Boys Before Flowers

XVII.

"KABUKI?!"

On the other end, Tachikawa-san giggled.
"Yes, Mimi-chan just called to explain. It's a Drama Club assignment –she intended to meet with my brother in Kyoto, and Ishida was kind enough to escort her. I suppose I was so enraptured with work that I just forgot. I hope that she packed enough clothes though..."

Takenouchi sweatdropped.
"Please excuse me but...aren't you...weren't you...worried?"

Again, Tachikawa-san giggled. "Actually, I feel silly for overreacting now. Ishida is such a nice boy-"
In the background, Sora distinctly heard what sounded like Mimi's father, 'But he's in a band! A band, Satoe!', along with a crash similar to the sound of the contents of a heavily packed closet tumbling out. The cursing that followed seemed familiar too.

Tachikawa-san chose to ignore this, however.
"-and Mimi has my trust."
With her smile practically beaming through the phone, Sora couldn't bear to ask any further questions.
"I see. Thank you, Tachikawa-san. If she calls again, would you please tell her to call me also?"
"Of course, Sora-chan. Give my regards to your mother."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Goodbye!"

"Goodbye."

XVIII.

Hikari and her brother still wore their uniforms, seated upon the couch and discussing their most recent phone call.
"Oniichan..."
"So hungry..."
"Do you feel that...Mimi-chan's parents are...lackadaisical?"
"Huh? They're just easy-going."
"You're taking this very lightly, Onii-chan."
"It's hunger talking. Besides, what's to get worked up about?" Taichi yawned. Hikari shrugged.
"I don't know. It feels...important, somehow. Besides, Sora is very nervous."
"Sora is always nervous."

Hikari pinched him, "You should be kinder to your girlfriend."
"Whatever."

They sat in silence.
"There's a really good Chinese restaurant in Kyoto that we visited on a field trip."
"Idiot."

XIX.

Mimi-meigochan and friend arrived at the Kaomise during the long performance; Act Three, Scene Two, just as Hirahara Satoshi had finished his final scene in the act. A stage hand informed him of his niece's arrival; he was so excited he just barely remembered to turn of his microphone as he rushed delicately through a small stairwell and into the backstage lobby. His niece saw him first.
"Ojichan!"
"Meigochan!"
"Oji?" said the friend, a little too loud to be inconspicuous. Satoshi gave him a second glance.
"Is this your friend, meigochan?"
"Oh, Ojichan, this is my travel partner Ishida Yamato. Yamato, this is Hirahara Satoshi, my uncle."
"Pleased to meet you!" said Satoshi cheerfully. Ishida stalled somewhat before he bowed.
"It's a pleasure."
"This is your first time performing for the Kaomise, right?"
"Yes, it's a very big honor." Satoshi twittered his fan, "Certainly I am rising in fame!"

Both he and Mimi-meigochan laughed.
"Ojichan may not be the most well-known onnagata," said Mimi- meigochan, "but certainly he is the prettiest."
"You give me too much credit, Meigochan." He pursed his red lips and fluttered his eyelashes, which made his niece titter with delight. "Please, stay and see the rest of the performance."
"Oh, we couldn't!" Meigochan said politely, "It would be far too intrusive."
"Please, I insist!"
"No, no, we don't want to bother."
"Please, it would mean so much to me." This is what Meigochan had waited for.
"If only to make you happy, Ojichan."
"Excellent!" A stage hand peeked down and asked them to be quiet, simultaneously beckoning Satoshi to prepare himself for Act Four. He stood, straightening the delicate red and purple kimono with practiced, feminine grace.
"Ask Akiko-san to take you down to the viewing area." He smiled, "It's been wonderful to see you, Mimi-meigochan."
"Thank you for letting us to see your performance, Ojichan. Please, do your best!"
"I will!" And with that, Satoshi ascended the stairs. As he headed towards the dressing room, he could still hear the quiet conversation from the lobby.
"Didn't Ojichan look fantastic in that kimono?"
"He looked...very much like a woman."

