Ep. 1: Pilot
Digimon: Brother Watch
“Is the camera rolling?”
“It’s been.”
“Well, you didn’t say anything!”
“Just start already.”
“Ahem. My name is Aoki Shinya, and Digimon are NOT real.”
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Six hours earlier, Yokozuna Elementary School.
Four boys walked out of the class as soon as the bell rang, having somewhere to be. Three stayed at their desks, finishing up classwork. One hastily scrubbed errors off of a math assignment. Or, he thought they were errors... he just didn’t know anymore! Seven sat in a circle, some on desks and some in chairs, gossiping about rumors and sports. Shinya was none of these boys.
“They’re calling them ‘Digimon’. short for digital monsters,” One boy replies to his friend.
Another shakes his head. “Well it was freaky! The lights went out, but the neighbor’s lights were still on.”
“Let me guess... then you heard a ssstraaaange voooice...” Six of the boys start laughing.
“It’s not funny, man! They’re real! I’m telling you!”
“Right, right. No, I’m just messing with you. I believe in them too.” And that’s how it started.
“Me too!” A third boy chimes in. “I mean, there’s some pretty compelling evidence.”
“They’re really cool! Real live yokai!” A fourth. And as he speaks, he makes the others larger.
“You’d have to be stupid not to believe at this point.” Two others nod along, making seven total, with twelve boys in the room. Whether on a deserted island or in a room full of children, there is nothing so frightening as a majority.
“What about you, Kenta? Do you think Digimon are real?”
“Sure,” Kenta doesn’t look up from his classwork, but agrees with the mob.
Grinning, Kenta’s inquirer turns to look for someone else, spotting a boy near a window looking out at the schoolyard. “And what do you think?”
That boy was Shinya.
“Hey! Did you hear me?” Not knowing Shinya’s name, the boy climbs off of the desk he was sitting on and jaunts over, putting his hands in his pockets. One of his friends places a hand on his shoulder, trying to catch his attention, but he brushes it off.
“...for babies.”
“What?” The boy scowls as Shinya turns to face him.
“Digimon aren’t real. They’re a made-up story. For babies,” Shinya answers, expressionless.
“Wow, he really doesn’t believe in them?”
“Is he stupid?”
“Guys, wait...”
“For babies?” The questioner juts out his lip and squeezes together his fists. “Who even says that?”
“My brother,” Shinya answers.
Sneering, his persecutor laughs. “Well, you’re brother’s a dumbass!”
“C’mon, Hiro, that’s too much.”
Bam! One right to the cheek, before Hiro can react; Shinya is on his feet, and Hiro is knocked against a desk, making a loud enough noise that the teacher standing outside the room can hear.
Hiro opens his mouth to speak, but as the teacher walks into the room, another boy lightly pushes him to get his attention.
“His brother’s dead, Hiro.”
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Shinya kicks his feet and sips a juicebox, watching the clouds go by.
“Thanks. And sorry.”
“‘S the least I could do.” Hiro holds his hands behind his head, sticking his tongue out to mop up any stray blood from Shinya’s outburst. “And hey... maybe you’re right about the Digimon thing, y’know?”
“Dont...” Shinya frowns.
“No, I’m serious! I mean, with all the rumors, you’d think there’d be some concrete proof. But there’s nothing!” Hiro pounds a fist in his hand. “I mean I’m talking hard evidence. Real pictures of these things in motion. I’ve never seen any!”
Shinya sighs, continuing to stare out at the clouds. He wishes he could just leave this annoying conversation and go home, but he can’t.
“Hey. You know, maybe we could convince them. Get proof that they’re not real,” Hiro suggests.
Shinya furrows his brow. “Yeah? We could do that?”
“I dunno. It’s an idea.”
Shinya stands up quickly. “My brother’s not a dumbass.”
Hiro stands with him. “Sorry, I know, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Shinya shakes his head. “It’s what you think, right? That Digimon are real, and he was an idiot for not believing right? Well, it’s not your fault for believing that. But you’re wrong.” Shinya looks at Hiro. “Where do the rumors say Digimon come from?”
“Uh... well, all over the place. They’re related to TVs and phones and stuff going crazy.” Hiro frowns, worried he won’t be able to help, and still feeling guilty and sympathetic. But then, it comes to him. “Oh, there’s a house for rent in my neighborhood! Somebody saw the lights flickering at night!”
“Then we’ll go there at ten. And bring your phone,” Shinya’s gears start to turn.
Hiro can only nod in agreement.
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“Ahem. My name is Aoki Shinya, and Digimon are NOT real.” Shinya nods to the camera before turning to the door of the house. All the lights are off, with the flashlight on Hiro’s phone serving as the only source of illumination.
Shinya doesn’t hesitate, reaching for the doorknob and turning it. “They left it open for anyone to look at the property... so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Right,” Hiro agrees audibly, but hidden by the dark, his eyebrows nervously contort as he watches Shinya take his first steps inside the potentially haunted building.
“Turn on the lights,” Shinya requests as he follows the light beams from Hiro’s phone deeper into the house’s foyer and into a living room. Most of the furniture left with the house’s former owners, but a rug and some shelves remain to show the room’s purpose, and a large ceiling fan hangs in the middle of the room. Shinya’s sneakers squeak against the faux-wooden floors until Hiro finds a light switch near the entrance and flips it on.
