Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei Animation does.
Ch. 3 GO!
The younger members of the team had regrouped with the rest of the children hauling along armfuls of prizes, snacks, and various trinkets they had acquired during their time walking about the festival stalls.
"Meiko and Tai went on a boat ride together?" Kari repeated what she had been told, blinking in surprise. "I didn't know he had it in him. Are you sure he knows it's not to go fishing at night?"
"It's true!" Mimi confirmed excitedly. "He just grabbed Mei-Mei by the wrist and took off! And now they are no doubt on a romantic cruise down the river enjoying each other's company by starlight!"
"I'm pretty sure he just wanted to get away from us all," Sora sighed, remembering how annoyed Tai had last looked. "I think he realized what we were trying to do."
"If that's the case then why did he take Meiko along with him if he wanted to dash our expectations?" Mimi demanded. "In our noble quest to set the right mood, we forgot the most crucial part of the execution: they must be given the opportunity to be alone to confess their true feelings to each other! This boat ride is the perfect setting! It's all going according to plan!"
"What's all this 'we' stuff? You're the evil mastermind here," Izzy huffed under his breath.
"Don't act all innocent," Mimi smirked, hooking her arm through his. "You all went along with my hairpin scheme, so you are all now my partners-in-crime! Ohohoho!"
"What have you guys been up to while we were gone?" Davis asked side-eying them all. "Wait, does Taichi-sempai like Mochizuki-san like that? Mochizuki… mochi…" he mumbled as if a thought had struck him. "Is that why he started eating mochi ice cream all of sudden?"
"What do you mean?" Kari asked.
"Taichi-sempai walks part-way with me to my soccer practice because his cram school is along the same route," Davis explained. "We hoard up on snacks for the rest of the day since we won't get home until late. He usually went for the jerky sticks and chips but recently, he's been buying these mochi ice cream bites, trying all the different flavors like he's not sure what his favorite is yet. When I asked him about it, he just said cram school was stressful and the mochi ice cream makes his mind all relaxed and happier."
"That fiend!" Mimi shrieked, snorting steam through her nose. "I bet he's too thick-skulled to even notice why! Ugh, that's so adorable! Izzy, give me your phone so I can call him!"
"Hey!" Izzy squawked as she fished it out of his bag. "What happened to 'setting the mood' and 'giving them alone time'?"
"Oh hush, Tai's the very definition of what the Americans call a himbo," Mimi said, pressing Tai's name on speed-dial. "He's probably due to say something dumb soon and mess everything up. I need to check on them anyway!"
It took a few seconds and then Tai picked up.
Mimi bulldozed ahead before Tai could get any snarky remarks out. "Just wanted to remind you guys to hurry back so we can watch the fireworks and eat some mochi ice cream together like we all agreed on before! Don't dawdle for too long, as much you may be tempted to enjoy solace in each other, heehee!"
When Tai finally spoke, his voice came out stiff and flat as if he were distracted by something.
"Sorry, I'm gonna have to call you back. The robber guy wants me to hand over the phone."
What? What?!
Mimi could only gape soundlessly at the phone, her mind having come to a screeching halt.
Izzy swiped the phone out of her hand. "Please tell me you're joking," he barked into it. "Tell me that you're still upset with us all and this is your deliberate, messed up revenge tactic to get even with us on some sick psychological level."
"Ummm…"
"Gimme that, you little punk!" a gruff, kansai-accented voice snarled out of the speaker.
There was a familiar muffled shriek in the background that sounded like Meiko before the call was abruptly ended.
The Digidestined stood silent around the phone for a few seconds trying to process the reality of the situation.
"I think we better alert the local police," Cody spoke up.
"Absolutely," Davis agreed very seriously. "Taichi-sempai is gonna beat the crap out of him."
oOo
Everything would have been fine, Tai thought, if he hadn't had his phone out. Maybe the entire outcome would have been different if he had the phone tucked away in his pocket and had been able to subtly dial 119 while Oni was busy issuing standard bad guy threats.
But no, his luck would be to answer it in speaker mode by accident and have Mimi's shrill, excited voice ringing out across the tense silence about nonsensical idiocies while reminding Oni that it was the twenty-first century and people possessed low-key protection methods such as cell phones.
"Gimme that, you little punk!" Oni roared when Tai didn't immediately hand it over like he first ordered a few seconds earlier.
