A/N: This chapters have suddenly started getting about 250 words longer. Oh well; I doubt you readers are complaining. :)

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Wish Journeys 1.1
Three Brothers

Chapter 10/Takuya

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They got a ride across the ocean from a whale that told them there was no point searching for a water sphere in the area: it had already been taken.

'By who?' Takuya asked, then, fearing he'd been too rude, added: 'If you can tell us, of course.'

'You're politer than the other guy,' the whale commented. 'I like you.'

Takuya was pleased to hear that. He was trying. Practising for Shinya and all. And it was much nicer, hearing that someone liked him…as opposed to someone thought he was "cool" or "tough" or "badass". It was like "I like you without you having to do something flashy".

'He was a warrior Chosen like you,' the whale explained. 'But his sword was made from steel.'

Takuya nodded. The one they thought was responsible for the forest.

He shook his head. He shouldn't make precognitions like that. For all they knew, there was a fourth Chosen floating around. Or a fifth. Or a sixth…

Okay, better stop that train of thought.

It didn't really matter how many there were. He only needed to find his five spheres, drop Neemon and Bokomon back at their place, and then go home. Back to his family. Back to Shinya.

'You keep an eye on your surroundings when you get into a fight,' the whale recommended, as he dropped them out. 'It's a sad thing watching the little tykes hiding scared because they're not quite old or tough enough to fight.'

'Yeah.' Takuya wondered if Shinya had been trying to grow out of that.

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'Ooh, a lake!' Neemon makes a dash to the water. Bokomon calls warningly, but Neemon trips on a piece of wood –

No, Takuya looks properly. It was a staff. Sitting next to the mage Chosen – Kouichi – who whipped out an arm and caught the other before Neemon fell splat on his face.

'Sorry, sorry.'

'It's fine. Are you okay?'

Takuya and Bokomon couldn't see his expression since he had his back to them, so they come around. Kouichi looks up at them. So does, from his lap, Lopmon…whose eyes look somewhat red.

Takuya feels guilty for interrupting what looked like a private moment. 'Sorry,' he said. 'We were just…walking in this direction.'

'Going to the Venus Rose?'

Bokomon let out a squeak. Takuya just looked confused. 'Sort of just following my feet,' he confessed. He looked at the lake. Nothing tugged him towards it. He supposed that meant there was no water sphere there. 'We were hoping to find a water sphere in the ocean we crossed…but we met a whale and he said it was already taken by a guy with a steel sword.'

'Yes; he almost took the fire sphere as well.'

Almost? Takuya wondered. He looked closely at the staff. There was a red sphere tucked in it now.

'We left the guy trying to melt ice.' Lopmon giggled. Maybe he was trying to cheer himself up. He looked a little down. 'Well, maybe not technically but when he thought his sword would cut through it before the Meramon…'

'They're called Meramon?' Kouichi asked. His mind seemed to be somewhere else. 'Oh, that's right. I never asked your names.'

He was talking to Bokomon and Neemon, probably. Takuya had introduced himself.

'I'm Neemon!' Neemon said, before he got distracted again. 'Ooh, water!' He splashed in, pants and all. 'It's nice and cool.'

'I'm Bokomon.' Bokomon was quieter. Still a little nervous. Someone more confrontational would have felt insulted, would have argued. Once, Takuya would have argued. And maybe Kouichi had overreacted. But the epiphany and the reaction had come too close together to really fault that.

'I'm Kouichi,' the mage Chosen said, 'and this is Lopmon.' He then looked questionably at Takuya, who blinked.

'I see you've added a sphere since we last met,' Lopmon commented. He's staring at the sword hilt.

'In the desert,' Takuya explained, then added: 'I asked one of the Togemon who lived there and she brought it to me. Said it was useless to her and the others who lived there and I was welcome to have it.'

'You asked them?' Kouichi sounded surprised. 'The guardians –'

'Can't talk,' Lopmon finished. 'But that says nothing to the other inhabitants. Like the sea-snake and the others in the water. When we landed on you guys completely soaked.' He said that almost cheerfully.

Takuya wondered if the chocolate rabbit had too much sugar in trying to cheer himself up.

'Makes you wonder how much less pain would be dished out if everyone could just talk.' Kouichi had gone back to staring through the trees.

Takuya followed suit. He saw black. Lots of black. 'Did…the forest burn again?'

'That's my homeland,' Lopmon replied. 'Not a part of the forest. And it was a siege. I imagine those were encampments.'

'Sorry for bringing it up,' said Takuya. Lopmon's voice had gone sad again.

'Your name is Takuya,' Kouichi said suddenly.

It had taken him long enough to remember, Takuya thought. 'That's right,' he said aloud. 'Are you usually bad with names?'

