Chapter Two
Chibimon, Ice Cream, and Movies, Oh My!

[It is] best to confuse only one issue at a time.
Brian Kernihan and Dennis Ritchie, inventors of the C programming language

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Daisuke woke the next morning at 8:30. It is not necessary to know which Daisuke is being referred to here, for both of them were awake at that time. Unfortunately, this is as unconfusing as it gets for this day.

Over at Ken's, Daisuke sat up on the futon that had been put down for him in the living room, and shook his head. He didn't feel well at all. Shaking his head did not seem to improve matters, so Daisuke did it again. He felt even less well now, and decided against shaking his head a third time. He noticed his pants and socks laying on the floor beside him, and decided to put them on before Ken came out of his bedroom. Then he lay on his back on the futon, hoping that would help with what ever was affecting him and that shaking his head had not helped with.

About ten minutes later Ken came out.

"Good morning," he said to his friend.

Daisuke murmured something unintelligible.

Ken saw this as a good sign: Daisuke appeared to be conscious.

"How are you this morning?" Ken asked the wild haired boy on the futon.

Again Daisuke mumbled something unintelligible.

"I'll get some breakfast cereal ready," said Ken, "and some toast, too. Would you like apple juice or orange juice?"

Daisuke was not quite as unintelligible this time, and Ken interpreted his mumbling to be "orange."

"All right. I'll be about five minutes getting everything ready. Can you be up by then?"

Mumble. It sounded close enough to "yes" for Ken's satisfaction.

In five minutes Daisuke managed to drag himself off the futon and into a chair in the kitchen. Ken put a bowl of cereal down in front of him. Noticing his friend's condition, he poured milk into the bowl for him and sprinkled a little sugar on top.

"Thanks," mumbled Daisuke.

"Not a problem," said Ken. He sat down at the table opposite and began eating. Daisuke picked away listlessly at his cereal.

"Is anything wrong?" asked Ken, concerned. "You look like the Smog Monster got you last night."

Daisuke shook his head, then suddenly remembered why he wasn't supposed to be doing that. But the effort required to keep what little cereal he had eaten to now down at least forced him to wake up a little more and focus on what was happening.

"Sorry," he said. "For some reason I just don't feel like I'm all here this morning."

"Oh, that's too bad," said Ken. "I wonder if there was something in what you were eating last night that didn't agree with you."

"Maybe. Maybe not. You look all right."

"I feel fine. If you feel as bad as you look, I think you should go back to sleep. You can sleep on the futon or in my bed, if you want to. Hopefully you'll be awake enough to come with me to the soccer game this afternoon."

Daisuke blinked. He had forgotten about the soccer game. But somehow that didn't seem to be important now.

"Thanks for the offer," he said, "but I think I should try to get home and sleep there. I'll be more comfortable in my own bed. I doubt I'll make to soccer game, though. It'll take a while to get back to my place, and once I sleep this off it'll be too late to head out again to the field."

"As you wish. But drink up the orange juice. The vitamins in it will do you good."

Daisuke did so, sipping at the orange juice, then eating a little more cereal. He left a little unfinished, drained the glass of juice, and bypassed the toast entirely. By now we was feeling a little better, but only to the point where he felt he could handle the trip back home without falling asleep halfway through.

Just as he was getting ready to leave, he asked, "Hey, where's Chibimon? I haven't seen him all morning."

"I don't know," Ken replied. "I'll check my bedroom."

Ken went into his bedroom and looked around. No Chibimon, no Wormmon. He called out for them, but the only answer he got was some muffled giggling from somewhere in the room. The sounds were coming from either under the bed or inside the closet. Ken could not tell: they were very quiet, and Digimon can be notoriously difficult to find when they don't want to be found.

Coming out of his bedroom, Ken told Daisuke, "It looks like those two are playing a game of hide-and-seek."

Daisuke made a face. "Oh no, not again! Last time they did that they didn't come out until they got tired of playing."

"And it kept them occupied for hours," said Ken.

"I'll go home without him. If I wait much longer I'll miss the bus. Take care of him, will you?"

"Of course I will, Daisuke. You go home and get some sleep." Ken opened the apartment door for his friend.

"Sure. Bye."

"See you later."

Daisuke trudged toward the elevator, trying hard not to shake his head.

