Deceptions of Truth Saga
By: Strata-chan
Note: Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. There have been certain issues, such as school and outside activities that have come up in my schedule and they take precedence over my writing. Not that anyone has been reading this story. *sweatdrops* Please read and review this story. Tell me what needs improvement or give me praises or flames for all I care at this moment. *begs* I'm in desperate need of knowing that someone is reading my work!
By the way, the lyrics sung later in this fic are from Sting's "Tomorrow We'll See". They're the words with the asterisks around them. ^_~ Also, for those of you that don't know what Murphy's Law is, it is, "Whatever can happen, will happen."
***
A thousand years, a thousand more,
A thousand times a million doors to eternity.
I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times
An endless turning stairway climbs a tower of souls.
If it takes another thousand years, a thousand wars,
The towers rise to numberless floors in space.
I could shed another million tears, a million breaths,
A million names but only one truth to face…
A million roads, a million fears, a million suns,
Ten million years of uncertainty.
I could speak a million lies, a million songs, a million rights,
A million wrongs in this balance of time…
Lyrics from "A Thousand Years" by Sting
***
'I-I can't see! Where am I?' That was the man's first thought as he opened his eyes for the first time in an immense void of nothing but darkness. He blinked to try and rid himself of the dreadful blackness that plagued his vision, only to find the same scene whether or not his eyes were open or closed. The man placed his arms out in front of him in an effort to gain a mental picture of his surroundings, only to find it futile to do so. Sitting down on the ground, the man only had one choice.
"What is this? Hello? Anyone there? Hel…" Something was now behind him, breathing its foul breath down his neck which reeked of filth with each ragged pant. Shivers ran down the man's spine as he felt a strong grip be placed upon his shoulder. It was neither the grip of a friend nor foe, but more of an unexplainable force that slowly pulled him closer. Panic that had once arose before was now calmed by this hand, though the peace did not seem quite right.
"What does thou desire?" A strange voice whispered into the man's ear ever so seductively. A finger slowly ran down his cheek in a straight line leading from his left eye to the bottom of his face. The man flinched at the action and pulled away only to be lured back by a feeling stronger than his own reason.
"What does thou desire?" The voice whispered once more into the other ear with an even higher level of seducement present within the tone. "What does thou desire? Dost thou not know? Thee knows, yes, thee knows. Denial…denial." The tone slowly came closer and close to the man, until he could not bear it anymore. It was like the voice had reached into his head and withdrew his deepest thoughts.
"What are you? What do you want? Where am I?" The man stood and turned to just face more of the endless nothingness that surrounded him. The breathing ceased and all went silent for a few enduring moments before a bright light filled the area, blinding the man with its unhindered illumination.
"Denial! Thou shalt not deny thy will! Speak! Speak!" The light pulsated with the ferocity of an untamed beast, constantly changing from dim to bright, bright to dim. The man had raised his arms in defense from the rays that were trying to penetrate his closed lids, only to find that they were slowly falling from their positions. Not of his own free will, his eyes opened to stare blankly at the blinding void set before him. The man's mind screamed for him to shut his eyes once again, but ceased once it discovered that the light was not intended to harm anything.
"Speak thou's will and thee shall grant thy desire. Speak! Make thou's wish known to all." Laughter filled the world as a figure slowly appeared in the distance. A contrast against the bright light, the figure's cape flowed through a non-existent wind. It looked at dark as the midnight's glow as did the rest of the figure's attire. It was like tie has created a warp just to allow this thing to emerge from the light. The man watched with a blank look inside of his eyes, following a strange pull that told him to go forward. The two met at a point within the surrealistic scene and for some time, they just looked into each other's eyes. Black into piercing blue, blue into infinite black…
"What does thou desire? One must know…" A hand was placed upon the forehead of the man, who did not flinch in the least this time, but rather smiled at the action. "One sees much suffering. Good…good…" The voice trailed off and the hand was removed from its place. The man still held a blank look upon his face as he realized that the pleasurable sensation he had just felt had disappeared. A finger was raised from the figure cloaked in black and it was traced upon the side of the man's pale complexion on his face. He closed his eyes in silence as the captivating sensations returned, not knowing what the true intention of the figure was.
"Thou desires the Chosen." The voice was no longer whispered, but spoken in a deep monotone voice that would have sent fear directly into the hearts of any aware being. The finger pulled away from the man's face and was raised to deliver a striking blow to his face. His eyes snapped open, rid of their previous unemotional stare, and his hands were raised to his face. Blood slowly seeped though his fingers as his hands shook vigorously. He pulled them away to find that his hands had turned to a horrid crimson color. With a pleading look, the man looked up into the figure's face, only to be struck down again by another blow. When he rose, two gashes could be visibly seen in the formation of a cross upon the man's face, causing the ominous figure to laugh.
