Hi folks, and welcome to my new story, the sequel to Somewhere I Belong (which you should check out if you haven't already =)). Enjoy the first chapter!
Disclaimer: I Are Not Owning Digimon.
How Far We've Come
Chapter 1 Late Night Emergency
The digital world, a place of wonder, fun, adventure, and often times fright. Not many people can claim to have been there, but everyone knew about it. Of course knowing about it didn't really mean anything. Even the people, or at least the humans, who knew the most about it didn't know everything that happened there, far from it in fact, and someone was taking advantage of that fact.
"Hellfire!" Hundreds of bullets impacted around a group of fleeing digimon, causing them to run even faster. They were running from the burning remains of their village, which had just been destroyed.
"Exorcism Scrolls!" Hundreds of little scrolls blocked the digimon's path, exploded, and deleted dozens of them.
"Now where do you think you are going?" A voice asked with a laugh. The remaining digimon looked up to see a man shaped digimon walking towards them. Most of the digimon recognized this digimon, and were even more afraid than they were seconds before. "This story doesn't end well for most of you. A select few though, will carry my message to the world." The digimon laughed again before throwing his hands in front of him. "Final Spell!" There was a flash of light, and most of the digimon saw no more.
Sora
"Come on! Move down the field!" I shout from the stands as I watch the players on the field. I and some of the digidestined were in the stands, all out to support several of our own as they played for the regional championship. I had been an avid soccer player before I switched to tennis, and I couldn't help but coach from the bench. Of course the team couldn't hear me, as the entire field was filled with cheering fans.
So I'm sure most of you are probably wondering some things, like what's been going on for the last few months with all of us digidestined and what not, so I'll go ahead and fill you in.
It's now December, and it's been over four months since I almost destroyed one of the best things in my life, my relationship with Tai Kamiya. Hopefully you guys are familiar with those events, because even though things turned out well, I really don't like thinking about most of them. Anyways, where was I?
Oh yea, it's been four months, and I couldn't be more happy, and I'm pretty sure most of my fellow digidestined feel the same way. I know Tai does, since he feels free to tell me so every other day or so. He was one of the big reasons that we were here today.
"Come on Tai!" Kari Kamiya shouts from next to me, and her boyfriend, T.K. Takashi also shouted towards the field where Kari's brother was playing soccer. Those two had really come much closer over the last four months. Kari had gotten over the feelings of inadequacies she had been having about their relationship, and the two had really developed their relationship, much to the joy of all of their friends (though Tai acted like he wasn't happy about that, I'm pretty sure that was just his older brother instincts and duties kicking in).
"Come on Davis!" Matt Ishida, T.K.'s older brother, and my one time boyfriend, shouted towards one of our other friends on the field. Matt had managed to pull himself out of his own friendship demon, and resumed his place as Tai's best (guy) friend, that and to being one of the most chased after guys at our school.
Surprisingly enough one of the few (single) boys who attracted as much attention from girls was the same boy Matt was cheering for. Davis Motomiya, both Tai and Matt's protégé on the new digidestined team, was the freshmen star of the soccer team. Davis had suffered from one of the best problems that anyone could have, caring for his friends, and the people he considered family, too much. This had caused Davis to neglect himself a little too much, and while I'm not really sure we cured him of anything, he is much happier, since the people closest to him are happier.
Now the girl situation. I'm sure any of you who know anything about Davis are surprised to hear about it, I mean, I know I was completely surprised to hear about it, but apparently without the reputation of being Kari's weird stalker following him around in high school, not to mention being the only freshmen on the highly successful Odaiba High soccer team and one of the leaders of the digidestined, Davis has really become a girl magnet.
I suppose I should be thankful, all those girls chasing Davis meant they weren't chasing Tai, but having two of my closest friends needing to be hidden from hordes of fan girls had really got annoying after a few seconds.
"Score a goal Ken!" The last digidestined member currently with us shouted out. Yolei Inoue shouted to her boyfriend, Ken Ichijouji , who happened to be resting on the bench at that point.
