A Different Reality Epilogue
By Cybra
A/N: And so we come to the end of our story, folks. sobbing This monster of a fic has been my baby for so long! I'm so proud of how this thing turned out! Maybe I'll do a sequel. I'm not sure. I have a few ideas. Well, it began with Tai, and so it shall end with Tai. Sort of like finishing the circle I guess.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, but this little AU was my own idea! The AU is mine! All mine! evil chipmunk laughter
It's Tai again. How's everything going?
Well, we rode the trolley car home, some of us still crying or sniffling over leaving our friends behind. I admit that I was still sniffling a little, but I was also looking forward to seeing my parents again. We all were. The Digiworld is a nice place, but we didn't want to live there forever.
At least…most of us didn't.
Koushiro looked as if he were dreading our return to Earth.
This bewildered me.
Why would he not want to go back home?
I could think of a few unpleasant reasons.
Abuse was foremost in my mind.
Had one or both of his parents abused him?
I studied him a bit more carefully. I couldn't read him that well (I never could), but I could tell that he definitely did not enjoy the idea that we were returning to our world.
"Everybody's waiting for us!" Joe shouted, interrupting the uncomfortable near silence.
I looked out the window to see a huge crowd of people cheering as we flew lower and lower. We would be landing in the exact same area that we had left Earth in that bright, rainbow-colored light. Vaguely, I wondered how Koushiro had arrived in the Digital World. I made a mental note to ask him later.
We landed to the roar of applause and jubilant shouts. As we exited the trolley car, it vanished into a flurry of data, never to be seen again.
Mom and Dad rushed over and grabbed Kari and I. I smiled as I hugged Mom back. I had missed her and Dad so much!
"Dad! Mom!" Kari shouted gleefully just before hugging and kissing Dad. (I couldn't help but notice that her knife – like the trolley car – had vanished.)
Joe's mom and dad – along with his older brother Jim – were just as excited to see him as he was excited to see them. Mimi sobbed joyfully in her parents' arms while Sora hugged her mom so tightly that I thought Mrs. Takenouchi would pass out! TK hugged his mom while Matt gave a quick hug to his dad before Mr. Ishida clapped him on the shoulder.
It took us a few minutes – and Kari was the first to notice – that Koushiro was still standing there alone.
Nobody had rushed to greet him.
Nobody had wrapped their arms lovingly around him and told him that they were happy he was home.
It seemed as if there was not one person that cared he had returned from the Digital World.
Kari wiggled out of Dad's grip and grabbed his hand. She began pulling him in Koushiro's direction. "Dad, I want you to meet someone."
I pulled out of Mom's grip and began pulling her as well. "You, too, Mom."
Our parents looked at each other in surprise but followed us. I guess they knew this was kind of important.
Koushiro turned his attention from the noisy – not to mention large – crowd that surrounded us towards my family. He didn't budge from his spot as we walked up to him.
I smiled amiably at him. I admit that I had been a real jerk to him in the past, and I really wanted to make it up to him.
"Koushiro," Kari began, "these are our parents. Mom, Dad, this is our friend Koushiro."
Dad blinked. "But I thought that there were only seven of you…"
"We thought that, too, but we met him during our fight with Puppetmon, the second Dark Master," I explained. "I guess that makes him number eight." I smiled at Koushiro, causing him to blink. "Koushiro here kept an eye on Kari when she and I were separated. I really owe him."
"You owe me nothing," I heard him mutter, but my parents didn't hear him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Koushiro," Mom said, smiling.
"Yes, it is," Dad agreed. "Thank you for staying with Kari."
"…You're welcome," he said quietly.
He was no longer looking at Mom and Dad.
He was looking at somebody else.
He was looking at a man in a blue suit.
For the first time since I had met him, I could read every emotion in Koushiro's eyes. I saw in them fear, sadness, loneliness, and hopelessness. It seemed like the man he was staring at was the very embodiment of some trap that Koushiro couldn't escape.
"I really must be going," he told us. "It was nice…"
He didn't add "while it lasted", but I knew he would've added it if something I could only guess at hadn't held him back.
His eyes became unreadable once more as he began to walk towards the blue-suited man.
I didn't want him to go.
He had helped us fellow Digidestined out, and now he was going off somewhere where I could tell he didn't even want to go and was most likely going to suffer for the rest of his life?
Not if I had anything to do with it!
"Where ya going?" I asked, grabbing his upper right arm.
He didn't answer me; he was still focused on the blue-suited man.
"Koushiro…" Kari's voice pleaded, drawing both his and my attention to her. "Please don't go."
I turned to Koushiro once more. "If it's okay with Mom and Dad, you can stay with us until your parents find you."
