The Truth Part 2
by Cybra
A/N: You like this idea! You really like this idea! I feel so loved!!!
Disclaimer: :::checks the things that she owns::: Big ol' Star Trek collection, a Beta fish named Koushiro, Digimon trading cards, a lot of CDs, a clarinet...nope. I don't own Digimon.
Izzy's parents had gone ballistic when Izzy had told them about his near-drowning experience. The watch was in his pocket at the moment. That was his only clue to whoever had tried to drown him.
"Mom, Dad, it was probably a once in a lifetime fluke. I'm sure that nobody wants to kill me," Izzy argued, holding his hands up towards his parents.
The redhead had done well in hiding his shaking. The whole experience had unnerved him. However, Mr. and Mrs. Izumi were VERY serious about forcing him to stay at the apartment for a week, only allowing him to go out of the apartment for school. They didn't want to take any chances.
Finally, his parents let him go to his room where Matt, Junpuu, and Kyra were waiting. He flopped down in the chair in front of his desk. The three children were looking at him, perched on the bed like three gargoyles on a building.
"That went well," Kyra noted.
Izzy sighed. "I can't go outside for a whole week! I'm going to miss the jazz and blues festival on Friday!"
All that time in the Digiworld had not only given him a vast amount of knowledge on other dimensions, but introduced him to a new love of music. Junpuu had planted the seed originally when she had asked him to assist her in practicing for a talent show and that seed had germinated and grown under her watchful eye. Matt's playing on his harmonica had helped that love of music blossom fully. Izzy now owned a fairly impressive CD collection, all of those CDs were from different types of music.
"We'll bring a video camera," Junpuu reassured him, patting the boy on the back. Then, her eyes glittered mischievously. "Got any Bob Marley?"
"Leave. Be gone, foul demon," Izzy ordered flatly. Reggae wasn't his thing.
Kyra and Matt laughed. Then the older boy grew serious. He held out his hand, asking a silent question. Izzy reached into his pocket and pulled out the expensive watch, placing it in the older boy's hand. Matt examined the watch once more.
"From what I can figure out, the 'JC' are either the initials of a company or a name," Matt thought aloud.
"Exactly what I was thinking, Matt," Izzy stated, nodding his head in agreement to Matt's thoughts. "Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with the initials 'JC'."
They heard the doorbell ring. The group grew very quiet. It was almost like waiting for an evil Digimon to pounce and strike at them. Kyra silently cursed to herself that she didn't have any backup just in case.
'I may still have some of those powers, but they won't be enough,' she thought to herself grimly.
They heard the yelp of a stranger and a new voice say, "Junsa! Relax! It's just me!!!"
Izzy sweatdropped. Obviously, his mother had decided to try to attack whoever was at the door. The group of children walked out of his room to see a tall man standing there, his violet eyes wide as he stared at the shorter woman. Izzy let out a surprised yell as he saw his mother standing there with a frying pan raised. Mr. Izumi ran to the door and held his wife back.
"Honey, relax! It's only Satoshi!" He gave the taller man a nervous smile as Mrs. Izumi blushed and then walked back to the kitchen. "Sorry about that."
"It's all right, Osamu. Still, when did Junsa become an attack dog?"
"Since today, I'm afraid. I'll explain this as quick as I can..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Hotaru had been more than just extremely surprised at the site of a frying pan-wielding woman opening the door to him. However, she had the guts to raise the object as a weapon to a man who could've easily overpowered her. On the other hand, a concussion was something he didn't want.
Mr. Izumi lead him into the family room and offered him a seat...which Dr. Hotaru gratefully accepted. He set the small stack of books he was carrying on his lap, putting his hands on top of them to prevent them from falling.
His frown deepened as Osamu Izumi quickly explained how Kojiro's son had almost been drowned earlier that day.
"So somebody tried to hold him under?" Dr. Hotaru asked.
Mr. Izumi nodded. "All the kids with him confirmed it. The ones that saw it, that is."
Dr. Hotaru's eyes widened again, but then settled back to normal. That's when he spotted a bit of red out of the corner of his eye. He looked over in that direction to see a bit of red hair hide behind a corner. He looked up at his friend.
"Was that -?"
