U/N: So since my last authors note was so long, this one will be short, and I'll say thank you for reading chapter one, since if you're reading this you probably already have. Read chapter one, I mean. So thanks :D This is a really short chapter, which feels weird.
Title: Digimon Adventure 06: Data
By: UrazamayKing
Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.
Part 1: Whispers
Chapter 2: Slug Attack
Jou Kido:
As the doors were pushed open, the cool wind roared, rushing directly into the faces of the crowd emerging from the stuffy building. The air still smelled like butter and popcorn to the point where I could feel it seeping into my skin, but it was now mixed with the smell of early spring, freshness, budding trees and everything else coming back to life. Unfortunately, the air was very cold. I pulled on my jacket to try to keep warm, but logic won out again, and my plan did not work.
"It wasn't even a good movie," Yamato mumbled as he held the door open for some of the others who had seen the movie with us. A pair of girls giggled as they passed him and he smiled nervously at them. He was right though, the movie was awful.
"And whose fault is that, mister?" Mimi asked. Her arms were crossed, though, the question remained: were they crossed because it was cold, or because she was trying to act stern? "You were the one who told me to close my eyes and point."
"And it was a good plan." He grinned at her, "Right up until the movie started."
"Oh the plan fell apart long before that," Taichi laughed. "The movie was called 'Slug attack'." Taichi prodded Mimi with his elbow at the title of the movie which caused her to shudder. I couldn't blame her. The entire movie involved throwing slugs at other people. It was disgusting.
"It could have been a movie about gladiator bugs," Koushiro offered, shrugging his shoulders in an attempt to defend Mimi.
"Now, that would have been a good movie," Taichi grinned, throwing his arm around Koushiro and motioning to the sky, ranting about what the movie could have been like.
The five of us had gone out to see a movie together, just like we'd do once a month. Sometimes others would join in, usually Hikari and Takeru would come along, but today they were busy doing something more important. Just like the rest of us should have been doing. Even now Mimi was looking nervously around her trying to find an excuse that could bring her back to the restaurant. It was still open, and Hideto and Izumi were still in charge. Taichi didn't seem too worried about his list of tasks, but I knew that was because he had temporarily forgotten them, and I for one wasn't going to be the one to remind him. Yamato was relaxed as per usual, and Koushiro was as tense and anti-social as always.
As for me, Gomamon was angry with me again. For slacking off on my duties, which was something I'd never normally do, but there really was no choice. This was the first break I'd taken other than sleeping and eating in more than a month.
"What do you mean?" Gomamon had asked, a bit annoyed, "You have a busy schedule? You always have a busy schedule!"
"I know," I said quietly. "But look on the bright side. If I get a break, so do you."
Gomamon gave me a dirty look and shook his head. "But seriously, how do you not have time? The people over on File Island need a doctor, and they haven't been seen in over two months. You have to go over there."
"I would if I could Gomamon," I said with a rather dramatic sigh. "But Momoe is going to work, and I have to watch Emiko, and then I promised the others I'd meet with them and—"
"Get Jun to watch Emiko," Gomamon reasoned. "Tell the others you're too busy, they'll understand."
"Jun's busy too," I told him. "She's planning her wedding. Her big super dramatic wedding that has to outshine everyone. Even those who haven't been married yet. And really that just doesn't seem possible. How can she outdo people who haven't even been married yet? They can look at hers and steal the whole thing, but make everything just a tiny bit better and then voila! They're wedding will be better."
"Jou, stop beating around the bush and just say that you don't think Jun could beat your wedding." Gomamon rolled his eyes.
"She can't," I admitted with a grin. "Mine was the best. She wouldn't know I guess, having not been there, but it was better than any normal wedding I'd say."
"So you can bring Emiko with you," Gomamon said, jumping back to his point without hesitation.
"But I need to take Emiko shopping," I said, sighing.
"You're letting digimon be ill because you want to go shopping?" Gomamon asked sharply.
