CHAPTER TWO
"Someone stole your Digivice?"
Izzy whispered a bit too loud in shock, his face half-hidden by his chemistry textbook. His eyes, which almost puffed up with boredom as the dreadful class dragged on, had suddenly turned all googly in surprise.
Tai exhaled. "Yes." He had reiterated the incident almost seven times by now. "It looked like it had come down for that, and I let it."
"I don't think so. There's nothing wrong in being inquisitive, Tai."
"I wasn't being inquisitive, just cautious."
"And what was the light for? Just to stun you for a while?"
"I guess." Tai scribbled randomly into his own book.
"Okay, so a digimon which could practically pass through you, and had glasses for eyes and long hair," he pulled out his laptop and typed into it, "Well, let's see if we can find some matches."
Izzy pressed enter, and there appeared a few prototypes, but none of them looked like the one Tai butted heads with. "But what if it's not a digimon?" He asked.
"A human spirit then? Are you serious, Tai?"
"No... Well, I don't know. We don't have a starting point here."
"We'll find one, I'm sure. Now, did you search the place?"
"Yeah," Tai flicked a page, "Kari and I did some searching, but it was mostly futile."
"Hmm," Izzy screwed his brows over the information "Well, we can search the place again, more minutely."
"Yeah, we can search the place ten times over and still find nothing," said Tai disappointedly, "Someone doesn't want Agumon to digivolve. Does that mean some trouble is incoming?"
"I don't know Tai, but I think the consequences might be much worse than that. A Digivice is a very powerful thing. It was uniquely yours. Now messing with it might not just affect Agumon, but you."
"Could that turn Agumon against me?" Tai's heart gave a throb.
"Maybe."
"Then we ought to find it."
"We definitely do. Just pray whoever's taken it, doesn't know what to do with it."
Tai gazed into his textbook without trying to read it. He could pray so, but he knew to no avail. That thing certainly knew what it had come for, he could bet. His throat dried up. He should've warned Agumon in the morning that someone might just try to mess with his data. But how could even that help? Wouldn't both of them stand powerless before it? Whoever that long-haired thing was, it was going to pay, Tai gritted his teeth.
"Hey, Izzy," he then started, in an altogether different tone, "Have you seen Sora? Her chair's empty ever since I arrived."
He could swear he didn't go looking for her.
Tai cursed himself under his breath. His priorities were messed up at the wrong time. School had ended and he ought to resume his search for the mysterious thief. Instead, he was sauntering from corridor to corridor aimlessly; his mind playing on the empty adjacent chair in the class, against his will.
She arrived to the school with him. Then where did she go? Abruptly fallen sick? Working up about something, er, her assignment probably? What could possibly make her disappear for the whole day? His mind went even as far as into the territory of the ridiculous. Kidnapped? Not completely implausible, given what happened last night.
He was a tad worried as well. He scrolled up the message thread on the phone. She hadn't replied to any of his twelve "Where are you?"s since the morning. He sighed and sent another.
His phone gave an almost instantaneous beep.
Ground floor corridor. In front of phy lab.
Something fist-punched in the air inside him as he set for it. He wasn't too far – just two more turns – and would've found her anyway. He jogged to the spot, his stomach leaping, and then came to an eventual pause.
There she was, sitting on the bench beside the laboratory door, all by herself. Her bag lay at her feet, uncared for, and she had buried her face into her palms. She noticed him and pretended to be drowsy, rubbing her face, sniffing. Tai treaded slowly. She glanced up and shot him a hesitant smile. Her eyes were red and streaked with tears in spite of her attempts to hide them. Tai stood frozen for a while, not knowing what to do.
"Hey." She croaked.
He sat next to her. For some reason, he didn't feel this the right moment to ask what had happened.
She didn't speak anything either. After a moment, she rested her head on his shoulder, blinking sleepily.
"What's up, buddy" Tai said softly. She shook her head, seemingly lost in thoughts.
"Did you catch the match last night?" Tai began, watching carefully to see if it made an effect, "Germany totally killed it –"
"We talked about this in the morning, Tai," Sora still sounded depressed.
"Yeah, we did," said Tai, scratching his head, slightly goofy, "Okay. I'm pathetic. I practically can't think of anything to cheer you up."
Surprisingly, that made her laugh. "You're so stupid," she smacked him lightly on the head, "and thinking about last night's match will only make me sadder." Tai couldn't help but notice how her voice broke midway.
He squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "What happened, Sora?"
"Disagreements," she sniffed, "You'd call them silly."
"You can try me."
Sora hesitated. Tai got an inkling of what it was all about.
"Did he hurt you?" His brow frowned, as he mentally flipped through weird images of Matt screaming at Sora and found his temper rising.
She shook her head again. "It's not that. Matt has never hurt me. Not intentionally at least."
Tai's temper deflated like air out of a punctured balloon. "Then?"
"It's just that... he's distancing from me. It's started abruptly. I don't know why, but... I don't know. And here I am, since the morning, contemplating my life, and so distracted I'm sure I'll fail this term," she sobbed into his shirt. It was hard enough for him to watch her cry, even as he patted her on the back.
"You see, Tai, it's silly. I know how hilariously silly it is. But it's just that I don't have a lot of people in my life. I don't have dad. I don't have a sibling. It's just you and mum and Matt. And they don't even think about how I feel."
"I'm sure they do, Sora," he said, "I know it means nothing right now, but everything will be okay."
She sobbed even harder. Tai felt helpless.
"And as for Matt, I'll talk to him," Tai continued, "I'll make sure things are okay. I – I don't know what else to say."
"You don't need to say anything, Tai. Just be with me. Even if it's undue of me to ask."
"I will. Always."
She half-laughed. "I feel so emo right now."
"You wanna blow your nose on my shirt?"
"You boys are disgusting." She giggled, "It's raining. Oh fuck."
Tai raised his eyebrow at the dropping of the f-bomb, grinning sheepishly to himself. "Come with me."
"Where?"
But Tai had already clasped her hand, and was pulling her down the stairs. There weren't many and Sora hopped a few. Soon they were in the middle of the playground, the rain pattering on their heads. He grinned goofily. Something was on his mind.
"Tai, for God's sake, it's raining cats and dogs –"
But Tai was busy balancing a stray cola can on his foot. He had a smug, typically-Tai expression. He challenged with a wink. "C'mon, centre forward."
"Now?" Sora tried to imply how preposterous this seemed, however, couldn't help but smile. She consciously looked around – of course, the school had ended long ago.
"Why, chickening out, grandma?" he teased.
"Grandma?" Sora gave out a dramatic delirious laugh before she sharpened her gaze and tackled him. The can, of course, couldn't bounce like a ball, but it was fun nonetheless. They dribbled it about, and he finally let her kick it into the makeshift goal in the bushes.
"Yes!" She raised her fists into the air and jumped. She was smiling again. Sincerely. Tai wiped the water off his face, and smiled back. His happy-go-lucky- jumping-around, feisty soccer girl is back.
Then, to his surprise, she hugged him.
"Where would I be without you, Tai."
It's a shortie, I know. But writing Taiora is... :')