Kazama Shoto

Kazama Shoto is the lead protagonist of Digimon Liberator.
=Profile=
A first-year university student who is knowledgeable about Digimon and the Digimon Card Game. Skilled at breaking the ice with people, he's so adept at charming and inviting newly met acquaintances out for meals that he's sometimes called "supernaturally social." However, he also has a tendency to give up at crucial moments in competitions that has been causing him trouble.
Amidst this, an encounter in Digimon Liberator, initiated by an invitation from his childhood friend Kinosaki Arisa, starts to reshape everything within him.
=Deck=
Shoto uses a Bird Beatdown deck that includes the following cards:
=Card Game Evolution=
* Any Digimon that also Evolves from non-White Tamers from the Digimon Card Game
* Arbormon
* Blitzmon
* Bolgmon
* Fairimon
* Jet Silphymon
* Kaiser Greymon
* Magna Garurumon
* Petaldramon
* Shutumon
* Susanoomon
=Appearances=
==Manga==
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In "Welcome to LACUNA", Shoto excitedly watched on his phone the beginning of the finals of the Digimon Card Game World Championship between Owen Dreadnought and Zenith, and was disappointed when Owen lost. His unhappiness only grew as it was announced that the next World Championship would be in Digimon Liberator, and wondered if everyone would join. He was then called by his childhood friend, Kinosaki Arisa, who got annoyed at Shoto's lack of interest in her. Shoto asked her if she called him to mock him for Owen, his favourite card game player's, defeat. However, Arisa's goal wasn't that, but to get Shoto into Liberator, though he immediately refused, as he didn't feel ready for a virtual reality game. Arisa tried to convince him by saying Zenith played it. Shoto called her out as a Zenith fangirl, which angered her and she asked him if he had watched the interview to the end, as Owen, Shoto's favourite, had also joined Liberator. This shocked Shoto and convinced him to give it a try, as he looked at a Beginner's Guide for Digimon Liberator. Arisa told him to get his deck ready and meet her at the arcade.
In the arcade, the two went to a Translation Another Life Engine, or T.A.L.E., metaverse pods available at amusement facilities nationwide. They set their D-Storages in the machine and put on VR goggles to activate the Full Dive, entering LACUNA from the sky as welcome messages appeared in English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese Simplified. As he fell, Shoto saw an orb with two crossing rings, and screamed in terror as he kept falling. He managed to land on his feet, and saw his D-Storage in the ground shaking before it opened and released a card which he took. He then met Arisa and her Partner Digimon, Junkmon, who waved at him, much to his surprise. Arisa explained to Shoto how the D-Storage worked, overwhelming him with too much information at once. Shoto then summoned his own Partner Digimon, Muchomon, and hugged and pet it. Shoto then narrated that he entered Digimon Liberator thanks to Arisa, and now the game put them on a once-in-a-lifetime path to a new story. Shoto then looked at the city of LACUNA with a peaceful, happy expression, alongside Muchomon.
In "DigitalGate Open", Shoto, Arisa, and Junkmon were in the Emerald Colonies, Invasive Forest City, alongside other players such as a man with a bandage on his nose, a woman that looked like Makino Ruki, and a woman with a Phascomon. Arisa tried to explain to Shoto that he had to press a button on his D-Storage's holographic panel to summon his Digimon. After he did it, the D-Storage summoned Shoto's registered Partner Digimon from its library, Muchomon, who criticized Shoto for always taking too long to summon it, and Shoto apologized to it as they high-fived each other. Arisa pointed out Shoto just couldn't get the hang of Digimon Liberator, even though he had been playing it for three months already and he had no issues with his phone. As he hugged Muchomon, Shoto answered that Arisa had said she'd help him, which annoyed her for a moment but then she got bashful as she did promise that, and Shoto and Muchomon high-fived and greeted each other again. Arisa then told Shoto they should warm-up now that he summoned his Digimon, and Shoto and Muchomon agreed.
