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digitalgate02 · 3 days ago

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Act 1-8: The Wandering Tamer

[AO3 v.]

TW: Gun

“So you’re the mysterious thief everyone is talking about, huh?”

This was bad: After leaving professor Kayama’s residence once his job was finished, he met a particular man with a digimon. Said man has a cocky attitude and a very friendly smile.

“...!!”

Wakamiya Ryo, a very stupid but skilled individual, lived near Professor Kayama's apartment building. His luck rate was pretty high that night, while the thief’s luck was extremely bad right now.

“Say, how about you give up on whatever you stole and then walk with me to the police station?”

“...”

Wakamiya’s suggestion was a red flag. He had no idea what to do now. The man and his Digimon approached cautiously, while the Phantom Thief retreated each step they took.

“C’mon, you can’t be doing whatever you’re doing forever, pal! We can solve this peacefully or…”

“Kh…”

I can’t use that trick again, and on a civilian… What should I do…??

“If you don’t want to cooperate…”

“Umm… B-Backup please!?” he babbled to the other three via the mic installed on the helmet.

“On the way.” he heard Youta’s response.

“Well then,” Wakamiya cracked his knuckles, “Monodramon, evolve now.”

“Alright, Ryo.”

“Y-you won’t fight someone without a di-digimon, right?!”

Wakamiya smirked, “Only if you surrender yourself.”

He gulped. But suddenly… Firamon and Lekismon came from somewhere and combined their attacks to create a thick vapor fog.

“Guh!!”

And to finish it, Lekismon delivered a sleep bubble bomb on both Wakamiya and Monodramon before they could see what was happening.

“...!!” Chat Noir was surprised by this sort of backup. He then took a look at the man and digimon lying on the floor, unconscious.

“I thought that he would…”

“Noel told us to come instead,” With a stoic posture, Firamon informed their rookie agent.

“Now we have to get rid of the bodies, geez!” Lekismon shrugged.

“D-DID YOU KILL THEM?!” Chat Noir panicked, his face turned pale like a ghost beneath the helmet.

��No, I didn’t, they’re just asleep. I was joking, rookie…!” the bun digimon replied, laughing nervously.

“Dammit I almost had a heart attack with that joke!” he snapped.

“Sorry… Sorry…”

The thief sighed, "But we can't just leave them lying in the streets like that..."

He took a while to think of a solution… Until he snapped his fingers,

“Ah that’s it…!”

Firamon and Lekismon looked at each other.

Hikari was on a break from her work and just decided to check on Rui. Someone else also went there to check on him and Ukkomon though -- Rui’s childhood friend, Ayame, who was on her day off.

Rui and Ukkomon were just cleaning the cafe counter’s glass with a cleaning cloth.

Hikari and Ayame, alongside their digimon partners, were chatting about a few things and enjoying their respective orders. Everything was okay, until Ayame just looked at Rui with a concerning gaze. This caught Hikari’s attention:

“Nakajima-chan, what’s wrong?”

“Um… I don’t know what but I got a late night call from Rui-kun…”

“Huh, why? Was it his cousin again?”

“No, this time he said… He was at a friend’s house and then saw a man and digimon unconscious outside. They went to inspect if the man and digimon were ok and then he decided to call me while I was working on my night shift at the hospital.”

“Rui…?” Tailmon raised an eyebrow, while Hikari’s eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything.

“Yep,” Cutemon said, “Rui called Ayame to report that. I think the police will investigate it, because…”

"...There was another one of those theft attempts last night, right?" Hikari mused.

Tailmon had a little feeling that Rui and Ukkomon were discreetly looking at them, as if they were hearing their conversation with Ayame.

“But why are you… worried?” Tailmon then turned back to the other two girls and Cutemon.

“... My coworkers did not find Rui-kun when they arrived there, only the victim and the digimon, a Monodramon.”

“Hmm…?”

“Maybe something happened?” Hikari wondered, now looking at Rui and Ukkomon.