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At home, the other Daisuke was feeling much better. His parents were up before him. His mother made him breakfast, which he ate quickly, then settled down to watch some Saturday morning cartoons. An hour he spent doing this, but as soon as Tamers came on, he realised he hadn't seen Chibimon all morning.

In fact, now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Chibimon since they had been rudely thrust out of the Digital World the night before. He started wondering where his little blue friend might be. Perhaps he had teamed up with Ken and Wormmon, and had spent the night at Ken's.

Thinking of Ken reminded him that his friend had a soccer game that afternoon. Of course! It was the perfect excuse to go over for a visit, then tag along with him to see the soccer game. He wouldn't want to miss that for the world.

Running to the telephone, he picked it up and dailed Ken's number. It rang twice, then was picked up.

"Moshi-Moshi," said Daisuke.

[At this point it is necessary to digress once again from our story line to make a minor note about Japanese cultural traditions regarding the telephone.]

Daisuke looked around, wondering the narration was coming from.

"Moshi-Moshi," came Ken's voice. "Daisuke?"

[In Japan, the person receiving a telephone call picks up the telephone and waits for the person who called him or her to say "Moshi-moshi". This is, of course, opposite from North America, where the person receiving a telephone call picks up the receiver and rudely butts in with a curt "Hello" before the caller has a chance to greet him.]

Daisuke raised his eyebrows: he had not heard of the curious way people in the West handled answering the telephone.

A puzzled Ken listened into the phone. He thought he had heard Daisuke greet him, but now there was silence.

"Moshi-moshi?" said Ken again.

Daisuke heard him this time. The previous time he had missed Ken's response because he had been distracted by the narrator.

"Hey Ken, it's me, Daisuke! How are you?"

"All right." Ken sounded oddly confused. "How'd you make it home so fast?"

Kind of an odd question, thought Daisuke. "I took the bus like I normally do," he said. "Hey, is Chibimon over there? He wasn't with me when we returned from the Digital World yesterday."

"Yes he was," said Ken, sounding somewhat puzzled. "He's here, but still playing hide-and-seek with Wormmon."

"Oh, good. Would it be all right if I came over to get him? Then we could go to the soccer game together this afternoon."

"Certainly, you can come over and get him. But are you sure you're up to the game?"

"Of course I am! Me miss a soccer game when you're playing in it? As if! Augh, the bus is almost here. If I run I just might make it. If I don't, I'll kill half an hour at the arcade down the street while waiting for the next one. See ya!"

And he hung up almost before Ken could say "Good-bye".

Daisuke glanced at the clock. It was actually later than he had expected: the bus would practically be at the stop right now! He grabbed his jacket and ran out of the apartment, then waited impatiently for the elevator to come. His apartment block had three, and he jumped into the middle one when it arrived.

No sooner had the elevator started down than his mind gave a wrenching lurch. He suddenly felt a little woozy as if his brain had turned upside-down; he found himself short of breath and his legs seemed for a moment to turn to jelly. It was over soon enough, but he wondered just what the heck it was that had come over him.

Worse, when he got out of the building, he saw the bus he had intended to catch about three blocks down the street.

So he went to the arcade and spent a couple hundred yen on video games.

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The other Daisuke, meanwhile, was not having a good time at all. The bus ride was rough, partly due to his lack of sleep, partly due to whatever it was that was making him feel so bad.

And mostly due to the bus driver.

Daisuke did not know it, but driver of the bus he was on was descended from a long line of people who had made their living digging in the soil. Some had dug ditches, others ploughed the fields for grain, some had been canal builders, and others had even dug graves. The net result was the driver had ruts and potholes in his genes. At night, his dreams invariably involved soil and shovels, turning sod, or digging holes to Belgium. At work he was strongly, if unconsciously, attracted to ruts, cracks, and potholes, and he invariably chose a path that ensured his bus would meet as many of them as possible. So well known was this tendency that the people at the transit maintenance yard would note which bus he signed out at the start of his shift, and immediately book it for repair for when he returned it a few hours later.

Daisuke was thankful when he was finally able to get off the bus, feeling more than a little rattled.

He plodded to the building he lived in, let himself in the security door, and was mildly surprised to find the the left hand elevator already open. He got on it and pushed the button for his floor.

The lurch he had expected to feel as the elevator came to a stop at his floor was much, much worse than he had expected. It felt as if his brain had turned upside-down: he felt a little woozy, and his legs seemed for a moment to turn to jelly, and he found himself short of breath. He stumbled off the elevator, wondering just what the heck had hit him.