Shoto and Arisa activated Friendly Battle Mode, which made their D-Storages glow, and then the Memory Gauge and Security Shields appeared. Drawing five cards from their decks, Shoto and Arisa declared "Digital Gate, Open", starting their battle. Shoto played his Partner Digimon, Muchomon, lowering the Memory Gauge from 3 to 0, then had Muchomon attack one of Arisa's shields. The shield Muchomon broke was BT11-100 Megalo Spark, activating its Effect, which in turn activated its effect. An Airdramon appeared then used , lowering Muchomon's DP by 8000. As this meant Muchomon's DP fell to 0, Muchomon was deleted. Shoto played another Muchomon, which ended his turn as the Memory Gauge fell from 0 to -3. Arisa took her turn, starting it by moving her Partner Digimon, Junkmon, from the Breeding Area to the Battle Area. She then paid 2 Memory (3 > 1) to evolve Junkmon into Tobucatmon. Tobucatmon winked at Shoto as he tried to remember its effect, , making it so it can't be deleted in battles against a Security Digimon. Arisa exclaimed there was only thing to do with a Digimon with and ordered Tobucatmon to perform a Security Attack. Tobucatmon answered by performing , shooting beams from its eyes against Shoto's Security Shield and checking one Security. Said Security was a ST18-11Parrotmon. A Security Battle was then triggered, but Tobucatmon won it due to its . Arisa and Tobucatmon celebrated, which annoyed Shoto. 
In later turns, Shoto evolved an unknown Digimon into a ST18-07 Cockatrimon but it was immediately defeated by Arisa's Ex-Tyranomon, itself also evolved from an unseen Digimon. Shoto then looked up in fear as Arisa evolved a Shin Monzaemon, which attacked the terrified Shoto and finished the game in Arisa's favour. Arisa and Junkmon high-fived each other happily as Shoto complained and Muchomon suffered. While the latter got over it quickly, Shoto pointed out he just couldn't win no matter how many times he tried as he got overwhelmed by Liberator battles, despite knowing the rules didn't change from the normal card game. Arisa spun her D-Storage over her finger as she wondered why that happened, considering Shoto was much better than her in card expertise otherwise, and said he needed to get rid of his low self-esteem and tendency to give up. Shoto whined he had been playing for three months and was used to the excitement of the battles but felt terrible that he couldn't show his true abilities. However, he was distracted as he saw something passing by. Arisa snapped him out of it, and Shoto explained that something small had just passed by them, though Arisa hadn't seen anything. Shoto thought it must've been his imagination, but then an explosion happened close to them. Shoto jumped in front of Arisa to defend her, which got him kicked in the face and knocked to the ground by a yellow, mouse-like Digimon on a shoe, who then jumped into Arisa's arms. As Shoto tried to recover from the kick, a beautiful woman with long, purple hair passed by him, which stunned him. He tried to ask her something, but Arisa told him to look out as an NPC with a red glow appeared from a broken wall, alongside a Blucomon. With a glow from its hand, the NPC initiated an Encounter, causing Shoto's D-Storage to glow red as well and start up on its own. The Encounter became a Situation Battle between Shoto and the NPC Freezing Knight, who shot a red beam into the sky that caused a battlefield to form, trapping Shoto with it. NPC Freezing Knight declared the opening of the Digital Gate, as Shoto panicked as he didn't initiate the battle and could not leave the battlefield, wondering if it was a bug. 
The unknown Digimon introduced itself as Shoemon and asked for help, explaining that it was being chased. Shoto was shocked because Shoemon talked and he had never seen a Digimon like it before, while Arisa wondered if it was some sort of event. Shoto's shock only increased as he looked at the cards in his hand and realized they were blank. The shock turned to fear as he realized he could not win or even fight with those.
NPC Freezing Knight took the first turn with his Partner Digimon, Blucomon, starting on the field as per the Situation Battle rules. Arisa pointed out that Situation Battle NPCs should not be in that area, but it didn't matter as the battle had already started and Blucomon performed a Security Attack on Shoto thanks to the Situational Ability , releasing its from its mouth. Arisa complained it was unfair how they already lost a Security Shield on the first turn. However, Shoemon called out to them to be careful as its turn wasn't over and it used it to evolve Blucomon into Paledramon, lowering its Memory to -2 and thus finally ending its turn. Shoto was frozen in fear at NPC Freezing Knight's mercilessness and how he couldn't do anything with his worthless blank cards. He attempted to surrender but was interrupted by the sudden appearance from the sky from a green, bird-like Digimon who challenged the NPC to pick on someone its own size and proclaimed this was its island and it made the rules there. It introduced itself as Pteromon and decided to help Shoto as that was what it did. Pteromon's appearance caused two of Shoto's cards to appear, those of his Partner Digimon: ST18-05 Muchomon and his newly-obtained ST18-04 Pteromon.
At some point between joining LACUNA and his fight against Freezing Knight, Shoto cleared a high-difficulty NPC quiz in the Emerald Coast, netting him an ability item that he used to create his Tamer Card, ST18-14.
==Novel==
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==TCG==
=Image Gallery=
==Artwork==
==Miscellaneous==
=Additional Information=
Category:Digimon Liberator characters