"Yes, that was. I'm sure he's curious as to who you are." Mr. Izumi sighed. "He can be curious to a fault."
Dr. Hotaru smiled widely. "I suffer from the same problem." He turned and said, "Come on out, Koushiro. I'm not that same guy."
Dr. Hotaru was surprised when a short, almost 11 year-old child stepped out into view. He had his head cocked to one side as he studied the much taller man. Another boy came into view behind him, a blond this time, that had a wary look on his face. Two girls joined them.
Dr. Hotaru raised an eyebrow. "You adopted more kids?"
"No, they're friends of Izzy's."
"'Izzy'?"
"A nickname someone gave him. It stuck." Mr. Izumi smiled as his son and his friends walked forward warily. "Izzy, this is Dr. Satoshi Hotaru; he's a scientist who studies the mind. He was also a friend of your father's...and your godfather."
Koushiro (or was it 'Izzy'?) sat down next to his father, the younger of the two girls perching up on the armrest next to him. The blond boy sat down between Dr. Hotaru and Koushiro while the other girl sat down on the floor in front of them. Her glasses slid slightly down her face which she angrily pushed back up. They slid right back down again.
Dr. Hotaru thought he heard her mutter, "I never win."
"Good evening, Dr. Hotaru," the redhead greeted formally.
The scientist forced himself not to jerk in shock. That was not what your average child said as a greeting. Inwardly, the man smiled.
'Of course,' he thought, 'Kojiro had been far from average in more ways than one.'
"I'm sorry to intrude on you all, but I decided to stop by and say 'hello'. I haven't seen any of you in a long, long time. The only way I found you was when a teacher named Miss Naru submitted the results of an intelligence test to us."
"Hey, Izzy! That's OUR teacher!" the younger girl exclaimed.
Koushiro looked upwards at his higher-elevated friend. "True. Obviously she had us take that test for Dr. Hotaru's research."
The girl rolled her eyes and commented sarcastically, "Obviously."
"So you're Junpuu Hino. I knew that face looked familiar," Dr. Hotaru stated with a smile. "A pleasure to meet you. And the rest of you are...?"
"I'm Kyra and sitting to your left is Matt," the girl on the floor said.
"A pleasure to meet all of you," the scientist said sincerely. Then, his face grew serious. "Koushiro, I have something important that I want to give you. It...well, they belonged to your father Kojiro Izumi."
Koushiro's dark eyes looked at him intently. The scientist lifted the books up and walked over to the young boy. He put them down next to him.
"These are journals written by your father. In his will, Kojiro requested that I keep them until I thought the time was right to give them to you. I wanted to give them to you sooner, but you all had moved from Heighton View Terrace and didn't leave a forwarding address."
Mr. Izumi shrugged. "We'd only been there for 6 months so we didn't see a point to it."
"Understandable." He turned his attention back to the boy. "However, I'm sure that Kojiro...um...your father would want you to have these now."
Junpuu glanced at her friend as he gently picked up one of the slightly-battered books and opened it. There was plenty of scribbles in there that had to be somebody's sloppy or hurried handwriting. He closed it and looked up at the scientist in front of them.
"Thank you, sir," Izzy told Dr. Hotaru.
The scientist nodded and smiled. "Well, I must be off. Call me sometime, okay, kiddo?"
The boy raised a red eyebrow but nodded. That's when Dr. Hotaru left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upon returning to the bedroom, Izzy began to flip through his father's journals quickly, skimming over the pages for something that Junpuu, Matt, and Kyra could only guess at. However, none of them dared disturb him. He was probably on the trail of something.
"Aha!" Izzy whispered to himself as he found what he was looking for.
He scribbled down on a notepad the name "Josephine Cleo". After flipping through the rest of the journals, he came up with the names "Jose Clarence", "Joseph Carlson", "John Clark," and "James Charles".
Matt noticed what his friend was doing. "That all of the 'J.C.' names in there?"
Izzy nodded. "They're mentioned several times in my father's journal which leads me to believe they might've, or might still be living, around here. Upon closer examination, I should be able to see how my father interacted with them."
"Smart boy," Junpuu said, nodding in agreement. "However, you should scratch off Josephine Cleo. First off, it was a MAN that held you under. Second off, she moved to the United States from what I read about her in the newspaper. She's an astrophysicist."