"What…what are you? What have you done?" The man crouched down on the ground in agony as he clutched his disfigured face.
"Thou desires the Chosen. Thou's desire 'tis be forbidden, therefore thou shalt be chastised by thee." The figure slowly approached the helpless man crouched before him and flipped him on his back.
"Thou's desire 'tis forbidden." The seductive tone had once again returned, but the soothing effect has ceased to be and was replaced by a tone of anger. The last word rang within the man's mind repeatedly, like an endless echo throughout a canyon.
"Thou's desire is FORBIDDEN!" The thundering noise rang throughout the void with ease and caused the entire world to tremble in its wake. The figure disappeared and was replaced by a cloud of ashes the clogged the air, making the man's breaths raspy and brief. Standing up against the storm, he stumbled through it while frantically clutching his wounded face. He tripped over unknown obstacles that suddenly rose in front of him and finally fell a few feet away from where he had began. Stretching out a shuddering hand, the man's lungs slowly filled with the ash until he finally suffocated to death…
***
Jyou gasped in horror and sprung up within his bed in a cold sweat. His eyes were wide open and were darting from space to space, assuming for some semblance of the dream to reappear to haunt him once more. Raising a trembling hand to his forehead, Jyou felt the droplets fall across his fingers and that his lungs were frantically gasping for more air.
"Just a dream, that's all. Just some chemical reactions in the nerves of the brain, Jyou. You know that. It wasn't real…" Jyou repeated those words to himself, thinking that knowing the logical explanation for this would make it leave his mind. Though, for some reason, the thoughts refused to disappear. The blindness….the light….the shroud of death…. "Man, I have got to stop worrying so much. You know it was a damned dream, Jyou! Dream! D*R*E*A*M!" Jyou ran his hands through his hair and in frustration, threw himself down upon the pillow again. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and reached for the clock that was beside the bed.
"4:45AM. Stupid mind. Always screwing everything up, including my sleep…" Jyou sighed, pulled himself out of bed and looked out the window at the moonlight forest around him. He saw a couple of creatures scurry from the underbrush and stare at him for a few moments before scrambling back to their concealed hiding places as to not be caught by a wandering predator. Jyou sighed once again and looked at the moon, which was quite bright that night since it was full.
'What if what I saw is real…what if this entire place becomes a wasteland…quit being a moron. Things can't just disappear like that. Besides, law protects this area…' Jyou thought as he pushed away his doubtful feelings about his logic. 'You gotta quit doing this to yourself. Sooner or later, you will go crazy if you don't. I mean, sudden dust storms? Things that control light and dark? It's just plain stupid,' Jyou thought to himself as he turned towards the darkened corner of the room where the bed sat. He turned away from there and gazed upon a picture that was taken right after everyone had left the Digital World when the last great evil had been defeated.
"This is a treasure. I wish I had a copy of this. By the way, why didn't I get a copy of this? Hey! I have my back turned! Those scoundrels…taking a picture while I have my back to the camera," Jyou said to himself as he looked at the photo. 'Well, at least Koushiro was trying to get my attention. Humph, I'm surprised that Yamato and Taichi weren't clobbering each other or something. I guess they kind of grew up. It certainly took them long enough. I just hope…'
'FORBIDDEN!' A booming voice filled Jyou's mind with sound, causing him to lose all semblance of reality and his thoughts. The fingers that were gripping the picture loosened and the frame dropped to the floor with an echoing shatter…
***
Crash. Yamato woke with a start as the mysterious sound filled his room. Listening for moment, he tried to discern where it had come from, only to yawn sleepily and lay back down. "I better get the terminator here again. The roaches are back…" he mumbled sleepily as he nodded back off to sleep.
***
'I'm all alone in here. Just me and the darkness. Boy, what a way to end up,' Koushiro sulked as he sat and watched the image of the Earth rotate in front of him. 'Well, I must find something to do here otherwise I'll go insane. Hmmm…is it really possible for one's mental image to go insane while trapped in the mind? Seems impossible, yet maybe…I guess I'll be the first to test that theory. Not that anyone really cares, but hey! It's something positive to think about.' Koushiro gave a slight chuckle only to have it shot right back at him at a louder volume. Startled, he jumped from the spot he was in and looked around frantically for the source of the voice. After a few moments of dead silence, Koushiro relaxed and laid himself down upon the ground.
