Author's Note: Each chapter will focus on one of the Chosen as he/she deals with the situation. Because of that, the days/timeline kind of jumps around a bit. I'll post an updated timeline at the beginning of each chapter.

Day 1: Taichi is paralyzed following a battle in the Digital World. Jyou brings him to the hospital and has to explain to him his condition. Hikari and Sora arrive and Jyou takes them to see Taichi. Hikari faints and is brought to another waiting room. Sora almost faints and has to leave the room for air. When Yamato arrives, he sees Sora waiting outside Taichi's hospital room and they both enter.

Day 2: Mimi visits Taichi and finds him depressed and angry. She decides to throw a picnic to cheer him up. Sora goes to the Yagami's apartment later and hides as Taichi leaves in his wheelchair. She feels guilty and goes up to the apartment to wait for him. She and Hikari chat and Taichi comes back with groceries. He won't let them help him and Sora notices how distant he is to Hikari. As she leaves, Taichi follows, saying that he needs to go to the electronics store. Sora tells him to stop being so cold and he, almost reluctantly, apologizes.

Day 3: At the picnic, Taichi's still distant. He gets angry when the rest of the Chosen start talking about their future plans. Yamato calls Taichi a baby. Taichi leaves with Hikari running after him. Jyou explains why Yamato's insult was so offensive to Taichi. Sora makes Yamato chase after Taichi to apologize. Mimi doesn't understand why her picnic failed and Jyou told her that Taichi just needs to remember that his friends care for him.

Day 4: Mimi delivers a present of her homemade pork buns for Taichi, along with a note telling him that she's there for him. Taichi responds later via text to thank her. Yamato continues to try and apologize to Taichi, but Taichi doesn't answer any of his texts. Sora goes to talk to Taichi in person. She gets him to agree to talk to Yamato and then sees Taichi has thrown away his university brochures. He thinks his life is over and Sora argues, getting him to maybe go into politics. Yamato finally gets through to Taichi and gets him to agree to a meeting at a local basketball court.

Day 5: At the court, Yamato tries to convince Taichi that he can still do what he wants with his life. Taichi agrees to go into politics and, after some tough love from Yamato, starts to think about joining a physically disabled basketball team.

Day 6: Yamato tells Sora that Takeru thinks something's going on between Taichi and Hikari.

Fragments

Chapter 5 of 8

Takeru

Day 1

Hikari was crying when Takeru ran into the hospital waiting room. He had, of course, seen her cry before but never with such intensity. He watched her sob into Sora's shoulder with such a soul-shattering wail that he had to bite his lip to keep from crying himself. He glanced at Yamato who only shook his head slowly.

Takeru felt a pit open in his stomach. He swallowed, though his throat was dry. "Is it…is it that bad?"

Yamato motioned with his head and Takeru followed him to the corner of the waiting area, away from Hikari and Sora. "The Yagamis are talking to Jyou's dad right now, but Jyou told us that..." His brother took a breath, "…it doesn't look good."

Takeru nodded and approached Hikari. Sora gave him a weak smile and said to Hikari, "I'm going to see where Mimi and Koshiro are."

The younger girl sniffled and pushed herself away out of the older girl's chest. Sora excused herself and Takeru took her seat. "Hey, Hikari."

She sniffled again. "Oh, Takeru, how could something like this happen? What if…"

He shook his head and forced himself to smile. "No 'what if's,' okay? No matter what happens, Taichi'll pull through. You know how strong and stubborn he is. Everything'll be fine."

Hikari nodded. "Yeah, of course." Though she smiled, it seemed forced and she turned to stare down the hall.

Mr. Yagami soon arrived and beckoned his daughter to follow him to Taichi's room. Takeru felt a chill upon seeing the expression on the older man's face. He did not hear what Mr. Yagami said to Hikari when they stepped into the elevator but Takeru's blood turned cold at her shriek as the doors closed.

Neither he nor any of the Chosen, heard from the Yagamis for the next few days until Hikari told them via group text to meet her later that day at their usual meeting place beneath the nearby bridge. They all noted that Taichi was not with her.

Takeru would never forget how Hikari seemed to look each one of them in the eyes before stating, as if she were reading from a history textbook, "Taichi's paralyzed from the waist down. He's never going to walk again."

And then she burst into tears.

She had been out of school for the rest of that week and was only giving half-hearted answers to Takeru's texts. He was finally able to talk to her during lunch on her first day back to school.

"Things are okay, I guess," she said with a weak shrug, "We're getting through it as best as we can."

