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Chapter 9 - The Cold Truth of Reality Is That You Suck [And You Were Destined To Fail From the Start [Unlike Me, Who Is Destined To Succeed [Eat Shit]]]

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"What do you mean we can't pin them down?" Yamaki Mitsuo was asking as he popped into the Hypnos monitoring room at 1:30 A.M. Reika and Megumi were both already in their chairs, surrounded by the screen dome as they tried initiating their various backup programs in order to prevent the new Wild One from crossing the border.

"They don't have a strong signature, the Shaggai decryption algorithm is having trouble tracking them. The data disperses each time it manages to get a semaphore on them!" Ootoria Reika cried out from her chair, the mechanical arm holding them up pivoting and twisting every few moments as the situation in the digital world changed.

Mitsuo had flicked open his lighter with a tsk, then flicked it shut. "The local effects of the quantum-encryption are still making things difficult for them!" The screens were going fuzzy as more power was applied to the Azathoth sub-fields. He didn't like standing around doing nothing, but he wasn't a violent person either.

Weapons didn't work to the spirits that had attached themselves to the dross of humanity's network computational leftovers. Unfortunately, it was harder to secure a point from a determined attacker when you couldn't disconnect. He'd wanted to bring all of Japan offline, disconnect it from the greater world network, and add more firewalls, but there was no chance.

This was a spit in his face.

It was Eight Thirty A.M. when he'd approached the park. The output location had hovered around the area, and they'd managed to pull in the local authorities to keep most oncomers from joining. Officially, they'd put an air quality warning and suggested people to stay home.

Mitsuo stood there, leaning against a nearby building, and they'd received confirmation of the realization. It had been long enough and there had been enough property damage and a few injuries that the populace was starting to figure things out. Dealing with enough Digimon outbreaks and Hypnos' attempts to send them back to their home world, it really hadn't taken as much effort any more.

Still, they'd been there directing traffic and keeping the area clear once the epicenter started to solidify.

"They're moving!" He'd heard from his earpiece.

"Tsk, damn," Mitsuo exclaimed quietly. "Where are they going?" He demanded, before letting off another "tsk" of frustration. They hadn't fallen for the bait of the Shaggai first phase. It had worked before. Many digimon got stupid when you presented them with data that they could consume and add to their own repertoire.

These ones were different, but he didn't really have time to just let one that had bypassed each layer of encryption that locked down the one portal.

"I caught a visual!" He'd said, and ran off after them, taking the route around. Heading them off and holding them in place until the operators could trigger either the Yuggoth deletion routines or the Shaggai derealization. The former would kill, the latter would shunt them.

There was a girl with them? Why was there a human girl with them? Was this one of those ones where the kids managed to befriend a digimon?

Or was the girl a kidnapped captive? He didn't have time to fully think through the situation. The digimon were pilfering a street vendor's sushi rolls when he burst out and said "Stop!".

Mitsuo stalled for time, watching the digimon oscillate different shades of colors, from neutral grey to purples and reds, before settling. He knew better than to smirk, but he couldn't help it, once he'd received word and watched the digimon begin to visibly glitch, the visual cue of the Hypnos group's programs operating. A few people behind the renamon-looking creature had pulled out cameras to film.

The young american girl was clawing at her digimon as it started to float away.

"Ha, ha ha." The creature laughed at him.

"Something's wrong! Shaggai isn't pulling the Wild One!" Onodera Megumi, the secondary Hypnos operator said.

"The lock-on is sliding off!"

"We have an extremely powerfully wild one from the digital world approaching!"

Mitsuo took a few steps back, to get some distance between him and the Wild One that had Realized.

"Turn up the power!"

"We're at full power! Some power has been redirected from the cryptographic lock in the digital world, but the weakened crypto-lock is drawing attention!" Reika responded, shutting down his wish.

Damn it!

"Ha. Ha. Just … turn it off, ha, that stuff won't … be enough to delete me. All you're doing is giving the girl a little trauma."

This wasn't supposed to be how it was to go! Shaggai was to create a one-way pipe back to the digital world and then the layers of encryption were supposed to hold it shut. Yuggoth, was the earlier iteration, and it focused on deleting the malefactors. It was touchy and only worked on a slice of the digimon that Realized in the city.

Damn it!

If only the bastards in the government hadn't pussyfooted their way around with funding and this project! The threat to their country, and by the nature of technology, the entire human world was too great. They should have had an entire suite of Hypnos' arrays built years ago.

Cowards, the lot of them.

Unfortunately, he was faced with a poor choice—let the powerful digimon through that was approaching the weakened barrier, or let these two run free until he could figure out what to do. Fuck. If this got out, then his contracts to build larger and stronger arrays in the various parts of japan and other countries would be in jeopardy.

"Meeeeiiiii!" the cat cried, the last bits of the kitten-looking digimon becoming transparent, floating off into the air, their image getting blurry. The program was weaker at this range.

"We lost the lock-on!"

