Shoto Kazama

Shoto Kazama (風真照人 Kazama Shoto)
General information
Appears in:	Digimon Liberator
Partner(s):	Pteromon and Muchomon
Digivice(s):	D-STORAGE
Profile
Age	19 (Chapter 0—??) 20 (??—present)
Date of birth	March 20
Gender	Male
Height	171cm
Known relatives	Unnamed mother
Nationality	Japanese
Weight	66kg

Shoto Kazama (風真照人, Kazama Shoto^?) is the protagonist of the Digimon Liberator comic. His partners are Pteromon and Muchomon, and he plays a Bird Beatdown deck.

Etymologies

Shoto Kazama (風真照人)

Name used in the Digimon Card Game.

Fiction

Digimon Liberator

Shoto enjoys playing the Digimon Card Game and was childhood friends with Arisa Kinosaki. He lived in the same neighbourhood as Owen Dreadnought when they were children, though they were only acquaintances. Vortex Resonance

One day, when still a child, Shoto ran up to Owen and challenged him to a duel — intent on ending Owen's winning streak. Owen was reluctant, as he needed to go home to help his Mother out around the house, though gave in when Shoto asked for just the one duel. Owen won yet again, extending his winning streak, with Shoto complaining that his deck of vanilla cards were supposed to be meta. Owen told him his deck wasn't balanced and focused too much on vanillas, though as Shoto asks for advice on making his deck better — Owen prepared to leave, since he had to get home as he had already made clear. Shoto protests went in vain, though as Owen left he promised he'll duel him again soon. Re:START (Part 1) Before leaving, Owen makes another promise, saying how the two of them would become the two best duellists in the World and would one day battle to see who gets to become the World Champion. Re:START (Part 2)

Upon Shoto's arrival at home his mother frantically asked if he had been with Owen as the Kinosaki Clinic had called her asking if Owen was at her house. She explained that Owen's mother had collapsed whilst shopping and told him to get into her car as they were going to get Owen and go with him to the hospital. Re:START (Part 2)

The accident caused Owen to leave Japan and return to his home country to look after his unwell mother, with Shoto blaming himself for her hospitalization, as had he not forced Owen to continuing duelling him as a kid — he would've been there to do the chores for his mother instead of her collapsing from having had to do them herself. Re:START (Part 2)

Over the coming years, whenever he would get too into something he'd get scared, worried that if he got too into it — something else he cares about might leave him again, like how that accident had forced Owen to move away. Re:START (Part 2) He continues to play the Card Game, but never actually wins because he gives up too easily. Shoto also forgets his promises with Owen through trauma. CHAIN OF LIBERATION (Part 1)

Around a decade after these events, Shoto watches the final of the Digimon World Card Championship on his phone in which Owen, the previous year's Champion, duels Zenith. After Zenith wins, Shoto is so shocked at Owen's loss he falls over and lands on his bed. This causes him to miss Zenith's declaration that the next tournament would take place on the newly released Digimon Liberator video game. Shoto wonders if everyone will start playing Digimon Liberator. As he thinks this, Arisa rings him. He asks if she was calling to laugh at him because Owen lost, with her actually calling to invite him to play Digimon Liberator with her. He turns her down, feeling he isn't ready to play a VR card game, though changes his mind when she points out Owen will be playing the game. The duo meet up at the arcade to log into LACUNA, and after connecting their D-STORAGE to the T.A.L.E — full dive into Digimon Liberator. After landing, Shoto looks on in horror upon seeing Arisa's Junkmon with Arisa explaining how to play the game. Shoto follows her instructions, which leads to his Muchomon trading card coming to life. Delighted to see each other, Shoto and Muchomon hug. Welcome to LACUNA

Over the next three months, the duo continue to play the game with Arisa winning every single duel between them.

On one such trip, an exasperated Arisa once again shows Shoto how to summon Muchomon from his D-STORAGE. Muchomon expresses that it missed Shoto as Arisa teases him for his ineptitude with the device, then the pair agree to a card duel. Despite Shoto's skill with the analog version of the game, Arisa runs circles around him.

Shoto is distracted from his post-match griping by indistinct movement, but just as he's about to write it off as his imagination the two are struck by an explosion. Shoto leaps in front of Arisa to protect her from further harm, but collides with the fleeing Shoemon, who leaps into Arisa's arms. She's surprised to find a Digimon independent of a card and assumes that it's meant to be a wild NPC Digimon. A silver haired girl also passes them fleeing from the commotion, striking Shoto with her beauty, but as he tries to get her attention a hole blasts open in a nearby wall.