What else was he supposed to say? He couldn't just keep asking her that question day after day. So, he took a step back and gave Hikari and her family time to adjust to their new lives.

And then came the picnic.

Day 3

Takeru had been chasing after Hikari as she ran down the sidewalk. She, in turn, was chasing after Yamato and Sora, as they tried to catch up to Taichi. He was reminded of some only American cartoon he'd seen once.

The "Do Not Walk' sign came to life ahead of them with a red image of a hand palm. Hikari stopped at the crosswalk while their brothers and Sora vanished into the crowd in the distance. Hikari tugged on her purse straps and shifted on her feet. Takeru ran up beside her. "Hikari!" he panted, "Have you been training or something? You're so fast."

She smiled weakly. "You didn't have to follow me. I'll be able to get home on my own."

He shook his head. "No, that's not…" He breathed deep to catch his breath. His brother's angry comment to Taichi was still on his mind. "Yamato didn't mean what he said."

She shifted on her feet. "I know. I'm sure Taichi didn't mean what he said either. You're still his friends."

That had been Taichi's parting shot at them before he left. "Yeah, I know."

Hikari continued, "He's just got a lot to deal with right now."

Takeru nodded. "Yeah, I get it. I remember what Yamato was like when our parents divorced." He met Hikari's weak smile with one of his own, "I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that we're old enough now to understand why our brothers are suddenly so angry."

The overhead sign switched to a digital image of a green figure walking. Hikari glanced at the sign and then back at Takeru. She tugged on her purse strap again and chewed her bottom lip. Takeru blurted, "You need to think about yourself too. If you need to talk…"

Hikari nodded quickly and started running across the street. "Sorry, Takeru, I need to go.

He nodded and watched her race up the sidewalk on the other side of the street.

Day 4

Takeru poked his head into Hikari's homeroom but didn't see her at her desk. He approached a group of girls chatting by the window. "Do any of you know where Hikari is?"

Ayano, a girl with blond pigtails, shook her head. "No, sorry, Takeru, but she might be taking pictures for photography club somewhere."

He frowned. "She could be anywhere then."

Ayano blinked. "Oh, so, you see it too, huh?"

"What?" he asked.

Ayano hesitated. "Well, she really wasn't herself today. I mean, she hasn't been herself since her brother's accident but today seemed really worse. We tried to talk to her during break, but, well, it's clear she wants to be alone."

Another girl nodded. "And she disappeared during lunchtime."

So it wasn't just him. "She didn't answer any of my texts today."

Ayano nodded. "Yeah. She's really upset about her brother, I think."

Or it was something else. Takeru thanked them and walked out of the classroom. Something was going on with the Yagami siblings, and it was more than them just adjusting to Taichi's situation. Well, if Hikari wouldn't answer his texts, he should have just tried her again. Instead, he found himself heading to her apartment.

He walked into the main lobby of the apartment building and as he headed for the elevator, he saw Taichi gathering mail from the Yagami's mailbox. "Taichi!"

The older boy spun his chair around. The look of surprise on his face softened. "You sound just like your brother," he grunted.

"Yamato didn't mean it," he quickly said, "He didn't know the…um, extent of your condition."

"Well, not like he cared enough to ask, right?"

Takeru narrowed his eyes. "Taichi, that's not fair. Yamato wants to apologize."

Taichi snorted. "Yeah, well, I don't want to hear it." His face was stern, almost like stone, then it suddenly softened. He sighed and waved slightly at Takeru. "Sora was already here and she made me promise to talk to Yamato the next time he calls, okay?"

Well, it was a start. Takeru didn't say that, instead, he said, "Well, good. I love my brother, but I know that he can be a real pain, and sometimes...well, I think he just likes to press your buttons."

Taichi huffed with a smile on his face. "Yeah, you got that right." He regarded the other boy. "You here to see Hikari? Well, she's not home."

"Do you know when she'll be back?"

Taichi shrugged. "Don't know. She left for school this morning and that was the last I saw her."

He heard the tone in Taichi's voice. "Listen, I get that you're mad at Yamato, but what did I do?"

He flinched and looked at his lap. "Yeah, sorry," he muttered, "A lot is going on right now."

"Yeah, I get that, but-"

Taichi whipped his head back up with his eyes narrowed. "You gonna give me the same speech as everyone else? I'm not in the mood for some kind of everything's gonna be alright bullshit. Your life didn't get completely messed up, so don't try to tell me my life's gonna be fine."

Takeru squeezed his fist as he held back the desire to counter each of Taichi's arguments. He breathed deep and calmed himself. "Okay, I won't. All I'll say is that you don't know what tomorrow's going to bring if you're too busy looking at yesterday."

