Butter-Fly Effect

Sakuya Tsuzuki was a genius.

He'd been told that since he was young, and he didn't see any need to disbelieve the people who told him this. After all, with all the things he knew, all the things he was trying to figure out that nobody even bothered to question... it seemed obvious, to him.

People said that Sakuya Tsuzuki was wasting his genius, chasing after things that were near-impossible to prove, or simple curiosities.

This, he did not believe. After all, if nobody wanted to chase after those things, how was anyone to ever understand them?

Not that they'd get much of that from him. His handwriting was terrible, and while they didn't ridicule him so much if he was sitting in front of a computer, for some reason or another, he kept everything locked behind three layers of passwords, so that nobody would be able to steal his discoveries.

Such as the fact that computer data was much more powerful than one might think.

He hadn't even been meaning to discover that. He'd been looking for evidence of alternate universes, actually, and ended up hacking his way into one.

Sort of.

There wasn't actually any way to access it that he could see. Which, given that people had never accidentally wandered between worlds before, made perfect sense. Actually, he was pretty sure it was just sombody's simulation gotten out of hand, that would have made sense.

But he couldn't pull himself away. Something about that world... Time passed there in the blink of an eye, yet the beings there managed to live perfectly realistic lives, with very few of them possessing the knowledge that they might not be strictly 'real'. It would be a bit paranoia-inducing to anyone else, but Sakuya decided to think about it logically.

He was made of flesh and blood. Therefore, he was real.

The Digimon were nothing but data. Therefore, they were not.

And he could prove it. If even little blobs could claim self-awareness, no matter how virtual... No matter how much they did things that should have been impossible, like transferring their memories into new 'life'forms, which appeared out of nothing...

...He'd just had an idea.

---

Luche was an accident.

...Well, okay, that sounded wrong. Rather, her existence in the world Sakuya lived in, rather than the simulated one he'd found, or the one he was attempting to create for himself, was an accident.

He wasn't quite sure what he'd been attempting to prove when he programmed her, actually. Some part of her design would allow him to overwrite her memories if need be, so there were experiments that could be run there. This same function would allow him to turn her into a successor of sorts, if anything carrying his memories would be satisfied living a fake world, with knowledge that they weren't even real.

He might have been able to use her as proof-of-concept for the creation of artificial intelligence, but it wouldn't be that much more difficult to make an example out of the world he'd found.

And while what little visual design he had in mind for her was mostly to spite a woman who'd turned him down last month, he didn't think it would be a good idea to actually tell people that.

So. He'd had options, as to what to use her for. He hadn't exactly figured out which path he would be taking. She hadn't even been completed yet, so there was still time.

And then there was a disturbance in the simulated world, that seemed to be linking it to a point in the real world, though he couldn't tell where it was, and suddenly he had a toddler to deal with. Never mind that he'd never claimed to be good with children, even if this one likely wasn't real enough to form opinions of her own.

...He supposed it couldn't hurt to go visit his little brother for a while. Just until he figured out how to put her back where she belonged.

It even turned out to be helpful to his research. After all, if the strongest points of connection were located in Japan, that was clearly the place to be.

---

He didn't figure out how to access the other world himself until the next March. There were other connections made between the worlds, at this point, and all he had to do was observe and imitate them. Then, he finally wouldn't have to be bothered with taking care of Luche, so long as he disappeared before anyone could ask what had happened to her.

It wasn't like it would be a loss, when she wasn't real to begin with.

But before he could send her away... he got curious. And he stepped through the portal himself.

After about a week of proper observation, during which he realized that the artificial world had potential as a source for synthetic meat products, improved technology, and a general increase in quality of life, he came across a cavern full of gears.

Observing what ocurred to a unicorn who was struck by one of those gears, Sakuya saw potential.

He could use this world for so many things. But no matter how artificial they were, people would worry about what the inhabitants wanted.

But if the inhabitants didn't want anything at all...

Sakuya decided that it would be better to leave Luche in the real world for now. He could dispose of her after he'd had the chance to reveal her artificial nature. Of course, to do that...

He had a world to take over.

---

Stealing those eggs from Primary Village had been an impulsive decision. Sure, Sakuya could use some more test subjects, since Phantomon managed to get itself killed after he managed to force a Digivolution and the Digimon ran off in the middle of the process.

Given the use of Black Gears to keep said Digimon in line, this had understandably been rather unexpected.

So, new test subjects had been required. He'd managed to claim three eggs from the fringes without being noticed, but now he was faced with the same problem he'd had when Luche happened.

More specifically, that it would be a long time until the Digimon turned out to be useful to him, particularly as he felt it would be best to work on one of them at a time. And he'd seen Digimon eat, and he didn't have nearly enough food for three of them, especially if, to them, he'd be leaving for great deals of time.

