This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Welcome to Digimon Chronicles. My current project and focus in Digimon is reading the
web novel of Digimon Seekers and basically making a Digimon Seekers audiobook. I'm using
K-kun's translations here and I'm going to go ahead and just jump right into the story.
So this is AG Wolfe of the Ninth Avenue, chapter one, part 18. Sorry, that was a commentary.
Are Digimon living creatures or computer programs? There was no legal definition for them,
at least in human society. Legislation regarding Digimon was undeveloped due to the digital world
being undefined. Was it legal to capture Digimon in the digital world? Was it possible for someone
to be punished for possession of a Digimon? If it was in fact punishable, would the punishment be
based on existing laws such as the act on the prohibition of unauthorized computer access,
the Subversive Activities Prevention Act, or on laws related to animal and environmental protection?
Responses would also differ between countries, but crimes that used Digimon were definitely
happening, at least in Japan anyway. A realistic response to them was to classify Digimon crimes
perpetrated by codecrackers as subversive acts and to set up a special unit within the police
to stop them. That became the Metropolitan Police's Community Safety Department's Cybercrime
Division's Digimon Crime Response Police Team Investigation Section 11, otherwise known as the
Digimon Crime Response Police Team, or even shorter, the Digi Police. They were a secret
organization created to respond to Digimon crimes, a cybercrime police unit that monitored and
investigated all codecrackers. Lugaman Section 11's squad leader Xu Yulin murmured as she scrolled
through the report on her desk monitor. She wore a very short bob hairstyle that was cropped on the
sides and back, and minimal makeup. Her sharp looks and flawless work record earned her the nickname
as the Demon Squad Leader. While her name and roots were of Chinese origin, she was a Japanese citizen.
Yes, Squad Leader, this is the Digimon that was owned by the SOC Cracker that we encountered today
at the Digital World's Outer Wall Slum in 9th Avenue, Deputy Squad Leader Satsuki Tamahime
reported smartly to her boss. Section 11 was really the size of a normal police department,
but it took on the appearance of a smaller organization in order to conceal its existence
both from the public eye and its internal department. He drove away the Commander Mon
Squadron, eh? His reactionary speed and power are unparalleled for a child level. We've got a
dangerous codecracker on our hands. Yulin analyzed the data from the report. Those five headbastards
even evolved into Togugaman and sent my new momon to the infirmary. The next time I see them,
I'm putting them in handcuffs. A level A codecracker with the ability to mind link.
I didn't see his name on the list of SOC executives that we'd obtained. Eiji Nagasumi.
I'm amazed that you managed to get his real name so quickly, Satsuki.
Well, he said it. He gave it to me himself. Huh? Yulin slumped back on her desk a bit.
Like I said, this agey kid gave me his full name. You'd think it would be his alias or
a codecracker name that he goes by, right? But it appears to be his real name.
I can't tell if he's really smart or really stupid, Yulin murmured. Although to be fair,
Yulin's second-in-command deputy squad leader Satsuki had also made public both her full name
and her undisclosed affiliation to Section 11 to a codecracker.
My guess is that he's a very skillful moron, Satsuki said. That was my first impression of
him, anyway. Satsuki was infuriated. That so-called skillful moron had sent her new momon to the
infirmary. The police force was a tight-knit organization. Whenever a single police officer's
life is in danger, the entire organization does everything in its power to catch the culprit.
This was a means to settle the matter. Wrap things up and tie them with a bow. If they didn't end
things completely, the entire police force would lose face, leading to further harm in the future.
Pests who struck out against the police had to be stomped out of existence.
