The Ancient Curse
Chapter Thirty-Six: Agreement
***
Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related characters, merchandise, and money, is not mine. Plot is. In short, don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.
Moo!
Additional, Non-Standard Rambling Notice: This chapter is longer than usual, so if you have anything to do urgently very soon, consider yourself forewarned. This is partly to apologize for the delays in posting, and partly because I'm rather long-winded in general. (You've probably figured that out already.) Thanks for sticking around to read my ramblings.
That is all. Enjoy.
***
It was cold for spring, and a steady breeze was blowing. Pink and white blossoms were scattered through the air, tossed in every direction by the strong winds. If one looked hard enough, a storm could be seen brewing in the distance, with dark black clouds gathering beyond the horizon.
A substantial crowd stood in the small clearing in the garden, squeezed into a fenced-in area, spilling out onto the grass beyond it. Small stones were scattered within the fenced-in area, some larger than others and some far older. The large crowd, some of whom were half-covered in soot, ash, and dust, was dressed in somber colors of black and dark gray.
Jun caught sight of the crowd from the steps of the house and stared out at the people for a long moment without moving. Daisuke, a few steps behind her, took a few steps beyond her and was halfway down the stairs before he realized she had not followed. He stopped and turned back toward her.
"I don't want to do this," she said, still looking at the crowd. "There's so many people…I don't want to…."
Daisuke climbed the steps back toward his sister and took her hand, then pulled her along after him. She did not protest, but followed him in silence.
The crowd in the garden had been quietly murmuring amongst itself, but fell silent as they approached. A strong gust of wind blew through the garden at that moment, sending skirts and coats into disarray, scattering leaves and blossoms in a whirlwind, but no one spoke. There were no gasps nor remarks of surprise, and the silence hung heavy in the air.
Jun stepped forward, grabbed on to her brother's arm. He glanced toward her, thinking briefly of another funeral he had seen, only in his mind, and then squeezed her hand in a supportive gesture.
She would remember little of the service. Someone spoke at length, words that were intended to be comforting, but she did not later recall anything that was said or even who had spoken. Mostly, Jun recalled the strong winds that blew through the garden, scattering blossoms, and the large, solemn, wooden box that sat in the midst of the crowd. Workers had dug a large hole, and the gaping space waited patiently for the body of her father to be placed within it.
When the speaking had ended, the crowd slowly filed past the casket. Some stopped briefly to offer words of consolation or sympathy, but their faces became a blur after a few moments, and she would recall none of them. She stood, holding tightly to her brother's arm, nodding blankly at words that were spoken, pretending that she understood what was said.
After what seemed like days, but was really only a little more than an hour, the crowd vanished, and the garden stood empty once more. The villagers returned to their homes, the servants to their tasks within the house, the visitors to other places.
Daisuke and Jun stood alone in the small cemetery that now held the bodies of both their parents. The wind scattered blossoms continuously, and the sky grew steadily darker as the clouds of the approaching storm came closer. The smell of rain and dampness hung in the air, and the temperature dropped a few degrees.
"We should go inside," Daisuke said when a drop of rain landed on his head, shortly followed by another. "It's starting to rain."
Jun nodded, finally releasing her grip upon his arm, and stepped away from him. She took a few steps away, and placed one hand upon the wooden casket, not yet buried in the ground. For a long moment, she stood, unmoving. A few drops of rain fell, and then a few more, loudly sounding upon the wood.
"You saw him die," Jun said then, quietly enough that it was difficult to hear her over the rushing wind and the falling raindrops. A single tear – the first that had escaped all day – fell upon the casket with the raindrops.
Daisuke said nothing, and she turned back toward him in time to see that he was staring steadily at the ground near his feet. Feeling her gaze, he mumbled, "I'm sorry."
She was shaking her head, but he did not see it because he was still studying his shoes with some intensity. There were small pink blossoms at his feet, some of which had been stepped upon by the recently departed crowd. "Sorry for what?" Jun asked him.
