Shinonome Reiji
| Shinonome Reiji | |
|---|---|
| |
| Kanji/Kana | 東雲レイジ |
| Dub Name | Reiji Shinonome |
| Partner Digimon | Wanya |
| Family | Unnamed sister |
Shinonome Reiji is the main protagonist of Digimon Paradox.
Profile[edit]
At first glance, Reiji comes across as a lone wolf with a violent streak that constantly carries a bat around and terrifies other punks. In reality, Reiji is very kind. He loves animals and constantly protects the strays in his neighbourhood. This extends even to those that refuse his help and reject him as Wanya once did. He's just as helpful to other humans as he can't turn his back on those in need, although he'll refuse to help those that would harm the ones he wishes to protect. He doesn't like others entering his room without permission, which puts him at odds with his sister who likes said room because it has the best view of the cherry blossoms. He's also quick to get flustered around women and very easy to tease.
Appearances[edit]
Manga[edit]
Digimon Paradox[edit]
In ""The Beginning of the End"", Reiji entered an alley full of cats, carrying a bat. The three men who were there were terrified of him but Reiji kicked one of them in the face anyways. Another asked him to drop the bat, which Reiji did as he didn't need it for thugs like them, then punched Motoyan in the face. The last one then ran away, carrying the other two with him and warning him they'd meet again, though Reiji didn't care. Reiji then thanked the cats for alerting him, then took the animal they were attacking out of a trash can, though it was not a cat as Reiji expected but a wounded, sleeping Wanyamon.
Reiji then went back to his home, where, upon entering it, he heard his sister talking to someone else. He realized they were in his room and went to it, where she found both her sister and two of her friends drinking. Reiji berated his sister for going into his room without permission, which he had told her multiple times not to do, but she argued it was the best place in the house to watch the cherry blossoms. Her two friends then surrounded Reiji and asked him many things, which unnerved him. The embarassed Reiji then asked his sister to get her friends off his room but she offered him a beer instead as a way to enter adulthood. Both embarassed and angry, Reiji just pushed all three of them out of his room while shouting at them, then slammed the doors shut. Reiji's sister realized his stomach seemed swollen, but shrugged it off and decided to just keep drinking in her room with her friends. Reiji was still mad at them but also glad he kept them from finding out about Wanyamon which he kept below his shirt. Reiji then left Wanyamon on the floor as he wondered if he was really a cat, considering it had the face of a cat but nothing else. Wanyamon then woke up, looked all around, then screamed at Reiji as he offered to take care of his wounds, clearly angry. Reiji interpreted it as Wanyamon being hungry so he gave him tuna sashimi, but Wanyamon angrily smashed the plate with his tail, the pieces of said plate Reiji a scratch on his cheek. Reiji was seemingly angry himself and stretched his arm towards Wanyamon, who was now scared, but instead grabbed a piece of tuna and ate it to prove him it was edible. He then told Wanyamon to eat while trying to calm him down, which worked as Wanyamon finally lowered his guard and ate the tuna. Reiji thought he had managed to befriend him, but Wanyamon merely pulled away from him after eating, with Reiji's shouting at him alerting his sister that there was another living being with her brother. However, she thought it was just a cat.
Talking to her friends, she explained they weren't allowed to keep pets as they were renting their house, but Reiji would still bring in strays every now and then. One of her friends wondered if he was a cat lover, but Reiji's sister explained that, back in elementary school, Reiji used to take care of a stray dog, Taro, in an empty lot, but one day he found two children harming it. Reiji's shouts made Taro grow aggressive, which caused the two kids to run away, and Reiji was glad that Taro seemed fine. However, the next day, Reiji only found Taro's collar, which was caused by the two kids who had one of their mothers get it to the pound by lying to her and saying Taro was dangerous. They were proud at themselves and hoped it was put down, which made Reiji sad as Taro just tried to survive.
In the present, Reiji, who was in his bed, told Wanyamon, who was in a box looking at him, he was glad he could rescue him. Reiji's sister kept explaining to her friends that, ever since then, he kept bringing in stray dogs and cats from the neighbourhood to look after them and befriended them. One of her friends thought he had a surprising soft side for someone that seemed like a lone wolf, but she thought he just couldn't let anyone be, especially those in trouble. She explained them he had a huge collection of dog and cat toys, to their surprise.