Izzy nodded and scratched off the woman's name. That left four names still on his list. Matt stood up.
"I'll go get a phone book."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Creepy place..." Junpuu commented as they walked up to Jose Clarence's home.
Kyra looked up at the run-down old building. It was just like those haunted houses you saw in the movies! Right down to the single window shutter beating against the side of the house in the wind. The girl gulped.
"Out of the four addresses, we had to pick the creepiest one yet," Kyra muttered, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
They walked across the unkempt, dead lawn to the door, they noticed a raven up in the tree gazing down at them. Junpuu made a quick decision.
"If it starts saying 'nevermore', make a run for it," she whispered.
Kyra stifled a laugh as she knocked on the door. It creaked open.
"Why do doors in creepy houses always have to do that?!" Junpuu asked while hiding behind her older friend.
"Chicken..."
"You're the one shaking, not me!"
A wrinkly old woman peered down at them.
"May I help you?" she asked quietly.
"Um...yes...could we please speak to Professor Clarence, ma'am?" Junpuu asked, stepping out from behind Kyra.
The woman's eyes narrowed, but she nodded. "He's out back."
"Thank you, ma'am."
When they finally made it to the backyard (they'd had to go around in circles to avoid tripping over numerous gopher holes), Kyra inspected the area. It was unkempt (no surprise there) with dead trees and a rusted old swing set. She put her hands on her hips.
"He's not out here!" she growled.
"Yes, he is," came Junpuu's quiet voice. "Turn around."
Kyra turned to be met with a tombstone which read "Jose Clarence. Good friend and loyal husband. 1920-1998." She looked confused.
"Where's the grave itself? All I see is the tombstone."
Junpuu's face was white. "You're standing on it."
Kyra jumped to the right and noticed the partially raised earth where she'd been standing. She paled as well.
"We're outta here!" she informed the younger girl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matt walked in two days later with the others to find Izzy reading one of his father's journals. He was squinting in order to make out the handwriting, but it was starting to get easier to read. Either his father's handwriting had gotten better...or his eyes were getting used to reading the sloppy writing.
"Hey, Izzy!" Tai greeted him cheerfully.
Izzy looked up to see them. He put a bookmark into his father's journal and set it down. Then, he turned his attention to his friends.
"Hey, guys! Did you learn anything?"
Joe sat down and took out a small notebook. He'd written down what everybody had found out about each person they'd interviewed "for a school project".
"Okay, first up is Professor Clarence. He's been dead for almost 2 years now and is currently buried in his backyard."
Izzy raised an eyebrow as Kyra and Junpuu both shivered.
"I stood on his grave," Kyra informed him.
Joe continued, "Dr. Carlson has recently won several prizes for his aid in forming complex equations needed to explain the traveling between Earth and the Digiworld. He's a mathematician. He WAS a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, but that was the same year that Professor Izumi won it instead." He paused. "When Tai and I interviewed him, he constantly tried to get us off the subject of that and other matters with your father."
Tai added, "He was a real weirdo, too. He constantly talked about how his nonlinear equation or whatever the heck it's called could create a way to make it easy to travel to other dimensions, like the Digiworld, without using Digivices or anything like them."
Izzy raised his eyebrow again at that.
"Okay...um...next is Dr. Clark, he's a physicist but deals mostly with quantum physics..." Joe began, but Mimi cut him off.
"Right now, he's living in a nursing home. He couldn't even remember what we were talking about half the time!"
"Yeah, it was kinda sad to see that," Sora said.
Joe continued, sighing slightly, "The last guy was Professor Charles, a mathematician. According to TK and Kari, he was bizarre as well."
"Yeah! He had an old picture of your dad, but it had a lot of holes in it so we couldn't see what he looked like," TK said apologetically.
Kari tactfully coughed to keep TK from babbling. "He doesn't like your dad very much. He said he used the picture for target practice by taping it to his dart board. Apparently, it's his favorite sport."
Izzy had visibly paled at that statement.
Tai either didn't notice or ignored that when he said, "Well that means Dr. Clark and Professor Clarence are off our list."
Matt was the next one to speak, "Okay, I did a little bit of homework myself."
