Eiji Nagasumi

Eiji Nagasumi is the protagonist of the Digimon Seekers web novel and its live action counterpart. His online handle is Fang (ファング). His partners are and four.

Description
Eiji is a young man that makes his living as a. He is a  that doesn't have much success in life. Despite this, he never gives up.

Development
As Eiji is a, Bandai decided to create a wolf to be his partner Digimon.

Etymologies
Name used in Digimon Seekers.
 * Eiji Nagasumi

Digimon Seekers
When Eiji was younger, he was childhood friends with Leon Alexander.

One day, when out at a with his family and Leon's family, Eiji fell off a cliff and into a river and nearly drowned.

In the many years after that, Eiji's dog — and possibly his parents and grandparents — passed away.

After graduating high school, Eiji became a code  in which he uses the alias Fang (ファング).

Not having much money, his Digimon Dock is not only hand made — it very also old and outdated. He is unable to afford a new one.

One of the jobs he takes is from Tomonori Ryusenji, one of the founders and the major shareholder of the IT giant Abadin Electronics. Tomonori hires him to get him a ModokiBetamon.

After tracking one day, Eiji sends three of his four after it. As they try to catch it for him in the Digital World, he watches a local restaurant's mascot jumping around to promote a new burger. He wonders if there are any part time jobs he can apply for and browses through GriMM on his smartphone looking for one. As he looks through, not interested in most of them, he eventually comes across a high paying advertisement looking for someone to capture a BlackAgumon for them. Though initially excited, he loses his enthusiasm upon seeing the negative comments on the post and assumed it was a hoax listing. As he sighed, he received a notification that one of his three Tyrannomon had been killed by ModokiBetamon and — not wanting to fail the mission since he needed the money — quickly replaces the defeated Tyrannomon with his fourth one. He then continued looking for part time work.

He is eventually able to capture the ModokiBetamon. He travels to Abadin Electronics's headquarters, with the receptionist, Hatsune, helping him sign in on the nearby tablet. Half way into filling it out he pulls out his smartphone and texts Tomonori he had arrived as putting so much information into it was annoying him. As Eiji marvelled at a nearby 3D image he is approached by Tomonori, who refers to Eiji by his alias "Fang". Eiji introduces himself with his actual name, with Tomonori telling a flustered Hatsune to give Eiji a guest pass and a co-researcher pass as they were going to visit D4. He escorts Eiji to D4 and tells him he plans to show him Abadin Electronics' top secret project. As Eiji was about to follow Tomonori in, the security guards perform a security check on him and take away his personal belongings.

After following Tomonori into D4, he shows Eiji a presentation on the nearby computer which explains to him what the Digital World and are. It explains that most people don't know about them, then segways into talking about how criminals had been using Digimon to help aid them in their illegal activities. The presentation shows footage from someone who was on a plane, with the footage showing the plane falling from the sky — having been shot down by someone who owned a Digimon. This freaks Eiji out, and he decides he didn't want to see any more.

Tomonori takes Eiji to his office where Eiji gives him his Digimon Dock. He puts it into his lab equipment and happily celebrates when it hololizes and shows that Eiji had managed to capture the ModokiBetamon he had asked him to get. Eiji, having seen a Betamon during the presentation, is confused as to why Tomonori wanted a ModokiBetamon since he already had a Betamon and didn't know what made them different other than the difference in color. Impressed that Eiji had noticed the difference in the first place, Tomonori gives him a bonus on top of his regular payment which makes Eiji happy as it would allow him to buy some more expensive food to eat later than night.

Tomonori asks Eiji what he thought of the earlier video, and though he hadn't enjoyed the plane part, said he enjoyed the video. He tells him that they had previously planned to open up an amusement park named "Digimon Land" with Eiji saying he liked the part where it said Digimon were "living A.I. creatures" and thought it was cool fiction and that if he were still a kid he would've loved it even more. Tomonori, hearing heard what Eiji had just said, tells him that Digimon are not fictional, they are real.

