used his long hair as a sort of veil to hide what he was actually looking at through it. "I've seen some pretty poorly hidden Tamer and digimon pairs, but that one really takes the cake." Leith took his phone back and pocketed it before he realized the detail he'd missed. "Wait, did you say two?"
"Yeah! Two!"
"What are the odds of there being not one but two other digimon around here?" Leith asked himself that rhetorically before covering his mouth with his hand, his classic thinking habit. "And what are the odds that, after I saw a digimon with the ability to disguise itself as a human, the other digimon isn't one of those two 'humans' who wasn't shocked by the sight of one?"
"Eh? Say that again?"
Leith didn't answer. Instead he packed his guitar, shouldered the case like a backpack, rose to his feet, and eyed the direction that the trio had walked off in curiously. The email momentarily flashed into his mind again as he slowly began to follow in the group's footsteps. There's no way one of them is Niko Sasanishi... is there? I mean, those guys were all speaking plain English - and that one guy was American by the look and sound of him. By the time he had followed the group to a more empty area, he had worked out, Nah... I've never seen these guys before, and they didn't actually see Veemon.
Still, Leith was curious about this technology - and to find out about that second digimon. After all, if it wasn't one of those two boys, then Leith might have been dealing with another rogue like the Elecmon at the mall. About five feet back from the traveling pair, Leith raised his voice and made sure he was audible when he called, "I guess those little machines have a downside, don't they? Looks like they're more delicate than an iPhone!" in an accent that sounded like a bit of a hybrid between southern and northeastern USA. The young man supposed he wouldn't have to introduce himself as a Tamer; the black and blue D-3 on his wrist was proof enough of that. "Hey, guys, I don't mean to bother you, but my buddy Veemon-"
"-Hiya!" Veemon enthusiastically greeted from within the device.
"-sensed two digimon around. Is one of you that digimon, or are we gonna have to protect the park from some tree-eating monster?"
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jul 7, 2018 5:35:37 GMT
After Colin had led Bellamy and Luke to a part of the park that was thick with bushes and trees, he turned around to kneel and face his partner so they were at eye level.
"Well, Bells, seems like we've got a choice" he said. "Cut our day off short and head back to the digital world, or you can pretend to be a stuffed toy or a pet animal for a while".
"Aw man, those choices suck" Bellamy pouted. "Buut, well, as long as we can come home before nightfall it shouldn't be too bad, right? Digital world time goes faster than it does on Earth after all" he scratched his chin in thought.
Before he could answer that, Luke made a throat clearing noise to indicate that they weren't alone. Colin turned to see the young man who had been playing the guitar earlier approaching. He was speaking in English too. Colin fought off the urge to hide Bellamy, he saw the digivice. So, this other person was a partner of digimon too?
"Er, yeah, hi there" he said, a little off-balance. He blinked as he saw the aforementioned Veemon waving from inside the digivice, on the screen. Then the stranger mentioned that there were in fact two digimon here.
"Ah, yes, about that, I'm the second digimon" Luke said, giving an awkward wave. "I've got a working holosuit, and my brother here doesn't".
"Sure, rub it in" Bellamy drawled. "Well, suppose we can all talk freely now. I'm Bellamy, this is my partner Colin, and my brother Luke. And heh, if there was a tree eatin' monster that'd probably be Colin's sister's job to figure out".
The Impmon glanced at the device that held the Veemon. "Not for nothin', but, ain't it kinda cramped in there?" he asked while pointing, curious by its function.
Colin meanwhile relaxed a little, supposing these two meant no harm. In fact he was always okay with meeting a new face, especially one that was in on the world of digimon.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Jul 7, 2018 16:09:35 GMT
"I'm Leith, and he's Veemon. No special name."
"And it's surprisingly comfy!"
"We've never been to the digital world, so wherever it is you get a holosuit from, we haven't seen it. Man, I thought I'd have trouble meeting Americans or Tamers, and now here's one of each right in front of me." Leith raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the trio then. "I've never seen a tamer with two digimon, though. That's a new one."
"You saying you wanna replace me?"
Leith knew the digimon was jesting, so he calmly answered, "No, Veemon. I'm sayin' I want another one o' you!" Talk of the digital world brought Leith back to the train terminal and the mysterious email that had told him to go there. Maybe it would be safer to go with company. So he proposed, "Hey, were you heading to the digital world right now? I wasn't, but I know the train station's on the way. Why don't we hang out a little, walk together?" Leith hesitated then before adding nervously, "And, uh, unrelated question: do any of you by pure chance know a Niko Sasanishi?"
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jul 8, 2018 2:14:36 GMT
"Leith, huh?" Colin repeated, then smiled. "Cool. Yeah, there's a lot of people raised in the US in this part of Tokyo, well, Shibuya and Roppongi anyway".
Leith seemed to be intrigued by the fact that Colin had two partners. "Yeah, it's a thing. These two hatched from the same egg when they were babies, so I'm told. And they're both my partners. Technically they're twins, but they're not that identical. Luke, wanna show them?"