Morons are one thing, but you crossed the K-line once again, Satsuki. How many times has that been
this year now? Sorry, Satsuki looked ejected. I know you don't need to hear this again, but
mind-linking has a time limit for a reason. If you cross the K-line, the warning threshold,
and then into the L-line, the connection limit, your mental data will end up glued to the data
core, and only your consciousness will be left behind in the digital world. That'll have a huge
impact on our department's audit. It could kill you. I, for one, Satsuki, do not want to lose my
men, not a single one of them. Please accept my apologies. I'll be more careful. I don't wish
to be DMIA either. DMIA, Digital Missing in Action. This term referred to people who went missing or
fell unconscious during their activities in the digital world. The warning threshold determined
by the DigiPolice was like a yellow card, or the K-point in Ski-Dog. The warning threshold
was like a yellow card, or the K-point in Ski-Jumping. If a mind-linker continued beyond
the warning threshold of the K-line, their consciousness would eventually reach its limit.
The L-line was the limit line. This was the red card, the L-point. At worst, reaching this point
would force one to exit life, and if they had a head-on collision with a concrete wall,
DMIA was a DigiPolice term for someone who'd exceeded the mind-link's time limit and whose
consciousness could no longer return to the real world. Yulin opened Eiji Nagasumi's file. It
contained everything from his family registry, a brief synopsis of his background to the latest
video footage of him captured by surveillance cameras on street corners. Isn't that DDL?
Satsuki spoke up. The surveillance video was taken in front of a facility adjacent to Tokyo
Deno University. He isn't a Deno student, I thought. Yulin asked. It was, after all,
Japan's top-ranking university for science. A majority of its students could be potential
hackers or codecrackers. Yeah, he isn't. He's currently a freelancer. Zoom here, Yulin
instructed. The video paused and the camera zoomed in on Eiji's left arm when he emerged from the DDL
building. Analysis. The image grainy from the zoom was reconstructed into a clearer visual
through AI processing. A Digimon linker. That would be the latest Digimon doc model made by
Abadin Electronics. Yulin's Digimon spoke in the dramatic tones of an old-fashioned samurai.
Ryudomon. Child-level. Beast-type. Vaccine species. His hollow-eyes figure at Yulin's
side looked like an ancient armored dragon. He wore a Japanese-style helmet and was the size of
a large dog, which was about the common size of a Digimon for a child-level. Since he spoke,
that meant that this Ryudomon was also already mind-linked with a human.
Lugomon and the latest Digimon linker, Yulin pondered. They look awfully similar, don't they,
squad leader? The forehead of your Ryudomon, and the forehead of this dog, I mean, Lugomon.
The exact same kind of interface was also on Ryudomon's helmet.
From a tower apartment overlooking the Denrin district at night. His one-bedroom apartment was
on the middle floor. His mentor-slash-boss owned the room which he rented while attending the
university here in a study abroad program. He exited the shower room, dried his hair roughly
with a towel, and put on a bathrobe. He'd kept on his wrist his smartwatch, the Digimon linker.
When he walked into the living room, there was a Digimon there. The Digimon was hollowized.
There is no light on in the room, but the Digimon himself glowed with tiny lightning bolts flashing
over him, which lent a faint light to the room itself.
The SSC is up to something, the Digimon cried. Pulsemon, the lightning bolt Digimon that had
a run-in with the DigiPolice's Section 11 Deputy Squad Leader at Walsum's last cost the other day.
A codecracker? Is this a sign that the SSC is about to start their larger scale operation?
He took a bottle of mineral water out of the refrigerator. Most of his meals were either
taken at restaurants or delivered, so there was no food or even snacks inside.
Yeah, looks like the SSC is trying to increase their numbers, Leon.
Elaborate Pulsemon. Pulsemon spun in the air and displayed data on a large monitor propped on the
wall. Leon used the hollowized Digimon as a smart speaker, an AI assistant. Needless to say,
Pulsemon and he, Leon Alexander, were mind-linked. There was an altercation between a codecracker
and the DigiPolice in Walsum. It's not the usual police scoring points by catching petty thieves
red-handed. You'd think so, right? But this took place in the Ninth Avenue, otherwise known as the
Castle of Nine Wolves. That's not the kind of place a normal codecracker would visit for a bit of fun,
Leon plopped down on the couch. It seems that this skilled codecracker and his Digimon partner drove
back the DigiPolice. They're unquestionably mind-linked. So, this codecracker, what does he
have to do with the SSC? Leon sipped from his water bottle. He liked Japan's softened water.