Eiji laughs and says it would be cool if they were actually real. He asks Tomonori when they plan to make "Digimon Land" real, though is disappointed when he tells him that they had shelved the plans. Eiji comes to the conclusion that they had done so as some people used Digimon to commit crimes, figuring that's why Tomonori had brought up Digimon crimes earlier. Tomonori explains that crimes involving Digimon were not known to the public as World leaders had covered them up, but that it would cause an uproar if anyone found out that the same creatures in "Digimon Land" were also being used to do crimes and the media would probably create a media storm calling Digimon and the Digital World evil. This fact upset Tomonori, who once again said that Digimon are real.

He asks Eiji if he wants to know the truth about the Digital World and what was inside of it, which Eiji agrees to as he wanted to see what Tomonori had been seeing. Having originally thought that the video footage was made on a computer, Eiji realizes the footage was in fact real and reacts in excitement about the fact he had learned that Digimon were actually real. Now aware that they're real, he feels bad about the fact that one of his Tyrannomon had died.

As Tomonori tells Eiji that he had dedicated his entire life to researching the Digital World, the transfer of ModokiBetamon finishes. Tomonori picks up Eiji's Digimon Dock and throws it towards the trash can, with Eiji reacting quick enough to catch it before it went into it. Annoyed, since he had spent a lot of money on it, he asks Tomonori why he had done so, with Tomonori telling him that there was an error in its memory and that the error had nearly destroyed the ModokiBetamon during the transfer due to how old his Dock was. Eiji tells him that he can't throw it away, since he doesn't have much money, and that the old Dock was all he had. Hearing this, Tomonori gives him a brand new Digimon Linker which had already been calibrated to work for Eiji — since he had always planned to give it to him in the first place. He then shows Eiji that the Digimon Linker wasn't the only gift he had given him, pressing a button on the device to show that he had also given him a new Digimon —.

Eiji agrees to look after Loogamon, and returns to the reception hall to admire the Digimon Linker. Hatsune notices him and tells him to return his passes, then notices the Digimon Linker on his arm. He shows it off to her, with Hatsune surprised her boss would give him the new secret prototype and figured he must trust Eiji a lot. She then brings up that he hadn't actually finished filling in the form on the tablet and asks him what his job is so she can finish it for him. After a long thought, he tells her he's a freelance code cracker.

Happy at having been paid so much by Tomonori, Eiji orders takeout from a local takeaway. He goes home and tells the family cards that were placed on his family members (and now deceased dog's) tablets he was home. As he eats alone, he looks at Loogamon through his new Digimon Linker and remembers that Tomonori had asked him to raise it. He looks at his home made Digimon Dock, remembering that the memory card inside it was apparently corrupted and that he would have to fix it at some point — though was in no rush as he now owned the Digimon Linker.

A few days later, and Loogamon had already grown quite a lot with Eiji feeling like he had been raising his own child due to the Digimon Linker directly connecting Loogamon to his heart. Wanting to be able to raise Loogamon properly, he goes onto GriMM and asks for tips on raising dog-like Digimon — though makes sure not to mention he had a Loogamon as after searching for information on it he got zero hits meaning no one else had one. He receives a reply, with someone telling him to put his Digimon with other Digimon he owned as they will all play together and learn together. He doesn't bother to read the rest of the reply though, which states that dog Digimon have a social hierarchy and to discipline it first, and instead transfers his Tyrannomon from his Digimon Dock to his Digimon Linker.

A few days later, Eiji receives an urgent call from Abadin Electronics, which leads him to rush over to Tomonori's office. He asks Tomonori what was up with Loogamon, though Tomonori just tells Eiji that he seems to have been raising Loogamon well and that he will reward him even more if he is able to get Loogamon to digivolve to higher levels with each level bringing him more rewards. Eiji tells him not to change the subject and asks him if he had read the training report he had sent, though Tomonori says he hadn't as he received hundreds of emails per day and as such hadn't had time to read it.