It took him a moment to recover, then he made his way to his place. He went directly to his bedroom and flopped down on the bed, not even bothering to change into something more comfortable for sleeping.

Three hours later his mother knocked on the door and opened it. "Daisuke?" she asked. "Daisuke, you have a phone call." She handed him the receiver from the wireless telephone.

"Thanks," mumbled Daisuke. He put the receiver more or less to his face and said, "Moshi-moshi."

"Hi Daisuke. It's Takeru."

"Oh, hi TJ. What's up?"

"A lot, actually. Some of us are going out to watch Ken's soccer game this afternoon, and then for ice cream, and after that we're thinking of taking in a movie. Do you want to come?"

Daisuke thought about it for a moment. He could really think of only one reason to go to a movie, and was hoping she would be there. "Who all is coming?"

"Me, Iori, Miyako, Cyan, and Ken."

"What about Hikari?"

There was a distinct chuckle from the other end of the line. "Are you saying you'll come only if Hikari will be there?"

"Not really; it's just that I feel really lousy right now. I was asleep when you called."

"Oh, sorry to hear that. So you don't think you'll be able to make it?"

"Sorry, TP, not this time. I'm just too out of it right now, and don't think I'll be well enough this evening to enjoy it. Thanks anyways."

"Sure. Hey, get well soon, OK?"

"Yeah, thanks. Bye."

"Bye." Takeru hung up. He wasn't surprised at Daisuke getting his name wrong twice in a row, for he had sounded rather spaced out.

Daisuke put the handset down beside his bed, and went back to sleep.

Two hours later he was rudely awakened again when Miyako called him.

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"Hi Ken!" said Daisuke enthusiastically as his friend opened the door.

"Hello, Daisuke. You're certainly looking a lot better."

"Of course I am. I got a little wet last night, but a good night's sleep took care of everything."

Ken looked at Daisuke, puzzled. "But this morning you looked like you hadn't slept at all."

"How would you know? This is the first time I've seen you today."

"No, we saw each other this morning."

Daisuke grinned. "Sure we did! Anyway, I'd like to see Chibimon. He's here, right?"

"Yes. Come inside."

Ken let Daisuke in, all the time wondering how he could have improved so much in so little time, and why he did not remember being at his place earlier in the day. It bugged him for a good fifteen minutes, and in the end he put it down to Daisuke being just a bit more scatter-brained than usual today.

The two boys spent about an hour playing videogames before it was time to head out for the soccer game. Daisuke stuffed Chibimon onto the backpack he had brought along. Ken's mother gave them a ride to the stadium, and supplied them with cash for refreshments, and bus tickets, too. While Ken headed to the team dressing rooms to get ready for the game, Daisuke bought chips and a drink, and headed for the stands.

As with any soccer match where Ichijouji Ken was playing, the action on the field was amazing. Daisuke watched intently, only occasionally eating a chip or taking a sip of his drink. So wrapped up in the game was he that he did not even notice Takeru and the others sit down beside him. Takeru waited a minute or so for Daisuke to notice him, and when he didn't, lightly tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hey Daisuke, fancy meeting you here!"

"Whoa!" cried Daisuke, leaping up. His remaining chips spilled off his lap and into the stands. He barely managed to hold on to his drink. "Heh! Hi, TK!"

"I see you decided to show up after all," said Iori.

"Why wouldn't I?" asked Daisuke. "I'm always in the stands when Ken's on the field."

"But you told me earlier you were feeling too bad to come out," said Takeru.

Daisuke looked at him funny. "No I didn't."

"Yes, you did. I called you at home, and you sounded really zonked. And you said you'd come only if Hikari was here!"

"And I was able to make it!" said Hikari. "Originally I couldn't, but then my mom decided I didn't need to go shopping with her this afternoon, and even gave me a ride here."

"That's nice," said Daisuke to Hikari, then immediately turned his attention back to Takeru. "TK, when did you say were you were talking to me?"

Iori noticed Daisuke had just said Takeru's name correctly twice.

"I called you about 1:30. You sounded really sleepy and said I had woken you up."

"That's impossible," said Daisuke. "I was over at Ken's to pick up Chibimon."

"But I talked to you," said Takeru.

"You couldn't have," said Daisuke, becoming more confused with each passing second. "The only time I've been on the phone today was to call Ken to ask if I could come over to get Chibimon."