Instantly, the space turns from ominous to inviting, and the whole home takes on a much lighter vibe, the bright light bulbs coating the room in a white glow that brings out the allure of the lavender walls and rose-tinted rug.
“Maybe you should move here,” Hiro jokes. “We’d be neighbors!”
“Quiet,” Shinya replies. “We’re here to gather evidence.”
“What evidence? Nothing’s happening.”
“Shh.” Shinya waves a hand to Hiro and stands in silence for a minute. Hearing nothing in response, he speaks, “That’s the point. We’ve just gotta be here for a while and prove there aren’t any...”
Suddenly, the lights in the room fade out and back in with a low humming noise.
“...disturbances.” Shinya turns to look at Hiro, puzzled.
“It’s real...” Hiro murmurs to himself. Shinya shoots him a squint.
“We should check the circuit breaker,” Shinya reasons. “Maybe one of the switches is loose.” He steps forward onto the rose carpet. The soft fabric muffles his footsteps, until the sole of his shoe brushes against something hard.
As the lights flicker again, Hiro starts to get nervous. “Maybe... this was a bad idea.” Shinya bends down to pick up whatever his shoe brushed against, ignoring Hiro.
Just in front of him, camouflaged against the carpet lies a pink digital wrist watch, with a rubber band. As he reaches for the band, he feels a shock on his fingertip. “AHHH!” Surprised at the sudden pain, he lets out a bit of an overly dramatic scream. But as the pain fades, he reaches for the watch again, this time grabbing it without a hitch.
“Do you see this, Hiro?” Shinya turns to look at his partner in crime.
“Hiro?” The door to the building is flung open and Hiro is nowhere to be seen.
“Thanks...” Shinya sarcastically remarks before frowning. As if on cue, the lights go completely out in the building. Shinya groans, but also feels a sudden twinge of fear at being alone in such a dark place.
He takes a deep breath.
“My name is Aoki Shinya, and Digimon are NOT real.”
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Shinya places the pink watch onto his desk and pulls out a chair, plopping down into a seat. Now at home, in his own lighting, the watch doesn’t seem as mysterious as it did previously. It’s really just a simple design with a black screen and a pink rubber wristband to add a little elasticity to it.
He debates putting the watch on for a moment. What’s the harm? Unclasping the band, he holds it up to his wrist, but hesitates. Is this some sort of Digimon device? What’s going to happen?
Digimon aren’t real.
Shinya grips the device a bit tighter. Then, he flicks it back onto his desk. “Pink is a girl color, anyway,” he rationalizes.
Nobody dresses like that, bro. You look like a nerd.
Shinya sighs and slouches back in his chair. He starts to regret having come home in the first place. After all, it’s not like he’ll ever really be ‘home.’ He picks up the watch and opens a drawer, tossing it in. Then, he holds his head in his hands, mirroring a motion he’d seen his teenage brother do when he was frustrated.
Loud, booming footsteps catch Shinya’s attention and force him alert and out of his slump. His heart skips a beat as he hears the door open and slam shut loudly. He pushes his chair away from his desk and leaps to his feet. Clambering to the door to his room, he twists the knob and thrusts it open.
“ARAKI! ...Oh.”
Shinya feels a mixture of embarrassment and grief as he sees only his father. These feelings deepen as the older gentleman takes on a pained smile.
“Shinya.” His father’s embrace is bittersweet. “You didn’t come home after school. We were so worried. But, we couldn’t come look for you... I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“Where’s mom?” Shinya asks, as usual these days.
His father smiles back at him. “She’s in the hospital.”
Shinya’s heart sinks. “Is something wrong? Is she gonna be okay? Is she--”
“No, no, she’s fine. She’s perfectly healthy. Nothing went wrong,” His father reassures.
“Shinya... the baby... came early.”
“Shinya, you’re a big brother now.”
Shinya’s expression turns from one of panic and fear to shock and anticipation in an instant. “Really? She’s here?” He smiles brightly. For just a moment, this feels like a home again, like a family again.
“She’s in the hospital. Would you like to go see her now?”
Shinya nods rapidly. “Yes! Yes, please!”
Shinya’s father starts to stand up. “Let me go grab the keys, and I’ll drive you.”
He’s stopped by Shinya’s hand grabbing his jacket sleeve.
“Dad... is this real?”
Back in Shinya’s room, tucked away in a drawer, the watch’s screen turns on for the first time.
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Shinya’s hand clasps the knob of a desk drawer and pulls it open. The watch sits in the same place, with the screen off and the band unclasped. It’s in exactly the place he left it.
He reaches into the drawer with one hand, his large fingers gliding across the soft mat laid out at the bottom of the drawer, until he touches something metal.
Shinya pulls the screwdriver out of the drawer by the metal end and then lets the handle fall into his hands. Tilting it upright with a flick of the wrist, Shinya inspects the tip of the screwdriver, with the cold gaze of a veteran repairman.
“What are you doing now?” A young, enthusiastic voice asks Shinya. He glances in the direction of the voice.
“I need a smaller screwdriver,” Shinya replies, only it’s not Shinya. The voice is much deeper, with a bit of twang that his eight-year-old self lacked. He sounds jaded; stronger, but not wiser.
“Why?”
“Because I need to look at the internal components.”
“Why?”
“...Because I can’t find a problem with it yet, so I need to check to see if the battery is swollen or otherwise damaged.”
