When I had originally began writing Hikari's chapter I had had a whole different subject in mind. It was going to deal Hikari and an upcoming school festival, but when I began writing this is what came out instead. Personally, I think I might be pleased with it.

Oh, and to those reading A Home at the End of Japan, it has finally reached 200 reviews! I'll make my proper thanks over there, just wanted to let people reading this and that story to know that it happened.

Kudos to whoever can catch the Watchmen reference.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon.


Even with Takeru at her side, Hikari had never really liked visiting Daisuke's place. It wasn't often that they went, truthfully the only times that they actually traveled to the Motomiya apartment was to either pick up Daisuke or pick up something that he forgot at home, but for the most part, and with good reason, it was somewhere that all of them tried their best to avoid, especially Daisuke.

As the two of them walked passed by a homeless man, she couldn't help but note how Takeru didn't really seem to notice him at all. But she did. She always noticed, whether it was a homeless man or a drug deal going down, Odaiba's red-light district was somewhere where Hikari couldn't help but notice the more tainted part of what she considered an otherwise perfect city, even if it seemed like the norm to the closest people around her.

"You wanna grab some food before we get to Daisuke's?" she heard Takeru's familiar and calming voice say next to her, Hikari being thankful for him.

She said nothing in response, and simply shook her head. She wasn't very hungry at the moment, the squalor of the red-light district taking away most of her appetite. To her, it was a double-edged sword of sorts. On one hand being in a place that could only be described as dirty was something that didn't allow her to comfortably eat something from there, but on the other hand she knew that the people selling food in the district were probably the only ones that were making an honest living there, most of them still being unable to support their families. As Hikari's eyes drifted from the littered sidewalk they were walking on to one of the good amount of food vendors that were selling different items, she wondered if the honesty of their products was the reason that Daisuke had always joked that he would one day own his own noodle cart.

"What do you want to do tonight?" Takeru asked, Hikari noticing how he smiled and waved to a familiar woman, a prostitute that they knew, who was walking on the other side of the street.

She too smiled and waved, but she also grabbed on a bit tighter to Takeru's arm that she had been holding onto for the better part of the night. It was whenever they visited the place where Daisuke lived, and whenever a lady of the night got a decent view at Takeru's boyishly charming good looks, that they were offered all sorts of different kinds of love. They were offered Korean love, Chinese love, and love from girls who still probably hadn't of graduated from grade school yet, but they were never offered Japanese love. Japanese love, Hikari thought, like Coke in green glass bottles...they don't make it anymore.

"How about we go back home and study?"

She didn't have to look at him to know that Takeru frowned at the thought. Personally, she didn't think that going back to her place to study was something that exactly sounded at all like it was fun either, but honestly, home was where she wanted to be at the moment. At home what waited for her was a nice mug of cocoa and kitty-spangled pajamas, not girls young enough that they could be her little sisters turning tricks for men who had darker urges than most.

"I don't think that Daisuke wants to study."

"How about a movie then?"

Takeru, like she had been, was silent. The two of them made a turn into a familiar alley that was a shortcut to where Daisuke lived. At the end of the alley was a fence, and after Takeru gave her a boost to help her get over it, he hopped the fence himself.

He was quiet, but Hikari didn't think much of it. He seemed to be in contemplation, like she often was when walking on the dirty streets of the red-light district or under the shimmering Odaiba sky, two things that were almost perfect juxtapositions of one another. There was a lot of beauty in the world and in the city that was the only place that she would ever call home, but there was a lot of sadness there as well. It was a passing thought, one that would haunt her dreams just as often as she thought they may make those same dreams come true, but Hikari thought that perhaps, just maybe, it was the sadness and darkness of the world, of their precious city, that made all their more happy moments shine so much brighter.

About another block later, she looked over at Takeru's face and saw that he was saluting. Knowing that that meant that Daisuke was waiting for them in front of his apartment, Hikari looked over at him and smiled, but said smile disappeared when she thought of how nonchalant both Takeru and Daisuke had always seemed in the red-light district. She knew that their childhoods, although entwined with hers, had been very different than hers and her brother's. Takeru was grinning, as he often was, but she wondered how he felt walking on the same streets where Hiroaki had been murdered.

"So what's the plan, guys?" Daisuke questioned loudly as they finally made their way to him, Hikari making sure to step over the used condom that was lying in the middle of the sidewalk.

She looked up at all the buildings around them, at the lights that sparkled like diamonds in the sky, and sighed. Would Daisuke and Takeru always be a part of the red-light district?

"Studying."

When she heard Takeru's answer, she looked immediately at the boy whose arm she had been hanging off of all night. She was about to say something in protest, but decided not to when she saw him wink at her. She looked over at Daisuke who seemed to think for a moment, and then he shrugged and began walking, their cue that he had agreed.

As she walked with Takeru right behind Daisuke, as the three of them glittered like diamonds in the sky, she had to rethink something that had come across her mind earlier in the night. Perhaps Japanese love had already been offered to her.


Good?

Anyways, I've been thinking of this story. Perhaps a name change is needed? I mean I like A Home at the End of the Street, but I wonder if it 'fits'?

I've been thinking since I've been going the route of naming all these chapters after songs by The Beatles, that maybe the title should be something like that as well? Here are titles I've considered:

-Yellow Submarine

-Across the Universe

-White Album

-Eight Days a Week

-Abbey Road

-A Day in the Life

-In My Life

-All You Need is Love

-Come Together

-From Me to You

-Hello Goodbye

-Here Comes the Sun

Or stick with A Home at the End of the Street? I'm still unsure.