Unexpected circumstances
Summary: AU. The life of him used to be boring, until he found new friends during a project organized by the government for High School Students. He met friends, old and new, but there is still one mystery nobody can solve. Why does this girl smile all the time? A story about developing friendship (mainly Hikari-Takeru-Daisuke-Ken).
Chapter one: Drive By
A/N: Hello everybody!
So... This is my newest project!
The first – and obviously most important – information about this story: this is going to be an AU story, so there won't be any Digimon here in the story. The whole story starts with a fully different background that will be explained during the first couple of chapters.
Secondly: I've got the idea for the story one year ago when something similar happened to myself. So if you question whether it is possible that 60 High School students are sent to another city by the government just because they should learn something new and exciting... This can indeed happen. But of course the plot won't base on my experiences, since this would be probably too boring. I don't try to stay close to 'the original'. After all, this is fanfiction.
Thridly: this story will not contain any romance elements. This story will be about developing friendships. If I write a sequel (and – truth be told – I've already got a plan for that), romance elements will probably be included in it. But this story won't include any romance elements. (On second thought... I can't guarantee anything. Perhaps there will be some little humourous teases, but nothing more.)
Fourthly: Daisuke, Ken, Takeru and Hikari are in the first class of Senior High in this fic. And since in this 'Summer School Project' only Senior High School students are allowed, only those four characters, Miyako and occasionally Koushiro and Mimi will appear in this story.
Fifthly: sometimes I'll try to include humourous elements. That's why I categorized this story as Friendship/Humour. Drama elements will be also included in the later chapters, but... Well, I shouldn't spoil everything.
Sixthly: all main characters of this fic (Daisuke, Takeru, Hikari, Ken, Miyako, Koushiro and Mimi) are in Senior High. Daisuke, Takeru, Hikari and Ken are freshmen, Miyako is a junior and Koushiro and Mimi are seniors.
Oh, and of course I'd like to thank everybody who encouraged me to write this and in general everybody with whom I exchange Private Messages! Your words mean a lot to me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters, but at least I own this story. No joke this time, folks.
(Friday, 29th June 2007, 00:05AM)
Slowly blinking with his eyes, Takaishi Takeru tried to suppress the coldness that slowly started to occupy him in a way he couldn't like.
It wasn't like he was a person who could get cold easily. But all the events that occured during the past 24 hours in combination with the cold mid-night air were enough to send cold shivers down the blonde's spine.
He did want to help her as a friend. That was all. How could he expect what happened to her in her past? The bare thought of all the little mistakes he made during the past day made him feel like an opprobrious person. After all, Takeru blamed himself for her recent state. Takeru only assumed that it was at least partly his fault.
Takeru mostly didn't want to believe it. After all, this wasn't the first time that he failed at keeping a friend, though it happened the first time by his fault. But it was still a really hard moment for the blonde.
But how could he be in such a state just because of the friendship he shared with a person he barely knew? Takeru didn't know any possible answer, not even as he slammed his own head with the palm of his left hand.
The blonde still stood on the roof of his hotel (which was accessible for everybody as an observation deck) as he glared all the ancient buildings of Kyoto on. After gazing on all the Shinto shrines in front of him, he started to observe the new train station of Kyoto. It was a truly enormous building. The blonde could easily understand why the residents of Kyoto disliked their new train station. The whole city was modeled in a traditional way, only the train station stood out from the crowd with its spreading modernism that completely destroyed the image Takeru had in front of him.
His sapphire blue eyes slowly went upwards as he noted how clear the sky was. Despite all the lights that emerged from the city, Takeru could immediately recognize the Great Bear in the black sky.
It was the moment the blonde started to lose all of his hope he had that everything would maybe go back to normal again. He let out a slow and merely audible sigh as all his muscles loosened.
But as he fully started to lose all the hope he had, Takeru suddenly felt the tap of a soft finger on hid left shoulder that fueled his hope in a way nothing else managed to do.