“...” For a moment, the voice seems satisfied. For just a moment, there is peace...
“Why?”
“You know what, Naomi?” Shinya tucks in his lips and puts the screwdriver down on his desk next to an upside down cream-colored phone and a heavily decorated, flowery pink case.
Naomi stares up at him, her large, innocent eyes not showing any sign of emotion. She tucks her hands behind her back, tilting her head slightly as if to ask yet another question, wordlessly.
“...I’m gonna go ask Dad for a screwdriver,” Shinya folds under the pressure and leaves his desk, walking out of the room.
“He-heh...” Naomi smiles proudly, having won victory in the game of ‘get big brother to elicit emotion’, a game which she often played but one she didn’t really know why she enjoyed so much. As Shinya left his room, Naomi’s young eyes darted around for a new game to play until he returned.
Unfortunately for Naomi, Shinya’s room is fairly boring; a bed that’s not bouncy, a desk that’s not a good hiding place. A computer with no fun games, just shooting games and reading games...
Maybe my phone got better on its own, Naomi wonders as she starts to climb up into her brother’s chair to get a good look at it.
Bang! Naomi’s elbow hits an open drawer during her ascent. “Ow!” She instinctively cries, but there’s no pain, just a weird tingling sensation that breaks her train of thought. Forgetting all about her phone, she turns to the drawer instead.
A wrench, some screws, a bottle of nail polish remover, a mostly-used tube of super glue, a pill bottle filled with pennies... These things are interesting, sure, but the most eye-catching thing in the drawer for Naomi is of course the digital watch, with a bright pink band.
Naomi doesn’t stop to wonder why her brother might have such an item in his possession, or even whether he might not want her to mess with it. She simply lifts it by the rubbery pink strap and examines it up close.
She scans the device for a power switch. However, she quickly gives up and simply places the watch on her wrist without turning it on, just to see how it would look.
Snap! As the rubber strap locks in place, Naomi immediately feels a rush of blood to her head and suddenly scrambles to stay aloft as her weight shifts uncontrollably and her brother’s chair comes crashing down to the floor. “Ah... ah!”
Crash!
“Waaaaaa...” Naomi clutches her head and starts to cry as the door to Shinya’s room swings open quickly.
“Naomi, are you alright???” Shinya grimaces as he looks down at his sister, crying while clutching her head. “Dad just left for work... are you gonna be okay? Should I call him?”
Naomi continues to cry, not answering her brother, though she does glance in his direction to see if he really does care or not. However, as she turns her neck toward her brother’s sneakers, she catches something in the corner of her eye. A large, round object, peeking out from behind the door frame.
A large, round object... [https://i.ibb.co/TKc75Qr/6c5752e6-f2eb-4ec5-8ada-90ccdd231158.png]
Shinya sighs. “I’ll go run after him I guess...”
“Wait,” Naomi sniffles back tears and points behind the door. “What’s that?”
Shinya looks over in the direction Naomi points. “Hmm?” He sees only the door, and opens it further in order to see if there’s something behind it.
“Wait, don--” Naomi calls out to Shinya to stop before he hits the object with the door, but watches in surprise as the door goes right through it and the object barely moves, only being slightly tilted backwards. As it rocks back and forth, now in front of the door instead of behind it, Naomi starts to recognize it as being in the shape of an egg.
“Whoa!” She smiles.
“What is it?” Shinya raises an eyebrow. “Are you all better now?”
Naomi pushes herself up off the ground and crawls over to the egg, reaching a hand out toward it as Shinya watches her, confused.
“Bro, where did you get this?” Naomi asks as she tentatively pokes the egg with her finger. To her surprise, the egg reacts, feeling the full force of her poke and retreating backwards as though it were a balloon, without any weight.
“Get what?” Shinya looks down at Naomi’s finger and draws a trail from it all the way to a pink watch on her wrist. “Hey! You’ve been going through my stuff!”
Naomi is too entranced to care. She pokes the egg again, and watches its almost lifelike movements in response. She begins to poke it rhythmically, and watch it rock back and forth like a metronome.
“Hey. Naomi? Hey! Listen.” Shinya starts to get annoyed at his sister’s game of make-believe, then stops himself. “You know what Naomi, knock yourself out.” Stepping over his sister’s legs, he makes his way to his desk and pulls his chair back upright, returning to his repair work.
After poking the egg some more, Naomi turns her attention to the watch on her wrist. Pressing a button on the side, the screen lights up and shows a pixel animation of the same egg she sees before her.
“Ah!” She exclaims in delight. “So it’s a magic watch...” She looks over at Shinya as she speaks, hoping her words catch his attention. They don’t.
Sighing, she starts to lose interest. She unclasps the watch and begins removing it from her wrist, but stops when she sees the egg start to fade away.
“Oh, wait don’t go!” She reclasps the watch and the egg reappears. “Aha... so if I take it off, Mr. Egg goes away.” Naomi talks through her ‘experiment’ out loud, as usual trying to catch her brother’s attention.
“Hmm... wonder if I can pick it up.” Naomi reaches both hands under the egg and feels a tingle on her fingers as the egg slowly rises off the ground. It’s surprisingly weightless, and easy to carry, despite being very large relative to her tiny body. “You’re so light, Mr. Egg!”