Taichi held up his finger with his mouth opened but whatever he was going to say died as he slowly lowered his finger. "That's, um, really deep. Where'd you hear that?"

He shrugged. "I probably read it on a fortune somewhere."

Taichi grunted and turned his chair around. "Well, nice talking to you. I need to get going."

Takeru wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not but he was sure he'd gotten through to Taichi. Almost, at least. He felt his phone buzz. It was a text message from Hikari. Sorry that I missed your messages. I had my phone on silent today. I'm taking pictures for photography club. Do you want to talk tomorrow?

Takeru spoke to Taichi. "It's from Hikari. She was at photography club and…"

The door elevator door closed with Taichi inside. He looked like he could have cared less.

Day 5

Takeru wanted to talk to Hikari during lunch, but he found her eating with Ayano and the other girls. She looked happy; laughing and smiling, so he didn't want to disturb her. He caught her during their afternoon break.

"Do you want to meet for ice cream or something?" she asked, "We can go to the new place that opened near my apartment."

Takeru nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Do you want to meet around 8 or something?"

He nodded.

"Okay then, it's a date," she giggled.

At five of eight, Takeru was waiting to cross the street to the right of the Yagami's apartment building. As he watched the countdown for the sign to change to walk, he saw Taichi push himself out of the building's front door. The older boy wheeled himself down the sidewalk in the other direction. Hikari emerged a second later and watched Taichi vanish in the distance.

Takeru trotted across the street. "Hey, Hikari."

She twirled around to face him. "Hi, Takeru."

He gestured in Taichi's direction. "Taichi's heading out?"

"Y-yeah," Hikari said, glancing back in her brother's direction. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I guess so."

She didn't know he was leaving, but they had to have both left the apartment at the same time. Did they took separate elevators? That meant Taichi didn't tell Hikari, or his parents, probably, he was leaving.

"So," Hikari smiled, "Ready to go? They've got this berry ice cream that tastes so good."

"Yeah," Takeru said. He started following her but he turned in Taichi's direction. "Yeah."

Day 6

Yamato called him early that morning. "I played a basketball game with Taichi last night."

So that's where Taichi went last night. Takeru rubbed his eyes and double-checked the time on the clock. "Yamato, it's barely 5 am…"

"I know. I've been too pumped to sleep."

Takeru yawned into his cellphone. "All right. Um, what happened?"

His brother spoke with an uncharacteristic enthusiasm in his voice, "I met Taichi last night. I apologized and then got Taichi to play a game of basketball with me. He didn't think he could at first, but I kept pressuring him until he made a basket. I pressured him about joining a physically disabled team and I think he's gonna do it!"

Takeru blinked. "T-that's great!"

"Yeah," Yamato said, "And Sora got Taichi to go into politics!"

"Seriously?" Takeru thought about Taichi leading the Chosen into battle, screaming insults at evil Digimon. He then pictured him a suit in the Japanese Diet, shouting insults as other representatives debated him. "Y-yeah, maybe…"

"Well, he seemed happy."

"Really?"

"Well, he was smiling when he left, so who knows."

Takeru chuckled. "I'll ask Hikari later. I bet she's gonna be so happy."

She didn't seem to be when he caught her at the school entrance. "Is anything wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head and smiled. "No, nothing. I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm fine," he said, watching as she exchanged her shoes at her cubby, "Um, how's Taichi after coming back from hanging out with Yamato?"

She blinked. "He was with Yamato yesterday?"

Takeru cocked his head to the side. "Yeah. Yamato told me about it before school."

She stared at him. She wanted to know what happened between their brothers. Why hadn't Taichi told her? Did he just not get a chance, or was it because, as Takeru was starting to suspect, the Yagami siblings were not on speaking terms anymore?

She continued to stare at him. Should he tell her? "Um, Yamato said he apologized and Taichi accepted his apology."

Hikari smiled slightly. "Well, that's good."

Takeru grinned. "Yeah, Yamato thinks that whatever Sora said to him really made a difference. She was the one that convinced him to go into politics. Great, huh? Taichi in government."

Hikari blinked. "Oh, y-yeah, that's great."

She didn't know that either.

Takeru and the rest of the Chosen all knew they had to be patient while Taichi dealt with his emotions. That patience seemed to have paid off for most of them: Mimi, Yamato, Sora, and now Takeru.

Yet something was brewing between Hikari and Taichi. What was going on between the Yagami siblings?

End Chapter 5