Saturday May 29, 2004
Ebacusta: Okay, I'm finally back. Here's a summary of the past two weeks: Homework enough to stop a serial killer, finals, 3 tornadoes almost hit my house, and this morning, my pet died. I feeling kind of depressed myself. But, I did feel a little but better after I danced with thus cute, nice, popular kid in my school at the graduation dance. Still depressed. Both of the friends I told laughed at me. How horrible. Thank you so much for all the reviews on the last chapter.
Tai: That would include:
OfficiallyObsessedwithPyro - Sorry about FF.net with your user name. (I tried to put the stars in your name but FF.net won't let me. Sorry.)
CoolPup - I'm sorry I talked about basketball too much, but there won't be any more...I don't think.
Angelz
Hamtaro-kid
LilTakariGirl aka Yami Aro
Lynn-Minmay
Draechaeli
... - T.K.'s not insane. Kari's spirit is actually appearing and begging for his help. The only thing was that only one person could see her, so she picked him because he was wallowing in despair and she didn't want that.
miaow227
Minako Yukishiro
Angelic Warrior - What do you mean 'What's going on?'. But anyway, thank you so much.
Ebacusta: Because FF.net won't let me put stars in my fanfiction, my cool transitions are gone and you are now stuck with the boring old line. Sorry.
TK: Fic time.
By ebacusta
Chapter 5
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"Help me! Help me please! T.K., please help me. Please!" T.K.'s eyes shot open. He looked at his wall. The words T.K. HELP ME PLEASE! were being written across his wall. Suddenly he saw her appear in the middle of his room.
"Help me T.K.! Please help me! PLEASE!" she begged. He rolled out of bed onto the floor. Quickly stumbling over to his closet, he pulled on shorts and a shirt. They ran out into the hall where he quickly put on his shoes.
She pushed out the door. He ran after her. She ran and then suddenly, she stopped and was lifted off the ground. He slid to a stop right underneath her. A beam blasted from the sky, lifting him slowly off the ground.
"Huh?" he asked. "What's happening? Help!" Slowly he was lifted into the sky and out of sight.
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"Where am I going?" he thought. "Matt. Tai. Patamon. Someone, help." T.K. rose up into the sky until he was surrounded by a quick moving winds, and strange ribbons. He was thrown this way and that, crashing into walls he could not see.
"What's going on?" And then, as if the ground beneath him had given out he fell straight down.
"Ahhhhhh!"
BOOM!
----One Week Later ----
"We've known each other for a week and all you do is tell me that I can't, but I still don't understand what I can't do. I need more detail!" Kari said.
Tina simply replied, "You can't."
"How can I stop something if I don't know what I'm looking for?" Kari asked.
"You just can't!" Tina yelled. "I have to go now." She walked away.
"This is getting really annoying!" Kari yelled after her. "How can you stop something if you don't know what it is?" she thought.
"There you are." Kari jumped but turned around. It was Mizuki. "I've been looking for you. We've got to go home."
"Oh," Kari said. "I'm sorry for making you worry sir." They turned and left the building to go home. Most of the walk was silent. Until they were starting to see his house appear in the distance.
"I'm curious, why do you always seem so down? It's like you're always depressed. You're so solemn," Mizuki decided.
Kari shrugged, "I don't why you'd think that. Depressed, what's there to be depressed about? I'm alive and I have friends."
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Mizuki asked.
Kari stopped. "Why does that matter?"
"Because..." Mizuki began.
Kari interrupted, "Boyfriend or not, I am who I am."
"Well, I was just wondering. You seem special to me," Mizuki said.
"Special? How so?" Kari asked. They stopped and stood by the pond.
"It's just...hmmm...Okay. You got Tina to open up. Everyone knows what's happen to her, and she normally doesn't talk. We've seen her brother too. Neither of them show emotion. They're dead inside. And yet...even though we could do nothing for her all these five years, the first day you came, she started talking. Granted she hasn't smiled yet, but now when I look at her, I see some warmth swimming in her once stone cold eyes," Mizuki said.
