Taishiro Week Day 1: Family / Flashback

Digimon Adventure does not belong to me.

Chapter 1 presumes the reader's familiarity with Taichi and Koushirou's backstories. It will be confusing if you don't remember. Because I want my story to be accessible, I included a summary of their backstories at the end this chapter.

Chapter 1 deals with elementary school bullies.

The King and His Knight

Koushirou was already packing his bag when the bell rang. He slipped in his binder and pencil case, and he made sure that his laptop was safely secured. Footsteps shuffled around his desk. A group of girls laughed in harmony. But Koushirou didn't dare raise his head to watch his classmates leave the room. He held his breath and sat perfectly still.

Saionji was still sitting behind him.

Koushirou fixed his gaze on his laptop and refastened it again in his bag. He rationalized that he should probably wait longer. Saionji was impatient and he would leave eventually. But Koushirou felt impatient too. He could see the taller boy in his mind's eye, sitting behind him and smirking, staring at the back of Koushirou's bare neck. Koushirou's breathing quickened. He carefully pulled his backpack onto his shoulders, while still sitting safely in his chair. Then he grabbed the edge of his desk and pushed himself to his feet. He kept his eyes on the gray floor as he walked forward.

A familiar force hit his shoulders and the gray floor rushed towards his face. Koushirou yelped and closed his eyes. He moved his arms forward but not fast enough as the ground slammed into his cheek.

Saionji laughed above him. Koushirou heard the boy step over his body and then walk away. He kept laughing as he left the classroom.

Koushirou took a deep breath and sat up. The first thing he did was to check his backpack; his laptop was still in one piece. Then Koushirou rubbed his hand on his cheek; it stung, but he wasn't bleeding. Koushirou pulled his computer out of his bag and opened it so he could check his reflection on the black screen. There was definitely a bruise on his cheek now. The boy sighed and put his laptop away.

Hopefully the pink mark would disappear by the time he was home. He didn't want to tell his parents about Saionji. And Koushirou hated being in a position where he had to lie to them.

Koushirou was the last person to leave the classroom. He liked that the school hallway was quieter now. He finally lifted his eyes from the floor so he could see where he was going. Outside the windows, the sky was blue and beautiful. Cicadas buzzed, beckoning him.

"Taichi, you're not acting like yourself…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Koushirou froze. He lost interest in the cicadas. He turned to the classroom to his left; the door was slightly ajar.

"You know what I mean—"

"I always act like myself. That's the only way I can act, Sora."

"You've been quiet all day."

Koushirou didn't even hesitate. He peeked through the door frame and listened carefully. Taichi and Sora were his two favorite teammates on the soccer club. What happened to them? Why were they staying late after school?

"Am I not allowed to be quiet? Geez." Taichi's voice was stiffer than normal. The two children were standing by the blackboard in front of the classroom, but Taichi's back was towards the door, so Koushirou couldn't see his expression. He could see Sora's face; thankfully, she was focused on Taichi. She looked worried.

"You know you can talk to me, right? You're my best friend." Sora fiddled her hands. "You can tell me anything and I won't judge. You don't have to be intimidated around me."

"Intimidated?" Taichi scoffed. "I know all that already! Why would I be intimidated by you?"

"Because… Never mind." Sora exhaled. "Your eyes have been red all day."

Taichi fidgeted. "So?"

"So you've been holding back tears all day and I'm worried about you!"

Taichi wiped his eyes and looked at the blackboard. Koushirou still couldn't see his face. "I'm sorry. You can't understand. You're a girl."

Sora's eyes flashed dangerously. "Excuse me?"

"Girls can cry all they want and it's no big deal. Boys can't."

"How dare you!"

Taichi shrugged. "It's true."

"That doesn't even make sense! I've seen you cry before—like when we won our last game. You didn't hide it then. You're not that kind of person."

"That was different. Why are you getting so upset about this?"

"The reason that you're my best friend is because you're the only person who doesn't treat me like a girl!" Sora's voice was louder.

