Neko: Digimon is dead!
Lawyers: Yeah... Yeah, okay true.
Neko: And therefore, it belongs to me!
Lawyers: Yeah... Yeah, okay- Wait! No way! Digimon will never be yours!
Neko: Bah. --;
This is talking in English.
This is thinking in English.
This is talking in Japanese.
This is thinking in Japanese.
This is dreaming.
Chapter Two
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"I'm disappointed, Hikari," Hikari's father paced in the front of the couch where Hikari sat, her thin shoulders slumped. "I thought after our talk with your principal you might be inspired to do a little better. I guess I was wrong."
"I'm sorry, Father," Hikari said softly, "But I am trying." She stared at her knees, trying not to cry. "I am trying so hard."
"Oh really? Then why isn't it working?!" Her father exploded.
"It's... It's just..." Hikari trailed off, barely holding back her tears.
Hikari's mother put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "I think you've made your point, Nori," she said firmly.
Hikari's father gave her one last hard look, then turned and walked out, leaving her sitting on the couch. He mother gave her a small smile then followed suit.
---
"Why me?" Hikari wonder aloud. "Why did all this misfortune have to pick me?" She went and stood in front of the mirror in her small bedroom. She was unremarkable, only distinguishable from all the other brown-haired girls by her almost red-brown eyes, and now, by her gaunt appearance.
"Why you, Hikari? Is that what you're asking?" She sat down quickly on the bed. "Why not?" Hikari said nothing. "Well, don't you have an answer for me?"
"I've done nothing to deserve this..." Hikari said meekly. All around her, the room began to fill with shadows. "I was a good child. I never caused trouble..."
"Liar!" The harsh voice of a dark figure that had suddenly appeared at her shoulder slammed her into unconsciousness.
---
She was floating above a playground in Odiaba. Below her, children played. Two of them stood out, making Hikari's heart sing out in recognition.
"You remember this then, Hikari." She turned and saw the same hooded figure as before standing beside her, although it seemed a lot less demonic than before. "I thought you might have blanked it out by now."
"What do you mean?" Hikari questioned the figure, noting that the formerly ominous hood was really just a black hooded sweatshirt.
"Just watch," it snapped, and Hikari, recognizing the tone of voice, obeyed.
"C'mon Hikari!" a brown-haired boy Kari knew was Taichi, called to his sister. "Come kick the soccer ball with me!" In what he thought was a glowing display of his soccer prowess, he dribbled the ball back and forth in front of Hikari.
The little girl's face was flushed and she looked feverish and tired, but she got to her feet. "Okay, onii-san." Taichi whooped with glee, and kicked the ball towards Hikari. She tapped weakly at it, and collapsed to the ground unconscious.
"You said you never caused trouble, Hikari," the figure spoke again. "What would you call that then? Having an ambulance come to take you to the hospital, just because you couldn't handle kicking a soccer ball? Is that not causing trouble?"
Hikari tore her eyes away from Taichi's face as he watched in shock as the paramedics took his sister away, the soccer ball at his feet. "That's not true! Taichi knew I was sick and he was supposed to be taking care of me!"
"Maybe so, but what about the time your family went on vacation, and you caught pneumonia and almost died? Or when you had to stay home from summer camp because you were sick?" Even though its shadowy face looked foreboding, the demon was starting to sound more like an embittered teenager.
Despite of this, Hikari was beginning to believe what it was saying.
---
"Mr. and Mrs. Yagami, we are here today, as I'm sure you know, to talk about the troubles your daughter Hikari has been having at school." The guidance counselor flicked through a pile of papers on his desk. "Has Hikari told you anything about these problems?"
Mr. Yagami opened his mouth to speak, but his wife rested a hand on his knee and fixed him with a brief meaningful look. "Not recently, Mr..." she glanced at the name placard on the desk, "Daley. To tell the truth, Hikari has not said much at all lately."
"Perhaps there are other things bothering her then?" questioned Mr. Daley.
Mrs. Yagami considered this briefly, her hand still on her husband's knee. "Well, she has been having a lot of nightmares recently, along with occasional spells of illness or fainting. I am surprised her school work has been affected so severely though."
Nodding, Mr. Daley withdrew a sheet of paper from his file. "According to comments made by Hikari's primary school teachers in Japan, Hikari was an exceptionally good student, and received top marks in all her classes. It also says that Hikari missed most of the last two months of grade six."
"Yes, indeed she did..." breathed Mrs. Yagami, her fingernails digging into her husband's leg.
