Disclaimer: If I owned it, this wouldn't say disclaimer, would it?
AN: Okay, I apologize for not updating, but when I come home from college, I have no Internet access at my house. I know, it's unbelievable, but what can I say, My parents aspire to be Amish. So, I'm very sorry, but it takes a awhile to update without a computer. So please be patient with me.
Also, you'll notice I mix and match japanese and dub names. Mostly, their full names are the japanese, and their nicknames are dub. The exception to this is 'Yagumi'. I used Kamiya because I like alliteration, and Kari Kamiya has a nice roll to it.
As always, reviews are appreciated, even if I won't get them until the end of August.
*****
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. and one fine morning-
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
"And you're letting him go?"
Sister Augustine's normally soft voice was rising perilously near to a shout, as she stared at her Superior in shock and consternation. The severe cut and color of her habit set off the fearsome look in her dark eyes and her normally smiling mouth was pressed into a thin line. Sister Cecilia met the stare levelly, her coolly composed face and pale blue eyes revealing nothing of her thoughts.
"It is his decision, Sister. It is his money which he has earned by working all his part time jobs. He will be most welcome to stay with the Jesuits in Tokyo, and we can be sure they will keep a stern eye on him."
Sister Augustine sat as though deflated, her angry words draining from her in a fierce sigh. The late summer sun drifted through the large, scrupulously clean windows of the convent, lending a warm glow to the native woodwork, rounded and polished with age and much handling, that decorated the elder nun's office.
Finally she spoke, her tone returning to the deferential pitch appropriate for addressing her superior. "I can't help feeling he is keeping something from us. Something about him is very different this week, although I can't say what, exactly. I know he would never lie to us, and yet, I know there is more to this than simply wanting to go to Japan. He has never expressed a desire to go there before."
Fingering the plane ticket which sat on her desk, Sister Cecilia smiled in her wise way. "Yes, but we have always known he must have come from there. Isn't it about time he went in search of his past?"
"But he is so young! Surely there will be other summers."
"He is fifteen. or so we assume, anyway. I have expected him to become restless sooner than this, actually, but then, he always was a cheerful, obedient boy. However, he is a young man, now and he must find his own path. His presence at a convent is less and less appropriate as he grows older, as it is. The Jesuits are a better place for him." Here the elder woman raised her hand to forestall protest.
"I know, sister. Time is cruel, especially to a mother who would not have it pass, who would keep her boy forever small, clinging to her skirts. But pass it has, and now it is time for Takeru to leave us. We will all miss him, child. But I feel that this is God's will, for us and for him. I am thankful Takeru was inspired to make this move himself, I had rather dreaded suggesting it to him. But as we have seen, God works all problems out if we lay them at his feet."
Sister Augustine gave a resigned smile, her many years of sacrifice and obedience in God's name making her protests fade like mist into the sunlight. "Takeru always was intuitive when it came to matters of faith."
"We all knew when this began that he couldn't stay forever, little sister."
Looking up, startled at the weak tone in the usually stern voice, Augustine was shocked at the sight before her. Across the great desk, her Superior's soft eyes were clouded with tears, reflecting the true anguish of the austere, businesslike woman. Compassion flared in her heart, and she reached forward to grasp Cecilia's hand.
"That doesn't keep us from hoping, Sister. But all the hope in the world cannot stop time or even slow it down for us."
******
"All motion is relative. Perhaps it is you who have moved away-by standing still."
Inherit the Wind
J. Lawrence & R. E. Lee
The steady rhythm of rowing helped TK settle his mind and his stomach, as he smoothly propelled the kayak down the clear water of the Yukon River. Droplets of water flashed, iridescent, in the blazing sunlight around him. He didn't know why he felt so unsettled since he got his Crest back, it seemed to him he should be more secure now that his memory had returned. It had given him back all the things he'd ever wanted and some things he hadn't even known he'd been missing.
So why was he still up nights, running from dark shadows beyond names that stalked his dreams?
He knew some of his unrest was guilt, from deceiving the sisters. He had never done so before, and although he knew that it was easier to get to Japan and pretend his memory returned there, it still left a bad taste in his mouth. It was certainly more believable than the truth, anyway.
But there was more to it than that, TK knew, and he could not deceive himself. The answers he now had had raised many questions, things he could not long ignore. For example, who was he, really? He wasn't the innocent teenager he should have been, would have been, if things had been different. He wasn't TK Takaishi, that had been stolen from him long ago. Neither was he Takeru St. Joseph, whose memory was lost in shadow, who retained a tenuous innocence in return for a healing amnesia. Nor was he the small child his brother and parents would remember, a small child who had never grown up in their memories.