"But you are a girl? Now you're not making sense." Taichi hesitated. "What's wrong with treating girls like girls anyway? If I had been gentler with her, then…"

"Because it's not fair!" Sora cut him off before he could finish his sentence, to Koushirou's disappointment. Then Sora pushed past him and walked to the door. Koushirou panicked and ducked out of the way.

Sora marched out the door and didn't notice the small boy hiding behind it. She wiped her eyes and hurried down the hall. Koushirou stared at her as she left, wishing he could say something comforting. But comforting people wasn't his forte, no matter how hard he tried to understand them—

The door burst open again and smacked Koushirou on the nose.

"Sora!" Taichi leapt into the hallway and called his best friend, but she was already gone. "I'm sorry! You were right—I didn't mean any of that!"

"Oww…"

Taichi whirled around; he saw a familiar child covering his nose with both hands. "Koushirou?!"

Koushirou's face turned beet red. He let go of his face and bowed. "Hello, Taichi…"

"What are you…" Taichi blushed as well.

"I'm sorry!"

"I'm sorry!"

Both boys apologized at the same time.

Koushirou stammered. "I-I shouldn't have eavesdropped! I knew it was wrong. This is the s-second time I've listened when I wasn't sup-p-posed to—I'm so nosy!"

Taichi slumped, as if he didn't hear him. "First Hikari, then Sora, now you… I hurt everyone I care about."

Koushirou stopped stuttering. Now that he could see Taichi's face, he understood Sora's earlier words. The older boy had watery red eyes. Taichi was normally a ball of sunshine, but he had lost that trademark energy today. Koushirou had never seen Taichi look like this. Taichi was always the first person to pick up everyone's spirits when they lost a game. So to see him taking the blame for bruising Koushirou's face—it was more than Koushirou could bear. Koushirou forgot everything else in that moment.

"Taichi, that was an accident. You didn't mean to hurt me," Koushirou said in his most logical tone of voice.

"That doesn't matter," Taichi said dully.

"Of course it matters! That's a huge difference!" Koushirou argued. "You're not the kind of person who likes hurting people. There are plenty of people like that at this school, maybe even the majority, but you're not one of them. You're not even the reason my face is bruised!"

Taichi stared at the younger boy. He no longer looked gloomy, but his gaze was intense, and Koushirou felt frozen in his shoes. He worried that he was talking too much. Then Taichi stepped forward and cupped Koushirou's cheek in his hand. Koushirou's eyes widened.

"Who did this to you?" Taichi asked.

Koushirou's heart raced. He was an awful liar when people asked him specific questions, but his evasive instincts still kicked in. "Nobody! I mean, I'm the reason. I tripped when I got out of my desk. You know that I have terrible hand-eye coordination." Taichi's fingers felt warm on his face. It was hard to think about anything else.

Taichi blinked. Then he let his hand drop. "I see. I'm sorry… I thought that maybe you also…" Taichi touched his own cheek—then he crossed his arms. "Forget I said anything."

"Okay," Koushirou said obediently, even though he felt more curious now about what happened to Taichi. On the other hand, Koushirou was eager to change the topic. "You didn't hurt Sora on purpose either. You were just talking and you said something weird by accident. That's a normal thing that happens. Sora is nice, so she'll understand."

"Hmm, yeah," Taichi mumbled.

Koushirou felt ineffective. But he wasn't going to give up. "Maybe you should talk to your parents about whatever is making you sad? I bet they would be more competent—"

"No," Taichi cut him off.

Koushirou was silent.

"I'm sorry. It's that…the problem is that…I feel like I don't belong with my family now," Taichi said, staring at the floor.

Koushirou stared at Taichi. His brain was whirring and his heart was pounding faster and faster. He wasn't sure if Taichi would give him any more clues, so he tried to think of reasonable explanations for why his companion would feel that way, based on the limited information available.

But all Koushirou could think about was that night he stood outside his parents' bedroom door and eavesdropped.

"I often feel like I don't belong with my family either," Koushirou confessed.

Taichi looked up sharply. "What? But your parents always look so kind!"

