Hi again everyone. If you're still reading this, give yourself a standing ovation along with a round of applause! You all have finally made it to this chapter, where Koushirou will definitely be found, and also find out why he didn't send messages back to the others right away. I hope you enjoy this chapter, though. I don't expect there to be any author's notes (or either maybe one or two at the most), but this chapter will definitely have some changes and I'm wondering if I should even mention most of them. One change though is where Koushirou was…somewhat.

Now, as always, I do not own anything dealing with the Digimon series or franchise. Bandai and Toei have that honor, and as a reminder, here are the ages of the characters once again:

Jou: 16-17 (Year 10-11; First/second year of High School)

Taichi/Sora/Yamato: 15-16 (Year 09-10; Last year of Junior High School/First year of high school)

Koushirou/Mimi: 14-15 (Year 08-09; Second/Last year of Junior High School)

Miyako: 13-14 (Year 07-08; First/second year of Junior High School)

Takeru/Hikari/Daisuke/Ken: 12 (Year 06; Final year of Elementary/First year of Junior High School)

Iori: 10-11 (Year 04-05)

Chapter 25: The End of Koushirou's Search!

"Yes, I'm still out with Yamato-san," Mimi told her aunt over her mobile phone. "I promise to hurry home as soon as I can…okay…g'bye." She closed up her phone. "Okay, everything is all set. We're finally ready to go."

Yamato, who was still unsure of what was going through his younger friend's mind, asked, "Mimi, where are we going?"

"To find Koushirou of course. I think I know where he is!" she told him as matter of fact like. 'He just has to be there! I really hope I'm right. I can only think of one place he'd be!'

The two were waiting around for the next bus. Mimi had looked up the route on her phone and saw that the buses of the Toei line on route 1 stopped there.

"Mimi, will you please calm down and tell me where we're going?"

"I told you, to find Koushirou!"

Yamato kept his cool, as her vague response to his question was growing tiresome for him. "But why are we going so far out to do it? The only thing I can think of that's in that area is Shiokaze Park."

"Because that's where he probably is…"

"Huh?" He shook his head in defeat. "Never mind, I'm not going to ask anything else. I'll go along with what you're assuming, but I still don't understand why we have to go that far out to look for him in a place where he's most likely not going to be."

The bus finally showed up, and both hopped on, Mimi being more fired up than ever to find her redheaded friend…

x x x x

A short while after Miyako had spoken with Mimi, she noticed something going on with her D-Terminal. The mail icon was blinking. She checked it to see that it was a response from Koushirou. He had pretty much answered all of her queries, including the incident in the computer lab that morning, but avoided answering her main question.

~x~x~x~

Miyako-kun,

I'm glad that you're not mad at me for how rude I was. I am truly sorry about that. I also noticed that you sent me another e-mail.

Yes, it's true. I did miss school. I had a few things to do today. When I return, I do not know, but please don't worry about me or where I am. I will return sooner or later. I just had to work out some things that no one could help me with and I know that both you and Mimi-san are anxious to help and Taichi-san would've insisted, if he knew.

As for the handcuffed man you mentioned, that had to have been a sight worth seeing; a person handcuffed to a computer lab chair. I'm sure our vice principal didn't find the incident too amusing at all. I have no idea who the culprit was who could have handcuffed him to the chair. I am sure that whoever did so is long gone by now, especially if the man who was handcuffed says he doesn't remember neither the person's name or identity, like you mentioned.

~Koushirou~

~x~x~x~

'So Jou-senpai was right. He just wanted to be by himself today.'

The girl responded to the e-mail, and explained how he should have let someone know what his plans were for the day, how he shouldn't have run off without letting someone know, and also decided to randomly mention Mimi's "date" with Yamato. She made sure not to mention that Mimi was currently looking for him, fearing that he may run off from wherever it was he was hiding out.

She received a response almost immediately.

~x~x~x~

Miyako-kun,

If I had told you or anybody else, you all would have probably tried to stop me from leaving today. I really needed this time to myself. Please, do not worry about me. I will return home soon. I have finally made my decision.

Mimi-san is spending the evening with Yamato-san? I thought their "date" wasn't supposed to be until Saturday's dance. Isn't that just a bit odd?

~Koushirou~

~x~x~x~

'His decision? What decision is that? I wonder what he's talking about…'

She put her D-Terminal down, and was tempted to stop messaging him, since he obviously wasn't going to let her know why he had disappeared for the day or where he had disappeared to. She changed her mind, and sent him a message back…

~x~x~x~

Koushirou-san,

Yes, Mimi-san is spending the entire evening with Yamato-san. They went out for a bite to eat, I think, and then I think they were going to either see a movie or go out for karaoke. It's a real date even if they won't admit it! Isn't that romantic of Yamato-san? He asked her out this morning when she got to school! ^_^

Anyway, what was the decision that you had to make?