Reiji named Wanyamon "Wanya", based on the noises he made. Wanya refused to open up to him even after several days went by. Reiji decided to leave for the convenience store and asked Wanya to stay quiet and keep an eye on their home while he was gone, but Wanya refused to even look at him, which angered Reiji as he was leaving because Wanya's stomach rumbled even after he was fed. Regardless, he still left while asking Wanya to hide in the closet if anyone came. However, Wanya ignored that order and instead turned himself into data while Reiji wasn't looking and went into his phone. Reiji told his sister he was leaving for the convenience store, which confused her as he had done so on the afternoon, but he argued he was hungry, which didn't convince her. Regardless, Reiji bought the fish sausages Wanya liked as he thought about how he's spent most of his money on food the last few days, though he was fine with it.
When Reiji got back home, he saw cherry blossoms floating down from his room, which made him think his sister had gone into it again as he had closed the window. However, who he found there was a woman he didn't know instead sitting on his window. She pointed out cherry blossoms, which she had never seen before, were beautiful. Reiji wondered if she was one of his sister's friends and told her said sister's room was downstairs on the other side of the hall. However, the mysterious woman instead got close to him and accused him of being the one hiding "it". She then went and touched him all around while holding her head to his chest, which made Reiji's heart race. What she wanted, however, was Reiji's phone, from which she made an angry Wanyamon emerge, to Reiji's surprise. The woman was similarly confused at Reiji not knowing this, as it'd mean the Digimon, as she called it, went with him out of its own free will, an impossibility. Reiji didn't know what a Digimon was but also thought that unlikely because Wanyamon treated him poorly. The woman explained that Digital Monsters, or Digimon for short, used electronic machines as a medium to serve as cyber weapons for the future. Reiji thought she was crazy and ordered her to leave or else he'd call the police. The woman accepted that was an ordinary response and told him to observe what the gadget on her arm could do as proof that she, too, had come from 300 years in the future. To Reiji's surprise, the setting sun came back up, which she explained happened because the time outside of his room was being rewounded. Reiji finally believed her but asked her what she wanted with him, with his calmness surprising her, although Reiji answered he was shocked but hadn't processed the situation yet. Nonetheless, the woman explained that the Digimon, Wanyamon, was a cyber weapon mistakenly sent to that era, and her mission was to prevent an annihilation paradox that would destroy humanity caused by a Digimon sent to the past, which was predicted by a future artificial intelligence. The woman then called her Partner Digimon, Kuwagamon, into the room and had him attack Wanyamon as she refused to explain herself, as Reiji would forget everything after she winded back time. However, Reiji protected Wanya and intercepted Kuwagamon's attack with his bat, which shocked the woman as she tried to explain that Digimon were just weapons. Reiji said that the future must be a crappy place to live, so much he couldn't even understand it, and refused to let her kill Wanya. The woman tried to rewind time again to erase Wanya from an earlier point in time, while considering Reiji's reasoning absurd, but a draconic hand came out of Reiji's computer and seemingly broke her device before she could. The woman was taken by surprise as only one Digitama should've been sent back in time but two Digimon were there, both Wanya and the newly-arrived Devidramon, which fully emerged from Reiji's computer. Devidramon took Wanya and went back to Reiji's computer. However, the woman was more worried about her time machine, which wasn't broken but stolen so she couldn't return to the future. Reiji asked her where that black thing disappeared to and she explained it went into the cyberspace on the other side of the monitor but it was too risky to dive into it in such an ancient time. However, Reiji refused to listen to her and just went in anyways as she explained it, with Kuwagamon making her realize it even happened.
Reiji then assaulted Devidramon with his bat and rescued Wanya. However, this only led to him getting caught by Devidramon then found Reiji grabbed by Devidramon before being found by the woman and Kuwagamon, the former of which ordered him to abandon Wanya and save himself but Reiji refused. She shouted at him that he was a human from the past with no relation to the future and didn't understand why he went so far to protect a Digimon, which were merely data, weapons. As he bled from his mouth, Reiji rejected her words, screaming that Wanya was a living being who got scared, hurt and hungry, but still did his best to survive, so he'd save Wanya, while he remembered Taro who he couldn't save. Wanya, who was touched by Reiji protecting him, decided to save Reiji to pay him back for saving him before, and evolved into Elecmon. He then attacked Devidramon. Reiji was happy about it, as he realized it meant Wanya was quite a punk just like him, then joined the fight alongside Wanya to prove everyone that Wanya was not a weapon but a living being.
