"... and I don't think you can possible understand how I feel, Daisuke! You've never experienced all the things I have! All the darkness I had to break through to get to where I am today."
This was supposed to be a relaxing weekend for everyone, since the mid-semester slew of exams was finally over. Minomon and Chibimon went back to the Digital World to rest and recharge for the weekend. Maybe that's why Ken and Daisuke were on the verge of fighting, and not just with words. Usually, when the two digimon were around, Ken and Daisuke were more civil in their rare argument, for fear that they may accidentally start a fight between their digimon too. The last thing they needed was for the dorm to collapse.
"I'm going to ask you a simple question. Have you ever done anything to hurt yourself, Ken?"
"Why should you care? I'm nothing but a blotch of black on your wonderful life," Ken spat out.
"Have you, or haven't you?!" This argument was starting to get a little too frustrating for Daisuke.
"Yes, I have! What's it to you?"
Daisuke tried to reason with Ken. "I need to know, Ken. Please, let me see what you've done."
"Why should I show them to you! You didn't even care enough to try and stop me, even though it was happening right under your nose!"
That statement caught Daisuke off-guard. He lowered his voice. "I knew you were doing something...I just didn't know what to do about it. I haven't had to deal with something like this...not for a long time...and you and I have changed so much since those days. I didn't know what to say, and I was afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing...I didn't want to make things worse than they already were..."
"So you decided that ignoring me was better?!" Ken roared out. "Fine then. I can see that you don't want me in your life anymore, Daisuke." /It's alright, Daisuke. It will all be over soon./
Ken stormed out of the room and into the chilly night air. As he was rushing out the door, he knocked Hawkmon over and nearly knocked Miyako over as well.
"Hey! What's the big rush, Ken?"
Miyako had a bad habit of coming to visit Ken and Daisuke when things seemed really bad. It was like some strange sixth sense she had or something. But, being her usual cheerful self, she somehow always made things better after she visited. Only, this time, it didn't matter how cheery she was. Ken was determined, and set to carry out his plan.
"Sorry, Hawkmon, Miyako. I didn't mean to knock you two over. If you'll excuse me, I need to go for a walk." Ken turned in the direction of the stairs and started walking down the hall.
There was an angry edge to the way Ken had just spoken to her, and there was a wild look in his eyes that Miyako had never seen. She tried to shake it off, but somehow, the way Ken was acting scared her to the core. Hawkmon picked himself up, dusted off a bit, and looked up at Miyako with worried eyes.
"Should we follow him?" he gently asked.
Still shaken from their brief encounter with Ken, Miyako simply said, "I don't know. I think we should check up on Daisuke first while we're here." She looked over in the direction of the stairs and saw that Ken was starting to head up the stairs instead of down. /Where's he going? He wouldn't hurt himself, would he?/
Daisuke was sitting at his desk, looking at, but not seeing, the homework that was in front of him. He was still fuming mad and really frustrated at how Ken just didn't seem to understand him.
/...how does Ken expect me to keep on being patient when he's being so stubborn and refuses to let anyone help him? It's like he doesn't hear a word I say. I keep on suggesting things that might help him, and it's like it just floats through his head without even registering.../
/...and why can't I hear your heart beat anymore, Ken...? What happened to those days when we knew what was in the other person's heart...?/
Miyako interrupted his thoughts.
"Daisuke! What's going on? Why did Ken storm out just now?"
When Ken got to the roof, he went to pick up a metal saw that he hid behind one of the air vents, and then headed straight for one specific bar out of the hundreds of bars that surrounded the whole roof. Ken knew the bars were there to prevent youths from becoming statistics in the newspaper, just like the ones that were on the building at home, but they didn't stop him from himself.
Ken knew he would have to work fast, before he had time to try to talk himself out of this, or have someone catch him up here. He had been sawing the pole earlier this week, but there was still half a centimeter left to cut through.
Time seemed to compress itself and Ken cut through the pole in less time than he thought he would take. He removed the pole and took one last look out at the dark horizon. Half-whispering to the sparkling city, Ken made his final wish.
"Once I'm gone, you can finally be free of my dark shadow, Daisuke. I sincerely hope that you will have a good life without me."
"Oh, my god! Ken!!!" The scream stunned Daisuke.
Miyako was running up the stairs two steps at a time, while Hawkmon flew right beside her. After hearing Daisuke explain what had happened, Miyako put two and two together, and ran out of the room, hoping that her hunch was severely wrong.
/Stupid Daisuke. Why couldn't he see how serious Ken was? I just hope I'm not too late./
As he finished his prayer, he heard the beating of Hawkmon's wings and knew his time was up.
Miyako reached the roof just in time to see Ken perched on the edge, and as she yelled out his name, Ken turned around to face her. He gave a small smile of good-bye and took a step back.
Notes:
-I tried to do a multi-event scene where two things were going on at the same time. I tried to separate the sections with more spaces, but I'm not sure how that came out. Hopefully, it wasn't too confusing to see the scene changes. I see it like an anime in my head...
-Now I know that Daisuke is the 'never give up' type, but hey, he's only human. You can't be that way forever, no matter how stubborn you are. By this point in the story, he's tried to resolve this problem and has failed on multiple accounts...and things weren't getting any better for either of them. If you were in that situation, you'd be pretty stressed too. I think Daisuke's reached his limit of tolerance and is now at a loss of what to do.
-Japanese school kids suicide rates are pretty high. It's really a scary thing.