Title: Restart, Rebirth, Remembrance

Author: isumi'kivic'

Characters/Pairings: Kouji + Kouichi brotherly love, slight tiny bits of Takuya/Izumi. Hints of one-sided OC-Kouichi and OC/OC because it's necessary for the plot.

Rating: Gen, I swear I'm keeping it gen. –forces down the KouKou fangirl inside-

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, and I don't own The Last, either. I'm just writing a fic out of another brilliant fic. This fic is a continuation of The Last by Gemini Star01, which means that you're required to read it before delving into this fic. It's an awesomely sad one-shot that you could find in her author page. And while you're at it, read her other amazing works, too.

Warnings: Possible OOC-ness, grammar errors, and for this chapter: the nearly non-existent Kouichi, hahaha.

A/N: I made it! It feels nice to be able update on time. –is smug- Although this chapter isn't very exciting, and basically just laying down the outlines of the problems and backgrounds of the new chosen children. But it's rather important for the coming Kouichi+Kouji relationship later on, so please bear with me to get through this. :'D

For people who are just joining with us, welcome and I hope you're enjoying the story this far. (Yuutousei, hope you finished your paper, haha). I'd be extremely pleased to know what everyone thinks about the story, so please review? It's very nice to know that there are people who are still sticking with this story even though it majorly sucks, hahaha.

Enjoy, please!

Restart, Rebirth, Remembrance

A Digimon Frontier Fanfiction

Chapter Six: Of Friends and Advices

Whenever he called one of his friends to hang out, it usually ended up like this:

"Yo, Kanpei, what's up?"

"Nah, just wondering if you want to hang out? This book shop at the shopping district is having a huge sale on sports manga, and I know one of the employees so we might even get some free goodies!"

"Seriously? Aww, man, I've some plans with Kouta and the others. We're going to see his brother's hockey match."

The he would scuffle his feet; hope surging in his chest for a moment. "A hockey match, huh? That sounds awesome." He'd let the questions hung in the air—can I come with you guys, why didn't you ask me to come along, I wonder if it's okay for me to come even though your group is rather tight-knitted—because maybe, just maybe, this time they would finally ask him to go with the group. But Moriya's expression on his cell phone LCD didn't even change.

"It is, isn't it? So yeah, sorry I can't go. But you can always ask others, right? They'd be excited to hang out with you! I mean, who wouldn't? Oh, try Shigure, I think he was whining about buying some new manga and how he doesn't have enough money…"

But he had wanted to go out with Moriya. And Moriya's friends, because they seemed to be really close and simply fun to be with. There was nothing wrong with Shigure or the others, sure, but he had tried getting into their group some months ago and he couldn't seem to get in. And wasn't he and Moriya close, too? Hadn't he been hanging out with Kouta and the others, too, lately? Having fun together—playing baseball, going to game centers, hunting for manga, watching movies?

"… well, that's okay. Have fun at the match, Moriya! Give Kouta and the others my best too."

"Will do, Kanpei. Well, see ya at school, then!"

Once the call ended, he would sigh and wonder, why was it that even though he was popular, he couldn't seem to have close friends at all.

-o0o-

This weekend was one of those weekends when he ended up wandering around the town by himself, friendless. It wasn't like he didn't have any, but everyone had already had plans with their close friends, and that was what Kanpei didn't have. Close friends.

He wished he could make some.

He decided to wander around Ikebukuro, half-hoping to see the other Chosen Children in the ever-busy road. Dropping by the huge book store near the station bored him—there was no new book or manga he really wanted to buy anyway, and eating out by himself just sounded really lonely. He could always go to the batting dome, working out some more for the elementary school baseball spring tournament, but the last time they met, Suzumi had jokingly commented about how he was getting too bulky because he had more muscles than normal elementary school students did. Also, it was too cold for sports, and watching people bustling about doing their Christmas shopping gave him an odd lazy feeling.

Kanpei paused, taking a moment to watch his surroundings and figuring out where the heck he was. He'd absently wandered quite a distance from the station, but this part of the town wasn't really unfamiliar to him. He'd been here a lot of times; especially when everyone decided to drop Tokiya off at his house after a particular digimon battle. There should be behind a tall apartment building right around the corner of this road, one that had a small soccer field and indoor tennis courts. Tokiya's house wasn't far from the apartment. Maybe he could ask him to go out and have lunch, or something.

He didn't have to go as far as Tokiya's house, though. By the time he rounded the corner and was about to pass the apartment building's soccer field, he could see Tokiya's small figure on the sidelines through the fences, surrounded by several bigger boys—there were about five of them, seemingly Kanpei's age. They didn't seem to be fighting—one of them was carrying a soccer ball (apparently the chill of winter couldn't stop some kids from playing soccer. It was a good thing the apartment had the small field cleared of snow), the other had an arm around Tokiya's shoulder, pulling Tokiya closer and steering him into the field. If it wasn't for Tokiya's obviously tight face, Kanpei wouldn't have done what he did next.

"Tokiya!" His voice made the kids on the field turn around, and Tokiya just visibly brightened at the sight of him that Kanpei suddenly felt really glad he'd absently wandered around here. So he waved, gesturing Tokiya to come over quick. "Let's go, we're running out of time!"

Tokiya looked puzzled for a second, but fortunately caught on quick. "Eh..? Uhh, coming, Kanpei-san!" The smaller boy bowed to the other five boys, looking sheepish as he muttered something Kanpei couldn't hear, and quickly ran towards the exit. The other kids were watching them—they were rather disgruntled, Kanpei noticed, so he gave them an easy smile, waving them a goodbye as Tokiya approached him. Perhaps startled with Kanpei's sudden gesture, the rest of the kids waved back, albeit hesitantly.