Whoops. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. But the other just laughed. 'Maybe,' he confessed. 'I don't think there were many people whose names I tried to remember.'

It was an odd way of phrasing an answer, Takuya thought. "I don't think", as though he's not sure. But what's not to be sure about with a question like that. A simple question about the past.

'I don't think I know the other Chosen's name either…'

'He didn't give it,' Lopmon said, 'and we didn't ask.'

'You met him?' Takuya blinked. It didn't sound like they had the last time they met.

Lopmon nodded. 'Where we met the Meramon. Kid with steel sword. And an attitude.'

Oh, that's right. They'd been talking about that before the belated introductions.

'The whale said to keep an eye on surroundings when getting into fights,' Takuya remembered. 'I wonder if he knew that kid with the steel sword was responsible…'

'Maybe.' Lopmon hopped off the other's lap. 'Well, we need to get going I'm afraid.'

Kouichi stood up as well, picking the cloak and staff up and reclasping the cloak.

'We'll come too,' Takuya burst out, watching them pack.

Kouichi finished packing with a little shrug, as though it wasn't his call to make. Maybe it wasn't. Lopmon said the land beyond was his homeland. Maybe they were going there for personal reasons. Maybe it was a trade. Or maybe Kouichi just wanted to help his companion. Or maybe that was what Lopmon had wanted all along.

Something about the scene just didn't seem right.

Lopmon considered him. 'Okay,' he said finally. 'But Kouichi will have to teleport us into the castle, and I've got no idea about the state of things there now.'

Takuya wondered if he really should be going then. It sounded dangerous. Different to where he'd been so far. Where he'd probably go.

'And you're not to go after the darkness sphere inside the castle,' Lopmon added. 'That's Kouichi's.'

'It doesn't matter –' Kouichi began.

'It matters.' Lopmon cut him off. 'Your wish is my wish too.'

Takuya thought that was fair enough, considering they'd let him have the fire sphere at Flame Terminal.

'Neemon!' he called to the yellow rabbit, bouncing around in the water. 'Come dry your pants. We're leaving now.'

'I can dry them,' Kouichi said. And he did so. Neemon laughed, and Takuya wondered if that magic tickled.

Lopmon frowned. 'It's okay,' Kouichi said. 'It hardly uses anything.'

'We don't need to hurry…'

Lopmon seemed almost nervous to set off to see his home again.

Then again, by the sounds of things, it had been pretty bad when he left.

'How long has it been?'

Lopmon's brown eyes turned to him. They looked a little hollow in the afternoon light. 'A while,' he said. 'I was running away.'

Takuya didn't think he could have admitted that so frankly if it were him.

'And then I met Kouichi. And his wish…is something I realised I wish so desperately for. And there is a sphere in the castle. And anywhere there's a darkness sphere, there's…' He hesitated. 'Danger.'

Maybe it was hard to find a word to describe it.

'The more the merrier then,' Takuya said, trying to prep the tone up. It had dampened a little.

'Yes, I suppose.' And Lopmon smiled. And turned to Kouichi. 'Is your head feeling better?'

'My head?' Kouichi repeated, confused.

'When you slept through lunch. Or maybe you were just tired?'

Kouichi's expression cleared. 'Tired, I think. It's been a long two days.'

Takuya got the feeling he was missing a lot more than what it appeared he was missing. He thought about his own two days. Being led to this Gate. The test. Bokomon and Neemon. Kouichi and the other, still nameless, Chosen. Finding three of the five spheres he needed to find. Still too more before he could get his wish, and have Shinya back to full health…

He blinked, then smiled to himself. Having Shinya healthy was more important than wishing he'd protected him earlier. He'd protect him in the future. He didn't want to rewind the past, lose his own growth. Was that selfish? Maybe…but otherwise, something like this could happen in the future again – and this world wouldn't be here to help him fix it.

After this, he'd go back and see his parents and Shinya again. A little visit, before visiting hours closed and it was night. If there was a small portal nearby, like there'd been in what Bokomon had called the TV forest. Shinya and his mother and father…

The council is leading the witness…

He blinked as the random phrase flitted through his mind. Or not so random. His father said it often, being a lawyer. The council is leading the witness, when the lawyer asked questions that leaned towards certain responses –

He blinked again. Was that his subconscious mind trying to explain the conversations between Lopmon and Kouichi that seemed so…odd?

He thought back through them. It did seem a little bit like "leading".

But they were all simple questions. Names. Events. Memories…

Maybe he had…what was that word called again? Amnesia?

'Hey,' he began.

Then he realised the others were in a tight little not, waiting for him.

He'd try to find out later.