'All this crazy talk is making me nervous. Have to stop scaring myself. Great. Now, I'm ordering myself to do things.' Koushiro ruffled his right hand through his hair and slightly pulled at it. 'What am I going to do?' Koushiro gave his hair a tug again and looked at the rotating globe again. The darkness that had surrounded it while that…thing had been controlling it. In fact, it now seemed like nothing had ever taken place. Koushiro sat up and gazed at the blue sphere longingly, wondering how it worked. He slowly reached his left hand out towards it while still holding his hair within the grasp of his right. Instead of touching a solid object, Koushiro's hand passed right through, as if there was nothing there at all. He pulled his hand back suddenly and examined it closely.
'Hmm…the matter isn't solid and doesn't seem to have done anything to my hand. Therefore…' Koushiro's thoughts were interrupted as his hand began to glow a strange blue color. 'Wha…? What's this?' Koushiro removed his right hand from his hair and traced his finger along the glowing substance. 'I wonder what this could be? Some sort of radiation? Is it toxic? How does it make that sphere stay together?' Koushiro wiped his hand upon the ground and rose from it once again. His eyes gazed upon the liquid for a few moments before turning towards his objective, but while walking towards the sphere, Koushiro noticed that the substance was slowly flowing back towards it, flowing like a miniature river. Then, he watched as the liquid levitated from the ground and was slowly fed back into the globe.
'Fascinating,' Koushiro thought as the last of the liquid enter the globe and become a part of it once again. It suddenly flashed with a bright white light, which blinded Koushiro for a few moments. Covering his eyes while squinting them, he slowly paced further towards the sphere. When he had finally approached enough, Koushiro reached out a hand towards the sphere, only to have some sort of barrier prevent it from reaching the surface. 'That's strange. I guess the thing adapted so that it wouldn't have to repair itself because of the same disturbance. Prodigious…' Koushiro stopped for a few seconds. 'Where'd that word come from? I've never even heard of it before, but it strangely seems right for me to use it. Prodigious…yeah, prodigious.' That word repeated itself in Koushiro's mind, as if it was trying to register itself permanently inside of it.
'Oh, come on. It's just a word. Nothing important can come from it.' He shook his head and walked away from the globe, but stopped suddenly when the steady light began to pulsate. 'What the…What's going on,' Koushiro thought as he turned around. Instead of being greeted by a blinding white light, it had strangely turned a midnight blue hue and a sound that imitated a beating heart. He raised an eyebrow and walked over to the sphere, only to be repelled away again. 'Damn. Its defenses are still up. I can't do anything until it lets me touch it.' Just then, as if it was reading Koushiro's thoughts, the pulsating suddenly stopped.
'Umm…why'd it do that,' he thought while bringing a hand to his chin. 'Oh well. There's only one way to find out what it really is…' Koushiro slowly brought a hand towards the sphere and placed extremely close to the surface, but was not touching it quite yet. 'Here goes nothing.' He closed his eyes tightly and quickly shot his fingers inside, hoping that no pain came from it. Koushiro felt nothing, so he wiggled his fingers around, yet nothing occurred once again.
'At least I know it's safe. Hmm…I know there's liquid in here, but strangely enough, it feels like there's nothing here at all. It's like a vacuum…nah. Vacuums are plastic tubes or the vastness of space, but a vacuum inside of a liquid is physically impossible. I mean, the physics of it all…' Koushiro trailed off as he faintly heard voices in the background. He pulled his hand away, thinking that someone was trying to attack him from behind, but once it was removed, the voices could no longer be heard. 'Peculiar…I could have sworn I heard somebody…' Koushiro turned back around to face the sphere. With less hesitation than last time, he placed his hand through the liquid wall and into the center of it. Again, Koushiro heard the same voices, only they were now louder. Instead of removing his hand, Koushiro slowly closed his eyes and listened intently to them.
Instead of hearing a single conversation, Koushiro managed to pick up on several conversations at once. It was like random thoughts were being thrown at him from all directions.
"Why can't mommy let me go to the park?"
"How much longer is this day going to last? I'm bored outta…"
"Je m'appelle Louis! Comment allez-vous?"
"My, what a beautiful day. I feel like going out and…"
A smile broke upon Koushiro's face as he heard several of these random lines all meshed together in one giant chorus of voices. 'I wonder where these voices are coming from. They can't be from me, can they?'
