It's time for a new chapter! I don't know what to say but I will say this. Last week, I turned seventeen, yay! One year closer to voting eligibility and certain other… things. Anyway, I hope you'll all enjoy this new chapter and don't forget to leave a review!

-X-

Kiriha sighed as he sunk further into the water. It had been a pretty stressful day for him, going out to Karuizawa to conduct business as the head of the Aonuma group and then having to finish up all his homework for the week. Not to mention those rogue Digimon that had appeared. Thankfully, Zenjirou had been there for a family retreat for the weekend and Masaru and Touma were sent there to assist.

For now, Kiriha just had to relax in the public bath at the hotel he was staying at. Hopefully he could stay this calm for the rest of his visit.

But Kiriha knew how awful his luck was when it came to things like this.

"Kiriha, you're staying in this hotel too?"

The blond boy groaned as he turned his head a few degrees to the right with an indifferent expression. "Hi Zenjirou. So you and your family are staying in this hotel?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Zenjirou nodded.

"Well next time do me a favor and keep your towel on until you're in the bath."

Zenjirou muttered something under his breath as he joined the other boy in the bath. He knew that he and Kiriha never really got along before but he was hoping something had changed after their adventures. Then again, Kiriha disappeared to America for a few years so he supposed a friendship couldn't really form if they barely interacted. Come to think of it, Zenjirou actually had no idea why Kiriha was in America in the first place.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" inquired Zenjirou. The lack of response from Kiriha told him to go on. "What were you doing in America for all those years? I mean, I didn't care so much but Taiki was wondering for a long time."

"I already told Taiki why I was there."

A vein appeared on Zenjirou's forehead. "Well can you fill me in on it then?"

"I thought you didn't care."

Another vein. "You know, sometimes, you can be really aggravating."

"That's a two-way street most of the time." A third vein but Kiriha didn't let him reply. "But if you must know, I was in America trying to rebuild the Aonuma group from the ground up since most of my father's men went there after his death. After three years of hard work, I was finally able to revive the group as the head which makes me very busy nowadays. To be perfectly honest, I kind of wish I could go back to when I had more free time but I know it's for the best."

Zenjirou paused to think about this, suddenly feeling bad for the other boy. "Are you sure? I mean, you must enjoy the company of your friends."

"Of course I do," Kiriha nodded solemnly. "But this is something I want to do. It doesn't sit well with me to just leave everything my father worked so hard for in ashes. He built the Aonuma group from scratch which took years of his life and within a few days, it was shattered. I couldn't just leave it like that."

Zenjirou was surprised. He actually shared something in common with Kiriha, this sense of responsibility and nobility; it was something that wasn't so common in modern-day Japan anymore. Zenjirou was just about to apologize for ever saying certain rude things about Kiriha but then they heard someone rushing into the bath.

Just then, Masaru leapt right into the bathwater, creating a large splash that engulfed the two members of Xros Heart.

"Masaru!" Kiriha shouted in irritation while Zenjirou just laughed in amusement. Kiriha turned on the other boy with an angry expression, which also happened to be his neutral expression but this was one of those times when you could tell he was mad. "How do you find this funny?"

"I don't get why you're being such a drag," Zenjirou retorted. "We're in a bath! We were wet to begin with."

Kiriha groaned. "Ugh, I swear, I'm surrounded by fools sometimes."

Just then, Touma arrived at the public bath and he stared at the group of three in the water. "Masaru, I told you not to go jumping into the bath like that."

Masaru frowned. "Why not?"

"Because you would've disturbed the other people here and clearly you did exactly that," Touma replied coolly. "After five whole years of living in the Digital World, I thought you would've grown up a little. But you're still the same immature Neanderthal you always were."

"And you're still the same boring stickler you always were," Masaru shot back.

Touma dropped himself into the bath at the exact same time he threw his towel at Masaru's face, making sure that the area that had been covering the doctor's crotch landed in the worst possible place. According to Touma's plan, which was executed perfectly as usual, Masaru would start screaming as if his skin was melting and that was exactly what was happening. The three simply watched as the brunet threw the towel off of his face and across the room.

"Geez, you two are making a big deal out of nothing," Zenjirou remarked.

"We're not making a big deal out of anything," Touma replied. "I was just trying to tell Masaru that he should be respecting others. Obviously, Kiriha didn't appreciate getting soaked by Masaru's cannonball."

"Well I'm sorry, maybe I should give you a ten-thousand word written apology to you blonds," Masaru mocked. "Geez, even though the stereotypes are that Japanese people are supposed to be super proper, it seems the foreigners are the actual ones who are 'proper'."

Kiriha blinked. "How do you know I'm not Japanese?"

