A/N: I don't own any of the characters except my OC's. And this story is also published in Quizilla under my user name: alwaysOEDgirl. If by any chance you see it there, don't think I stole it. ;)
I kind of suck at reviews, by the way, but I hope you like it.
Chapter 1 –xoxo– Trapped with You –xoxo–
Sakura was lying on her bed, staring at the window. The sun's heat was truly comforting, especially after a fight with her boyfriend a few nights ago. Sakura was alone in her big house. Her mother was working and her father was probably in his house with his second wife: Carrie. Carrie wasn't Japanese; she was an American who had taken classes in the same university Sakura's father taught. After her parents separated, Sakura's father announced that he was getting married again, and he expected that Sakura spent some time with Carrie, who was only about 12 years older than her. It was weird seeing her 44 years-old father dating a 23 year-old girl.
Sakura tried to spend some hours with Carrie since she wanted her father to be happy and She knew it might be useful to be friends with her stepmother, but she soon discovered that Carrie was one of those girls who only think of marrying and babies. She kept talking about having a kid of her own and gave Sakura lots of advices and recommendations on how to live her relationships. Carrie even imagined Sakura's wedding and promised her that one day she'd help her planning it. Sakura was horrified after that night and made her father know that she wasn't spending one more second with her… especially after seeing that Carrie only went to Japan to find a nice husband because she was 'tired of Americans'. She was the typical girl who didn't know anything but being a mother. Sakura felt sorry, for a girl like that kind of damaged the impression many people had on Americans. Luckily, Sakura knew better than that and she quickly realized that Americans weren't really that way. It was the luck of being such a smart girl.
Just when Sakura was about to shift her thoughts into another, less painful direction, her eyes caught something out in the street… or someone. She slowly got up only to see Yoichi, her boyfriend outside her window. She gasped in horror, surprise, and anger. Hadn't he hurt her enough?! Sakura had basically broken up with him some days before, when she founded out that he was seeing other girl while dating her. Hadn't he got the message when she punched him in the eye?! She looked closely at her boyfriend's figure. His left eye had a black and purplish tone, and it was obviously bigger than the right. Sakura bit her lip; had she punched him too hard? She hoped not. Even if Yoichi was a liar, a cheater, a low-life, and a jerk, he had been her boyfriend for over two years. She couldn't stop feeling something for him. He waved at her and smiled slightly. Sakura didn't know what to do. She still felt a little something for him, but she would never forgive him because of what he did, and that was the reason she had refused to speak to him.
She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before closing her curtains. It was right then when her celphone rang. Sakura walked towards her bed, where se had left her celphone, and looked at it. It read YOICHI CALLING. Sakura looked at it until the phone stopped ringing and read 1 MISSED CALL- YOICHI. Sakura was about to stand up and turn the lights on, for the room had become completely dark when she closed the curtains, when her celphone started to ring again.
"Leave me alone!" Sakura yelled before throwing her celphone to her bed, see it bouncing and then crash with a wall. "Oops." Sakura exclaimed; her eyes opened wide, as she ran to her bed and check on her celphone.
"This is your last chance, Sakura Miyagui" A female voice came from the celphone. Sakura looked at it. In her electric blue screen, there was a text message: DO YOU WANT TO PLAY? And underneath it, there were two options: Yes and No.
My last chance? Sakura thought. Come on! What possible reason would I have to answer yes to what could be a well elaborated trick?! Sakura was about to answer no when she heard something at her window. She got up, her celphone still glowing on her hand, and opened the curtains just a little bit, only to see Yoichi throwing pebbles at her window. Sakura closed her curtains again and looked at her phone. "Ok, anything to get out of here." She whispered to the phone… or to herself and changed the option to the Yes button. The next thing she knew was her celphone going blank. "No, no, no, no, no, no! Come back! Get me out!" Sakura yelled in frustration at the screen. Sakura was about to sit down angrily when her ringtone made her jump.
"Dear God! I'm going to die of a heart attack one of these days!" She mumbled.
"Sakura Miyagui" The same voice as before spoke out of the celphone. The electric blue light glowing out of it was illuminating the whole room. Sakura was tempted to throw the celphone out of her window, but the woman spoke before she could even finish her diabolic plan. "Sakura, it's time to decide your future. Take the 5:45 p.m. train from Jiyuugaoka Station. Your destiny awaits you, Sakura" And with that, the voice faded. Sakura stood there, holding her celphone on her right palm.
"Ok, this is getting weird." Sakura mumbled to herself again and looked at her clock: 5:30 p.m. "Ok, if I go now, I might still be able to catch the train!" Sakura wandered around her room, grabbing only some money from her purse and putting it inside her pocket. Then, she peeked through her pale blue curtains. Yoichi wasn't anywhere near. "Perfect, he's gone!" Sakura exclaimed and rushed down the staircase. If she could avoid talking to Yoichi, she would definitely get to the train station on time! She unlocked the front door and looked around her house.