"'To be or not to be..' Ugh, this stuff is so confusing…"
"Why is the sky blue? Is the sky really blue, or is that just how the mind sees it…"
"I swear, if I don't get that raise, I'll kill him. I'll do it…"
"Here we go 'round the mulberry bush…mulberry bush…"
"Ha! This time, this sucker's going down. Bye bye forest and hello resort complex…"
"I sure hope…"
"…the Chosen…"
"Thou's desire is FORBIDDEN!"
Koushiro's hand suddenly pulled back as he covered his ears, but the reverberation of that last word refused to cease. His head swayed from side to side, yet the sound refused to stop. 'Oh, the sound, make it stop, please make it stop…' Koushiro clumsily sat down on his knees and placed his elbows down on the floor, slightly trembling with each breath. After a few moments, the noise dwindled to a small whisper, allowing Koushiro to get his bearings once more.
'Now, how'd that happen? What was that? Whose desire is forbidden? What's forbidden,' he pondered while slowly uncurling himself.
***
Jyou had been slowly rocking back and forth on the bed for several moments while covering his ears in a vain attempt to block the sound from entering his ears. Even though it seemed to make the situation worse, he continued until the voice had slowly faded away into oblivion. Finally being able to relax, Jyou took his hands away from his ears and took in a deep breath.
'What was that? Oi, my head hurts now. Aspirin…I need an Aspirin. Where am I anyway?' Jyou thought as disorientation settled in. 'Oh yeah. Yamato's place. I wonder if he has any medication for headaches.' He slowly stepped off the bed, only to suddenly jerk his foot back up onto the bed. 'Ow…what's on the floor?' Jyou looked over and found that several shards of glass had been shattered all over one side of the room. In concern, he looked at his foot to find that one of those shards had inflicted a gash on the bottom of his foot.
'Well, Murphy's Law strikes again,' Jyou thought as he grabbed some medical supplies that he always seemed to keep by a bed in case some emergency came up. 'If anything harmful that comes out of the unordinary exists, it will always come to me first. Good ol' Murphy. Yeah right. Curse Murphy and his idiotic law,' he thought as he wrapped his foot with some bandages. After some grumbling, Jyou finished bandaging his injured foot and pulled himself to the other side of the bed. For a precaution, he looked around the floor before placing his feet there as to avoid another gash in them. The weight of his body caused some slight discomfort, but other than that, Jyou was able to walk perfectly fine. He slowly paced over to the left side of the room, where the shattered glass lay on the floor.
"What a mess…I guess I have to clean it up," he mumbled to himself as he walked towards the kitchen. "Yamato better have a dust pan…though it looks like he doesn't or he doesn't use it very often," Jyou muttered as his toes brushed against the edge of the wall, picking up lots of dust in the process. "This place could be festering with disease and he wouldn't even notice…figures that I'd get stuck here. For all I know, I could have already caught some type of unknown disease from this house…why am I being so pessimistic again? I thought I got over that a while ago. Hmm…I guess he was right. I worry too much about idiotic things that don't need my concern, but there's just so much that could happen…stop the pessimism…just stop saying that everything in the world is out to get you. Nothing's going to happen…" Jyou muttered while bending down to reach the cupboard underneath the sink. Before grabbing what he needed, Jyou paused for a moment.
'What am I doing here? I should be looking after Koushiro, but what am I doing? Looking for anti-septic and a dustpan. This is ridiculous! I shouldn't even be here!' Jyou took his hand out of the darkness beneath the counter and quietly shut the doors of the cupboard. He made a determined look and began to march out of the room, when he suddenly slowed and stopped. 'Well…on second thought, maybe I should clean up that mess. It would be rude of me to just leave it there and everything…' Jyou stopped for a second and sighed deeply and headed back to the cupboard. 'Well, there goes my determination. How pathetic can this get?'
***
'Forbidden…what was forbidden? It's all so confusing. Mainly, how was I able to hear others' thoughts? Those were people's thoughts, weren't they?' Koushiro rose from the floor and looked around the void in an attempt to find the sphere again to see if he could test it once again, only to find that it had disappeared. 'Great…now, I'm stuck in a dark void with nothing to do. Well…' Koushiro sat down and began to hum a tune.
*"Don't judge me…
You could be me in another life,
In another set of circumstances.
Don't judge me…
One more night I'll just have to take my chances,
And tomorrow, we'll see…"*
"Don't judge me…that's good advice. I wonder where I've heard that song before. Have I really heard it before, or am I just making stuff up to keep myself occupied?" Koushiro shifted a bit and looked around in the darkness and then closed his eyes. "Hmm…no difference…There has to be something that provides light around here…" Koushiro leaned over and started crawling on his hands and knees while still humming the tune. After a few moments of seemingly going nowhere, Koushiro's head bumped against something. He stood up and felt his way along the wall, hoping to find the exit of the void.