It was, by far, the best compliment Satoshi had received that day.

XX.

Taichi had already left for Koushirou's house when a knock came upon the door. Takeru stood breathing closely behind it.
"Oh, Takeru-"
"Is my brother here?"
"Didn't anyone call you?" Hikaru inquired, "He's in Kyoto with Mimi-"
"Okay." He turned and started down the hall. Hikari stamped her foot.
"Well, aren't you going to say 'hi'?"

Takeru stalled.
"...hi?" And after a moment of silence, Hikari once again stamped her foot. But it was much less meaningful this time around.
"...Will you going to come inside?" He stalled once more, but stepped back into the foyer and removed his shoes. Then he sat on the couch in an oddly polite –and therefore uncomfortable –position that eventually made Hikari uncomfortable as well. Silence assumed its place. Minutes and hours seemed to pass.

"Have you decided what high school entrance exam you're taking?" She finally asked.
"Well..." Takeru looked at his hands, "Definitely the Seiwa exam, but...the others I'm not so sure."

Hikari clapped her hands,
"Maybe you can take the Todai also, and Ken-kun will help you like he's helping me-"
"Thanks, I have to go." Said Takeru, stood without a second thought and headed towards the foyer.
"Takeru?"

By this point one of his shoes was on and he struggled with the other. Before Hikari could get to the foyer he was halfway out the door. And by the time she had put on her slippers and stepped into the hall, Takaishi Takeru had reached the elevator.
"Takeru!" Hikari's voice echoed through the hallway, "Takeru, what's wrong with you?"

He didn't say anything as the elevator doors slid shut, and carried him down to the street. Hikari debated whether she would follow him or not. In the back of her mind, she thought of a foreign movie she had watched once; a girl with fair hair plucking daisies.

He loves me. He loves me not.

Follow him. Don't follow him.

Don't follow him.

XXI.

Takeru raced up the stairs. But the door was already closed. He hesitated, vacillating. Knock. Don't knock.
What's the difference between the right answer and the practical answer, he asked himself.

It was a rhetorical question. In the end, he satisfied both ends of his question.

He walked away.

XXII.

Ring.

"Moshi?"

"It's me, Nanaka-chan."

"Yumi." Sigh. "I thought it might be Mimi."

"I was hoping she had called you."

"Nanaka...you don't really think that...Mimi was in Shimane, do you?"

"I don't think so. But maybe."

Silence.

"Did you try calling her again?"

"Yes, an hour ago."

"I tried two hours ago."

Silence.

"Maybe we should try I-Ishida."

Silence.

"Let's just wait for Mimi."

"Good idea."

XXIII.

When Taichi arrived home later, Hikari was in a bad mood.
"Hikari-chan, I brought you some curry."
"Thanks." She said curtly. Taichi may be oblivious some of the time, but he couldn't be so all the time, especially when regarding his younger sister. So he gave her a look.
"Hikari?" She swiped the curry off of the table. "He's...he's so...I have to study!" She marched off to her room, the door slamming shut behind her.

Taichi blinked. The phone rang. He answered it.
"Yagami house." Taichi cast a glance at the door, "She's sleep now. Okay, okay...yes. Bye."

Hikari peeked out.
"Who was it?"
"Ichijouji." Taichi scratched his head, then returned to the table. "He said he'd call tomorrow."

Hikari pursed her mouth.
"I'm going to see him."
"Then drop this off for me." He fished through his pockets and handed her a folded note. "Sora's house is on the way, right?"

She stuffed it in her handbag, slipped on her shoes and left without saying goodbye.

Taichi blinked. The doorbell rang. He answered it.
"Sora."
"Taiyo..." She tipped exhaustedly forward, managing to keep her shoes in the foyer even when he caught her, "Why must Tachikawa be so impractical?"
"Hikari has your note." He delicately skipped over the topic.
"I just saw her. She didn't give me a note though."

One of them realized they were still embracing. But neither did anything to help this.
"Don't take it so seriously."
"I'm just nervous."
"You're always nervous."
"You should be kinder to your girlfriend."
"Oh," murmured Taichi, "déja-vu."
"What?"

