Part 9: The Troubles of Iori!
It was early that evening and Iori was helping his grandfather at his Dojo, his grandfather's specialty being Kendo. Hida Chikara was a retired cop and taught Kendo now to pass the time. Iori still attended Odaiba Elementary and was now 11 years old in fifth grade. He also helped out his grandfather and taught the beginning class, with his grandfather watching him of course. He was taller now, maybe about the height Daisuke was when he was that age. His hair was pretty much the same since he believed in keeping things simple and his mentality was pretty much the same also, meaning he stuck to tradition as much as possible and was always very polite towards others. Lately, Iori's mind had been wandering, something that normally wasn't the case with him...
'I miss the old days when I used to hang around with them. Just one person in general though. She's always busy! I don't even talk to her much now and all those things I said to Armadimon, I didn't mean them. I feel as if I lied to him.'
"Iori, Iori! C'mon now," an older man called, "I need you to clean up since all the lessons are over!"
"Oh sorry, grandfather," the boy said, shaking off his thoughts.
"What is wrong with you?" the old man asked inconcern. "You seem to be spacing out quite a bit."
"I am very sorry grandfather," the boy bowed, apologizing once again.
"I know that you have something on your mind," the old man inquired. "It is always better for one to express his feelings instead of holding them in."
"Nothing is wrong," Iori said, forcing a smile onto his round face. "I just have a lot on my mind."
"Exactly my point," the old man scolded. "Maybe you should go home if you don't want to talk about whatever it is that is bothering you."
"No, please let me stay and help," Iori insisted. "It is my responsibility to help you out here."
"No, go on," the old man smiled. "I can handle things here. Tell your mother that I will be home soon."
"Yes sir," bowed Iori. "I will do so."
Iori grabbed his jacket, along with his other equipment, and started in the direction of the door heading towards the hall to leave. Before he was able to get within a few feet of it, his grandfather called to him.
"Iori."
"Yes sir," the boy responded as he turned to face him.
"You remind me of your father more and more everyday," he said with a smile. "He was the same exact way when he was your age with the secrecy."
Iori frowned after his grandfather said that.
"He kept secrets about girls too," the man responded slyly.
"Wha-what?!" His cheeks turned red from embarrassment. "I don't have any secrets about girls!"
"You better run along home before your mother worries," the man said, getting off of the subject. He could tell that Iori didn't want to talk about his obvious girl problem.
Iori ran out and headed home. He ran a good distance and then stopped and started to walk slowly to think some more.
'I feel as if I am insignificant now. I have an eye for one girl, but she doesn't even realize it and still sees me as the 'kid brother' she has never had. What can I do to get her attention? What can I do to get her to notice me the way I have always noticed her? Even when I was younger I was always quite fond of her and I admit that I had a small crush on her, but now it is a full grown one. I don't know what's making me feel worse, my girl troubles or my guilt dealing with Armadimon. I feel as if I let him down. I still have trouble with trusting and forgiving people.'
He sighed as he continued his walk, deep in thought.
"Why did he have to say I reminded him of my father and how did he know I was thinking of a girl? I don't even know my father!"
Iori then frowned, hating the fact he didn't know much about his father other than what was told to him.
'If I could only remember the good times I had with my father, but I haven't any.' He lowered his head gloomily as he continued to remain deep in thought. 'All I remember is my mother being sad...so sad. All I remember is crying when I found out my father wasn't coming home for dinner with us. Okaasan (mother) had prepared a special dinner that night, I remember, then we found out that otousan (father) wasn't coming home. He didn't come home because those thieves shot him!"
Iori grew angered as he remembered the incident fairly well.
'He didn't do anything! He was unarmed! He was trying to
talk them into putting down their weapons. He put down his
weapon,
why didn't they put down theirs?'
That was one question Iori asked himself day after day. He always wondered why the ones who had shot his father, never put down their weapons.
