Mr. Kino Takamiya, homeroom advisor for Class 1-D at Shinjuku High, had never believed the stories, even if the tellers swore by the souls of their ancestors that the tales were true. What stories, you ask? Well, some of Mr. Takamiya's colleagues had previously worked in Shinjuku Primary and others came from Shinjuku Middle School, and all had fantastical, improbable tales of Takato Matsuda and his legendary lateness.
Some told of how, for entire months at a stretch, he would always arrive exactly ten or five or twenty minutes after the bell, precise down to the second. Others, of the truly prodigious clouds of dust that attended his arrival, kicked up by his velocity. One had a story of how Takato had set out at five in the morning (she knew because she had called him on the cellphone to remind him to do so) and still arrived late for class. They had many theories as to his lateness, ranging from hereditary disease, a curse with directions and/or time-management, to the one that was the strangest but, surprisingly, convinced most of them – that Takato was a Digimon Tamer and often had to engage in battles that kept him and took up his time. Of deliberate malice or laziness none accused him, because that was less likely than any of the above.
But, we are not concerned with what the other teachers believed. We are concerned with Mr. Takamiya, who did not believe. He was new to Shinjuku, and young, and had lived some of his childhood abroad in the United States. To him, Digimon were just an urban legend that citizens of Shinjuku were particularly ready to believe. Also, he had Takato in his class, and the boy was not a quarter as troublesome as the others said he was. He was not an academic genius, like his friend Jenrya, but he maintained a strong B-average, and was good at art. He was good-natured and easy-going, often serving as mediator for his classmates. And, he was never late.
Or at least, Mr. Takamiya amended mentally, he had never been late. Now, though…
The young teacher buried his face in his hands while his classroom began to buzz with anticipation. A few had stopwatches out. Their classroom faced the front gate of the school, and the entire class was crowded at the window-banks, watching avidly. The windows of the classrooms adjacent were also filled with curious students.
"Ten…nine…eight…" said the ones who had stopwatches. Soon the entire class had joined into the chanting. Mr. Takamiya, still at his desk, sighed. Who would have thought Miss Himiko wasn't kidding about the Takato Countdown?
"…three…two…one!" And at that moment a furiously-pedaling Takato hove into view, his bike reaching speeds that would have given its manufacturers heart-attacks. He glanced at his watch (incidentally biking one-handed for that brief moment, something Mr. Takamiya would never consider doing at that speed) and, though they could not hear him, swore at his lateness. He reached the main gate, which had been locked already…but there was incidentally a large ramp near it, set up not by Takato himself but by classmates who were curious if he would be so foolish as to…no he wouldn't, would he…there he went!
The bike soared over the gate, landing with a crash that popped a few bolts loose. And, incidentally, sent its rider hurtling over the handlebars, where he rolled to a stop on the ground, jumping up hardly the worse for wear. At first his spills had been much more, well, bloody, for lack of a better term. Happily, Takato through several painful lessons had learnt to take a fall. He hurriedly stood his much-abused vehicle against a tree before sprinting into Shinjuku High.
"Pay up!" several boys – and a few girls - cried to grumbling compatriots.
***
It was Ayami Todeno's sixteenth birthday, and her boyfriend, Ito Sanakawe, had gotten her a present. Last year, he'd forgotten, and the fiasco that followed did not bear remembering. In fact, he made it a policy never to think of it.
So, this year he had carefully marked the date off on his calendar, and bought the present a whole three days in advance. It even had a gift-wrapper of dark blue, which was her favorite color – at least it had been last week. Ayami tended to change her mind a lot.
They were to meet at a local sit-down restaurant for a special dinner. Ito arrived a little late, to be sure, but it wasn't his fault that Coach had kept the team behind for special practice…
So he really could not understand why, instead of bubbling over with gratitude and sweetness as his efforts deserved, Ayami merely looked discontented, sighed a lot, and sometimes glared at him for no reason.
When the sixteen-year-old finally managed, in as subtle and unaccusing a manner as he could manage, to ask why, he learnt the reason.
"For crying out loud, Ayami, what's wrong with you now?!"
