Author's Note:
Hey guys, remember this fic?
... no? Darn. Oh well. Anyway...
Alright, in all seriousness this fic was delayed for three months because I was too lazy to type it up, but that's going to change, I swear.
... Mostly because I actually have another month's worth of chapters typed up now, and a way to type it up and work while I write this, but still... really, that's no excuse. I can only promise all of my reader's that it will not happen again.
.o0o.
Chika found it hard to go shopping after all this time. It had been years since she had looked through stacks of clothes or looking for the exact perfect dress in a sea of dull items. She didn't know how she had ever handled it before. She also didn't know how Yoshino was expertly handling it right now, shoving more clothes into her hands than she had seen in the last five years. "Yoshino-neechan!" Chika exclaimed as she was suddenly shoved and locked into a dressing room. She sighed, and looked over the clothes that she had to try on.
Three of the outfits she immediately rejected, all of them showing a lot more skin than she was comfortable with. The young woman held up a rather modest dress in front of her body and turned to look in the mirror that was hanging on the wall... and immediately felt like throwing up. It looked way too pink and too bright, something that she would've worn back before...
Chika shook her head and threw the dress into the far corner of the dressing room. She did not need to break down right now. She sighed and picked up another dress, this one looking much better on her eyes. While it was still pink, it looked dark enough to be red under the right light... even if there were two slits in the side of it that would bare the sides of her stomach. She went to hang it on the hook, before realizing something. This dress was the most modest one out of all the ones that Yoshino had picked out for her, except that light pink monstrosity.
She sighed and hung it on the nearest door hook and stripped off her, jacket, shirt, and skirt of her uniform. She looked over at the mirror for a second, her eyes flashing to the reflection of her scar, frowning. She quickly grabbed the dress and slipped into it and looked over at the mirror again.
... She looked pretty good in it. She would've preferred not having the slits showing skin at the sides, since it was practically shouting "stab here!" Chika then shook her head. This was supposed to be fore a fun night, not for a fight.
Still...
Chika blushed, and quickly changed back into her uniform. "Yoshino, I picked something, you can let me out now!"
A few seconds later and the door opened, Yoshino poking her head in with a frown on her face.
"What's wrong?" Chika asked, shoving the other dresses at the older woman, who caught them in her hands.
"I wanted to see you in what you picked," the older woman mock whined a bit.
Chika just smirked at Yoshino. "You know, you should stick to romancing the Daimon within a decade of your age!"
Yoshino gasped at that. "Chika!"
Chika giggled... and then gasped. She hadn't giggled since... Chika shook her head. "I better go pay for this and head home."
Yoshino just grabbed her by the arm and dropping the dresses into a nearby basket. "No. Now you need new shoes. I have to make sure that this goes good for you."
"Yoshino-neechan!"
.o0o.
Broken Dreams
Written by Custom Magnum
Chapter 21: Friends and Relationships
.o0o.
Yuka panted, blocking a sword strike from Takaishi-sensei, only to almost be knocked back by the force of the swing anyway. Was he trying to kill her?! The young girl charged forward and swung her practice word at his waist, as quickly as her small frame could muster.
He blocked.
And punched her in the face.
Yuka went sprawling to the ground.
Devidramon snarled and charged at her teacher, only to get blasted into a wall by a green blast of energy. Yuka turned her attention to where the green blast came from, her teacher's partner, a large flying horse digimon just looking bored as he stared at Devidramon's direction.
"You need to do better than this Yuka," Takaishi-sensei said. "If you can't stand a decent chance against me at this level, you're not likely to pass the test."
Yuka glared at her teacher, but got to her feet anyway, sinking back down into a fighting stance. Her digisoul flared to life around her hands and the blade, while Devidramon looked over at Takaishi-sensei's Pegasmon, his eyes glowing red as he struggled to his feet.
Takaishi-sensei smirked and then charged over at Yuka, swinging his blade down over his head.
Yuka rolled out of the way and quickly jumped to her feet and charged at him, stabbing her practice blade at his chest.