The phone was snatched out of his numb hands and then a spiked club came swinging down towards him. Tai jerked backwards in his seat out of pure reflex—not that he could go anywhere, the passengers were all tightly packed in on the tiny boat. His back hit the railing and he felt Meiko clutch his shirt and press her face into his shoulder, muffling the fearful shriek that tore free from her throat.
The club came slamming into the planks mere inches away from his feet.
A warning.
Because Oni totally could have just bashed his brains out if he had wanted to.
But that wasn't his intention it seemed.
Oni ripped his club free from the planks, digging out a shower of wooden shards and splinters, and leveled it menacingly under Tai's chin, stopping only when the spikes were a hairsbreadth away. "Don't try and be a hero. But if you desire a fool's end, I'll give you one."
Too frightened that he would puncture the skin of his neck on one of the spikes if he nodded, Tai gave he hoped sounded like an affirmative grunt. A small part of his brain that wasn't paralyzed with shock was mentally applauding such a cool-sounding line (for a villain).
Oni lowered his weapon slightly but didn't pull it away.
"That goes for all of you, captain," he called over his shoulder to the helmsman at the wheel. "Don't be comming in any emergency frequencies now. Not unless you want see what color the boy's insides are."
Red, they're red! Tai wanted to shout, but he seemed to have lost his voice. Meiko was trembling beside him.
The helmsman lifted his hands in the air slowly so Oni could see them before turning around and sitting down on the floor of the boat to show he wasn't planning to oppose him. Tai was half-disappointed and half-relieved.
"That's right. Everybody keep calm and no one gets hurt," Oni said, slinging a bag off one of his broad shoulders and tossing it into the center of the boat. "Just put all your goodies in there and I'll be on my way. Cell phones first," he commanded with a dark edge to his tone.
There was a flurry of movement as the passengers complied, tossing in phones, wallets, watches, and jewelry. Oni's eyes glinted greedily beneath his white mask as the pile grew larger, though he annoyingly still hadn't shifted his stance from holding his spiked club to Tai's neck.
Looking around, Tai realized why. The rest of the passengers posed no threat at all to him. It was just a middle-aged woman and her small daughter who was crying quietly into her mother's skirt; an old elderly couple who looked like they were doubled over with arthritis as they clutched each other tightly; and the helmsman who was also up there in years judging by his grey hair and possessed a figure as scrawny and frail as a scarecrow.
Tai hadn't played soccer for a couple of month now, but it was built into years of his life that accentuated into lean muscles in his legs and arms which his thin summer t-shirt and shorts proudly displayed.
It did stroke his ego a tiny bit that Oni thought him a decent enough risk to hold guard over him. Tai supposed in all fairness, if the big lug hadn't been waving a spiked club around like a deranged caveman, yeah, there was the slightest possibility he might have tried a sliding tackle and knocked the jerk into the water.
A hysterical chuckle bubbled its way out of his mouth at the image drawing Oni's attention back to him.
"Got something to share with the group, boy?" Oni asked.
And of all times to just keep his mouth shut and not antagonize the bad guy, was when Tai recovered his voice of course.
"Don't you have like, a job?" Tai smirked at him, not bothering to conceal the contempt in his tone.
He regretted the words the instant he said them, because why, why, so stupid, why?
He wasn't the one Oni had in mind to pay the price for him smarting off though.
"I think your girl has been holding back on contributing to the offering," Oni said, eyes fastening on Meiko who still clung to Tai, the dragonfly hairpin clutched in her hand digging uncomfortably into his skin through the fabric of his shirt.
"Mochizuki-san," Tai whispered. Her face was still pressed into his shoulder as if she didn't dare look up. "Mochizuki-san… Meiko…"
Meiko lifted her head when her given name fell off his lips, her face flushed pink. Her bangs fell around her face in messy, frizzy locks. She blinked almost fuzzily as if coming awake from a dream.
"Meiko," Tai said again, ignoring the wild twist in his stomach. "Give him your pin."
He hoped she hadn't grown too attached to it in her brief possession and considered it a lucky item now or something.
Meiko handed the pin over without a fuss, settling back next to Tai and folding her hands neatly in her lap, a perfect picture of innocence.
It was when Oni demanded her cell phone too that she lost all composure and went batshit crazy.
No really.
"No!" Meiko screamed, ripping off one of her wooden geta sandals and chucking it at the man's face.
It bounced off his head, tearing the mask free and presenting everyone a clear view that Oni did not choose to wear one just for dramatic flair or intimidation tactics.
"I'd wear one too," Tai croaked, once again his tongue too fast for his own good.