"I shall never forgive that person who actually pulled the trigger," the boy said in pure anger and malice. "He apologized to my mother and to me after his trial along with his accomplices, and he, the main one, said that he had changed. The system forgave him and he is a free man today. He was only charged with theft, but not murder! 'The gun going off was an accident,' so he says, and wanted us to forgive him for his, as well as his buddies', mistake, but he doesn't deserve my forgiveness. He made okaasan sad and made her cry for a long time. I will never forgive that! He took something away from us that we can never bring back! I can't forgive them, ever!"
Iori stuck to that even to this day. He still didn't forgive the man who killed his father even though he had truly changed. Iori just felt that it was some kind of a trick to work on his sympathies.
"I will never trust them or people like them," the young boy vowed. "The police force doesn't deserve my forgiveness either, which is why they have never received any from me! They didn't try to help out my father when he was trying to talk those crooks into putting down their weapons! They are just as guilty in my eyes! I told Armadimon that I was going to be more forgiving, when in reality, I really haven't. I let him down."
Iori sighed again, hating the fact that he had thought of such things and even more upset since he felt that he had let Armadimon down.
"I wonder if mother knows what day this is," he wondered out aloud. "I remember it. It has been exactly seven years since that terrible day. Seven long, terrible years since my father's death!"
*Note: How do you guys like my theory as to why Iori has trouble with trust and forgiveness? I sorta indirectly said it right above. I think his father getting killed has a lot to do with it and that maybe the people asked for forgiveness and he couldn't give it to them since he saw them as evil and stuff and that evil people can't change or are worth forgiving. If so, that sorta explains why he's giving Ken the cold shoulder now. He was evil, but doesn't know if he can completely trust him yet. As for Mr. Hida's cause of death, he did get killed while on-duty, but I never knew the details. I just found out a while ago that he was killed protecting a government official, so in other words, he died with honor.*
It was quite obvious that Iori had a lot on his mind. While he was thinking, he ran into a person holding a grocery bag and knocked the person over. It was a girl and she looked to be about his age.
"Hey, watch where you're going!"
"Hontou ni sumimasen (I am very sorry)," Iori apologized with a bow.
He helped the person up and handed her, her grocery bag.
"You should really watch where you are going," the girl scolded while brushing herself off. She then took the grocery bag from Iori.
"I am very sorry," Iori apologized again. "I had a lot on my mind and I didn't see you."
Iori didn't realize who the person was in front of him.
"Please forgive me."
"Well, well, well, look who it is," the girl said while putting her free hand on her hip. "It's Iori-kun, one of the quietist and nicest boys in school whom the teachers simply love."
"Eiji-san?"
"The one and only," the girl grinned.
The outgoing 11-year-old Tezuka Eiji was a little smaller than Iori and was also a classmate of his with long aqua blue hair. She always wore flare legged jeans and a typical, plain close fitting T-shirt. She was pretty and popular, but she never let it go to her head and didn't mistreat or tease others just to be popular. Eiji went to the same school as Iori, but they weren't good friends or anything. Just your typical "friend I go to school with" type of friend. They never really saw or associated with one another outside of school.
One thing Iori noticed about Eiji was how talkative she was. She always gave extra long explanations for such simple questions.
"What are you doing out here?" Iori asked.
"I was just doing some marketing for my mother," she explained. "She ran out of garlic for some strange recipe of hers. Let's see, she needed Garlic Salt, Garlic bulbs, minced Garlic, that chopped icky garlic that you scoop with a spoon, Garlic Juice, and Garlic Powder," she said while counting out on her fingers.
The girl then shuddered a bit, thinking about such a thing.
"Frankly, I don't think I want to try any of her new recipes! Garlic isn't too pleasant. Also, I can tell you this much, a vampire wouldn't come within 10,000 meters of our entire apartment building! I'm surprised our landlord hasn't kicked us out yet," the girl said with a laugh. "I also volunteered to go get these garlic products for her just so I could get a bite to eat for myself!! It's experimental month with my mother and this month it's 'how many ways can I use Garlic in my dinner recipes.' Last month it was 1001 ways to prepare different onion recipes! She has been acting weird lately anyway, like she's going through some type of a change."