Tai interrupted, "Yeah, I was wondering what you were doing while we were doing all the leg work."
"Believe it or not I was at the library, Tai, doing research." He left the room for a moment until he returned with a green backpack that was larger than TK's. "This is what I managed to find on the accident with your parents."
He opened the backpack and dumped out an impressive pile of notes and copied-off news articles onto the floor. The whole group's eyes widened.
"How'd you find all that stuff in a DAY?!" Tai asked.
"Easy. Izzy told me the date of the accident so all I had to do was find newspapers that covered the event."
Izzy picked up a newspaper article and shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't understand the logic in locating all this information on the accident, Matt."
Matt smiled. "Well, I had an idea..."
"Which means you DO think after all!" Tai interjected.
"SHUT UP, TAI!" Matt shouted before returning his train of thought back to what he was saying. "My idea was sorta based off your idea that whoever had tried to drown you knew your father."
Izzy nodded his head, silently urging him to continue.
"So maybe whoever tried to drown you had something to do with the car accident that killed your parents."
Matt watched as the already pale boy turned even whiter at the sound of that idea.
"You think that...the accident...was...PLANNED?"
The whole group was now on the edge of their seats. Matt tried to ignore the fact that about 9 sets of eyes were upon him as he nodded. Izzy's eyes were wide and showed off his realization of the same scenario Matt had come up with.
"So whoever...murdered..." he stumbled over the word, "my real parents tried to kill me."
"But why would that guy do that?" Joe demanded. "It makes no sense! Izzy didn't even KNOW he was adopted for about 9 years!"
Izzy's thoughtful voice cut through the arguing that followed.
"That man most likely doesn't know that. For all he knew, I could've read my father's journals and figured it out when I was older. He couldn't run the risk." His eyes widened. "And my parents may be in danger as well."
The team looked at each other. Kyra asked the obvious question.
"What do we do?"
Junpuu thought for a moment and snapped her fingers.
"We give this guy what he wants."
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: Oh! Me so evil! Oh! Me so evil! Oh! Me so evil! Me evil all day! :::looks at people staring at her::: I should shut up, right? :::runs away from the stares:::
by Cybra
A/N: You like this idea! You really like this idea! I feel so loved!!!
Disclaimer: :::checks the things that she owns::: Big ol' Star Trek collection, a Beta fish named Koushiro, Digimon trading cards, a lot of CDs, a clarinet...nope. I don't own Digimon.
Izzy's parents had gone ballistic when Izzy had told them about his near-drowning experience. The watch was in his pocket at the moment. That was his only clue to whoever had tried to drown him.
"Mom, Dad, it was probably a once in a lifetime fluke. I'm sure that nobody wants to kill me," Izzy argued, holding his hands up towards his parents.
The redhead had done well in hiding his shaking. The whole experience had unnerved him. However, Mr. and Mrs. Izumi were VERY serious about forcing him to stay at the apartment for a week, only allowing him to go out of the apartment for school. They didn't want to take any chances.
Finally, his parents let him go to his room where Matt, Junpuu, and Kyra were waiting. He flopped down in the chair in front of his desk. The three children were looking at him, perched on the bed like three gargoyles on a building.
"That went well," Kyra noted.
Izzy sighed. "I can't go outside for a whole week! I'm going to miss the jazz and blues festival on Friday!"
All that time in the Digiworld had not only given him a vast amount of knowledge on other dimensions, but introduced him to a new love of music. Junpuu had planted the seed originally when she had asked him to assist her in practicing for a talent show and that seed had germinated and grown under her watchful eye. Matt's playing on his harmonica had helped that love of music blossom fully. Izzy now owned a fairly impressive CD collection, all of those CDs were from different types of music.
"We'll bring a video camera," Junpuu reassured him, patting the boy on the back. Then, her eyes glittered mischievously. "Got any Bob Marley?"
"Leave. Be gone, foul demon," Izzy ordered flatly. Reggae wasn't his thing.
Kyra and Matt laughed. Then the older boy grew serious. He held out his hand, asking a silent question. Izzy reached into his pocket and pulled out the expensive watch, placing it in the older boy's hand. Matt examined the watch once more.
"From what I can figure out, the 'JC' are either the initials of a company or a name," Matt thought aloud.