A strong gust of wind blew raindrops sideways, scattered blossoms further. Alraumon, who had been standing quite near to her partner's skirts throughout the service, was nearly lost within them as the wind gusted them around her. Daisuke stuffed his hands further into his pockets and turned his head toward the house – toward the space where he had seen his father die. "I couldn't stop it," he said quietly.
V-mon, too, had been standing near to his partner all this time. When the service had ended, he'd stayed nearby, absently shuffling his feet on the ground and looking toward the house every so often. Now, he looked up toward Daisuke with a vaguely disapproving frown, which went unnoticed by the others in the dimming light.
"It's not your fault," Jun replied immediately. She stepped away from the casket and once more took hold of her brother's arm. "Don't go blaming yourself every time someone dies. It wasn't your fault Mother died, and it's not your fault this time." When he opened his mouth to disagree, she shook her head. "No, it's not. Maybe you're Chosen or something, but you're not invincible, and you can't save everyone. You can't."
A movement on the distant road caught the eye of both digimon, and Alraumon actually released her hold upon her partner's skirts in order to take a few steps forward. V-mon, too, turned toward the road and watched as the distant object moved closer.
"I was there," Daisuke disagreed, "I could have stopped it, and I didn't." He frowned steadily toward the casket. "It should have been me."
"Don't say that!" Jun replied immediately. She took a step forward, gripping his arm even tighter than before, and rested her head upon his shoulder. "Don't say that!" she said again.
"Jun," Alraumon said quietly, her big eyes wide and large. "There's a visitor." She pointed with one arm toward the house, where a carriage had halted near the door. Even from a distance, they could see that a crowd of servants was helping to unload the luggage, hurrying so that they might make it inside before the rain fell too hard.
"A visitor?" Jun wondered, turning her head in the indicated direction.
All four watched as the crowd of people hurried to unload the carriage. It was not immediately clear who the passenger was. It was easy to make out, however, that two guards were present who had ridden along on the back of the carriage. Even this far, it was possible to clearly the see the sword at the waist of each one.
"Oh boy," Daisuke said in a low voice. Jun turned toward him, a surprised expression on her face.
"Do you know who it is?" she asked, and then turned back in time to see that someone was walking toward them across the gardens. All they could clearly determine was that their visitor was male, and that the two armed guards were following behind him at a short distance.
"I can guess," Daisuke replied.
At the edge of the fence which marked the boundary of the cemetery, the three men halted. The wind gusted strongly at that moment, and the rain began suddenly to fall more steadily. The visitor (who was wisely dressed in a waterproof cloak with a large hood) held up a hand to indicate that the guards should not follow him, and then stepped through the gap in the fence and entered the graveyard.
By now Jun could clearly see, even in the dimming light, that it was the King who had come in the carriage. She took a step away from Daisuke and curtsied a polite greeting. "I didn't know you were coming, your majesty," she said. "You should have told me…."
"I didn't originally intend," Taichi replied. "Plans were changed at the last minute." He glanced briefly toward Daisuke as he spoke, but then turned immediately back toward Jun. "I'm sorry I'm late. I wanted to be here for the service – to say a few words. It seems I didn't make it."
She shook her head. "You didn't have to come," she told him. "This is not the safest place to be, and surely you have other things…."
"I have many hundreds of other things," Taichi replied with a shrug. "Your father was an important man, a very…," he hesitated briefly, "…influential man. I would be remiss if I did not pay my respects."
Anything further which might have been said at that moment was interrupted by a low rumble of thunder in the distance, signaling that the storm was gaining strength. The sound of rain falling upon the ground grew louder.
"Do you mind," Jun said over the sound of the rain, "if we continue inside?"
There was no one who could sanely object to getting out of the storm, and so all present quickly hurried back to the house. The rain fell stronger by the second, and so by the time they slipped through the front door and into the entrance hall, Daisuke, Jun, the two guards, and their partners were all rather wet from the rain. Taichi, the only one protected with a cloak, was only slightly damp.
Yamato was standing in the entrance hall with a small army of servants carrying drying cloths. No sooner had they entered the house than each found a warm cloth pressed into his or her hands.
