#(I really love the part where Koushiro comes in and might keep him there for a future remake of this one but edited scenes of him)

[izumiyagami14]

road trip

enlightenmonth // [day 25-28] gift or favor Summary: After a cancelled flight to surprise her boyfriend, Hikari is out of options. That is, until Koushiro offers to drive her. Now he must keep his conflicted feelings about a certain someone all while being in a very confined space for hours with her. What could go wrong?

I might continue this story… idk. Let me know if I should…

Anyways, happy Enlightenmonth again, everyone!This is my seventh prompt for the month, so this concludes my contribution😅 I’m not going to lie, this month was a MILLION times better thanks to the creation of Enlightenmonth (*cough cough* @earlgreymon) ☺️ and the effort from talented writers and artists (I wish I could tag all of you, but there was SO much😭) It was truly amazing to see my oldest ship receive so much love in the span of a month🥺💜💗 because of this, I plan to write more and post them on Fanficition.net. I REALLY hope to see more masterpieces even after Enlightenmonth comes to an end!

The sakura trees swayed in the spring breeze outside the window of the Yagami residence, the decorated branches waving to the two boys in the room. It’s been four years since the reboot, and the DigiDestined are still adjusting to their quickly approaching adult lives.

Koushiro sat at Taichi’s desk, typing on his laptop, while Taichi sat next to him, straddling a chair backwards so he could rest his arms on the back of it.

“Man, I don’t know what to do with my studies, but I have to make a decision real quick,” Taichi explained to his friend.

Koushiro just hummed in response, preoccupied by his work. The typing of the keyboard overwhelmed his mind to where he could barely comprehend what his friend was talking about. “Have you talked to your sister about this? I feel like she’s the one to talk to. She always knows what to say.”

“Nope, not yet. Just you, my friend.”

He glanced up around the room briefly before moving his eyes back to his friend. “Where is she, anyways?”

Taichi looked down at his wrist to check his imaginary watch. “Right about now, she should be on a plane to Shimane. She planned to visit Takeru as a surprise, who is there visiting family.”

Koushiro froze for a second, shifting his gaze from Taichi to his computer keys. “Oh,” he whispered as he continued on his work.

Taichi propped up his head in his hands. “Yeah, I hate to admit it, but I wish I was more like Hikari. She already knew that she wanted to be in education before she could even speak!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

The mention of his sister’s name silenced the discordant ticks for a beat before they picked up again.

“Man, I’m so jealous of her. She already has her life together. She’s been accepted into the education program at her university. She has a job at a daycare to help with her degree. She actually makes time for her family and friends. She even has a boyfriend!”

Koushiro shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the last part. “Taichi, can you change the subje-“

But he continued to ramble on and on. “I mean, granted it’s Yamato’s little brother, but still! She is actually dating someone before me!”

“I would prefer it if you stopped talking about-.” Koushiro tried again, but it did not work.

“She even planned on surprising him at Shimane during break so they could be together! I don’t even want to think about-.”

“Taichi, enough!” Koushiro yelled.

Taichi nearly fell out of his chair and he held up his hands in defense. “Woah, Koushiro! What’s the matter?” He looked at his friend with confusion. He’s never acted like this before.

Koushiro’s face grew as red as his hair and he buried his head in his hands from his sudden outburst. “Oh my goodness. I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have screamed at you like that. I honestly don’t know what got over me.”

“I’ll say, bud!” Taichi laughed. “That was completely out of the blue. I was only talking about Hikari. I don’t know why you would be so grumpy about her life, let alone her love life-.” Realization hit him like a soccer ball to the face. “Koushiro, do you?-“

His face felt hotter. “Stop,” he pleaded.

“Do you like?” Taichi continued to press his friend.

“Please, no…” Koushiro muttered, folding his arms onto his computer and placed his head down.

“Do you like my sister?” He teased.

Koushiro groaned. Why this? Why now? He asked himself. He planned to take this to his grave. “No, I do not. What on Earth makes you think that I do?” His friend gave him an unamused glare, causing him to groan again. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

“How long?”

“As long as I can remember…”

Taichi laid his head on his arms so that he rested in the back of his chair. “Why don’t you just tell her how you feel?”

Koushiro signed, still typing on his computer. “Because I can’t tell her! It’s going to sound stupid.”

Taichi lifted his head in defense. “Then why are you telling me?”

“Because professionals say it’s better to talk about these things with someone rather than bottling it in,” Koushiro joked, looking up at his friend.

Taichi tilted his head and gave Koushiro an expression that screamed yeah, riiiiight. He decided to continue the joke. “And you chose to talk to me? Her older brother?”

Koushiro just hummed in response and leaned back in his chair. “Even though Hikari is your younger sister, you are still my best friend.”

Taichi didn’t believe a word that came out of his mouth. “You weren’t planning on telling anyone, were you?”

“No, sir.” Koushiro replied, defeated. He let out another frustrated sigh. “Besides, she is with Takeru. She’s leaving early to go visit him in Shimane as a surprise as we speak! She is so happy with him, and I don’t want to ruin that with my intruding feelings…”

Just as he finished his sentence, the front door of the residence slammed. Slow movement made its way from the front door to the bedroom. At the door frame, stood a girl with a suitcase in each hand and a frown on her face. For what Koushiro and Taichi saw, she looked like she was about to cry.

“Hikari, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you on a plane?” Taichi asked, starting to stand up. Before he could make his way to his sister, she dropped her bags at her feet and trudged over to the bed. She dove head first into the pillow and laid on her stomach, silent. Taichi looked at Koushiro, who only shrugged his shoulders in response.

She turned her head to the side so they could hear what she said next. “My flight was cancelled. There’s no way I can go visit Takeru early now.”

Now it makes sense. Taichi walked over and sat on the edge of the bed next to Hikari. He started to rub circles on her back to comfort her as he thought of the next thing to say.

“I don’t know what to do, Taichi. I saved up so I could go visit him early. I mean, the airlines refunded me the ticket, so I thought I could rent a car or something to drive there, but I’m not old enough to-“

“And I wouldn’t let you drive by yourself anyway,” Taichi cut in. “It’s a 10 hour drive from here!”

She sighed and sniffled a bit. “It was supposed to be an unforgettable trip. We planned to sightsee, and visit his relatives…”

Taichi sighed. “Hikari, you know I would totally drive you to see him, but you know I have-“

“I know, I know. I don’t want you to drop everything to make me happy. I’ll be fine!” She interrupted. “I can just see him when he returns. We can always plan on another trip-“

That’s when Koushiro raised his hand to quietly intervene. “May I make a proposal?” The two siblings quickly turned their heads over at the boy at the desk. “What if I drove you to Shimane? I am old enough to rent a car and that way you are not traveling by yourself.”

As he spoke, Taichi's eyes widened and then he slowly narrowed them, their prior conversation still present in his head. “Koushiro, that’s a big favor to ask of you…”

Koushiro shook his head and continued to explain. “I actually have a work conference in Hiroshima that I need to attend in a couple days. I could drive you to Shimane, drop you off with Takeru, and pick you up on my way back. That way, we don’t have to travel alone and you can still surprise Takeru.”

Hikari sat up in her bed and looked at Koushiro in disbelief. “You would really do that?”

Her lingering gaze caused his heart to skip a beat. “Of course. You’re my friend, Hikari. I just want you to be happy.”

Frown transformed to a huge smile as she jumped up and hugged the boy in front of her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

She is so happy with him, and I don’t want to ruin that with my intruding feelings… The thought repeated in his head when he realized what he just agreed to. “Let me just converse with my family, pack my few remaining bags, call the rental company, and we can get going.”

“Today?” The Yagami siblings replied in unison, one with more excitement, one with more concern.

“Sure. I’ll be right back with my things, okay?” Before Taichi or Koushiro’s own mind could object, he packed up his laptop and walked out of the room and outside.

He closed the front door to the residence behind him and leaned back against it, head tilted up in disbelief. He can’t believe he just did that. “What did I just do?”

#koukari #enlightenment #enlightenmonth #hikari yagami #koushiro izumi

[o-w-quinlan]

Digimon Adventure: (2020) Final Thoughts

Considering I stopped reviewing this series episode by episode months ago, they’re more positive thoughts than you’d expect, though still not all that positive.

To summarize, this is an entertaining series with plenty of individual good aspects and great episodes that nevertheless leaves me cold as a whole. Much as I enjoyed following it week to week, I can’t say I recommend this series to anyone but hardcore Digimon fans, or hardcore fans of the wider “monster” genre.

Action

It felt appropriate to start with this, considering a focus on action was what the initial interviews promised, and they delivered in spades. It wasn’t perfect or too consistent, there were several times when the Digimon not evolving when they could just broke any tension the fights had, but this series had some of the best fights in any Digimon anime. Anything in the first 3 episodes, Greymon/MetalGreymon vs MetalTyranomon, SkullKnightmon vs Greymon and Garurumon, Mugendramon vs DoneDevimon, Mugendramon vs WarGreymon, Millenniumon vs the dragons, Omegamon vs Abbadomon Core… all of them among the best things the franchise has to offer in terms of action scenes, which after so many series where fights were solved by having a protagonist Digimon evolve and one-shotting the enemy, comes as a breath of fresh air (to be fair, this series also had a lot of that, but it had actual great fights to compensate).

Worldbuilding

Another thing promised in interviews was the use of Digimon from all over the franchise, and not only did they deliver, but they also included plenty of references to the “null canon” to enrich the experience for the most hardcore fans. The series made sure to constantly emphasize the savage nature of the Digital World, bringing back the Tamers worldbuilding of Digimon consuming weaker Digimon in hopes of achieving evolution. Along the way we saw a lot of allies fighting back against this status-quo, from things as overt as Leomon organizing a resistance or Petaldramon protecting weaker Digimon from the all-consuming Entmon, to less dramatic stuff like weak Digimon settling down to live together, or the mere presence of a restaurant where everyone can rest for a while of the hardships of their world.

The biggest flaw here was in how the series handled its antagonists. With very few exceptions, every single enemy Digimon in the series lacked dialog, whereas nearly every single ally Digimon could speak normally, and this disparity cheapened the whole thing, because instead of coming across as “this mentality is normal for this world”, it came across as just your normal “everyone lived together in harmony until the villains attacked”, which is very much not what the series was telling us.

Characterization

That brings us to the next point: the lack of personality for most villains. I joked elsewhere that Minotaurmon from episode 19 was the most compelling villain of the series, and that’s not completely a joke. Almost every single villain of the week was flat, plenty of the “main” villains were lacking in dialog (Algomon in the first few episodes, Nidhoggmon, Millenniumon) or turned mindless halfway through (Devimon, DarkKnightmon). Negamon/Abbadomon in the final episodes managed to benefit from this by being the embodiment of an “instinct”, but in general this meant a mook-of-the-week like Minotaurmon managed to be a highlight among the villains simply by having dialog and non-trivial desires.

But what of the protagonists? The popular opinion is that everyone is far blander than they were in the original series, and I agree. But rather than comparing it with the first series, let’s look at what it had to offer to us. Where in other Digimon series, the backstories and issues of the protagonists and their reactions to what’s going on around them make for most of the drama, in this series the drama comes from the villains trying to destroy everything, and for the most part that means the protagonists only need to be distinct and charming on their own, no necessity to create conflict between them. There is an overall character arc for all of them, though: accepting and interiorizing their new duties towards the world they had ended up stranded on, getting to know and love the Digital World. Was this well done? Not really.

Taichi and Takeru, for example, were so much the embodiment of the stock shonen hero that accepting their place in this new world didn’t really reveal anything about them we hadn’t already seen from their first few appearances.

Jou got stuck as an unfunny punchline 90% of the time, to the point of damaging his few “serious” moments in some of his focus episodes. His development of becoming assertive was compelling in theory, but it got muddled with so many unfunny and uncomfortable hotsprings jokes that the impact was lost.

Hikari started as an even more blatant plot-device “mysterious character” than she was in the original series, before unconvincingly changing to cheerful little girl afterwards (the whiplash between her in episode 33 and her in episode 34 was something else), and only really managing to settle into a compelling character in her last focus episode (58, defending the Digitamas from the Bakemon and SkullBaluchimon, which to be fair is a great episode and probably the best showcase for Hikari as a character in any product or continuity).

Koushiro was mostly fine, although we all remember the several times the series seemed to promise it might do something with him (his uneasiness when his family was mentioned, or that line about having to “face the darkness of his past” in the HerakleKabuterimon episode) that ended up being nothing.

Mimi is the fan-favorite, being charming in nearly all her appearances and having some of the best focus episodes, and it’s mostly deserved. If there’s anything I criticize from her, it’s that her focus episodes don’t really add up to anything.

Yamato was fine, started out as a stock shonen rival before becoming the single most chill “lone wolf” in any Digimon series, probably because of what I said before of the conflict between the protagonists no longer being the source of drama. He gets a slow development of caring only for his brother to starting to care for other Digimon for the sake of Sora and Gabumon to caring about the Digital World just as much as everyone else.

Sora was made fun of by a certain section of the fandom for having the worst focus episodes early on, and I agreed, but having finished the series I can’t get rid of the impression that her focus episodes, while perhaps not that good on their own, when taken as a whole explore her character the best of any other. Yeah, this mostly means exploring her compassion (these are not very multi-dimensional characters), but they deepen and deepen both her impact on the Digimon she saves and how she is impacted in turn by them, moving her away from saving others through her combat prowess to saving others by empathizing with the grief of another caring soul, and by the end I honestly ended up considering her my favorite character (despite none of her episodes making it to my list of favorites).

As for the Digimon… it’s following in the footsteps of other Digimon Adventure products by not really having much of interest for the Digimon themselves except for Tailmon.

Overall, for the most part the main characters were decent, but besides Mimi and ultimately also Sora, I don’t think they’re very memorable. All of them start out promising, but never really improved from that promising start (again, except for Sora).

Pacing

And now we get to the biggest problem of the series: Pacing. I’ve seen it stated elsewhere that this series was more episodic than most (any?) other Digimon series before it, and part of the backlash it got was from not being as serialized as fans expected it to be. This isn’t exactly true. From episode 16 (Eyesmon) to episode 24 (DoneDevimon), this series was as serialized as any other Digimon series has ever been, with nonstop escalation that demanded you keep watching it week after week. Then, from 25 to 35 (Angewomon) or 36 (BlitzGreymon), it pulled slightly back from that never-ending escalation, but was still pretty serialized. It was only afterwards that it became heavily episodic, and by that point it wasn’t expectations set up by previous series that hurt it in the eyes of the fandom, it was expectations set by this series itself in its first half.

Not that the episodes themselves were bad. Honestly, I found myself significantly more entertained by the episodic later half of the series than the serialized first half. Maybe it was because they didn’t feel the need to convince me they were the most exciting, tense thing I had ever seen when they were clearly not (hello, Mamemon episode), or maybe it was that there were more than just endless fights to them, but I normally ended up those episodes entertained and satisfied, whereas with a lot of episodes from Eyesmon to BlitzGreymon, I mostly just felt frustrated after watching them. I agree with the criticism that, when seen as a whole, breaking momentum so hard for so long after months of never-ending escalation wasn’t the right choice, but when seen week after week, I can’t see this change of approach as that bad of a thing.

Conclusion

I think that sums up the series for me. On a weekly basis, it’s pretty entertaining. It’s when seen as a whole that the problems really become clear. There’s been some speculation in the past few weeks of how much the current situation in the world might have impacted the series, but ultimately, I have to judge what actually happened, and I can’t help the impression that this series ultimately left me with nothing of substance after it was all said and done. Like, I enjoyed this more than, say, Appli Monsters, but Appli Monsters have things that stick with you after it’s over. Not so much here, unless you’re a hardcore fan that loves the Omegamon lore this added (which I am, btw; love that Omegamon lore). I don’t think I can recommend this series to anyone who isn’t a hardcore Digimon fan, or at least a hardcore fan of the wider “monster” genre.

One thing I’m grateful to this series for, though, it’s the commercial boost it has given the rest of the franchise. I’m not going to credit it for all the successes it currently has, after all the Card Game would have fell off by now if it wasn’t genuinely well-done and the Vital Bracelet happened because of years of the virtual pet division progressively building up its audience after it had nearly died off, but it’s undeniable they wouldn’t have sold as well without this anime advertising the franchise week after week. Next week, we’ll have the first episode of Digimon Ghost Game, the first time since 2001 that we have a Digimon series being immediately succeeded by another. If that isn’t a sign of how well the franchise is doing right now, I don’t know what is.

Favorite Episodes: 1 (Tokyo Digital Crisis), 6 (The Targeted Kingdom), 12 (Lilimon Blooms), 20 (The Seventh One Awakens), 32 (Soaring Hope), 42 (King of Inventors, Gerbemon), 49 (The God of Evil Descends, Millenniummon), 56 (The Gold Wolf of the Crescent Moon), 58 (Hikari, New Life)

#digimon #Digimon Adventure: #Digimon Adventure 2020

[brighterthanghosts]

Meant for Romance

Word count: 1,893

Part 1/1

Pairing: Taishiro (past Koumi)

Read below the cut or on ao3

Summary:  “So let me get this straight,” Miyako says, swiftly biting into her toast. “You got sloppy drunk on a Tuesday and hooked up with your hot best friend. He let you sleep in his bed overnight and brought you breakfast.” 

“And now you’re here, having breakfast with me,” Miyako says with a bored sigh, “When you could be having a coffee-flavored makeout sesh with your hot best friend.”

Heavily implied nsfw. Lots of awkward. Humor maybe? Largely fueled by too much coffee at 4 a.m.

So warm.

Koushiro doesn’t remember ever feeling so cozy in his life. He knows he needs to get up soon — the morning sun on the other side of his eyelids beckons him to start the day. But sleep is still within his grasp, and his pillow smells so nice, like sage and bergamot and mint. He recognizes that scent, though he can’t quite place it, but his brain supplies him with hot breaths on his neck and a husky coo of his name.

Koushiro shivers, pulls the cotton sheet under his chin, and revels in the way it drags across his skin. His skin. All of his skin.

Eyes snapping open, Koushiro jolts up. The sheet, having fallen to the tops of his thighs, answers his first question, but — Where the hell am I?

He remembers Mimi, her pretty hair pulled back, making her deep-set frown stand out even more. She told him it wasn’t working out, that there’s someone else, that this just wasn’t doing it for her anymore. I wasn’t doing it for her at all.

He remembers calling Taichi, desperate and agonizing. Taichi saying he’d be there in 30 minutes. Taichi hailing down a cab to take them to a bar where “the drinks are cheap and totally worth it.” Taichi making him feel better instantly with big grins and fond laughter because that’s what friends do.

Spotting his clothes loosely folded on the desk chair across from the bed, Koushiro moves hastily and slips his underwear on, left foot then right foot. He knows he told Taichi about the breakup. Well, it wasn’t really a breakup, considering he and Mimi had never put a label to what they were doing, which wasn’t much.

Koushiro was busy, and Mimi was needy. She needed things from him that he couldn’t give. They’d tried to engage in sexual activities exactly twice, and neither time could Koushiro perform. It was something that embarrassed him to no end because he liked Mimi and he thought she was cute, but for the entire 8 months they were seeing each other, his body just wouldn’t respond.

Taichi spent most of that conversation listening, Koushiro realizes now, and he never poked fun or judged him. He loves that about Taichi. He’s working on the fourth button of his white dress shirt when his eyes dart to a Polaroid photo propped up on the desk. In the bottom right-hand corner reads ‘The Yagamis 2002.’  Nonononono.

And it hits him like a bullet train. Rough hands, harsh lips. Hips colliding, hot with need. Smooth, sun-kissed skin everywhere. Taichi over him, eyes wide and lips swollen. “Perfect. You’re so perfect.”

“Fuck,” Koushiro stutters, palms suddenly clamy. He’s got both legs in his pants, pulling them up in one swoop, and he hears the door unlock. Fuck.

“Hey, you’re awake!” Taichi says, smiling. At least, Koushiro suspects he’s smiling, but he doesn’t want to know. He can’t bring himself to look at his friend. He hears a rustle of plastic and something heavy hitting the table, but his mind can only focus on slipping on his socks at light speed.

“Sorry to leave you alone,” Taichi sounds sincere. It makes Koushiro feel worse. “I didn’t have much in the fridge, so I ran to the convenience store down the street. I grabbed that bottled Oolong you like. I hope eggs and — you’re leaving?”

“Sorry, Taichi-san. I have to go.” And Koushiro is out the door, leaving Taichi to stand alone in his little apartment.

***

He’s not sure where he’s going, not exactly paying attention, but he spots a park and some familiar treelines, and he manages to make it to a door, knocking furiously.

A beat passes, and he knocks again.

“Jesus, what!?” Miyako says, whipping the door open and looking like she just rolled out of bed. She eyes Koushiro, his tousled hair, frazzled expression, and haphazard outfit.

“Either you’ve met a very unfriendly tornado, or you’re doing the walk of shame,” she says, causing Koushiro to flush from the neck up. “Ah. Walk of shame, huh? Come in.”

The next 20 minutes are filled with Miyako filling her toaster and putting on a pot of coffee while Koushiro relays the previous night’s events with record speed. He’s beet red.

“So let me get this straight,” Miyako says, swiftly biting into her toast. “You got sloppy drunk on a Tuesday and hooked up with your hot best friend. He let you sleep in his bed overnight and brought you breakfast.”

She pauses to look directly into his soul, and Koushiro would like nothing more than to simply pass away.

“And you panicked.” Miyako’s tone is pointed, but when she doesn’t immediately continue, Koushiro opens his mouth to reply in uncoordinated hand gestures and wordless exasperation. He nods instead.

“And now you’re here, having breakfast with me,” Miyako says with a bored sigh, “When you could be having a coffee-flavored makeout sesh with your hot best friend.”

“It’s not like that!” Koushiro defends. Taichi was his very first friend and probably his closest friend — there was no way he could jeopardize that. His failed attempt at a relationship with Mimi was proof enough that Koushiro isn’t meant for romantic endeavors of any kind.

“I just got out of a relationship!” Koushiro pleads, but Miyako’s expression is solid. She’s not buying this for a moment. Softer, Koushiro says, “And Taichi is my friend. I don’t want to take advantage of him.”

“He obviously didn’t mind,” Miyako, says, annoyed and unimpressed with Koushiro’s half-hearted explanation. Koushiro grunts and looks down at the kitchen counter — he’s not entirely sure he believes himself. Miyako sighs again, this time with a hint of sincere tiredness woven in, and saunters toward her bedroom. “Tragic.”