The NPC Frozen Knight and Bulucomon emerge through the opening and trap Shoto in a barrier to force him into a duel, with Shoto's deck being full of nothing but blank cards. Shoto is startled by the involuntary duel and wonders if it's a bug, but Shoemon pleads for the their help and explains that Frozen Knight had been chasing it, perplexing them further. As Shoto is about to surrender, unable to fight back, Pteromon swoops down from the sky and tells Frozen Knight to pick on someone its own size. Shoto's useless blank deck changes, with all the cards now being newly obtained cards. DigitalGate Open It goes inside Shoto's D-STORAGE, usurping his Muchomon's partner spot, and plays a copy of ST18-04: Pteromon — though allows Shoto to make the rest of the moves during the duel after he complained about Pteromon making a move for him. Pteromon still offered advice on what to do whilst watching the duel, however, with Shoto usually doing its suggested moves. He eventually goes on to win for the first time ever. DigitalGate Open Out of Control (Part 1) Out of Control (Part 2)

Shoto immediately reminisces over the duel. After doing so, he has an outburst about how ridiculous their situation is — fighting rogue NPCs, meeting wild Digimon, and his deck being changed without his permission. He looks through his new deck, complaining that his Zephagamon has greyed out and is unusable. As Shoto continues to freak out about the situation, Pteromon interjects and tries to cheer him up by telling them that nothing went wrong. This annoys Shoto, since Pteromon was acting like it had known Shoto a long time — with Pteromon confirming it had indeed known him a long time as it spent three months watching from above as Shoto lost countless times to Arisa. As the supposed leader of the Emerald Coast, it watches and looks out for the beginners — which is why it had been watching them, and questions them on the fact they still hang out in the tutorial area despite three months having passed. Pteromon and Arisa poke fun at Shoto for being terrible at duelling, with Shoto eventually yelling at them to stop.

Arisa theorises on the fact that Pteromon has existed for more than three months and knows so much about duelling, stating that it means there's no way it had been created as part of the game's most recent update. She looks through her deck, noting that it had been modified without her permission to now include Shoemon. She says they won't learn anything by standing around talking about it and decide the group should go find a GM and ask them about the recent goings on. Pteromon has no idea what GM is, so Arisa tells him that Game Masters, GMs, are the ones who run the game with Pteromon refusing this notion as it didn't believe in the fact that humans ran LACUNA. It reluctantly accepts the fact when Shoto points out that humans running a video game makes sense. Arisa is excited to go to City Center Jewel, the City that the GMs work in, with Shoto poking fun and saying she's only excited because she wants to shop there. Arisa confirms this, with Shoto apologizing as she points out she doesn't get to shop there much as she spends most of their gaming time teaching him how to duel. He tells her to buy him something as a reward for winning his first ever duel, and though she at first doesn't want to ends up agreeing to get him said gift. As they travel to the GM's headquarters Shoto realizes it would be a bad idea to travel around with unknown wild Digimon and so instruct their new partners to go hide inside their D-STORAGEs so as to not bring attention to themselves.

Just as they arrive at their destination, Violet "Vi" Inboots comes up to them and expresses surprise at them being there. Arisa notices she was hanging out with Ghostmon, asking if she had always had it and she had simply never noticed. She introduces them to her new partner, having met Ghostmon recently, with Ghostmon posing for Violet's friends. She asks if they were there to see a GM as well, and tells them that she was there as she wanted to tell the GMs she had found a new Digimon. Arisa begins saying they too had found new Digimon but is interrupted by Shoto before she could complete her sentence with him telling her that if they tell her about their new Digimon she will talk about them for so long hours will pass and they won't be able to go shopping. Arisa realizes he is right and shuts up, with Shoto telling Violet about how they had ran into a bugged NPC and so wanted to tell the GMs about it. Finding the story interesting, Violet begins to talk about how she had heard the same thing from others then starts to talk about Ghostmon. Realizing the hours long conversation was about to happen, Shoto cuts her off and runs away — dragging Arisa with him.

Now at the lobby of the GM's building, they look through the list of GMs and see all but one is busy with other players. They click Cool Boy's chat room, with the duo summoned to his room. After greeting his guest, Cool Boy informs them he is not only a GM — he is the head GM that oversees the others. Shrinking Violet (Part 1)