"Exactly what I was thinking, Matt," Izzy stated, nodding his head in agreement to Matt's thoughts. "Unfortunately, I don't know anyone with the initials 'JC'."
They heard the doorbell ring. The group grew very quiet. It was almost like waiting for an evil Digimon to pounce and strike at them. Kyra silently cursed to herself that she didn't have any backup just in case.
'I may still have some of those powers, but they won't be enough,' she thought to herself grimly.
They heard the yelp of a stranger and a new voice say, "Junsa! Relax! It's just me!!!"
Izzy sweatdropped. Obviously, his mother had decided to try to attack whoever was at the door. The group of children walked out of his room to see a tall man standing there, his violet eyes wide as he stared at the shorter woman. Izzy let out a surprised yell as he saw his mother standing there with a frying pan raised. Mr. Izumi ran to the door and held his wife back.
"Honey, relax! It's only Satoshi!" He gave the taller man a nervous smile as Mrs. Izumi blushed and then walked back to the kitchen. "Sorry about that."
"It's all right, Osamu. Still, when did Junsa become an attack dog?"
"Since today, I'm afraid. I'll explain this as quick as I can..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Hotaru had been more than just extremely surprised at the site of a frying pan-wielding woman opening the door to him. However, she had the guts to raise the object as a weapon to a man who could've easily overpowered her. On the other hand, a concussion was something he didn't want.
Mr. Izumi lead him into the family room and offered him a seat...which Dr. Hotaru gratefully accepted. He set the small stack of books he was carrying on his lap, putting his hands on top of them to prevent them from falling.
His frown deepened as Osamu Izumi quickly explained how Kojiro's son had almost been drowned earlier that day.
"So somebody tried to hold him under?" Dr. Hotaru asked.
Mr. Izumi nodded. "All the kids with him confirmed it. The ones that saw it, that is."
Dr. Hotaru's eyes widened again, but then settled back to normal. That's when he spotted a bit of red out of the corner of his eye. He looked over in that direction to see a bit of red hair hide behind a corner. He looked up at his friend.
"Was that -?"
"Yes, that was. I'm sure he's curious as to who you are." Mr. Izumi sighed. "He can be curious to a fault."
Dr. Hotaru smiled widely. "I suffer from the same problem." He turned and said, "Come on out, Koushiro. I'm not that same guy."
Dr. Hotaru was surprised when a short, almost 11 year-old child stepped out into view. He had his head cocked to one side as he studied the much taller man. Another boy came into view behind him, a blond this time, that had a wary look on his face. Two girls joined them.
Dr. Hotaru raised an eyebrow. "You adopted more kids?"
"No, they're friends of Izzy's."
"'Izzy'?"
"A nickname someone gave him. It stuck." Mr. Izumi smiled as his son and his friends walked forward warily. "Izzy, this is Dr. Satoshi Hotaru; he's a scientist who studies the mind. He was also a friend of your father's...and your godfather."
Koushiro (or was it 'Izzy'?) sat down next to his father, the younger of the two girls perching up on the armrest next to him. The blond boy sat down between Dr. Hotaru and Koushiro while the other girl sat down on the floor in front of them. Her glasses slid slightly down her face which she angrily pushed back up. They slid right back down again.
Dr. Hotaru thought he heard her mutter, "I never win."
"Good evening, Dr. Hotaru," the redhead greeted formally.
The scientist forced himself not to jerk in shock. That was not what your average child said as a greeting. Inwardly, the man smiled.
'Of course,' he thought, 'Kojiro had been far from average in more ways than one.'
"I'm sorry to intrude on you all, but I decided to stop by and say 'hello'. I haven't seen any of you in a long, long time. The only way I found you was when a teacher named Miss Naru submitted the results of an intelligence test to us."
"Hey, Izzy! That's OUR teacher!" the younger girl exclaimed.
Koushiro looked upwards at his higher-elevated friend. "True. Obviously she had us take that test for Dr. Hotaru's research."
The girl rolled her eyes and commented sarcastically, "Obviously."
"So you're Junpuu Hino. I knew that face looked familiar," Dr. Hotaru stated with a smile. "A pleasure to meet you. And the rest of you are...?"