Should she leave a note to her mother? She might not return in a while. Her little Beagle hadn't eaten, as well. She ran to the kitchen and founded her dog, Sal. He immediately ran to where she was and started barking and moving his tail. "I know, I know!" She yelled as she served some dog food on his plate and returned to the front door.
Sakura opened her door and popped her head out. Immediately, Yoichi came running towards her, his huge, inflamed, purple eye almost bigger than the rest of his head. Sakura's eyes popped wide opened as she quickly shook her head and shot the door on his face. She made sure she locked it before looking at her celphone and then at her watch. It was 5:35. She knew that she might not get there even if she ran… and with Yoichi guarding her door, she won't even be able to get out of her house. It was then when her barking, little Sal gave her an idea: the back door! Sakura quickly ran to the kitchen and opened the door; she peeked again and saw no signs of Yoichi, so she silently closed the door and ran to the street. It was pure luck that she lived near the train station.
As she ran, Sakura snapped her head at every boy with brown hair that she saw, afraid that one of them might be Yoichi, but she didn't see him. She sighted, relieved and a bit worried as she kept on running. She bumped into a few little kids, but she wouldn't stop to apologize. Even if in a normal day she wouldn't really have apologized, but she gave them less importance than she normally would have. It was then when she bumped into something –actually it was someone –which was harder than those three little kids she had accidentally pushed together. The force of the impact was so hard that Sakura ended up in the floor. She looked up at the thing, rubbing her forehead, only to discover it was a person…a boy! He had dark blue eyes, black hair, and he was wearing a blue bandana with golden-brown stripes. He had brown pants and a yellow shirt beneath a dark blue jacket with two yellow vertical stripes that started from his jacket collar and went all the way down to the end of his sleeves. He stared coldly and angrily at Sakura.
"What's your problem?!" He asked coldly. It was the tone of his voice which turned Sakura's internal switch on. What was wrong with asking if she was Ok or not?! He didn't have to be such a jerk!
"What's your problem?!" She replied angrily, causing the boy to glare at her even more. "You could try to be polite sometimes, you know! Ask people if they are all right!" She yelled returning his glare.
"Right, look who's talking!" He yelled back, causing Sakura to back up in surprise. "Is that your way of apologizing?" He continued, this time, a little bit softer but still serious and hard. Sakura's anger rose up even more.
"You know, I might have considered apologizing two seconds ago, but now you can forget about it!" She yelled back at him. The boy's glare grew and Sakura felt how he was about to yell at her in reply. She waited for him to speak as her brain began elaborating a very good answer, but as the boy was opening his mouth someone interrupted their discussion.
"Sakura, are you Ok?! Hey, you, what are you doing to my girlfriend?! STEP AWAY FROM HER!!!!" Yoichi's voice grew louder and angrier as he approached. Both Sakura and the mysterious boy broke their glares and looked at the boy who was running towards them, waving frenetically his arms.
"Oh, no!" Sakura exclaimed as she stood up and stood besides the boy. "No, please no! No, no, no!" She pleaded and, ignoring the boy's confused look, she pushed him aside and kept on running. She was still able to hear the boy's annoyed "Hey!" and Yoichi's screams when she turned the corner and entered the station with a bunch of people, many of them were kids of different ages. Sakura looked at her watch again: 5:42 p.m.
She rushed to buy a ticket, but instead of the typical ticket she usually got, this one was red. Sakura shrugged, not really caring the ticket's color, but trying to catch the train. It was right then when she heard Yoichi's voice again. She turned around only to see her boyfriend running towards her, waving his arms and showing his purple, huge eye. Sakura lowered her head for over a second before quickly recovering and snapping it across the station to find the train before Yoichi got to her. It was only a matter of time before she spotted the train and ran towards it; while Sakura was running, she could hear Yoichi's desperate screams; she ran past boys, girls, grown ups, and all types of people just to get away from Yoichi and get to the train in time. It was logical that Yoichi ran faster, since he had always been a sports boy and just when she thought he was going to grab her arm and stop her from catching the train, a boy with red shirt pushed him and threw him to the ground, giving Sakura a chance to get on the train right before the doors closed.
Sakura stood by the door pounding and tired, watching how her 'boyfriend' started hitting the door with his fist. After a while, the train started to move and she saw Yoichi step aside and run after the train until his figure could no longer be seen. She sighted as she looked around. The boy with the red shirt, hat, gloves, and goggles looked at her with curiosity.
"Umm… are you Ok?" He asked cautiously. Sakura stared at him, blushing. Had it been very obvious that she was trying to run away from Yoichi? The boy kept looking at her but understood that she might not want to talk about it. "Well, I'm Takuya Kanbara." He said happily.