Kari gazed pleadingly at our parents. She silently begged for their permission. I let her do most of that. She can wrap people around her little finger whenever she feels like it, but she doesn't exploit that too often. She thinks it's cheating.
Mom exchanged another look with Dad before smiling and saying, "Of course you can stay with us if you like, Koushiro."
I think this freaked our strange friend out more than anything else we'd said. He nearly gaped at us as if we had just invited him to shoot us. (I noticed that while his satchel had vanished, his backpack with the laptop and gun inside had remained.) "I…can't…"
"Sure ya can!" I told him cheerfully. "You just say, 'Tai, I'd love to stay with you for a while since you're the best friend I ever had!'"
Kari snickered and rolled her eyes at me. I grinned, not one bit remorseful. I had been kidding around about the best friend thing since I hadn't been the greatest friend to him in the past.
"Taichi…I…If they…" he stuttered, beginning sentences but never finishing them.
"Please, Koushiro?" Kari asked. "He's not so bad to live with. You get used to him."
"Hey!" I protested to her playful teasing.
He looked back towards the blue-suited man. The man motioned for Koushiro to come along with him. I glared daggers at the creep and gave him a rude gesture (when my parents weren't looking, of course).
"I…" Koushiro looked at Kari and then me again. "I guess I really don't have a choice, do I?"
"Nope," I agreed.
"Then, I would be…honored…to join you, your parents, and Kari, Taichi."
"Tai," I corrected.
"Pardon?"
"If you're calling Kari by her nickname, you can call me by mine."
"All right then…Tai…"
Mom smiled and began leading us away, chattering happily about how she was so glad that we had come home.
I happily noticed that Koushiro didn't look back at the blue-suited man once.
~@~
To celebrate, Mom and Dad actually ordered pizza for dinner.
Was I excited?
You bet I was!
"Yahoo! Pepperoni, mushrooms, and sausages! Yes!" I exulted.
Koushiro stared at me uncomprehendingly. I guess he hadn't had pizza in quite some time. After all, he had been in the Digiworld for what must've been several years. So what if they had actually taken only a few days in our world? It had still been a really long time for him. He had probably forgotten what pizza even looked like.
Kari smiled and laughed at me as I danced happily around. It helped keep our minds off of the fact that we had left the best friends we had ever had in another dimension that we could probably never return to.
The pizza arrived fifteen minutes later, and we all sat around the table. Koushiro sat next to Kari and across from me. My parents took their seats at the opposite ends of the table on the sides perpendicular to ours. We each took our first slice.
My family and I quickly began to eat the pizza, but Koushiro seemed to be studying the pizza before he took a cautious bite out of it. I nearly laughed when he jerked in surprise at the taste. It sort of reminded me of Agumon when he had taken his first bite from a candy bar I had offered him. That brought on a bit of sadness that I quickly squashed.
"Don't you like this stuff?" Dad asked our surprised friend between bites.
"I just haven't had pizza since…forever," he admitted.
"Oh. I hope you enjoy it."
"Thank you, Mr. Kamiya."
"You're welcome."
Kari managed to talk Koushiro into eating two more pieces before he told her that he couldn't eat another bite. That was fine by me. More for me! Our mom and dad dropped out after their third or fourth pieces, so it left Kari and I to finish up the pizza.
I still haven't figured out how such a small girl like Kari can eat that much pizza!
Well, I'm afraid that now this story must come to an end. It's been real fun, let me tell you. I enjoyed almost every minute of telling you all this. Maybe someone will type this all up for even more people to read it!
But before I go I'd like to say that I noticed something awfully weird.
Koushiro's parents still haven't shown up.
I don't get it. Did they just ditch him or something? Why haven't they come for him?
And why do these blue-suited people keep hanging around?
Koushiro's nervous about something Kari keeps telling me. It's like he's scared, but he can't tell us what's wrong.
Like he's afraid that if he says something, something terrible will happen to us.
Who knows? Maybe we'll find out why he's acting so weird. Someday.
THE END…
A/N: …Those last two words were the hardest two words I've had to write in this entire story…I'm sad it's over…sobbing
The big "Arigato" section…
Kyra – You don't talk to me much, but I still want to thank you for all the support you've given me in the past! E-mail me sometime!
Vyse – You may not write Digimon anymore, but you're still an awesome friend! Thanks for letting me ramble and babble to you!
Aquarius – You got me to write "Tentomon's Story" and encouraged me all the way! Thanks for your kind comments!
Kelly Moon – You are one cool friend, girl! Thanks for being an awesome friend!
All of the people who have read the "A Different Reality" series with all its tie-ins and sidestories – What can I say? I appreciate all of your reviews, your support, and your occasional rants. (Heck, what better way to keep me writing to have people threatening to kill me if I don't come up with the next part as soon as it's possible for me?) I especially appreciate you loyal readers who read this thing from its beginning to its end. I know it must've been hard for you to stick with it since the writer is both lazy and constantly kept busy, but I'm glad that you stayed with me! I hope that I didn't disappoint you!