“We came to ask him, but…” Cutemon said with a sad frown.

"...he had been busy all morning." Ayame finished with a sigh.

“Hmm, seems like he’s less busy right now” Tailmon pointed out, catching them just looking at that table at the moment.

“!!”

They looked at him, and he and Ukkomon looked at them… Awkwardly.

“Rui-kun…”

“... Yes?” he approached their table, Ukkomon just floated there in silence though, “Do you want something…?”

“Where did you go after you called me?” Ayame asked, “You shouldn’t have left that person alone, what if someone had…”

“... I was afraid of it being a scam and ran back to my friend’s apartment.”

“Huh??” the girls exclaimed.

“Listen, a person unconscious in the streets at godawful late hours at night is too suspicious, don’t you think?”

“True… I haven’t thought of that before…” Cutemon commented.

“But you were a witness, weren’t you?” Hikari asked, frowning “Do you know what happened?”

“... I lost my sleep, I went up to the balcony to relax, and then I saw this person lying on the street down there. I’m not sure what exactly happened to him and his digimon… Sorry.”

“... What were you doing at someone’s house at that hour?”

Tailmon’s question was the TOUGHEST of them all.

“... We didn’t notice the hours passing by and then it was too late for me to go home so he told me to stay for the night.”

“Ok…Fair.”

“What do you mean by that?” Ukkomon tilted his head.

"You have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, again…" Hikari said with a concerned look at them.

“... I’m sorry.”

Meanwhile, Ken was still checking those calling cards left at Amano’s and Kayama’s residences respectively. Those two said the same message:

-- Memory acquired. This person was not the culprit. --

At this point the investigation department was not sure what this actually means. The previous one, from Yamashina’s case, said ‘The truth will soon be unveiled.’ and the one from the particular case from Meiko’s father was a fair warning that he was about to mess with something dangerous.

“What does ‘memory acquired’ actually mean…?”

“... Hmm…” Wormmon was also thinking.

“Does it mean like a memory card? But then, when we checked the crime scene…”

“... Nothing was missing, nothing was broken or out of place either…”

The two rookie detectives spent their time at the office checking the information they had gotten so far.

“Could it mean…” Suddenly, Ken had a thought.

Ken opened the list of the potential victims Miyako got and checked them again. Only three researchers hadn’t been victims yet.

“I guess…”

“What is it, Ken-chan?” Wormmon asked him, after noticing Ken’s frown.

“... We have to check either of those three people,” and he explained to his digimon, “Noel Leblanc is after one of them. And there might be because…”

“... One of those professors is the real culprit right??”

“Exactly. If what he told us is true, someone was very aware of Menoa Bellucci’s Eosmon blueprints.”

“Hmm, and he said the data they stole was something about Eosmon too, right?”

“Yes, he did.”

A few days had passed… Another day at the Infinity Cafe Shop was completely calm and peaceful.

“Is this too sweet for you?”

“Oh, right! I’ll try it right now, Rui!”

Ukkomon made a sour face after picking a little spoon of the frosting Rui made.

“Maybe I didn’t put enough sugar…?”

“Hmmm… It’s bitter…!”

“W-well, I used dark chocolate…” he shrugged, “Maybe we can find a balanced solution for this.”

“Right!!”

Cooking and Baking with Ukkomon was so fun, and it was another day he had to take care of the cafe while Yuna and Makoto would go out to buy supplies… Yuna considered hiring another person to help Rui take care of the shop when they weren’t around…

But she is still not sure about it.

“Hello?”

The doorbells rang. Rui and Ukkomon had just put the cupcakes in the oven and then went to see who their customer was.

It was when…

“Ah…?!”

… the customer was just the person he met unconscious that night.

“...”

“Hey,” Wakamiya smiled, his charismatic smile could power the entire cafe shop. It was too bright and energetic… “Good morning, mister…!”

“H-hello…”

“Welcome!” Ukkomon said, but a little nervous, “Can we take your order…?”

