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 where I am reading to you, making an audiobook, if you will, of Digimon Seekers.
Right now I'm doing episode by episode, but pretty soon I'm going to do a whole single file with all the chapters put together.
This is chapter one, part 15, AG Wolf of the Ninth Avenue.
I'm hoping the fact that we're on Ninth Avenue means that we're going to be ending this chapter soon and getting into something else, because it'd be nice if the story moved along.
I'll read it to you, and again, this is K Kuhn's translation. I'll read it to you, and then I will be commenting on it a little bit, some thoughts I have on this chapter so far, and possibly on the book as a whole, but we'll see when we get there.
In Walslems Ninth Avenue, the police issued Cargo Dramon that appeared in the skies above the Castle of Nine Wolves, let out a warning.
We got tipped off by our patrols. You're no match for us, crappy codecracker. This is the police department. We're the Digi-Police that strike fear in the hearts of all.
The Digi-Police? It was as AG had suspected. The Digi-Police were scarier to codecrackers than the thought of demons.
When it came to cyber-terrorism and Digimon crimes, there was no better counter-Digimon force in Japan.
Oh wow, it's my first time seeing them. AG was immediately excited. This is so cool! Lugamon, get a picture of that Cargo Dramon! My eyes are not cameras.
Lugamon snarled as he glared at the Cargo Dramon. Its powerful built-in sensors were pointed directly at Lugamon.
ML, mind-linked active.
The duo was being probed. The sensors fulfilled an aspect of police questioning by scanning what they were carrying.
You're one of those degenerate criminals, the SOC, aren't you? And a mind-linker on top of that. That tip-off we got wasn't an exaggeration.
Tip-off? Exaggeration? AG had no idea what the voice was talking about.
You even hololized yourself for me. Are you really that dumb or as cocky as you look? Hey, I want answers how to use ya ding-dong cracker and five-head Digimon. Ding-dong.
Five-head? AG and Lugamon looked at one another. Apparently the nickname Five-head was because the voice was making fun of the large headpiece on Lugamon's forehead.
Get your ass over here, the voice trailed off and corrected herself. You're coming back with us to the station. That's optional, right? AG said innocently. I'm in the middle of work right now. So he began to walk away.
Oh, looking down on me, are ya? She hissed. Hit him with the M16 Assassin. Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. There was a crossfire.
At the call of the woman with the phony Edo dialect, who seemed to be their commander, the commandeerman squads that had split up into left and right took aim.
Hey, they're shooting at us! AG fell to the ground, covering his head. Rays of fire crossed above his head.
Those were warning shots. Says you! AG shouted back at the Digi police commander. In what world was firing assault rifles at full power considered a warning shot to civilians?
Someone climbed down from the cargo drum on a rope. A female officer? AG breathed a sigh of relief.
She too appeared to be hollowed, but the voice of the police commander that he had been speaking to apparently belonged to her.
The woman had shoulder-length bobbed hair cut that was black with inner green streaks. She had on gyaru makeup and was wearing a cap, high boots, and a loose fitting jacket. It was rather a unique look for a police officer.
Oh, you're kind of cute. That was AG's first impression of her. I'm tired of hearing that. And a lot of self-esteem too. She was the type that most guys, not just AG, would be thrown off by.
So what you working on, SOC codecracker? Poaching Digi eggs? I'll drag you off red-handed in that case.
Although she looked cute, she had the mouth of a sailor and a difficult personality. At least she was clearly dedicated to her work.
That Digi police lady means real business, Lugamon said from his lowered stance. He too had been wary of the command room on shooting.
Hey, Lugamon, what happens if we get shot?
Why don't you go find out?
What?
A-A-A-G-A-A-A-A-A-A-G YAAA! AG screamed. The Vulcan cannon, suspended from the cargo-dramon's fuselage, dug holes into the dirt with its 30mm rounds right in front of the cowering AG's eyes.
The smell of gun smoke lingered in the air. Were they breaking up the soil to plant new vegetation or something?
Dammit. Like I've said many times before, Lugamon said mad repackily, In the digital world, data has substance.
I understand now," Eiji shuddered. If he got hit by a bullet, it would hurt like normal,
and he'd die. Eiji's soul would break into pieces. That's what he felt would happen.
Don't call me a lady. Do you want to die during a mind link? The female officer was fuming.
What a short fuse, Eiji exclaimed.
I should have brought mecanorimon with me, she continued with grit teeth. I'd have burned
you to death in an instant. Lucky for you, it's under maintenance. Hey, you shit code
cracker, last warning here.
You want to know what I was doing here? Eiji raised his voice. I was walking. I was mapping
the area while walking. I wanted to know about the digital world, for science. Well, he made
it sound nice. He wasn't exactly lying.
You what? Cargagermon!
They carry no signs of digi eggs or captured digimon, deputy squad leader, Cargagermon
reported. In other words, it appears that they were indeed taking a stroll through Wolsum
just as they claimed, grrr.