***

The drive to the office is mostly silent, except for Miyako’s intermittent humming to whatever song is playing on the radio. Koushiro can’t make out any of the words over the sound of his heart thrumming like an upright bass in his ears. Miyako doesn’t seem to notice.

It’s times like this when he truly appreciates her — hiring Miyako as his assistant director was one of his best decisions. She always sorts him out when he gets too caught up in the details. Which is probably why he randomly showed up at her home this morning.

They’re walking into the building, and Miyako greets the receptionist quickly, shielding Koushiro from anyone passing through. He looks a mess, he knows, and Miyako’s being kind by attempting to uphold his reputation. She walks him all the way to his office, reminding him to pull the curtain over the glass windows by his door. She says to find her when he’s done.

It was also Miyako who mothered him into keeping spare clothes at the office after one too many all-nighters. “You look like a trash panda, honestly.”

The morning goes as usual, answering emails, IMing Miyako about the slides for their monthly report. He doesn’t notice when noon rolls around. He doesn’t pay attention when his office door opens, or when the sound of rustling plastic makes its second appearance today.

“Koushiro,” comes a soft voice. Koushiro’s fingers hover above his keyboard and a shiver runs down his spine. “Koushiro,” Taichi says again.

He knows he needs to respond but he can’t pull himself away from his safety net just yet. His fingers touch down on the keyboard again, and he exhales shakily.

“Hello, Taichi-san.”

“I was worried you didn’t eat, so I brought you lunch,” Taichi says quietly. It’s unlike him, and it breaks Koushiro’s heart. He knows he’s being selfish. He knows he should acknowledge his friend, but —

“Koushiro, please,” Taichi says, voice sadder now, a tinge of anguish in that last word. “Can we please talk?”

Koushiro freezes again. He’s so utterly fucked and completely inexperienced in all aspects of what’s sure to unfold here. But Taichi sounds hurt, and he doesn’t want to be someone who hurts Taichi.

He swivels around in his chair, facing Taichi on the sofa but looking at the ground where the toe of his shoe meets the wood floor. He wants to say something, taps his foot a few times, and finally looks up.

“Taichi-san, I —”

“What the fuck?”

“Huh?” Koushiro says, caught off guard. Mimi is storming into his office, face fire-engine red.

“You cheated on me?!” She squawks.

“Excuse me?” Koushiro musters because this is his ex, and his mother taught him to mind his manners, but he feels offended.

“Sora heard from Yamato that you slept with someone last night!” Mimi is causing a scene. A few of Koushiro’s colleagues have poked their heads into the hallway outside Koushiro’s office.

“Did you know about this? Who is she?”

She’s addressing Taichi now, who sinks deeper into the sofa and looks like he might combust, and Koushiro’s blood is boiling. He stands, moving into her line of vision.

“Mimi-san, I hardly think anything I did last night could be considered cheating as we never defined the exclusivity of our relationship and you said there was someone else.” Koushiro says with as much confidence as he can. “I think that gives me the right to do as I want.”

Mimi stomps her foot and raises her arms, ready to shout a thousand expletives, but Miyako is through the door and in Mimi’s face like a forcefield.

“Good afternoon, and welcome to Izumi Corporation. My name is Inoue Miyako, and I’m the lead director of team shut down. As in, I’m shutting this down immediately,” Miyako says, straight faced and with her kindest customer service voice. The first-floor security guard stands just outside Koushiro’s office, already escorting Mimi out. Miyako follows after them, stopping in the doorframe. “Thank you for your visit to Izumi Corp! Have a nice day!”

She smiles and waves, and Koushiro feels like he can breathe again. He has know idea what just happened, and his head is pounding. Miyako’s smile falls, eyebrows pull together, and from the doorway, she points her finger at Koushiro and yells, “I expect a raise!”

She shuts his curtains, slams the door behind her and disappears after that. Koushiro’s mind would normally leave the train station in 50 directions at once, but he’s just stunned. He turns, hoping to find Advil in his desk drawer, and — Taichi!

“Taichi-san, I’m so sorry,” Koushiro turns around to face him, and it’s all he can do because Taichi doesn’t deserve any of this. Taichi is looking at him unexpectedly, reaches a hand up to scratch at the nape of his neck and smiles slightly.

“So,” Taichi says and pauses, looking at the table, “lunch?”

Koushiro stares in awe. Taichi smiles and after a beat, looks up and says, “And maybe we can start this day over?”

They spend the rest of the afternoon talking, and Koushiro apologizes with his entire being. For the event with Mimi. For leaving him. For being so cold. Taichi reassures every “I’m sorry.” Taichi says it’s okay because he doesn’t expect the world Koushiro. Taichi is his best friend. Taichi would like to try last night again. Today, preferably, with less alcohol, but he isn’t pushing.

They weathered a year’s worth of drama in a single day. Koushiro is still breathing, and Taichi still smiles at him like Koushiro is the sun. And maybe Koushiro is meant for romance.

#taishiro #taishirou #Taichi is so good #Koushiro needs to lighten up #digimon #excuse my 4 am trash

[noctisfishing]

What Do You Treasure?

Day 6 - Treasure

#noct writes taiora week 2020 [ 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 ]

@taioraweek for more Taiora love! @noctisfishing for Taiora/Digimon writings and more. :)

Setting: Digimon Adventure tri.: timeframe / Canon Divergence

Tags: Fluff, Humor

Other Characters: 01 Chosen Children and Digimon Partners

Notes: My challenge for this was to separate this prompt theme from a multi-chapter fic that I’m still working on. ;) Like a few of my other fics, I pictured everyone in high school in this one.

Basically, everyone has their own answers. ;D

~*~*~*~*~*~

“What do you treasure?”

Sora arrived home after school one afternoon with that question lingering on her mind. The teacher had posed the question to the class during a discussion about a novel in which the students were assigned to read.

“Is it an item that has some meaning to you? A place you’ve been? A friend, or a loved one? There is no wrong answer.”

When she met Piyomon in the living room and asked her, she responded right away.

“It’s you, Sora!” Piyomon leapt into Sora’s arms and nuzzled her beak against her. “Meeting you and becoming partners is the greatest treasure I could ever want.”

“Oh, Piyomon…”

Sora smiled and held her partner tightly, knowing that she felt the same way. 

She thought about calling Taichi to ask how he would respond. She already knew what she would tell him. 

But she also couldn’t help but wonder what her friends would say.

~*~*~*~*~

The moment Taichi arrived home and asked Agumon the same question, he responded without any thought.

“Hamburgers!”

“Hamburgers?” Taichi repeated.

“Can we go get some later?”

“We just had some with Sora and Piyomon the other day!”

“They’re so delicious, I could have them every day!”

Taichi laughed, shaking his head. “You sure never get tired of them.”

He went into his room to set down his school back on his desk chair, and he noticed the picture frame on his desk with his friends and their Digimon partners. Sora was standing next to him, and he remembered that the two of them were laughing together at the time the picture was taken.

He wondered if the answer was that easy to tell.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Who do you treasure, Yamato?”

Sora with Piyomon sat on Yamato’s couch as she asked him the question. Gabumon sat in front of her, lifting his paw toward her and laughing playfully as she gently waved his paw up and down.

“Are you thinking about sensei’s question, too?” Yamato asked quietly while he tuned his bass guitar.

“Yamato might not tell you,” Gabumon added. “But you could probably make some really good guesses.”

“I’d rather you not.”

“He’ll tell us if he wants to,” Sora replied with a smile. She didn’t want to push Yamato into talking about something he was uncomfortable with.

She saw that Gabumon was eager to talk, but he kept quiet as he beamed at Yamato fiddling with warm up chords. She didn’t have to ask to know that Gabumon and music were his treasures.

Yamato paused his playing and looked as though he had just remembered something. “I was supposed to call Takeru today to help him with something.”

Both Sora and Gabumon both knew that Takeru was another one.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“I can’t just choose one pair of shoes!”

Taichi had caught Mimi on her way home as he and Agumon went for a walk.

“So, you treasure your shoes?” Taichi asked.

“My whole closet, actually. I do have a favorite dress and cute boots - oh, and just paired with the right necklace and earrings? Ah! It’s an outfit that I cannot live without!”

“Then, your treasure is something you can wear. Something, not someone.”

Mimi looked at him from the corner of her eyes in suspicion. “Why? Do you treasure someone, Taichi?”

“Well, uh…”

Taichi went red in the face the longer Mimi stared him down. He could tell that she was reading his mind.

“I don’t have to answer that!” he stammered.

“I’m sure you’ll admit it when the moment’s right,” she said with a wink. But then, she let out a giggle that sounded less mischievous. “It’s Palmon for me. And you, and all of my friends. The Digital World, too. It would be hard to deny that for any of us.”

Taichi smiled back. “That’s true.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Peace and quiet.”

Sora smiled with hesitation the moment Jou responded harshly to her question at his front door. “I’m sorry, Jou,” she said. “We must be bothering you.”

“Relax, Jou!” Gomamon added, jumping onto his arms. “Sora never comes here to make any trouble.”

Jou sighed, suddenly looking remorseful. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Sora. I’ve just been stressed.”

“It’s okay. Entrance exams are sure to be stressful.”

“Don’t worry,” Gomamon said with a cheerful smile. “I’ve been here to root for him when he needs it!”

“I’m sure you have been!”

“I should make you some tea! I already have the kettle going for Jou!”

Gomamon jumped off from Jou and disappeared from the door, leaving Jou to chuckle timidly. “Don’t feel like you’re intruding,” Jou told her. “Please, stay for tea. Gomamon will whine if you leave now.”

As Sora sat down at the table with Jou and waited for Gomamon, Jou had decided to answer her question.

“I don’t know where I’d be without Gomamon,” he said. “He truly is my best cheerleader.”

“I see,” replied Sora. “But I imagine ‘peace and quiet’ is still a true answer?”

“Yeah… Taichi and Agumon can test me on that. They showed up earlier and asked me the same question.”

“Oh…” Sora held her hand to her mouth to try to stop herself from laughing. “I’ll be sure to talk to him about it later.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“My treasure?” Koushiro asked Taichi, his eyes transfixed on his computer screen as they both sat in his room.

“You know, something, or someone… that could have a special meaning to you.”

“Well, I think that’s an easy answer for me.” After clicking a few times on his computer mouse, Koushiro pushed himself away from the keyboard on his desk. “Tentomon, for one.”

“Koushiro-han…!” Tentomon replied on the side, and Taichi could swear his face was glowing redder than the shell on his body.

“And… my parents, too.”

Koushiro sat in his chair as though deep in thought.

“That makes sense, Koushiro,” Taichi assured him with a smile.

Koushiro remained quiet, but Taichi heard Tentomon clear his throat loudly and shift himself next to Agumon.

“Just try to stay away from his harddrive,” Tentomon whispered to Agumon. “He almost imploded when I nearly dropped one of it parts as he was building it…”

“Ooh, gotcha!” Agumon whispered back.

~*~*~*~

“Patamon… and Yamato, of course!” Takeru replied with a cheerful smile to Sora.

“I figured you would say that,” Sora said, giggling.

“He probably would tell me he’d never talk to me again if I told him.”

“But he would still talk to you again a minute later!” Patamon said chiming in, sitting on top of Takeru’s head.

“You must be really interested in everyone’s answers,” Takeru added.

“It’s nice to know what can make someone’s eyes light up,” replied Sora.

Patamon made a squeak, and Sora noticed that Takeru had been looking above her for a few moments.

“Has anyone asked what it is that you treasure, Sora?”

“Not yet.”

At that moment, Sora realized where Takeru and Patamon had been staring, and Sora moved her hand up to her hair, lightly running her fingers through her locks.

“Think he’ll figure it out?”

