Hackers and code crackers were a distinction without much of a difference, when you got down to it.
Code crackers are just hackers with fewer ethical hang-ups around breaking the law.
Evil hackers, if you like.
It’s been like that since the earliest days of the network, well before the discovery of the Digital World.
Those who work to stop code crackers from committing crimes are colloquially known as ethical hackers.
“Are code crackers really that unpopular?”
Eiji said, almost on reflex. He regretted it immediately.
“I mean, my high school and university definitely had clubs for those sorts of people. They tended to attract depressed kids or really dangerous types, with no one in between. I mean they’re basically a recruitment pipeline for the criminal underworld, right?”
Hatsune’s younger colleague may as well have stabbed Eiji in the chest with a knife.
“Sure, but suppose a code cracker struck it rich?”
“There was one pretty popular group on campus that attracted some girls, but it’s not like there’s any future in it either way,”
she said, casually passing judgment on Eiji.
She and Hatsune then excused themselves, not wanting to get in the way of Eiji and Leon’s reunion.
The hololized Digimon saw them off.
“Well, they seemed nice! Didn’t they, Loogamon!”
“Who impressed you more? It was Hatsune’s colleague for me.”
“My sweet summer child! I’d want Hatsune to have my back any day of the week.”
“You think?”
“Trust me. I’m speaking from experience.”
“How are you two so good at just getting along with anybody,”
Eiji sighed despondently.
Why were they even engaging in this kind of talk? Digimon didn’t have biological sexes or genders, for the most part.
“What’s got you down, Eiji?” Loogamon asked.
“He probably just realized how unpopular code crackers are,” Pulsemon chimed in.
“There’s no need to be so blunt about it, Pulsemon,”
Leon chided. It was too late, however.
Eiji’s heat had already been torn to shreds.
Deep down, he knew that code cracking wasn’t a glamorous job.
That people had an overwhelmingly negative view of it.
Leon looked at Loogamon and Pulsemon and let out a slight chuckle.
“We shouldn’t be calling Digimon AI programs,” he began.
“Eh? What’re you talking about?” Eiji said lazily.
“We should be calling them AI life-forms. Just look at how our partner Digimon have formed a mutual trust with one another. That means Digimon can probably befriend one another,”
Leon replied, looking lovingly at the two Digimon before him.
“Befriend one another, huh...”
“Do you think they can, Eiji?”
Eiji studied Leon’s face. It wasn’t the look of someone being wistful, or that of a college student discussing crushes or what have you.
Was this the face of his alter ego, Judgment?
Eiji opted to answer from a code cracker’s perspective.
“Until recently, I’ve always thought of them as tools. Ever since I became a code cracker.”
“Naturally. That’d been your only interaction with the Digital World, I imagine.”
“Yeah I can’t deny that. But getting the Digimon Linker and meeting Loogamon have changed my perspective.”
“And since you met Professor Ryusenji?”
“Yeah, that’s only changed it further. Mindlinking with Loogamon and being able to talk to one another... Loogamon’s got an entire history. All these Digimon have lives, you know? As does Pulsemon, just like you and me, or anyone else.”
If Loogamon could build a relationship with others, and not just Eiji, well...
That was all the more proof that they were life-forms, not programs, each with their own personalities and quirks.
“So... What is Loogamon to you now?”
“My partner. My pal. For life,”
Eiji said without hesitation.
“Good,” Leon said, relaxing his jaw.
“You haven’t completely lost your soul to the code crackers, then.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m not going to sugar-coat it—you need to quit this code cracking nonsense. I want you to wash your hands of those Digimon-abusing criminals, Eiji.”
At last, the real reason Leon agreed to have a little reunion came into focus.
He knew it would come up, sooner or later.
Hackers couldn’t abide code crackers, and what hackers considered justice left no room for the freedom code crackers so desperately wanted to protect.
“Quit code cracking? That’s not gonna happen,”
Eiji said flatly, eliciting an annoyed grunt and obvious displeasure from Leon.
“I won’t sugar-coat it for you, either: I envy you. Not only are you studying abroad, you’re doing it at a prestigious university like Tokyo Electrical. And your part-time job is at DDL, for crying out loud! So forgive me if I’m a little salty, hearing that from you!”
Eiji never was good at equivocating, either.
Not if Leon was going to be so brutally honest in trying to get Eiji to quit by pushing his perverse vision of justice onto another human being.
“What do you mean by that?” Leon sensed there was something more behind this outburst.
“Listen, man, I started code cracking just to survive. If I quit, I’m gonna be working some crappy part-time job for crappy pay. I’m 19! I’m in the real world with real responsibilities, and that kind of job just isn’t going to cut it for me.”
“You didn’t go to college? The Eiji I remember always had test scores at least as good as mine.”