He steered Tokiya away from the field, and let the smaller boy led the way once they were off the corner. They went down a path that led to a small shrine, stopping on the way only to buy hot drinks. The shrine had a small shelter and two rather large benches. Kanpei cleared the snow off the bench, before gesturing to Tokiya to sit down. Obediently, the smaller boy sat, and Kanpei followed. They opened their drinks at the same time, letting silence fall as they warmed up their fingers and drank.

Only then did the Spirit of Ice wielder give him a grateful grin. "Aah, you really saved me there, Kanpei-san." An arm raised to scratch the back of his head, Tokiya looked down. "They needed another player so they could play, and I accidentally passed by so they wanted me to join. And, well, it's not that I don't want to join, but…"

Kanpei didn't say anything when Tokiya faltered—a small voice inside his head was shouting why didn't you want to join? At least someone was asking you to play with them!, but that wasn't fair to Tokiya. Everyone had their own set of problems. So Kanpei was rather irked that people didn't ask him to hang out on weekends even though they hang out all the time on school days, but Tokiya also had his own share of troubling friends, didn't he? When the smaller boy didn't continue at all, he peered at Tokiya, and said seriously, "Were you bullied, Tokiya?"

"Huh?" Tokiya started. "No, not like that, of course! I mean, well—sometimes, but the older boys just now, they never bullied me. They were just… looking for another player."

"And you were forced to join, right?"

"I…." trailing off again, Tokiya seemed to decide that the best he could do was nodding his head. Kanpei frowned. He had known that Tokiya had a problem of speaking up to people, but he'd thought it was getting better. The younger boy was, after all, opening up so much more to him and the rest of the chosen children. The other day, Tokiya could even decline Takuma's offer of a movie night at the brunette's house. Couldn't he do the same to other people?

"Did you refuse, Tokiya?" he ventured, raising an eyebrow when, predictably, Tokiya stiffened, looking a bit guilty.

"I—didn't." He mumbled, watching his feet swaying back and fro. "I can't… really. Well. I—don't know how…"

This time Kanpei's expression turned surprised. "What, you don't know how to refuse?"

"I—I just don't want to disappoint them, or make them angry!" Tokiya's tone took a defensive note, and Kanpei could clearly hear the fear lurking behind his voice. "If… if I refuse, the people wouldn't like me, right? I already don't have many friends, I'm not good at many things like Kouji-san or Kanpei-san, I can't make conversations like Takuma-oniisan does, and I can't take care of people like Suzumi-san or Kouichi-san do—"

"Hey, hey, little guy," Kanpei raised his hands, a gesture asking his friend to calm down. Tokiya halted in his rants, and they stared at each other for a long moment, before the younger boy promptly blushed and stuttered out an apology. Kanpei laughed, because he wasn't mad at all. If anything, he was rather proud of himself; Tokiya was ranting out to him, which means the boy actually did trust him, and really, it kind of felt like having a close friend, yeah?

It was rather nice.

He patted Tokiya on the back, a bit roughly, because they were boys and Kanpei knew Tokiya could take it. "Listen, now, Tokiya," he began, leaning forward to balance his elbows on his knees and tilted his head so he could see Tokiya's eyes clearly. "You didn't do anything wrong, did you? Why'd you apologize?"

Tokiya stared at him, confused. "Because… I feel like I have to…?"

"Oh? And why is that?"

"… because I was… I don't know. I was rambling to you, Kanpei-san, and… didn't that annoy you?" The puzzled look Tokiya gave him was just astonishing, and Kanpei couldn't help but chuckle. Tokiya was still a kid, after all. A kid with a very low self-esteem, like Kouichi had said once to him and the others, and for some reason he felt like he should teach Tokiya some skill to make friends. Kanpei didn't have close friends, sure, but he was popular with the boys at school. Even girls liked to chat and hang out together with him (though sadly, none of them considered him as a potential boyfriend material), and everyone said he was fun to be with. That meant at least he had something he could teach Tokiya, right?

"Not really. It's actually nice to hear you tell me things about yourself. You know, Tokiya, refusing people things isn't always something on your not-to-do list." He made sure Tokiya was putting his whole attention to what he was saying, before continuing: "You can always refuse them without making them mad, you know. It all goes down to how you say it."

"How… I say it?" The kid was pondering his words, and Kanpei felt really proud of himself. Maybe this was how it felt to be an older brother?

"Yeah. See, Tokiya, you only have one problem: you don't dare to speak up what's in your mind. You should be more confident, since you're awesome and all." Kanpei laughed again when Tokiya's cheeks turned red at his praising words. "People would understand if you refuse to do something for them with a reasonable excuse. Now, why didn't you want to play with those guys just now?"

Tokiya squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. "Because… because it's too cold and I don't really like playing sports when it's cold. It gets really hard for me to breathe. And—and they're all so big, I would only get in the way because I'm small and then they would get angry because I'd make them lose and… and sorry, Kanpei-san, I really shouldn't—"

"There you go again," Kanpei chided. "You weren't doing anything wrong. I asked you, you give me an answer. It's just that your answer is longer than I expected, but that's fine, too." He leaned back, looking thoughtful. "Let's see. Why don't we go back and you can tell them why you didn't want to play with them?"

Tokiya paled. "Eh? B-but… but they'd… they'd get mad!"

"No they won't."

"What if they hit me?"

"I won't let them. Come on, I'll be right behind you."

