"If I could die the way I wanted too, it would've been to die without regret, knowing that my friends loved me, and embraced by my own family," Koushiro uttered, "But now, with my comrades responsible for my own death, and my family nowhere to be found, I can only cry, and only hate," he lied outside, swinging on the swing set that Daisuke once swung on. But Daisuke wasn't there now, he was dead. Just like Koushiro, only truly and forever gone. Koushiro gazed up to the sky, it was becoming day again, and seeing the sun peak through the skyscrapers, "It was here," Koushiro remembered, "Yes, here that I was invited…"
It was morning, and Koushiro was in 4th grade. His mom thought it would be better to get out of the house, so he decided to bring his laptop and type in the playground then be nagged by his mother.
"Hey, Iz, what are you doing?" It was Taichi; but a much younger form of him.
And there was Koushiro, calmly swinging on his swing, typing steadily on his computer; he looked up when approached, "Hm? Oh, nothing important," closing his laptop to prevent Taichi from knowing what was in his laptop.
"Summer's over, Iz, got any plans?"
"Um…," Koushiro intended to just stay at home and perfect a software program he just got his hands on, but shyly told him, "you know… computer stuff,"
"Just sitting on your computer all summer? Doesn't that get boring?"
"No, not really,"
"Well, I think you should do something more active; you know like when you joined the soccer club?"
"Huh?"
"Don't you remember? You had to fulfill some physical requirement, so you joined my soccer club?"
"Oh, yeah, thanks for letting me join; I thought I wasn't that good,"
"No problem, what are friends for? So you wanna go to summer camp with me?"
"With you?"
"Hey, don't worry about it, I promise it'll be fun, it's just that… I got to have a sort of… buddy or something, one of those weird requirements,"
Koushiro wanted to say no, mostly because he'll have a hard time using his computer out in the wilderness, but he was indebted to Taichi, for letting him join the soccer club even though he wasn't that good, but it was either that or basketball, and he didn't exactly had the height for it at that time, so Koushiro decided, "I'd be more than happy to be your… buddy,"
"Ha, cool. Thanks, I promise you it'll be fun,"
"No problem," Koushiro added, "What are friends for?"
Koushiro chuckled at the thought of going to summer camp; he really abhorred the idea, as he thought it would be a waste of time. But before Koushiro knew it, he was in the Digital World, saving Digimon with Tentomon, and befriending a bunch of people. He now watched a couple of birds fly by, curious, as it was Winter, and all the trees were more or less hibernating, looking dead and dreary, with scraggly branches reaching for the sky. But the birds flew by; they were a couple, probably good friends just fooling around before they migrate south. They landed on a branch, and one decided to groom the other's feathers, they must've really liked each other!
But then, after a little while, one of the birds just flew away, abandoning the one that was groomed.
And then a harsh memory returned into Koushiro…
Koushiro still begged Taichi to stop what he was doing, "Tai-" his appeals were silenced as the dagger pierced Koushiro's skin and straight into heart.
And gouts of blood squirted out as Koushiro started to cough blood up, at the same time trying to gasp for air.
The blood stained Taichi's clothes, and more blood covered Taichi as Koushiro collapsed on him. The blood came out in patterns, the same patterns as a heartbeat, and blotted Taichi's clean, white T-Shirt, and jeans.
Koushiro recoiled in pain, overwhelmed with grief.
It was wonderful, being considered a friend by another person, but they are just words, and words mean nothing compared to action. And action screams loud and clear, and as deafening as it was, they never lie they speak truth, almost all the time. Apparently friends mean nothing to Taichi, especially when it comes to life or death situations, he'd choose himself all the same. As a selfish human, just like Daisuke, but Daisuke… He barely knew Koushiro, and that would be the only reason for him to thrust a dagger into Koushiro's back. But for Taichi, a friend he knew since 4th grade it would be truly evil. They have been friends for perhaps four years; they've been through adventures that would make Koushiro, Taichi's blood brother, and Taichi's response: to stoop to the level of nothing more than a selfish human, who barely knew Koushiro, nor cared for Koushiro's well-being, plunging the dagger into his heart without hesitation.