"I'm Kyra and sitting to your left is Matt," the girl on the floor said.
"A pleasure to meet all of you," the scientist said sincerely. Then, his face grew serious. "Koushiro, I have something important that I want to give you. It...well, they belonged to your father Kojiro Izumi."
Koushiro's dark eyes looked at him intently. The scientist lifted the books up and walked over to the young boy. He put them down next to him.
"These are journals written by your father. In his will, Kojiro requested that I keep them until I thought the time was right to give them to you. I wanted to give them to you sooner, but you all had moved from Heighton View Terrace and didn't leave a forwarding address."
Mr. Izumi shrugged. "We'd only been there for 6 months so we didn't see a point to it."
"Understandable." He turned his attention back to the boy. "However, I'm sure that Kojiro...um...your father would want you to have these now."
Junpuu glanced at her friend as he gently picked up one of the slightly-battered books and opened it. There was plenty of scribbles in there that had to be somebody's sloppy or hurried handwriting. He closed it and looked up at the scientist in front of them.
"Thank you, sir," Izzy told Dr. Hotaru.
The scientist nodded and smiled. "Well, I must be off. Call me sometime, okay, kiddo?"
The boy raised a red eyebrow but nodded. That's when Dr. Hotaru left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upon returning to the bedroom, Izzy began to flip through his father's journals quickly, skimming over the pages for something that Junpuu, Matt, and Kyra could only guess at. However, none of them dared disturb him. He was probably on the trail of something.
"Aha!" Izzy whispered to himself as he found what he was looking for.
He scribbled down on a notepad the name "Josephine Cleo". After flipping through the rest of the journals, he came up with the names "Jose Clarence", "Joseph Carlson", "John Clark," and "James Charles".
Matt noticed what his friend was doing. "That all of the 'J.C.' names in there?"
Izzy nodded. "They're mentioned several times in my father's journal which leads me to believe they might've, or might still be living, around here. Upon closer examination, I should be able to see how my father interacted with them."
"Smart boy," Junpuu said, nodding in agreement. "However, you should scratch off Josephine Cleo. First off, it was a MAN that held you under. Second off, she moved to the United States from what I read about her in the newspaper. She's an astrophysicist."
Izzy nodded and scratched off the woman's name. That left four names still on his list. Matt stood up.
"I'll go get a phone book."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Creepy place..." Junpuu commented as they walked up to Jose Clarence's home.
Kyra looked up at the run-down old building. It was just like those haunted houses you saw in the movies! Right down to the single window shutter beating against the side of the house in the wind. The girl gulped.
"Out of the four addresses, we had to pick the creepiest one yet," Kyra muttered, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
They walked across the unkempt, dead lawn to the door, they noticed a raven up in the tree gazing down at them. Junpuu made a quick decision.
"If it starts saying 'nevermore', make a run for it," she whispered.
Kyra stifled a laugh as she knocked on the door. It creaked open.
"Why do doors in creepy houses always have to do that?!" Junpuu asked while hiding behind her older friend.
"Chicken..."
"You're the one shaking, not me!"
A wrinkly old woman peered down at them.
"May I help you?" she asked quietly.
"Um...yes...could we please speak to Professor Clarence, ma'am?" Junpuu asked, stepping out from behind Kyra.
The woman's eyes narrowed, but she nodded. "He's out back."
"Thank you, ma'am."
When they finally made it to the backyard (they'd had to go around in circles to avoid tripping over numerous gopher holes), Kyra inspected the area. It was unkempt (no surprise there) with dead trees and a rusted old swing set. She put her hands on her hips.
"He's not out here!" she growled.
"Yes, he is," came Junpuu's quiet voice. "Turn around."
Kyra turned to be met with a tombstone which read "Jose Clarence. Good friend and loyal husband. 1920-1998." She looked confused.
"Where's the grave itself? All I see is the tombstone."
Junpuu's face was white. "You're standing on it."
Kyra jumped to the right and noticed the partially raised earth where she'd been standing. She paled as well.
"We're outta here!" she informed the younger girl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matt walked in two days later with the others to find Izzy reading one of his father's journals. He was squinting in order to make out the handwriting, but it was starting to get easier to read. Either his father's handwriting had gotten better...or his eyes were getting used to reading the sloppy writing.