“I’d like a cup of espresso and two cheesecake slices,” Wakamiya’s smile was still radiating a pure optimistic beam, “Please?”

“Alright…”

“Besides…”

Rui and Ukkomon gulped…? But why?

“... The hospital told me that it was you who called the ambulance for me days ago.”

… Ah.

“Yeah, we did…” Rui smiled, but it was a little crooked...?

“Then, thank you so much for that, pal!”

Monodramon, who was next to Wakamiya, was serious though. He looked at Ukkomon and the poor ancient fairy digimon felt intimidated by that gaze. It felt as if Monodramon would pierce him with those claws…

“... It was nothing, I… I couldn’t leave you there, something bad could’ve happened…!”

“Ah I see… You’re a cool guy, then!”

Gosh, that person could just power an entire town with that charisma…

…

Rui and Ukkomon served Wakamiya and Monodramon, then when they were about to step back to the cafe counter…

“Say, did you see a guy wearing a cat-eared helmet while I was unconscious…?”

“Uh�� No?”

“Ryo is talking about the new thief wandering around,” Monodramon explained, “We met them that day.”

“Oh…” Ukkomon exclaimed, then shook his head, “Nope! Rui and I didn’t see that thief at all!”

“I see…” Wakamiya kept that friggin smile though.

“A-are you a police officer, mister?” Ukkomon asked Wakamiya, out of curiosity.

“Nah, I’m just a guy that loves adventure.”

“Uh… So you’re a bounty hunter?” Rui asked next.

“Haha, I’m just kidding! I’m just an ordinary guy who got curious about the facility theft and went investigating it for a while.”

“Clearly a weird crime aficionado, then…” Rui whispered to himself.

“But what were you doing that late outside, kiddo?”

“... I saw you from the apartment window.”

“Um, Rui… I’m smelling something burnt…”

“Wha-- SHOOT, the cupcakes!” and he dashed to the kitchen again.

“Excuse us…!” Ukkomon bowed and then went after Rui.

Wakamiya and Monodramon looked at each other, confused. Well, they just assumed their talk was just distracting the poor boy and then felt a bit guilty for that.

When Wakamiya paid for the order, he just bought a cupcake from the cafe counter in order to apologize for the incident.

Still… Why did Rui and Ukkomon feel so… Nervous…?

“... I think he’s hiding something from us,” Tailmon mused.

Hikari was just with Takeru visiting Daisuke that time. Somehow she wanted to talk with both of them, knowing that Daisuke had asked Takeru’s help to discover whether Rui had been avoiding him or not. They were all on the dinner table from Daisuke’s apartment, with Tailmon and Patamon on the lap of their respective partners. Daisuke was on the other end of the table, with V-mon sitting next to him.

“You think so…?” Patamon frowned.

“Sigh…” Daisuke looked at Tailmon and then to Hikari, Takeru and Patamon, “So you guys think he’s… involved with Noel or somethin’?”

“That’s a weird thought…” V-mon commented.

“It doesn’t seem to be the case, does it?” Takeru replied with another question.

“Yeah, like… How did Rui and Noel know each other?!” Patamon added, crossing his paws.

“That’s a good question…” V-mon frowned.

“Well, if he’s not involved directly, then he keeps just… putting himself in danger for an unknown reason,” Hikari said with a sad look on her face.

“Ken said he put his life in danger for Mochizuki-san, and I didn’t even know he was friends with her?” Daisuke commented.

“And then, on the same night the phantom thief Chat Noir came in and attacked professor Mochizuki…” Takeru recapped the events, with a serious tone.

“But he was with them…” Daisuke argued back.

“Hmm…” the other five mused.

“Guys, it’s impossible. He wouldn’t do those things, and even… Noel is the one who got a ton of names and forms…!”

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence…” Hikari said, vaguely.

“... I know but, you remember how we met Rui-kun?” Takeru continued, “He trespassed the security and climbed the Tokyo Tower.”

“He was desperate…” Daisuke growled, “And just doing it once does not mean he got guts and skill for that…!”