Tomonori opens up the email and clicks on the video file Eiji had attached to it and watches as it shows Loogamon in front of four bowls of food, with his three Tyrannomon trembling in fear of the dog Digimon in the corner of their cage. Tomonori tells Eiji that Loogamon is a wolf, and that when wolves form a pack they always have an and are strict about their social hierarchy. Loogamon had made itself leader of the pack despite being at a lower level than them and as it was the leader of the pack, had first dibs on food. Eiji tells Tomonori that Loogamon had even tried to eat one of his Tyrannomon, then complains that it ate too much and popped too much and that he couldn't afford to feed such a glutten. Tomonori didn't care though, and after Eiji realized this he instead asked about the thing on Loogamon's forehead. Tomonori doesn't tell him what it is, though still praises him for noticing it, then asks him if he had used Loogamon in battle yet. Eiji cries out about how Loogamon wouldn't listen to a single one of his commands, unlike the real dog he used to own, and so Tomonori tells him to hololize it. Eiji does so, with Loogamon being asleep. Tomonori analyses the data and is impressed, praising Eiji for how high his DS value was. He tells him that no one else had ever managed to score so high and that he was glad he had hired Eiji for this. He asks Eiji if he had gotten his other Digimon from GriMM, which he confirms, then asks Eiji to tell him what his occupation was. Eiji tells him that he is a code cracker, which Tomonori says means he should know what Crack Teams are.

Tomonori plays a video for Eiji which explains what Crack Teams are. He tells Eiji he can do whatever he wants in the Network and Digital World, as they had no borders or laws, but warns him about his code cracking job since the government consider them to be trouble makers. Eiji protests, saying he's careful and that the DigiPolice wont go after him. Tomonori brings up that Eiji was a code cracker but doesn't seem to follow the same ideals as them and asks him what his goal is, to which Eiji says is to win. He wants to become a really good code cracker so that he can raise Digimon well, make lots of money, and have a team of his own just like Tomonori. Tomonori wonders if he has to be a code cracker to achieve those things, to which Eiji affirms as he wants to get into the Digital World and sees it as the only way to be able to do so. Tomonori breaths a sigh of relief and tells Eiji that he was just testing him, as if Eiji had shown he believed in the ideals of the other code crackers he wouldn't have hired him.

Tomonori plays another video, this one displaying information about the Sons of Chaos. Eiji says he knows who they are, and Tomonori asks him what he thinks about them. Eiji says he thinks they are dangerous and are known for doing crimes with Digimon. Despite this, Eiji finds their leader, Tartarus to be very charismatic, despite not actually knowing who it was. Tomonori tells Eiji that although they are popular, they are meddling with the Digital World's ecosystem in a very negative way which would also cause issues to the human society, and as such was threatening his research. The last thing he wanted was for such crackers to cause laws to be made against the Digital World and that the prime minster and police weren't doing enough to stop it. Eiji brings up that it sounds dangerous, to which Tomonori asks if that means he wasn't interested. Instead however, Eiji was even more excited as he had always wanted to confront other code crackers over their terrible acts. Happy with this, Tomonori tells Eiji to join the Sons of Chaos as an undercover agent so he could find out what Tartarus was up to.

After accepting the job, Eiji goes home with Loogamon and applies to join the Sons of Chaos. The room Eiji was renting did not allow pets, though since Loogamon wasn't a real animal he figured it wouldn't count and so allowed Loogamon to hololize in his room. He tells Loogamon about what they'll be doing and tries to pet it, though it doesn't allow him to and instead growls at him.

Eiji's alarm goes off, which has him put Loogamon back into the Digimon Linker. He opens up GriMM and begins an interview with a member of the Sons of Chaos. The interviewer tells him that he can only join if he is a good code cracker, to which Eiji asks if he is whether that would allow him to meet Tartarus. The interviewer finds this curious, though Eiji insists that since Tartarus is so well known anyone would want to meet them. The interviewer tells him that if he is really good, one of the higher ups would eventually contact him and allow him to meet Tartarus but that very few members had actually managed to meet him. The interviewer sends Eiji an exam, and tells him to complete it. Eiji finds that the mission is named "A Wolf at the Back Gate", which he finds odd since he has Loogamon, though doesn't mention that fact. The interviewer tells him that nine out of ten people who do the exam lose their Digimon, they would not insure his Digimon for him or pay compensation should he lose his Digimon. Eiji wasn't deterred though and proceeds to Mind Link.