Sora laughed. “I’m sure he will.”

~~~~

“My stupid, adorable Onii-chan, of course.”

“Staaahhp,” Taichi said, pushing Hikari away from trying to pinch his cheeks. He had returned home, where she sat in the living room with Tailmon.

“This one, too.” Once Hikari stopped, she picked up Tailmon and nuzzled the top of her head.

“Is it really that easy?” Taichi asked. “Everyone responded with answers that seemed to roll off of their tongues.”

“It’s not too hard to figure out, Taichi. Even if you are afraid to say it out loud, the answer just comes to you.”

Taichi grimaced. “I didn’t say anything about being afraid.”

The doorbell rang. Hikari looked at Tailmon, and Taichi looked toward Agumon. They weren’t expecting any guests, and their parents weren’t going to arrive home until later.

Sora was at the door when Taichi answered, with Piyomon standing at her side.

“Hey, Sora,” Taichi said, finding himself happy to see her. “What brings you here?”

“Oh, well…” Sora had met eyes with him, but suddenly looked to the side with a shy smile. “I’ve been going around asking everyone a question, and I think it’s your turn.”

Taichi was taken aback. He had returned home after getting hungry, but he had planned to call Sora right after he had dinner.

He wondered if it was the same question he had been asking all afternoon. He watched her bring her hand to her hair, tucking a lock behind her ear, and then, he noticed it; a red shiny gem clipped in her hair on the side.

It was the hair clip he had given her for her birthday one year. He didn’t realize that she would keep it for so long.

He realized that that must have been something she treasured, just like how...

“I treasure you, Sora,” he said aloud. Somehow, his realization at that moment urged him to say it, and it seemed to tumble out of his mouth.

With a nervous laugh, she turned to face him again with a wider smile.

“I treasure you, too, Taichi,” she replied.

Even with the sizzle on his cheeks, he couldn’t have been happier. 

They stood face to face, suddenly laughing at each other. He knew that she had been nervous to say it, too, but he found relief knowing that saying it aloud wasn’t as hard as either of them thought, after all. 

.

.

.

.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Bonus:

Taiora brought their Digimon to a burger place and Taichi ordered the avocado burger that Mimi had told him about earlier. Mimi found out later and got upset that they went without her.

#taioraweek2020 #taioraweek #taiora #digimon fanfiction #sora takenouchi #tai kamiya #takenouchi sora #yagami taichi #chosen children #digidestined #noctiswriting #prompt fics #noct writes taiora week 2020 #taiora fanfiction

[afaithy]

Prompt 11 for the haunted house headcanon! ;)

Sorry this turned out this long! The whole intention was to make it funny not scary, it turned out kind of silly. 

Hope you like it :)

As usual. This is part of my Universe so...keep that in mind dear readers:

SEND MORE PROMPTS! HERE

If I die I am going to haunt your ass

“Maybe all the people who say ghosts don't exist are just afraid to admit that they do.”

― Michael Ende

“We gotta do it! “Mimi shouted excitedly “I mean look at how things are...Sora, Taichi and Yamato are in their first year of college...when exactly are we going to have a chance to do it?” “Eh..but Mimi-san…” Jou said disapprovingly “You and Koushiro-san are in third year. You two should be using summer vacations to prepare for entry exams and…”

“Yayaya…” Mimi said covering her ears “I’ll be studying design abroad, so that’s already taken care of. Koushiro here has pretty much his way into Computer Science on Todai ensured. So now problems, there. Come on Jou.-..this could be our last summer together, you know?”

“Last summer sounds a little ...dramatic don’t you think?” Koushiro said, chuckling “It’s not like we are cutting tights with each other.”

“No, but think about it. Jou  is in med school. If it was already hard to get him to join us when he was just a regular high schooler, how hard do you think it’ll get now? Taichi, Yamato and Sora are in college as well, soon they will be so busy that they won’t be able to join either; Then I might be leaving to study abroad and Koushiro, you will be busy with school and that cyber security company you are working on with Tachibana. The group is scattering...and soon all that will be left will be those that  pair of love birds over there!” Mimi screeched , pointing at Takeru and Hikari.

“Love birds?” they both replied puzzled. Hikari and Takeru looked at each, and Mimi gave them a mischievous smirk.

“Let her be, Jou.” Taichi laughed “Besides. The test of courage huh...we never did that, and yet it is something so...highschool like. Sounds like a fun thing to do, Right, Yamato?”

“What? Eh...y-y-yes. Of course.”

“I can’t say that Mimi isn’t wrong. We might not get another chance in a while, right?” Sora reasoned “I’m sure we can make an exception for old time’s sake.”

“Yes, yes!” Mimi said, jumping excited “Come on Jou. You can bring Marina-chan along, too.”

“Oh, boy…” Jou said “Ok, I’m going. Someone needs to make sure you kids stay out of problems.”

“Good ol’ Jou.” Taichi laughed. 

“But where exactly are we going?” Hikari asked, tilting her head “IT’s not like there are too many haunted places around here.”

“Well...there’s that old shack by the hill…” Takeru said. “Didn’t our class go there last time?”

“Eh?” Hikari said “I wouldn’t know.I didn’t go ...it was you  who went with those girls.”

“Ah…” Takeru said “True. I did…”

“ You’re such a ladies man, Takeru…” Yamato chuckled.

“It wasn’t like I wanted to go. Rest assured, bro. THere were other places I would have preferred to be.”  Takeru chuckled.

“No, everyone knows that place is a farce.” Mimi said, waving her hand in front of his face “No, no. Don’t worry.I have that solved. Right , Koushiro?”

“Uh. I think I have the right place we can go.” Koushiro nodded.

“Ah...why am I not surprised about you two ganging up together?” Taichi smirked “I’m sure going to miss that. You are sure going to miss it, too, eh Koushiro?”

“Yeah. I admit it will be kind of strange.”

“Don’t think that you can get rid of me so easily…”

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t even dream of that.” Koushiro chuckled “The place is chosen, so all that is left is going.”

“Hooray!” Mimi said happily “We go in three days then. You guys get psychologically prepared. Ok?”

Three days later, the group was sitting on a bus on their way to the outskirts of Tokyo. The weather was burning hot and the cicadas chanted in full volum, as the bus drove through a landscape that was becoming more and more rural. 

“So...this is our itinerary.”  Mimi chanted “ We’ll be camping on the near area so...first things, first. Preparing the campsite, then…”

“Wait…” Yamato groaned “Camping? You’re making us camp in a haunted forest?”

“The mansion is supposed to be haunted, not the forest…” Mimi said “It’ll be alright, right Koushiro?”

“According to my research, the hauntings are only restricted to the mansion area.”Koushiro nodded “ I don't think there will be any problem with us staying on in the forest. We can still ask around the inn we are staying to be sure.”

“That won’t be necessary. I am sure we can stay there without issues” Mimi said, winking “Or do you have anything to say, Yamato?”

“Me...w-w-why-would I...I have s-something to say?” he replied “I-i’t not like I am s-scared.”

Nobody believed it. Everyone knew that Yamato couldn’t stand any kind of horror related subject. 

“He’s scared to death…” Takeru whispered into Hikari’s ear.

“Poor,  Yamato-san. Even now he’s still trying to act tough huh?”

“His pride will haunt him, but this is actually going to be fun.”

“That’s mean,Takeru-kun, you shouldn’t tease your brother…”Hikari chuckled.

“Just a little bit, okay?” Takeru said, winking at her before turning to look at Koushiro. “Where exactly are we going again, Koushiro-san?”

“Ah…” Koushiro replied, turning his tablet to let them see “It’s an old abandoned manor. According to the legend, the family was practitioners of some sort of ritualistic religion and would often make human sacrifices.”

“Ah!” Takeru said “ I think I know. I remember researching it for my story. Isn’t that the shrine where the head of the family went crazy and slaughtered everyone in the middle of the night? Then he took each body and threw them into the pit, one by one before hanging himself in the central hall..”

“Why do you even search for those things?”Yamato mumbled to himself; sinking into his seat. 

“Ah...yes, I believe so.” Koushiro replied, browsing in his tablet “Yes, you’re correct, Takeru-san.”

“But...I think I read that some people have seen child spirits roaming the forest.” Takeru said “ people who have gone lost in the woods say they hear children’s voices and the sound of leaves shuffling as if someone was running around.”

“C-children?” Yamato mumbled.

“Oh...really? That’s creepy. Children are creepy even when they’re alive.” Taichi said.

“Taichi!”

“What? It’s true…”

“Ohhh, I think I’ve heard that story before.” Marina said, peeking over her seat.” They said the children spirits try to lure you into the shrine, right?”

“Right, right…” Takeru nodded with a malicious grin “It is said that they call out at people, feigning to be in trouble so that people will try to find them, and then before anyone even realizes…”

Takeru reached under the chair and pulled Yamato’s leg. Yamato, who had been covering his face and shrinking in his seat trying to tune out the conversation, gave a jump and a very uncharacteristic screech that caused several of the other passengers to look back at them. 

“WHat the hell, Takeru?!” Yamato said, reddening as the group laughed. 

“...the ghosts grab you and pull all the way into the pit…” Takeru said, innocently “Just like that…”

“Yes, yes...That’s what I’ve heard too!” Marina said excitedly “ this place came out in a magazine recently I think. It’s one of the most haunted places in Tokyo.”

“Ehhh?” Jou said “From all the places to choose, Mimi-san.” “Hey, we wanted to feel the real thing, no? Come on it will be fine.”

“Is it really that famous?” Sora asked.

“Uh, I supposed. I think it became quite popular after the local government tried to get it exorcised or something.” Takeru shrugged.

“Yes! It seems it went pretty bad and the priest who came went missing.” 

“Oh god…”

“Eh? Missing?” Taichi said “No way!”

“THat’s only gossip.” Hikari chuckled “ An exorcism was indeed performed. It was successful and the place should be safe now.”

“Thanks god…” Yamato sighed.

“I think…”

The last words Hikari muttered only made Yamato let out a groan. After three hours of road trip, they finally reached their destination. The group checked into the inn, dropped their things and, taking only the necessary things for camping, the group made their way to their destination. 

Ignoring the fact that they were stepping into a rumored cursed forest to camp in the gardens of a famous haunted location, the whole thing would have seemed to be like any regular trip. The sun shone brightly, the sky was blue and the cicadas were chanting noisily around them. Perhaps it was the light or the distraction by the tasks that camping required , but Yamato seemed to have calmed down considerably. His calmness had been short lived, as the sun began to set soon after they had set camp.

“Alright everyone! Gather here!” Mimi chanted, calling out for everyone's attention “It’s time to make the teams for the kimodameshi!”

“Eh?”  Taichi said “Isn’t that too troublesome? We can just make the team ourselves.”

“No, no!” Mimi replied “Absolutely not!” IF we let that happen everyone will just go for Hikari-chan.”

“Eh? Me…?” Hikari said shocked,

“Of course...so I tada…” Mimi said, showing them a bunch of threads she had in her hand “Everyone pick and end. Your partner will be the one holding the other side…”

“But Mimi...we are an odd number…”

“I know that! The threads have colored tags in the middle. THe one that gets the single thread will make a trio with the pair with the same color. Ain’t I a genius?”

“Mimi-san, wouldn’t it be easier if I just used my tablet to randomize the teams?”

“Koushiro-kun...sometimes you gotta do things the old way.Now pick!”

Everyone took one of the ends and Mimi counted to three before releasing them and allowing everyone to see the teams. 

“Ah! Jou, we are together! Lucky” Marina chirped happily.

“Ah...Mimi-san, we are together.” Koushiro said, blinking in surprise.

“Eh...we are the trio, huh?” Taich said, punching Yamato’s shoulder “Don’t worry, buddy. Sora and I will protect you…”

“Sounds more like I’ll be the one protecting you two, instead…”Sora said, rolling her eyes. 

“Don’t be like that…” Taichi laughed.

“Shouldn’t be surprised that you two ended up together, huh? Even fate is on your side,”

Tekeru and Hikari were still holding their end of the thread and looking dumbfounded. 

“Lucky dog…” Yamato groaned “He’ll be the only one leaving this place alive.”

“Yamato!”

“Like you didn’t think of it, too!” Yamato said “hey Takeru. Be a good brother and switch with me…”

“Sorry, bro. I think fate thinks we make a good team…” Takeru smiled “Right, Hikari-chan?”

The girl smiled. 

“Ah…”

“Alright instructions!” Mimi said “Everyone has their flashlights, remember to keep them on. We’ll go in with 15 min of difference between each team. Starting with Koushiro and I…” Mimi winked “Then Marina and Jou-senpai, Sora’s team and finally the love birds.”

“Why do you keep calling them that?” Taichi said, rolling his eyes.

“Here is a layout of the place. The red spot is our goal. Once you get there, you take a photo and you’re done with the challenge.”

“A photo?” Sora asked.

“Yeah, if you get a ghost to photobomb, you get extra points.” 

“God, no!” Yamato said, covering his eyes. 

“You can stay outside i f you’re too scared, Yamato…” Taichi smirked “Alone…”

“Well… I….”

“Uh? Did you guys hear that ?” Hikari said suddenly. 

“Eh? What?” Mimi asked “What? What?”

“Uh...thought I heard a whisper…” Hikari replied very seriously, and the color drained completely from Yamato’s face. Takeru chuckled, he wasn’t sure if Hikari was being serious or if she had joined the “Let’s tease Yamato” train as well. 

“Yeah, you can stay out here, aniki…” Takeru said, poking his brother’s neck with a branch and making him jump “alone...in the dark...surrounded by ghostly children and who knows what else...boooo.”

“Takeru-kun...don’t be mean.” HIkari scolded him.

“Forget it, I’m coming…”

“You’re a scared kid, Yamato.”

“Take a paper bag…” Jou sai, giving one to each of his friends.

“In case I need to throw up?” Taichi asked,

“More like , if you start hyperventilating, but maybe you should take some extra. Just in case. Yamato tends to throw up when he’s scared.”

“I don’t!”

“Mmmm…” Hikari said, “Just in case, too. Take one of these…”

“What’s these?”

“Ofuda(**Paper charms). You know, for protection.”  

“Ah! Well thought, sis.”

“Thank you, Hikari-chan …” Marina said with a smile. 

“Oh, and if you hear someone calling. Don’t listen...keep moving forward. If you don’t pay them attention, they don’t know you saw them.”

“Advice from the expert. Taken.”

“Do you see anything?” Taichi asked casually.

“Mmm, not really. I don’t think there are evil spirits.”

“Thank god. I’m trusting you word…” Yamato said “The building is probably more dangerous, yes…”

“Ok...well, I think we are ready, right?”

“Yeah. We can use the digivice to see each other’s location and to communicate in case of emergency.” Koushiro said “Remember...stick to the map. It would be dangerous if any of us got lost.”

“What do we do if a ghost drags us away?” Taichi asked.

“Eh...well….”

“Taichi...stop scaring, Yamato.”

“I am not scared. Who’s scared?”

“Just saying…”

“That’s not going to happen.” Hikari assured them “Hold each other hands. Don’t let go and you should be fine.”

WIth that said, the test began.

Mimi and Koushiro

The house was, by far, creepier than Mimi had originally thought. The photos online didn’t give it enough credit. It was even scarier than the sceneries in horror movies. The first thing that both tees noticed when they stepped into the old dilapidated house was that it was like stepping into a completely different place. 

Outside, the sound of crickets and cicadas filled the forest. The wind blowing through the trees and one or two night birds, but inside the house it felt ominously cold and the silence was unsettling. 

Mimi wasn’t scared. SHe had already made a quick run through the building with Hikari earlier and the girl had told her that the place was ok, but still, she had to admit that the house was creepy. 

“Uh…ok. This way…” Koushiro said.

 She might not be scared, but this was the perfect time to hook Koushiro. Who could resist the sweet innocence of a scared damsel, after all.

“Wait!” she said, hugging his arm “Hikari-chan said that we should stay close, right? Just in case.”

“I thought you said you weren’t scared…”

“I thought I wasn’t…” Mimi replied “but I must admit, this place is creepy. It’s making me hesitate…”

“Oh….” Koushiro said “That’s reasonable. We can step back…”

“What? No!” Mimi replied “What I mean...is that I would feel safer like this.”

Mimi hugged Koushiro's arm tighter. The action made Koushiro stagger in surprise. 

“Ah..ah! Of course…” Koushiro replied. The dim light of the flashlight didn’t show his blush.” Sure...you can hold me, if that makes you feel better.”

Victory, Mimi thought. The pair began their way through the dark and eerie corridors, Something was hanging from the roof. Mimi remembered seeing ropes and fabric hanging earlier, but in the darkness, it was difficult to distinguish it.

“Do you think Jou and Marina have entered already?” Mimi asked casually,

“Uh? Probably…” Koushiro said, looking around the corridor. The place seemed to transform when the night fell “Knowing Jou, they’re probably walking through very slowly. I can understand, though...this planks could be dangerously rotten.”

“Oh, yeah...it wouldn’t be nice to fall into one of these...AHHHHH.”

Mimi gave a jump and hugged Koushiro tightly. This time it hadn’t been faked. 

“M-Mimi-san?”

“Something touched me…” Mimi said horrified, “Something definitely touched me….”

“It was probably a piece of wood or one of those ropes…”

“No...no...I felt fingers. Cold fingers….”Mimi said looking around “small, cold fingers…”

“Mimi-san...please calm down. It’s probably a self suggestion.” 

"I don't…."  

Hehehehehehehe

"What was that? You heard it, didn't you?" 

Koushiro had stiffened . He had and he couldn't believe his ears. It has to be a trick of their mind. Koushiro's logic mind began to work on any possible explanation when they heard a loud thud. Like if something had fallen down and then, there was a soft rustling. 

A shudder ran down their spines and the pair unconsciously began to walk faster. 

"Oh god!" Mimi screeched. 

They had stopped in their tracks as they had come face to face with two figures, but when they shone their lights at it, they realized that it was nothing but a very old and dirty mirror, and the two phantom images were only their reflection. 

"A mirror? Who the hell places a mirror in the middle of the corridor?" Mimi said gasping for air. That had given her a fright. 

"Uh… Maybe it is a religious thing? A hikari or Takeru would know." 

"Mental note to ask them later." Mimi muttered. 

She'd been here earlier  but she didn't remember that mirror. She wouldn't have missed it. The thing was the size of a wall. 

"Koushiro… Are we on the right way?" 

"Yeah," he answered, flashing his map c right on track to the main hall, why?"

This was Koushiro. She could trust his sense of direction, but why did she feel like everything looked different from when she had come during the day?

They turned around a corner and stopped in the tracks. Mimi swallowed hard and felt a knot form in her gut. This was definitely different. The room was filled with several old kimonos hung on stands, giving an eerie sensation of people standing around them. 

"This wasn't here before…" Mimi muttered" Koushiro-kun… Are you sure we are in the right place?"

Mimi was holding his arm so hard, that she was beginning to sink her nails through the fabric of his shirt. She wasn't feigning anymore, she was really scared and by her friend's expression she could tell she wasn't alone. 

Koushiro had gone pale. He had to admit that  he was beginning to feel scared as well, but seeing how Mimi was clearly upset, he didn't dare to say it out loud. He had to stay firm for her sake, but the task was becoming harder as the sound of tiny feet seemed to have grown louder around them. 

"Y-yeah. This should be it. I mean...it is the kimono room...so I guess it shouldn’t be strange that there are kimonos here….we are in the right place.”

“This can’t be right!” Mimi shrieked” Those weren’t here before!”

 “It's ok. " Koushiro said, trying to sound soothing, "  It’s ok. You probably missed them, that’s all…”

“How could I miss this?”

“Calm down.  Remember Hikari's words. Don't pay attention and let’s keep going.”

Mimi swallowed and nodded. The temperature had gotten colder . The sound of rustling was louder and as they circled between the kimono, Mimi had the uncomfortable impression that someone was watching them.

They were starting to think that perhaps choosing this place was a bad idea. 

"I wonder how Marina-chan and Jou-senpai are doing, hehe…" Mimi mumbled. She felt less nervous when she spoke. 

"Yeah, I'm sure they're fine." Koushiro replied as calmly as he could. He could swear he had seen something move ahead "They should be behind  us and not too far…. '

Almost as if summoned, a distant echo of screams that they easily recognized as the eldest in the group and his girlfriend, cut through the silent stillness of the ruins. The screams were terrified and Mimi automatically jumped into Koushiro's arms. 

"W-what?" Mimi said in horror. 

"Uh, Jou-san….” Koushiro said, “Right. He’s easily  startled. They probably got scared with the mirror at the end of the hallway, too.”

“Oh right...t-that must be it...hehe. How far are we from the great hall?”

“J-just a couple rooms more…” Koushiro replied. Now he was sure he had seen a shadow run past them “T-this way…”

Niii-san, Oneesan… will you play with us?

“K-k-koushiro?”

“Y-yes…”

“C-can we h-hurry up?”

“Of...of course.”

Neesan, Niisan...why do you ignore us?”

That was too much. Forgetting about everything, Koushiro grabbed Mimi’s hand and sprinted away without looking back. Muffled voices sounded around them, but they ignored it and kept running and didn’t stop  until they had reached the main hall.

     Marina and Jou

“So we must wait 15 minutes before going in right?” Jou said looking at his watch. 

“Yup, that’s how it works.” Takeru replied “ The point is that the team aren’t to close to each other as they go through the test.”

“You sound familiar with this, Takeru-kun.” Marina smiled. 

“I’ve gone through a couple of them. “Takeru shrugged “never to a real haunted location though.”

“Takeru-kin is way to popular with the girls…” Hikari said tilting her head” they are always arguing to see who will get to go with him….”

“Well, I can’t blame them. A test of courage is certainly a good opportunity to hug or try to hold hands with the boy you like, right?” Marina said, winking “Isn’t that pretty much the main objective of it?”

“I thought the goal was to prove your courage.” Taichi said, dumbfounded.

“Well, that, too, but I think most of the girls just go in for that priceless chance.”

“Ah…” Hikari said “I see...so how many girls have you hugged, Takeru-kun?”

“Do you really want to know?” Takeru smiled wolfishly.

“I think it should be about time…” Sora said “It’s been 15 minutes. Jou-senpai, Marina-chan….”

“Alright!” Marina said cheerfully, hugging her boyfriend’s arm “you ready, Jou?”

“You’re awfully excited about this….” Jou said with a frown.

“I am excited! Are you not?”

“No...I still think this is reckless…”

“Oh, come Jou. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“You are brave, Marina-chan.” Sora laughed “ unlike somebody I know…”

Sora nudge her head at Yamato’s direction. He was crouched by her side , with his head between his arms. 

“Please be careful.” Hikari whispered “I know you like this whole spirit thing, but don’t let it carry you away.”

“DOn’t worry! If anything happens, I already memorized the Kuji!”

“Hehe...I don’t know if using the kuji, recklessly will help in a bad situation, though.”

“Kuji?” Sora asked.

“The nine hands seals…” Takeru replied “It is often used to ward off evil spirits.”

“You’re getting awfully good with shinto lore. Hikari’s been teaching you, huh?”

“A little” Takeru shrugged  “It’s for creative purposes.”

“Either way. I promise not to use the kuji mindlessly.” Marina smiled “Shall we, Jou?”

“Yeah, let’s get done with this.”

Jou and Marina walked through the door and just like Mimi and Koushiro earlier, they disappeared into the house. A shudder ran down Jou and Marina’s back as a gust of icy wind blew past them. “Oh boy, this is worse than I imagined it.” Jou sighed.

“Yeah, it is even scarier in real life.”

“Ok...let's go.” Jou sighed “ Be careful, Marina. These floors could be rotten for all we know.”

“Yes, yes….” Marina siad cheerfully “Ok...according to the map, we should go...that way.”

Jou used his flash light to point at the direction that his girlfriend was indicating him. A large wooden door laid closed in front of the Jou groaned. 

“Oh, great...doors. WHy couldn’t they trace a straight , no way to get lost, route?” Jou complained “These old japanese houses are like mazes, you know that?”

“Yes,yes...but we will be ok. If we get lost, all we gotta do is use our phones.”

“Knowing our luck...we won’t have a signal.”

“It will be fine. At least we are not alone and worse case scenario, we just need to wait til morning to get out.”

“This is a bad idea…”

 Hehehe

“Huh? DId you hear that?” Marina said, pulling Jou’s hand. 

“WHat?” 

Kekekekek

“That…” Marina said loudly “I heard kids.” 

“You’re auto suggesting, Marina. I didn’t hear anything…”

“I swear, Jou…”

“It was probably the… AHHHHHH!”

“What? What?”

Jou looked at his reflection on the old dirty mirror. 

“Who is so crazy to put a mirror here?” Jou said annoyed.

“Ahhhh...creepy.” Marina said, pushing up her glasses.

“Let’s get done with this. I am sure someone is bound to get hurt today.” 

 “Don’t be so pessimistic.”

“I am not. I call being realistic…” Jou said” just look at this place. If someone panics and runs away...they might stumble with something or fall into a hole…”

“And that’s why we are keeping our cool!”

“Yeah, I am calm….why wouldn't I?Right?”

Kagome kagome...the bird in  the cage...when . oh wen will it come out?

“Jou...tell me you’re hearing that.”

“I….” Jou said. THe color had drained from his face. Suddenly, his flashlight began to flicker until it finally turned off leaving them in darkness.

Marina screeched and grabbed Jou’s arm in panic. 

“Damn thing...the batteries were new! Ok, calm down. Good thing I brought a second one.Let me get it out…”

Hehehehehe...hehehe….

“Jou...you must have heard that right?”

“Keep calm, keep calm….Ah here it is!””

Jou switched his new flash light on, but to both’s horror. They found themselves face to face with a white, masked face.

Hehehe….I found ...you!

Jou and Marina let out a terrified screech the pierced through the night. The doctor grabbed his girlfriend’s hand and ran off in a burst of fear, not looking back even once. 

Sora, Taichi and Yamato

“Are you guys going to be ok out here alone?” Taichi asked, looking at the two youngest of the group. 

“Are you sure you three will be okay in there alone?” Takeru asked instead, with an amused look.

“Touché. YEah...I guess you guys are probably the least scared here, huh?” Sora chuckled.