Shoto and Arisa tell Cool Boy about what had happened to the them. Cool Boy apologizes for the inconvenience, with Shoto insisting it wasn't that big of a deal. He thanks them for their report, though tells them they were already aware of the issue as other players had told them about rogue NPCs already — this fact shocking Shoto. He also tells them about the issues they were having with wild Digimon, with this causing Shoto to realize that if he tells Cool Boy about theirs it would get their new partners into trouble and so he refrains from bringing them up. Cool Boy assures the duo the staff of the game were doing their best to make sure the players could play safely and that they would eventually put out an update that would fix all the issues. He then asks them to stay away from wild Digimon, warning them to not get involved with them — informing them that the research done by the debugging team alongside user submitted data indicated all the issues stemmed from the wild Digimon. Shoto agrees to stay away from wild Digimon, with Arisa shocked and whispering about how that was impossible as they already hang out with wild Digimon and have them in their decks. Shoto counters this by claiming Pteormon and Shoemon are fine, as they weren't wild anymore due to now being owned by them and as such saw no reason as to why the rouge NPCs would target them. Possibly overhearing their conversation, Cool Boy cuts them off and tells them players shouldn't befriend wild Digimon — warning them that doing so comes with the risk of them losing thier player status. Shoto asks if that means they'd be banned, though Cool Boy tells them he can't tell them any more as it is confidential information. He gives them one last piece of advice, to play the game properly so that they can be safe and to follow the advice he had given him.

The duo leave his room, with Arisa finally able to breath having been terrified that Cool Boy would figure them out. Shoto however, thought he was the complete opposite and thought he was amazing due to the amount of information he knew. As the duo joke about Arsia's upcoming University entrance exams, the alarms on their D-STORAGEs sound — indicating it was time for them to return to the real world since Arisa had to go to class. Unknown to the duo, Violet had been listening in to their conversation and overheard them saying goodbye to their partner Digimon as they log out.

The next day, Shoto fees Pteromon from the D-STORAGE — with Pteromon having been trapped inside it the entire night. Finally free, it flies around — yelling about how awful it was to be trapped inside a Digivice. As he watches Pteromon flying around, he warns it about sticking out too much though this becomes moot when Violet walks up to the lively group. Caught red headed with both Pteromon and Shoemon in the open they try to deny having unknown Digimon, with it not working as Violet had already done her research with there being no record of their new partners existence as Digimon species. Finding the newly discovered Digimon cute, she challenges Arisa to a duel telling her that if she wins she has to give Shoemon to her as a reward. Shrinking Violet (Part 2)

Arisa asks Violet why she has to duel instead of Shoto, with Violet saying it's because the two of them are true rivals. Arisa denies this, saying they are just classmates, with Violet saying the other reason is because Shoemon looks like a new type of Digimon. Arisa reminds Violet that it's against the rules to wager things in the game, with Violet having to give up on her plan to win Shoemon via the duel. Instead, she says Arisa will have to do something for her — refusing to say what it is until she wins. Shoto tells Arisa she doesn't even have to accept the duel, though Violet brings up her blackmail about how they're breaking the rules by hanging out with Digimon and she can just go and tell the GMs. Arisa agrees to duel Violet, with Arisa going on to win. Fable Waltz (Part 1) Fable Waltz (Part 2)

After the duel, with Violet having ran away, Shoto asks Arisa why Violet is obsessed with her, though she has no idea. Despite the obsession, Arisa says she does like being friends with her, liking that she makes her feel special with all the attention she gives her. She tells Shoto she will continue to help him with his special training, with Shoto asking what she thought Violet was going to ask for had she won. This causes Arisa to wonder as well. Fable Waltz (Part 2)

Arisa and Shoemon celebrate and hug after after Arisa's win against Violet. Following the celebrations, Violet notices that her new ST19-12: Cendrillmon card is greyed out and unable to be used — just like what happened with Shoto's ST18-12: Zephagamon. Arisa suggests talking to the GMs about their greyed out cards, though Pteromon points out that they're supposed to be keeping the wild Digimon and new cards a secret with Shoemon that revealing them now would render the entire duel with Violet pointless as they had duelled to keep her silence. They receive notifications on their D-STORAGEs that maintenance is going to happen in thirty minutes, with Pteromon freaking out at the thought of the duo logging out. Shoto informs them that it's not just them — every single player will have to log out whilst the maintenance happens — and that they will have to remain logged out for 160 hours. Learning this information, Pteromon's heart breaks as it will be trapped inside its card for the entire duration with that being mind numbingly boring for Pteromon — though Shoemon expresses happiness about going as it likes being trapped inside. The four of them then hang out or the remaining time they have left before they have to log out. REAL (Part 1)

Unknown to the quartet, they were being watched from the top of a nearby building by Close. REAL (Part 1)

During their time away from the game; Shoto and Arisa duelled in real life, played regular video games, and focused on their studies. REAL (Part 1)

During the first day after the maintenance, Shoto shopped with Arisa. He decided to buy an accessory to match with his partner and bought a red and yellow one, the colors of Muchomon. He summons Muchomon to show it off, and starts to think maybe it was a mistake since it actually seems to be gold rather than yellow but a pleased Muchomon says it looks great and that it was happy he bought it. Unaware to Shoto, this fixes Muchomon's anexity as it had though time together hadn't been a waste of time after he had replaced it with Pteormon. Pteromon becomes jealous of this moment together, though denies it, and the three of them have fun laughing over it. DEBUG.7-2 THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN GREEN AND RED