"I…" Sakura took a few moments to separate Yoichi from her mind and focus on the question. "I am Sakura Miyagui. It's nice to meet you."Sakura said finally. Takuya kept looking at her, more concerned than curious.
Sakura scanned quickly the train until her eyes stopped at the only familiar face she saw: the boy she had bumped earlier! Sakura moved her eyes quickly as she realized that he was staring at her too… well it was more like glaring with hate at her, but for Sakura it was the same. She knew he wasn't happy at all. She took a while to decide weather if she should continue the discussion of before or just ignore him, but she realized that the wisest thing to do would be just to ignore him and pretend he wasn't there, al though she felt curious of knowing why he had taken the same train as her. Was he still looking for an apology? Had he been following her? Or was it mere coincidence that he was on the same train as her? That would definitely explain what he was doing on the corner of the station…
Sakura kept asking herself this questions when, suddenly, all of the phones in the train started ringing at the same time. After opening their phones, most of the kids got nothing but a very annoying static that pissed Sakura off and gave her a very bad headache. Sakura saw and heard how most of the kids on the train cursed their phones and started yelling or hitting them. It was then when she realized that her celphone was ringing too. She looked around; Takuya and the other boy were also staring at their phones.
"Transfer to the 6:00 westbound train from Shibuya Station." The woman's voice spoke again. Sakura sighted resigned as she closed her celphone and looked at her watch. She could make it… even if it was five or six minutes left for 6:00 p.m. If she hurried, she could make it on time. It was hard, yes, but it wasn't impossible. Sakura then turned her mind on wondering what had happened to Yoichi. Had he gone home, resigned to the fact that he might never see Sakura anytime soon? Would he tell Sakura's mom what had happened? Would he tell her that she had taken a train from Jiyuugaoka Station? Would he tell her about that mysterious boy she had run into earlier in the street? What would the boy be thinking about? Sakura sighted as she looked at him. He was still glaring at her. Hadn't he forgotten about it?! Sakura was literally running from her boyfriend and she had bumped into him accidentally… and he had been a real jerk instead of helping her! I bet Yoichi did something to him when I left, Sakura thought, remembering the way Yoichi had been yelling at him when he saw Sakura in the floor arguing with that boy. Had he said something to the boy on her name? Was that the reason he hated her? He didn't show signs of being beaten or something, so Sakura's mind relaxed a bit.
Even so, why did he blame her?! Sakura looked at him again, but their eyes only met a few seconds before he looked away. He will never forgive me, Sakura said to herself. Well, it's not as if I cared for a jerk. I don't need a friendship like that! She yelled for her insides as she turned her back on him. In a few more minutes, the train came to a stop and all of the passengers, including Takuya and the other boy, jumped off the train. Sakura snapped her head between all of the people in the station. Sakura, despite of all her qualities, wasn't proud of her orientation sense. In fact, she had never been in that station before. After a few moments of trying to find out where she was supposed to go, Sakura had lost all the patience she had left. She wanted to hit her head against a hard concrete wall. Why did she have to be so disorientated?!
"Sakura, got any idea of where to go?" A voice came behind her. It was Takuya, who was standing behind her with a nervous look. He was also moving his head around.
"No. What are we going to do now?" Sakura asked. She was as worried as Takuya… or perhaps even more. If she got lost she might never reached her "destiny" and she would have to return home, face her mother and her possessive boyfriend… and she wasn't willing to do that. "Maybe…" She began, but was cut off by the boy with the bandana, who walked past her and bumped her shoulder. Sakura stared at him in awe as she rubbed her shoulder. He had bumped her harder than she had, and of that, she was completely sure; only this time she hadn't lost balance, for she was standing in a good position and she wasn't distracted.
"Jerk…" She mumbled softly, but loud enough for him to hear her and glare at her before he kept walking towards an elevator. It was then when she knew where to go. If that boy was positively sure that the elevator was getting them to where they were supposed to go, it was a 95% probability he was right.
"You said something?" Takuya asked distracted as he kept looking for their road.
"Maybe… we should go with him." Sakura suggested and pointed the boy who had bumped her. Even if she didn't like him, she wasn't going to return home and miss what could be her only adventure in the next 15 years or so. Takuya turned and stared at the walking figure of the boy.
"Are you sure?" Takuya asked. He wasn't too convinced on following just any boy Sakura saw. He hadn't even seen him before! Al though he had to admit that the boy looked pretty sure of where he was going.
"Well, he has been traveling with us since the past station. And he looks quite sure of where he's going. Even his celphone rang… the same as ours did." Sakura explained. She knew it was the right thing to do, but she wasn't happy she had to follow that boy.
He was a resentful, mean, proud jerk! And he had bumped her shoulder on purpose! But it seemed the only way to keep on following the instructions of their phones. Sakura looked at the boy again and noticed that he was about to step inside the elevator. She looked at Takuya, who was only starting to think about the whole follow-the-boy idea. Sakura knew they hadn't that much time, so she quickly grabbed Takuya's hand and literally dragged him all the way to the elevator.