The loud lady that was their deputy squad leader was clearly disappointed. Although
the SOC was a dangerous codecracker group, that alone didn't qualify an arrest. Minor
faults weren't a warrant for prosecution.
This is Wolsum's Ninth Avenue, and there at the Castle of Nine Wolves, in the Ninth
Avenue of Hell, she shrieked. Even we, the digi police, can't step in here without the
proper equipment. It's a den of rogues. You're plenty suspicious if yous just out here taking
a stroll in this dangerous place.
It's no use. This lady's beyond high strung. Eiji gave up on holding a conversation. He
checked the map on his virtual monitor as he held his head.
There was the commandermon and the Cargagermon in the air. There's others here too. There's
something else aboard the Cargagermon. The digi police had reinforcements. There wasn't
going to be an end to this. Let's get out of here, Lugaman. Lugaman?
When Eiji looked up, his digi-one was already gone.
SPIRALE, BITE!
Sharp Fang's pierced body armor. One, then two markers disappeared off the map. The commandermon's
bulletproof armor was ripped apart like cardboard, and they were knocked away one after the other.
Eiji was taken aback. It had all happened so fast. Lugaman had fought back, defeating
them with only his sharp teeth and claws. Lugaman stood before the imperial court of
the castle of nine wolves. This is my home.
He howled as if to emphasize that fact.
This is an obstruction of justice. Why you... What kind of monster are you, anyway? Is this
some kind of trap? The deputy squad leader's voice turned in on itself. The tip-off that
she had received was a trap. From the way things had turned out, it wasn't wrong of
her to think so. But it was Eiji who was even more astonished.
He took out two fully equipped commandermons in an instant. Lugaman, you're super strong!
But wait, don't do that. You can't mess with the police.
Eiji was back to holding his head in his hands again.
Why not? Shouldn't I have? Lugaman keened and tilted his head to the side in a dog-like
gesture.
The rest of the commandermon tried to re-encircle Lugaman from a distance while retrieving their
fallen comrades.
If you mess with the police, you'll get taken from me. We'll be arrested. There's no such
law in the digital world. The only rule in a wall is slum is eat or be eaten.
What?
Eiji, with his head still in his hands, connected to Grimm in a last desperate attempt. He wanted
to inform the SOC interviewer of what was going on.
Hey, the interviewer guy momentarily left his seat. What a horrible person.
How dare you treat my subordinates like that? The Hollow Eyes Deputy Squad Leader rolled
up her sleeves.
Is that a Digimon linker? Eiji noticed.
She was wearing on her wrist a watch with a smartwatch-type dock. It had police colors,
so the coloring was different, but it looked like the same type that Eiji was wearing.
You'll pay for underestimating me.
Police lights suddenly came on, rotating their warning lights around her. What the heck is
happening right now? Eiji cried.
Hololization is way too convenient.
That lady is mind-linked too.
Lugaman returned to Eiji's side and braced himself.
Aveden Electronics received orders from the police on a variety of electronic equipment.
What's more, Ryusenji was an advisor to the Metropolitan Police Department.
You're kidding me! Eiji cried.
Our Digimon partner is over there! Lugaman looked up at the Cargadramon.
Boom!
The Cargadramon moved in the sky above. It changed the angle of its rotors and raised
its nose slightly to open the large hatch at its rear.
Something.
The Digimon that had been waiting in the cabin peeked out.
Smack slap. Smack smack.
What the hell is that?
The chill ran down Eiji's spine.
With a hideous writhing, the Digimon pushed itself out of the hatch and landed on the
ground with a heavy thud.
Nomaaaaah!
It was a huge slug.
Ugh! It's Numaman!
Eiji screamed in terror.
And that is the end of that.
So first of all, the reading took about ten minutes.
Maybe nine.
I don't know.
There were some interruptions.
I've got to edit some stuff out.
I like that we're getting more action.
I like that we're getting this police lady finally involved.
She was in a scene earlier that had nothing to do with Eiji and it was just kind of setting
the scene for what the Digi police are like.
And that's weird.
I also think it's interesting that Lugaman raises the question of why should laws of
humans and laws of Japanese police apply in the digital world because the digital world
has its own laws.
And I guess that makes sense if the digital world is its own individual world, then it
stands to reason that it would have sovereignty there.
I guess there would be some sort of law of the digital world that is sovereign there.
And it doesn't mean that when you go to a different place, you can't take your laws
and your morals with you.
However, I think it's technically wrong to let's say you had a law against wearing a
black hat backwards in your society and then you went somewhere like a black baseball cap,
right?
And then you went somewhere else and the people there didn't have that law.
It would be weird or odd for you as the incoming set of people to, or community I guess I'll
say, to try to impose your law on the others around you who are fine wearing black baseball
caps forward or backward and for you to try to punish somebody who is of that society
that you're entering for wearing their baseball cap backwards when it's black.
And it makes sense that you could police or control or try to keep that law, that ethic,
that moral going in your society that has joined in and become like it has infiltrated
into this new society.
But for a minority to put its laws and rules and things like that on a majority that has
different set of laws and ethics and whatnot doesn't really make sense.
