Chapter: 2
Casual Friday… I have never not wanted to be somewhere so bad in my life. Raina was restless, she'd sat through the whole day and made sure she paid attention to her teachers Japanese, if she didn't, she knew she'd miss something important. At least the uniforms aren't all that bad, and really, I made friends fast enough. Carefully copying down the word problem from the board, she looked at her characterized name in the top right corner of her desk. I wish I had a better hold of this language, it was way easier in Spain, couldn't we have moved back there? Her fathers business often forced the family to get up and leave with no more then 2 weeks notice, selling the house was always a rush, everything was always so scattered. Spain had been wonderful though, they'd stayed there for a record of 3 years, and she was almost more fluent in Spanish then English, which was the language she'd grown up speaking.
She sighed quietly, playing with her eraser on the desk. Well, maybe we'll stay in Japan longer, it's not like I can't e-mail Emilio, and Amy's just as easy to contact… she began a doodle in the margins of the sheet she was supposed to be working on. Mexico was awesome too, and Britain wasn't bad… the doodle started to take shape, ears, fur, a feral looking eye. At least I know people, at least the first day at school was Friday, at least I can speak Japanese, at least… at least there're digidestined here… she pulled herself out of her thoughts, forcing herself to concentrate on the problem. 5 minutes… hardly 5 minutes and it'll ring, and we can go… she worked on the problem, what order clowns were stacked on a ladder. I think I solved this one in Canada at one point. She thought, almost disappointed that it had come back. It was red, blue, yellow, green, orange. She outlined the work quickly on the sheet of paper, careful to write it in Japanese instead of Spanish or English. Finally, the bell rang.
Raina grinned, throwing the sheets of paper, her pencil, pencil box and eraser into her desk, one of the first to have her chair up on the flat surface. She looked around her for Ryo, she had been thrilled to find out he was in her class and not Damian and Yukari's, she knew someone, and it was so nice. She jumped up, trying to see over the heads of the other students. There! He had just put his chair up, and was headed back towards the coatroom. She turned and retrieved her pack and coat, waiting for him as he pulled on his own coat.
"Ryo… come on… you're so slow…" She teased, knowing it would make him hurry up.
He rolled his eyes and threw his backpack over his shoulder. "It's not like they're going to get there any faster then we are." He grinned. "Little bit excited are you?"
She glared at him, "Yes! Come on! Ryo…!" He was laughing as she pulled him down towards the library and one of the back doors students were constantly using. They arrived to see Yukari rolling her eyes and Damian leaning heavily on the brick wall, laughing so hard he was having problems keeping himself upright and breathing at the same time.
Ryo cocked an eyebrow. "What?"
"No idea." Yukari replied, "He was just gazing off into oblivion when I walked in, and then he just burst out into this, hysterical fit." She grinned, amusement playing on her tan face. "I think he may be certifiably insane."
Raina watched as her oriental friend tried to restrain laughing at Damian's fit of laughter. "This is so random." She grinned.
Damian's insatiable giggling slowed, eventually coming to a stop, and he stood up properly. "Ok, we can uh… go now if you'd all like?" The group hid smiles and left the school building, letting Yukari lead the way to her home.
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As the group came to a beautifully ornate iron gate, they stopped chattering to look at Yukari's house. The iron gate was black, with vines welded as an image on it, they twisted and bloomed around one-another. To compliment the metal, real vines grew thickly along the tall fence surrounding the little bungalow. It seemed to be a pretty traditional home, as they walked up the path to her front door, Ryo noticed the immaculately kept garden and the little fish pond, probably full of koi.
"Wow." Raina whispered. "Yukari, I love your house."
Yukari smiled quietly, "My dad's a lawyer, but he loves to garden. In the back there's a little greenhouse with his rare plants in it."
Despite its small size, the whole area gave a feeling like it was open, huge. Because of the tall fence/bush surrounding it a large amount of the outer noise was muffled, and the other houses around it couldn't be seen at all. The three children followed Yukari along the path that wound through the neatly kept lawn, hardly able to keep their heads from turning to look at everything they passed. When they did manage to reach the front door, Yukari slid her shoes off and politely held the door for the others, directing them to the kitchen first.
"Anyone hungry?" She asked with a slight smirk as Damian stopped dead in his tracks to star at the slightly ajar pantry door. "Yes, Dam, you can have that gross banana pocky you love so much." The blonde boy muttered 'thanks' hardly a second before he scurried over and tugged the box off the shelf, reaching in for a smaller pack of the crème-covered sticks.
Ryo raised an eyebrow. "I have to say, I'm more partial to the chocolate myself, that banana kind makes my stomach hurt." As an after thought he added: "Then I puke."
Raina giggled, "Poetically put Ryo." She reached into her jacket, producing a slightly wrinkled pack of her own pocky. "Strawberry guys, the best kind." Grinning, she pulled out one of the sticks and amiably munched on it.
"Well," Yukari smiled, "now that we all know we're rather picky about our pocky, shall we pack a snack and go to the digital world?" She was greeted by silent nods, her three friends, Damian resembling an over-sized chipmunk, Raina quietly watching Ryo as he sampled one of her strawberry pocky. She shook her head. "You guy are so weird."
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Their snack packed, Yukari lead them out through another door into the living room, and once past the living room through another smaller sliding door, behind which Yukari's mother kept her office. More quite gasps and other whispers of excitement and awe filled the little room. It wasn't very large, but a bookshelf covered the wall to their left, made of some sort of dark wood, the desk branched out from the corner directly in front of them, made from wood like the bookshelves. Yukari sauntered over to the computer and pressed the power button calmly, letting the other three stand in the middle of the little room and be content simply looking at everything for a few moments.
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"Digiport, open!"
"Digiport, open!"
"Digiport, open!"
"Digiport, open!"
As the four yells sounded out, the four children were sucked into the computer's screen. They seemed to slide past data concerning thousands of different things, and then were deposited beside a large sakura tree across the river from some sort of shrine.
Yukari stood up and her eyes grew wide. "Wow… I've never been here before." She murmured. The shrine was wooden and very simple looking from across the river. A small banner flapped in the light wind, declaring the name of the shrine in beautiful calligraphy, and through one of the windows she caught a glimpse of a sort of finned digimon passing by the opening.
"Es bastante bonita." Raina added in Spanish.
"What?" Ryo asked as he stood up, a perplexed expression on his face.
Raina shook her head. "Sorry, it is very pretty though, isn't it?"
Damian turned a full circle and took stock of their surroundings. "Well, what do we do first? 'Cuz I tell you what, I've only been here once, and I still don't know where my digimon is."
Yukari smoothed her jeans over her thighs and made a suggestion. "Why don't we find a way across the river and visit the shrine? I'm sure we'll find someone friendly there." The other three nodded, and the group began to follow the river down stream.
As they walked, Ryo took in the surroundings like a small child took in a visit to a sweets shop. This is amazing! I wish Ken could see this, he'd be thrilled! Then something else occurred to him.This whole thing happened really, really fast. Raina's been here for like, 48 hours, and here we all are… she certainly made an awesome entrance. He shook his head, and they kept walking.
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s/k: yeah, updated. It's all happening WAY TOO FAST! sigh Also, if anyone finds something wrong in my Spanish, please do correct me, still learning the language. vanishes in a puff of smoke R&R