Luke supposed that there was no harm, given that he had just outright said he was a digimon. So he reached up to his head and switched off the holosuit emitter, revealing his form as an Elecmon. Luke, like Bellamy, showed some differences to others of the same species. For instance, his fur was purple where it would normally be blue, he stood on his hind legs rather than walk on all fours, and he wore a blue scarf around his neck in the same way that his brother did. He was also notably about 3-4 inches shorter than Bellamy as well.
"So, this is it pretty much" he said with a shrug. "As twins we work, digivolve and fight together, but individually we're not as strong as a single digimon..."
"Says you" Bellamy scoffed, but in a joking way. It was true though. Furthermore it was twice the strain on Colin to keep them both healthy, but, in the greater scope of things, the three were by now something like family.
Leith then mentioned that he overheard them talking about going back to the digital world. He offered to go with them. "Sure, that'll be fine" Colin said. As for the person he mentioned, only the first name sounded familiar. "Well, we're friends with a guy called Niko Henare, but the name Sasanishi doesn't sound familiar, sorry. Is he missing or something like that?".
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Jul 8, 2018 3:47:33 GMT
As soon as the Elecmon dropped his illusion, Veemon saw the reaction coming and preempted it. Soon as Leith jumped back, Veemon wisely intervened with, "Leith, that's not the same Elecmon. He doesn't even look the same!" Yes, the young man could see this for himself after a moment, but the initial shock still took a second to wear off. That was Leith's first and thus far only combat experience, after all. "Me and Leith got in a scrap with an Elecmon a bit ago," the digimon then proceeded to exposit from with in the digivice, speaking for Leith.
One thing that helped the boy get over was how adorable Luke really looked to him in that scarf, not that Leith would ever acknowledge that.
"Right... uh, cool. So twins, that's cool! Must be a bitch to feed both if they eat like every other digimon I know."
"Hey!"
"Am I wrong?" No answer. Leith smilled cheekily, knowing he'd just won. "Anyway- Niko. No, whoever that is, I don't know 'em - though I don't know the other one either. I just got this weird-" Leith bit his tongue then. Why bother? Besides, if he was gonna use these three as his unwitting bodyguards, part of the point was for them to be unwitting. "Nah, not important. Let's just get outta here before 'Impster' attracts a mob of screaming fans."
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jul 9, 2018 2:03:17 GMT
The trio were a little surprised by Leith's reaction to Luke's reveal. Bellamy then snickered lightly. "Heh, fancy that, someone who had a run in with another Elecmon" he said. "Usually people act like that with me, since other Impmons can be pretty big jerks".
"Ah, well, sorry to hear that" Luke said, a little awkwardly. "But I wouldn't hurt anyone, well, unless they attack first of course".
Having two digimon was a lot of effort to feed? "Oh boy, tell me about it" Colin said, grinning. "They only weigh about 30-40 pounds on the outside, but, they eat about half their weight every day. No idea where it goes though" both of them were on the skinny side.
"Yeah, well, got a lot of energy" Bellamy shrugged. Digivolving tended to take a lot out of him.
Then Leith seemed to be a little awkward about how he knew this Niko person, hesitating mid-sentence. Colin raised an eyebrow, but decided to make nothing of it for the moment, supposing it wasn't his business. "Okay then" he said, shrugging. They should probably be on their way now. "Alrighty. Bells, mind if I carry you?"
"Eh, sure, beats walkin'" Bellamy said, then lithely jumped up on Colin's back, holding him around his collar. To others, it would look like Colin was carrying a large toy, just as long as the Impmon didn't talk or move too much.
From there, after Luke switched his holosuit back on, they began to make their way out of the park. Colin spoke up after a little while. "So, Leith, just curious, have you been to the digital world before?" he asked. Given that he knew about it he assumed he did, but best make sure.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Jul 9, 2018 3:45:05 GMT
Leith shook his head but then amended himself. "A second ago I said not, but that's not completely true. We went there once and it was-"
Veemon joined in the conversation to exclaim, "Amazing!"
At that same time, Leith groaned, "Awful." Leith gave his digivice a funny look before continuing on, "It was his idea. We took the river portal - our first mistake - and ended up in a desert. Then we almost got crushed, trapped, drowned, buried-"
"-and found the digimental of friendship!"
"Not that we've figured out how to actually use it yet."
"But we got it!"
Leith was forced to smile a little because of Veemon's unbreakable optimism. "Yeah, we got it. But frankly, the whole time I was more worried about getting home than seeing anything, so I'd say we haven't really seen the digital world for real. So I'd say I haven't really been there and experienced it for what it really is... also, no offense, but I'm kind of hoping it stays that way." Leith scrutinized the trio for a moment then. "From the looks of you guys I'd say you know it like the back of your... hand? Paw?"
