RETURNING NOTES
I should start by apologizing to everyone who started reading my story as I started writing a few years back. I was not in a good place, and I am still not in a good place right now. However, I do want to continue writing my stories in fanfiction and pursue writing on different platforms as well.
I do not wish to create another long explanation as to why I left and why I came back, so this is where I end my introductions and begin the story. I hope you enjoy chapter five of "The Crest of Origin 2."
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN DIGIMON.
CHAPTER 5
"Melody, why did I say that?" Taichi looked at Melody wide eyed. His hands were tightly clutching the phone. His back leaning on Melody's front door. His eyes were trailing off from Melody as he began to panic.
Melody grabbed Taichi by the shoulders and shook him vigorously.
"Snap out of it! We can't talk sense if you begin panicking!" she shouted. He looked at her bewildered but upon realizing his own actions, he stood up straight and took a deep breath. He collected his thoughts, waited until Melody had let go of him, and looked at her calmly assuring his now sane state.
"You should head home for now." Melody spoke. Taichi nodded in approval. Before he walked out, he turned towards Melody and asked, "Can I get your number?"
"Just in case?" she asked already knowing why he wanted to acquire it. Taichi just nodded. He offered his phone to her and she took it, typed her number in and gave it back to him.
"Thank you." He said as he walked out. Melody mouthed the words 'be careful' before she closed her front door.
As he got down from the apartment, he walked towards a different path; a path he now remembered was his shortcut to their old home.
"What am I doing?" he said as he laughed, noticing his own ignorance to directions.
He reached their old house and looked at the door. He felt something strange, his heartbeat slowed down. All of a sudden, he looked at the door and believed it was his current home. He looked like he was in a trance, slowly raising his hand towards the doorbell, assuming Hikari would open the door for him.
Inside the home, someone heard the buzzing doorbell. In a matter of seconds, the door was open.
"Can I help you?" asked the elderly woman.
Taichi was still in a dazed and confused state. Noticing that it was not in fact Hikari on the other side of the door, he tilted his head.
The elderly woman looked scared. She asked again, "Can I help you?" with a shaky voice. The fear reverberated in Taicih's head and he snapped back to reality. He looked around him confused. Feeling dizzy, he leaned on the post behind him. The elderly woman jumped at the sight and rushed towards Taichi.
"Young man, are you alright?" she said holding his hand comfortingly.
"Did you drink anything? Were you drugged?" her voice showing more worry. Taichi shook his head and chuckled a little. The elderly woman looked at him surprised.
"I'm sorry. I haven't been feeling well for a few hours now." He said finally gaining composure.
"I used to live in that apartment, ma'am. I'm so sorry I woke you up this late in the evening!" Taichi said bowing his head apologetically. The elderly woman smiled at him and asked him to stand up straight.
"Yagami… am I right?" she asked. He nodded.
"I met your mother a month ago. She was looking for her son, thinking he might have come back here after leaving home. I supposed that was you?" she asked reassuring Taichi she bore no ill will against him.
"Yes… I guess I'm the wayward son she was looking for."
"I guess you've gone home by now, am I right?" Taichi just nodded. He did not know why she was asking these questions all of a sudden.
"Good, better to keep your family from worrying any longer." She said and gave Taichi something from her pockets. It was a bronze whistle. His eyes widened.
"Where did you get this?"
"From a small boy who once lived here. It was the only thing left of this house. I think it's only fitting that I give it back to you after all these years."
Taichi walked back to their current house after bidding farewell to the elderly woman, placing the whistle in his pocket.
Before he tapped the buzzer, he remembered what the woman told him:
Better to keep your family from worrying any longer…
He had always thought about it. He knew that he had caused more trouble for his family and friends than any good. Why did he keep on returning to his reckless habits? Why did he present troubles for everyone with every decision he made?
He had not noticed that the door had opened at this point and that Hikari had been looking at him curiously.
"Are you alright, Taichi?" she asked, finally breaking the ice. Taichi had his head down and jumped at the sound of her voice.
"Hikari…" he remembered the events that had transpired a few hours earlier. That moment he forgot her own sister. A tear fell down his face as he smiled.
"Taichi, I-" before Hikari could finish her sentence, Taichi hugged her gently. It was not from fear, or worry, or dread, but from happiness and relief.
It was already three in the morning when Taichi got home. He slept almost instantly, forgetting to lock the door to his room. Hikari was drinking a glass of water as he went to his room. She had many things she wanted to ask him, but knew he would not respond to any of them if she pestered. With that thought, she went back to bed.
Hikari woke up the next day later than she used to. By the time she had got up and left her room, it was already noon. She walked past Taichi's room; the door was hanging open, with him not inside.
"Mom, where did Taichi go?" she asked, assuming he had left the house once again. She had been used to him just leaving without anyone knowing that she instinctively asked. Which was why she was surprised when she saw him in the kitchen.
"They left a few hours earlier." Taichi said, in a slightly relaxed tone. He was eating tonkatsu alone, the television playing the news.
"I left some for you. Thought you might be hungry." He said and continued eating.
Hikari sat next to his brother and watched the news. The anchor was talking about disturbances in cellular receptions. People losing contacts and not being able to send or receive messages.
"I'm sorry I went home late." He said as Hikari took a bowl and started eating the food he prepared.
"It's alright. You got home safely… that's all that matters." She said. She had been so eager to ask questions earlier in the day, but for some reason she could not get the words to come out from her mouth. There was just something from the way his brother was acting that made her feel like she did not want to know anymore. A sort of calming feeling. He was there, not injured, not sick. He was just there, with her. It felt reassuring. It felt… safe. She did not want this normality to end so suddenly. They have not had this much peace in ages. He took both of their bowls and placed them in the sink, humming a tune as he washed them.