“I’m not scared.” Taichi said “I don’t have the crest of courage for nothing.”

“Courage doesn’t mean fearless.”

“Are you sure, Yamato-san will be alright?” Hikari asked. 

“Don’t worry about him. “Takeru smiled “ He’s doing his “Courage “ mantra. He doesit all the time before concerts and...finals.”

“Yamato...you okay? It’s our turn now…” Sora said softly.

“Ok? Yeah...I’m ok…Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Yamato blurted “It’s just and old house. There are no ghosts there, just mold and maybe rats, right?”

“Right, buddy and maybe a few corpses as well.” Taichi smirked.

“Taichi!” Sora said, glaring at the boy.

“Oh, god…”

Hikari crouched by his side and put her hands on his shoulders.

“It is alright. There are no evil spirits in there. I promise you that.” she said in a soft soothing voice, that seemed to calm him a little. 

Yamato took a deep breath and stood up. 

“Fight hard, aniki!” Takeru grinned patting his brother´s back.

“Shut up…”

Taichi, Sora, and Yamato cautiously entered the house. Taichi was holding his head and Yamato reluctantly followed, looking around nervously.

“Woah...creepy. It does look like a horror movie setting, huh?” Taichi said, running his flashlight all over the place.” “It also looks like it is falling in pieces.” Sora added” Don't do anything stupid, Taichi.”

“What are you talking about?” Taichi said. 

The piece of wood that Taichi had been touching fell apart and one of the pieces fell to the ground with a strong thud that made Yamato jump.

“I’m talking about something like that…” Sora said, rolling her eyes” Stop messing around and let’s move…”

“Eheh...sorry.”Taichi chuckled “This way…”

Yamato was taking long deep breaths behind them.

“Yamato, if you are scared you can take my hand.” Sora offered.

“Or mine…” Taichi smirked “Like a kid…”

“Shut up, Taichi. Can we get done with this?” Yamato said, rubbing his face.

“Ehehe…” Taichi laughed “Right. Follow me...don’t worry Yama-chan, Sora-nesan and Taichi-nisan will keep you safe.” “Taichi...I swear that if you don’t shut up, I’m gonna punch you.”

“Not cute….” Taichi said putting, the flashlight under his chin and making a “ghost face”  “Not cute at all….”

 Niiisan….niiisan…..

“Huh?” Taichi said, looking around “Hey guys...did you hear that?”

“It’s not fun, Taichi…” Sora sighed.

“No, I...I’m not joking. I seriously  heard something.” Taichi said, looking around with his flashlight.

“Very funny, Taichi.” Yamato said grumpily, looking around with his flashlight as well.“You just want to scare me…”

“No...I swear...I heard something.”

“It’s an old house. Old houses make noises. You probably heard that…” Sora reasoned “come on let’s move. Haunted or not, this place makes me uncomfortable, so let’s hurry up and finish this.”

“RIght...old houses make noises...yeah.”Yamato repeated “ old houses make noises….old house….AHHHH:”

“What? A ghost?” Taichi said, rushing to where YAmato was.”Oh...come on...you got spooked by your own face?”

“WHat did you want me to do? I wasn’t expecting to find a mirror there?” Yamato replied.

“Wow...well. In Yamato’s defense, that mirror does make you look creepy.” Sora said  “This thing is old, it is incredible that it is still intact…”

“Yeah, I don’t really care about old things. Can we get moving?” Yamato said impatiently.

“Why? ARe you scared that someone is gonna try to pull you into the mirror?” Taichi said, tainting him with his hands.

“I warn you, Taichi...if you…”

Yamato paled and both Taichi and Sora looked at him dumbfounded.

“Yamato?”

“Eh….you okay, buddy?”

“Something pulled my sleeve.” “What?” Taichi repeated. 

“I said...SOMETHING pulled my sleeve.”

“It was probably an old nail…” Sora suggested.

“How…? There’s nothing here!

“Chill...Yamato. I’m sure you’re scaring yourself….”

Onisan!

“What the hell?” Taichi said, turning to look behind him “Guys...you must have heard that.”

“Maybe...we should move.” Sora said nervously “now?”

“I second the idea…” Yamato agreed “Move…”

The trio hurried through the old corridors and sliding doors. The sound of their footsteps against the worn floorboards echoed in the burying silence of the manor.

It was then that the group noticed that the steps that they were hearing,  were not theirs alone. There were at least a fourth set of steps that definitely didn't belong to any of the three. They were smooth and light steps, as if they belonged to very small feet.

“Eh...guys….?” Taichi said looking around “Is it just me or something is following us?”

“Stop joking, Taichi.”

“Yeah, shut up…” Yamato groaned.

“I swear guys...I…”

Hehehehe

Eheheheheheeh

“What the…?Oh god, no…” Yamato said, losing all his color “No,no.no…”

“Yamato, put yoursefeñ together.”

“Are hearing that?” Yamato cried “Those are damn ghost voices. They are going to drag us all the way to that pit and we’ll be dead. It’s like one of those damn horror movies…” 

“This could be something that Mimi did to scare us…”SOra reasoned “it’s not a ghost, calm down.”

“I hell...I saw something over there….”Taichi said suddenly “We’re screwed…. We’re gonna get spirited away and Hikari will have to go through the place trying to contact our souls to see if she can brings us back…”

“Taichi, you’re not helping.”

“I knew this was a bad idea. Why did I agree to this?”  Yamato said in panic “Taichi...I swear, if I die I am going to haunt your ass…”

“Yamato….”

“Buddy, you might end up  haunting my ghostly ass!”

Sora looked at the two panicking boys trying to figure out what she was supposed to do, when suddenly...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Taichi and Yamato automatically jumped to hug Sora in terror. The screams had come from somewhere deeper in the manor and after thinking about it, there was certain familiarity in the voices.

“Jou-senpai and Marina-chan!” Sora said in realization. 

“Oh, no! The ghost caught them!” Taichi said   in panic “What do we do? We are next now, aren’t we?”

“Ahhh..! Something touched me again.” Yamato cried.

“OK, STOP IT!” Sora shouted impatiently “Taichi get a hold your reins, your panic is not helping. Yamato, for god’s sake. I promise you, there are no ghosts touching you. Now, we should hurry and try to catch up with Jou-senpai. Something bad could have happened to them and… What, Taichi?”

Taichi’s eyes were wide as plates. He was absently pulling Sora’s blouse as he pointed at Yamato with a trembling hand. Sora turned to the blonde slowly and she opened her mouth to scream, but her voice died away as the light of the flashlights died one, by one.

Takeru and Hikari

Takeru paced in front of the entrance looking at his watch. Meanwhile, Hikari was standing pensively a few steps from him. Her hands were clasped in her lap and her head was slightly tilted.

“Should we give them a couple minutes more?” Takeru asked “I’m sure my brother is delaying them.”

“Sure…” Hikari nodded “knowing my brother, he’s not helping either. He’s probably touching things he shouldn’t  all over the place. I just hope he won’t break anything.”

“Sounds like, Taichi,” Takeru chuckled “So what’s the verdict?”

“Uh?” Hikari replied, confused, 

“Ghosts or no ghosts?” Takeru asked.

“Oh, about that.  Well...there are no evil spirits.”

“Uh...so no ghosts. Too bad I guess. “

“I said no evil spirits. I never said there weren’t spirits.” Hikari chuckled “I just thought that whether they were evil or not, was irrelevant for Yamato-san.”

“Yeah, under this conditions...he’s probably scared of his own shadow.” Takeru laughed “Ok...I think we can go in now.”

Hikari nodded and turned to the door. To her surprise she found Takeru offering her his hand. 

“Uh? You do realize I am not like those girls and I won’t be jumping and hugging you because I am scared, right?”

“Yeah, I know that. I think this is more for my own moral support.”

“Oh, so the hugging went both ways around.”

“You wouldn’t be jealous, would you?” 

“Should I be jealous?”Hikari asked, taking his hand. “Nope. For the record, I would rather go through this with you. Those girls jump at anything.”

“Getting scared in that situation is the normal thing to do.”

“Yeah, I guess I just got used to my little shrine maiden who’s not afraid of anything.” he  chuckled.

“Flirt. Don’t let my brother hear you…” Hikari said, shaking her head.

“Well, Mimi-san isn’t helping. She promised not to say a word, but her teasing is becoming a little too obvious, don’t you think? Lovebirds?”

Hikari shrugged.

“No one seemed to catch the hint. Mimi is like that, I suppose no one takes it too seriously.” Hikari sighed “ what? Are you getting tired of the secrecy? We can say it...but remember that would mean I win the bet.”

“When did you become so greedy, huh?” Takeru snorted.

“Learned from you.” Hikari replied, winking at him “Uh...yeah. Not the most romantic place for a date?”

“Didn’t know you were taking this as a date.”

“Wasn’t that Mimi’s whole idea?” Hikari asked “She did arrange that sorting to leave all couples together, after all.” 

“Including my brother a third wheel?”

“I don’t think she foresaw that outcome. Probably a miscalculation.”

Takeru laughed.

“I pity Sora. She’s probably going crazy with those two.” “Mmmm… My brother can handle the pressure, unless he sees something. Then he’ll just snap and panic.”

“Talking from experience?”

“More or less.”

“My brother is a lost case. They will be lucky if they can get him to walk at all…” Takery laughed “He can’t even see a horror movie without finding an excuse to leave the room every five minutes. I am actually surprised he agreed to this trip.” “Social pressure…” Hikari shrugged “but you telling him those stories didn’t help at all.”

“Sorry?” Takeru smiled apologetically “You know having the chance to tease your older brother is a rare opportunity. “

Hikari shook her head. 

“Poor Yamato-san. Uh?”

“What?”Takeru asked “Saw something interesting?”

“Yeah...kids. Very mischievous kids.” 

“Do you think they will want to play with my brother?”

“For his own sanity, I hope not.”

“So between everyone. Who do you think will go through this smoothly?”

“Mimi-san and Koushiro-san, probably. Mimi is hot headed, but she’s not easily scared and Koushiro is very rational, so I don’t think some random noises and a couples of shadows will make them lose it.”

“Uh...agree.” Takeru replied “So between the other two teams?”

“Hard to tell.” Hikari shrugged “ Jou-senpai gets scared easily, but having my brother and Yamato-san together, puts Sora in a very difficult position.”

“Do you think we’ll end up having to rescue those five?” 

“It’s possible…uh? Weird…” Hikaris said looking around “I think we might have taken the wrong turn.”

“What? Why?”

“This doesn't seem like the right place.”

“Night time makes things look different…”

“I wonder…” 

Suddenly, the two teens stopped dead in their tracks and looked at each other. There was a soft rustling  accompanied by muffled voices that seemed to be in some sort of conversation. 

“Did you...hear something?”Takeru asked

“I did...and those are no ghosts.” Hikari said with a frown. 

“Huh. Hold on a second.”

Takeru grabbed his flashlight and began looking between the boxes and fallen logs until he finally found the source of the muffled voice.

“Patamon? Tailmon? What are you guys doing here?”

“Takeru!” Patamon chirped happily “Look, Tailmon. We found them!”

“Good...but we still have a problem. AGumon and the others are pretty much still missing.” Tailmon sighed. 

“What are you here?”

“We heard you were having an adventure and we wanted to join.” Patamon explained “It was agumon’s idea. We thought we would surprise you.”

“I tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen.” Tailmon said shaking her head “then we arrived here and they all said they would search for their partners and  went running on their own. Now we don’t know where they are.”

“Wait...so the digimon are running free around this place?” Takeru asked, surprised, “Well, that’s an interesting twist.”

“A twist that will certainly complicate things. What are the odds that everyone mistakes the digimon for ghosts?”

“Extremely high.”

“We must find them before they get in trouble.”

 Takeru, Hikari, Patamon and Tailmon spent the rest of the night tracking down their friends and their digimon. As they had guessed, everyone had mistakenly seen the digimon as ghost causing them to run away in panic and passing out. By the time they had managed to gather everyone in the great hall -with the digimon’s help, of course -  the first rays of the morning were already getting in through the holes of the ceiling. 

“Good morning…” Hikari said when their friends began to wake up.

“”Morning…” Taichi yawned “Wait...where are we?”

“Mmm...where do you think?”

“Ahhhh…” Mimi screamed “ don’t tell me we fell asleep?”

“ How can that be?”

“We actually spent the night in a haunted house?” Yamato said with a shudder.

“Congratulations, aniki. You can now cross out “sleeping with ghosts” from your bucket list. “Takeru said with a sheepish smile and Yamato glared at him.

“What happened?” Sora asked.

“Well...it seems our little test of courage got hacked by digimon.” Hikari chuckled “Right guys!”

“Sora!”

“Biyomon! What are you doing here?”

“We wanted to play too!” Agumon said.

“And we thought we would give you a surprise.” Gabumon nodded.

“Wait...then...the ghosts…” Taichi said with wide eyes “The ghosts were actually our digimon?” “Uhm...yes, probably.” Hikari nodded.

“No, that’s impossible!” Jou said “I saw it clearly. THe ghost I was wearing a noh mask! Right, Marina?”

“That’s right! I saw it, too.”

“You mean...this?” Gomamon said, showing him the old mask. “I found it lying around...I thought it looked funny.”

“Gomamon…!”

“Sorry,,,I didn’t mean to scare you.” Gomamon apologised. 

“We tried reaching out to Koushiro-han, but they ran off screaming when we tried.”

“Yes...Mimi you went off running when I pulled your skirt!” Palmon said sadly.

“Well, of course I would! You scared me to death, palmon!”

“The digimon didn’t intend to scare you. It was...a very amusing outcome…” Takeru laughed.

“I fail to see the fun in that!” Yamato said, annoyed.

“Sorry, but if you had seen your face...though…” Taichi laughed.

“Hey, you were scared as hell too.” 

“I saw a friggin blue fire floating over your shoulder. Of course I was going to be scared!” Taichi laughed.“Well, at least I am glad it was the digimon and not the actual ghost. That was intense.”

“We are sorry…” the digimon apologised.

“Forget about it. It was fun...wasn’t it?” Sora smiled. 

“Horay...it was, but wait...none of us took the picture...right?”  Mimi said. 

“We did…” Takeru said “While you were sleeping, of course.”

“You mischievous lovebirds.“ 

“We actually got some additional ...bonus photos.” Hikari smiled innocently “but since everyone is awake, why don’t we take one together before we leave?”

“Sounds like an awesome idea!” Mimi said.

“But...wait…” Jou said out of sudden “When did the digimon learn to sing Kagome, Kagome?”

“What?” Mimi asked.

“Ah, you’re right. We heard someone singing that, didn’t we?” Marina said..

“Oh... The song? Those were kids that helped us find you!” Gomamon said. 

“They said it was a game, and they wanted to play with us, too.”  Tentomon nodded.

“WHAT?”  everyone,  except Takeru and Hikari, said.

The two teenagers looked at each other and laughed. Perhaps the trip hadn’t gone as planned, but one way or another, it had become a great summer memory. 

Ok....very crappy art because this was already pretty long. 

#fanfiction #digimon #digimon 2020 #digimon2020 psi #takari #hikari yagami #takeru takaishi #taichi yagami #sora takenouchi #yamato ishida #tachikawa mimi #koushiro izumi #kuomi #randomness

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Healing Touch

Everyone knew that if you had a soulmate, there was a way to tell. The ways differed all over the world. Some people had timers. Other people had marks. Sometimes soulmates had different methods. Entire movies had been made about people whose marks didn’t align – or so they thought – only to find their soulmate regardless.

Daisuke didn’t have a timer. He didn’t have a mark of any kind on him. So far as he could tell, he either didn’t have a soulmate or his method was one of the far less identifiable ones.

He’d tried for years to tell if Hikari shared his dreams. She never had. Two days after they first started to go to the Digital World, she and Miyako started blushing at one another. On their right hands there displayed Crest marks – Love and Purity on Hikari and Light on Miyako. Whenever the two of them were close enough, the marks glowed.

Oh, joy, Daisuke grumbled, while trying to look as if he were happy for them. He really was, all things considered. But when so many of his friends had managed to find their soulmate – even Jun had, and he was getting pretty tired of hearing about all the fun dreams she and Momoe had together – and he hadn’t yet, it was more than a little irritating.

Taichi’s hand rested on his shoulder and he looked up to his senior. “You’re a little jealous, aren’t you?”

Daisuke ducked his head. “No.” He didn’t think he was. He wasn’t jealous of Miyako, not like that. He’d always sort of hoped something would happen that would prove he and Hikari were soulmates. But now that she was clearly bonded to Miyako, he wasn’t upset.

Taichi chuckled. “Good thing you’re not Yamato. You wouldn’t be able to lie to me then.”

Daisuke blinked a little at that. “Huh?”

“We’re Truth-tellers,” Taichi told him, settling down in one of the computer room chairs. The two of them were the only ones left right now. Hikari and Miyako had gone off to have tea together, while Takeru instructed Iori in the fine arts of being a Chosen. Koushiro had gone off somewhere as well, leaving only the two of them.

“Truth-tellers?” He’d heard about that – those who were Truth-tellers couldn’t lie to their soulmates, no matter how hard they tried.

Taichi nodded, leaning back in his chair. “Real pain, too, especially when we were in the Digital World.” He grinned a wicked little grin. “More for him than me, though. He never wanted to talk about anything back then. Best he could do was just tell me he didn’t want to talk and keep his mouth shut. But that still meant I knew something was up with him.”

Daisuke drummed his fingers on the table. “You guys – you and Hikari-chan – you don’t have the same method?”

“Nope. Our parents aren’t even soulmates. They just fell in love with each other.” Taichi shrugged. “You might have to deal with that. Sometimes you never meet them – or you wish that you hadn’t.” His lips thinned a bit. “I have to feel for Takeru.”

Daisuke’s head jerked up. “You do?” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to “feel” for him or not.

Taichi closed his eyes. “I’d rather not say. It’s really more his story. But Takeru’s a KillLove.”

That said more than anything else could have – that the only person who could kill him would be his soulmate. Daisuke shuddered at that. “I don’t want to know.”

“Neither did he.” Taichi shook his head. “Maybe he’ll tell you one day. Anyway, don’t fret about it. Maybe you just haven’t met your person yet. And there aware so many ways. Have you checked to see if you’re a Skin Writer?”

Daisuke made a face. “When I was five. Nothing happened. I’ve checked every way that I could think of and nothing worked.”

Taichi heaved himself up to his feet. “It’ll work out. Probably when you least expect it.”

Daisuke nodded. What he thought was that he didn’t know how many times he’d been told something like that. He was more than tired of waiting.

At least he had that soccer game against Tamachi to think about instead. Now that was something he didn’t have to worry about. Anticipate gleefully going up against Ichijouji Ken? Oh, yes.

There’s Name-Sayers, too, Daisuke thought on his way home. Those were the ones where one didn’t know one’s soulmate until they said their name. He’d not heard so many people say his name – and Ichijouji Ken was one of those. He tried not to think about that too much, though. He needed to be ready to play, not fret about his soulmate, or lack thereof.

Ken didn’t want to leave the Digital World. He always had so much work to do, especially now that these so-called “Chosen” were there to interfere. In the months before they’d shown up, he’d been able to get a great deal of work done, taking over individual areas and crushing all resistance. Once he deigned the towers and could spread his influence without being there himself, then it had gotten even better.

But now that they’d started to take down his spires wherever they could, he had to come along behind them, find the places they weren’t guarding, and do it all over again. Not what he wanted, not at all.

But he still lived part time in the human world and that meant he had to do human things, such as eat and sleep and take part in certain social events, such as soccer games.

He’d researched his opponents, of course. He always did that, be it in the human or Digital Worlds. So he knew all about Motomiya Daisuke, his opposing captain. The other was good at what he did – for what he was. A pitiful human being who couldn’t compare to Ken in strength, speed, reflexes, co-ordination, tactical prowess, or anything else.

What irritated him more than anything was that Motomiya now challenged him on two fronts, without even realizing it. The same fool he’d fought in the Digital World for weeks now. He’d even been close to him, having the brat unconscious at his feet.

I should have kept him then. The only reason he hadn’t was that he knew the other Chosen would be the types to come hunting for their captive ‘leader’ until they found him. That would interfere even more with his plans.

At any rate, the idea of trouncing Motomiya on the soccer field was more than a little pleasing to him. There wasn’t any way that Motomiya would be able to beat him. All he would have to do would be show up and victory would be his.

So he made his preparations. He set several divisions of his army to move into certain areas of the Digital World during the soccer game, when presumably the Chosen would be too distracted to go and defeat them. The Digimon could at least obey simple orders like that.

Ken gave virtually no thought at all to the concepts of soulmates. He remained aware, of course, of all the varied ways one could detect a soulmate, and once he’d determined that he possessed none of those traits – no marks, no counter, no names written on his body, when he wrote on himself it did not appear on anyone else’s, he seldom dreamed, let alone shared it with another being – then he dismissed the thought completely. There were, of course, ways that he would not be able to test until such a thing happened. But he’d heard enough people saying his name at him that he knew none of them were such an impossible person, and he refused to believe anyone would even want to heal him – let alone that he’d ever be careless enough to be injured in the first place.

He had noticed such signs on his enemies, of course. He’d seen the way that Yagami and Ishida always spoke absolute truth to one another. Recently he’d even seen the marks on the two girls. He’d inspected Motomiya during that time he had him unconscious, assuaging his curiosity about the other. Not a mark on the boy, though. If he had a soulmate, the sign wasn’t on him.

Too bad. If it had been the blond, he might well have kept Motomiya anyway, just to have the pleasure of keeping something that one of his enemies would want back and making sure that he never escaped.

But for himself, it meant nothing. He would never have a soulmate. He could never have one. That would require a certain level of caring about another, and Ken did not doubt that the only person he cared about was himself. Who else mattered?

So he prepared himself for the soccer game, setting his plans in motion and departing somewhat later than he’d had planned. Taking part in human world activities meant that he also had to do other things he disliked, such as photo shoots and autograph sessions.

By the time he got to the soccer field, matters had proceeded as he expected. The opposing team had a bit of a lead. Nothing that he couldn’t deal with, of course.

His eyes narrowed when he spied the little creatures with his enemies. What were Digimon doing here? They should all be in the Digital World.

Something to deal with later. For now, he came down towards his team, not surprised in the slightest to find that Motomiya came over to talk.

In fairness, Ken worried that there might be that odd moment of finding one's soulmate when Motomiya spoke his name. While the other had called out “Kaiser” before – and it sounded quite sweet when he said it – he’d never spoken the name of Ichijouji Ken to him. He’d worried that such might change now. But there was nothing at all. Nothing to worry about.

He found something to worry about after the game – after Motomiya made such a ridiculous play to stop him, tearing a wound in his leg. Not very bad; some iodine and a bandage would take care of it.

But afterwards, Motomiya came back over, staring at the blood on his pants leg. “Sorry about that,” Motomiya said, rubbing the back of his head. “Do you mind if I check it out?”

“Go ahead. It’s nothing, really,” Ken said, keeping his flawless smile plastered on. He settled down, stretched his leg out, and pulled the pants leg up. Motomiya bent over it, then reached out and touched a finger to the slightly puffy flesh.

At the touch, warmth spread all over Ken from that point. His eyes widened in surprise as the puffiness faded away and the tear in his flesh healed up as if it had never been there to begin with. He swallowed, staring at Motomiya, who stared back at him, his own eyes as wide and shocked.

“Did you -” Ken shook his head. He couldn’t deny it. The wound had been there. He could remember the pain, but he couldn’t feel the pain now. It had been healed.

Touch-Heal. A very rare way to find a soulmate, but a known one. He considered for a few seconds, then looked at a scrape he’d seen on Motomiya’s own face.

“May I?”

He didn’t think that Motomiya would deny it. He would want to know as much as Ken himself did. True to his expectations, Motomiya nodded. Ken rested his fingers against the scrape, a wash of warmth going through him as he did, and the scrape healed up under his touch.

Daisuke stared at him, shock fading away to be replaced by awe and wonder. He grinned wider and wider. “You’re my soulmate. I’m your soulmate!” His eyes all but glowed in a deep wonder that Ken hadn’t ever seen anyone associate with him before. Even when his parents praised his high grades or people admired his accomplishments, it wasn’t like this at all.

“You’re going to have to meet my parents! They’re not going to believe this! Can I meet yours? We need to go out sometimes. Oh, I need to introduce you to my friends!” Motomiya threw a glance over his shoulder, then back to Ken.

Ken kept that smile on his lips. “We’ll have to do that,” he agreed quietly. “Unfortunately, not now. I have – things I need to do.” He gestured to the coach, who came over with a paper and pen at his instruction, and wrote down his home number. He’d never given this to anyone. “Here. I’ll call you later.”

Motomiya nodded eagerly, writing his own down on a scrap and handing it over. “I can’t wait!”

Ken smiled his very sweetest smile. “Neither can I.” He really couldn't. He wasn’t a Truth-Teller, but the words were honest regardless. He hadn’t yet made plans, but he would, very soon indeed.

Daisuke didn’t quite check to see if he were walking on air, but he wouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest. He’d found his soulmate! He was a Touch-Heal!

And his soulmate was Ichijouji Ken! He squealed inside just at the thought of it. He’d really done it! It happened!