~Miyako~

~x~x~x~

Her D-Terminal pinged. She opened it up to read the next message.

~x~x~x~

Miyako-kun,

What is so romantic about an outing between friends? I'm surprised that she's spending the evening with Yamato-san. He's never really given her that type of attention before; I wonder why he would start now. He usually has band practice on Thursdays, as we both know. In a way, seems he would already have a female companion, as there are many girls in the area who would love to spend time with him, and also-

~x~x~x~

Miyako continued to read through Koushirou's partially mild rant. At the end of the message, Koushirou apologized once again and mentioned that he was leaving and that he'd talk to her more later.

She closed up her D-Terminal and frowned. He had managed to do it yet again…cause her to feel slight envy towards Mimi. He went on so much for his obvious, though subtle, dislike of Mimi's spending the evening with Yamato that she'd grown incredibly bothered.

She just didn't understand Koushirou at times. First he would act like he had no outside interests, then he comes across as a jealous boyfriend whenever it came to boys hanging around Mimi that were an actual threat, which was rare, but never to this extent.

She headed to her room, and slammed the door shut behind her in frustration, slight anger, and annoyance. She then plopped herself down onto her bed, pulling out a diary, recording the events of another day which involved Koushirou's annoying her with the way he seemed to inadvertently glorify Mimi and ignore her, totally dismissing the fact that Koushirou hadn't answered her second question or that he was planning on leaving wherever it was he had messaged her from…

x x x x

Round about the time Miyako had finished writing out her long rant in her diary…

"Wake up, Mimi," Yamato said while shaking her gently.

"Huh, what?" She had fallen asleep on the blonde's shoulder for the somewhat short bus ride, as they weren't too far away since they were in Aqua City. Yamato was surprised she'd dozed off for such a short ride. "Great," she smiled, "we're here."

While Mimi had been sleeping during the ride, Yamato had spent the majority of it staring down at her, trying to figure her out, and why he actually had developed a slight attraction towards her. "What's so special about Koushirou that makes her so concerned for him?" was what he kept asking himself for the duration of the ride. He didn't have too much against that, since they were all friends anyway and concern for a friend is only natural, but Mimi's concern seemed to almost go beyond that to the bass player.

The two stepped off at the Daiba bus stop, while a few people boarded it. The bus then pulled off, leaving a cloud of exhaust behind. No one had exited the bus with them. "We don't have too much time here. The next bus to come through will be in about 10 minutes, and the one after that, 40 minutes," Yamato told the girl. "It's about 20:20 (8:20) now. Looks like the bus was ahead of schedule."

"I'm positive that Koushirou's here. Let's go!"

"Go where? There's nothing here but the usual stuff you find in parks."

"We have to walk to get to where we're going. Follow me. We have to get to the northern part of the park." Mimi took off, leading the way. Yamato, curiously, followed behind her.

A walk through the park was nice, but he truly wished it had been under differing circumstances. The two continued the trek, passing by the many trees that surrounded the area. After what seemed like an eternity, given how quiet Mimi was since she was focusing on her destination, to Yamato, they finally arrived at a clearing. "Here we are!" Mimi announced.

Yamato looked up to see a large, almost cylinder-like building, overlooking the area. It was about a kilometer (about 1/2 mile) away from their current spot. "What is that place?"

"That's the Odaiba Research Observatory Lab, which is a branch of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation."

"Why do you think Koushirou is there?"

"Because I do."

"Ehehe," he started to massage his temples in frustration due to the fact that Mimi actually sounded innocent and pure with her response with no hints of sarcasm, "would you mind explaining that a bit more thoroughly?"

"Sure. *Koushirou likes to study star charts and constellations. He's told me that during his school vacations, when his family doesn't travel anyplace, that he's always enjoyed going to the museum because they have really good computer equipment. He's been going there for years and has had the Computer Club do projects for the workers here. I can't remember who, but one of the people there showed him star charts and constellations, and you know how Koushirou gets when he learns something new that he finds interesting…he wants to learn all that he can about it. The observatory's computers can look up constellations and map out star charts much better than Koushirou can with his laptop and desktop computers.

"Anyway, the museum opened up this small branch here to focus only on astronomical projects and is probably another reason why the place is so isolated and a little secluded here, so they won't have to worry about being disturbed or bothered much. I don't think this place gets many tourists, not like the museum, but you can come here if you have special permission, and I think Koushirou has special permission to visit here since he's been going since he was a kid.

"I don't understand all of that technical stuff much, but that's what he likes. It surprised me a little, but I was really happy when he shared that with me." Her cheeks flushed slightly after saying that. Yamato noticed and arched an eyebrow up at her suspiciously. "See that area there? That's where the super powerful telescope comes out," Mimi pointed, while regaining her composure. She inwardly smiled. 'Maybe Koushirou wants a comet named after him.' She found the whole idea of that cute.