Barely an hour later, Kanpei and Tokiya were sitting in a small ramen shop together with the five boys who forced Tokiya to play soccer with them before. They'd come back to the apartment building to find the boys playing shoots, and Tokiya had stammered out apologies for running away and not telling them why he didn't want to play. At first the boys looked a bit peeved—Kanpei didn't blame them, he would be kind of peeved himself if someone he asked bailed out on him without giving him acceptable reason—but Kanpei tried to help, rephrasing Tokiya's words when the boy stumbled on his sentences. The boys had looked at each other and acknowledged that they shouldn't have forced Tokiya to join them. The atmosphere was rather awkward then, so Kanpei chimed in, asking if they knew any ramen shop that'd be great for lunch. Next thing he knew, they were showing him the way, and they ended up having lunch together.

Tokiya was laughing at one of those boys' jokes, and they were having so much fun Kanpei just had to treat all of them to show them how happy he was. It was nice, to see Tokiya laugh without him having to force himself to make conversations, and Kanpei had a lively lunch, too. He would have to make sure to drop by more often around Tokiya's house, and maybe asked them out for games and stuff sometimes.

For now, he was glad he managed to teach Tokiya something.

-o0o-

She pursed his lips, because really, Agunimon was being absolutely obnoxious.

It didn't help that Wolfmon didn't seem to be in his best condition today; like he wasn't concentrating and zoning out in the middle of the battle. Blitzmon and Chakkmon seemed well enough; their attacks purposeful and direct, and perhaps they were even doing much better than usual. Lowemon was doing his usual things; she'd noticed his tendency to give them as much space as they needed for battle, preferring to give them directions and guide them rather than attacking the Digimon himself. She liked how he did that—giving them room to improve, to try what they needed to try, only making sure that they weren't in trouble or that the damages due to the battle didn't spread that far. Today he didn't seem to be doing as well as he usually did, but he still helped them a lot.

On the contrary, Agunimon was being literally an ass.

Her frown deepened when she caught Agunimon once again ignoring Lowemon's warning, and instead charging up to welcome Greymon's attack. This was the third Greymon they had encountered since the Spirits chose them, so Agunimon really should have known that he shouldn't meet Greymon's fire ball head on. That thing almost hit her once, and she knew how powerful that attack could be. She fought the urge to stomp her feet—that would be rather ungraceful for the Warrior of Wind to do—and instead sped towards Agunimon, preparing to push him out of the way.

Chakkmon beat her to that, and did it more efficiently by shooting up a wall of thick ice to block the attack. The ice wall cracked when the attack hit, and Greymon roared his fury, charging another fire ball—this time larger than she'd ever seen. Instinctively, she took a step back, raising her guard, and felt Izumi hummed in agreeing tone somewhere inside her. Yes, she was doing the right thing. This was the time to be careful.

"Spread around, everyone, don't let him catch you, don't stop moving!" Lowemon's voice drifted, the warning tone clear in his voice, and Fairymon slowly circled Greymon, keeping her distance. She could see Blitzmon, Chakkmon and Wolfmon doing the same thing; keeping their guards up. This attack wouldn't be like any other attack that Greymon had unleashed before—she knew they felt it too. Maybe she should prepare a wind barrier, just in case—

Izumi's next exclamation startled her: 'What's he doing?'

She broke off her concentration and threw her gaze down, and saw Agunimon standing tall on a roof of a small shop, ready to attack even as Greymon turned towards him. She clucked her teeth, feeling a wave of panic crawling its way up to her throat. "Agunimon, what are you doing?"

"I'll end this." His voice was determined and firm and a chill went down her spine when she realized what he was going to do. He was waiting for Greymon to unleash his attack, and used that exact moment to shoot—that one sure moment where Greymon would be absolutely defenseless, and Agunimon's attack would destroy it completely. But that was reckless—Agunimon might not be able to leap out of Greymon's attack in time, and if that happened, then—

"Stop it, you'll get killed!" That was Blitzmon shouting, and she let her gaze find her other friends to see all of them agitated. They must have realized what Agunimon was planning, too. Greymon was roaring, and the fire ball would go right towards Agunimon and there was no way he could leap off in time and everyone was just too far away to push him out of the way—

Wait.

"Endlich Meteor!"

A ball of darkness surged down past her towards Agunimon, so fast she couldn't even blink and her mind reeled for a second—that was Lowemon's attack, wasn't it, why was he attacking Agunimon, what is wrong with Lowemon—and the next thing she knew, the attack had hit the roof Agunimon was standing on, and it collapsed, bringing Agunimon down with it just as Greymon unleashed his attack. Agunimon gave an angry growl as he lost his balance on the crumbling roof; Greymon's attack whizzing just right above his head.

It hit a nearby department store.

"Chakkmon!" was all Lowemon had to say before Chakkmon was already speeding towards the burning building, no doubt to put off the flames. Agunimon was still sprawled on the ground and against the shop's now ruined wall, pieces of bricks and roof all over him as he shouted angrily at Lowemon, "What was that for?"

Lowemon spared him a glance, but Greymon was already moving again and he leapt off, doing a graceful maneuver on the air that made her heart skipped a bit both in fear and awe. He shot off another Endlich Meteor when Greymon turned his attention towards Wolfmon, diverting the enemy's focus as it tried to evade, letting both Wolfmon and Blitzmon charging up with their attacks.

She didn't want to be left behind, of course.

"Brezza Petalo!"

This time, Greymon didn't have the chance to evade their attacks—not from three different directions. It growled painfully as the circle of data shimmered around his body. Lowemon landed on another roof, whipping out his digivice and swiftly scanned it.

It didn't stop Agunimon from shouting at him in anger, making her eyebrows knitted in extreme dislike.

-o0o-

It was almost Christmas.