"If you had told us you were coming, we could have held the service until later," Jun said when she had rubbed her face and arms as dry as possible. She turned toward the nearest servant. "Could you light a fire in the…in one of the parlors that's useable?"
"Already done," Yamato told her, gesturing with one arm toward a nearby hallway.
"If you had waited to hold the service," Taichi said in reply, "you would have had to hold it underwater." A loud rumble of thunder underscored this statement with a dramatic finality. "Go on ahead, and we'll be there in a moment." He glanced toward Daisuke briefly for the second time since his arrival.
In a short time, the small entranceway was emptied of people. Daisuke had finished with drying his face and was ineffectively rubbing his hair, which had been nearly flattened by the rain. He gave up and absently twisted the cloth in his hands. "I, um…," he began.
"Is there some reason," Taichi interrupted before he could say anything of consequence, "for which you are intent upon trying to keep secrets?"
"Secrets, sir?" Daisuke echoed blankly.
"I'm sure that you had something to do with it, and it's not all entirely my sister's doing," Taichi went on without explanation. He took a few steps, paused, and then took a few steps in the direction he had come from, then sighed heavily. "I'm not going to ask," he said. "I'm not. I'm sure it will all be explained eventually."
A few moments of silence passed. "Um…," Daisuke said again, and the stopped. He set the cloth, which was by now quite wet, on the railing of the steps leading upstairs. "It was partly my idea," he said after a moment.
Taichi nodded.
"We came to…an agreement," Daisuke went on, shrugging absently. "I don't…I don't know what more to say."
Taichi nodded again, and glanced down the nearest hall. "I'm going to find my sister," he said, and took a step toward the hall. He paused then, and glanced toward another hall. "I don't suppose you have any idea…."
"I would guess," Daisuke replied, "that she is in the kitchen."
***
Hikari was indeed in the kitchen, having decided upon her return from the funeral services that she ought to get to work once more. Though much of the cleaning had been accomplished and the soot and ash from the fires scrubbed away, there was still much to be done. The halls near the kitchen were still dusted with a bit of soot, despite having been swept once an hour or so. Several other rooms, designated as quarters for the servants, were still quite unusable.
Hikari had not waited for instructions, but found herself a bucket, filled it with soap and water, and located a small room that needed scrubbing desperately. The door and window had been left open the night of the fire, accounting for the disaster within. Within minutes, a good percentage of soot and ash had been transferred from the floor to her skin and clothes.
It was there that Taichi located her, on hands and knees, scrubbing vigorously at a section of stone floor in a tiny bedroom off the kitchen. He had previously walked down the hallway and passed the room several times while searching for her, but not noticed her immediately. When Daisuke had said she was likely to be found in the kitchen, he had assumed that meant she was eating, or helping to plan a meal, or perhaps even cooking. He had certainly not expected to find her scrubbing the floor of a scullery maid's bedroom.
He stood in the doorway for several moments, mouth agape, eyes wide. Intent upon her work, Hikari took no notice of him until he cleared his throat loudly for the second time. Then, she looked up, absently rubbing a dusty hand across her cheek in order to move aside a lock of hair.
She was so astonished to see him that she slid backwards a short distance upon her knees and then nearly knocked over the bucket of water when she began to get up. "Taichi!" she said, and nervously rubbed both her hands upon the apron she had borrowed in hopes of staying relatively clean. "I am…what are you…I didn't know you were coming."
"I see that," he said. He took a step into the room, stepping around the small patch of floor she had so far managed to clean. With one finger, he reached out and touched the small spot of dirt she had left upon her cheek. Then he studied the spot it left upon his hand, as though confirming it was real.
"I…there's a lot of work to do," Hikari went on, attempting to explain. "I thought I could be of some help, so…." She gestured toward the bucket on the floor beside her.
Taichi said nothing for a moment, and then took another step forward. He reached out once more, and this time lifted her right arm, grasping hold of her wrist. The loose sleeve of the borrowed dress she wore fell back to her elbow, exposing the skin of her arm. "Your idea?" he asked.
