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Chapter 3: Take Down the Unknown Digimon!
Taichi and his friends stared at the screen, which showed people from all over the world who had collapsed. They were around the same age as Taichi and his friends.
“An unspecified number of people have lost consciousness worldwide. The confirmed number of victims is, in total…around three hundred.”
Menoa continued speaking, still looking at the screen.
“At first, it seemed that there was no connection between any of the victims, but it turned out that they had one thing in common. Which was that…”
“They’re all ‘Chosen Children’.”
Koushirou finished Menoa’s sentence for her.
“That’s right!“
“As sharp as we’d expected of you, Koushirou Izumi.”
Unamused by Menoa and Imura’s flattery, Taichi scowled.
“That would be the only reason you’d come to us about this, after all.”
An orderly list of names was on the screen of the computer Koushirou was using.
“And besides, recently, we have become unable to contact a number of ‘Chosen Children’ in our database.”
On the screen of the computer Koushirou was using was the list of “Chosen Children” around the world. Among them were ones with the words “LINK OUT”, meaning that they could no longer be reached.
Glancing at the screen, Menoa went back to talking about her request.
“So far, not a single person has managed to regain consciousness. Their Digimon partners are all missing, too…completely unaccounted for.”
Imura, still completely devoid of emotion, spoke about their findings in a detached manner.
“We’ve investigated four different locations, and picked up a small amount of digital noise…and confirmed it to be traces of a Digimon.”
Koushirou, who had his fingers on his mouth, already had a guess about what this meant.
“So in other words…the culprit is a Digimon.”
Menoa, still staring at the screen, said “Yes. We’ve confirmed it ourselves. We deduced a pattern from the digital noise that was left behind at each site, and, upon following up on it, we’ve narrowed down where it’s hiding itself.”
Menoa then added on something else.
“This Digimon is made up of a completely different composition from the ones found in the Digital World.”
Koushirou, who knew the most about Digimon among all of his friends, looked up at Menoa in shock.
“That means…!”
Realizing what this meant about what was going on, Taichi and Yamato muttered together in unison.
Menoa gave a small nod.
“Yes…We’ve named it ‘Eosmon’.”
“Eosmon?”
“I’m the one who named it,” said Menoa, in response to Yamato. “I discovered it in the early morning, so I named it after Eos, after the goddess of the dawn.”
From behind Taichi and his friends, Imura addressed everyone. “This probably goes without saying, but we can’t allow there to be any more victims.”
“A Digimon that steals the consciousness of Chosen Children…”
A new kind of Digimon had appeared, one that Koushirou had never heard of before. And on top of that, the fact it had such a terrifying ability to steal human consciousness made Taichi and his friends very nervous.
“But there’s a way to save them all.”
“Huh?” said Taichi, responding to Menoa’s sharp words.
Imura, still standing behind them, picked up the conversation.
“Eosmon does something to convert human consciousness into data when stealing it.”
“Then, it temporarily saves it in a cyberspace that it controls.”
Takeru and Patamon, who had been staying out of the conversation, tilted their heads in unison.
“So…”
“In other words?”
Koushirou guessed what Menoa was thinking. “So if we defeat Eosmon, and retrieve the consciousness data from its cyberspace…”
“Then we can save everyone!”
Taichi realized. If they fought the unknown Digimon, there would be hope.
The stolen consciousness data was stored in a cyberspace on the Internet that Eosmon had created.
It hadn’t erased any of the Chosen Children’s consciousness.
Menoa turned to look back at him.
“We’re here to ask you to help us.”
Taichi enthusiastically pumped his fist.
“Then we’ve got no other choice!” Taichi was the kind of person who could draw all of his friends into following his lead whenever he made this kind of decision. “Right, guys?”
Taichi turned to Yamato first, hoping he would agree.
Yamato, his arms folded, still remained cool-headed as he responded. “Yeah. But, Taichi, while I’m sure you’re aware, we have the lives of three hundred people at stake…”
“Let’s come up with a strategy and proceed with caution,” added Koushirou, thinking it over calmly.
“Gh…” said Taichi, the wind blown out of him.
After hearing what Yamato and Koushirou had to say, Menoa tossed her shoulders. “But, we don’t have time to be wasting.”
“So we’ve drafted up our own plan.”
Imura held out a memory stick towards Koushirou.
Hoping to cheer everyone up, Menoa said, in a bright voice, “Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help! We’ll do everything we can.”
Taichi and the others all nodded.
They started formulating a plan at Koushirou’s office.
Koushirou set up his strategy proposal in front of the screen.