Oni unleashed an angry roar, grabbing the mask where it had fallen and placing it back over his face before lunging at Meiko who was holding something protectively between her hands. She shrieked before hunching over and curling into a tiny human ball as possible.
Tai leapt up and stepped between her and the demon she had spurred on the warpath.
"Wait!" he cried, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "Wait, please! I'll get it for you!"
Oni growled low in his throat and brandished his club high over his head. "Do it or I'll throw her overboard. After tying her up first."
Tai swallowed hard and nodded. "Meiko," he murmured, dropping to his knees where she lay curled on the boat's floor. "Meiko, give me your phone."
Meiko shook her head violently, her eyes screwed shut. The knuckles of her hands were white from how tightly she was clutching the small object between them.
Oni gave an impatient huff from above their heads and Tai decided politeness could not reason with crazy so he tried prying her hands open with his own.
Meiko surged forward like an enraged cat and bit him on the skin of his wrist—and did not let go. Tai collapsed backwards on his heels howling, his free hand instinctively reaching for her hair and yanking her head back. Meiko let out a yelp of pain, releasing him from the throbbing hold of her teeth, her hands loosening their grip on the phone and Tai grabbed it.
The next thing her knew, his arms were full of a screeching and crying girl, strands of black hair falling out of her disheveled braid and hot tears streaming down her cheeks as she swiped at his him with her fingernails, leaving a trail of scratch-marks down his face. Tai felt like she was trying to claw his eyes out.
"Meiko, STOP!" he shouted hoping she would snap back to her senses. She only wailed harder, struggling in vain to take back the phone. Tai reached his arm up as far it would go and waved the phone wildly at Oni. "Take it, just take it!"
Oni snatched the phone out of his hand and tucked it away into the folds of his jinbei robes.
"Get your woman under control," he sneered before turning to shout at the mother with the small daughter who had started crying loudly at the violent scuffle. "And shut your damn brat up!"
Tai heard him bark orders at the helmsman to steer the boat someplace solitary for him to disembark. Meiko had ceased her futile struggling ever since Oni had taken her phone. Now she sat limp and unresponsive in his arms, her expression a blank slate. His heart still pounding in his chest, Tai eased them both back into their seats, never taking his arm from around her shoulders half-afraid she would go feral again.
"Meiko… it's just a phone," he tried to comfort her. Maybe she was so terrified she hadn't been thinking clearly. "You can get another one. Don't risk your life over—"
"Meicoomon's on there," Meiko said dully. There were shadows under her eyes that the moonlight seemed to amplify. Long nights of no sleep and tears shed upon her pillow that no more false smiles or pretty yukatas could fade away. "Pictures of last year when we met you all. I know it's stupid. I hadn't uploaded them to my computer yet. I meant to," her voice trembled. "But they're so hard to look at. I kept putting it off and now those memories will be gone just like her."
Meiko lifted her head—her eyes were dry but red-rimmed and puffy from all her previous crying. "I still have all my text messages from Himekawa. Even when she stopped replying to me. But… she was there before, you know? She was always there when I needed her, even though I'll never know if she was only using me. I cared about her… I still do, even if she wasn't sorry for what she did in the end. Does that make me weak as a person?" She scrubbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her yukata. "Is it selfish of me to desperately want things to go back how they used to be?"
"Meiko," Tai breathed, suddenly understanding why she had reacted the way she did. He noticed her other hand, the one clenched into a fist in her lap was quivering. Throwing all caution to the wind, he placed his own on top of hers. She stiffened but didn't pull away from his touch and after a short while, her hand stopping shaking.
Oni interrupted before Tai could say anything further. "I'd like to thank everyone here for their patronage tonight—and just so you don't get any ideas of radioing this in anytime soon…" He swung down his spiked club and took out the boat's communications panel in a shower of electrical sparks. Within three broad strides, he had stepped off the boat where the helmsman had docked it on the bank and gave a mocking wave at his silent audience. "Good doing business with you. Dan Dan!"
He swung the bag of their stolen possessions over his shoulder and walked off into the darkened forest with all the care in the world of someone enjoying a pleasant evening stroll. The sight angered Tai, at how Oni was going to get away with no retribution to his crimes and how most likely he was going to do the same despicable act to other people in the future. As much as he wanted to dash after him, Tai reined in the rash impulse knowing it was a lost cause. Better to return to their friends alive and in one piece than a broken hero.