Grabbing a rock, Koushiro hurled it at the bird, still perched up on a bare branch, yelling, "What are you doing here?" the bird didn't move, Koushiro hurled another one, "Don't you see? He left you! He didn't care about you! It was all lies!" the rock missed the bird, and it only flapped its wings a little, it still remained. Koushiro took a larger one, yelling, "He never cared for you!" and the large rock hit the bird, overwhelming the bird. And it collapsed down onto the ground, twitching a bit, but not lively as it once was. Koushiro kneeled down to the and cradled the bird's body.
Before Koushiro knew it, he was crying again, and started to speak to the body, "You know, I can't believe I actually looked up to Tai, as a brother, and thought that he liked me as a brother as well. But now, I see, that I meant nothing to him, as I have killed you out of rage, Tai killed me out of greed, to save his own life, and not mine," Koushiro looked out, in front of him he could see the red tape, the police officers, the growing crowds of people, looking at the ugly sight with curiosity. The crushed skull of Daisuke, the blood splattered across the street and on the tires of the truck. Koushiro continued, "Then again, maybe we, humans, aren't cut out for those kinds of relationships…"
Then Koushiro looked down, to see the bird twitch less and less by the second. Heartbroken, worried that he killed an innocent bird, he begged, "Please don't die. Please," the bird still twitched less and less, tears were welling up, and falling down onto the bird's body, and onto the ground, "Please... I didn't mean to hurt you," but nonetheless, the bird died.
"Tai?" Hikari yelled from outside his room, she knocked on his door, awaited an answer but didn't receive one. He's been in there for quite some time; Taichi wouldn't eat, or wouldn't come out of his room for that matter. He wouldn't talk to anyone, not even Agumon. In fact, when it was time for Agumon to head back to the Digital World with the rest of the original Digidestined's Digimon, Taichi didn't bother to come out and say goodbye.
'Something's wrong', Hikari thought, 'he hasn't been this depressed or even this reclusive ever since he got me sick…' and she mustered up the courage to open the door to peer in, to see what Taichi was doing. The lights were off, the blinds were closed, and the bed wasn't used. All she could see was a lamp on, with Taichi sitting at his desk, scribbling something.
"Tai?" Hikari asked, an eerie feeling crept up on Hikari as she entered the room, then she decided to stay in the doorway, "Are you okay?"
The only response was more scribbling, as he murmured quietly, "Go away,"
"Tai?" Hikari asked.
Taichi yelled, "What?" keeping his eyes on the desk while scribbling.
Hikari recoiled in fear, but continued"It's Daisuke…" she stuttered, "H-he's dead, an accident,"
"Is that so," replied Taichi, still scribbling.
"Yeah… just outside of our apartment too," Hikari added, this time no comment from Taichi, so she asked again, "Is there something wrong?"
All of a sudden Taichi recanted, "The egg"
"What?"
"The egg, it hatched,"
"Taichi are you feeling alright?"
"No, not that one, a Digimon egg!"
"What about Digimon, Tai?"
"And out hatched an evil Digimon," Taichi said, he stopped scribbling with his ball-point pen, and shared his drawing with his little sister, a crude sketch of a Kuramon, an evil Digimon that could evolve into a Diaboromon, hinting that he was rethinking the fight between Taichi and Koushiro with Diaboromon.
"Tai?" a concerned Hikari asks.
Taichi smiled for a bit, and then weirdly enough turned back around, starting to scribble again without a word said.
"It's all my fault!"
Hikari gave a face, "What?"
