Izzy cleared his throat, and his mother looked up. " Yes, Izzy? what is it?"
"Mom, I need to talk to you and Dad." Yoshie Izumi put down the dishtowel glass she'd been drying.
" Of course. is this about...?" she trailed off.
" Yes. the Digital world."
"Masami!" She called as she sat at the table, and a moment later, Izzy's father left his study, joining his wife and adopted son in the kitchen.
"What's this about, Son?" he asked gently.
" Earlier today," Izzy began, "Matt was hurt in the digital world. Badly. We don't really know what happened, or why it's affecting him like this, and we have to figure it out."
"Matt? Matt Ishida? From across the street?" Mrs. Izumi pressed a hand to her mouth.
"I remember him... he was at the battle, wasn't he? With the angels?" Mr. Izumi asked, frowning.
"Yes. He's one of the digidestined. T.K's brother. He..he's in the hospital now, but they can't figure out what's wrong, and they won't, it's not from Earth, their tests are useless. His only chance," it hurt to say those words, "is for us to find out how to fix it from the Digital world, find out how to stop whatever caused it. That's what I need to talk to you about." Izzy paused, looking at his parents.
"It'll take time to solve this. I'll be ok," he started. "Really, I will. I'll have Tentomon with me, and we've been on our own before. and I've already spoken to my teachers- well, emailed. I'm ahead in most of my classes, and there are no tests or projects coming up, except for a programing test, but I've already worked out with Mr. Sato, and I can do it online - the Digital world has excellent internet reception and-"
" Izzy, wait." Masami Izumi held up a hand. " You want to go to the digital world, and stay for a while, is that it?"
The teenager nodded.
"How... How long?" his mother asked softly, rising.
"I'm not sure. Two or three days, maybe longer. With any luck, that will be long enough to find out what triggered the gears, how they work, and it'll also help for one of us to be on guard, in case there's another sighting. I need to do this." Already, Izzy knew that he was going, whether or not his parents agreed, but he was hoping...
"OK." Izzy's mother nodded. " If you need to go, you need to go. " She looked to Masami, still seated. "We won't stop you."
Izzy's father nodded. " Your mother's right. If this is what you want to do, what you need to, we won't stand in your way."
The redhead nodded quickly. "Thanks." He was suddenly even more grateful that his parents were so accepting and supportive of his role in the Digital world. That they weren't like Tai's parents, or Mimi's, or Joe's (although Joe's didn't really know so the point was moot.)
" I'll make you some lunches, some food, to take." Izzy's mother turned to the fridge, stopping. "Tentomon liked.. what was it?" She tried to think back to the last time the digimon had been in the human world, but it had been several months. "Was it the chicken?"
"Tentomon likes anything you make, Mom." Izzy grinned at the memory.
As she gathered leftovers and plastic tupperwear containers, Yoshie paused. "When? Are you leaving...now?"
Izzy shook his head. " I want to try and find the best location for a base, where I'll be of best use and Tentomon will be able to stay on guard. There will be a lot of places to cover. Sora might be able to- no, she's got that tennis tournament. Oh, and I'll need to reroute the feeds from Ken's camera system to Yolei's computer..." he trailed off. " Sorry. No, not tonight. Tomorrow, after school."
His parents nodded.
"Oh, Izzy!" his mother embraced him. "Be careful out there."
"I will, Mom." Izzy said, hugging her back.
His father stood, joining the hug. " Make us proud, Son."
He nodded, then stepped back. " I have a lot to do, before..."
"Of course. We love you, Izzy."
"I love you, too"