(Sunday, 24th June 2007)
"Why does it have taken so long to pack your bag? And why didn't you do this earlier?"
"Because I was busy with doing other stuff."
"Like what?"
"Scoring more goals than you did in our last game!"
Ichijouji Ken sighed in defeat. Daisuke reminded him for the 8th time since yesterday (Ken actually counted it) that he scored more goals in their last match than he did.
But that didn't change the situation he and his best friend were currently in. Both were sprinting through the crowded Tokyo main station, with their trolleys getting stuck at some people that were standing in the hallway.
As the teenagers eventually managed to reach the stairs that went to platform 11, Ken started to assume that they wouldn't get the train. The teen genius knew that another train to Kyoto would depart in 15 minutes, but he also knew that he and his mahogany-haired best friend would have to buy another ticket for the Shinkansen, which was ridiculously expensive.
His best friend barely managed to keep pace to his own speed, but somehow Daisuke managed to follow him. Both teenagers simultaneously lifted their luggage up as they heard a toot coming back from platform 11 that motivated the teenagers even more.
During the last ten meters Ken managed to shake his best friend of, though he only arrived a couple of seconds later. A mere second after entering the Hikari* train, the doors closed behind the teenagers, which was followed by a couple of irritated gazes by the conductor that stood directly in front of him.
A couple of silent seconds passed by before the train started to accelerate. The train's movements encouraged Daisuke to excuse themselves for their silly behavior as Ken simultaneously started to search their seats.
Actually Daisuke still couldn't believe where he was. It all seemed like a dream for the goggle-head. He still clearly remembered the day when he saw, along with Ken, the inconspicuous note that was attached at the blackboard in their school, in which the government announced that they were searching for sixty High School students to attend at a project organized by the MEXT**, in which the chosen students could participate at a one-week trip to Kyoto. In Kyoto those students are ought to learn something from university students about promising scientific projects that could be important in the near future. In general it was yet another try of the government to fascinate young people to science.
But this was something fully different from all of the other similar projects Daisuke knew. Apart from the obvious education program he was supposed to attend at, this project also included a couple of funny leisure activities, at least according to everything Daisuke heard about this project. Hence Daisuke decided to apply for a place at the project, along with his best friend Ichijouji Ken. Daisuke thought that he might even meet new friends in Kyoto.
But as he applied together with Ken to participate at the project, he didn't expect the government to accept both applications of them. After all, thousands of students competed for the sixty places. Every applicant could win one of the free places based on the lottery system, and luckily both Daisuke and Ken managed to win two places. Even the train tickets and the hotel room were paid by the government. In those moments Daisuke realized how great it was to live in such a well-developed country like Japan.
Without even realizing it, Daisuke still kept wandering through the train behind Ken, still looking out for the places they got. The goggle-head beheld how clean the train actually was before Ken suddenly spoke up.
"We're sitting here!" Ken said with a low tone to his best friend who immediately turned himself to the right side.
Saying that Daisuke was bewildered would be an understatement.
The train was pretty crowded, hence Daisuke realized that they were indeed sitting next to her. (A/N: In case you wonder: Japanese trains actually have five seats in a row, hence three people can sit next to each other on one side.)
The place next to the window was occupied by a teenage girl. Her chocolate brown hair fell right down on her shoulders, with a couple of strands framing her face. Her auburn eyes were full of a sparkling light that managed to bring a smile on the face of everybody who was glaring them on. Her yellow tee-shirt managed to cover her developing curves in an appropriate way, as well as her stone-washed jeans. The brunette she silently hummed a melody she heard one hour ago on the radio as she gazed the skyscrapers of Yokohama on, which was the city they were currently passing.
It took both Daisuke and Ken a couple of seconds before they eventually gathered their thoughts again, though Daisuke was the first one who decided to speak up.
"H-Hikari-chan!" Daisuke exclaimed with a slightly surprised voice, being obviously shocked because of the presence of his friend, "what are you doing here?"