"No," I said. "I have been putting my entire life on hold because every digimon in this world is sick at least once a year. I'm the only doctor, and I can only do so much. My daughter is starting school next week. Can you believe that? School. She's going to get suspended, I just know it... but not if she doesn't have any school supplies! Then I'll be the one in trouble. I need to get her ready. She can't even read yet! And I'm not going to let Emiko go through this important milestone without me. I'm sorry Gomamon, I love the digimon of this world, and I will do everything I can to help them out, but my daughter comes first. I'm not going to be a crappy parent."
Gomamon looked up to me and nodded. "I understand," he said quietly, "Just, hurry back okay? They need your help."
Even though he had seemed so understanding, I could tell he was a bit annoyed. And honestly, he played the guilt card perfectly, because I was annoyed too. I wanted so badly to rewind time and not have gone to this stupid movie. It was a crappy movie, and in the two hours it took to sit through it I could have helped numerous digimon on File Island...
A loud snap brought me back to reality and I found myself staring at Taichi, pointing a stick to Yamato who was on the ground, his own stick broken in half.
"I've defeated you," Taichi said in a dramatic voice. "What will you do now?"
I raised my eyebrows in amusement. Mostly because I wasn't the one subjected to being defeated this time. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Mimi, staring up at the stars absent-mindedly, and walked over to her.
She was still holding herself tightly, rubbing her arms with her hands that were covered by green and pink mittens that it looked like she may have made herself... She let out an audible sigh which caused a burst of fog to erupt from her mouth. "You okay?" I whispered, standing next to her. She looked up to me and nodded.
"Of course." She smiled weakly. We stared at each other for a brief moment and she caved. Faster than usual. "No," she said with a sigh. "It's a long story though. I don't really want to go into it."
"Okay," I said nodding, even though I really wanted her to go into it. Sometimes being mature meant that you had to stifle your curiosity...
"I love how you do that." She smiled with disbelief. "When I say I don't want you to push, you just don't. No one else I've met can do that."
"Well if you want to talk about it, talk about it," I said, shrugging my shoulders, "If not, don't. But if you're saying you don't want to talk about it even though you do, just to test how much people care by making them beg, then I don't want to, like, feed that side of you, you know? I just don't want—"
"Okay, you're ruining it," Mimi said, stopping me with a hand on my shoulder. "But thank you anyway," she said hugging me. "Now, a brief exaggeration of reality is in order." She turned around and walked over to the group, and looked at her wrist where no watch was placed. "Oh my goodness, look at the time! I had no idea it was so late. I really should be going."
Koushiro's face lit up in recognition and he walked to her side, his hands deep in his pockets. Mimi shook her head. "No, you stay here," she said. "I'm fine."
"No, I'll go," Koushiro replied with a smile. "It's no big deal."
"No, it'll be like a guys' night." Mimi smiled.
Koushiro turned around and looked to Yamato, Taichi and I and then back to Mimi. "I'm alright."
Mimi laughed, pushing him back to the others. "No," she grinned. "You stay here. You'll enjoy yourself, I promise." She kissed him on the cheek and then messed up his hair, and then she was off, waving goodbye to the rest of us.
"Strange girl," Yamato said slowly.
Koushiro nodded, coming toward us all, trying, a little awkwardly to incorporate himself into our now dubbed 'Guys Night'. "Well, that stands to reason." Koushiro nodded, giving an uncomfortable thumbs up. "I'm strange as well, so it would only be natural for me to find someone who is of the same level of oddness as me."
Taichi laughed, but Yamato and I nodded politely. Koushiro glared at Taichi and then shoved his hands back in his pocket, storming toward the nearest store. At first I was confused, but upon hearing Yamato explain to Taichi that I needed to buy school supplies for Emiko, I was set in motion.
How could I have forgotten? Probably because I didn't want to remember. She was growing up so fast...
"So when is Emiko bringing back her first boyfriend?" Taichi asked, an enormous grin plastered on his face.
"What?" I gasped. "Never!"