Now it was Hikari who said nothing.
"I agreed to this," Taichi went on, "on the condition that you remain hidden and therefore safe. You agreed to that, too."
"Taichi, I'm not…," Hikari began, but he interrupted almost immediately.
"You were also supposed to only be here for a few days," he continued. "You were supposed to come back with Takeru. You agreed to that!"
He had raised his voice, though only slightly. Hikari said nothing. Frustrated, Taichi finally let go of her arm and took a few steps back toward the door.
A silence stretched on for a few minutes. Taichi said nothing, and concentrated upon keeping his composure and calming himself. This was neither the best place nor time to be shouting.
Hikari let her arm fall back down to her side, and she absently clenched both her fists open and shut.
"Tomorrow," Taichi said finally, breaking the silence. "I'm going home, and you're coming with me."
Once more Hikari hesitated. She absently twisted her fingers around themselves and studied the spot of clean on the floor near her feet. "I don't…," she said quietly, but her brother had already left.
***
The storm was vicious, but short-lived. By evening, the rains had stopped and the skies had begun to clear. A beautiful sunset was visible in the west, beyond the fields and the stream, painting the sky bright shades of orange and purple.
A wooden bench had been set along the edge of the stream, the perfect place to sit and take in the spectacular view. At some point after the evening meal, Daisuke wandered toward the water and happened upon the bench. For no reason in particular, he sat upon it and watched the sunset for a while.
His mind wandered to no place in particular, and he did not notice the set of quiet footsteps that approached from behind. He did not notice that he was no longer alone until Hikari took the seat upon the bench beside him.
"Sorry," she said when he started. "Am I interrupting something?"
Daisuke shook his head with a brief smile. "No, I'm doing nothing at all," he answered.
Hikari returned this smile with one equally as brief, and turned her head westward, toward the sun. As it sank slowly to the ground, both sat in companionable silence, saying nothing.
"Did your brother find you?" Daisuke questioned after some time had passed and the sun had fallen considerably lower.
She nodded. "Yes," she answered quietly.
A gentle breeze danced through the garden, carrying the scent of blossoms and the dampness of the recent rains. From the kitchens, the sound of pots and plates clanking in the dishwater could be heard, mixed in with lively conversations.
"How are you feeling?" Hikari asked then.
He sighed a deep sigh, inhaling the sweet smell of springtime. "All right," he said after a moment of thought, and turned away from his study of the reflection of the sun in the water.
She was looking at him with a serious expression, a bit of worry and concern in her eyes, barely evident – unless one knew what to look for. As he looked toward her, she smiled, hiding these, and nodded in response to his words.
For a long moment, Daisuke held her gaze, wondering about that worry he had seen, but it did not return. After some time, he turned back toward the sunset, and again they sat in silence as the colors slowly faded.
Insects began to chirp quietly as evening fell upon the land. A few puffy clouds floated overhead, and the stars began to peek through the clear night.
"He wants me to go home with him tomorrow," Hikari said suddenly, interrupting the song of the insects. They recovered quickly, and resumed their evening serenade.
Daisuke nodded, sighing a resigned sigh. "I'm sure half the reason he came was to retrieve you," he replied.
"Probably," she agreed, and fell silent once more.
"It is safer there," he said after a moment.
"Mmm," Hikari agreed once more, and then sighed. "I know."
Again they lapsed into silence, the insect chirping growing louder. The sound of conversation in the kitchens grew quieter as the workers finished their tasks and headed off to other jobs. Another gentle breeze scattered the smell of blossoms in the air, rustling the newborn leaves on the trees.
"I've had this dream," Hikari said, once more abruptly breaking the silence. She waited until Daisuke had turned toward her with a questioning expression.
"A dream?" he echoed, and she nodded. "You mean…?"
Once more, she nodded. "The man…the swordsman…with the long hair…I don't think he's Otonashi. I think he's working for Otonashi."
