This chapter is just story building, setting and character developing, so if you don't like this kinda stuff you can skip this.
A word about the gang before you meet them.
Life changed dramatically after our visit to the Digital World. The Legendary Warriors were friends now and the summer vacations which preceded them were one of the best summer vacations ever. With new friends and new lessons, we all set out to explore all sorts of things together and even started getting along with everyone better.
Takuya and Tomoki and Kōji all were getting along a lot better with their brothers.
The girls who had originally been hostile towards Izumi saw what a precious jewel of a person she is beneath all that cultural difference.
Junpei stopped trying to win friends over by chocolates or magic tricks and Kōichi was recovering fine from his accident.
I, Ghala Lili and former Mercuremon of Steel, got along a lot better with my family because I saw they really had my best interests at heart… Even though they might not know how to show them, but it didn't matter, I have years of experience having to deal with them anyway with my core of steel.
Fujimoto Myakka, who used to be Ranamon of Water, was getting along just fine with Izumi. It was a laugh how much they used to fight and compete with each other for being the more beautiful one.
Hart Jason or Jackson or whatever-his-first-name-is, meaning Arbormon of Earth was a teensy bit hostile towards Kōichi for taking advantage of his weaknesses when he was Duskmon.
Ivankov Zack , former Grottomon of Ground, still erupted at really odd moments coz of the magma no doubt still piled in his head. No one knew what to really make of him, as generally speaking he is a deathly patient person.
We didn't know what became of Dalton Russell and Watanabe Aqumi, the Warriors of Love and Hate.
Russell's human spirit which used to be a MarineAngemon and Beast Spirit Magnadramon still got some laughs from the guys who constantly teased him for representing "Love", even though he was Ophanimon's trusted partner sent to protect Katsaharu and the others with Angemon. We think he went back to America coz that's what his profile in MySpace said.
And Aqumi Warrior of Hate still gave us the jitters. She was the one with the human spirit of MarineDevimon and Beast Spirit of SkullSatamon, sent by Lucemon and who was taking over the Flame Terminal's data when we met her and after a rigorous battle eventually defeated, and purified by Takuya as KaiserGreymon. We think she avoided us on purpose, though she accepted our friend requests in MSN. It was a different thing we almost never saw her online.
Same could be said about Barlas Joanne, the Legendary Warrior of Fear. You might remember her from The Island of the Lost Digimon. She was the one who stirred up this great war between the Human and Beast type Digimon. But just like all the evil Warriors, she was also under orders and brainwashed. Unsurprisingly, we were good friends.
But all good times must come to an end. While the summer vacation was like something out of a story book, living the lives of normal people with normal problems, they had to end. And at the end we all had to turn our separate ways and face reality.
Some of us lived in different countries. Izumi had to go back to Italy where all her maternal family lived, as she had come to Japan on a short term basis. I understand that her family has some sort of hold in Italy, something about Ferrari.
Kōji's dad had to move away again for another one of his business trips to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and etc.
Kōichi had started backing away from gatherings now that Kōji wasn't around and it was because of him only that he had even started talking to the rest of the gang in the first place and was still a little bit shy around the rest of us.
Joanne and I went back to Pakistan. I had also come to visit distant relatives, like Izumi who had come to Japan coz her father had to sort out some property stuff.
Tomoki had gotten along like pen to paper with Takuya's younger brother Shinya, so despite the promises of being around a lot, Shinya and Tomoki soon got self-absorbed with each other and hit it well off being almost the same age and seldom emerged separate.
When school started again, Junpei was a year ahead of Takuya and Kōichi, and three years ahead of Tomoki.
Tomoki was hanging a lot with Shinya so he pretty much stayed out of the big picture; and Junpei was this popular most sought after guy in his grade because of his natural charm and new found intelligence on how to handle friends.
Kōichi even after banging his head and sustaining a serious head injury somehow continued topping in classes and saw no reason of coming to school regularly and preferred staying at home and taking care of his mother and tutoring other kids in his grade and younger than him for extra money so he and his mother could afford a few luxuries once in a while. He even occasionally solved problems of Junpei's friends and some other older kids.
Takuya involved himself in his school's football team and made friends with his team mates as he was left alone, something he hadn't given much thought to before preferring to save money to join any club instead as then there would've been more chances of major league competitions. But now with plenty of time in his hands he didn't know a better way to avail it, academics being something he wasn't all that fond of to absorb himself in so deeply.
Izumi was the pretty cheerleader type whose guts were hated by everyone other than her own friends who just thought she was simply the best and if one took the time to get to know her, they found out she was one of the nicest people out there, but I believe I've already mentioned that.
And Kōji never liked making friends since before only because of this very reason of his moving around a lot and switching many schools because of his father's job.