"Um Yolei?" I said, trying to keep from laughing.
"Yea Sora?" Yolei says as she stares down at Ken.
"Ken can't score; he's on the bench right now." I say, a little giggle escaping my lips. Yolei blushes a little, but just starts yelling at Ken to get out onto the field. I smile and turn back to the game. Yolei really was clueless about soccer, but at least she was here supporting her boyfriend and friends.
As I observed the game one of the players in particular caught my attention, as he did pretty much every time I saw him. I couldn't help but stare at him. I couldn't make out many details from the distance we were, but you could see the size of his brown hair from a mile away, and the glint of a pair of goggles on his head also drew the eye.
Of course I knew his features quite well, so my mind filled in what my eyes couldn't see. I could see every feature on his face, and thanks to the years I'd spent with him, and thanks to the many activities we had done together, including soccer, I could even imagine what facial expressions he was wearing.
Tai Kamiya had easily the worst of all of the poor decisions I had made during the first part of this year. All of my actions had almost led to a loss of something that was more precious than life, the special bond that Tai and I had. Luckily I was able to see what I almost did, with some help, and fix the problem, not to mention save Tai from a digital prison. I smile remembering the first day after Tai had been reunited with his body, and then stood straight up as Tai broke away from the opposition.
He dribbled the ball down the field, moving through the opposing team almost as if they weren't there. He had teammates trying to keep up with him, but almost every single one of them fell behind, not able to match his speed, or dodge all of their opponents.
He was almost in striking range of the goal now, and two defenders were heading to box him in. That was a poor choice on their part, and I smiled as I knew what Tai was going to do. The entire crowd seemed to quiet down as the three players rushed to meet each other, and the big haired boy shouted.
"DAVIS!" He brought his foot back to kick it, and passed to the one teammate who kept up with him, who the defenders had neglected, and who had a perfect shot at the goal.
"GOT IT!" Davis shouted back, getting the ball at his feet. The goalie, who also hadn't seen Davis, dove to get back into position, since he'd been in a position to save a shot from the other boy.
Davis brought his foot back and kicked the ball right into the goal, inches from the diving goalie's hands. Davis ran forwards and slid in the grass, as all of his teammates ran up to him. Tai was the first to reach him, and congratulate him, but the whole team was there. Of course it was just one of many such celebrations that day, the game wasn't even close.
Tai
I slowly walked out of the locker room after the game, and sighed. We had won the game eight to two, but we should have done better. We were now in the All Japan High School Tournament, which happened each winter break, and proved exactly which school was the best in all of Japan. It had been a dream of mine to play in that tournament, back in the long ago days when high school seemed like the realm of the old, and more than a life time away.
I brought my hands behind my head as I exited the locker room. We'd have to improve more if we wanted to do good in the tournament….
"Tai!" A voice shouted, and I look up, and drop my bag as an auburn haired blur ran straight at me. I was able to catch Sora as she jumped into my arms, and we kissed for a few seconds. After that we pulled a bit apart and I looked right into her crimson eyes, and reflected on how lucky I was.
This year really could have been the year of dreams for me, since many things that I had always wanted had come true. Of course it had started off as anything but the year of dreams, at least where relationships were concerned. I'd asked my best friend, Sora Takenouchi, out a few days before Christmas, only to be turned down, and led to believe she actually liked my best guy friend Matt Ishida.
That had led to some stress on my part, but I was able to deal with it, though Kari would tell you otherwise. Then came the first dream to come true, the darkness that had threatened to destroy both our world and the digital world had been destroyed for good. Everyone was very happy about this, and everything seemed great.
You of course know what happened next, Sora, me, and the whole emotional separation thing was beyond confusing, but lots of good came from it, as I found out that Sora loved me.
Yep, the girl who I was desperately in love with, though I never really admitted that to anyone, including myself, loved me right back, and finally realized it. After all that drama, life actually settled down, and honestly I couldn't imagine being any happier than I was at this moment. I was going to the AJHST, no more digital demons bugging me, and I had the girl of my dreams in my arms.