She burst into tears. Not quietly, either – big noisy sobs that shook her entire frame and made it sound as if she had just learnt her entire family had been run over by a posse of drunk truckers.
"You're such a big brute!" she bawled. "Why can't you be more like Takato-kun? He treats his girlfriend nicely!"
Ito shifted uneasily as the people nearby turned to stare at their table, drawn by the disturbance Ayami was causing. He felt even more uneasy when they began to glare at him, assuming he had just broken her heart in some manner. Thus, his reply to Ayami's somewhat unclear outburst was a little less than even-tempered.
"Who?!"
"Takato-kun! You know, Makino's boyfriend," she repeated. When her boyfriend made no indication he recognized the name at all, she heaved an exasperated sigh. How couldn't he know Takato? Everyone knew Takato.
It might be worthwhile to explain that Ayami did not realize that when she said 'everyone' she meant 'everyone at school' and that expecting Ito to know St Hebreke's usual gossip was not reasonable.
"He waits for her every day after classes…"
Shinjuku High ended an hour before St. Hebreke's did. Ito's school did not. Unfortunately for Ito, Ayami did not consider this.
"And he walks her home…and in the morning he walks her to school!"
"But…"
"And he gives her presents all the time…"
Usually presents of an edible type, like the little tarts that were Ruki's favorite and which Takato made especially well nowadays. He made a fresh three dozen every morning and they sold rather well at the Matsuda bakery.
"And he's sweet, and nice, and thoughtful…"
And on and on she went, while Ito groaned mentally and slumped down in his seat. He'd never met this Takashi guy, but he was beginning to develop a very intense dislike of the boy.
***
"I…I just can't believe it."
"I know, man, I know."
"It's beyond comprehension! It's shocking, that's what it is."
Two heads nodded solemnly in agreement.
"Downright eerie, I call it."
"Yeah!"
"Yeah, I mean, chumly and…her?!"
"I can't believe it."
"Me neither. It's just too weird."
"I really can't understand him sometimes!"
"I know! I just can't…believe him!"
"Me too!"
Somewhere close by, a gray-eyed Chinese boy pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. "Can't you give it a rest?" he muttered to Kenta and Kazu. "I mean you've said it already. Yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that…"
Kenta and Kazu's litany of disbelief was chanted at least once a day now. Kazu was especially in shock, and had not been able to function normally in school since then. (Somewhat sadly, his teachers did not notice much of a difference). He was the one who had broken the news to the rest of the Tamers gang, although it had been a while before the others could understand what he was saying.
Kazu had been late for a meeting at the park. He was running there when he saw Takato and Ruki ahead of him. The two Tamers were walking side-by-side, Takato wheeling his bike beside him. He was about to call to them when Takato had wrapped his arm around Ruki and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. And Ruki didn't tear him limb from limb.
It was too much. Takato and Ruki jumped apart, less out of embarrassment than having to make way for Kazu, who tore past them to the park, screaming and pulling at his hair. "The world is ending!" and "Oh my god!" being among the screams.
And so Takato and Ruki had to explain his sudden hysteria to the rest of the group, and great was the shock once they had done so.
Jenrya was brought out of his musings by Juri seating herself nearby. "Oh, don't be so harsh, Lee-kun," the girl said, smiling. "It's not so bad. They're getting better. Yesterday they only did it for about ten minutes." Both of them laughed a little.
"Hey…Juri?"
"Yes?"
"Do you mind me asking…how you feel about…you know. Takato and Ruki."
Juri looked a little puzzled. "What do you mean? I'm happy for them. They look good together. And we all know Takato's been head-over-heels for Ruki for, like, forever." Secretly, Juri thought Ruki had been head-over-heels for Takato for about the same amount of time, but since she didn't show it, the other boys didn't believe her.
"Oh. It's just that…I thought you and Takato were, you know…"
"Oh!" Juri blushed a little. "No…no. We were never like that. We were friends ever since we were little. And we may have thought we had crushes on each other, but we were young. We just didn't know how to compare sibling-type love with the other type." She smiled. "I'm not eaten up with jealousy, if that's what you mean."
"Okay."
The sounds of Kenta and Kazu's litany broke into their conversation.
"My god!"
"I know."
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