As he stepped on the last stone stairs of the jinja, Kouji let his gaze wander for a moment, exploring the whole place with his careful eyes. He didn't know why he stopped by the shrine again. Worse, he didn't really know what he expected, having coming here without thinking first. Did he expect Kouichi to be here? Or did he not want Kouichi to be here when he was here?

"Look, Kouji," the person was smiling, gentle and soft and so ethereal Kouji wanted to reach out and kept him close, just to make sure he wouldn't just disappear. Maybe the whole near-death thing traumatized him more than he'd thought. But his brother just looked so happy, so… content, as he waved his own strip of omikuji, smile stretching into a grin as his voice touched the air. "Daikichi!"[1]

Letting out a soft growl from his throat, Kouji mussed up his own hair, feeling confused and more lost than ever. The feeling itself wasn't new for him—the feeling of lost and not knowing where he was heading in his life had been constantly haunting him as long as he could remember. He had no clue why, but perhaps it was normal. Maybe everyone was like that—always feeling restless and never content, like they would be swallowed whole by the whole world if they ever stopped moving. It was rather extreme on his case, though. After all, feeling like something of you had been missing for your whole life wasn't exactly something that made you go through life with a breeze.

"Ah! It's you, Oniichan!"

Kouji turned at the voice, eyes widening a fraction at the sight of a little girl bundled up in cute yellow jacket and white pants, arms holding a rather familiar cat tightly and carefully. The girl's expression looked amazingly bright at such a somber winter day—where the sky was gray and the sun hiding behind white cotton clouds and everything was covered in white. She nimbly picked her way from the other side of the jinja, walking slowly on the snow-covered stone path towards Kouji, eyes alight with innocence that fit her white surroundings.

Oh yeah. That was the girl he'd helped with her cat the other day, wasn't she?

"So Oniichan is okay! I'm so glad!" She beamed up, promptly pulling Kouji's sleeve and steered him towards the jinja. The two of them took seats on the porch, and Kouji stared at the girl's dangling feet—noting the slightly wet edges of the pants absently. His own were rather soaked, too. He shivered, mentally chiding himself for going out without any scarf. Good thing Kouichi wasn't here, or he would probably—

"See, this is what happens when you go out in the middle of winter without keeping your neck and ears warm!" Another blanket was thrown onto his shivering body, and a hand was touching his heated forehead. He coughed, feeling like he'd much rather greet Death than having cold and fever and forced to a full week of bed rest, but the hand on his forehead was cool and so comforting it made him didn't want to move. His brother was still chiding him; harsh tone masking the worried underlining notes hiding beneath the voice. That was okay—he could take that. He liked listening to his brother, after all, even if he was being lectured on scarves and jackets and fevers.

He shook his head. No, it couldn't be Kouichi in his flashbacks, he'd gotten nothing to do with the Spirit of Darkness wielder other than the Digital World business. He peered aside—the girl had stopped humming a happy tune, and she was already chattering about how worried she was.

"… and I kept real good care of Shirotan—" at this, the cat meowed, as if agreeing to her statement. "But I've just been very worried, since that other Oniichan—you know, the one that I thought was your twin, since you two look so much alike… anyway, he never comes here anymore even though he promised he'd meet me and tell me how you're doing. Or maybe he comes, but not when I'm here."

Kouji raised an eyebrow. "You've been waiting for him?"

"Yep! Every day this week I come here with Shirotan, but he's never here. I wonder if that Oniichan forgot?" her lips formed a cute pout then, and she started swinging her legs. "He's like an adult if he forgot. Mama and Papa, too, forget lots of things, and Mio-chan says when we get bigger, we'll be forgetting things, too."

Kouji opted to stay silent; really, he wasn't the best person to leave with a little girl who asked questions like this. What was he supposed to say? Kouichi probably did forget, knowing how he had that huge responsibility about the Digital World, but this girl had been waiting, too. "Well, I'm sure he didn't intentionally forget. That guy, see, he's been very busy lately."

The pout didn't disappear. "Yes. So are Mama and Papa, so I have to play alone."

Somehow, that made his heart constrict. They were lonely people, Kouji realized, and while Kouji's loneliness stemmed from different reasons than this girl whose name he didn't even know, it didn't change the fact that they were still lonely. It wasn't like Kouji loved being around so many people like Kanpei did, or loved taking the spotlight so people would notice him like Takuma. It was just—so far, no one could understand the partial emptiness he'd always felt his whole life.

As if someone had taken something from him even before he was born.

"…ji… wake up…." A harsh cough brought him out of the dream land, and his eyes widened when he realized he could hardly breathe. What had happened? Why did the air feel thick, and why couldn't he breathe well, why was his brother coughing so hard? He reached out to touch his brother's shoulder, and his brother squeezed his hand before gesturing towards the door. Only then did he realize: there was smoke coming from outside the room.

He'd had to get out. He'd had to get his brother out. There was no way he was losing his brother again, ever. Not ever again—he couldn't.

Kouji winced, trying to suppress the flashes of—what was it? Memories? Premonitions? Someone else's completely different life? He sighed, letting one hand rose so he could muss up the girl's hair. "He'll come around," he said, trying to reassure the girl, and wondered why it felt like a promise. "Besides, you know I'm okay, now, right? You don't have to come every day here."

"But I want to thank that Oniichan for helping you."

Had he even thank Kouichi for helping him? No, he'd yelled because the whole thing had confused him and it was pissing him off. Kouji scratched the back of his head, a subconscious gesture he made when he felt somewhat guilty. He hadn't been fair to Kouichi, had he? "Yeah. I guess I should, too."

"Then we can thank him together, right?"