After their clash, the group was violently ejected from Reiji's computer back into his room. Despite being in pain, Reiji reached out to Wanya to see if he was okay. The woman tried to stop him, as Digimon were dangerous, but Wanya merely leaped into Reiji's chest. The woman thought both them fighting together and them understanding each other was unthinkable and thought Reiji may be something. Reiji then apologised because her time machine didn't come back after they defeated Devidramon. The woman explained it still had partial functionality but many of its functions were stolen away. Nonetheless, she could still use it to rewind time in Reiji's room to fix it. She explained that Devidramon likely escaped after their attack. As Wanya climbed into his shoulder, Reiji pointed out that meant she couldn't go back to the future so he offered to help her out, to her confusion. He pointed out they just had to steal the time machine back from the Digimon he couldn't name, but she didn't understand why he was helping her at all, which was simply because she was in trouble and he couldn't leave her alone. This made her think he was too kind for his own good, which Reiji was accustomed to hearing though he didn't like it. That said, he put a condition on his help: that she wouldn't even think about killing Wanya, else she should just leave and never come back. The woman thought she couldn't let such a dangerous Digimon unsupervised and the annihilation paradox's cause may be something else. Reiji stretched out his hand to her and introduced himself. The woman thought she had no choice, introduced herself as Eve and grabbed Reiji's hand with both of hers, embarassing him. Eve asked him to let her stay in his room, which got him flustered, but Wanya thought it should be fine because Reiji was really nice. This surprised Reiji as Wanya could now speak. Wanya refused that name, saying he was Elecmon.
At the beginning of ""Beyond the Rain"", Reiji and Wanya slept. At school, Reiji's schoolmate wondered if a tired Reiji hadn't slept. Reiji then remembered how his sister was okay with Eve staying with them even when Reiji wasn't and he couldn't sleep because Eve stayed in his room, which made him think she did so to kill Wanya which he wouldn't allow. Reiji decided to take a sip of his water bottle, only to spit it out as the teacher introduced a new transfer student: Shinonome Eve (a disguised Eve), who the teacher believed was related to Reiji. Later, on the roof, Reiji screamed at Eve though Eve pointed out she didn't want to enroll at school, but Reiji's sister came into their room while he wasn't there and asked her why she wasn't at school. Eve couldn't think of a good excuse, so Reiji's sister forced her to change into her old uniform, brought her to school and helped her enroll. This angered Reiji, who then asked her what happened to Wanya. Eve replied she had told him to stay in his PC, which Wanya found boring. Reiji then asked Eve about her glasses, which Reiji's sister had picked for her to make her look more serious. Extending her skirt, Eve asked Reiji if the uniform looked odd on her but Reiji thought it didn't. Wanya, who climbed on Reiji's shoulder, loved it, which Eve appreciated but Reiji was more concerned about how he even got there. From Eve's time machine, Kuwagamon explained he most likely went through the network to Reiji's smartphone, which Reiji likened to a portable pal. Eve then fell deep into her thoughts.
Snapping her back to reality, Reiji asked Eve how she was going to get her time machine back. Once more, Eve fell deep into her thoughts after talking to Kuwagamon, and Reiji snapped her back to reality by shouting her name, then took her to a shrine that was full of flower-viewers that time of the year. Eve found the flower-filled place beautiful but couldn't walk properly due to the amount of people around. However, Reiji said it was actually quite empty as it was a weekday. Eve didn't know about the many things in the shrine, such as cotton candy, flavoured apples or ramune. Wanya thought it all smelled good though Reiji didn't want him speaking in public, while Eve was intrigued by their "ancient" culture. Eve then tried to catch goldfish and failed to, but the ringleader gave her one anyways because she was a cute girl. Getting called cute made Eve smile which got Reiji flustered. Wanya and Eve wondered if they should eat the fish but the ringmaster and Reiji told them not to. Wanya and Eve didn't understand why you'd catch a fish you couldn't eat, so Reiji got them taiyaki. He then explained he did all of this to calm Eve down as she couldn't think straight while freaking out, then asked her to explain the situation properly to him. Reiji recapped that she intended to get her time machine back and send Devidramon back to the future. Eve explained that'd fix the paradox and let her return to the future too. Reiji thought that sounded easy as it meant they could save the future and not kill Wanya, who was also happy Eve could go back to her time and took the chance to eat Reiji's taiyaki because he was still hungry, something Reiji didn't appreciate.