“Mom and Dad are gonna love this!” He laughed, hands wrapped behind his head. “Jun’s gonna go ballistic!” She’d been bragging for over a year about all the dreams she and Momoe shared. Now he’d have something to brag about too.

Taichi patted him on the shoulder. “Well, this wasn’t what I had in mind but I told you not to worry about it.”

Daisuke grinned even more. “I wasn’t worrying.” At least he hadn’t worried all that much. He almost wished the Digimon Kaiser would appear before him now. He thought he’d be able to take him down without breaking a sweat.

He glanced over his shoulder and spied a figure a distance away. Just looking at that figure made his entire body tingle in pleasure, especially on the side of his face where Ken had touched him. He waved one hand, and smiled to see the other wave back.

Today was the best day that he’d had in his entire life.

“You’re kidding!” Jun stared at him. “Your soulmate is who?”

Daisuke grinned proudly. “You heard me. He’s Ichijouji Ken. We’re Touch-Heals.” He brought up one hand to his cheek. “You should have been there!”

“I’m not going to believe it until I see it,” Jun said, snorting a little, but a grin on her lips. “When is he coming over?”

“Don’t know yet. He’s busy a lot.” Daisuke had known that before the soccer game. He couldn’t stop himself from buzzing mentally in joy, however. He wanted so much to hear Ken’s voice again. He had to admit there’d been a hint of familiarity about it, as if he’d heard him somewhere else before. But he couldn’t place where.

He stared at the phone, wishing he could take it to his room. “He said he’d call later, though.”

“Don’t talk all night,” his mom said with a fond smile. “We might need to use it later.”

“I know, I know,” Daisuke said, waving one hand as he went to settle down next to it. Technically he knew he had homework. It didn’t seem to matter right now.

Especially as the phone rang and he grabbed for it at once. “Hello?”

“Hello, Motomiya.”

Daisuke froze at once. He’d heard that voice before. Only a handful of times, but enough to recognize it. “How ” How had the Kaiser gotten his number? Why did he have it? He paled.

Before he could ask anything else, the Kaiser kept talking. “If you want your questions answered, then come to the Digital World. I’m setting a gate onto your computer. Don’t tell anyone. This is going to be between me and you. Come as soon as possible. You may bring your Digimon.”

Even more words choked in Daisuke’s throat, held back by the simple fact of his parents and sister being there. He swallowed.

“I’ll see you there,” was all he said. He heard a confirming noise from the Kaiser, then a click and a dial tone. He stared at the phone, as empty inside as he’d been full of joy only moments earlier.

Jun leaned closer. “Daisuke? You okay? Everything all right?”

Daisuke nodded slowly. He got to his feet. “It’s nothing. I need to get some rest.” He headed to his room. He’d heard that voice before. How could the Kaiser have his number?

He wanted to tell himself that somehow the Kaiser had gotten it from Ken. But the fact that he’d heard that voice, far too often, rang over and over in his mind. But he couldn’t bring himself to believe it. Not now. Not when the truth would be there so soon.

He locked himself in his room. He could hear his parents and Jun talking about what happened, clearly as confused as he was. Or he bet they thought. No one could be as confused as he was right now.

“Daisuke?” Chibimon stared at him as he came over to his computer. He didn’t use it a lot, but it was there. Now he turned it on, wondering vaguely how the Kaiser would put a gate on it. He’d never heard about that being possible.

But when it loaded up, the gate was there. Chibimon hopped onto his shoulder and stared at it. “Whoa. What’s a gate doing there?”

“I don’t know. Chibimon, we’re going to the Digital World. Probably right to the Kaiser’s place.”

Chibimon stared at him, jaw dropping. “What? Why? How? We don’t need to do that!”

“Yes, I do.” Daisuke shook his head. “Come on. The sooner we get this over with, the better.” He tried very hard not to think about what was going on before he got his D-3 out and entered the Digital World.

He shuddered as he realized where they’d appeared – a place that could only be the Digimon Kaiser’s base. A short distance away were several screens floating in the air and a chair set before them. Seated in the chair was – someone. He swallowed.

“Come here.” Oh. That voice. Too close, too familiar, for all that he’d heard it kindly addressed towards him only earlier that day. But he moved forward. He had to get this over with.

When he could see the figure, it was clearly the Kaiser. His eyes were on the screens before them, only lightly visible behind his visor. Daisuke turned to the screen and flinched to see the encounter with Ichijouji Ken there replaying from multiple angles.

“I never would have suspected it would be you,” the Kaiser spoke. “I can’t imagine why it would be you. What do you have that I could ever want?” His eyes flicked to Daisuke. “Except for your surrender.”

“You’re never getting that!” Daisuke snapped at once. “I don’t care what you say!”

“Don’t you?” Kaiser smiled. “You seemed very interested in what I had to say earlier.”

Daisuke’s heart sank. He’d known from the moment he got the call. There wasn't any way that he couldn’t have known. He just didn’t want to know. He wanted to be wrong.

But Kaiser reached up one hand and removed the visor, staring at him with the unmistakable violet eyes of Ichijouji Ken. “You are my soulmate. And vice versa. Ken’s lip curled, his features cold and haughty. “I am going to relocate to this world effective immediately. I expect you to join me. Also effective immediately.”

Daisuke’s jaw worked. He shook his head rapidly. “Not a chance! I’m trying to save the Digital World from you, not whatever you think you’re doing!” He set his hands on his hips. “You’re going to stop this whole conquering thing, effective immediately!”

Ken – or Kaiser – eyed him thoughtfully, then chuckled a very amused chuckle. “That isn’t how it works, Motomiya. As my soulmate, you belong to me. You will listen to me. That means you do as I tell you. I want you here with me.” He raised one finger. “You may consider yourself lucky. If we weren’t soulmates, I would already be planning your ultimate destruction. I can still do that, if you refuse to accept your place is at my side.”

Daisuke heaved himself forward, hands grabbing for Ken, wanting to shake some sense into him. He’d hardly made a move forward when a light blasted down all around him, keeping him restrained. Kaiser smiled a smile that spoke nothing of anything but triumph.

“I believe that indicates your decision. Therefore, until you come to your senses and accept that your destiny is to be mine, I will keep you right here.” Kaiser regarded him. “You and your Digimon – for now. I have some interesting ideas I wish to use regarding him. But we’ll see how that works.”

Daisuke tried to pound on the column of light that kept him imprisoned. It did nothing. Nor did V-mon pounding. He’d watched all along, confused, until this odd imprisonment. “What are you doing? Let us out of here!”

“Oh, I will. In good time. When I have other ways to keep you obedient. I have some interesting ideas already. I’ve been thinking about them since I first saw you. My decision back then was because I knew your ridiculous friends would do anything to get you back. But now that I know you’re mine regardless – whatever they try will fail to work. You are mine forever. As was clearly mean to be.”

He stood up and gestured. “Come along. You can walk in there. It will follow you. But you can only go where I want you to go. If you attempt to enter restricted space, you won’t be allowed.”

Daisuke clenched his fists. He should have known better. He should have guessed the Kaiser had some horrible plan. He just hadn’t expected it to be like this.

“You can’t keep me like this. My parents – my sister – my friends!”

Kaiser smiled a wicked smile. Daisuke’s heart sunk at the sight of it. This did not feel good in the slightest. “As soon as you entered the gate, it deleted itself off your computer. Everyone saw what happened at our game. I will simply arrange matters so everyone believes we've run away together. We would hardly be the only pair of soulmates to do that, would we? As for your friends - they’ll know where you are. And they won’t be able to do anything at all about it.”

He picked up his visor and stared at Daisuke, that smile not having faded for a single moment, before putting it back on. “After all, you’re my soulmate and they all know it.”

The End

Notes: I may continue this world one day. But not right now. Please see my ffnet profile or my tumblr for a statement about my current wips.

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #digimon adventure 02 #daikenweek2020 #motomiya daisuke #ichijouji ken #ken x Daisuke #Daisuke x Ken #au: soulmates

[ahiddenpath]

Epilogue Celebration: Family

I keep running behind with these, there’s so much going on!  HOW ABOUT THAT STEVEN UNIVERSE FINALE, EH?

I keep intending to write a ficlet, but I can never seem to stay on top of it.  I hope you’ll accept some miscellaneous 2028 family headcanons below the cut.

-Taichi is one of the last Chosen to have his first child, age wise.  This is partially because he’s busy representing digimon in human government, and humans to digimon.  It’s a difficult and demanding job, both in terms of the work and the emotional toll as a subset of humans exploit digimon and a large swath of humans fear them.  It often feels like Taichi is standing alone in a huge chasm between the two parties, trying to bring them together with little interest from either side.

So, yeah, he’s not really thinking about kids and family...  Except that he is, and he’s eating his heart out with indecision over it.  I think it takes a ton of courage and time for him to decide to become a father.

Like many of the Chosen, Taichi can’t spend as much time with his child as he would like because of his career.  Still, his son adores him and thinks he’s the best Dad in the world, an attitude helped along by Agumon constantly saying so!

Taichi is a laid back and indulgent dad, except when his Worry kicks in.  His wife has put him in parenting time out when he gets into his head and starts hovering too much.

-Yamato and Sora also waited a while to have kids because of their family backgrounds.  They wanted to really be sure that they were ready first, committed to each other and to their new family.  (I wrote a drabble that gets into it here, if you’re interested).

Because Yamato is an astronaut and Sora is a clothing designer, they rely heavily on their parents and Takeru for help watching their children.  This is difficult for them, because they very much want to be with their kids...  But they also want to achieve their own aspirations.  Luckily, their parents and Takeru all dote on the kids, and sometimes squabble a bit over who gets them next.

Yamato tries to be chill about it, but it’s embarrassingly easy to get him gushing about his kiddos and the wife.  Like, he’s that guy who starts every sentence with, “My daughter/son/wife/brother/Gabumon/nephew...”  Missions are really hard on him for this reason.  He’s known to tear up when talking to his family from space.

Sora is Best Mom, having trained since age 11 by handling the Chosen.  Even when she’s away, the kids can’t get away with anything; her Mom Powers elicit confessions without much effort.  The trick is that the kiddos just can’t lie to their adoring mother who takes such great care of them.

Sora does have to monitor herself closely.  When her emotional state is poor, she sometimes snaps at the kids for normal kid stuff.  Meanwhile, Yamato has to watch out for his tendency to send mixed messages by retreating when his emotions act up.

-I talked about Koushiro as a Dad a lot both here and here.  His Dad strengths are supporting all of his daughter’s interests and engaging with her via activities and teaching opportunities, but he’s not skilled at understanding and meeting her emotional needs and giving social advice.  Happily, I headcanon him marrying a lady who is well-equipped to cover those areas.  He also sometimes just... gets scared of doing the wrong thing and retreats, but again, his parents and his wife quickly learn when to intervene.

-Mimi also has a parent post here.  She’s great at interacting with her kid and having fun with him, and as an adult, she’s learned how to set boundaries.  Still, she has a tendency to spoil her son, so luckily, there’s a wide network of beloved people helping to raise him to balance that out.

-Jyou!  Oh my god, Jyou would be the most amazing dad, fight me (there’s likely no need). 

The thing I most want to say here is that Jyou goes out of his way to expose his son to all kinds of careers and hobbies.  In fact, he asks his friends, including the Chosen, to allow his son to participate in their “take your kids to work” events.  He tells his boy that he can be whatever he wants, and that while he wants his son to find his passion and succeed in it...  If he ever needs a place to fall back on, Jyou will be there.  

He doesn’t want his son to experience the pressure he felt.  Still, he is sure to instill the virtues of hard work and service.

Honestly, I think his only major flaw as a parent is worrying too much about his kids, and also spending too much time at work (he’s a doctor, so that’s inevitable).  Luckily, Gomamon is around to keep things light-hearted, and to remind Jyou that is family needs him and he needs to go home now.

-Takeru is a great dad, and I think having his own family was really...  A dream?  Just a dream come true for him.  After his parents divorced, I think it’s clear that Takeru wanted his family back, the way it used to be.  These days, he has both parents (and they love babysitting), his brother, his sister-in-law, their kids...  And he has his own wife and child.  Things are no longer quiet at home or awkward with his parents.

Honestly, I think Dad Takeru is living his best life and organizing play dates and is just so happy.  He’s amazing with children, and they love him...  But his adult friends know to be wary when their kids and Takeru huddle up.  What the hell kind of mischief is he encouraging?  At least they never have to wait long to find out.

-Hikari is also an A+ Mama.  Her warm, sweet aura soothes kids and inspires good behavior, but don’t think she can be walked on!  A teacher takes no guff and knows how to convince kiddos to behave.

Hikari needs to learn to tend her mental health with love, care, and regularity.  Teaching saps her emotional strength, and she often feels depleted, but forces herself to keep smiling and giving her all.  There are times when everything just reaches critical failure levels, and she melts down.  

So, Hikari...  I’mma need you to love yourself the way you love everyone else.

-Oh my God, Daisuke.  Sometimes, he acts more like a brother or uncle than a father, so his kid gets away with things that he... probably shouldn’t.  I’m hoping he is with someone who disciplines instead of joining in on nonsense!

I can tell you that his son adores him, though.  They live a fun, loud, and noisy life!  Daisuke and his son both wish that Daisuke wasn’t so busy as an entrepreneur, but the good news is that Daisuke’s parents, sister, and Chosen friends (especially the 02 crew) are always willing to babysit.

-Miyako and Ken might have the most... stable????  Presence for their kiddos, since Miyako is a stay-at-home-mom.  I do think that, when her youngest goes into kindergarten, she starts working part time as a researcher for Koushiro’s company, but...  She’s always wanted a big, happy family, and she is always, always there for her kiddos.  I really admire that.

I think the kiddos might favor Ken, just because he’s not at home all the time, and...  Well, who doesn’t love Ken-chan?  I bet Miyako gets a little miffed when the kiddos rejoice when daddy comes home after she cared for them all day...  But she’s probably just as excited to see him!  

I kind of think Ken and Miyako are That Couple.  You know, the one that makes everyone think, blech, get a room, just from the way they look at each other.

Miyako is the kind of mom that can cheerfully yell at kids XD  Like, the standard speaking volume is pretty high in this household.  They’re the kind of sibling group that bickers one moment and cuddles and plays together the next.  She always sees to everyone’s needs, knows how to discipline, but also brings on the fun.  The only issue is that her emotions get carried away sometimes, and she needs to reel herself in before she riles up the kiddos to the point where they’re impossible to calm.

Ken, I think, is like an oasis for his kids.  Calm, soothing, understanding, patient, quiet...  He might not be as good as talking and taking charge as Miyako, but he’s an amazing listener, and he gives the world’s best hugs, certified.

He has his hands full with the bedtime routine, trying to wind everyone down after a loud, fun day with Miyako and each other.

-I believe that leaves Iori!  Ugh, I love him, and I love to think of him as this strong, capable man who dedicates himself to service.  He’s like a pillar to his daughter, who is likely the sweetest and kindest gen 2 baby.  Like so many of the Chosen, Iori’s career is demanding, but his wife, mother, and grandfather step in.  In fact, they might all live together?  And while his daughter loves all of them, Iori is her favorite.  In her eyes, he is just, kind, capable, dedicated, and strong, always helping the digimon and people who need help.

I think the only issue is that Iori doesn’t realize how big of a shadow he’s casting.  His daughter pushes herself to be everything that she sees in him, which is a lot for anyone, let alone a kid.  The good news is that her great-grandfather sees everything, and he is always telling her that she is more than enough.

I LOVE THEM ALL, THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK.

#digimon epilogue celebration #digimonepiloguecelebration #chosen children #digidestined

[digimonadventuretimelines]

[05 - The Birth of the Space-Time Traveler]

“I won’t tell you anything!” Strikedramon shouted “My brother and I won’t talk to any of you humans!”

“Don’t test me, or else…”

“Or else what, punk?”

Stingmon cracked his knuckles, giving a death glare at the Strikedramon duo who gulped quietly.

“Sir, we will t-talk!” the second Strikedramon babbled “We’re part of a gang called Roar of Freedom, and they’re planning to separate humankind from the digimon.”

“Y-Yea, and our leader is a big bad wolf named Lupin--”

“Don’t say that name idiot! Don’t you know he can hear you!?”

“... R-right, the troop might be around.”

“Don’t worry” Ken said with a serious tone “We will do our best to keep you two safe. But please cooperate with us” they he smiled.

“Wow, Ken’s really good at dealing with criminals” Agumon whispered to Taichi.

“Indeed” and he answered with a quiet voice.

“Okay, we will talk about it” the first Strikedramon nodded, “His name is Lupinmon and he has ordered us to invade the human world and get rid of the DigiWorld’s ambassadors.”

“He also has loyalty of two dangerous digimon” the second Strikedramon added “One is his most powerful soldier, and the other is his assassin.”

Ken recorded those on his phone and mind, while Taichi was learning against the wall and watching the interrogation.

“Thank you for cooperating with us” Ken said with a soft tone “As my promise, we will keep you two safe from them. I will call the assistance for you now.”

-------------------------------------------------

The gate opened next to the Motomiya-Inoue’s residence, where Kiyoko, Taisuke and Eiji were taking a break and eating some snacks. 

“You brought us to my house…?” Daichi blinked “Wait, we need to help mr. Yagami--”

“Taichi’s old but not weak” Natsu said “Don’t forget, he was the leader of his group, the same group your parents were part of. And Daisuke also was like, the third in command, Yamato was the second.”

“Uh, guys” Ulforce interrupted them “I think there’s someone at home. It’s not a good idea go there”

“It must be Kiyoko” Daichi mused “I hope she’s okay… Wait I will call her.”

Natsu and Ulforce looked at each other while the kid took his phone from his pocket and dialed up his house’s phone. As he assumed, his little sister answered the call.

“Hello, Kiyoko? Are you and the guys ok? I was going to the theater when heard the news. Wait, you three left before it happened!? Ok, ok… Glad you’re fine. Anyway, I’ve met my friends and I will be a bit late today. Tell mom to not let her worried with me again. Thank you, sis” he hung up the phone and put it back on his pocket.

“So… you lied to her.”

“Not totally” he smirked “After all you two are my friends. Anyway, let’s go. I’m partnered with Ulforce now.”

“Wait, you want to go after your father right now!?” she gasped “No, no. Daichi, listen. Your father does not remember of you or him being human! He was brainwashed to think he’s a digimon!”

“He… he remembered of my name. I’m sure he’s still there. But i meant… Travel back to the time he was captured, before that and warn him!”

“Um… you want to do a minor change on the past?”

“That doesn’t seem a bad idea” Ulforce shrugged “It wouldn’t erase this world right?”

“Hm… I think not” she answered “How about we ask Skuld’s opinion? She seems to know more about space-time.”

“You trust on that woman-like Digital World’s agent, digi-girl!?”

“She seems nice” Natsu shrugged.

“... Let’s ask her, please” Daichi nodded “Take us there again Natsu.”

“OK! I think I figured it out, it’s connected to…” from behind her scarf, she took a pendant on her necklace. It seemed an octagon-shaped crystal, with some pink sand inside “... this little thingy I have here!”

Natsu took the pendant and pointed it from an empty place. In the next seconds, a flash came from the crystal, opening a gate in front of them.

  “Daichi called and said he was inside when the theater got attacked” Kiyoko told Taisuke and Eiji, and they could notice her panic “But he said he’s fine. Do you think… No, the adults are adults and know how to handle things.”

“So you were concerned about my father huh” Taisuke didn’t know how to avoid bitterness but it was too late. Kiyoko frowned at him, and Eiji put a hand on Taisuke’s shoulder.

“I’m sure my dad will be called and he will protect uncle Taichi.”

“Huh, you really think that ol’ man is unable to protect himself!? Nothing to worry about!”

“You admit it. You’re worried about him,” she said with a deadpan face.

“What!? I don’t!?”

“It’s okay” Eiji laughed nervously “I think Kiyoko just misinterpreted your commentaries.”

“... I just want him to go home” Taisuke whispered “and safe.”

-------------------------------------------------

The gate opened in front a mysterious armored angel digimon, it seemed like part of the Angemon species branch, but nothing like anything Daichi had seen before. Its armor was white, and the chest plate had a keyhole on it. The angel was also holding a big key… That made the young kid think of an old game he had seen his best friend talking about once.

“Who’s there?”

“Uh, it’s me. I’m back” Daichi announced, and once everyone was on the mysterious dimension palace, the gate behind them closed.

“You…” the digimon approached from the boy “Ah yes, you. The child from the other day.”

“Excuse me, but I don’t remember of knowing you before…”

“Pardon, I’m Clavis Angemon and I protect this place.”

“Oh…! I’m Daichi, these are Natsu and Ulforce. Do you know where Skuld is, mr. Clavis Angemon?”

“She was waiting for your return, space-time traveler. Please come with me you three” and the angel digimon gracefully led the trio to a part of that emptiness place where was filled with doors, all of them of the same size and design. They had rustic wood, but the doorknob was completely made of gold.

“Mrs. Skuld” Daichi called her once they found the mysterious woman reading a holo-screen “I’m came back. I’ve decided what I want to do.”

“You did?” She moved her hands, and the screen disappeared “Say my child, what’s your decision.”

“I want to use the space-time power to prevent Motomiya Daisuke to be captured.”

There was a serious tone on Daichi’s voice. Very determined, somehow reminding of his father. Skuld smiled, then she responded to his bravery with a nod.

“Very well. You found an objective to be achieved. However, rules are important my young traveler.”

“Rules…? Like, not let anyone know I’m from the future?”

“Yes. And you cannot let any of your parents and their acquaintances to know about your true identity.”

“Fair. I won’t mess with more than warning the Chosen Children about the enemy.”

“But Daichi” Natsu interrupted him “You don’t know what kind of enemy is!”

“Heh, we will see” Ulforce nodded “It can’t be THAT bad!!”

“... Considering Daisuke got BEATEN and CAPTURED” she replied with a very angry tone “Oh yes, it might not be a real deal huh?”

“M-maybe he miscalculated!?”

“You’re saying that Daisuke messed things up and that’s the result of his own mistake!?”

“Stop fighting, please” Daichi interrupted them “My dad isn’t that smart nor that dumb, but he can commit a lot of mistakes in a row.”

“I’m so offended right now!” Natsu crossed her arms.

“Anyway, we can do that right Skuld?” Daichi glanced at the mysterious woman “Warn the Chosen Children that someone is after one of them.”

“I don’t see any problem” she answered “As long you don’t get your true identity be revealed, you’re free to do anything harmless.”

“Ok,” he looked back at the other two digimon “Natsu, Ulforce let’s roll.”

“You’re channeling into your mother right now” Natsu sighed, but nodded.

“Wait, his mother had some kind of catchphrase??” Ulforce blinked.

“She was the cheer of the group” the digi-girl explained “Used to say ‘Digital Gate open! Chosen Children let’s roll!' every single time they went to the Digital World.”

Daichi blushed, “L-let’s stop talking about my mom and let's go save my dad please.”

  -------------------------------------------------

“Mom, I’m home”

Taisuke closed the door after arriving at home, but the lights were off in the living room. He walked in, then something caught his attention: He heard his mother’s voice talking on the phone and hid in the corridor to hear a bit of the conversation.

“I see, you’re investigating those incidents…Should I tell Yamato and Koushiro?”

Seemed it was his father the one on the other side of the line.

“Are you OK though? I heard the premiere event had been attacked. Oh thank goodness you’re fine…! Are you… Coming home? Huh? You will be late again?”

“Tsk, just like the usual” Taisuke muttered.

“I… I understand. Do you need my help? No? Oh okay I will keep an eye on Taisuke then, don’t worry. The mom Sora is still in shape to protect those she loves!”

“Me? Protect me ?!” he thought and clenched his fist “I do not need to be protected! I can do anything by myself! I… I’m strong, stronger than you and mom!”

The rage Taisuke felt had been there for a long time ago. Mostly after Taichi had become an ambassador for the Digital World, working day and night to keep both parties safe. Sora is a Japanese fashion designer, but tries to find time for her only son, Taisuke.

It does not help that the young child despises how busy Taichi had became. Especially now with this new enemy reveal. However, Taisuke does not know about that. He does not know that both parents are linked to the old stories he heard from his aunt Hikari.

And deep down, he wanted to do something big enough to make his father look at him. Something…

“Oh, Taisuke you’re home??” once Sora had hung up the phone, she noticed him there eavesdropping, but pretended he wasn’t listening to her and Taichi at all “Did you eat something?”

