Just looking at my feet
The me from that day
Is alone but all right
I've truly changed."
Jyou Kido—"Kaze ni Mukatte"
(Translated by Riah-chan)
With Broken Wings
Chapter Thirteen: "Kaze ni Mukatte"
Kouji walked along the New York mall, avoiding any undue attention as he casually made his way to the ice rink. Momentarily, he glanced at the drawings of the flower and the comet, wondering how on Earth he was supposed to find these contacts. But Ki had implied that the two contacts would find him, and not the other way around. Still, even with that slight reassurance, there was still no meeting time. For all he knew, he'd have to spend the whole day there before he even caught a glimpse of the agents.
An every-man-for-himself styled hockey game was ferociously ruling the ice. Momentarily, Kouji was able to see a player with a gold comet on his jacket, underneath all his hockey gear. Quickly, he rented the gear he needed and placed his bag in a locker.
As he laced up his skates, he could hear whispers of derogatory comments aimed at him: "punk," "Goth," "skater boy" (whatever that was supposed to mean), "mutant," and "halfling." On those last two words, his blood ran cold. Someone here knew who he was.
"Don't listen to them," urged a girl in black hockey gear. "They're just not used to outsiders."
"Yeah," he commented, hoping he only sounded like he was trying to answer softly.
"Come on," the girl urged. "My friend and I decided to form a small team, if such a thing is possible in this game." For some reason, the word "friend" seemed hard for her to say. "You want to join?"
"Maybe later," he replied, getting onto the ice. "I'm looking for someone right now."
"All right," she answered, quickly skating off. "See you later."
But as she disappeared, Kouji managed to see a large pink flower stitched on the arm of her denim jacket.
"Wait!" he called, just before getting slammed by another player.
"No one's going to wait for you," the player informed.
The girl skated to a stop next to her partner, the player with the gold comet.
"So where is he?" he asked with more than a little annoyance in his voice.
"Don't worry. He's coming." Her voice no longer held the friendly tone she'd shown to Kouji. Instead, it was cold and angry.
"It is him, right?" he checked.
"I know who I saw," she affirmed. "That was him."
Fighting Kouichi may have been difficult, and slave labor may have been brutal, but this was nearly downright impossible! It was a flat-out blood fest! All Kouji could see were the blurred figures of players racing for the puck. A couple of times, he managed to get it in the unguarded goals, but his focus was on searching for the two contacts, not on scoring personal goals.
The puck slid over to the girl and her partner. Immediately, Kouji skated over to get to them, but a player with long silver hair shoved him across the ice. He slid and hit the wall, only to feel a severe beating from her.
"Look!" the female contact alerted. "It's him!"
"But who's that attacking him?" her partner questioned.
Briefly, she squinted. "It's Sakuyamon!"
"Keep everyone else from interfering!" he ordered. Aiming with the most meticulous precision, he sent the puck flying into Sakuyamon's back. She turned and viciously began searching for the culprit, but the other players swarmed on the puck. While she dealt with the bloodthirsty humans, the two agents helped Kouji skate off the ice.
Kouji and his contacts removed their skates and gear and returned them before retrieving their things from the lockers. Though the two acted like they had no connection to him, the guy slipped Kouji a brown paper bag and discreetly pointed to a restroom.
"Change," he mouthed.
After several minutes, Kouji exited in a dark red turtleneck with navy blue jeans, a dark gray fleece jacket, and a pair of black sneakers. His "Gothic" clothes were in the bag, ready to be mailed back to Hong Kong.
"It's not safe to talk here," the girl warned.
"Come on," her partner urged, "we'll take you somewhere safer."
After taking a train and a bus, the trio took refuge in a bagel shop near the Long Island town of Freeport. They chose a booth and each ordered a bagel for breakfast, and the male contact paid for a carton of orange juice. Once all their food and drink was collected, they sat down and set forth introductions.
