Boku-tachi/Atashi-tachi
Again, thanks to all that reviewed. You've been lovely. This time, I think I won't list out all the people that reviewed, due to the complexity of that nature. However, as long as you have reviewed, you should know that your reviews are greatly appreciated, really. Every single one is encouragement, and I do read over them.
One question that, if I recall correctly, more than one person asked was something along the lines of "When does the romance start?". Well. The story hasn't actually begun yet, as it will start after the prelude's seven chapters. Of course, after I finished, technically, the romance won't start immediately, it's not like they just start and Taichi and Sora will start kissing frantically, as irrational as my fictions go, they won't be that silly. Of course, I'll try to work really hard and finish the rest of the days. With what I planned, I'll compress Day 5 and 6 into one chapter, and make Day 7 quite short, and I'll try to finish most of them this week. So that fellow readers will get to read what they, presumably, want to read most. It's what I want to write most as well, so that'll be pretty soon to come, that's what I hope.
Also, when the actual story comes, I won't be trying to jab a joke in whenever I have the chance, that takes up quite some energy and thought. And I think my thoughts are running out as well, so the next chapters might not be as funny, that's what I always say, anyway. It'll be a light-hearted and slow romantic, somewhat. Of course, if the joke comes when I write it, I'll put it in, so it's kind of a no-guarantee to whatever thing. Ack. I'm ranting too much. Anyway. Enjoy.
Once again, thank you thank you thank you to all my fellow reviews and readers. More so if you reviewed. =p And remember to keep on reviewing, or...I'll be really evil and write chapters and not release them! Yeah. That is evil. Or I can just release them, but make the font Wingdings.
And by the way, I changed the summary a little bit, which, for some odd reason, edited out the - and / in my title, leaving me with BokutachiAtashitachi, which, has, to the least, made me feel like an idiot, like that time I did it with the chapter titles. For now, I'll just try to make it Bokutachi, Atashitachi, which doesn't give the theme off as much as it should, but at least fanfiction.net accept the comma sign. The title also looks really bad like that, kind of stupid, too, I think most of you would agree. If anyone knows why this is happening, and/or how to fix it, please e-mail me or drop it off in my review box, thanks.
And before I forget:
Disclaimer: Digimon isn't mine. Yeah. If it was, I'd make it so that they'd make what I'm writing into an anime and broadcast it, then having it subtitled, brought over to America, having it aired, and then parents would complain because the show has eviiiil subject matter, and then I would tell them to stuff it up their- ahem. I've made my point anyway.
Prelude - Chapter 0.5: Seven Days (Day 4/Break Day's Daybreak)
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Taichi blinked.
The idea of cross dressing, then mix himself into a bunch of girls in an all-girl school has, to the least, horrified him. Despite how the idea turns him off, the fact that he's doing something so...different has kept his heart rate above average, as well as waking him up early, and keeping him up ever since. Although no excitement has ever impulsively allowed Taichi to get out of a warm bed.
"Unnn..." Taichi shook his head.
Maybe not.
Taichi stood up.
Stretch.
Step. Step. Step.
//I'm feeling so weird lately. Only my body has been made more feminine...I think, but ever since, I've been feeling really different.
Taichi looked in the mirror, and tilted his head slightly.
He shook his head vigorously, as if trying to get something inside his head to fall out.
Gulp.
Taichi spun on one foot, a full circle, then smiled gently, and tilted his head a bit.
"Taichi-san, I thought that I was going to come by and just-" Takeru looked past the door after he opened it.
"I...umm...I'm so sorry for disturbing your moment."
Slam.
Fast footsteps.
//Dammit, I knew I should've never done that.
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"Alright. Today is a break day. You guys can go do whatever you want for today." Kei mumbled weakly, with a toothpick between his lips.
Koushiro blinked. "Why is that?"
"Ah, we're a bit ahead of schedule here." Kei explained firmly.
"Really?" Ken asked in disbelief.
"No, not really. Just that the author has ran out of ideas." Kei tapped his foot. "Feel free to explore the station, you can take off your...er...femininity, if you so wish."
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Taichi groaned as he stretched his arms as far up as they could go, favouring the feeling of wearing a tank top. A male tank top, he insisted. Without breasts inside, he added.
Everyone else was dressed casually, but with more cloth than Taichi.
"I think I have to go pay some attention to my laptop now, I've left it on for days downloading things, and recharging as well." Koushiro indistinctively said as he walked into his room.
"Ne, Yamato."
"What is it, Taichi?"
"Come to my room later."
"Mmm."
Taichi and Yamato went into their respective rooms, then shut the door a bit louder than necessary.
Ken and Takeru exchanged glances with each other in the isolated hallway.
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"Huh...let's see." Koushiro mumbled to himself as he pulled the plug off the line that connected the computer and the wall socket.
