Leomon—also known as Lunchboxmon, or Overwork-to-Deathmon.
The reason it has so many nicknames is simple: in most entries of the Digimon franchise, different individuals and subspecies of Leomon show up, and they usually get standout moments.
Their "standout moments" being—
In the first anime, it's killed by MetalEtemon while protecting Mimi and Joe.
In the infamous dumpster-fire movie tri, it's killed by a darkened Meicoomon.
In Season 3, it tries to persuade Beelzemon to turn back and stop slaughtering—only to be killed and absorbed by an enraged Beelzemon.
In Season 5, BanchoLeomon sacrifices itself by taking in Daimon Suguru's soul to clear the man's name.
In Season 6, Bagra Army's MadLeomon becomes the newbie-zone boss and gets slain by the protagonists.
In the game Digimon Time Stranger, the Perfect-level GrapLeomon dies after facing its grotesquely-modified older brother Callismon alone—until the protagonists use "the power of time" to rewind events and change the ending, letting it evolve into Marsmon of the Olympus XII.
Even Koichi Kimura, the "Dark Warrior" type who isn't on Leomon's web evolution line but still has classic lion traits—a ghost soldier already hovering at death's door from the very start—ends up sacrificing his soul before the finale…
Looking at that track record, the Leomon lineage's luck stat… isn't exactly high, is it?
Faced with this lion-type In-Training Digimon—unlucky no matter how you look at it—Narumi Akira had only one thought.
Gritting his teeth, he scooped the newborn Frimon and Wanyamon into his arms and transferred them into the Digi-Room he'd prepared in advance.
"Homeostasis, you—"
Once he was sure the innocent baby Digimon wouldn't be hurt by his words, Akira grabbed Hackmon by the scarf and started interrogating the Homeostasis possessing it:
"Translate it for me. Translate it. What do you call this 'sincerity'?"
"We are very sincere…" Homeostasis said, as if it hadn't understood him at all. "This Digimon was carefully selected. It can absorb Baihumon's DigiCore to the greatest extent, and it possesses the power to restrain the Chosen Children. It's very strong!"
"I know." Akira snapped. "There are plenty of strong ones in the lion line. You can even hijack into other systems midway using web evolution and become some big-shot elsewhere… But am I asking about strength?"
"Translate it for me," Akira pressed again. "What do you call this 'sincerity'?"
"We mean its web evolution line," Homeostasis continued. "Its evolution route isn't restricted. It can evolve however it wants!"
"I'm not a Chosen Child!" Akira cursed. "My partner Digimon not being locked into a route—shouldn't that be the bare minimum you do? I'm telling you, translate it for me—what do you call this 'sincerity'?!"
"Our sincerity is—its compatibility, something ordinary Digimon do not have!" Homeostasis declared loudly. "It's a Digimon we specifically designed: it can adapt to all Digimental spirits, and it can maintain the best synchronization rate during Jogress evolution!"
After hearing what Homeostasis meant by "sincerity," Akira let go of Hackmon's red scarf, and his entire demeanor instantly softened.
"Oh. So that's your 'sincerity,' is it."
"So you prepared me a Digimon with extremely strong compatibility…" Akira smiled pleasantly and continued, "Then let me ask you—where exactly are you going to 'top me up' on the Digimentals and fusion materials I'm missing?"
"…"
Homeostasis's radiance dimmed rapidly. It turned its head away and answered in a quiet voice—an answer that made Akira's blood pressure spike through the roof:
"Before order is restored in the Digital World, we don't have time to research those things. If you want them… perhaps you could look for them in other worlds…"
Akira laughed—laughed with a kind of serene acceptance.
The feeling was like this: the "History搬运 King" in your group chat suddenly stops reposting trash and starts sending "good stuff" locked behind a password. You download it, enter the unzip password, follow the instructions, even change the file extension to keep extracting—only to discover you need another password. You go ask the guy, and he says, "No idea, I just forwarded it." That sort of… complete, liberating acceptance.
"Truly you, Homeostasis." Akira said lightly. "When it comes to not being a person, there's really nothing anyone can fault."
"I was wondering why you suddenly got so generous—turns out you just gave me the base form and made me find the upgrade parts myself, huh?"
Maybe realizing it was about to get blacklisted for real, Homeostasis quickly bowed its head and apologized again.
"Sorry. We genuinely can't provide anything better right now!"
"But—after Apocalymon is dealt with, we will compensate you sufficiently," Homeostasis promised. "Absolutely enough to let it reach Super-Ultimate-level strength!"
"You say that like a Super-Ultimate automatically crushes an Ultimate!" Akira got even angrier. "Rosemon's Burst Mode is Super-Ultimate—do you think she can reliably crush an Ultimate like BloomLordmon?!"
"..."
Homeostasis froze for a long moment. It clearly hadn't expected the person in front of it to even know details like that, and could only add hurriedly:
"Apologies—we were not specific enough. What we mean is: we will grant it the power of an upper-tier Royal Knight."
Yeah, sure. But Wanyamon's final evolution that the World Tree gave me—FenrirLoogamon: Takemikazuchi—already has upper-tier Royal Knight power. If you tell me Frimon will be reinforced to that level, I won't call it 'sincerity'—I'll call it what I'm owed.
Akira badly wanted to say that out loud. But considering Homeostasis had neither a biological mother nor basic humanity—and even if he invented a "mother" just to insult it, the attack would be nearly meaningless—he could only silently add a new entry to his revenge ledger:
August 1st, 1999, afternoon: Homeostasis once again did something inhuman to disgust me. When I find the chance, I'm going to make it a sturdy, unbreakable "green fairy" body, shove its consciousness inside, and punch it in the gut every day to vent!
After logging the vendetta, Akira forced down the surging emotions and issued a dismissal to that motherless thing:
"Get out. I don't want to see you."
"…" After hearing him, the motherless thing still tried to ask, "Um… about Apocalymon—"
"Still not leaving?" Akira said. "What, you want me to send Apocalymon a gift basket packed with negative emotions?"
"…" Homeostasis's radiance dispersed again, leaving only a single sentence behind: "Sorry. We have disturbed you."
Once the possession ended, Hackmon's expression also became awkward.
"Um…" Hackmon hesitated, guilt showing on its face. "Then… how about I stay here for now, and help you train those two Digimon—would that be alright?"
"That sounds nice," Akira said, having already made up his mind. "But what if Homeostasis can't deliver the compensation? Are you going to keep cleaning up its mess forever?"
"…"
After a brief silence, Hackmon gritted its teeth and made its decision.
"I swear, in the name of a knight: I will help you until Homeostasis provides compensation."
So… for the sake of wiping Homeostasis's ass, you're even willing to sell yourself?
Hackmon… are you really that loyal?
Seeing Hackmon this loyal—willing to proactively sell itself to clean up for that trash god—Akira's mood finally steadied.
Even if this Jesmon wasn't the manga's favored one raised under Gankoomon's training… its strength was still solid.
This deal… wasn't that much of a loss.
As for whether Homeostasis is scheming behind the scenes—
He'd settle that score slowly, once he'd truly torn all pretenses away from that motherless thing.
.....
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