Litanya: Hi again. For those of you who decided to stick around and see if this fic is actually going anywhere… thank you. This chapter is going to focus mainly on Takari as I couldn't resist making it easier for Kari . (Besides… Takari is so cute!) Anyway, I will now get on with the fic. I do not own Digimon, and although I cannot actually use the songs, Simple Plan is a really good band to listen to for this fic. Their music actually inspired some of the things here.

Worlds Apart

Chapter 5

"So I take it that you've been abandoned for the day?" T.K asked her as Avi and Pohe left, Avi dragging the unwilling teenager down the corridor. Kari loved Avi for making sure that she was alone with T.K, but she did feel sorry for her brother's friend.

"Yeah, it looks like it. I don't understand why Avi didn't talk to me about going shopping. Then again… we do have different tastes and sometimes I refuse to allow her into some shops that she wants to look in. Anyway, what are your plans for today?" he shrugged.

"I didn't really have any, to tell you the truth," he didn't say that he had left the day free in case she was free. She smiled innocently.

"Well, would you like to hang out? You can show me the glorious sites of Odaiba," she pleaded, making puppy eyes at him. He laughed, pretending that he hadn't wanted her to say something like that.

"I suppose that I could take some time to do that. I wouldn't want you to get lost during your first few weeks of living here. I'll make a deal with you. I'll show you around the city if you promise to be my best friend for a while. My last best friend disappeared last year sometime and since then I haven't really had a close friend. Will you promise to be my friend?" this took her a little off guard, and he was surprised that he had said it as well.

"Okay, I promise," she told him sincerely, wanting nothing more than to make sure he was happy. He smiled, but inside he was confused. He knew that she reminded him of Kari, but why did he decide to replace her with this new Kari? Maybe it was the similarity in the name, or maybe it was the way that this new Kari looked almost exactly the same as his Kari. But for either or neither of those reasons, he had done it. He had let this new Kari become his friend… no, his best friend.

'I'm officially crazy,' he decided, 'I have known this girl for a day and I am already telling her that she has to be my best friend. She could be an insane pyromaniac, or her family could be on the run from the Police… but I trust her. As soon as I saw her I knew that I wouldn't be able to ignore her, that I wouldn't be able stop myself from becoming her friend. Why? Just because she looks too much like the Kari that I miss every single day.' He immediately dropped this line of thought and buried it under a million other thoughts. He wanted it to stay there forever.

"Are we going to get going now or are we going to stand here for another few minutes?" Kari asked him lightly, seeing that he was deep in thought, "As much as I love school, I think I prefer other places. So what are the famous Odaiba sites?" He laughed and began to lead her out of the building, still burying his earlier thoughts away.

"I wouldn't exactly call them famous, but I can show you the fun places to go. Places like the cinemas, the best shopping malls and, most importantly, the place where you can buy the best ice-cream in the world! There are a few other places as well, but we can see them on the way. Lets' go!" the first place that they visited was the flower shop owned by Sora's mother.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" they looked up from the flowers they had been looking at to see Sora standing in front of them.

"I thought you had a uni lecture… Tai left quite a while ago for it," Kari commented, surprised to see the girl there. She had a bag with her, and she indicated to it.

"I'm just on my way there. Your brother probably left early because he didn't want to get lost again, but our lecture only begins in twenty minutes. That was why I was asking why you were here, because it's so early in the morning. I would have thought that you guys would still be sleeping now."

"I normally would be," Kari admitted, "But I had to enroll at the school today and sometimes living in a house with my siblings can be very loud. Tai actually woke me up this morning by tripping over and dropping the- well, something made of glass or something- loudly on the ground. If it hadn't been for those things I would still be asleep."

"I was helping Kari, Avi and Pohe enroll at the school," T.K explained, seeing Sora give him a sly smile, "And I needed to pick up my timetable. They stuffed a few of my classes up last semester and I needed to make sure that they didn't do the same this time around." Sora nodded, before looking at her watch.

"Anyway, I'd better go otherwise I will miss my class. Have fun guys!" she didn't race out of the shop, but she did go pretty fast. Kari giggled as she remembered when Sora had been going out with her brother.

"What's so funny?" T.K asked suspiciously.

"It's nothing really. Sora just reminded me of my brother's ex-girlfriend, that's all. I bumped into her a lot before she had a date with my brother, and then she would always have to run to get there on time. Sorry about laughing, but I always found it funny. Tai wanted to kill me though. For some reason he didn't find it funny to see his girlfriend angry at him for being late, when she had been late herself."