“... Sorry, I…”

“Okay, let’s go straight to the point here” Daisuke stared at Takeru, and said with a firm tone, “If Rui were involved in those heists, what would’ve been his motives then?”

“Daisuke, with all due respect… Do you know Rui well enough to be sure that he wouldn’t be hiding something from us? Or that he wouldn’t be involved in these cases?”

Tailmon’s question made all of them stop arguing. And then everyone got so quiet in the room. Yes, they knew about Rui’s tragic story and his dislikes… But Rui never had been the kind to open to others and talk to them… At least since the incident from March 2003.

A child who is hard to open to others due to traumatic experiences… Could lead him into the path of someone holding so much deep inside. And, they knew that Rui is the kind to not be able to reject offers and is prone to obey orders even against his own will. All of that because of his relationship with his late mother.

“... I don’t think Rui is involved and that’s all.”

Daisuke did not want to admit none of them knew Rui that well. And somehow he implied he did not want to think about it either.

Another night in Tokyo…

“I… I will shoot…! I… I know what you did before…!”

Professor Minase was a woman in her mid-40s, and she was kinda panicked by the intruder breaking into her house. But sadly, she had taken everything wrongly.

“I didn’t do any harm to them.”

“Liar! You tried to kill them all before…!!”

“I’m not…”

“Leave or I will shoot…!!”

Just like Yamashina, she had a gun pointed at the mysterious, ominous phantom thief Chat Noir. And he knew there wouldn’t be any chance of her sitting down and having a talk peacefully. But she also wouldn’t let him take anything about that project, or any clue about the real researcher who purchased the stolen blueprints and data about Eosmon creation.

“I’m sorry but I can’t--”

“I’ll shoot if you don’t--”

“Darn it, I hate to do this again but…”

He snapped his fingers and suddenly the unknown digimon’s (green) eyes appeared in front of the woman. Yes, the digimon kept invisible, but managed to only turn his eyes visible. He has been doing this countless times now…

The woman’s mind got hijacked the moment she met the digimon’s eyes. Then, the creature ordered her to give the gun to Chat Noir. Professor Minase obeyed the order and handed the gun to the thief, who simply removed all its bullets and placed the gun on the desk.

“At this point we will keep doing this kind of thing even against my wishes…”

He sighed.

“I’m sorry…” the digimon said, with a sad tone.

“I’m fine, it’s just… This brings me bad memories, but if we have to, then…”

“Right… So, we do the same thing we did before and before and before and…”

“Yeah,” then he turned to the woman, “Professor Minase, please answer our questions so we can leave quickly. We didn’t come to cause harm, we’re trying to protect you and your colleagues.”

“We promise nobody is hurt, we did not try to… kill them.” the digimon added.

“Alright… I will answer all of your questions,” she said, but like if she was mechanized.

…

Once the job was finished, Professor Minase fell asleep just like all the previous victims. They had to leave immediately, but before Chat Noir left a calling card next to the woman.

They left immediately, after hearing the sound of the police sirens. So someone else noticed something going on in that apartment and called the police…

Not only that, in their escape route… Chat Noir spotted Wakamiya from a distance and bit his lips.

Not now, not again…!

He and the digimon (still invisible), had to change their plans and go hide in the nearest alley in that area.

“Uh… Guys?” he called the others on the other line, “That guy from the last mission just… Appeared again.”

“Alright,” this time it was Noel who answered, “I’ll take you out of there in a second.”

“Ok but… Hurry… If possible, please.”

“Another theft attempt happened?!” Takeru heard his coworkers chatting about the events in the morning of the next day.

“No way! And then another researcher fell unconscious…? What is it? The incidents from 2010 all over again, five years later?!”

Another of those chit chatting happening at his work, and again about the mysterious phantom thief. This kinda caused him a bit of anxiety and fear, but he wanted to believe in Daisuke.

But then he remembered what had happened between them and Noel once. Ken and him had suspected Noel’s actions and behavior, but Daisuke had been so sure Noel hadn’t been related to Arsenemon at all.