Mr. Daley seemed not to hear what Mrs. Yagami had said, since he continued on, unfazed. "However, at the beginning of Hikari's first year of junior high school, the comments from her teachers change dramatically. Hikari is inattentive and distracted during class.' Hikari's assignments have been of poor quality.' If Hikari continues at this rate, she will have to repeat grade seven.' " He looked up at the two tight-lipped people sitting across from him. "Is there anything that could have caused this change?"
"There is, in fact... There-there was a..." Mrs. Yagami heaved a ragged sigh and stared tearily at her feet.
"A death in the family," Mr. Yagami said stiffly. "Our son, Hikari's older brother."
Mr. Daley dropped a handful of papers on his desk in shock. "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry!" He took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. "I-I didn't realize..."
"It's fine," Mr. Yagami said heavily, surreptitiously prying his wife's fingers off his leg. "Please continue."
"Yes, well." Mr. Daley still seemed a little shaken. He shuffled his notes nervously. "Hikari failed grade seven, and soon after that, you immigrated to the United States and settled here in Denver. Now, Hikari has been attending school here for more than two years, but her English skills have not improved to the degree we usually see from these students. Compared to her peers, Hikari seems to be putting in no effort at all."
Mr. Yagami frowned grimly.
---
Hikari sat in the kitchen, trying to force herself to eat an apple, a piece of toast, anything, but she couldn't do it. Today was the day that her parents had a meeting with Mr. Daley at her school. Her father would come home and berate her for not trying hard enough while her mother stood and wrung her hands in the background.
As she got up to clear her plate into the garbage, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the toaster's shiny sides. The curves of the toaster distorted the image, making the hollows in her cheeks seem deeper, the dark circles under her eyes larger. She looked away.
"Things have changed, Taichi,"Hikari whispered. She looked back at the toaster, trying to recall what she looked like before that day at the park. She closed her eyes to stop the tears from coming, and when she reopened them there was someone else reflected in the toaster with her. Wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, the hood pulled over their face, they stood by Hikari's right shoulder. She turned around.
"Hikari." The demon nodded, and disappeared.
Just as it did, the door of the apartment flew open and Hikari's father stormed in. He was scarcely in the door before he started raging.
"This is the last straw, Hikari!" he yelled, tossing his briefcase onto the table and knocking Hikari's half-empty glass of water to the floor. She knelt to pick up the pieces but her father grabbed her chin and hauled her back up. "Never before have I been so embarrassed! Never!"
Hikari stood frozen in terror. She was holding a piece of glass too tightly, and she could feel the blood starting to pool in her clenched fist. "I'm sor-" she started, but her father cut her off.
"Can you imagine what it's like to hear some stranger listing off all your child's failures? Can you imagine what that's like?!" His face was beginning to turn red, and flecks of spit flew from his mouth.
"No, Father. I can't," Hikari whispered meekly.
"Shut up! Just shut up! Mr. Daley," he spat out the name, "was right about you! You area failure! People say it's because you're delicate, but I know the truth! You're just stupid! And you know what?" His voice dropped so it was barely above a whisper, and he grabbed Hikari's chin and pulled her face close to his. "Every day I wake up and wonder why Taichi had to die instead of you." Hikari fainted.
She awoke on the kitchen floor, staring up into the frightened eyes of her mother. "Are you alright, baby? Are you hurt anywhere?" Her father was standing with his back to them, toying with the half-empty glass of water sitting on the kitchen table.
Hikari struggled into a sitting position, fighting the urge to lie back down on the cool linoleum. She leaned back against the oven door. "Yes, I think so." Hikari reached up to touch the bruise growing on her forehead. Her hand felt wet, and she suddenly remembered why she was on the floor. She looked at her palms, but there was no cut, no blood, only a slick of sweat. What is happening to me?'
Her mother's voice interrupted Hikari's panicked thoughts. "Do you need to lie down?" She nodded, and her mother helped her to her feet and led her into her bedroom. Her father followed behind, clearly trying to decide whether he should say something.
Before she pulled the covers over her head and drifted into an uneasy sleep, Hikari heard he mother whisper in an angry hiss. "Not a word, Nori. Not a word."
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Enko-chan: Don't try to pretend you're being productive. The last time you updated this was what, a year and a half ago?
Neko: Shhh... You're so cruel. I'm sure everyone is just glad I've updated. Right, everyone?
Everyone: Right.
Neko: And you're all going to review, right everyone?
Everyone: Right.
Neko: And you're all going to give me $1000 so I can buy a laptop, right everyone?
Everyone: No freaking way.
Neko: So close...