Carefully, Koushiro depressed the button and flipped the screen upright. He ran his fingers over the keyboard, marvelling at how they feel after a days. His eyes went from the screen to the keyboard, and went white.
The keyboard's keys are now arranged in alphabetical order.
"Holy shiiiiiit!"
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"So, Taichi, what is it that you wanted?" Yamato casually asked.
Taichi, lying on the bed, having a blanket covering his lower body, glanced at Yamato. "Nothing in particular. Just wanted to talk."
Yamato chuckled. "Just wanted to talk? That doesn't seem like you."
Taichi coughed. "So, how are you?"
Yamato walked over and sat on the side of the bed, his back facing Taichi. "'How are you?', Taichi, you never said that before. What is it? Spill it."
Taichi scratched his head through his hair. "Well, it's just that...you're doing this now, but what about your band?"
Yamato blinked. "My band? What about it?"
"Doing this will take an entire year off of your life. That means you can't be in your band anymore."
"That's alright. I can go back afterwards."
Taichi shook his head. "That's not the point. You're the lead singer of the band. Only recently has your band's popularity increased outside of the Odaiba district. I know that you worked really hard on it. Being away for a year...well,"
"You're right. It'll more or less affect my music career." Yamato nodded. "The band will stay together. They'll be okay without me. One year later, maybe people will forget about me. But I'll just work my way up again."
"I know that you spent lots of time and effort to be where you are today. I don't want you to throw all that away just because all of us are doing it and you feel pressured-"
"It's okay, Taichi. I wanted to do this. Plus, afterwards, I'm sure that I could win back what I lost with this pick." Yamato reached his hand into his back pocket, and took out a black triangular guitar pick with circular corners.
"Yeah." Taichi smiled slightly, and leaned forward and grabbed the pick by the corners.
Lights from the ceiling bounced off the shiny black surface of the pick, showing clean engraved marks on the pick "Y. I.", which would otherwise be invisible.
"Ack!" the pick slipped from Taichi's fingers and dropped inside the blanket.
Frowning, Taichi slipped his entire upper body into the blanket in search for the pick, which did not contrast a lot under the blanket. Of course, not realizing that he folded his entire body like a portable chair.
Crack.
"Ahhhh!" Taichi quickly sat upright.
"That...didn't sound pretty." Yamato twitched. "Let me get it."
"Ack...sorry." Taichi apologized as he leaned back.
Yamato reached his hand inside the blanket, patting the bed trying to see if the pick was anywhere there.
"Huh..." Yamato continued, only to further find no result, which was frustrating, after all, the bed was only so big.
Yamato crawled head first into the blanket, hoping to be able to find the pick, which had, some sentimental value, to the least. It being in the blanket too long with Taichi along with it might spoil some of the sentimentality.
"TAICHI!" The door blasted open. "Did you touch my laptop!?" Koushiro demanded.
Taichi lying against the wall, sitting on the bed, his lower body covered by a blanket.
Yamato, head and hands inside the blanket.
Blush.
"Uh...sorry for interrupting anything."
Slam.
Yamato quickly retrieved himself from the blanket. "No! It's not like that!!"
"Damn it, it's twice today already." Taichi whispered to himself.
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Ken walked slowly, then a bit faster to keep up with Takeru, then slowed down again once he caught up.
"Let's explore around the station." Takeru suggested, after minutes of silence.
"Sure..." Ken nodded as he walked behind Takeru. His mind wandered, as did his eyes.
//[Ken] ...Cylinder garbage can, vending machine, telephone, counters, small clocks with bold numbers. Telephone. I wonder if I should call someone. Anyone. It's only been 4 days, but it feels like some twisted group isolation. Should I call my parents? Iori? Perhaps some of my other friends...
// "Call me sometime." Miyako winked.
Takeru turned around in response to the stopping sound of footsteps. "What's wrong, Ken?"
"Ah...actually, you go on ahead. I have something to do. I'll catch up with you later."
"Oh, okay." Takeru replied as he turned back and continued along his path.
Ken patiently watched as Takeru disappeared around the corner, then walked back to the telephone, hung up on the wall. His left hand reached for the phone, his right hand pulled out a card from his pocket, and his eyes scanned the card for the longest numerical value he can find, ignoring everything else.
Tap.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap.
"Hello? Inoue Miyako, please."
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Takeru walked down the hallway, his head constantly turning left and right, looking at what things there were that he didn't already see.
//Everything is almost like a clone of anything else in this station...aside from a few things. I'm going deeper and deeper. I hope I don't get lost.
Though, logically, he knew that it's very difficult to get lost in a single route.
"Huh..." Takeru sounded to himself as he walked slowly near an open door, taking a peek of what's inside.
The backside of two grown men, staring at a panel with multiple screens.
"See, by altering changing the timing like this, you can manage to get everything within the time slots."
//This voice...is...