My muse Izzy – To quote Matt from 01, "You're the man!" I can't thank you enough! I'm glad I grabbed you while I could! I would've been sunk from the beginning if it hadn't been for your constant ideas, advice, and torment!
Shameless Promos…
Musical Inspirations…
"Remembering Petticoat Lane" from the Jurassic Park soundtrack inspired the part where they return to Earth and Tai sees the blue-suited man. It's a very nice song. If you've seen the movie Jurassic Park (the original movie that was way better than its two sequels even though Jurassic Park III was better than I thought it would be), it's the song in the background of when Hammond is talking to Ellie about how he had a flea circus on Petticoat Lane.
"A New Hope" from The Emperor's New Groove soundtrack inspired the part where Koushiro is invited by Tai and Kari to stay at their apartment until his parents come and get him. (In the movie The Emperor's New Groove, it's the background music of when Kuzco meets up with the llamas, eats the grass, and then sees Pacha talking with the llamas.)
"Perfect World" and "Perfect World (Reprise)" from The Emperor's New Groove soundtrack inspired the scene in the Kamiya apartment with the pizza. That's right, the songs sung by Kuzco's theme song guy inspired that stuff. It made me feel pretty good. ^^
Final Notes…
- How'd I think up this idea?
- Why did I play with the others' personalities (especially Kari's)?
- Why the crossover-part with canon 02?
- How come I kept inserting couple hints?
- Where can you reach me?
Would you believe that it was Gundam Wing that helped me come up with this? Sure was! I thought it would be interesting to see what it would be like if one of the characters (Izzy, to be exact) acted like Heero Yuy and had military training. I had been thinking about said idea for a while, but was unable to come up with a plot until I thought, "Why not just re-write the Dark Masters arc?" Thus, this story was born!
Well, it is an alternate universe. To make some things fit, I realized that some things would need to be changed around on the original characters. Minor things about characters were changed like Joe being a bit braver here than in the actual show during 01 and Tai's overprotectiveness being brought out quite a bit more. I thought it would make an interesting story.
I also noticed that I especially needed to play with Kari's personality. Let's face it, she was a pretty good character originally in 01 but she was at times so sweet that it almost made your teeth rot. So I thought that it would be a good idea if I made her a bit on the rebellious and stubborn side and gave her a few more interesting things to do. The knife thing I thought would be an extremely good idea since it would show just how different she was from the Kari of the actual show. Besides, if I brought out that extremely stubborn streak that she had had in the show but barely shown, it made an even more interesting story. Did it work?
Well, I did that partially as a tribute to my first ever Digi-pal Kyra. I had originally planned on using 02 TK to tell the story, but then thought, "Why not totally drive Kyra insane or cause her to pass out by having Cody tell the story?" Besides, it made it a lot more fun for me to write it from Cody's POV.
Also, I had wanted to crossover my version of the Dark Masters arc with the second series of the show at some point. I thought it would be fun and original. (It was! After all, who has ever written a Digimon story that basically had a 01/02 crossover?)
I noticed that in practically every anime, there has been a "great romance" somewhere in it. I wanted to write this little – Pfft! Little my sore tailbone! – AU in a style much like it was an actual anime. Besides, I thought it might make a few of you a bit more interested.
The Koukari hints were deliberate. I did them on purpose. I find the idea of Koukari extremely cute and extremely doable. Why? I don't know. I don't give hints on the couples I like normally. If they appeal to me, fine. If they don't, whatever.
The Jyoumi hints…Crud! I don't even know how the heck they kept popping in there! I go back and read some parts after I've written and posted them (or right after I've written them) and I notice that certain scenes can be taken as hints of Joe and Mimi romance. Scary, yes?
Do you have any special comments, questions, or requests for little old me? You can reach me at
Why the number? Well, Yahoo decided it would be fun to mess with my head. I had signed up as "cybra" under egroups for a few mailing lists, and then egroups changed to Yahoo groups. Supposedly, you were allowed to access your old egroups account under Yahoo, but Yahoo never let me access my egroups account! How annoying!
Later, when I decided that I would have a Yahoo e-mail account in order for people to reach me from my webpage and stuff, I tried to sign up as "cybra", but Yahoo said it was already taken. Well, duh it was already taken! I had taken it! So, I came up with "cybra2003" since "cybra" is (obviously) my penname and "2003" is the year that I graduate from high school.
In case you want to e-mail me later but are like me and are too lazy to go through and find the part containing the e-mail address of somebody, my Yahoo address is posted on my Profiles page. It's been there for the past few months. See if you can find it!