“Where, Tokyo Electrical? Hell, I got a B on one of the mock exams. I thought I was gonna make it,” Eiji said with a sigh.
“Did...something happen?”
A bit of worry crept into Leon’s face as he asked the question.
Eiji finally had the chance to take control of the conversation, and he wasn’t about to pass it up. He just wished it was about anything but this.
“WWW Flight 626,”
Leon
Eiji said softly.
Leon gasped, then fell silent.
“So you know the story. Look, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“WWW Flight 626,” Pulsemon interjected. It proceeded to read out the date, but it was garbled beyond recognition, perhaps due to redaction. Pulsemon continued, “Flight 626 departed Tokyo before making unauthorized changes to its flight path. Air traffic lost all contact, and the plane eventually crashed into the Pacific Ocean. All aboard were killed; registered passengers numbered in the triple digits. The flight recorder was never found.”
The Digimon then pulled up a number of entries from online encyclopedias about the incident to make things a bit easier for Leon.
“Do we know what caused the accident, Pulsemon?”
Eiji asked pointedly.
“Though it has not been officially acknowledged, the prevailing theory suggests the crash was a Digimon crime,”
Pulsemon answered.
Said “prevailing theory” was widely circulated among hackers and code crackers in the know.
“Did...you lose your parents on that flight?” Eiji asked carefully.
“I did,”
Eiji said, gently nodding his head at Loogamon, who hadn’t heard any of this before.
He thought of the small altar in his one-room apartment.
Leon looked a bit shaken now, ever since the mention of Flight 626.
He’d met Eiji’s parents several times, when they went to play in the river together. They weren’t faceless passengers on that flight any longer.
“Your parents were on that flight... But...why?”
“It was a trip for their silver wedding anniversary. They left me at home and were all set to go to America,”
Eiji said wearily.
He noticed something odd; Leon seemed about to let out some sort of noise but stifled it at the last moment.
Had his parents’ death really shocked him to the same degree when it happened? He didn’t really remember having time for things like shock, among everything else.
In fact, this was the first time he’d dug it out of the recesses of his memory, let alone spoken to anyone about it.
“I had no idea what was happening...” Eiji rasped, his voice trembling as he fought back tears.
“The house was all tied up in the mortgage with a guarantor attached. My parents’ life insurance policies... I sold the house, and that was when it hit me that everything was gone. College? That wasn’t an option anymore.”
Eiji lived in a different world, and now he’d drawn a clear line between himself and Leon.
“Weren’t there any scholarships?”
“Heh. Even if there were, I was too devastated. I couldn’t function, let alone study.”
If Leon thought that was a sign of weakness, Eiji would dare him to say it.
“But, if you lost your parents to an act of Digimon crime—allegedly—how could you possibly continue code cracking?”
Leon was visibly shaking now, but his mind was still following a hacker’s line of reasoning.
“What a ridiculous question. The Digimon aren’t the criminals; the people that forced them to commit the crime are. Digimon are just tools to code crackers, and I don’t use them to take human lives,” Eiji said calmly.
Leon sat in silence.
“I’m doing it to eke out a living. I’m not proud of it! I had no other choice. But Professor Ryusenji taking notice of my work has made me proud of it for the first time in ages. You’ve admired him and worked with him even longer than I have. You, of all people, should understand how incredible that feels.”
Professor Ryusenji expected great things of Eiji, which proved to him that this was the right—and perhaps only—path for him.
“What does the professor have you doing, Eiji? It’s more than just raising Loogamon, isn’t it?”
Eiji asked quietly.
“I’m not at liberty to say,”
Eiji replied. He had to keep it confidential.
“You’re in the SoC, though, so I have my guesses. Look Eiji, I—”
“Stop right there,”
Eiji said, lifting the palm of his hand into the air in front of Leon’s face.
“If we keep talking, I absolutely will tell you everything.”
Leon was still a dear friend to Eiji, for whom it felt like no time had passed since they were in school together.
But no one can live in the past forever.
“It’s time, Eiji,”
Loogamon said, its ears perking up.
“Oh, yeah. I have to go; it’s time for my appointment with Professor Ryusenji,”
Eiji said, standing up from the table.
“Professor Ryusenji?”
“Yep! Code cracker stuff! Good luck with all the studying and whatever. I’ll see you around, and hopefully we can skip the heavy, complicated stuff next time. Maybe over drinks, once our birthdays roll around?”
Pulsemon made a “See you later!” gesture at Loogamon and Eiji as they got up from their seats.
“Here, this is for you,”
Pulsemon said, and handed something to Loogamon.
“What is it?”
Loogamon asked, taking it anyway.
It looked like a bundle of compressed files.
“It’s a present! Catch you later! I want a personal tour of the Castle of Nine Wolves someday! I want to go DEEP into the Wall Slum!” Pulsemon chirped as Eiji and Loogamon walked away.