"Miss me?" Sora asks with a smile as we hold each other.
"Nope." I said, and Sora hits my arm, trying to put on a serious face. "What?" I ask, grinning, "I could hear your coaching from the field; I knew you were there the whole time." I tell her, and she just shakes her head, smiling as well now. I pull her back into my embrace, and we just relax holding each other.
"You were great out there." Sora whispers into my ear, and I smile.
"Why thank you." I tell her, and was about to say something nice back when the other digidestined who were at the game round the corner.
Davis and Matt both start to whistle, causing me and Sora to look up at the group.
"Come on you two! We need to get to the pizza parlor!" Davis shouted, rubbing his stomach for emphasis. I look at Sora and we both shrug, we know better than to come between Davis and food, not to mention we needed to get away before Matt and Davis's fan girls showed up.
"Oh calm down DAVIS!" Sora shouted back, still holding on to me. She kisses me one more time then says, "Ok, now we can go."
The two of us head towards our friends, but Sora's outburst had a very bad side effect for certain members of our group.
"I FOUND HIM!" A voice shouts, and all of us look towards the shout to see a girl pointing right at Davis.
"Uh oh…" Sora and I say in unison as Davis is frozen in place. Have you ever been driving at night, and then seen a deer in the middle of the road? Well the face the deer makes as it's silhouetted in your spotlights is the same one Davis was making right now.
After a single blink if an eye the girl had seemed to multiply as there were a dozen more girls who all looked just like her.
"Davis, RUN!" Matt, who had far more experience than Davis in getting away from crazed fan girls, shouted, trying to help out Davis. He then took his own advice, knowing where one group of fan girls was, another was sure to appear. Davis held still for a second, then turned and ran after Matt.
The girls seemed surprised at first, and then the first one shouted "Get him!" And the whole crowd stampeded after our two friends. I stare at that scene blankly for a minute, and then burst out laughing. Really it was one of the funniest things to watch two of your best friends, who you'd seen face down monsters that would make a grown man cower in fear without blinking an eye, run from a group of high school girls. Sora was already laughing, staring after out two friends as they fled for their lives.
"That was really quite evil of you." I said as Sora continued laughing.
"I couldn't help it." Sora said as she links her arm through mine, still laughing. "Seeing the look on Davis's face was just priceless!" The two of us continue to laugh as we walked over to where Kari, T.K., Ken, and Yolei were still staring after Matt and Davis.
"Come on you four, they'll meet us at the pizza place." I tell the group who all seem to snap out of their daze. I'm still smiling, as we walk away to our cars. Sora, Kari, and Davis had all ridden to the game with me, but everyone else had ridden in Matt's van, and I instantly saw a slight problem.
"Uh oh." I said pulling my arm out from Sora's.
"What is it Tai?" Sora asked, concerned.
"Well, we don't have a ride for everyone…" I said, gesturing to my small car. It had enough trouble just trying to fit more than two for us in it, it was never going to work for six if us…If we played by the rules.
I smiled, and Sora shook her head.
"No way Tai, There is no way we can all fit in there…" She said, while everyone else seemed a little confused.
"Well the only other thing to do is…"
"No, we're not breaking into Matt's van." Sora said, cutting me off.
"But…"
"Tai, I don't care if you know how to hot wire it or not, Matt and Davis still need to get out of here somehow, and I don't think you want to leave your car." Sora said, smiling, since she knew I wouldn't let anyone else drive my car.
The one problem with dating your best friend since you were six, they already know everything about you. I think to myself after Sora finishes.
"Well Sora, unless you want someone to stay here, we'll all have to squeeze in…" I said, and Sora sighed, knowing that we'd have to do something she didn't like.
"Fine." She said crossing her arms, and I smiled and kissed her on the cheek.
"Don't worry Sor, you've still got shotgun, everyone else will just have to get in the back.
We all piled into the car, and to say things were cramped would be beyond an understatement. Sora and I were squished up to the console while the four younger kids were crammed in the back.