Later that same day, Shoto and Arisa are summoned by the GMs and as such they force their partners to stay inside their D-STROAGE. This just angers Pteromon, since it had only just gotten free from its trading card and now was trapped inside another device. After waiting around, they are called in by Cool Boy who after some small talk points out how often and for how long the two of them log in — much longer than other players — and apologises for causing them to be unable to play for so long. As he asks about what they did whilst logged out, he takes them by surprise when he asks if they were worried about their new friends. He tells them to calm down as he wasn't accusing them of anything and is joined by the arrival of the newest GM — Yao Qinglan. Qinglan enjoys getting to know the duo, having heard about them from Cool Boy, with Cool Boy making it even more clear that he knows about their new previously unknown cards as the GMs had checked the duos duel history and seen what cards they had been using. Arisa cries and apologises for keeping it secret, saying she had been worried that they would've gotten in trouble for having the cards — begging for them to not ban the duo. Rather than ban them though, the two GMs have the duo go through a portal that leads them to an area with lots of Digimon. They're surprised to see so many wild Digimon, though Cool Boy tells them that they're not wild — nor are they NPC — and that they are in fact real Digimon. This fact shocks both of them, with Cool Boy telling the duo that the Garden they're in is where all the real Digimon live as they had no where else to go in LACUNA. With little time to react, Cool Boy asks if they're ready to hear why he brought them there. REAL (Part 1)

Cool Boy asks the duo what they know about Digimon, with Shoto talking about how they're fictional characters used in various media like anime, manga, video games and of course — the TCG. Yao says he's right, though then moves into asking them what "real Digimon" are. They tell them that Digimon are real, with the fictional characters being based on actual real Digimon and that this is done to allow Digimon to be preserved. This information surprises Shoto; he had heard of the "backstory" of Digimon, but just thought it was made up lore for the franchise — not something from actual real life. They explain how I.D.E.A had found LACUNA and modified it for use in Liberator, which lead to them coming across Digimon, and then lead to the creation of the video game.

Getting to why they brought them here, Cool Boy tells them that wild Digimon do not exist in Liberator. This confuses Shoto, since they obviously do, with him saying that's just a lie they tell everyone. He admits that it is indeed a lie, with the admins telling them that LACUNA's environment isn't conducive for Digimon to survive. He explains that Digimon can only survive for a few days at most in LACUNA, and so the admins send them to the garden and seal them inside trading cards to allow them to live. Further confused, Shoto points out that Pteromon had been stalking them for three months yet was still alive. The admins had checked the data of Pteromon and Shoemon and had learned that they had both lived in LACUNA for over a year, since the beta test, and tell the duo that only a few Digimon (those belonging to the admins and Debug team) had managed to survive for such a long period of time. Finding it odd, they tell the duo they want to investigate and ask them to bring Pteromon and Shoemon to them. They agree, and summon their partners. Everyone becomes startled when Yao suddenly screams, with her declaring that their partners are adorable. She nerds out and goes on a monologue about both of them, as she asks them many questions and chases them around trying to hug them. This freaks them both out, with them asking to be saved from her. As she does so, Cool Boy continues the explanation without her. He tells them that Digimon able to survive without cards are valuable, with Shoto assuming that meant the admins would take them away, though Cool Boy alleviates those worries by saying that wont happen. Instead, they ask them to co-operate with them so that they can study their partners. He tells them they had learned a lot because of Bulucomon, and that they now know wild Digimon had been hacking NPCs and taking in their data as that was one way for them to survive in LACUNA. This however, would cause the NPCs to go rogue. He reminds them that interacting with wild Digimon can result in their accounts being deleted, and invites them to join the game's debug team. As Shoto is confused over regular players being invited, Cool Boy points out that as they can delete their accounts at any time, the duo actually have no choice but to accept the job. Yao tells them that Cool Boy had actually been protecting them for a while, and was making compromises to ensure their safety.

As they're in the middle of accepting the blackmailed deal, they are interrupted by Owen Dreadnought — who had been eavesdropping on the conversation. He expresses annoyance at the duo being amateurs, feeling they would just drag the admins and debug team down. This upsets Pteromon, with Elizamon appearing and and laughing at Pteromon. They're shocked to see Owen with an unknown Digimon, and realize he is just like them. Elizamon and Pteromon bicker, though Owen tells his partner to cut it out as there was no point getting involved with amateurs. Yao asks Owen why he had shown up, with him stating he had overheard their terrible decision and wasn't happy with it. She insists that they're just trying to protect the duo, but this enrages Owen with him declaring that it'll just lead to the admins suffering from the consequences of allowing them to join. He claims they'll just run away the second trouble comes, this setting off Shoto. He yells back at Owen, saying he is sick of listening to him, and agrees to join the debug team purely to spite Owen. Owen becomes sick of the conversation, not wanting to talk to a terrible card game player, with this giving Cool Boy an idea. He asks Owen if he would approve if Shoto showed he was a good player and tells Yao to duel him so that everyone can see Shoto's skills. Owen tells them to do whatever they want. The agreement then changes and becomes that Shoto can join the debugging team by proving he is a good duellist. REAL (Part 2)