Takeru grinned. "Gee, Daisuke, you're a better actor than I thought you were. You're doing a great job tyring to convice me I wasn't talking to you earlier. I don't think even I could pull off that convincing a performance." Turning to the others, he asked, "He's doing really well at this, isn't he?"

"He certainly is," said Iori.

"He practically has me convinced," Cyan added.

"But I really haven't talked to you at all today!" cried Daisuke.

At that, everybody burst out laughing. Daisuke's ears burned a little, but Takeru said nothing more about about it, and Daisuke decided he'd been the victim of a particularly strange practical joke. He wondered who may have set it up, and suspected Takeru and Cyan working together.

The opposing team was losing badly by half time. High in the sky over the field, a nondescript UFO also watched the action, its alien occupants as amazed with Ken's prowess on the soccer fireld as any human spectator.

Just before the second half of the game was about to start, Daisuke turned to Takweu and asked him, "So, do you have any plans for after the game?"

Takeru looked back at Daisuke with a strange expression on his face. "Uh, yes ... like I told you earlier, we're planning on going out for ice cream and them to a movie."

"And I told you I wasn't talking to you earlier!" Daisuke exclaimed.

"It sure sounded like you to me," said Takeru.

"Whatever!" Daisuke was clearly flustered at Takeru's insistence that they had already spoken with each other that day. But he quickly settled down. "Yeah, ice cream sounds like a neat idea."

Then the game started, and Daisuke watched it even more intenly than the aliens in the cloaked UFO in geosynchronous orbit above Odaiba.

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The Daisuke at home was feeling better now: five hours of rest (more or less) had recharged him. He didn't quite catch everything Miyako had said to him on the phone: there was something about a soccer game that she had intended to see but had to call off at the last moment when her intended ride failed to materialize, and she had heard from Hikari he wouldn't be at the game either, and so she had decided to call him instead.

Now she was headed over. Daisuke was glad for the company, all the more so since she would be helping him with his homework. Daisuke was particularly weak at mathematics and language arts, both of which Miyako knew well, and was willing to teach.

He would have preferred having Hikari as a tutor, but she seemed more interested in Takeru lately, and Miyako was a decent teacher.

They worked together on a Japanese essay for about an hour. Then Miyako looked at the clock and exclaimed, "Hey, the gang just might be at the Mount Fuji Cone Factory for ice cream in a little while! Do you want to go there and see if we can meet them?"

"Sure!" said Daisuke. "Maybe I'll get a chance to talk to Hikari."

Miyako giggled. "You're still chasing after her?"

"Of course," said Daisuke. "She may be more interested in TQ now, but I'm going to get her for myself one of these days. And I bet the reason you want to go there is so you can sit across from Ken and stare at him the whole time."

"I like him, but not that much!"

"Oh, I'm sure you do," said Daisuke, and Miyako said nothing to counter him.

"Son," asked his father as he and Miyako were heading out, "were you planning on coming with us to the International Food Festival this evening?"

"Of course I was," Daisuke replied, grinnng. "If there's food involved, I'm interested!"

For the last few years they had gone as a family to the Odaiba International Food Festival, where restaurants from all over town gathered to show off their menus and provide small meals to the public (for a rather hefty price).

"All right," said Daisuke's father. "Make it back as soon as you can. I want to get there early and avoid the worst of the crowds."

Leaving the apartment complex Daisuke lived in, they prepared for a fifteen minute stroll to the ice cream parlour. But as luck would have it, a bus was pulling up to the stop as soon as they stepped out the door, so they made a dash for it. They got there just in time, boarded the bus, paid the driver, and found seats.

The bus trip was almost completely uneventful. But about halfway there, just as another bus passed them going the other way, Daisuke's mind gave a sudden lurch. He found himself short of breath, and his legs seemed for a moment to turn to jelly. He felt a little woozy as if his brain had turned upside-down. He clutched on to a hand-bar on the back of the seat in front, wondering just what on earth had hit him -- again.

"Are you all right?" asked Miyako, breathlessly.

"I'm not sure," Daisuke replied. "This is the second time today this has happened. I hope it's nothing serious."

"I'm sure you'll get over it soon. Not too much can keep Motomiya Daisuke down."

Daisuke grinned back at her. Already he was feeling better.

Arriving at the Mount Fuji Cone Factory a few minutes later, they looked around with disappointment. The place was rather empty, and they saw no sign of their friends. Worse, they had no idea if they had missed them, or if they were yet to come. So they decided to get something and eat it there while waiting.

