Digimon is the property of Toei and Sensations Animation. The Diaries Universe is the genius of Lord Archive. The characters and plot belong to me, a simple willing pawn of Lord Archive. Nomadic Diaries Written by Digizane Cholon’s Secret ----------------- Saturday August 2 Digital World Buhbatar was perplexed on whether he was actually a good or bad leader. So much had happened the last few days. The group had experienced so many trials. The Chosen had traveled and found a village of Tsuchidarumon attacked by some Hyougamon. The Chosen managed to chase the bandits away and gained gratitude from the villagers. Later a group of Veggiemon had tricked the Chosen into an ambush by the surviving Hyougamon. Because the battle had taken place in a small snow covered valley, the Hyougamon had a resistance to the Chosen’s attacks. Luckily, the fiends lost their advantage when a pair of Mojyamon had decided to bail the kids out. Battsetseg had apologized to Buhbatar for not speaking to him because of her grudge against him for killing. During their travels, their D3s led them to a strange pink flower. Upon inspection Oyon confirmed the talisman was called the Digimental of Kindness. The Digimental would allow the digimon alternate evolutions. Everyone became excited at wanting to see the new transformation and be granted this power. Despite many different tactics, the Digimental wouldn’t be released for anyone. Meanwhile, Oyon had wandered off a short distance and found what appeared to be a gathering of purple apples hanging from an orange bush. She ignored the cautiousness that warned her not to take any of the strange colored fruit. However, she was getting hungry and didn’t see any harm in it. Labramon’s knowledge of the varying pleasantries that grew in the Digital World also told her they weren’t poisonous. The small girl plucked one and gave another to her partner. Just as she was about to see how the fruit varied from it’s earthly counter part, a voice screamed. “Hey, those are ours, you thief!” Grizzmon fell on his back in exhaustion from trying to budge the flower talisman and devolved to Bearmon. Buhbatar, Battsetseg, Cholon and their partners had run out of ideas to remove the Digimental and were about to move on. The group then saw Oyon and Labramon rushing past them followed by a small school of green heads and a giant cactus. Buhbatar and Cholon looked at each other dumbfounded. “You saw that too?” “Come on, guys. Let’s see what the trouble is,” Battsetseg urged while carrying Elecmon toward the mob chasing Oyon and Labramon. Cornered against a stone wall and staring down a large group of angry plant digimon, Oyon and Labramon were starting to think eating the fruit might have been a bad idea. They realized that the large cactus creature toward them was a Togemon. The smaller green flower head creatures were Tanemon. The group was about to descend on the young Chosen girl and dog until a blast of energy struck the group between the groups. Unimon stood having fired a warning shot. Everyone stood frozen in place. “WHAT is going on here?” asked Battsetseg while motioning her two team mates to hold back their digimon. Elecmon followed protectively beside her. The Togemon turned toward the approaching Chosen girl. “This child stole some fruit that I was going to give to these baby digimon,” accused the female Togemon. Battsetseg and Elecmon moved in between the frightened girl and the crowd of plant digimon. “We didn’t know!” Labramon and Oyon cried in defense. “I see.” Batttsetseg gathered the information and realized something. “Exactly what indication was there that the fruit belongs to you? Is there a sign or a marker that says the fruit belongs to you?” The Tanemon froze and began talking to each other. “Well… um no.” Togemon sagged in defeat. “Does the fruit even officially belong to you?” Elecmon asked. “No, it doesn’t,” Togemon admitted. “Will anyone delete if you don’t eat that fruit?” Labramon spoke up. The gathered plants gave negative replies to admit they wouldn‘t have died from hunger. “Is there enough fruit for everyone in your group?” Battsetseg asked. The Togemon and Tanemon nodded. “Then what is the problem?” “But we were there first! Therefore we should get to pick all of it ourselves!” The Togemon stubbornly replied. Similar replies broke through their Tanemon gathering. Battsetseg pinched the area on nose between her eyes to relieve the headache that was beginning to form. She couldn’t understand how something so trivial had caused so much trouble. There was no need to gang up on Oyon and Labramon, yet there wasn’t any reason for the Chosen to evolve