"That's a possibility," Daisuke agreed after a moment of consideration. "I've had that thought, too. I'm not sure why."
"I think Otonashi is in the Western Isles."
He sat up straighter, turned his entire body now to face her. "The Western Isles?" he repeated. "The Western Isles?"
"I've had this dream," she went on, "of an old man, sitting beneath a bright full moon." She closed her eyes as she spoke, once more seeing the images in her mind. "The swordsman is speaking to him, but I don't know what they're saying. The house they're in – it's like a castle, really, and it's on a cliff overlooking the ocean."
"There are cliffs in other places…," Daisuke reasoned, and she nodded.
"I know," Hikari admitted. "I don't know exactly why I get that impression. I woke up with the feeling that they were in the West."
He was quiet a long moment, taking in this information. "To get to the Western Isles…it could take weeks, or months, even. Maybe longer, if there are storms or the boat got lost."
Hikari nodded, though the dim light of the evening was making it difficult to see this action. "For the nearest islands," she agreed. "The farthest ones could take over a year."
"And I've no idea which island he's on," he finished, and then sighed, shaking his head as though to clear it. "I don't understand. Why so far away?"
"I don't know," she admitted.
From the direction of the kitchen, the sound of pans crashing to the ground suddenly interrupted the serene silence of the evening. Immediately, both Daisuke and Hikari turned their heads toward the kitchen door, and the sound of shouting could be heard as one of the servants berated another for clumsiness. After a moment, the chaos died down, and the quiet resumed.
"I'll need to find a mage," Daisuke said then, a thoughtful frown upon his face. "The only way going to the Isles is feasible is if you teleport, and I can't do that on my own. So I'll have to find a mage who can take me there."
Hikari was silent, absently studying the pattern of the stars overhead.
"Takeru can teleport," he went on, thinking aloud, "but he doesn't know many defensive spells, and those would probably be useful. Of course, he could heal if one of us was hurt badly, but there's a limit to how much healing he can do before he's exhausted."
Feeling restless, he got to his feet and took a few steps toward the water. "If Miyako was up to it, she'd probably be perfect for it…if she'd help me," he admitted, turning to pace back toward the bench.
"You could ask Koushiro," Hikari suggested quietly.
"Hmm," Daisuke replied, considering this. "I could."
"You don't want to," she noted, and he sighed, walking back to the bench and sitting down heavily in the space he had sat before.
"I don't want to put more people in danger than I already have," he admitted, and sighed again. "I know why he's in the Islands: because I can't get to him there. That's why they took Miyako's magic: because she's the most useful mage I know for that."
Hikari said nothing to this, and Daisuke sank back against the bench. For a few moments more silence stretched on.
"While I was gone," he said then, "he'd probably attack my sister, and the village."
"Maybe," Hikari agreed. She looked upward once more toward the stars. A bright one was twinkling directly overhead. The moon was not yet visible, but the sky was filled with the tiny points of light. A few fluffy clouds floated between them.
Daisuke studied the toes of his shoes. A small flying insect briefly landed upon the tip of his right foot and rested there for a moment before flying onward, carried by a sweet-smelling, cool spring breeze.
"I could…," Hikari began, and then shook her head, interrupting herself. She sighed, then sat up straighter on the bench, brushing a bit of the dust from her skirts.
"You could what?" Daisuke wondered, turning his eyes toward her.
"Nothing," Hikari said, shaking her head. She brushed a bit more of the dust, and then got to her feet. "I should go back inside."
"Wait," he interrupted, and roused himself upright. "You could what? You have an idea?"
She didn't turn back to face him, which might have only been because the dim light would make it difficult to see anyway, but studied the ground at her feet. "No," she said, "forget about it." She took a few steps away from the bench.
Daisuke got to his feet. "Hikari," he said, and she stopped. "What's wrong?"
She shook her head again, but didn't turn back to face him. "Nothing."
He crossed the space between them, stepped around so that he was now standing in front of her. "It's not nothing," he disagreed. "Something's bothering you. Something other than that dream."