Koushirou realized that he had said too much. He panicked. "They are kind! That's n-not what I meant! I'm sorry! I meant that we have different personalities and interests. That's all!"

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me everything," Taichi assured him. "I get it. It's complicated, right?"

Koushirou nodded, relieved. Taichi's voice was warm and soothing—much more effective than his own voice. Still, Koushirou noticed that the boy was squinting at him. Taichi even stroked his chin, as if he was pondering a complicated problem. Koushirou realized that Taichi was equally curious as he was about his companion's secrets.

It was a dangerous game, each of them trying to solve the other boy's issue without giving away too much information about himself. Koushirou didn't trust himself to win that kind of game. So he decided to play a different one.

"You don't feel like walking home either, right?" Koushirou asked.

"Uh…Not right away," Taichi admitted.

"Do you know what I always do when I feel sad?" Koushirou started smiling.

"No?" Taichi looked confused.

"I challenge my mind!" Koushirou's smile widened. His voice was suddenly self-assured. "I distract myself with brain teasers. I ask myself more questions and I work until I solve them. It's fun!"

"Ohhh…" Taichi grinned nervously. "That sounds…just like you!"

Koushirou stepped forward. Their faces were only inches apart. "Taichi, do you want to play chess with me?"

Taichi's jaw dropped. "What? You brought a chess board to school?"

"No, silly! We can play on my laptop! I always play chess by myself, but I can set it up so you'll be my player two!"

Taichi closed his mouth. It dawned on Koushirou that he just called the older boy 'silly,' and he started to feel silly for being so audacious. But then Taichi finally smiled his old sunny smile, and Koushirou stopped doubting himself.

"That's an awesome idea. Sure, let's try it out. But I'll warn you—I don't know anything about chess—"

"I'll teach you!" Koushirou yelled. He grabbed Taichi's arm and pulled him into the classroom. Taichi yelped and laughed in surprise.

Koushirou's eyes immediately found the electric plug on the wall, and he let go of Taichi to push a desk next to it. Taichi understood what he was doing and pushed a second desk against the first one, so that they could sit together side-by-side. Koushirou rapidly plugged in his laptop and booted it up, while Taichi watched. He opened a program called Warrior Chess 3000, and then the boys were looking at a screen of a digital chess board. Koushirou pushed the laptop so that it sat fairly in the middle of their desks.

"The object of the game is to capture the other team's king by putting them in checkmate," Koushirou began. "There's the white team and the black team. White goes first, so I'll play white since I'm more experienced. Okay?"

"Okay—"

"Great! The first piece you should learn about is the pawn…" And Koushirou was off, describing all the rules of chess, pointing at the various pieces on the screen. He spoke rapidly in an animated tone of voice. Occasionally he glanced at Taichi, worried that the older boy would lose interest. "…Do you understand?"

"Huh? Yeah, you just said that if the pawn reaches the other side, then it can become any piece it wants. I heard you."

"Yes! Excellent."

"But you'd always want to become a queen, right? Since the queen is the most powerful piece."

"Yes, that's what usually happens. But sometimes you might turn the pawn into a knight, if you have a good strategy for a knight's movement—"

"Yeah, I'm not going to get a good strategy. Don't worry about that."

"Ah—okay." Koushirou giggled.

"That's cool that the queen is the most powerful piece!" Taichi spoke up. "Since almost all the pieces are boys, you know?"

"Um…" Koushirou was thrown for a loop. That wasn't relevant to gameplay.

"Wait. But she's also probably lonely, being the only girl on the team…" Taichi turned somber.

Koushirou wondered if Taichi was still thinking about chess. "I don't think any of the chess pieces have a gender, since they're digital. It wouldn't make sense for digital beings to have a gender. At least, they would probably have different classifications, or none at all."

"Huh! I didn't think of it that way!"

"Yeah. Uh, I guess I never thought about it either."

"Ooh. I bet the knights could be girls too. Maybe they're girls in disguise! That'd be exciting."

"I never thought about the chess pieces' personal lives…" Koushirou chuckled in spite of himself. Then he remembered that Taichi had a younger sister, and he imagined that Taichi must be a good brother to her. "Anyway…"

"Right. Keep going."