“We’re going to start with Menoa-san’s plan and work from there. Our target is, naturally, Eosmon.”
On the screen appeared a small Digimon that resembled a butterfly.
“So that’s Eosmon…”
Gabumon had a very grim expression on his face.
“Hey, Taichi, we just need to defeat this Digimon, right?” said Agumon, with more than enough energy. Taichi didn’t hesitate to nod back at him.
Koushirou looked at all of the Digimon, and continued what he was saying.
“We still don’t know what evolutionary level Eosmon is at, but I believe we can take care of it using the Digimon we have here. So what we need to actually worry about would be…”
“Making sure Eosmon doesn’t escape.”
Hearing Menoa say this, Koushirou finally smilled a little and said in response, “Yes, that’s right. Firstly, Takeru-kun’s and my partners will block off all the exits. Then, we’ll take a high-durability net, a ‘wide-range net’, and use it to trap Eosmon.”
“Kinda like goin’ drive fishin’ or something,” said Tentomon, commenting on Koushirou’s explanation.
“Once we’ve blocked off the area, the next step will be to take out the target. This will primarily be carried out by Taichi-san and Agumon, and Yamato-san and Gabumon.”
Koushirou looked at each of them as he named them off, and the two pairs of them clenched their fists with all of their strength.
“Menoa-san and Imura-san, please provide support for us by retrieving the Chosen Children’s consciousness data while we work.”
“Of course!” said Menoa in response to Koushirou, brimming with confidence. Imura quietly nodded.
“May we begin putting this plan into action immediately?”
“Let’s start getting ready.”
Menoa and Imura immediately sat down to use Koushirou’s computers, and prepared to open the gate.
Having decided on what they needed to do, Koushirou looked out at his friends.
“Our goal with this plan is to recover the stolen consciousness data from Eosmon. Therefore, it is essential that we take down Eosmon! Everyone, be sure not to let your guard down!”
Taichi had gotten up, and said in a voice full of fighting spirit, “All right, let’s go, guys!”
Thanks to Menoa and Imura’s efficient work, Taichi, his friends, and their partners were able to enter the Internet without issue.
The four of them proceeded through a tube leading towards Eosmon’s cyberspace, like they were flying through it.
“Everyone, do you have our strategy properly memorized?”
Hearing Koushirou call out to his friends, Taichi responded, proudly, “We’ll be fine! Don’t worry!”
A buzzer rang out, and monitors with Menoa’s face on them appeared over their heads.
“Hello! Can you all hear me?”
“Menoa-san, have you finished preparations for retrieving the consciousness data?”
Menoa snapped her fingers and winked in response. “No problem!“
Suddenly, the screen changed to depict Imura, who, as usual, had zero expression on his face.
“If we retrieve all of the data within the relevant cyberspace, then, ideally, we should be able to recover their consciousness from it.”
The monitors displayed the word “Enter” in English.
“All right, you’re almost there. Are you guys ready?”
Taichi responded as soon as Menoa had finished her question.
“Yeah. We’ll finish this off in no time!” said Taichi, feeling at ease.
“Taichi, don’t let your guard down,” scolded Yamato.
Menoa laughed lightly. “Good luck!“
The monitors vanished as Menoa cheered them on.
The tube, which had been perfectly straight up until that point, started to twist and turn.
It twisted the way a waterslide would, until a hole leading to an open space appeared, with the word “Aquarium” written on it.
Taichi and his friends flew into it.
They landed with a splash!, like they’d fallen underwater, but they could still breathe.
As soon as they’d gotten in, their Digimon partners evolved so they could start the fight. Taichi climbed onto Greymon’s head, and started to look around.
“What’s with this place…”
Inside the sphere were all sorts of fish of various sizes. There were blocks that floated around like bubbles, like they were in a dome-shaped fish tank.
They heard Menoa’s voice saying, “Transfer complete.”
Right next to Taichi, Yamato was riding Garurumon, who had evolved from Gabumon, and Takeru was standing close to Angemon, who had evolved from Patamon.
Koushirou was riding Tentomon’s evolved form, Kabuterimon, a Digimon that resembled a rhinoceros beetle and had a huge horn on his head.
With everything properly in order, Taichi and the others looked for their target.
“…!”
In the center of the area, between all of the swimming fish, Taichi spotted a small Digimon.
“That’s Eosmon…”
The culprit of this case, the unknown Digimon — Eosmon, who seemed to be resting, was curled up within its four wings.
At first glance, it didn’t seem anything like a terrifying Digimon that would steal people’s consciousness.