"So, I see you have reached the barrier of the unknown. I knew you would eventually. It is all around you after all." Koushiro stood up suddenly and looked around the area, fearing that the source of the voice was a hostile force.
"Who's there? Are you too cowardly to show yourself? I'm not totally helpless!" Koushiro took a battle stance while still frantically looking for the speaker. 'That's all I need…to be totally blind while being assaulted by another freak.'
"There is no need to fear me. You should remember who I am…I'm Nanako."
Koushiro relaxed for a moment so he could bring his hand to his chin. "Nanako? Nanako…nope. I don't know any people named Nanako. Are you someone that is important for me to remember? Is this name thing more important than you telling me what this 'unknown' is? Koushiro raised his eyebrows while speaking and pointed to the darkness beyond the barrier.
"No, I guess your remembrance of my name holds no significance to you, but it does to me. It shows that you are already forgetting all that has happened before and that the outside world is fading from your mind…"
"I haven't forgotten the outside world! I haven't forgotten the noise and all of the evil that exists there. I haven't forgotten the ignorance and filth either. That's all that lies out there. It's so quiet and peaceful in here…and the only was the peace can be disturbed is by me, and only me. This world gives me control of everything without anyone questioning if I'm right…or wrong…" Koushiro trailed off as Nanako silently shook her head.
"You are still part of the outside world and you are a coward for saying such nonsense. What do you rule here? Do you wish to sit in darkness forever and never associate with anything ever again? Is power truly that important to you?" Nanako slowly walked closer to Koushiro. "I do not think that's what you truly want…"
"What is with all you people and trying to tell me what I want and what I don't want? I determine that for myself and I DON'T need anyone else's help. All I want to know is what is beyond this barrier and that's all. No more, no less."
Silence.
"Hello?" Koushiro squinted in an attempt to see if Nanako was still present, but everywhere looked the same. "Humph. I'll just have to find out for myself." Koushiro slightly touched the wall, just to make sure that it was still present, and then hit it hard with his fist. He found that the wall itself was quite solid, as he suspected, and Koushiro clutched his fist as it throbbed with pain from the impact. He then felt the spot he hit, only to find that not a single dent has been made in the barrier. He thought for a moment and then decided his only option was to body slam into it. Taking a few steps backwards, he prepared himself for the pain of the impact only to be stopped by a grip on his shoulders.
"It cannot be broken by force and it is futile to try and do so. Even if you were able to cause damage, the wall would just repair itself within a matter of moments," Nanako told Koushiro as he was struggling to get out of her grasp. "I can't tell you what is beyond there because you are not ready for it. When you are ready, then you will be sure to know what is beyond this wall…"
Koushiro broke away from the woman's grasp. "I'm not ready for what? All you have to do it tell me what is beyond this wall, not show me. I'm ready for that aren't I?"
Again, silence.
"Fine! If you won't tell me that, then what was that ball of liquid that I saw earlier and where did it go? Am I 'ready' to know that," Koushiro questioned in a sarcastic tone. He shifted his weight to his left leg as he waited for a response from the woman, only to be greeted with more stillness. "Am I ready to know anything? Hmm? That's what I'd like to know right now…"
"That sphere was your link to the outside world. You could have left this place if you had willed it to be so, since you truly do control everything is this space…"
"Then how come I'm 'willing' this wall away, only to find that it is still standing in front of me?" Koushiro leaned against the barrier and gave it a solid pat to prove its existence.
"I have not finished answering your first question. You must have patience. Those who have the patience to look for an answer to a puzzle will eventually find the answer they are searching for in the end." Nanako paused for a second. "The reason the sphere disappeared was because you wished it to be so. Not just as a command, but in true feeling as well. It's true with everything in this space. You may be able to control everything here, but your commands must be enforced with the power of your emotions as well." Nanako sighed and closed her eyes, bot noticing the look of confusion that Koushiro has on his face.
'So, wait a second. I 'willed' that ball to go away, therefore cutting my link with the outside world? I didn't even tell it to leave, so how could my emotions back that command?" Koushiro crossed his arms and closed his eyes while leaning against the barrier. "I'm backing my will for this wall to leave with my emotions and it's not moving."
"Just because you don't remember thinking a thought does not mean that you never thought it. It was more of an instinctual move than anything else. That is the type of emotion any command requires here because that's the type of passion that it at its fullest power. The emotion you feel right now is logical and not instinctual, therefore the barrier cannot possibly move. Also, the barrier is not within the domain in which you are imprisoned." Koushiro blankly stared.