"It would seem that you have a big interest in following that boy!" Takuya yelled as they both ran towards the elevator. "I hadn't even replied!"
"Are you kidding me?!" Sakura asked in shock, but didn't stop running. She didn't have a special interest! "I only want to get to that train on time so I don't have to return to my house!"
"Oh." Was all that Takuya was able to say before he looked at the elevator and notice the doors where closing. "We need to hurry!" He yelled at Sakura.
"Wait up!" They both yelled as they ran past all the people who stared at them in annoyance and finally made it to the elevator seconds before the doors fully closed. Both Takuya and Sakura ended up pounding in the floor.
The boy looked at them… well, actually he glared at them, as they stood up and looked at him. He crossed his arms against his chest and looked the other way breathing heavily. Sakura shook her head, not believing his reaction, and as her mouth hung open, she also crossed her arms, turning her back on that boy again letting out a little and proud "hum". The boy looked at her and, seeing that she wasn't returning his look, he returned to his original position: his back at Sakura. Takuya stared at them with one eyebrow raised. He snapped his head between Sakura and her electric, angry blue eyes, and the boy with the bandana and his indifferent dark blue eyes. He scratched the back of his head as he continued looking at the two angry kids. After a few moments, he decided to improve the cold atmosphere.
"Umm" He said looking at the boy. "Hi!" The boy shot one of his cold, famous glares that Sakura was now familiar with and made Takuya shut up. "You could have answered that." He said, rather pissed off and walked closer to Sakura. He leaned to whisper in her ear. "What's his problem?"
"I got no idea. Apparently he's always like this." She whispered back giggling.
The lonely boy had his arms still crossed when he shot a glare to Sakura and Takuya, but he was unable to hold it for long since the elevator suddenly started moving faster. The three of the kids shared a confused look, but then returned to their positions when they realized it wasn't too much of a deal. The bandana boy kept glaring at Takuya and Sakura, Sakura kept ignoring him, and Takuya was about to speak again to Sakura when the elevator started to speed up again. This time it was too fast for a normal elevator. Sakura's arms unfolded as she looked around and fixed her sight at the metal closed doors. Takuya also began walking around, and the silent boy unfolded his arms and held himself of a bar near by. The elevator got to such speed that the three kids were holding themselves from the bar to avoid hitting with the sealing.
"Is this normal?!" Sakura yelled, not really expecting an answer. It was just something she did when she was scared: keep talking to whoever was with her. One time, she even spoke to herself for over two hours just to feel better.
"I really don't think so!" Takuya replied as the elevator kept rising down and Sakura's screams were heard above the boys'. "WE'RE GOING TO DIEEEEEEE!!"
"DON'T BE STUPID, TAKUYA!!" Sakura yelled in a pathetic attempt to calm Takuya and herself down.
"I'M NOT STUPID! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!!" Takuya kept yelling, but Sakura didn't have the chance to answer, for the elevator abruptly stopped, sending the three kids straight to the floor.
"See? I told you we weren't going to die." Sakura said giggling a bit as she sat on the cold and hard metal floor rubbing the back part of her head, where she had hit.
"Sorry for over reacting to the cursed elevator!" Takuya said, crossing his arms and blushing a bit. Sakura couldn't help giggling at his reaction. It was only a matter of time before the two of them were laughing. The boy with the bandana stared at them as if they were going nuts and gave them a very notorious "hn", ruining the little fun they were having after a mortal-danger experience.
The elevator doors opened with a sweet ring and the lonely boy was the first one out. He step cautiously between Sakura and Takuya and walked to the station. Sakura slowly stood up and contemplated the station. It wasn't a typical train station like that ones she was used to see. This one was big and circled-shaped and there were many trains of different colors –such as blue, red, green, and pink –and shapes… yeah, literally shapes. All of the trains had eyes, mouths, and faces. Sakura stared at them, wondering why they put faces to their trains. It was more frightening than interesting and it would definitely not attract people or gain publicity. She looked at the railroads; there was one for each train in the station and they all headed to the same direction… apparently. Many kids were on the station too; some older than others. Sakura recognized some of them from the past train. Sakura stepped out of the elevator slowly, still examining the station.
"Where are we?" She asked Takuya, still a bit dizzy for the little elevator ride. She took a moment to realize that Takuya hadn't answered her question. "Takuya?" She asked looking at him. Sakura was brought suddenly to reality when she stared at the place where Takuya had been a few moments ago, which was now empty, "Takuya?" She asked again, this time looking for her new friend with goggles and red shirt. She walked frenetically through the whole station, past huge trains and noisy kids, but she saw nothing of Takuya.