"Now Tai," Yolei said from the back, "Don't drive like you normally do, because this will not end well if you drive that way." I looked in the rear view mirror at her, and smiled. Yolei just groaned.
I sped out of the parking lot, to the backseat screaming and Sora laughing.
Davis
I slowly edged my face out of the alleyway I was in, checking both sides for any signs of the crazy girls. Before my head could get far out I was jerked back, roughly.
"Are you insane?" Matt whispered to me, as he pulled me away from the edge of the alley.
"No, I was just checking to see if they were gone." I replied, a little pissed. Getting chased by crazy obsessive girls was not good for your nerves; in fact it could even get me pissed at one of my closest friends.
Matt and I hadn't really been that great of friends before he broke up with Sora, but the incident with the two of us being controlled by a digimon, and of course our mutual being stalked by the girls of Odaiba had brought us closer together, and we were quite good friends by now.
"Just wait Davis." Matt said, and I calmed myself. Matt had been running from these crazy girls a lot longer than I had, maybe he knew something.
I was just able to see out the alley way, and I saw a large group of them pass, looking around for me and Matt. After they passed we waited a few more minutes, then Matt lead the way cautiously out of the alley way, and then sprinted to his van. I was right behind him, and we both managed to get to the van and into it without being spotted.
"That was too close." I said, sighing. Matt sighed as well, leaning his head against the steering wheel.
"You can say that again. How did they even find us?" Matt asked, and I leaned back in the seat.
"Well, Sora was taking exception to my whistling while she was all over Tai, and she decided to shout my name." Davis replied, and then leaned forward. "You don't think she did that on purpose do you?"
Matt looked like he was about to answer quickly, but stopped, seeming to think about it for a second.
"You know, she probably did!" Matt replied, sitting up. Matt then proceeded to curse for a minute straight. I simply laughed. Matt didn't really seem to enjoy having his two best friends pulling this type of joke on him, since Tai did the same sort of thing on a daily basis.
As for me, well I found it plenty of fun. Of all the problems I've faced in my life, and even as a freshmen in high school I've faced quite a few, being chased by crazy girls really wasn't that bad. Of course there was the fact that I'd never been pursued by any girl my entire life, let alone hordes of them, so I just enjoyed the attention. Of course it was getting a little annoying, and Matt had been chased for a year or two before me so I guess I could understand.
My phone started vibrating, letting me know that I had a new message, and I pull my phone out, causing Matt's demonstration of every curse word he knew (which was quite a few since he had yet to repeat himself once) to halt.
It was from Sora, a fact I figured best to not share with Matt, and she was telling us to hurry up to the pizza parlor.
"Who is it?" Matt asked, and I could tell from the look on his face that he already knew.
"It's the others. They want us to hurry up; apparently they're already at the pizza parlor." I told Matt, and he nodded, starting the car.
He seemed to calm down as we pulled out of the parking lot. "Well I guess I can't get too mad at Sora, after all I'm sure she's the one who stopped Tai from hotwiring the van."
I snorted as I realized he was exactly right, and then laughed as I realized what that meant. "Imagine all of them in Tai's car!" I laughed even harder, and then I realized exactly who was riding with them. "And Yolei's riding with them! Hahaha…"
Kari
I screamed a little as my brother accelerated right out of the parking lot. I was used to my brother's driving, I had to be since it was the same thing every morning so unless I wanted to walk all the way to school every morning I had to be used to it, but that didn't mean I still wasn't scared by it occasionally. Throw in Yolei screaming right next to me and it was more of a reaction to everything around me than actually being scared.
It's not that my brother was a reckless or bad driver, in fact I'd say he's probably one of the safest drivers that I know, he just drove really fast, and accelerated even faster. That gave the impression of him being somewhat reckless, but he wasn't really. Anyways with him in the car were a bunch of people who meant the world to him, he'd never do anything to endanger their, or rather our safety.
"Tai! Stop it!" Yolei managed to get out, and I really had to feel sorry for Ken. Yolei's death grip on him could not be pleasant in the least. T.K., whose lap I happened to be sitting in thanks to the lack of seats, laughed a bit, joining Sora, who was still laughing quite hard.