The little girl resumed her frightened crying once again and this time her mother let her, gathering the child in her arms and rocking her back and forth in an effort to calm her down. The helmsman began bowing and apologizing to everyone, promising he'd get them all back to the festival safely as soon as possible. It took some maneuvering, but eventually, he got the small fishing boat turned around, proceeding back the way they had come.
Their return journey was quiet and subdued. The little girl now dozed fitfully, head in her mother's lap with the occasional sniffle breaking the silence. The elderly couple across from them had their heads bent close together and was conversing in low tones, their wrinkled hands intertwined. Tai looked down and realized he still had his hand on top of Meiko's but he kept it there, pressing down gently to console her.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. You're right, it's just a phone," Meiko croaked listlessly. "I shouldn't be holding on to the past like that."
"You have a kind heart, Meiko," Tai pointed out. "You can forgive people, even the ones who've hurt you. Kindness is not a weakness no matter who says otherwise. At least you're honest with speaking your feelings out loud. That's good. That's part of the healing process."
"I don't like… losing things… I care about…" Meiko whispered, her voice tight with emotions welling up.
"Meicoomon and Himekawa have been in your life all these years. All your time spent with them defined who are," Tai said, his mind flashing with images of Agumon and all their adventures together. It was difficult to think of a life without his partner in it. "Of course you can't just throw those memories of them away. It's only natural to want the time in which you were the happiest to never change. I think it's brave of you to face a world that took the ones most important to you away."
"Sometimes I just wish… I was stronger…" Meiko admitted.
"You're exactly who you're supposed to be now in this moment."
A cool night breeze blew past them and Meiko shivered, tiny goose bumps breaking out on her exposed skin. She sneezed.
And widened the space between her fingers to allow Tai's to link with hers.
They remained that way until the lights of the patrol boat flashed over them.
oOo
"How?! What?! Why?!" Izzy sputtered at the sight of Tai's beat up and scratched face as soon as he and Meiko were allowed to reunite with their friends.
The boat's passengers had been detained by the festival security to give a run down on their hostage situation as well as a description of their masked assailant. Since the only ones who had briefly glimpsed Oni's true face were Tai and Meiko, they had been detained longer. There hadn't been much information to give and the authorities, once they had concluded that no one had been seriously harmed, ruled the whole incident as a simple mugging and released them back to their friends who were anxiously waiting outside the security tent.
Tai honestly had forgotten about his surface injuries until Izzy pointed them out.
"Taichi-sempai, you whipped the bad guy's ass, didn't you!" Davis crowed, eyes shining in admiration.
"What? Oh," Tai said, touching the scratch marks on his face as if only now remembering they were there. They only stung just a little.
Beside him, Meiko looked away ashamed while his sister and Sora wore twin expressions of disapproval. Matt leveled him with a weary stare, arching an eyebrow that read 'really?'
"No, no!" Tai waved his hands in defense. "There was uh, a sugar glider that landed on board and thought my hair made for this really neat sleeping nest and it was a hassle getting him off of me, that's all."
"Did it get you on the wrist too?" Kari asked in concern noticing the bite mark on his skin.
Tai covered the bite with his hand before any could determine the teeth-marks were too big for any nocturnal critter to make. "Yeah, little guy had a temper," he fake-laughed.
"It's odd for a sugar glider in the wild to be that aggressive towards humans. You might want to get that treated as soon as possible," Joe said shifting into Obsessive Doctor Mode. "Just in case there is an off-chance it had rabies."
Tai choked and Meiko's face flared a bright tomato red. She let out a tiny squeak and quickly covered her mouth with one sleeve of her yukata. Mimi cast her an odd look.
"I'm not getting a shot. It didn't have rabies," Tai said wondering how his life had come to this point.
"You don't know for sure—"
"I KNOW!" Tai screamed, his ears burning. He could feel sweat pooling under his armpits. He didn't dare look towards Meiko. "Can we just drop it?"
Joe frowned at him and made a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat that made him think they were going to revisit this topic again in the future and Tai was not looking forward to it.
"Well, I for one, am proud of you," Izzy spoke up beaming at him. "Even though you can't go off anywhere by yourself for less than half an hour with getting into trouble—"
"Hey."
"Even though you were placed in a perilous predicament, you kept your head and didn't do anything stupid!"
"He's come a long way, hasn't he?" Matt chimed in seeing how uncomfortable Tai looked with the teasing.
"My big brother has really grown up," Kari commented with a mischievous smile.