And Daisuke then had been wrong about this. At least Daisuke had been right about Noel not being a bad guy though!

What if…

#young prince detective sequel #young prince detective ichijouji ken #gun tw

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digitalgate02 · 9 days ago

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Act 1-7: The Thief of Memories

[AO3 v.]

“Sigh… I almost got caught… again.”

“Eh, it’s not a big surprise,” Lunamon said with a sassy tone.

"However, we did get a few names that matched the project's list of the staff members we got previously," Coronamon tried to defend the mysterious agent.

“At least the plan worked, monsieur. Just as I thought” still nonchalantly, Noel tried to cheer him up.

“So… what now?” the tiny digimon companion asked.

“We’re close, I think” Mizuki was with headphones on and reproducing the cam’s video.

“Close…?” their agent repeated.

Soleil then answered:

“Before we send the data you got we need to track down the person who purchased the data and then they will reveal who sold it to them.”

“So we can catch the real villain, stop their plans and send them to jail… Correct?”

“Oui. Because of that we need to keep everyone in the dark.”

“But this is getting more and more dangerous though…” the tiny digimon frowned.

“I know, I know. I suppose Ichijouji-san and his group will figure this out sooner.”

“That’s… bad, don’t you think?”

“... You do seem calm even with that problem” the newbie thief commented, “Does it mean there’s any new detail from what those people were doing with the stolen notes about Eosmon…?”

“Glad you asked!” Noel clasped his hands, excited. Then he continued, “Yes, even if it takes a few more weeks to decrypt the entire data… We got at least the lead that they were building a digimon.”

“Building…?”

“As you thought previously, none of us, be human or digimon, would mind the fact of creating life, but we all condemn creating meaningless, mindless machines for war.”

“...”

“This is what made you accept my deal, non ?”

The silence from the other clearly meant it.

“Without the data we extracted from their database, they cannot proceed. But, if the person who took hands on this is still in contact with the real thief…”

“... They might have copies of it, is that what you want to say?”

“Bingo,” Noel said, “But, as pointed out by your petit camarade, this is getting more risky for you. So you could stop right now or continue. What is your decision?”

“...”

“So you weren’t able to answer his question…?”

“Yeah…”

Ken just went to see Daisuke in New York, before Daisuke closed the shop for the night. At least his best friend offered him a cup of water to relax and vent out the problems he had been dealing with.

“So… Rui went to Mochizuki-san’s house because they’re friends and then he accidentally put himself at risk of being flagged as a suspect for the theft.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“And he kept going to the bathroom many times before, but Ukkomon kept with you guys in the same room.”

Ken nodded his head.

“But once he was back, you three saw the phantom thief Chat Noir in front of you and Ukkomon dodged all the attacks and successfully got stuck in the same room he, Chat Noir and professor Mochizuki were.”

“Exactly.”

“You guys broke the door, found Ukkomon and the professor unconscious and the thief there. But then, Chat Noir got a way to escape.”

“Yes, but… Why would Rui think I’d suspect him…?”

“Something makes no sense here,” V-mon commented, “I mean, you were doing your job! And making sure Rui wasn’t the culprit!”

“... Yeah, we did,” Wormmon’s antennae were down, “Because we don’t want to think Rui and Ukkomon are doing something bad…!”

“No, I get that perfectly well” Daisuke said, while checking his phone’s messages, “Rui is our friend and had been through a lot of things before, we just don’t want him to get in more trouble.”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

“If Noel is really involved, maybe we could ask him directly.”

“Wh-- What do you mean?”

“Noel called Miyako before, right? The next time he calls you… You go and ask him.”

“But Rui definitely said something odd when we met him before,” V-mon mentioned, remembering those words.

“What did he say?” Wormmon asked, out of curiosity.

“He said ‘I don’t want you to get involved in this’ and that’s all.”

“Involved…?!” Ken and Wormmon exclaimed.