"What Yolei? Driving?" Tai asked, grinning as he took his hands of the steering wheel for a second. Yolei screamed even louder, and everyone, including Ken, laughed at her reaction.
"Ugh! You're worse than Davis ever was!" Yolei shouted, causing everyone to laugh even harder, especially Tai and Sora. That's how the car ride went all the way to the pizza parlor, and I do have to say I hadn't laughed that hard in a while. That's not to say I hadn't been laughing, just not that hard.
Sora and my brother finally getting together, like I had always wanted them to, had fixed a lot of problems, for everyone. Obviously it helped my brother out greatly, since he was no longer getting yelled at for no reason by his best friend, but everyone else was effected as well. Sora was happier than I had ever seen her, though to be honest if you had asked me if I wanted her to be happy a few months ago I would have said no but that was then. Then there's me. I don't have to worry about my brother as much, so I can worry more about my boyfriend, which just makes me happier each day.
T.K. is another person who's very happy now. I hadn't realized it at the time, I was a little too wrapped up in helping my brother to notice this, which made me feel very bad after I found out about it, but T.K. had a lot of stress to deal with because of our older siblings. On one hand he had me, who was absolutely hating his brother's girlfriend, and disliking his brother just a little bit because of the situation he'd gotten stuck in, and on the other hand he had his brother. Matt did his best to not take sides between Sora and Tai, but it couldn't have been easy for T.K. to have his girlfriend hating his brother's girlfriend, who was also one of his friends.
Man that was a confusing series of thoughts, let's see, whose next…Ah yes, Matt and Davis. Well the two of them are close friends now, despite their age difference, but I guess that's something that comes from the whole digidestined mentor thing that we have going on. I wouldn't say that Davis is better friends with Matt than Tai, but the three of them, and T.K. when he's not with me, make a pretty good group of friends, especially when Izzy and Ken are thrown in there.
For the rest of the digidestined, the biggest thing that Tai and Sora's relationship has done for them is allow everyone to no longer take sides. It had been a little bad for a while. Yolei and Mimi, who would communicate by phone or email, would take Sora's side, while most of the guys took Tai's side. Of course eventually everyone was taking Tai's side at the end, but for a while we'd actually been divided. Luckily that should never happen again.
By the time I finished my silent contemplation we had reached the pizza parlor that we had been heading towards. Tai and Sora got out of their seats quickly to let everyone else out, and all four of us stretched our cramped legs. Then Yolei proceeded to yell at Tai some more, while the rest of us laughed for a bit.
We all headed into the pizza parlor, Tai on the far side of Sora from Yolei to prevent her from getting any more ideas about hurting him. T.K. and I were holding hands, as were Yolei and Ken. Tai and Sora had their arms linked, and I think they did that just to be different. It was fairly ironic that the three couples had all ended up arriving together; it almost looked like a triple date.
"Hey do you guys think Matt and Davis are still getting chased by those crazy girls?" Ken asked as we all walked into the parlor. Tai stopped to hold the door and said as everyone walked in.
"We can only hope they haven't lost them yet." He said with a laugh, and I shook my head. Despite how much I loved my brother he had a really twisted sense of humor.
"Tai!" Sora said, punching his arm, "Be nice, and Ken I'll find out." Sora pulled out her phone, and sent a text to the two.
Tai had let go of the door as soon as everyone had gotten into the restaurant, and then jumped to the head of the group. I sighed. Sometimes it seemed like my brother had never grown up and still had to be first everywhere. He led the way to our usual seats in the back of the pizza parlor, and everyone sat down. Sora was bringing up the rear, texting either Matt or Davis. I looked around expecting the four digidestined who hadn't been at the soccer game to already be at the seats.
"Where are Cody, Mimi, Izzy, and Joe?" T.K. asks before I get the chance to.
Tai and Sora shrug in unison as they pull out menus that are kept on the table, looking to see what they want to eat. Yolei looks around the restaurant looking to see if they had taken seats somewhere else, while Ken pulled out his own menu.