"That wasn't me. That could have been anybody," Kari said.
"Okay, here's another example. My mother, she normally does not talk to the maids. She doesn't look at them, she doesn't normally want to be bothered during the day, and the other maids know that. But then you came along, and suddenly mother changed. She started talking, looking, and asking the maids to sit down for tea. Your presence in our house has made it a better place," Mizuki said.
"She could have just felt it was time she stopped acting like a stuck-up woman who has it all and start treating her maids like they're actual people," Kari said.
Mizuki refused to give up. "You're like a light that is always shining. It's people like you that make the world a better place."
"You don't understand," Kari began. "I don't belong here. Maybe you're right, I am always depressed. I don't know. If I'm light, why do all these bad things keep happening to me?" She stopped suddenly. "Never mind, forget I said any of that. I'm just stressed out." With that she turned and ran.
"Wait Kari! Why? Why are you feeling stressed out?" Mizuki yelled after her.
Kari scoffed in her mind. "Why? Why am I stressed out? See how you feel when your best friend breaks your heart, the next thing you know you're flying through time and end up 20 years in the future. You get sick and then BAM! You're a maid working for a stuck-up family, separated from your family and friends not knowing how you're going to get back home. Hmmm I wonder why I'm stressed? And depressed." She slowed to a stop in the garden of Mizuki's house. Trees surrounded her.
"Nothing seems to go my way. What goes up, must go down." She thought about how she would often drift into a daydream and she'd see TK, and they'd sit and talk. And slowly things went on. And then slowly her mind had been begging him to help her. She smiled. They were just dreams. Dreams that would never come true.
She'd be stuck here forever. Tears began to stream down her face. Forever. She'd never see Tai...Matt...Sora...TK...none of them. She'd never see any of them ever again. Forever. She'd be alone forever.
"TK HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" Kari screamed into the sky. Tears ran faster as she started to run again.
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Kari had finally calmed down and was able to go and make the family dinner. As always, she stood in the corner and watched them eat, or really looked at them but saw nothing but a fuzzy mix of colors. Her eyes were glazed over.
Mizuki's father spoke up, "It's too bad Takeru Takaishi was killed. I loved his books." Kari snapped out of her trance. T.K. was killed?
"That was kind of sudden dear. Why do you mention that?" Mizuki's mother asked.
Father replied, "Today marks the anniversary of his death. 5 years ago and 4 years for his wife. It was the cover story in the newspaper this morning." He turned towards Kari. "Would you go get that for me?" Kari started for the door. "On my desk in my office."
"Yes sir," Kari nodded and left the room. She quickly went and got his newspaper. As she turned back around to leave the room she saw the headline of the paper:
A Happy Family Broken Up: The Touching Tale of The One Fateful Day 5 years Ago
She left the study and approached the dining room door. She stopped because she heard Mizuki and his family talking:
Mother: "Oh I felt so sorry for you when she died, Mizuki. You loved Ms. Takaishi. She was your favorite teacher of all times. You were crushed when she died. Oh and her poor children."
Mizuki: "You know, when I think about it, doesn't the new maid look like Ms. Takaishi?"
Mother: "You know, I never really paid attention, but now that you've mentioned it, I guess she kind of does."
Kari didn't want the conversation about her to go on any longer. She entered the room. She handed the newspaper to Mizuki's father. He unfolded it and showed it to Mizuki and his mother.
Mizuki's mother shook her head slowly from side to side. "Hm, hm, hm. Oh my, how sad." After a few minutes the family stood up and began to leave the room.
Kari stepped forward to address Mizuki's father as he was leaving, "Sir, if I may, I would like to request the newspaper if you're finished with it."
Mizuki's father looked at her, "Go ahead I am done with it."