"I'm Kaitlyn Hayes," the girl introduced, removing a beige beret from her long brown hair. She then gestured to her blond-haired, blue-eyed partner. "He's Adam Hunter."
"Then I guess I'm Gabriel," Kouji answered.
"Only in public," Adam replied. "We don't want to overuse your name."
"We'll have to," Kaitlyn argued. "You saw the way Sakuyamon was attacking him. We can't risk having him be known by any other name." Adam grunted in disgust. "I don't care. We have to protect him, and that's that. I'd hate to tell the others that you risked his life just to go by-the-book."
"I don't ever remember you being this argumentative," he muttered. Kouji began feeling very uncomfortable, as well as a little annoyed. Why on Earth would Ki team him up with two contacts who could not get along?
-------
Sakuyamon jumped from rooftop to rooftop of New York City, desperately trying to locate Kouji. It had taken quite a while to disentangle herself from the savage humans who were vying for the puck like some slaves would for a single scrap of food. And when she did find him, she'd pay that little mutant back for every bit of trouble he'd given her since their first encounter. And she planned on being there for his capture and return to Cell 24. She'd enjoy—no, savor—every pinnacle of torture given to him. Her violet lips curled into a smile at the thought of this.
Soon, very soon, she thought as she scanned the crowd. Despite his caution and existence as a "halfling," Kouji Minamoto was still partially human. And humans were ignorant by nature; they made mistakes too easily. That was what they were most known for: their mistakes, such as the ones that brought forth the Digital World in the first place.
I'll find you, she promised.
-------
Ki cautiously made his way through the jungles of Mexico, searching through every Mayan or Aztec ruin he'd encountered along the way. Kouichi's base was not in any of the Latin American countries, and he planned on making a point of that to Koushiro Izumi and Wallace Ford. Finally, after seething in anger for several minutes, he approached a helicopter provided by a Resistance pilot.
"Hola, Ki," the pilot greeted.
"Hola, Martinez," Ki replied. The rest of the conversation took place in English. Though Ki knew enough conversational Spanish to get by, he preferred to speak in a language he'd already mastered.
"You weren't able to locate anything?"
"No. And I'm going to really give it to Koushiro and Wallace for making me come all the way out here. I guess the United Kingdom is next."
"What are you going to do about the Zachary problem?" Martinez asked.
"Kouji will have to go with him. I pity him."
"Which one?"
"Both. Either Kouji's going to be annoyed to the point where he commits suicide, or he's going to be annoyed to the point where he 'accidentally' shoves Zachary off an ice flow. Sure, he's not that bad, but who knows how Kouji will react to him? If he fought with Takuya so often, he'll probably do the same with Zachary unless Zachary's changed in the three years I was afraid to speak to him." He removed a small computer terminal from his pocket and checked his e-mail. Kage informed him that there seemed to be no problem in China, and Koushiro informed him that the reading in England had been a miscalculation, and the next stop would be Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. He groaned a little bit, but anything was better than Mexico—anything. "Next stop, Jakarta."
-------
Kouji Minamoto/Gabriel Lee sat in a geometry class in the Resistance high school of Freeport High. He scribbled down a few notes in an odd combination of English, katakana, and kanji as the teacher reviewed Algebra I as it applied to this different kind of math. He was trying to pay attention, but the recovering burns on his hands were beginning to ache. Momentarily, he placed down his pencil and flexed his fingers, trying to stretch the new skin a little and keep his muscles from cramping.
"Gabriel, is something wrong?" the teacher questioned, looking up from the overhead. With her concerned question, the attention of the entire class turned to the student with the bandaged hands.
"Nothing," he answered quietly, picking up his pencil and writing again. Further up the row, Kaitlyn cringed. No one had planned on his injuries. Sure, it was easy enough to hide a Black Ring, but burns were a different case entirely. Who knew that Resistance students would be so curious about his hands?