"Let's go check it out, then. We don't want to get stuck here."

"Right, let's go!"

The two ran towards the big, isolated building. "What makes you think that he'd be here now?" Yamato asked during the sprint.

"The best time to come is at night when all of the stars are out and are a bit easier to see when not using the telescope and the computers, and just observing by eye, I guess. He's told me that he likes to come here during summer nights at times. Like I mentioned earlier, he's pretty good friends with the research guys who work here. I think he said he's been coming here since he was about seven."

The two finally made it to the big door of the observatory. Mimi knocked, the sound of the knock echoing all throughout it. There seemed to be no one around to answer, but she decided to try knocking again.

"I hope somebody answers soon," Yamato grumbled while looking down at his watch. "We're running out of time."

It took a while longer, but the big creaky door finally opened. A tall, balding man who looked to be in his mid to late 40s wearing a white lab coat answered it. "I'm sorry, children, but we're closing up. If you had a special pass to tour, you'll have to come back either tomorrow or some other time."

"No, wait!" Mimi called before the man could close the door. "We don't want a tour Mr….um…um…"

"*Nagare. Nagare Boshi."

Yamato blinked in stupidity. 'Na-nagare…Bo…shi?' His left eye twitched. 'Are you kidding me? What the hell kind of name is Nagare Boshi for a person? Mimi doesn't find his name strange? His name is a pun! A really bad pun! Is it even his real name? What the hell is he? Some kind of undercover spy hiding out with a fake alias?'

"Nagare-senpai, we're looking for someone; a friend of ours."

The boy nearly fell over, his left eye twitching even more. 'Sh-she...isn't questioning it...what the hell...'

"You're looking for someone? I might be able to help you, but if you are looking for one of my fellow researchers, they've all left for the day. I'm the only one still here, but I'll be leaving soon too."

"Have you seen Izumi Koushirou-san?"

"You know, as a matter of fact, I have. He spent the entire day here. That was a first for him for this time of year. I didn't really ask questions since I trust him. How come you two are looking for him?"

"We're classmates and good friends of his," a calmed-down Yamato glanced over at Mimi, "and we had a feeling that he would be here."

"Well, he left a good while ago."

"Damn, we missed him! All of that trouble to find him, and we miss him."

"I offered to give him a ride back to Odaiba, but he said not to bother, which was a little surprising. I usually always end up driving him back home or either he joins my family at times. He's pretty good friends with my two Pocket Monster loving daughters, *Sutaa and Mi. They talk online a lot, I think."

'What's with all these strange names? What kind of a name is Sutaa?' Yamato ignored it, and crossed his arms. "Man, where could Koushirou be?"

"He could be at the beach. I've noticed how he sometimes goes there after he visits here if the weather is okay and then goes back home on his own."

Both were surprised to hear that Koushirou was probably at the beach, and the only one that was actually close to them was Odaiba Beach Park, but Yamato was very very skeptical, *especially since one couldn't swim in the waters of Odaiba Beach. Seemed like a waste to even go there, unless riding around in the water taxi, but only tourists and foreigners bothered to do that.

Since the station was nearby, Mimi suggested that they take the train, even though Yamato felt that another mode of transportation would've worked out better, like Mr. Nagare's driving them there, since he had offered. It took a little bit of persuasion, but Mimi and Yamato finally took Mr. Nagare up on his offer, and let him drive them back into Odaiba. Mimi stared out the window as they crossed the Rainbow Bridge, looking out at the choppy water, hoping that Koushirou was definitely near them.

"This is as close as I can get," Mr. Nagare told the two as he pulled up to the park's entrance.

"That's okay. Thank you very much. Yamato-san and I truly appreciate it."

"Yes, thanks a lot, Professor Nagare," Yamato commented dryly, still unable to get over the man's unusual name.

"It was my pleasure. I hope you find Izumi-kun, and please tell him 'thanks again' for helping out today."

The man pulled off, and the two of them ran down to the beach area. After a while of looking along the shores, they, surprisingly, saw in the distance, a young, redheaded boy sitting, staring up at the sky, taking in the nice, gentle breeze.

"Koushirou…"

"I can't believe it; he's actually here," Yamato whispered in amazement. "I'm sorry I started doubting you earlier. If we hadn't gone to that observatory, we would've never known that he was here."

"That's okay. When Nagare-senpai answered the door and told us how he was alone, I was starting to doubt myself too."

"Come on, let's go get him." He was about to run towards his young friend, when Mimi stopped him. "We've found him, thanks to...Professor Nagare," Yamato vowed to question Koushirou on the man's name when he got the chance, "and now we can take him home and end everyone's worrying. Why don't you want me to go get him?"

