Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.
Welcome to 'Charting the Past'! I appreciate you giving my story some attention. This is my first attempt at a Digimon fic in first person style, and I am hoping it won't be too bad. Any suggestions on how to write first person stories are more then welcome. Thanks for reading the first chapter and have a great day!
Oh, and in this universe the Digidestined are friends from school, but did not have any adventures in the digital world. Digimon is merely a popular cartoon in their universe.
There were colors. Everywhere I looked bright neon colors reflected back at my face from their location a few miles ahead. I walked towards the lights and found a cheerful tune joining me as I grew closer and closer to the lights. For some reason my heart began to pound with a newly excited rhythm and a smile broke out onto my face. The combination of the colors and sounds filled me with a strange sense of wonder and joy. It was like I was coming back to a place I knew well, instead of running into the unknown. As the feeling grew, my desire to reach the lights grew as well. Suddenly I was running towards the promise land at a speed I didn't know I could produce. The lights grew closer with each step I took, and as I reached my hand out to touch their neon warmth the lights and music disappeared.
The area became encased in a dark shadow that rapidly began to kill any joy I had once felt. The floor below joined the dark theme and began to morph into some kind of goo ready to drag anything it could to the depths below. As a last resort I tried screaming into the blackness. There was no telling who could have been nearby or if they would stop to help me, but I had to try. Something in my core told me that if I didn't fight back now, I would regret it for the rest of my life. The black goo began to creep up my body and I started to struggle with all the might my swarmed arms could muster.
A painful thud brought me out of the goo and back into the world of the living. Glancing around the room with blurred vision, I spotted my uniform blazer hanging on the back of my door and one of my guitars leaning against the bed. Below my body was the ugly shag carpet that hadn't been changed since the apartment building was first erected in Odaiba. For the first time I could remember, I was thankful the old carpet greeted me. Anything was better then that horrible slime. But how had I ended up on the floor? Then again, that dream usually left me in some kind of awkward position. At least it no longer made me scream and cry like it had during my childhood. The last thing I needed was for dad to come home and find me in the middle of some night terror.
The alarm clock on the desk alerted me to the fact it was far too early to be contemplating the meaning of nightmares. I climbed back into the bed and tried to force myself to relax back into a deep sleep. After a half hour of lying still and staring up at the bland celling, the stagnant feeling began to annoy me. With a longer then usual sigh, I gave up recapturing my last my few hours of sleep and pulled out a familiar book from under my bed.
I leafed through the ancient text until my eyes found the page I had highlighted when the book was new, "Colors in dreams represent energy, emotions, and vibrations. Bright colors mean awareness… You'd think if I was so aware, I would have figured out this dream by now."
XXX
I must have dozed off at some point during my reading, because I managed to oversleep just long enough to be late for first period and miss the entire morning assembly. After a few minutes of waiting out in the hall, Sensei Ito allowed me to come back inside and take my seat. Every set of eyes in the room watched as I slinked into my chair. I hated being late. I hated having the teacher use my lateness, as part of her tardiness is a sin lecture. And above all, I hated the goofy grin Taichi offered me each time I stumbled into class after the bell.
"Maybe you should just sleep at the school?" He whispered in that usual happy-go-lucky tone.
I eyed the teacher and waited till she was busy trying to find her place in the textbook, before leaning to the side and whispering, "Some of us have other commitments to uphold and late nights."
"Late nights? Commitments?" Taichi paused as the teacher began to read aloud from her own text. He propped his book up on the desk to stop her from seeing his mouth move. "Sounds like a girl issue Ishida."
"There is no girl." I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the insipid textbook.
"As you can see from our past readings," The teacher's voice increased in volume as she walked between the rows of desks. Her steely gaze watched each of the teenagers in the room with well-rehearsed disapproval in her eyes. Most of the students who took Sensei Ito for history fully believed that she lacked the capability to smile. That maybe the facial muscles needed to form any expression besides a frown were dysfunctional. "Family lineage was terribly important to high ranking medieval families. They relied on specific documents citing the connections between various members of their groups. To this day we focus on researching family lines, and proving our connection to other members of our family by using various forms of documents."
Sensei Ito walked back to the front of the room and placed her text on the desk. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared out into the sea of students. "How many of you have seen your birth certificates?"
A handful of students raised their hands, but I kept mine on the desk. I had never been interested in looking at such documents, and it seemed like I was in the minority. Taichi and Sora both offered me a curious glance, but didn't dare ask anything with Ito staring straight at us. A quick look around the room assured me that not only did most of the kids have their hands up, but that I was the only one who hadn't raised their hand.