His Crest warmed against his chest, and he smiled wryly, allowing it to fill him with it's bright strength as it had many times over the past week, as if it knew his private struggles had just begun.
Although, the Crest itself raised many questions. Hope. Both simple and terribly complex, he could feel the past resonate through the talisman, and he knew this wasn't the first time he had borne this burden. He knew Hope and Light were the center of the digital world, but he didn't know why. He didn't know what he could do or what was expected from him, or what was coming.
All he could do was walk blindly, hopefully towards the unknown, and pray that he and the people he loved would survive the encounter.
The cry of a eagle wheeling through the cloudless summer sky overhead jerked TK from his reflections. He glanced up at the great bird as it circled the ancient pines the lined the river. The wind whipped through those trees, filling the air with the rustle of leaves and branches and the distinctive almost-silence known only to the few places left in the world where few men ever traveled. He would miss the forest, this place.
But he was going home, and that was worth any sacrifice.
**********
"Kari? Kari! Hello, earth to Hikari, come in!"
The brunette in question jerked up from her book, her eyes dazed as she focused on the person before her. The lavender locked upperclassman humphed at her in exasperation, plopping down in the seat beside Kari.
"Oh, hi Yolei. Sorry, I was studying and I didn't hear you approach." She gestured at the textbook open in front of her, as though to verify her story. Yolei watch her in silence for a long moment, her shrewd eyes taking in everything about the younger girl. She could hear the hum of insects in the still, hot summer day outside, and beyond that the roar of city traffic. Glancing over Kari for a moment, Yolei could see the bay, blazing and silver in the beating light. Even the water looked hot on a day like today. It was at least a hundred degrees in the stifling classroom, even with the lights off, filling the room with the distinctive hazy atmosphere of heat and diffused sunlight.
"So what's so interesting that you're studying it all through lunch. Davis is going to have an aneurysm if you don't pay attention to him soon. he won't be the only one, either. You haven't said more than two words to anyone all week. So what's so important?"
Before Kari could so much as twitch, Yolei had yanked the book out from under her arms, paying no attention to the way the younger girl's elbows slammed into the desk.
"Hmmm. Alaska-into the last frontier. this isn't on the curriculum for your year." Yolei closed the book, holding it momentarily away from Kari, a serious look in her normally frivolous eyes. "All right, girlie, I want to know what's going on with you lately. You haven't been to the digital world all this week, and Tai says you're acting weird at home, too. AND I heard that you broke into Ishida Yamato's apartment last week, by climbing the fire escape, no less. Now I find you hiding from us at lunch to study things that aren't being taught in your class. So spill."
"Who told you I was in Yamato's apartment?" Kari gasped, abandoning her resolve to remain silent. Yolei smirked, inspecting her nails with an air of all-knowing expertise.
"Gabumon told Gommamon, who e-mailed Palmon, who called Hawkmon, who told me. He said you took the Crest of Hope. Why would you want that, Kari? It's useless, like the rest of the Crests, right? Especially since Ishida- san's little brother has been dead for, like, ten years."
Kari sighed and pulled her book from Yolie's grip and opened it back up, effectively ending the conversation by beginning to read again. She allowed herself to be pulled back into the history and geography of a place suddenly important to her, remembering the rough, wild splendor of the valley in which TK had been lost for so long. Yolei scrutinized her for a moment longer, her expression dark.
"Fine, keep your secrets if that's what you want. You know I'm here if you need to talk. There's just one thing I need to know."
Kari sighed gain, placing her bookmark and turning to face Yolei again. "Well, what would that be?"
Maintaining her serious look, the older girl leaned in conspiratorially, her lilac hair falling like a curtain to frame her face. "Did you really climb Ishida-san's fire escape?"
The bright laughter that bubbled from both girls banished, momentarily, the shadows of secrets not shared.
*************
Izzy read the e-mail again, making small, frustrated sounds under his breath. Gennai was keeping his own counsel as to what was going on in the digital world, but Izzy would have had to be blind to miss the old man's (if that's what he could be called) obvious satisfaction.
Saving the cryptic letter, Izzy keyed into his mainframe, where he could monitor the binary code of the digital world. The code itself was not comprised of ones and zeroes, but by two digital runes he couldn't identify. Over the past years, almost for as long as he had been keeping watch over the code, one of the two characters had been degrading, often disappearing entirely from the code entirely, causing corruption and darkness in some areas of the digital world.
