Chapter 03 Digital Monster
(The chapter title is written in hiragana rather than katakana; normally digital monster is デジタル・モンスター but here it's でじたる・もんすたあ. Trying to communicate the effect in English is basically fruitless; both are phonetic scripts, but hiragana is how one would write Digital Monster if they had never seen it written before. Think of a child writing down Wednesday as "whensday" and you'll have an idea of what this looks like in Japanese.)
Nokia apologizes for troubling us, calling us out all the way here. She wants us to lend her our ear; to tell the truth, she has a request.
This time the client is one of our friends. Kyouko's fine with that; her assistant's request is also her request. Nokia wants us to find some Digimon for her. Not just any Digimon, but the two that saved her in Cron. She's worrying herself sick over Agumon and Gabumon, but can't go to Cron herself. Naturally, Kyouko puts Nokia's case in our hands, and we'll begin investigating immediately. It's going to be hard to top a case like this one--it doesn't get more interesting than searching for a missing Digimon.
Before meeting up with Nokia at the Junk Park, I get this two-star Tentomon medal and sell off my current collection for 100 yen. There are no new requests on the whiteboard, so let's go right into it.
With the Farm Expansion Plug-in we're able to expand Island 1 into a pair of jointed islands, allowing more farm goods to be used. The farm goods are still too expensive at this point to really be affordable, and right now I'm rotating through Digimon so often that training their stats isn't going to be that useful for me. We'll probably see the Farm Island come up more once I start getting Ultimate-level Digimon.
It turns out I managed to confuse my own Digimon before. Black Agumon did become Growmon, but it was
DORUmon who became Waspmon. Oops. I am going to be putting Black Agumon (degenerated all the way to his Baby II stage Tsumemon) in the party for this update, but I'll come up with a nickname at some point or another. Gargomon becomes Lopmon again, to pursue a different evolution line and free up memory.
When we arrive in Cron, Nokia's being accosted by a pair of delinquent hackers interested in taking her account.
They're a total waste of image hosting--a Gazimon and Pico Devimon that are as outdated as the ones we fought last time. We don't really need an attribute advantage to win this fight.
Nokia thinks this is the worst, walking into ZAXON and having to deal with pervert hackers after her SCB (Sexy but still Cute Body.) Nokia actually thought they were trying to seduce her, rather than take her account. The moment we tell her, she recognizes it as account hunting like she saw on the news. Account hunting or no, we promise to protect her.
By the end of Cron Lv. 1 there's no sign of Nokia's babies, so we backtrack to the elevator to Lv. 2.
There's a curious graphical glitch involving the elevators. The first floor elevator operates fine, but the second floor elevator will cause Nokia to disappear while it's moving.
No luck on level 2, so we'll have to hack our way past the firewall up to Lv. 3. The hacker guarding it has been gone for a while, but if you try to pass before going to the end of Lv. 2 your hacking skill will be disabled.
Nokia stops us at the entrance to Lv. 3, asking if we come here often. It's a really dangerous place, She's really glad to have us around, what with the hackers and all.
To get through to the back of Lv. 3 we have to answer this guy's riddle. He gives us the keyword
"What should I do to get a girlfriend?" (どうすれば彼女ができるか)
(04/02 edit: late night editing strikes again! I completely missed the subject drop on this one. He's asking what should he
do to get a girlfriend, not what a girlfriend should do. So the sentence is more like "What should [I] do that I can [to get] a girlfriend?)
This area introduces Toy Agumon, Betamon and Patamon.
To the right of the Lv. 3 plaza is an area where we can learn four keywords that act as possible responses. They are; [Make] Friends, Smile, [See a] Matchmaker and Digimon. The one we learn from these two guys in the center is the one that we need.
There's a Memory Up hidden in the northern part of the area, and an Igamon medal in the center.
Naturally, the password is Digimon! The guard actually thanks us for relieving him by figuring it out.