Owen states Shoto has no choice — with Arisa defending her friend and saying that Shoto has a chance to win. Finding Owen to be mean, Arisa angrily yells out how she regrets using Shoto's fandom of Owen to invite him to play the game with her. Owen shows little care to Shoto's like for Owen, and just says he will see what Shoto can do in this duel — with Arisa wanting Shoto to win even more so that it'll put Owen in his place.

Just as the duel was about to start, everyone is suddenly transported to Lapis Marine. They find themselves in a tower on the beach where they could see girls in bikinis through the windows. This removes Shoto's motivation to duel, as he instead wanted to watch the girls — whilst Arisa and Pteromon become motivated to go see the sights and shop. Cool Boy is surprised to learn the duo had never been, with Arisa saying that she had prevented them from going as the NPCs were strong and she didn't think they were ready to come just yet. They ask why they had suddenly been teleported there, with Yao saying they couldn't duel in the Garden as it would cause the wild Digimon to become involved in the duel and that the tower was a good spot to duel as they were out of sight of the other players. Annoyed at however everyone was chatting instead of duelling, Elizamon tells them to get back to the duel as Owen is very busy and can't waste his time. As Pteromon becomes annoyed at Eliza and Owen, Shoto gains his resolve to duel again and prove Owen wrong.

In the middle of the duel, Shoto and Arisa are surprised to when Yao uses BT19-024: MarineBullmon, a card they had never seen before, with Yao telling them that they had made sure to inform them beforehand how they had identified new wild Digimon. As she tells them how she had befriended and raised Sangomon, Shoto becomes surprised to learn that even existing Digimon could come with unknown Digimon cards via further digivolutions. Cool Boy then tells them that most of the debugging team had gained previously unknown Digimon cards this way. Arisa expresses desire to meet the debuggers and their unknown Digimon, though Bool Boy points out that Shoto will need to pass this duelling test for them to be able to do so. Vortex Resonance (Part 1)

Shoto eventually wins, with Yao shocked at him using EX8-074: MedievalGallantmon instead of Zephagamon (unaware he had lost access to Zephagamon). Shoto and Arisa celebrate, with Yao and Cool Boy congratulating him. The GMs receive a message, with Cool Boy realizing what time it was — causing both to quickly leave. Shoto tells Arisa about his childhood history with Owen, with Arisa surprised and annoyed to have only just learned this. Owen tells Shoto he is weak as he lacks the passion to win and just wants to have fun and tells him that if he can't find that passion he never wants to see him again. Shoto didn't hear him say this though, due to some sort of glitch. Though he doesn't remember what was just said, he still gains the desire to one day impress Owen. As Shoto won the match, he and Arisa receive messages saying they been accepted into the debugging team. Vortex Resonance (Part 2)

A few weeks later, Cool Boy and Yao have Shoto and Arisa attend a debugging team meeting so that they can officially induct them into the group. He has them join him on stage, and introduces everyone to the newest members of the debug team. As they introduce themselves to the crowd, Shoto notices Owen hadn't show up and figures he was avoiding them. Shoto also notices Close, recognizing her from when he saw her running away from Frozen Knight. Cool Boy is surprised when he notices Shoto recognizes someone, though Shoto denies this being a thing. Doubting his denying, Cool Boy simply laughs and says that he'll be even more surprised very soon. Cool Boy tells the crowd that they had been accepted into the team as Shoto had defeated admin Yao Qinglan in a duel, and that Arisa had defeated a member of the debugging team. This confuses Arisa, who says she had never defeated anyone from the team — with Cool Boy, Omekamon, and Espimon insisting she had. Cool Boy's earlier statement then comes to life, as Violet arrives and apologizes for being late. A shocked Shoto and Arisa learn she had been a member of the debug team this whole time. She then personally welcomes the duo as the newest members of the debugging team. SELECT FEW (Part 1)

Shortly after joining the debug team, Shoto's Zephagamon's card starts working again. Shoto finds he also gained a bunch of other new cards as well. CHAIN OF LIBERATION (Part 1) Suzune Kazuki later approaches Shoto to welcome him to the debug team, though she didn't get to do it long as she felt she had to leave when Bulucomon, who had since joined her deck after the destruction of Frozen Knight, started being hostile to Pteromon. DEBUG.6-1 OASIS Some point after joining, Yao asked him to call her "Yao-chan". RAID ON THE WORLD (Part 1)

A month later, countless Maquinamon show up in various parts of LACUNA — with the debugging team capturing them and turning them into trading cards. At some point during said month, the duo are given their own Unique Emblems — allowing them to digivolve Digimon outside of duels.

