Digimon Tamer
“Kids, this is Kei Nogami,” the teacher said to the class. “She’ll be a part of our class starting today. She’s come to us all the way from Washington, D.C.! Please make her feel welcome!”
Kei looked around at the kids sitting quietly at their desks. Some looked excited, while others looked curious or outright bored. She smiled shakily, trying hard to push down her anxiety. What did the other kids think of her? Would they like her? Would she like them?
“It's nice to meet everyone…” Kei said, trying to inject a little cheer into her voice. The response from the class was, overall, interested, if slightly tepid.
“Now, let's see…” the teacher looked around. “The seat with Ashley, Alex and Nate is vacant. Kei, you can sit there.” She indicated a group of desks where a pair of blond-haired twin girls and a brown-haired boy sat.
Kei walked over to the vacant desk and sat down. The girls smiled broadly.
“Hi!” one of them said, “I’m Ashley.” She nodded to the girl sitting next to her. “And this is my sister, Alex.”
“I’m Nate,” the boy said shyly.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Kei said with a smile.
The other three kids immediately spoke up all at once.
“Are you from Japan?”
“Can you speak Japanese?”
“What’s it like in D.C.?”
Kei laughed. “My parents are from Japan, but I don’t know a lick of Japanese! My sister does, though. She actually lives there!”
“That’s cool!”
“And it’s a lot bigger here than in D.C.,” Kei added, “It’s so easy to get lost here when I’m walking!”
“That’s why everyone drives!” Nate said, laughing.
“Do you like Digimon?” Alex asked.
“Huh?” Kei asked, taken completely by surprise. The question felt like it came completely out of left field. How would some random person know about Digimon?
“You know,” Alex said, “The game that came out last summer! Digital Adventure!”
Kei nodded slowly. “Oh…” she said, finally understanding. “Yeah! I do!”
Alex smiled. “Great! Ashley and I got the card game that just came out last week, and we’ve been dying to play it with someone!”
“She’s been trying to recruit kids to play it with us all week,” Ashley said, “But no one’s biting.”
Kei thought a moment. “I’d like to try it,” she said.
“All right!” Alex said, “We can play during recess!” She looked around, then leaned in closer.
“Did you know,” she said in a low voice, “There’s a rumor going around that Digimon were responsible for what happened during the Blackout back in August!”
Kei raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
The Blackout was what people were beginning to call the first few days of August 2069, when the world was invaded by strange, unidentified creatures. Kei knew the truth, of course, but sometimes it was scary seeing how close other people came to discovering it.
Ashley sighed, and thumped Alex’s shoulder with her hand. “Say hello to Elementary School 9’s resident conspiracy theorist.”
“Oh, come on,” Alex retorted, “It makes sense! ITI released the Digital Adventure computer game last July, and then in August the world gets overrun with Digimon! The game was only the front for a special project that brought Digimon to life and it got out of control! And…” She beckoned everyone to lean in closer. “They say that a group of kids partnered with some Digimon and saved the world!”
“It sounds like you’ve been reading a biiit too many 10chan threads,” Nate said good-naturedly.
Kei let out a slightly disturbed laugh. Ashley turned to Alex and frowned. “Okay, enough rumors!” she said, “You’ll scare Kei away!”
Alex sighed. “Okay. But really, I actually did hear something interesting – Japan is making an anime about that kind of story: A Digimon invasion, and a group of kids chosen to stop it. It’s tied into the card game – the 8 Digimon they’re featuring in each deck are the Digimon the kids partner with!”
“That… actually sounds pretty cool,” Kei said, regaining her composure. “I’d like to watch it when they show it here.”
“Me too,” Nate added.
The other three kids continued to chatter about Digimon while they worked, and Kei thought back to a recent conversation she had with Rion over videoconference.
“Dad’s planning something really cool for later this year,” Rion said, “He’s gotten in touch with a couple of Japanese companies, and they’re making something special.”
“What’s that?” Kei asked.
“He said it’s a secret,” Rion replied, pouting a little. “But it’s something that would honor what we did last summer.”
Something special, Kei thought. This must be it. And Rion was right, it was cool. In just a few months, the whole world would know their story. Even though they would think it was just a story. Somehow, it made her feel a little less alone.
Soft laughter from Ashley and Nate over something Alex said shook Kei out of her thoughts. She smiled, and Ashley spoke up.
“Hey, do you want to go get ice cream after school today?” she asked. “There’s a great place just around the corner from here!”
Kei nodded. “Sure.”
The four of them continued to make after-school plans, and a warm, comfortable feeling flowed through Kei. The worry and anxiety she had felt in the beginning seemed to fade away, and it started with, of all things, Digimon.
Notes:
Yes, I pulled a Digimon Tamers here, with references to a Digimon anime and card game. I thought it’d be interesting to have the Chosen Children’s story told as a fictional story in their own universe, with only them and a handful of adults knowing the truth. Hidden in plain sight!