This week, however, the character had been reappearing all over the code, meshing fluidly with the other character, causing the corrupted parts of the digital world to restart, fresh and new. Several areas with control spires had been rebooted, so-to -speak, causing the dark towers to disappear. It was like some primary, essential force had returned to the digital world, bringing with it a chance for peace.
He sighed deeply, and keyed back to Gennai's e-mail, although he had its brief text memorized.
"The sun always rises. What makes us so sure it will, even when the night seems darkest?"
He jumped at the sound of his door opening, and smiled briefly at Yolei as she entered, pausing in the foyer to take off her shoes. She had her hair bound into a messy bun to keep it off her neck as she crossed the hot city. The door had been unlocked in anticipation of her arrival, as she had first alerted Izzy to the changes in the digital world earlier that week and they had agreed to meet to discuss it.
She sat next to him on the couch, peering over his shoulder at Gennai's mysterious message. "Sorry I'm late, I was talking to Tai about Kari. He seemed pretty concerned about her."
Izzy snorted, not looking up from his computer. "Tai is always concerned about Kari. What else is new?"
Yolei leaned back on the couch, shaking her head absently. "This times he's not the only one. She's acting very strange. did you know that she broke into Ishida-san's apartment to steal the Crest of Hope?"
This startled Izzy into looking at her, and his expression was one of shock. "She broke into Matt's apartment? To steal the Crest . of."
He trailed off, a stunned look on his face, as a memory surfaced in his mind.
"We don't even know what a Crest looks like!"
Matt stepped forward, his cool voice hesitant. "Well, actually."
Without further explanation, he pulled something from beneath his shirt, holding out so the other could see it. Izzy leaned forward to observe it more clearly.
It was a trapezoid shaped golden pendant, with a symbol etched on it's bright surface. The symbol looked like a star on top of a mountain, or. the sun rising.
" 'The sun always rises.' prodigious." Izzy muttered to himself excitedly, typing quickly, as Yolei favored him with a strange look. He summoned some of his archived files, looking for a particular photograph.
Meanwhile, he addressed Yolei. "Have you ever seen the Crest of Hope?"
Yolei looked startled, and then thought to herself. She had only paid passing attention to the few Crests she had seen, as her understanding had been that they no longer worked. She, of course, knew the symbols on most of them, as she herself held Love and Sincerity, and had seen the digi-eggs of her teammates. There was no egg for Hope, though, at least, as far as she knew there wasn't.
"Mmmm, no, I don't think I've ever seen it. Why?"
Izzy didn't answer for a moment, dragging small squares over the photo he'd loaded, one of the original destined just after they'd all found their Crests. Slowly the resolution cleared, and she could see the two Crests worn by Yamato, magnified. One she immediately recognized as the Crest of Friendship, and the other.
"Oh, my god!" She gasped, leaning in towards the fuzzy image. "Gennai's message."
Izzy nodded grimly, " 'The sun always rises. What makes us so sure it will. ?"
"Hope." Yolei breathed, her eyes wide. "But what does it mean? Why would Kari having the Crest of Hope effect the code?"
Izzy shook his head, gazing blankly at the code whizzing across one widow on his screen. The largest widow held the image of the Crest, and a third smaller window held Gennai's letter. He felt he was right on top of the answer, that everything he needed to figure this out was before him on the screen, but he just couldn't see it.
Yolei was also staring at the screen, thinking out loud as she usually did. "So. the Crest of Hope is working again? Is that why the digital world is restoring itself?"
Izzy tapped his fingers against the table, his eyes distant. "The crest worked for us several times, but it was always sporadic. It eventually stopped doing anything, I always assumed that was because Matt's brother never came for it. but now, I don't know. Why would it work for Kari? How is she connected to all this?"
Yolei sighed, looking at the screen tiredly. "I don't know, Izzy. I don't know."
**************
TK looked out the tiny window as the plane circled the city, waiting for landing clearance no doubt. It was a bright day, and the afternoon sunlight reflected off the towering windows of the city he barely remembered. He thought about Kiu, waiting for him in quarantine, having been sent over so she could go straight home with him when he arrived. Import laws required all animals to be quarantined before being released into a foreign country. She would be angry with him, for leaving her there alone.
He gazed back out at the buildings, wondering which one Matt lived in. Which one Kari lived in.
He wondered if he was ready to be the person he was about to become or these people.