It was a puzzled Daisuke who came to the table with a banana split. "That was really strange," he told Miyako.

"What was?"

"The guy behind the counter said I must really like these," Daisuke explained. "When I asked why, he said it was the second one I had bought today."

Miyako's eyes opened wide. "What?"

"I don't know. I sure wasn't in the mood for ice cream before now. And you know what he said next?"

"No. What?"

"He asked, `Do you want this one with extra chocolate and no pineapple like the last one?' I mean, how did he know I was going to order that? I haven't been here in nearly two months, and the last time I got a strawberry milkshake."

Miyako grinned. "Maybe you have a twin brother separated from you at birth and who has just moved back to Odaiba!"

"What? Two of me running around?" asked Daisuke.

"As if one wasn't bad enough!" Both of them laughed hysterically.

They finished their ice cream, but without their friends, for they did not show up. They returned to Daisuke's place. To his surprise, he had to unlock to door to his apartment: neither of his parents were there. It was obvious they had gone to the food festival without him. Daisuke wondered why, briefly, then helped himself to some food in the refrigerator, and he and Miyako watched television and worked on math.

Miyako left at 8:45. Daisuke watched some more TV, then went to bed at midnight when his parents still had not come back home.

Daisuke's parents had gone to the food show. While there they met up with some old friends they had not seen in over a decade, and on a whim went out to a bar with them. Driving home later they ran over a spike on the road. There was a considerable delay while they waited for the JAA to come and fix their flat tire--neither of them had ever learned how to do it--and it was well after 2:00 AM before they got home.

They noticed the door to Daisuke's bedroom was closed, but that was normal for him whether he was at home or not. They knew he wasn't, of course: shortly after leaving with Miyako, he had called them from the Mount Fuji Cone Factory to ask if he could sleep over at TK's that night.

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"All right! You won!" cried Takeru when they finally met up with Ken after the game.

"Amazing goal at the end!" said Daisuke. "I don't think I've seen a play quite like that since the World Championship semi-final two years ago!"

"Thanks, guys," said Ken. He was actually mildly embarrassed at all the attention. He was good at soccer, he knew, but really did not see the need for accolades over something that came so naturally to him.

"Now let's go get that ice cream," said Hikari. "Mount Fuji Cone Factory, here we come!"

The Mount Fuji Cone Factory was not the favourite of the group, being a fair distance from the soccer stadium. But it was handy in that it was on the same bus route as the movie theatre they were going to.

What they didn't know was the establishment had been built over a seismic fault on the island, and living under the fault was a Good Luck dragon. While the dragon slept, Good Luck particles would spontaneously emit from its body and travel upward through the fault, and spill out when they reached the surface.

Thus it was impossible for any business built on that spot to fail.

The previous owner of the site had retired comfortably after forty years of selling second hand goods for less than he had bought them for, and the owner before him had run a successful accountancy firm despite the fact he had trained as butcher and did not know up from down on his abacus. The current owners were puzzled by the fact their business did better in winter than in summer.

The place was rather quiet when they arrived. There was practically no-one lining up for ice cream, so Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, Cyan, and Iori were able to get their treats quickly. Takeru and Hikari went together on a Cookie Ice Cream Mountain and two fountain drinks, Cyan got a butterscotch sundae with a touch of maple syrup (a specialty of the Factory, and why Cyan liked going there more than any other place), and Iori purchased a simple large soft ice cream cone with a chocolate dip.

And you have probably figured out by now that Daisuke ordered a banana split with extra chocolate instead of pineapple.

The five of them found an empty table and sat down, Daisuke beside Takeru. After a few minutes, Daisuke unexpectedly asked, "TK, do you think I could sleep over at your place tonight?"

Takeru looked at Daisuke, surprised by the sudden question. "Yeah, I guess so. Any particular reason?"

"No, not really. It's just I wanted a bit of a change."

"A bit of a change?" came Ken's voice. "You were over at my place last night."

"You were?" asked Hikari.

"No, I wasn't. I slept at home last night."

Iori asked, "So why does Ken think you were over at his place?"

Now it was Ken's turn to wonder if everyone else had gone crazy. He did not say anything, but the look he gave Daisuke was somwhere between bemusement and a glare. Daisuke felt uncomfortable: this reminded him a tad too much of the conversation he'd had with Takeru earlier at the soccer match.