"Hmm. That does work. Pretty good work, Ishida. No wonder that the high statuses appointed you personally for this job."
//Ishida...tou-san?
"Haha, it's nothing. A bit of trial and error with some experience is basically all you need."
Takeru, zoned out from listening, slipped and lost his balance by shifting his weight, and fell into the wall beside the door, creating a rather sudden noise.
"Who's there?"
Getting up, Takeru sprinted off.
//Good luck, tou-san.
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"Hello."
"Hello."
"This is Ichijouji Ken."
"Oh, Ken! Er...Ichijouji-san."
"Ken is alright. No need to get formal with me."
"Oh...alright, then. Ken. So, what is it today?"
"Huh?"
"I mean...do you have some reason you're calling me?"
"Oh...umm. None in particular. It's just that other day you said-"
"'Call me.'"
"Right. That."
"Where are you calling from?"
"Oh...uh...work. Yeah. I'm calling from work."
"Oh wow. You work too? Just like Hikari-chan. What kind of work do you do?"
"It's nothing big. ...Just some small work, like moving things around, learning some basic things in a television station. Trying to accumulate work experience."
"Ah, that's pretty cool! A television station, huh?"
"Yep, a television station..."
"Think you could take me around inside?"
"Oh...um...I think not. Sorry. It's not like I have authority..."
"Haha, I know. I'm just kidding."
"Oh, hahahaha."
"Hmm...when are you free?"
"Free? I'm not sure."
"Hmm. I was thinking...maybe we could...well, maybe we could come out together sometime?"
"Huh? Come out, you mean like a...date?"
"Oh, uh...Anyway, I've got to go now. If you find out when you're free, call this number again, if my roommates answer it, just tell them to give it to me, if I'm not here, just tell them the time, they'll tell me, okay, bye!"
"What? Wait!"
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
With a blank expression, Ken hanged up the phone.
"Free time?" Ken sighed. "There won't be any for another year."
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Takeru quickened his pace. It was quite a few corners and some distance from the room that he ran from, but he continued just to be safe. He looked back to check if anyone was running after him.
"Oof!"
Fall.
"Eh?" Takeru looked up, seeing Taichi and Yamato, staring down. Realizing that Yamato and Taichi were not only staring down at him, but also at Koushiro, who he seemingly bumped into, Takeru quickly stood up and gave a hand to Koushiro.
Koushiro stood up. "Watch where you're running to, geez."
"Oh, umm. Sorry."
Yamato cupped his chin along with his mouth and a part of his nose. "What was wrong, Takeru? I don't think you would run so fast for no reason."
"Oh...er...um..." Takeru scratched his head.
"See, now you got him all flustered." Taichi remarked.
"Takeru. What is it?" Yamato glared at Takeru. Usually, there wouldn't be this kind of tension, but Yamato felt that apparently, it was something that he needs to know about.
"I...saw tou-san." Takeru hesitantly answered.
"Oh." Yamato said as if it was no big deal.
Takeru blinked. "Don't you want to see him?"
"It's alright. He would take care of himself all right. No use spying on him and all."
"Where's Ken?" Koushiro looked around, trying to see if he would be anywhere near. "Wasn't he with you?"
"He had something to do." Takeru replied. "Or so he said."
"Ah, I see."
"Oh, what are you guys doing here?" Takeru asked.
"Taichi thought it might have been funny so remove, somehow, my alphabetical keys and place them in alphabetical order." Koushiro mentioned for no reason.
Taichi sighed. "We're bored. Nothing much to do. We practically went around the entire station once already."
"It is quite interesting that, as a matter of fact, the station mostly consists of a bunch of rooms that connect to one single hallway that does not split at any point. Which makes it pretty much...a linear track of sorts." Koushiro observed.
"...Track, huh..." Taichi muttered.
Yamato glanced at Taichi.
Taichi glanced at Yamato.
"Want to take a test run?" Taichi suggested, although he knew that Yamato had the same thought, grinning.
"I'll take you on any day." Yamato smirked back.
Koushiro blinked repeatedly. "You're thinking of running around the entire station?"
"Exactly." Taichi connected both his hands and extended his elbows outwards, then pushed the elbow even further as a mean of stretching.
"You're crazy. Plus, you'd be disrupting the entire station by doing that." Koushiro persisted.
"No problem. We'll be gone before they realize it." Yamato tilted his neck.
"Oh, you're so irresponsible. But if you insist, I'll time you."
Takeru sweatdropped.
Taichi and Yamato both beside one another, using a thin line on the ground caused by the tiling as the starting line.
"Three. Two." Koushiro rapidly typed in a few quick commands into the computer. "One."
A beep emanated from the laptop.
Both Taichi and Yamato dashed off.
"Woah, they run fast." Takeru stared in awe.
"Yeah, they probably have plenty of practice." Koushiro assumed. "Taichi from soccer, and Yamato from running away from fangirls."