Hikari said nothing, and went on studying the ground at her feet.
"You were going to say something," Daisuke noted after a moment. "What was it?" When she said nothing, he asked again, "What was it?"
"I was going to say that I could go with you," she said, speaking quickly, "but I can't."
He was quiet a long moment, taking in these words.
"And I knew you wouldn't think it was a good idea anyway," Hikari said then. "So forget I suggested it." She turned and took a few steps back toward the house.
"Why not?" Daisuke asked.
She stopped, turned back to him in surprise. "What?"
"Why not?" he wondered, took the few steps after her. "You can teleport, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he went on, "and I know you can raise a shield that's strong enough to stop a building from falling on me."
"Well, I don't know about a whole building," Hikari admitted modestly.
He waved a dismissive hand, pushing this disagreement aside, and placed his other hand upon her shoulder. "Why not?"
"You actually think it's a good idea?" she questioned in disbelief, and shook her head. "I thought for certain you'd say no right away."
Daisuke shrugged. "You can protect yourself better than I can," he said, echoing a statement he'd made previously. "Maybe better than even your brother can. So staying here wouldn't guarantee your safety, would it?"
"I suppose not," she admitted.
"The swordsman brought Chibimon to you," he recalled. "He teleported inside the palace, right?"
"Into my bedroom," she agreed.
"So if he wanted to kill you, he could have. Your home is not the safe place we thought it was. If you're going to be safe, it's going to be because you protected yourself." He paused a moment to let her take in these words, then shrugged again. "Therefore, it doesn't much matter where you are, does it?"
Hikari blinked at him, her astonished expression visible even in the dim light of the early evening. "I suppose not," she admitted after a long moment.
"You don't have to go, of course," Daisuke went on. "I don't even know if going is the best option." He sighed, ran a hand through his hair absently, as though massaging his head would help his thought process. "If I do, though, I want you to come with me."
"I want to," she replied immediately. "I want to protect you, I want to help you, but…." She turned, took a few steps away, and then took a deep breath. "I can't."
Daisuke shook his head as though to clear it of confusing thoughts. "Why not?" he asked again.
"My brother wants me to go with him tomorrow morning," Hikari reminded him. Before he could brush this fact aside, she continued, "and I don't think he'll agree with your statement that I can protect myself."
"I don't suppose you want to try to convince him otherwise."
She shook her head immediately. "I don't think it would do any good," she admitted, turning back to face him once more. "He's not much inclined to listen to me lately. Maybe you could…?"
Now Daisuke shook his head immediately. "No, I don't think he'd listen to me either," he replied with a grimace, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "He's not exactly happy with me at the moment."
Hikari sighed, silently agreeing with this statement, and absently fiddled with the end of her sleeve, running the dusty material through her fingers. For a few moments, neither said anything.
"If I go with him tomorrow…," she said then, now tugging at a loose string inside the sleeve, "I don't know when I'll see you again."
He said nothing, in agreement nor disagreement, and sighed, then walked back toward the bench and sat down, studying the ground at his feet once more. After a moment, Hikari followed, sitting down beside him again.
"We could go tonight," Daisuke said after a long silence. He let the words hang in the air for a moment before he went on. "If we don't go tonight, I don't know if we'll have another chance."
"Tonight?" Hikari echoed, and when he turned to face her, he saw, even in the dim light of the stars, the same mixture of worry and concern in her eyes as he had earlier. "You mean - without telling anyone?"
"It's the only chance we'll have," he replied. "Unless you think you can convince your brother otherwise."
She sat back, looked up briefly at the stars. "When we come back," she said after a moment of thought, "he's going to kill me."
"You?" Daisuke asked, and snorted a brief, amused laugh. "I think he might be more likely to kill me."
Hikari shook her head. "I don't know," she replied, "I think he might be more angry with me than you." She raised one hand, pointed her first finger toward the sky. "First, I teleported to the North for no particular reason, without asking for permission or telling anyone where I was going."
"Asking for permission?" Daisuke echoed. "Since when…?"