Taichi laughed, and made some joke about how I was too strict of a parent. Which was sometimes true, so I found it hard to take as a joke. I let her pranks go only so far, but Taichi advised me to see how far she could take them. The last time I tried that she tripped me with a fishing line. On top of a hill. A muddy hill. In the rain. It was a disaster. I didn't know where the line between being a strict parent and a caring parent really was, so I was sometimes going back and forth.
"How is Emiko anyway?" Taichi asked, pulling me from my thoughts as he held the door open for Yamato and I to follow Koushiro into the building. He was waiting by the greeter for us; his mood seemed to have lightened greatly.
"She's fine," I smiled in response trying not to go too far into detail; Taichi was always telling me that I was being 'that parent', the one who never stops talking about their kids.
"Jou," Taichi said. "I asked you this time, you're allowed to talk."
"Oh," I said, a grin growing on my face. "Well you see, she's learning to ride a bike now. She wants to be able to bike to school on her first day, but I'll never let that happen. She's crazy if she thinks I won't be there for her big day. Also she's horrible with the bike ordeal. She keeps falling."
"Try training wheels?" Yamato asked.
"Oh she has those. She's just that bad," I said, ignoring the snickering of the two of them.
"I could teach her about physics and the proper formula for balancing on any device if you'd like?" Koushiro offered. "I recently helped Kiyoko's Piedmon learn to ride a unicycle." I didn't know how to react to that. I'd never in a million years think of Koushiro as that kind of person. I just smiled politely with a soft, "Oh, that's cool." He didn't seem offended though.
"She really likes music though," I said disappointed. "Like, a lot. She's obsessed with rock music and she plays it all the time. It's getting irritating. I don't know how Momoe handles it. She's there a lot more than me."
"I like Emiko," Yamato decided suddenly.
"Because she likes your music?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "She prefers your older stuff."
"Yeah, I get that a lot," Yamato laughed.
"She asks all sorts of questions I have no answers for. Momoe is so much better than I am," I told them. "Last week Emiko asked why purple wasn't an animal."
"That doesn't make any sense," Taichi muttered, trying to figure it out.
"I know," I nodded, reading the signs in the store quickly, and finding the paper aisle. "She's a little nuts. Momoe is used to crazy people. I mean she lived with Mantaru, Chiziru and Miyako for like eighteen years. I'm just used to the questions that have a real answer."
"Purple is a concept," Koushiro said quietly, popping up out of nowhere with a pile of pencils, crayons, and other school supplies, setting them gently into the cart Yamato was pushing lazily. "An animal is matter, an organism that lives and thrives using the three basic principles of survival. Purple is nothing but an intangible adjective."
"Yes," Taichi grinned, poking Koushiro with his finger. "But why?"
"Because reality is what it is," Koushiro reasoned without thought.
"I think we can all agree that reality can be altered every now and then," Yamato said. "I mean, when I was ten I thought reality was a simple one planed track of existence. Now I know there are nine worlds that all have a different opinion as to what reality really means."
"Perhaps," Koushiro nodded, crossing his arms in thought. "Though I wonder how their reality truly is different from ours."
"No," Taichi warned. "You're paid to learn the reality of the Digital World. Not the other seven worlds."
"Five," Koushiro corrected. "I find that the Tunnel of Time hardly counts as an alternate reality, though it would be an interesting tool to create separate realities. And the In-Between is hardly a world of its own."
"Fair enough," Taichi nodded. "But the Digital World is still your job."
As we walked past a toy aisle Taichi elbowed Yamato and motioned for him to take a detour. I rolled my eyes but was unable to keep from laughing. Taichi was always fascinated by the newest toys.
"This!" Taichi shouted, drawing the attention of some mothers who were shopping not too far from us. I looked away embarrassed, pretending to not know him. "Jou! Man with glasses to whom I've known for more than twenty years!" I groaned and spun around. Taichi was holding a board game above his head and was standing on one of the ladders employees used to stock shelves. "You should get this game for Emiko. Hikari and I used to play it all the time, and I loved it. Because I always won."