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"I'm not going to lose to you!" Taichi shouted while he ran beside Yamato.
"Likewise!"
"Hey look! Your otou-san!" Taichi pointed towards a room that Yamato just passed.
Yamato continued running, but looked back at the room.
Taichi pushed Yamato into the wall.
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"So, what do you think?" Koushiro questioned.
"Huh? About what?" Takeru asked back in confusion.
Koushiro's hand made little circles. "This. What we're doing right now, or rather, what we're going to do."
"Oh. Well...it's a bit dangerous, I suppose. At some point. It'll probably be very embarrassing, since we're going to go on television, but the prize money is all worth it." Takeru briefly retorted.
"So you think like that too."
"What do you mean?"
Koushiro bit his lower lip. "Don't you understand? With the way things are set up, us dressing up as girls and entering an all-girl school without being discovered? That's just like having a bomberman go into a line shaped space, then closing off his only exit with a high powered bomb without any power ups like the kick shoes or the gloves!"
Sweatdrop.
"I'm not sure I follow your analogy."
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"That was cheap!" Yamato yelled at Taichi in between breaths.
"It's not my fault!" Taichi laughed. "You just weren't careful enough!"
Yamato grumbled.
They each continued running, and started to decrease in speed, realizing that, they pushed themselves to their original speeds, but quickly slowed down again.
"Hey Taichi! Look! It's the actresses' change room!" Yamato pointed to the widely opened door.
"Yeah right, like they have the change room with the door wide open!" Taichi scoffed as he ran past the room.
"..."
Taichi glanced back.
Yamato grabbed Taichi's head and grinded it against the soft bulletin portion of the wall.
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"I'm saying that with how they have things," Koushiro said, with the side of his index finger touching his lips. "It's just as if we trapped ourselves with almost no percentage of survival."
Takeru laughed nerviously. "But they...they couldn't give us an impossible objective, right? I mean, if they do that, and we all fail, they won't even have anything to air!"
"I figured that too, that's why I accepted, but...well, considering the circumstances, it's not likely that we'd succeed."
"But it won't be easy, even if we do." Takeru sighed.
"I don't think they would offer us so much money for anything easy." Koushiro closed his eyes.
"I wonder how nii-san and Taichi-san is doing."
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"That hurt, you asshat!" Taichi angrily screamed at Yamato.
"It's payback!" Yamato argued. "Like you pushing me into the wall didn't hurt!"
At this point, both of them are significantly slower, but is still maintaining a constant pace and continuing to run.
"Why don't you ask me to apologize?" Taichi mocked, his head now facing to the side, or more precisely, to Yamato.
"Oh, I'm not girly enough to do so, unlike you, Mr. Spin around and pose!"
"Dammit, so Takeru did tell you!" Taichi shouted to Yamato madly.
Crash.
"Ahahaha." Yamato laughed.
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"Oh look. Here they come." Takeru looked at the other end of the longer sections of the hallway, where two blurry figures close in the distance.
"Is it just me, or are they crippling?" Koushiro sweatdropped.
"Maybe it's the fatigue." Takeru said, trying not to imagine what actually happened.
Taichi stumbled with hard steps, and Yamato closely behind him, but fall down on the line that they started on, with Yamato closely behind, and, as well, falling down on the finish line.
"You, haa, you cheated!" Taichi gasped. "But, haa, I won nonetheless."
"Right, how did, haa, I cheat?" Yamato forced out between breaths.
"You, haa, distracted me, haa, and I crashed into the, haa, garbage can." Taichi said matter-of-factly.
"That was, haa, because, haa, you're an idiot. The garbage can, haa, is 3 feet tall." Yamato put his hand on his forehead and ran it up his hair. "And, haa, it's not like that, haa, I didn't crash into something either..."
Takeru blinked. "What did you crash into, nii-san?"
"...Ken."
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Takeru entered his room with squinty eyes. The day tired him. He rushed to his bed and collapsed on it. His hands collecting the blanket, he fell into quick slumber hugging the blanket.
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Mmmmm. Okay. This chapter was a bit more eventful than humourous. Like it? No? Review! I, personally, like it pretty well. The only thing I feel bad about was how I screwed up the title. Yeah. God, I hate myself for doing that.
And as you may have noticed, there's very slight Kenyako in this chapter. The reason is not because I like Kenyako really much and just decided to develop it first, but just that it had the most probable chance of doing so. Sora and Mimi aren't even introduced yet, so that won't happen. And Hikari, well, she and Takeru didn't have too much interaction in the first chapter, so that's not too likely either.
There's about two more chapters to go before the actual story starts. I think I can get them both finished somehow by next week.
And of course, review, review, review.
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Prelude - Chapter 0.6: Seven Days (Day 5 and 6/Closing the distance to perfection)
Whatever else is left over for the boys, basis around fashion and gestures.
