And here we go. Now two days until the prom, what will Daisuke do to help?
And how is Jun coping with Sora casting her out?
Uncle's Attempts
"JUN!" Daisuke had been looking for his sister for an hour now, circling around all of her favourite spots in Odaiba to find her. It didn't look good for his train fare, as he was beginning to run low on his money, having brought out $20 just to be sure that he could take Jun somewhere warm to talk in case of an event like Sora happening.
What he hadn't counted on was his irate behaviour, losing sight of Jun as she ran into the darkness.
"Jun..." He was worried now, as he had failed the self promise he had made to himself to defend her from insults and, if necessary, physical violence. And the strange thing about the entire incident was that no matter how much he tried, he couldn't hate Sora for long, as the values of their memories had corrupted his commitments to Jun.
"Jun... some little brother I am, eh?" Daisuke muttered, slowing down his walking pace to a leisurely stroll as he walked down the still busy Odaiba City Centre. Finally he seemed to realize something, cursing himself for not realizing it before.
"Could she have gone... there?" At saying this, he darts off toward the Eastern side of the City, outright nudging people out the way as he cleared a path with his unrelenting speed. As he passed the final office building, he recognized a small bridge leading toward Ken's home. But this was a mute point right now, as he veered toward the edge of the barricaded slope beside the riverbank. Running frantically up and down with his eyes following suit along the slope, he noticed an auburn haired girl with a green jacket and a blue, denim skirt with her knee's risen into her chest, making silent cries to herself. It was undoubtedly Jun.
Jun was sitting on the slope, knees in her chest and silently crying as she twiddles he thumbs to take her mind off the searing, recurring memory that was Sora forbidding her from approaching her friends, feeling she was protecting them from... Jun.
"...Jun..." Daisuke had expected to have surprised her, but she lifted her head, showing him another glimpse of feminine weakness, much to her self pity. She had tears across her face, even still after an hour. She looked distractedly at her little guardian, who's job was to let her protect him.
"Daisuke... do you think... I'll make a good mother...?" Her question had caught him completely off guard, not just because of the frail and cracked way she asked it, but because Jun had never doubted her ability to raise her child before, staring almost soullessly into her younger brother's still angered eyes.
Daisuke was still enraged and knew it, so he had to be careful how he worded his answer so that his current state of mind will make him say something utterly foolish.
"Of course you'll be a good mother, Jun!" he sits gently next to his sister on the slope overlooking the shimmering lake in the moonlight. It was comforting to Daisuke. "And I plan on being the greatest uncle. EVER." He had finally calmed down and smiled at his still saddened sister.
Jun simply stared out upon the lake, still crying softly next to her reassuring brother. She turned to him, crying even harder, as she mustered all her courage to tell Daisuke something.
Taking a deep, reassuring breath, she turns once more to her little brother.
"Daisuke... do you remember earlier when I... said you should know the truth?" Jun seemed even more saddened as she spoke, breaking slowly as she awaited Daisuke's reply, staring at his discontent face through her red and puffy hazel eyes, still crying at a steady rate.
"Yeah..." Daisuke did not like this one bit, his sister seemed even more hurt than before. He wanted to stop her, but his curiosity and worry kept him listening rather than speaking.
"Well, Shuu isn't my boyfriend... or the dad." Jun was serious as she stared out upon the glimmering lake.
"Why does he is then, Jun?"
Jun sealed her eyes, running through her painful memory of that dark, cold night, slowly reopening them as she stared at Daisuke with still tearing eyes.
"Because I told Jyou what I'm about to tell you, and he thought it best if Shuu played along, because he was the least questionable and responsible one." She actually lets out a longing and saddened sigh "He really is a great guy..."
"Jun... what are you trying to tell me?" Daisuke asked, already grasping the truth due to the replies his distressed sister had given him. It made him sick, and not just because it was true, but because his mother was completely unjustified in her treatment of Jun.
"...I-I... was..." She began tearing up heavily, raising her knees once more into her pained chest for support, as she began crying once more "...raped..."
Daisuke's eyes immediately widened, a searing pain etching across the entirety of his body, send shockwaves through every tendon. He had an epiphany of sorts, recalling all the insults and abuse Jun has gone through, not just before him that one night. That was just the tip of the iceberg.