When he'd lived in Japan as a kid, he grew up drinking gallons and gallons of this water at
school and at the park. Funny you should ask, the SSC channel is currently ablaze with rumors about
him. And that is the end of the chapter. So, I apologize for my few stumbles there and I
I think this was a good chapter. I liked learning about this stuff with the, you know, potential
death or near this K-limit, L-limit thing with the, you know, with being mind-linked and that it's
the length of time that you are mind-linked that affects that. That's really neat, really interesting
information. And I don't know how many more times I'm going to say this. I guess if there's one more
week, I don't know how to put this. I don't know. I like where this is going. I like the opening
philosophy or philosophizing, I guess, about, you know, are Digimon alive or not? If so,
who's sovereignty are they under? What laws apply to them? And all that kind of stuff. That was all
super interesting and I think those are all very smart, very good questions to be asked. I think
it's interesting that it was coming from, is it Yulin? From Yulin's perspective. And if it's not
actually her thoughts, it's thoughts that pertain to a character like her being part of the Digi
police and such. And I thought that was really good and interesting and it makes sense to ask
those questions. And of course, the conclusion that's brought up is kind of a bait and switch
deal where, well, we asked all those questions. We're not really going to answer them, but we are
going to say because crimes are being committed by people using Digimon, therefore there must be a
Digimon police force basically to, or there must be a force of the police to police Digimon crimes.
Which, yes, I agree. But at the same time, isn't a Digimon crime just a crime? Kind of like the
argument against the distinction of hate crimes in the United States. Why is it a special crime
and needing special, I don't know, section of law or whatever, if it's done out of hate for somebody
because of a, what do they call that? Like a biological or biographical, like an ethnic
difference. Like why does that make the crime so much worse? I threw a rock at this guy because
I didn't like the way his face looked. I threw a guy, a rock at this guy because I'm racist. I
threw a rock at this guy because, I don't know, he offended me or said something about my mother.
Like all of those things are motivated by hate and greed and selfishness and immaturity.
And I don't see why you would prosecute each of those things differently from each other
and why there would be any more penalty for one over the other. So that just seems kind of odd.
And obviously if a Digimon is being used to commit a crime, the person perpetrating the crime should
be prosecuted because it's a crime. And whether they're using a Digimon or a gun or a taser
or a samurai sword, like what's the difference? It's a crime being committed. The scope of it,
the efficacy, like all that stuff is dependent. But like, isn't the crime, isn't the tool and the
instrument used to commit a crime less important than the actual criminal intent and the actual
harm done by the crime? That makes sense to me. And this idea of, oh, it's this kind of crime,
therefore we need this special police force against it is a little silly. But then again,
on the Digimon side, it does make sense specifically that the Digi police need the
special equipment of their own Digimon and using the mind link capability in order to combat crimes
with Digimon. So in that regard, it makes sense. That's okay. And I like that. But it's just,
there's like a conflation going on of a crime versus a Digimon crime. And I don't like that
because that's oversimplifying things and that's kind of, you can get fast and loose and then you
can say, well, just having a Digimon is a crime or being a mind linker, having a mind link with a
Digimon is a crime. Why? Why should, just because I'm really good at connecting with this Digimon
and I'm able to do a mind link, why does that mean I should be prosecutable or able to get in
trouble with the law? That doesn't make any sense. So there's definitely a slippery slope there.
I don't think the book will really address that. I don't think the story is going to address that,
but I do think it's interesting. But I do think, I suspect that the mind linking capability is going
to deepen and they're going to get past the L limit or whatever. And they're going to find all
these different thresholds and like probably unlocking the greatest highest powers and levels
of Digivolution or whatever is going to be done through a superior form of mind linking.
We're no longer mind linked, AG, we're soul linked or something like that. And I think that's cool.
I think it's a fun idea and I like that there's just this different approach being taken to it.