"I've told you all the important rules and I'm bored. Let's get started." Koushirou moved a white pawn forward two spaces.

"Oh!" Taichi laughed in surprise again. "You're a hoot, Koushirou!" He thought for a minute, and moved one of his pawns as well.

Koushirou snorted. He had never thought of himself as 'a hoot.' But it sounded like a compliment… He shook his head and clicked on a white pawn to move to the space diagonal of Taichi's pawn. "Try capturing my pawn with your pawn."

"What?! That's not fair to you at all!"

"Please try," Koushirou insisted. His eyes were wide and eager.

"Fine. But I'm assuming that this is somehow part of your nefarious plan, to lull me into a false sense of security," Taichi drawled, making Koushirou giggle. He clicked on his pawn and then Koushirou's pawn. The screen turned black. "What?"

Then the screen changed to show a pixelated 16-bit illustration of a green forest. Animated versions of the black and white pawns jumped into view. The black pawn grabbed a shovel and dug a hole while the white pawn wasn't looking. Then the white pawn turned around and ran forward. It fell into the trap with an accompanying whistle sound effect. The black pawn cheered and did a short victory dance.

"Haha!" Taichi laughed.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Koushirou buckled over in his seat, clutching his chest. Taichi instinctively grabbed the boy's shoulder so he wouldn't fall over, but he had to laugh again at Koushirou's overreaction. "Aahh," Koushirou exhaled and sat up straight, looking positively delighted. "That joke gets me every time."

"So this is why digital chess is better than real life chess, right?" Taichi asked.

"Absolutely. You don't get this kind of quality material in the real world!"

"That's not true. You're quality material."

Koushirou blinked. He buried his face in his hand. "Seriously, Taichi?"

"Absolutely!" Taichi laughed. Then he remembered that he was still holding Koushirou's shoulder, and he tried to let go as smoothly as possible, without being weird.

Koushirou shook his head, feeling flustered. He stretched his fingers over the keyboard and tried to focus on chess again, instead of on the silly older boy with his masculine wiles. He pulled his king-side knight into play.

The boys continued playing like that, taking turns and watching the comic animations whenever they caught a piece. Koushirou moved his pieces rapidly. Taichi tried to keep pace and not worry so much about winning, even though it was obvious in his eyes that he wanted to win. Koushirou gave him advice whenever he got stuck. Taichi resisted assistance until Koushirou reminded him that Taichi helped the younger soccer team members in the same way. That made the boy smile his sunny smile again, which was enough to melt Koushirou's heart. Actually, it was difficult for Koushirou to concentrate on his strategy whenever Taichi smiled at him.

But as long as Taichi was distracted from his sadness, that was the whole point…

Taichi moved his pawn to the end of the board. A pop-up window appeared, asking him to choose the pawn's next form. "I did it!" Taichi whooped and pounded his fist in the air.

Koushirou clapped politely. "Well done. Now you can evolve your pawn to the ultimate level, the queen—"

"I'm making her a knight."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Taichi clicked on the 'knight' option. The screen faded to black again, and there was an animated transformation sequence in which the black pawn grew taller and armor covered its body. Koushirou stared at the new black knight.

"That's cool. I never get to see that transformation sequence," he mumbled.

"Hikari likes knights now," Taichi explained matter-of-factly. "She told me last month that she was tired of playing Princess all the time. So I knighted her."

Koushirou sighed. "We're not playing make-believe, Taichi. Digital chess is serious!" He clicked on his bishop and zapped it across the board to capture Taichi's rook. In the animation, the bishop cast a spell that made the rook's pants fall down, showing its spotted underwear. The rook ran away in embarrassment, making the boys giggle.

"I know it's serious…" Taichi looked from the screen to Koushirou, then back at the screen, then back at Koushirou. Then he looked back at the screen, wearing a determined expression. He clicked on his new knight and moved it within reach of Koushirou's king. "Checkmate."

"Ahh…" Koushirou blinked. Then—he couldn't help it, he smiled brightly. "That was excellent, Taichi! Marvelous work!"