All he could do was try.
AN: Okay, I apologize for not updating, but when I come home from college, I have no Internet access at my house. I know, it's unbelievable, but what can I say, My parents aspire to be Amish. So, I'm very sorry, but it takes a awhile to update without a computer. So please be patient with me.
Also, you'll notice I mix and match japanese and dub names. Mostly, their full names are the japanese, and their nicknames are dub. The exception to this is 'Yagumi'. I used Kamiya because I like alliteration, and Kari Kamiya has a nice roll to it.
As always, reviews are appreciated, even if I won't get them until the end of August.
*****
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. and one fine morning-
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
"And you're letting him go?"
Sister Augustine's normally soft voice was rising perilously near to a shout, as she stared at her Superior in shock and consternation. The severe cut and color of her habit set off the fearsome look in her dark eyes and her normally smiling mouth was pressed into a thin line. Sister Cecilia met the stare levelly, her coolly composed face and pale blue eyes revealing nothing of her thoughts.
"It is his decision, Sister. It is his money which he has earned by working all his part time jobs. He will be most welcome to stay with the Jesuits in Tokyo, and we can be sure they will keep a stern eye on him."
Sister Augustine sat as though deflated, her angry words draining from her in a fierce sigh. The late summer sun drifted through the large, scrupulously clean windows of the convent, lending a warm glow to the native woodwork, rounded and polished with age and much handling, that decorated the elder nun's office.
Finally she spoke, her tone returning to the deferential pitch appropriate for addressing her superior. "I can't help feeling he is keeping something from us. Something about him is very different this week, although I can't say what, exactly. I know he would never lie to us, and yet, I know there is more to this than simply wanting to go to Japan. He has never expressed a desire to go there before."
Fingering the plane ticket which sat on her desk, Sister Cecilia smiled in her wise way. "Yes, but we have always known he must have come from there. Isn't it about time he went in search of his past?"
"But he is so young! Surely there will be other summers."
"He is fifteen. or so we assume, anyway. I have expected him to become restless sooner than this, actually, but then, he always was a cheerful, obedient boy. However, he is a young man, now and he must find his own path. His presence at a convent is less and less appropriate as he grows older, as it is. The Jesuits are a better place for him." Here the elder woman raised her hand to forestall protest.
"I know, sister. Time is cruel, especially to a mother who would not have it pass, who would keep her boy forever small, clinging to her skirts. But pass it has, and now it is time for Takeru to leave us. We will all miss him, child. But I feel that this is God's will, for us and for him. I am thankful Takeru was inspired to make this move himself, I had rather dreaded suggesting it to him. But as we have seen, God works all problems out if we lay them at his feet."
Sister Augustine gave a resigned smile, her many years of sacrifice and obedience in God's name making her protests fade like mist into the sunlight. "Takeru always was intuitive when it came to matters of faith."
"We all knew when this began that he couldn't stay forever, little sister."
Looking up, startled at the weak tone in the usually stern voice, Augustine was shocked at the sight before her. Across the great desk, her Superior's soft eyes were clouded with tears, reflecting the true anguish of the austere, businesslike woman. Compassion flared in her heart, and she reached forward to grasp Cecilia's hand.
"That doesn't keep us from hoping, Sister. But all the hope in the world cannot stop time or even slow it down for us."
******
"All motion is relative. Perhaps it is you who have moved away-by standing still."
Inherit the Wind
J. Lawrence & R. E. Lee
The steady rhythm of rowing helped TK settle his mind and his stomach, as he smoothly propelled the kayak down the clear water of the Yukon River. Droplets of water flashed, iridescent, in the blazing sunlight around him. He didn't know why he felt so unsettled since he got his Crest back, it seemed to him he should be more secure now that his memory had returned. It had given him back all the things he'd ever wanted and some things he hadn't even known he'd been missing.
So why was he still up nights, running from dark shadows beyond names that stalked his dreams?
He knew some of his unrest was guilt, from deceiving the sisters. He had never done so before, and although he knew that it was easier to get to Japan and pretend his memory returned there, it still left a bad taste in his mouth. It was certainly more believable than the truth, anyway.
But there was more to it than that, TK knew, and he could not deceive himself. The answers he now had had raised many questions, things he could not long ignore. For example, who was he, really? He wasn't the innocent teenager he should have been, would have been, if things had been different. He wasn't TK Takaishi, that had been stolen from him long ago. Neither was he Takeru St. Joseph, whose memory was lost in shadow, who retained a tenuous innocence in return for a healing amnesia. Nor was he the small child his brother and parents would remember, a small child who had never grown up in their memories.