And I think it's a good thing. Also speaking of a different approach and things being slightly
different, the fact that it seems like the book is saying that only Digimon who have mind linked
can talk, that's really interesting to me. And that kind of makes sense. They have that
ability to speak because of the mind link with the human. So they gain that fluency
in human communication style, which is language and verbal. And I wonder if that's the case,
then does that mean there's something that happens with the person who mind links with the Digimon
that they're able to do something as far as interface is concerned with Digimon that they
weren't able to do before? And does that only work if... I can't remember. I think mind linking and
hololization are separate matters from each other, but it seems like based on what was said about
Leon, what was said about Yulin and Satsuki now and AG, it seems like these people are special
and they're in the Digimon are special because they are using the mind link capability. And
that's kind of what separates them from all other Digimon users. And I think that's pretty
interesting. I like this chapter. It was good. I want more like this and less like some of the
other ones. And I want to keep us shifting perspective and going from party to party to
see and build up this more interesting, deeper story. Because I think we can do that. And I think
staying with AG and just dragging out his experiences and having him do all these different
things doesn't make sense. I want it to be this active thing to do something that a show wouldn't
necessarily do where they're showing you all different sides of things as the characters are
all linked together. Leon's monitoring. We can see now he messes with the Digi police. He kind of
monitors SOC. He knew AG when he was a kid. He's going to run into him now. Satsuki's already linked
with AG. Yulin's linked with AG. Satsuki and Yulin are linked to each other. They want to stop him
because they're Digi police. He's Digi criminal adjacent or whatever because of working with SOC.
But then Leon has something going with SOC. It seems like he sees that they have an affairs plot
going on. AG's observing them. Leon might be antagonistic to them. But then again, he's also
antagonistic to the police. So it's like a very interesting, cool, multi-threaded story going on
here. And there's lots of different angles that you can come from. And I think that's really neat.
And I'd like to see them continue to play on those things and not just give us focus with AG and
Lugamon even though I like their dynamic. Fine. I want to see a rotation keep going through,
although I cannot believe Satsuki uses a new one and that she's super into that. It's so weird.
But this Rio-Demon? Is that supposed to be Demon? I think it was supposed to be Daimyo or something.
But anyway, we'll see. This Samurai Dragon dude seems pretty cool. That's a really fun character
idea. And I'd like to see where he goes as a Digimon. And it's interesting that he and
Lugamon both have the head interface thing. And oh, somebody else from SOC has that purple dinosaur
Digimon, I don't know the name of, that has that diamond thing on its head too.
So that's interesting. So like, what's the link between those and everything else? I don't think
Bolt or I don't know, the electric guy, whatever his name is Pulse. I don't think Pulsemon has that.
So anyway, yeah, now you've got the police, SOC, Leon, AG. That's at least four groups there
that could all be doing very interesting things and having interesting interactions with each other.
So anyway, that's all I have to say about this. I do want to add something else, which is that I
discovered, I might've mentioned it this time, I won't mention it again for a while. I discovered
that Kekun also did a translation of the three volumes of the Digimon Adventure books, the light
novels that were done by the producer, director, writer, I'm not sure, of the actual Digimon
Adventure show, which is super interesting. And I was listening to that earlier, but I don't think
May from Austin Translation Mon finished the series. I don't think she finished all the books.
She has 16 videos up and some of them cover like two chapters and most, some cover one, some cover
two. I don't know if any cover three or more. So that's interesting. If she, I'm going to listen
to all those. If she doesn't finish them, then I might jump into that or I don't know. We'll see,
because I definitely want to do something more with Digimon Chronicles than just cover Digimon
Seekers, even though I think it'll take about a year. I might just wait, because I have a lot of
other projects going on right now. I might just wait till this year's over of Digimon Seekers and
move on to doing something else with Digimon. But you know, I like it a lot. So I'd like to do more
with it, but we shall see. Thank you for your time and attention. I hope that you are well.
And with that, I'm going to say this is MJ and I'm signing out. I hope you enjoyed that. Go to
MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have. There you can
find all of my analysis, art and fiction. I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more.
Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well.
This has been a Story Over Everything production.