"Because something's wrong…"

"What do you mean? If we don't hurry up and get him, we might miss the train," he began, and adding as an afterthought, "even though we could just wait around for the next one."

"Wait, let me talk with him first, and then we'll leave."

"Yeah, whether Koushirou wants to or not!"

"No, only if he chooses to come along. We should respect that and let him make his own decision. It's his choice."

"What? That doesn't make any sense!" She gave him a look. To Yamato, it almost looked as if she wanted to laugh over the irony of his words. "Okay, that does sound like something I would say, but I don't think that should really apply in this situation…"

"Yamato-san, please wait here."

Mimi made her way down the beach towards Koushirou. Yamato stayed behind and just watched her. He wasn't sure what to make of Mimi's unusual, in his mind, fondness of Koushirou.

Koushirou neither noticed nor sensed someone coming up behind him. He just sat there, staring out at the sea and the sky, deep in thought, every once in a while, glancing over in the direction of the lit up Rainbow Bridge, while listening to the calm, crashing waves of the manmade sea. It was very soothing and relaxing to him, as it allowed him to forget about any problems he could've been facing.

"It sure is nice out tonight, isn't it?" a light voice giggled.

Startled, by the voice interrupting his gloomy thoughts, he turned to around to see…

"Mimi-san?"

She smiled and sat down beside him. "I just love going to beach, and my favorite time going was when my family went to Hawaii one year during my spring vacation." She stretched. "It's especially nice at this time of night, and is the best place to go to get away from everyone too. You can run away from your problems instead of facing them that way."

"I-"

"Don't you think?"

"Mimi-san," he turned his head away from her; she was one of the main people he had been avoiding, due to embarrassing himself in front of her just the previous day, "why are you here? I told Miyako-kun not to worry about me and to not bother looking for me."

"She would have if she could have, though, and you not returning any of my messages didn't help things. Do you know how much worry you caused today?"

He shook his head. Aside from his main friends he didn't figure it was much.

"A lot…"

"I didn't realize that my not being around would cause such a tumult…"

"Tumult?"

"Hmm, a commotion."

"Well, yes, you have caused quite a 'tumult'. We were all worried about you, even those in our school who aren't in our class and year because you have a reputation for always being there. The Computer Club members were really worried, hoping nothing bad had happened to you. If something is bothering you, you should try finding someone to talk to, not keep it to yourself and run away. All of Odaiba is looking for you!

"Anyway, why didn't you return any of our messages? Why didn't you return any of mine?"

"W-well, um," his face started to go partially red, thankful that the night sky was hiding it, some, "I-I thought that-that you were kind of upset with me because of how I acted yesterday."

Mimi started to heartily laugh. Koushirou looked at her curiously. "Koushirou-kun no baka! I'm not upset with you! I was for a while, but I got over that long before you disappeared on all of us."

"Oh…"

"It's not good to run away. You should just talk! You have a lot of friends you can talk to! You have both Internet friends and friends you talk to away from the Internet."

"I wasn't technically running away, I just had some stuff to think over, and felt that I should do so away from everyone else." He sighed, and quietly said, "I'm not entirely sure I even want to go home after the way I acted towards my parents."

"What happened?"

"Nothing that concerns you, but lately I have been having my fair share of problems with them, arguments and disagreements. I'm just not used to it. I said some things I didn't really mean, and I now know that they hate and would probably want to really kick me out of the family. I have brought shame unto the Izumi family name, a name I'm not fully deserving of. I always felt this way partially, it's just official now."

"What exactly was your argument over?"

"Quite a few things, but the main cause was my sneaking off to look for something and, um, being escorted home, which embarrassed my mother." He refused to elaborate on that.

"What were you looking for?"

"I misplaced my article on my birth parents' deaths." He stared down at the sand of the beach.

"Oh, that reminds me," Mimi went through her bag and pulled out a sheet of paper, "I meant to give this to you today when you came to school, but you never showed up."

"This is my article. How did you get it?"

Before answering, Mimi moved some of her long hair from her face. The once gentle breeze had grown a bit stronger. "After I left you yesterday, I came back, but you weren't there. On my way out, I noticed something stuck onto the bottom of my shoe, and checked it out. I would have given it back to you sooner, but I did some research of my own and kept it."

Keeping his eyes locked on the article, Koushirou mumbled, "You went to Odaiba Elementary, didn't you?"

"Of course! Just because you were too stubborn to go, didn't mean that I was. You deserve to know more about your mother." Koushirou remained silent, unsure of what to say. "Oh yeah, I have something else for you too." She pulled out the contents she'd received from Ms. Nagataki and handed them to him.

He studied the contents as best as he could, as the only light out was the moon's. "This is my father with a woman and a baby! Is this…no, it couldn't be…could it really be…"

"It sure is. I found someone who was close to your real mother."