His Crest warmed against his chest, and he smiled wryly, allowing it to fill him with it's bright strength as it had many times over the past week, as if it knew his private struggles had just begun.
Although, the Crest itself raised many questions. Hope. Both simple and terribly complex, he could feel the past resonate through the talisman, and he knew this wasn't the first time he had borne this burden. He knew Hope and Light were the center of the digital world, but he didn't know why. He didn't know what he could do or what was expected from him, or what was coming.
All he could do was walk blindly, hopefully towards the unknown, and pray that he and the people he loved would survive the encounter.
The cry of a eagle wheeling through the cloudless summer sky overhead jerked TK from his reflections. He glanced up at the great bird as it circled the ancient pines the lined the river. The wind whipped through those trees, filling the air with the rustle of leaves and branches and the distinctive almost-silence known only to the few places left in the world where few men ever traveled. He would miss the forest, this place.
But he was going home, and that was worth any sacrifice.
**********
"Kari? Kari! Hello, earth to Hikari, come in!"
The brunette in question jerked up from her book, her eyes dazed as she focused on the person before her. The lavender locked upperclassman humphed at her in exasperation, plopping down in the seat beside Kari.
"Oh, hi Yolei. Sorry, I was studying and I didn't hear you approach." She gestured at the textbook open in front of her, as though to verify her story. Yolei watch her in silence for a long moment, her shrewd eyes taking in everything about the younger girl. She could hear the hum of insects in the still, hot summer day outside, and beyond that the roar of city traffic. Glancing over Kari for a moment, Yolei could see the bay, blazing and silver in the beating light. Even the water looked hot on a day like today. It was at least a hundred degrees in the stifling classroom, even with the lights off, filling the room with the distinctive hazy atmosphere of heat and diffused sunlight.
"So what's so interesting that you're studying it all through lunch. Davis is going to have an aneurysm if you don't pay attention to him soon. he won't be the only one, either. You haven't said more than two words to anyone all week. So what's so important?"
Before Kari could so much as twitch, Yolei had yanked the book out from under her arms, paying no attention to the way the younger girl's elbows slammed into the desk.
"Hmmm. Alaska-into the last frontier. this isn't on the curriculum for your year." Yolei closed the book, holding it momentarily away from Kari, a serious look in her normally frivolous eyes. "All right, girlie, I want to know what's going on with you lately. You haven't been to the digital world all this week, and Tai says you're acting weird at home, too. AND I heard that you broke into Ishida Yamato's apartment last week, by climbing the fire escape, no less. Now I find you hiding from us at lunch to study things that aren't being taught in your class. So spill."
"Who told you I was in Yamato's apartment?" Kari gasped, abandoning her resolve to remain silent. Yolei smirked, inspecting her nails with an air of all-knowing expertise.
"Gabumon told Gommamon, who e-mailed Palmon, who called Hawkmon, who told me. He said you took the Crest of Hope. Why would you want that, Kari? It's useless, like the rest of the Crests, right? Especially since Ishida- san's little brother has been dead for, like, ten years."
Kari sighed and pulled her book from Yolie's grip and opened it back up, effectively ending the conversation by beginning to read again. She allowed herself to be pulled back into the history and geography of a place suddenly important to her, remembering the rough, wild splendor of the valley in which TK had been lost for so long. Yolei scrutinized her for a moment longer, her expression dark.
"Fine, keep your secrets if that's what you want. You know I'm here if you need to talk. There's just one thing I need to know."
Kari sighed gain, placing her bookmark and turning to face Yolei again. "Well, what would that be?"
Maintaining her serious look, the older girl leaned in conspiratorially, her lilac hair falling like a curtain to frame her face. "Did you really climb Ishida-san's fire escape?"
The bright laughter that bubbled from both girls banished, momentarily, the shadows of secrets not shared.
*************
Izzy read the e-mail again, making small, frustrated sounds under his breath. Gennai was keeping his own counsel as to what was going on in the digital world, but Izzy would have had to be blind to miss the old man's (if that's what he could be called) obvious satisfaction.
Saving the cryptic letter, Izzy keyed into his mainframe, where he could monitor the binary code of the digital world. The code itself was not comprised of ones and zeroes, but by two digital runes he couldn't identify. Over the past years, almost for as long as he had been keeping watch over the code, one of the two characters had been degrading, often disappearing entirely from the code entirely, causing corruption and darkness in some areas of the digital world.