"For our new project," Ito ignored my lack of participation and the groans filling the room. "I want you to research your family tree. We are going to find out where each of our classmates came from. And present our results in front of the class."
"Exactly how far back do we have to go?" Tai, ever the dedicated student, piped up from the desk beside me.
"This is your final project for the semester, Yagami-kun. How far back do you think you need to go?"
"Grandparents?" The boy mumbled, while Sora and I shook our heads in silent disapproval. The boy had no idea when to give up.
"This assignment is to examine the far reaches of your family lineage. To discover the relatives and ancestors that you were not aware of. This assignment will open your eyes to the history of your family." She spotted Tai's hand about to raise and cut the boy off. "The basic requirements will be to research to your great grandparents. But the further you delve into your family tree, the better your final grade."
The bell for lunch broke the silence of the classroom and forced Ito to clap her hands swiftly to regain order. "You will need to present your findings at the end of the semester. Now, you are dismissed. Except for you Ishida-kun. I want you to stay for a moment."
Once the rest of the class had exited the room and headed towards their next destination, Ito walked over to the door and closed it gently. She stationed herself behind the large wooden desk at the front of the room and motioned for me to come closer. I took my time grabbing my shoulder bag and walking up to the desk. Ito never had good news when she spoke to me in class, who knows what she wanted to say now that we were alone.
"Ishida-kun, do you realize how many tardies you have acquired this past month?"
"Three, Sensei?"
"Try six." She opened a drawer and pulled out a hefty manila folder. I let out a small sigh of relief when she selected only one sheet of paper from the folder instead of telling me each one was about my tardies. "There is a strict attendance policy in this school. The rulebook states that after three unexcused absences the student's grades will be demoted with each following absence. As it stands right now, you are looking at a very possible failing grade for this course."
"Fail…" I had to physically shake my head to clear the shock from my mind. "I thought I didn't have any absences, just tardies Sensei."
"Your tardies add up to as many missed hours of class time as four full absences." The woman placed the document back into her folder and looked up at me with what seemed like genuine concern. "Ishida-kun, I have seen the work you have done in other classes. I think you are very intelligent and will do well on the entrance exams if you could just learn some organizational skills. So, I am offering you a chance to fix your grade in my class. If you present a final project that is very thorough and extremely well researched I will give you a passing grade. If you cannot present a project of the caliber I know you are able to handle, I will have no choice but to leave your grade as it is."
XXX
By the time the school day had ended I was still unable to get Ito's words out of my mind. I had never failed a course before and I couldn't start now. There were no plans in my future to go to some expensive, fancy college, but even the music school I wanted to attend would require my transcript and exam scores. How could I beat the millions of other graduating seniors applying to the school when I had failing grades on my record?
"Hey Yamato!"
I looked up from the guitar I had been idly strumming and spotted a few of my friends heading to my current spot beneath the school's cherry blossom trees. Tai led the charge and kicked a soccer ball along the ground as he jogged up to me. Sora and Koushiro brought up the rear and tried to keep up with the quick moving brunette.
"I have been looking all over for you." Tai dropped to the ground beside me and rested his back against the trunk of a large tree.
"Tai figured Sensei Ito had eaten you alive." Sora laughed softly and sat across from me. She stole Taichi's ball and began lazily spinning it on her finger. "Was she upset with you?"
"Ito is upset with everything. She probably gives the clouds a lecture when they cover the sun." Tai rolled his eyes and waited for one of the other group members to laugh at his joke.
"What did she say?" Koushiro broke into Tai's mini comedy routine and tried to gain some factual information.
"I have to do good on the final project to pass the class."
"That isn't to bad," Sora offered a smile and patted the my hand. "Just talk to your dad. I bet he has all sorts of information."
If dad was ever home for longer then twelve minutes that could have been a good idea. "Yeah. Hey, have you guys all actually seen your birth certificates? Or were you just trying to go along with Ito?"
"My mom has that thing in my baby book. She always tries to drag them out to show Kari and I every year. Each birthday morning she cooks up some kind of inedible pancake and looks through the baby book."
"My mother showed it to me when I graduated from elementary school and again when I graduated from middle school. She just stared at the footprints on it, teared up, and talked about how her daughter was growing up."