"This is my…my mother?" He was still shocked at what he was seeing, and this was just the first photo of the three. "And the person she's holding is…is me?"

She nodded. "It's a family portrait. I learned that the reason we had a tough time finding a photo of your mother was because she hated taking pictures. She would agree on occasion, but it was very rare that she did. No one knows why, though."

The boy studied the photo closer and did something he hadn't done in a good while, smile. This was the first time that he had ever seen his biological mother and he was extremely happy about it. He even felt like crying a little, but did his best not to, though it was difficult.

"Wow, my real mother. I can't believe it! My mother! You got this from a person who knew my real mother?" He stared down at the first photo, still nearly speechless. "Wow…"

He switched to the other two photos. One consisted of Ms. Nagataki and Miki, looking to be in high school and the third photo consisted of Ms. Nagataki and Koushirou's biological parents, and all three looked to have been in their early to mid-20s at maybe a party.

"That's her friend. They grew up together, and I also found out a lot of other things, but it's getting late. Yamato-san is waiting for us."

The boy jerked his head up at the mentioning of Yamato's name. He remembered what Miyako had told him about Mimi being out on a "date" and his wondering why she would spend the evening with him.

"Yamato-san is here?"

She pointed behind her. Koushirou looked back to see Yamato standing where Mimi had left him with his arms crossed. "He didn't want me to look for you by myself."

"That was very nice of him."

"Won't you come home with us to stop everyone from worrying so much? If you won't come back for me or the rest of us, won't you please come home for your parents at least? Maybe for your mother's sake?"

He sat there in silence. He was planning on going home, but not right away like he had implied with Miyako, and he was also planning on being indiscreet about it.

"I suppose I should be leaving now. I wouldn't want to be stuck here."

"Oh great! I'm so glad that you're going to come back on your own."

He smiled a bit, still staring down at the three photos. 'I can't believe she did this for me. I never would have imagined it.' He felt really grateful for having a friend like Mimi. 'I guess she's more serious than I realized when it came to this project…but, it seems like she was doing this more for me…'

Yamato waved to Mimi, who was pretty much urging her to hurry up. Mimi got the hint and stood up, brushing the sand from off of her skirt. She then looked down at Koushirou, and gave him a warm smile.

"Well, let's get going."

He nodded as Yamato ran down to the two, extending his hand out to Koushirou to help him up.

"Glad to see you're okay," Yamato greeted.

"A-ri-ga-to, Ya-ma-to-san," Koushirou responded slowly, accepting his offer to help him up.

"No problem, that's what friends are for," Yamato smiled to him.

Yamato looked down at his watch and then over to Koushirou and Mimi. "We have to get going if we want to get to the station nearby."

The two nodded and started to run back in the direction of the station. Mimi was the fastest of the three since she did play volleyball. She was glad that she got her exercise and had fun at the same time while playing a sport she actually enjoyed.

For the upcoming school year, Mimi was tempted to get permission to join her school's swim club. She really enjoyed swimming. The girl was thinking ahead now since she wanted to have a nice, well-rounded transcript for when she entered high school, and being in clubs always looked good, especially cultural type clubs. She just hoped she'd be allowed to and that she'd have the time to participate in swimming and volleyball.

The three finally made it to the station, bought a ticket, and headed to the train's platform.

"Good, we made it," Yamato said while trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah, even though the wait for the next train wouldn't have been too long, it's still nice that we won't have to wait."

Koushirou was quiet as he looked down at the photos Mimi had given him. He still couldn't believe what Mimi had done for him. 'Does she care about my well-being that much?' Before he could answer himself, the train showed up, right on time, and the three teens boarded…

x x x x

Back at the Izumi home, only much later than when Yamato and Mimi had left Odaiba Beach with Koushirou…

"I'm sorry sir, madam, but we still haven't been able to locate your son," the policeman told the two parents.

This wasn't the news Mrs. Izumi wanted to hear, and she made sure to get that point across. "You have to find him! He has never been gone away from home this long, except for school excursion trips!"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Izumi, but we have searched all over Odaiba at every place where children his age usually hang out. There are no places of that nature left for us to search."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes sir. We have tried everywhere. We are planning on ceasing our search and commencing it by morning if he doesn't come back by tonight on his own."

"I can't sleep knowing that my son is out there all by himself!" sobbed Mrs. Izumi.

"Do not worry. We will do everything possible to find your son," the policeman smiled proudly. "He is a great asset to our city! A grand hero!"

The two gave the officer a look, wondering what he was talking about. "Our son, a hero?" asked Mr. Izumi in bewilderment.

The policeman laughed a bit, thinking the two were joking around, pretending not to know. "Of course your son, Izumi Koushirou! Thanks to his quick thinking on Sunday, he helped to protect a young girl from being assaulted and possibly killed! It was a pretty good friend of his."

