(Aug. 18, 2005- Ha! NowI can see that I'm actually getting more hits than I thought! That being said, even I don't consider most of this story to be good, so if you're really interested, please start with Chapter 6. If you're adamant about reading it straight through, however, then please read 'Growth' rather than this old prologue first. Thank you.)

Something I've noticed since I've posted other writings on this site is that if I keep it real, I get better responses. I doubt anyone will review, since no one has, but I think I know why nobody did. I got frustrated while writing this because I was so worried about how other people may think of it. So now, I'm changing around a few things to the way I want it.

Basically, this fic will be slightly AU. Other characters, like Hikari and the cast of 02 will come in, but in different ways. I'm also gonna change around some events and add a few. Let's just see how this goes.

There will be themes of angst, love, humor and maybe slight horror and fantasy later on.

Disclaimer: If Digimon were mine, I'd be working on the next series rather than writing this.

Spirit, Sleeping Somewhere Cold

Prologue

Just disappear.

Maybe, just maybe, if she just stayed here, not noticing everyone and everything around her, trying not to acknowledge herself, she could be invisible. Just fade away from everything, disappear... She felt like she wasn't real, invisible to the world.

She was nothing.

The cold fact hit her again as she tried to curl into an even smaller ball, hugging her knees to her chest and burying her face into her arms. She absolutely hated thinking about these kind of things. That the world was cruel, as life was, and you were destined to live and eventually die a cold death, all alone. In the end, it didn't matter what had happened before, so she tried to make herself better. Instead, she only ended up hurting herself.

Okay, maybe transferring to a new school wasn't that big of a deal, but to this girl it was like being resurrected, allowed a few breaths of life, and being murdered again. She hated moving to new places, hated having to shun away all who would be kind to her in her own twisted way of being kind. She didn't like having such good friends when she would only have to leave them eventually. She didn't want to be that selfish, and...

She was a coward.

She was afraid of being remembered as... a bad person, and afraid of being talked about badly. Worse, she was afraid of being forgotten, afraid of being nobody... and afraid of disappearing.

These thoughts just seemed to turn round and round. Oh well. She knew eventually these thoughts would stop, and she would distract herself with happier thoughts and activities, but not now. She decided to just sit there and just mope some more, and maybe disappear...

"Are you just gonna sit there?"

Slowly, she came out of her thoughts and remembered where she was. An elementary school yard wasn't exactly a likely place to find an eleven-year-old girl angsting her lunch period away. She reluctantly lifted her head, and ebony bangs parted to reveal dark, tortured emerald eyes.

It was strange, for him anyway.

He had just happened to notice her, sitting over there, looking all dark and tortured. Like he wasn't? She was acting like she was the only one in the world who had problems. Tch, his were worse, they had to be. So why should he have cared?

She was sitting over there, looking... like a lost, sad, lonely girl.

Then he had stopped thinking so coldly. She was the new girl. Of course she was lonely. So why did she have to look like that? Like her dreams had been shattered, like her heart had been crushed...

Was she going to stay like that forever?

Before he knew it, he had walked over to her, bending over slightly so that his wild, blonde bangs partially fell over one of his crystal blue eyes, and had asked aloud,

"Are you just gonna sit there?"

They looked at each other. As two children. Two lost, tortured souls. In the back of their minds, each thought that maybe they could find some sort of comfort in the other, even if just for a moment.

Was there a sea of loneliness in those eyes, too?

Was there a deep forest of sadness in those eyes, too?

The girl was the first to give up. What use was there to seek comfort when she could offer none in return? She turned her gaze down.

The boy said nothing, but kneeled down and tenderly placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

This simple gesture infuriated the girl. Pity! She wasn't looking for pity! She wasn't looking for anything! She was trying to disappear, to just let the world go on and leave her to rot in her own useless existence. What right did this person have to make her feel even worse? Weren't normal people supposed to help each other?

She snapped her head up, and the look of despair was replaced with rage, then suddenly with shame.

Great.

That person, that guy, was looking at her in a totally unexpected way. Those eyes... He looked like he was going to cry, attractive lips parted slightly as if going to say something. Why should he look sad? She was the one suffering. So why did he look like he had just lost his family in a brutal massacre that happened before his own eyes?

It wasn't pity. It was understanding.

What a nice guy. Even though society was usually a bitch, when people were nice, they were pretty cool. He was cool. Now she felt guilty about making him worry, or whatever he was feeling towards her right now.

"...I'm sorry." She really was, and she hoped he wouldn't be upset with her or anything. She didn't mean to be so obvious, if she was.

The boy offered her a smile. "You don't have to apologize. You haven't done anything wrong. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. Nobody..." He looked away briefly as an unreadable expression came across his face, "Nobody should have to suffer. You can't just let life pass you by, because no matter how hard it gets, there's always some light in the future."

He looked back towards her. "Sometimes you just have to be willing to accept it, you know?"