“He then said it was because of a movie they were about to use the cafe shop’s building as one of the recording sets” Daisuke added immediately, “He didn’t want us to be around because it could attract a ton of people there and ruin the recordings…?”

That sounds like a terrible excuse though…

“But now that you said it…” Daisuke frowned, “I’m starting to worry about him again. Like, he’s a cool guy and does not like to get involved with anything big, and he only climbed the Tokyo Tower because no one had done anything for a week…”

“He was also related to the giant DigiEgg though” Ken reminded him, “It gave him a reasonable motive of doing it in the first place.”

“Then, if there’s no real motive for him to do something reckless like, pretending to be a thief… He wouldn’t be the best candidate for it.”

True but… How can you be so sure…?

“... Even if he is doing so, there might be something we don’t know and he does.”

Daisuke’s words kinda sounded a little… bittersweet. He was hurt by that possibility?

There were no calling cards or police reports for a while. In fact, Ken decided to watch Rui’s moves carefully now. Just to make sure his and Daisuke’s concerns weren’t real.

“...?”

Rui noticed Ken looking at him from that table. He talked with Kouda Yuna, who was finally back to work and recovered from her little work accident.

Ken saw the woman give her cousin a nod and he went in that direction. Rui just sat on the other end of the table.

“Is there something wrong?” Wormmon asked, while Ken was still quiet.

“... Someone left me a message last night.”

“A message?” Ken raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah… It was…” he took a deep breath “One of those cards.”

Ok, why would Rui be a target now…?

“I think it was meant for you, but why would it be left at my home…?”

“Maybe because you were at Mochizuki Meiko’s residence,” Ken pondered, looking at the black card Rui had placed on the table. Then, he took it and read:

-- Memory acquired: Look up at the names of the Project Mei contributors and researchers. There will be more data from where it came from. --

“... Project Mei?” Wormmon read the card, “Isn’t that…”

“I have no idea,” Rui replied immediately, “After Ukkomon getting hurt I don’t want to get near that guy again…!”

“... Wouldn’t you want to catch him and make him apologize?” Wormmon asked, knowing that Rui definitely has the guts enough to do risky things.

“I told Daisuke-kun and Takaishi-kun this and now I’m telling you,” Rui stared at the digimon, “I’m not doing anything reckless after the Tokyo Tower incident from three years ago.”

You sure about that?

“That’s all, now if you excuse me…” he got up from the table and went back to the kitchen.

“Why was he upset with my question, Ken-chan?”

“...” Ken silently looked at Rui leaving, wondering the same thing Wormmon had asked him.

“A list of people involved in that project?” Miyako raised an eyebrow; at this point she was working in the case alongside Ken. But they couldn’t let it be discovered by Ken’s high ups, that he’s working behind the curtains.

“Yes, do you know anything relevant to it?” He asked, "I think the phantom thief is leaving us a hint about his next victims."

“As usual, the phantom thief leaves a fair warning so we can catch them before committing the heist” Hawkmon commented with the other three, nodding his head sagely.

“So you have a list of the researchers working on the top secret project that was stolen from the facility?” Then, Miyako looked at Ken.

“They sent a copy of that list, but no details on what that project is.”

“Ok, give me that list, I will check on the key names they have in common and then we will know the next victims from the phantom thief Chat Noir.”

…

Miyako took the two lists and ran a search engine to match all the names they had in common. In a few seconds… The names Amano, Kayama, Minase, Himekawa and Shibayama appeared in a third list isolated from the rest. The list also had Yamashina and Mochizuki in common, but they had been targets already.

“Oho, bingo!” The skilled hacker smiled with a big grin, "These are the key members of the researchers from the failed Project Mei!"

“So they’re the potential victims,” Wormmon mused.

Ken gave a serious gaze at the list and then to Miyako, “At this point I should call the department and report this immediately, but…”

“Doing it so would make them catch Noel, right…?” She was able to predict what he was about to say. Because she was also concerned.

Noel is not only a phantom thief for them. Noel is a friend they made, even if they were playing a cat and rat game for a while. He had helped them out before and protected them as well.