'Sunday?' Mr. Izumi looked over at his wife, and figured she was thinking the same thing he was. The two were putting all the pieces together. The officer noticed the looks on their faces.

"You two act as if you didn't know about it."

"Oh, of course, of course. My wife and I were just thinking of how tragic the situation could have been if it weren't for our son helping out."

Mrs. Izumi nodded quietly.

"Well, I have to get going. If you need anything else, just give us a call. You know the number. An officer will be sent by tomorrow morning to check up on you all as well." The man nodded slightly to them while tipping his hat. "G'night."

The officer left the Izumi home to get back to the station to perform his next assigned task.

"Did you hear that?" Mrs. Izumi asked while still crying a bit. "He said Sunday!"

The man walked back to the dining room, and sat down at the table, his wife joining him. "Mimi…he was covering for her…" the man realized. "You were right."

"I read about some type of an assault in the paper a few days ago, and it was mentioned on the news," she told him quietly.

"I read about it too. It was really big news since it was so uncommon."

"It makes sense now. Koushirou didn't go to the Yagami's to study because he was with Mimi-chan."

"But that attempted assault occurred over near Odaiba University. Why were they there?"

She sighed. Right now, she was much too worried about Koushirou to fully care about that.

"Maybe there's a connection to his breaking into his school and going to Odaiba University."

Mrs. Izumi lowered her head, shedding tears. "We ran him off with our questions."

"No, don't say that."

"He hates us now!"

"That's not true."

"You heard him! We're liars to him, and said that we've been lying to him for his entire life! What else could he have meant by that? He didn't sound happy with us at the time!"

"I'm still wondering what he meant by that," the man responded calmly. "If we do not get any answers out of him, I feel we deserve knowing what it is that we're lying to him about. I want to get this all out in the open and then maybe we can start off as a family again."

"I hope so…"

Right at that moment, a certain redheaded computer whiz was waiting on the outside of the apartment door. He was still hesitant on whether or not to enter the home which he felt he had broken apart. Mimi insisted that Koushirou go straight home. He offered to walk her home after they got off of the train, but Yamato said that he would make sure she got home alright. Mimi agreed to it. She felt that the more time Koushirou spent reconciling with his parents to work things out, the better. He procrastinated a bit longer, sending out messages to everyone, letting them know that all was okay with him and how he was sorry for causing them so much worry.

'It's now or never! I have to go in and I have to apologize,' he told himself. "I wouldn't be surprised if they really wanted to kick me out of the family after this," he muttered under his breath.

Koushirou took in a deep breath and stuck the key into the door's lock. After the lock clicked, he slowly turned the knob, still resistant on entering. He took in another deep breath, and realized that he had to accept whatever his fate was going to be. He just hoped that it would be a quick, painless death.

From inside the spacious apartment, Mrs. Izumi heard the lock click, and she jerked her head up.

He noticed the alertness on his wife's face. "What is it?"

"I thought I heard something." She stood up, and followed the sound of the click. 'Oh please be him! Please be him!' She made her way to the front door. "Koushirou!" She rushed up to him and hugged him tightly. "Oh my goodness, you're back!" she cried. "Thank the gods you're back! I was so afraid that I would never see you again!"

Mr. Izumi heard the commotion and saw his wife smothering his son in hugs.

"Koushirou, please don't run off again! Please don't worry your father and me like that again! Please forgive me! I didn't mean any of what I said! I just let my emotions get the better of me because I was so upset! I didn't mean to be so hurtful towards you! I'm sorry for running you off!"

The boy, who was currently lacking air from the tight hug, couldn't get anything out to respond. He was actually a bit surprised that they were happy to see him. He figured that they would have been ready to kill him for what he had done, of course not literally. Either way, he was expecting some yelling from them.

"I think he knows that you're glad to see him," Mr. Izumi said while pulling his wife away. "He's turning blue."

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

"That's okay," Koushirou rasped out with a cough.

"Did you have anything to eat today? I can prepare you something quick. If you want, I could-"

"Calm down, Yoshie."

"I'm sorry; I was just so worried about him."

"Son, will you please come sit with us at the table?" the man asked seriously.

He nodded, but first, he took off his jacket, and hanged it up in the hall closet. When he did this, his article and three photos fell out, but Koushirou didn't notice. He sat down with his father, while Mrs. Izumi left to get Koushirou a snack.

"I'm not hungry, mother."

"Well, you should at least have something to drink," she called from the kitchen. "I'll be back in a moment."

"O-okay." Mr. Izumi sat there, waiting for his wife to return, which didn't take her too long. She brought Koushirou a glass of oolong tea, which he accepted gratefully. After he finished his drink, Mr. Izumi spoke up.