Again, thanks to all that reviewed. You've been lovely. This time, I think I won't list out all the people that reviewed, due to the complexity of that nature. However, as long as you have reviewed, you should know that your reviews are greatly appreciated, really. Every single one is encouragement, and I do read over them.
One question that, if I recall correctly, more than one person asked was something along the lines of "When does the romance start?". Well. The story hasn't actually begun yet, as it will start after the prelude's seven chapters. Of course, after I finished, technically, the romance won't start immediately, it's not like they just start and Taichi and Sora will start kissing frantically, as irrational as my fictions go, they won't be that silly. Of course, I'll try to work really hard and finish the rest of the days. With what I planned, I'll compress Day 5 and 6 into one chapter, and make Day 7 quite short, and I'll try to finish most of them this week. So that fellow readers will get to read what they, presumably, want to read most. It's what I want to write most as well, so that'll be pretty soon to come, that's what I hope.
Also, when the actual story comes, I won't be trying to jab a joke in whenever I have the chance, that takes up quite some energy and thought. And I think my thoughts are running out as well, so the next chapters might not be as funny, that's what I always say, anyway. It'll be a light-hearted and slow romantic, somewhat. Of course, if the joke comes when I write it, I'll put it in, so it's kind of a no-guarantee to whatever thing. Ack. I'm ranting too much. Anyway. Enjoy.
Once again, thank you thank you thank you to all my fellow reviews and readers. More so if you reviewed. =p And remember to keep on reviewing, or...I'll be really evil and write chapters and not release them! Yeah. That is evil. Or I can just release them, but make the font Wingdings.
And by the way, I changed the summary a little bit, which, for some odd reason, edited out the - and / in my title, leaving me with BokutachiAtashitachi, which, has, to the least, made me feel like an idiot, like that time I did it with the chapter titles. For now, I'll just try to make it Bokutachi, Atashitachi, which doesn't give the theme off as much as it should, but at least fanfiction.net accept the comma sign. The title also looks really bad like that, kind of stupid, too, I think most of you would agree. If anyone knows why this is happening, and/or how to fix it, please e-mail me or drop it off in my review box, thanks.
And before I forget:
Disclaimer: Digimon isn't mine. Yeah. If it was, I'd make it so that they'd make what I'm writing into an anime and broadcast it, then having it subtitled, brought over to America, having it aired, and then parents would complain because the show has eviiiil subject matter, and then I would tell them to stuff it up their- ahem. I've made my point anyway.
Prelude - Chapter 0.5: Seven Days (Day 4/Break Day's Daybreak)
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Taichi blinked.
The idea of cross dressing, then mix himself into a bunch of girls in an all-girl school has, to the least, horrified him. Despite how the idea turns him off, the fact that he's doing something so...different has kept his heart rate above average, as well as waking him up early, and keeping him up ever since. Although no excitement has ever impulsively allowed Taichi to get out of a warm bed.
"Unnn..." Taichi shook his head.
Maybe not.
Taichi stood up.
Stretch.
Step. Step. Step.
//I'm feeling so weird lately. Only my body has been made more feminine...I think, but ever since, I've been feeling really different.
Taichi looked in the mirror, and tilted his head slightly.
He shook his head vigorously, as if trying to get something inside his head to fall out.
Gulp.
Taichi spun on one foot, a full circle, then smiled gently, and tilted his head a bit.
"Taichi-san, I thought that I was going to come by and just-" Takeru looked past the door after he opened it.
"I...umm...I'm so sorry for disturbing your moment."
Slam.
Fast footsteps.
//Dammit, I knew I should've never done that.
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"Alright. Today is a break day. You guys can go do whatever you want for today." Kei mumbled weakly, with a toothpick between his lips.
Koushiro blinked. "Why is that?"
"Ah, we're a bit ahead of schedule here." Kei explained firmly.
"Really?" Ken asked in disbelief.
"No, not really. Just that the author has ran out of ideas." Kei tapped his foot. "Feel free to explore the station, you can take off your...er...femininity, if you so wish."
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Taichi groaned as he stretched his arms as far up as they could go, favouring the feeling of wearing a tank top. A male tank top, he insisted. Without breasts inside, he added.
Everyone else was dressed casually, but with more cloth than Taichi.
"I think I have to go pay some attention to my laptop now, I've left it on for days downloading things, and recharging as well." Koushiro indistinctively said as he walked into his room.
"Ne, Yamato."
"What is it, Taichi?"
"Come to my room later."
"Mmm."
Taichi and Yamato went into their respective rooms, then shut the door a bit louder than necessary.
Ken and Takeru exchanged glances with each other in the isolated hallway.
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"Huh...let's see." Koushiro mumbled to himself as he pulled the plug off the line that connected the computer and the wall socket.