"Shut up," Tai muttered, shifting his gaze to the side.
At least everyone had a good laugh at his expense.
"Oh, Mei-Mei, I'm sorry!" Mimi wailed, hugging her friend close. "I wanted you to have a good time at this festival and instead you get hauled off by this bushy-haired ruffian—"
"Hey."
"Then get robbed by some ghoulish barbarian! And your pretty braid came all undone," Mimi clucked, fussing over the strands that were spilling out. "Here, let me redo it."
Meiko pushed her friend's helping hand away. "It's alright. It's no good doing anything with it in this humidity. It just frizzes no matter what." She bowed deeply before them. "I want to thank you all for inviting me along. It's been fun despite everything. I'm going to treasure this experience because everyone here is someone important to me. I'll make every new memory with each of you a step forward to a happier future."
When she raised her head, her eyes were glowing warm and bright from the lighting of the paper lanterns, her mouth curved into what Tai thought was the first genuine smile he had seen that night. He could see her slight frame shaking from expressing herself so open and vulnerable as she had and squashed down the compulsion to put his arms around her. They weren't on the boat anymore and the last thing she needed was a shield from her own feelings.
"Mei-Mei!" Mimi chided her with one finger. "Don't act like we're never going to talk to you again after this. You're stuck with us forever!"
"Forever?" Meiko whispered, something raw and desperate in her voice as if she had never considered the possibility of remaining their friend for more than a brief time. Perhaps she still didn't quite believe it. Her eyes drifted to where Tai stood as if seeking his confirmation.
Tai shrugged, hoping no one could hear the mad pounding of his heart. "Like I said before, you're our friend no matter how far apart we are. You'll never be alone again, that's a promise."
oOo
A tanabata festival wouldn't be complete with writing their wishes down and tying them up, so after visiting the potted bamboo trees and tying their strips of paper to the branches, the children finally made their way to the meadow to try and get a better view of the fireworks.
The ground lit up under their feet from the craft of light in the night sky casting different shades of red, green, blue, purple and gold over them all. Mimi twirled Izzy dizzily about, dancing under the shower of colorful sparks that rained down. Matt and Sora had settled down, their hands clasped and heads pressed together as they watched the explosions overhead. Joe snapped a picture of a firework display that arched outward into the shape of a flower and tapped 'send' on his phone. He smiled fondly at the text that appeared a few seconds later. The younger kids kicked off their sandals and rolled around in the grass laughing like a bunch of kindergarteners, sending up a swarm of fireflies into the air.
Tai and Meiko stood a ways back taking the scene in, the silence stretched between them more comfortable than awkward.
"I'm sorry for ruining the festival for you, Meiko," Tai said. "You know with the boat ride and all."
"No," Meiko shook her head. "You couldn't know that would happen. This is the best festival ever. Meicoomon would have loved it."
There was no sorrow in her tone when she said her partners' name, just a quiet acceptance. She tilted her chin up to gaze at the multitude of exploding colors. Her hair had come completely undone on its own and draped thick and heavy over her shoulders now.
"When I said your hair looks better down... I didn't mean it didn't look good then," Tai blurted out suddenly. "I mean it always looks good. Ah, it's just… your hair is as dark as squid ink and smooth like silk!"
Meiko stared at him, her mouth hanging open a tiny bit. Tai resisted the urge to walk away and bash his head into the nearest tree. He only meant to apologize for sounding rude earlier, not for it to come out like some bizarre compliment.
Meiko's lips began quivering, her face scrunching up in a weird expression. Oh god, was she going to cry? Had he made it worse? How far was the river from here? Maybe it wasn't too far to throw himself in if he ran fast enough.
"I like it when we talk on the phone and how you think about me when you mention little things like the sunset or describing how your morning omelet tastes!" Meiko all but shouted at him.
Now it was Tai's turn to stare. "You like that? Wait, I was giving you a recipe on how to make an omelet, right?"
Please say yes, he thought, cringing inwardly.
Meiko's eyes were wide behind her glasses. "You said it tasted salty but crunchy because there were pieces of the eggshell still cracked in it."
Die, I want to die, Tai thought.
"I say stupid things a lot," he confessed. "Just thought you should know. It's because I don't think before I speak. Like right now."
Something ripped free from Meiko's throat—it sounded like the small tinkling of bells. It took a moment for Tai to realize she was laughing. "I d-don't m-mind," she gasped breathlessly.