their partners and begin mowing down the gathered plant digimon. Finally, she came to a resolution. “How about if Oyon and Labramon apologize for taking the fruit, give back what they took, you eat the rest and we’ll leave to find another set of that fruit?” The Togemon turned toward the Tanemon and seemed to huddle with them to give everyone a voice of opinion. The cactus turned back to the girls. “Fine. That’ll do.” Battsetseg whispered to Oyon and Labramon, “I hate having to do this, but I want you to apologize to them and give back the fruit.” “But we didn’t do anything wrong!” whined Oyon with Labramon siding with her partner. The older Mongolian girl sighed. “I know. But we don’t have just cause to fight them, other digimon may not see things our way if we attack them. We should settle this peacefully right now. Tell you what, I’ll help you find some of this strange fruit after they’ve left us alone.” “Alright.” The Chosen girl and her canine partner sagged in defeat. They begrudgingly set the fruit in one of Togemon’s giant boxing gloved hands. “We’re sorry for taking your fruit from you and won’t do it again.” “Fine! Just don’t let it happen again!” the Togemon huffed and then triumphantly walked away with the Tanemon following. After the plant digimon were out of earshot, Cholon turned to his team mates. “I kinda think we should have taught them a lesson anyway.” “I would have liked to, but we would have appeared like bullies if we did,” Battsetseg sighed. “I’m proud of you for managing to diffuse the situation without fighting,” Buhbatar told her. “I did what I could,” the Mongolian girl replied. The area was then bathed in a bright pink light. The Digimental of Kindness floated to Battsetseg and then rested in her hands. The others congratulated her as they believed that she had proven herself worthy of the new power. The Mongolian girl had decided to wait to use her Digimental later. Though every so often, Battsetseg would take out the handheld device and curiously look at the silver egg on the screen. She hoped the new item would help them on their journey. Things were peaceful at the moment, but never remained that way for long in the Digital World. “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!” A cry from Cholon erupted as he stormed away from the group. Buhbatar and Bearmon shouted out protests to halt him, but to no avail. Oyon was on the ground crying. The other digimon stood shocked and confused. Battsetseg wrapped her arms around the younger girl and tried to comfort her. After a moment, she looked up at their leader. “What happened?” Buhbatar looked uneasy. He opened a notebook that everyone recognized belonged to Oyon. After searching through a few pages, he came to a page that described the members of the team and stopped on a summary on Cholon Arbis. “She gave me her notes to try and help me during our travels. Apparently, we weren’t supposed to know about this. I confronted Cholon on this and he accused Oyon of betraying his trust and ran off.” As he had finished this, Oyon was calmed down and got up. She wiped away a few tears. “I snuck into the Digital World and found Cholon slaughtering a Black Tailmon that had given up. I continued asking his reason until he eventually told me. I promised to keep it a secret till he was ready to discuss it with the rest of us. Buhbarar read it in my notebook though.” Reading the notebook, Battsetseg was sad. How lonely and miserable Cholon must have been during that time. She couldn’t even begin to image life without her parents around or the playful teasing of her older sisters. She vowed to redouble her efforts to be friends with him. “Hard to believe that after all these weeks we still don’t know as much about each other as we’d like to believe,” Battsetseg said to no one in particular. She felt guilty for the things that she had thought about Cholon and his inappropriate actions around them. His problems still didn’t justify his actions, but that didn’t help her currently. Her childhood friend nodded solemnly. Buhbatar had figured Cholon had come from some sort of dysfunctional family, but had no real proof. Until his discovery he hadn’t known the younger boy had been abandoned. He had borrowed Oyon’s notebook in hopes to understand the Digital World through her insights and then tried to talk with the younger boy and had angered him instead. The leader of the Mongolian Chosen briefly recalled some of the street kids that he had seen in Ulaanbaatar. Some were even younger than Cholon and Oyon. Their clothes were usually filthy. Their shoes were all but gone. The odor around them was unpleasant for