Kari bowed. "Thank you sir." She picked it up and followed the others out of the room as the clean-up maids entered the room to pick up the table.
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Kari sat on her bed. She looked at the newspaper that lay unfolded before her. She looked at the headline again, but then, her eyes slowly drifted down the page until they stopped in the middle of the page.
There sat a grainy black and white picture of T.K. with his arm around her, and his other hand resting on the shoulder of a girl. Kari had her arm wrapped around his waist and her other hand was resting on the shoulder of a little boy. They were all smiling.
Underneath the picture was a caption that read: Takeru Takaishi with his wife, Hikari, and his two kids: Tina Satsuki, 12, and Tom Kei, 10. This picture was taken one week before the murder.
Kari drifted back up to the top of the page. She read the newspaper article:
"5 years ago celebrated novelist Takeru Takaishi, more commonly known as TK by his family and friends, kissed his kids and wife good-bye for the last time. As he gathered up his newest novel, he promised to be home in time for his son Tom Kei Takaishi's birthday and walk out of the house.
His wife, Hikari Yagami Takaishi called after him to call her at lunch. She heard him agree, and the door shut.
Soon after that, Hikari left the house wuth her children heading towards their school, and Mrs. Takaishi's place of work.
The day was normal for the two, Takeru selling his novel to a publishing company, and Hikari teaching her class. It remained normal until 12:14 when Hikari received a phone call from her husband. Their conversation transversed like this:
Hikari: "TK honey, is that you?"
Takeru: "Yes."
Hikari: "How did it go? Was it good?"
Takeru: "Yes, it sold."
Hikari: "Oh Takeru, that's wonderful. Did you double check on the reservation for Kei's birthday?"
Takeru: "Yes they're still on."
Hikari: "Excellent. He'll be so excited, he'll-"
Takeru: (evidently talking to a person who entered his office) "Hey, what are you doing in here? I asked for no visitors be allowed in."
Hikari: (getting worried) "TK, sweetie, what's going on?"
Takeru: "Aaahhh. What's that? Oh." The sound of a gunshot rung through the phone.
Hikari: (voice raised) "TK honey? TK answer me. What's going on? (yells) TK!"
Heart torn in despair, 5th grade teacher Hikari stood up. Knocking her chair over in the process, and dropping her cell phone to the floor.
The sudden outburst had alerted the attention of the students and they now watched her. Many students stood as well.
"Mrs. Takaishi, what's wrong?"
"Please answer us Mrs. Takaishi."
The questions remained unanswered, as the shock and heartbroken teacher stood stark still. She suddenly jolted into action, fleeing the room.
Heart heavy, Takeru's wife ran out of the building and towards her husband's office. On the way, she tripped and fell breaking her ankle, but her intense love for her husband drove her on towards her his place of work. With each painful step, her heart grew heavier, and heavier.
Finally reaching the office she rushed in, ignoring the receptionist's rules and request that no one see Mr. Takaishi, he did not want visitors. Up the stairs she ran, and upon bursting into his office she found him lying curled up on the floor.
Approaching him she exclaimed: "TK! TK what's wrong? What happened?" After not receiving an answer she added, "TK please say something. Anything." Falling to her knees, she turned him onto his back, and gasped at the sight before her.
TK's hand was resting over an area on his stomach, and blood was pouring from underneath it
Desperate Mrs. Takaishi called out as tears began to fall fast down her face: "TK, who? Who did it? Why? Please hold on. Hold on. I'll call an ambulance."
Her response was slow, painful, and choppy: "They're already...coming. What happened to your ankle?"
Hikari looked at her swollen abnormally colored ankle. "I think I broke it. But that doesn't matter, you're injured."
Moving his hand aside, Hikari covered the wound with her own hand.
With love filled eyes, Takeru reached up with his bloody right hand and brushed it against his wife's cheek. "Beautiful Hikari. Please don't worry about me. Even if I die-" He faltered.