Kouji let out an uncertain smile—the girl's smile was just too bright to face, especially when he was fully aware he would just get confused and angry at Kouichi again when he talked to the shorter-haired boy. But the girl seemed to take his smile as a confirmation of agreement, and simply beamed more brightly.

She didn't stay long in the jinja. When the soft flakes of white started drifting down from the sky, the girl quickly jumped down the porch, gave him a bow and fled down the stairs, going home. Kouji, on the other hand, simply retreated further onto the porch, pulling his legs so he could sit cross-legged. The snow wouldn't last long, he knew, he'd been watching the weather prediction lately. So he sat there, mute, watching the snowflakes slowly drifting down like the sakura blossoms in spring. Wouldn't it be nice, he mused, to watch the sakura blossoms here once spring rolled around? He wondered if this place would be full of people by the time, marring the jinja's tranquil atmosphere.

He liked sakura blossoms, though. Drifting slowly—five centimeters per second, they said—towards the ground, dancing in the air, riding the winds. Snow would melt if he touched them, but sakura blossoms wouldn't.

Sakura blossoms—they would—

He opened his palm slowly, peering into his fist like he'd just caught a miracle, and was disheartened when he saw the sakura petal he'd tried to catch before was bent between his fingers. Had he clutched it too hard? Next to him, his brother was chuckling, melodious as always, as he bumped his fist softly against Kouji's before opening his palm, grinning in victory.

The sakura petal his brother had caught wasn't bent. It was perfect.

"You've got to move softer, slower, so it wouldn't crook in your fist." His brother explained gently, putting the perfect petal on Kouji's palm. He blinked, letting his finger trace the petal—the texture, the color, the softness. Perfect. Of course his brother could do it; Kouji had never seen someone who was so naturally kind and gentle and soft. His touch could mend what Kouji had broken, and—

"Huh, Kouji? What are you doing here?"

The now-familiar voice snapped him back to reality—for a second his sight blurred, as though it was trying to adjust back to the snow-covered landscape that was his reality and not the warm spring afternoon with sakura blossoms swirling gently on the wind. It took him a moment to really focused on the figure standing before him, and another moment to recognize the person.

"… What do you want, Kanpei?"

The statement that escaped his lips was harsh, and even he winced at his own tone. Kanpei, predictably, flinched and took a step back, raising his arms as though telling Kouji that he meant peace. Kouji sighed, sneaking a hand up his hair to muss it up half in frustration and half in irritation at himself. These flashbacks were going to drive him insane someday.

"Chill, dude, I was just being a good teammate so I came over when I saw you." Kanpei tilted his head, and Kouji noticed the other boy was keeping his distance. "So anyway, why are you here? "

"Why can't I be here?" Kouji crossed his arms, looking a bit petulant now.

Kanpei grinned, shrugging good-naturedly. "Well, maybe because I know Kouichi often shops at the shopping district near here, and given that you seem to have been avoiding Kouichi lately… Oh that reminds me. Did something happen between you two?"

"Nothing that would concern you." Kouji bit out, frowning. He didn't like to be reminded of what he'd been thinking about before Kanpei came. "What are you doing here, yourself?"

With careful steps, Kanpei joined his friend on the porch, sitting a good length of arm away from Kouji. "Me? I was just wondering around, and when I realized it, it was snowing, so I came here for shelter."

Kouji raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought you're busy hanging out with your friends, Mr. Popular. It's weekend."

At his statement, Kanpei turned rather nervous. He started fumbling with the edge of his scarf, letting out a strained laugh before scratching the back of his head. He wouldn't meet Kouji's eyes, too. "Yeah, well. Um. That, actually. Everyone's hanging out with their own groups on weekends, and I don't have one. If I have a group people would think I belong there exclusively, right? I don't like being exclusive and all, I'm more of 'everyone's friend' type, if you get my drift."

Kouji barked out a laugh. Now that was the most ridiculous thing he'd heard today. Seriously, why did people keep fooling themselves, spewing out excuses so that they didn't need to face their own failure? Being a loner made him a rather fine observant, and he was proud of that. Kanpei turned to him at the laugh, an inquiring expression on his face, but his question came out in a guarded tone: "What?"

The Spirit of Light wielder shook his head, shrugging. He liked to think they were rather special—the six of them. The only six people in the world wielding the spirits, holding the powers of six legendary warriors of the Digital World. They were chosen, and shouldn't the word 'chosen' indicated that they were special? And yet, it seemed that each of them was facing normal problems other children their age faced. Tokiya's low self-esteem, Takuma's stupid, obnoxious efforts of looking for attention and spotlight, Suzumi's shyness and obvious insecurities, his own feeling of not knowing where his life was going, and now Kanpei's apparent problem of making friends.

Then what was it that made them special?

"You know better than that, Kanpei." His voice didn't hold the biting tone anymore, but it was dead serious. "You're not wandering around by yourself because you don't want people to look at you like you're exclusive or something. You're just scared of getting by on yourself, even if you're perfectly capable of it."

Kanpei startled, turning to Kouji with wide, shocked eyes. "Wh—what?"

"You're easygoing. You make friends almost too easily, but that's why people think you don't need them. That's where you messed up." Kouji stared right into his friend's eyes, sharp. "That's why you don't have close friends, do you?"

Kanpei opened his eyes, seemingly ready—desperate—to object, but all that escaped off his mouth was a weak "I—"

"You're giving airs that you're happy being popular because you don't want anyone to walk away from you. Yeah, they won't, but they won't come closer to you, either. They think you're okay with the way you are, that they can't get closer because you're just that popular."