obvious reasons. He would watch them climb out of the open manholes leading to the sewers and try to blend in with the passing crowds and watched people in apartments leave portions of food separate from the actual garbage in semi trailers. He had heard the clamor of them helping each other jump across the flat roofs. The whole situation disturbed Buhbatar. Oyon was also visibility upset with having just made friends with Cholon and already blown his trust. Labramon nuzzled her leg sympathetically. “It’s okay. I’m sure if you explain things, he’ll forgive you.” “Guys, he took off without me. We’d better find him in case some hungry digimon finds him first.” Bearmon broke the dark mood hanging over the group and started out toward the dry and dead forest his partner had entered. “I’ll go and apologize to him. It’s my fault he’s upset,” Oyon volunteered. She used her D3 as a compass and headed toward Cholon’s location with Labramon right behind her. After traveling a long ways into the dead forest, Labramon noticed something. A light fog had descended onto the group. She felt like something was watching them. By the way her partner was slightly quivering, she knew Oyon suspected this also. Bearmon must have since he kept glancing over his shoulder. The wind briefly shifted. Her eyes widened. “Oyon, get ready to run soon.” The small girl turned around perplexed. “What do you mean? We shouldn’t split up.” “I know. But this digimon is tricky. I’m not even sure my Adult form would win,” the canine digimon admitted uneasily. “I don’t see why you’re scared. Between the three of us we should be able to handle whatever this is,” Bearmon explained. However, the bear digimon was just then blasted into a nearby tree. Oyon screamed in panic. Labramon growled viciously. Bearmon shook his head clear and glared at his foe. The attacker was a wizard with European styled clothes and carrying a staff. His name was Wizarmon. “Why did you attack us?” Oyon asked fearfully. The wizard digimon hovered closer to the group. His demeanor was smug and seemed to enjoy the fear and anger in the group’s eyes. “My master believes you will pose a threat to his plans. Therefore, I’m here to make certain that doesn’t happen.” “Who is your master and what do you plan to with us?” Bearmon asked while mentally preparing himself for a fight. Though it would be more difficult without his partner around. “My master is a digimon sorcerer such as myself. My power pales in comparison to his though. You know him as Doumon. However, it’s really the girl here that I want. Without her you two aren’t much of a threat. You can serve my master if you give her up willingly,” Wizarmon explained calmly. “Not a chance!” Labramon growled. “Same for me,” Bearmon confirmed. While he didn’t have any real attachment to the other Mongolian girl, she was also one of their team members and therefore he should protect her as well. Wizarmon sighed. “Very well. Things are about to get a bit messy then. Thunder Cloud!” Labramon knocked her partner out of harm’s way, but wasn’t as lucky herself. Bearmon meanwhile curled into a ball and rolled into the wizard. Oyon’s shock was keeping her from acting. Her partner’s shouting for evolution broke her from her trance, and she held out her D3. “Labramon! Evolve! Dobermon!” The feral canine replaced the pink-eared white dog. Meanwhile, Wizarmon had knocked Bearmon out after slamming him into a tree. The wizard digimon barely had time to defend himself and found his staff as the only salvation from a painful deletion in the dog’s jaws. The frail staff shattered under the dog’s teeth. Wizarmon barely managed to avoid loosing a chunk of his data by jumping backwards. He quickly sent another Thunder Cloud at Oyon in desperation. The beast then pinned him down. The small girl managed to avoid the attack, but fell down the side of the hill behind her. Oyon’s screams of terror as she fell distracted Dobermon from her opponent. However, that wasn’t the current problem. Without her partner near, her energy level dropped, and she quickly shrank down to her Child form. “Well, it seems the advantage is now mine.” Wizarmon removed his foe by firing a point blank blast from his hands. The white dog flew through the air till rolling to a stop on the ground. She refused to give up. Her partner was hurt and needed her. Yet, first she had to delete the annoying digimon attacking her. Labramon wondered how hard she had been hit when the wizard digimon produced copies of himself. She let loose a Retriever Bark that shattered the copies. A staggering Wizarmon was the only one left. Both of them were tired, but only one was