The girl then shrugged.
"Go fig mothers, right?"
Eiji noticed the distant look on Iori's face and how he didn't respond once during her entire story. She really felt that something wasn't right concerning Iori.
"Is something wrong, Iori-kun? You seem to be upset about something," the girl said with lots of concern. "Come to think of it, you've seemed upset a lot lately. Me and some of the other kids in school have noticed. You have been so quiet lately and even with good friends, you are quiet. What's wrong?"
"You wouldn't understand," the boy answered sullenly.
"Try me," the girl insisted. "I would like us to become better friends and friends don't keep secrets you know. I don't mind listening to what you have to say."
"I'm sorry, Eiji-san, but you wouldn't understand what's bothering me."
"At least get whatever it is that's bothering you off of your
chest,"
the girl told him. "It's not good to hold in your feelings.
I learned that the hard way."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm sure you have seen my family and my younger brothers, Keizo and Hiroki."
Iori nodded.
"Well, they are not my real brothers. Both Keizo and Hiroki are my step brothers, well, they are more so my half brothers since we have the same mother," Eiji explained. "That man you see with my family is not my real father either. He is the father of Keizo and Hiroki, but he is in no way related to me."
"Not your real father?"
She nodded and continued on.
"My real father died a long time ago. He died so long ago, I don't remember much about him."
"I am sorry about your father," Iori said in an apologetic manner. "I never knew."
"Don't be sorry," Eiji assured him. "He wasn't the best person in the world from the little I do remember of him."
Iori gave her a questioning look, which caused the girl to explain what she meant.
"My father walked out on my mother," she said with a frown, remembering the traumatic incident. "All I remember is arguing and my mother crying. I remember him hitting her. I remember myself crying because my mother was hurt. My father hit my mother because of me. He was after me, but mommy kept him away and got hit in the process."
Iori was surprised to hear of such a problem. He couldn't even fathom anyone going through such an ordeal.
"After he left, my mom cried even more," Eiji continued. "A while later, my mommy got a call saying that my father was in an auto accident and that he wasn't coming home. I didn't feel guilty at all about it since I was too young to understand the concept of death entirely yet, but then year in and year out, it started to bother me that I didn't feel guilty that my father had died."
The girl lowered her head.
"I also felt that it was my fault that he got mad and left in the first place since my parents' argument had something to do with me. My mother kept telling me that it wasn't my fault, but I didn't believe her nor did I listen to her. I still blamed myself for that terrible night in our home. Year in and year out, I held that guilt within me until I couldn't take it anymore. I became withdrawn from my family, pretty much, and always acted, I guess, indifferently. I just didn't want to deal with the world or anything anymore."
The girl lifted up her head and stared up at Iori.
"Remember when I got sick and didn't come to school for a while, maybe about a year ago?"
"Yes, I do," Iori responded slowly.
"Well, all of my symptoms were psychological and I was stressed out
for feeling so bad."
The girl kicked her foot at the ground a bit since there was such an eerie silence.
"Wow, I have never told that to anyone, not even my best friend," the girl said with a small laugh. "I guess I feel as if I can trust you, Iori-kun."
Iori didn't know how to respond to such a statement. He just shrugged at the girl.
'She always seems so cheery, but who would've guessed that she had gone through such a situation.'
"See, Iori-kun, that is what happens when you don't share your feelings, especially ones dealing with guilt," the girl warned. "You either become violent, suicidal, depressed, or in my case, just stressed out and sickly. You are too bright to let that happen to you. You should tell someone how you feel or let somebody know what is bothering you so you can resolve that problem. If you don't, it will eat away at you until you crack. If you don't want to tell me what is bothering you, do me a favor and tell someone. I hate to see you so sad."
She gathered up her belongings and started to walk off, leaving Iori behind, until he stopped her.
"Eiji-san, wait."
She turned and faced him.