“Uh I… I had. I was with Kiyoko and Eiji” he replied “I’m going to sleep. Good night, mom. Night, Piyo” and he went to his room.

“Is he okay?” Piyomon tilted her head.

“... I think he heard me” Sora frowned “He’s missing Taichi because lately...”

Piyomon got a bit concerned about that scene, but wasn’t able to cheer Sora up or give any kind of advice like she had used to in the past.

#daichi arc phase 1 #datl text chapter

[rdmfavcpls]

I Wished Someone Care

Title: I Wished Someone Cared

Rating: T

Category: Digimon

Pairing: Ami x Arata friendship

Summary: After Chapter 6 when Arata finds out that Nishino had fallen to Eater Syndrome and walks away from Ami. Ami goes back to the agency to file her report but tells Kyoko that she’s going back to her mom’s house. Arata comes by later on to find Ami is away from the Agency.

Disclaimer: I Do Not Owe The Rights To Digimon Or Its Franchise.

Writer’s Note: I have the original digi-destined mentioned in here with the ending of the second season. Mentions of Jyou and Koushiro. Does not match with the games events.

~~Story Begins~~

Ami watched sadly as her friend Arata Sanada walked away. She waited for his black rumpled hair and white overcoat with blue stitching that matched the front of his full body undercoat to get out of her eyesight before walking towards Kuremi Agency. The wind blowing her small red side ponytail in front of her blue eyes, her digivice goggles getting some of the hair caught, her yellow backpack was filled with much needed items for her dearly beloved Lillymon and hanging on her black and yellow shirt with circles on the front, her black skirt blowing against her long legs, yellow knee high socks and black shoes completed her outfit.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she kept walking, “I guess I really don’t have anyone who truly cares about me. I know they don’t allow friends to visit if one has EDEN Syndrome, Mom is doing her first book abroad, Takumi is studying in America so I’m happy that they don’t know about my physical state right now.” She talked quietly to herself feeling alone and homesick. “Ryota is too worried about Sakura and Sakura is all crazy about this Jimi Ken singer. Kyoko and Mirel know about what’s really wrong with me, Yuuko might have an idea, but as for Nokia and Arata, they think I’m perfectly fine.”

She looked at Nakano’s building and the feeling of being homesick grew. She heard a dog bark and looked to the side seeing a young man walking his Russell Terrier past the pet store. She smiled and walked inside the building as she thought about returning home for the weekend.

Kyoko Kuremi was a very busty woman who enjoyed showing off her long blonde locks and curvaceous body, but her brown eyes and intelligent mind (except for when it came down to coffee), proved she knew a lot more than most. When she saw her assistant walk in to file her report, she had a feeling that Ami would need time off. Especially since Ami’s mom called asking why Ami hasn’t turned in any of her schoolwork leaving Kyoko to call her school and explain that she was focusing on solving a very dangerous case.

Once Ami turned her report into Kyoko, Kyoko spoke to her, “You have done wonders since becoming my assistant but I guess I forgot you are also a high school student. That is one of the reasons as to why I’m offering you a ride to your residency. This case that Date gave you also took quite a bit out of you. So, I’m giving you the rest of the week off so you can get your school work done and relax. Good thing today’s Monday, right?”

“Really, but what about the cases?” Ami asked.

“I’ll take care of them, so shall we get going? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not giving you an option to refuse. Your digivice now, please. This way your friends can’t try to get you to help them for free,” Kyoko responded holding her hand out.

Ami hesitated but gave her boss her digivice,”Thank you so much Kyoko. I was just going to ask you for the weekend off.”

Kyoko didn’t have the heart to tell Ami that she heard how bad her case of homesickness was.

~~Two Days Later~~

Arata Sanada was trying to figure out if he said or did something wrong to Ami. He’s been trying to get a hold of her to ask about the ‘weird stalker’ guy. Sure, he hasn’t known Ami long but for her to call him that and than that man being arrested - obviously Arata was missing parts of the picture.

Arata was browsing through the book store in Shibuya trying to figure out if he should ask around in EDEN about Ami when he looked out of the store’s window. Right outside was Ami with her hair being out of the small side of the ponytail, the ends of her hair resting against the middle of her shoulder blades, her usual black and yellow outfit was replaced by a baby blue t-shirt and a black skirt with blue stars that was the same length as her usual skirt. Ami was walking past the shop talking to a boy that was wearing a local Shibuya school uniform and blonde hair.

Arata quickly went to the checkout desk, leaving the books he plans on buying there before running out of the shop. Thankful that the workers there know him and that he was a frequent customer.

“I absolutely refuse to buy-” the unknown boy was saying to Ami until -

“Ami!” Arata yelled causing both of them to stop and turn around to face him.

“Arata?” Ami asked tilting her head to the side. Once Arata got closer, she spoke again, “Did something happen to Mari or Nishino?”

“Mari is recovering and Nishino is still a victim of EDEN Syndrome. The question that should be asked is where have you been?” Arata responded sticking his hands in his pockets. “I’ve been trying to get in contact with you for the last two days!”

“Kyoko has my digivice,” Ami responded. “She’s letting me have this week off.”

“Oh, and you didn’t bother to tell anyone that?” Arata huffed. “Here I am worrying about you and you just so happen to be perfectly fine.”

The other male tapped Ami on the shoulder, “I’ll catch up with you later so I won’t be included in this conversation. Still okay for me to come by your mom’s place later tonight?”

Ami nodded, “You know you are always welcome, Ryota, whether it be my mom’s place or my apartment.”

“Thanks, I’ll see you later than,” Ryota said before taking off. Arata turned and watched Ryota run towards a girl with a blank expression and brown pigtails.

“Why doesn’t it surprise me that he’ll happily spend more time with Sakura?” Ami said fondly before shrugging her shoulders. “Kyoko asked me to give her my digivice so I really didn’t have time to notify anyone.”

Arata turned his attention back to her, “Anyway, where have you been?”

“Mom’s place and the library,” the cyber sleuth responded. “I’ve seen you at the library as well. You usually are to focused in the magna section or you are trying to understand medical terms.”

“...why didn’t you say something then?”

“Because I didn’t want to bother you, plus I’ve been busy trying to self-teach myself all the information I’ve missed from school along with helping Ryota get caught up again,” Ami explained. “I honestly didn’t mean to make you worry.”

“Yeah, well, don’t do it again,” Arata said with a kind smile. “How much school work do you still have to finish? I might be able to help you with it if you tell me as to why that one nerd is a ‘weird, stalker guy.’”

“Easy enough,” Ami smiled placing her hands behind her back. “Mom’s place isn’t too far from here. Did you want to get your books first?”

“Uh, yeah,” Arata said looking away briefly. “Give me one minute.” Ami smiled and shook her head as Arata went back inside the shop. “How did she know I have books?”

The guy at the checkout desk was grinning from ear to ear at Arata when he approached, “What?”

“Arata, man, when did you get a girlfriend? Especially one with the beautiful looks that she does?” the check-out guy asked.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Arata defended. “She’s just a good friend of mine I met online.”

“Oh, then do you think that I have a -”

“No,” Arata interrupted. “You do not.”

The checkout guy laughed, “You do have a crush on her. I don’t think I have ever seen you act so protective before.”

“...Shut up,” Arata said paying for his books.

“Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do,” the clerk yelled as Arata left the store.

“Weirdo,” Arata said outside. He looked around for Ami and spotted her across the streets.

Ami was talking to another person who was wearing a kitty maid outfit. Arata walked over and stood next to Ami as the other person kept talking, “Kenji has the hots for both-”

“I’m sorry, Lily,” Ami interrupted as she acknowledge Arata, “but I really must get going. Tell everyone in the occult club I say hi please.”

“Occult club?” Arata asked confused.

Lilly’s eyes seemed to have a glint in them as she noticed how close Arata was standing to Ami and she opened her mouth to make a statement when her alarm started to go off, “Shoot, my break’s over. I’ll see you later.”

Lilly went back inside a nearby building which caused Ami to let out a sigh, “I just wanted to know how everyone is doing. Not the latest gossip.”

“You happen to be a member of an occult club as well?” Arata asked with a raised eyebrow. “No wonder it’s never boring when you are around.”

“I’m not a member,” Ami said. “I’ve just had to solve one and a half cases for them.”

“I thought you was a cyber sleuth?”

“Yeah, they thought Kyoko’s business dealt with the occult and not cyber crimes,” Ami responded. “Shall we get going?”

“How dare that police woman try to keep me away from my true love!” a voice yelled causing Ami to sigh.

“Here’s the guy who you wanted to know about, “Ami said as she started to walk away from the shops and in the direction of the residential area.

“I have now realize that the florist girl was just a decoy, a test of my love,” the voice continued to shout. “I have passed that test. My true love is that cyber sleuth who was asking about the disappearance.”

The color in Ami’s face washed away as Arata asked, “True love?”

“Hell no,” she responded grabbing Arata’s wrist, “I’ve dealt with him once. Not dealing with him a second time.” She started to run making Arata stumble before he started to run with her.

Once they got to the residential area, Ami finally slowed down to a walk, letting go of his wrist. “Well,” Arata spoke first. “I can understand as to why he’s a ‘weird, stalker guy’ now.”

“Please, Nishino was his first target and wanted her personal information, her address, EDEN account information, it was bad,” Ami said shaking her head. “I talked to Nishino who said that he was stalking her. I don’t know why but something snapped and I confronted him. He was the one who told me about the Comic Mania forum.” Ami spun around as she looked at Arata, a bright smile on her face. “Or the Commani forum for short.”

“Shut up,” Arata said. “Just don’t tell anyone, okay?”

Ami laughed as she turned back around, “You aren’t the only one who reads manga you know. Remember that I work in Nakano and have become good friends with the bookstore clerk there.”

She turned the corner and proceeded to go up the stairs that led to a two story house that had fruit and sakura trees in the front. “Hey! Hey! Where do you think you are going?” Arata asked as he stayed on the main sidewalk. “Do you know whose house that is?”

“Yeah, it’s my mom’s place,” Ami responded. Arata just stared at her like she was crazy.

“I highly doubt your mom is Yukino Kido,” Arata stated crossing his arms.

“Why is that hard to believe? The fact that my last name is Aiba?”

“You used your last name as your username in Digi-line?”

“That is not the point!” Ami exclaimed placing her hands on her hips. “Why do you not believe that Yukino is my mother? Because I don’t look like her?”

“Calm down,” Arata said placing his hands in the air. “It’s mostly just because you don’t act like someone whose mother is considered a celebrity throughout the world. Seriously? You used your last name as your handler online? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

Arata walked up the stairs and continued following her up the stairs. “I honestly didn’t think I would have time to be online as much as I was, let alone in EDEN, so I just created an account because I had to for school. I didn’t realize I was actually going to be using it.”

Arata watched as she unlocked the front door and a mass of brown and black fur rushed out of the door jumping at Ami’s legs. Ami laughed and bent down to pick up the moving mass of fur which was a little Yorkshire Terrier. “Yes, Jyou, I’m home. I missed you too. Now I want you to meet my friend, Arata. Be nice to him and be nice to Ryota who is coming over later, okay?”

Jyou stuck out his tiny paw towards Arata waiting for him to shake it. Arata chuckled under his breath as he shook the paw, “You have a really good trained dog.”

“He’s never done that on the first meeting before,” Ami responded confusion evident in her eyes and voice. “It took him two months to get used to Ryota and he still hasn’t shook with him.”

“I must be an ‘irregular’ than,” Arata responded shaking his head.

~~In A Parallel World Somewhere~~

An old man with grey hair, oval framed glasses covered his black eyes as he watched from his window where Ami and Arata was talking outside. Ami was holding onto a Gomamon in her arms while Arata’s Tentomon was in the tree above them taking a nap in the warm sunlight.

“Yes, I do approve of this Arata Sanada boy,” the old man said towards another Gomamon.

Gomamon stared at him with wide eyes, “He has had trouble with the law and you approve of him? Jyou, are you feeling okay?”

Jyou laughed and patted his digimon partner’s head, “I’m feeling fine. I haven’t seen her smile like that since Yukino got a better journalist job that leaves Ami alone most of the year. Besides, I’m not 100% sure but I do believe that Mr. Sanada is related to Koushiro since he’s so young and already a skilled hacker.”

“You never fail to surprise me Jyou,” Gomamon said watching the two teenagers with Jyou. “You’ve become a proud grandfather.”

~~Back In The World Story Takes Place~~

“So Jyou here doesn’t know how to shake,” Arata started to ask as he sat at the kitchen while Ami made them some tea, “but he shook hands with me?”

“Strangest thing that dog has ever done,” Ami responded bringing two cups of tea over to the table. “He’s even snuggling up to you. The only other male that he’s acted this way with is my grandpa who is named after.”

“Well, he’s about as strange as his owner,” Arata smiled waiting for the tea to cool down. “So, how much homework do you have left?”

“Algebra, German, Psychology, and Med I,” she responded. “The only hard one is my Med I class.”

“You are a cyber sleuth but taking classes to become a doctor?”

“Family tradition for the Kido’s, my mom’s side of the family. My great uncle never had children so it falls upon me to become a doctor,” Ami said taking a sip of her tea. “So, why exactly were you worried about me? I know it’s not because of the stalker guy.”

“Shouldn’t we be working on your homework so you could enjoy the rest of your week off?” Arata asked trying to change the subject.

Ami had her tea cup close to her mouth with her eyes closed when she spoke, “Are you afraid of me making fun of you?”

“No, you already know most of my secrets and we haven’t known each for long.”

Just the way that Ami slowly sat her teacup down made Arata think he said the wrong thing however, he wasn’t quite sure. Especially since Ami laughed as she got up, “You don’t want to lose your ‘cool’. I understand. I’ll be back with my homework.” With that being said, she left the kitchen.

Arata looked down at the dog, the dog was looking up at Arata, his eyes half closed almost like he was glaring at the hacker. “Did I say something wrong?”

Jyou jumped off of Arata’s lap and went towards his grey pillowy pet bed.

Ami leaned against her bedroom door, looking at the ground. “He showed more concerned for Marippe and Nishino than he is for me. I know I shouldn’t be disappointed in it, but it would still be nice to know people worried about me.” She pushed herself away from the door and grabbed her school bag.

Arata was still sitting at the kitchen table when Ami returned, “Your dog left me.”

“He probably got tired of your lap,” Ami shrugged as she sat her bag down on the table. “Are you sure you wish to help me with my homework?”

“I don’t talk back on my offers,” Arata deadpanned. “I came here to help you.”

“Then which one do you wish to help me with,” Ami spoke pushing her bag towards him.

“It’s going to be the only one I can help you with, Algebra.”

So Ami listened to Arata who was explaining on how to do complex equations along with the geometry part of it, something in which she couldn’t understand. When he left, Marippe digi-lining him repeatedly asking for him to come over to watch a series with her, Ami was caught up in Algebra. She was only two assignments behind in that class to begin with.

Ryota had messaged her, stating that he had to cancel to hang out with Sakura more and that something was bothering him about Sakura’s behavior, so Ami was left alone...again.

She looked at Jyou, “Shall I finish my homework on the couch?” He went to the couch and waited for the female. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

It was quiet once Ami got back, nothing unusual besides the normal unusual for a while than Ami was caught in between Nokia and Ararta. She got Nokia’s quest done first for reasons. Nokia is impatient, she has little experience in Digimon battles, and she could easily be taken advantage of. Arata would be upset but understanding, plus he can take care of himself when push comes to shove.

On the way to Shinjuku, where Arata was waiting for her, her body glitched out once before returning, she rubbed her temples. “It’s getting worse. Hopefully, the cure will be found before glitching out becomes common,” she whispered to herself, trying to calm herself down.

Ami met up with Arata, a smile on her face as he shook his head, “You helped Nokia first,” he said watching her nod, her smile disappearing. “That idiot is going to get what’s coming and you'll be the one swooping in to save her, you know that?”

“I always wanted to be a knight in armour coming in and saving people,” Ami spoke.

“Weirdo,” Arata grumbled. “Anyway, let’s go.”

He turned around and went to head towards the subway, “Wait a minute,” Ami said. “Please.”

Arata rolled his eyes and turned around to stare at her, watching her go to the EDEN portal. “If you need to do something before we start than do -” Ami held her hand up and Arata watched as a blue and white portal opened up and Ami’s body turning into little data blocks before the portal vacuumed them it, “-it. Ami?” He walked over to the portal, looked around it, lifted his hand up to it...nothing. “Ha, ha, this isn’t funny, Ami.”

No response. He pulled out his digivice and tried to call her, no connection. He sat down and proceeded to try and find her signal. No signal.

“What the hell Ami? This isn’t normal,” Arata said as he kept trying to call Ami.

When Ami arrived in the front of the Asakusa gate where a Digital Shift was happening, the first thing she thought of ‘Oh no’. Her digivice started ringing and she answered it, expecting Kyoko to call her and tell her about Asakua only for Arata’s holographic image to appear.

“What the hell happened, Ami? I’ve been trying to get through to you. Where are you?” Arata questioned.

“Asakusa,” she said almost like she didn’t wanted to respond and that she was confused as well. “Look there’s-”

“Asakusa!? How the hell did you get there? Look, don’t move, don’t do anything until I get there, okay?” Arata said before ending the call.

Ami sighed as she emailed Kyoko, “So much for Arata not knowing.”

She had planned on taking care of the Digital Shift before going back to do Arata’s quest, but she did owe him for making him wait as she took care of Nokia’s quest first, then ending up in Asakusa.

“Okay,” Arata said as he finally stood in front of her, his hands on his knees bent down, and trying to get his breath back.

“Did you run all the way here?” Ami asked.

“No, I took the subway and than ran from the subway to here following your digivice signal,” he responded. “Not everyone can teleport like you can.”

“First time it happened this far, usually I appear within the area still,” Ami spoke causing Arata to look at her with a glare. Then she realized that she just admitted to Connect Jumping to someone who doesn’t know she’s pure data wearing a disguise, “Haha, let’s get going into Asakusa Digital Shift now before Date shows up.”

Arata looked at the gate as Ami went in which he followed, “I still have questions that you need to answer.”

“I will later,” Ami spoke welcoming her digital friends, Lillymon, Antylamon, and Ikkakumon. “Suedo is already here, I talked with him briefly while waiting for you.”

After their discussion with Suedo, many random digimon battles, Ami happened across a dead end causing Arata to cross his arms, “Do you not know how Asakusa is laid out?”

Ami turned around and faced him, “It’s been awhile since I was last here.”

“Anyway, what happened in Shinjuku to get you to come here?” Arata spoke.

“We don’t have time for that right now,” Ami spoke trying to get around Arata only for him to block her way by stepping in front of her.

“Oh? I think we have plenty of time and I want my answers,” Arata responded with a frown. “So, what happened?”

“It’s called connect jump,” Ami said.

“What the hell is a connect jump? Ah, where do you think you are going?” Arata asked grabbing Ami’s arm. She almost made it past him but by the time she could take a step back, Arata had her trapped more. Her back pressed against one of the buildings, his hands gripping both of her arms tightly, his grey eyes were glaring at her own blue eyes, “I want answers. Now what’s a connect jump?”

“It’s what Kyoko calls it, the ability to go into the connecting links of databases,” Ami spoke. Her Digimon must not see him as a threat otherwise they would have attacked.

“No way, you can go into the very basic of wiring of EDEN?” Arata asked amazed.

“Of any electronics,” Ami spoke, tempted to tell him that she uses the TV in Kyoko’s office to get to EDEN a lot. “I’ve fixed the old A/C and heater in Broadway plus a game app. Now can we go?”

“No. How are you able to do this?” Arata asked. “Because seeing my friend get turn into data blocks before getting sucked into a portal isn’t normal.”

“Arata, where’s our Digimon?” Ami asked now realizing that the rapid buzzing of Lillymon’s wings, the curious and inquisitive comments made by Antylamon or the loud heavy thuds of Ikkakumon moving, were gone.

“Don’t be changing the subject,” Arata spoke. “How can you connect jump?”

“Be careful,” Ami spoke as she escaped his grip by glitching, the blue blocks moving around his hands. “Ground is about to shake.”

Just as she was back in one piece, the ground shook, resembling that of an earthquake. It lasted for three seconds but those seconds felt forever to Arata. Once the ground stopped shaking, Ami spoke, “We need to hurry otherwise when it moves, we move with it.”

She stared as she turned the corner and saw all four of the Digimon asleep, “Ami-”

“I have what Kyoko dubs a ‘half cyber body’, she can explain more,” Ami spoke waking her Digimon up.

Within the shadows, overhearing the conversation, two hands rubbed together in glee, “How interesting, Ms. Aiba, perhaps the tidbits of information you gave me will be most influential into not only my work, but also in convincing your young friend there to join me experiments.”

~~The End~~

#Digimon #Digimon Story #Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth #Ami Aiba #Arata Sanada #no shipping this time #just basic friends #Jyou Kido #Koushiro Izumi

[lightchildofthespring]

Reverse dark cave

Sora, Yamato, Gabumon and Piyomon stopped falling. They were floating in a dark space. When the bird monster flapped her wings, she couldn’t move from her spot next to Sora. The girl tried to make her evolve, but her digivice didn’t react. Piyomon shot an attack upwards; her fire hovered a few meters above their heads.

A couple of meters in front of Piyomon and Sora, Gabumon floated next to Yamato. The digimon looked with concern at the boy. Yamato was staring at his arms extended in front of him, with horror. It was possible he was thinking about how he had nearly lost an arm, but far, far more likely he was worried about Takeru.

“This place…” Piyomon murmured, shivering. “It reminds me of the orb…”

“It’s going to be okay!” The girl promised, extending an arm to caress the bird’s head. “We’re together! We’ve escaped from a place like this before! As long as we have each other, we’ll be fine!”

Piyomon nodded reluctantly.

“Takeru…” Yamato murmured, looking at the void below with empty eyes. “I couldn’t do anything to protect him… I never could… ”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself!” Gabumon told him, stretching an arm in the boy’s direction. However, Yamato got out of his reach. The boy’s body was slowly descending, sinking into the darkness.

“Yamato-kun!” Sora shouted, getting no reply from him. She tried to go after him, but kept floating in the same spot. What was happening to Yamato? Where was he going? The girl remembered Koushiro’s explanation about the orb being a subjective space affected by her emotions. If the place they were in was similar to that orb, Yamato’s negativity could bring him a dire result.

“Piyomon, can you push me in Yamato-kun’s direction?” Sora asked.

“If I do that, you’ll be out of my reach! How would I get you back?!” Piyomon questioned.

“I need to get to Yamato-kun!” Sora retorted. “He’ll be in danger if I do nothing!”

“You could be in danger if I launch you in that direction!” Piyomon protested. “We don’t know where we are or what will happen if you go down there!”

“That’s exactly why I can’t let Yamato-kun out of my sight!”

“Don’t do this to me again!” The bird digimon pleaded. “Don’t make me watch as you sacrifice yourself for someone else again! I can’t… I…”

“Piyomon…” Sora muttered, pulling her partner into a hug. “It’s not like that time. I don’t want to help him because I think it’s my duty, because I want to prove something or because of my self-loathing. I won’t do that again! I promise I’ll never put you through that again!”

“But if you go-”

“I’ll come back with him!” She vowed. “There’s a person lost in destructive thoughts in need of someone to help him out. Someone who demands too much of himself… who blames himself a lot, who feels responsible for everything and doesn’t share his burden with anyone… who buries his fears… his insecurities…”

Takeru had told the girl that she reminded him of Yamato. Despite knowing the older boy for less than one day, Sora had already understood so much about him. First, she thought she could be projecting herself on him, but then realized it wasn’t the case. The reason for her to see so much of herself in Yamato was because they did share some core personality aspects, including flaws.  And it was because of  what Sora learned from her experiences with her friends and family that she didn’t want anyone else following that painful path. She wanted to help Yamato for his own sake.

“Alright, then… but you have to come back to me!” Piyomon said. “Promise you’ll come back to me!”

“That’s not a reasonable request.” Gabumon commented.

“I’ll come back to you, Piyomon.” Sora told her partner, breaking the hug to show her a reassuring smile. “We’ll all be fine and get out of here.”

Piyomon grabbed the girl and launched her in Yamato’s direction.

Yamato was sinking into the dark void, but didn’t notice it. He couldn’t see anything around him. His mind wandered through his past.