It was then when the loud whistles of the trains shattered Sakura. As she looked around the station, all the trains started to leave. The red one, the green… Sakura started pounding, looking desperately for a train that was still there, or one she was able to board, at least. She started walking faster and faster in every path she could find until she wasn't able to see the elevator and she realized that, once again, her orientation sense and her constant distractions had been the problem of all her miseries. She took a few steps backwards and hit something with her back. Everything happened so quickly that she didn't even have the chance to turn around, let alone move away from that thing. The thing which she had hit –she figured it was a train –started to move; its force was so hard that it pushed Sakura to the ground.
As Sakura looked around, still on her knees, there was a noise that caught her attention. It sounded like a train moving… Sakura turned around only to see a huge, pink train with mole face coming straight towards her. She looked down at her knees quickly enough to see that she was on the train's railroad! She looked at the pink, huge, threatening train again, coming closer and closer. She was in such a shock that she was totally unable to move her legs to get out of the way; she was in such despair that she even started to hit them in a pathetic attempt to make them move, but she was unsuccessful. In the second Sakura closed her eyes, waiting for the impact to come, something grabbed her arm and lifted her up easily, assuring her waist with other hand and pulling her to the solid floor. After she didn't felt the collision, her only thought was 'thanks to God I'm quite thin.'
She sat on the floor of the train panting loudly, the same as the person who had saved her. She opened her eyes slowly, only to see the boy with the bandana staring at her; however, his eyes weren't indifferent anymore, they expressed something… kind of like relief. She looked at him in surprise. He wasn't what she had been expecting. She thought that maybe Takuya or another person had saved her, not the guy, she thought, hated her! He stood up without saying a word and closed the door, creating a peaceful silence in the interior of the train. Sakura followed him with her eyes as he walked passed her and sat silently, crossing his legs and resting his arms on the seat's back. She looked down at her hands, for the first time in her life, nervous of not knowing what to say. It took her a while to realize that she had almost died a few minutes ago. She hugged her knees and buried her face. The boy had expected that post-traumatic shock to come, but it wasn't important for him.
"Th-thank you…" Sakura whispered slowly with her face still buried between her knees. The boy, who hadn't been paying any attention to her since he saved her, looked at her in surprise. Sakura lifted her head and stared at him, blushing hard. "For… saving my life." She finished, still with a voice thread.
"Yeah." He replied indifferently. Sakura fought the impulse of yelling at him again. Why did he have to answer so coldly?! She knew it wouldn't be good to fight with the boy she'd be traveling with for God-knows how many hours, so she tried with all her forces to control herself and yell only to her insides. "So, you are a little nuisance, aren't you?" He asked again, not really sounding interested, not expecting and answer, and definitely not looking at her. In fact, his interest was so little that his words didn't sound like a question, but more like a new discovery or an affirmation.
"I'm not sure if I follow." Sakura replied, concentrating all her energies in not hitting that boy. Nuisance?! Who the hell does he thinks he is?! Sakura's hands became fists and the post-traumatic shock evaporated.
"Well, you were sitting in the middle of the railroads, you bumped into me, you yelled at me, and you have a weird, trouble-maker boyfriend." He began making a list. Sakura's breathing grew faster as anger took over her.
"You were the one who started yelling at me! And I wasn't 'sitting in the middle of the railroads;' I fell!" She said angrily. After a pause, she spoke softly again. "And, well… my boyfriend… he's another matter.
"Hum." The boy replied as he turned his head to the opposite side. Sakura's anger rose again. Hum?! That's all that he says?! Jerk!!! "You know, Sakura? It doesn't make me comfortable having to look down on you." He said with his boring tone again.
"Huh?" Sakura asked confused. What did he meant by that?! He pointed his dark eyes to the floor so Sakura could realize that she was still kneeling on the floor. "Why is it everything about you?!" She asked irritably as she stood up and sat on a seat in front of him.
"Me?" He asked again, this time, his voice did have a tone of confusion, but he kept it cold. Sakura nodded energetically.
"It's all about making you comfortable, bumping into you… I mean I was the one in mortal danger, and you also bumped into me!" She replied, trying to keep an indifferent attitude and not showing her anger, but not really succeeding. "Not that I don't appreciate what you did for me, of course." She added. Sakura waited for him to answer, but he didn't; he simply looked away with another of his "thns'". Suddenly, that other detail hit her and she forgot for a second the boy's selfishness. "Umm, my name..." She began politely, not really knowing how to say: 'how the hell do you know my name, you selfish jerk?!' without making it sounding so rude. He looked as if he had made a mistake.
"It's Sakura, isn't it? Sakura Miyagui."
"Yes." She giggled a bit. "What I meant was: how do you my name?" She explained a bit disappointed on how it sounded at the end.
"I heard you introducing to that boy with the red shirt on the train. Also your boyfriend mentioned it." He said as if it was obvious.
"Oh." She remembered how crazy Yoichi had been when he saw her arguing with…um…? "I just realized I don't know your name." She said softly and blushing a bit.
