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
At some point, 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Not having much money, his Digimon Dock is not only hand made — it very also old and outdated.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.