There was a pay phone at the ice cream parlour, so Takeru called home to ask if he could have Daisuke over for the night. The response was positive. Then Daisuke called his parents to ask permission, and was successful, although he did wonder when his mother asked him why he had changed his mind about going to the International Food Fair.

"All right!" said Daisuke, returning to the table. "Thanks, TK."

Iori blinked in amazement. Daisuke had actually said Takeru's name correctly at least four times in a row, if he was counting correctly. Even Cyan was starting to notice.

"Now that that's settled," said Takeru, "we have to figure out where you're going to sleep."

"Don't you have two bedrooms there?" asked Daisuke. "All we need is two."

Cyan looked up from his sundae for a moment and growled, "Three."

"Why three?" asked Daisuke.

"Because I happen to like sleeping once in a while too."

[At this point it is necessary to depart from our story line once again to explain the reasons for Cyan being in Japan. Cyan is actually --]

Although the others looked around to see where the narration was coming from, Cyan looked straight up and said testily, "Shut up! I can do this myself!"

[Oh, sorry.]

Returning his gaze to Daisuke, he explained. "In case you've forgotten, I'm from Canada. My home town was destroyed by Apocalymon, so I'm staying here in Japan until I grow up and can return. Or not return, if I decide to. Until then, I'm basically staying with TK. So the extra bedroom is pretty much my bedroom now, so you'll have to find somewhere else to crash!"

And he did not speak to Daisuke again for a couple of hours.

They ate more quickly than they wanted to, for the next bus was a mere half hour after the first. They sent Iori to hold up the bus for a few moments when it arrived, to give them time to toss their garbage into a nearby bin, then boarded it for the trip to the movie theatre.

Only a couple of minutes after heading out, Daisuke's mind gave a sudden lurch. His legs seemed for a moment to turn to jelly, and he found himself short of breath. It felt like his brain had turned upside-down and he felt a little woozy. Grabbing on to the hand rail on the back of the seat in front of him, he wondered just what the heck it was that had hit him again.

"Are you all right?" asked Iori, who was sitting on the seat beside him.

"I think so," Daisuke replied. "Except this is the second time this has happened to me today.

"If it gets any worse, you should consider going to a hospital to get yourself checked out."

"T'm sure I'll live. I'm starting to feel better already."

The rest of the bus ride went without incident. They got off at the cinema, where they bought tickets for Daughters of the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles, a runaway hit with the under thirteen crowd that summer. There was just enough yen available for popcorn and drinks, so they bought some from the concession and headed into the theatre to find seats.

They were in luck: half way to the back of the house was a row with six empty seats. They settled into them: Ken, Daisuke, Takeru, Hikari, Cyan, and Iori. Noticing Cyan beside her, Hikari did a bit of a double-take. She had expected Daisuke to sit on the side not occupied by Takeru. But he was two seats down, sitting beside Takeru, chatting with him and offering him popcorn. It was unusual behaviour for him, but Hikari did not feel put out: Daisuke would not be bugging her through the film with silly comments and jokes, and Cyan was almost as quiet as Iori.

[At this point it is necessary once again to depart from our main story line and speak briefly on the Chinese art of Feng Shui. Practised for thousands of years, Feng Shui (which is short hand for the phrase "the energy dissipated by the wind stops at the boundary of water") deals with the channeling of chi (or qi) yang energy and the blocking of bad yin energy within a structure.]

No one seemed to notice except Cyan. He wondered what the sudden interest was in Feng Shui, expecially since this story is set in Japan and not China.

[The ideal building is sited such that only chi energy enters and moves throughout it, while negative energy is prevented from entering, moving about, or collecting within. Chi energy typically is generated by slow moving rivers or streets with slow traffic, while negative energy can be generated by long, narrow streets, dark passages, fast rivers, graveyards, and pointy jaggy things.]

"I'd much rather listen to the movie," Cyan muttered.

"What was that?" whispered Iori beside him.

"Oh, sorry. Nothing ..."

[The theatre in which the Digidestined are now sitting has a modern hodgepodge design with multiple roof levels, exposed rafters, long darkened hallways, rough stucco on the interior walls, and sharply angled counters in the concession area. Worse, it is built on the cross-piece of a "T" intersection, with the front doors staring down a long street populated with tall buildings.

In short, the place is a Feng Shui disaster area.]

"Are you finished yet?" whisperered Cyan.