going to walk away. “Magical Game!” More copies filled the dry forest. This time they formed a circle around the dog. The Chosen digimon wanted to know which of the four gods she had angered. The sun’s current position wouldn’t allow her to see the real wizard’s shadow. Her nose currently couldn’t get a sense of which direction the real opponent stood. Her sonic blast attack would only take out a few of the copies and would then leave her defenseless if she missed. Labramon made a guess and leapt toward the Wizarmon that she hoped was the real one. Cholon was alerted to another presence as he heard the cold metal of the cage door open. A thud was heard as someone or something was tossed on the ground. The door was closed again. His captor smugly replied, “Here, this girl can keep you company till I lure the others into my trap. She won‘t be any trouble otherwise I‘d chain her to the side of the cage like yourself.” Then he was gone. He saw through the dark and realized who was his fellow prisoner. He wanted to see if she would wake up. However, the present chains that held his hands to the bars restricted his movement. That might have been good for the young female considering his current mood. Oyon stirred and tried to see through the darkness beyond her barred prison. She realized that Labramon and Bearmon were nowhere nearby. She felt useless having been captured so easily and knowing nothing of her friends’ whereabouts. No doubt her kidnaper would return and do things to her that her imagination dared not to consider. In her fear and sorrow, she started to sob heavily. He wondered if it was wrong to take pleasure in seeing her suffer since he wanted retribution for her betrayal. Her crying was for the wrong reasons though and after a few minutes started to annoy him. He decided to speak up. “Do you never shut up!” Oyon sniffled for a moment and glanced around in the darkness. “Cholon? Is that you?” Cholon snorted. “No! I’m Genghis Khan! Who do you think I am!” “I’m sorry for what happened, Cholon. I didn’t mean for the others to learn your secret. They were sure to figure it out sooner or later besides,” Oyon explained to him. “I don’t expect your forgiveness. I just hope that you’ll put up with me till our goal is complete. I am sorry for what I did and will help however I can.” The boy bit back his harsh words while analyzing the younger girl and trying to gauge her sincerity. He had trusted her and already she had betrayed him. She seemed sorry. He had felt good to have at least one person who had known about having to live on the streets. Perhaps she was right. Things might get better now that everyone in the group knew. After what seemed like forever, Cholon calmly said, “It’s alright. I forgive you.” After a moment, he added. “There is something you can do to help right now. On my sash, our host didn’t notice them when he took my D3 and terminal.” Oyon felt around in the dark till feeling his breath against her face. She then tried to seek what Cholon was hoping she’d find. Eventually, she pulled a small metallic item from his cloth. “What is this?” the Mongolian girl asked curiously. The boy explained. “A necessary item for on the streets sometimes. Some people call them lock picks. I prefer to call them a master key. Find the hole for the lock and see if you can undo my chains.” The girl did as instructed and after playing around with the lock, Cholon’s chains were eventually undone. The older boy took the lock pick and undid the cage door lock in less than a minute. He noticed her raise an eyebrow in the dark. He replied simply. “I’ve had some practice.” Having gotten worried about their younger teammates, Buhbatar, Battsetseg, Elecmon and Tsukaimon began searching. They were even more worried when neither returned their emails. Their D3s couldn’t pick up a signal either. The group turned when they heard a painful groan. A bruised Labramon was being dragged through the forest by an equally hurt Bearmon. The dog complained that she was alright while the bear insisted otherwise. “What happened to you two? Where are Cholon and Oyon?” a frantic Buhbatar asked. If their digimon were there, why weren’t their partners nearby? “We ran into some trouble. A Wizarmon working for Doumon attacked us. We attempted fend him off, but he grabbed Oyon and left. We barely managed to avoid deletion ourselves.” Bearmon felt guilty for his inability to assist protecting the white dog’s partner. Labramon tried to ignore her injures. She had attacked a false Wizarmon and been cast aside to have a tree fall on her. Despite the injury, she managed to escape before he could finish her. She