Nokia's been thinking about the two Digimon that saved her before, and the way they reacted to her scent. She wants us to tell her how she smells. We can tell her slightly sweet or somehow sour.
"Uwaa! W, What are you doing!?"
"S, stop it...!?"
Nokia: "Did you here that? This time, did you hear it!? Those voices...This time, I'm sure....!!"
As we near the end of Lv. 3 we find an access point near the platform where Agumon and Gabumon are...so, boss fight!
For whatever inane reason, Wizarmon is the standard Adult stage for Lopmon in the
Story games, rather than Wendimon or Turuiemon. His support skill is Expert Wisdom, which gives a 15% increase to Brains.
Nokia: I knew it! It's those kids! What's with this dangerous atmosphere...hurry!!
These two insist that they found the Digimon first. They try to throw around their weight as ZAXON hackers, but we're not exactly impressed.
"What's that I hear? 'Those ZAXON creeps are so sorry to keep you waiting Nokia-sama, please leave this to me'?" She sends us after them as her "disciple," and Agumon and Gabumon think Nokia's the coolest for coming to their rescue.
We don't even have to fight two of them. Goblimon's been outdated for a while, and Black Tailmon's Virus-Dark attribute may mean we don't get any advantages over her, but it really doesn't matter when Burai can just oneshot the cat in the first place.
Nokia: Spectacular...you really are super strong! Well of course, it would only come naturally...to my disciple.
Rockin' Satanic Voice: Nonononoo...YOU GUUUYS, are not rock!
Relatively Curious Hacker: J-jimmyken-sannn!?
Nokia: Eh? Jimmyken...THAT Jimmy Ken? Jimmy Ken of Jimmy KEN!?
"YYYEEESS, EYE AHM JIMMY KEN! Hyaaaaaaa!!"
Jimmy Ken: Oioioi...ＯｉＯｉＯｉ...you guys, you're not "in," not at all...what are you doing, with this not-"in" feeling? TEAL MEPLZ ASAP!?
The two hackers start groveling for forgiveness, explaining how this girl beat them for the Digimon. Jimmy calling them not-rock inappropriate for his rockin' roll lifestyle. This feeling makes him want to spew.
(Translation note; Jimmy Ken "speaks" English the way that some Americans "speak" Japanese. He uses expressions like テルミー・プリーズ・スーン・アズ
terumii puriizu suun azu "tell me please soon as" without understanding anything about English grammar or even how to form a complete sentence. But he also uses a variety of phrases that are best described as "internet Japanese" used by actual Japanese persons, and I've tried to represent both with poor pronunciation and some English internet equivalents.)
Jimmy Ken: ...And who are you asshats? Those devil kids trying to start a fight?
Nokia: H...how should I put this...is that Jimmy Ken?
Jimmy Ken: THAT's a stupid question~wwwww Superstupid questions are the opposite of rockwww the oppositewww
(Translation note; Jimmy Ken's "www" is Japanese net lingo for laughter, an abbreviation of
warau "to laugh." They are notably not voiced in dialogue, but only represented in the transcript of his speech.)
Jimmy Ken: Which is to say...I am the SUPER STAR! The great me's WONMOAR FACE is here!
Jimmy treats himself as the rockstar of ZAXON, the king of Satanic Rockin' Roll, and the hackers act as his cheerleaders.
Nokia: No, no more...my MP's at zero...
Nokia wants to die. This is completely crashing on her dreams; she didn't think Jimmy Ken would have some awful job like this.
At any rate, Jimmy Ken's not going to let us take these Digimon. Pets, AI, whatever, they're his.
Meet the first real boss of the game: Jimmy Ken and his backup dancers.