His parents argued many times, but there were occasions when they got along. They talked normally, his father told jokes, his mother and Takeru laughed at them, Yamato smiled. He believed that was the true nature of their family. His parents could disagree, but they loved each other and would make amends.  Yamato tried to make things easier for them. He helped in the house chores, asked his mother to teach him how to cook so he could help her out, and watched Takeru when his parents were busy.

He didn’t ask for help with his homework or anything else. He didn’t bother his parents with his problems in getting along with the other children in his class. Yamato strove to be as independent as possible. He wanted to be reliable like a grown-up, not only because then his parents wouldn’t worry about him, but also because if Takeru perceived him as a mature and strong person, the little boy would seek his help instead of their parents’. That way, his father and mother wouldn’t be troubled. The thought of sacrificing himself for them made him feel proud of himself.

Yamato also felt satisfaction when Takeru asked him to play along. The kid was happy, but sometimes talked to him about his concerns. The older brother assured him that everything would be alright. For a time, Yamato really believed in that. When his parents argued and Takeru cried on his lap, Yamato said that the adults would make peace with each other and their family would be together forever. The older brother was doing his part; everything should work out in the end. His words soothed Takeru, who thanked him.

But things didn’t work out in the end. When Yamato noticed it, he was standing between the two adults with a crying Takeru by his side. His parents were getting a divorce, his father was moving away, his family was breaking into two: Ishida and Takaishi. Yamato didn’t want his father to be alone, nor did he want Takeru to be away from his mother. So, he did the mature thing, again, and he kept doing it, without complaining. Not certain if it was out of obligation or out of habit, Yamato just knew that he had to sacrifice himself for their happiness. He wouldn’t let his mother think he needed her, he wouldn’t worry her.

Did Takeru think he was a liar when their parents divorced? Was Takeru disappointed at him for not stopping that from happening? Was he lonely without him around?

His father worked all day, every day. Many times, Hiroaki didn’t even come home. Other times, he came and spoke incoherent things with a sad expression. The man didn’t joke anymore. Instead, he told his son to be sure not to fall for someone incompatible with him. Hiroaki at times went to smoke on the balcony and looked at the street while bearing a lost expression. The boy knew he should be in pain, but didn’t know what to say to him. Nevertheless, he did everything to take care of his father. He cleaned, cooked and watched TV with him. However, they didn’t talk much.

Yamato didn’t talk a lot to Natsuko when she brought Takeru over. Hiroaki seemed sad with her presence, what if seeing Yamato interacting with her was painful to the man? Besides, Yamato didn’t want to give his mother the impression that he wasn’t doing great without her. What if she noticed something and became worried? She shouldn’t worry about him. Nobody should. Yamato still wanted them to think of him as mature and strong.

Most of his days were lonely. He played the harmonica, saw old photos, cooked, despite being unable to imitate his mother’s food. It became easier with time. Yamato hid his sadness so well that nobody noticed it. He should be proud of that, like he should be proud of his brother for surviving without him in the Digital World and for risking himself for the sake of rescuing Yamato. Takeru was the youngest child, in need of being protected. But in reality he was far stronger and braver than his older brother. The older brother’s sacrifices weren’t necessary. They weren’t needed, they weren’t wanted. What was the point of all that, then?

What was the point of him?

“Yamato-kun!”

That was Sora’s voice calling him. An increasing warm sensation was spreading over his hands.

“Don’t say such sad things, Yamato-kun!” She told him in a pained tone. Was he saying things aloud without noticing?

“Takeru-kun loves you a lot! Things aren’t as bad as you believe!” Sora insisted.

“It doesn’t matter.” Yamato said, staring into the darkness surrounding him. “He shouldn’t love me… nobody should… I’m such a disappointment…”

“No, you’re not!” She stated. “I might not have known you for long, but I know that you’re a caring person and that you put other people’s needs before your own! And that you try to keep a façade of being well-adjusted, so people won’t worry about you…” Sora’s voice became weaker. “You built a wall around your heart and tried to keep everybody away. You didn’t want anyone to see you crumbling in the inside, drowning in your self-deprecating thoughts… because you’re afraid of what they’d think if they saw who you really are.”

Yamato now realized that the warmth on his hands were the girl’s own trembling ones, holding him tightly. In his front, the silhouette of someone very close to him was slowly taking shape.

“How do you know…?” He asked in a whisper. “I t-thought I had hidden it… does e-everybody see through me as well? Does Takeru…?” It was getting harder for him to hold back the tears.

“For a long time, I believed that my parents… especially my Mom…” Sora hesitated for a few seconds. “She’s an Ikebana Master and I was supposed to be her heiress, but I didn’t want to be that. I thought Mom didn’t really love me… I made her into an enemy that I wanted to hate… I forced myself to be everything I thought she wasn’t, but the truth was that… I couldn’t deal with the idea that I was a disappointment to her. To think that she didn’t love me hurt so much, I continuously lied to myself… and kept on hurting myself and the people who cared about me. I felt so guilty… so ashamed…”

“But you’re strong!” Yamato protested, almost outraged. “I heard what you did for Takeru and the others! You put yourself in danger to lure that vampire away from us not long ago! You’re not… you can’t be…”

She couldn’t be both strong and fragile, virtuous and flawed, brave and scared… people weren’t like that. If you were one thing, you couldn’t be its opposite. Yamato knew that. But if it was possible, if those things weren’t mutually excluding… what would that make of him?

“My friends helped me to see that I wasn’t the despicable person I thought I was.” Sora said. “Because I understood how my way of thinking distorted reality, I considered that I could be wrong about my Mom. I talked to her about everything and she was honest with me. I finally understood how she felt and how deeply she loved me, I was so glad!”

“Are you two getting along now?” Yamato asked. “After everything… was it still possible for you two…?”

“It’s never too late when there’s love.” Sora assured.

Yamato wondered if his mother and he could have that as well. If he talked to her honestly, if he told her how much she mattered to him and how much he missed her, would she accept him? His mother could get worried… his father could not like it… would that be okay? Would they forgive him?

His thoughts were getting clearer after Sora’s words. Maybe it was time for Yamato to do something for himself.

“Maybe… I could call my mother…” He whispered.

“You should.” She encouraged him.

He could no longer stop the tears from escaping his eyes.

“It’s okay to cry.” Sora told him. “It’ll make you feel better.”

A flaming aura surrounded Sora, allowing Yamato to see her completely. She was giving him a large and beautiful smile. The flames kept on spreading, bringing light to every corner. Above them, Piyomon was flying. Fire surrounded her.

“Piyomon evolves to… BIRDRAMON! Birdramon evolves to… GARUDAMON!”

The giant digimon took Gabumon in one hand and then flew down to take Sora and Yamato in the other.

“Are you okay?” Gabumon asked him.

“I guess…” Yamato muttered, glancing at Sora, who was by his side while Garudamon flew upwards. The sight of the girl with fire in her spirit ascending to the heavens would never leave his memory.

#the song of love #tsol #fragment of chapter 34

[crest-of-courage]

Digimon OTP Week Day #3: Soulmate AU

Day 3! 

I actually wanted to post the second part to my Sci-Fi-Story today but I thought of what I was gonna write for the Soulmate AU and the idea just hit me a little too hard and wanted to be written immediately :D So you are getting this AU very on time (it’s like midnight here in Germany now). But don’t worry, the second part for the Sci-Fi AU will still come!

So this is a Soulmate AU based in the Tri canon.

Hope you enjoy!

Pairing: Taito/Taiyama/Taichi x Yamato

Word Count: 1696

Summary: Finding his soulmate had never been a priority to Taichi Yagami. Especially when there were a lot more important things on his mind, like saving the Digital World from destruction by a recurring Malomyotismon. What he had not expected was to find the truth about his destined partner in the heat of this battle - and the knowledge that the revelation might even be too late.

There was too much going on around him.

Taichi’s grip tightened around the pulsating Digivice in his hand, his heart rate beating in time with it.

He knew that his Digimon was reaching his limits, could feel it.

Just as the thought passed his mind, Wargreymon suddenly started to stumble, light surrounding him and almost blinding the Chosen with its brightness.

Taichi tried to shield his eyes, while his mind started to race.

He knew what this meant.

And sure enough: As soon as the light faded, they could all see that Wargreymon was shrinking, slowly sinking back onto Rookie-level.

This wasn’t good.

Of course they had been fighting for way too long and their Digimon had to be on their last legs, but they also couldn’t withstand a second without them.

Not against an enemy like MaloMyotismon.

They should have known that this was a possibility after the Reboot, but actually being face to face with the Mega-Level Digimon again felt like a nightmare coming true.

As if the whole mess with Meicoomon hadn’t been bad enough already.

Koushiro was furiously typing away on his laptop, hair standing out messily.

He had been trying to figure out how some of the occupants of the DigiWorld had been able to evolve so quickly ever since they had come back to it after the Reboot – which already felt like forever ago, even though it couldn’t have been more than a few days.

But now that these evolutions posed an actual, serious threat to them by targeting the Chosen and their Digimon directly, he was working on the solution even quicker, sure that he could work it into an actual plan.

Taichi’s gaze hefted on him, a figure far away, desperately hoping that his research was coming to an end now.

All the Chosen were battling furiously; MaloMyotismon not being the only Digimon that had suddenly decided to attack them mercilessly.

What were they going to do if all their Digimon were too exhausted to fight?

His feet miraculously managed to carry him over the uneven ground of the forested landscape without tripping, and soon he had reached the slumped over Agumon.

Cradling him in his arms and pressing him close, Taichi suddenly noticed something blinking on his wrist.

It took him more than a few moments to realize what he was looking at, and when he did, it felt like someone had hit straight through his rib cage, catching his heart in a vice like grip, squeezing it until it threatened to give out.

The usually black ink had turned blood red. The countdown neared it’s last five minutes and Taichi felt shivers running through his body, causing the hairs at the base of his neck to stand on end.

Meeting his soul mate had really never been one of his priorities.

Sure, when the countdown appeared on his wrist by the end of age 9 – which was unusually late – he had been excited, showing it to Hikari and his mother and going on and on about what his soul mate is gonna look like, be like and when he would meet them.

As he was chosen as one of the DigiDestined and later given (or taken) the role of the leader of the little group though, he had found far more exciting and also much more important things to focus on.

Like saving the world.

And doing so again years later.

And another time now.

Maybe he had had time to think about his soul mate in between these troubles, but somehow the events in the DigiWorld had altered his view on the whole thing.

People might find the idea of a soul mate romantic or beautiful.

But the way the whole thing went down was, at least in Taichi’s world, more than just cruel.

Watching the numbers go down until his soul mate died.

Getting the conformation that it really was them seconds before.

How was any of that romantic?

It all came crashing down now, when the countdown kept ticking away, the life of his soul mate, the person he hadn’t even had the chance to meet, slowly fading.

Somehow he had known.

Which was why he had chosen to wear a wristband ever since he had accepted that his life had chosen a different path for him, one that didn’t involve him living a happy picket fence life with whoever fate had chosen for him.

Or at least that what he had been sure of since the day they had first been thrown into the Digital World.

It had been selfish of him.

Never giving him or her a chance to meet him.

Maybe they had been waiting all their life and Taichi had been too busy focusing on everything that had been going on in a world they didn’t even know.

Instead…

Instead his heart had settled on someone else.

Someone that might have been easier distance-wise, since he was one of them, but sure as hell not easy when it came down to any other aspect.

He himself had made that much very clear.

“I don’t think we should do this, Taichi.”

Blue eyes looked at him, almost warily, as if he were scared that the other boy would jump at his throat and rip it apart.

Taichi had to admit that he wasn’t very far from it.

“Why did you kiss me then? Hell, Yama, why are we doing this if you are not even giving us a chance?!”

“How do you imagine it?! We can’t even have a normal discussion without punching each other in the face! We’re completely different people!” “We can make it work. Dammit, don’t act so fucking cold! I know that you feel the same way about me!”

Taichi felt anger bubbling inside of him, anger at how stupidly calm Yamato acted about all of this, even though he knew that this was affecting him just as badly.

“Let’s give it a try, Yama. Please.”

He shook his head, averting his eyes.

“I can’t. I just can’t.”

They had left it at that and the whole thing had made Taichi even more reluctant to everything relationship.

Just as the countdown hit two minutes and Agumon was finally moving again in his arms, he suddenly heard a booming voice right in front of him.

“Weaklings! WEAKLINGS!”

He felt his heart lurching into his throat as he suddenly grasped the whole situation – and what it meant for him.

His friends were still fighting their own battles, none of them having the time – or the energy – to focus on the main enemy right now.

“Agumon”, he whispered, but received no answer.

The Digimon was too weak to even turn his head up, even though he desperately seemed to try to get back into battle – judging by his sluggish, but forceful movements and frustrated sounds that sent tiny puffs of heat onto Taichi’s arms.

Suddenly, the air around him was moving.

Looking up, he saw Malomyotismon charging an attack, black ball of energy unfurling between his hands, growing bigger and bigger – already shooting at him before Taichi even tried to command his tired legs to move.

But it didn’t hit him.

Instead, there was a flurry of green and black and blond, followed by a pained scream that iced the blood in Taichi’s veins.

He knew that voice.

He knew who had just stepped in front him – to save him, to take the attack.

For him.

“Yamato!”, he screamed, watching the boy go down right in front of his eyes, body limp.

He grabbed his shoulders, shaking him.

“What did you do?! Why did you do that?! You stupid, stupid moron! Where’s Gabumon?! Why didn’t he stop you?!”

Hot tears were gathering in his eyes and Taichi angrily grit his teeth at his own weakness.

When had he become so weak?

His guts twisted as he looked down at his best friend’s pained face, hands clutching at his chest, fingers digging into the black fabric of his shirt – right where Malomyotismon’s attack had hit him.

“You weren’t moving”, he choked out, and Taichi wanted to slap him, tell him to shut up, to say something cliche like “save your strength”.

“You… You can’t die on me, Yama. I promise I’m gonna murder you if you die on me now”, his words had turned into a desperate whisper, bruised hands gripping at his shoulders, his mind racing, unable to come up with ways to help him.

“JOU! JOU, PLEASE COME HERE!”, he screamed, begged, even though he knew his fellow Chosen was too far away to hear him, while Yamato’s breaths became slower, eyes slowly falling shut.

Seeing this, it suddenly hit him.

Painfully slow his gaze wandered back to his wrist, where, as if it had been waiting for him to actually see it happening, a name slowly engraved itself into his skin.

Yamato Ishida.

“No”, Taichi whispered, bile rising into his throat.

Why had he never considered it?

“We’re completely different people!”

“No, no, no, no, no.”

His words had somehow given his best friend the energy to open his eyes, if only by a bit, eyelids already growing too heavy to do it properly.

When he saw what Taichi was looking at though, his eyes actually widened for a moment, face growing impossibly paler.

“Fuck”, he choked out and suddenly, there were tears spilling on his dirt-coated cheeks, pain and emotions taking a hold of him.

His expression was one of pure hurt and regret.

“I’m so sorry, Tai. I’m so sorry”, he whispered, voice giving in.

Taichi just shook his head, unable to grasp any of this.

This couldn’t be happening.

“Don’t. Please don’t leave me.”

He took Yamato’s hand in his, suddenly remembering the moment they had let Angemon and Angewomon shoot arrows at them, their hands shaking and intertwined.

Yamato didn’t squeeze back though.

The countdown wasn’t audible, but Taichi still heard it, like gun shots in his ears.

His soul mate stopped breathing the second it hit zero.

#digiotpweek #day 3 #soulmate au #digimon #digimon adventure #digimon tri #taito #taiyama #taichi yagami #yamato ishida #tai kamiya #matt ishida #tw: death #death / #death mention

[50cyg]

Koukari: the little sister falling for her brother’s best friend

So, part of the reason I ship these two together is cause I love the idea of the little sister being in love with her brother’s best friend. I think there are so many cute things that can be done with this trope, it opens up a lot of opportunity for great Fanfic moments.

I picture Hikari falling for Koushiro in Adventure when she’s just a little kid. I think Hikari would be confident in herself (enough to actively give Koushiro gifts at Christmas and on Valentine’s day) but would also be a little shy about it (like she’d blush while doing it and be a little awkward about it) cause, after all, she is a little kid and it would likely be her first crush.

Koushiro meanwhile, because he’s not very socially adept and because Hikari is a little kid, he doesn’t recognize that Hikari has a crush on him. He thinks she’s cute and sweet, but sees her as Taichi’s little sister and another one of the Chosen Children.

As for Taichi, initially he is very confused by his sister’s behavior. I picture Hikari wanting to look nice when she knows Koushiro is coming over, for example, putting on one of her cute dresses and putting something nice in her hair. And then one day he finds out what’s going on when his mom and Hikari are having a conversation about it. Maybe Yuuko and Hikari are talking about what Hikari should get Koushiro for Christmas, or Hikari asks her mom if she can go shopping for a new hair pin to look pretty and Yuuko teases her saying “it’s because of Koushiro isn’t it”. I dunno I really love the idea of Yuuko and Hikari talking about this with Yuuko all happy that her baby girl has a crush and Taichi being super uncomfortable.

I’m not very familiar with the Audio CDs but apparently there is one where Taichi says that if Koushiro had a crush on Hikari he would not approve, so I headcanon that initially Taichi would be uncomfortable with his sister having a crush on someone (I like to think that Taichi enjoys being the apple of his sister’s eye and kinda gets jealous when she shows affection for other boys). He doesn’t get really jealous or actively try to separate them; he’s not that super overprotective big brother that some headcanon him to be in my opinion. He just gets a bit uncomfortable and a bit upset.

At the same time though I think Koushiro would be one of the only people Taichi would really trust with his sister’s heart, he certainly trusts Koushiro to keep Hikari safe since he asks him to do so during the fight against Piedmon, plus he is one of his really good friends and he knows he’s a good guy. The only other person I think Taichi would be as comfortable with dating Hikari is Sora. So I HC that he would become comfortable with it as time went on and might actually start to encourage the idea of them as a couple.

@confundida25

#koukari #koushiro x hikari

[astralsunset]

Can I have my favorite Digidestined, Ken and Taichi, for the character ask meme?

Taichi:

Why I like them: Taichi’s been my favorite since I was a little kid! I’ve always admired his courage, for one, but also his ability to be vulnerable and not only own up to his mistakes but to learn from them. That takes a lot of bravery, in its own way. Also the fact that he is so goofy and fun and canonically so accepting of everyone. He’s also good at getting shit done when it comes down to it.

Why I don’t: at least in fanon the interpretation of Taichi as kind of a borderline fuckboy really gets on my nerves, ngl. In canon… hm. While I get that it’s a compartmentalization thing and that he usually stops this behavior when he’s called out on it, the fact that “consideration of his team’s emotional state” is basically the first thing to go out the window when he’s sufficiently stressed out would drive me nuts in an actual person. 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): The 20-21 combo (the MetalGreymon episode and the one where he gets to go home for a few hours) goes kind of without saying, but I love the scene at the card gate in episode 28 where he’s officially nominated as group leader. He’s so struck by everyone’s faith in him, and his first act as leader is to transfer all that faith straight to Koushiro because he’s smart enough to know he’s the only one who can solve the puzzle. :’)

Favorite season/movie: ADV/Our War Game, though what we saw of him in 02 I largely liked and for the most part I like what Tri is doing with his character. 

Favorite line: “HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A GREEN CARD!” - dub line that makes me lose it laughing every time and i don’t even know why, he’s just so offended i’m 

Favorite outfit: his Adventure outfit tbh. When his outfit near the tail end of Kokuhaku looked a lot like it I may have shouted “THAT’S NOT FAIR” out loud.

OTP: It’s kind of a four-way tie between Taishiro-Taiora-Taito/Taiyama-Taiorato, but as of late I think it might actually be Taishiro.

BroTP: Taichi and Mimi! I imagine they’d get along a lot like siblings and tease each other relentlessly but they’ve also got enough in common that they’d have a lot of fun together.

Headcanon: Taichi has never truly recovered from the shame that was Sora’s eleventh birthday present and the hairclip incident and now EXCLUSIVELY gives her gag gifts so he has a defense to fall back on if she tries to yell at him for not giving her good presents. Sora returns fire, and it pretty quickly becomes tradition for the two of them to give each other the cheapest, shittiest gift they can find.

Unpopular opinion: This is maybe a bit odd, but the common response to the SkullGreymon episode of “Taichi brought SkullGreymon forth because of his arrogance!” really doesn’t click with me? I don’t think arrogance is the right word, exactly. I think it’s more of a case of him cracking under the pressure of being the only one with a Crest (aka the potentially only one at that point keeping Etemon from killing them all) and more desperation than actual arrogance. It’s actually really easy to put myself in his shoes there. I’d still be judging him for forgetting to consider the feelings of Agumon and his friends - a recurring trait of his when under stress - but I don’t think arrogance is one of Taichi’s flaws, or at very least not to the extent I’ve seen attributed to him. (I actually think @fizzingwizard did a solid meta about this a while ago but I can’t find it, alas.)

A wish: I really hope tri follows through on his character development and has him turn his doubts about how the Chosen handle real-world threats and all into meaningful action. Give me a Taichi that’s on the way to becoming the ambadassador we know he is in the future!

An oh-god-please-don’t-ever-happen: this is more of a Toei thing than a Taichi thing but pleeeease - and this is coming from someone who really does like Taichi/Sora - do not make Taichi like Sora in canon. No shitty love triangles for the sake of cheap drama here, thanks. It’s not fair to any of the three of them.

5 words to best describe them: charismatic, motivating, brave, accepting, dynamic

My nickname for them: sunshine boy

And Ken is under the readmore just so this doesn’t get excessively long, haha.

Why I like them: There’s a lot there to like! A lot of Ken’s arc is him owning up to the less pretty parts of who he is as a person - the Spore/Seed amplified them a lot when he was the Kaiser, but they did come from somewhere - which is an arc that speaks to a lot of people. He gets a good amount of nuance and is very aware, post-Kaiser, that his actions have consequences. He’s a sweet kid, but there’s a lot more going on with him than that.

Why I don’t: Not so much a complaint about him but I didn’t like how his character arc eclipsed a lot of the other 02 kids’ arcs.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I thiiiink 02 episode 45, when he opens the Dark Gate. The whole part with him in the truck before is sort of included in this, but opening the Gate took a lot of guts, and seeing all the other kids fall in around him was really sweet.

Favorite season/movie: Revenge of Diaboromon/whatever it’s called in the japanese lmao i’m a dual sub/dub person

Favorite line: “You can’t take the ball from me like that.” - to Daisuke in the fourth movie. I’d argue that this is Ken when he’s most like himself, recovered enough to be teasing his friend and being a little manipulative but for a good cause.

Favorite outfit: his winter 02 outfit, solely because it’s not the grey one.

OTP: Daiken! Like… y’all. Y’all. 

BroTP: Aside from Daiken again, Ken and Iori! I feel like they’d get along really well and philosophically have a lot in common if they really sat down and talked to each other. 

Headcanon: I just dumped a bunch here a few days ago!

Unpopular opinion: I mean, I see him characterized as a lot more… I dunno, fragile and Dark Magical Girl-y in fanfic and so on than I think he is. I’m not really sure what the popular opinions for Ken are. :’D Also tbh I’m not as interested in the Kaiser part of him as I’d think other people are but again, not sure what most people’s stances are here.

A wish: for him to show up in tri already

An oh-god-please-don’t-ever-happen: I’d rather him not do a Kaiser 2.0 thing in canon. I think someone could pull it off if they were very careful - the Kaiser persona was kind of a coping mechanism and all and I could see how that could come back - but I think he’s had enough of that and also would have learned from the last time.