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jul 9, 2018 9:45:57 GMT
Colin for a moment thought he was dealing with a new tamer that would be going to the digital world for the first time, but did a double-take when he admitted that they actually have.
"Ah... the river route, yeah... bit of a risky way to go, but, that seems to be how a lot of people go for the first time" Luke remarked. He was then rendered silent by what happened next. "Oh... dear" the holosuited Elecmon stated.
Bellamy shivered a little at the word 'drowned', which Colin felt. And the teen understood why, Bellamy was something of an aquaphobe, he hated immersion in water because he couldn't swim or even fight effectively underwater, what with it making fire attacks impossible.
"Well... sorry to hear you went through that" Colin spoke carefully. "But you got your digimental, which is excellent! We got our digimentals early too, and, the journey really strengthened our relationship I think".
"Yup, that was terrific" Bellamy said, beaming. "We got our digimentals in the desert too. Mine was the one of Tenacity, and Luke's was the digimental of Compassion".
"Yeah, that's another thing about having twins as partners, double the effort to find digimentals and crests" Colin commented. He listened to Leith's last thoughts about how he was so scared the whole time he just wanted to come home. "Sorry to hear that you had a bad time there..." he began. "But I promise you, stick with us and go there through the Trailmon terminal, we'll keep you safe".
Leith noticed they seemed to be more experienced in the ways of the digital world. "Yep, ya got that right" Bellamy said, grinning. "We're officers of the PROFIT organization! It's our job to help keep the digital world free from illegal activities, and we do so with our buddy Daedalus, he flies us around the place to keep things cool".
"Bells, you're meant to be a toy, don't talk too loudly" Luke told his brother. Bellamy pouted in return, but didn't speak up again for the time being. By now they were about halfway to the Shibuya train station.
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Post by Leith, Veemon, and Shoutmon on Jul 9, 2018 13:57:55 GMT
At least, so Leith was finding, an advantage to living in a dense city was that many things were within reasonable walking distance. Leith did not find the news of this Daedalus had to take; mercenary digimon were already a concept with which Leith was familiar, and he assumed this Daedalus was one - or it was just the name of a plane or something, but either way the young man expected it wouldn't concern him anyway. "Well... hope you guys had an easier time of your little treasure hunts than we did." The boy took a moment to reconsider himself. "Then again, it might have been pretty lucky that we got dropped right outside that temple of all places in the first place."
"That's the spirit!" Veemon approved.
This 'PROFIT' thing confused Leith a little; it wasn't any group he'd ever heard of, nor did he even think of Tamers founding any such sort of influential groups at all. "Huh. You'd think the digital world would have its own police." Leith shook his head then. "Oh, well. If I can help it, that's not gonna be my problem. That place is... weird."
"Aww, come on!" Veemon insisted from within the digivice just then, "You know you had a good time! You even said so!"
"No, what I said was that it felt good to get through that gauntlet alive." Leith turned back to Colin then, his mind seemingly made up. "Thanks for the offer, and maybe I'll actually take it some time. But right now I want to keep my feet firmly on terra firma... or terra verus, I guess." Leith shrugged and gave an awkward, embarrassed smile. "Mom can hardly even get me to try a new restaurant, let alone a new dimension." If Leith had gotten his way, then these two would be going their separate ways soon; three quarters of the walk was behind the group.
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Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Jul 10, 2018 2:50:19 GMT
"Yeah, Bellamy got busted up pretty bad at the time" Luke answered Leith, much to Bellamy's chagrin. "The digimentals were guarded by a Thunderballmon. And... yeah" he let the remainder of the sentence remain unspoken, partly because it was obvious, and partly because of the glare his brother was giving him.
Leith seemed a little puzzled about the concept of tamer groups in the digital world. "Yeah, let's just say... the digital world isn't very well organized" Colin said. "But since so much of us humans are arriving there lately, we tend to work more effectively in teams. And, yeah, since those of us in PROFIT want the world to run smoothly so that digimon can go about their lives, we aim to do that".
"We ain't paladins or anythin', but, ya never know, doin' good deeds for a bit of down payment can keep the world goin'" Bellamy added. Those in PROFIT weren't necessarily saints, but, at least they followed a principle that almost everyone can get behind. Who knows? Maybe they might be able to bring a stable economy to the digital world eventually? Although with how things were going lately, that was unlikely.
Leith would keep their offer in mind for later, which was fine. Eventually, the trio arrived at the Shibuya railway station. Colin glanced across the street, giving a kind of guilty look to the building opposite. He knew that was where his elder sister worked as the chief of AEGIS, and knew that there was a camera pointed at the station the whole time to seek out digimon activity. He also knew that eventually she'd hear of him walking in with Bellamy on his back without a holosuit, so, he hoped that this wouldn't result in trouble down the line.
"Well then, here we are" Colin said to Leith. "I'll show you where to go from here if you want to head to the digital world without taking a dip in the river" he scratched the back of his head a little awkwardly.
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