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Bukamon was angry. Very, very angry.
Not like that was new. She couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t been angry. It was a Titan’s lot in life. At least, it used to be. But that was before the war ended. Before she was reborn into a brand new Iliad, one with no place for folks like her.
Five years ago, she’d been one of the elite. A Warrior of Water, a mistress of poison, chosen by Plutomon to eliminate the traitor Neptunemon and teach the soft, sheltered Digimon of the Abyss Area what real suffering felt like.
She was Ranamon, sharpest of the Titans. She was Calmaramon, terror of the sea.
She was…
‘I’m a failure.’
The Great Guardian and his human allies had wrecked her plans, forcing her to fight them directly. She gave it everything she had, but beneath her bluster, she’d known she had no chance. Even as Calmaramon, she couldn’t defeat Neptunemon on his own, much less with backup. Still, retreating in disgrace would’ve been worse than death, so she chose death. It was an utterly humiliating defeat.
And the worst part?
She’d died for nothing.
The truth was out now. The Plutomon she’d served was never Plutomon at all. He was Chronomon, the one who got the Titans banished to the Dark Field by Homeostasis in the first place, then had the nerve to rewrite history so that he looked like a hero. The root of all her misery.
And she’d thrown her life away for him. For his stupid, apocalyptic suicide scheme. Oh, how it made her blood boil!
She remembered the day she was first summoned to meet Plutomon. It hadn’t made a lick of sense. Why in the Digital World would he want to see her? She was an outcast, looked down on by other Titans for lacking brute strength and using “cheap tricks” to survive. She’d gone bracing for punishment, or worse.
Instead, he praised her. He told her she had nothing to be ashamed of, that her mind was a weapon all its own. Then he said something even more shocking. She wasn’t weak, merely incomplete.
She’d evolved into Ranamon after digging something up from the seabed. According to Plutomon, that “something” was a Spirit of Water, an artifact imbued with the power of AncientMermaimon, the legendary goddess of the sea. But Ranamon only had a Human Spirit. To reach her true potential, she needed its counterpart: the Beast Spirit of Water. Luckily, Plutomon just so happened to have one. He promised it to her, so long as she proved her worth in the coming invasion of the Human World.
So when Ranamon spotted that human barking out orders to the others—their so-called “cap-ten”—she seized her moment. She played him like a fiddle and struck him down. Then she did the same to more humans. They were so easy to trick, and the euphoria was intoxicating. It felt like she'd found her reason for living.
Needless to say, she’d more than earned the Beast Spirit. Her triumph was announced to the other Titans, and for the first time in her life, she was respected.
She sighed. ‘Heh. Turns out, that was all hogwash, too.’
In truth, the human “cap-ten” had survived. Chronomon must have known, yet he’d still given her the Spirit. She didn’t understand why at first, until she realized that he’d no longer needed it. Its only purpose had been to push her to attack that human, which led to the others building the Giant Slayer, Chronomon’s weapon.
Once she realized that, everything fell into place. Being benched for eight years hadn’t been some mistake. Chronomon had wanted her hungry, starved for another taste of glory, desperate enough to go through with her mission. And sending her alone? That wasn’t faith in her abilities; that was resource management. Why waste extra pawns on a single move? Even if she failed, he had plenty of other ways to keep the Olympos XII from uniting.
Heck, maybe even her evolution had been part of the setup. Maybe Chronomon planted that Human Spirit of Water right where she’d find it. There was no telling how deep this rabbit hole really went.
Bukamon chuckled mirthlessly. She’d thought she was some master manipulator? She’d thought other people were suckers? What a joke! She was the biggest sucker in Iliad. From the start, she’d been nothing but Chronomon’s puppet, dancing to his tune.
And now that her strings were cut, what was she supposed to do? Where could she go?
Back to the Dark Field? No way. That place never truly felt like home. Most of the other sea Titans had left too, settling in the Abyss Area for good. But she couldn’t do that either. She couldn’t bring herself to face her. Not yet.
So, here she was. A sorry little weakling on her lonesome, with only the open sea and her own thoughts for company. Homeless, powerless, and drowning in hatred. She hated Chronomon for tricking her. Hated Plutomon for letting himself be used like a dingy marionette. Hated the Guardian and those humans for robbing her of the chance to get her revenge with the other Titans. Hated herself for being such an easy mark.
But most of all? She hated Neptunemon. Hated, hated, hated him.
He got everything she’d ever wanted without putting in half of her effort. The title of greatest Digimon in the sea. The unshakable respect of their Titan kin. And the thing she hadn’t even realized she’d wanted until it was too late.
“What makes him so special?” Bukamon muttered. “Why does he get all the glory, while I’m left in the muck?”
One day, she’d take it all back. First, she would return to her old self. Then, she would grow stronger. Much stronger.
Chronomon had told her that Calmaramon was her peak, but she’d recently found out that Hybrid Digimon could merge their Human and Beast Forms to become something greater: a Fusion Form Hybrid. True, there were no records of any Ranamon ever pulling it off, but that didn’t matter. Someone had to be first; might as well be her.
Bukamon could almost taste it. The full might of AncientMermaimon at her command. Yes, with power like that, not even Neptunemon would be able to look down on her. She would crush him completely, and everything she’d been denied would finally be hers.
Everything.
But first things first: where was she supposed to get new Spirits of Water? It wasn’t like she could waltz up to Vulcanusmon and ask him to—
“Oh, there you are. I was starting to think you hadn’t been reborn after all.”
Her thoughts came to a halt. She looked around, but no one was there.
“Frankly, I’m against this, but Plutomon did request it. And I suppose we do owe him and the rest of you Titans for the suffering you’ve had to endure… Very well. Ryugumon could use the extra hand.”
Bukamon was lost. What did they mean, “Plutomon requested it?” And who was this Ryugumon?
“Don’t bother asking; you won’t remember this anyway. Besides, you’ll learn soon enough,” the voice said, clearly having read her mind. “Now, brace yourself. This will be quite the ride. And I know it’s futile to ask, but please don’t make me regret this, okay?”
Suddenly, a blinding light shone before Bukamon—a Digital Gate! Before she could react, it began to draw her in. She tried to swim away, but it was no use, and she found herself pulled along at high speed.
Her head was a mess of panicked thoughts. What was happening? Where was the gate taking her? Was it to the Human World? Or was it somewhere else?
The questions blurred together as she lost consciousness. Then, just as her mind slipped away, she heard a different, much more monotone voice…
“TRANSFERRING TO DIGITAL WORLD: SHAMBALA”