The rest we fell out of regular contact with. Sure we saw them online every once in a while but we didn't always talk, as they had formed sort of their own group. They didn't invite me to join them, maybe coz I lived in a different country, or maybe coz they hated my guts like the next person. But I still tried maintaining contact, as what we shared was not just a simple friendship, but a special bond formed from sharing an adventure.
We continued having online conversations together at MSN or Skype or Orkut or whatever. It mostly used to be the original five heroes, and Kōichi and me who used to be a part of "the other side". Izumi always had the same advice on how to move on as our Real World friendships just weren't working even when we were trying our very best to make them work. She continued getting everyone to make new friends and spend more time with them even when no one was that interested in making. There just wasn't the same charm in friendship with people other than our Frontier Gang.
Just like that the years passed by. Everyone kept trying to get together but opportunities were scarce. And then finally, after six years, a beacon of hope lay. Izumi had dropped the bombshell. Her father who was Japanese still needed to sort out the land affairs in Japan and they were coming again for at least a year. As when Izumi's grand-father had died (which was the reason for Izumi's last visit to Japan preceding the trip to the Digital World) he had left his entire fortune to his two sons, the land was what was mostly had gone to Izumi's father, him being older. Zoë had talked her Italian mother last year into going as well.
Kōji last year had succeeded in persuading his father that he wanted to do his high schooling in Japan with his brother and friends. His father had been reluctant, but he couldn't deny his son this privilege, as throughout the years Kōji had grown astonishingly vocal around him and his wife, actually spending time with them. Willingly. And these were the friends of Kōji's who for once in his life had lasted for more than a week anyway. For the past year Kōji has been living with Kōichi and will continue to do so for two more years at least if his father still didn't some back.
The five of them along with Takuya's younger brother Shinya [who was my age though a grade behind me as my birthday was in January and came before April, which was when new class years started. He and Tommy are classmates, so he (Shinya) was a few months younger than me and a few months older than Tomoki] got admission together in one of the top schools in Tokyo, the Kojiki Institute of Literary Learning and Schematics, which was in the Shibuya district. It is almost impossible to get in if you don't have a contact or source. They all managed to get in with just the proper strings pulled by Kōji's father who was doing this all because he just wanted Kōji to remain happy.
Takuya and Shinya got in easily coz their mother is a teacher there.
Kōji then persuaded me to apply for the coming year when I would be starting High School (in Japan, High School starts at grade 10 and grade 9 is still the final year of Junior High), saying that with his father's reference there was hope for me to get a scholarship, which was to be the only way my parents would allow me to leave their nest, so that they won't have to spend much money. Figuring it was a do or die type of thing, as a reunion was so appealing, I applied and succeeded in getting the said scholarship for the horrendously expensive tuition.
After the whole vacation spent begging, I had gotten my parents to let me stay at Izumi's house rather than at my relatives' I hardly know. At least before the vacations ended, which barely gives us a week.
Takuya with his football record and mother's post got a 100% athletic scholarship him being a citizen and being forced to enrol in the football team, not that he had any complaint. Shinya still got a 75% scholarship even if he had more spirits in his pocket to drink than school spirit but it was a big thing he even got admitted, and it was probably the only way their parents had afforded their tuition, with Takuya's family being hand to mouth.
Kōichi with his past record in academics and scoring 110 marks in the 100 marks entrance exam was given a full scholarship eyes closed and hands down. Pfft, nerd.
Junpei's, Izumi's and Tomoki's parents had no problems paying the fees as they had no siblings also in need of education.
So this is it till now. I'm sitting in the airplane writing this as I was stupid enough to pack almost all my novels in my suitcase and only one was in my handbag. That one finished an hour and a half ago. Thank Allah I had my notebook with me as well, where I'm writing this.
What I don't get, is why is this damn trip taking so long? Japan is not even that far away! Stupid stops and stupid waiting. I couldn't go to sleep because of the anxiety to see my friends again. That was more than six hours ago. It's bad enough I had to wait a whole year before joining the group again. Now that I come to think about it, I am wondering if any of the others have changed. I mean so much so has happened, it's kind of difficult not to. Change I mean. What I know from all the video chats and IMs and e-mails is that:
* Kanbara Takuya is the same old hot tempered, impulsive, a bit insecure and extremely friendly (despite his jock profile) when he thinks no one is looking "Always the Leader" and goggle-headed jerk. The last bit was Kōji's one word (actually two) definition not mine. And his voice is less childish now, despite his habits, which are of course, still childish. I think it's the childish part of his which was the reason he doesn't have a girlfriend yet even after having the most prettiest girls confess their feelings for him. But we all know the cheerleaders all go for him coz he's a jock, even though we don't tell him that (except Kōji of course, who always likes to rub stuff in his face. Guys are weird sometimes.).