"I'm not!" Kanpei's face started to turn red—of anger or cold, Kouji had no idea, but he knew he was hitting a nerve. No, he wasn't being sarcastic or mean. This is his way of helping Kanpei, to make him recognize what his problem was, because people who kept running away from the roots of their problems were people Kouji hated the most, and he didn't want to hate Kanpei. They were comrades, after all.

"Then tell me, have you ever actually ask your friend if you could join whatever it was his group was doing? Or are you always waiting for them to invite you?"

"I'm—" Kanpei stammered, looking frustrated and furious at the same time. "I don't—what right do you have for saying that?"

"So I was right." Kouji smirked. "In the end, you don't belong anywhere."

"Shut up, Kouji! I don't want to hear that from you!"

He saw the fist swung first, and reflexively raised an arm to block the punch Kanpei threw him. Silence fell between them, punctuated by Kanpei's harsh, angry breath. Their eyes were locked still; tensed, angry gaze boring into Kouji's serious eyes, none of them yielding. The winter wind blew—rather hard this time—bringing with it the biting chill that made the hairs on Kouji's nape stood up. His arm throbbed a little; Kanpei was built of strong muscles and bulking energy, more than Kouji was. It was no wonder he could pack such a punch.

"Kanpei-san!"

It was the shock of recognizing Tokiya's voice that made the two of them sprang away from each other. Kouji absently rubbed his arm, reminding himself not to seriously piss Kanpei in near future. His friend was opening his mouth; an apology already shadowing his eyes, but the previous anger was still there. They could deal with it some other moment, though. Right now, their eyes turned towards the jinja's entrance, at the small figure that was Tokiya running towards them.

Kanpei's eyebrows raised. "Tokiya? What's—ummph!" He didn't get to finish his sentence when Tokiya all but collided into him. The older boy sputtered, and Kouji watched in fascination as Tokiya grabbed Kanpei's front jacket, bunching it in his small fists, eyes wild and expression desperate.

"What, what?" Kanpei let out, pushing on Tokiya's shoulders so he could get a good view of the younger boy's face. Tokiya's eyes were brimming with unshed tears; it was clear that he was panicking. Kanpei frowned. "Wait, why are you here, Tokiya?"

"I…" the youngest boy's voice shook, small fists shivering when he tightened his clutch on Kanpei's jacket. "Wh-what should I do… uhhh…"

Kouji cleared his throat awkwardly. He never knew what to do when someone cried. "Did you come here from your house?"

Tokiya nodded, opening his mouth to answer, but only got a sob out. He scrunched up his face in a vain effort trying to stop the tears, trying to force himself to string together a coherent statement. "I—used the digivice. Was.. looking for Kanpei-san, b-but…"

Kanpei's jaw went slack. "The digivices could be used as tracking devices?"

"What should I do…" Finally letting go of Kanpei's jacket, Tokiya furiously scrubbed his eyes, shoulders shaking. "I—I messed up again and.. uhhh. O-oniisan is g-going to be s-so m-mad…"

Kanpei put a hand on Tokiya's head, starting to look concerned. "What did you do?"

"I—he asked m-me to t-take care of his c-cacti… I-It's sup-pposed to be really e-easy, b-but I screwed up ag-again. U-uuuhh… wh-what do I do…? I d-didn't know why it d-died. H-he's going to b-be really angry a-and—"

Kanpei opened his mouth, and closed it again awkwardly. Silence reigned amongst the three of them for several moments, as Tokiya struggled to stop the tears rolling down his cheeks, swallowing his sobs with no apparent results.

"N-now, Tokiya…" Kanpei began unsurely. "I'm sure it's not that bad. He'll understand if you apologize, he won't get that angry, right?"

"H-he's really scary when he's m-mad…!" Tokiya sobbed. "A-and I really am useless, I c-can't do anything on m-my own…"

"Okay, okay.." Kanpei was at loss. "Okay, tell you what, I'll accompany you and let's apologize toge—"

"Oh come on." Kouji's impatient voice cut whatever it was Kanpei was about to say, and they both turned to the Spirit of Light wielder. Kouji was staring at Tokiya seriously, like he was challenging someone his own age. "That's ridiculous, Tokiya. Look up, you're a boy. You're going to apologize because that's your responsibility, and if he gets mad, then you're going to face it, too."

For one-two-three seconds, no one moved.

"I—" Tokiya barely got a word out when Kanpei stood up, that intense fury coming back full force in his eyes. "Kouji! Seriously, why do you have to be an ass about things like these?"

"I'm just saying facts. Everyone is responsible for every mistake they make, and Tokiya isn't an exception."

"He's younger than us! You could have been easier on him!"

"Exactly that kind of thinking that got you nowhere, Kanpei!"

"What—"

The sounds of their digivices beeping in the same time cut their verbal fight short. Kanpei growled, angry, and took out his digivice in irritation. "What?"

It was Kouichi; words short and tone efficient, indicating danger lurking somewhere. "There's a digimon sighting in Ura-Harajuku. Come here as fast as you can."

Kanpei pursed his lips. "Okay, we'll be there." As the communication was cut, he turned back to Kouji, his gaze radiating anger that Kouji felt almost tangible. "I'm not going to fight with you, Kouji. Not when you're running away yourself."

The dark-haired boy bristled. "What—"

"Stop avoiding Kouichi, whatever it was that happened between you two. I don't need to know. I'll listen to you if you stop running away yourself." Kanpei narrowed his eyes. "Come on, Tokiya. I'll come with you to apologize to your brother later, okay?"

Tokiya started, having watched the two older boys' argument almost in a daze. "E-eh? Ah.. umm." He nodded anyway, expression turning thoughtful. When Kanpei fled down the stairs first, leaving him and Kouji who hadn't moved yet, Tokiya turned to the long-haired boy, a hand scrubbing away the last of his tears.