"B-but-"
"Daisuke, we'll talk about it... another time..." She was begging with a cracked voice, and her brother knew that prying further after the Sora incident would do greater harm to the emotionally fragile young girl.
He felt shame at his inability to stop Sora from scarring his sisters feelings with what he now knew without a doubt were lies. An unbearable sensation of rage had overcome Daisuke, now wanting to not only find, but hunt the bastard down, and pry at his throat whilst giving him an unrelenting flurry of punches.
He looked back at Jun, noticing she wasn't moving even slightly, a noticeable wet patch on her denim skirt, almost ashamed that her brother must now deal with the sudden tirade of anger and sadness. He sits back down next to her, wrapping his arm across her shoulders and stared out upon the lake, now distorted because a suitably cold breeze ran across its surface, erroneously trying to recreate the beauty that once ran across the water.
Jun stared up at her brother, crying extremely heavy at her confession, having to recall the night that never should have been. She tilts sideways toward Daisuke's chest and rests there, not uttering a word. This was the second time tonight Daisuke had witnessed his so – called 'safe' sister crying before him, and asking him for reassurance. He felt like a failure. And rightfully so, in his mind.
Several long moments passed by as Jun cried silently so that not to attract passers by on the sloping path to come to her. As she finally began slowing her tears down, Daisuke decided to break the long silence between them.
"...Jun." He whispered, now entirely focused on his and Taichi's plan for tomorrow.
"Y-yeah?" She was quivering in Daisuke's arms, the hug no longer providing comfort, but a sense of pity.
"Do you remember why you came here?"
Jun was taken aback; she was unsure exactly why she ran to this place. At the time, she was so upset with Sora's words that she ran blindly through the streets, uncaring of passers by. But even while aimlessly running, she had felt a strange pull at the dark recesses of her mind, directing her to the slope.
Daisuke lifted her head with his palm lifting her right shoulder gently. He directed a warm smile at his sister, obtaining a blank look from her. "It's because of what you did. Do you remember Tenouji, about 6 years ago?"
At this, Jun's eyes widened, as a sudden feeling of happiness overcame her as the memory of Daisuke's friend rushed to the surface after 6 long years.
6 Years Ago : Odaiba Apartments
"Mom! I'm off to the usual spot!" Daisuke was 8 years old, wearing his old, rectangular goggles on his head, and wearing a cream coloured pair of shorts with a blue shirt sporting a red banner across it, containing a lone star. Daisuke felt it resembled his innermost feelings accurately, a lone star.
His mother was in the middle of preparing a boxed lunch for Jun, as she was about to go to a friends birthday, and her mother wanted her to be eating stuff she enjoyed to deter whining. She paced her knife down after finishing cutting apple slices, walking toward Daisuke with a red cardigan and a plain dress underneath.
"Just be careful, don't come back with any cuts on you this time." She was outright ordering him, but hid it underneath a motherly warm voice.
"Yeah, yeah." At this, he ran out of the apartment, carrying a soccer ball underneath his right arm, leaving nothing but a loud slam at the door.
"That's m' boy." Daisuke's father was in his usual weekend routine, holding a can of beer in congratulations toward the door, prying his eyes away from the Spiderman movie he had recorded on the video player. "Always take life for everything its worth, and make it one worth remembering."
Jun was sat beside him, somewhat curious as to why her dad had just talked like a philosopher. At this time, she was an 11 year old, making her own little group of friends. Compared to her calamitous life in the present and the horrific event that awaited her 6 years down the line, her life was rather normal for a girl her age.
She had slightly smaller hair at this point, much like a bowl cut in length, yet her naturally spiky hair was still noticeable at this time. She was wearing a pair of denim jeans, still at the stage when girls are scared of showing their bodies in such clothing. She had a baggy shirt with the logo 'ANGEL' across her chest, with small, decorative wing designs on the back.
"What're you on about, daddy?" Yes, even Jun was at the stage of referring to her dad as 'daddy', however already calling her mother 'mom' because of her short temper. She had no idea how short, or violent at this point.
Her father stared at her for a moment with glazed eyes, turning back to the television to see Peter Parker finding Uncle Ben in the street, and remaining silent until the moment Uncle Ben passed away in Peter's embrace.
"Like that." He pointed at the television "A man like Uncle Ben will be remembered by those around him because of three things; selflessness, kindness, commitment. Out of those three, Daisuke is already showing commitment to his friends and soccer. He will be a great man when he's older, don't you agree?"