A montage of their time together was then shown, and how Eve seemingly fit just right in the present. Walking together, Reiji explained to Wanya that he originally helped Eve to protect him, but now truly wanted to help her after he realized she was all alone in their era. Wanya encouraged him to continue helping her so they'd get her home as he liked her too. However, they couldn't find any clues and Eve stayed more and more time silently staring out of Reiji's window. On a rainy day, Reiji and Wanya complained about how they had several days of rain already, and Eve pointed out it reminded her of the future where it never stopped raining. There were no seasons and they could not see the Sun or the blue sky so people didn't look up at the sky anymore, which to Wanya sounded awful. Eve thought this era was beautiful, to the point she could even almost enjoy the rain. Looking at her goldfish, she wondered if she'd ever be able to return to the future and Reiji asked her if she even wanted to. Eve said it was her duty to fix the past and go back so feeling she wanted to stay just a bit longerm to look at the sky, was wrong. She wanted to know what the sky would look like after the rain stopped and if the cherry blossoms would bloom again. Reiji explained to her that, once the rainy season ended, the sky would turn bright blue and would have big white clouds and then it'd be summer. Eve wanted to see that if she was still in their era. Reiji grabbed her arm and told her they'd go see it right now.
The four then jumped into cyberspace, with Reiji carrying his bat. Reiji's plan was to go to Kyoto, where the rainy season was already over. Eve pointed out using the network in that era was dangerous as they were exposed and Devidramon could attack them. Reiji thought this was only another plus as it'd lure him out. Torii gates spawned on their way which meant they had to be close to Kyoto. However, Eve had to point out Reiji was correct, as a Digimon appeared in their way, though she didn't expect a Perfect. Eve thought said Perfect, Metal Greymon, was an evolved Devidramon. Reiji and Wanya leapt out to attack it. Eve tried to stop them but it was too late and Reiji got hit by Metal Greymon's claw and sent flying, losing his bat. As Wanya went to him, Eve ordered Kuwagamon to defend him. Reiji was bleeding and badly wounded, the sight of which greatly angered Wanya who was overwhelmed by the desire to kill Metal Greymon in response and evolved into a wireframe Dark Tyranomon. Metal Greymon then took Wanya down with its Trident Arm, with his body flying towards Eve. Reiji blocked him just before Eve was hit and reminded Eve of her promise not to kill Wanya. Reiji also screamed at Wanya, which made him regain control of himself and create the textures of his body, completing the evolution, which he thanked Reiji for. Reiji then mounted Wanya. Kuwagamon didn't understand how Wanya's data stabilized, nor did he want to support Reiji and Wanya as Eve ordered him to, but ultimately did so after seeing Eve's resolute eyes. Reiji proclaimed they'd get the time machine back but the mysterious man told him he neither knew nor could do anything. Seeing an eye in a small dark portal in Metal Greymon, Reiji wondered if a human was talking to him.
Wanya tried to grab Metal Greymon's Trident Arm but couldn't as the latter was too powerful. Reiji thought he had to do something. Kuwagamon then tackled Metal Greymon. Eve told Reiji they'd buy him time so he had to restrain Metal Greymon, and Reiji ordered Wanya to use the Torii gate to do so. As Wanya grabbed said gate, the mysterious man ordered Metal Greymon to stop him, but the Perfect itself was stopped by Kuwagamon who refused to let go even if his pincers broke as he was ordered to support them. Wanya then chained Metal Greymon's neck to the ground with the Torii. Kuwagamon intended to take the chance to delete Metal Greymon but he was stopped by Eve who ordered him not to kill it, to her own confusion, and instead to put it in freeze stasis. Kuwagamon accepted the order which confirmed to Wanya that Eve really was nice. The mysterious man wasn't affected by the loss as it meant he now knew their strength and would be the one to seek them next time. He told Eve to wait for him, with Eve realizing who he was.
Back at Reiji's room, Reiji slept on his bed as Wanya, back as Elecmon, recovered (up to 38%) in Reiji's PC. Eve typed something in said PC as she remembered how, after the fight, she couldn't get the time machine back as Metal Greymon wasn't Devidramon. She wondered just how many Digimon were in the past and why the mysterious man was there, if he was supposed to have gone missing as one of her predecessors. Looking at the delete key of the PC, Eve stated how she had been waiting for an opportunity to erase any Digimon. The awakened Reiji asked her if that had changed. Eve said her duty was to correct the paradox by erasing Digimon but she was acting out of sorts, as she clutched her time machine. She wondered what was wrong with her as she hadn't erased a single Digimon. Reiji told her what was wrong was the future, not her. Eve said she'd leave before that man came for them, as that'd endanger their place. Reiji grabbed her and tried to stop her, but Eve didn't want his help. Telling him she didn't want to endanger him, Eve grabbed Reiji's hand and put it over her heart, which made his own heart race. Eve asked Reiji if he could feel her heartbeat, which shocked Reiji. She explained she was an artificial intelligence, not a human, then pushed Reiji away as she explained that was why there was no point in him risking his life for hers. Everything she had: her personality, her intelligence, her duty; was all given to her by humans and all data, so she was no different from a Digimon.