* Minamoto Kōji, comparing the time when his mouth used to be clammed shut, has started talking on the verge of annoyance now, but only to those close to him (and only those who had known him from his mouth-being-clammed-shut days would see this remarkable change in him and could compare with how impossible he used to be). His voice hasn't changed at all, combined with his maturity, proves our speculations that Kōji must've hit puberty at the age Tomoki was back at the Digital World. Though regardless of the fact that his twin's the one who's the certified academic genius, Kōji took the cake displaying more logic and maturity and being the logical genius. Seriously, for someone who got most of his homework done by his brother to prevent failing and in return get awesome grades, that still didn't explain how he was so damn good in mind games like chess and devised such cool strategies in kendo. Though he acted all strong and mean, Kōji admitted to me once that although he could stand it, he had grown a little dislike of the dark after our trip to the Digital World and preferred light because he felt it somehow zapped his proficiency. He tries to get all his work done at daytime cox he just felt more efficient and better then, probably coz he used to be the Warrior ofLight.
* Shibayama Junpei was and is a perpetual flirt, the same "balance" of the team. Last year he got involved with a girl named Natsumi. He did her and all, and when the time came for him to leave her because things were getting serious to the extreme (for Natsumi only. JP liked to have fun, and fun only and like most guys his age thought that commitment was leprosy) she went all psycho, which in my and Zoë's view is quite understandable (even though Zoë only agreed with me when I opened a separate chat window and threatened to tell everyone that when they first started their journeys she found Kōji "boyfriend material" and has begun to think that way again a little, even if it was now in a "boyfriend on-trial material" basis.) However, that freaked him (JP) out so much that he stopped dating exclusively (not that he was actually dating exclusively before) and now just resolved to having fun with multiple girls at the same time.
* Orimoto Izumi is like JP in a way. But where she differed from him was due to the main factor that she was a girl. And in being a girl she was searching for a real Prince Charming, having very high standards and didn't believe in waiting for a guy to come sweep her off her feet, so she prefers to operate on her own. She had a ridiculous boyfriend "on-trial basis" theory during which she observed if her current guy met all her standards. So far unsurprisingly, no boyfriend of hers had crossed the "on-trial" stage to the next level which is her heart. We all thought this is all Zoë's excuse for being a player, though a sort of different one than JP. JP dated many girls at the same time while Zoë just dumped her current guy whenever she spotted a better and tastier looking eye-candy.
* Himi Tomoki might be gay, because unlike all the adolescents his age, he doesn't even bat an eye when a girl crossed his vicinity and unlike Junpei had no interest in looking under cheerleaders' skirts. But this might be coz of the fact that his eyes are always glued to his PSP or Nintendo DS Lite, one of which he always carries around with him practically everywhere, alternating between the PS and Nintendo DS Lite. So he was stuck in his own complicated love triangle. I mean, I appreciate the intoxicating beauty of video games too, but that doesn't mean I don't also appreciate the intoxicating beauty of the occasional hot guy passing by every once in a while. God Zoë's rubbed off on me.
* Kimura Kōichi with his dislike for long drives coz his motor coordination was never that cool after his accident and made him nauseous as hell whenever it came unpredictably. Even after having regular migraines caused by whenever he's stressed, tensed, concentrating hard on anything for more than an hour (which was his usual maximum time limit he could stand ignoring his headache) or staying way too long in the sun (we still haven't figured out if this part is because of his migraines which resulted after his Head Injury causing him to be a little photophobic and hating flashes and bright sunlight - coz hey too much heat of the day blasted on you causes anyone to have a headache, there are all sorts of harmful rays caused by the sun – or if it's because he used to be the Warrior of Darkness that he started preferring moonlight over sunlight when his weaknesses were visibly too minimal) he was still a bad ass when it came to academics. Maybe it's coz he's test smart he always manages to finish his exams only after around an hour and a half, cox then his head starts to hurt. As to why he wasn't so concerned about dating, he claimed that the seemingly never ending constant chatter of girls gives him a headache, though we haven't made out if his claim is a hoax to avoid being questioned about his love life or he's just avoiding trouble.
I admit, knowing that all of them were meeting in real not on a computer screen every day and telling me all what they're all up to and being in the same school made me… jealous. That they all had each other and I was stuck alone with all my chores and getting the regular cold shoulders from everyone at my school being the only things I had to look forward to. Well, that was going to be changing soon. When they see me, they'll realise exactly what they've been missing not having me around…
This was just the prologue. The real story begins from the next chapter. I don't know which POV to use now the prologue is over but I'll figure something out, most probably I'll just keep a general POV ^_^ Suggestions, help and advices are always welcomed.