Yamato laughed, but I just shook my head. "We stay away from board games." Taichi looked like someone had slapped him across the face. "It's just that... she has a thing about winning. She changes all the rules so she wins always. Once she was so far behind that she picked up the list of rules and read them to us."
"She can read?" Yamato asked.
"No," I said, flopping my head. "She told us that rule number two said that anyone who is a little girl always wins."
"That's not even creative," Koushiro said bluntly.
"I know." I sighed. "Since then we try to avoid things where she can lie to get her way. We read a parenting book that said the selfishness and obsession to be first in everything will go away with time."
"It won't," Taichi said, shaking his head. "She's been like that forever, hasn't she?"
"Since she could talk," I agreed. "But I have hope..." I really didn't. But I was willing to accept any change were it to come. Not that I didn't love her exactly the way that she was.
"Well, then there's no harm getting the game," Taichi smiled. "My treat." He put the box in the cart and I could only sigh. There was nothing a person could say to stop someone from giving a gift. Taichi was back to looking through the toys and he grinned, reaching behind the stuffed cats to pull out a strange plastic house with a monster and a princess inside. "I remember this!" Taichi laughed. "Sora and I used to play with this when we were younger. I'd be the monster and she'd be the princess and we'd take turns kidnapping each other."
"That does sound riveting," Koushiro said sarcastically.
"I think I remember that," I said slowly, thinking back to when the three of us had met.
"Speaking of Sora," Yamato said. "Have you all been to see her?"
"Of course." "Uhhh yeah." "Yesterday." Koushiro, Taichi and I said at the same time.
"Good." Yamato nodded.
"Have... have you?" Taichi asked, nervously placing the toy house back on the shelf.
Yamato shook his head and leaned against the metal shelves trying to play cool, but he knocked a series of toys off of their shelves, so he hurried to pick them all up, his face turning red. "No," he said, his back still turned. "I want to make sure I'm the last one to see her."
"That's not very romantic," Taichi said with a laugh.
"Well I wanted to be the first one," Yamato said with a sigh. "But Takeru and Hikari were there helping her unpack and then Mimi and you, Koushiro showed up to help paint her bedroom, and it just felt less romantic to be the fifth one to show up."
"So you're going last," Taichi shrugged. "Makes sense I guess."
"You are last though," I said knowingly. "Sora and I were out the other day and we ran into Neo and Allias III." "It makes no sense to still call them that," Koushiro interjected, but I ignored him. "Takeru and Hikari are there right now, and have been there numerous times. We've all seen her, Daisuke and Kurayami saw her a few days back I know because she was texting me about how cute the baby was—as if I didn't already know, Kura keeps bringing him to my house..." I trailed off.
"Miyako and Iori were there a few days after she moved in to watch movies," Taichi filled in. "And Rei told me that when the two were shopping they ran into Ken looking for a pair of new shoes to wear for work."
"Is that everyone...?" Yamato asked, counting us all off on his fingers, "You're sure?"
"You've forgotten those who reside in America," Koushiro pointed out.
"You see?" Yamato clapped his hands together. "Good catch Kou, I'll wait this one out."
"I think you're forgetting the group meeting last week," Taichi laughed. "We were all there. All except you."
"Oh yeah..." Yamato said slowly. "Right. Well..."
"Well, it looks like you have no more excuses," Taichi said with a smirk. "She's probably waiting for you. Go see her!"
Yamato mumbled something, but as none of us could hear him, we couldn't further the discussion.
After a few more minutes of scanning through the toys, Taichi was satisfied and we were off to find backpacks and lunch bags. Yamato found one with a zombie, and though I was reluctant to admit it, I knew it would be the one she'd want most, so I took that one, and we were almost ready to leave.
"How is she feeling?" Koushiro asked. "About school I mean?"
"I don't know if she knows she's going yet," I said slowly. "She's never fully... there when I'm talking to her."
"Well she's in for a surprise then," Yamato smirked.
"Well, we've been preparing her by keeping a firm structural schedule for her at home," I explained, even feeling myself how stupid it sounded. "It... was in a book. We're doing what we can." Taichi was shaking his head and biting his tongue.
