Knights of the Digital World

"How is this possible! It's just a mere human! How dare it steal my Warrior's Soul!" Salubimon roared angrily as it saw Takuya absorb the Warrior's Soul and evolve into Firegomon. Unlike the characters in the original story, Salubimon had never encountered the Warrior's Soul and hadn't suffered greatly from it burning him half to death. Previously, he had thought the Warrior's Soul was his for the taking, but then Takuya unexpectedly appeared and snatched it away.

"This isn't yours. Don't talk like it's yours for nothing!" Emu complained. Seeing that the Fighter's Soul had already been taken by Takuya, he stopped wrestling with the Salubimon, released his hands, and kicked the Salubimon in the jaw, sending it flying.

"Emu, he's almost done for. Let's give him the final blow." At this moment, Vulcan jumped to Emu's side, carefully examined the heavily wounded Salammon not far away, and said in a confident tone.

"Could it really be that Vulcan is substituting? Takuya probably doesn't have that kind of insight..." Emu thought to himself, but said nothing. He simply nodded, inserted his Extraordinary Action X-Card into the "Decisive Move Slot Holder," pressed it twice, and prepared his special move, "ical strike."

The Fire Beast also exhaled, sparks flying from its hands and feet, preparing to join forces with Emu in attacking.

"Kicky critical strike!"

"Fire Dragon... Flying Kick!"

After gathering their strength, the two leaped high into the air. Emu's right foot, imbued with all its power, landed on the middle of Salamence's head, while Vulcan's left foot slammed into Salamence's back.

"I actually... lost to a human brat! Ah!" Salubimon exclaimed in disbelief. A data stream lit up and flowed around Salubimon's body; this was Salubimon's digital code!

"Ha! You filthy, evil soul, let me purify you with my Digivice! Digivice, scan!" Gengarmon pulled out its Digivice and easily scanned Salubimon's Digivice. Having lost a large amount of data, Salubimon turned into a Digivice and flew away into the sky.

After scanning the digital password, a surge of data flowed from Vulcanmon, tightly enveloping him. As the data flow dissipated, Takuya Kanbara reappeared in the same spot, panting heavily.

"What happened... I... I've turned into a Digimon?" Takuya looked at his hands in disbelief.

"You are the chosen child! But please don't forget that you chose to come here." Angewomon appeared at the right time, speaking through the Digivice.

"I... myself..." Takuya stared at the Digivice, lost in thought.

Emu then deactivated his transformation. After pulling out the cartridge, the Player Driver dissipated into specks of light. The Game Driver in his hand flickered on the image of Extraordinary Action X and transformed into an image of Salubimon.

"What is this? System, can you explain it?" Yongmeng raised an eyebrow and asked in his mind.

"First, let me correct your title, host. I am not the system; I am a fragment of the system. Second, this is a Salamander cartridge that you created on your own. The game is a simple fighting game with the goal of defeating Salamander. After use, you can level up and transform into a level 3 upgraded fighting action player." The system fragment explained in its monotone electronic voice.

"I made the cartridge myself? When did I finish it?" Emu looked completely bewildered.

"During the previous battle between the host and Salapimon, the corresponding data of Salapimon was obtained. After the Venusamon defeated Salapimon, during the scanning of the DigiCode, the corresponding data was also verified and the erroneous data was corrected. Afterwards, through the conversion of the Infinity Gacha, the Salapimon Gacha was successfully created."

"E, how did you get it? I don't remember it." Emu was still completely confused.

"...It's the automatic loading of the Infinite Cartridge during battle. Please don't worry about these minor details."

"Alright... So, does that mean I can create a corresponding Gacha after every battle with a Digimon? No, that doesn't seem right either... If I don't defeat the opponent and make them reveal their Digicode, the Infinite Gacha doesn't seem to be able to read all the data, resulting in incorrect data. Wouldn't the Gacha created that way have bugs? What if it exploded the Rider Gacha like the one CarCar got with the shrimp dumpling? That would be too tragic... I still need to verify this..."

Emu muttered to himself for a while, then saw Takuya still standing to the side, contemplating life. He went over and patted him on the shoulder: "Let's go, Takuya. Let's go meet up with Yuuki and the others. There are some things we need to talk about."