"Red Eye!" Devidramon shouted, firing four red beams of eneryg out of his eyes. Pegasmon flew into the air and counted with another blast of green energy from his forehead
Takaishi-sensei effortlessly parried Yuka's stab and sent her sprawling into the ground again.
Yuka did her best to hold in a curse. Saying that word in front of a teacher was not a good idea, no matter how much she wanted to right now.
Takaishi-sensei just smiled at her. "Better..."
Yuka once again struggled to her feet and raised her blade. She resolved that she would hit him eventually, and charged forward again.
.o0o.
Finding the right pair of shoes for her outfit didn't take anywhere near as much time as Chika dreaded it would. Even so, the time she was supposed to meat Ikuto and Takeru was fast approaching, and her heart was beating against her chest almost as much as it did when Kurata had her on that operating table...
She shook her head. This was stupid. She was acting more like a nervous schoolgirl than she did back when she was a nervous schoolgirl. Chika sighed and looked around her clean and spartan apartment. Piyomon was staring at her, looking really worried.
"You look nice," he said.
"Thank you," Chika answered, giving him a weak smile. After a few moments she walked over to the nearby plain beige couch and sat down, letting out a sigh. "I'm and idiot..."
Piyomon walked over to her, a worried look on his face. "Why do you say that?"
Chika turned away from him, her eyes focusing on the couch cushions instead. "I'm going out with the guy I cheated on and the guy I cheated on him with. How much more stupid could I get?"
"Chika..."
Chika sighed. "Never mind Piyomon. It's too late to back out anyway."
"Well, maybe this is a good thing," Piyomon suggested. "You can finally put it behind you now."
Chika snorted at that. "Right, I can put being a selfish little slut behind me."
"Chika! Stop saying things like that!"
She turned back to look at him. "But it's the truth!"
And that was when the wing lightly hit her in the face.
Chika just stared at Piyomon for a moment. Where he hit her, stung. It stung a lot.
Piyomon had never done anything like that before.
"I hate this!" the bird digimon shouted at her. "I hate seeing you beat yourself over one little mistake you made years ago!"
Chika's eyes narrowed at that. "Piyomon..." How could he call that a little mistake!?
"Takeru and Ikuto both understand how much you went through back then! You were hurting and every hormone in your body was completely out of whack since you were turned into a bio-hybrid!"
"Stop making excuses for me!" Chika shouted, standing up. "Why doesn't anyone see that I've done things that are wrong! I took away Relena's father! I screwed Ikuto to try to make myself feel better while calling it love, then cheated on him with Takeru!"
"Chika, it's not as bad as you try to paint it!" Piyomon shouted. "You thought Franz gave you to Kurata for experimentation and attacked him while trying to escape!"
Before anything else could be said, there was a knock at the door. Takeru and Ikuto were here.
Chika took a deep breath. It was time. "I'll see you later, okay?" she asked, walking over to grab her purse off the counter and went over to the door. She took a deep breath... and slowly grabbed the doorknob and opened it. Takeru and Ikuto were standing behind it, but Chika already knew that.
They looked over at her, both of their smiles quickly turning to frowns. "What happened Chika?" Ikuto asked, and before Chika knew it, she was pulled into a hug.
She blushed. "... It's nothing Ikuto-kun..." That didn't stop his hand from going to the side of her face though. His hand was being so gentle...
"You were crying," Takeru pointed out.
Chika turned her head to look at him, moving her head away from Ikuto's hand. "I was?"
Ikuto nodded and pulled away from her.
Chika shook her head. "Sorry, I was just a little upset..."
"You want to talk about it?" Takeru asked,
Chika frowned and looked over at him. Takeru already knew what was wrong with her, she had blurted it out at that bar last night! ... And now Chika felt a lot worse about the upcoming evening.
"You sure you're okay?" Ikuto asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. It felt nice, like Takeru's hand did when it went there last night...
... wait? Did Ikuto know? No, he couldn't...
Chika just nodded. "Yeah, I"m fine, really?"
Ikuto gave her a long look. Chika could tell that he didn't believe her, but he didn't say anything as he pulled his hand away. Either way though, he could tell that something was wrong with her, and that bothered her. A lot.