Once Taichi and the others had confirmed that this was Eosmon, Menoa’s voice rang out through the area.
“Engaging mission, phase two!”
Click-clack, click-clack…! Menoa’s face was glued to the screen as she ran calculations on the keyboard at incredible speed.
Menoa was easily managing operations that required skill and knowledge that no ordinary person had. It was a strategy that only she, who had become an associate professor at such a young age, could execute.
“Starting backup of the area’s data!”
Once Menoa had made her declaration, Imura began operating his own computer in response, without a moment’s delay.
“Confirmed. Transferring wide-range net.”
While Imura was saying this, bazookas appeared before Angemon and Kabuterimon.
“Let’s go.”
Once Koushirou had given the signal, Angemon and Kabuterimon flew up together.
The two of them split to the left and right sides, and started flying round and round around the area, firing out glowing balls of light with a bang, bang! from the bazookas.
The balls of light from the bazookas were aimed at Eosmon, who was in the center of the cyberspace, but once they got near Eosmon, they suddenly slowed to a complete halt.
There was something uncanny about how the butterfly-like Digimon raised its antennae and showed its face.
Angemon and Kabuterimon, not letting a moment go to waste, continued to fire out the balls of light.
Before long, Eosmon was in the middle of a bunch of glowing balls around it, with too many of them to count.
“Preparations complete!” Koushirou called out to Menoa and Imura in his office.
“Wide-range net deployment at 100%. Activate!”
Click!
Imura pressed down on the keyboard firmly, and inside the cyberspace, rays of light spread out, as if they were threading through the balls. The rays of light spread out and connected with the neighboring balls.
The lines of light created a web, trapping Eosmon in.
Eosmon unfurled and spread out its wings, and started to flee.
But the net closed in at a far faster pace than Eosmon’s own flight velocity. All of Eosmon’s escape routes had been completely closed off.
Within the net made of glowing balls, there were only Eosmon, Taichi, and his friends. Everything was still going according to plan.
“We’ve successfully trapped it within. Now all we have to do is finish recovering the data, so do your best until we’re done.”
Hearing Imura say this, Yamato scoffed in distaste. “You sure have a snobbish way of talking.”
Next to him, Taichi was fixated on their target, and said, as if to keep Yamato in check, “Look, we just have to beat it, right? So let’s go!”
Greymon and Garurumon jumped at Eosmon, leaving Taichi and Yamato behind them.
They jumped at Eosmon, who was looking downwards at them from above, and Greymon commenced the fight by firing a ball of flame at it.
Eosmon fluttered through Greymon’s fireballs and Garurumon’s blue flames.
Finally, Eosmon detached its own panel-like wings, and aimed and scattered them at the pursuing Garurumon.
“Garurumon!”
Garurumon turned to face Yamato. He couldn’t hit any of Eosmon’s wings, and they scattered around.
“It’s too fast…!” Garurumon blurted out.
His partner, Yamato, said with a courageous voice, “But not so fast that we can’t catch it!”
Floating next to Yamato, Taichi also believed they still had a chance against it.
“We can do this!”
In response to Taichi’s words, Greymon chased after Eosmon with even faster speed.
Eosmon continued to dodge Greymon’s fireballs, and flew around in dizzying spirals.
But there were others besides Taichi who could stop it.
Angemon was able to read where Eosmon would head next, and blocked its path with his golden staff.
With Eosmon’s escape route closed off, Kabuterimon aimed at it from the shadows.
Kabuterimon gathered a mass of energy in his horn and fired off his special attack, Mega Blaster!
Unable to avoid the sudden attack, Eosmon was hit by the attack on its left arm, and was thrown off balance.
“That’s it!”
The first to respond was Garurumon, clad in white fur.
Garurumon had speed of a level no other Digimon could match, and so he quickly caught up to Eosmon, who was still getting itself together.
Shhhnk!
Garurumon brandished his claws and swiped Eosmon with them.
Flying like it had been hit, Eosmon, thoroughly beaten up, ended up trapped in a bubble-like block, and was unable to get itself out.
“We’ve got it in the bag, guys!”
Taichi raised his fist, and the four of them drew near Eosmon, hoping to finish it off.
…Shhhhrk.
Eosmon, who had been backed in the corner, was suddenly enveloped in a strong light.
“Gh!”
The light was so bright that Greymon and the others had to look away.
And back at the office, Menoa and Imura, watching the battle, realized what unusual phenomenon was happening with Eosmon.
Menoa, fixated on the monitor, muttered only a single word.
“Evolution…“
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