"What do you mean, 'not in my domain'? Is there a domain to this now?"
"Oh course there is. You are in your own mind after all. Where did you think you were? A whole new dimension? This is why you have the ability to control what happens, but the mind itself is limited. No one has complete control of their mind and probably no one ever will accomplish this full discipline…"
"Well, of course not. The brain is 90% unused after all. It seems to make perfect sense, doesn't it?" Silence. "Nanako?" Koushiro opened his eyes wider in an attempt to peer through the darkness, only to end up rubbing them due to the dryness that followed. "Well…" Koushiro said as he turned towards the barrier, "…it's just you and me. Now, do I really want to get that gate back? Do I really WANT to go back there," Koushiro pondered as he stared into the darkness. "What really is there? Besides, I have the power to do what I please here. I'll get used to the darkness, eventually…"
Meanwhile, far off in the distance, Nanako watched from above as Koushiro made his decision. Hearing his words, she slowly descended to the floor, where she stood in silence, but her mind was far from silent
'That is not what I thought you would say...' Nanako pulled a strand of hair from her face. 'Has the darkness already made you forget who and what you have left behind?' She slowly turned away from Koushiro, crossed her arms and began to walk away, only to bump into another barrier. Placing her fist against it, Nanako cursed all that had occurred. 'Damn Fate…why can I not change your incorrect decisions when I believe differently? Am I just your minion, as everyone else is, to do your bidding without question? Should I believe that it will all work out in the end? Not this time…not now…' With those words, Nanako vanished from the darkness of the void, murmuring the tune she had heard earlier.
"Don't judge me…
One more night I'll just have to take my chances,
And tomorrow we'll see…"
'Yes…tomorrow, we shall see…'
***
"How long is this going to take? Me and my stupid responsibility about everything. I make a stain on the rug, I have to clean it up. I break something, I have to pick up the pieces. There are more important things to do right now that clean up this mess, but no…I have to be Mr. Reliable and fix everything…" Jyou grumbled while meticulously picking up every shard of glass from the broken picture cover. He had been cleaning for over two hours, making sure that every small shard had been removed from the floor. Finally, after all of his painstaking work, he had finished, leaving the floor even better than he had found it. "Now, I can finally leave…" Jyou stopped as he heard a door open and close from the other room. "What's that…" he said while looking at the clock.
"Who could be coming at this time of the morning? A burglar?" He looked around the moonlit room for something that could be used as a weapon, but he didn't find anything…besides an old pair of shoes in the corner. "Well, they're better than nothing," Jyou mumbled as he grabbed the boots and slowly opened the door. He found that the hallway was still completely dark, therefore causing him to stumble over the rug every few steps. That's when a voice came from the other room.
"Where is that darn light switch? I know it was around here somewhere…" Then, a crash was heard as well. "Owww….damn couch. He should put it somewhere else so people won't slam into it when looking for his light switch…"
Jyou stood silently for a moment and then continued his approach in a more stealthy manner. Upon reaching the closed door, Jyou placed his ear against the wood and listened for any more disturbances, only to find that the room had gone dead silent. 'Hmm…that's strange…' he thought as he took his ear away. 'Maybe I was just imagining things…' Just then, another crash resounded from behind the door. 'That's it! I'm going in.' Jyou raised his "weapons" and crashed through the door shouting.
"Ah ha! I've caught you red-…" He stopped once his body collided with something hard. "..-handed…ouch…" Jyou rubbed his head as he sat on the floor and waited for a response to his outburst, only to get a muffled response from something beneath him. "Oh my…" Jyou got up off of the person and brushed himself off. "Hey…umm…why are you in here? If you're trying to take anything, I'll…"
"Yamato, as soon as I find the energy to get off of this floor, I'm going to kick your ass to the moon! I told you that I was coming over early today so we could get some…" The man trailed off as he looked up into Jyou's face. "Wait…you're not Yamato…" He picked himself up from the floor and made sure to get a closer look at Jyou's face. "Oh…sorry Jyou. I thought that it was a bit early for lazy Yamato to be up. What are you doing here? It's been so long since I last saw you." Jyou went to adjust his glasses so he could see the person better, only to find that he had forgotten them in the bedroom.
"Who are you? What are you doing here and how do you know me? Are you a stalker or something???" The man gave Jyou a strange look and took a deep breath.
"Well, you're Jyou all right. Go get your glasses and you figure out who I am. I don't think it'll be all that hard."