“Hey, bro, look I’m--” Naomi turns quickly, but the egg isn’t gripped very well, and as soon as she starts to turn, it falls back down onto the floor.
Crack!
“Eh!” Naomi’s eyes widen as she stares vacantly into the distance, just past her empty hands still in the position she was holding the egg in. “Mr. Egg... I-I killed him...”
Shinya looks up from Naomi’s phone which lies in several pieces on his desk. He frowns at Naomi. “You have a very dark imagination...”
“He-heh...” Naomi meets her brother’s gaze and laughs nervously, happy to not have been punished for being reckless. She turns back around slowly to face the egg.
‘Mr. Egg’ appears to be fine at first glance, though upon further inspection, Naomi notices a small crack near his bottom. “Eh?” She watches as the crack widens a bit and a piece of eggshell chips off.
“Oh no I really did break it??” Naomi puts a hand to her mouth. She watches as the egg starts to rumble on the ground for a moment, before stopping. “Wait... is there something inside Mr. Egg...?”
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“Hey. Get down from there.” Shinya hears his bed creaking without looking up from his repair work.
Naomi stands with her bare feet pressing down into the bedsheets, struggling a bit to keep her balance as she holds the egg tightly with both hands.
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“Okay Mr. Egg, this might hurt a little but it’s time for you to come out now...” Naomi grins, excited at the possibilities.
From the small crack in the egg, a black pupil in a pink eye looks out at the room and sees Shinya. Looking around at the rest of the room, the eye is surprised to see so much new, and surprised at how high up it is relative to its earlier position on the floor.
Then, a feeling of weightlessness suddenly comes over it.
Splat!
“Pyuuuu!”
Naomi gasps as she hears the creature speak for the first time as its egg shatters and disappears. She jumps down from the bed and kneels in front of the strange white creature with glowing pink eyes.
image [https://i.ibb.co/QMFYvKw/05b758fa-082d-4340-996c-a72ef99c5f03.png]
“Pyu...” The little thing makes odd noises of discomfort and its eyes narrow at Naomi.
“‘Pyu’... your first word!” Naomi exclaims in the way she imagines a parent would. “Hey, bro, what does ‘Pyu’ mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything, you made it up,” Shinya answers, shaking his head.
“You can make up words??” Naomi smiles with her mouth open at the little white blob and pokes one of the three odd lumps on top, watching it bounce around rhythmically similar to how the egg would bounce around before.
Sighing again, Shinya looks toward the window as he starts to hear rain. He reaches for his headphones and puts them on, turning on some music to drown out the noise.
“So... can you talk?” Naomi asks.
“Pyu!”
“Is that your name?”
“Pyu! Pyu!”
“...Okay, if you can say something other than ‘pyu’, say ‘pyu’!”
The little creature thinks for a moment, but ultimately remains silent.
Naomi takes a deep breath and puffs out her cheeks to think.
She tries communicating using its own language. “Pyu! Pyu!”
“Pyu! Pyu!” The creature repeats.
“Pyu?”
“Pyu, pyu-pyu.”
“Pyu pyu pyu.” Naomi nods along.
“Pyu!” The creature blinks its eyes happily.
“He-heh...” I have no idea what it’s saying!
With her eyes closed as a reciprocal gesture, Naomi can only barely see a flash of a white glow, like someone was shining a flashlight on her while she slept. When she opens them, suddenly, her little friend looks a lot different.
image [https://i.ibb.co/64gCJJD/b1b8fbd8-1303-46a6-a76a-42ad639d1a05.png]
“It got bigger!!” Naomi leaps backward, startled at first by the sudden change. Her formerly white little monster was now purple, and it had grown a tail and little hand-like nubs. But perhaps the most notable change was the mouth.
“You’re still small, though,” Naomi quickly realizes, standing up and looking down at the little monster.
“Hey, who are you callin’ small, you little--”
Naomi lets out a shrill scream. “You can talk now?!?”
“Uh-huh!” The purple blob stretches out its nubs and nearly faceplants into the floor with a nodding motion.
Shinya yanks off his headphones. “Naomi!” He looks over at her, swiveling his chair around. He then closes his eyes and angrily shakes his head. “Don’t scream like that. I thought you were in danger.”
Naomi points down. “He startled me!”
“SHINYA!!” The creature whips his tail into the ground with great force, propelling himself into the air and straight for Shinya’s face, which he latches onto. “Shinya!! I waited so long to meet you... you have no idea!”
Shinya turns his face toward the ground where Naomi was pointing, talking over the monster. “There’s nothing there.”
Naomi giggles. “He’s on your face now! Can you really not see him?”
The creature hears this and loosens his grip, falling slightly to where only his arm nubs are attached to Shinya’s face. He looks up into Shinya’s eyes and widens his pupils, pouting his lips slightly. “Sh-shinya... you can see me, right, buddy? Pal? Bro?”
Shinya shakes his head, unintentionally loosening the monster’s grip and causing it to tumble onto his desk with an “Oof!”
“Naomi, listen. It’s fine to play pretend, and have an imagination. Do what makes you happy. But you can’t be screaming like that. One of these days you’ll be in real danger, and no one will know because we won’t be able to tell if you’re being serious or not.”
Naomi rolls her eyes. “This IS serious! Look! He’s RIGHT there!”
This time, when Naomi points, Shinya takes note of the watch again. He can’t remember exactly when he got it, but he always knew there was something mysterious about it...