Jimmy's strategy is that every time Devimon's turn rolls around, he uses Panic Wisp to induce the Panic status effect in one of our Digimon, effectively taking it out of commission for five turns. That Digimon will only use its normal attack command on random targets,
usually itself but sometimes against allies or one of the enemy Digimon. The Meramon are his primary damage dealers. The lack of a good Light attribute Digimon is both a blessing and a curse versus Devimon's Dark attribute, but what would make this battle a lot easier is a Vaccine. The Meramon go down quickly for me, in a combination of Freeze Fang and any other skill. Once they're gone, Devimon will keep using Panic Wisp until two of our Digimon are Panicked, then go all-out with Death Claw, which shaves off about ~200 HP per hit. I would have been better prepared for this if I leveled up Wizarmon more or brought along a Vaccine-attribute, but the fight goes smoothly nonetheless. Jimmy Ken gives a Memory Up and two Panic Recoveries (
of course!) when defeated.
Jimmy Ken can't believe he was defeated, it's totally not-rock. Nokia doesn't even let him try to use the "my Digimon are too weak" excuse; it's his fault, and he's going to have to take that. Jimmy Ken insists he wasn't serious, and maybe he needs to do some tuning to bring his stronger Digimon next time.
Familiar voice: Stop right there.
It's Team ZAXON's leader Yuugo, and his second-in-command (or according to Jimmy, "lover") Fei.
Yuugo tells Jimmy to clear out. He starts to protest, but Fei shuts him down quickly. These are his leader's words, after all. Jimmy says this has to be a rockin' joke, but follows through along with his lackeys.
(Translation note; Fei refers to herself using
Wacchi, a
technically gender-neutral pronoun that is nonetheless preferred by
working men. She speaks in the Kyoto dialect, a variation of the Kansai regional dialect of Japanese. A lot of old movie villains speak some variation of Kansai, but the Kyoto dialect is used creatively in fiction as a "feminine" dialect. It's a very strange usage though, as Fei is implicitly a foreigner and by all rights would have learned to speak Tokyo Japanese.)
Fei doesn't know what team we're with, and she really doesn't care. She wants those Digimon.
We're not gonna let her take them! But this only excites Fei. She's interested that someone would try to oppose her; it's getting her body all hot...
"Stop, Fei."
It's time for them to leave. ZAXON won't be giving us anymore trouble here. Fei's surprised, but reluctantly folds.
Agumon and Gabumon are ecstatic that Nokia came to save them, but she admits that she didn't really do much. So instead, they thank us.
With Agumon and Gabumon rescued, this case is closed. Nokia's happy that they're finally safe. But amid the celebrations, something comes up.
Nokia: Now that I think about it, aren't you two hacking programs used by humans?
Gabumon: Used by humans...?
They laugh.
Nokia: Wait, it's not that way?
Agumon: Nokia, stop it~! It's not that way at all! We're all perfectly alive, aren't we? Come on, take a good look!?
Nokia: Yeah...that's right, exactly alive and healthy...! Just like us...
Gabumon: We came from a different world from the human one.
"A different WORLD?"
Agumon and Gabumon came form the digital world. It's a world fastened in suspension to the human one. The Digimon don't just exist in cyberspace; many of them began migrating here from the digital world because of an order from another Digimon. But Agumon and Gabumon came to this world of their own volition. There's something they have to do here.
Nokia: Something you have to do? Like what? Eh? You can't say? Don't tell me...world domination!?
Agumon: Not quite...
They can't remember. But whatever they were supposed to do here, it was something really important.
Nokia: It'll definitely be fine! Absolutely fine! Those inner memories will return! We'll all do our best together!
...Although Agumon isn't exactly sure what "doing your best" is.
Nokia: Nkyaaa!? ♡ Kyawaiiiiii!! ♡ Ofofofoffcourse!
Gabumon shyly asks if he can come along, and Nokia promptly explodes. She thought he'd never ask! So from hereon out, they'll be her Digimon.
We get 1000 CSP for completing this request. Kyouko wants to invite us back to the office for coffee, but it seems a great incident has taken place in Shinjuku. The police are in need of professional help.
Nokia heard all that, and knows we have to go soon. She's very grateful we came along; without us, she couldn't have possibly helped Agumon or Gabumon.
Agumon & Gabumon: Thank you! See you again!
"Would you like to save?"
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