Jun was completely lost. It was evident on her face.
"Don't worry, Jun." Her mother said, smiling silently at her cutting board. "Men have always believed in such foolishness as this."
Her father simply scoffed comically, and pouted for a brief second. "It's not foolish. Jun, if you really don't understand, go watch Daisuke. You'll understand if you watch him for a while."
"But the party-"
"That's at 3, isn't it?" he looks lazily toward the clock above the television screen. "That's 2 hours away, and it's a 20 minute walk. Just take a look. You may learn something-"
"Yes, like how to waste time like a man." Her mother had cut him off, sighing at the crap being sprouted from her husband. This was undoubtedly one of her rare docile moments. "Go on, prove to your father his folly."
With that, a grimacing sigh was heard, as Jun uncaringly left the apartment and began her decent from the 7th floor of her apartment building and walked to the slope Daisuke spoke so fondly of.
The Slope
"Holy crap, it's hot!" She was not wrong. At the time, record temperatures were felt as strange sensational irregularities where felt across the world. Today was September 30th, 1999. The day before the DigiDestined arrived in the Digital World and returned.
She walked through the heatwave, feeling a strange burning sensation at the back of her throat every time she drew breath. She was concerned for her younger brother; playing soccer in such heat could only lead to heatstroke.
As she came upon the Slope, she spotted Daisuke and his two friends Tenouji and Kenji playing soccer rather well considering the record high temperature, only sweating slightly.
She sat on the Slope, twisting her slender body to face her brother's game across the desolate road, which hardly saw any use in this older section of Odaiba. She was still confused by her father's words, admonishing Daisuke's clear lack of kindness in contrast to her father's words, as Daisuke made no effort in making friends, only having the two with him as friendly neighbours who tolerated him. Nothing more.
"If he'd just open up, the other kids would like him." She thought, resting her head on her braced arm in boredom "Why's he so... protective, I wonder?"
She would learn 6 years later in that exact spot that it was because he always saw her kindness. It was her weakness, and as such, became cold hearted and calculating as a deterrent towards her enemies. However, he was too proudly stubborn to admit back then.
But a scream had broken her trance, as she darted her eyes back at the game. Daisuke was clutching his arm, as blood spurted rapidly from it, and Tenouji was lying unconscious with slight blood at his head.
Jun had forgotten all about trying to remain hidden, darting over to the children's side, dropping to a crouch as she checked both boys' injuries.
"J-Jun...?" Daisuke couldn't ask her why she was there, as a sudden shock was felt across his body. He yelped in unbearable agony as his sister remembered that Tenouji was unconscious beside her. She glanced over him quickly, attention drawn to the small cut on his forehead.
"What happened to them?" She directed her question to the unharmed boy, Kenji, who was grasping the ball under his right arm and had his other fist balled nervously around his light violet shaded shirt.
"Daisuke made a tackle at Tenouji, and accidently slipped and knocked him over. Tenouji got a kick in the head on the way down and Daisuke landed on Tenouji's side and hit something. Then he started bleeding..."
"Landed on something?" Jun glanced quickly to the unconscious boys side, noticing his pocket hem lined with blood. Feeling a general outline of the pocket, she felt something that definitely resembled a keys shape." Daisuke must have landed very hard on these to bleed that much..."
Ten minutes later, an ambulance Jun had called for on her cell arrived and immediately determined that Tenouji had a minor concussion, taking him to the hospital for a routine check up on his brain functionality after such a hard blow.
Daisuke was instead referred to a local clinic for a quick treatment rather than a slow wait in a bustling hospital environment. Jun decided to take her little brother to the doctors, telling her friend on her cell that she couldn't make it and explained the situation. After finishing, she turned to Daisuke, who was holding an icepack gifted by the kind ambulance staff to aid his wounds healing process.
"Mom will freak. BIG TIME."
Daisuke looked angered at her sister, a look she had seen several times in recent years, and slowly changed to an embarrassed look of desperation.
"Don't tell her."
"Why, why don't you want her to know?"
"She worries too much, and gets angry at the stupidest things..." Daisuke pouted slightly at saying this.
Jun giggled, but understood. Her mother did get angry too easy, and for extended periods of time, as she would later find out.