Taichi continued, "I was giving away our location every time I logged onto my computer, how can I of not thought of that before?" Then Taichi sniffled a bit, and a large tear formed in his eyes, slowly falling down his cheek, hitting the paper he scribbled on, "Good question! Now we're stuck here! Meanwhile Hikari is getting sicker and sicker because of you!" and then a few smaller tears started to form, signifying his guilt for bully Koushiro so.
Hikari felt unwelcomed with the mentioning of her name and reluctantly decided to leave him be for now, as there were more pressing matters, like Daisuke's death. So Hikari slowly closed the door, leaving Taichi to his nostalgic thoughts.
Hikari eyed Gatomon sleeping on the couch; her parents were on vacation, so Gatomon could loll around all she wanted in the apartment. Tiptoeing across the living room, she opened the door, quietly closing it and then ran off to meet up with Takeru , Iori, and Miyako at the site of Daisuke's death.
Miyako sighed, she just got off the phone with Takeru, who just told her that Daisuke was killed in an accident. She agreed to come down, and meet him at the site, something about identifying the body. She told her pink, fluffy Digimon to stay, that she was going down to work the cashier at the convenient store. It was best to leave the Digimon out of this.
Miyako patiently waited for the elevator to come after she pressed the down button. Then the lights started to flicker above her, and then shut off completely. It was still daylight out, but it was still relatively dark inside, it gave her this eerie feeling that she'll be jumped sooner or later. But as the elevator reached her floor, Miyako heard sobbing, like a small boy was crying just around the corner. She stopped, and called out, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
The sobbing continued, as if the boy never heard her. She just took one step toward the noise, and then the dead spirit of Koushiro collapsed on the wall beside her. She shrieked in horror, but didn't know who it was, it looked too young to be the Koushiro she knew, and yet it had the underlying similarities as Koushiro had. All she could see was the crimson hair, as his face was looking at the ground, it stumbled towards her like a drunk would. He cried, and moaned, in obvious remorse over something but only he himself would know what it was. His clothes were childish: an orange buttoned-up shirt, brown shorts, and purple tennis shoes. Miyako backed towards the elevator, pressing the floor button to get away from the creature. The creature noticed that Miyako was trying to get away from her, then looked up at her, and his face was revealed, Koushiro's face, except younger, with tears streaming down, he screamed, "Why are you running from me? If its the bird, it wasn't my fault?"
Miyako only yelled in horror, the elevator doors were starting to close on Koushiro, and he yelled, "It wasn't my fault that he's dead! I swear!" and cried more frantically. Then he screamed over his tears, "Don't run from me! Please! I don't want to be alone!" and then at the moment when Miyako appeared safe, as if the doors would shut the demon out and she'll be alone, Koushiro sprinted for the elevator, his arms swung all over the place, approaching the elevator like a zombie would attacking its victim. It was too late, the doors failed to keep the demon out, and Koushiro fell onto Miyako, who screamed for help, but help wouldn't come for her.
Hikari felt somewhat saddened by his death, at first it came as a shock when Takeru texted it to Hikari on her D-Terminal, but after that, she only fell into denial, choosing not to believe that another friend has just died. The three agreed not to let their Digimon find out that Daisuke is dead, enough has happened already.
However, as she approached the park, Hikari froze, and started to feel something odd at the first sight of the crime scene. Finally, she saw an image, almost like a flashback but more than that. It was as if she was really there, at the trunk of a big sakura tree, with pink leaves floating in the air. But that was all, just the sight of it, and then a feeling, an aching sadness.
She would've seen more if it weren't for Takeru yelling, "Kari!" then, Hikari was back at the park, and what she first saw, was a bloody body bag being wheeled away right in front of her. But Hikari felt something different, not the usual shock of thinking that Daisuke's crushed body would be in there, but sadness: a deep, uncontrollable melancholy. Takeru ran up to her, "Hey," he said as he approached her, then Takeru looked into her face, "Whoa,"
Hikari asked, "What is it?"
Takeru replied with a question of his own, "Are you feeling okay?"
"What? What do you mean?"