"Huh? Oh! Okay!" Takuya snapped out of his daze and quickly followed Emu's steps.

"Hello, I'm Emu Hosho. You can just call me Emu." Emu introduced himself as he approached the children.

Huiyi had already exchanged names with the children, so there was no need for self-introductions. The children then introduced themselves to Emu: "I am Izumi Orimoto, you can call me Koizumi."

“I am Shibayama Junpei, you can call me Junpei.”

"I am Bokomon!"

"Question-Answering Beast~"

"I... I'm Himi Yuuki. Thank you so much, Emu-nii. You guys were so cool!" Yuuki looked at Emu and Emu with some admiration.

"Hahaha, it's alright!" Emu laughed heartily.

Takuya, on the other hand, was still deep in thought, his face a picture of confusion: Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do? He asked, full of doubt, "Um... what exactly happened before?"

“Takuya, don’t you remember? You found the Warrior’s Soul—though it seems to have popped out on its own—and then turned into a Digimon! Bokomon said it was the Flame Warrior from the Ten Warriors, Vulcanmon.” Koizumi said.

"I have absolutely no recollection of this... And now that we've found the Fighter's Soul, can we go back?" Takuya poked and prodded at his Digivice. Suddenly, the Digivice lit up, and a thick stream of data flew out, flowing in all directions.

"Ah! The Digital Code is back!" Bogomon exclaimed happily. A large area of ​​land appeared, connecting the Flame Terminal to other places.

"How amazing..." the children exclaimed. The Digimon happily ran back to their homes.

When Pokomon and Questionmon were about to follow, Emu stopped them: "Wait a minute, let's talk about some things first!"

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Pokomon asked curiously, and Questionmon repeated, "What's wrong?"

"Well, it's like this. You all have Digimon, right?" At Emu's prompting, the children all nodded and took out their Digimon.

"I gained power elsewhere, but let's leave that aside for now. Let's talk about you guys first. There's a legend of the Ten Warriors in this world. We asked the Electric Car Beast about it on our way here, and they said that to get back we need to find the Warrior's Soul. I think that shouldn't be just one, but ten. After all, there are the Ten Warriors, right?"

“Yes, that’s true. If that weren’t the case, we should go back now.” The children thought about it and agreed with Emu’s statement.

"Well, here's what I'm thinking. A Digivice might be a kind of qualification, a qualification to use the Fighter's Spirit. Like Takuya, he can use the Flame Fighter's Spirit to evolve. You guys also have Digivices, so could you perhaps have a Fighter's Spirit that suits you?"

Chapter 8, Doing ideological work with Junpei

"Can we evolve into Digimon too?"

As the children listened to Emu's speculation, they couldn't help but pick up their Digimon devices to watch.

"That's how I deduced it. Otherwise, if only Taku could evolve, all these Digimon machines of yours would be completely unnecessary," Emu explained, shrugging. He couldn't reveal his precognitive abilities regarding the plot, but guiding the children with logical deductions was fine.

"This is amazing! Emu-nii and Takuya-nii were so cool just now! I hope I can become a hero like Emu-nii and Takuya-nii!" Yuki was the first to receive it. He shouted excitedly, holding his Digivice high with both hands, his eyes shining.

"I wonder what I can become. I hope it won't be too ugly." Koizumi imagined her Digimon form.

"Can it turn into a Digimon? That's why I'm looking for Kouji..." Kouichi's mind was still filled with thoughts of his little brother.

"That wasn't a Digimon... I just transformed into a Kamen Rider called Ex-Aid, which is different from a Digimon..." Emu sighed and explained, then saw Junpei holding a Digivice with an uncertain expression on his face, standing silently to the side.

Emu remembered that in the second episode, Junpei tricked Yuuki into trying to bribe the Kagumon with chocolate, hoping to use their power to return to the human world. However, things went awry. The chocolate was so delicious that a group of Kagumon chased after them, causing them to fall into an underground labyrinth and contribute to the appearance of the Wolfmon.

At this point, Junpei was exactly like the second disciple from Journey to the West. Even though he had a slight hope of becoming a Digimon, he was also the oldest among them and had his own little thoughts. He once said to Yuuki, "Do you think being a hero is just about being cool? Being a hero comes at a great price!" It can be said that he saw things very clearly.