“Let me see that watch.” Shinya holds out his hand.
Naomi remembers when she almost took it off, and Mr. Egg started to fade away...
“No!”
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Shinya winces a bit, not having expected her to fight him on this.
“Ah! Wait, Naomi, that’s a good idea!” The monster smiles at Naomi, grabbing her attention. “If he puts it on, he’ll be able to see me, and he’ll know I’m his partner!”
“Oh!” Naomi smiles. “Okay, then, umm... what’s your name?”
“Jikochuumon!”
Shinya frowns as Naomi starts to smile at him.
“Jigashoomon says you can have the watch as long as you agree to put it on.”
“No, no, no it’s ‘Jikochuumon’--”
“Fine, whatever, just hand it over.”
Naomi nods and starts undoing the watch.
Jikochuumon chimes in, “Just wait, Shinya... it’s finally time for you to meet your Digimon partner!”
“Digimon?” Naomi chirps, undoing the strap and watching Jikochuumon disappear. “Oh! Of course!” She smiles.
“Bro, Jiga... this little guy is your Digimon!”
As the watch falls into his hands, Shinya suddenly recalls the circumstances that it came from.
My name is Aoki Shinya, and Digimon are...
“Not real.” Shinya’s face goes pale as he grips the watch tightly and puts it back into his drawer.
“Hey!” Naomi gasps. “You’re supposed to put it on!”
Shinya shakes his head and pulls something off his desk.
“Here’s your phone, it’s fixed. Go play games on it or something, I have school work.”
“What?” Naomi stares. “You liar! You said you’d put it on!”
“Naomi, Digimon are NOT real. You can play pretend all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s just a stupid fantasy, okay? And I’m not gonna encourage you to waste your life chasing ghost stories! Sometimes you just have to accept that the world we live in sucks, and I was trying not to get into it because you’re too young to understand, but that’s the truth okay?”
Silently, Naomi’s chin presses up her bottom lip slightly as her eyes start to get wet. Eventually, the dam breaks, and she runs out of the room without being able to restrain her tears.
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With the lights out, Shinya’s room is pitch black save for a clock screensaver on his computer monitor, displaying the current time in a digital format. Shinya lies in bed, sound asleep, with his blinds closed to the stars and moon.
However, a second light source enters the room as the door slowly creaks open and a pair of young, mischievous eyes poke through. Naomi’s cotton socks mask her footsteps with quiet shuffling as she walks slowly and steadily to Shinya’s dresser.
The drawer, however, almost gives her away as a loud, wood-rubbing noise makes Naomi’s rescue operation a bit less stealthy. However, as Naomi holds her breath, Shinya remains still in bed. She quickly reaches into the drawer and grabs the watch, putting it on.
“IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME!!”
Naomi nearly screams but covers her mouth just in time, looking in horror at the rotund, hairy Digimon in front of her.
image [https://i.ibb.co/YD8Vbfb/4ee9e8a4-35b5-4d68-aa32-b098d9d896d3.png]
“What? Oh yeah, I evolved, duh! I’m Sutekimon,” The fat feline nonchalantly states. He has many of the same features as Jikochuumon, like the three protruding head spikes, the sparkling pink eyes, the tail; but he’s much more of a complete package, sporting stubby legs to walk around on and a pair of awkwardly-sized but functioning arms, one of which is adorned with a black, spiky band that resembles the one Jikochuumon had on his tail.
Naomi puts a finger to her mouth, flabbergasted.
“Ah, you’re a bit slow, I guess,” Sutekimon rolls his eyes, then shouts, “HE CAN’T HEAR ANYTHING I SAY.”
Naomi flinches and scrunches up her nose, but looks over and sees Shinya hasn’t moved at all.
“That jerk won’t listen no matta what I do!” Sutekimon raises both his arms and shakes his head, resigned to his fate. “I keep shoutin’, ‘Sutekimon! Sutekimon! My name is Sutekimon!’ and he just goes right on sleepin’.”
Naomi frowns apologetically and reaches a hand out to touch Sutekimon’s fluff. To her surprise, she can almost feel the sensation of petting a cat, though her arm still goes right through if she’s not careful.
“Mmm... oh that’s nice...” Sutekimon starts to purr, then stops himself. “Oy, let’s get out of here before you get in trouble.
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Naomi plops down on her bed with the lights on, looking down at Sutekimon licking himself on her rug. He seems to have trouble reaching some areas and eventually just settles on licking his paws for the most part.
“So you ‘evolved?’”
“Yep!” Sutekimon looks up from licking himself, placing his front paws behind his head and laying down with his legs crossed, as if he was looking for an excuse to stop cleaning himself. “First I was YukimiPunimon. Then, Jikochuumon. Now, I’m Sutekimon!”
“Do you have to have so many names? It’s confusing.”
“You’re the one’s with the confusing names!” Sutekimon clicks his tongue. “Who ever heard of ‘Naomi’ or ‘Shinya?’’
“Those are common names in Japan,” Naomi answers.
“Well, they aren’t in the Digital World!”
“Is that where you’re from?”
“Yep.” Sutekimon answers quickly, but then hesitates. “At least, I think so. I don’t really remember anything past today. I mean, I was born today, so I don’t know how I could be from another world.” He sighs. “Beh, who cares anyway?”