Carefully, Koushiro depressed the button and flipped the screen upright. He ran his fingers over the keyboard, marvelling at how they feel after a days. His eyes went from the screen to the keyboard, and went white.
The keyboard's keys are now arranged in alphabetical order.
"Holy shiiiiiit!"
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"So, Taichi, what is it that you wanted?" Yamato casually asked.
Taichi, lying on the bed, having a blanket covering his lower body, glanced at Yamato. "Nothing in particular. Just wanted to talk."
Yamato chuckled. "Just wanted to talk? That doesn't seem like you."
Taichi coughed. "So, how are you?"
Yamato walked over and sat on the side of the bed, his back facing Taichi. "'How are you?', Taichi, you never said that before. What is it? Spill it."
Taichi scratched his head through his hair. "Well, it's just that...you're doing this now, but what about your band?"
Yamato blinked. "My band? What about it?"
"Doing this will take an entire year off of your life. That means you can't be in your band anymore."
"That's alright. I can go back afterwards."
Taichi shook his head. "That's not the point. You're the lead singer of the band. Only recently has your band's popularity increased outside of the Odaiba district. I know that you worked really hard on it. Being away for a year...well,"
"You're right. It'll more or less affect my music career." Yamato nodded. "The band will stay together. They'll be okay without me. One year later, maybe people will forget about me. But I'll just work my way up again."
"I know that you spent lots of time and effort to be where you are today. I don't want you to throw all that away just because all of us are doing it and you feel pressured-"
"It's okay, Taichi. I wanted to do this. Plus, afterwards, I'm sure that I could win back what I lost with this pick." Yamato reached his hand into his back pocket, and took out a black triangular guitar pick with circular corners.
"Yeah." Taichi smiled slightly, and leaned forward and grabbed the pick by the corners.
Lights from the ceiling bounced off the shiny black surface of the pick, showing clean engraved marks on the pick "Y. I.", which would otherwise be invisible.
"Ack!" the pick slipped from Taichi's fingers and dropped inside the blanket.
Frowning, Taichi slipped his entire upper body into the blanket in search for the pick, which did not contrast a lot under the blanket. Of course, not realizing that he folded his entire body like a portable chair.
Crack.
"Ahhhh!" Taichi quickly sat upright.
"That...didn't sound pretty." Yamato twitched. "Let me get it."
"Ack...sorry." Taichi apologized as he leaned back.
Yamato reached his hand inside the blanket, patting the bed trying to see if the pick was anywhere there.
"Huh..." Yamato continued, only to further find no result, which was frustrating, after all, the bed was only so big.
Yamato crawled head first into the blanket, hoping to be able to find the pick, which had, some sentimental value, to the least. It being in the blanket too long with Taichi along with it might spoil some of the sentimentality.
"TAICHI!" The door blasted open. "Did you touch my laptop!?" Koushiro demanded.
Taichi lying against the wall, sitting on the bed, his lower body covered by a blanket.
Yamato, head and hands inside the blanket.
Blush.
"Uh...sorry for interrupting anything."
Slam.
Yamato quickly retrieved himself from the blanket. "No! It's not like that!!"
"Damn it, it's twice today already." Taichi whispered to himself.
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Ken walked slowly, then a bit faster to keep up with Takeru, then slowed down again once he caught up.
"Let's explore around the station." Takeru suggested, after minutes of silence.
"Sure..." Ken nodded as he walked behind Takeru. His mind wandered, as did his eyes.
//[Ken] ...Cylinder garbage can, vending machine, telephone, counters, small clocks with bold numbers. Telephone. I wonder if I should call someone. Anyone. It's only been 4 days, but it feels like some twisted group isolation. Should I call my parents? Iori? Perhaps some of my other friends...
// "Call me sometime." Miyako winked.
Takeru turned around in response to the stopping sound of footsteps. "What's wrong, Ken?"
"Ah...actually, you go on ahead. I have something to do. I'll catch up with you later."
"Oh, okay." Takeru replied as he turned back and continued along his path.
Ken patiently watched as Takeru disappeared around the corner, then walked back to the telephone, hung up on the wall. His left hand reached for the phone, his right hand pulled out a card from his pocket, and his eyes scanned the card for the longest numerical value he can find, ignoring everything else.
Tap.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap.
"Hello? Inoue Miyako, please."
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Takeru walked down the hallway, his head constantly turning left and right, looking at what things there were that he didn't already see.
//Everything is almost like a clone of anything else in this station...aside from a few things. I'm going deeper and deeper. I hope I don't get lost.
Though, logically, he knew that it's very difficult to get lost in a single route.
"Huh..." Takeru sounded to himself as he walked slowly near an open door, taking a peek of what's inside.
The backside of two grown men, staring at a panel with multiple screens.
"See, by altering changing the timing like this, you can manage to get everything within the time slots."
//This voice...is...