Meanwhile, in English class, Adam was having his own problems. The class was instructed to write a composition on a battle or terrorist's disaster. The only restriction was that they could not write about the September 11th disaster. While everyone else was writing about a war long past or a battle from this current war, Adam had taken it upon himself to write of a battle the other world's Chosen had faced.
"Adam, please read your essay," the teacher requested.
"'The devil king towered above the young warriors, spreading an aura of fear and despair,'" he read. "'Nostalgia struck them all as they remembered what they had faced one cold January. And as they looked into the blue eyes of the devil, they wondered how it all could have come down to this. The fellowship had completely broken apart, just as in Tolkien's book. Only this time, there was no ring, but a single key. Even though the true item was not the literary One Ring, it was just as desired, and it too could bring about the end of all they knew. But as they looked up into the terrifying cerulean eyes of the demon king, it was suddenly apparent to them that the breaking of their friendship was meaningless. A friendship reaching out for over three years had been wasted for nothing. And over what? A single vision—that was what. One vision of destruction broke apart a friendship that had survived the forges of Hell. And it seemed they were at that summit again. The brunette girl from which the light originated held a small device close to her heart, refusing to give up. If they were going to pass through the Gates of Hell, they were not going to give Satan such an easy time…'"
"Adam, sit down," the teacher informed. "I don't argue that this is an excellent story, but I intended for you to write of a historical battle, and more in essay form than narrative form. But because of your description and details, I'll let it slide. Now, somebody else? Ah, Nic, why don't you try?"
As the girl rose and delivered her essay, Adam glanced at the paper on his desk. He'd poured his heart and soul into it, and had worked hard to change pictorial imagery into verbal imagery. And what was it to the teacher? Worthless. Mournfully, he stuffed it into his pocket and listened to the other compositions as he waited for the bell to ring, releasing him into lunch, where he would be able to meet up with Kouji and Kaitlyn.
The cafeteria proved to be just as much of a hassle for Kouji as the geometry class was. Students had originally been whispering about various subjects important to them, including a narrative Adam had written, but when Gabriel Lee's name came up, all attention was focused on that. The main subject, though, was the origins of his burned hands.
"I heard it was an accident in chemistry at his old school. Acid, you know?"
"Acid? You crazy? It had to be a fire…"
"Nah, they're electrical. He probably touched something during a surge…"
"Only you'd be dumb enough to do that…"
Becoming thoroughly sick of the gossip, Kouji walked to the table where Adam and Kaitlyn were sitting (though, of course, not making eye contact) and loudly slammed his tray down. In normal cafeterias, pre-Kaiser days, the action was drowned out in a roar of loud talking. But the fear of capture forced students to speak in hushed whispers, and the sudden sound of the tray against the table caused them to jump out of their seats in shocked silence. When they saw Kouji looking at them with an annoyed glare in his sapphire eyes, they knew he'd heard them. Unnerved by the coolness of the stranger, they changed the subject to anything other than Gabriel Lee. Occasionally, fugitive Kouji Minamoto was mentioned, or his alias Masaki Nishigawa, but never Gabriel Lee.
"You know how to get people to shut up," Adam observed.
"Learned it in Kouichi's slave camp," he whispered back as he sat down.
"Did you hear anything from Hong Kong?" Kaitlyn asked.
"No. I guess Izumi's not conscious yet."
"That must be terrible," she sympathized. "How are you able to live being separated from the one you love?"
"I survive because I have to," Kouji replied. "Either of you hear from Ki?"
"He e-mailed me last period, during English," Adam explained. "When the teacher wasn't looking, I checked it. He said there weren't any clues to Kouichi's whereabouts in Mexico, so he's heading for Indonesia."
"Did he send us any instructions?" Kouji checked.