Besides, if Noel Leblanc was involved… This means that something grave has been going on.

“If Noel Leblanc is trying to catch someone doing anything that could put everyone’s lives at risk… Then I’d like to keep the department out of this for a while.”

“Right, and about the email he made me write…”

“Hm?”

“There was something inside it, a code I guess” she opened the saved email text and showed it to him, “He told me to sign it with ‘phantom thief Chat Noir’ instead. I think he’s using another pseudonym for this.”

“Another form…”

“Like what Daisuke said!” Wormmon commented, “He suspects that this new phantom thief is another identity from Arsenemon.”

“Daisuke being a detective all again, huh…?” she chuckled, “Are you still going to secret dates with him, dear?”

“Not many as I have with you,” Ken teased her back with a smirk, “Anyway, now we have to pick one of those names and try our luck.”

"Does your detective gut have a potential candidate?"

“Hmm…”

The sneaky phantom thief recruit landed on another victim’s balcony later that week. Unlike Arsenemon, Chat Noir did not warn his victims, and would just act as some sort of spy agent trying to gather potential confidential information from them. That could be easy though, but he hoped to not have to use that ability again.

With professors Yamashina and Mochizuki he had no choice. They panicked and did not cooperate with him in the first place. But the idea of using that ability as truth serum felt kinda handy and he would adopt that approach if it just keeps happening. But he would prefer to have another option, dang it!!

“... Do you think he figured something out?” the digimon asked in a low voice, after they opened the balcony’s glass door and sneaked in.

“Probably did,” Chat Noir answered, “He’s a police detective after all.”

The thief looked around, trying to make sure there were no cameras in that room. Sending his digimon assistant seemed pretty obvious -- the tiny creature can turn invisible and then use his little string-like tentacles to disable the cameras and anything else.

(Thieves would’ve been very efficient if they had a digimon partner, spies too. That’s all.)

The residence the phantom thief was visiting belonged to a lone wolf lady, the digimon researcher Amano, who was definitely not waiting for him in the next room, just focused on something and being sleep deprived.

"... We will have to do that again, won't we?" Chat Noir sighed, knowing that the best thing to do would be to brainwash the woman and extract the information from herself instead.

He opened the door so he and the digimon could slip inside the room without catching the professor’s attention. She was on the phone and judging by the conversation… That person on the other end of the line was another researcher facility colleague from the same project:

“Ok, Kayama-kun. I will check those papers later…”

Suddenly, the phone connection was interrupted, and she noticed it.

“Hello…? Kayama-kun?”

She felt something was behind her, and then… Amano turned back and saw the phantom thief standing there.

“Y-YOU!?”

“Please calm down, I just want to talk--”

She grabbed her desk chair and tried to hit him, unfortunately. He gulped and stepped back.

“I won’t… I won’t let you--”

Suddenly, a digimon with green eyes was staring deep inside her soul. She couldn’t resist it and then she got successfully caught by the digimon’s power.

“My apologies for doing this to you, ma’am. But you have left me no other choice...”

Then, he took the phone from the woman’s hand and checked it out. Oh nice, the screen got locked, "Can you unlock this for me, please?" and showed the phone to the digimon.

“Right…!” and with one finger he released a tiny string-tentacle inside the smartphone’s jack and unlocked its screen, “There you go!”

“Thank you,” the thief said with a soft tone, and proceeded to examine the victim’s phone.

He used the camera in his helmet to show the contact list to Mizuki, who was following his moves cautiously (as usual). Then he proceeded to do the same thing he had done with Yamashina and Mochizuki respectively -- interrogate their target.

Another day at work and Hikari heard some rumors about what happened recently:

“What is wrong with that thief?!” she heard one of her coworkers chatting to another in the teacher’s room on their break, “The research facility theft was all they could steal though?!”

“Right, they just invaded two houses and didn’t take anything from the house?! Maybe they’re not a thief and yes a killer?”