A month after that, Shoto, Arisa, Owen, and Violet find themselves on one such mission to capture a Maquinamon in the Obsidian Desert. Pteromon had refused to carry Shoto around, and so stayed inside the D-STORAGE with Muchomon taking the partner slot again. It proves too fast for the humans, leading Owen and Shoto to digivolve Elizamon and Muchomon to Dimetromon and Kokatorimon. Now on the backs of their bigger faster Digimon, they are able to get closer to it. Owen figures out where it's going to go, and as Shoto is closer he relays a message for him to capture it. Shoto and Kokatorimon hide behind the corner, with their ambush allowing Shoto to turn Maquinamon into a card. As most of the group celebrate the success of the mission, Shoto tries to get Owen involved though Owen wasn't interested in doing so. Once the celebrations wear down, Shoto complains at being overworked by the debug team, with Violet seemingly trying to comfort him by saying things hadn't been this hectic until he and Arisa had joined. Unlike Shoto though, Arisa had been enjoying her time. This pleases Shoto, since he felt like she hadn't been able to have fun and explore LACUNA since she had spent all her time training him to get better at duelling. Violet tries to invite her "rivals" to do something with her, though is cut off when they receive messages on their D-STORAGEs. Shoto is told that a rogue NPC had been sighted nearby, whilst Arisa is told that another Maquinamon had been seen. The four of them split up to deal with both issues, with Owen and Shoto going after the NPC and Arisa and Violet going after the Maquinamon. SELECT FEW (Part 1)

Whilst riding on the back of their partners to get to the rogue NPC, Shoto calls out to Owen about the fact he knows Owen is trying to avoid him and feels they need to have a conversation. Owen cuts him off though, and brings up that Shoto had forgotten his promise to him from when they were children. Shoto confirms he does indeed not remember making a promise with him, but that even then they need to be able to work together since they had been assigned as partners by Yao. Done with the conversation, Owen has Dimetromon run faster so that he wouldn't have to talk to Shoto any more. Pteromon, from inside Shoto's D-STORAGE, tells Shoto he can tell the two of them are close — though Shoto denies this since the conversation was awkward and Owen ran away from him. It tells Shoto not to give up, and that if he does want to get along with him better there will be many more chances for them to do so.

Everyone comes to a stop, as a giant battlefield forms in front of them — with Shoto confused since they were 200 meters away from the rogue NPC. Owen contacts Shoto via voice call, and tells him to get his Emblem ready as a debug team member was about to fight three NPC at once and as such the duo should join in to even up the numbers. Shoto worries over the fact he had never actually been part of a 3v3 duel, though Owen says it doesn't really matter if he loses as to win a 3v3 duel — one side simply has to win 2 of the 3 duels and that Shoto is just a place filler since he and the other member will win anyway. This mockery angers Pteromon, with Pteromon demanding Shoto win his duel so that Owen can see what he's made of. When the duo arrive, both are surprised to see said debug member was Close since she was known for not actually doing debug team work despite being a member of the team. Close apologizes to the duo, telling them that the trio of NPCs were actually just regular NPCs that had all challenged her at the same time and weren't the out of control NPC they were looking for. Owen points out that even if they're not out of control, there is no storyline content in the game that requires a 3v3 duel so something is still wrong and so should still be investigated by the debug team. Close thanks them for coming to help her, as she feels she would be unable to defeat all three of them, though Owen stubbornly tells her she can thank them after they win. As the 3v3 duel begins, Owen tells Shoto to prove to him that he isn't just here as a place filler. SELECT FEW (Part 2)

Shoto wins, and celebrates with Pteromon. Pteromon praises Shoto for getting stronger, though Shoto says he still isn't where he wants to be just yet and needs to get even stronger. They look over to Owen, and see he had won before Shoto had. This meant they had won the 3v3, since only two of them needed to win. As Shoto wonders out loud how Close was doing, Owen criticises Shoto for not being able to "assess the situation on his own" — though does praise him for proving he wasn't there as roster filler. The praise shocks Shoto, who wonders why Owen had suddenly "become a different person", though realizes he hadn't when Owen says he still has a long way to go to catch up to him. Owen, who had been watching Close's duel, points out that her duel wasn't going very well as she had only two security to her opponent's five and explains the current state of the board. As Shoto settles down to watch the rest of the duel, he realizes how weird it is that a trio of Deep Savers NPC were hanging out in the Obsidian Desert — with Owen saying they probably travelled there because of Close. As Shoto asks why they would do that, he tells Shoto to shut up as the NPC was about to make its next move. As the NPC takes another of her shields, Shoto worries she was going to lose — though Owen tells him to be quiet and watch and that he was confident she was going to win. They watch Close start her turn, with Shoto looking on in awe when she uses EX8-055: Pyramidimon. CHAIN OF LIBERATION (Part 1) On one of the NPC's turns, Owen and Close confidentially state Close has won the duel, with a shocked Shoto surprised at this supposed fact. This is proven true shortly afterwards, as Close defeats the NPC.