"He wants us to check around the city. I tried to e-mail him about the Sakuyamon incident, but the batteries ran out. I need to buy two double-As after school." He opened a package of Smucker's Uncrustables peanut butter and jelly and bit into the round sandwich, immediately making a face. "And I need to buy something to eat after this. Ugh!" He grabbed his milk carton and quickly drank half of its contents in hope that the foul aftertaste would be gone. Kouji passed him a banana out of pity, and Kaitlyn (not wanting to seem completely insensitive) handed over half of her ham-and-cheese-on-rye. "Thanks," Adam replied.
"I've got to help out at the dance class," Kaitlyn informed.
"Okay, Adam and I can go shopping, and we'll pick you up when we're done," Kouji decided. "Anything you need us to get?"
"Just some rice. I'm so glad Yamato, Taichi, and Sora taught me to cook, even if it was just simple rice dishes."
"Yamato?"
"A friend of ours, along with Taichi and Sora," Adam explained, flashing a glare in Kaitlyn's direction. "They're from Ki's dimension."
"As are you two?" Kouji guessed. Adam stared at him in shock. "I figured Ki would trust friends from his world better than strangers from this one."
"You're right," Kaitlyn replied, returning the glare to Adam. "We are from that world, as are the other Chosen. But things have changed since the days of the original Kaiser." Her voice suddenly took on a less sharp tone. "Things have changed a lot…"
Adam was barely listening; instead, he was looking down at his failed paper. Kaitlyn didn't notice, but Kouji did.
"English?"
"Yeah. Compositions."
"Great." The sarcastic tone was obvious.
"You don't like writing?" Kaitlyn observed, surprised.
"Not this kind. Writing songs is easy for me—it all comes out naturally from what I see, but compositions are another thing entirely."
"Maybe Adam could help you," she suggested, glaring at her partner so he'd cooperate. "He's a pretty decent writer."
"Pretty decent?" Adam muttered.
"How good is pretty decent?" Kouji questioned.
"Something got published in a magazine once. It's nothing too much; my mom is a reporter, so she managed to pull a few strings."
"Still, I need all the help I can get." Kaitlyn stared at him in surprise. From the little she knew, he rarely asked for help.
"All right," Adam agreed reluctantly. He removed a sheet of paper and a pen from his backpack and handed them over. "First, we need to choose a topic."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. Is there anything, any battle from the past you remember most vividly?"
Kouji's face set more seriously. "Yeah. The day Kouichi tried to kill me."
"Adam, maybe you shouldn't…" Kaitlyn suggested.
"Now, you said you can write songs easily," Adam continued, ignoring her. "Make up some lyrics to describe everything around you, everything that happened."
Kouji tapped the pen against the table for a moment, creating a rhythm, just as he did when he was writing a song. The imagery of the beach swept through his mind's eye, filling his pen to write. All the while, Adam peered over, nodding his head or making corrections.
"There. What you have there is good. Leave it at that."
"Okay, so now what?"
"Now, on the other half of the paper, write your feelings about the incident."
"I was unconscious half the time."
"Then write about the way the electricity coursed through you, the pain you felt, the tears of your friends. You can get inside their heads, so put it to some use."
Again, Kouji created a beat for the lyrics, eventually writing a long set of lines about his fear and confusion, Kouichi's anger, the others' pain… Kaitlyn still looked reluctant, but Adam continued to nod.
"That's good, that's good."
"Is that all?" Kouji asked.
"Well, what you have here are two songs. Combine them into one, keeping a smooth rhythm, and you have your story there. It's that easy."
Kouji looked down at the two songs on his paper. It didn't seem that easy, but Adam was right. His songs were no more than stories, just as many were. If he could just manage to put in enough emotion, he'd be able to figure it out.
But it was too bad writing was the only thing he seemed to have figured out.
-------
Izumi opened her eyes to a world of numbness. It was suddenly clear to her how Kouji must have felt after waking up from the blow to his head when the Kaiser had infiltrated his mind. She couldn't move at all, and her limbs felt like they'd fallen asleep.