Eiji loses consciousness, which causes him to fall off a cliff and into a river, which also leads him to remember back to when he and his childhood friend Leon had a BBQ together when they were children. He remembered how he had fallen off a cliff and into a river and had nearly drowned back then and a similar thing was happening here once again.

Eiji eventually wakes up, confused as to his surroundings and, smelling the scent of wet dog, assumed he was dreaming. A Chuumon, Damemon, and ChuuChuumon runs past him — with the Chuumon having stolen cheese from the other two. Chuumon begs for mercy, hoping it would be spared as it was a rat just like ChuuChuumon though ChuuChuumon states that it is was offended it shared such a commonality with it. Just as Damemon was about to attack Chuumon, it notices Loogamon, and calls out to it which confuses Eiji since he had no had no idea what Damemon meant by asking who the unknown dog was. Damemon tells Loogamon that if he doesn't leave its turf by the time it was done killing Chuumon, it would kill him next. As Eiji wonders what is going on, a voice suddenly rings out of his ears laughing at the fact that a rat would challenge a dog with Eiji — still not aware of the fact he was seeing the actions of Loogamon itself from within its body — sees himself walk towards the Damemon (thinking it was his human body doing so). ChuuChuumon tells Damemon to attack Loogamon, though Loogamon is able to avoid the bullets of Damemon's "Gun Vulcan" attack. Eiji complains about the smell radiating from its weapon which Damemon laughs about since such a stench would effect a dog due to its higher sense of smell. Unlike Eiji however, Loogamon wasn't deterred and easily counter attacks Damemon — with a single "Howling Fire" enough to not only defeat Damemon but also send it flying out of the window of the building Loogamon had found itself in. ChuuChuumon had fallen out of Damemon's cockpit during the ensuing attack and cowers in fear after Loogamon said it was going to eat it. ChuuChuumon, recognizes the interface on Loogamon's head asks if it was Loogamon, the Digimon known as "The Demon Wolf of the Castle of Nine Wolves". This took Eiji by surprise, though also had him finally realize what was going on. Loogamon allows ChuuChuumon to leave, deciding it didn't look tasty, which is followed up by Eiji directly asking Loogamon if it could hear him.

Loogamon was surprised that Eiji hadn't listened to the Mind Link explanation from Tomonori and sighs after Eiji says that all he got from the explanation was that it'll make him a better code cracker as Ryusenji was hard to understand. As Loogamon starts to walk, Eiji warns it that it's about to step on a broken piece of glass. Loogamon looks into it, which gives Eiji even more confirmation that he was not in his own body as it was Loogamon looking back at him.

As they looked into their reflection, Chuumon approaches Loogamoon and apologizes for not having recognized the legendary great boss of the Castle of Nine Wolves. Chuumon offers its services to Loogamon and asks where it had been, as it had heard it had either been killed by an assassin or kidnapped by a human. Loogamon sees this as disrespect and tells it that neither of those things would happen, and that it had not told Chuumon that it could speak to it. Loogamon still ends up accepting Chuumon as its new minion since it looked tastier than ChuuChuumon, and asks if anyone else thought those things had happened to it. Chuumon asserts that it was only a rumour but that everyone from Ninth Avenue had deserted it following Loogamon's disappearance. Loogamon gives Chuumon some real world meat as an allowance, which it accepts — after which it flees in fear of the dog with both the meat and the cheese it had stolen from Damemon and ChuuChuumon. Eiji asks if Loogamon had finished talking to it to which Loogamon asks if he still wanted an explanation. Eiji confirms as such, though Loogamon simply tells him that "seeing is believing/the proof is in the pudding" and jumps out of the nearby window. This shocked Eiji, with Loogamoon landing on its feet on the floor. It runs towards the nearest building and is able to climb up it by digging its claws into it.

As Loogamon climbs up the wall, it explains what Mind Linking is to Eiji who remembers that Ryusenji had told him something similar and that he had only really understood it now that Loogamon had explained it to him. Loogamon asserts that Eiji will get more used to Mind Linking as time goes on, with the duo continuing to talk as it scales the building. After a short climb, Loogamon reaches the top.