"And bleeding that bad counts as... stupid?" Jun giggled again, knowing she had just caused her little brother to turn red and pout once more, without having to look.
"Don't tell her, or dad or anyone, okay?" Daisuke sounded almost sincere as he requested his sister to not tell anybody.
Jun was dumbstruck, an ounce of trust from Daisuke? She doubted the reality around her, thinking it as a sweet dream. "Trust me, do you?"
"Well, yeah." Daisuke looked innocently up at Jun, and gave a questioning glance as to why she doubted his bond with her.
Jun was silent for a moment, looking ahead at the doctor's clinic, turning and saying reassuring words to try and strengthen her now distant relationship with Daisuke.
"How about this?" she smiled, looking down upon Daisuke's blank expression "I help you if you're in pain and won't tell, and you do the same for me."
Daisuke etched a wide grin on his face, as he knew he was out of the frying pan with his constantly angry mother. "Sure!"
"Alright, how about if we disappear while in pain, we go to the Slope were we first got together for our deal, and wait for the other to arrive and help?"
"Yeah!" Daisuke excitedly yelled, as he and his sister walked into the clinic.
Present Day: The Slope
"...And you did just that, and here I am."
Daisuke looked at his sister, she had fallen into a silent, sweet dream as she was touched by the dedication to an age old promise between the two. She had a sweet smile upon her face, and breathed lightly, much less pained than before. Daisuke lifted her upon his broad back, and began the journey home, readying his defences for Jun from their hideously twisted mother.
"If she tries to hit her again, I'll end her." thought Daisuke, gritting his teeth as he restrained his anger. "Even if the child's a rapists spawn, Jun has decided to care for it, as it is sinless. I won't let anyone insult the child or her respectable resolve!
Not mom... and sure as hell not Sora."
Daisuke continued walking down the empty street, heading back to the apartment complex 2 hours late. He resolved to talk over the rape with Jun in the afternoon that followed.
Kamiya Residence
Taichi opened his apartment door with a small quiver, entering and closing the door silently, trying to avoid attention. As he snuck over to his door, recognizing 'he' was nowhere to be seen, he opened the door with a surging sigh of relief.
What he saw all but buried any hope of Hikari going to the orchestrated sleepover, or outside at all, for that matter.
Hikari was lying upon her bed, not moving, with a small blood stain in the centre of the room. As Taichi ran over to her, he accidently stood on the small pool of blood, feeling it to still be wet.
Small sobs were heard, as Taichi reached over to his chocolate haired sister, gently but slightly forcefully pulling her to face him from the fetal position she had assumed on her bed.
"That bastard..!" Taichi was furious, as he came face to face with Hikari, seeing a small stream of blood flowing from her nose. It was very much akin to Jun, however it was much more severe as she had a heavy cut just under her swelled right eye. Her eye wasn't to badly affected, and would heal with a few hours rest, but the blood she was losing had already made a small pool in the room, possibly explaining why her eyes were absent and fazed underneath the tears and the redness around them.
"T...Taichi..." She was already crying heavily, and had fresh, light blue bruises on her arms, showing signs of a struggle. She sealed her eyes and fell onto her brother, giving a vice like hug to him, not that he could exactly complain about his pain at this right now.
"D-did he do this to you?" She looked up at him with a pained face, her brows almost angrily down as her eyes barely stayed open. He could tell just by the expression, that man had tried something again.
"Y-yeah... he... tried to attack me... for that again..."
Taichi balled his fists, causing a wound on his palm from angered pressure applied to it, beginning to bleed for his palm slightly. That 'man' had tried to sexually assault his sister again, and Taichi wasn't there to protect her. He thought he beat some sense into him to stay away from her, receiving his fair share of damage and a black eye, maybe he had tried it because Taichi had beaten something into him, fear of doing it whilst the big brother was around, ready to kick ass.
"I'm so sorry... I should have taken you with me, even by force if I had to... listen, let's go clean you up while that coward is gone. I've got something to tell you about tomorrow."
After cleaning up her bloodied and teared up face, Hikari sat on the living room couch, seeing a beer can that her attacker had been drinking out of. But he knew it was okay to try it, she couldn't condone such deeds, but he was family, complicating the sickening matter. She flinches in reminding herself of the attack, barely escaping with cuts instead of the attempted rapes success.