"Kouji Minamoto." He said shortly.
"Kouji… I hope Yoichi didn't bother you so much back there." Sakura said, although she knew he might have for the way Kouji acted with her.
"He is a protective boyfriend… probably too much."
"Among other things…" Sakura sighted and looked through the window.
Neither of them spoke during a few moments. The train was loaded with one of those uncomfortable silences in which the two persons knew so little about each other that didn't dare to talk. To this situation it might be added the fact that between Kouji Minamoto and Sakura Miyagui there wasn't any sign of mutual respect, tolerance, or any other value needed to begin a cordial conversation that might end in friendship. Sakura thought that Kouji was simply a lonely boy who was a total jerk and was disrespectful to every person he saw. He was the kind of person that Sakura couldn't stand and usually avoided; but now she was trapped in the same train where he was... and she didn't know how many hours she would be with him.
Kouji, in the other hand, thought of Sakura as the typical, selfish girl that only thought of how pretty she was. And after the incident with her boyfriend, Kouji had the impression that Sakura was the kind of girl who was always waiting to be saved; the kind of sweet girl of fairytales. And he all ready knew she was a nuisance to him, for she had an especial interest in making Kouji's life harder.
Sakura's ringtone, which had been sweet and funny some time ago, sounded horrible in that second. Sakura jumped when she heard it and didn't immediately recognize her ringtone. It sounded more like static mixed with a prehistoric radio. She stared at Kouji, thinking that it was his phone which was ringing, but after hearing the characteristic, rhythmical beeps of her ringtone she took it out of her pocket and stared at it. The screen was changing from her electric blue screen that read: YOICHI CALLING, to a bunch of static and gray and black moving lines. Sakura waited until her screen was a bit more stable again and answered the call.
"Hello? Sakura, are you there?" Yoichi's voice came from the other side of the line, but it was hard to understand him since the static kept interrupting. Kouji rolled his eyes on the front seat.
"Yoichi?" Sakura asked, getting as answer more static and a glimpse of Yoichi's voice. "Are you there?"
"Sakura… where… you… Ok?" Yoichi's frenetic questions were interrupted by static every time he tried to say something.
"Where are you?" Sakura began, knowing that it wasn't too smart since she wouldn't be able to talk to him. "Did you…?" Sakura was cut off by Kouji.
He took Sakura's little, blue celphone and hung up, leaving Yoichi very angry… wherever he was. Sakura sighted and waited for Kouji to return her celphone, but instead, the boy looked at it, put it in his right pocket, and sat back on his seat easily.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Sakura yelled at him as she stood from her seat and put her hands on her waist (an old habit she had developed).
"I'm making sure that you don't speak to him anymore." He replied as if it was obvious.
"WHAT?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" She yelled as she opened her eyes.
"All that static disrupts my thinking… and I really hate its sound. Besides, his yelling voice was starting to annoy me… again"
"That's my phone! I want you to give it back to me! You have no right to steal it!" She said seriously as she walked to where Kouji was sitting and stretched her hand at him to receive her phone. He remained sitting with his legs crossed and his arms resting in the seat's back, staring at her hand.
"No." He simply said. Sakura's eyes widened and her mouth hung open as he spoke so coldly and turned his head to the opposite side again. Of course, she never expected it to be so easy.
"Give it to me!"
"No." Kouji repeated as he stood up and walked around the train.
Sakura's switch turned on again, like the first time she saw him. She began chasing him angrily, willing to leave his eye as Yoichi's.
"Give it to me!!" She yelled furiously as she began chasing Kouji all around the train.
Kouji was taller than her and his reflexes were very good, so he easily moved around, lodging Sakura's poor attempts to hit him.
"Kouji, come on! Give it back to me!!" Sakura pleaded angrily as she ran over and over in the same places Kouji had been a few seconds before.
"I have to admit you're fast, but not fast enough!" He teased her, making Sakura angrier. She knew one of her troubles in that situation was her short stature, and Kouji pissing her off wasn't making her happier with herself. "You want it back? You have to catch me first!"
"Stop it!" Sakura yelled as she prepared to try knocking Kouji down… again.
This time, Kouji wasn't prepared to move, so he and Sakura ended up struggling horizontally in the train's seat. Koji was almost lying, with his knees trying to keep away Sakura, as his hands were quickly getting the electric blue phone from his pocket and swinging it above his head. Sakura kept trying to reach it, even if Kouji's knees were an obstacle. Just when she was about to win Kouji the battle and get her celphone back, the train bumped hardly two or three times and made Koji fall from the seat, leaving Sakura kneeling on it, contemplating how Kouji stood up proudly and stared at the window in front of him, turning his back on Sakura. It took her a few seconds to realize that he was looking interestingly at something.
She stood up and walked to where Kouji was and contemplated the scene. It was an island… well it would have been an island if it was surrounded by water and if it wasn't floating! Kouji and Sakura looked at the sight they had in front of them, marveled by it. How on Earth had they managed to get to that place?