"What?" asked Hikari.

"Never mind ..."

[Also, since some readers may be familiar with Japanese and could be offended, it is necessary to warn you that shortly Cyan will use the word "kutabare." It translates into English as a couple of words that we really should not print here. But we can print "off".]

I really don't like where this is going, thought Cyan. He gripped hard on the handrails of his seat, trying to contain his growing annoyance at the constant interruptions.

Very shortly he would be wishing for the interruptions to return. The last scene of the movie took a decided turn for the worse.

The daughters of the TMNT had just saved the world from a horrible fate of some sort, and there was great jubilation and celebration in the streets. The camera panned across the crowd and focused on a quartet of large ladies boisterously belting out a gospel number, backed up with a cameo from the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir:

Halleluja! Halleluja!
What a day! Halleluja!
Sunshine around! What a day!
Halleluja! Sunshine around!

Cyan jumped up but could not flee, hemmed in as he was on all sides by patrons. The singing continued as the credits rolled, loud music blasting from the speakers. Cyan's composure became less and less composed.

Cyan decidedly did not like gospel music.

Spying a escape route three rows back, he jumped over the seats and made his way over to the aisles. He pushed through the crowd, desperately trying to get away from the squawking and wailing in the theatre. Dashing through the concession area, he finally made his way outside. On the sidewalk he waited for his friends to come out, while great amounts of negative yin energy sped down the long street in front and swirled about him. He was still fuming, generating no small amount of negative energy himself.

The others came out a couple of minutes later. Daisuke was talking excitedly to Takeru.

"Wow! What a cool movie!"

"Yeah!" said Hikari. "I liked the part where they saved their boyfriends from the street gang."

Daisuke laguhed. "The part I really liked was where Maria was being controlled by the bad guy and she actually turned around and started wailing on Briti and Isabella!"

Cyan gleared at Daisuke. "It's not that funny when you get things backwards -- especially when you can't help it."

"What do you mean, not funny?" asked Dasuke. "The look on their faces when she whacked her cousin with the whip was priceless!" He burst out laughing.

But Cyan was not amused. "Do you realise how it would feel if that happened to you? I don't see anything funny in it all all."

"There you go--raining on our parade again! Hey, even TK thought it was funny!"

In all the excitement, Iori did not notice Daisuke had said Takeru's name correctly yet again.

By now it was obvious to everyone that Daisuke had seriously misjudged Cyan's state of mind. And not familiar with Feng Shui, they could not have known that carrying on an argument in such an inauspicious place was a very bad idea indeed.

"I somehow doubt TK of all people would find that funny."

"Hey! Lighten up already!" said Daisuke. "That Perilousmon thing was a long time ago. Gee, you sure know how to hold on to a grudge!"

Cyan's eyes blazed. He clenched his hand into a fist and drew it back.

But several factors intervened and he never did throw the punch. For one, Takeru stepped between Daisuke and Cyan; second, Ken drew Daisuke back; third, Iori stepped behind Cyan and grabbed his other arm.

And the most important factor came in the form of a large truck that rolled to a stop in front of the theatre. In doing so, it blocked the onrushing yin energy from the street. It was enough to prevent the situation from escalating out of control. Cyan's anger diminished a little: he kept his fist raised but did not move it.

"You know what, Daisuke?" he hissed. "Kutabare!"

Iori gasped. His tender ears were not used to that sort of language, especially from his digidestined friends.

Cyan dropped his upraised arm and continued. "TK, I'm outta here! Just give him my room for the night! I'm not gonna need it!"

He turned on his heel and stalked away, fist still clenched. Hikari looked around at the others, but they made no attempt to follow, so she ran after him alone.

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Cyan tramped down the long street away from the theatre, not really caring where he was going. The negative energy created by the buildings and channeled by the street mixed in with his own.

Only when he stepped off the street into a small park did he begin to settle down: the trees generated good energy, as did the duck pond in the park. A lady at the pond was tossing small pieces of bread to the ducks. Nearby, a girl of about Cyan's age was leaning against a tree, watching her mother feed the ducks, a scowl on her face.

Cyan didn't see either the lady or the girl. He sat down heavily on a bench and scowled more than even the girl.

For the record, neither the lady nor the ducks were scowling.

Hikari entered the park, too. She had followed Cyan at a discreet distance. Now she walked down the path to where he was sitting, and stopped nearby. Cyan looked up at her.