"Just let her have fun." He shrugged. "I dunno. Kids seem easy."
"Easy?" I asked, maybe a little too sharply. "I have to raise a daughter while still finding time to save the life of every single digimon in the entire Digital World because I'm the only doctor in the entire place. And of course I have to find time to make sure Gomamon, Bearmon and Monmon find time to feel included—and I have a wife who I barely see—and Momoe wants another kid!"
"Ew." Yamato seemed unable to stop the word before it came out. He started waving his hands, trying to take it back. "I just mean that's maybe not a good idea, you've already got six of you in the house!"
"I know," I said calming down. "I mean, I think having another child would be good. Not only for us, but for Emiko... I just don't know how to find time. I'm a little stressed out with work is all." I froze and my eyes flicked to Taichi who started gritting his teeth, the memory of work flooding back to him.
He ran his hands through his hair, which he had still kept quite short, and he sighed. "You know what Jou, I think I have a solution for you."
"You do?" I asked, excited, if anyone could give me a good solution it would be Taichi, he was the only real governmental figure we had in the entire Digital World at this point.
"I'm stressed too, and so is everyone else," he said slowly, pointing to the shortest of the lines at the checkout counters, and steering Yamato's cart in the in the direction of it. "But yours can be fixed easily if you're willing to take a pay cut."
"Honestly," I said a little sheepishly. "I don't need all the money you're giving me."
"Well you're the only doctor," he said with a shrug. "So all the money that's given to us for the medical funding goes directly to you."
"So if you hired another doctor, the pay would be cut in half, but so would the work load," Yamato said, just as the realization came to my own mind.
"Exactly," Taichi nodded. "I don't know why you didn't come to me sooner, Jou."
"The pay cut won't be too harsh either," Yamato pointed out. "You'll be making much more than a regular doctor still anyhow, and that is certainly not something to be ashamed of."
"I could be of assistance locating the new member of the medical team," Koushiro offered.
"Sounds good," Taichi said, nodding, but I could see he was still very stressed himself and I wished there was something I could do to change that.
"Hey," I said coming to the realization suddenly, reaching into the cart and pulling out the board game Taichi put in there. "Want to play?" I asked him. His face lit up instantly and I knew I'd found my way to fix his bad mood.
Unfortunately, the moment we had left the store my phone began ringing and Momoe was on the other end telling me that she had to talk to me, and it was very important. I told the others I had to go, which gave Koushiro an out as well, but the others made him stay to go get dinner together. Taichi took a rain check on the board game, and I was heading home.
The drive home was peaceful, which was a beautiful change of pace. The rain started about halfway back, and the repetitive sound of the droplets splashing onto the windshield was so therapeutic and relaxing. It had been such a long time since I'd had a chance to breathe, and now with Taichi's new solution to my problem, it looked like nothing could put a damper on the new happiness I'd found.
Momoe's car was in the garage when I pulled up, but all the lights were off in the house. I knew Momoe and the others would be in the Digital World addition to our house, so I set Emiko's new school supplies on the counter and headed into the study.
I came through the portal in the living room, where Bearmon was curled up on the couch under a fuzzy blue blanket watching the TV with the lights dimmed. He'd been sick for a few days, but he looked like he was getting better.
"How are you feeling?" I asked, putting my shoes on the mat next to the computer.
"A bit better," His weak voice responded.
"You'll get there," I promised, patting his head on my way by. "Is Momoe in here?"
"She's out back," Bearmon tried shouting. I followed his orders and moved through the 'Snack Room'. Momoe called it that, she felt pretentious having two kitchens, so she dubbed it something different and put all the junk food here instead of in the main kitchen. Sliding open the back door I found that the air in the Digital World was so much nicer than that of Earth. It was fresher, warmer and cleaner. It had obviously just rained though, judging by the puddle of water I had stepped in. Momoe leaning against the railing of the elaborate porch Kiyoko had designed for us. She was staring down, presumably at Emiko. Momoe was wearing her relaxation clothes, which she always put on immediately after work, and her hair was up in a ponytail of sorts.
