CHAPTER TWENTY
"Are you seriously pacing?" Jun asked as she tucked her head inside Daisuke's bedroom through the barely-open door.
Half-tempted to ignore her, but having too many thoughts inside his head, Daisuke pulled his rocket-ship printed pillow off of his bed and tossed it at her, effectively shutting the door and getting Jun out at the same time.
The satisfaction of getting those two birds with one pillow forced a grin onto his face as he jumped backwards onto his pillowless bed. Miyako and Takeru had left. Together. At first Daisuke had thought nothing of them leaving a few hours ago, but when Takeru's mother phoned to ask where he was, reality set in. They left left. Without him. Daisuke felt like he was stuck in one of those books where you get to choose what to do at the end of each chapter. In the Choose Your Own Adventure novel that was the life of Motomiya Daisuke, he had three potential choices.
Option A: he could pick up the digivice that was currently sitting on his bedside table under a half-eaten bag of chips, hold it up to the computer screen and hope he got transported to the Digiworld.
Option B entailed using his 'phone a friend' life-line, but anyone he would call in this situation was currently hanging out in other worlds. Without him. This option didn't seem viable.
Option C was staying put and doing nothing but to continue pacing and pissing Jun off.
Daisuke eyed his full collection of the Choose Your Own Adventure series on his bookshelf. As he was a master of those books, the only books that prevented him from being illiterate, he could see the potential endings or consequences of each choice. Going to the Digiworld was the obvious one, but there'd probably be an angry digimon on the other side, or he'd have to go into some desert and starve until some Vulturemon came along and picked the flesh off his body. He questioned the existence of Vulturemon, but shook his head. The brain was sidetracking.
Staying here had potential, although he'd probably go nuts and end up being some crazy hermit ranting on about the existence of these people that nobody else knew of. Well, Takeru and Hikari are still believed to exist, and Ken and Miyako… Daisuke considered being a police liaison and consoling his friends' families. That was a nice image, but that was no fun. What kind of leader was he if he wasn't heading off into the midst of battle, danger, and Takeru's wrath for… well Takeru was usually angry at him for something or other.
That settles it. Daisuke thought. As he reached for his Digivice, he knocked the bag of chips on the ground. Not off to a good start here, Davis. He thought again, leaning down to pick up the chips. Who am I kidding? I'm Davis! I don't pick up things!
As he straightened up, prepared to depart for his solo journey, Daisuke pulled on his new favourite khaki jacket. You look like Indiana Jones. Iori had claimed when Daisuke wore it for the first time. Daisuke mentally excused him, Iori was young and unfashionable. Plus Indiana Jonesing himself up could be very useful in this new plan of his.
"Iori!"Daisuke gasped out loud."I'm not gonna be the only one stuck in a normal world! If I'm going off to war, better have a side-kick!"
Iori had written down the number where to reach him in Germany. The family he was staying with had a private phone installed in their guest room. Daisuke found the torn slip of paper and began punching the digits into his cell phone, remembering how Koushiro had joked that it looked more like an IP address than a phone number. Only Miyako had laughed.
The dial tone sounded different. But calling Germany would probably be cheaper than calling the Digital World, or wherever everyone else had gone.
"WHAT!" Iori's voice barked into the phone.
"That better mean, hello good friend in German!" Daisuke replied cheerfully. "I have some-"
"Daisuke, it's two in the morning."
Daisuke turned to his digital clock and rolled his eyes. "It's just nine-thirty… ish, Iori and there is an emer-"
Iori began grumbling a long string of words under his breath.
"Those better mean-"
"I could tell you what they mean but I'm too tired. Call back in- actually don't. This is ridiculous, I'm hanging up."
Daisuke listened to the dial tone for a moment before canceling the call and putting his phone back in his pocket. "Some kids shouldn't learn other languages." He eyed the row of books in this bookshelf, Alright, Davis, time to flip back to where I was before and pretend like I never chose option B.
He stared at the computer screen. "So, option A?" He asked it. Pausing, waiting for some impossible response, Daisuke answered himself, "Yes? Okay, Davis, turn to page 200." As he held the blue and white digivice up to the screen, the door handle jittered and Daisuke tossed his digivice into a pile of dirty laundry in the corner.
"Who were you talking to?" Jun asked.
Daisuke shrugged, opening his mouth to deny anything, but Jun pushed the portable phone in his direction. "It's for you, Mrs. Ichijouji, I think."
Daisuke put his hands up defensively, refusing to accept the phone. "What am I supposed to say!"
Jun stared until she rolled her eyes and took Daisuke's hand, forcing him to clutch the black cordless phone. "Hello is generally a good starting point." She turned and walked out the door, and an audible addition of "Freak." made its way back into her brother's bedroom.
"Hello, Davis speaking."
"Davis, Honey, it's Mrs. Ichijouji."
"Oh, hello…" Daisuke clenched his fist. He didn't want to lie to his best friend's mom. She was the one person's mom who actually really liked having him over. And she was an awesome cook.
"I'm just calling to check up on things… I've been trying to reach Ken, as you know, but he never called me. At first I just thought he was so caught up in the excitement he forgot, so I phoned his phone and just got his voicemail. But after I left him messages every couple hours, the operator said the inbox was full and I couldn't leave another message!" She was talking quickly, her light voice trying to outrun sobs. Daisuke knew this tone of her voice from whenever Ken did something that made her proud, or on the other hand, worried. "So I decided to call the hotel, remember the number I gave you? Well the nice boy on the other line told me Ken never arrived!" A deep exhale masking a sob came through the receiver and Daisuke twinged, still trying to figure out to say to the lady. "And then when I asked for Miyako, he said that she had left yesterday! Have you heard from them Daisuke? I'm having all these thoughts, like something happened on the train or something happened with Hikari or they ran off and my Ken and Miyako eloped!"
"They didn't elope!" Daisuke said quickly and then added, "That's not something Miyako would allow, she would have to put on an enormous wedding." He paused. He was a good liar. Or at least he'd done it enough times to get good. But this was different than telling the teacher he'd done his homework when in truth he didn't know there was any, or back when he was telling his parents that he'd be on a camping trip or at Ken's when he'd actually be in the Digital World. But lying to Mrs. Ichijouji seemed much worse. But it's not like he could slip out the truth, oh yeah well we don't know where Ken's off to, we're hoping it's the Digital World but it's probably the Dark Ocean, and Miyako and her search-and-rescue squad partner Takeru are off searching for him and Hikari. The truth sounded more like a bedtime story than anything else.
"Daisuke, honey?"
"I haven't heard from Ken since he left." Truth. "And I didn't know Miyako was back." Half-truth. She's not back from The Digital World.
"Oh. Well, thank you, Davis. I was hoping he was there but if you hear from him, tell him to phone home."
Daisuke paused and she hung up before he could say anything. No, Ken definitely wasn't here. And here was much more than Mrs. Ichijouji could imagine.
THERES CHAPTER TWENTY! :)
Happy 2011 everyone!
Thank you for all the story watches, author watches and favourites! =) Most of all, thank you for sticking with me throughout 2010 and I hope to hear from you in this new year, 2011 =) Special thank you to SweetKari and Dreams on Wings who have been with me from the start, and to everyone who has joined in along the way (Still Not King, Taiora-AAML-Serena-Darien, Melodisz). I know there's more but I haven't heard from you yet, I'd love to hear some more opinions! =) So to everyone who has been reading but not commenting, please let me know what you've thought of the story through the past 20 chapters, (21 if you include the prologue) it's a big accomplishment for me to have gotten this far, so I'd love to hear back from you guys! :D
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my story and my little blurb, I appreciate everything =)