“So, are they trying to kill the people who work at the research facility though…?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Tailmon frowned, This makes no sense.

Hikari and Tailmon had been informed by Ken and Miyako that yes, their former rival and current friend Noel (aka Arsenemon) was involved in those heists. And even, that this new phantom thief is helping him.

Those recent three cases (only two handled by the police, because Meiko was told to not report it to the authorities), has nothing stolen and just having the victims being found unconscious in their homes. Seems like they were also on a small sleep stasis for a few weeks.

So they had to wait for those victims to wake up.

…

“Could it be a digimon like Eosmon, again?” Hikari asked Miyako while she was visiting her friends and their baby, on the weekend. Ken had actually invited all four to a small reunion, so miraculously, Daisuke, Iori and Takeru were also there.

“A digimon… like Eosmon…” the other repeated those words, vaguely. Miyako stroked her chin, trying to find any correlation to those cases and that hypothesis.

“A digimon who steals consciousness like Eosmon…” Ken mused, then said, “It’s true that the stolen project is related to Eosmon, because what they stole had Menoa Bellucci’s confidential blueprints of Eosmon.”

“... So, Arsenemon could’ve gotten a digimon who can steal consciousnesses to help him catch the real target, huh…” Tailmon pondered.

Daisuke frowned, “Didn’t you guys beat the Mother-Eosmon-or-whatever-it-was-called? Because shouldn't ALL of the Eosmons have just… vanished with it?”

“Mother-Eosmon?” the others exclaimed.

“Look, Taichi-san said it was like a giant bee-like creature so maybe it was like a Mother-or-Queen bee… It doesn’t matter what we call it! They all should’ve disappeared when Taichi-san and Yamato-san took it down!”

“Oh… that’s right, dagya…” Armadimon said.

“So… Noel is using a digimon who can do this and then steal the information all he wants without leaving traces?” Patamon commented from the top of Takeru’s head.

“More likely,” Hawkmon with that hypothesis.

“So he’s Chat Noir and has another ally besides Miss Espimon?” V-mon said, and then looked at Ken, “Or do you think she can do those?”

And everyone also looked at Ken. Because… he’s the digi-nerd in that group. Yes.

“I’m not familiar with her digimon species, sorry.”

“We’re back to square zero, dagya…”

“Let’s suppose she couldn’t do it,” Takeru started, “Didn’t Arsenemon have a skill like this too?”

“He definitely used a hypnosis trick to put Koushiro-san, Taichi-san and Hikari-san’s cousin to sleep, yes” Iori recapped their previous encounters with the elusive digimon from a decade ago.

“Maybe he’s still using those tricks?” V-mon commented.

“But Noel said he hates to use brainwashing,” Daisuke argued back, “Unless he changed his mind…?”

“But then… Why would he just go full panicky when we had met his Chat Noir persona?” Wormmon asked the group.

“Well, he’s the master of disguises,” V-mon replied, “I think this makes sense, right?”

“It’s plausible, at least” Hawkmon said, while everyone nodded sagely.

“Hmm…”

Suddenly, the baby’s cry just made Miyako excuse herself from the living room and move to her room to pick the baby from the cradle. The rest of the conversation changed from the mysterious heists to other stuff… Like food, of course.

None of them noticed a digimon outside, with green eyes, observing them in silence. The digimon then quickly returned back to the ground level and met the mysterious phantom thief Chat Noir.

"So? How are they doing?"

“Um… I think they think you are Arsenemon…”

“You heard that, right?” and the thief talked with the misfit trio on the other side of the line with his helmet’s communicator, “Are you okay with that, though?”

“It’s better than having them targeting you, don’t you agree?”

“Yeah, I think so…”

“Now leave those people alone and go to our target’s residence.” Mizuki said with a serious tone, “Before Ichijiouji catches you snooping around.”

“Alright,” and he nodded his head. Then, the digimon and the phantom thief just left the area, heading to their next victim.

#young prince detective sequel #young prince detective ichijouji ken

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