Japanese Title: Friendship with Guardromon! "I'll fight too!", Tamer Hirokazu
Culumon finds himself locked up in a cage, hanging over a strange place...
While the group, minus Takato, Jian, and Terriermon, wanders around, they find themselves suddenly pulled into the ground without warning and fall into a forest. They find an Andromon, who’s intent on fighting a hydra-like Digimon called Orochimon who rules over the area. Andromon, declaring himself a warrior of justice, fights off Orochimon as he appears, only to be thrown back and injured. When Leomon prepares to fight Orochimon to defend Juri, Orochimon retreats, and the group decides to tend to Andromon.
They find smoke coming from somewhere and follow it to a large building, where a bunch of Gekomon seem to be working, and Juri, having worked at her family’s restaurant, recognizes the smell of sake. A Gekomon explains that it’s a factory for sake production, and when the group asks him if he can treat Andromon, he spitefully refuses. The Gekomon tells them that he and his comrades had lived in peace until Orochimon had arrived and enslaved them to make sake for them. In the hopes of keeping peace, the Gekomon agreed, but Andromon refused to let himself or the Gekomon be Orochimon’s slaves and began to start fights with Orochimon, constantly destroying the area in the process and forcing the Gekomon to have to clean up.
Hirokazu asks the Gekomon to understand that Andromon’s also trying to protect the peace, and, after hearing from Leomon that all they need to treat Andromon is dust packets and alcohol, asks for the supplies so they can treat Andromon themselves elsewhere. The Gekomon complies, and Leomon explains that the dust packets will help restore Andromon’s data. After being healed, Andromon devolves to Guardromon, being drained of his energy in the fight against Orochimon.
Orochimon, however, appears again, and snatches up Juri. Leomon and the others give chase, although Hirokazu stays behind when he sees Guardromon stirring. As Juri is taken away, she yells to Leomon that she’ll be fine, being the daughter of a restaurant owner and very experienced with drunkards.
Orochimon demands that Juri pour his liquor for her, and Juri calmly has all of his snake heads drink the sake in the hopes of getting all of them drunk. Leomon, meanwhile, is still worried about her, knowing that Orochimon is more than just a regular drunkard. Hirokazu continues to tend to Guardromon, who blames himself for Juri’s kidnapping and tells him that there may be a way to save her.
As the Gekomon prepare to serve Orochimon his sake, the group asks them for help in saving Juri. Guardromon, however, reminds the Gekomon of their happy times singing together before Orochimon had enslaved them, and they finally agree to help them and fight Orochimon. They transport the group to Orochimon’s lair in the sake barrels, while Juri succeeds in putting all but one of Orochimon’s heads to sleep.
The Gekomon bring the barrels to Orochimon, and Leomon, Renamon, Guardromon, and Guilmon emerge to fight him. The Gekomon reveal that Juri had actually made Orochimon stronger by feeding him sake, which distresses her. The fighting Digimon manage to fight off Orochimon’s heads one by one, but Orochimon proves strong and quickly reforms them since they’re not part of the main body.
Juri believes that it’s her fault for giving Orochimon all of the alcohol, but Hirokazu reminds her that she’s a Tamer and that she has to have confidence. Juri pulls out her card deck and uses a LadyDevimon card to give Leomon a powerful attack that poisons Orochimon and takes him out in one hit. The others are impressed with Juri, and the Gekomon sing for the group in celebration of being free from Orochimon.
Hirokazu suddenly finds an Ark of his own appearing to him and realizes that Guardromon is his Digimon partner. Hirokazu is ecstatic at finally having become a Tamer, while Kenta’s distressed at still being the only one without a Digimon. Guilmon wonders where Takato is and what he’s doing.
Takato, Jian, and Terriermon, meanwhile, happen to find themselves landing in a body of water.
Tropes
- Frothy Mugs of Water: The dub censors Orochimon getting drunk on sake to...getting sleepy on milkshakes. Yeah.
- Shout-Out: Juri's plan to get the Orochimon heads drunk is a nod to how its namesake was defeated by Susano'o in mythology.