"Do you have anything that you want to tell us, son?"

Koushirou lowered his head. He knew that there was no way he could keep everything secret from them anymore.

"Well, son?"

The boy was about to speak, until he saw his mother get up and walk towards the front door. She wanted to make sure it was locked. On her way down the hall, she noticed the papers on the floor and she was the clean, tidy type, and usually always spotted things that were out of place. Koushirou ignored this, and turned his attention back to his father.

"Well…you see…Mimi-san and I, well, uh, we-"

"Were in search of someone," a light voice interrupted.

Koushirou and Mr. Izumi looked towards the woman who was staring down at the news article.

"Yoshie, what are you talking about?"

She handed her husband the articles of paper she had found on the floor. She took a seat on the other side of her husband. Koushirou could tell that she had been crying and he hated that more than anything, causing his mother to cry. That made him feel even worse.

"Is that what you accused us of lying to you about?" asked Mrs. Izumi in a hushed voice. "Your adoption?"

He nodded slowly.

"How long have you known?"

He kept his head lowered, his voice as quiet as hers. "Since I was about seven or eight…"

"That long?" Mr. Izumi asked in surprise. "You've known about it for that long? Why didn't you come to us about it?"

He was surprised that his father would even ask him something like that, and even more surprised that neither had figured it out. "Why didn't you ever come to me with this information? I always felt it was your responsibility to share that with me, not the other way around. It made me feel as if I was an embarrassment to you, which is why you kept it quiet."

"You're right; we should have been more open and honest with you about your origins and your past," Mrs. Izumi spoke up, "but that still doesn't explain why you would want to keep such a secret from us. If we would have known that you knew about your adoption, we would have confronted you about it. The reason we never told you about your adoption was because we both felt that it wasn't the right time, not because we were embarrassed of you."

"No, don't take up for me. It was my idea to keep this away from you, but it's like she said, it wasn't because we felt you were an embarrassment to us. Your mother wanted to tell you about your adoption a long time ago, but I kept telling her that the time wasn't right, and she stood by me and my decision. I felt that if we told you of your adoption, that we would end up losing you, and I didn't want to go through that again. You were a blessing to us and it was meant to be, our adopting you."

"Lose me?"

He nodded. "We were afraid that you would end up doing exactly what you've been doing for the past few days. We were afraid that you just may find someone and…leave us."

"We were just being selfish. We didn't mean to, we just didn't want to risk losing you or feeling that you were any lesser because of your being adopted."

"When were you planning on telling me?"

"When you became an adult, where we wouldn't have any say in what you do in reference to it, although, I now wonder if your father and I would've actually gone through with it." She wiped away one of her tears.

"Mother, please don't cry." She apologized. "No, mother, don't apologize." He rose from his seat and walked to the other side of the room, his back to them. He sighed. "I'm the one who should be apologizing to you for overreacting. I should have figured that you kept that secret for a reason, and I shouldn't have made a really big deal over being adopted. At times, I felt like I didn't belong, since I only have the name of Izumi. I always felt that I wasn't a real Izumi, and for years, it's always partially bothered me, but the feelings didn't seem to come out at full force until I found out mother was going to have a baby. I felt that I would be a burden to you since you were going to have a child who would have an actual role and place in the family as a real Izumi."

"Koushirou, don't you ever think that! We love you like you were our own son!" Mrs. Izumi told him. "How could you even think something like that?"

"I know it's silly to think, but you guys didn't tell me about my adoption, so I felt like I was tainting the name of Izumi…like I was undeserving of even having the name, but I shouldn't have held that against you. You both felt that it was best that I didn't know, but at least I know that you were planning on telling me eventually, when you felt I was ready."

He turned back to them.

"I said some things the other night that I definitely didn't mean. I really would like to apologize for that. It was uncalled for. I don't feel you are liars and you've been wonderful parents to me. I wasn't thinking straight, and I was just overwhelmed and a bit upset that you mentioned Sunday…"

Mrs. Izumi stood and walked up to her slightly taller son. "Don't say anything else about Sunday if you don't want to."

"It's okay?"

"We already know what happened," Mr. Izumi told him.

"You do?"

"We know that you were trying to keep the identity of Mimi-chan a secret. We know of how she was attacked, and how you helped her out."

"I'm so sorry about that! I lied about where I was supposed to have gone, and-"

"Stop apologizing. We forgive you for what you've been doing."

"But why were you at Odaiba University?" asked Mr. Izumi.

"I found out that my biological father was an instructor there. I was trying to obtain some information about him."

"You spent all of Sunday at Odaiba University with Mimi?"

He shook his head, and realized that it was probably time that he shared most everything with them.

"Hikarigaoka? You went all the way out there?" asked his mother in surprised.