Takeru smiled over at the two of them. "We're going to be late," he said in a way that made Chika feel like a lovestruck schoolgirl who was going on her first date.
Ikuto blushed and smiled at at Takeru. "Right."
Chika blinked. "Where are we going?" she asked as they started walking. After all, she hadn't thought to ask about that when Ikuto invited her, which was kinda stupid.
Ikuto and Takeru both turned to look at her again. "We're going to eat at Katou-san's with some others."
Chika blinked. She didn't realize that there would be other people with them tonight... but it made sense. After all, the three of them weren't as close as they used to be. She also felt a lot better about it now. If she was with a group... well, it would keep her mind off certain things.
"Chika-chan?" Takeru asked, and Chika realized she was lagging behind.
"Sorry..." she said meekly, quickly heading to catch up to the two of them. It didn't take them long to get restaurant on foot. But it was then that Chika remembered that this place was a pub.
"Takeru-san, Ikuto-kun! Welcome!" a perky waitress said as the three of them walked through the door. The blonde haired girl blinked as she saw Chika. "You two brought a lady friend?" she asked, clearly baffled as if this didn't happen ever.
"We're meeting some others here Ayaka," Ikuto said, blushing. "Is Daisuke here yet?"
Ayaka nodded, still blushing and looking between the three of them. "He, Hikari, and Shuichon-chan are at the usual table." The woman looked and stared at Chika again. "Hey! You're Daimon Chika!"
Chika blushed and noticed that almost everyone at the tables were staring at her. She blushed. "Yeah, I am."
Ayaka turned to glare at Ikuto and Takeru. "Why didn't you say you knew here!?"
Takeru sighed. "I don't like using friend's fame for my own benefit."
"Anyway, thanks Ayaka!" Ikuto said, quickly grabbing both Takeru and Chika's arms and leading them towards a table in the corner of the room, where three people were waiting.
"Dang Takeru! When you said you and Ikuto were bringing someone else you could've mentioned who she was!" The only man of the group said. Chika was pretty sure he was Daisuke.
One of the woman, a brunette wearing a light pink dress was glaring at him. "Stop being a jerk, Daisuke-kun." She then turned to Chika and smiled. "Sorry about my boyfriend. I"m Yagami Hikari."
Chika smiled and sat down in a nearby seat. "Nice to meet you," she said, turning to the other woman sitting at their table. "You're Shuichon-san, right?"
The girl nodded. "Yep."
"Aren't you kinda young to be here?" Chika asked.
Shuichon pouted. "As long as I don't drink it's fine. I wish people would stop asking me that!"
Takeru just laughed. "You are underage Shuichon-chan."
Shuichon just turned the target of her pouting to Takeru.
Ikuto shook his head. "How've you guys been?" he asked.
Hikari smiled. "I've been fine. My students are doing okay this year."
Takeru smiled at her and for some reason Chika felt a stabbing pain in her chest. That was stupid. She wasn't with Takeru and Hikari had a boyfriend anyway.
"Glad to hear it. Pretty soon you'll be a full teacher!" Takeru said.
Hikari blushed. "I still have a few more years of school to go before that Takeru-kun."
"He's still right though!" Daisuke said, wrapping his arm around Hikari. "You'll get there soon. Me? I'm going to be part of the bases defense force forever."
Shuichon glared at him. "Are you really that upset with the job!"
Ikuto laughed and Daisuke sighed. "I just want to get in some action off base like Ikuto and Chika here."
"It's not as glamorous as you think," Chika said, looking down at her hands.'
"Chika-chan..." Takeru said, then shook his head.
"She's right. Missions off base involve a lot more work and are dangerous," Ikuto said.
Daisuke groaned. "Is it that bad that V-mon and I want some action in our lives?"
"What, I don't give you enough?" Hikari asked in a mock-hurt tone.
Daisuke blushed. "I didn't mean it like that Hikari-chan!"
Hikari just burst out laughing, before poking her boyfriend in the arm. "Then don't say things like that."
Daisuke sighed, and the conversation changed to more pleasant and mundane things as the waiter came to take their orders.
And for the first time in a long time, Chika didn't think about her problems and enjoyed herself.