However, after the second episode, reality taught him a lesson, and for some reason, he gave up on the idea of ​​returning to the human world. He didn't board the train back. Instead, he became enthusiastic about becoming a Digimon again. In the fourth episode, he was overjoyed, thinking he had finally encountered his warrior spirit. In the fifth episode, seeing his companions defeated, he was angry at his own incompetence and couldn't help but rush out. It was only because of his warrior spirit that he didn't get killed.

Junpei hasn't been disciplined yet, so he's probably still thinking about going home. But with Takuya and Emu as examples in front of him, he's very unwilling to leave like this, and is therefore in a dilemma.

After some thought, Emu decided not to give Junpei a chance to mess things up. In the original story, Junpei and Tomoki were fine, but as the saying goes, what if? If something really happened, would he, with his prophetic abilities, just stand by and watch? What would be the point of his time travel then? The plot had already fallen apart when he saved Kouichi; at least he had no idea who the Dark Warrior would be. So, a little more plot twists wouldn't matter; there was no need for Junpei and the others to take risks.

Thinking this, Emu stepped forward and patted Junpei on the shoulder, saying, "Are you free? Shall we go over there and chat?"

Junpei was startled, wondering what this newly acquainted child wanted to say to him. However, he also knew that they were all partners, and Emu wouldn't do anything bad to him, so he nodded and walked to the side with Emu.

The other children were a little puzzled about what the two were up to, but they didn't pay much attention. Instead, they enthusiastically discussed their own Digimon forms, sharing all sorts of fantasies. Takuya was also asking about the appearance of Aegismon, and seemed quite satisfied with the compliments from the others.

"Emu, is there something you need?" Junpei asked first after they had almost left.

"Ah, I'm fine, but you seem to have something on your mind? If you don't mind, tell me. We're going on a trip together later, so we're partners who can help each other out. You don't have to keep everything bottled up inside," Yongmeng replied with a smile.

"This..." Junpei hesitated for a moment. But he really wanted to talk to someone. In the original story, he didn't just run off to go home alone; he took Yuuki with him. It was certainly because Yuuki also had a strong desire to go home, but wasn't it also a subconscious expression of Junpei's fear of loneliness and longing for companionship?

"Okay. I don't know if I'm overthinking it, but I'm just... a little worried. Can I become a hero? Being a hero isn't that simple. So many movies, anime, and comics—everyone who's seen them knows that heroes pay a price. I don't think I'm ready for that. I... I still want to go back." Junpei thought for a moment, then bluntly stated his thoughts, prepared to be ridiculed.

“Yes, you’re right.” Unexpectedly, Emu affirmed his idea. “Heroes do pay a heavy price. Not to mention you, even I, who have mastered the power of Kamen Rider, don’t think I’m ready to be a hero.”

"Really! You think so too? Then let's think of a solution together—" Junpei immediately became happy.

"No, I won't be leaving for now," Emu said bluntly.

"Why? Didn't you say you weren't ready to be a hero? Why are you staying?" Junpei asked.

"Well... you saw it too, right? Just now, Salubimon absorbed those earth structures, and after defeating it, those earth structures returned. This kind of thing might not be an isolated case. Did you see the smiles on the faces of those Digimon? If I hadn't obtained this power, I would have chosen to go back anyway. But now that I have this power, and can do something, I can't accept running away! The power I inherited is to fight to protect everyone's smiles! Whether human or Digimon!"

As Yongmeng said this, he recalled his feelings when he watched Doctor Xiao in his previous life. He liked Doctor Xiao very much, not because he was the protagonist, but because of his determination to risk his life for others and his will to protect the smiles of his patients.

Why do so many people enjoy watching tokusatsu (special effects)? Is it just the special effects? If so, they might as well watch Hollywood blockbusters. The appeal of tokusatsu lies in the spirit it conveys. The knights fight for humanity, lending a helping hand to every cry for help; Ultraman fights alongside humanity, and humanity strives for self-improvement, not becoming complacent because of Ultraman's existence. These are all admirable human qualities.

In his previous life, Emu had no power, and living in a harmonious and law-abiding society, he had no opportunity to act like the knights. But in this life, he has gained the power of Ex-Aid; he can protect the smiles of others, he can lend a helping hand to those in need. So why not do it? Why wait until later to regret it and regret why he ran away?