I actually was the only one who hadn't seen their birth certificate. To be honest, it had never occurred to me to look for such a document. Over the years I had asked my mom and dad a few questions about when I was a baby, but the subject never really interested me. By the time I actually started to wonder about my history my parents had decided to split up and effectively put a halt to any of our family discussions. The rest of the years, I kept busy taking care of dad and tried not to think about my past. Looking back was just to stressful and awkward. Why waste my time on that?
"I wouldn't worry about it Yamato." Tai picked up on the shifting mood and offered me a goofy grin. "Let's just play soccer and think about it later."
"No thanks." I gave them my best attempt at a smile and stood up. "I need to get working on this project. Maybe I can get my dad to come home early tonight and we can talk about his side of the family."
"Good luck, Yama." Sora and the others watched me walk away from the school grounds and seemed to be discussing something I couldn't hear when I looked back in their direction.
XXX
After a quick stop by the grocery store, I booked it to the apartment. I had a pretty good feeling that dad would want to know why I was suddenly so interested in our family tree. So, it couldn't hurt to butter the guy up with a good meal. Dad had never been a strict parent by any measure, but he was a good enough father to be severely disappointed with a son who managed to drag his grade so low.
I stirred the pots of various vegetables simmering on the stove, and tried to think of every tidbit I knew about our family. A pad of scratch paper was placed next to the wall-mounted phone. I tore off a sheet and started to draw the basic level of my family tree. There was Takeru and I at the very bottom, mom and dad above us, mom's mother above her… and… that was all I knew.
"How the hell is that it?" I taped the pencil on the table and tried my hardest to concentrate on the subject at hand.
Mom and dad couldn't have just fallen out of the sky and produced two sons. They had to have parents and their parents had parents and so on. I think my father had once told me he had a brother. Or was that a sister? An image of my father with long hair and curves entered my mind and caused my entire body to shiver in disgust. If it was a girl, I hope she was lucky enough to look like her mother. Whose name I… also didn't know.
"Yama?" I heard my dad's voice call out into the apartment and shoved my failed attempt at a family tree in the junk drawer.
"In the kitchen dad!"
"Smells good in here." He dropped his briefcase on the kitchen table and walked directly to the pans on the stove. "What are you making?"
"Your favorite."
"Sounds good to me." He tried to fan some of the aromas from the top of pots to his nose. "What is the special occasion? You only fix this complicated of a meal when something is up."
"Well, I actually wanted to ask you some questions about our fa-"
"One moment, son." Dad held up a finger and pulled the vibrating phone from his pocket. "This is Ishida. What's going on?"
The work call lasted much longer then I expected. By the time dad had turned off the phone and made it to the table, the food was slightly cold and I had to reheat his plate. My own were already soaking in the sink awaiting a good scrub after we had our conversation. He thanked me heartily for cooking, as usual, and began to stuff his face. The man always seemed to eat like someone who had been starving for days, instead of someone who had merely skipped lunch to work on reports.
"So, dad…" I rested my chin on my left hand and tried my hardest to keep the conversation casual. "About what I was saying in the kitchen. I had some questions to ask you."
"Sure, son. What is it?" He swallowed a large bite of food and took a sip of his water.
"Well, do you know where my birth certificate is?"
The man paused in mid-chew and stared at the wall behind my head. For a moment I wondered if he was having some kind of episode, but he roughly swallowed the food and set his fork on the plate. His normally tired eyes began to search the area as if he was waiting for someone to enter the dining room and answer the question for him.
"Dad?" I watched him nervously and waited for some sound to come from his lips.
"Sorry, son." He coughed a little and downed the rest of his drink. "I just swallowed wrong."
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah. I'm just going to go lay down for a bit. I had a migraine from work and have to go back tonight to do a little more work, so I'm just gonna rest for a little bit. You're okay to do the dishes right?"
"Sure… and you don't mind getting my birth certificate?"
He paused once again and strummed his fingers on the dinning room table. The only times I had seen my dad tap the table or fidget nervously was when he was under a great amount of stress. The first time was when he and my mom told Takeru and I that they were breaking up. I could understand him being stressed out then, but why was he so worked up now? How hard could it be to dig out an old piece of paper?
"I think it is at your mother's apartment. I'll call her and check later."
"Oh," I watched him leave the room with wide eyes. Just before he slid behind his bedroom door, I noticed he pulled his phone out and quickly dialed some numbers. "Maybe passing history class is going to be harder then I thought."
Why is Yamato's father so nervous about the birth certificate? Will Yama pass history class? Why does he always have the colorful nightmare? Stay tuned for more answers in this mysterious case. : ) And if anyone knows a good beta, please send them my way. My grammar could use their guidance lol.