XXIV.

When Five Great Powers that Secure Love finished, Hirahara (now dressed as a man) took both Yamato and Tachikawa out to dinner. He excused himself around eight and, after securing their safety, took the train to his home on the Western side of Kyoto. Tachikawa had spoken of sight-seeing during dinner, but in the end wear overcame them both. They reached the hotel by the time night had fallen (it suited her taste, Yamato noted, with its delicate orchids matched against garish Japanese furniture and western paintings); the receptionist didn't inquire when they went to their room, for Mimi had only booked one.

Yamato constructed a makeshift room divider with an extra sheet while she showered, and after he himself had showered, crawled in his futon and turned out the light. He lay awake for only six minutes when the room divider wafted to the floor. Tachikawa sat beside him, wet hair draped over her shoulder.
"Yamato." She stared, unmoving, her mouth closed and her fingers grazing the front of his bare arm.
"Is this a challenge?" She tried to kiss him but he moved, "because I'm not going to beg, Tachikawa." He delivered his best condescending look. Then he took the fallen room divider and his pillow, slouched off into the bathroom and shut the door.
"Yamato."

He groaned quietly.
"Yamato...please." Silence followed. He waited, groaned once more and pitched over to the door. Tachikawa remained there, looking desperate and irritated and (to his own irritation) irrepressibly cute.

Before she could speak, he interrupted her.
"Can we talk?"
"We are talking." She recoiled automatically, and rather childishly at that. He tossed her jacket to her and reached for his own,
"Is there ever a time you're not at war?"
"She who is first to the field and awaits battle is fresher in the fight." He gave her another look.
"It's such a boring book." Said Tachikawa softly, "but I am learning something new."

XXV.

Both of them had wet hair and clothes over nightclothes. They had made it to the roof, with Kyoto's haze of white lights branching out through the streets. Winter air hung without mercy; Mimi hugged her jacket to her pale shift, and gave Yamato an unpleasant, impatient look. It was as if he refused to talk unto they reached the roof, then froze his lips together.
"Well?" She asked finally.
"Call the challenge." His voice wavered slightly in the cold.
"What?"
"Call the challenge." He repeated, "This is getting ridiculous."
"I..." Mimi waited for him to interrupt. He didn't., "What do you want me to say?"

Yamato didn't answer, and Mimi stared at him without further questions.
"Well?" He repeated her mockingly. Mimi looked up in thought, then returned his gaze.
"Kiss me."
"What?"
"Kiss me." She muttered with what would have been absolute seriousness, except for the coy smile hiding in the corner of her lips. "If I like it, you win."

When she didn't say anything, she pressed the topic further. "Do it or don't do it, Yama-chan."

After which, silence engulfed the rooftop.

Yamato stared serenely, and took two steps forward.

End of Part IV.

Disclaimer: Me don't be ownin' Digimon, mon.

A few notes... Onnagata is a Kabuki term for the men who portray women in the plays (since Kabuki actors are men).

Five Great Powers that Secure Love, or Godairiki Koi no Fujime, is an actual Kabuki play (though I have never seen it, or any other). The Kaomise is real and in Kyoto, as is Minamiza Theater.

Um...meigochan, if you didn't guess, is the term for 'niece' and oji is 'uncle'.

As far as Mimi's sudden insight and the reference to a book, she was talking about the Art of War by Sun Tzu, which she is apparently reading (as foreshadowed in Chapter 2).

"Tai-yo" is the nickname Sora uses for Tai in my fantasy world. Taiyo means "sun".

Lastly, in Mimi addressing Yamato by 'chan', she mocked him by calling him a child or by alluding he was below her. If you didn't get that, anyway. I dunno.

This kind of a filler chapter, just to get things moving, I guess. Sorry if it was boring or confusing. Maybe the next one will be better. Not much left to go, I think. Love, Artemis

In shameless self-promotion, I ask (by ask I mean beg) that you visit my website. Fanfiction section coming up soon!