"Hey, Izzy!" Tai greeted him cheerfully.
Izzy looked up to see them. He put a bookmark into his father's journal and set it down. Then, he turned his attention to his friends.
"Hey, guys! Did you learn anything?"
Joe sat down and took out a small notebook. He'd written down what everybody had found out about each person they'd interviewed "for a school project".
"Okay, first up is Professor Clarence. He's been dead for almost 2 years now and is currently buried in his backyard."
Izzy raised an eyebrow as Kyra and Junpuu both shivered.
"I stood on his grave," Kyra informed him.
Joe continued, "Dr. Carlson has recently won several prizes for his aid in forming complex equations needed to explain the traveling between Earth and the Digiworld. He's a mathematician. He WAS a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, but that was the same year that Professor Izumi won it instead." He paused. "When Tai and I interviewed him, he constantly tried to get us off the subject of that and other matters with your father."
Tai added, "He was a real weirdo, too. He constantly talked about how his nonlinear equation or whatever the heck it's called could create a way to make it easy to travel to other dimensions, like the Digiworld, without using Digivices or anything like them."
Izzy raised his eyebrow again at that.
"Okay...um...next is Dr. Clark, he's a physicist but deals mostly with quantum physics..." Joe began, but Mimi cut him off.
"Right now, he's living in a nursing home. He couldn't even remember what we were talking about half the time!"
"Yeah, it was kinda sad to see that," Sora said.
Joe continued, sighing slightly, "The last guy was Professor Charles, a mathematician. According to TK and Kari, he was bizarre as well."
"Yeah! He had an old picture of your dad, but it had a lot of holes in it so we couldn't see what he looked like," TK said apologetically.
Kari tactfully coughed to keep TK from babbling. "He doesn't like your dad very much. He said he used the picture for target practice by taping it to his dart board. Apparently, it's his favorite sport."
Izzy had visibly paled at that statement.
Tai either didn't notice or ignored that when he said, "Well that means Dr. Clark and Professor Clarence are off our list."
Matt was the next one to speak, "Okay, I did a little bit of homework myself."
Tai interrupted, "Yeah, I was wondering what you were doing while we were doing all the leg work."
"Believe it or not I was at the library, Tai, doing research." He left the room for a moment until he returned with a green backpack that was larger than TK's. "This is what I managed to find on the accident with your parents."
He opened the backpack and dumped out an impressive pile of notes and copied-off news articles onto the floor. The whole group's eyes widened.
"How'd you find all that stuff in a DAY?!" Tai asked.
"Easy. Izzy told me the date of the accident so all I had to do was find newspapers that covered the event."
Izzy picked up a newspaper article and shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't understand the logic in locating all this information on the accident, Matt."
Matt smiled. "Well, I had an idea..."
"Which means you DO think after all!" Tai interjected.
"SHUT UP, TAI!" Matt shouted before returning his train of thought back to what he was saying. "My idea was sorta based off your idea that whoever had tried to drown you knew your father."
Izzy nodded his head, silently urging him to continue.
"So maybe whoever tried to drown you had something to do with the car accident that killed your parents."
Matt watched as the already pale boy turned even whiter at the sound of that idea.
"You think that...the accident...was...PLANNED?"
The whole group was now on the edge of their seats. Matt tried to ignore the fact that about 9 sets of eyes were upon him as he nodded. Izzy's eyes were wide and showed off his realization of the same scenario Matt had come up with.
"So whoever...murdered..." he stumbled over the word, "my real parents tried to kill me."
"But why would that guy do that?" Joe demanded. "It makes no sense! Izzy didn't even KNOW he was adopted for about 9 years!"
Izzy's thoughtful voice cut through the arguing that followed.
"That man most likely doesn't know that. For all he knew, I could've read my father's journals and figured it out when I was older. He couldn't run the risk." His eyes widened. "And my parents may be in danger as well."
The team looked at each other. Kyra asked the obvious question.
"What do we do?"
Junpuu thought for a moment and snapped her fingers.
"We give this guy what he wants."
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: Oh! Me so evil! Oh! Me so evil! Oh! Me so evil! Me evil all day! :::looks at people staring at her::: I should shut up, right? :::runs away from the stares:::