"Fine! I will then…" Jyou turned around, only to be met by the wall. "Who put this here? Darn walls…" he mumbled as his hands fumbled along the wall for the doorknob. "Here it is. Yamato's house is so confusing. How much was this place? The cheapest he could find?" Jyou's voice became more distant as he traveled down the hallway. The man, while waiting for him to return, sat down on the couch.
"Darn…I still haven't found that light switch. Oh well, the sun will come up soon anyway. That's when I'll put a blasted neon sign that points to the thing…oh…hello again. Well, can you tell now?" The man crossed his arms as he sat on the sagging couch.
"Just a second…I have to put them on first after all…oh…" Jyou blinked a couple of times before the image came into full focus. "It's you! It has been a long time, Ken. So, what are you doing here? Yamato owes you some money or something? I wouldn't be the least bit surprised." Jyou laughed a bit and walked over to the couch so he could sit down next to Ken. He had his eyes closed and had his head leaning against the wall.
"No, I'm not here for money, though I could use some. I wouldn't come here for that though. I'm just here because Yamato and I have teamed up on writing lyrics for his band. He kinda ran out of ideas, so he asked me for help. I really don't know why I'm here, but I guess it's like doing a favor for a friend. We have come up with some really good ones. Anyway, why are you here?" Ken turned to face Jyou, therefore causing the couch to shift slightly.
"Well, I'm here because Yamato said I needed a break from work. I have been seeing some pretty strange things and he said that everything I saw was stress related. But, I'm not really de-stressing all that much. There's too much to think about when someone isn't working."
"That's the point of resting, isn't it? It gives you time to think."
"Yeah, but all the things I'm thinking about are work-related, Ken. I can't help it. A friend of mine is at the hospital right now and he's all I can think about. I mean, Yamato told me to leave because I saw strange things around him. I know what I saw and I'm not crazy or anything, but…" Jyou started twiddling his fingers. "…I'm worried about him. I feel that if I leave his side for very long, that he'll die or somehow go away again…"
Ken opened one eye and turned his head towards Jyou. "Wait a second. What do you mean by 'again'? Has he left before?" Jyou looked down before he spoke again, causing his glasses to slip down his nose.
"Well, you see, there was a huge tragedy a while back. Do you remember the Tokyo Office Killings? Well, one of the unfortunate souls killed there was this person's father. When his wife found out, she had a total nervous breakdown and slit her wrists. Unfortunately, I was the one to treat this woman and I later found out that it was this person's mother. I watched as she died during the blood transfusion…it was so horrible and I couldn't do anything…" Jyou paused for a moment.
Ken straightened out his back and put his arm around Jyou in an attempt to comfort him. "You don't have to continue if you don't want to. I'll understand if…"
"No!" Jyou moved away from Ken to give him the clue that he did not want to be comforted. Ken removed his arm and placed it on the back of the couch, along with his other arm.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even pried since it's none of my business…"
"No, I'm the one that should apologize. I shouldn't have yelled. It's just that this event is pretty much the only thing that I have not been able to let go of and I get quite disturbed every time I think about it…"
"You don't have to…"
"Yes I do, damn it, and nothing you say will stop me from telling this!" Ken remained silent as Jyou continued his story. "That's when everything began falling apart in my life. My friend had disappeared after both his parents died. They wanted to call him in to identify the bodies of his parents, but they never found him. He just disappeared off the face of the Earth…I was quite devastated, but no one else, not even Yamato or Taichi, seemed to care all that much. I tried to tell everyone that I missed him, but everyone would just laugh at me and say that I really shouldn't care. Why should they tell me what to think?"
"Why would they? I mean, what did this person do to make everyone hate him so much?"
"He was never really emotional about anything. Whenever he spoke, he seemed to mock us because we could never achieve his intelligence level. I never saw it like that, but everyone else did. They never seemed to want to know him better and that every attempt that they tried would never amount to anything. That's when they started to ignore me, saying that I was just as cold as he was. Depression seemed inevitable, but that's when I remembered that life moves on and that I can't mourn what I've lost for the rest of my life. But…I've never lost the guilt for what happened. I felt that if I could have only been there for this friend and if only I could have comforted him when he needed to be comforted, then none of this would have happened…"
"Jyou, for all you know, this all could have happened even if you were there. Like you said, this friend of yours never listened to anyone."
"You may be right, but still…I should have done something, but I didn't. This guilt caused me to bury myself in my work and not communicate with any of the other Chosen children, including you new ones. That's why I hardly ever came to anything with you guys, unless I was absolutely needed…"
"Wait, wait, wait…You're saying that all of the old Chosen knew this person? How is that possible?" Ken crossed his arms and waited for Jyou, who was still twiddling his fingers, to respond.