She was in a hospital somewhere, and it was warm, though not uncomfortably so. She lifted her leaden arm to switch on a lamp so she could see around her. Signs were posted on the wall in a Chinese script and English. Her brain felt sluggish, so she couldn't translate the English into her native languages of Japanese or Italian, leaving her at an acceptable disadvantage. Ignoring her numbness, she leaned to a phone beside her bed and lifted the receiver. But with a thought that she could be in the hands of the enemy, she hung it up quickly.
Feeling restless, she got out of bed and walked around her room on unsteady legs. On the windowsill was a vase of flowers: blue-violet irises, white-and-pink orchids, white Casablanca lilies, and a few red roses that were beginning to wilt. She walked over to the bouquet, inhaling the various beautiful fragrances. A note was attached to a lily. It was a simple phone number, and a folded black cell phone lay next to the vase. On any other occasion, it could have been a trap, but she recognized the handwriting as Kouji's. Rapidly, she unfolded the phone and extended the antenna. There was no signal, so she drew the curtains and leaned out the window for a clearer signal and dialed. A quiet, familiar voice answered on the other end:
"Hello?"
"Kouji!"
There was a brief silence on the other end before he spoke again. "Izumi, you're finally awake! I don't know how many weeks have passed…"
"Weeks?"
"Yeah."
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you yet. But I'm trying to help Ki track down Kouichi's center of power. I have a feeling it's more to keep me doing something so I can't feel helpless. If I'm lucky, no one—not even the Resistance—will be able to find me."
"Oh. I see." Izumi was silent for a moment, understanding Kouji's need for discretion. "Are you okay?"
"I guess. I'd rather stay in Hong Kong with the rest of you, but Kouichi can find me too easily. Sakuyamon's already tracked me down here."
"Do you still have the Black Ring?"
"Yeah. So long as Kouichi's alive, I still have it. But I'll figure out a way to get rid of it—without having to kill him. But if worse comes to worst, I know what I have to do." There was an uncomfortable silence.
"I miss you."
"I miss you too. I'll try to get back as soon as possible. Until then, I'll call you whenever possible. Ki calculated a thirteen-hour time difference, so I apologize ahead of time if I call you at a bad time."
"It's okay."
"Tell my family I'm fine, please."
"Of course."
"Well, see you soon."
"See you soon." Hanging up was the hardest thing either had done. Izumi stared at the bright lights and cityscape of Hong Kong, a tear slowly dancing down her cheek. Kouji placed his phone back in his pocket and continued tearing away at the old bandages on his hands. His palms were still shiny and red, but healing. Slowly, he forced his hands to become fists, feeling an oddly satisfying pain that indicated his hands were recovering. Finally, he wrapped them in fresh, soft cotton bandages and placed his gloves over them.
"I take it that was good news," Adam guessed, seeing a relieved look on Kouji's face.
"Izumi's finally conscious."
"That's good. Kaitlyn's right, though I hate to admit it. It's hard to be away from your loved ones. But don't mention Izumi's condition outside the apartment. We still have Sakuyamon to deal with."
Kouji grabbed his jacket. "Well, we'd better pick up Kaitlyn. Did you get something to eat?"
"Yeah. A little real PB and J and I felt better."
They grabbed two bikes from the living room (one was Adam's and the other was on loan from Yamato) and headed outside.
At the Freeport Rec Center, classical music drifted from the windows. Adam listened to it while looking over his crumpled composition, regretting the events that had led to that battle. Finally, the music stopped, and the doors to the class slowly opened. Seeing that it was indeed safe, the Madame allowed her students and aides to exit. Kaitlyn walked out in a black leotard and pink tights, her hair placed in a bun.
"Just give me a second to change," she requested, heading for the locker room.
"Okay," Adam replied, throwing his composition into a garbage can.