I put my arms around her, creeping up on her and she screamed, spinning around in fear. She laughed when she realized it was just me and punched my arm. She turned back to Emiko, fixing her hair a little. I stood next to her and saw Emiko scream up at me with excitement and start running toward the stairs. She tripped a couple times in the mud, but got right back up again with a little help from Gomamon and Monmon, and was on her way again.
"Before she gets here, I need to talk," Momoe said quickly. "I'm thinking about quitting my job." I tried to speak but she didn't let me. "Listen first, I know Emiko is going to be away at school a lot now, but when she comes home she's going to need me, and I'm going to need her, and honestly my work—"
"Daddy!" Emiko was hugging me around my legs and I bit my bottom lip hard. She was muddy and wet, and now, so was I.
"I missed you," She said, rubbing the mud in on purpose. Momoe stifled laughter, but I just turned to Emiko and knelt down.
She looked excited, and I knew that she knew I got her something. "On the counter in the kitchen there's a whole bag of stuff for you."
"I can't get it," she said quickly.
"She lost her digivice." Momoe sighed. "Again."
"Again?" I asked, poking Emiko in the nose, making her giggle. "It's okay. They've got tracer's on them. I'll find it."
"Okay!" she cheered.
"You should be getting ready for bed though!" Momoe called after Emiko as she rampaged through the house. We didn't care as much about keeping this house as clean as the one on Earth because we never had company over here, so Momoe just let her go with Monmon following closely behind.
"Did you get me anything?" Gomamon asked.
"I did," I said. "Sort of." Then I explained how Taichi was going to hire another doctor which helped the digimon in the long run and Gomamon was ecstatic and relieved. And then he was off, back down the stairs to tell his friends the news.
Then I turned back to Momoe. "If you want to quit your job, I'm all for that," I told her. "We've got enough money. We're rolling in it right now and I honestly don't feel like me. We have two kitchens for goodness sake!"
"Snack room," she corrected with a smile.
"Besides, anything that's making you uncomfortable I don't want you to have to deal with. Because I love you."
Momoe leaned in and kissed me on the cheek and smiled up at me. "Oh hey!" she said brightly, "Speaking of uncomfortable, your favourite person is coming for dinner tomorrow!"
My stomach seized up. "I'm hoping you're not being sarcastic, and that it's you who's coming for dinner."
"Aww," Momoe cooed. "No, it's not me," she said very seriously. "Your dad and Aimi are coming."
I decided to pretend that wasn't the case, and I turned to enter the house. Momoe was following me, talking to me about her day before work where she spent time with Kurayami who needed someone to talk to. Because of Jun's wedding Momoe and Kurayami were both enlisted to help Jun while Daisuke and I were instructed to help Shuu. Which was totally fine and cool. Just that Shuu never wanted to plan anything. He wanted it to be Jun's special day, so we never did anything.
Kurayami though, had time to bond with both Jun and Momoe. Today she was apparently talking about therapy and how she was frustrated. Kurayami apparently broke down crying a couple times, but Momoe passed that off as being a new mother. Momoe shared some horror stories with her about when Emiko was a child and it made Kurayami feel better somehow, and then Momoe had gone to work, had another terrible day, and came home to find that the babysitter fell asleep on the job again and Emiko had gotten into the snack cupboard and ate everything she could possibly fit into her stomach, and Momoe was forced to fire the babysitter.
She'd had a much worse day than I had.
I didn't know exactly what to say, but I was pretty good at cheering her up, but just as I was about to, Gomamon was back in the house.
"Jou!" he shouted. "A Koromon not too far from here is suffering from the flu, he's gonna need your help!"
I looked to Momoe apologetically and she nodded. "Go for it." She smiled, kissing my cheek again. "Good luck Mr Superhero." I grinned down at her and then was on my way out the door.
Next on Digimon Adventure 06: Offsprings and Accusations! You should keep an eye out because we may have thrown in a lot of red herrings, but we also threw in a lot of foreshadowing. It's like a game. Figure out the ending!