Hikari wasn't scowling either. She looked more sad than anything else. She looked at Cyan but said nothing.

There are times when people get to know each other well enough that they don't really need to say anything to each other at all: all it takes is a simple glance to see how the other person is sitting, or notice that one eyebrow is precisely 0.7 millimetres higher than the other, or percieve exactly how they are holding their toast, to know just what that person is thinking. At times like these words are unnecessary, and in fact only get in the way and clutter up the peace and serenity in life.

Except Hikari was not silent for that reason.

It was that she just could not think of anything to say.

But Cyan finally did.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I was going to ask you that," said Hikari, now wondering why just moments before she was unable to think of anything to say. "Why did you run out of the theatre like that?"

"You don't know just how little I can stand that `music'," Cyan replied.

"The music may not have been the best, but is that any reason to take a swipe at Daisuke like that?"

"That had nothing to do with it. Daisuke chose the wrong time to see what happens when you try pushing me too far."

Hikari had to agree with that. "He does seem to do that, doesn't he? And it doesn't help that he wasn't around when ... when that Perilousmon incident happened."

Cyan made a face. "He should bloody well know better than to rub that in."

"You're right, he should. Hopefully after tonight he'll know better."

"I somehow doubt that." If nothing else, Cyan was confident in his belief that Daisuke would always be an idiot. "Why'd you follow me, anyway?"

"I'm not sure, really. But I am wondering what you're going to do for the rest of the night. You made it abundantly clear you were not going back to Takeru's."

"And stay around Daisuke? Yeah, right. I don't know. I could just stay here, or go across town to Matt's ... for all I care I'll just beat it out of here and disappear again. Not like I belong here."

"You're not the only one who feels that way," came a voice from behind him. Cyan turned his head to see a red haired girl looking at him. She had obviously overheard his comment. Having made eye contact, she continued.

"So you plan to get out of here?"

"Who wants to know?" asked Cyan. There was only a small amount of irritation in his voice.

"Someone who wants to leave as much as you do, and could use a partner, just like you would," the girl replied mysteriously.

Cyan was amazed. He had never met this girl at all before in his life, and yet he felt a kinship here as though he had known her a long time.

But not long enough that he could tell her emotions by seeing to the tenth part of a millimetre how much higher was one eyebrow than the other.

"I'd be more careful saying that, if I were you," he told her kindly. "You really can't appreciate a home until you suddenly don't have one."

"Ruki!" called the lady over by the duck pond. "Ruki! I'm done with the ducks. Now we have to go and get you fitted for a new dress."

"What am I being punished for this time?" the girl yelled back at her mother. Glancing at Cyan, she said, "See why I want to get out of here?"

Then she turned and dashed out of the park. Her mother quickly ran after her.

Now she had a scowl on her face.

Hikari got Cyan's attention, then said, "Yamato's a fair distance from here ... I can give you a place to stay for tonight, if you can talk nicely to my mom."

"If she's more intelligent than Daisuke, I can handle it."

"Easily more intelligent. Let's go."

They chose a different route out of the park, not wanting to go back to the long street with all its yin energy. Not that the negative energy was the reason they avoided the street. They just did not like the traffic noise.

Narrator: Will Cyan stop producing negative energy? Will Daisuke ever figure out this is not a practical joke? Will Takeru notice Daisuke says his name correctly? Find out in the next chapter of Dual Daisuke!

Miyako: As Iori said the last time, even reading the chapter probably won't lead to the answers ... and he was right ...

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Author's notes. This was a tough chapter to write, which is why it was so long in getting posted. Working out the movements of the two Daisukes was a real challenge, because it had to fit and flow together without looking too contrived. I spent a week researching Feng Shui just for the few lines I included in the text. And writing a fight scene while still trying to keep it humourous is hard!

I also ended up writing way more words than I had intended to. Don't worry: the next chapter will be much shorter, I promise!

Ishida316, you are absolutely correct, I do read "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Douglas Adams' madcap vision of the future is probably closer to the way it will actually be than anything written by the Star Trek crew.
STF, Thank you for your word of support. :)
Lucky Ishida, yes, I thought the concept was interesting, which is why I wrote this fic.
Hezato no Miko, here is the next part you were looking for. Hope you enjoyed it!

And thanks to everyone who takes the time to plough through my (at times) obtuse prose and then takes even more time to write a review. You don't know just how appreciated you are.