"Well, you see…this old friend was a Chosen child as well." Ken looked shocked. "I feel that without him, we would have never left the Digital World alive. Yet, everyone else seems to have forgotten what he did for us. He and I were always the outcasts anyway. Well, I was more of one, but that's beside the point. I remember when everyone ditched he and I at the subway station. They totally forgot that we even existed."
"Well, I'm sure they didn't do that on purpose…"
"Well, isn't it hard to comprehend that these people could forget about us after spending months and fighting battle after battle with them? Isn't it?" Ken remained silent. "That's what I thought."
"How long ago did this all happen?"
"Six years ago. He's been gone the entire time and now that I have finally found him again, I don't want anything to happen to him. The only thing is that he came back in such a bad state, that he nearly died. In fact, he did die, but he somehow came back. It was then that I found out that…" Jyou paused once again.
"Found out what?"
"I…" Jyou stopped. 'Damn! What am I going to say? That I love him? That's a laugh. I have to think of something,' he thought while desperately trying to dig himself out of the hole that he dug for himself. "I found that…"
"Well, what?"
"That, umm…he had completely changed. Yeah, that's it. He was emotionally torn in half. One moment, he could be completely nice and the next, he could be a rampaging maniac. That's what pains me the most. Now, I'm split in two. I have this overwhelming happiness that he's back, but I also feel pained because of what he has become. Tell me, have you ever felt like a helpless little paper being blown through the gusty winds?" Ken looked down.
"Every time I thought about what I had done as the Kaiser and every time I looked at Wormmon, that's how I felt. Yes, everybody felt that I had let go after the final battles we fought, but I never truly lost the guilt I felt. Whenever I thought about how I had been controlled, I felt like a piece of paper in the wind. Thinking about how I lost Wormmon made me feel helpless as well. I couldn't even control who I wanted to live and who I wanted to die. Then, losing my genius-level intellect was hard as well. I just felt like everything was slipping out of my grasp and that I was helpless to do anything…I was so angry inside, yet, no one seemed to notice…" Ken looked back up at Jyou and clasped his hands together. "Is that what you're talking about?"
"Yes, exactly…" Jyou remained silent for a minute or so before speaking again. "What are we doing, Ken? We're sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves about things that have already happened and can't be changed. Haven't we better things to do?" Jyou stood up and adjusted his glasses. "I need to get to that hospital and damn what Yamato says. Koushiro needs me to be with him and that's final. I don't even know why I listened to Yamato in the first place." Ken stood up as well.
"I'm going with you. Yamato can wait. Besides, he probably won't be up for a few more hours," Ken said while looking at the clock. "It isn't like he'll miss me or anything. Besides, there's no way you can get to where you want to go in Yamato's car. It's a piece of crap." Jyou laughed.
"Yeah, and I forgot that I busted his tire as well…"
"How'd you manage to do that? Wait, should I ask?"
"I kicked it a little too hard. Then, Yamato got all emotional because of that and hugged his car a little too hard, therefore causing another tire to go flat…" Ken covered his mouth in order to stifle his laughter.
"You can't be serious, can you? Well, maybe you are. Yamato does love his car…"
"Love is an understatement…" Jyou seemingly lost his interest in the subject, causing Ken to feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Are you okay, Jyou? You look kind of distant." Ken received no response. "Jyou?" He walked over and placed a hand on Jyou's shoulder. "Are we going to stand here all night?" Jyou pulled away and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen.
"I need to write a note to Yamato saying where we went…"
"Oh, come on! Do you have to?" Ken sweatdropped and pulled at his chin. "He could come after us if you tell him where we went…"
"It goes against my nature to not write him something," Jyou said as he finished writing the note.
"Well, that makes sense. Can we go now?" Ken went over to the door and held it open. "The sun's going to come up any minute."
"Yeah, just a second. I'm not leaving in my pajamas…" Jyou then left the room, leaving Ken holding the door open.
"I'm not going to stand here and hold this door open! Hurry up," Ken yelled while bumping the back of his head against the door.
"You might as well shut the door! I dropped my glasses on the floor and I can't seem to find them…" Jyou yelled from the other room. Frustrated, Ken shut the door and went to help Jyou find his glasses. Meanwhile, just outside the door, a figure waited in the darkness…
"No longer will you be able to help the Chosen, my fools. As long as the darkness reigns in his heart, I shall exist. Even you, Nanako, have exceeded your domain of power. I will finally have my peace…"