Daisuke knew Hikari pretty well, since she was the younger sister of his big model, Yagami Taichi, who was playing in the same football club as he and Ken. Beside that, Daisuke always attended to the same school as Hikari did. Because of that they became pretty good friends over the last couple of years. Earlier Daisuke used to have a crush on the chocolate-haired girl, but he stopped crushing on her a couple of years ago after a certain incident. Now he just saw her as a really good friend.
After introducing Ken to her a couple of years ago, they became good friends as well, obviously to Daisuke's fortune. Because of that he always felt really comfortable around his friends.
"Is that an appropriate way to greet a good friend?" Hikari teased her schoolmate back before she stood up. "Anyway, hello Daisuke-kun, Ken-kun!" she greeted both her friends friendly as she winked at them. "Don't you want to sit down?"
"O-of course!" Daisuke answered with a still quite insecure voice before he and Ken put their luggage into the luggage rack above their seats.
Daisuke was actually still startled. He didn't expect to meet his classmate and ex-crush, Yagami Hikari, to be in the same train. But why was she here!? Could it be that...
"Are you also going to attend at this 'Summer School' project in Kyoto!?" Daisuke exclaimed, with his voice being full of curiosity as he slowly sit down next to Hikari.
The brunette teenager let out a quiet laugh before she calmly answered the question. "Obviously I won the trip," Hikari answered the question, giving a wink back.
After a first moment (that was filled by joy that he could spend the week with another friend) of silence, another new thought struck both Ken's and Daisuke's mind. Yet the mahogany-haired boy was the first one who spoke up.
"Why didn't you tell us that you won the trip?"
It didn't take Hikari long to find a good answer to the question of Daisuke, knowing that it wasn't only her fault that Daisuke was so surprised because of her appearance.
"And you, Daisuke-kun? Why didn't you tell me that you won the trip?"
Although Daisuke could expect such an answer, considering that Hikari seemed also pretty surprised as she noted him and Ken, Daisuke paused for a moment. Such little teases were something very common between him and his friends and they all enjoyed them, since those teases always managed to lighten up the atmosphere between them.
And Daisuke really enjoyed it, even though he sometimes had to search for an answer, just like Ken had to. Those teases always managed to show how great and unsophisticated the friendship between him and his friends was. Around Hikari and Ken Daisuke could be himself.
"E-e-erhm," Daisuke still searched for a possible answer as an idea struck his head, "I didn't want to make you jealous that I won such a trip!"
Hikari let out another, yet this time slightly louder laugh as she playfully smacked him at his shoulder, followed by another laugh from Ken.
"If you say so..." Hikari answered with a wide grin, which was followed by a slightly visible blush on Daisuke's cheeks.
In the same moment their train arrived at the Shin-Yokohama station, another pretty large station in the suburbs of Yokohama. A couple of seconds later enormous amounts of people entered the already crowded train. After all, the trains in Japan were always crowded on Sunday afternoons, just like everywhere else. Luckily nobody had to stand in the train, since everybody has got a reservation for a seat.
But to the group of three it didn't matter at all. Hikari, Ken and Daisuke enjoyed each other's presence, hoping that the upcoming week would be as funny and reassuring as the drive to Kyoto.
Time passed by until Hikari felt a desire inside her rising. It didn't take her long to realize what it was.
"Excuse me," she politely interrupted the football-related talk between Ken and Daisuke, "can you please let me out?"
It didn't take long to let Hikari out. After all, both Daisuke and Ken also tried to be as polite as possible. Hikari quickly stood up, letting Daisuke and Ken back to their places before she started to go to the toilet.
The train was definitely crowded, hence it was no wonder that Hikari had to wait a minute in front of the toilet. But as the door opened, she immediately started to smile.
Something deep inside her noted something. This person looked so ridiculously familiar to Hikari. Yet she had no idea who he might be. But the smile he gave her made her instantly smile back. It was bright, radiant, yet also absolutely contagious, hence Hikari couldn't help but smile back.