Naomi looks at her watch, and presses a button to turn the screen on, revealing a little picture of a pixelated Sutekimon, which makes her smile. “So this watch lets me see you?”
“It’s supposed to be Shinya’s watch,” Sutekimon points out, pouting. “To be honest, I don’t know why it works on you. It should be just for him.”
“Oh... sorry.” Naomi apologizes, looking down at her wrist with a bit of guilt and picking at the strap.
“Ah! No no no, don’t beat yourself up!” Sutekimon stands up straight and walks over to Naomi, putting his paw on her hand. “Shinya may be my partner, but he’s also a huge jerk!”
“No he isn’t!” Naomi replies, offended. “Shinya is the best big brother in the world!”
“Oh is he? What kinda big brother would call me a ‘stupid fantasy?’” Sutekimon raises an eyebrow, challenging Naomi to argue with him. She doesn’t.
“Face it, we’re better off without ‘im. He doesn’t really care about either of us. He doesn’t even know my name.”
Naomi picks at one of her fingernails, her whole brow line tensed up. She would cry if she hadn’t lost all her tears already.
Sutekimon notices this and feels a twinge of guilt. “Beh, what do I know? I just met the guy. And look it’s not like it’s your fault either way, right? Just relax, you’ve got your big bro Sutekimon here now, and I’ll protect you!” Sutekimon smiles and holds up his arms in a pose as if flexing his muscles, though his noodly arms don’t look any more impressive when he does so.
Naomi sniffles and rubs her eyes, then looks over to find Sutekimon sniffling as well.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to cry...”
“No, shhh...” Sutekimon silences her.
He closes his eyes and sniffs more. When he opens his eyes, his pupils have thinned down to the black needles of a predatory cat.
“There’s a baddie nearby.”
Naomi gets a bit scared. “A baddie? Like, a bad guy?”
“Bad Digimon.” Sutekimon nods. “Stay here, I’ll take care of it.” As he says these words, Naomi’s lights flicker off and back on again, and she hears a beep from the dishwasher turning itself back on after the brief power outage, which makes her jolt.
“Wait. You’re leaving?”
“Just for a sec. This one’s trouble, if I don’t deal with it, you could be in danger.” Sutekimon walks over to Naomi’s door. He reaches up for her handle and gets a hand on it barely, but can’t reach high enough to turn it.
“Oh yeah.” Sutekimon phases through the door.
“W... wait!” Naomi leaps up from bed, quickly pulling a coat over her pajamas and slipping on a pair of flats. She opens her door just in time to see Sutekimon starting to head down the stairs, and follows him down and out of the apartment.
As Naomi nears the bottom of the stairs, the lights overhead flicker on and off again.
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In Shinya’s room, he hears the dishwasher beep back to life for a second time, and this time turns over in bed. He pulls his covers off and rubs his eyes open, and is immediately met with the sight of an open drawer.
Enraged, he flips his lights on, puts on his clothes from earlier in the day and dashes to Naomi’s room, throwing open her door.
“Naomi! I told you--” Shinya stops in his tracks as he finds his sister’s light on, her bed undone, and a pair of shoes missing. “Naomi!” Panicked, he reaches for his phone to call his Dad at work. However, he looks down at the screen and sees numbers dancing chaotically. Frantically unlocking the phone and pressing the button to dial, he watches the keypad rearrange itself before his eyes as if tallying milliseconds.
----------------------------------------
“Sutekimon!” Naomi calls out, stepping forward on the sidewalk and rounding a corner. On her left, a large industrial building stands with all the lights out, seemingly with no one in it. A dark road to her right is lit up only by the occasional streetlamp, and a four-way intersection of lights, though only a single car passes by without noticing her. The only thing separating her from the road is a silver railing, though it’s almost as tall as she is and has large gaps all throughout.
As Naomi scans the road, she spots Sutekimon lying in the middle of the street, licking himself on his arm. In the shape of a small cut, blue particles spew out a short distance before vanishing in a similar manner as his egg had previously when he hatched. “Ow ow ow...” Sutekimon continues to lick himself until he catches a glimpse at Naomi out of the corner of his eye.
“Naomi! Run! Get out of here!!” He yells, instantly standing upright on two legs, cupping his large hands over his mouth, then pointing back away in the direction Naomi came.
“Come back, Sutekimon!” Naomi shouts, leaning forward and bobbing up and down with her words. As she says her request, she notices an area on the ground in front of her that’s wet from rain earlier in the day. Above her own reflection, she sees a teal blue light like from a traffic signal, and spins her head around to face the source.
She first sees only the window to the building behind her, but soon after, she watches as the blue hoof of a large animal passes through it, attached to a long white leg that stands as tall as her entire body. She watches helplessly as another leg trots through. The fear at the sudden appearance of a colossal beast causes her to step backward, but she slips as her heel touches the puddle and falls backwards, her back impacting the water and her hair soaking up the puddle as she’s forced to look up at the monster from below.