"You're crying," Takeru pointed to her tears, like a huge downpour they came streaming down her face, and dropped to the sidewalk at a constant rate.
"Oh…," Hikari responded, wiping her tears with her hands, "I don't know why though,"
"It's alright, we're all sad that Daisuke had to die, especially under such horrible circumstances," Takeru consoled Hikari by embracing her, "It'll be alright," The thing was, Hikari wasn't crying for Daisuke's sake, it was something more. Takeru advised her to go home, but Hikari insisted she will be fine. As they walked closer, the sadness intensified, and Hikari nearly collapsed to the ground in tears. But she didn't know why, Hikari just cried, feeling grief; being afflicted by something unexplainable and indescribable.
Sorrow. That was the closest description to the intense pain, sadness, and grief that Hikari felt. The closer she came to the crime scene, the worst it became, looking around, Hikari found that she was the only one breaking down in tears. Iori could be seen, his face shown grief, but not this intense. And then the sudden urge to embrace something overtook her, and she fell into Takeru's arms, clinging onto his shirt, letting the tears blot his shirt.
And Hikari, looked around again, finding Miyako absent, and tried to cry out, "W-where's M-miya-ya-k?"
"Miyako?" Takeru asked, whilst holding her in his arms.
Hikari only nodded as she blinked off another fresh set of tears. Takeru answered, "She said she'll be a bit late,"
Then a scream, a shout from a lady nearby, and the entire crowd looked up: The police, the bystanders, the trucker, Takeru, Iori, and even Hikari, wiping tears off her face. They all looked up to a tall skyscraper, "At the top!" the lady alerted the crowd, "Someone's going to jump! At the top!"
And they looked up, and it was none other than Miyako herself. Before anyone could do anything, before anyone knew it, she fell off; seconds later the cracking of bones could be heard on impact. Her spectacles came shortly after, and shattered into pieces with its collision.
"Miyako!" Iori yelled, approaching the body, along with Takeru, lying Hikari on the ground to tend the more urgent matter. But when they approached her body, the two didn't know what to do, finding all the bones broken, and some poking out of the skin, the splatter of blood across the far reaches of the street was made on impact, but surprisingly, Miyako was still conscience, breathing heavily for air, feeling the pain riddling her now crippled body.
Hikari stumbled to Miyako's crumpled body, as she whispered, "I didn't mean... to leave you alone,"
"Miyako, stay calm don't move!" Takeru advised her.
"Don't leave us! The paramedics are on their way!" Iori assured her.
But it was all in vain, as her spinal cord was shattered, the bones, beyond repair, and massive internal bleeding and excessive organ damage riddled her body. By the time the paramedics came, and were applying an anesthetic, she already died, in great pain already.
As Hikari came into inches with Miyako's lifeless body, she shrieked at first sight, and fell behind Takeru. Backing away, she uttered, "K-Koushiro?" she saw it, Koushiro, as young as when she first met him four years ago.
He looked young, with the orange button-up shirt, the khaki shorts, and those purple tennis shoes. But, at the same time, he looked very different; his skin was as pale as a ghost, contrasting with the bright hue of his red hair.
Hikari saw Koushiro, embracing the dead body of Miyako, with tears streaming down his face and whimpering. Then, a wave of sorrow hit her as she looked into his eyes. And then with an outbreak of tears, Hikari started balling her eyes out. As Iori, stared in shock at another lifeless corpse, Takeru ran up to Hikari, consoling her. And Hikari nearly leapt into him again, shielding herself from Koushiro's gaze, and found that the sorrow that she felt, the reason she fell into tears the closer she got, was because she was approaching the crying spirit of Koushiro Izumi.
He cried by day, He loathed by night
Nothing can compare to the sadness he expressed, or the grudges he held
Is there nothing to appease this poor soul's sorrow? Is there nothing to quench the wrath he bears?
One cannot say, as now, he is unstoppable.
To be continued…
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon
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