Kouji detected a tone of regret in his new friend's voice and so turned to him. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just a little nostalgic. Back in fifth grade, people used to tell us to stop playing around and get married already. In the end, we found ourselves hating each other." A sad grin crept onto his face. "Darn Sora—I'd use stronger words, but there are kids here—she tried to set us up. You give a girl the Crest of Love, and she suddenly takes it on herself to be a matchmaker. She made Mimi look like nothing." Regaining his composure, he turned to face Kouji. "Don't let go of that girl. You do, and you'll regret it all your life."
"All right, I'm ready," Kaitlyn informed, wearing a dark violet sleeveless top with an attached jacket, black skorts, and black tennis shoes. Seeing that they were ready to go, she quickly stuffed her toe shoes in her dance bag.
"Let's get going," Adam decided rather uneasily.
"Just let me get my bike," Kaitlyn replied.
As she turned around, she swiped the crumpled paper from the top of the garbage can and stuffed it in her bag. She was curious as to its contents, and this was the only way to find out.
--------
Kouji pulled out a bag of paper plates and a bag of plastic silverware and set the table. Adam was back at their apartment, getting three cans of soda. Kaitlyn had invited them over for dinner after they'd found nothing in the city—yes, inviting her mortal enemy Adam as well. But there was something about what Adam had said earlier that made him wonder how they could be at each other's throats now.
"He'd better hurry up," Kaitlyn commented impatiently, spooning rice and vegetables onto the plates. "I'm not waiting around for him."
"Why do you hate each other so much?" Kouji questioned.
"Why do you and your brother hate each other?" she demanded.
"I don't hate him. But why he hates me is a long story, and I'm not even sure if I know the real reason."
"There's your answer."
"Explain."
"It's true that we were once friends—best friends, in fact. But then I began having some strange dreams, and he got jealous."
"Jealous?"
"Because I kept seeing someone in them. I didn't know who he was, but I knew I had to find him. But apparently, some people didn't agree."
"Kaitlyn," Kouji explained in as calm a voice as he could muster, "if Adam was that concerned, then he obviously cared about you, more than as a friend."
"There's more. After the Kaiser left our world, we all kept searching for a way here. And it wasn't just us; we called in several friends from all over the world: Wallace, Michael, Dingo, Catherine, Chichos… But no one could find out the answer. In the end, Daisuke, Koushiro, Wallace, and eventually Taichi decided they were going to help Gennai contact an old friend of the Chosen's…"
"Ryo Akiyama."
"Yeah. He lived in another dimension, and it took until April to contact him. Taichi told him our problem, and Ryo gave them a rather weird answer."
"How weird?"
"He said this was just like something he and his friends had faced a year before that. A girl named Juri Katou—a Tamer, like them—had lost her mother at the age of five, and then her partner, Leomon, five years later. The overwhelming sense of death summoned a being called the D-Reaper, which cloned her and infiltrated their Real World. Juri was the power source, in essence."
"That sounds like what happened to Kouichi," Kouji realized.
"Huh?"
"When our grandmother was dying, our mom was under a lot of stress; and from what he told me, he took it pretty hard. He summoned the Spirits of Darkness and became Duskmon."
"Then Ryo's information was more helpful than we thought," she replied. "Listen, you're going to come across a lot of new discoveries before you finally face your brother. Remember that he could be just as much a prisoner as you were, like Juri was."
Just as Adam knocked on the door, Kouji's phone rang. He excused himself and went into the living room to answer it.
"Izumi?"
"Kouji, I hope I didn't call you at a bad time. It's six o'clock there, right?"
"Yeah. It's okay."
"What's wrong?"
He took a quick glance at Adam and Kaitlyn, who were silently eating dinner without ever once looking at each other. The one good thing about their avoiding eye contact was that they weren't shooting death glares at each other anymore. He remembered when, after their return home and Kouichi's "return from the dead," Izumi had found herself drawn to the Child of Darkness. Never once had he felt jealous—he'd been the one that encouraged them both to get together. He once had a crush on Izumi, but seeing her happiness when she was with Kouichi was something he treasured even more.