should have fought to the death for her partner, but she had abandoned her instead. The dog’s eyes then began to tear. “I failed her. I should have been able to protect her. I left her behind.” “It’s not your fault. Oyon probably knew you would come for her even if you had to retreat to regain your strength. I’m sure she won’t hold it against you.” Battsetseg tried to comfort the dog with little success. “ Can you at least find out where he took her?” “What about Cholon?” inquired Bearmon. “We’ll look for him after we’re sure Oyon is safe,” Tsukaimon spoke up for his partner. With Battsetseg carrying the white dog, the group arrived at the bottom of the hill that Oyon had fallen down. Luckily, Labramon caught the scent and also noted that the wizard digimon hadn’t flown because of the young girl’s added weight. He had left behind footprints that further helped them track him. Wizarmon tossed the girl’s devices in a chest with her comrade’s and then magically sealed the box. No one other than himself could open it unless he was deleted or the spell broken. There was no need to meddle with his enemy’s devices. He’d give them to his master or sell them later. He waited patiently for the other Chosen. The wizard had purposely walked toward the cave and used his magic to preserve his tracks. Feeling confident about his earlier domination of the Chosen’s digimon partners, he was almost certain for a repeat victory. He felt upset that the two digimon had managed to escape him though. Unbeknown to him, his two prisoners were watching him from just inside the cave. Cholon glanced around. “Alright, we need to distract him to escape and get our stuff back.” “That won’t be necessary. Look!” Oyon whispered while pointed to the opening in the forest. A Mongolian girl carrying a red lizard came into view. Wizarmon chuckled. “Ah, another Chosen to add with the boy and girl. Doumon will be pleased.” “Release my friends and I won’t have to hurt you,” Battsetseg calmly replied. “I have a better idea,” The wizard ignored the red lizard and glanced the Chosen Child over. “You give up and I’ll make our time together…pleasurable before I turn you over to Doumon.” Battsetseg sighed in frustration and annoyance. “Ready?” With Elecmon’s nod and jump to the ground. A familiar light enveloped the red lizard. “Elecmon! Evolve! Sheepmon!” Wizarmon used his Magical Game in an attempt to confuse his enemy. “Silence of the Lambs!” A small herd of miniature sheep trampled all the wizard digimon. The real Wizarmon growled after returning to his feet. Both of his foes would pay for having managed to inflict injury to him. “Let’s see how you both escape this,” Wizarmon challenged and started gather energy into an absurdly larger than normal sized Thunder Cloud. Sheepmon launched a Wool Grenade to render the attack harmless. However, the energy of the Thunder Cloud exploded back on the wizard, rather than dispersing harmlessly like planned. Wizarmon howled in pain as his left arm were torn off completely by the backlash of power. He fell to the ground and seethed through the pain. Battsetseg stood uncertain what to do. She hadn’t intended to maim her foe. Scare him enough to retreat and leave them alone, yes. Make him even angrier and one arm short, no. She realized she would have to kill since there appeared to be no way out now that the wizard wanted blood. Their enemy got up and charged recklessly toward them. Sheepmon launched another attack and watched as Wizarmon came back to realization and then cowered away. A cry of pain escaped him as he deleted after being struck by a single white ball of energy. Sheepmon’s attack harmlessly left a crater on the ground. Everyone whirled toward the source of the attack. Having been so focused on the fight, She’d forgotten about the others waiting as backup. Buhbatar had made Unimon fire at Wizarmon. “Are you alright?” Buhbatar asked as he hurried to her. Unimon shrank to Tsukaimon after sensing no other danger. Sheepmon did the same moments later. “Just fine.” She nodded as Buhbatar then moved onto the younger Chosen. Battsetseg’s eyes looked downcast for a moment, but she quickly brushed her insecurity away. There was no reason to worry for the moment. Things were fine again. Though in the back of her mind, she wasn‘t sure. Buhbatar felt Battsetseg was hiding something that he should know about though. Eventually the Mongolian boy would have to talk to his friend about it. His first duty was to ascertain if his other teammates were safe. He would respect her privacy until she wanted to discuss whatever was the problem. She had done the same for him times before. The