His messy golden hair reflected all the lights inside the train. The combination of his golden-blonde hair with the pair of hope-filled sapphire blue eyes even emphasized the smile he had. A couple of silent seconds passed by, in which the two gazed into each other's eyes, barely noting all the curious glares of the people around them.
That was when the blonde spoke up. "Excuse me," he calmly said as he pushed himself past Hikari, silently going back to his place.
'He seems to be quite okay,' Hikari thought as she entered the cabin, 'at least he seemed like a quite nice person. What a shame that we'll probably never meet again.'
Takeru Takaishi went slowly, but also steadily back to his own place.
He was still deep sunk in his own thoughts. After sitting down next to a businessman again, Takeru leaned his head against the window, enjoying the Japanese summer landscapes that passed by in front of him with 300km/h/186mp/h. Yet the image of the girl he just saw didn't get out of his head because of one reason.
Her bright, shining face looked so ridiculously familiar to him.
And Takeru had no idea why or how. After all, he obviously didn't recognize the girl as one of his friends, as much as she didn't recognize him. But somewhere deep inside him he knew the face, though he couldn't assign it with anyone. Still Takeru thought that her face was pretty, beside her really calming appearance.
Because of those thoughts Takeru decided to glare out of the train, hoping to get rid of such thoughts. Far away he could see the Fujisan, which majestically raised itself from the rest of the landscape.
It was a truly beautiful sight, at least to Takeru. But there was still one issue. After all, the blonde had no one he could talk with right now. This was caused by the fact that actually none of his friends applied for this Summer School Project. But Takeru still decided to attend at the project, seeing it as a chance to educate himself further and to find new friends in Kyoto.
The blonde now lived in Yokohama since three years. It was the time his mother decided to move from Osaka to Yokohama, since she found a new, better job there. It was something Takeru could fully understand, since his mother just tried to make his life as good as possible. And the life of the blonde wasn't bad, at least according to what he thought about himself. But the frequent moves were also some sort of a burden for Takeru, since he always lost all of his friends.
Those thoughts made Takeru replay scenes of his life in Yokohama in front of his eyes, until he calmly fell asleep.
If it wasn't for the friendly conductor, Takeru would have driven to Osaka, or maybe even to Okayama.
He didn't even notice the moment his sapphire blue eyes closed. It just happened. Takeru knew that he was a person that tended to fall asleep rather often and at uncommon places. But he didn't expect to fall asleep during his journey to Osaka.
Quickly putting on his light brown jacket, Takeru took his luggage down from the luggage claim before he went towards the doors. Thanking once again the conductor for his attention, Takeru opened the door of the train by pressing the button next to it and went out of it.
Takeru was already used to see large buildings, but he didn't expect to get out of the train in such a big station. He also knew the importance of Kyoto, yet this was another reason why he was pretty stunned. Wasn't the city supposed to be filled by old-looking temples? The train station of Kyoto definitely didn't remind the train station of an ancient city. The new building was mainly made out of glass and cement and – as usual for Japan – it was really crowded.
But Takeru still didn't want to lose any time by glaring the walls of a train station on. He perfectly managed to orientate himself in the big and crowded building, hence he also managed to find the subway station in a matter of minutes. The blonde already knew that he had to drive to the Shijo station, hence he managed to buy the ticket for the subway without any problems. He also mustn't wait long for the train. Only a couple of seconds passed by until the train arrived.
Yet this trip wasn't really informative, Takeru had to admit to himself, simultaneously chuckling lightly. He had no clue what he should expect in the upcoming week, hence Takeru decided to be as cheerful and relaxed as always.
The drive to the hotel was relatively boring. It was just a typical Sunday afternoon, according to Takeru. The atmosphere in the train was quiet, yet also reassuring. Takeru, expecting to see many other teenagers in the hotel, wasn't disappointed as he saw the empty hotel lobby, yet he also wasn't impressed.