"I don't see them anywhere…" Yolei said as she finished checking the restaurant.
"Izzy probably lost track of the time while he was on his computer." Tai said as he put his menu down. I don't really know why Tai and Sora were looking at the menu. We had been to this restaurant, even before it became one of the digidestined's primary hangout spots, hundreds of times and they pretty much had the menu memorized.
"Maybe we should call them…" Sora said, but Tai shook his head.
"Na, they'll be here soon enough, right now I think we should just enjoy some pizza!" Tai said with enthusiasm, which was only slightly lowered when the pizza didn't magically appear in front of him. I giggled a little as Tai seemed to realize he hadn't ordered yet, despite the fact that we had just walked into the restaurant. He quickly went up to the front to order some Pizza's for everyone.
Matt
I turned my van right into the parking lot of the pizza parlor, Davis's stomach growling even more now that we were in sight of the place where we were getting food. Sometimes I really wished that I didn't have to be the one with the big old van, because to be honest I really did enjoy driving faster than 50 kilometers per hour on occasion. I guess I can't complain too much, the van was better than no car and it was really convenient to have when we had big get-togethers, but I couldn't help it all the time.
Tai had his little car, but they couldn't usually get more than two people in there since he always had Sora with him. Then Joe just didn't have a car all the time since he usually borrowed his parent's car since he didn't have enough money to buy his own car. Mimi visited us all the time since Izzy had set up a digiport in America for her to use, but she didn't have a car here, and couldn't drive, just like Izzy and all of the younger digidestined.
So I guess it was a good thing I had this massive van, but I'm allowed to be bitter occasionally! Haha that sounds really whiney. Ok, so Davis and I headed right to the pizza parlor, Davis taking off ahead of me. I walked slower, after all I hadn't just finished playing a soccer game, and I didn't have Davis's bottomless stomach.
Davis was already sitting down right between Tai and Kari by the time I got to the table, and everyone jumped up to say hi to me. After that was done I sat down across from Sora, Tai, Davis, Kari, and T.K., right next to Ken and Yolei.
"Where are Izzy, Joe, Mimi, and Cody?" I asked noticing the slight lopsidedness of our table, not to mention the lack of digimon. It had been deemed best that the digimon not go to Tai, Ken, and Davis's soccer games so they were at Izzy's for the game. One of the competing teams had attempted to claim they hadn't played to their full potential because they thought the digimon would have attacked them.
That was a pretty low blow if you ask me, and I was going to have Garurrumon teach him a lesson in sportsmanship since he was insulting my friends, but Tai stopped me from doing anything rash. I know what you're thinking, but it's the truth. Tai stopped me from getting into a fight! How's that for a role reversal!
But anyways since then we've left the digimon at one of our apartments just to be sure, and oddly enough Tai's team still creamed all the teams they've faced, I really can't figure out why if their potential was being played to then. Ok sorry, enough ranting and sarcasm from me.
"They'll be here soon enough, now let's eat!" Davis said, his hunger taking over his usual concern for his friends. The pizza that the others had ordered arrived at this moment and everyone kept their hands away from the pizza as Davis reached in. He was about to take a big bite out of the pizza when all of our cell phones went off at pretty much the same time, all with the same ringtone.
"What now?" Davis said, putting the pizza down. The ringtone that had gone off was what we were calling the digidestined signal, as it was the one for the emergency phone that Izzy had to contact all of us if there was a problem in the digital world.
We all pulled out our phones, and they had the same message.
Get to my apartment now!
-Izzy
What could be happening now? Went through my mind, and I'm pretty sure everyone else's as well.
Well there we go, chapter 1 up and out of the way. What did you guys think? Hopefully you enjoyed it/where intrigued by it. Until next Week (Sunday to be exact!)
Oh yea, one more things, reviews. Their kinda awesome, so It would be really cool for you to review, even if it's just to say you hate this story or (preferably) you're interested. Ok, that's my sales pitch, bye!