Eiji looks on in amazement at the Digital World. He was surprised to see a deserted city, as he thought he would see something more like the vibrant Digital World he had seen in Tomonori's video. Loogamon tells him that they were actually in a Wall Slum and that they weren't actually in the Digital World. This surprised Eiji, which had him theorize that no human had ever actually managed to enter the Digital World with Loogamon stating it was unlikely any human was able to to get through a Wall Slum and as such no human was likely to have actually into the actual Digital World. A monitor appears before Loogamon, with Loogamon reminding Eiji that they were here to complete a mission for the Sons of Chaos.

A cloaked Digimon, with a member of the Sons of Chaos using Mind Link to talk to them through it, tells Loogamon/Eiji that they were two minutes late. Eiji suddenly appears next to Loogamon, which surprises even Loogamon. Eiji explains he had remembered he was told he could access commands on virtual monitors by thinking of doing it and having seen a button saying hololize simply thought of pressing it which allowed him to hololize next to Loogamon. Loogamon is surprised that Eiji wasn't scared that something might go wrong and calls him an idiot, though stops himself halfway into saying it and instead says Eiji is brave though didn't actually mean it and simply didn't want to waste more brain cells on Eiji's silly actions. Eiji tries to pet Loogamon and is surprised it's able to work with an annoyed Loogamon telling him not to touch its forehead. It tells a confused Eiji that when Digimon hololize in the real world they exist as data and that the same thing is the case for Eiji now they were in an alternate World. Eiji asks the cloaked Digimon about the information for the mission, to which the cloaked Digimon answers by telling Eiji he had already been docked two points on the test due to being late. It tells him that his mission is to create a map of Ninth Avenue for them, and that he just has to walk around the area with the provided map tool as it would auto fill the information for him. Loogamon laughs, and informs Eiji that the mission was perfect as it had something it needed to do in Ninth Avenue anyway. The Sons of Chaos member then wishes Eiji luck on his mission, hoping he would be able to pass and become a member of the group.

Loogamon heads further underground, and tells Eiji that is was a shortcut. It goes to the subway with a train showing up just as they arrive. Eiji was unable to read the DigiCode on the subway map, with Loogamon telling Eiji to not cause any trouble as they were in a pubic place. As the train drives to its destination, Eiji talks to Loogamon and as they do so many Digimon get off and on the train with most of them reacting in shock to seeing a human on board. He notices they were all injured or damaged and is shocked when Loogamon tells him they were all Digimon that had previously been partnered to humans that found themselves abandoned upon failing missions and that they had banded together to create a place where such Digimon could live. Since everyone there was poor, they all fought to survive which is why they had seen the fight earlier between Chuumon, Damemon, and ChuuChuumon. It also tells Eiji that they couldn't return to the Digital World as the Digital World would reject any Digimon that been been contaminated by data from the Human World which is why they had to live in the Wall Slum and that that was how God had set things up. The train finally arrives at Ninth Avenue, leading the duo to get off the train. Eiji asks Loogamon why he knew so much about the Wall Slum and why Chuumon recognized him though Loogamon replies that its memory was hazy and it was regaining them as they travelled throughout the Wall Slum.

Eiji looks around at the area in fear, figuring that it must have a really high crime rate though he snaps out of it when he excitedly — to Loogamon's annoyance — exclaims that Loogamon should be his superior due to how smart it was ( in the Japanese version) which Loogamon flatly rejects.

They walk around, having the map app auto map the area for them and notice that nearby Digimon were hiding from them. They arrive at the Castle of Nine Wolves which causes Loogamon to remember that the castle is where it used to live. It remembers that it lived in there as a higher digivolved form than Loogamon though when Eiji asks about said digivolved form a approaches them. Eiji realizes it belonged to the DigiPolice and is shocked that they were in the Wall Slums. A group of get out of Cargodramon and surround the Castle, with someone having contacted Eiji asking to talk to him on GriMM. Turning down the request would be seen as going against the DigiPolice but Eiji had no choice in the matter as his means of communication during the mission was in the hands of the Sons of Chaos member running the mission. Thinking Eiji himself had turned down the request, a voice yells out in disgust at him ignoring it.