Their telephone rang.
"I'll answer it." She said. Taichi thanked her and continued washing the dishes. Their parents had called, telling them that they were going to be late and that they should lock the doors early. Hikari sat back on her chair and watched a soccer game playing on tv. Taichi sat next to her and watched along. They spoke banter and commented on the game. Taichi happily remarked some moves he wanted to try out on their next soccer training.
After the game ended, Taichi stretched his arms and spoke.
"Did you want to talk about what happened last night?"
Remembering the disturbance that occurred last night, she pondered if she wanted to tell him or not. Why was she feeling this much contradiction? Why did she not want to end this peace? What was stopping her? Before she had time to speak, she felt a hand hold her head, moving it towards Taichi's shoulder, making her lean on it. She had not noticed her tears falling from her cheeks. Why was she feeling these things? Nothing bad had happened and yet here she was, comforted by her brother.
"Just let it all out. We can talk about this later." He said, caressing her hair in an attempt to calm her down. She cried on his shoulders, whimpering in the process.
Taichi brought her hot chocolate to drink. Hikari sat where she had been earlier.
"That was the most peaceful I've ever seen you be since that time with Origin." She finally spoke. Taichi just looked at her calmly.
"It felt so unreal… For a moment, it felt so relaxing. It felt like you were free. I… I didn't want to see you go back to being serious. I didn't want to see you obsessing about protecting other people, defending your friends, looking for clues. I… I wanted you to stay like that. Like a normal person." Hikari looked at her brother who had stayed quiet.
"Say something… Tell me I'm selfish for thinking that I could have a normal time with my brother. To imagine that for once, we weren't digidestineds." Taichi shook his head.
"We all have those feelings. We all want some peace. There's nothing wrong with what you're feeling Hikari." Hikari just stayed quiet.
"Even if we're not as normal as everyone would want us to be, it doesn't mean that we won't have peaceful moments like this. Sure, it won't be as often as we want it to be, but that's what makes them so special." Taichi said.
"I wish we had more normal times than hard times." She spoke.
"You know in your heart that that's not true." Taichi said.
"Without those hardships, we wouldn't have met our friends, our partners. We wouldn't be the people we are today. I got to see you grow up into this amazing person." She chuckled.
"Wouldn't you have wanted to have a normal life? Away from everything that happened to you… especially to you?" she asked.
"You know… I thought I did… but I would have never been who I am now if it weren't for everything that happened. I wouldn't have learned what I've learned if it weren't for all the pain and suffering… I wouldn't have been the brother that I've been… no matter how much of a failure I was at it." Hikari shook her head at that thought.
"You're not a failure. You're a pain sometimes, but you always had my best interest at heart." She said smiling.
"Thank you… Glad to know I did something right." They shared a moment of silence before being cut off by Hikari as she became more comfortable talking to Taichi about her thoughts.
"Why are you acting like this today?" he fell silent for a moment.
"Like you, I wanted to have some peace. After all that's been going on-" he paused for a moment and looked at his pulse area where the crest would appear.
"I just wanted to know that you're safe. I wanted to know that you're here with me, right now." those words reverberated in Hikari's mind. They were genuine, they were something she thought she'd never hear from his brother ever again. She hugged him tenderly.
"That's the most honest thing you've said in a long time, Taichi." Taichi rubbed her back comfortingly.
"I'll always be here Hikari, even when times get rough. I will always be here, alright?" Hikari nodded and she let go.
Taichi walked towards the living room where Hikari was, taking out her phone and showing him her contacts.
"Your phone number vanished last night. It hasn't returned since." She told him.
Taichi looked at it and input his number once more.
"The news earlier, the disturbance, you knew about it when you called, right?" Hikari asked.
"Yes. I had an inkling."
"Then, why didn't you tell us?"
"I needed to be sure." Hikari kept silent. Taichi noticed this and sighed. He sat down and returned her phone.
"There was something else that happened before I went home." He said.
"What happened?"
"For some reason I'm not very sure of myself, I had forgotten you." He spoke with a worried tone.
"Forgot… me?"
"Yes… for a brief moment, I completely forgot you. It- it was terrifying. I even went to our old home… and believed that we were still living there. I- I don't know why this is actually happening."
"Taichi-" Hikari cupped her brother's hand and made him look her in the eyes, "I'm not letting another bad thing happen to you again. Not this soon. We need to call Koushiro and the others." She spoke, frightful at the thought of her own brother forgetting her and determined to stop his troubles.
"We were planning on it." Taichi reassured her. "I am as determined to put an end to this before anything worse happens than any of you. However, we can't do this with just us."
"What do you mean?"
"We need more people. These disturbances happening between the networks, I'm all too familiar with it."
"You mean… you've dealt with it before?" he nodded.
"I may not know why my memory failed me yesterday, but this current, this feeling, my crest…"
"I thought Origin gave you that crest as a parting gift."
"He did… but he also gave a parting warning along with it."
He spoke of the night Hikari saw the crest after the battle. He saw a vision later that same night. A darkness that would consume the entire planet. It had no form, no figure, no signs. The digital world, completely vanquished, erased from existence. There, in the center of it all, was Taichi. Staring at the two dying worlds, he snapped back to reality and began his search for the original digidestineds.
"That vision, there was no mistaking it. Something diabolical is about to come after the two worlds."
"What is it? Who are we facing Taichi?" Taichi stared at her sister and looked at his Crest as he made it appear.
"The last enemy we faced as the original digidestineds." He clutched his fist and looked outside as the lamp lighting their pathway turned off.
"The Void."
END OF CHAPTER 5