You can make a moral argument for why a law, like a superior moral law from a small like
infiltrating society should be embraced by the larger society.
But yeah, just like Lugaman was acting in self-defense because he was being attacked
by the Digi police and I don't really see anything wrong with that.
I can see why he would be seen as a rogue by them and why he would be seen as a uncontrolled
element by them.
But technically by just a natural form of law, if you're being attacked by somebody,
especially unprovoked, why shouldn't you have the right for self-defense?
So that's what that makes me think.
And yeah, I thought the five head thing and the, I can't remember what she called Agee,
really insult for him, but that was a fun moment.
I kind of like this jerk cop as an antagonist and I thought she was going to, I thought,
I kind of figured since all these people have Digimon that there'd be some larger Digi threat,
the digital world threat that they would all unite over and maybe that'll happen later
in the book.
Like maybe 30 or 40 chapters in a few months to go for that.
But yeah, I kind of expected, I don't know what I expected from the police, but it wasn't
this.
It wasn't quite this.
It's funny.
They described her hair as short.
What are they going to call the blonde lady?
What's her hair?
Is it like a buzz cut?
I guess they do say that this lady has the black bob.
So yeah, I know that the Edo accent is kind of funny and I can see what Kekun did with
the translation choice there.
It kind of makes sense to me and I hope I did it justice.
But anyway, I don't know.
It's interesting.
It's gross that she has a new one.
It seems very odd that she's a new one.
I wouldn't think that a new one would be an effective police thing.
Like you don't have a Chihuahua as a canine part of a canine unit.
It's a German shepherd or something like that because that makes a lot more sense.
Yeah.
The story is moving forward again.
This also could have been a place where we started.
We didn't have to have all this world building.
We could have had the narrative.
It could have been truncated and we could have had Eiji as assigned by Ryusenji to go
ahead and do the infiltrate SOC.
And then we see him go into wall slum with Lugaman and still have a lot of their dynamic
together because their dynamic is good.
It's just there was a lot of buildup.
And now to me, it's finally starting to go somewhere.
Yes, because there was violence, but also yes, because there's conflict and there's
like Eiji and Lugaman aren't isolated.
They're not just talking to Ryusenji.
Ryusenji talks to and advises and gives tech to the police, but now he's also giving it
to this independent actor that he's got in Eiji and he expects something from him.
And like we're learning that the mind link is a thing and that the police can mind link
and that Eiji can do.
And it's super hypocritical of the cop that, oh, you're mind linked?
How dare you be mind linked?
Oh, I happen to be mind linked too.
But yeah, that's an interesting thing.
Like in Japan, as far as I know, it's illegal to own guns, but the cops can have guns.
Of course, I don't think just like a regular cop, I think it's a special level of cop,
but certain levels of police can have guns.
And I don't know if it's detectives or who it is specifically, but they can have guns
and no one else is allowed to have a gun.
And if like a detective were to run up on somebody and they had a gun, they would automatically,
oh, that person's a criminal.
Well, yeah, because that's how your laws are structured, but like intrinsically, like the
fact that you can have a gun and be a cop and be in good standing with the law means
that according to your society, there is a legitimate reason for a person to have a gun.
And the fact that a civilian is barred from it and therefore is automatically a criminal
for having one doesn't really make sense.
Because what's the difference between the two of you?
Well, I'm a cop and they're not, or I'm a special level of detective, I have social
training.
What if they have social training?
I'm an American who has special training and can shoot as well as an American or Japanese
cop goes to Japan, but they're not a cop.
Would the Japanese be upset with them for having a gun or the detective not like that?
Possibly, but that doesn't really make sense.
It's like this weird, I don't know, I guess there's like an arbitrary level or layer of
like law that's being described.
And it's interesting because like Lugaman doesn't really care about that.
He is unaffected by those things.
He kind of sees protocol like the protocol is eat or be eaten in the digital world and
he's okay with that.
But like you see, he's not just randomly attacking people.
He's not just violent for violence sake.
He has his territory and he maintains it.
He defends himself and things like that.
So it's kind of interesting how, I don't know, there's a, it's just interesting what's being
set up and I don't know what's being said necessarily, but I'm observing what I'm observing
and sharing it with you.
So anyway, let me know what you think about all this.
Let me know what you think of the story so far.
And if you're looking forward to more Seekers or if you're tired of it, because I just saw
a video pop up the other day that says that people are giving up on Seekers.
So we'll see how it goes.
I wonder how it's being received in China.
I would imagine, I would imagine the Chinese aren't too different from us, you know, English
speakers and that they probably see a similar lack of action and lack of story development
as an issue.
But I'd be curious to see, and even in Japan, how is this being received?
I'm really curious about that and I wonder if anybody has looked into that specifically
to see what the numbers are like, because I'm sure you could look at website hits and
see how much traffic Seekers is getting.
Anyway, for now, that's all I have to say.
I insist that you be well.
I hope that you are well and I hope that you be well.
And until next time, folks, this is MJ 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.
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