Sunarizamon thanks Shoto and Owen for coming to their aid, with Shoto thanking it for being thanked. Sunarizamon asks why he was so uptight and tells him to relax since it's a regular Digimon like any other. As Pteromon praises Sunarizamon for how amazing it was, Shoto thinks to himself how he is a much worse duellist than Owen and Close since they both won so easily and he barely won — with Pteromon noticing the look on Shoto's face. It whacks Shoto and tells him to stop falling into his bad habits, and not to worry so much since he's still just a beginner and will one day be as strong as the two of them. It says it still has a lot to teach him, and that the two of them are in it together. CHAIN OF LIBERATION (Part 2) After returning, he and Close tell some of the other debug team members about what happened — though Shoto ends up looking over at Close, envying how strong she is.

After this, Arisa spent most of her play time with Violet and Close instead of Shoto. Owen notices Shoto's lack of progress in the game's main story and angrily tells him multiple times to play the story. Shoto proceeds to do just that as he grew sick of Owen's complaining, alongside the fact he had little else to do since Arisa wasn't hanging out with him much any more. RAID ON THE WORLD (Part 1)

As he does the story, he mutes his notifications. RAID ON THE WORLD (Part 1)

As he continues to play the story, he defeats an NPC in Lapis Marine. He wonders if being alone so much is making him lonely, though decides he's fine with it as playing the game with three girls younger than him felt awkward anyway. Since he was now mostly playing on his own, he was pleased it meant he got to explore the game himself. As he walks around Lapis Marine, he is transported to the Quest Area within it — in which it's raining. As he and Pteromon run for cover to avoid the rain (though human players are unable to get wet) he notices that he was the only player in the area, thinking it was weird how no one else was currently doing quests in Lapis Marine — unaware that all regular players had been forcibly logged out of the game due to black holes appearing in Jewel and that debuggers had been allowed to remain logged in. As he receives his quest reward for his last quest, he becomes surprised at just how hefty the reward was and thinks on how he should've gone through the story a long time ago. Ready to take on the next part of the story, he prepares to leave for the Lapis Stadium Tower so that he can duel the Deep Savers NPCs — this time as part of the story. Pteromon complains about how Digimon get wet from the rain and humans don't, and as Shoto explains why via Yao-chan"'s explanation — Pteromon laughs at him calling her that, though the topic changes back to Pteromon hating rain. It goes into Shoto's D-STORAGE to avoid the rain, though Muchomon shows it doesn't mind the rain and offers to let Shoto ride on it as Kokatorimon so they could get to the Tower quicker. Despite having turned down carrying Shoto round multiple times, Pteromon becomes jealous — to Shoto's amusement. Pteromon doesn't deny it, and says it'll just stay inside the D-STORAGE. Shoto and Kokatorimon then make way for the Tower. Unknown to the trio, the admins had sent a notification telling all currently logged in debug members had to go to the Garden — Shoto the only one who had not done so as he had muted his notifications. This forces Cool Boy and Unchained to log into LACUNA so they could go get him and prevent him from being destroyed alongside LACUNA by the Digimon in the black holes. RAID ON THE WORLD (Part 1)

As Shoto continues his quest playing, he talks to Kokatorimon about how it's weird it is that there's no NPCs around. Whilst still mid conversation, Shoto is surprised when Unchained comes up to them. He becomes even more surprised when Unchained says they had been looking for him. As Unchained introduces themself, Shoto asks why such a high ranking special consultant was looking for him then brings up the fact that other players shouldn't be allowed to come into his quest area. Unchained explains that they and Cool Boy had used their managerial authority to invade the area, as they needed to find Shoto — with Cool Boy's involvement shocking Shoto. Unchained then begins to explain about the Imperialdramon rampage that could destroy LACUNA. OVERWRITE BLACK (Part 1)

