"Someone, help!" the cry came from up a tree in a park. A kid, no older than 7 or 8 years old had apparently climbed up to where he now sat, but couldn't climb back down. Stuck in the tree, the kid was crying out for someone to bring him back down. Why he had climbed up the tree, and how, were of no consequence. The point was that he was up there, and he was now stuck. The boy cried out louder, surely someone else was in the park and would hear him. And he was right, someone *did* hear him. That someone now stood at the base of the tree, looking right up at the boy with his arms crossed intensely.

"No," said Daigo in response, showing no intention of climbing the tree, "if you're strong enough, you'll get down on your own."

"But... I can't!" the boy said, on the verge of crying.

"You got yourself up there," said Daigo, still not moved by the cries of help, "so that means you can get yourself down."

"But I'm scared!"

"Then face your fear, kid!" shouted Daigo, now glaring up at the kid, "You're going have to prove your strength to the world some day, and sitting up in a tree and crying like that isn't the way. Now come on! Show me your strength and jump down here!" said Daigo, now actually goading the kid into jumping.

Reluctant at first, the boy then swallowed hard and pushed himself from the branch he was sitting on. Before he could hit the ground, though, Daigo had lunged forth and caught the kid in his arms so as to soften the landing before the kid's feet touched the ground, "You see?" asked Daigo, standing back up, "I told you you were strong." he smirked a bit, ruffling the kid's hair with his hand and then going to leave without another word. He could hear the kid shouting a thank you behind, but Daigo only offered a silent wave as he continued to walk.

---

At his home, a fifth floor apartment, Daigo entered the door and lazily plumped down on the living room couch. He grabbed a nearby remote and switched the TV on, but didn't really pay attention to what was happening. Some kind of news report, Daigo was hardly paying attention to it. Suddenly he heard a voice that didn't belong to either of his parents.

"Anything interesting happen while you were out?" it was Elecmon, the beast digimon had come out of Daigo's room and was now sitting on the floor in front of the couch, staring up curiously at his tamer.

Daigo recalled the kid, shrugged, and said, "Not really."

"I see..." replied Elecmon, before he perked up again, "Oh, you got another one of those emails earlier."

At this, Daigo sighed with exasperation as he stood up and went into his room. *When will these people give it up already?* He wondered as he sat at his computer and powered it on. While he waited he took a cursory glance around the familiar surroundings in his room. In particular at a sizable collection of trophies on a shelf, all coming from something called the "Rumble Arena". Back when everyone had Digimon, some thought it would be an entertaining idea to pit Tamers and their Digimon against one another, to see who was doing a better job of training their Digimon. They called it the Rumble Arena, and Daigo naturally took to it, seeing it as a good chance to show his strength to the world by conquering any and every rival who challenged him. He became good at it, well known for it in fact. But then that light event happened and everyone's Digimon vanished. Rumbles stopped happening after that, since there were no Digimon to battle with.

Daigo felt cheated after that. All that training he and Elecmon did, all the hard earned victories, it all felt like a waste now. It was as if it no longer had any meaning. This of course angered Daigo, and even just thinking about it caused him to lash out and punch the wall. Of course the beeping of his computer interrupted any further thought. It was now completely powered on, so Daigo went online to check his emails. Sure enough, there was another of those weird emails sent by that person named EBE.

"How many is this, now? I lost count..." muttered Daigo to himself. Maybe if he responded to it they would finally leave him alone? Well, simply ignoring the emails wasn't solving anything, so it wouldn't hurt to read what they had to say, and so Daigo clicked on it. The message contained only a single statement.

"Time for what?" asked Daigo, confused. Then he blinked, looking at the screen, "Wait, what?" the message at first had read "It is time" but now it said something else: "Check your pocket, Daigo.".

Daigo quickly got up from his chair, "Okay, that's the last time I ever click on one of those..." as he said this, he felt a hot sensation from his pocket. He reached for his phone, but when he pulled it out... it wasn't his phone anymore. It was a mysterious electronic device, red and gold in color, "Is this a...?" he wondered, but blacked out before he could finish the thought.