"Oh… okay. My brother is usually late to his dates with Sora all of the time, but that is mainly because he forgets about them. He has a really bad memory and because he is usually busy with his band, he forgets the time. As a result he is almost always late, but Sora just doesn't seem to mind. I guess that they have such a tight relationship that as long as he finally arrives, she can forgive him," he didn't realise that this wasn't what she wanted to hear, and continued, "I'm really happy for my brother. He loves Sora so much and he was always pushed to the background back when Sora was dating Tai… you know, the one that lived here. He was so happy when she asked him out, but at the same time he felt guilty about it because Tai was also his best friend. When Tai disappeared that day… he felt that it was his fault. He never said it out loud, but he made sure that he was in charge of hundreds of ways to try and find Tai. At one point he hadn't eaten for a week because he was trying so hard to find him. But he never did… If he didn't have Sora I don't know what he would do." Kari felt terrible. She remembered how hard Matt had tried to find her brother, even when they had known that it was hopeless. Matt was one of her closest friends and as much as she wanted her brother to be happy, she did not want to take away the happiness that Matt had gained.

"That must be tough on him," she commented, "I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a best friend. The closest thing I can think of to that would be to break up with a boyfriend or something, but that is nowhere near as bad as what your brother went through." T.K shrugged.

"It was harder for Sora. But now I'm going to take you to the local cinemas, so that you know where you can go to catch a good movie. Let's go!" and before she could say another word he turned and left the store, leaving her no other option but to follow.

"Hey Tai, over here!" although the brunette had left earlier than her to get to uni, Sora had still arrived first, "How come you're so late? I bumped into your sister and T.K and they told me that you had left them a while ago to get here." He shrugged casually, trying hard to even out his breathing.

"I uh… took a wrong turn and ended up on the other side of town. I had to go and ask directions from some shop a few streets away, so I am running a little late. Besides, the lecture only starts in five minutes, so we're fine."

"Actually, the lecture starts in half an hour. I had a feeling that you were one of those people who are always late, so I told you ten so that you wouldn't be here late for the class. So, we have half an hour to bum around in, so what would you like to do?"

"Could you help me find the soccer club? I want to sign up, but I have no idea where to go," she could not help but think that he was so much like her Tai that it hurt, but she didn't say anything.

"Yeah, I know where it is. Follow me," he frowned as she began to walk away. He knew that something was wrong, but he didn't know how to help her, "So were you a part of a soccer team where you used to live?"

"Yeah, I was the team captain. I loved my team and I really, really didn't want to leave, but in the end I had no choice," he remembered his team from high school and sighed. He missed them a lot.

"I'm sure that you did have some choice in the matter."

"Well… yeah, I guess I did but… it doesn't matter. Is the team here good?" she knew that he was hiding something, but she did not want to pry.

"They do pretty well, but our tennis team is stronger. However, Tai used to say, 'that's because the opposing team are all scared away by the sight of the team.' I don't agree with that of course, but… he did. Anyway, the soccer team has won quite a few matches this year. Ken joined the team this year and he's a really good player. You may have heard of him before you met him the other day, as he used to be quite famous for being a genius and a great soccer player."

"Now that you put it that way, I have heard of him. It was all over the news when he went missing, but I never really paid much attention at the time. He plays here?"

"Yeah, he does. He came to this uni at the beginning of last year, and our soccer team has been the best ever since. There were a few good players on the team before, but having Ken there makes them even better. Usually there wouldn't be any places for you on the team, but someone quit because they couldn't get to the games. There is a try-out session this afternoon, after our lectures. Then we'll get to see if you are as good at soccer as you claim," she teased, feeling completely comfortable to say whatever she thought when she was around him.

"I'll have you know that I was once offered a spot at the academy for potential players of the Japanese team, thank you very much," she was surprised.

"You are really that good?" she asked, remembering what her Tai had told her the year before he had disappeared, "Only the best players get offered that chance, and I knew a very good player. He was offered a spot there too, but he wouldn't take it because he said… I can't really remember, but he wouldn't take the spot on the team." He knew that she did remember, but he didn't say anything.

"I had something that I had to do, so I couldn't take the offer, but I was tempted. Plus my girlfriend at the time would have killed me. She loved soccer and all, but she would have hanged me if she thought that I left her for the game," he was again mixing truth with lies. If Sora wanted to read into it, it was her own fault.

"I wouldn't blame her. If my boyfriend ever told me he was going to live in Tokyo just so he could play soccer I would be very upset. Here's the sign-up sheet," they had eventually arrived at their destination…

To be continued…

Litanya: I am very sorry that I have to stop it here, but I think that the next chapter is going to be quite long and so here was a good time to break it up. Plus I went to an 18th last night and so am very tired. The next update should be in two weeks. I would do it in a week, but I have a major History assignment due in on Friday and so I have no time to write this week. Plus I'm sick, so that is another reason. Anyway, I hope that you are enjoying this and have a good whatever-time-of-day-it-is!