5 words to best describe them: introspective, sensitive, clever, soft-spoken… ugh i need a fifth one. penitent???

My nickname for them: whispers kenneth

#cardinalstar #meme thing #long post #digimon

[ahiddenpath]

Epilogue Celebration: Couples

Eyyyy, sorry to hit you up twice in one day, but...  I’m behind, so here we are!  

I will chat a bit about 2028 couples below the cut!

Keep in mind that the crew are all adults in this discussion.

Taichi

Look, I’m sorry, I really am, but...  Ya boi is a mess, romantically.  I really can’t wait to get into this in a fic, but Taichi chose a difficult life as an ambassador in the time when Digimon and humans are first coming together.  And while I think Taichi is good at surface-level flirting (and also has a strong mind-body connection and physical stamina for... adult activities), I...  Really...  Don’t think...  He Relationships well.  Er.  Sorry.

 So, um...  I think his dating life is both varied and... stormy.  Lots of casual dating of all kinds of people, but it’s rare for him to introduce anyone to friends and family.  Plus, in the wake of... Kizuna events, he starts off adulthood...  With a lot on his heart and his mind.

It takes him a long time to find the mother of his child, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t marry/if they separated/if he somehow ended up with someone else.

The good news is that Taichi learns and grows from everything.  I know that someday, he’ll find the right person, and he’ll always do his best for his son.

Yamato and Sora

I’m influenced by @adventure-hearts on this one, but I think Yamato and Sora dated on-and-off again during different stages in their lives.  They both have enormous dreams that came before their love life, until one day...  I can’t tell you if it was emotional, or if their paths suddenly merged somehow, but someday, they fell into step and stayed there.

I think they’re very happy together, but have an unconventional life.  They spend a lot of time apart because of their jobs, and they rely on their wide net of family and friends to help with the kids.  

I think they are extremely well suited to each other and have a great marriage, but...  They both have a tendency to internalize, pull back, and brood.  They’re constantly working on their communication.

Koushiro

I think that Koushiro struggles romantically in his late teens/early twenties.  He seems to very much want a girlfriend, but he never can spare the time to look for one...  And when his friends set him up, it tends to...  Go... Poorly.  Poor dude puts his foot in his mouth, freezes, or just... doesn’t know how to relate to people outside of digimon and computers/math/science.  He also tends to try too hard, to the point where it’s a Bad Look.

My opinion is that Koushiro needs someone... very specific to handle his, um... Koushiro-ness.  I pair him with Anami Eimi,  a digimon biology researcher whose heart sometimes supersedes her mind.  The idea is that they’re both introverted and research-oriented, and they can gab about their ideas forever.  But Eimi is warm, with strong social skills and social intelligence.  She can’t touch Koushiro’s level of genius, but she’s smart, hardworking, and injects creativity and thoughtfulness into her work.  She also foresees the social and political implications of the latest developments in Digital World and digimon research/technologies, where Koushiro tends to focus on the immediate problem (you can’t blame him; he’s constantly asked to put out sizable fires.  There is always more fire.  So much fire).  

They probably work together off and on for a long time before one of them realizes, oh.  The part after that is probably a mess, knowing Koushiro, but they get there!  

Koushiro’s polite nature and Eimi’s private one make it so that strangers wouldn’t know they’re married.  Still, Koushiro’s close friends, like the Chosen, see the way his eyes follow her, especially when he’s uncertain and wanting social cues.  They have a quiet, stable partnership, which Daisuke describes as, “Married and boring,” but they’re very happy.  

And Koushiro is very curious, the type who wants to try everything at least once, eyyyyy.

The only thing causing tension is Koushiro working too much and failing to care for himself properly.  Luckily, Kae and Masami live in the same apartment mansion, and Kae has eased their marriage when needed by cooking, cleaning, calling Koushiro to remind him of Important Husband Things, and making general suggestions about how an erring husband might smooth things over with his ruffled wife.  That last one usually consists of, “Bring home dinner/get your ass home/get your ass to sleep/why yes you DO need to apologize for that.”

It also helps that Eimi loves Tentomon, an accomplished Koushiro-wrangler and general peace keeper.

Mimi

Mimi’s all about fun, novelty, and freedom.  She dates around and has casual partners of all varieties.  Eventually, she decides to co-parent a child with her long-standing romantic interest.  They share custody of their son, who also spends a lot of time with grandparents and friends, including the Chosen.  Mimi and her son’s father have an understanding that they see other people while they’re apart, but don’t bring them around their son without discussing it first.  It’s all amicable, chill, and provides their son with an enormous support network.

I don’t know if Mimi would ever settle down.  I think she loves her life with a lot of variety and spontaneity.  

Jyou

Marries his high school sweetheart, Bike Girl.  They’re both doctors, so they struggle to get enough time together.  But Bike Girl is sweet, loving, and most importantly, calm and grounded.  Jyou is a huge romantic softy who spoils his wife and takes care of her.  Although they both wish for more time together, they get on amazingly.  Jyou always feels this... wonder and gratitude that he’s married to her.

I won’t lie: Jyou is the best husband.  The other Chosen men wish they could husband as well as Jyou.

Takeru

I really don’t know what to make of this troll.  Sometimes, I think he’s a charmer who dates around a ton, and eventually had an “oops” baby that he amicably co-parents with an ex.  Sometimes, I think he settled down early and started a family, because he wanted that stability and love and constant presence that he didn’t have as a kid.  Sometimes, I wonder if he eventually divorced and went on to later marry a certain childhood friend...

What can I say, he’s a man of mystery.

Hikari

Ahhh, why is this is sooooo hard?

Part of me really wants to see Hikari as an independent woman, and quietly proud about it.  Clearly, she has a child...  Maybe she had her son and later divorced?  Or maybe she’s happily married?  I also admit that I do want to see her with Takeru, at least eventually...

Lots of possibilities here!

Daisuke

Oh, he definitely had an “oops” baby with an ex and is currently trying to find a husband or wife.  Or maybe he did?  Maybe he did!

Miyako and Ken

They’re married, and they are gross about it, lol!    

Seriously though, they get on so well.  Ken works a lot (Digimon Police is a tough job), and sometimes Ken needs to find peace and quiet in his home (merry wife + loud kids + MULTIPLE kids = TOO MUCH), so there is sometimes a little tension when Miyako wants more of his time.  But they manage it, and they keep their family and home running smoothly and happily.

I just... picture it as this ideal family, at least for someone desiring a loud, joyful, energetic, nuclear family.

Iori

Iori married early to a down-to-earth woman who specializes in elderly care.  His wife has a big heart and a kind, patient nature.  While she loves and respects Iori’s zeal for helping others, she gently reminds him to take care of himself and his family first.  She also provides perspective when he gets set in a stubborn mentality.  Happily, she enjoys sharing a large apartment with Iori’s mother and grandfather.

Iori is sometimes too focused on the problems of others to see his loved ones properly, and that’s something he works on with his grandfather’s guidance.  When he has his daughter, he instantly reassigns his priorities around her, which softens a lot of his problematic areas.  Also, he married a woman who knows how to help him redirect his thoughts.  He feels genuine amazement that he’s with her.  They have a relationship that is... quietly intense.

AND I AM DONE FOR TODAY, WHEW!

#digimonepiloguecelebration #digimon epilogue celebration #chosen children #digidestined

[50cyg]

Takari in Tri/Follow up to Digimon Tri Pairing post (unreasonably long, you have been warned)

Okay so a few days ago I did a post about the Digimon Adventure Tri ships that I am 95% certain will be canon, and how I feel if they do become canon Toei is doing two of them a great disservice by not investing the time into making us care for them.

Since then, I have received a few asks about my feelings on Takari as they were not featured in my post. There is a very simple explanation as to why they were not featured in my post and that is because I forgot about them… OKAY DON’T KILL ME! HEAR ME OUT!!

Yes Takari is definitely included in my “ships I am 95% sure will be canon”

Takeru is shown to have his arm around her waste in the same merchandize pick that has Sora and Yamato together

And also, this infamous scene

But the reason I forgot about them and why, even if I had remembered them, they would not have been included in that post is because they do not line up with the point that post was trying to make. Toei does not need to invest time into making us like Takari because 95% of the fandom is already in love with them, no convincing needed. I would guess that even for the 5% they are not a Notp but rather a ship they either just don’t get or prefer another ship over them (me being the latter).

Unlike the other 3 ships I mentioned, Meichi, Sorato and Koumi, and basically any other of the other pairings in digimon, Takari literally has nothing standing in the way of it being Canon.

Meichi is in hot competition with Taiyama and Taiora (the two favored pairings for Taichi from my understanding). If Meichi becomes canon and the creators put no effort into converting some of the non-shippers they are going to have a lot of hate on their hands. In addition, it’s also in competition from people who ship Meiko with other people (MeikoxMimi appearing to be the favoured with MeikoxSora seeming to come in as a close second, and I have also seen some JyouxMeiko shippers… OH AND BTW WHERE ARE THE YAMATOXMEIKO SHIPPERS?? I mean I don’t ship them but it surprises the hell out of me that this is not a thing anywhere… there is way more shippable moments between them then TaichixMeiko…. :S seriously in shock that YamatoxMeiko has not taken off yet). I’m going to be honest, I feel like Tri (based solely on the moments we have had in the movies and excluding Taiyama as an option) is actually gearing up for a YamatoxMeiko and TaichixSora ending. But I don’t think that will end up being the case because of the controversy it could cause which ties into my “Gut Feeling” I keep talking about.

With Koumi they have Jyoumi, TaichixMimi and YamatoxMimi to compete with (Mimi seems to be the most shippable female). I will be honest, I was never a part of the fandom until after I watched Reunion so I had no idea that Koumi was a thing… everyone I knew either shipped Jyoumi or YamatoxMimi and I always thought Jyoumi was a given as a child (I felt about them the way most people seemed to have felt about Taiora and Takari, that they were the one couple destined to be canon) so I was very shocked when I watched Reunion and instead of Jyoumi like I expected I got Koumi and boy was I not happy. So Toei needs to invest time into attempting to convert me to a Koumi shipper, which they have (I’m still not converted but I have some interest in it)

And Sorato we all know has a lot of fire behind it. It has been at the center of what is, to my knowledge, the greatest Ship War in the fandom. Now I wasn’t in any online community until recently and as a child didn’t care that Sora ended up with Yamato (I actually completely forgot it happened until it was brought up by a friend of mine in highschool and I was just like “oh yeah… that was a thing wasn’t it”) so I have only heard about this war in legend, although I believe I have recently been subject to the after effects of it… Anyway, Sorato is in competition primarily with Taiora and Taiyama, as well as many other ships to a lesser extend like SoraxMeiko, JyouxSora, etc. If this ship is not made canon in Tri then Sorato fans will be very upset (and understandably so, there are even Taiora fans who feel that if Sorato is removed then it is disrespectful). At the same time, if it is made canon they still have a large fanbase upset. Furthermore, unlike Meichi and Koumi who could easily become canon without changing anything because who these kids ended up with was left up in the air – Sorato was not left up in the air, it is canon and they either have to change the ending or go with it, no alternative. So, more so then any other ship, I feel they need to make people invested in these two to avoid massive backlash.

Takari, like with ships like Koumi and Taiyama, is getting a lot of attention from the creators because it is so popular within the fandom (probably the most popular ship of all) and so of course they are going to want to cater to it. Now Taiyama is not likely to be made canon because it isn’t a Heterosexual couple (I don’t think this point needs further explanation…)

Takari is a whole different game than any other pairing in digimon, in my opinion. It has virtually no competition and certainly no real competition. They are most people’s OTP for these two characters. And also, who they ended up with is left up in the air so even if Tri sticks with the original epilogue, these two could very easily be married in that world. And they are a heterosexual couple… they literally meet all of the criteria to easily be made canon whether this is the 02 Epilogue universe or an alternate universe. So yeah… let’s say they have a 98% chance of becoming canon to me 😝 and I’m putting that 2% in as a safe net… and also because I think an argument can be made for them not becoming canon… which I’m about to do because it ties into how I feel about the couple, specifically their relationship in Tri

Okay let’s talk how I felt about Takari as a child before getting on to Tri… because this one ask was left ever so slightly ambiguous as to if they wanted my feelings in general or just Tri (most of my focus will be on Tri but I’ll cover all my bases).

When I was a kid I shipped these two for sure (not really hard… the only ship I shipped super hard as a child to my recollection was syaoran x sakura from Cardcaptors). And I think I just assumed they were married in the Epilogue because it wasn’t stated otherwise. They are the youngest two characters and super cute together

Love the scene with them against piedmon

And holding hands as they fall (just noticed that in this scene Hikari is holding his hand and it’s reversed in Tri)

And they had some good moments together in 02. I love every second of them together in Hurricane Touchdown, especially the train scene (favourite scene in the original Japanese version)

They really do act like partners and people who have known each other forever, more so than I think a lot of the other pairings in the original cast (but that might be because of how much we see Hikari and Takeru vs the other 6). But I always really liked the idea of Wizardmon and Hikari as a couple as well. And have grown a love for HikarixKoushiro in recent years (I have plans to do a post on why I ship these two in the next week).

Tri though has done something very peculiar to my feelings regarding Takari, it seems to have done the same thing to many Koumi fans, and that is that it has made me ship Takari less.

I seem to not be seeing what everyone else is seeing. Many people seem to believe that Hikari is in love with Takeru but I am not getting that vibe at all.

The way she teases him about the Girlfriend in Reunion does not come across as someone who is jealous. It comes across as a girl making fun of her guy friend, who she has zero interest in, finding himself a girlfriend.

Takeru on the other hand does come off like he is hoping Hikari is jealous, so I think he likes her romantically

I’ll give more detail in a sec but I want to take a moment to point out that I feel this is similar to their dynamic in 01 and 02 (I always felt he liked her more than she liked him) because in hurricane touchdown (at least in the English version, I don’t remember the Japanese version off the top of my head) he seems annoyed with her concern for Daisuke

And in the episode with the dark ocean he is acting like he is trying to confess and she seems kind of oblivious to me, or maybe understanding but not 100% on the same page as him

The way she warns Meiko comes off one of two ways to me: either as a girl warning another girl about her platonic friend who is a playboy, but who she also has affection for and so it is said in a lighthearted way vs in more of a “omg get away while you can” kinda way

Or alternatively, and here we are getting into some theories of mine, as a girlfriend warning another girl about her boyfriend while also stealthily telling her boyfriend off for flirting…

Okay so I think it is not in any way unthinkable that Hikari and Takeru could have gotten together between the airport battle and the scene where they are searching with Meiko. I think it is possible they are secretly dating. Because I also think the scene where Hikari seems to be teasing Takeru in Loss comes off as either a girl teasing a guy friend about a potential crush or a girlfriend warning her boyfriend

Unlike Koumi though, where it is over the top obvious that Koushiro likes Mimi, all of the non-teasing moments with Takari could easily come off as both platonic and Romantic love.

Her holding him after he loses patamon

Yamato also holds him

Takeru is holding her arm not her hand

I’m Just saying…

…

And even if he was holding her hand

I’m just saying…

As for him always being by her side protecting her… well he has always been like that, he is just by his nature very protective of her and honestly, I think they have always hinted that he likes her from 01 to 02 to now Tri. But you could also argue there are a lot of pairing like this

Koushiro is always by Taichi’s side as the series progressed

Taichi and Yamato are often attached at the hip

Sora and Taichi are pretty attached at the hip (specifically in adventure)

Jyou is always protecting Takeru

He is also pretty attached to Mimi

Now the scene where she says he has grown up… I do not get this scene… I don’t see how Takeru has grown up any more than he had grown up in 02… and I definitely don’t see how this scene showcases he has grown up. But I would say this is the most shippable moment, I feel like her thinking he has grown up is one of those very cliché (not as in bad cliché but as in recognizable) lines that indicates growing romantic interest.

Why I ship them less is because I don’t really like the way she teases him… she almost seems to tease him in the same way she teased Daisuke. It comes across as more mocking than anything else and I don’t care for it, just like how I didn’t care for how she treated Daisuke.

Also there is the MeikoxTakeru stuff I wanted to address. Cause there is a lot of MeikoxTekeru in Tri. She has more interaction with him than any other male character and also

I think Hikari ships it lol

Okay so I addressed the scene where she gets the nick name earlier.

But then we also have the scenes in Determination (also side note but Yamato is so fucken hot in this scene omg, that necklace that shirt perfection)

And him being the first to come up to greet her friend (Maki)

The fact that he opens up to only her in Confession, and I know you could argue it’s because she is the only one who may understand but it also means he has a level of comfort with her

And how he tried to get her to come to the digital world with them

Playboy with shy girl is almost more common in anime then hyperactive/lead boy with shy girl (takeruxmeiko vs taichixmeiko)

Anyway, I’m not going to do a long analysis of TakeruxMeiko, I just wanted to throw it out there as a possibility or alternative to Takari

I feel like I have kinda gone around in circles with this post, sorry, it’s probably not super easy to follow.

I have heard there is an interview where they said they were planning to make Takari Canon but I’d like to see some definitive proof. Actually I’d like to see some proof of all these rumored interviews… like the one where they said the epilogue is still going to be canon specifically. Cause I have some theories about that one but I need to know the exact wording used, otherwise I’m shooting a little more in the dark.

Thank you everyone who requested this topic 😊 and to everyone who actually got to the end of it. This post is over 4 pages long in an MS Word document haha

#digimon #digimon adventure tri #takari #takeruxhikari #hikarixtakeru #meikoxtakeru #takeruxmeiko

[50cyg]

Yamato “I expect too much of him”, analysis of Yamato and Taichi’s relationship in Tri Part 2

This is a follow up to my previous thoughts on this scene between Agumon, Yamato and Koushiro. Previously I analyzed the “No, we don’t” line in detail, here I will analyze the “I expect too much of him” line. 

 Conversation recap for reference, taken from Crunchyroll Subs:

Agumon: Yamato doesn’t talk about Taichi at all. You guys don’t get along?

Yamato: Well

Koushiro: Actually, they get along well

Yamato: No, we don’t

Agumon: You don’t like him?

Yamato: I don’t hate him. It’s just I expect too much of him.

 Okay here I will specifically be focusing on Yamato’s comment of “I expect too much of him” and also, I will be going a little into how I feel about their relationship in Tri in general.

So, to recap I said earlier that Yamato’s primary dilemma is that he is not used to Taichi being hesitant in his actions. He expects Taichi to be the leader, constantly rushing in and protecting everyone or at the bare minimum using himself as a distraction but in Reunion he was either hesitating to contemplate the consequences or freezing up all together. The interesting thing is that Taichi almost needs to be this person now because Yamato isn’t being his normal self.

I like to think of the fight between Yamato and Taichi in episode 7 when they argue over whether to climb the mountain as the perfect highlight of their relationship, characters, viewpoints and how they play off each other. Taichi is the one who understands that to get anywhere they need to move and take risks while Yamato is the one pointing out any potential consequences and making sure their decisions have been thoroughly thought through. This relationship is very important as it stabilizes the team.

Now, like I said before, it’s as if they have switched places with Taichi now being the one thinking about potential negative outcomes and Yamato being the one to say that if they want to move forward they need to move regardless of the consequences. Now this would be fine, it keeps the concept of their equalization in check so one would think the team would remain stabilized except it wouldn’t because as has been shown before Yamato is not a capable leader and so cannot fill the void left by Taichi. One of the primary reason for this I think is that Yamato, unlike Taichi, is not a very personable person. He has difficulty getting along with others and is constantly off sulking, dealing with his issues on his own. Even in Reunion when Taichi isn’t his usual self he still goes to Koushiro’s office for updates and is with the others to search for distortions in the digital field while Yamato is literally sulking at home. Or when he leaves the group in episode 45 of 01 to find himself, or when he leaves Takeru alone at the amusement park to look around (like for the life of me I will never understand that. I would argue it’s just put in their for plot convenience because they needed to separate the brothers but since it’s canon I’m going to use it to further my point). Yamato, not the best team player ever.

Now Taichi, as of the end of Confession, has stopped being hesitant. He is the first to show up to the fight with meicoomon, leads the others back into the digital world, runs after meicoomon in Loss and yet Yamato still gets mad at him in the first episode of Loss. This happens when Taichi questioned whether they could save meicoomon. Upon the first viewing I felt like maybe something had been lost in translation (I still feel like that might be the case) and then I was just thinking that Yamato needed to like calm his s***. But then I started to really think about it and I realized that Taichi saying that means that he has lost something else very important to his role in the group, and that is his positivity. Taichi is always the one that no matter what had faith that everything would be okay, it’s part of the reason he always rushed forward into battle. But now he is doubting whether they can save people. And of course, Yamato is angry that Taichi is having doubts (I still think he needs to like calm his s***). But it makes sense that Yamato would be disturbed by this, Taichi was always the one that no matter how down the group was would always be in high spirits and pushing them forward and again if he isn’t there to fill that position then a void will be left and there could be serious consequences (like the group giving up entirely which is simply not an option). This is why Yamato is so happy when Taichi says he is going after meicoomon because in that moment not only is he filing the leadership position by making an executive decision about their next move but he is also filing the optimist position by believing it’s possible.

Now Yamato has always expected a lot from Taichi. But in Tri I feel it’s even more in the forefront. Although I think that Yamato has cause to be upset because they really do need Taichi to be the leader and optimist I also think it’s really unhealthy for him to get mad at Taichi all the time for having hesitations. Seriously he needs to have these doubts, he needs to work through them and come out stronger and Yamato freaking out all the time is not helping. Honestly I sorta want the story to head in the direction of Taichi snapping from all the pressure cause it’s getting out of control and you can really see it affecting him. The scene where he is talking to Hikari in front of the TV screens is an example, he is really upset that he wasn’t able to digivolve Agumon and I would argue it’s partially because he feels like he can’t protect people anymore.

But Yamato saying that he expects to much of Taichi at least shows that he is self-aware of the fact that he places to much pressure on Taichi (also sorta places Taichi up on a pedestal a little I think, which is cute but not healthy). It was recently brought to my attention by Rainbow09 that we have seen the results of this self-awareness before when Yamato told Taichi they didn’t need Omegamon, which means some of the pressure to be the protectors has been taken off of them.

Anyway, this was really long but that’s basically the end of my analysis of that scene… pshh who am I kidding I’m sure something new will come to me in the next few days.

If you made it to the end awesome. Let me know what you think. I love talking about digimon and unfortunately don’t have many people in my real-world life who enjoy analyzing as much as I do.

#taichi yagami #yamato ishida #digimon adventure tri #digimon #taiyama #taichi x yamato #taito #yamachi