A/N: Hello and welcome to my newest story!
It has been several years since I've done a Digimon story and I must say, I'm thrilled to be back doing another one! I know that this story is a contrast to my first Digimon story, but you've read correctly. This is indeed a Koumi story. Now, while I will always be a die-hard Mimato fan, I must say that thanks to Digimon Tri, I have found an increased liking to Koumi.
And thus, this story was born! This story is like a reverse "She's All That". So, I hope that you guys enjoy and all enjoy the ride!
In The Name of Science!
Ch 01: It Always Starts With A Bet
Odaiba High School. 3:10 pm. The parking lot was scarce of the vehicles that overflowed just minute's prior. Another school day had come to an end. Students eagerly vacated the premise with only a few dozen staying behind for their own personal reasons.
The end of school signaled the start of various afterschool activities offered at Odaiba High. Educators often held study halls or tutoring sessions for students in need, while others found themselves participating in various school sports or partaking in a club.
Odaiba High housed many after school clubs formed by the students in honor of a particular subject that a group was passionate about. The school offered a wide variety of clubs, many ranging from the academic-like the chess club-to the social-with the Yamato Ishida fan club.
Amongst the array, Odaiba High's newest club was the Computer and Technology club. Established the previous school year, the Computer and Technology Club-"CompTech" as they preferred to be identified-brought together like-minded students with a passion and aptitude for anything related to the technological and computer based world.
Originally debuting with three members, since its inclusion, CompTech had grown to a peak of eight members. The club dedicated its time to discussing and sharing their vast intellectual knowledge concerning the topic. However, now into its second year, the group had decided to shift directions and start applying their (as they put it) "genius minds" beyond mere discussion.
Their solution: they would build a robot. A fully functioning robot that could-in theory-be controlled using a person's brain waves. To them, it was simple enough; they were confident in their abilities.
Each meeting-held every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday-was then fiercely dedicated to bringing this idea to form. There wasn't a minute of their time, energy, and focus that was not spent working on their project.
Until…it wasn't.
They were teenagers after all; and sometimes the power of school gossip was too tempting.
"Its official ladies and gentlemen, Koushiro Izumi has officially lost his mind. I mean, it was bound to happen, some one with that much brain power was bound to blow a gasket at some point."
Blood quickly blooded Koushiro's cheeks, shading them a bright and vibrant shade of red, as all seven members of CompTech directed their attention to the leader of the club. He was a deer and headlights.
Slowly, Koushiro opened his mouth in hopes of stammering out some kind of response; but all hopes were dashed. His voice failed him, as the only noise that could utter its way out was a repetitive "Uh".
He couldn't believe it. He was Koushiro Izumi. He was the president-an founder-of CompTech. He had the top IQ of the entire high school-staff included; and yet, put under pressure, his brain went to mush.
Curse Miyako Inoue. Curse her and thrusting the reigned genius into the spotlight. She may be his best friend-and cofounder of CompTech-but she sure did have an extremely big mouth. There was no backing out of this one. Every member was completely engrossed.
"What are you talking about, Miyako?" It was Hikari Yagami whom spoke up first, her attention shifting from the big-mouthed co-president back to the ever-reddening president. Hikari was the fourth member to join CompTech; she was persuaded to join by the club's treasurer (and third founding member), Takeru Takaishi.
Miyako took a moment of pause, allowing for the drama to build and Koushiro to squirm even more, "Our great president, AND our club's founding father, has it fantasized in his head that he could bag a date with Mimi Tachikawa."
Silence fell over the group.
"What does this have to do with our robot?" Iori Hida-the club's youngest member-finally piped up. Often soft spoken, Iori was the newest member and being a year younger than most of the group members he was always out to prove himself of equal value to the rest of his peers. He was often ignored.
"No, no, no, no-" Koushiro babbled, finally able to find his voice as he frantically hurried to find a more gratifying response, "I wasn't meaning a date as in a date. I was simply hypothesizing, the possibly, of maybe, conducting an experiment in determining the outcome of asking the subject in question about meeting over coffee and recording the results. That is all!"
"You want to ask her on a date," Miyako counter flatly, "You're just a poor boy caught under the spell of a pretty girl."
"Why does it matter if Koushiro wants to ask Mimi out, Miyako?" Hikari questioned the co-president.
"I'm with Hikari, if Koushiro likes Mimi then there is no harm in asking her out." Takeru offered his two cents before turning his attention to the club's founder offering him a thumbs-up in support.
"I'm with Hikari, too!" Daisuke Motosuwa interjected. Daisuke was the club's fifth member and only joined in order to be closer to his crush, Hikari. Daisuke wasn't very intelligent and often spent his time during the meetings completely lost.
"I, frankly, don't care what Koushiro does. I just want to get back to our robot." Iori spoke dryly. And as expected, no one realized he had even made a peep.
