'Even though I thought I would never be the same, the world soon went back to normal and after a while so did I. Life became exactly as it was before I met Guilmon. Kazu still made bad jokes and Miss Nami still gave too much homework.'
He ran through the park, past the once regularly used stone steps. He stopped and listened when he thought he heard a small giggling.
'Sometimes I go by our old hangouts just to see if he's there. Don't know why I bother, because he's never there. Most times I'm OK but there's this one thing that bugs me: a promise I made to a friend—a promise I don't think I can keep.'
He turned around and looked at the top of the steps, at the stone room that once housed a red dinosaur called Guilmon. He looked inside and saw a ball of light in a dugout extension. Small shapes pulsed within the light. He couldn't believe his eyes.
'Actually, scratch that! I think I'm going to keep that promise after all!'
He was speechless. He reached to his head to pull down his goggles, but only grabbed light brown hair. The one day he didn't wear his goggles since the separation.
Trying not to take his eyes off the light, he pulled off his backpack. He tried to find his cell-phone but had to quickly turn his gaze away when he couldn't find it. Pulling his phone out, he looked again and found the light had disappeared.
His face dropped as he realised he had let the opportunity that he wanted for months slip him by. He turned around, put his backpack back on, and walked away, feeling disappointed with himself for getting his hopes up. He walked back down the stone steps, heading for home.
He knew he was wide awake for the experience, but when he woke the next morning, he dismissed it as a dream.
He walked over to his desk and opened the top draw. He pulled out a digital object and looked at it. He couldn't help but wonder; what did the light mean? Would his friends come back?
Despite what he had been doing for months, he left the object in the drawer and put on his usual clothes and made his way to school.
He stopped by the playground near the school and saw his oldest friends, Kazu Shioda, Kenta Kitagawa, along with his first crush, Jeri Katou.
He told them about the 'dream', adding in the part where he was sure he was awake. Kazu and Kenta instantly dismissed him and walked to school, leaving him there alone with Jeri.
She believed him, simply because she wanted to see their friends again. But she did tell him that he was stupid for telling them first before consulting his more rational friends, Rika Nonaka and Henry Wong. They would have told him whether it was worth telling or just waiting until a later point in time.
So the day carried on for young Takato Matsuki; school life, homework, helping in his parents bakery and occasionally hanging out with his friends. He quickly forgot about seeing the ball of light the day before.
Soon, the months passed by and life went on. But that all changed when the now known government operation, known as HYPNOS, recorded an unusual reading…