"Where are we?" Sakura asked softly as she kept on looking, examining the island with her blue eyes and wondering in what planet they had arrived. She wasn't talking to Kouji, really. If she were alone, she still would have asked that question out loud.
"How do you want me to know?" Kouji replied coldly again.
Sakura ignored his mean and insulting reply for once; she was more interested in the sight she had just out of the window, and Kouji had become a minor problem at that point. Luckily for him, she had forgotten about her celphone, or she would have taken the opportunity to keep on fighting. Sakura never rejected an opportunity to fight if she had one. The floating island became even more impressive when they saw trees appearing out of nowhere, being formed by thin air. Sakura could have sworn she saw some weird lines that looked like code bars or something, but they faded before she got the chance to examine them.
"What is…?" Kouji mumbled looking sharply at the appearing trees.
"You saw that?" She asked, this time she DID expected an answer, mostly to prove that she wasn't going nuts.
"This place keeps getting weirder." Kouji's reply wasn't really making her feel better, but it proved that she wasn't the only one crazy, at least.
They kept staring at the sight of the lovely and peaceful island until their train abruptly stopped in a station… or what seemed like a station, for it was nothing like the kids had ever seen.
***
Kouji was the first one to jump of the train. Sakura followed him soon afterwards, without really knowing why. She was in a strange place and she was afraid to be alone, but following a jerk like Kouji… She thought she had a better chance of surviving if she wasn't alone, especially because her sense of orientation was awfully bad and the station didn't seem a good place to get lost. It was all gray and like metal covered. It seemed like a boiler room more than what it really was. The talking train blew his whistle as Kouji started to stretch a bit, apparently very tired of having to stand Sakura for that long. She waited until he finished so that they could resume their discussion.
"My phone, Kouji." She said, holding out her hand again. Her tone wasn't really polite; it was more like 'give me my damn phone or I'll leave your eye purple'.
"Are you going to start again?" He replied, examining the station. "You couldn't win me the first time."
"I was going to win you; it's just that the train saved you. If we fight again, I'm sure I'll win!" Sakura said proudly. It was evident that Kouji didn't like the idea that she was stronger than he was.
"I really don't think so." Kouji said, his dark blue eyes looking directly at her electric blue eyes again. "Why do you want it so much?" He said, putting his hand in his pocket.
"Excuse me?! It's MY phone!! I'm trying to figure out why you want it so much!"
"If you need it, you can ask me and I'll give it to you."
"I don't believe you, Kouji." Sakura said and stared at him seriously. Her hands were on her waist again. "Why do you want it?!"
"If I give it to you and that guy calls again, you'll surely answer it. But you won't even be able to speak to him because all that annoying static will come with his irritant voice. And I'm not willing to suffer with all that noise for the third time this day." Kouji said, closing his eyes. After a pause he continued. "If I have the phone, I'll easily hang up and end the problem".
"If I talk to him or not it's not your problem. And I don't care if there's a bunch of static! You can't just steal my celphone and expect me to be Ok with it! I-". But Sakura was cut off when Kouji got his phone out and a weird object appeared in its place. "What are you doing now?! What is that?" She asked irritably.
"I don't know." Kouji replied indifferently and pulled Sakura's phone out.
Instead of the little, electric blue, celphone Sakura used to have, there was a weird object. It was white with electric blue lines that rounded its shape, and it had silver colored buttons.
Sakura's D-tector.
Kouji's D-tector
"What did you do to my phone?!" Sakura exclaimed, taking advantage of Kouji's surprise to take it away from him and stated looking at it.
"ME?!"
"You were the last one who-"She was cut off again by the same voice she had been following and an electric blue glow with a weird symbol. It was the same female voice that had been guiding her to the stations.
"Kouji Minamoto and Sakura Miyagui." She said, her voice coming out from the new objects they had just 'acquired'.
"Is that voice again!" Sakura pointed out.
"Commence your search." The voice continued. Sakura wandered if she could hear them or if it was just a recording.
"Search?" Kouji asked a bit annoyed. "For what?!"
"The Spirits." The voice said.
"How do you know my name?" Sakura asked in awe. "Well, OUR names." She corrected after gaining a scary look from Kouji.
"Find your Spirits and you will find the answers to all your questions."
"And how are we going to do that?" Sakura asked irritably. Dealing with that woman wasn't easy.
"Remain together, find your spirits, and your questions will be answered."
"WHAT?! TOGETHER!!" Sakura and Kouji exclaimed at unison and sharing a confused look, mixed with annoyance and despair.
"You'll have a better chance." She said before both D-tectors became death.
"What is this 'Spirit'? How do I know where to look for it?!" Kouji yelled desperately.