From this angle, she sees not only the feet but towering above her in the sky, the large horned head of a wild animal, with beady red eyes staring straight ahead as though she is of no consequence. She watches two of the blue hooves pass by her with no incident, noticing their blue markings that match the stripes on the monster’s giant, multi-pronged horns. However, as the monster’s second pair of legs passes, one of them passes right over her chest and prepares to trample her.
image [https://i.ibb.co/yNGmhfJ/3a95735b-15ca-4365-9baf-a2ee029aade2.png]
Mortified, she opens her mouth in shock, unable to comprehend the concept of death at her young age she can only imagine what will happen as this otherworldly being’s hoof lands on her. However, the hoof passes straight through her, not wounding her, but rather choking the breath from her lungs. She stares up in silent awe, unable to move until the beast has stepped forward with its other three legs and finally releases her to continue onward.
As her breath returns to her, she gasps for air, seizing with her arms for any purchase of understanding or relief, but isn’t able to bring herself to stand. She lays in the puddle, feeling a sense of fear not that the beast would wish to kill or harm her, but simply that she was so insignificant in the face of overwhelming power that she had no choice but to submit to any action it deemed appropriate.
She can hear Shinya as he picks her up in his arms, but his words feel like they wash over her completely without any opportunity for response. She swears he called her name a thousand times before she found the opportunity to speak.
“Naomi! Naomi! Hey, Naomi!” Shinya’s hands run through his sister’s soaked hair as he picks her up, feeling the puddle on his knees as he embraces her and tightly grasps her to keep her arms from flailing uncontrollably.
“Sutekimon...” Naomi murmurs into her brother’s ear. As she slowly regains her senses, she turns away from his face and looks out at the road.
The beast gallops forward quickly toward Sutekimon, holding its neck low in an attempt to skewer him with its horns.
“Whoa!” Sutekimon paws at the ground, using his front legs to leap out of the way just in time, and landing on all fours as he skids on the wet pavement. Seeing a light from behind, he ducks for cover as a car phases through him, throwing off his balance a bit and causing him to slip.
His attacker turns its head toward the car as it approaches.
“Watch out!” Naomi reaches her hand toward the car and tries to move but Shinya holds her tightly.
“Naomi, stop!”
The car passes right through the beast without incident, though the creature turns its head around to watch it leave. Its face expressionless, Naomi watches in fear, wondering if it is planning to attack. After a few moments, it starts to step forward, stopping with its red eyes staring into a red traffic light. For the first time since Naomi’s arrival, the beast opens its mouth.
“Not again!” Sutekimon tries to stand back up but slips again on the wet ground.
Shinya holds Naomi close and begins to speak, “Naomi, what’s gotten into you? We have to go home. This is really dangerous for you to be out at night on your own like this!”
The beast bites down on the traffic light. Though it remains physically undamaged, as the monster pulls away, blue streaks of particles fan out from its mouth, and it chews as though it’s swallowed something substantial. Not long after, the traffic light goes dark, displaying neither ‘stop’ nor ‘go’.
Naomi points at the light, not really understanding what happened, but hoping to get Shinya’s attention.
“Naomi!” Shinya tries to catch her attention, but eventually breaks and looks up at where she’s pointing. “Did it go out...?” He leaves his mouth agape, a little taken aback. “Dad has to come home on this road.”
Naomi’s existential fear is suddenly overcome by the immediate. “S... stop, Mr. Cow! That’s our road, you can’t eat it!”
“Naomi, don’t!!” Sutekimon’s words cause Naomi to turn to face him. “That’s Moosemon. His horns can transcend dimensions. If you make him mad, he might be able to hurt you for real!”
Sutekimon notices Naomi’s frightened expression as he speaks. As Shinya starts to stand up to carry Naomi back home, Sutekimon puts out a confident grin. “Don’t worry about me, I can handle this guy! Your Dad is gonna be fine!”
Sutekimon bounds forward on his front legs. Catching a good look at Moosemon, his eyes glow with a pink aura.
“Critical... Eyes!” Sutekimon shouts and watches Moosemon’s movements intensely. His whole vision turns pink, until it narrows down to a specific point. “There! Found your weak point!”
“Kira Design!!” Sutekimon’s paws are suddenly lit up with bright pink claws that glisten in the moonlight. He angles his fall toward Moosemon’s face and slashes at one of its eyes, cutting into the red marble and leaving a trail of blue particles.
Moosemon lets out a low moan of a roar that knocks Sutekimon back on its own and forces Naomi to cover her ears. Nearby lights flicker as Sutekimon impacts the ground again and Moosemon turns, kicking a hoof into the road in preparation for a charge.
“Sutekimon!!” Naomi shouts, as Shinya grits his teeth.
“NAOMI! That’s ENOUGH!”
“I don’t need a stinkin’ partner!” Sutekimon belts out, rubbing water from the puddle out of his eyes. “I can do this on my own, so just go!”
Partner. Naomi looks up at Shinya and starts to take off the watch. As she does, the scene of Sutekimon fighting Moosemon vanishes. She’s left seeing only a normal street corner.
“Shinya... please put on this watch.” She begs him with all her strength. “I promise you... if you just put it on, you’ll see.”
“Stop this!” Shinya replies, his voice no longer sounding angry so much as it is pained. “Naomi, just stop. Why? Why are you doing this?”
“Shinya, I promise,” She repeats, holding the watch up to him. Shinya puts her down on the ground. “I promise you, if you just put it on, you’ll understand everything. Right now, Sutekimon is out there fighting a bad guy and he needs your help. I’m not lying, I promise.”
Shinya stares down at her, his little sister, soaked with rain and tears. She’s begging him to help. He feels her pain, her desperation. And he feels a twinge of guilt on his own end for not believing her, when she’s in such a sorry state. For not believing her earlier, and for telling off her fantasies.