This week, however, the character had been reappearing all over the code, meshing fluidly with the other character, causing the corrupted parts of the digital world to restart, fresh and new. Several areas with control spires had been rebooted, so-to -speak, causing the dark towers to disappear. It was like some primary, essential force had returned to the digital world, bringing with it a chance for peace.
He sighed deeply, and keyed back to Gennai's e-mail, although he had its brief text memorized.
"The sun always rises. What makes us so sure it will, even when the night seems darkest?"
He jumped at the sound of his door opening, and smiled briefly at Yolei as she entered, pausing in the foyer to take off her shoes. She had her hair bound into a messy bun to keep it off her neck as she crossed the hot city. The door had been unlocked in anticipation of her arrival, as she had first alerted Izzy to the changes in the digital world earlier that week and they had agreed to meet to discuss it.
She sat next to him on the couch, peering over his shoulder at Gennai's mysterious message. "Sorry I'm late, I was talking to Tai about Kari. He seemed pretty concerned about her."
Izzy snorted, not looking up from his computer. "Tai is always concerned about Kari. What else is new?"
Yolei leaned back on the couch, shaking her head absently. "This times he's not the only one. She's acting very strange. did you know that she broke into Ishida-san's apartment to steal the Crest of Hope?"
This startled Izzy into looking at her, and his expression was one of shock. "She broke into Matt's apartment? To steal the Crest . of."
He trailed off, a stunned look on his face, as a memory surfaced in his mind.
"We don't even know what a Crest looks like!"
Matt stepped forward, his cool voice hesitant. "Well, actually."
Without further explanation, he pulled something from beneath his shirt, holding out so the other could see it. Izzy leaned forward to observe it more clearly.
It was a trapezoid shaped golden pendant, with a symbol etched on it's bright surface. The symbol looked like a star on top of a mountain, or. the sun rising.
" 'The sun always rises.' prodigious." Izzy muttered to himself excitedly, typing quickly, as Yolei favored him with a strange look. He summoned some of his archived files, looking for a particular photograph.
Meanwhile, he addressed Yolei. "Have you ever seen the Crest of Hope?"
Yolei looked startled, and then thought to herself. She had only paid passing attention to the few Crests she had seen, as her understanding had been that they no longer worked. She, of course, knew the symbols on most of them, as she herself held Love and Sincerity, and had seen the digi-eggs of her teammates. There was no egg for Hope, though, at least, as far as she knew there wasn't.
"Mmmm, no, I don't think I've ever seen it. Why?"
Izzy didn't answer for a moment, dragging small squares over the photo he'd loaded, one of the original destined just after they'd all found their Crests. Slowly the resolution cleared, and she could see the two Crests worn by Yamato, magnified. One she immediately recognized as the Crest of Friendship, and the other.
"Oh, my god!" She gasped, leaning in towards the fuzzy image. "Gennai's message."
Izzy nodded grimly, " 'The sun always rises. What makes us so sure it will. ?"
"Hope." Yolei breathed, her eyes wide. "But what does it mean? Why would Kari having the Crest of Hope effect the code?"
Izzy shook his head, gazing blankly at the code whizzing across one widow on his screen. The largest widow held the image of the Crest, and a third smaller window held Gennai's letter. He felt he was right on top of the answer, that everything he needed to figure this out was before him on the screen, but he just couldn't see it.
Yolei was also staring at the screen, thinking out loud as she usually did. "So. the Crest of Hope is working again? Is that why the digital world is restoring itself?"
Izzy tapped his fingers against the table, his eyes distant. "The crest worked for us several times, but it was always sporadic. It eventually stopped doing anything, I always assumed that was because Matt's brother never came for it. but now, I don't know. Why would it work for Kari? How is she connected to all this?"
Yolei sighed, looking at the screen tiredly. "I don't know, Izzy. I don't know."
**************
TK looked out the tiny window as the plane circled the city, waiting for landing clearance no doubt. It was a bright day, and the afternoon sunlight reflected off the towering windows of the city he barely remembered. He thought about Kiu, waiting for him in quarantine, having been sent over so she could go straight home with him when he arrived. Import laws required all animals to be quarantined before being released into a foreign country. She would be angry with him, for leaving her there alone.
He gazed back out at the buildings, wondering which one Matt lived in. Which one Kari lived in.
He wondered if he was ready to be the person he was about to become or these people.
All he could do was try.