"I don't know why you're fighting just now, but…" he hesitated, and Kouji could see a small determination alight in the younger boy's eyes. "I—I think you're right, Kouji-san. It is my responsibility and… and I'm a boy. I've got to stand up on my own feet."

Kouji smirked, albeit a bit strained, and shrugged. "Everyone makes mistakes. You're just a bit clumsier, so you make more mistakes, that's all. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

The way Tokiya's face brightened at his words was enough to turn Kouji's smirk into a genuine small smile this time.

"Let's go, then."

-o0o-

Leomon's fist connected to his abdomen, sending him flying back almost seven metres, crashing into a nearby department store. People shrieked, scattering away from the battle area, and Agunimon groaned in pain, slowly moved to rise back to his feet.

'That was ridiculously powerful,' he could hear Takuma murmur inside him, and felt the warning the previous wielder was giving him. Shaking his head, he growled. Powerful or not, this Leomon had to be scanned, and this time he was going to be the one who did so.

Not Kouichi. He swore, this time he would be the one defeating the enemy.

"Agunimon, are you okay?" From his place on one of the rails up there, Lowemon called out, a trace of worry hinting on his voice. He didn't get a chance to reply, though, because another blur of yellow and brown flashed before him, and the next second he knew, Leomon was right in front of him.

'Shit!' Takuya cursed, and he belatedly raised his arms to defend, expecting the attack.

It never came. Instead, something crashed into Leomon from the side, blasting him with a powerful wind. Leomon made an angry noise as he regained his footing, staggering a little. Agunimon stopped breathing, because floating in front of him was now Fairymon, wings opened gracefully as she faced Leomon, movement fluid as if she was the wind itself, having blasted the enemy away from her friend.

"F-Fairymon.." he stuttered, and Fairymon turned her head a fraction towards him.

"You okay, Agunimon?"

"Yeah. You didn't really need to do that though, I've got it."

She sniffed in annoyance. "You boys and your stupid prides, I could never understand." She turned her attention back to the enemy, eyes narrowing. "He's fast. We'd better not let our guard down."

Leomon charged again, and both of them steadied themselves to counter him, just as the enemy suddenly shot up, jumping so high towards where Lowemon was. Fairymon made a panicked noise, and Agunimon didn't wait to leap up himself, from rail to rail, trying to catch up with the enemy. But Leomon was ridiculously fast, and Agunimon could only watch as the enemy was before Lowemon in an instant, one arm raised to throw a punch.

But Lowemon's agility wasn't a joke. "Endlich Meteor!"

The ball of darkness blasted Leomon back a good ten metres, and Fairymon was already there, her foot catching Leomon's head and sending him crashing down to the ground. The asphalt cracked where Leomon landed, causing smoke and debris flying off everywhere. Not wanting to be outdone, Agunimon sped towards the enemy, intending to send his attack before Leomon regained his feet—

"Agunimon!" Fairymon shrieked, and Lowemon's voice followed. "Stop it!"

Because Leomon was much faster, and before Agunimon knew it, a fist connected to his face, sending him sprawling back. He hadn't even catch his breath when the next fist connected to his abdomen, and chest, knocking the air off his lungs. He could barely hear Takuya's worried warning echoing in his head, felt his arm rose to defend without him ordering it to, and knew it was Takuya moving his hand.

Stop it, he mentally screamed at Takuya. I'll do it—you told me you aren't going to take over!

'I'm not! We're doing this together, Takuma-kun, you have to stop letting Agunimon fight by himself and lend us your power, too!' [2]

I am fucking fighting!

'That's an opening—kick him away, Takuma-kun!'

And his foot did just that, almost involuntarily, kicking the enemy off him, even if the effort threw him flat on his back. He blinked, panted to catch his breath, and saw Lowemon knocked Leomon further away, towards Wolfmon—since when did he arrive?—who launched into his Licht Kuegel attack, drawing a painful shriek from the enemy as it crashed onto a tree. Both Blitzmon and Chakkmon sent out their own attacks, hitting Leomon straight before he could get back to his feet.

"Don't be careless, everyone, he's fast!" Lowemon's voice drifted over to him, and Agunimon hacked, shakily rising to his feet. Takuya was making encouraging noises at him, and Fairymon hovered above, looking down with half-concerned and half-annoyed eyes.

Damn it, he kept making a fool out of himself. He wouldn't be impressing Suzumi this way, he'd got to start leading!

"We need to keep attacking him and not giving him a chance!" He said out loud, gesturing towards where the enemy was trying to regain his stance back. "Let's restrain his movements—Chakkmon, we'll leave that to you—and we can just attack him endlessly—come on! Burning Salamander!"

It rather irritated him that the others didn't immediately moved on his cue—rather, it was because Lowemon followed with his Endlich Meteor that both Fairymon and Blitzmon launched into their respective attacks. Wolfmon charged the last, but Leomon had already regained back his stance, and they were instantly locked into a fast-paced, close combat.

"Pull away, Wolfmon!" Agunimon shouted, ready to aim his Fire Darts but unable to shoot because the two digimons were just too close. He could hit Wolfmon, and that would be a disaster. "Chakkmon, try restraining Leomon's moves!"

"I can't—I could hit Wolfmon!" Chakkmon's voice held a hint of frustration. Agunimon gritted his teeth—Wolfmon was obviously trying to pull away from his rapid close combat with Leomon, but the enemy wouldn't let him off. Leomon, Agunimon realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach, was using Wolfmon as a shield.