He continued on with the story about how he was very curious about his real parents, and reiterated that he had no intention of leaving them and made it very clear. "I was only curious," he constantly said. He told them about how he had met Ms. Mitsuishi, how he had gone to Tokyo University and ran into Sora's father and Jou's brother, how he met a student by the name of Fujitani Keisuke at Odaiba University, and how rude the receptionist was towards both him and Mimi, and how it was Mimi who had persuaded him to actually come home. He also mentioned how Mimi was the one who managed to get the photos.

"So you now understand that we are family by blood, though thin. Your father and I are distant relatives."

"That's okay. I still view both you and mother as my genuine parents, even if you aren't by blood. You two are all I know, and over the years, you have taken care of me as if I were your very own."

Mrs. Izumi started to cry again. Those were the best words she had ever heard from Koushirou. She, of course, strangled the boy with another one of her big hugs.

After the hug, Koushirou and his parents talked for the majority of the night, getting everything that they had been keeping secret from one another out in the open, which included Koushirou admitting that another reason he didn't want to tell them about what he was doing, was because he feared offending them. Koushirou also found out why the Izumis fostered children before adopting him. He was surprised to learn that his mother had had another child before him, but then understood why his parents were making such a big deal about the pregnancy.

This was making Koushirou feel much better, and in a way, he had Mimi to thank for it. Before they left him, Mimi had pretty much threatened the boy, but in an, "I'm your friend and I care about you" type of way. She insisted that he share everything with his parents. He thought about it a lot, and did. That was a good thing, actually. Now that he had done just that, he had a new and better perspective of the Izumis…

Author's Notes

Note 1: I was inspired to have Koushirou a fan of astronomy because of the US dub episode of Adventure, "Togemon in Toy Town". The episode where Palmon evolved to Togemon for the first time. Anyway, for the dub of the episode, the children were all going on about what they missed most about the human world. The dub had it as:

Tai: Relaxing in the bath after a game.

Sora: Singing while doing chores.

Matt: Eating his mother's grilled steaks on Sundays.

TK: Playing video games with "Matt".

Izzy: Looking at Satellite pictures of stars on the computer.

Mimi: Vacationing.

Joe: Doing homework and studying.

As you can see, for Izzy, I just added more to it since it was a bit creative. For "Palmon Ikari no Shinka" (I guess, this could mean, "Palmon's Angry Evolution"), it said:

Taichi: Taking a bath.

Sora: Doing laundry.

Yamato: Yamato didn't miss his mother grilling steaks; he wanted to eat some good old fashioned barbecue until he was stuffed. lol He was probably referring to Korean barbecue.

Takeru: Same as the dub, minus the Yamato part, seeing as how the two didn't see each other much prior to Adventure 02, apparently.

Koushirou: Sending e-mail to his online friends/talking with his internet friends.

Mimi: Drinking ice-cold cola.

Jou: The same, studying and homework.

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Note 2: Yes, as Yamato pointed out, "Nagare Boshi" is a bad pun. Nagare = Shooting. Hoshi = Star, but when put together, you get "Nagareboshi" = shooting star or meteor. Sad, right? lol

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Note 3: Yeah, another bad joke due to lack of an imagination. Sutaa + Mi = Sutaami = Starmie for those into the whole Pokemon thing.

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Note 4: At the time I wrote this, and made a second revision a good while later, all I knew about the beach was that the waters had a lot of bacteria in it and was very polluted and not very clean. I'm not sure if it's been cleaned within the past few years, as that was one place I wasn't able to visit while in Japan.

Fic Chapter Changes

The first change is the location, somewhat. I originally had this in mind, but, I couldn't think of an area for this place to be. So, I decided to go with Shiokaze Park, and to give you a better idea of how wide the place is, I'll give you a landmark to go by and you fan always google it as well. It's where the life-size Gundam was. It was in Shiokaze Park of Odaiba, but it isn't there currently, as it was taken down. In a way, Shiokaze Park is kinda like the "outskirts of Odaiba". Originally, I had Mimi and Yamato get off the bus at Odaiba Beach (didn't specify a name at the time, but that was the one I had in mind). Nearby was a building, and they climbed up a hill to get to it. As you can see, I did away with that.

I changed the way Mimi addressed Mr. Nagare. I, originally, had her refer to him as "Nagare-hakase".

Originally, I had that there were two researchers, Mr. Nagare and Mr. Boshi, but as you can see, I changed that so I could have an excuse to have Yamato react more to the name.

I changed some transportation stuff. Originally, as I mentioned, the observatory and the beach were in the same place, and they had to hurry to get back to the bus since it was the last bus going to and from there. I changed it so that they could take the train home.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but, originally, Ms. Nagataki gave Mimi only two photos. One of the "family portrait" and the other of both her and Miki together (but I had that they were in their early 20s). The third photo is new.