The hotel itself looked very neat and clean, perhaps a bit too classy for a group of teenagers, even though it proclaimed itself as a hotel for students. The first thing he noted was the pool table in the hotel lobby. The blonde didn't play pool yet, but he surely thought that he should try to play it with somebody else.
After handing his ID card to the receptionist, Takeru received the key to his room with a friendly smile of the female behind the counter. Takeru smiled back before he headed to the elevator that brought him straight to the third floor, in which his room was located. The third floor was as neat and clean as the hotel lobby, which contributed to the reassuring atmosphere in the whole hotel. The walls were painted in a light green colour with marginally visible red stripes in the middle of the walls. Takeru quickly managed to find room 314, which was his room. He had no idea whether other people would be already inside the room, but he hoped so. Slowly the tall blonde opened the door of his room, hoping to get the possibility to talk with someone right now.
And he wasn't disappointed.
Immediately he noted a redheaded teenager, who was sitting on the bed that was positioned relatively on the edge of the neat room. He didn't look rather tall, and his eyes were focused on his laptop until he noticed Takeru standing in the middle of the room. He looked definitely like a senior, at least according to Takeru.
"Good afternoon," Takeru friendly greeted his roommate as he slightly bowed down, "I'm Takaishi Takeru," the blonde said as he rolled his luggage below one of the four beds in the room. "And what's your name?"
The redhead quickly managed to position his laptop beside him before he also stood up. "My name is Izumi Koushiro," Koushiro introduced himself, "I attend to Odaiba Senior High School and I'm a senior. You're currently a freshman, right?"
Takeru became instantly really impressed. He opened slightly his mouth, but he didn't manage to bring out one word during the first couple of seconds. It took him some time until he eventually said what he was thinking during the past couple of seconds.
"How did you know that?"
Koushiro let out a barely audible laugh before he calmly answered the question Takeru gave him. "I don't know. Perhaps I was always good at analyzing people's ages."
Those sentences didn't reduce Takeru's astonishment, mainly because he was still rather impressed. After all, Takeru was rather tall for a freshmen and he always had a rather good and polite way with words, that's why people usually didn't assume that he was a freshmen. But before the blonde could answer anything, Koushiro spoke again up, after sitting down on his bed.
"But we should treat each other as equals, shouldn't we?" Kosuhiro asked the blonde in front of him as he gazed into his sapphire blue eyes. "After all, we'll all attend to the same classes, hence we should do that. "
Takeru obviously approved of Koushiro's idea, hence he quickly agreed, which was answered by another friendly smile of the senior.
It was a good start for the trip, Takeru thought as he started to check out his room. The room didn't look impressive, yet it seemed to be very functional and neat. Takeru immediately noted the switched off flat screen TV that hung on the wall in front of Koushiro's bed. The four wardrobes in the room were rather small, yet they also seemed to be functional. After checking out the view he had from his own room (he could perfectly see the Kyoto train station out of his window, and it perfectly covered the view to all the old temples), Takeru noted that each bed was already ascribed to someone. It didn't take him long to find his own bed. On the pillow of the upper bunk bed he found a little green card, in which was written 'Takaishi Takeru'.
It didn't take Takeru long to sort all the stuff he had on his bed and in his closet. After all, this was just a one week trip. But many minutes passed by, which were also filled by a little small talk he had with Koushiro about the upcoming week, as somebody opened the door.
"You should've been listening to me, Daisuke," a person with a rather masculine voice said behind the door, "I told you that we drove to the wrong direction."
Both Takeru and Koushiro could hear a groan behind the door as it started to open slowly. "Nah, everybody makes mistakes, okay?"
The other person just giggled slightly as the door opened fully, revealing two other males behind it. One was a person with mahogany-colored, spiky hair, slightly shorter than the other teenager next to him. He wore a pair of goggles above his eyes, while his legs were only partly covered from a short pair of dam-coloued trousers. His upper body was covered by a black tee-shirt with a blue dragon on it. The boy next to him had rather long purple-colored hair, while he wore an usual pair of neat jeans and a black shirt with a purple hoodie on it. Both were still gazing into one another's eyes as they entered the room, not noting the other persons behind the door.