Hypnos had already heard from the digimon who had crossed the barrier between the worlds, their lectures about total domination of the digimon and digital world. But what was in front of them? A young girl and her partner and a clown-looking, kistune-style bipedal digimon. A mockery of the Tao, and being menacing, sure.

But everyone had bluffs and bluster until they were shredded by the programs he'd built.

"The new Wild One is approaching the portal, arriving in Thirty seconds!" came through over his earpiece. Fuck it.

If another digimon, one stronger than the duo in front of him came into the real world, more people would be at risk. Let the cowards and whiners come at him for making the best choice he could with the knowledge he had.

Mitsuo made his choice when the kitsune-like digimon in front of him ignored him, and instead turned to the other girl and her monster. It was simple calculus. One he was pissed he'd been forced to make due to budget constraints, but one nonetheless. He'd been ignored by digimon before, but he'd never seen one simply shrug off the effects of the program.

The corrupted creature floated, not up like it was supposed to but down. Down until their feet touched the pavement. They still glitched in places, but he could tell they had lost this little altercation.

He held up his hands. "I shouldn't let you run free," Mitsuo said. There was no real choice. It wouldn't be deleted in time even if the program had worked.

That didn't mean he was going to risk his own chances against the monster's charity. So he started running back toward the city center. He gave them a block.

"Twenty seconds until it reaches the encryption point!"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Shut off the Deletion and Derealization routines, redirect full power to the encryption! Lock it down before a new one crosses again!"

"But—"

"Shut it off!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Shutting down the Yuggoth tracking"

"Shaggai rejection protocols receding!"

"Increasing power to the encryption routines to maximum!"

His mind flashing back to the monster, the small faces on the monster's bandanna covering its face had all turned into smiles, sadistic glee, as whatever the digimon was doing had managed to counteract their attack.

Had he made the right decision? He would have time to contemplate the question— The digimon was in front of him, holding out its wicked blade. Mitsuo managed to dive off the walk into the road. A mockery of every comedian everywhere. In that second, a wicked, if incredibly impractical blade had appeared in her hands.

"Give me a read!" Mitsuo declared, ignoring his attacker. He needed to know. He hazarded a glance, back as the little kitten fell out of the sky and back in the little girl's arms. It glowed, and got slightly larger, turned orange and—

"Eyes on me." The Wild One had said.

"Meeei!" the kitten cried as it hugged her. He hated sentimentality like that.

"Huh." The digimon had said, the painted-on smiles shifting around on her bandanna in a variety of shapes, like a constantly shifting rorschach test of mocking smiles.

"Had a change of plans," Mitsuo had said, before running back down the street, a second later being bathed in a dark magenta light, staring down a sharp blade-looking key again.

"I'm tired. So tired of so much bullshit," I said, interrupting whatever the fuck he thought he was doing. "That's okay though!"

I flung my sword arm back. He flinched when I brought my arm back. The blade hadn't disappeared. Still hadn't figured out consciously dismissing the blade yet.

Ugh. It totally ruined the moment!

The guy took my moment of distracted-ness and used the opportunity to jump back and run around me. Did I let him burst into the door of a decently-sized building? No. No, you don't get to try to sic your program on me, get cold feet, and then run away!

Using my non-blade arm, I clotheslined the guy. His head hit my arm, and my arm did not move. So the next logical thing happened. In one fell swoop, with that one arm, I grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him to the side. It was a delicate maneuver, not to accidentally take chunks of meat off him, but luckily this body knew what I was doing better than I did.

I would have considered examining that, but I had my prey. Mia and the orange cat-form of Meikitmon approached, albeit slowly. They weren't dumb, that was good.

"Let's have a little chat about what the hell that was," I said, before Mia got in range enough to hear me swearing.

He didn't respond.

"I'll never tell you anything," he said. "Everything I do is to protect humanity!" the suit declared.

"Yeah I know, I'm familiar with your Type."

His eyes went wide.

"But now, here we stand, face to face, on even ground." I continued, letting him down. "That's three times now, that you've tried running away, and I still haven't done any damage to you that you didn't do to yourself. I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to kill me and my friend again."

"No guarantees," the guy said, chuckling.

He thought for a second, then nodded. He'd seen reason! I wasn't so far lost in my own emotion not to appreciate a character that would notice when continuing to be stupid would cause them to trigger something no one wanted. That he then actively took a choice to correct it … before it was too late, even! He was the kind of figure you wanted to keep around.

Again I swung my blade arm back and a flick of the hand. Finally, it disappeared. Manipulating the keyblade did not have the same conveniences as the body's in-built, sexy sway and suave.

"Tsk!" I let out, finally getting the blade gone. Reproducing it would be a task.

"What's wrong, here, is that you just let me go, but Mia and I are still in a bit of a pickle, so since you're no longer trying to—"

"Meeeeiii! Meicoomon is here, Nullrenamon!" The orange cat, not quite to the height of my knees, and definitely not far off looking from a rather large stuffed animal, bounded up to us, Mia falling over herself in hot pursuit.