"Here." Taichi had sat beside her, handing her some coffee, as he attempted to make sense of what his 'family' had done to calculate the amount of punches required.
Hikari had remained silent for a moment, rubbing her once swelled eye, noticing it was going down already. "Of course it'll be gone by tomorrow... the ones to my face always are..." she took a sip of the coffee, and stared deeply into the mixture, uttering so quickly and quietly that Taichi could not hear. Finally, she looks up and smiles a radiantly glowing smile, harming Taichi even more.
Why did she smile? Why does she always smile after these beatings was a searing thought that seemed to be on a painful constant repeat in his head.
She raised her arm, staring at the new blue bruises. It was an ugly colour that was sure to bring questions. "Daisuke will probably freak out again at school; don't you think so, Taichi?"
Taichi was lost in concern and self pity at his greatest failure as an older sibling; he failed to protect his sister from these kinds of attacks, much to his dismay. He looks up, somewhat vehemently, and recalls his pact with Daisuke earlier.
"Listen, about Daisuke... do you know Jun's having a kid?" He looks at Hikari, slowly spotting an awkwardly excited smile.
"Yeah! I want to see them. Daisuke, an uncle!" She began to giggle a little, relieving some of the guilt her brother was holding.
"Well, life isn't great for them right now... Daisuke would probably hate me for telling you, but..." As Taichi began his long explanation of Jun's problems at home, and Daisuke and his agreement for the sleepover, Hikari started releasing tears upon hearing of Jun's hardships, hidden behind the strong front she put up. Taichi made sure not to mention Sora's scandalous behaviour and Daisuke's threat to her safety. Why drive a further wedge between Hikari and her friends?
"Taichi... I've told you how I feel about Daisuke..." Hikari responded, earning a curious glance from her brother.
"Don't worry; he said he'll leave you and Jun alone after his moms gone. He doesn't like her in the slightest after she hit Jun."
Hikari glanced over to the tabletop beside the television, looking at the group photo of the Destined 3 years ago. How times change. She was still nervous about Daisuke and Takeru fighting over it, but reaized that Jun needed desperately for someone to listen to her every problem. She began to think it over deeply, saying she would tell Daisuke her answer tomorrow, her thoughts disturbed by a loud slam at the doorway, as the monster that had invaded her home 2 weeks ago had returned stumbling, clearly smelling of liquor.
"So, you're back, are ya?" He scrambled to get the words out of his mouth, and stumbled toward Taichi with a sadistic look upon him. He had balled his fists, bracing himself for the moment Taichi leapt for a strike. Glancing to Hikari, he looked proudly at what he had done to her eye.
He was a man with a wrinkled face, clearly in his late 40's as his hair had greys covering the sides of his ragged, unkempt hair with a greasy black hair colour atop his head. He was wearing joggers pants, ending just short of his ankles, and wore a white polo shirt covered with a yellow rag draped over his broad shoulders. He was not muscular, but had beefy arms that could carry some force if provoked. He walked with a strange bow legged walk, almost resembling a flamingo with a crooked, bent back.
"What's up, Uncle Jinpachi?" Taichi gave him his middle finger as a greeting, earning him an arrogantly curt brow from his drunken uncle. "Need me to beat your balls back into you so you don't try shit like this against your defenceless niece!" Taichi turned his offensive gesture into a tightly balled fist, as he bent into a sumo like stance, waiting to pounce.
"Maybe I should kill you this time, wadda ya think, boy?" The venom in his words did not faze his nephew, still staring eye to eye with his foe.
Hikari began crying again, running into her room and slamming her door tightly shut, acting as a makeshift bell. Several crashes and pounded flesh sounds loudly reverberated throughout the apartment, as Hikari wished that her old life would return soon, but knowing that would never come, because even with Jinpachi gone, her parents selfish decision had guaranteed that her life would be forever in pieces, just like her family. She cried as the sounds got even louder, slumping to the ground and desperately awaiting the next day to come, to get some peace at her school.
She didn't want to see this tomorrow and eventually resolved to go to the sleepover, uncaring of her uncle's refusal to let her get away from his... 'Attempts.'
And there you have it, the Kamiya's are in a crisis alright, but just how long can Taichi save his sister from his (so far unsuccessful) sexually abusive Uncle Jinpachi?
And also, how will Takeru react to this being kept secret from him?
Review your opinion on the situation and how it may unfold!