"There's a very crucial and important reason why this idea is completely idiotic!" Miyako was building up her dramatics. "Mimi is the most popular girl in school. Even as a sophomore, all the upperclassmen fawn over her. Everyone either wants to date her or be her. She has everyone eating out of the palm of her hand. She would not in a million years give Koushiro the time of day!"
With each of Miyako's words, Koushiro felt like a turtle retreating into his figurative shell. Miyako was known for being blunt and honest. However, sometimes her blunt and honesty could be extremely harsh.
Hikari was first to the defense, "That's not fair, Miyako. Koushiro isn't some kind of troll. He's intelligent, kind, nice and handsome. All qualities any girl would love. I don't see why Mimi couldn't give him a chance."
Koushiro appreciated the kind words from his fellow club members. Miyako had a strong personality and Koushiro often found it difficult to stand up against her once she begun one of her rants-especially when he was the topic of choice.
Miyako let out a heavy sigh as she began to massage her temples, "Oh, Hikari…you just don't understand. Koushiro and Mimi have gone to school together since elementary and not once have those two even exchanged pleasantries. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know his name!"
"Well, maybe if Koushiro started making steps to getting to know Mimi and vice-versa she would find something in each other that they liked! Right, Koushiro?" Hikari countered.
Koushiro opened his mouth to respond but Miyako didn't' give him the opportunity.
"Wrong! Hikari, you are only a freshman so you don't quite understand 'cliques' and how they work. Mimi runs with the popular crowd and Koushiro-as well as myself-run with a more intelligent crowd. Our crowd and Mimi's crowd don't have any contact with one another. Ever. You don't befriend others outside of your own clique and you surely don't date outside your clique. Isn't that right, Koushiro?" Miyako concluded her argument.
Once more, Koushiro opened his mouth to respond, but he stopped himself. Why should he bother? They wouldn't listen to anything he had to say. Plus, Miyako was right. Unfortunately. Those were the unofficial laws of High School.
Hikari shook her head, "That's silly. No one could be so shallow that they would refuse to date some just because of what clique they run with."
"Oh, you don't know Mimi." Miyako huffed.
"Maybe not, but if she were to get to know Koushiro, and disassociate him from his clique, maybe her views could be persuaded into something a little more romantic." Hikari offered, flashing Koushiro a sweet smile and reassuring wink.
"I highly doubt it." Miyako wasn't about to change her stance on things. Over the years, and the limited interactions with Mimi, Miyako was sure of one thing: Mimi was a girl of status. What others thought and how they viewed her meant everything. She wouldn't give that up for someone ranked in a lower clique then her own.
"I smell a bet coming on!" Daisuke exclaimed in a singsong voice as everyone turned to the goggle-headed member dumbfound.
"What are you talking about, Daisuke?" Miyako inquired.
Daisuke simply smiled from ear to ear. He may not know anything about computers or technology and spend a majority of CompTech's meeting completely lost, this was finally a discussion that he felt his two cents could be valued.
"Well-and stay with me now-you and Hikari are gonna just keep going back and forth about this, arguing and arguing; and there's really only one way to know which one of you is correct. Why not just test it out and see who's really right?" Daisuke could see that the group-especially Koushiro-wasn't being easily convinced, "Hey, think about it, we could even turn it into one of your science-y or mathematically scenarios. Collect tons of data and see if in a real world settling, could miss popular princess go for Mr. nerd-in-shining-armor?"
For the second time in less than ten minutes, silence fell upon the CompTech's meeting.
Takeru was the first to finally speak, "You know…Daisuke doesn't have a totally terrible plan. It would be an interesting experiment to conduct. We see all the time in books and TV shows that people of different classes or groupings could never integrate. It is simply unheard of. Why not put the theory to the test? We could break some stereotypes."
"Exactly. I was watching this show on one of the science-y networks by accident and they did an experiment where they raised a baby deer and a baby tiger together and they were like best friends even though they are supposed to enemies! So, what do you guys say? Mimi and Koushiro can be our deer and our tiger." Daisuke built onto his argument.
Miyako and Hikari exchanged a brief look before returning their attention back to Daisuke.
"I suppose it could be a fun experiment!" Hikari responded joyfully as she clasped her hands together in delight.
"I'm willing to go along with it," Miyako huffed, "In the name of science! But, I can assure you that I'll be proven correct."
Koushiro's head was starting to spin. Today was supposed to be a normal meeting of CompTech. They were going to work on more formulas geared towards their robot. Then, in a brief sidetrack, their initial plans had ben derailed.
"Wha-what just happened!?" Koushiro's voice croaked.
"I believe any future work on the robot has now been postponed indefinitely," Iori responded, disappointment seeping into every word. "Oh, and its expected of you now to ask Mimi Tachikawa on a date."
TBC...
Next-02: The Rules