...Well. A week or so of depleted groceries wouldn't raise too many alarm bells. He'd keep one of the eggs for himself, and entrust the other two to his brother's child until he had use for them. After all, Shoma was growing up quickly, and if he was capable of taking care of Luche, two more virtual beings couldn't be that much more difficult.

Still... he'd have to allow Luche to believe that one of the eggs was in her care, if he didn't want her to complain to his brother about Sakuya clearly preferring his nephew to a girl who wasn't even real.

Sakuya didn't even see any harm in it. It wouldn't be for all that long, after all.

---

...It shouldn't have been for all that long. But he'd gotten caught up in his research, and eventually a girl had appeared. A human girl, possibly even real, unless somebody else had the same idea he'd had, whatever it had been, when he created Luche.

Real or not, though... she was still a child. She couldn't see just how much humanity stood to benefit from this world, how little the Digimon mattered when they didn't truly exist to begin with, even their thoughts being based off of admittedly-impressive programming.

Perhaps, using the Agumon as an example, he could show her just how little digital 'life' mattered, when it would just come back again and again.

He hadn't expected her to be able to recreate his ability to induce Digivolution, but if she actually was a person who had managed to slip through the cracks between worlds, perhaps it was only to be expected. But he was sure that this most recent Machinedramon would be more than a match for the thing she'd created.

And then her Digimon Digivolved again. And before receiving a sword to the chest, Sakuya was forced to admit that, just this once, he'd miscalculated.

"A year and a half ago? Why then?" It's pretty important that you ask this, actually, given that you weren't in the Digital World at the time. "From what I've heard, they've been out for a while." Jijimon shuffles through his papers as he replies.

"Well, nobody really knows aside from the Dark Masters themselves. And nobody in town really knows how long they've been free, given that the ones they're most likely to monologue to would be their victims. But I'd guess they just got tired of waiting to take over the world." You think that's a joke. Probably.

"I mean, seven-hundred something years is a long time to be kept waiting..." Biyomon agrees. "And after what happened with the castle..."

"Castle?" Oh, so he caught on to that. You nod, glancing around the office. When you think about it, aside from the desk, it doesn't really look much like an office. Too much clutter.

"It was a place on Server that nobody could leave once they entered." Hold on, that's not a very good explanation. "I mean, there was a door that we ended up using to go to the Analog World and get away from the moment, but the Dark Masters were trapping people there for... some reason." Honestly, you have no idea why things were that way.

If there was a reason. From everything you've heard about him, it's pretty clear that Piedmon's insane, and however long of being kept in captivity probably didn't help with that.

"If that's the case..." The Mega seems to be considering something, and you stand around waiting for him to come to whatever conclusion he can draw from this. "...Perhaps they viewed it as a game. And if there was nobody left in the castle, they would need a replacement, so the rest of the world suffered from it."

This doesn't explain everything, of course. Such as why they were fine with just having the castle for so long. Even if they were feeling spiteful towards Homeostasis, you can't see how that would override their own desires to conquer.

But it doesn't matter. They're your enemies, and you don't need to know much about them other than that and the fact that Piedmon apparently enjoys turning his enemies into keychains. And that they're really dangerous, but what in this world isn't?

"I guess that makes sense..." You don't really understand everything that's going on now, but you think you understand what's been happening a bit more.

The Dark Masters showed up. The dome went up to protect against the Dark Masters. And now everyone's stuck here, because there's nowhere else left to go. You can't help but think that, with Megas like Jijimon and SaberLeomon around, they might actually stand a chance if they can get each Dark Master on their own, but you're not about to make them fight the ancient enemy of the DigiDestined.

...Actually speaking of which... "Also, I think I should mention that the previous generation of DigiDestined have returned to the Digital World. I'm... not sure what they're planning to do, when they can't contact their partners, but... you should probably know that we're all here."

You aren't sure if that actually does anything to chase away the hopelessness of the situation, but at least you can say you tried.

---

You return to the house you found in time for lunch. The other DigiDestined your age are still out... wherever they went off to. Haruka is typing away at her computer next to the door. You aren't entirely sure what she's doing, but it'll probably be something useful and/or interesting. That's generally what she does, after all.

"Sora. Welcome back." She doesn't even look up from the computer. "There's been no change in Maki's condition, and her Digimon only got up long enough to eat the food we left near them before crashing again. At least we know it's just exhaustion now. Did you find anything out?"


[ ] ...Well, you've confirmed the Dark Masters are doing stuff.

[ ] You have reinforced the notion that the Dark Masters are insane.

[ ] So. Spiral Mountain. That's a thing.

[ ] Nothing you hadn't guessed at before.