"Takeru don't say that. You're gonna live. You will. Remember all the things we survived as children," Hikari gasped.
Takeru continued, "Even if I die, please remember that I'm always with you...with you and the kids, and I will always love you and them more...more...than anything in the world. You're beautiful, and I don't regret a second of our marriage or our friendship. I love you with all my heart."
With those last words, his hand slid carefully and slowly off her cheek and back down to his side, his blue eyes paled and closed.
Hikari was shocked but cried out: "Takeru no! NO! Open your eyes! You're going to be all right! You won't die! I love you too! I love you with all my heart and soul so please hang in there. Somehow, I'll save you."
The paramedics rushed in putting both him and Hikari on stretchers and carting them immediately to the hospital. Both were taken to the emergency room. Hikari was released after she was given a cast and crutches.
She begged to stay, but in the end, settled for giving the doctor her cell number, and going back to the school to finish teaching.
That is where she went. At 3:27 p.m. Hikari received a phone call from the hospital.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Mrs. Takaishi?" inquired a voice.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry." In shock, Hikari's eyes widened, her cell fell to the ground, and her eyes watered.
"Mrs. Takaishi? What's wrong?" Suddenly, the student's favorite teacher burst into tears.
The worried class ran to the front to comfort her, and asked what was wrong again. Mrs. Takaishi replied through sobs, "He's...dead...gone from me...forever..."
"Who?" the students inquired.
"Takeru! I wanna die!" she wailed before letting out an ear-piercing scream of agony that sent teachers and students running to the classroom.
The next year was pure agony for poor Hikari until exactly one year later on the same day, Hikari herself was shot and killed, leaving behind her and Takeru's two kids, Tina Satsuki Takaishi, and Tom Kei Takaishi, and an amazing legend.
The two young, well known and loved by many across the country, Hikari was 32 when she died. Takeru was only 31. May we always remember the best novelist and teacher there ever was in the history of humanity."
Kari was in tears as she finished the article. TK would die, she would die, and leave behind two sad and lonely children who some how have to be stronger than their mother and carry on with not only the lose of one parent but both of them. They had to go and do something she herself couldn't, and yet they still continue on today.
She heard footsteps approaching and quickly dried her face, ran into the bathroom, splashed water on it, ran back to her bed, jumped on it, and opened up the comic section before reading a strip and laughing.
Mizuki's head entered the room, "Are you doing anything?" Kari looked up.
"What? Oh no," Kari said shaking her head.
"May I come in?" he asked. Kari nodded. He stepped all the way in and sat down on her bed beside her. "Whatcha reading?"
"The comics," Kari replied folding up the paper.
"Oh, cool," Mizuki said. "What are you doing for the talent show practice tomorrow?"
"I don't know. But I'll think of something before tomorrow," Kari shrugged.
"Well that's good." The room went silent. Mizuki spoke again suddenly, "You know what, I wanted to apologize for this afternoon. It wasn't my business and I-"
"It's okay, don't worry about it," Kari interrupted. She smiled, "I have been a bit shaky emotionally lately. But I'm finally feeling better now, so you don't need to worry anymore."
Mizuki smiled back, "Well good, I'm glad." He stood and walked to the door. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Kari replied. He left the room. She waited until she heard his footsteps retreated, and then stood up, went to her desk, pulled out a pair of scissors, and quickly cut out the article. She slid into the back of her scrapbook, lay down, and fell asleep.
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"Okay, we're going to practice for the Talent Show. I want to hear what you have planned and thought of," the drama teacher, Ms. Juliet (pronounced: Jool-ey [It's a French last name]) said. "Robert you're going first.)
Kari sat quietly through half of the grade before Ms. Juliet said, "Kari. It's is you're turn. Show us what you have." She stood silently and made her way to the front of the auditorium, and climbed up the stairs to the stage.