He relaxed, the wild fluttering in his stomach dispersing. "Well, ok, but full out warning: I can go on twenty-minute soccer tangents and then switch gears to singing awful parodies of Matt's songs. I have no transition leading up to it and cannot stop myself."
"So you're saying…" Meiko paused, trying to read through the lines. "We're going to have longer conversations in the future?"
"If—if you'd like."
"I'd like to."
A louder explosion than the rest tore through the sky and they both lifted their heads in time to see the burning pieces of gold and purple form into a giant dragonfly began dissipating gently down.
"Tai! Meiko!" Mimi called, waving at them to come over.
They made their way over slowly, dragging each step out slower to stay as just the two of them for a bit longer.
"T.K. says there's a haunted shrine up the hill not too far from his grandma's. Wanna check it out tomorrow before you head home?" Tai asked, reluctant at the thought of her leaving so soon.
"Oh, yes!" Meiko gushed, clutching at the excuse offered. "That would be fun!"
"Finally," Mimi said as they joined the circle of their friends waiting for them. A sly tone filtered into her voice as her eyes darted between them. "What were you guys talking about all by your lonesome selves?"
"Nothing much," Tai said slipping next to Izzy and grabbing a wrapped daifuku sweet bun out of his bag. Breaking it in half, he popped one piece into his mouth, holding out the other half. "Want some daifuku, Meiko?"
It was only when he felt the piercing stares of everyone's gazes fall on him did he realize he had called her by her given name. He realized that he had started calling her that on the boat and hadn't stopped ever since—and Meiko hadn't corrected him for it either.
Even now, she didn't seem particularly displeased by him saying her name by the way she looked shyly at him from under her lashes and accepted his half of the sweet bun. His skin burned when her fingers brushed against his.
Mimi's wild screeching lit up the night as loudly as the fireworks.
It was music to his ears.
oOo
Meiko's wish: "I wish Tai to find peace and happiness in his life ahead."
Tai's wish: "I wish for Meiko to realize she is so much more than she thinks she is and how much her friends care for her."
Owari~
A/N: I finally got this out of my system. Sorry it took so long. I personally think Tai and Meiko make a cute couple. Of course, Tai is so damn shippable tho. Anyhoo, I personally, think I could have written this chapter better, but I'm tired of tinkering with it and want to get back to No Girls Allowed. Ohohoho, the Tai-angst train is thick in that one.
I actually had cut a whole scene out of this. I was gonna have Tai run into Oni again and jump him. But it didn't really fit in with the mood and it would have made the chapter drag on and was pointless bc this whole fic revolves around Tai and Meiko's feelings for each other that are starting to unfold. It's not even romance yet, it's pre-romance. They're getting there, they're just really slow. I wanted to scream like Mimi every five minutes writing them.
TL; DR here have a missing CRACK scene
Tai: Call an ambulance! BUT NOT FOR ME! *jumps Oni in crowd wearing normal clothes bc he recognizes his face without the mask and proceeds to beat the crap outta him*
Izzy: I AM VERY DISAPPOINT!
Davis: Get him, Taichi-sempai! Knock his brains out!
Tai: *gets hauled back to the festival security tent along with Oni*
Matt: *waving his gold credit card around* How much to bail him out?
Security Officer #1: *looking at the children who have descended on him* You all here for that unruly youth that jumped someone?"
Izzy: *very seriously* We have reason to believe the person assaulted was the proprietor of a boat mugging earlier this night.
Security Officer #1: Be that as it may, it is not up to citizens to take the law into their own hands. Your friend still pulled the first punch. Anyway, isn't that the same kid who got banned by all the gaming stalls earlier this evening? He's obviously a violent hooligan and we can't let him run loose.
Cody: *throwing down the law bc he is enraged at corruption of police*
Security Officer #2: *enters the scene; tells his rookie partner to shut up and go fetch him some coffee* You kids going home after this?
Matt: Yes, we swear.
Izzy: We will vacate the festival's premises as soon as possible. Just give us our idiot back!
Security Officer #2: My kid was on that boat. She was scared stiff of that masked brute. I woulda done the same if I saw his ugly mug again. Take your friend and leave.
End of CRACK scene.
Why are you still reading this? It's over. Go, shoo. Leave me and my depraved mind in peace. But if you want to tell me what your favorite part was, or what made you laugh, (was it even funny, I have trust issues with my muse), did I make you second guess on the plausibility of Meichi happening, please leave a comment.
I'll see everyone again in No Girls Allowed!