But, obviously to Takeru's astonishment, Koushiro stood immediately up as he saw the two males entering the room. "Excuse me," Koushiro politely interrupted their talk, "but aren't you Motomiya Daisuke?"
The shorter boy seemed to be slightly baffled by Koushiro's statement, hence his answer was rather shy and unsteady. "Y-yes," the boy called Daisuke started, "and you are..?"
"My name is Izumi Koushiro, and I'm a good friend of your mentor, Yagami Taichi," Koushiro said, which was followed by a now rather enlighted-looking Daisuke.
"Aaaa! That's right, I know you! You used to play football with him a lot a couple of years before, didn't you? And don't I know you from our school? You are a senior, aren't you?" the spiky-haired teenager rapidly answered.
"Precisely."
After hearing this response from Koushiro (which made him definitely really glad), Daisuke suddenly noted that he still didn't introduce his friend to Koushiro. "Oh, I almost forgot," Daisuke started, with his voice being still pretty fast as he tapped Ken's shoulder, "this is Ichiouji Ken, one of the only persons that could perhaps be as intelligent as you," Daisuke calmly said, obviously to both Ken's and Koushiro's discomfort. In particular Ken looked rather embarrassed, in particular because of the slightly red tint on his cheeks. But as he wanted to introduce Koushiro to Ken, the redhead decided to stop him before he could say something similar.
"We already know each other," Koushiro said as he gave Ken a merely visible, reassuring smile. "We both attend to the computer club that is open for all years," the redhead said, letting Daisuke with a slightly opened mouth back.
"That's right," Ken added as he sent a nod towards Daisuke, "Koushiro-senpai is some sort of a supervisor in my computer club, having obviously the widest knowledge."
Koushiro let out a merely audible cough before he smiled awkwardly. Koushiro never liked to be in the center of attention, hence he was glad as Daisuke interrupted the silent moment.
"Oh, I didn't see you yet," Daisuke said as he carefully gazed the blonde on, who was sitting on top of his bed, now snapping out of his trance and climbing the ladder down, "I'm Motomiya Daisuke and you are...?"
"My name is Takaishi Takeru, glad to meet you," Takeru said as he slightly bowed down, "I live in Yokohama. And since you know Koushiro, you all live in the same town, right?"
"That's right!" Daisuke sternly answered, "We all live in peaceful Odaiba. It is a real coincidence that we three share a room along with you," Daisuke explained his point of view before he got rather serious again, "But there is one important question left: do you like football?"
The blonde was rather surprised by this sudden question of the spiky-haired boy in front of him, yet he quickly managed to regain his thoughts, which was followed by a rather small laugh. "Football is okay, but I'm more the basketball type."
"Nah, if you say so..." Daisuke ironically answered with a little wink.
Just this little conversation made the whole group glad, since they all already knew that the upcoming week was going to be great.
Yet there was still one issue inside Takeru's head. The blonde usually wasn't as restrained in conversations as he was a couple of seconds before. But Takeru was still deep sunk in his own thoughts because of one little sentence from Koushiro. 'Yagami...'
'Didn't I hear that name before!?'
*Hikari: Hikari (Light) is the name of a high-speed train service (Shinkansen) running on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines.
**MEXT: MEXT is a common shortcut for the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Science, Culture and Technology.
End of Chapter One
A/N: Phew, so that's it! That was chapter one of my new story.
It was pretty much focused on the four boys that will appear as main characters in this story, but I'll give also some screentime to the girls during the next couple of chapters.
I hope that I awakened some interest into this story. As I've said before, this is an AU story, so the relationships between the characters are different from the canon.
Also, I'm kind of insecure because of the title of the story. If you have any suggestions, just write them down in your reviews.
If I made any mistakes, I'll gladly correct them, but you have to tell me all the mistakes I made by the help of the review bottom below. Friendly words are appreciated as well!