"I'm going to sing, I'm Not That Girl from the play Wicked," she said. She smiled slightly thinking of what had happened the night she and the other DigiDestined had gone to see it one time when they were visiting Mimi in New York.
The music started. Kari waited until the introduction was done and then opened her mouth to sing, " Hands touch, eyes meet
Sudden silence, sudden heat
Hearts leap in a giddy whirl
He could be that boy
But I'm not that girl.
Don't dream too far
Don't lose sight of who you are
Don't remember that rush of joy
He could be that boy
I'm not that girl
Ev'ry so often we long to steal
To the land of what-might-have-been
But that doesn't soften the ache we feel
When reality sets back in
Blithe smile, lithe limb
She who's winsome, she wins him
Gold hair with gentle curl
That's the girl he chose
And heaven knows
I'm not that girl...
Don't wish, don't start
Wishing only wounds the heart
I wasn't born for the rose and pearl
There's a girl I know
He loves her so
I'm not that girl..." as Kari finished the song her eyes widened. She thought as she held out the last note, "That's right, I'm not his girl. He chose Rebecca." (A/N. Rebecca is an American exchange student that TK once told Kari he had a crush on. Just for the record, she has blonde hair with a gentle curl. Hee hee. .) "He chose Rebecca." Tears started to run down her face. The note finished and she collapsed to the ground leaning over her knees her hair covering her face, loud sobs racking her body and echoing through the room.
"Kari!" Mizuki exclaimed running up the stairs to the auditorium. Tina was there first.
"Kari, what's wrong?" Tina asked.
"I...I want to go home!" she sobbed. Mizuki took this in meaning she wanted to go back to his house. Tina knew what she really wanted.
"We'll get you back. I promise. We'll find a way," Tina told her. Mizuki looked at her strangely.
"It's not that hard, I can have someone come pick her up. Or I can take her home myself," he said. Tina stared at him.
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Kari sat on her bed staring with sad eyes at her scrapbook.
"Kari," Mizuki said entering her room. "I know you're depressed and that you won't go to a doctor, so I asked mom to bring one to you. Please."
"Fine," Kari said.
"Okay," Mizuki said, "Now I want you to eat this."
"I'm not hungry," Kari replied.
"Kari eat it," Mizuki said placing the food in front of her.
"I'm not hungry!" Kari said.
"Eat it Kari!"
"No."
"Kari eat the food!"
"No."
"EAT IT!" Mizuki yelled.
"NO! I'M NOT HUNGRY!" Kari yelled in response.
"YOU HAVEN'T EATEN IN DAYS! PLEASE! I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" Mizuki yelled.
"NO! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" Kari said. "Please leave me alone. Let me wallow in my misery." She closed her book, and lay down and pulled the covers over her head.
"Fine, Kari," Mizuki said. "I'm only doing this because I'm worried. All you've done for the best few days is cry, sleep, and look at the scrapbook." He walked towards the door. "Please feel better soon." He left as Kari went back to sleep.
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One Sunday, Kari finally got up and left the house. She walked around a little and then sat on a bench. She watched the people go by, and then she saw a familiar face.
"Tina!" The blonde turned and then ran over.
"Kari, you're finally out of bed. How do you feel?"
Kari smiled, "Better. Thank you."
"That's wonderful. I want you to meet someone."
"Kei come over here!" a boy with brown hair with blonde highlights and red eyes and a serious solumn expression turned and walked over. She reminded Kari of Cody.
"Yes Tina?" he asked.
"This is Kari. Kari meet my little brother Tom Kei. Kei meet..."
"Mom," he finished. His face lightened up.
"MOM!"
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Ha ha! I've done it. I hope you liked this chapter. It's another cliffhanger, though not as big of a one as the first child you met huh? Ha ha ha ha. By the way, I don't own I'm Not That Girl...at least not yet. Hahahahaha.
Kari: Doing a good job hiding your depression eh?
Ebacusta: Shut up.
TK: Please review.
ebacusta .