"I actually won?" Taichi was dumbfounded at his own brilliance. A new animation appeared where the white king threw his crown to the ground and stomped on it. Then a bunch of fireworks exploded over the black chess pieces, and they all did a victory dance. "What?"

"I'm so proud of you!"

"But I didn't know what I was doing! I was following your advice the whole time. I only won because I seized the opportunity when you moved your bishop out of the way… Hang on, you did that on purpose!"

Koushirou giggled and snorted. "I didn't tell you to move your knight there. I hypothesized that you would figure it out on your own, and you did. That was excellent!" He clapped his hands together, seeming so pleased with himself.

Taichi had to smile again. He had never seen Koushirou act like this before. So open, so talkative, so free. Taichi forgot everything else in that moment.

Then his eyes lingered on Koushirou's bruised cheek, and he remembered.

He reached forward with both hands and grasped Koushirou's shoulders. Koushirou stopped laughing and met his eyes, curious.

"Koushirou… Is one of your classmates bullying you?"

Koushirou bit his lip. "I…" The question was too specific. He couldn't lie to Taichi's face. He was too close. "That's… Why would you think that?" He didn't deny it.

"Because this isn't the first time I've seen you look hurt after class. I've wondered for a while."

"Oh…"

"Please talk to me."

There was a kind of desperation in Taichi's voice. Koushirou couldn't resist it. He nodded. "Yes… You hypothesized correctly."

Taichi grimaced and he gripped the boy tighter. "Who is it?"

"His name is Saionji. You don't know him."

"You have to tell an adult. Do you want me to talk to your teacher with you?"

Koushirou considered. He had expected that Taichi would want to punch Saionji, so the rational advice surprised him. Taichi was more level-headed than he had assumed. Koushirou finally shook his head. "No thank you. You shouldn't have to do that for me. I'll talk to my parents tonight."

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

Koushirou nodded. He believed that he had to face his parents by himself. He knew, objectively, that honest communication with one's family was important, and that he had to improve in that area.

"Promise me that you'll tell them tonight."

"I promise." It was hard to look at Taichi's face. Koushirou felt embarrassed and vulnerable. Taichi let go of his shoulders and Koushirou sighed in relief.

"Thank you," Taichi said. He offered a smile. "I think you're brave to talk to your parents."

Koushirou's face turned red again. He didn't feel brave at all, certainly not compared to Taichi. But he felt too overwhelmed to argue. So he simply said, "Thanks."

"Hey, and thanks for showing me Warrior Chess 3000!"

Koushirou finally smiled as he put his laptop back in his bag. "You're welcome." The boys stood up and moved the desks to their original spots.

"Don't go so easy on me next time, okay?"

"You actually want to play digital chess with me again?"

"Yeah! It was fun!"

"You…you mean that?"

"Yeah! I especially loved hearing you talk so much. I want to see you at your full strength next time!"

Koushirou chuckled. "Okay. Then I'll win this game next time."

"Ha! Good luck with that—I'm the king of chess now."

Koushirou was so relieved to see Taichi smiling again that he didn't argue. He simply rolled his eyes, which made Taichi burst out laughing.

There was so much more that Koushirou wanted to learn about Taichi. But while digital chess was easy, conversations in the real world were hard. Still, if Koushirou fulfilled his promise tonight, and kept practicing talking, maybe he would make that conversation a reality someday.

It would become a reality in the digital world.

…

…

Koushirou and Taichi's backstories, summarized:

Koushirou is adopted. He overheard his adoptive parents discussing this when he was little. However, he didn't tell them what he heard, and they didn't tell him the truth until the Vamdemon arc in Digimon Adventure.

When Taichi was little, he asked his sister Hikari to play soccer with him outside, even though she was sick. He assumed that she was healthier. However, Hikari fainted while they were playing and had to go to the hospital. Taichi's parents were furious at him and his mother hit his cheek. Taichi revealed this to Koushirou during the Dark Masters arc in Adventure.

Thank you for reading my story! Remember to write your thoughts below!