"Singular sentence." Sakura pointed out, waiting for Kouji to correct his sentence the same as she had, but he did nothing. Sakura's anger grew with every passing instant. "No, please! Come back!!" Sakura pleaded to her phone without success.
Sakura and Kouji began pressing buttons randomly, trying to get the voice back. But it was Kouji's D-tector that beeped and showed a circle with many lines and two small dots of different colors: dark pink and light blue.
Sakura lowered her head, defeated and resigned to her fate. She was seriously thinking to go and hit her head against a tree when she thought it wouldn't be any help. She looked at Kouji, just to find that he was also looking at her. They both had a mortified expression on their faces. It had been enough to deal with each other in the train, now they had to stand each other days, or even weeks until both of them founded the so called 'Spirits'.
"What are those dots?" Sakura asked as she stood up distractively behind Kouji and used his shoulders as a leverage to see the map better, so she was standing in the tip of her toes and holding herself from his shoulder. Kouji turned his head until his dark glare fell upon Sakura's hand. She quickly pulled it off his shoulder but said nothing.
"The blue dot is me, the pink one is you." Kouji explained, still glaring at Sakura, who had moved to his right side.
"How do you know that?!"
"It's obvious."
Sakura stood behind Kouji again and grabbed his D-tector. Ignoring Kouji's angry yells, she separated from him a bit, just to discover that it was the blue dot separating from the pink one.
"I told you I was the blue one!" Sakura yelled triumphantly.
"That's not true!" He yelled as he approached her. He grabbed back his D-tector and separated from Sakura, only to find out that she was right.
"I told you so!" Sakura was about to keep celebrating her right assumption when the train blew his whistle and let out a big pile of gray smoke.
"This keeps getting weirder by the minute." Kouji mumbled again. Sakura simply nodded in agreement, though he didn't actually see her.
"You said it." Someone mumbled. Sakura and Kouji turned around to see nobody, except for the train.
"You speak?!" Sakura asked surprised.
"It's quite common, I'm a trailmon." The blue train said.
"Umm… well, I'm Sakura!" She said cheerfully. "And he's Kouji." She added, pointing at the boy besides her.
"It's nice to meet you." The train said.
"So, where exactly are we?" Kouji asked.
"You're in the Digital World."
"Digital World?" Sakura and Kouji asked at unison.
"Yes, it's the home of the Digimons, our home."
Kouji turned around and started walking, looking at the map with a troubled expression. Sakura looked at him, her self-control not as good as it was in the train, and Kouji's attitude and the voice's command weren't helping. She hated to be left behind. She breathed slowly a couple of times, trying to regain her control.
"We have to go, it was nice to meet you." She said cheerfully to the train and followed Kouji, who stopped when he heard her footsteps behind him.
"What is it?" He asked coldly and quite pissed off.
"Didn't you hear that we are supposed to stay together?" Sakura asked with sarcasm, not happy at the command the D-tectors had given, but she kept on walking past him.
"I guess." Kouji admitted reluctantly. He sounded as if his mouth hurted at the simple mention of those words. Sakura turned around and glared suspiciously at him. "A word of advice: do not bother me." He said very slowly, as if she was dumb and needed that the persons spoke slowly so that she could understand.
"Don't bother you?!" She yelled at him and stood frozen when Kouji walked past her. She stood in shock for a while, leaving Kouji walking, until she thought of a good reply and then ran after him. "If you don't like me, you shouldn't have saved me! Thanks to that, you are here trapped with me and vice versa!"
"Oh, please!" He exclaimed, but he wasn't that much interested in arguing, so he didn't stop. The fact that his plan to escape Sakura was frustrated pissed him off.
"I mean, you are not the only one here! If we're supposed to remain together, you're going to have to stop being so… so… so…!" Sakura trailed off, realizing that her brain wasn't thinking of a good adjective to describe him, even if she had thought of many when she was on the train with him just a few moments ago.
"I am so…?" Kouji encouraged, rather amused by her frustration, though his voice didn't show it.
"When I find an adjective worth of you, I'll tell you!"
"Be sure to remember that promise." Kouji said, laughing to his insides –though his tone was indifferent –and kept on walking.
"I will." Sakura threatened coldly as she followed him. "Where are we going?" She asked after a long, uncomfortable pause.
"To find those Spirits so that I can get rid of you, little nuisance." He said with his characteristic, boring tone; not looking at her.
"Hey! Don't call me that!" Sakura protested as she ran, trying to catch up with Kouji.
They both remained silent, thinking of how unfortunate their lives were for having each others 'company'. Kouji's eyes didn't separate from the weird map and Sakura didn't open her mouth, her brain was still thinking of adjectives to describe Kouji. Strangely, none of the adjectives she was coming up with seemed enough to describe him. The station wasn't the kind of place that was useful to improve the kid's mood, but it didn't matter. The only thing they knew was that they were trapped with somebody they couldn't stand on a mission that they didn't understand.