"We added all of your personal information into the DATS database and I may or may not have taken a peek at everyone's," Masaru admitted, knowing what his fellow DATS member would say next.

"Those are all private!" Touma shouted. As he continued, Masaru began to mouth everything the Austrian was saying so that their mouth movements were in perfect sync. "Stop that! How do you know what I'm going to say? You're getting on my nerves."

Touma finally figured out that the only way to stop Masaru from mimicking him was to just keep his mouth shut. The two of them stared at each other for a long time before both Masaru and Zenjirou burst out laughing, causing the two blonds to feel even more irked than before.

"You two are really annoying," Kiriha and Touma said simultaneously.

"And you two should try to have fun once in a while," the other two said in response.

Kiriha was sick of arguing so he decided to move away from all of them just like he used to. It's not like he was repeating the whole lone wolf routine, pretending he didn't need anybody, but sometimes, he just had to get away from company. He was hoping that being alone would help him feel better, but instead, he just felt, well, lonely. This dark feeling arose as he listened to Masaru make jokes and eventually prompting Touma to laugh, not at the jokes but at the part when Masaru accidentally hit his arm against the wooden flooring.

Zenjirou watched his teammate from afar, suddenly remembering their earlier conversation about how Kiriha barely had time to spend with friends anymore. Here he was at such a luxurious hotel away from schoolwork and Digimon hunting, yet Kiriha was all by himself. Now wasn't the time to be playing the loner act, now was the time to learn more about the people around him.

"What do you want?" Kiriha asked when he heard Zenjirou approach him.

"You probably think we have nothing in common, huh." It was more of a statement than it was a question.

"There are obvious traits we share," Kiriha sighed. "Like, how we both want to protect the Digital World or how we both want to protect our friends. But those are basically given traits for a Hunter or at least a Chosen Child."

Zenjirou shook his head with a small smile. "No, I'm talking about the commonalities we share even before either of us knew about the existence of the Digital World. You had this noble sense to protect your father's reputation, kind of the same way I wanted to protect my school's reputation after we had lost to Taiki's kendo team. It was a rather embarrassing defeat and I felt humiliated so I felt this desire to save my school from that feeling."

Kiriha paused as he let this sink in. It was true. After his father's men had left him all alone, he felt humiliated and completely defeated but most of all, he had felt like he had failed his father in some way. That's why he had tried so hard to get stronger, not for his father's approval but to try and save the Aonuma name.

"I'm sorry."

Zenjirou blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"You're not as annoying as my initial impression of you made you out to be," Kiriha clarified.

Masaru waded over to them after some persuasion from Touma. "Hey, Kiriha, I just wanted to apologize for suddenly jumping into the water the way I did. I didn't mean to get you irritated, I was just… Well, I was just acting as if this was my home so don't take it personally."

"Don't worry about it," Kiriha chuckled. "I shouldn't have gotten so annoyed in the first place. You were just enjoying yourself."

"I'm sure you were acting more like you were still in the Digital World than you were at home," Touma muttered. "I've seen your bathtub, if you were to jump into there the way you did here, you'd end up with more injuries than a daredevil."

Usually Masaru would find some sort of response but instead he ended up laughing a bit along with the others. The atmosphere soon became lighter, much to Zenjirou's liking, as if Taiki was around to settle any dispute or negativity. It was nice to just relax and not act as if your own friends were your enemies.

"You know…," Masaru said. "The last time I was in the bath with another person was the day right before the Digimon had to go back to their world. I was with Ikuto and he was worried that after Falcomon was gone and he had to do things like a regular kid, he wasn't going to fit in. He was afraid that he would become an outcast."

Kiriha seemed to be watching Masaru intently and waited patiently for a reply. After all, when Kiriha was basically left as an orphan, he didn't have the pleasures of private school or homeschooling like before so he had to enroll in a public school. It was a definite change and his attitude didn't exactly help with making the shift any easier. He was always the outcast.

"What did you tell him?" Zenjirou asked.

"I gave him the best advice possible," Masaru grinned.

"Knowing you, it's bound to have been awful," said Touma.

Masaru shook his head. "I couldn't give him any advice on how to avoid being an outcast because I was one myself. My classmates would either see me as too violent or too much of a delinquent so they often avoided me. But I knew that I shouldn't have to change just to fit in with them. So I told Ikuto that if they couldn't handle his quirks, then forget about being friends with them because Touma, Yoshino, Chika, and everyone else who would remember Digimon would never forget about him."

Touma's eyebrows raised showing that he was actually pretty impressed by his teammate's level of maturity. "That's actually really good."

Zenjirou looked over to Kiriha. "Taiki wanted to be your friend despite the way you treated us, right?"

Kiriha chuckled. "Yeah… Personally, I think that makes him an idiot. But I suppose that's one of his better qualities."