Meicoomon rushed in. With a swoop of my arm, I grabbed the less-than-sensible cat and pulled her away from the guy before she did something even stupider than summoning evil, sealed away dragons while their partner was out of action.

"—kill us. But I'm willing to look past that," I managed to finish.

The guy nodded. If he didn't see the math—he does something nice for me, we help him for a bit either until he inevitably decides to do The Thing for the Greater Good, or we can just quietly Peace Out—he would be a moron of the highest order and this would be a dream.

The various people stared as I picked Mia up and tossed her onto my shoulders, and held Meicoomon in my arms.

"This is our ride." The guy said. The car had dark tinted windows.

"That's not what I expected somewhere discreet."

Mia complained as I took her down.

"You said the girl was tired and hungry, and I agreed that we needed something discreet," He said.

Was I going to rely on this dude to keep his word? Yeah, I guess I was. It wasn't like he could do anything to me. Didn't have any better choices.

"I thought we were going to do evil!" Mia complained. The dude bristled—did he understand english? Shit, it was best to assume he at least had a recorder and whatever he needed if he needed a translator, he'd get one.

"Well, you're hungry and still tired, so no evil until you sleep," I declared. "You can't do effective evil with less than four hours of sleep and only cookies for breakfast."

The woman in the car kind of squirmed, frown on her face as I opened the door and let Mia and Meicoomon in. Mister MIB hopped into the passenger seat without saying anything.

I hopped in the car, Mia and Meicoomon both practically glued to my lap.

"What do you know about our organization?" The guy asked.

As we pulled away, I noticed a phone booth. Japan still had phone booths! A phone call would work.

"My name's Kaylee by the way. Or Nullrenamon. Whatever you prefer. I know Japan is all about that formalism and whatnot. This is Mia and Meicoomon."

The guy just sighed.

Did I realize I had been having a certified, bona-fide Villain Moment? Yes.

"All right, Kaylee. I'm Yamaki Mitsuo, and this is my assistant Reika." the guy sighed. Mitsuo was his name, huh?

Was I having fun, even at the expense of potential future leads and allies?

Also yes.

Unfortunately, he shot first. Taking a moment to breathe and refocus on what I really wanted was what I did next, I held the cat in my arm. God, she was cute.

Playing a villain in a bonafide certified world-ending scenario was almost at the top of my to-do list. (Sarcasm, okay?) Before that, I needed to be one hundred percent sure this wasn't the real real world I was used to. A call would help, but it would still not help—what if no one answered? What if they already thought I was dead?

Yes, I also know that makes no sense. Why would a character that I thought was fictional actually exist? Fuck if I knew, so this was either one incredibly fucking intense dream or digimon was real in my world and I just missed the bus. And the idiot god had been open about not preventing my returning home. I had to check.

Just focus on the here and now, Kaylee.

"I know what your group does. It's pretty obvious." We pulled out, heading toward a fairly large concrete building- easily more than twenty stories tall, with an underground parking garage. I wasn't worried. This was the guy who predicted existential doom from the existence of digital creatures invading the world one by one.

The lady glanced back at me, before pulling into the parking garage and swiping her card.

If I was stuck in this body, then things would get… complicated, for more reasons than just the awkwardness of showing up to work in a fur suit and keyblade. More like, "Yeah uh sorry Kyle momma's gotta leave, see, long story short I am now a being who's existence is anathema to life, and I'm currently biding my time until things explode. Oh and also I might actually be gay for a totally unhinged fox-woman with claws and canines that are just… to die for."

Ha.

Ha.

Ha…

"Oowww"

"Sorry," I said, relaxing my grip as we pulled into the parking stall.

"I'm really not sure what all you want to know? Did you create the D-Reaper?" Mistuo went stiff at that mention. For being a government agent, he was way too honest.

"What do you know about the D-Reaper?" He demanded.

I raised my hands, trying not to accidentally brush the leather on the seats of the car with my claws. "Open the door Mia," I said. Door handles were actually pretty small for these hands. We stepped out of the car.

Meicoomon hopped into Mia's arms.

"I'm pretty familiar with the D-Reaper program," I said, playing coy.

The D-Reaper was a program that was written in the 80s, from the era when a megabyte of storage was luxurious. According to (ahem) canon, the digital world was just some computer networks and nerds writing text adventure games and little pet care programs.

Some PHD students who had access to the various early computer networks, needed to delete excess data. So they made some apps that would travel the networks, find data that it didn't need any more and remove it. Thus, they'd save on storage. That was the D-Reaper.

"Nullrenamon, huh?" The guy said. "I knew a renamon once. And her digivice…" His eyes turned to glance down at the digivice on my chest-fur.

I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, I'll tell you, and I'll even tell you how I subverted your program to exit the digital world. But I need to make a call out to the US before we do anything else."

If Kyle was still there, then I'd have to find a way to keep things under control. If not, then. Well. Endings always precede new beginnings, no?

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