Shoto arrives at the battles scene just as Violet loses to the cheating Sam the Clown, who had changed the cards in his hands to other cards. He uses his Unique Emblem to break into the duel field and activates debugging mode — forcing Sam to duel him. Violet complains at him for being late, with Shoto saying he'll be sure to make it up to her. OVERWRITE BLACK (Part 2) During the duel, Sam rewrites cards he has into cards that didn't exist until that very moment — allowing him to cheat and gain unfair advantages. This has Shoto think he can't win, though a pep talk from Pteromon spurs him on to keep going. As Sam's cheating continues to give him the advantage, Shoto falls into despair again as his field is wiped due to the effects of the cheated cards. SHOW ME YOUR BRAVE HEART (Part 1) Just as Shoto was about to lose, Zephagamon becomes enveloped in light and reminds Shoto about just how much Shoto has "digivolved" and that he is not the same Shoto he first met. As they bond, they both decide they don't want to lose and as they do — the light effects Shoto's hand. Just like Sam had been doing the entire duel, Shoto overwrites the Zephagamon card in his hand — with it becoming BT20-101: Zephagamon ACE. He uses the newly transformed card to win — destroying Sam/Wormmon/the final Imperialdramon, saving LACUNA. SHOW ME YOUR BRAVE HEART (Part 2)

During the next two weeks, Shoto was barred from playing the game as the staff were analyzing his avatar since he was somehow able to change the card in his hand into different one.

On the morning of the day he was allowed to log back in, he has a dream about when he duelled Owen in the past — the day Owen's mother ended up in the hospital. After waking up, he thinks back to the Imperialdramon rampage, and how it had shut the game down for maintenance for two days. He thinks back to how Yao told him about that overriding cards was the key to defeating the enemy and how Digimon in LACUNA used to have that ability and that they had realized this was no longer the case as Wormmon had clearly given Sam the Clown the ability to override cards. He also finds it weird that he was able to use the ability as well. He thinks on how it's weird that Imperialdramon was cloned 50 times, and that their movements were co-ordinated and seemed like the entire point was for it to be defeated by the debug team since it chose to duel players despite the fact it could've done damage with its actual attacks. His thoughts move to how the Owen he knows in the present isn't the same Owen he knew as a kid, though this thought is cut off as his alarm rings. He goes to the arcade and logs into Liberator as he was finally allowed to play again. Back to his Owen thought, he decides he was going to talk to him.

Pteromon happily reunites with Shoto, bored since he wasn't allowed to log in for two weeks. He tells Pteromon about how he wants to find and talk to Owen, as he thinks he can't move forward if he doesn't settle things with him. He and Pteromon meet up with their friends and ask where Owen is — though they say don't know.

Shoto looks around LACUNA, and eventually finds Owen in the Amber Remains — Owen having just won a duel. Owen greets him and brings up how he heard Shoto was involved in the Imperialdramon incident, though quickly turns to asking what he wants. Shoto is unable to explain himself, though Owen assumes it's about "that" and asks if he remembered their promise. Shoto says he came for that reason, but doesn't remember and asks what said promise was. An annoyed Owen then challenges Shoto to a duel. Re:START (Part 1)

As they duel, an annoyed Shoto complains to himself about how he was doing this in the first place so that he could talk to Owen, only for Owen to not talk to him at all other than declare card effects. This changes during one of Owen's turns, where he admits he has had his eyes on Shoto ever since he started to play Digimon Liberator having come across him when investigating reports about players seeing wild Digimon in the Emerald Coast. This has Shoto realize Owen had actually already seen him before they met again in the Garden, and this becomes even more apparent when Owen mentions how annoyed he was at watching Shoto's passion for the game drop after losing to Arisa over and over again. As Owen clears Shoto's field, he praises him for having a different spark in his eye than when he usually starts to lose — bringing up that that's how he used to be when they were children. Shoto says he lost that spark as he blamed himself for Owen's mother's hospitalization and explains how/why his personality had changed since they were kids. Owen tells him that he didn't need to worry over what had happened so much as that whilst that accident caused him to leave Japan to look after his unwell mother — he was going to leave Japan and return to his home country at some point regardless. Owen brings up how Shoto said he would show him his response to his question after joining the debug team, and admits he has no idea what Shoto was on about as he hadn't asked him anything and that he probably just made it up as a form of protection. As Shoto responds, Owen cuts him off — saying that what the imaginary Owen said means nothing and that he had changed as a person because of this imaginary Owen. Shoto once again blames himself for what happened to Owen's mother; though Owen tells him to shut up that he needs to stop blaming himself and declares he will have his WarGreymon card incinerate the coward that Shoto had become. As Owen defeats Shoto, Shoto remembers the promises the two of them had made as children, where Owen had said they would become the two best duellists in the World and would battle to see who gets to become the World Champion. He and Pteromon cry over Shoto's loss, though after they wipe away their tears — they see Owen smiling at them. Shoto's friends arrive, with Shoto realizing that his story had started over again. Re:START (Part 2)

On Valentines Day, Yuuki gives chocolate to her friends. One of them was Shoto.