"You are right, I really shouldn't keep in what is bothering me, but it's pretty strange, my situation. I feel as if I have deceived a very good friend," he told her. 'I can't tell her about Armadimon. I am sure she doesn't know about Digimon and I don't want to tell her about my girl troubles. What kind of advice could she give about getting an older girl to notice you? Besides, it's embarrassing.'
"Strange?" The girl scoffed. "I highly doubt it! The strangest thing I've ever seen were those strange monster things that attacked here a couple of years ago and then that big scary vampire looking monster that attacked and tried to take all of us kids away a few years before that."
Iori gave her a look of pure shock...
"Oh no," the girl groaned. "Don't tell me you don't remember them either! Nobody that I know of remembers all of those strange looking monsters attacking here."
"You know about the Digimon that invaded earth two years ago!?!" Iori asked her in astonishment.
"Oh, so that's what they're called," the girl said, taking in the information. "Well, those 'Digimon' made a pretty big mess. I was still nine when it happened and I remember some kids helping to stop those Digimon or something."
"What else do you know?" Iori asked while leading her to a nearby bench.
"Nothing much," the girl said, sitting down, Iori sitting down next to her. "I just remember seeing them and battling, but it seems as if I'm one of the few that actually remembers it. It's like they were all brainwashed or something. How could one forget such a thing! They caused so much damage! I just don't get it." The girl then gave Iori a curious look. "How do you know so much about them and how do you know that these monsters were called Digimon?"
"I am trying to figure out how you remember them," Iori said, pondering over all that Eiji had said. "Normally those who did not have anything to do with the Digimon, like come in contact with them, usually don't remember them. Also, those who didn't have some type of a specific task dealing with Digimon or help to defeat the evil Digimon or anything like that, usually doesn't remember them."
"Wait a minute," the girl exclaimed, practically jumping from her seat. "YOU'RE ONE OF THE CHILDREN, AREN'T YOU!?! YOU'RE ONE OF THE CHILDREN WHO HELPED TO GET RID OF THAT BIG SCARY MONSTER I SAW ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO!!"
"Vamdemon in his true and final form, BelialVamdemon," the boy nodded.
"You were one of them, weren't you!"
Iori nodded sheepishly, realizing that he had let out too much information.
"Wow," the girl exclaimed, truly impressed. "So that means you were with the good Digimon monsters, right?"
"Yes, and the term is Digital Monsters," he corrected. "I had my very own Digimon called Armadimon."
Iori explained the entire situation to Eiji and how he became a Chosen Child and what happened in that final battle two years ago. She listened with great interest.
"Wow, being a Chosen Child sounds like it could've been fun," the girl said in a cheery manner. "Except for having to fight all of those bad monsters. Oh, and too bad you had to leave your Digimon--Armadimon, was it--behind."
"Yeah, I know, and yes, it is Armadimon," Iori sighed.
"And who would have guessed that the old brainiac, Ichijouji-san, was once evil," the girl exclaimed. "I remember when he was missing for weeks, now I know why."
"I still find it strange that you know of Digimon if you didn't have any real contact with them."
The girl shrugged. Iori then looked at his watch, noticing the time.
"Oh no," the boy panicked. "I should have returned home almost an entire hour ago!"
"Same here. I'm sure mom needs her garlic." The girl then snickered a bit. "I am glad I bought a burger and fries so that way, I won't have to sample her Garlic Soufflé!"
The girl was about to walk off until Iori stopped her.
"Um, Eiji-san, would you mind if I were to walk you home?"
The young girl looked up at Iori in surprised. A person she truly admired had just offered to walk her home. She really did admire Iori. As a matter of fact, she saw him walking and bumped into him on purpose just so she'd have an excuse to talk to him.
"Walk me home!?!"
"It is the least I could do for holding you up. I am sure your family is very worried about you."
"But what about your family?"
"I will worry about that later," the boy said confidently. "I am surprised that grandfather didn't pass by us. I am sure that he has already headed home," Iori thought, finding the situation a bit strange.
"I would be honored for you to walk me home," the young girl blushed with a smile.
The two started to walk off towards Eiji's home, but the two never made it...