"Hmm. That does work. Pretty good work, Ishida. No wonder that the high statuses appointed you personally for this job."
//Ishida...tou-san?
"Haha, it's nothing. A bit of trial and error with some experience is basically all you need."
Takeru, zoned out from listening, slipped and lost his balance by shifting his weight, and fell into the wall beside the door, creating a rather sudden noise.
"Who's there?"
Getting up, Takeru sprinted off.
//Good luck, tou-san.
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"Hello."
"Hello."
"This is Ichijouji Ken."
"Oh, Ken! Er...Ichijouji-san."
"Ken is alright. No need to get formal with me."
"Oh...alright, then. Ken. So, what is it today?"
"Huh?"
"I mean...do you have some reason you're calling me?"
"Oh...umm. None in particular. It's just that other day you said-"
"'Call me.'"
"Right. That."
"Where are you calling from?"
"Oh...uh...work. Yeah. I'm calling from work."
"Oh wow. You work too? Just like Hikari-chan. What kind of work do you do?"
"It's nothing big. ...Just some small work, like moving things around, learning some basic things in a television station. Trying to accumulate work experience."
"Ah, that's pretty cool! A television station, huh?"
"Yep, a television station..."
"Think you could take me around inside?"
"Oh...um...I think not. Sorry. It's not like I have authority..."
"Haha, I know. I'm just kidding."
"Oh, hahahaha."
"Hmm...when are you free?"
"Free? I'm not sure."
"Hmm. I was thinking...maybe we could...well, maybe we could come out together sometime?"
"Huh? Come out, you mean like a...date?"
"Oh, uh...Anyway, I've got to go now. If you find out when you're free, call this number again, if my roommates answer it, just tell them to give it to me, if I'm not here, just tell them the time, they'll tell me, okay, bye!"
"What? Wait!"
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
With a blank expression, Ken hanged up the phone.
"Free time?" Ken sighed. "There won't be any for another year."
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Takeru quickened his pace. It was quite a few corners and some distance from the room that he ran from, but he continued just to be safe. He looked back to check if anyone was running after him.
"Oof!"
Fall.
"Eh?" Takeru looked up, seeing Taichi and Yamato, staring down. Realizing that Yamato and Taichi were not only staring down at him, but also at Koushiro, who he seemingly bumped into, Takeru quickly stood up and gave a hand to Koushiro.
Koushiro stood up. "Watch where you're running to, geez."
"Oh, umm. Sorry."
Yamato cupped his chin along with his mouth and a part of his nose. "What was wrong, Takeru? I don't think you would run so fast for no reason."
"Oh...er...um..." Takeru scratched his head.
"See, now you got him all flustered." Taichi remarked.
"Takeru. What is it?" Yamato glared at Takeru. Usually, there wouldn't be this kind of tension, but Yamato felt that apparently, it was something that he needs to know about.
"I...saw tou-san." Takeru hesitantly answered.
"Oh." Yamato said as if it was no big deal.
Takeru blinked. "Don't you want to see him?"
"It's alright. He would take care of himself all right. No use spying on him and all."
"Where's Ken?" Koushiro looked around, trying to see if he would be anywhere near. "Wasn't he with you?"
"He had something to do." Takeru replied. "Or so he said."
"Ah, I see."
"Oh, what are you guys doing here?" Takeru asked.
"Taichi thought it might have been funny so remove, somehow, my alphabetical keys and place them in alphabetical order." Koushiro mentioned for no reason.
Taichi sighed. "We're bored. Nothing much to do. We practically went around the entire station once already."
"It is quite interesting that, as a matter of fact, the station mostly consists of a bunch of rooms that connect to one single hallway that does not split at any point. Which makes it pretty much...a linear track of sorts." Koushiro observed.
"...Track, huh..." Taichi muttered.
Yamato glanced at Taichi.
Taichi glanced at Yamato.
"Want to take a test run?" Taichi suggested, although he knew that Yamato had the same thought, grinning.
"I'll take you on any day." Yamato smirked back.
Koushiro blinked repeatedly. "You're thinking of running around the entire station?"
"Exactly." Taichi connected both his hands and extended his elbows outwards, then pushed the elbow even further as a mean of stretching.
"You're crazy. Plus, you'd be disrupting the entire station by doing that." Koushiro persisted.
"No problem. We'll be gone before they realize it." Yamato tilted his neck.
"Oh, you're so irresponsible. But if you insist, I'll time you."
Takeru sweatdropped.
Taichi and Yamato both beside one another, using a thin line on the ground caused by the tiling as the starting line.
"Three. Two." Koushiro rapidly typed in a few quick commands into the computer. "One."
A beep emanated from the laptop.
Both Taichi and Yamato dashed off.
"Woah, they run fast." Takeru stared in awe.
"Yeah, they probably have plenty of practice." Koushiro assumed. "Taichi from soccer, and Yamato from running away from fangirls."