"Kouji?" Izumi questioned.
"How can simple jealousy end a friendship so deep that it was almost love?"
"What do you mean?"
"How can two people—best friends, like all of us started as—suddenly hate each other just because of the person one of them saw in a dream?"
"I don't know. But if they really were best friends, it shouldn't have gotten in the way."
He watched the sad spectacle again. "So they're just making excuses?"
Broken glass suddenly filled the living room as a blue fox-like spirit flew through the window and attacked Kouji. Adam quickly helped him wrestle it while Kaitlyn grabbed the fire extinguisher. White foam sprayed all over the spirit, causing it to cry out in pain. Terrified, it flew out the shattered window and disappeared.
"That was one of Sakuyamon's attacks," Adam recognized.
"Adam, go back and get his stuff," Kaitlyn ordered. "We have to get him out of here now."
"No, wait!" Kouji ordered, but Adam had already left.
"What's wrong?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Sakuyamon knows me too well," he explained. "We can't head for the station."
"Then what should we do?"
Without answering, he dashed to his apartment, where Adam had already crammed everything of Kouji's into the duffel bag. Kouji took it and ran out the garage door, followed closely by the other two.
Sakuyamon will be waiting at the train station, he realized. "Kaitlyn, Adam, is there anything we can use to make a diversion?"
"What kind?" Adam questioned.
"Transportation."
"I have an idea," Kaitlyn informed. Both boys looked at her. "But it's kind of dangerous. Kouji, you stay with Adam while I distract Sakuyamon. Then get him to the train station as fast as possible." Not giving them a chance to argue, she ran for the school, climbing over a fence.
Sakuyamon scanned the streets, waiting for Kouji to make his move. He had not exited via the front door, so it was logical to assume he'd found a back door.
I'll just wait him out, she decided. He'll show up eventually. Suddenly, a golf cart came careening down the street. That's him.
Taking chase, she flew after it, determined to apprehend him. But finally, after observing no change in its course of travel, she stopped.
A decoy, she realized, angrily flying away to the nearest train station.
-------
Adam, Kaitlyn, and Kouji stood on the platform at Penn Station in New York. Trailmon Buffalo patiently waited for them to finish their goodbyes.
"Thanks for your help," Kouji commented. "I'm going to miss you."
"I'll bet anything we'll see each other again," Kaitlyn answered. She gave him a hug and a friendly peck on the cheek before letting him say the remainder of his farewells.
"Hey," Adam added, holding out his hand. "Remember what I said about that girl."
"I will," Kouji promised, shaking his hand. "Goodbye."
The Trailmon took off, eventually disappearing into the Digital World, using world-hopping strategies to quickly get to the next location and keep Kouichi off their scent. As Kaitlyn Hayes, or whatever her name really was, stared after her new friend, she thought about the dreams she'd had. In them, she'd always seen Kouji as a weakening, beaten child who needed to be rescued. But now she saw that he was not the same person she'd envisioned. Rather, he was the opposite: a strengthening young man who was determined to end this long night, by himself if necessary. Had he changed, or was it she who had? Long ago, she had once had friends, but now she was a lone fighter, going against everything she'd grown up to know and love. How could a sweet little girl become such a cold young woman?
"…Somewhere in there, underneath that hardened exterior is the little girl who hated seeing people get hurt…" The words haunted her mind all the time. Why was she like this? It was something she'd gotten used to.
Adam had already left, so she decided it was her time to move on as well. She turned and walked out of the station, into a cold and bittersweet rain. A cool autumn breeze swept through her fawn-colored hair as she took one last glance into the station.
"Godspeed, Child of Light," she whispered.
And with that one wish, she turned to face the wind and rain that tormented her heart.
"Kaitlyn" comes from my cousin Kaitlyn, a.k.a. Katie. "Hayes" and "Hunter" are from Robotech: The Macross Saga: Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes. Adam is from Madeleine L'Engle's A Ring of Endless Light.