younger children rushed to greet their fellow Chosen and partners. Labramon and Bearmon apologized for failing their partners, to which Oyon and Cholon forgave them and told them not to worry about it anymore. Without Wizarmon present, the chest was easily opened for everyone to reclaim his or her articles. After everyone had recovered a little bit, they agreed that they all had had enough excitement for the day. The fact that Doumon knew of them disturbed the Chosen. Cholon had remained steady in his decision to remain in the Digital World, despite everyone’s invitations over to his or her homes. As everyone was porting home, Buhbatar approached Cholon. “You don’t have to do this, Cholon. Battsetseg’s and my families would be glad to have you as a guest. You’re our teammate and friend.” Cholon’s eyes quivered for a moment. “You mean that? Do you all really consider me your friend?” “Yeah. It’s true your rude behavior and sarcastic pessimistic attitude can grind our nerves sometimes. However, despite taking out your aggression on enemy digimon, you’ve watched our backs while fighting. You wouldn’t care if you had no heart. Like when you warned me of the Hyougamon that nearly took my head off. You protected Oyon just a few moments ago. You’ve changed some. That doesn’t mean you have to be alone.” Buhbatar had meant what he said. As much as he hated to admit it, Cholon had grown on him as much as the others. “I‘m grateful for the offer. Really, I am. I’m better off alone though. I’ve been that way for too long,” Cholon confessed. He had been alone for too long. Only Bearmon knew him well enough. He would be excepting of the other Chosen though in time. “Alright, but you can talk to myself, Battsetseg or even Oyon if you need to. We do care for your safety.” Buhbatar then rejoined his friends in the real world after passing through the television set. Cholon gripped his D3 and was tempted to hurry after them. He decided against it though. Bearmon was right next to him. The two started off into the distance to find shelter for the night. “Wait guys!” spoke up Tsukaimon, “You don’t have to take off on your own. The rest of us will watch over you.” “Yeah!” Elecmon happily bounced. Cholon replied, “I suppose it is a ways till we reach another cave or village of digimon that we can trust. Sure. You agree with this, Bearmon?” “I don’t mind,” Bearmon admitted and settled down on the ground. The other digimon gathered around the human boy and his partner. The group fell into friendly chatter. The Chosen boy was awake for several hours. He began drifting off to sleep while watching the sky darken, signaling the end of the day. Strangely enough, he had grown accustomed to the other Chosen and digimon. A layer of the tar that had hardened around his heart had fallen off. Cholon almost considered the team to be like family to him. Although, that currently didn’t say much considering his relationship with relatives. He wouldn’t worry about that for the moment. He had gained some valuable insight and people in his life. He was still as uncertain as before about what the future held, yet now he had hope to face it. Tomorrow was also another day. Author’s Notes: As most of you figured out, yes; Cholon is a homeless street rat. He lived on the streets for a few months till being summoned. In time I’ll reveal the reasons behind why he ended up like that. Later though because it’s not time for anyone to know. (Yeah, I realize that’s the oldest excuse to get out of explaining something.) Street Children and Economy of Mongolia: The collapse of the Soviet Union, subsidies withdrawing and the introduction of free market have caused social and economic problems in Mongolia. Families, friends and relatives suffer because of their government’s lack of ability to handle these situations. There are several reasons why children fend for themselves in the cities of Mongolia. In some of the cities in Mongolia, garbage is stored in large semi trailers and taken away at the end of the week/month. Some of the local people are generous enough to put aside the better parts of their food and keep it separate from the actual garbage. This way, the people on the street can eat decently. People on the street usually live underground in the sewers or abandoned buildings for warmth. There are also missionary houses that give a bed, clean clothes and a meal to those on the street. Whether a person will actually stay depends on their choice and the rules of the establishment. Sadly, even Mongolia has its dark areas. There is no such thing as Utopia. Human greed and selfishness have made certain of that. Till next time.