They stared at each other again. The girl looked at the boy with something akin to wonder in her wide, almond-shaped eyes. It was obvious this guy was going through some hard-times, too. And to think that as devastated as he might have been, he would have the courtesy to come over and comfort lil' ol' her.

What a nice guy!

She grinned suddenly, and placed a slender hand on the boy's blonde hair, ruffling it a little. "I like you."

The boy took on a comical expression of confusion, sweatdropping. "Wha...?"

"What's your name?"

"Ano... Ishida Yamato. You're... Kamichi Mitori, ne?"

She nodded, taking her hand from his head and crossing her arms in a show of comfort. "I'm surprised you remembered."

"It's a pretty name. It can be written with the kanji for 'wise god' and 'watching bird', if I'm not mistaken...?"

"You're right.Your name is nice, too."

"I really don't think it fits..." This was odd, he thought to himself. A minute ago this girl had been angsting her life away, and now she was talking to him as if nothing was ever wrong. Not that he minded, he felt as comfortable with her as if they had been old friends, but it made him wonder briefly if her moods always changed quickly like that. It was surprising that his presence made her so...happy, all of a sudden.

"So, you're okay now?"

"Yeah," she sighed, though still smiling, "I sometimes kinda go off like that. It's not really a side of me that I like people to see, but I'm better now."

"Good. Lunch is about over now..." He noticed that during this whole time he had still been touching her, his hand gently lying on her arm, and respectfully took it away. Composing himself, he stood up and offered his hand to her. "Shall we go?"

"Uh, sure..." She hadn't noticed until then how bright the sun had been shining, even though they had been under the shade of a tree, and one of the beams of radiance happened to slip through the foliage and shine upon him as he held out his hand to her. He really had no idea how gallant he looked.

Boy, was he cute.

She took his hand and he helped her to her to her feet. Not that she needed any assistance getting to her feet, but it was a kind gesture nonetheless.

He watched as she stretched her arms up, giving her body relief from the cramped position it had been in. It was nice to see her free from whatever dark thoughts had been plaguing her mind. She showed no trace of sadness whatsoever, and she really reminded him more of a bird awakening from a dark night's sleep, especially when she shook her head lightly, causing her raven colored hair to shimmer with highlights.

Boy, was she cute.

"Well," she said at length, "I guess we should head back now." She turned around...

"Oh! Watch out!"

...and promptly walked into the tree.

"Owie..." She stumbled backwards a bit, and placed both of her hands on a rapidly bruising part of her forehead, unknowingly into the boy's alarmed arms.

"You okay?" Cute girl, he still thought, but cuteness also usually came with a bit of ditziness.

"Uh-huh..." the girl said, swirly-eyed before she shook her head again and sighed with embarrassment, "That's a stupid problem I have... Thanks for catching me."

"You're welcome," he replied, setting her up straight, then asked, "Why do you say that's a problem you have?"

"Because, well, you see... I have a habit of not looking where I'm going, most of the time because I never think about what lies ahead of me, and I end up running into stuff. Geez, I didn't think about the fact that I had been sitting against a tree."

The boy chuckled softly, smirking as he placed a hand on his hip and stood akimbo. "You're one interesting person, Tori-chan." She gave him a questioning glance, and he corrected himself. "I mean, Kamichi-san."

"No, it's okay." She offered him a grin. "You can call me Tori."

"Only if you call me Matt."

"Fine, but no '-chan'. I don't appreciate being called 'birdy'." She gave him a playful frown, which he returned with a quirk of a blonde eyebrow.

"A cute little birdy suits you. Though I must admit, you were more like a karasu a few minutes ago."

"A 'raven'?"

"A little angsty black bird, you know?" He laughed. "The name matches your hair, too."

She pouted. "It's not nice to call me names. We've just met."

"Okay, okay." He waved his hand, in a way the girl thought made him look even more adorable, and began walking off. "We should head back to class..."

"Um, yeah." She walked up beside him and they kept pace together, though when the boy looked over at her out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed she was looking down at the ground sheepishly.

"What are we so shy about all of a sudden? Wait, let me guess, you forgot where the classroom was?" She nodded in reply, and he laughed and threw an arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry, I'll lead you. Just stay by me."

"...Okay." She didn't feel shy at all, despite how close they were. She really felt like she was somewhere she belonged.

I hope I kept Yama-kun in character. Then again, almost everyone is gonna be OOC when they come in. (I'm almost positive I'll get reviews saying, "you dumbass, eleven-year-olds don't run around cursing like those fraks off South Park. This fic is crap, garbage, dirt, blah blah blah...) Whateva. Flames are nothing but lil' black letters. Sticks and stones, dude.

Not much was changed here, but a few things will be in the next couple of chapters. I just changed the whole kanji vs kana thing when they were talking about their names. I recently learned how to write a few things in kana (Go me!) and that's how I wrote Tori's name in a picture I drew. (Though I still like the kanji "tori".)

I'm off to make sum sammiches! Now review, FOO!