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"I'm not going to lose to you!" Taichi shouted while he ran beside Yamato.
"Likewise!"
"Hey look! Your otou-san!" Taichi pointed towards a room that Yamato just passed.
Yamato continued running, but looked back at the room.
Taichi pushed Yamato into the wall.
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"So, what do you think?" Koushiro questioned.
"Huh? About what?" Takeru asked back in confusion.
Koushiro's hand made little circles. "This. What we're doing right now, or rather, what we're going to do."
"Oh. Well...it's a bit dangerous, I suppose. At some point. It'll probably be very embarrassing, since we're going to go on television, but the prize money is all worth it." Takeru briefly retorted.
"So you think like that too."
"What do you mean?"
Koushiro bit his lower lip. "Don't you understand? With the way things are set up, us dressing up as girls and entering an all-girl school without being discovered? That's just like having a bomberman go into a line shaped space, then closing off his only exit with a high powered bomb without any power ups like the kick shoes or the gloves!"
Sweatdrop.
"I'm not sure I follow your analogy."
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"That was cheap!" Yamato yelled at Taichi in between breaths.
"It's not my fault!" Taichi laughed. "You just weren't careful enough!"
Yamato grumbled.
They each continued running, and started to decrease in speed, realizing that, they pushed themselves to their original speeds, but quickly slowed down again.
"Hey Taichi! Look! It's the actresses' change room!" Yamato pointed to the widely opened door.
"Yeah right, like they have the change room with the door wide open!" Taichi scoffed as he ran past the room.
"..."
Taichi glanced back.
Yamato grabbed Taichi's head and grinded it against the soft bulletin portion of the wall.
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"I'm saying that with how they have things," Koushiro said, with the side of his index finger touching his lips. "It's just as if we trapped ourselves with almost no percentage of survival."
Takeru laughed nerviously. "But they...they couldn't give us an impossible objective, right? I mean, if they do that, and we all fail, they won't even have anything to air!"
"I figured that too, that's why I accepted, but...well, considering the circumstances, it's not likely that we'd succeed."
"But it won't be easy, even if we do." Takeru sighed.
"I don't think they would offer us so much money for anything easy." Koushiro closed his eyes.
"I wonder how nii-san and Taichi-san is doing."
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"That hurt, you asshat!" Taichi angrily screamed at Yamato.
"It's payback!" Yamato argued. "Like you pushing me into the wall didn't hurt!"
At this point, both of them are significantly slower, but is still maintaining a constant pace and continuing to run.
"Why don't you ask me to apologize?" Taichi mocked, his head now facing to the side, or more precisely, to Yamato.
"Oh, I'm not girly enough to do so, unlike you, Mr. Spin around and pose!"
"Dammit, so Takeru did tell you!" Taichi shouted to Yamato madly.
Crash.
"Ahahaha." Yamato laughed.
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"Oh look. Here they come." Takeru looked at the other end of the longer sections of the hallway, where two blurry figures close in the distance.
"Is it just me, or are they crippling?" Koushiro sweatdropped.
"Maybe it's the fatigue." Takeru said, trying not to imagine what actually happened.
Taichi stumbled with hard steps, and Yamato closely behind him, but fall down on the line that they started on, with Yamato closely behind, and, as well, falling down on the finish line.
"You, haa, you cheated!" Taichi gasped. "But, haa, I won nonetheless."
"Right, how did, haa, I cheat?" Yamato forced out between breaths.
"You, haa, distracted me, haa, and I crashed into the, haa, garbage can." Taichi said matter-of-factly.
"That was, haa, because, haa, you're an idiot. The garbage can, haa, is 3 feet tall." Yamato put his hand on his forehead and ran it up his hair. "And, haa, it's not like that, haa, I didn't crash into something either..."
Takeru blinked. "What did you crash into, nii-san?"
"...Ken."
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Takeru entered his room with squinty eyes. The day tired him. He rushed to his bed and collapsed on it. His hands collecting the blanket, he fell into quick slumber hugging the blanket.
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Mmmmm. Okay. This chapter was a bit more eventful than humourous. Like it? No? Review! I, personally, like it pretty well. The only thing I feel bad about was how I screwed up the title. Yeah. God, I hate myself for doing that.
And as you may have noticed, there's very slight Kenyako in this chapter. The reason is not because I like Kenyako really much and just decided to develop it first, but just that it had the most probable chance of doing so. Sora and Mimi aren't even introduced yet, so that won't happen. And Hikari, well, she and Takeru didn't have too much interaction in the first chapter, so that's not too likely either.
There's about two more chapters to go before the actual story starts. I think I can get them both finished somehow by next week.
And of course, review, review, review.
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Prelude - Chapter 0.6: Seven Days (Day 5 and 6/Closing the distance to perfection)
Whatever else is left over for the boys, basis around fashion and gestures.