He picks up the watch.
Unseen to either sibling, Sutekimon rolls out of the way of Moosemon’s charge, causing the beast to let out another roar. This time it doesn’t telegraph a charge, but starts thrusting with its horns. As it lunges its head to the left, a portal appears and its horns hit Sutekimon on the side, sending him flying through the air.
“Ugah!” Sutekimon grits his teeth and impacts the side of a building, but looks over at Shinya. “Just you wait, pal... you’re about to get what’s comin’ to ya...” He grins.
My name is Aoki Shinya, and Digimon are...
Shinya fastens the band on the watch, and opens his eyes.
Naomi smiles, relieved. “We did it!”
“Nothing.”
Naomi’s smile slowly deflates.
“See? I told you.” Shinya lets a single tear fall down his face. “There’s nothing. Just like the first time I put on the watch. And the time after that. And the time after that, and the time after that.”
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Shinya stares down at the watch on his wrist. Only it isn’t Shinya; this Shinya is much younger, and he’s just learned of the birth of his sister and met her in the hospital.
He looks around his room. He can’t see anything strange. He’s alone.
“Nothing... I knew it. Digimon aren’t real.”
“There’s nothing, okay?” Shinya rips the watch off and tosses it aside. He bends down to Naomi’s level and places his hands on her shoulders. “You. You’re real. You’re my little sister, and I love you. And I’m sorry I said all that earlier, it’s okay that you have fantasies, but you just have to know when to accept reality.”
“Why can’t YOU accept this?” Naomi blubbers in reply. “They’re real! Digimon are real, I know it!”
“No, they--”
“You just don’t WANT them to be real!” Naomi’s words cut Shinya and force him to be silent. In her darkest moment, without fully understanding, she somehow found exactly the words to say without knowing why she said them, as children sometimes do.
Shinya loosens his grip, and Naomi dashes to the side of the road where the watch fell. She puts it on her wrist and is met with a grizzly sight.
“Naomi, ru-- GAH!” Sutekimon lies on the ground with Moosemon’s hoof just above him, applying gentle pressure. Blue streaks rise from the hoof, not Moosemon’s own aura but Sutekimon’s lifeblood leaking out into the open air.
“I’ll prove it to you!!” Naomi climbs under the railing, squeezing through a small gap.
“NAOMI!” Shinya puts both hands on the rail, but is unable to pass through to the road.
Naomi pounds her fists against Moosemon. “Let him go! Let him go!” She shouts, her arms passing through the monster and hitting only the air.
“Naomi, run! I can’t protect you!” Sutekimon sobs openly as Moosemon slowly turns its neck toward Naomi. “My own partner doesn’t even know my name!”
Moosemon flicks his neck and his horn teleports down, nailing Naomi in her side. Though the horn still mostly passes through her, the dimensional force knocks her off her feet and down into the road.
“NAOMIII!!” Shinya screams, his voice cracking. In the distance, a car rounds a hill and starts heading toward his sister as he struggles to pull his body up over the railing.
Sutekimon closes his eyes.
My name is...
“Sutekimon! My name is Aoki Shinya, and Digimon are real!!”
Naomi and Sutekimon’s eyes open at the same time. Naomi is completely startled, but sees the car coming towards her in the road.
Sutekimon’s eyes well up and he can only cry. “Aaaaahhh! Partner!!”
Shinya’s elbows dangle over the rail.
I can’t see it... I don’t know if any of this is real...
...but right now, I’m gonna say what I want, dammit!
“Shinyaaaaa!” Sutekimon’s magenta glow slowly grows to encompass his entire body, and changes to a white aura.
Naomi crawls out of the way of the oncoming car which can barely see her in the dim light. She turns toward Sutekimon, recognizing the white shine.
“He’s getting bigger...”
“Sutekimon, evolve to...!”
Sutekimon’s short, stout body expands upwards as his arms push back against Moosemon’s hoof and manage to pry away its grasp. He leaps backward and lands on a pair of not-so-stubby legs.
As his limbs expand, the white glow dissipates from him in the form of little triangles, revealing two clawed feet, along with two familiarly floppy hands. The accompanying arms, however, look less like noodles and more like toned, flexible muscle, with pink stripes adorning them and giving a look of ferocious strength.
Perhaps the largest change however, is in his tail. It whips around, and the new monster grabs hold of it with one hand, breaking off a piece of it in the shape of a handle as a string becomes the only connection to the rest. The spiked tip flares out like a cone, and when the light dissipates, three gun barrels extend outward, revealing a gatling connected to a handheld trigger.
image [https://i.ibb.co/0qyDSfM/6372147d-9096-476a-9b9a-a161db0cd786.png]
“Gahoshiimon!!” Sutekimon’s new form leans forward, crossing his arms as his tail gun robotically rotates its chambers.
Naomi runs back through the gate and into Shinya’s embrace. She looks up at him. “He got bigger!!”
Shinya can only look forward, staring directly at Gahoshiimon without knowing it.
“Yeah... I know he did.”
Gahoshiimon unfolds his arms and squeezes the trigger, causing his tail to fire a barrage of red lasers into the sky as he roars. Moosemon stares back, raising its neck up to look down on its opponent as it stomps a foot into the ground.
To Be Continued...