"Then, I stayed here, which is a very dangerous place, rather than returning with Takeru at the first opportunity," she went on, raising another finger. "While I was here, the device hiding my magic was removed, thus making this place even more dangerous."
"Well, that wasn't…," Daisuke pointed out, but she shrugged.
"Doesn't matter," Hikari replied. "It's my fault nonetheless. Now I'm going to teleport to an even farther place, again without telling anyone, and certainly without asking for permission." She sighed. "It might be best if I didn't return."
"Since when," Daisuke began again, "is it necessary to ask for permission?"
Hikari sighed again. "It's what my father would have done," she explained. "It's the way things are supposed to be done."
She turned toward Daisuke with a thoughtful expression. "I am my brother's responsibility," she said then, shrugging lightly, "until…."
"Until…?" he echoed, and she shrugged once more.
"Until I'm yours," she answered.
Daisuke said nothing for a long moment, apparently stunned by this statement. "Mine?" he asked, and shook his head. "What about your own?"
She leaned back, studied the stars again. "I don't know," she replied after a bit of thought. "It wasn't mentioned."
"Well," Daisuke said after a moment of his own consideration. "I've already given you back responsibility for your own safety," he recalled, "since I'm not particularly good at it."
Hikari considered this a moment, and then sat up, a thoughtful expression upon her face. "Does that mean," she wondered, "that you don't expect obedience?"
He said nothing for such a long moment that Hikari wondered if he had not heard the question. She wondered if she ought to repeat herself. At long last, Daisuke said only, "What?"
"Does that mean that you don't…," she began again, and he shook his head.
"No, no, I heard what you said," he interrupted. "I don't understand. Why would I expect…obedience?"
"Well you're supposed to," she told him.
"What?" he asked again.
"You're supposed to," Hikari said again.
"Why?" he asked.
She considered a moment. "I think that the way it works is this. You ensure my safety as your responsibility…and I suppose well-being and happiness and maybe other things, too…and in return I'm supposed to be obedient."
Again, Daisuke said nothing for such a long time that she began to wonder if he had lost the power of speech. "So I was thinking that since you're giving up on safety, that maybe the other parts of it didn't count, either," she concluded then. After another moment of silence and thought, she added on, "although I suppose you would still be responsible for the well-being and happiness, and I'm not really giving much back, so maybe I should still be obedient."
"What are you talking about?" Daisuke asked, apparently finally having regained the power of speech. "What…where did you get this idea?"
"Books, mostly," she replied. "I've been doing a bit of reading."
"Reading," he echoed. "Books."
"Well, it was my brother, originally," she admitted. "He said that I should ask for permission before I teleport halfway across the continent because it's the way that things are supposed to be done, and he was talking about responsibilities and safety and…."
Daisuke held up a hand, interrupting her. "This was after he slammed the door open and the picture fell on the ground?"
She thought a moment. "Yes."
He sighed heavily. "Well I disagree completely," he declared.
"You disagree?" Hikari echoed. "With what?"
"The whole thing," he replied. "It doesn't work. First of all, I can't be responsible for your safety, because I've completely failed at it every time I've tried."
"Not every time," she interrupted, but he waved this aside with a shrug.
"Secondly, you can't be…obedient." He shook his head. "I don't even like that word. I can't…it would be too weird, after…the way things were."
"But that's over," Hikari reminded him, and again he waved this aside with a shrug.
"So even if I keep you safe and happy and everything, I don't want…." He paused, collected his thoughts, and went on. "I think you should do what you want, when you want. Of course, if you want to teleport across the continent at a moment's notice, I'd appreciate a note, but I don't want you to…ask me for permission."
Hikari nodded slowly, considering this. "That doesn't seem fair, though," she pointed out. "I mean, you're not getting anything back, then."
"Happiness," Daisuke replied simply. "The happiness is an equal exchange, isn't it?"
"I suppose so," she agreed.
"So, as long as you make me happy and I make you happy, we'll be even, right?" he concluded.
"I suppose," she replied after a moment. "I like your way of thinking better."