It's a disgrace to have a name like yours if you can't use the power of Ex-Aid to protect your smile!

Chapter Nine, Genki II, Brothers Reunited!

Junpei stared at the impassioned Eimu, momentarily stunned. He too harbored a dream of becoming a hero, but faced with potential danger, the older Junpei, being more mature, worried and contemplated more than the other children, thus hesitating to make a decision. In the original story, it was only when he truly faced the moment of returning that he understood his own thoughts and stayed.

At this moment, Emu's words made him think a lot. Amidst countless thoughts, Junpei also saw his true heart: he wanted to become a hero! He didn't want to leave like this, leaving regrets in the future!

“Emu…you’re right. I…now that I’m here, and now that I have this Digivice, it means there’s something I need to do! I won’t run away anymore!” Junpei gripped his Digivice tightly and said firmly.

"Junpei, don't force yourself, okay?" Emu looked at Junpei, who had changed his mind, and was still a little worried that Junpei might have been morally blackmailed by her words, thinking that going back would be irresponsible, cowardly, and that's why he decided to stay. If that's the case, Junpei might as well go back. If he stays for the sake of face, then he might leave or do other things for the sake of face, which would cause even more trouble. Only when Junpei himself is prepared and stays voluntarily can he become a strong and reliable Lightning Warrior.

“Emu, I didn’t force you. I used to always make a fool of myself at school to make others laugh. I seemed to have a lot of friends, but I knew they didn’t really respect me. They approached me just to see me perform some little tricks or to get the chocolates I gave them. I always knew that, but I always ran away from it and comforted myself by saying, ‘It’s okay, even so, they are still my friends.’ I find those words ridiculous.”

"But now I understand. If I keep running away, I'll end up despising myself. I'm going to middle school soon, and I can't keep indulging in this self-deceptive world. I... I have to learn to face things! I... I won't run away anymore!" Junpei declared once again.

Emu listened patiently to Junpei's words and felt relieved. Junpei had indeed thought things through and was prepared for the consequences.

“Let’s go back then. Let’s ask Bokomon what happened in the Digital World.” Emu patted Junpei on the shoulder and walked back with him.

"What did you two talk about that took you so long to get back? Emu, what should we do next?" Takuya asked frankly when he saw the two of them return.

"It's nothing, we just talked about some personal matters, so I won't go into details. Now... Bokomon, can you tell us what exactly happened in the Digital World?" Emu said with a smile.

“No problem!” Bokomon perked up, took out his All-Knowing Book, and began to explain, “The Digital World wasn’t always like this, in such a broken state…”

"Cherubimon. Is this the so-called Great Demon Lord?"

"That sounds a little scary..."

"Was the purpose of calling us here to defeat him?"

"It feels like an RPG game..."

"With Emu-nii and Takuya-nii here, there won't be any problems! Didn't Emu-nii say that we'll evolve just like them?"

"Yuki, I'm just speculating..."

After listening to the story, the children shared their thoughts.

"Waaah—"

"Huh? That's a horn. Is another train monster coming?" Koizumi said curiously upon hearing the sound.

"Look over there! It really is the Electric Train Beast! I wonder if there are any people on it?" Junpei, taking advantage of his height, was the first to spot the small black dot speeding towards them on the distant tracks and pointed, shouting.

“The trains didn’t arrive at the same time. Did they take a different route? Let’s all go to the platform and see. Maybe someone will be there,” Takuya suggested.

"Oh!" The children had no objections, and a large group of them went to wait by the platform.

"If I remember correctly... it should be Kouji who has arrived... I wonder what he will think when he sees Kouichi now~" Emu, recalling the plot, hung at the back of the group, a sense of curiosity welling up in his heart.

"Waaah—"

Soon, the train-mon roared into the station. A boy dressed in blue clothes and wearing a blue bandana stepped off the train, looking down at his Digimon. His Digimon was still emitting a voice: "Go find the Warrior's Soul, you must get it. Kouji Minamoto, it'll be your turn soon. The mystery will soon be revealed..."

"How do you know my name... Who are you? Why did you call me here? What do you want me to do here?" Kouji, completely oblivious to the large group of people on the platform, questioned his Digivice.

However, his Digimon machine lost its brilliance and instead projected a sphere with a red dot constantly flashing on it.