"Hold your attack, everyone!" that was Lowemon, obviously worried, and Agunimon could see why. One wrong move, Wolfmon could be hurt very badly, and him being one of the aces in the team, Kouichi wouldn't want that. But if Wolfmon couldn't pull off, then Leomon would just keep creating chaos, widening the battle area, and—

There was no time, the police would arrive real soon. If he was going to be a leader, then he might as well just decide for them now.

Moving slowly, Agunimon narrowed his eyes, eyes wild as they tried to spot Leomon's blind spot. He would just have to shoot at the right time—Fire Darts wasn't an attack that would hurt an enemy really badly, so even if Wolfmon were to be hit, he wouldn't be keeling over. But still, he had to be careful—one chance, one chance was what he needed, and even though Takuya was warning him about how reckless he was being—

That's it!

"Fire Darts!"

Four gasps came from different directions—Blitzmon, Chakkmon, Fairymon and Lowemon—and four different voices blended into one, shouted in different tones of anxiety, surprise and sheer anger as his attack spiraled towards the two digimon still locked tight in combat. "Agunimon!"

Wolfmon leapt up to avoid Agunimon's attack, but Leomon merely spun himself backwards, letting the attack whizzed past him, hitting one of the poles of the department store, before launching upwards and caught Wolfmon in mid-jump, locking him back into their previous rapid close combat. Agunimon growled, once again aiming to shoot, but Lowemon was already next to him, backing him up with his staff. Again.

"Stop. Being so reckless." The Warrior of Darknes growled low, golden eyes literally glowed in fury. "You're going to kill someone."

Agunimon pushed the staff back, angered. "I said I know what I'm doing! It should have hit, if Leomon wasn't so ridiculously fast!"

"Face it, he's that ridiculously fast!" the Warrior of Darkness didn't budge, and the staff was now right under Agunimon's chin. Feeling anger and embarrassment mingled inside his chest, Agunimon growled back, putting more force into pushing back and actually succeeded this time, making Lowemon nearly stumbled back.

"Well then stop ordering us around and start actually do something yourself!"

Lowemon went rigid. "I am not going to fight with you about this."

"What, you can't even deny? I'm pretty sure we could even do this without you being here!" Agunimon bit, pushing down Takuya's increasing warning. He was just so pissed off—Lowemon just had to embarrass him when Fairymon was just right above, watching! This had got to be in purpose, right? "If we don't do anything, that Leomon would just keep widening the battle area and you're the one who keep telling us not to do that!"

Lowemon shook his head, glancing back towards where Wolfmon was still in close combat with Leomon. "This is not the time or this," he murmured, visibly biting his lower lip as Chakkmon and Blitzmon rounded Leomon and Wolfmon in attempt to keep them in place.

Agunimon snorted. "I told you I have everything under control—"

"Oh, Agunimon, stop being so obnoxious!" from above, Fairymon shrilled, more than unpleased with his attitude. He started, looking up, and froze when the winged-Digimon fixed him a furious look he'd never seen before. Outraged was probably a more fitting word to describe it. "You've been doing everything wrong, and just—just stop doing what you can't do!"

The words chilled him completely, leaving him frozen even as Lowemon turned around and joined Chakkmon and Blitzmon, and Fairymon followed suit. He could only watch, as Blitzmon aimed his next attack towards a huge debris hanging from the fourth floor of the department store while the other three circled both Wolfmon and Leomon, trying to keep them in place. Blitzmon's next attack hit the debris square straight, and it fell down, right towards the combating two digimons, forcing them both to break off.

Fairymon sent a blast of wind to prevent Leomon launching himself back to catch Wolfmon, and Lowemon leapt forward to knock Leomon further as Wolfmon panted to catch his breath, and Chakkmon quickly pinned Leomon onto a wall by freezing the enemy's limbs. Blitzmon charged up his electricity, and brought his Thor Hammer swiftly down on the enemy.

Leomon's roar echoed in the sky, his data shimmering when it appeared, and it was Chakkmon who whipped out his Digivice and scanned it.

The youngest of them was still standing, almost in a daze, after Leomon's data was gone. It was Lowemon who approached him first, giving him a tensed smile—the adrenaline hadn't yet left their systems—as he clapped Chakkmon on the shoulder.

"See, you've got something you could do very well, Chakkmon."

And the Warrior of Ice grinned.

-o0o-

Kouichi looked up when his and Takuma's bedroom door opened, stiffening when his roommate stepped inside. By the look on Takuma's eyes—and what had happened in the battle with Leomon today—Kouichi knew the boy was more than pissed off.

"Takuma-kun." His own voice was tensed.

Takuma's eyes narrowed, a brewing storm literally coming alive in them.

"We need to talk, Kouichi."

-o0oendofchapter6o0o-

A/N: asdsajdhgsa I know I suck at those fighting scenes. My vocabularies are escaping me when I wrote that, and—well, I was rather distracted, too, but that's beside the point.

[1] Daikichi: If one takes an omikuji to see one's fortune, there are several kinds of blessings you could get, ranging from great blessing (Daikichi) to great curse (Dai-kyou). If you want to know more, Wikipedia still rocks.

[2] If you're confused about Takuya's words, I suggest you rewatch the last episode of Digimon Frontier. Basically before the kids' last evolution into Susanoomon (in which the five of them are joined together), Takuya said something about so far, the only ones fighting are Agunimon and the others. I kinda caught it like, before that last evolution, the kids weren't able to use their own powers and kept using the Spirits', but in the last battle, they realized that and finally joined their powers together with the warriors. Thus, the defeat of Lucemon. I could be wrong, so if you want to correct me, feel free to do so. :D

Next chapter should be.. a bit more engaging, since we'd be able to put an end to Takuma's obnoxiousness. Stay tune till there, folks! :'D